The Endangered Eagle

Word has reached me via Facebook about the threatened closing of the San Francisco Eagle, and over at Joe.My.God there is an unsourced rendering of what is planned for the future. Aesthetically and culturally pleasing it is not. I have written before about what a great institution the beer bust is, and on many a dull Sunday afternoon in Baltimore I have had wistful thoughts of drinkings and doings on the Eagle patio, and looked forward to experiencing it again upon my return. I hope that a plan of action to save it will come out of tonight's meeting, whether through having it designated a historic landmark (one can only imagine the plaque for that), it being purchased, or a a bunch of rowdy queers chaining themselves to the toilets like in the good old days to defy the wrecking ball. However, I think a larger lesson that must be taken from this is that the SF gay community has to learn to adapt to a changing world in order to survive.

Many have bemoaned the passing of the leather bars and bathhouses that lined Folsom some thirty years ago, but what made all that possible was that SoMa was a marginal zone of low property values. As many have pointed out, the new boom and the coming of companies like Twitter and Zynga have brought up property values in SoMa, and for whoever owns the land on which the Eagle sits, I'm sure there are much more lucrative opportunities than leasing to a gay bar. This gentrification, if you will, of SoMa, is a ruthless, uncaring process driven by pure capitalism, and no one will be happy to see what it does to the treasured institutions and watering holes of the past (see, for example, my post about the controversy over the re-location of The Hole in the Wall). By enlisting the aid of the city it might be possible to win some battles, but the overall trend of the war is clear, and if the gay community is going to survive, it must learn how to adapt to the new conditions it faces, rather than mourn its losses.

I've seen many comments on this situation that take a very traditionalist stance; this is what was, this is what must be, and development must be opposed at all costs. As a Southerner, and someone who has lived in many places where the populace has linked arms against any change or development in the name of the past, I can tell you that what this ultimately brings is economic ruin. You cannot keep the San Francisco of the 1970s or 1980s; however golden those years might have been in some ways, they were also very lean years, when San Francisco had serious economic problems. That's what made it cheap to live there, that's what makes it cheap to live in Baltimore, but I don't think many San Franciscans want to live in a city where block after block of downtown is boarded up and abandoned, as SoMa was during this time and as Baltimore is now. The economic boom of the 90s revitalized San Francisco in as many ways as it created new problems, as in the case of The Eagle. I'm coming back to San Francisco because of the energy of the city, the opportunity it presents, and the kind of people who live there, so I want to see it grow and prosper. But I also want to see it keep the character of what makes it San Francisco, and for that to happen, there must be adaptation. So SoMa is not what it was in the 1970s -- find the new marginal space, work with the city to keep gentrification from encroaching upon it, and create the new SoMa. Instead of trying to hold back the tide and crying over what was lost, look ahead and create the new. If the The Eagle is sold, find a new space, because what makes The Eagle isn't the building, it's the people who come and create the space of a community.

UPDATE: Courtesy of SFWeekly, a report on last night's rally at The Eagle, which fills in this unpleasant detail:

But before that deal could go through, the owner of the property decided he wanted to start a bar there himself, and wouldn't allow the current owners to transfer the lease.

"He saw an opportunity to start his own business here," Thirkield said. "He blew up that entire deal."

Now, the Eagle has been given notice to shut down by the owner, reportedly a thirtysomething resident of Santa Rosa who inherited the property from family.

So what truly sucks about this is that someone from outside the city, who seems to have no experience with a bar, and likely has no understanding of the cultural landscape, is going to try and start a straight bar in a spot that has no foot traffic, and is well away from other bars or businesses that will support it. This means that it, like The Eagle, must be a destination bar. But note that the Skylark, which is owned by the person the property owner intends to turn the location over to, which is on the heavily trafficked 16th Street, was empty on a Monday night when the protesters showed up. Put all this together, and I can almost guarantee that whatever they put in there will fail within a year, especially given the certain negative publicity the bar will receive. So, some dunderhead is going to rip out a chunk of the gay cultural landscape of San Francisco for what will likely wind up being a failed business folly - somehow it would be better if The Eagle was going to razed for condos rather than subjected to this indignity.

