Favorite Macho City Moments

There certainly were a lot of colorful Macho City moments in our ticket giveaway contest! Thank you to everyone who entered for sharing their real or imagined experiences.

My favorite Macho City moment (of many highlights) is probably the Nancy Fortune night. Mike and Scott had been playing an unusually amazing selection of underground disco that I had not heard before, but that was so immediately likeable that it felt like a series of forgotten favorites. It had such a consistent good disco vibe you could not help but feel elevated.

The crowd was eclectic that night, including a good number of leathermen, some super cool straight folks, and a broad range of ages of us regular gay folks. The visuals were ultra-cool. As an added bonus there were no serious smokers on the dancefloor. It was all just so ... happy.

[As an aside: Not to pick on one group in particular, but there has been a serious rash of girls smoking on the dancefloor at Macho City that is giving me a serious rash. Ladies please, look around. Do you see the gay boys smoking on the dancefloor? No, they do it in the bar area like God intended. Even my friend Chris who can only breathe through a cigarette when he is at the bar abstains. Take note.]

So all is well at Macho City that night, and about 1am Nancy Fortune comes on. The transition to her music was, frankly, jarring, and I was like, "oh well, it was fun while it lasted." But then she got things really rolling (or more likely, my brain adjusted) and suddently there was this fantastic electro/dance/house mix of music - one that rivaled the mastery of the earlier disco mix - that took me back to my after-hours clubbing heyday. You know that feeling you get when you are standing there and the whole world around you is so perfect and you are brimming with joy? Yeah, that. That night wasn't just a Macho City highlight, it was a highlight of my summer.

Now back to the contest. Before I announce the winners I want to address some of the comments.

First of all, to the comments saying people posting about lurid activity at the R&R are missing the point of Macho City (some were deleted by their author), I feel compelled to say ... do we need to be this way in 2009? First off, Macho City can be about so many things. Maybe it is about the music, maybe it is about the people, and maybe it's about the setting. In my opinion having Macho City at the R&R - a place that is a safe space for a niche in the gay community (I sound like a lesbian feminist with that language) - sets a tone that you are free to enjoy the night however you want. Maybe Macho City provides a more comfortable way for attendees to get a little dirty in their lives, I see nothing wrong with that.

It's important to remember that we are guests there, and Macho City is supposed to be enhanced by its setting, and in turn enhance the R&R for one night a month. It's the combination that really makes Macho City so special. Arriving at the R&R and then judging the activity (or people's appreciation of activity) is perhaps an unfair approach. I hope that the regulars at the R&R like having the Macho City crowd once a month and continue to show up, and I hope MC attendees can be chill about anything besides dancing and drinking that may or may not go on.

Taking that one step further, as a community we make no progress if we cannot embrace all colors of the gay rainbow. We don't need to be mainstream to deserve marriage equality or protection from discrimination. It's the non-mainstream parts of the gay world that have been on the front lines, and who make being gay so very interesting! You don't need to partake, just accept.

Secondly, there was a comment about Buju Banton being booked at the Majestic and how we should boycott anything there. I am not a huge fan of boycotting locally-owned businesses or gay-led cultural phenomena, particularly in a recession, because often people just need to be educated about their offenses. But in this instance I think the Majestic has paid attention to concerns. Another comment addresses those:

For the record, the Majestic cancelled the Buju Banto show more than a week ago. They will have to eat the $8,500 guarantee. They are the only independent booker in the country that has flat out refused his performance. The Majestic had no clue about Buju's homophobic song (that he wrote 20 years ago at the age of 16 which he has since apologized for) and once they were aware of said song they immediately cancelled the show. The Majestic are very much accepting of all lifestyles. I am gay and have worked for the Majestic many times over the years. They currently have at least 5 gay employees that I personally know of.

I hope this news assuages any concerns people have about going tonight, because Black Devil Disco Club Macho City will be epic! And congratulations to randomly-selected winners Sparky, Darren, b, Phil, Thomas and Joseph, y'all are getting in free tonight! Your names will be at the door!

