Centaur Style!

For our first Doggy Style of 2012 we're going on a little road trip!  And by little I mean very little ... Doggy Style is moving up Park Avenue for one extra fancy night at Centaur!  So everyone come out for a whole new audio/visual/homosexual experience tomorrow night!

Why the switch-up?  Well, I have been friends with Centaur owner Sean Harrington for what seems like forever.  It has to be 15 years now.  He is a great guy, and we have worked together on many projects together over the years, most significantly my temporary (and soon to be permanent) store Hugh, where he served as very accommodating landlord.

When I came up with the idea of the Pride Project last year, Sean was one of the first people I called and was the very first one to commit to a sponsorship - for both Centaur and Town Pump - so I guess you could say he is the one who really gave me the assurance I needed that I would be able to pull together a reasonable amount of support.  And obviously, that turned out great.

So as a thank you, I told him we'd do a Doggy Style "uptown" and hopefully spend a little of that alleged gay dollar up his way.

Those of you who have been hanging around the Detroit scene for a while will remember the Guerrilla Queer Bar events that were held at Centaur (there were two), and they were always great fun.  So to kick off 2012 we're going to give a little love back to Sean, since really a big reason anything I've done in the past few years was remotely successful was because of his help.

Centaur is going to hook us up with special prices on drinks for the night!  House pours are usually $7, but they will be $5 for the night (and their house pours are not junk).  And if you've been meaning to check out the new Hot Taco in the old Hugh space, you can do that cuz they're open 'til 2!  So come out to Centaur, the original home of the gay straight guy, and have some fun, Centaur Style!

Strap On Your Girdle ...

It's back!  Starting tomorrow night.  See you there!

The Pride Project

For me, one of the most frustrating things to come out of the discussion about Motor City Pride moving to Hart Plaza from Ferndale was this leitmotif that Detroit is not as gay-friendly as Ferndale.  It's been mentioned in comments on Facebook (although the Motor City Pride page is pretty aggressive about removing excessively negative comments, a policy I have mixed feelings about) and covered in Between the Lines (be sure to read the comments).

Now I get where this perception comes from.  There have been widespread reports of homophobia in the African-American community in the past, and we've had several civic and community leaders make homophobic remarks over the years.  But let's compare apples to apples.

Ferndale is a community of 19,000 people covering 3.9 square miles.  Detroit is a city of 713,000 people covering 149 square miles.  But the greater downtown area, the area including the Central Business District, Corktown, the Midtown neighborhoods, Lafayette Park & adjacent areas, and Eastern Market, is roughly 16 square miles and approximately 40,000 residents. Essentially that's been my world (with the addition of the Villages and SW Detroit) and it's a better comp than the city as a whole.  And I've never lived anyplace more gay-friendly.

A little over three weeks ago this was rattling around in my brain, trying to figure out how to send the message that Detroit is actually an AWESOME place to live and be gay.  And maybe Motor City Pride moving downtown was an opportunity to show that.

The independent business community downtown is pretty tightly-knit, so I asked a couple friends if they were interested in doing a small sponsorship of Pride that we could bundle together.  And if they thought other business owners would be receptive to the idea.  It turns out they weren't just receptive, they were enthusiastic.

I could never in a million years have anticipated the positive response I received from every friend I approached.  And they approached friends too.  And in the three weeks since we started spreading the word, we've raised over $6500 from a whole slew of downtown independent merchants who are proud to be sponsors of Pride.

See the fact of the matter is, Detroit is the most welcoming city I've ever lived in - and I've been around.  Jim Geary, owner of the Woodbridge Pub, said it even better:

I think this is great for the city and a good public example of the diversity and tolerance that Detroit should be famous for. It is my experience, in the ten years I have lived here, that Detroiters are more tolerant in general, whether it be religion, race, sexual orientation or financial status, than anywhere else I have lived.