The End of International Bear Rendezvous?

A friend in SF mentioned in passing recently that this year is the last for the International Bear Rendezvous, and this copy is on the front page of the website: "It is with great regret that we bring this successful bear run event to a conclusion." I thought this was a wildly successful event, anybody got the scoop on why it's ending?

And the Bar on Castro Will Now be Known As . . .

Qbar. Yes, Qbar. That's what it says on the sign for application of change of ownership.

Qbar. I keep trying to figure out the conversation that must have taken place between the new owners as they were coming up with that.

"What are we gonna call it?"
"I dunno, The Bar always sounded really good."
"Yeah, but we can't call it that. We need something new, something different, you know?"
"Something that says 'this is it, this is THE gay bar on Castro'".
"Hey, I know," one of them says, his eyes lighting up. "Let's call it QBar - you know, like Queer Bar!"
"Yeah, I like that, you know, it's still got the Bar part in it, and it says just what kind of bar it is!"
"Yeah, it's like The Bar, but more! QBar!"
"That's it baby, file the papers!"

Adbusters Busts Up the Hipster

Maybe the best thing I've read about "hipsterdom" ever; it very nicely sums up the feelings I had while watching a hipster fashion show at The Knockout recently. When all you do is live for the cameras, be prepared to become as flat as the image you desire to be.

Hipster: The Dead End of Western Civilization

oh, and a great companion piece from Time Out New York:

Why the Hipster Must Die

My favorite quote:

If they can vanquish the Sweet, the path for the Vicious is less obvious. A good first step might entail purging the lawyers and bankers lurking in their company. But on the other hand, those guys are good at footing the bill. Another tactic would require the conversion of snark to self-criticism, and that would necessarily involve ignoring no-talent celebrities, and mean an end to playing it safe. The safest game in town—in fashion and music especially—is retro, and if there is no Ezra Pound in corduroys out there to say, “Make it new,” let me be the one to say, “Stop making it old.”

Can we get a little dose of that self-criticism around here, you think?

The BAR Gives the Scoop on the Bars

A great article by Matthew S. Bajko in the online version of the Bay Area Reporter sums up all the changes going on in the Castro bar scene. Just keep in mind that you read most of it here first.

Event Review: Mass at 1015

And now, a guest review from SFScene pal and special field correspondant Kitty:

Let's just get one thing out of the way. How long has 1015 had the monopoly on big club parties in SF? Quite a few years now. So why is it that 1015 acts like they just opened last week?

Why am I there (even though I do now and always have hated this particular club)? Because it's New Year's day and DJ Phil B is having Mass for the first time in years. Back at the cusp of the new millennium (when we still had some hope for the future), Mass was the Sunday evening t-dance that provided the perfect progressive house ending to a weekend of big gay parties. Big music. Big lights. Big fun.

This party at this place has special meaning for me. It's the scene of one of my few transcendent experiences in the gay party scene. Those moments of joy and connection when the people/place/music burn themselves into your brain. You know... that Zen singularity that we all spend our time, money and brain cells trying (and often failing) to achieve.

I've grown up enough to know that I can't get that experience back again. But I'll definitely pay $20 for the chance at getting groovy on New Year's Day. And I was willing to bet that there were plenty of other guys thinking the same thing.

Ticket in hand, I arrived at 1015 at 6:30 pm. That's when the complete ineptitude of the club's door personnel smacked me in the face. There were two lines to get in, but the majority of patrons were forced to wait in a line that snaked around three sides of the building. Why? The second line was only for those possessing a shiny, Wonka-like golden VIP ticket.

Needless to say, those of us who had purchased regular tickets before the party were pissed about standing in the wet cold for up to 20 minutes or more. My only source of amusement during that wait was watching other partygoers arrive and scramble dejectedly for a place in the ever-increasing line. Sometimes schadenfreude is my only joy.