Have a great Macho City!

[Hey Sparky, email me at supergaydetroit@gmail.com to confirm your ticket!]
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Macho City News for You

OK so I don't think my role is officially Mouthpiece of Macho City (shut up), but I am going help get some details about coming months explained and on your calendars.

This month's installment will be the last regular installment at the R&R Saloon until October, due to a special feature I will talk about in a minute. But there are uber-special guests for August!

DJ's Mike Tee and Scott Zacharias will be working their turntable disco magic to start off the evening, and then will be joined by this month's special guest DJ's Carlos Souffront (affiliated with Ghostly International, the amazing electronic label that started her in our very own Ann Arbor) and extra special last-minute addition BMG of Ectomorph.

You may not be familiar with those names, but the bottom line is these are guys who know their stuff and know how to pack a dancefloor, even one full of leathermen and middle-aged guys who still like to party like me. If the Nancy Fortune night is any indication, it will be fantastic fun with amazing music.

Next month Macho City is changing things up. Disco legendary legends Black Devil Disco Club, a collaboration between two French dudes back in 1978, are playing just a few dates in the US and one of them will be the Macho City for September! Our Macho City DJ's will play before and after what promises to be a very cool danceable show. If you listen to their spooky electro disco on this MySpace page I think you will see how I become obsessed with them in two days time. Apparently they have had such a strong following over the years that some individuals (who shall remain nameless) paid like $200 for their record!

This Macho City (Sept 26) will be held at the Majestic instead of the R&R Saloon and will have an actual ticket at $15 instead of a cover charge you can pay with change from under your seat cushion. Now I can hear the protests already (actually I already have) so I'd just like to throw this out: has Macho City let you down yet? I think it is a pretty safe bet this night will be phenomenal. So start saving now, and pay attention to this here blog because maybe we can work out some ticket giveaways or something.

As an aside, I think the thing that gives me irrational love for Macho City is how effortlessly it seems to combine high and low culture. Mike and Scott have an almost academic approach to dance music and you can't even tell how curated it is when you go, you just love it and have a good time. It ties back in a way to what I wrote about in January, about raising the aesthetic bar here. We get a dirty dance party in a leather bar at the edge of the ghetto, that may be expected in Detroit, but inside we get some of the top local, national and international talent on the decks.

Speaking of top talent, things return to normal (or as normal as Macho City can be) for the October installment of Macho City when we head back to the R&R and the special guest DJ is Supergay Detroit! What? So much for maintaining standards, DJ Mike Tee! Without posting my playlist, I think we can safely say I'll be veering more toward the disco than the electro, and you'll be shocked to discover that it'll be the gayest night Macho City ever had. Let's just say I never met a chorus of female voices or a string section I didn't love.

OK, now you have all the info you need about Macho City. I promise I will try and write about something other than Macho City in my next few posts.
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Time Again for Macho City!

Well it's the end of the month so it must be time for MACHO CITY! Yes that's right, everyone's favorite underground disco dance party sensation is up on the docket for this Saturday night.

Can we talk about Macho City for one second? Because it just keeps getting better and better. The last Macho City, well, what can I say to describe it. It started like this, as we got in line behind some leather daddies:

[Hip chick in paisley poncho on cell phone in front of R & R]

Girl: How far away are you guys?
pause
Girl: Yeah we're out front.
pause
Girl: A lot of leather.

One of the fantastic things is that the leather crowd turned out and looked great. I hope they don't get irritated with the whole new crowd descending on the place once a month and stay away. I would like to encourage all Macho City attendees to take the opportunity to - at the very least - allow a leatherman to cop a feel in a bathroom or dark corner to make sure we all continue to be welcome at the R&R.



DJ's Mike Tee and Scott Zacharias played, according to one friend, "all this music you've never heard before but is all really great." Which is exactly what I want at a dance party. I mean, when was the last time you went out and heard all great music you don't know? Like, Midnight Sun, 1995? This is the stuff you end up telling 25 year olds about when you are 40. ("When *I* was 25 ...")

