Pride: A Deeper Love.
It is now the Thursday after pride weekend and I think I am finally recovered so it's time to write all about it...
First, I have to say that this was by far and above the best pride I've ever have! So yay for that!
I'll start on the Friday of pride weekend.
It was an all day set-up at the pier for the Freedom Party and it was major crunch time. I managed to somehow get all the volunteers I needed in time for the party without having a panic attack so I was feeling good.
We didn't leave the pier until around 10 that night and then I had to come home, work on some last minute stuff and try to sleep before the big day. As I was lying in bed though, sleep was the last thing from my mind. I started having all these 'worst possible situations' running through my head and what I would do in those cases to fix em.
I clocked about 2 hours sleep before having to get up and be at the pier for 7AM.
So I get there bright and early, with M & her brother Gino to start what would be the busiest day of my life!
Insanity isn't even the word--But it was a good kinda insanity. Basically between me, Shane, Jay & Kat, the 4 of us ran the f**k out of the event!!! It went SOOOOO well!!!
The party was definitely a success! We had over 1,200 people there. Manny Lehman played an AMAZING set! The weather was incredible and everything just fit!
Of course there was mini-dramas during the day, but I won't bore you with all those details...but alas, it was nothing too serious. I have to say, it all went off without a hitch...
I got to meet RuPaul (who performed), Megan Mullally (Karen from Will & Grace) and Yoko Ono which totally rocked!
Megan was absolutely one of the sweetest people ever!! We talked for awhile and she signed an autograph for me--Such a doll!! Apparently Yoko had called her and asked her to introduce her for her performance, cause the two of them are good friends. ::shrug::
Meeting RuPaul was kinda surreal though...She was absolutely gorgeous and bitchy, but in that playful drag queen bitchy. I thanked her for coming down and supporting the event and she said "No! Thank YOU!" and then I shook her hand right before she went on stage...
I didn't really MEET Yoko (nor did I really care to) whereas I walked with her to make sure she got to where she had to go before she got on stage. I peeked my head into where she was preparing and asked if she needed water, she said she was good, I said great and walked away lol... In hindsight a little strange, but whatever...I didn't get to see her perform. Too much to do lol...
All in all, the team I worked with were a bunch of consummate professionals and it's great to have such a team, all with the same vision. It's something I've never really experienced before and I can't wait to do it next year!
What's even better is that the event benefits the HIV Law Project, which helps people with HIV/AIDS with legal advice and whatnot. I feel like I'm doing a little bit to help out there too which is rewarding.
After the party closed we cleaned up and were able to get out of there by 12:30... At this point, I was fall down exhausted and went home.
Good news is, we were invited to come back next year because we took good care of the pier with no complaints or problems! And *I* was invited back next year too--Yay for that too!!
Sunday I drove into the city to meet David and Stephen at the parade and Marissa and Cora came with me. The traffic was crazy and not being a parade person to begin with, I just wanted to do my thing and get down to the street fair ASAP--I LOVE the street fair! Haha!
I stayed for a little while...I saw Gioia Bruno, Matthew Duffy and Inda Matrix on their floats which was cool...and then I met up with my friend Matt and his friend Ryan and off the street fair we went!
On the way back though, I met Jessica and M and we headed back to Staten Island together but not before running into Rose McGowen on a side street!!! LoL So random! So fabulous! SO pride! Haha!
Now, since I had worked the Freedom Party I had free admission to Junior's "House Of Jupiter" Pride Extravaganza at Spirit and I was NOT missing that, so I had to leave early and go home and get ready.
One thing that was cool was I found a shirt that said "If ESTHER calls, tell her, I'm STILL not here"!! Haha!! Kudos if you get the joke, if not, ask me and I'll explain it! Either way, I had to get it and wear it that night...
I got ready and headed BACK into the city, stopped ay my friend Rob's apt, picked up Shane (from the Freedom Party) and headed to Spirit.
Now, I know that this will sound biased because of how much I love Junior, but I will say this--He was OFF THE F**KING HOOK!!! The music was UNREAL!!! It's been a LONG time since I heard him like that. He really is the King of Pride. I see why his pride events are what they are...Unbelieveable! I couldn't even beging to list all the stuff he played but it was all amazing...spanning decades of music...he really has a knack of showing you where house music has been, where it is now and where it's going to go. JUNIOR--I LOVE YOU MAN!!!