Poor planning created the misery of a line, but douche-baggery was salt-in-the-wound. The lone security dude checking IDs insisted on asking each guest how their evening was going. He would not be satisfied by a tepid "fine" or "good" from cold, trembling patrons in tight t-shirts. In fact, if such bland vocabulary was used, he pulled the yearning patron out of line until they could come up with something more creative. I pitied those frozen souls with poor verbal education.

When my time came, I held back the scathing reply that had been boiling inside of me for the past 10 minutes. It had accumulated variously heated particles of speech over that time until becoming a mass of molten anger. And I really did want to say it to him. Oh how I yearned for it. But my voice of reason firmly insisted this would not be the way to gain quick entry to the club. So I piped out a half-hearted "fan-fucking-tastic" and was on my way.

Next step in the process is checking my coat. In other words, waiting in another pointlessly long line. But I did have the opportunity to observe a scene that made my night. A loud, braying queen standing behind me called out to his fag-hag that "there are children!" Sure enough, a shockingly respectable family was coming out of the downstairs bar.

After he made a spectacle of himself trashing the harmless straights, the family picked their way up the crowded staircase led by a darkly handsome guy, his arms protectively draped around two young girls. As they passed the shade-throwing sister, a voice called from the crowd, "Gus! I didn't know you had kids!?"

The man with the girls (now revealed to be Gus of Guspresents, the promoter of this party) shouted back, "Ha! These are my nieces. Today was my birthday!"

As a loud mouthed fag who regularly puts his foot in it, I felt really bad for that big-mouthed queen in line behind me. (But maybe not that badly.)

The party itself got off to a fun, energetic, and friendly start. The Gus's nieces danced and got onstage with the flaggers. Every gay man that they passed was smitten with them.

After a few drinks I was in a good mood and dancing on the edges of a packed floor. Even at that distance, the heat of the shirtless, sweating crowd made my skin flush and tingle. Phil B began his 6-hour set with some standard gay house shakers. Good stuff, but not particularly inspiring. Particularly the full-on diva house cover of Pink's "Better Get This Party Started."

But with each song, Phil B brought up the tempo. And as the beats picked up, the songs got harder. Somewhere about halfway through the evening, he's spinning progressive house so powerful it's bordering on Trance. Just what I like.

After another hour or so of moving on the floor, around the floor and through the floor I just couldn't move any more. The club was now completely filled with boys and girls, men and women having a great time. I love that feeling of euphoria that comes from almost everyone I pass. Bit I am also very tired of tripping over and stepping on people.

Billed as a "Reunion" dance, strangely I did not see anyone I had known from those days of going to Mass. But I did have a good time without having it torpedoed by the neurotic hang-ups that haunted my back then. Maybe not "fan-fucking-tastic," but still a good time.

The Bar on Castro Closing

Picked this up from the Socketsite real estate blog this morning:

Speaking of high rents in Castro... a very reliable source told me that a very profitable and VERY well known bar on Castro will be closing shop come January '09 due to the lease coming up and the increase in rent being INSANE. You know things are bad when one of (if not the most patronized) bar(s) are closing up shop... Scary.

I replied that the only two bars I could think of were The Bar on Castro and Daddy's/440 Castro, and after initially being told "think BIGGER" by the original poster (I think in response to mentioning 440 Castro), he came back with "you're headed in the right direction." Could it be that The Bar is closing? Any scoops out there?

UPDATE: I did a little digging and came up with this nugget of a blog post that seems to confirm that it is, indeed The Bar on Castro.

Event Review: An Intimate Evening with Dame Edna

Sometimes being a blogger does have benefits, as was demonstrated last week when Kitty and I got free seats (and good ones too, right down in front) for a performance of Dame Edna's "Live and Intimate First Last Tour" at the Post Street Theater. At first I almost passed on the offer, since drag comediennes aren't really my thing, but then I figured, hey, it's free, and once Kitty signed on to accompany me, I actually looked forward to it.

