Well, hot damn! I got da Mardi Gras spirit!

Didn't think I would, ah, get that Mardi Gras spirit...



But I finally did. And I pasted the bright and shiney colors all over the front of the house.



And it works at night, as well. I just pasted on so much purple, green and gold, (Mardi Gras colors), over the X-mas lights that it looked right.


Robert and I went to the 40th Amon Ra Ball tonight. "Circe de Solie" (spelling?) was the theme. Since it was an anniversary ball, they went all out. I have no idea who payed for it, but it was amazing, far more amazing than any other ball they have done!
Stunning costumes! Ms Fish, Michael Hickerson, who I made out with just a week or so in the "Ernie K Doe's Mother-In-Law Lounge" on Claibourne, was the returning Queen and the outfit was huge. All enormous fluffs of white ostrich feathers, she came out floating on a dry ice fog, and a very long ostrich feather train. About the shoulders, a brilliant piece of wirework, topped by a crisply worked out crown, tiara and feather top. Glistening golden gloves... (hard to believe it was the same man with a beard that I was kissing just ten days before).
She did the number, "It's My Turn", hehehehe. She has very large metallic testicles.
The ball went on from there and it was all very, very good. By the end, there was that thing that I so much like to see at these balls, a "tableaux". where all the costumes show up on stage and they work together to make a large pict-cha.
It was fantastic! The best Amon Ra ball in twenty years!
Of course, the first person I told that to was last years ball captain, who of course thought HIS ball was the best... (it wasn't), but not the thing to say...
I'm very lucky that I ever get invited to these things. I always fuck up at these things socially. I can never keep track of who is who; they are all always in costume...
We left as they were calling up the various special people on to the stage. Often, we wait until that is done and then go up the ramp on to the stage and greet the royalty and the others in costume and tell them how fabulous they are. This year Robert wanted to go, so we went. That might have had something to do with last year, when I got so delerious that I didn't remember going up on the stage to meet the "royalty". I only realized that I had been up there when I looked at the pictures on my camera the next day and saw what a pissed out weiner I was... Robert, good friend that he is, said that no one noticed that I was crossed over, but I doubt that was really true. And even if no one noticed last year, he was wisely unwilling to chance it again!
But this year, I was fine... I very carefully measured my drinks to the program and finished up just bright and shiney enough.
We drove back to the Marigny and here I am typing away, full of joy and hapiness, tux and accessories all put away,
And ready for the next round of Mardi Gras fun....

It's gonna be just fine, fabulous! probably!.

I have Sunday through Wednesday off, which gives me all the days in front, like going to the Lords of Leather ball on Sunday night, and a day after Mardi Gras to recover...

It's what I deserve,

durlx

OMG!!! It's Mardi Gras Again!





Holy Moses!

I went to the first Mardi Gras parade of the year tonight. It passes conveniently only three blocks from my house. My ex-lover from many years ago stopped by as I was getting home from work. I hadn't seen him in many, many months... so we talked for about two hours; (and that's what we do these days, just talk...) he's the only person I know now who knew my Mom and knows my Dad and my family and all of my friends from way back when. (His name is Willie, and his face is on my webcam right now...) He left about 6:45 and I dashed down the street to see the parade. It was fun as always; the Krewe de Vieux is always funny, lewd and nasty. I took some pictures. I ran into a whole bunch of people that I hadn't seen for the longest time, but didn't run into Robert, my friend and next door neighbor... any way, got home and spent some time with my next in line at work, on the phone, lot's to talk about... and then... I realized that I hadn't had any dinner.

So, I had a cuppa cawfee, wis lots of sugah.... and I'll be fine until breakfast.



It was a great crowd at the parade, lots of people that I don't get to see that often, like Curry and Fish, people that I've known for decades. I also saw a bunch of the radical fearies... and I also ran into one of the guys from our company... and that was interesting... we had some work stuff to talk about and it was just the place to talk about it.

It's such a New Awlins thing, hehe. You do some of yer biznez at da parade, chile!



I still don't know for sure what I'll be doing or where in the next few weeks... or for how long, but all of the possibilites are pretty good. Yea, some of them better than others, but none of them bad; I'm pretty lucky to have this many options ahead. Honestly, it's all good enough, I'd just like the option that includes a lot of travel.

Left to my own devices, I probably would.





durlx

The Rest of the Vegas story...

I was wacked when I wrote the first part; just exhausted, more than I knew. I was just going to go on and do the second part and instead I fell asleep! When I woke up I was astounded! I hadn't done the second part... and then I went back to work and that was all that...

So, here tis.