So anytime you hear someone say Detroit isn't welcoming to gays, why don't you straighten them out and mention the following list of businesses - the bars, restaurants and retailers who make Detroit as cool as it is - who put their money where their mouth is and jumped at the chance to welcome the regional gay community to Detroit.

I'll share more info about this when this little Downtown Pride Project is done.  I'm still approaching folks - these are just the people my friends and I knew personally who'd committed by last night.  If you don't see your favorite downtown spot on here, why not ask them about it? Hit me up at the email to the left, I'd love them to help roll out the gay welcome mat!

Make the Yuletide Gay

We're going to whoop it up tonight on Park Avenue downtown with a couple of parties to get you in the Christmas spirit!  That's right, whoop.

First of all, my pop-up shop Hugh for the Holidays will be hosting an Après-ski party to provide for a little relaxed socializing and last-minute shopping (for the holidays and for Hugh, since it pops-down on Thursday).  Come enjoy an adult beverage and relax by the fake fire as we warm up from that last run.  It starts about 6:30 and goes to about 9:30.

Then the activity moves down the street to the Park Bar for a Merry Christmas Doggy Style!  Enjoy more adult beverages and more relaxed socializing!

And to get you in the mood, here is one of the funniest Christmas YouTube videos ever. See you tonight!

Paradise is very nice

Summer in Detroit is such a fantastic time, really the greatest time to be there.  So I'm really sorry I'm going to miss it this year.

Apparently spring in Detroit routinely bums me out.  I get really edgy, everything seems to be bad news, little things like the INSANE parking enforcement downtown or the ghetto-ization of Lafayette Towers became big things (more on those another time), another old building is suddenly a demolition imperative for no apparent reason (never the Packard Plant though), Kwame sticks his ugly mug out of the ground and we get six more weeks of emotional winter ... 

I can't pinpoint where it started for me this year, but do know at one point I started to attribute feeling crappy to low blood sugar and began a weird kind of stress eating that resulted in gaining like ten pounds in six weeks.  And by "like ten pounds" I mean fifteen.  The weather became nicer and my friend (and your dog's bestie) Liz Blondy suggested I undertake some city biking with her instead of turning my jeans into stretch pants, but biking through Detroit's intermittently desolate east side only served to bum me out further.  You can only see so many people trying to keep their house nice while a burned out shell sits next door before you start to think man, this is all really really fucked.

When the things that used to inspire you drive you to drink, you know it's time to reassess.

With the end of my apartment lease coinciding with the move-out from my business location at the end of May, I made the executive decision to get out of Dodge for a while and recharge my batteries.  All those friends who have moved away from SE Michigan over the years (and who have a guest room) are getting a visit.

So I tied up loose ends and, homeless and jobless, departed for locales west.  First stop, beautiful Palm Springs, California.  

Of course Detroit had to get in the last word.  As I was loading the last of my things from the store the night before I left, one of the dozens of "street prophets" comes into the store and chats me up, and by the time I can get rid of him he's stolen my new phone.  

So I've had a week in Palm Springs, where I don't have to watch everything I own every minute of the day to make sure it doesn't get snatched and where modern isn't a dirty word.  And it's been amazing. And tomorrow I head off to San Fran for a solid month for my continuing attitude adjustment.  And after that, Chicago.

For now, I'm getting in the private pool and getting as sunburned as I possibly can.  Detroit, see you later.  We'll always have Indian Summer.

I'd go for a skinny dip in the private pool but there'd be nothing

skinny about it.

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Stormy Monday

Up early this morning and these April showers are kind of fantastic.  Lafayette Park is finally full-on green, the trees are almost filled in, the City has even already been out to cut the grass.  Remarkably even before the management at Lafayette Towers managed to cut their lawn, but that's a different blog post.

I had to clean off the old photos from my phone on this rainy Monday morning in anticipation of a replacement, and I came a cross a couple of unused photos I took for the blog.  So I'm catching up.

Cat mugs at the Indian Village Yard Sale. I guess it was time to move on.

