I miss all the good stuff…
But I’m on the internet so much…
I end up seeing it afterwards anyways.
But damn,
this would have been great to see it first time around…

I gave a rave to Alicia Keys’ new album in my previous post.
And linked the video to her first single…
But after trolling around YouTube a little more…
I ended up coming across her performance…
On The Fashion Rocks event for 2007.
All that has to be said is…
“Stellar”
Mama is feeling it…
Pounding the keys like her life depended on it.

Alicia Keys - “The Thing About Love”

…can get in the way of what I feel for you.

I really am loving the new Alicia Keys single…
“No One”
I ended up buying the album on iTunes…
This definitely is thee single from the album…
The rest is more along the lines…
Of her more traditional fair…
More soulful…
Introspective…
And self empowering songs.
This album takes some time…
Nothing hits you over the head…
But it definitely blooms.

(BTW… it sucks being single…
I totally would send this song to someone I cared about.
No one makes mix tapes anymore.
OMG… did I just say mix “tapes”?
Wow… totally dated myself… lol)

Well.. Its time to vent…
Not really vent…
But a time to be cathartic…
An exorcism…
A remembrance…
A solemn time…
A celebration…

I went out to Splash tonight…
For those in New York…
I know, you’re thinking…
“Splash?!?!”
Splash is known for more of a twink crowd…
A quasi typical Chelsea type…
Very new to the scene…
Or bridge and tunnel…
IE out of towners who need someplace to be…
That seems similar to “the norm” of pop culture…
Or what is deemed “normal gay life”…
But yes…
I was there…
Although I wane from the mundane…
The reason I was there…
Was that someone I know…
An excellent DJ/producer by the name of
Honey Dijon was playing tonight…
Normally she plays throughout more of the Underground scene…
But a girl’s got to pay the bills…
And when it comes to it…
Splash will probably pay it…
As long as you cater enough to the crowd…
She ended up playing somethings I wasn’t necessarily feeling…
Yes there was a Britney Spears remix in there…
But in typical fashion…
She gave the crowd a taste
and then moved on to what she really wanted to play…
Nice tidbits of really stellar tracks that made me want to move…

I came to dance and I did…
But I don’t think I was prepared for what came after the crowd had gone…

I ended up hanging in the DJ booth…
After the dance floor had cleared…
I’m not surprised it cleared…
It’s the middle of the week
and I don’t think the party was promoted that well…
But I was up there…
Milking my Corona…
And sipping off the Petron she gladly offered to me to ib…
And then I heard this organ loop come on…

For those who don’t know…
I used to be a manager at a dance record store…
In the West village…
Well this song came on…
And I knew exactly what it was….
Kings Of Tomorrow - Finally.
Officially released on Defected records…
After a short bout on white label…
And numerous remixes and edits.

Well I was in the DJ booth and was like…
God I need to get on the floor…
I “need to do this for ‘him’”…
The “him” was a friend of mine…
Someone I worked for…
And became close with…
Someone who was also HIV positive…
And died from complications…
Brought on from a crystal meth addiction he spiraled into…
That caused a terminal brain disease to occur…
And finally took his life in his mid forties.

This song that boomed in the speakers…
Was, I hate to be sappy, “his song”….
This song was a song we shared…
Something he loved and played when he DJ’d….
Some I perceived as something he had a connection to…
And in turn, it connected it to me…

This song boomed in the speakers…
And I was like…
I need to get on the floor…
I was there to get away for a bit…
But I have never felt as grounded as I was…
On that dance floor…
For a long, long while.

I had actually played that song as the last song of my DJ set…
When colleagues of my friend
had asked me to be part of a dance tribute to my friend…
An event celebrating his life and the lives he touched…
Although he was just one person…
A person so unsure of himself at times…
But touched people none the less…

I was there at Splash…
And I danced…

I danced…
And sang…
And remembered him…

I fell away from him a long time ago…
Cause I couldn’t stand around and watch him spiral into something…
Something I couldn’t stand witness to…
But on that dance floor…
I remembered him…
The way he was…
The smile and the kind words…
The shoulder I cried on…

Don’t get me wrong…
He was human as well…
With self doubts…
And a temper that lashed out…
Passive but firm…

But I remembered…
And I released…
Cathartic…
Yes…
But he touched me…
And he will always be a part of me…

Where do we go from here,
time ain’t nothing but time,
I now have no fear of my fears
And no more tears to cry,
tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow means nothing at all
If we don’t hear the line,
when today places its call, and morning, morning, morning
Won’t ever be the same,
now I won’t make the same mistakes, time and time again…

Yeah… I know.
I’m finally doing my Vancouver recap…
Yes… I know it’s been almost a month since I came back…
But meh…

I actually did start an entry on my Sidekick…
But I ended up saving it as a draft…
And after looking it over was like…
OMG… it’s gonna be a multiple entry… oy.

But then Halloween came…
And I got back into the work swing…
And Life swing…

And I finally got back to it now…
Which, in a sense helped out with this entry…

The time lapse actually helped filter out all the details that I was filled with.

