No Afterglow this Year

Since I see folks coming in on search terms like "Afterglow New Year's Eve 2008," I should probably go ahead and let you all know that Comfort and Joy will NOT be having an Afterglow party for New Year's Eve this year (2008-2009). Yeah yeah, I know, what's a gay boy to do on New Year's Eve this year?

Upcoming Event: Comfort and Joy Afterglow Party, Saturday June 28

Okay kids, there's just so much going on this weekend that I've decided to dispense with the usual Friday and Saturday night guides cuz it's just too complicated, so I'm simply going to tell you about what I think the best parties of the weekend will be. Aside from our own Mr. party at Mighty on Friday Night (which is also up against a private party from queer Burners The Burning Marys, also a recommended event), my main recc for the weekend is Comfort and Joy's Afterglow party, which is now in it's third consecutive year. Alterna Burner queers, cozy private residence, good music, play space - what more do you want? Check out the Comfort and Joy blog for info about both Afterglow and Burning Marys.

Upcoming Event: Comfort and Joy's Afterglow New Year's Eve

Comfort & Joy presents
*AFTERGLOW* NEW YEARS EVE + Day
Genderfuck Cabaret + Dancefloor + "Shortbus" Playspace
SWEET BEATS by HONEY SOUNDSYSTEM
SPECTACLE by ULTRA
...with HOUSE of SALAD, Miss Nix, Felicia Fellatio,Khadijah: Salad Gold Dancer, Veda de Voe, Hysterica, Dam Dyke, KimBurly, Miss Black Rock City + YOU....
visions by III & the House of Herrera

PRIVATE UNDERGROUND LOCATION

Complimentary water, juice, redbull, clothes check & breakfast at dawn.
Be creative; alcohol is not served at Afterglow.
(flasks are okay)
10pm doors | 11pm show | 6am breakfast | 2pm burning man 2007
documentary screening
(party tip: crash in a pile of boys & stay for new year's day)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

PRE-SALE TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE!

A finite number of Afterglow tickets are available at http://www.playajoy.org & SEMI.

All proceeds benefit the Comfort & Joy burning man construction fund.

Volunteer for free admission * Viva Queer Community!

New Year's News

Now that the turkey feast is done and we can hear the sweet sound of canned Christmas music in the cabs (I heard a great ditty called "Christmas in San Francisco" on Thursday), thoughts turn to our last big party day of the year, New Year's Eve. It's a tough night, since everbody wants to do something, but everybody wants to do something with their friends, meaning all bets are off about what will turn out to be the big parties of the night. However, little birds have told me to expect at least three big gay parties:

Afterglow - Comfort and Joy is currently planning on another New Year's Eve party in one of their traditional party locations.

Drunk and Horny - Jeff and Gary will be welcoming "500 of our most intimate friends" into an underground warehouse location (likely known to many readers of this blog) with a main dance area, a chill room, and a special "wet dream lounge." Lord Kook has also been invited to DJ the main room.

Fag Fridays New Year's Eve at Pink - with Juanita More, check out the Pink website for more info.

If you all hear of anything else that sounds like a fun way to ring in 2008 (yay, at last, a Democrat in the White House!) drop me a line and let me know about it.

Update:
Erik over at Metrowize sent me a link to their list of all the major club events that are happening. If you're looking for something a bit more "structured" (and pricey) there are some interesting options here.

San Francisco Pride Recap

Whooo, Tuesday morning and I'm still a bit bleary from all the weekend's activities: passing out on Friday night from too much champagne on an empty stomach at Kitty's birthday party; up till 6AM on Sunday morning with Comfort and Joy at the Afterglow party, showing up at Faerie Freedom Village so Lord Kook could spin at 1, then my turn came at 5; and finally, some quality time with the boyfriend in Golden Gate Park on Monday, when we got to chill and go through a good system's re-boot.

Afterglow was the main event of the weekend for the boyfriend and myself since we not only had to set up and manage the gear, but also play a set each. The evening started out slightly difficult as we had two CDJ-800s in road cases, along with a folding keyboard stand, that we had to get over to the party right at that point when none of the cab companies were answering the telephone. After some frantic attempts to find other transportation I finally got a City Carshare car for the night, but the consequence was that I would have to drive us home after the night's festivities. After that bit of hassle, however, the party itself was a rollicking, smashing success, with an almost full dancefloor in the first hour. DJ Neco D got the mood up and carried through until the show started (again, late, and, again, overly long, but we were prepared for that on this occasion); by that time the room was completely packed, so I didn't see any of the performances, but when Lord Kook came on afterwards it all busted loose - at one point there was a shirtless, sweaty, writhing crowd up on the stage chanting "More! More! More! More!", and a group of happy lesbians were puddled together in the clawfoot bathtub in the restroom - it was like a scene from a Frameline movie, I swear. I went on around 3.30 and had it in mind to crank up the knarzy techno, but two songs in I was told that the cops had come by, so I took it down fairly deep and chill for the duration of my rather short set. Then DJ Pee Play and Ken Vulsion, aka The Honey Sound System, came on and absolutely ripped the roof off the place. We didn't get to stay for much of their set, as I had to have the car back by 6AM, and needed to put myself into a bed for a couple hours as well, but I heard that the cops came back again, and that there were still folks hanging out at noon the next day. Now that's a party, people.