A late summer night on Park Avenue, heading to Cliff Bell's.

A Macho City moment: someone got a Bedazzler!

This poor unfortunate soul didn't even get the courtesy of four blocks for his wheelless chariot.
This happened in early evening in a surprisingly busy area, which will remain unnamed.

Smoke break outside the State of Michigan offices in New Center.
A picture says a thousand words.

A joyful moment at the new dance monthly Private Joy, where Macho City meets

Fierce Hot Mess at Menjo's. Wrap your brain around that!

New Year's Eve at Cafe D'Mongo's Speakeasy.

Marche du Nain Rouge, a view from the rear.
What a day that turned out to be.

Now our rainy Monday morning has turned sunny, but I'll leave you with this morning's rain-themed soundtrack anyway.

A Date with Hugh

I've given notice about benefits for the Ruth Ellis Center here in the past, specifically the very fun Detroit Massacre Halloween parties that have been held the past two years, and I'm about to do it again!

The Ruth Ellis Center, located in Highland Park, provides short- and long-term residential and support services for at-risk GLBT youth in the Detroit area.  This means all those kids who get kicked out of their homophobic homes have a place they can go and don't have to take to the streets.  The story of Ruth Ellis is inspirational for anyone interested in the history of the gay and lesbian community in Detroit, and the Ruth Ellis Center does an amazing job of carrying on the spirit of her work.

This Thursday there will be a super fun shopping event called "A Date with Hugh" that will benefit the center.  10% of all sales that night will be donated to the center, and as an added bonus champagne will be served and I am happy to report that Ruth Ellis Center supporters tend to be more attractive and interesting than your average gay bar riff-raff.  Everyone is probably familiar with the whole "shop for a cause" thing, so if you haven't done it lately now's a great time!

The event is this Thursday, from 5 to 10pm at Hugh, the bachelor pad boutique, located directly behind the Fox Theater on Park Avenue.  Read more about Hugh at www.lovehughlongtime.com!  And why not post this on your Facebook page and get your friends to come?

To get you in the mood, you may now listen to one of my favorite Pet Shop Boys songs!

Three Important Events

Thre are three important events in Detroit this week I need to tell you about, and there are two alternates for you Washtenaw County-based folks.  Sorry for the double-posting today, I don't want to confuse all of you, but really, who doesn't enjoy a little DP every now and again?

Tuesday
Tuesday Nights Doggy Style at the Park Bar continue unabated, although I know you know I know you forgot.  It's been a mixed bag this season, some nights are me and Jack (Daniels) and some nights, like last week, are cram-packed with life-affirming Detroity-crowd goodness.

I should probably tell you that when this season ends the first week in April, Doggy Style is being taken out back and shot. It takes a lot of time to do these video compilations, and while I do enjoy hanging out and watching them with my friends and the intermittent crowd (the straight guys at the Park Bar seem to particularly enjoy them, oddly enough), I don't see a regular season down the road.

One friend suggested just playing re-runs to take the pressure off, and I tried, but it went against everything I set out to do here.  This is supposed to be the anti-Pronto - new videos all the time, more informed, broader in appeal, more fucked up.  Even though there is now a library of 30 compilation DVDs, it just felt wrong.

So come and enjoy the tail end of Doggy Style on Tuesdays this month.  It actually is fun, even if you just sit and watch tv and get a buzz.

Alternate:  If you can't or won't make it to Doggy Style, maybe you should check out Elbow Deep at the Elbow Room in Ypsi this Tuesday!  It's Ypsilanti's own indy gay night, put on by DJ Humanfly and Push/Pull productions the third Tuesday of the month.  They really go all-out and have fabulous production values and great music and drag queens and kings. I will write more about them in the future, because I went in December and it was a great time, but put it on your list of Ypsi things to do this week!

Thursday
I have been involved with the Detroit Institute of Arts through the Founders Junior Council - the young professionals auxiliary - since long before I moved from Ann Arbor to Detroit.  It's a wonderful group of people whose goal is to engage the under-40 (and sometimes over-40) set at the DIA, as well as to raise some cash for the museum.