Dame Edna's schtick is that she's really a horrible person, but one who knows how to be horrible in that polite, British way. So, she can affectionately refer to the audience members as "possums" at the same time that she can say "oh, what's the word I'd use to describe that dress? I know, home made!" She was like the genteel version of drag queen Charlie Brown, who used to headline the cabaret at Backstreets in Atlanta and would come onstage with the call "I smell straaaaaaaaaight pussy," then proceed to "read" everyone in the audience. Her humor is largely built on the tension of her mannered meanness, and when the evening is "intimate" and she's directly interacting with the audience, there's a kind of dread that accompanies everything. Having read a review of the show in the Chronicle I had an idea of what to expect (and which ruined a few of the jokes for me, so I won't give away any spoilers here) and really, really hoped that other people would fill in the seats next to me so as to help protect me from the roving eye of the Dame.

Kitty and I had a great time, though we left at the intermission - two hours, plus intermission, was a bit more of Dame Edna than either of us could take, and since the seats were free, it wasn't like we were losing anything. The thing I noticed, though, was that we were among the youngest people at the show - given that prices for seats ran $58, $68, and $100 a piece I think I understand why. If you are a fan of Dame Edna I'm sure that this is a reasonable price to see such a glamorous star, but it seemed a bit steep to me. Still, if you're looking for something special to do over the holidays, Dame Edna is sure to be an experience you'll never forget.

Drag Queen Collapses at Charlie Horse

SFist reports that drag performer Anna Warhola collapsed on the stage at Charlie Horse this past Friday at the end of the performance, was taken to the hospital, and is now in a coma. Wow. Comments seem to indicate that, at first, no one realized that it wasn't part of the routine, and then the paramedics showed up and did intensive CPR, having to revive her several times. Cause of collapse is unknown, but SFist reports that the diagnosis was "cardiac and respiratory arrest." If anyone knows how to contact Anna/Paul Brinegar's family they should get in touch with Anna Conda (charliehorsecinch[at]yahoo.com) or The Cinch (415-776-4162).

The X-Men Meet Gus Presents

Some of you may know that the X-Men have relocated to San Francisco, and, in the latest issue, they make their way around the City trying to find ways to cheer up their buddy Colossus, including, it seems, finding their way to a Gus Presents event that shares his name (thanks to Kitty for spotting this):

Upcoming Event: Bloodpact at SoMarts, Halloween Friday October 31

Just got this from Lord Kook for all you homos looking for something to do on Halloween . . . a superfun looking all-ages (18+) gay party at SoMarts!

super excited about this one, folks! it's gonna be pretty rad... the HSS kids are holding it down with their sister club from LA, along with some (the kind where the walls start to breathe after a while) with some crazy electro / tech-house / kitchen-sink-shit from me, Liam Shy, Digital Paradigm, and Richard Oh?!. this is a homo-friendly party (duh), it's 18+ (bring yer little brother!), there's a full bar for those of us old enough to swerve legally, and the whole thing goes till 5am! it's almost enough to make me forget about what a mess the city made of halloween!

no, wait, it totally is.

more info as it comes...

Pondering the State of the Scene

This past Friday the boyfriend and I went down to The Stud for the Shadowplay reunion party, which also served as the ending party for Lucky Pierre and Heat, which had previously occupied two of the The Stud’s Friday night slots. We had a good time, but I wound up spending most of my mental energy running through the catalog of other nights that have ended this year, and what this might mean for the current shape of our scene.

So far this year I’ve seen the end of The Workout, Frisco Disco, and (though they’re not officially done yet) Lights Down Low for the indie/electro/bloghouse scene; The Grind, Fag Fridays, Big Top, Drunk and Horny, Lucky Pierre, Basket, and Trannyshack for the gay scene; Heat, and (again, looking ahead to the closing of Club 222), Techno Tuesdays, and the end of the regular Dirty Bird parties at Anu among the more music-centered nights.