An added bonus was seeing people on the dance floor wearing FREEDOM PARTY T-SHIRTS!!! That really made us all happy!!!
There were two steller performances by newcomer's Jason Walker ("My Life" & "Foolish Mind Games") and Casey Stratton ("Blood" & "House Of Jupiter") that started the evening and I have to say of Casey--He was amazing.
They had a grand piano on stage that he played along to Junior's track with and what was even cooler was that he re-learned his own song as Junior remixed it and where Junior used vocal loops in his remixes, Casey learned them and did them all live! Incredible!!
Casey is definitely an adaptable performer with a unique voice & intricate lyrics that soar into the rafters! I HIGHLY reccommend his CD, "Standing At The Edge", to all of you. It's very Tori Amos/Sarah McLachlan-ish. Heartfelt and emotion provoking. Check out www.caseystratton.com for more info! :-)
Moving on...
So after dancing for about 5 hours, Shane decided to buy me a ticket to the second part of Junior's pride event called "Uranus" which was at Discotheque on Monday from 8AM-Midnight.
Junior closed Spirit around 6:30 AM and we all headed back up to Rob's to shower and stuff and then head on back to Discotheque.
I spent a total of 17 hours with Junior on pride weekend before finally crashing at my house at 4:30 Monday afternoon!!!
It was pure craziness but I would do it all again!!
Over the course of the weekend I met 4 celebrities and 5 guys (lol). I would say this weekend was a definite success!!
While there are lots of other little stories along the way which include conversations with Michael Lucas (the porn star) and of course how I met each of the 5 guys (and the one big burly black guy who slipped me a card that had his name, number and "can we hook up?" printed on it lol), I'm going to cut it all off here cause I'm quite tired!!!
Oh but one more thing--What's even more special--My friend Keith came out to his parents on the Monday after pride!! Congratulations Keith!!! Next year it's all about YOU!!!!
Thanks to all that supported me this pride! YOU ROCK!!
I can't wait to do it all again next year!!!
Till Then,
John
First, I have to say that this was by far and above the best pride I've ever have! So yay for that!
I'll start on the Friday of pride weekend.
It was an all day set-up at the pier for the Freedom Party and it was major crunch time. I managed to somehow get all the volunteers I needed in time for the party without having a panic attack so I was feeling good.
We didn't leave the pier until around 10 that night and then I had to come home, work on some last minute stuff and try to sleep before the big day. As I was lying in bed though, sleep was the last thing from my mind. I started having all these 'worst possible situations' running through my head and what I would do in those cases to fix em.
I clocked about 2 hours sleep before having to get up and be at the pier for 7AM.
So I get there bright and early, with M & her brother Gino to start what would be the busiest day of my life!
Insanity isn't even the word--But it was a good kinda insanity. Basically between me, Shane, Jay & Kat, the 4 of us ran the f**k out of the event!!! It went SOOOOO well!!!
The party was definitely a success! We had over 1,200 people there. Manny Lehman played an AMAZING set! The weather was incredible and everything just fit!
Of course there was mini-dramas during the day, but I won't bore you with all those details...but alas, it was nothing too serious. I have to say, it all went off without a hitch...
I got to meet RuPaul (who performed), Megan Mullally (Karen from Will & Grace) and Yoko Ono which totally rocked!
Megan was absolutely one of the sweetest people ever!! We talked for awhile and she signed an autograph for me--Such a doll!! Apparently Yoko had called her and asked her to introduce her for her performance, cause the two of them are good friends. ::shrug::
Meeting RuPaul was kinda surreal though...She was absolutely gorgeous and bitchy, but in that playful drag queen bitchy. I thanked her for coming down and supporting the event and she said "No! Thank YOU!" and then I shook her hand right before she went on stage...
I didn't really MEET Yoko (nor did I really care to) whereas I walked with her to make sure she got to where she had to go before she got on stage. I peeked my head into where she was preparing and asked if she needed water, she said she was good, I said great and walked away lol... In hindsight a little strange, but whatever...I didn't get to see her perform. Too much to do lol...