He: It's so cool they keep playing these snippets of songs that you know!
Me: Those aren't snippets, those are the songs where the samples came from.

Special guest DJ Nancy Fortune was a total wild card, in the sense we had no idea if she'd be going disco or electro or what. She came on about 1am and played the greatest electro/house set ever ... it WAS like Midnight Sun 1995! Not the music, but the house vibe and the energy. No voguing though. It was a funny transition from disco to electro but man it worked like crazy.

Don't think about it, just do it.

The dancefloor was packed all night (with fantastic new visuals from Nancy Fortune compadre Tommyboy), and I had to bid a reluctant adieu to Macho City around 2am. But the thing goes until like 6am on Monday morning and you very well may not want to leave before then.

I mentioned to a friend yesterday, while enjoying gay Wednesday night cocktails at Atlas Global Bistro, that I don't even drink at Macho City anymore because I don't want to miss any of the evening, and he excitedly proclaimed that he doesn't either. It's so good you just feel great dancing and talking and mixing and mingling.

So I guess my point is, don't miss out on Macho City. Nothing this good lasts forever, and if this blog had an audience of more than 15 people I'd feel bad promoting it as much as I do. But I figure we've got a year of real unadulturated Macho City fun - the kind that gets a great mix of R&R regulars, hipsters, us middle-aged fellas who still like to party and a smattering of cool straight folks. I'm really not kidding - don't miss out!

(details on Macho City for this month, next month and the following month being posted shortly!)
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Come On and Do It

A last-minute reminder for all of you - Macho City is on again this Saturday!

(This is not the official flyer, this is just what I see in my head when I think of Macho City.)

I would have reminded you sooner but I had an unwelcome distraction earlier in the week in the form of my brother going on a Fox News bender and sending drunk texts ranting about Obama and tax increases ("I'm sick of your gay agenda. Obama sucks and is going to ruin your family. Hope your (sic) happy."). Some people find it hard to get by on a couple hundred g's a year I guess.

Anyway, after all that crap you can bet I'll be getting my gay agenda on Saturday night! There is a super-special guest this month, Clone Records artist Nancy Fortune who is here all the way from Europe just to play Macho City! Because that is how cool Detroit is around the world, they are lining up to play at the R&R Saloon!

In case you hadn't heard, Macho City just keeps getting better and better. Last time I had to leave at 2am for an early-morning departure to Chicago Pride and the place was packed and going strong into the late-night hour. The music was tremendo too! And as we've established, I'm hyper-critical on that kind of thing.

See you Saturday night at the R&R! $3 cover (price increase to keep out the riff-raff I guess) gets you one free drink! Action starts at 10pm so don't be late! Dirty disco upstairs, dirty hookers downstairs!

R&R Saloon, 7330 Michigan Avenue (between Livernois & Wyoming), Detroit.
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If you liked it ...

... then you should have put a ring on it.


Macho City has turned out to be a great down-and-dirty disco dance party. The crowd is diverse and looking for sweaty good times. It's the R&R Saloon so you can take that however you want.

I like the Macho City vibe because I don't feel like the creepy old man watching the young hipsters dance to questionable 80s music like I do at Fierce Hot Mess sometimes. This isn't wedding disco either, it's the good underground stuff..

I enjoy Macho City, and I think you will like it too.

Macho City, this Saturday. 10pm until late. The R&R Saloon, 7730 Michigan Avenue, Detroit.

When the party's over ...

This hectic week almost made me forget something vitally important! After the Modernism Preview Party don't forget to head out to the R&R Saloon for Macho City!


Let me put on some music to get me in the mood for this post, I need to go back in time - to four weeks ago.