Attending their events regularly was a fantastic way for me to extend my network of friends outside of downtown, since it's a mix of city and suburb, east west and northside.  It has also been an opportunity to dress up a bit for events, which every once in a while is a refreshing change for a downtowner.  I have met some of my best friends in the area through the FJC.

Membership in the FJC is an auxiliary membership that you purchase in addition to your DIA membership, and it provides member-only events and an additional level of support for the museum.  This Thursday at 6:30 the FJC is hosting the first-ever (in my long history) promotional membership event in conjunction with the Detroit Film Theater.  For $57.50 you can get your DIA membership AND your FJC membership, as well as attend a members-only screening of this year's Oscar-nominated film shorts.

 

If this is remotely your bag, I really cannot recommend taking advantage of this strongly enough!  It's basically a free FJC membership!

Alternate:  The Last Bookstore Standing is an event to help increase awareness (and cash flow) for the Common Language bookstore in Ann Arbor.  With the internets and the rise of the big booksellers and increased acceptance of gays et al, the GLBT bookstore is becoming an increasingly rare asset to the community.  (This really deserves its own post as well, all in due time.) We are fortunate to have a full-on literary-focused bookstore in our area, but the times are tough. 

For the price of just a few pounds of coffee you can help invigorate Common Language and enrich your own GLBT life, and this special event is a really good opportunity to do that. Won't you please show your support (in person or online?)  If Common Language goes, it's gone for good.

Friday
Hey remember Mercury Coffee Bar?  There were a lot of awesome things about it, but the best thing was the coffee.  It was amazing.  AMAZING.  Well the good news is the coffee guru from MCB is working on opening a new coffee outpost across the street on the Slows block, called Astro Coffee (read his blog here), and there is a fundraising event 9pm this Friday at the Polish Village Veterans Hall to speed things along.

Admission is $20, $10 for performers.  Motor City Beer will be provided, and there are prizes!  Naturally I am thinking of performing because I can save $10 and, well, there is a stage.  You should think of performing too, or at least attending, because I predict this will be some homegrown good times.  And I suspect it might have a bit of a Gong Show vibe, which is always good!

Well that's it for recommendations this week.  Quite a variety I'd say, and you can't go wrong with any of them.  Make the most of your February, and see you out and about!
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Good Hygiene

While we are on the topic of art and derelict properties, I thought I'd post something purely for fun.

If you get out and about in downtown Detroit you've probably seen the handiwork of the Hygienic Dress League.  We look out the windows of the Park Bar every Doggy Style Tuesday at their mural on the Hotel Charlevoix, which I enjoy mucho.

 

 

 

They also have improved the Grand Army of the Republic Building over at Cass & Grand River.

I came across this video a couple weeks ago, I showed it at Doggy Style last week, and I thought I'd share it with you.  (And to defuse concerns like those in the comments of my last post - that I am a PR shill for my friends or something - yes I do know them, but I am posting this because I think their work is cool and the video is fab.  Although I will say Dorota is also pretty fab. And Steve's mustache is, like, wow.)

Going Ga Ga?

Well from the Facebook chatter it seems a lot of you are going to see Lady Gaga tonight or tomorrow.  That is going to be one fabulous show. 

If you are heading downtown for the show and looking for good times afterwards, I thought I'd toss out a couple options.

First of all, both Tuesday and Wednesday night Centaur, on Park Avenue, is hosting an unofficial Lady Gaga Afterparty.  You know how they do it at Centaur ... martinis and shots and you end up making out with some straight boy.  It's always nuts and always fun and great spot to keep the post-glam glam going strong.

Also on Park Avenue, but tonight only, is of course old reliable, Doggy Style at the Park Bar.  Tonight is an all-new video presentation, and the downtown gays and gay-o-philes will love to see your post-gaga face.  It's a popular gay post-concert stop if the Madonna concert last year is any indication!

