QNY Review: The Eyes Of Babylon

Over six foot tall, hairy chest, big hands, big feet, naked on stage except for his Marine Corps issued white boxers, Jeff creates a big impression. It is not until he puts on his uniform on stage that you suddenly see the transformation from a hot naked man on stage to a Marines Marine and a true warrior in every sense of the word.

Usually I loathe going to one person shows as I don't like boring shows with narcissism, but The Eyes Of Babylon exemplifies neither. In the tradition of storytelling from the Greek theater to Shakespeare to Broadway, this is story telling at its finest. The Eyes of Babylon is based on Jeff's journal entries while stationed in Iraq. It is clear as you watch the show that his journal writing and listening to music is what kept him sane and helped him survive such a difficult environment.

You will be swept away from the very beginning with music and a story of a gay, southern, white, spiritual, warrior, Marine and his discovery of who he is and of what's important in this world.

STONED & PAINTED ~ A LIVE CONCERT

COBY KOEHL IN CONCERT

Thursday, June 30 at 7:30PM

at Dixon Place
161A Chrystie Street
btw Rivington & Delancey
New York, NY 10002
United States
F to 2ND AVE, J/Z to BOWERY, 6 to SPRING, M to ESSEX, B/D to GRAND ST.



Ken Kincaid on piano, Leo Santino on percussion. Additional music by Legendary producer Man Parrish. "Coby Koehl is the greatest living soul singer since Amy Winehouse & is absolutely one of the most Amazing voices I've heard in fifteen years" - Boy George General Admission tickets are $15 in advance and $18 at the door. Student/Senior tickets are $12 in advance and $15 at the door.

Not lost in NYC

The Department of Transportation is proposing these signs to help tourists and locals get around.

Michael Musto is not sure he likes the idea, saying "I've finally figured the grid out, for chrissake. Please don't suddenly turn it into a board game for the unwashed!"

One of the best things about living in Rome was the frequent getting lost. I never demanded that the city strew bread crumbs for me to follow. I never resented an urban layout like a basket of rumpled laundry. My favorite places were the ones I discovered by accident.

The question becomes "Whose city is this?" Maybe it belongs to both residents and visitors, but can they both be served without destroying what is great about this city? Meanwhile, I sometimes like living in Disneyork. When I go out for coffee in flip flops and shades, the tourists think I am someone on television and must be photographed and identified later. Like a bug.

A bit more Pride

I didn't get a chance to march with the other fine members of Queer New York Blog but I hear they represented  with the utmost pride and fabulousness.  Even though I had to bow out early I was able to get the required 'Balloons at Pride' picture which I'm sort of loving right now.

A favorite NYC spot for lounging.

On a Bertoia wire mesh chair, under the regimented London Plane trees of the Barclay Grove at Lincoln Center, looking at the Henry Moore sculpture on the reflecting pool from a questionable angle, and speculating about the wear to the lawn-roof over the new restaurant.

Some moments from the 2011 NYC Pride March

HAPPY GAY PRIDE DAY!

March with the Bloggers/Writers/Digital Activists/Readers/Stalkers of NYC

If you would like to march with our group on Sunday, we step off at 1PM, on 37th Street between 5th Avenue and Madison. Find Section 11, Group 13. All are welcome!

Blowoff NYC

At the Highline Ballroom last night, a few hours after the Senate approved marriage equality, Mould and Morel whipped the crowd in higher euphoria.

Marriage Equality: We Did It.

The Manhattan Young Democrats applauds Governor Cuomo and the New York State Legislature for coming together to finally make marriage equality a reality for all loving couples. This long-awaited day would not have been possible without the thousands of New Yorkers – from all political stripes and from every corner of the state – who committed countless hours to this cause. Our collective canvassing, phonebanking and organizing in key districts since 2009 have paid off and today we can proudly say we live in a state where all couples are respected and treated equally under the law. Our sincerest congratulations to all who stood in support of marriage equality and made today's victory possible.

Ready for my Wedding: Thank you, New York!

By Ivan Vargas

I'm proud to call myself a New Yorker. The State finally did the right thing. Now I need to find me a stud... and that Vera Wang dress. I'll make an adorable bridezilla and I'll make sure everyone shakes in terror as I prepare to say my vows. I'll have that luxurious wedding at Saint Pat's, the reception at any grandiose place of my choice that is comfortably nestled in Manhattan, preferably on the High-Line, and I'll finally be able to scream stylized bon mots at my husband during those nights locked inside our Manhattan hi-rise, preferably with a Central Park view, that will make George and Martha shake their head in shame and long for Albee to raise their verbal violence just inches short of gunfire and manslaughter. Oh, the expensive dinnerware and cutlery and Japanese vases we'll fling at each other full force, the nights filled with stares of sheer anger and nary a word uttered as the tension rises and Juanita the maid wonders if this will be the night she'll become mincemeat, and then, the operatic moments of fabulous man-sex that will cement that we, in short, are a Couple. Thank you, New York!

