Philly Pride '08...

So this weekend Bill, Bob and I went up to Philly!! I was originally going up to see Santogold in concert, but as it turned out, she backed out of The Roots Festival. I already booked the room...and it was Philly Pride weekend so we figured we'd go up and see how they did Pride in Philly!!

Saturday night we started off with some dinner at Marmont by Penn's Landing. The food was really yummy. I ordered the Ahi with Asian Veggies, and added a side of grilled asparagus so my pee would smell...I ended up forgetting to smell my pee so there's $8 LITERALLY down the drain! :)

After dinner we walked back to the gayborhood. We started of at Tavern on Camac for a drink and to listen to the pianist play/sing some show tunes. He was very talented, but it was WAY too mellow and we were getting bored so we headed across the street to check out Knock My MySpace buddy Matt recommended this place, but it was kinda upscale and stuffy so we had a drink then left. We saw Bruce Vilanch eating here, but we knew better than to interrupt his meal. The good news was we ran into him on the street a little later that night.

This is Bob and I with Bruce Vilanch most famous for sitting next to Whoopi on Hollywood Squares:

After Knock we walked to Woodys. This is usually our "normal" hangout when we go up to Philly. It's darker, and dirtier and the people are always very friendly. Well we weren't there for more than 15 minutes when Matt texts me that they are at Knock. It was still kinda early so we just had a couple beers at Woodys then met up with Matt, Michelle and Khoa at Knock

This is Michelle and I...she was a blast!

This is my MySpace / Björk buddy Matt!! He's such a character, he's got an great sense of humor and can always make people smile:

I have to say that when we went back to Knock it was completely different. I think the dinner crowd had left and the bar crowd had strolled in, because it was more crowded and a lot more fun than before.

After Knock, we ran into a couple porn stars (I have no idea what movies they're in so don't ask) They were under 21 so we went to this 18+ bar called Sky Bar This reminded me of exactly why I don't go to these places at home...so we literally downed our drinks...left the cute little porn stars and headed to TOC again.

This is Michelle with the porn boys...Matt said he googled them and they're legit, but I can't remember their names:

This time we skipped the piano bar and headed upstairs to the dance floor. The music was great but the dance floor was kinda hot. This is Matt and Khoa dancing...I'm loving Khoa's shirt!!

After TOC we headed to Pure This is the afterhours bar. We stayed and dance until about 3 or so, then headed to the diner to get some food. This is the group (Bob and Michelle had already called it a night)

Sunday morning we woke up around 11, packed our bags, threw our bags in the car and headed out to watch the Pride Parade. They definitely do more than Baltimore and the parade is LONG!! It goes from the gayborhood down to Penn's Landing...Baltimore's only goes about 6 blocks by comparison.

This is Flaggots twirling their little flags around:

I'm not sure what look this guy was going for...he was the MC of Pride:

Out of all the floats and stuff...this one touched me the most. At one of my Monday dinners recently, we were talking about how people are killed just for being gay in Jamaica. It happens all over the world, but it's still very sad.

Bill liked this shirtless fella so I took a picture for him:

This is Fins...we ALL decided that they had the best float. Hot guys with water gun!! They made us hot and wet all at the same time!!

Gay firemen...need I say more:

The parade was sooo long that as we were walking from where we watched it and to Penn's Landing...we ran into some of the parade again. I think the Fin boys thought we were stalking them...I don't really care though!

So down at Penn's Landing they had all these tents and stuff. The performers were pretty good...these queens did the Dream Girls song:

This is Fusion dance troupe from Baltimore. It was fun to see some familiar faces up on stage. Mikey G, Reggie, and Charles were a few that I recognized:

This is BETTY...apparently they are on the L Word a lot. I never heard of them, but they put on a fun show!

I saved this one for the end...get it..."The End" This girl was so tragic. Her boobs were all hanging out and her ass was a coffee table...no lie!

Anywho...as always, Philly was a blast!!!

Better late then never...

So I know I've been a little absent from the BLOG lately...work has been insane lately. Anyway, here is a little Key West tribute post:

Six of my friends and I went to Key West a few weeks ago for some fun in the sun...we ended up drinking copious amounts of alcohol at mostly the same bar for the whole trip...oh well the best laid plans :)

David's friend Todd manages a hotel down there so we got a great rate and the rooms were pretty nice (not that they were used much) I'm gonna jump into the pics because that's what everyone wants to see anyway :)

This is the first day at 801 Duval. This place was kind of a dive, but they did Karaoke so Paul was in heaven!! They had this back room bar that was very dungeon-esque too :)

After walking a bit we went back and cleaned up and headed back out. We met lots of people...including St. Louis Becky...she was a hoot!

Some how we got the idea to walk down the street to a straight cowboy bar called Cowboy Bills...keep in mind that this is Key West so even the straight bars have lots of gays...like this girl (love the shirt!!)


So Bill, Tom and I decided to try our luck on the mechanical bull. We were a little polluted, but that didn't stop us from signing consent forms and waivers and all kinds of other things none of us read. I only made it to the second round (David has a video of me that I'm trying to get!) Bill did the best, Tom would have done better but his other hand touched the bull in round 3. The worst part was they gave us this shot of whiskey before each ride...it was gross!!

All 3 of us were hurting from the bull ride the rest of the weekend. I had a nasty bruise the size of a softball on my upper thigh...Tom and Bill were bruised up too. Bill is slowly recovering from his injuries to this day. Here's Bill in his glory:


This is some of us with the bartender at 801:


Tom and I...we're travel buddies and go on lots of trips together...San Antonio is next week!!!