Heck, hit 'em both tonight, they're only a block apart from each other!  And have fun with that Lady Gaga!  I just heard she's trolling the State Street Starbucks in Ann Arbor, see if you can find her!

My One December Post

Life never gets less busy, so at this rate January will have 1/3 of a post.  So look forward to that.

This isn't even a full-fledged post! It's an announcement of some holiday cheer, though, that you could experience tonight on Park Avenue!

First off let's facilitate a little commerce, as Dyspathy likes to say.  There is a swell party thrown by Toby Barlow, intergalactic ambassador for Detroit, and Phil Cooley, BBQ ambassador and king of the hipsters, at Detroit's newest shop and only retail happening, Hugh.  I've, uh, been in the store many times and it sells very very cool gifts for men.  Get your last-minute holiday shopping done at the Dave Bing Party!

When you are done getting your shop on, head on down the street to the Park Bar for an all-new Doggy Style Holiday Celebration!  Things really get going about 9:30 when the videos start, so have a cocktail and mix & mingle to a jinglin' beat!

Have a wonderful Christmas, a terrific New Year, and maybe we'll talk more in 2010!

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The Scariest Day in Detroit

It's not Devil's Night, and Halloween is NOT what I am talking about - Tuesday is Election Day in Detroit, and this election is a doozy!

To mark the occasion Doggy Style is ON for the night! It seemed too momentous an occasion to let pass, and also there was a technical problem last week so the Halloween videos didn't work out. So it's now or wait until next year.

Join us Tuesday night at the Park Bar to (hopefully) celebrate good election news, and get one last fix of Halloween until 2010!


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Supergay Week Continues ...

Thanks so much to all you swell guys and gals who were able to make it to Macho City on Saturday night! I had so much fun being the special guest DJ, I actually lost my bad attitude for a while! Thank you thank you Mike Trombley and Scott Zacharias for inviting me to play my shiny gay disco!

There were a few requests that I post the playlist from Saturday, so for the curious or stalkerly, here it is:

Set 1
I Was Born This Way - Carl Bean
No One Gets the Prize - Diana Ross
Lucky - Donna Summer
Take Me Home - Cher
(thus ends the gay diva sequence)
Fly Me on the Wings of Love - Celi Bee
Shangri-La - La Pregunta
Don't Cry for Me Argentina - Festival
(believe it or not, the producers of Evita commissioned an entire Disco Evita album when the musical debuted, which often was played in its entirety at discos! This track is so much better than the Madonna dance version)
I'm a Cruiser - Village People
(another Village People song about cruising for sex, slapped on the album that also featured YMCA. Hello Middle America!)
So Many Men So Little Time - Miquel Brown
(from 1983, is there a more historically unfortunate lyric than "So many men, so little time ... how can I lose?")
My Knight in Black Leather -Bette Midler
(camp and pathos like only Bette Midler could do it. Until she jumped the shark with "From a Distance")


Set 2
This Is My Life - Shirley Bassey
(an over-the-top disco version of an already over-the-top song)
That's the Meaning - Beautiful Bend
Forbidden Love - Madleen Kane
I Need a Man - Amanda Lear
(no she was not really a transsexual, it was just a rumor)
Stars - Sylvester
(the best of the many wonderful songs in the Sylvester oeuvre.)
Come On and Do It - Poussez
(the only song I've ever seen with a "moaning" credit)
Tahiti, Tahiti - Voyage
Don't Leave Me This Way - Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes
(the original version, and the best by far, with a young Teddy Pendergrass on vocals!)

OK so now you can recreate your own Supergay Macho City right there at home! Good luck tracking some of those down though.

I've zipped away to Saugatuck for a night to regroup and will be back for tomorrow night when a new season of Doggy Style starts at the Park Bar! It's the special Halloween edition, to celebrate the biggest gay holiday of the year!

Don't forget!