Faerie Village was the calm in the midst of the Pride whirlwind that it always is. Aaron Neonbunny was the producer this year and went for a more low-key set-up, just two tents and sound systems on either side of the plaza, one for acoustic performances, one for DJ music. The idea had been to keep the sound pretty chill, but after about three songs Lord Kook had a small dancefloor rolling and decided to keep the energy up. DJ Mak, who can be heard at the W Hotel on Friday evenings, came on with some great Eurolounge after him, followed by trance stalwart KJ spinning worldbeat downtempo grooves, and then Mr. Neonbunny hisself demonstrated his command of the electro vocabularly. I got my shot to close out the village after Aaron, and though there were some odd technical difficulties (I've never had to adjust the tracking on a tone-arm to keep it following the record groove before), I was thrilled to play some sunny day techno for an appreciative crowd that included Marke B. of the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

Monday the boyfriend and I really needed some down time together, so we got together with an old friend I hadn't hung out with in years and went to Golden Gate Park. We walked from the Stanyan entrance all the way to Ocean Beach, had an amusing bus ride back to Laguna, hung out, went for a walk to enjoy a beautiful evening, watched Yellow Submarine, and reflected on an awesome Pride weekend.

It's easy enough to be cynical about Pride, especially when you live in the bubble of San Francisco, where the lack of repression felt by the LGBT community in the rest of the world tends to make us lazy, complacent, precious, and prone to in-fighting. But when you see guys walking hand-in-hand down Castro street like it's the most fantastic thing they've every done together, when you have the opportunity to meet up with friends you haven't seen in weeks or months, when you get to take part in events that you know have created special moments for others, then in those situations you do begin to appreciate what Pride does for us, both as individuals and members of a community.

Upcoming Event: Afterglow Fundraiser for Comfort and Joy, Saturday June 23 (Pink Saturday)

Okay, I'll 'fess up that Comfort and Joy is my Burning Man camp (even though I'm not going this year), and myself (DJ Pup), Kitty (Neco D), and The Boyfriend (Lord Kook) are spinning the hooj choons for this party. So if you want to finally see the faces that go with the names, have a lot of fun dancing to synthpop, electrohouse, and minimal techno, catch some crazy drag antics, and maybe (maybe) get a little frisky, then by all means, come check it out:


More info on Comfort and Joy

UPDATE: We are thrilled, thrilled to announce the addition of the Honey Sound System (DJ Pee Play, Kenvulsion, and associates) to the DJ line-up. The boys will be coming on at 4AM for a tag-team chill match that will take us through to the rising sun of Pride Sunday. Wheeeeeee!

Comfort and Joy's Afterglow Afterparty

Queer Burning Man camp Comfort and Joy staged their third Afterglow afterparty at the spacious home of a generous benefactor in the USF neighborhood this past weekend, this time going all out and producing a mini-Trannyshack that featured peformances by both camp members and special guests such as the reigning Miss Trannyshack, Raya Light. The show started well over an hour late and ran about two acts too long, but Raya's performance to Charlene's "I've Never Been to Me" was one of the most amazing and disturbing things I've ever seen, taking full advantage of the "private party" to do some things you could never get away with at The Stud.

Resident DJs Neco D and Lord Kook (also of Drunk and Horny fame) provided the tunes along with guests DJ Mermaid and Xan-X (Ambi-sonic). Neco D laid down a fun, upbeat 80s set, hitting enough well-known tracks to spark nostalgic conversations in the kitchen but also injecting enough unique choices (though I see the t-shirts everywhere, I've not heard Joy Division at a party in a while) to avoid the banality of a This Was the 80s compilation. Faced with what was probably an unexpected "extended" set Neco D soldiered on admirably with support from Lord Kook while the girls got themeslves together, and by the time the show was ready they had such a dancefloor groove going I really wished they had just been able to do away with the show and let us dance. Mermaid took over after the show with a classic disco set that seemed to find general favor with the crowd, but I was too comatose on the couch in the kitchen after eating a brownie to notice much. I was really there to hear Lord Kook, anyway, and after a "command performance" by Erika Kandy Kane I finally got to hear him go on 3.15. Though going on well after the peak and limited to only an hour and fifteen minute set, Lord Kook managed to encompass everything from Modeselektor's "Silikon" to The Infidel's "Love Like Semtex," with enthusiastic and ecstatic (of course) responses from a smaller but hardcore dancefloor. Xan-X picked up from him with more tribal "downtempo" beats from the likes of Sphongle, but this was clearly in prepartion for lowering the flaps and coming down into chillier regions.

The crowd was a terrifically diverse mix of hipsters, Castro clones, bears, faeries, and gay glitterati including Jeff and Gary, John Wood, and Terrance Alan. For the alterna-gay crowd this was clearly the place to be, and after 1.30 the carry-over from Drunk and Horny pushed attendance up close to probably 200 people. As they packed in and the temperature climbed the shirts (and other things) came off. The basement playspace was too hot and too crowded for me to deal with, but clearly that wasn't the case for others. Breakfast champagne was being poured when I left, and a friend reported in at 1PM on Sunday that he, and quite a few other people, were still there.

This was Comfort and Joy's first fundraiser of the season, and word is that they have two more events in planning now, one at a club with two other groups in April, and another for Pink Saturday in June. If you want a party that will remind you of why we love San Francisco, you should check out an Afterglow.