David and his stripper boy...Bill's just drinking his beer and enjoying the sights:

These are some of the folks we met from Oregon. They were a blast!!

After a long day of drinking, what does everyone want?? That's right...FOOD!!!

Most of the time we'd leave the bar and go next door for a slice of pizza to keep us going, but at 4am not much is open...but Denny's! We went to Denny's on two nights and both times we were fortunate enough to have Angela as our server. I made a point to check my food for her missing teeth before I ate it.

So we all had a blast. On Sunday, Steven, Paul and I went on a 4 hr snorkeling adventure. Despite taking motion sickness pills Paul ended up tossing his cookies off the side of the boat and spent the rest of the time curled up in agony. He did get to snorkel for a little before the nausea set in. I'm proud of him for going though :)

Quick Blog...

I've been SUPER busy and haven't been able to BLOG, but a co-worker told me about the Kinetic Sculpture Race on Saturday in Baltimore and I wanted to share it with you guys...

http://www.kineticbaltimore.com/

It looks like a hoot!!

Oh the drama...

So this weekend was FULL of drama!

Not the "bad" drama...it was all good!

Friday night was my god-daughter's school play...it was the Wizard of Oz, and in addition to being a munchkin, she was also the Emerald City guard. I was just waiting for the line..."Well that's a horse of a different color" It's pretty much the best line in the play...well maybe it's "I'll get you my pretty...and your little dog too" or "Ease on down...ease on down the road" (oh wait, that's The Wiz

Anywho, the play was cute, it's always nice to watch the kids perform. The place was a little hot, but it was all goodness.



After the play I headed to Central to hang with the boys. It was good times, but a little odd. I couldn't put my finger on what it was, but something was off.


Saturday some friends and I went to DC to see Hairspray at Warner Theater. I get e-mails from Broadway Across America all the time with pre-sale information for shows in the area and I was fortunate enough to get 2nd row tickets. :) We had a blast! I love the movie (the original...I loathe John Travolta)


Anywho, after the show some of us took advantage of being in DC and went to Town...the newest gay club in the District. We got there around 11...and it was kinda dead. They had a drag show going on and the upstairs dance floor was dead!! Of course it was still really early, usually the Baltimore homos don't come out until about midnight...and the DC homos are even worse since their bars stay open later :)

So around midnight the boys start to trickle in...I gotta say this, the boys in DC are pretty f-ing hot! They aren't the most polite boys, but they're easy on the eyes. So Terri's back started to hurt a little so she sat down and told us all to go and dance...which we did after some persuasion. I swear we were only dancing for 5 minutes and we look over and Terri has a gaggle of gays around her...she's the best flame dame ever!! :) So we left a little before 3 and got home around 4...YARG-A-ROO!!! It was good times...I'd definitely go back.

Well that's my weekend in a nutshell...Miss Gay Maryland started last night...finals are tonight. I'll BLOG about it later.

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Fish and New Friends...

Last night was Monday night...you know what that means...Hopkins dinner!! Wooooo!!!

So last night's theme was fish and new friends. I was kind of on the fence about going. I wanted to go workout and tan after work, but I've been working late recently and it would be tight getting there by 7:30...but the "new friends" in Andy's text made me curious. So I went to the gym and just did cardio and skipped the fake-n-bake.

I got there a little after 7:30...not too shabby. So Andy always has some finger food out before the meal is served. Last night was inspired by his recent trip to Charleston, SC. It was goat cheese and honey served with strawberries on crackers. I thought to myself...cheese and honey?!??! But it was yummy!!! Loved it!!

Then we had an endive salad with pears, almonds and amaretto soaked raisins. It was fabulous! Among the choices for dressings was one that I just couldn't pass up...Ott's Original Famous Salad Dressing. That's all it said...with a name like that who could say no!! The dressing is apparently all over the place in Kansas and it was very tasty...kind of like French, but not all thick and creamy.

The main course was baked Salmon with lemon and dill, with cheesy red skin potatoes! Everything was delicious! I don't know how Andy does it...he never knows how many people are going to be there, but some how there's always enough.

£267.78 ...

That's about 530 US dollars.

That's what I almost spent on what I affectionately call "art"

As you all know, I kinda love me some Björk. Well my latest idea is to start collecting her albums on vinyl. In my mind I know I'm a little nuts since I don't even own a record player, but I think I can justify it by mounting the albums on my wall as "art" :)

Anyway, I was searching around online and found some delicious art for my house:

That's less than one of those Thomas Kinkade pictures and it's prettier too!!!

Hahahaaaa!!!! I know I'm nuts, but I LOVE her!!!

March Madness...

So the madness that is March has come and gone. In case you weren't paying attention Kansas won last night in overtime!! It was a VERY stressful game to watch.

So in the end, I finished 14th out of 394 people in the tournament. I don't get any of the winnings, but I get bragging rights at work since I beat out all the straight boys! Woot!! Hahaaa!

Anyway, last night was the Monday dinner with the Hopkins crew, hosted at Chris' place. In honor of the NCAA finals, we had pizza and beer and watched the game from on this projection screen so it was larger than life! See...homos can be butch too! :) Our normal host Andy is from Kansas so he was VERY into the game...his squeals of delight could be heard all over the neighborhood when they won.

To make things a little more interesting, Chris would switch over to some porn during commercial breaks! Have I mentioned that I love these dinners??

Now that the madness has ended, my testosterone levels are back down and I can return to my fag-tactular self!! :)