I was keenly excited about the premier of Macho City last month, and I am happy to report it did not disappoint. It was the perfect old gay meets new gay (and I don't mean age-wise). The R&R is a real leather bar, like with people in it and everything. There were regulars there (and I daresay a nice offering of good-looking guys over 30) plus an onslaught of obvious first-timers. The ages ranged from 21 to who knows. The music was GREAT and not just for dancing - hanging out by the pool table was possibly the best spot in the bar for much of the night due to the constant flow of people and the really good sound system there.

Without going into further excrutiating detail, the dancefloor was almost always packed, the bar was full and fun, the crazy owner kept yelling drink specials randomly over the music, there was possibly some depravity downstairs ... it all came off like a really great regular night at the leather bar (when you imagine how you wish regular nights would always be). I didn't even care that I left the bar reeking of smoke - and that's really saying something.

So don't forget - go to Macho City tonight! It's the right combination of everything wrong. And I mean that in the best possible way.

Macho City, a monthly disco party
It's on a Friday this month! Friday, April 24
R & R Saloon, 7330 Michigan Avenue, Detroit (bet Livernois & Wyoming
$2 cover, includes one drink!

Five Questions for Macho City

I am very excited for the new gay disco dance party Macho City this Saturday! So excited that I emailed Mike Trombley, Macho City founder & DJ, and asked him everything I could just have waited until tomorrow to find out. Here are my five questions for Macho City.

1. When and where did you start Macho City?
I am originally from Detroit and started the Disco/Secret Sunday party at the Eagle back in 2004. I had returned to Detroit after living in California for 5 years with the idea to throw a slightly sleazy, anything goes, dance party similar to nights that I frequented in LA & SF - Hot Dog, Black Arts, Trannyshack, etc. An alternative gay party for those like-minded boys and girls in the Detroit area.

Disco/Secret was successful but drew a primarily straight audience. I found this odd considering the gay iconography used in our promotion but the disco beardos caught wind of the night and started coming out. I'm really grateful they did but I was also a little disappointed that the party did not attract a larger gay contingent.

About a year later, my boyfriend got a job offer in Philadelphia and we moved. I began spinning in Philly and started a night called Paradise at a club called Key West. This party was named after the legendary Paradise Garage in NYC.


Macho City started last September at the only leather bar in Philadelphia, the Bike Stop. It was the most successful party I've ever thrown. I promoted like crazy and it just all seem to come together. The crowd was an ideal mix - gay, straight, male, female, and the response was amazing. I was only able to throw two Macho City events before we moved but I knew I had to transfer that momentum to Detroit once I arrived here.

2. How did you end up picking the R&R Saloon, and does it still smell like a dirty dick?
I chose the R&R for a few reasons. I actually find it to be one of the friendliest gay bars in Detroit. That being said, it's also one of the most surreal and at times, the sleaziest. It has a great sound system, large dance floor and cheap drinks. It also draws the most diverse gay crowd in the city, hands down. They recently made some structural improvements/updates and it's definitely lost some of it's dirty luster, although fortunately the pit still smells like a pit.

3. Will all the music be so obscure that it all sounds the same, or will there be recognizable artists or songs?
The music will not be too obscure. I've learned the hard way that as much as I love to nerd out on the turntables, it can be extremely alienating to those on the dance floor. You have to throw 'em a bone once in a while. Plan on hearing underground Disco and Italo next to certified dance classics.

4. What will the emotional highlight of the evening be?
The emotional highlight of the night for me usually happens around 1:20am or so. People are inebriated enough that they don't care how they look, just that they want to DANCE! The floor is packed and sweaty and I can't stop grinning.

5. Where did you get that incredible flyer image?
The flyer image is actually the gatefold artwork from a Disco record written by Rod McKuen, of all people. The album is horrible but the image is incredible. Plus that arm belongs to 70's gay porn star, Bruno (link nsfw (duh), but only mildly). The album is called "Slide... Easy In."


There you go, everything you wanted to know about Macho City but were too fey to ask! The party should be a good sweaty dancing time and the crowd, judging from the PR and the buzz, should be a great mix of younger and older, maler and femaler, gayer and straighter.