Tonight is our summertime Doggy Style! Come down to the Park Bar tonight for an all-new video compilation, refreshing alcohol, laughs with the downtowns gays (and honorary gays) and the big ol' hot dogs over at Bucharest Grill (you know what I'm talking about).

Come tonight after 9, videos start around 9:45, good times last all night!

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Adieu

Well here we are, in the last baseball-free week for seven months. And that means it is time to bid Tuesday Nights Doggy Style a fond farewell for the season.

To close things out this time around, we are having a musical extravaganza! All musicals, all night long. I just really wanted to go out with a super gay bang.

Please join us for the downtown gay fun times that can only be Doggy Style!
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Supergay Slate '09!

Well it snuck up on us, 2009's Metro Times Best of Detroit voting, but it didn't completely slip by! The deadline for voting is this Tuesday, the 31st (2 days!), so please take the time to vote for Supergay Detroit as Best Local Pop Culture Blog!

This year they've pared down the categories considerably, and a lot of our friends from last year aren't really eligible for any categories this time around. So I've decided to take a different approach to picks for the Supergay Slate. In accordance with my stated objective for this year, I've made choices that I think help raise standards here, and selected places that make Detroit a better place to live for me.

I've selected 19 categories, and you only need to vote in 15. You can use this slate or make up your own - just be sure to vote for me!

Metro Times Best of Detroit 2009: The Supergay Slate

Best Place to See An Indie Film: Detroit Film Theater at the DIA

Best Local Film Fest: Reel Pride Michigan, our GLBT Film Festival

Best Local Website: Well MT always wins, but you should cast a vote for our friends at Model D!

Best Local Pop Culture Blog: Supergay Detroit!

Best Abandoned Building: Coleman A. Young Municipal Center. Obviously.

Best Bicycle Shop: Wheelhouse, because I love them.

Best Florist: the guys at Blumz continue to make great flowers accessible to Detroiters with their shop downtown

Best Restaurant Under $15 per diner: Bucharest Grill inside the Park Bar is my default spot for cheap and good eats

Best Restaurant under $50 per diner: Atlas Global Bistro, my perennial fave

Best Restaurant to Impress Out-of-Towners: Slows BarBQ never fails

Best Italian Restaurant: Angelina Italian Bistro is not only delicious, it is deliciously non-smoking. Even the bar. While I can't endorse their blown-glass art installation/light fixture, the rest of the place is perf. If you haven't been, I highly recommend it.

Best Neighborhood Pizza: Does Supino’s fit here ...

Best Gourmet Pizza: ... or does Supino’s fit here? I'm not sure, but they are fantastic and deserve a vote in both categories!

Best Deli: Mudgie’s in Corktown, for a lovely modern decor AND amazing eats.

Best Indie Coffee Shop: With Mercury Coffee Bar out of the picture, Café 1923 in Hamtramck takes this one hands-down

Best Club Night: Fierce Hot Mess has been entertaining us at Oslo all year!

Best Gay Bar: Detroit Guerrilla Queer Bar - because it really is!

Best Beer Selection in a Bar: not too many categories to pick to reward the Park Bar for being the gracious and loving host of Doggy Style, but this one fits!

Best Jazz Club: Cliff Bells, now with a delicious dinner menu!
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Douchebags invade downtown

I just want to know where the normal people downtown have gone tonight. It's like douchebag central down here.

Left work late and headed to the bar at Atlas Global Bistro for eats where I witnessed a drunk woman wearing an unfortunately sleeveless top talk at the top of her lungs about all the racial and economic injustice in America.

To make matters worse she irritated the older guy next to her who was a bona fide asshole (apparently he owns the shop in Eastern Market that sells all the giant ceramic pots) and he kept antagonizing her. "Let's settle this by who spends more here." Seriously?

Not to be outdone, he exited by making this parting comment, "She just wants some black dick" (because she was a white woman and was with a black man). The most annoying woman in the world had my sympathy by the time he left. At least until she spent the next fifteen minutes bitching about him and crying. She was overserved.