Of course everything is cyclical, the club industry is founded on whim and trend, and eventually more nights will come forth to replace the ones that have passed (it looks like Richard Oh?! and Sleazemore are just moving their scene to Vessel, for example, but on a Wednesday night). But it does give one pause when you look at the present state of things. The gay scene is looking increasingly like the same thing being iterated over and over again; bear party, circuit party, top 40/hip hop night, neo disco party, drag cabaret, lather rinse repeat. And while it’s gratifying to see techno, or at least tech-house, gaining in popularity among the straight set, it’s also difficult to rouse any sense of excitement for heading to yet another party at Mighty or Mezzanine.

There are certainly people doing interesting things within their own scenes; Kontrol, Auralism, and Staple are helping build the techno/tech-house scenes, Honey Sound System has brought underground energy back to the gay scene, and even the couple times I’ve been to Bearracuda the DJs showed a musically adventurous streak. But it feels like San Francisco nightlife is contracting, rather than growing, with a limited number of event producers taking the same ideas around to the increasingly limited number of venues that are available. When I first started this blog it was with a sense of excitement about what I would find as I prowled the clubs and bars of San Francisco. Now, as I put together the weekend events calendars, I find it very difficult to work up enthusiasm for much of anything; the word that comes to mind most often is “stale.”

I’ve devoted endless conversations to this topic, trying to put my finger on what combination of factors has led to this situation, trying to determine if my own jadedness has finally taken over completely, if we are truly in the midst of shift in San Francisco culture, or some combination of both. I don’t doubt that my own experiences in clubland have had an impact on me over the past year, nor do I doubt that the economy has had an impact as well. I also don’t know if I really have enough breadth of experience to talk about San Francisco nightlife as a whole, since I know that there are some clubs and scenes, like drum’n’bass nights at Underground SF, and dub nights at Club 6, that seem to be doing quite well. I do know that at the meeting of the Entertainment Commission to discuss the promoter permits I heard promoters from across the spectrum express the sentiment that San Francisco nightlife is in trouble, but the very circumstances of that gathering might have prompted the participants to paint a picture of the club scene in gloomy tones.

So gang, tell me what you think: is the scene slowing down, or is it just me? Are there things you get excited about, or do you also find yourself thinking that drinking at home with friends is more appealing than dashing off to the club? When you go out, what are you looking for, and what do you find? I really want to know, cuz I need some inspiration.

Boys Behaving Dangerously

When I was visiting my family in Charlottesville this past week I walked past a shop and saw a used book with an intriguing title: The Dangerous Book for Boys. Since I have a 10-year old nephew I’m trying to corrupt I of course had to have a look. It was a lot of the sort of thing you would have found in boy scout manuals thirty years ago, like how to kill and eat a rabbit, how to build a treehouse, how to build a simple battery, etc., but also with stories of adventure and famous battles. I bought it for him, and let him know at the same time that there’s lots of “dangerous” knowledge out there, and any time he had a question about something of that nature, he should ask me.

On Friday I flew back and immediately set out on a camping trip in the wilds outside Guerneville that was organized by the video artiste extraordinaire iii, a jaunt in the woods that made me think about how much every guy, gay or straight, craves a little adventure and dangerous behavior every now and then. We clambered on rocks and scraped our shins, dove into shallow pools, rode in the backs of pick-ups speeding along dirt trails, and ran around the woods at night under the influence of things that inspired a variety of visions. If we’d gotten bitten by a snake or broken a leg we would certainly have found ourselves in dire straits, but then it was the very process of courting risk that makes campouts, Burning Man, and underground parties so attractive in the first place.

I thought about this quite a bit during my DJ set, which featured some fairly aggro techno from folks like Andre Crom, Sweet n Candy, L.exx Aural and others played in gorgeous outdoor space looking out onto a riverside beach and soaring volcanic, earthquake-folded cliffs. One of our company started spinning a fire staff, and even purposely set the cuff of his board shorts on fire for a moment. I thought about all the rhetoric I’ve heard lately about how contemporary gay men are pale, emasculated versions of what they were in the 1970s, when we were a countercultural force to be reckoned with, and how the only way to recapture our true queer identity was through the turning back of the clock to an earlier era. I thought about this as I listened to the whoops and whistles from around the bonfire, watched guys entwined together on blankets, as the host came up to me and told me how wonderful the music was, and I thought, yeah, now that’s a complete load of horseshit.

