Late May - Early June Epic, Part 2
The Epic Adventure Continues...
I'll move on past that vast stretch of post-holiday drudgery that nearly resulted in the deaths of a third-shift pharmacist and select members of the department. They were fortunate that a "death stare" boring into the back of one's head is not lethal. Alas. I'll also not bore anyone to death with the Tale of the Stupid Meeting, during which I attempted to telepathically kill a fellow conference caller and her yippie dog. Judging from the expressions on my end of the conference call, it was a group effort. However, like death stares, conference call telepathy is not lethal. Alas. Within moments of the call's end, I was out the door and on my way to prepare for Pride Fest...
Pride Fest weekend began with xenogeny, rubinia, amatia and I heading up to Milwaukee and LaPerla. It was the most gorgeous weather in Pride Fest history! (Not a difficult feat when the historic weather varies only between "cold & wet" and "Deep South".) It was sunny, breezy and warm, all at the same time.
LaPerla was underwhelming, or perhaps undercooked in amatia's case. We asked for our favorite waitress' section and were seated on the roof deck, but she had a huge retirement party, so we got someone else. The food was rather unremarkable, so I'll save my remarks. The margarita's were, as ever, perfecto. :)
After dinner, we meandered our way to the festival grounds. The tequila in our veins made the 15 minute line at the will call window much easier to endure. The tequila also made the block-long line for same-day purchases very amusing. After consoling each other over the loss of Cascada as a performer... (Ahem... not.) ...we made our way into the grounds.
The Maier Festival Park is large enough that one could get very good exercise walking from end to end. The SE Wisconsin gay community is small enough, however, that one need not walk at all to find everyone he knows. At various points we would be chatting up old friends, turn to leave, run into more friends, turn, walk five feet, hear our names, run into more people, etc. After an hour we may have walked 20 feet. (Of course, if you're actually trying to find someone, you might as well give up.)
The highlight and headliner of Friday night was Kathy Griffin. Or, as I like to say, Kathy-Griffin-on-the-night-that-Paris-Hilton-was-thrown-back-in-jail! We were all saying to each other, "this is a great night to see Kathy Griffin." Kathy Griffin came out and the first thing she said was, "This is a great night to come see me." It was, shall we say, a funny show. :D
On Saturday night, we were not enjoying the prospects of festival food, so John and I went to Barossa instead. And are we glad we did! After being told bottles of wine were half-priced, we discovered they were closing for "a few months" the following weekend. We're still not sure what we'll do to replace it on our dining list. We had their excellent food with a bottle of Liberty School Chardonnay before heading to Pride.
We spent the night mingling with the gay masses on Milwaukee's beautiful lakeshore. Two fortunate events occured with near simultaneity: we ran into friends who informed us about the leather show, and they were on our way to the bar. LOL! The leather show is traditionally on Sunday afternoon, but for reasons unknown it moved to Saturday night. The display was a definite improvement over previous years, but they lost the crowd when the same tired country "singer" performed during intermission.
We skipped out on the headliners and went out instead. At Boom, Lance served up some new shots, the Paris Hilton. It was tasty enough to make you bawl in court. Three Olives Vodka was on special, so Mango and Cranberry was the order of the night. The crowds got thick, as happens every Pride, and we knew we'd return the next day, so we bailed.
On Sunday afternoon, we had another disappointing lunch at LaPerla. The food had seen better days - I suspect it had seen the day before. We will boycott it for a while.
We returned to Boom and prepared for the parade with various vodka concoctions. If the parade ever moved back to the festival grounds, I think there would be mass protests now. We mingled about with friends and the bar was as busy as the previous night, which is always weird in daylight. The parade itself was much improved - longer and more cohesive. The usually crew of protesters with bullhorns made their appearance, but there were no issues. At one slow point between parade units, a nutjob started on with rabid condemnations and was met with chants of "Ass-hole... ass-hole..." It was really funny and much more civilized than it might have been. ;)
Our appearance at Pride Fest on Sunday was brief and unmemorable. In fact, I don't really remember it. Next update: the Island, part 2.