Now. Here. This.

Photo Credit: Dirty Sugar Photography

If all those hot-ass people in the picture look familiar, they should....it's the same team that brought [title of show] to Broadway a few years back.  Susan Blackwell, Hunter Bell, Jeff Bowen, Heidi Blickenstaff, Larry Pressgrove, and Michael Berresse have collaborated on a brand new show, very different from their previous creation but also, very much like it.  They'd been work-shopping it at the Vineyard Theater on 15th St. for the previous two weeks and while it's current incarnation is now over, there is no doubt that you haven't missed it.

The White Rainbow

White, not technically a color, is my absolute favorite non-color--especially when it comes to dinnerware and kitchenware. I have an ever expanding collection of whiteness that M fears will take over the apartment and turn it into a ceramic Antarctic.

White has other associations, such as weddings, that I can appreciate from a rainbow’s distance. Ever since realizing a few critical truths about myself at a young age, I’d given up on the idea of being one-half of a couple having such a ceremony with family and friends in attendance. One can always play dress up and make believe, but never in my teenage years did I ever think it would be part of my life.

Unnatural Acts

"Unnatural Acts" at Classic Stage Company, June 18, 2011

This new dramatization by the Plastic Theatre chronicles the events leading up to the "secret court" hearings conducted by Harvard University in 1920, following the apparent suicide of Cyril Wilcox.

Amit Paley, a student journalist for The Harvard Crimson, discovered a reference to the incident in university archives.  Harvard eventually allowed Mr. Paley to review the documents, prompting Tony Speciale of Plastic Theatre to make his own investigation.

red hook, brooklyn

Around the World on my Lunch break

By Patrick

Jury duty a few weeks ago had me spending time in a part of town I don't find myself in often, where Soho, Tribeca, Wall Street, Chinatown, Little Italy and City Hall all flow, meld and occasionally crash into each other.  My first lunch break I strolled over to Tribeca hoping to find a cheap place to eat.  Gentrification is  several decades old here so expensive restaurants abound, heavy on the upscale Italian, but just as I began to give up hope, I stumbled onto a classic New York deli.  And when I say classic New York, I mean owned and run by Greeks.  Posters of the Acropolis and Crete mingle with posters for Broadway shows, and Law & Order cast shots signed with complementary messages about the food.  The menu is Midwestern farm and all-day breakfast foods  supplemented by souvlaki, moussaka, and gyros, all served with a pickle and cup of coleslaw, french fries if you order the deluxe (hash browns if you're having eggs).  This place broke with tradition only by having pretty good coffee.

Day two I decided to head east, in search of unfamiliar terrain and something healthier than pancakes.  After a cheap, filling Thai stir-fry, I wandered into a nearby park. 

 

Queer Bloggers/Writers/Readers/Stalkers to March Together in NYC Pride March

Were you wondering why I had not announced this for a third year. My bad. Although it is last minute,  it looks like we will be dusting off the banner and marching as a group. You're all welcomed to march with us. Stay tuned for details. This was our group in 2009.

QNY Giveaway: 2 Tix to Blowoff NYC!

Leave a comment. We'll assign a number to your comment and draw from a hat.
Check back on Friday for the winner. We'll tell the winner how to claim the prize.

Keeping Things Queer in the East Village

by Charlie Vázquez


Queer New York, I miss you! But I haven't wandered astray for any other reason than work and event overload. Last week we hosted an event at the Phoenix for the Cuban writer and drag queen Roxy la Rusa. Below is a clip from that night of San Juan, Puerto Rico's one-and-only Lola von Miramar paying homage to Cuba, Puerto Rico, and to the Puerto Rican poet lost to AIDS, Manuel Ramos Otero.

If you need something to do tonight, we'll be at Nowhere (322 E 14th St) for HISPANIC PRIDE PANIC!, where we'll be honoring two NYC queer poets of greatness, Pamela Sneed and Robert Vazquez-Pacheco (plus other guests). That starts at 7:30...smooches.

Enjoy the video!

Don't burn your fingertips

when you snap out those candles tonight.

“Gatsby?” demanded Daisy. “What Gatsby?”

Before I could reply that he was my neighbor dinner was announced; wedging his tense arm imperatively under mine, Tom Buchanan compelled me from the room as though he were moving a checker to another square.