All in all, the team I worked with were a bunch of consummate professionals and it's great to have such a team, all with the same vision. It's something I've never really experienced before and I can't wait to do it next year!
What's even better is that the event benefits the HIV Law Project, which helps people with HIV/AIDS with legal advice and whatnot. I feel like I'm doing a little bit to help out there too which is rewarding.
After the party closed we cleaned up and were able to get out of there by 12:30... At this point, I was fall down exhausted and went home.
Good news is, we were invited to come back next year because we took good care of the pier with no complaints or problems! And *I* was invited back next year too--Yay for that too!!
Sunday I drove into the city to meet David and Stephen at the parade and Marissa and Cora came with me. The traffic was crazy and not being a parade person to begin with, I just wanted to do my thing and get down to the street fair ASAP--I LOVE the street fair! Haha!
I stayed for a little while...I saw Gioia Bruno, Matthew Duffy and Inda Matrix on their floats which was cool...and then I met up with my friend Matt and his friend Ryan and off the street fair we went!
On the way back though, I met Jessica and M and we headed back to Staten Island together but not before running into Rose McGowen on a side street!!! LoL So random! So fabulous! SO pride! Haha!
Now, since I had worked the Freedom Party I had free admission to Junior's "House Of Jupiter" Pride Extravaganza at Spirit and I was NOT missing that, so I had to leave early and go home and get ready.
One thing that was cool was I found a shirt that said "If ESTHER calls, tell her, I'm STILL not here"!! Haha!! Kudos if you get the joke, if not, ask me and I'll explain it! Either way, I had to get it and wear it that night...
I got ready and headed BACK into the city, stopped ay my friend Rob's apt, picked up Shane (from the Freedom Party) and headed to Spirit.
Now, I know that this will sound biased because of how much I love Junior, but I will say this--He was OFF THE F**KING HOOK!!! The music was UNREAL!!! It's been a LONG time since I heard him like that. He really is the King of Pride. I see why his pride events are what they are...Unbelieveable! I couldn't even beging to list all the stuff he played but it was all amazing...spanning decades of music...he really has a knack of showing you where house music has been, where it is now and where it's going to go. JUNIOR--I LOVE YOU MAN!!!
An added bonus was seeing people on the dance floor wearing FREEDOM PARTY T-SHIRTS!!! That really made us all happy!!!
There were two steller performances by newcomer's Jason Walker ("My Life" & "Foolish Mind Games") and Casey Stratton ("Blood" & "House Of Jupiter") that started the evening and I have to say of Casey--He was amazing.
They had a grand piano on stage that he played along to Junior's track with and what was even cooler was that he re-learned his own song as Junior remixed it and where Junior used vocal loops in his remixes, Casey learned them and did them all live! Incredible!!
Casey is definitely an adaptable performer with a unique voice & intricate lyrics that soar into the rafters! I HIGHLY reccommend his CD, "Standing At The Edge", to all of you. It's very Tori Amos/Sarah McLachlan-ish. Heartfelt and emotion provoking. Check out www.caseystratton.com for more info! :-)
Moving on...
So after dancing for about 5 hours, Shane decided to buy me a ticket to the second part of Junior's pride event called "Uranus" which was at Discotheque on Monday from 8AM-Midnight.
Junior closed Spirit around 6:30 AM and we all headed back up to Rob's to shower and stuff and then head on back to Discotheque.
I spent a total of 17 hours with Junior on pride weekend before finally crashing at my house at 4:30 Monday afternoon!!!
It was pure craziness but I would do it all again!!
Over the course of the weekend I met 4 celebrities and 5 guys (lol). I would say this weekend was a definite success!!
While there are lots of other little stories along the way which include conversations with Michael Lucas (the porn star) and of course how I met each of the 5 guys (and the one big burly black guy who slipped me a card that had his name, number and "can we hook up?" printed on it lol), I'm going to cut it all off here cause I'm quite tired!!!
Oh but one more thing--What's even more special--My friend Keith came out to his parents on the Monday after pride!! Congratulations Keith!!! Next year it's all about YOU!!!!
Thanks to all that supported me this pride! YOU ROCK!!
I can't wait to do it all again next year!!!
Till Then,
John