It seems that our community, at least the part of it that claims to be “alternative,” has seized upon and is perpetuating an ideology, one that claims that things like gay marriage and gays in the military have ruined us, that worrying about things like inheritance rights for our partners have made us bourgeois and risk-adverse, and that sees the only path to redemption through a reclamation, which amounts to a fetishization, of the disco-era gay aesthetic, from its music to its porn to its fashion. And yet, what’s so radical about nostalgia? How does the constant reiteration of the past inspire anyone to anything new?

In my opinion, those twenty guys on the beach did more to advance an idea of radical gay identity, one that takes chances and engages with danger, than any retro-70s party has ever done. The fact that such things as gay marriage, or gays in the military, have become major components of gay civil rights had absolutely no effect on their desires for sex, danger, or self-realization, nor did the fact that many of them have their own partners, jobs, and complicated lives outside of that space. Rather than falling back to the stereotypes of the past, they created their own cultural moment, and their own relationship to it; that is the definition of cultural innovators, and anybody who tells you that the best time to have been a gay man, the time when we had the best culture, the best music, the best aesthetic, was over thirty years ago, is simply revealing themselves to be lacking in imagination. They are the conservative ones, the ones who are unwilling to take risks or court danger, the ones who depend on their predecessors for having made all the aesthetic choices for them. Well, I ask you, who would you rather spend your time with, those who will consistently tell you how pathetic we are in comparison with the past, or those who ask you to join them for some dangerous, truly radical fun?

The Big Pride Recap

A week after Pride, I think I’ve finally managed to process most of the experience. I went into the weekend in a rather glum mood (let’s just say that I was experiencing some scene fatigue), and on the other side that mood still prevails, but at least has been tempered by some self-realization.

Our weekend started with Mr., and the most important thing I can say about that event is how much I truly enjoyed working with Joshua J from Big Top, David and Jose from Fag Fridays, and Juan from Beatbox Events. Producing Mr. with these guys really taught me some things; up to now my experience and aim as an event producer and DJ has been focused on small, underground events where a turnout of 300 is a huge success, so having the opportunity to see how real professionals put together an event on a much larger scale was really educational. I don’t think I nearly measure up to the caliber of these guys as promoters, but I hope to have the opportunity to work them further in the future - there is talk of bringing Mr. back for a repeat performance soon, as well as the possibility of a regular night.

On Saturday night, thanks to Sister Selma Soul, we got do our own set-up in the parking lot next to Magnet. We borrowed an awesome pair of QSC powered speakers and a Mackie sub from our friend Chris and really, really rocked 18th Street. This was my most gratifying Pride experience, since we were able to focus on just the music and the crowd responded with ecstatic enthusiasm. In a way Pink Saturday is like shooting fish in a barrel; you’ve already got a crowd that’s ready to party, and almost anything you play will attract people who are into it. You don’t need to worry about promotion, or the scene, or any of the other usual trappings that go with club nights, you can just get out there and play what you love. Lord Kook and I were both apprehensive about how people would respond to the techno we had in mind, and played, but in the end what really mattered was that it was fun music that was well-mixed, and we even had the guys working the recycling center asking us about tracks.

Sunday was really a blur for me; we were up at 10.30 for Lord Kook to play the Shadowplay stage at noon, and then most of the afternoon we spent backstage with DJ6, Donimo, and Candy and a random assortment of friends; by 8PM we were passing out on the couch after watching In Bruges.