I'll move on past that vast stretch of post-holiday drudgery that nearly resulted in the deaths of a third-shift pharmacist and select members of the department. They were fortunate that a "death stare" boring into the back of one's head is not lethal. Alas. I'll also not bore anyone to death with the Tale of the Stupid Meeting, during which I attempted to telepathically kill a fellow conference caller and her yippie dog. Judging from the expressions on my end of the conference call, it was a group effort. However, like death stares, conference call telepathy is not lethal. Alas. Within moments of the call's end, I was out the door and on my way to prepare for Pride Fest...
Pride Fest weekend began with xenogeny, rubinia, amatia and I heading up to Milwaukee and LaPerla. It was the most gorgeous weather in Pride Fest history! (Not a difficult feat when the historic weather varies only between "cold & wet" and "Deep South".) It was sunny, breezy and warm, all at the same time.
LaPerla was underwhelming, or perhaps undercooked in amatia's case. We asked for our favorite waitress' section and were seated on the roof deck, but she had a huge retirement party, so we got someone else. The food was rather unremarkable, so I'll save my remarks. The margarita's were, as ever, perfecto. :)
After dinner, we meandered our way to the festival grounds. The tequila in our veins made the 15 minute line at the will call window much easier to endure. The tequila also made the block-long line for same-day purchases very amusing. After consoling each other over the loss of Cascada as a performer... (Ahem... not.) ...we made our way into the grounds.
The Maier Festival Park is large enough that one could get very good exercise walking from end to end. The SE Wisconsin gay community is small enough, however, that one need not walk at all to find everyone he knows. At various points we would be chatting up old friends, turn to leave, run into more friends, turn, walk five feet, hear our names, run into more people, etc. After an hour we may have walked 20 feet. (Of course, if you're actually trying to find someone, you might as well give up.)
The highlight and headliner of Friday night was Kathy Griffin. Or, as I like to say, Kathy-Griffin-on-the-night-that-Paris-Hilton-was-thrown-back-in-jail! We were all saying to each other, "this is a great night to see Kathy Griffin." Kathy Griffin came out and the first thing she said was, "This is a great night to come see me." It was, shall we say, a funny show. :D
On Saturday night, we were not enjoying the prospects of festival food, so John and I went to Barossa instead. And are we glad we did! After being told bottles of wine were half-priced, we discovered they were closing for "a few months" the following weekend. We're still not sure what we'll do to replace it on our dining list. We had their excellent food with a bottle of Liberty School Chardonnay before heading to Pride.
We spent the night mingling with the gay masses on Milwaukee's beautiful lakeshore. Two fortunate events occured with near simultaneity: we ran into friends who informed us about the leather show, and they were on our way to the bar. LOL! The leather show is traditionally on Sunday afternoon, but for reasons unknown it moved to Saturday night. The display was a definite improvement over previous years, but they lost the crowd when the same tired country "singer" performed during intermission.
We skipped out on the headliners and went out instead. At Boom, Lance served up some new shots, the Paris Hilton. It was tasty enough to make you bawl in court. Three Olives Vodka was on special, so Mango and Cranberry was the order of the night. The crowds got thick, as happens every Pride, and we knew we'd return the next day, so we bailed.
On Sunday afternoon, we had another disappointing lunch at LaPerla. The food had seen better days - I suspect it had seen the day before. We will boycott it for a while.
We returned to Boom and prepared for the parade with various vodka concoctions. If the parade ever moved back to the festival grounds, I think there would be mass protests now. We mingled about with friends and the bar was as busy as the previous night, which is always weird in daylight. The parade itself was much improved - longer and more cohesive. The usually crew of protesters with bullhorns made their appearance, but there were no issues. At one slow point between parade units, a nutjob started on with rabid condemnations and was met with chants of "Ass-hole... ass-hole..." It was really funny and much more civilized than it might have been. ;)
Our appearance at Pride Fest on Sunday was brief and unmemorable. In fact, I don't really remember it. Next update: the Island, part 2.