Slenderly, languidly, their hands set lightly on their hips, the two young women preceded us out onto a rosy-colored porch, open toward the sunset, where four candles flickered on the table in the diminished wind.

“Why CANDLES?” objected Daisy, frowning. She snapped them out with her fingers. “In two weeks it’ll be the longest day in the year.” She looked at us all radiantly. “Do you always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it? I always watch for the longest day in the year and then miss it.”

“We ought to plan something,” yawned Miss Baker, sitting down at the table as if she were getting into bed.

“All right,” said Daisy. “What’ll we plan?” She turned to me helplessly: “What do people plan?”

How the city changes

This is 28th Street as seen from the newly opened second portion of the High Line looking west. The north side of the street is vacant with recent demolition prepping a huge lot for new condos. You can't quite see down to the Eagle on the south side of the street. Later in the day, Folsom Street East would take place directly below this overlook. That must have made for some very shocked tourists! Click to inspect the site where too many worlds collide. Nothing can or should be done to stop this. It is part of the vitality of the city.

Broadway Bares XXI

Last night, as the plus-one of JoeMyGod, I attended that great annual benefit stripathon called Broadway Bares. You'll want to view these big. (They are rather NSFW.) Event details in the captions.

Some visual delight for a Monday

I love this Samsung video. Via Andrew Sullivan.

Parting shot of partying shots.

Newest QNY contributor Miguel Dominguez reported on the bash, but I'd like to add this one photo because I love the reflection of another photo-in-progress seen in the angled mirror behind the bar. Very Vermeer.

In the foreground: Scooter LaForge,  Coby Koehl and Rob Ordonez

Gov Cuomo Continues Push for Same-Sex Marriage in NY

Perry Brass: Lost Gay New York: George Platt Lynes at Throckmorton Fine Arts

George Platt Lynes, courtesy Throckmorton Fine Arts

We now live very much in the Age of George Platt Lynes, a miraculously queer photographer who died in 1955 at the age of 48 of lung cancer. Whenever you see a stop-in-your-tracks image of a young, well-built, sexually enticing man in an isolated setting—in other words, what you’re looking at is the man, either alone or with another man, nude or with as few clothes on as possible, and that’s it—you’re staring at a George Platt Lynes image.

It can be a gym-sleek ad for GNC, a hot fashion shot for Armani, one of those Abercrombie & Fitch creatures dripping innocent sweat and sex, 2-Xist or Calvin Klein, Dolce and Gabbana, or Dolce and anything: all George Platt Lynes. He did it first, and better, and he knew how to knock your eyes out with a kind of sweet effortlessness that took a genuine dollop of genius to create.

Who was he, and how did he do it at a time when you could not even send nude shots of the men he photographed through the mails without risking arrest?

Key West Pride

By Tony Adams

Coming back to NYC tomorrow with wonderful memories of Pride Week in Key West.
I took this photo earlier today as we prepared for the parade (I was on the Island House trolley) and I think it captures the "One Human Family" motto of Key West. Click it for full gorgeousness.

Brooklyn Pride!

The opposite of the Manhattan Mega 4-Hour-plus Pride Parade is the organic, almost barely-organized charm of Brooklyn Pride. No crowd control barriers, no corporate advertisements masquerading as "pride" floats, just a wildly enthusiastic mini-crowd of locals lining 5th Ave in Park Slope, one person deep, so every one has a front row view. As the parade moves north, from its start at 15th Street to the end at Union, spectators melt into participants, creating one unified mass of colorful celebration.
Happy Pride Brooklyn!

 

Videos after the jump....

The Meeting with Justin Sayre - A benefit for the Ali Forney Center

Hey all you beautiful queers, I want to clue you in on an exciting show that's happening next Monday, June 13, 2011, at 7:00pm, at Joe's Pub.  Justin Sayre is one of my best friends in NYC.  He is an hilarious and incredibly talented writer for stage and screen, and produces his own monthly variety show called The Meeting (of the International Order of Sodomites), at the Duplex in Sheridan Square.  Get tickets.

I always wish I had recordings of my conversations with Justin.  Few people are as erudite, insightful, and beautifully gay as Mr. Sayre.  He's making waves in the downtown performance scene and broadening the reach of his rapier wit.  This Summer he'll be guest hosting radio shows and producing special editions of The Meeting on Fire Island.  Catch any of his shows; you'll be amazed.