Fortunately that all distracted me from the first part of the evening and the dude who lived at 32 Mile Road and friends next to me clamoring to get the Wings game on television. Their big nights out usually include Fishbones in St. Claire Shores but they'd ventured downtown for the Wings. Their conversations were beyond boring and their clothes even worse. Mock turtlenecks, anyone?

Fortunately some friends came to meet me for a while so I was able to pass the time reasonably well, but when they were ready to leave I had to move on.

Went to the Park Bar as a reflexive action. Loved that the super cute guy from the band Shoe was bartending, but could not deal with the total douchebaggery that surrounded half the bar. I'm talking fake-n-bake girls with dark eyeliner and chunky hightlights, and guys with gold chains smoking cigars. WTF?

Obviously that wasn't going to work. So I paid the cover to head into Cliff Bell's next door, because that is always such a good scene. Surprise? More douchebags and only a handful of the good folks. I plugged in to blog this and some dude with a backward baseball cap actually tried to surreptitiously take my picture! I think it was the 'stache.

Turnabout is fair play.

I don't know where everyone cool is tonight, it's kind of a disaster. Maybe I will head to D'Mongo's for last-ditch coolness. At least tomorrow night at Cirque there will be fun. I hope.

The FJC always does a good job of being cool. And classy. Ish.

The Return of Doggy Style

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Oh you.

It'll be so nice to see you again. I just know you'll look great.

I've missed you.

Besos,

SG

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When the going gets tough, the tough do it Doggy Style

If I'm going to engage in all this gay political stuff then I need to have a little gay fun too. So I'm starting up Tuesday Nights Doggy Style at the Park Bar again!

If you missed Doggy Style last year you can read about its genesis here, and see all Doggy Style-related posts from last winter here. Essentially it's a "gay-er" night at the Park Bar where gay folks with a downtown sensibility meet up for music that's more finely attuned to a gay ear and a curated video program that is kind of new music / old music / production number / drag queen / camp. Or whatever else I find.

She big.

We went on hiatus for summer, but we are long overdue for some more good ol' downtown gay camaradarie. So get your friends and come on down! And stop by after the Madonna concert, if you're going!

The Park Bar is located at 2040 Park Avenue, right behind the Fillmore (formerly State) Theater, near Comerica Park. There's no sign, but it's the bar right on the corner of Park & Elizabether with the huge windows.

It all starts up next Tuesday, November 18. Arrive starting at 8:30, videos start at 9:30. You'll be home in bed by 11:30, not bad for a school night.

So see you next Tuesday! And every Tuesday after that until May! Yay!

Obamarama?

The Obama win tonight was exciting.

I went to Ann Arbor to my friend Eve's house to watch the election because (a) I spent all the Bush years in Ann Arbor and thought it would be nice to celebrate a shift back to reason in that town, and (b) she owns the amazing restaurant Eve and I knew the food would be worth traveling for.

It was, of course, a lovely time, and so great to see an awesome collection of people I've known over the past ten-plus years. And even more exciting to see the Obama win! Yay America.

It wasn't until the way home, when I received a text response from CA friends to my inquiry about the status of the gay marriage ban that the whole night imploded. California was set to ban - and abolish - gay marriage.

Furious doesn't even begin to describe my reaction. I can't tell you the last time I pounded my steering wheel and screamed in rage, mostly because it has never happened before. It was only a stop by the Park Bar and touching base with some unaware but sympathetic friends that prevented this from being a post that consisted of the giant words "straight people, go fuck yourself." Sorry, but it's true.

You have a straight, white, wealthy, Mayflower-family, Yale-educated male to thank for talking me down.

So straight people, don't go fuck yourself. But please pay attention to what is happening. Michigan was disappointing. Arizona, Florida and Arkansas not surprising. But California was really unexcusable.

At least their "Stop Animal Cruelty" inititative passed by a 3-to-1 margin. Oh yeah, and Obama won.
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