When I look back at the two major events we participated in over the weekend, what I realize is that that, taken together, they showed me something about who I am in the scene, what I’m good at and what I’m not. I’ve lamented about the state of the San Francisco gay scene because I often feel profoundly alienated from it, and that has led to my trying to create something of my own. But, at the same time, I’ve often been depressed because more people don’t respond to that, that FSLD doesn’t get a bigger turnout, or we don’t get more attention. Though I’ve never wanted to really admit this, this is at least partially because I am so critical of the scene, that I don’t have the openness, or social savvy, to be a truly successful scenester. Instead, I’m really good at being an iconoclast, the type of person who might not really be very popular, but can at least attract a small following of fellow cranky heads. I can pick good music and mix it together pretty well, and I can make passable aesthetic judgments, but I’m not really a promoter. I think this means, that, moving into the future, I need to pay more attention to the people who are good promoters, and learn from them, if I want to be successful in that area, but that my strength will always be in smaller, more intimate situations where I can focus on the things I really feel good about, like musical innovation. I don’t know if this means any real practical difference moving forward – we will still try to get the best turnout that we can for FSLD, I’ll still try to be involved with the production of other events – but now I feel like I have a better idea of who I am in the scene, and what I can be proud of.

Upcoming Event: Mr. at Mighty, SF Pride Opening Party, Friday, June 27

Okay kids, here's all the info for Mr., the big San Francisco Pride Opening Party we're doing with the guys from Fag Fridays, Big Top, and Beatbox Events. We'll have two rooms of music inside and a chill lounge outside. Here's the line-up:

• Omar (Popscene) and DJ Zax (Cockblock) spinning pop in the side room
• Kidd Sysko (Hot Mess), David Harness (Manifesto, Big Booty Productions) and Lord Kook (FSLD) in the main room
• Neco D (FSLD) and DJ Mak (FSLD) spinning in the MIGHTYBUS outside

Our main room DJs are going to range from pop dance up to dark and dirty house to funky techno, with Lord Kook taking to the decks for a mad mad mad 3AM-6AM set (and oh, the stuff he's been playing this week to get ready, sooooo cool).

Plus go-go boys (and one fierce tranny) and a Levi's 501 giveaway for the first folks showing up wearing a mustache and 501s (yep, that's right, FREE JEANS!)

$10 advance tix are going fast at Ticketweb; it's $10 at the door until 11PM, and then goes up to $20.

Mighty is at 119 Utah Street x 15th

Peeplay's Big Adventure

Some of you may already be aware that our local DJ-about-town, Peeplay, is on a big European adventure from London to Rome to Berlin and then back to DJ with Horsemeat Disco at the Glastonbury Festival (yes, I know, if he wasn't such a nice guy I'd totally hate him for being so fabulous). For anyone who would like to follow his adventures (which so far includes Gay Bingo in London, playing for a massive crowd of Roman freaks, having the lovely experience of dealing with the Italian transportation system, and having the "dirtiest sex of my life in a backroom" in Berlin) he is chronicling them all on the Homochic blog. I just hope that once he's been to Berlin he'll still want to come back - lord knows, when I lived there in 1996 I sure didn't want to.

The Story of Mr.

This was supposed to appear as a bit of advertorial in Gloss, but for some reason they "dropped the ball" and it didn't make it - I will refrain from bitchy speculation about why that might have happened (oh, to hell with it, I think it's because I actually know how to do things like use a comma), but I like being able to tell the story of how Mr. came together, so here it is for you all.

*********************
There’s nothing like throwing a party for your friends and knowing that you’ve provided them with a memorable evening. Unless it’s getting together with a group of those friends to throw a party. For several hundred people. That’s how Mr., the Official Friday Night Opening Party for San Francisco Gay Pride, came into being – because a group of friends from across the gay party scene wanted to collaborate to create something special for one of the most special weekends of the year.

It was while we were working together to defeat the promoter permit legislation that David Peterson of Fag Fridays told me about putting together a Gay Pride party, and invited me and my crew from Fuck Shit, Let’s Dance! to participate. As result, one very warm and slightly hungover Saturday morning we met with David and his partner Jose, Juan from Beatbox Events, and Joshua J from Big Top to talk about what we’d like to do, and Mr. was born. Though we come from across the spectrum of the gay party scene, from the Castro to the Tenderloin, from pop music to techno, from small dive bars to major clubs, we all agreed that this party should represent the diversity of the San Francisco scene, and that anyone from out of town should leave thinking they had had a quintessentially San Francisco experience. We came up with Mr. as the name because we liked that it could be both tough and silly, depending on how you said it, and settled on a mustache theme for our flyers because we think of ourselves as drawing a subversive little mustache on the typical party scene expectations.

