Finally, I have some time to sit down and ruminate about all thats been going on lately. So here's my report:
Brad and I had a great time last weekend in San Francisco for pride. We arrived on Thursday night and we whisked away from the airport by our gracious hosts to the Powerhouse to meet up with the gang there. It was great to see old faces that we seldom get to see as well as seeing some familiar faces in person for the first time.
Friday we spent bumming around the city and hitting some touristic spots with our hosts, Kalvin and JR, and the incredibly candid Matt Blender. The best part of our meanderings was seeing Matt's reaction to his first time in San Francisco especially when we drove through Pacific Heights and he first saw the bay and said, "wow!" Although I relish in my unconditional love for the city it's nice to know that I'm not just some sap who's alone in that. Later on Friday night we went over to the party that Dan organized for the bloggers and just like last year we had to endure all the baseball fans on the Muni on the way to the bar. At one point I was certain we'd get run off the train when Matt started speaking at normal volume about the absurdity of baseball and how stupid he thought it was that people in his office could prattle on about it for hours. I told you he was candid, did I not? We made it to the party and proceeded to get drunk which you can see the photos from in my flickr.
Saturday we woke up and headed down to Dan's place to hang out. We watched "The Towering Inferno" which was actually a nice, corny disaster movie. I thoroughly enjoyed Paul Newman in it, all sweaty and blue eyed. One thing I didn't get was why Fred Astaire was cast in that movie, he didn't even dance. He was just old and there. However, I thought that Faye Dunaway was completely underutilized in that film, much like Parker Posey in Superman. Later Saturday night we made our way up to the Pink Saturday party which was just so-so for me. I found the whole scene to be incredibly tame and boring, and the crowd was very young; too much underage bridge and tunnel for my tastes. Luckily some of the others that were in town were hanging out at Kalvin and JRs place and we had our own little party in their place, good friends and good times.
Sunday we were a bit late getting to the parade but eventually we made it down to see at least one porn star float and the gay christians holding signs about how jesus loves all of us, standard pride parade fare. At that point I was ready to get over to the festivities in front of City Hall which I find much more interactive than the parade. By some chance, I don't remember how, we found everyone in the mass of people and enjoyed hanging out mostly in the Radical Faerie village. It was probably because there was shade and naked men, not necessarily hot naked men but when combined with shade its enough to make you stay put. Brad and I thoroughly enjoyed a cabaret act in the village that could be best described as an Almodovar movie musical with songs written by The B52s. Oh, and the public masturbation was great to see also. Later that night we met up with the boys at the Eagle, which I found to be very tavern like and not at all like the one here in Dallas which is very back room-esque. We proceeded to get silly; my hoodie and shirt was removed and never seen again. A small price to pay for a good evening though. In any case, when we left the bar I had to wear Brad's corduroy jacket buttoned up like a shirt. I told you we got silly.
On monday our flight was canceled because of weather but we got back to Dallas on a later flight safe and sound. I felt like we were gone much longer than four days which is a good thing because that is the goal of travel in my opinion, to hit the reset button. This year was different from last year's trip, there was no weepy goodbyes and no lingering sadness on the way home. That's not a bad thing and I suppose you can't expect to duplicate what happened last year, it's still quite inexplicable. This year was definitely fun though even though the spirit was markedly different and I hope we continue coming together once a year in San Francisco to see one another.
I probably could have podcasted all of this but that takes a lot of time and because of the rain here in Dallas my internet has been spotty. When it was out for a day I found myself going through withdrawal and asked Brad if I was addicted to the internet. Brad told me that saying that you're addicted to the internet these days is like saying you're addicted to electricity, it's become a keystone of our daily lives that it's natural when you're without it you feel stranded.
All right, time to get back to work.