So here it goes…

I ended up going to Vancouver to get away for a bit…
To decompress…

I ended up staying with a friend of mine…
Who conveniently lived blocks away from the main gay strip in Vancouver…
Davie street…

The area is great…
Many gay friendly and gay owned businesses…
Nice shops…
Mind you…
I didn’t buy anything, the exchange rate would have raped me…

And the restaurants were excellent…
Great burger joints…
Mediterranean…
Greek… (with lamb that fell off the bone… drool)
Italian…
Just good all over…
Although… I did go into a Denny’s spiral.
I haven’t had Denny’s in a while, and their hash browns are mighty tasty…
And yes… I ordered a “Moon Over My Hammy” just cause.

Needless to say…
I was barhopping a lot while I was there…
Went to Numbers…
A 2 level bar with a dance space and a number of subdivided balconies…
Think The Monster in NYC…
But no piano…

I also went to a couple other bars…
But a majority of my time was spent where I felt most comfortable…
Pumpjacks…
A great leather/denim/bear/daddy… ah hell… just a great bar.
They don’t enforce any type of code…
Everyone is welcome…
But it caters to that crowd…
Ended up shooting the bull with a couple of the bartenders there…
Really nice staff…
Good looking crowd…
Great beer…
(BTW.. I suggest the Winchester )

Also ran into Luc and his daddy Doug…
By chance even…
We had been texting back and forth about meeting up for the first time…
One day I ended up grabbing some coffee at a cafe named Melruchies…
When I got a text from Luc saying he and Doug had just finished eating…
And were grabbing some coffee…
I was like, that’s funny… I’m doing the same thing.
Well needless to say there are numerous Starbucks in the area…
I mean we are just north of Seattle…
And assumed they were grabbing coffee from one of them…
Next thing I knew I glanced out the window
from the newspaper I was reading and was like…
“Is that Luc?”
I put down the paper and headed out the door…
When I ran into a handsome gentleman coming in…
“Doug?”
“Yes?”
“Is that Luc outside?”
“Yes?” *flicker of recognition* “Oh hey… yeah, that’s him.”
“Let me say hi… I’ll be right back.”

Luc and Doug are excellent guys…
Good looking intelligent men with great energy…
They ended up letting me tag along as they walked their “psycho” dog…
That’s a quote mind you… not my words…
It’s cause the dog would chase squirrels like they were gamebirds…
Trying to pounce on anything that moved…
Even things I didn’t even see until the dog flushed them out from hiding…
Well Luc and Doug ended up leading me through Stanley Park…
A beautiful park on the west end of Vancouver…
The day was damp…
Which made the forest feel mystic at parts…
We had gone a ways in…
Going through various trails…
Me admiring the redwoods and flora…
When I get a text from my friend I was staying with…
He needed me to come back…
Cause were were sharing the apartment keys…
The spares were being used by someone doing work on the apartment…
Doug goes, “BTW… tell him we’re on Lee’s Trail.”
“Why?”
“Just tell him…I just want to see his reaction.”
*text sent*
“Wait a minute… Are we on a cruising trail?”
“Yup.”
I should have guessed that as we were walking back…
We got the old, 1,2,3 look back from a guy walking past us…lol.

Well I didn’t do too much site seeing…
Did do the obligatory tour bus through the city to get it all in…
But I was there to relax and pretty much stayed close to the apartment…
Did venture off to a casino near the stadium near downtown…
BTW… never try to cross the highway when a Canucks game is on…
It’s murder…

I lied BTW…
I did make one major purchase while I was up there…
I ended up getting another tattoo.
I thought it was time for another…
And I ended up getting my last tattoo
when I went on my trip to San Fran years ago…
So I was like…
I’m in Vancouver…
Why the hell not…

I had been wanting to get a cherry blossom branch
on my shoulder for a while now…
I decided on a cherry blossoms cause of what they represent…
According to Japanese culture…
The cherry blossom is a representation of how short and beautiful life is…
Cherry blossoms only bloom for a very short period of time…
After that, their petals scatter into the wind…

Live for today…

The tattoo artist…
Who BTW was woofy…
Did an amazing job…
And gave me an great way to remember Vancouver by…

I’ll be back…
Count on it

A little late… but meh.

Halloween recap…

(I know, I know… I promised a Vancouver recap…
but I had to take some more pictures…
I know, I’m already back in the NYC…
You’re thinking…
“What does he have to take pictures of?”
You’ll see. )

I really wasn’t up for dressing up for Halloween this year…
I wasn’t really inspired by anything…
But after some wandering around at Ricky’s…
And looking @ all the costumes they had…
I don’t know what possessed me…
But I settled on a pair of cat ears and a tail.
It looked ridiculous on me…
And I loved it…
Worked really well with the handle bar mustache
I’ve been sporting of late too.

I ended up wearing it at the bar I work at for Halloween weekend…
And, no… nobody else was wearing a costume…
And I didn’t care…
It was Halloween weekend…
It’s the best excuse for being silly…
And it gave me tons of material to work with… lol.

When people first asked me what I was,
At first I’d tell them I was a “big pussy”,
But after a couple of drinks, I’m more of a “sex kitten”…
But after the DJ called me “Pussy Galore”,
I realized this costume was gold… ha.
Also having humpy guys meow at me,
pet me and call me a “bad kitty” didn’t hurt either.
It might have been the “Want to stroke my tail?”
Or the “You got a pole I can scratch?” lines I was spouting,
But I’m not complaining.
But if I heard “What’s new pussy cat?” one more time,
I was gonna shoot myself.

All in all… the costume was puuurfect, paws down.

I know… horrible.
But can you really stay mad at a face like this? With ears on?
I thought not.