I realize that I haven't exhibited a strong linear narrative sense so far... I told you, I was very tired when I did part one... so I won't bother trying to fix that now. Just take this as you get it, dears.

We had just finished visiting the shops at Ceasars Forum; pretty and fantastic sparkly things all over the place, everywhere, and we stepped outside.



I took this pic of the jumbotron for JonnyNYC... and I kept telling people as they passed while I was waiting for the perfect shot that I was not a fan, I was just taking a picture for a friend and they were all thinking, "Suuuuure, hehe, for a "friend", hehe!"

It was soooo embarrassing! I thought I would expire from humiliation.

Instead, we went to a half price Vegas show and then to the Luxor to see Pebs stunning comp suite, which put us in the mood for expensive cocktails. So we went to this very pricey and fancy bar in the hotel and ordered martinis, which were absolutely deeeeelicious! And they should have been because they were rather pricey. Pebs drink should have had a rhinestone umbrella in it, mine perhaps a few rarer gems!

But the money wasn't the issue, we were hot shot Vegas party bois! We had a wonderful time...






The Mansion Party.

So. Well. You know, we passed up some of the more sleazy parties this year, although we had a fistfull of free passes to the Apollo bath house, (ET and I went in to pick them up and it was definately a gay bath house...) and ET, Pebs and I did go to a few of the local gay bars. As we were getting into the car after the last place we went to that night I said, "If the gay bars in New Orleans were like this, I would have had a wife and three children by now...bwahaha!"

O.K. It was early in the week,..

So, anyway, on Thursday night, we (luca, ET, Zilla and I... Pebs had a flight out earlier,) worked our way through the Luxor on the way to the Mandaly Bay where the busses were leaving for the party. We saw a picture slot machine at the Luxor called "Faeries Fortune" and we screamed like very young girls and each put a dollar in..

We Won!!! Well, twenty bucks; which meant we each got five, and we did a little silly dance about how we were rich, rich , rich...



Then we took the somewhat confusing monorail to the Mandalay Bay Casino where we could cacth our shuttle to the "mansion party". But, we were there about an hour early, so... we played some slots... I usually allow myself twenty dollars to lose, but for this trip I decided that fifty was the limit. The night before, I had hit for $180, so I was $130 ahead. So I thought, I'll blow another thirty... and I quickly lost thirty. I took the five from the :Faeries Forune" win and put in a quarter slot, and one a bit, lost a bit, changed from one machine to another, one machine went on for ten minutes or so and I was at twenty-five bucks and I cashed out. It was getting boring. So, I took my paper slip, (did ya know, most of the machines in Vegas now give you a reciept instead of clunky coins?) and went toward the cashout cage. On the way I saw this pretty sparkly machine that had Tripple Double Cherries! It was so pretty, so I put my credit slip in and played. The first one credit bet was a loser and so was the second. I decided that I would play the three maximum bet and if I lost, then that was it, I would take my twenty bucks and keep it. I bet the three and the machine stopped working, none of the buttons worked and it didn't make any noise. I thought at first that the machine was broken, but a guy from the casino came over and said, "Wow, that's pretty good, they'll be over in a minute, you have to sign a tax form." And he pointed to this little scrolling text line on the machine that told me to wait for an attendant and that I had 1620 points. I was playing a dollar machine.

Bok told me later that it was a true miracle, becuase slots at the Mandalay Bay are supposedly as tight as a virsion...,at least that's what I think he said.

So, we proceeded to the shuttle bus area for the party and I am standing there with luca, ET, and Zilla, and thinking, "so, here I am in Vegas, waiting for a bus to take me to a private party full of rent boys and porn stars and I have about two thousand dollars in cash in my pocket... what the fuck?".

It's funny, because I don't believe in luck as such; I think you work for what you want and you get it. I think that the way you react to the natural random events that occur says more about you than the simple fact that those events happen. It's how you handle your shit that makes the difference.

But still, despite all of that, I am thinking at that moment... what if this is all the "luck" I have right now and something crappy will happen next! Totally chimpo thinking I know, but there it is. When too much good happens, I can still be a little monkey crouching in awe of the bright and shiney god hiney. Somebody save me, deliver me...



So we finally got on the shuttle bus to the party and after a fairly amusing ride in a bus packed full of very gay men, we got to the "mansion" where this years webmaster's party was being held. We entered and checked it out as you do when you first arrive at a party. There seemed to be a lot more food than last year and after we collected our first round of drinks from the bar, we gathered under one of the outdoor heaters on the patio to discuss our party venue. It was a different place than the last two years... and we were a bit disappointed. It was only a three milion dollar house, not what we had grown used to! Yuk, yuk. Still, there were those dancing boys... and...