After that it was all about putting together a DJ line-up that could truly do justice to the wide range of talent in our scene. We came up with so much talent, in fact, that we need three areas to hold them all. From the pop side we have DJ Zax, Kidd Sysko, and Omar, with Lord Kook and DJ David Harness bringing the techno and dirty electro, and the downtempo team of Neco D and DJ Mak in the outdoor lounge. Whatever your taste in music, we’ve got something that will make you groove.

Mr. takes place at Mighty, 119 Utah Street, from 10PM – 6AM on Friday, June 27. It’s $10 at the door until midnight, $20 after, and $10 advance tickets are available at Ticketweb. Hope to see you there smiling!

Drunk and Horny Update: The Party Continues

Saturday night Lord Kook and I headed over to a house party hosted by the Drunk and Horny crew, where the good Lord and Neco D spun some tunes while other folks got frisky in the hot tub and others just spun themselves. The full scoop is this: Drunk and Horny is going back to being a monthly at Underground SF, with the next one slated for July 12. The interesting bit, though, is that the club owner, Cip, wants to keep Saturdays gay, so there might be some new nights coming up soon. I'll keep you all posted as I find out more.

The End of Drunk and Horny at Underground SF?

I've heard rumors and have delayed posting about them until I could get some confirmation, but now, based on an email that was sent out to the Drunk and Horny mailing list today, it seems pretty definite that Drunk and Horny will no longer be happening at Underground SF. All I know for certain is that there will be a house party this Saturday instead of the regular party at Underground SF, and there is word of "the return of Drunk and Horny." More details as they become available.

UPDATE: DnH will be continuing as a monthly, with the next one happening on July 12.

Dueling Drag Diva Divertisements

I was postering through the Castro yesterday evening for Fuck Shit, Let's Dance, and as I was about to tape a poster to a lightpole I noticed something; every other event that had postered that pole featured a drag queen. There was Suppositori Spelling on the Lucky Pierre poster (who, that night, actually played strip poker and we got to see how much of a boy she really is!); Heklina on the Bearracuda poster (which advertised a full-on drag show at midnight); the Monster Show with Cookie Dough at Harvey's; and two Trannyshack events, the Big Sleazy and the Trannyshack Reno show.

Now, granted, I assumed that the forces of Heklina were behind several of these posters, but it did stop and make me think about something I've been pondering for a while, which is the significance of drag to the San Francisco gay nightlife scene. Aside from these events, there's also Charlie Horse at The Cinch and other events at Deco and Aunt Charlie's Lounge, and drag shows have also been big parts of parties from Comfort and Joy and Honey Sound System; in fact, it seems that, if you don't have some kind of drag performer or performance associated with your event, you're missing an important component of what people have come to expect.

Now, I'm not being critical of this - Lord knows, after the dust-up with the furries, the last thing I need is a bunch of pissed-off drag queens on my ass - but I do find it curious, as I don't remember drag being such a big deal when I first moved here in 1999. I was later talking with a friend about this, someone who has lived here a lot longer than I have, and he confirmed that drag queens did seem to be a much bigger deal in the scene now than they were back then.

My theory is that it all has to do with the success of Trannyshack, and the number of Miss Trannyshack winners who have decided to use their title to further themselves in the nightlife scene, which is entirely appropriate. I think Juanita More is the first former Miss Trannyshack I became aware of as an actual promoter, and then there's Midnight Mass from Peaches Christ as well.

So, I'm curious to hear from you all about this; do you think that drag has increased in prominence in the SF scene over the past decade or so, and, if so, why? If it's because of Miss Trannyshack, do you think that, since it's now coming to an end, this will change the complexion (so to speak) of the overall scene? What do you think drag means for the scene in general?