For his special June edition of The Meeting, Justin is hosting his second annual benefit for the Ali Forney Center.  If you don't know AFC and you're a New Yorker, you've been hiding out somewhere and perhaps you can comment on this post so we can send in a therapist to coax you back out into the real world.  AFC is the nation's largest and most comprehensive organization dedicated to homeless LGBT youth.  AFC's goal is to provide homeless LGBT youths, aged 16-24, with the support and services they need to escape the streets and begin to live healthy and independent lives.  There is no queer group of people more in need of our help, in my humble opinion.

Justin's lineup of performers includes JACKIE HOFFMAN (The Addams Family, Hairspray), PAUL IACONO (MTV’s “The Hard Times of RJ Berger,” Fame), DAISY EAGAN (The Secret Garden), COLE ESCOLA (Logo TV's “Jeffery & Cole Casserole”), GAY MARSHALL (Jacques Brel Is Alive…), RYAN O'CONNOR (“Oprah’s Search for the Next TV Star”), EMILY BERGL (“Desperate Housewives,” “Men In Trees”), NATALIE JOY JOHNSON (Legally Blonde, But I’m A Cheerleader), RANDY RAINBOW “(“Randy Rainbow is Dating Mel Gibson”), LADY RIZO (Grammy \-winning singer and chanteuse), JEFF HILLER (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, “30 Rock”), ERIN MARKEY (Puppy Love: A Stripper’s Tail at PS 122), KIM SMITH (Bistro Award for “Outstanding Performer on the Rise”), SUMMER & EVE (the folk-musical comedy band featuring NADIA QUINN of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson), MICHAEL LONGORIA (Jersey Boys), JACK FERVER (Rumble Ghost at PS 122, SWAN!), LARRY HAMILTON, and JAMAAL WILSON.

For $25, that lineup is a steal, and when you consider your money is benefiting the Ali Forney Center, it'd be downright silly to miss it.  I hope to see you there!

West 96th Street.

Born This Way Only OK

By West Village Bill

By now, I'm sure a considerable chunk of QNY's readership has had a chance to purchase and digest Lady Gaga's Born This Way. What do you think of it?

I'm enjoying several songs on the album, but overall, I think it's a bit of a letdown. There's no song that demands to be listened to again and again like "Bad Romance," "Telephone," or "Poker Face" from The Fame/The Fame Monster. The title song is fine and well-intentioned, but it doesn't have as memorable of a hook as Gaga's earlier hits.

I like "Americano," and I want to believe it's a love letter to America Ferrera. And I like "Hair" despite its ridiculous assertion by Gaga that she's "as free as (her) hair." WTF?

"Fashion of His Love" sounds like something Tiffany would have sung at a Long Island mall in 1988. And that's not a good thing.

New York magazine has put "The Edge of Glory" in the running for the Song of the Summer. It's one of my favorites from the album. As are the country-ish "Yoü and I" and the anthem-ish "Highway Unicorn (Road to Love)." But I could do without "Heavy Metal Lover" and "Electric Chapel."

Please leave your own impressions in the comments.

Quilled Lady Gaga card created by Leesandra Diaz at New York–based Sweet Spot Card Shop.

The Second Section of the High Line Is Open!

If you come to New York City but do not have the High Line on your list of must-sees, you are making a big mistake. If you live here....

Section Two is now open. There are a zillion gorgeous photos via the links in their press release (I am especially fond of the Flickr link which allows people to post their own High Line pics:

Earlier today, we stood with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Speaker Christine Quinn, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, Congressman Jerrold Nadler, and other leaders and supporters to cut the ribbon on the new section of the High Line. Tomorrow will be the first full day the new section is open to the public.

The opening of the new section doubles the length of the public park. After years of planning, design and construction, the High Line is now one mile long, running from Gansevoort Street to West 30th Street, connecting the Meatpacking District, West Chelsea, and Hell's Kitchen.

Read more about Section 2's design on our Web site, and view photos on the High Line's Facebook page.

Our Tribe. On Bear Hill, Central Park

This family tradition is in its sixth year. Such wonderful memories, of NYC bloggers of the First Golden Era, readers, friends, their boyfriends and lovers, and there's my husband, the Baad Lamb standing in the back in the white tank top and black cap. Can you spot the other QNY contributors? (And my apologies for not announcing this in advance and inviting ya'll. It was rather last minute. Next time.)

Author David Leddick's “Love in the Loire” Book Signing

Guest writer/photographer: Miguel Dominguez


Norman Stohl, David Leddick, and Sys Trier Morch

It was supposed to be just another book signing event, but a fine turn-out of the supportive friends and followers of author David Leddick made the evening special. These "David Leddick people" are literate and cultured charmers who brightened up Rizzoli where the event was held.


Jonathan Axelrod and Augusto Starico


Katharine Baum and Judy Wald

rooftops are always nice