Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Recovery

Here it is Wednesday afternoon, and it feels like the weekend just ended yesterday. I'm slowly remembering how the real world works.

Hopefully I'll recover soon. I'd like to do this all again in Miami before Rio Va`a, but only if I know I'll recover soon enough for the race. I won't practice or hit the gym today, though I guess I could if I really needed or wanted to.

Backing up, this was my weekend:


For those who don't know the Circuit, it's a series of nationwide, perhaps international, weekend long gay dance events. The number of parties exploded a couple years ago, and it seemed that every hodunk village tried to have their own event. It didn't work. There were too many. The music got too repetitive. They started to attract to many meth users, predators, and general freaks. They stopped being fun.

The Circuit was dead.

Or not. The main events - Black and Blue in Montreal, White Party and Winter Party in Miami, Southern Decadence in New Orleans, and Black Party in New York, among others - are still going strong.

I haven't been to one in over two years, so was interested in seeing how the scene was doing. Last weekend I went to Palm Springs for White Party Weekend to find out.

.....

It was fucking fantastic.

I lucked out in that we had a perfect storm of friends. Gary and I drove up, and met Drew, John, and Neil from NYC. Drew and I knew each other from Montreal a few years back. We later went to Orlando for Gay Days together, where I met his friends Neil and John (whom he had met on an Atlantis Cruise ... and this is how the Circuit Works; it's a self-contained movable party where years can pass in the real world yet we rendezvous on the dance floor as if no time has passed). Our larger party was filled out by their friend Steve from LA. Steve seemed to know everybody, including a pair of Cuban hotties and lots of younger twinks whose names I've forgotten.

The crowd was a good mix, mostly Latino and Caucasian, all ages. It was a decent cross-section of ages and types, from skinny things to roided-out muscle boys to tattooed tough looking boys. There were also a fair share of porn stars, models, and even a minor celebrity or two. Some of the men were hot beyond belief.

Gary and I started the weekend with dinner at Le Vallouris. We went as French as we could; I had a big pile of sweatbreads, he had the roast duck in orange sauce. The staff was incredible, and we caught a glimpse of the producer of Dynasty and her colorful entourage.

I posted my review on Circuit Party Insanity, so I won't bother repeating it here. Just that, it was an amazing non-stop adventure in an alternate universe. There was a bit of bullshit (high priced drinks, some false promises by the promoter, a "VIP" pass that wasn't VP, and a tragic crash-and-burn show by RuPaul - it's the first time I've ever seen a performer die on stage), but nothing that could dampen the spirit of the weekend.

I didn't take photos, though I'm kind of worried that I might be the subject of a few. Two guys thought I was some actor from Scrubs. Not sure who, but ... I might have just ruined his reputation. Or made him one.

I met three guys who I'm hoping to stay in touch with. One who I'd be hoping for more with, but (as usual) there's an ocean and a continent between us. There were a couple others I'd like to see again, but I never got their names or numbers. Maybe next time.

1 comment:

Kevin Roddy said...

Hey M!

Great posts!

I'm gearing up for the IML debacle in Chicago on Memorial Day - let's do lunch soon!