06.28.09
Posted in Being Better, City Life, Fun, The Blog at 8:50 am by Beau
It was Gay Pride in NYC this whole past week and as part of the festivities, I opted to skip going up to the house to lounge around the deck and weed through my burgeoning garden and flowerbeds for staying in the city to have some fun. I participated in the 5-mile Pride Run through Central Park on Saturday morning with about 3000 other runners through the sunny, warm morning. We wound our way from the Upper East Side over and down the West Side, cresting at the bottom of the park where the Essex House and the Plaza rear up into the New York skyline and then back up the East side.
I’ve mentioned before that I find the run in Central Park to be a particularly difficult one though I can’t figure out the reason. The hills aren’t close to what I’m running back at home and I’ve conquered the distance some time ago but never the less, I’m really working to finish a circuit through the park and yesterday was no different. I managed to almost live up to my stated pace that placed me in the first third of the running heat and finished with an overall pace of 8:30 per mile. I was trying to be in high geek fashion by running in my all cotton “Rage of the Red Lanterns” t-shirt rather than my usual running gear of wicking this and moisture barrier that but as a novice, I am quickly learning fashion doesn’t really fly and it’s all about comfort. I was thoroughly drenched by the end of the run and almost over-heated. More importantly though completely unsurprising, not a single person noticed or commented on the shirt and so I am now that much smarter in leaving my Geek at home and sticking with the routine…unless Nike starts making comic-inspired running gear. And then I’m all over it.
Today I’m marching in the Pride Parade, having been invited by some pretty esteemed bloggers to join their blogging group. Even though I’ve inadvertently evolved over to micro-blogging through Twitter more than actual blogging these days, it’s still great to be invited into a group who I’ve respected and been reading for years so I’m pretty excited. We’re in section 8 behind Club Atlantis (so I’m assuming lots of loud music and go-go boys on a float which will be fun), carrying a huge sign of the New York City Gay Bloggers & Digital Activists with the logo above and all wearing similar white t-shirts with logo and our names on them. I’ve only ever attended the parade and never marched after all these years so I think this is going to be a fun day though I can imagine after hauling our asses down from 54th street to the Village, there are going to be some tired dogs. But then that is what the Pier Dance after is for, to dance some life back into them so I might pop up there.
And to think that all this came out of a bunch of pissed off, abused, and feed up queens who took to the streets 40 years ago this month at the Stonewall Riots and ushered in the Gay Rights movement. Sometimes I think 40 years seems such a short time ago and then I think about it and realize there has been so much work done to provide rights and protections and we’re still not there yet. Closer, for sure, but not there yet. So we march and we stay visible and we hopefully change one mind at a time by being our authentic selves, taking pride that as a group, the GLBT community is a diverse mix of great individuals that doesnt’ have to go mainstream or gentrify to fit in if we don’t want to. We were born out of a sexual variation that created and followed it’s own organic growth to where we are today and the colors and people and attitudes and life styles on display at the parade testify to that. So I’m taking pride today and reminding myself that these are all my brothers and sisters and we’re people of the world that count and make a difference, in big and little ways alike.
Happy Pride!
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03.14.09
Posted in Fun, Killing Time, Movies, The Blog at 5:57 am by Beau
I actually believe I emailed Shel when he was ringing the bell for Twitter before just about anyone else to ask, “what is the point?”
Who knew that was the point?
I’m still Twittering, though, am I not? Yes, yes I am. Anyone can know more useless and uninteresting things about me than could have ever been mined out of my blog.
My latest obsession that I just discovered last night (thanks guys from 619 Bearcast) and to which I fully acknowledge that I’m again, late to the party, is the Photoswap app for the iPhone. The basic idea is take a picture and send it out randomly to the universe. It goes out to a random person and you get one back from another random person. You can reply to a received picture or choose not too but unless the person has a small profile with contact information or posts a picture with their information, there is no way to get a hold of them. It’s so weirdly random and almost unnerving at how temporary and fleeting the images are. No way to save them and once you choose to not reply to someone, they’re gone forever.
It’s so fascinating I wasted an entire battery charge playing with it last night. I walked around the house shooting dust bunnies, trays of drying paint, and my feet along with various angles, corners and reflected surfaces that didn’t make me look fat. I got back shots of pets, shelves of books, a large breast, a French military officer, a cock shot, and a few grinning bear cubs…so all in all, a pretty good evening. As those tricksy hipster smarties with too much time on their hands tend to do, someone actually came up with a game for it and developed a scavenger hunt where they take a picture of a list items/body parts looked for and received and you can choose to play along if you have something they’re looking for. My two item requests from two separate games last night were a flexed bicep and a jock. The Gays, apparently, have adapted and made this our own.
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06.28.08
Posted in Being Better at 2:24 pm by Beau
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05.23.08
Posted in City Life, traveling for work at 3:53 pm by Beau
The interesting thing I’ve noticed about Philadelphia, and maybe it’s true about any bigger city where more time is spent then just a day or short weekend, is that the guys around where I’m working are completely hot. Of course I’m situated in the gayborhood so that might have something to do with it, but overall, even my straight, female peers are noticing.
“These boys have their fashion on,” said my favorite one.
So eye-candy is a great, unrealized perk of this job. I have to say that getting cruised repeated is a nice ego stroke and something I’m not used to. Even today in line at Cosi for lunch, this hot cub was standing beside me and gave me the look over and smiled, to which I smiled back because I’m making a conscious effort to bury the shy, low self-esteem dorkus deep and far away. It’s even more remarkable because I, against my better judgement, shaved off my continuing attempt at facial hair before the client thing at Yankee Stadium a few days back. Without that slight shading along my jaw line, I feel like I have a Hutt waddle and a triple chin. I actually might but I still got cruised so yay me.
So luckily, our project is going to stretch into mid-June so I have a few more weeks to enjoy the city. I’m currently facinated with Matthew Izzo’s designer boutique which has some great stuff as well as a progressive hair salon in the back which gave me a great cut yesterday. He’s a total snack so it’s nice to go in and browse low cut jeans that I can’t get my fat ass into and see him hanging out in his own shop. The team is also currently working our way through some pretty great restraunts around Center City and Old City. I’m telling you, Philadelphia has it happening right now.
Of course my belief in the balance of all things leads me to believe that I’ll be cast out to some remote subburb of some no-name place for the next six months and all the good vibes from Philadelphia will dry up. But it’s only a short train ride from NYC so I can always find my way back.
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