I really want to encourage everyone to come, especially some of you fellas who maybe feel like your dance club days are behind you. This event is tailor-made for those of us who were born before the original disco era ended!

Macho City, a new monthly disco party
Saturday, March 21
R & R Saloon, 7330 Michigan Ave (bet Livernois & Wyoming)
$2 cover, includes one drink!

International Miss Leather Pageant

For the Memorial Day Weekend I made a quick jaunt to Chicago, and wouldn't you know, it also happened to be the weekend of the 2007 International Mister Leather competition!

This is an annual event held at the Palmer House Hilton in downtown Chicago. It celebrates the leather community, provides a reason for gays to travel someplace fun and act all hedonistic 'n' shit, and gives a bunch of queens something to aspire to. Naturally I had to stop in to check it out.

Now the scope of this event is huge. First of all, it takes over the ENTIRE hotel. There are signs at each entrance saying the hotel is booked for a private event, and security guards posted there to prevent the unsuspecting families from wandering into something less than child-friendly. Men and (some) women travel from all over the continent to come to this event, now in its 29th year. It involves an entire weekend of activities, culminating with the crowning of the new International Mister Leather at the Chicago Theater on Sunday night.

In the interest of full disclosure (prior to judging), I should say I don't really get the whole leather thing. I mean, I know there are camaradarie and community-building aspects to it and I am always in favor of those. And I glad that there is a gay niche that isn't all about being pretty and having fabulous clothes. But all the outfits and rules just seem like an awful lot of fuss. Plus I think cockrings are really gross.

My friends and I stopped in on Saturday afternoon, and the place was jumping. The entire lobby is turned into a bar, and people just hang out and people watch. And trust me, that is some gooooooood people watching! Guys were there from all over, and there were a lot of familiar faces from the Detroit area. The standard uniform seemed to be jeans and a t-shirt with some kind of leather accoutrements, but there were also people in the full leather getup. And trust me, you haven't seen anything until you've seen tuxedoed hotel employees serving pizza to a line of leather queens!

The lobby was twice as full by the time we left (around 4pm)

Hemlines are up this season!

Upstairs from the lobby they have an area is called the Leather Mart. It is dirty there, so dirty that they check your ID four times and make you sign a release. It's essentially a gay leather version of the porn conventions they have in Las Vegas. It's booth after booth of sex toys, leather apparel, porn stars, demonstrations, and pretty much anything you can think of.

I found this portion emotionally damaging. I guess it's one thing to read about fisting and really quite another to be wandering through a dark room showing videos and that appeared to be set up for demonstrations later that night (the carpet was covered with a saran wrap-type protective covering. Seriously). And I did not need to know that something called a rosebud pump existed (don't ask).

By the time we had pushed about half-way through the very dense crowd I was like "get me the fuck out of here!" I thought I was brave but I am not, I am a huge vanilla gay coward. I think it was the pissing videos that threw me over the edge.

Of course my friends are a stalwart bunch and got a bigger kick out of it all than I did, my friend Laurita Guarita Los Angeles Jara Perez in particular. She had a run-in with a guy in a bondage bunny suit that was pretty great.

Do not take a Cadbury Cream Egg from this man!

[Bunny makes a beeline for the chick with lip-gloss and feathered hair]

Bunny: So what do you think?

LGLAJP: (looking at her nails) About what?

Bunny: (looks down at outfit) This.

LGLAJP: You're a plushy.

Bunny: Yeah. So what do you think?

LGLAJP: I'd fuck you.

And then she spun him around and pretended to fuck him. It was awesome.

We finished the day grabbing a meal at a pub next door, which was full of its own highlights. The walls were covered in framed headshots of celebrities who have dined there over the years (the goofy guy from F-Troop and Seka were my personal favorites). And even better, we sat next to a table of leather lesbians and one of them had a cane!

All in all, the IML thing was an experience I'm eager to never re-live, but it certainly was worthwhile viewing. I am probably a better person for it. Or at least wiser.