...there were these bois in the hot tub, steaming in the rather cold night, but they seemed to be shy unless someone offered them money for photos. So we got to admire them, but not to photograph them. Hey, this isn't a pay site... and I thought that I'd like to take my "big" winnings home, which mostly I did. It was funny, although I could have rented anyone of seventy professionals there for an hour or so, I didn't find any of them more attractive than the people I came to the party with....


...and that's the truth...

durlx

An Amazing Evening!

We'll get back to Vegas in just a bit....

This evening, I went to a party... it was our yearly store party, and as it turns out, it will be the last store party for the Esplanade location. We will be closing that store on April 20th and moving to a new enormous and fabulous brand new store, which will open two weeks later. It's great news for all of our team members; we are moving to a brand new house, one that will have everything we need to do an amazing job!

The neighbors at the present location are pissed... the news was announced this last Saturday. New Orleans is a city of traditions and people tend to hate, hate, hate any kind of change. It's all anger, denial, acceptance, and that's a very rocky process.. I've spent an hour of each of the last two days empathizing, commiserating and explaining with and to the local customers who vary from the rational to the extremely emotional and then to the extremely and possibly dangerously edgy.

The fact is that about half of our present customer base lives very close to the new location. They, of course, are deleriously happy! So, it's this wild swing of emotions every few minutes; one customer is so glad that the new store is opening, the next one is heart broken, and as usual in this location, the third person is an escaped mental patient... you think I am kidding? I am not.

The party was fantastic!

It was held at "Ernie K Doe's "Mother-In-Law Lounge" on Claiborne Ave., a little joint that Ernie's widow runs as a sort of bar/living room/shrine to her recently departed husband. I had only heard of this place and had no idea what it was and I didn't bring my camera... I just didn't know what an amazing place it was going to be! So, you just going to have to take my word for it for now. (I'll be going back... I'll get some pics.)

This was the most incredible bar/lounge/party place that I've ever been in! It was like being in someone's house, but the living room had a nice bar in it and a big comfy couch in front of a huge tv, and the other room was big enough to dance in, but it had a couch in it too and some nice tables and chairs, and Ernie's wife had some really very good seafood gumbo ready for when you were hungry.

It was a totally definitive New Orleans experience; I kept thinking that I wish all my friends were here... but I couldn't even believe sometimes that I was there. I mean, like Ernie K Doe's wife says, "excuse me darlin', I have to get this gumbo out to the table." and I'm thinking this woman knew this New Orleans music icon...

Ernie K-Doe.




If yer not from New Orleans, you may not know who he is, but his biggest hit was "Mother-in-Law" (the number one song in the nation in 1961), and at that time, he was as big a star as James Brown. He stayed true to New Orleans and to Claiborne Street where the Mother-In-Law Lounge is now. He was always a wild man, but he finally calmed down, sort of, and married Antoinette Fox, She's absolutely amazing... Ernie passed away on July 5, 2001, and she runs the club now.

And honestly, not one of you has probably ever seen a place like this.. I hadn't, and this is not my first time at the rodeo.

This was one time where I was writing a mental postcard and thinking, "Wish you were here." and meaning it.


durlx

Ah.... yes... the beautiful pool area behind the MGM Grand Hotel Casino!

Gorgeous! So Pretty! You'd never think it was 51 degrees at the time!

Still, it was a good time this year in Vegas...

Pebs lucked out big time! His room in the pyramid in the Luxor was leaking! (It doesn't rain in Vegas much, how would they know if the roof leaks?) So they gave him a new room, leak proof in the East Tower.



It was gorgeous! A three room suite with a wet bar, a living room, a bedroom with a TV that rose up out of a pedestal base (with the mere press of a button!), an enormous bathroom, (I've stayed in rooms smaller than the bath in this suite; it had a hallway... a whirlpool tub and a shower, two sinks, a "make-up table", and a separate poo area!) A rather fabulous upgrade!

I spent the first two nights in the room at the Sahara that ET had booked; luca was working the next day and it was just easier for me to stay on the strip for those nights, and zilla wouldn't be arriving until Wednesday morning to claim his side of the room.

Zilla arrived on Wednesday morning, bright and early enough, and we collected him and Pebbles for the always good enough Circus Circus breakfast buffet; all the fat and calories you can eat for under ten bucks! I do love this breakfast buffet; it's cheap enough, it's good enough and it's the kind of thing I only do while on vacation. Eggs, potatoes, pancakes, sausage, bacon, sausage links, french toast, grits, "white gravy", hash browns, cornbeef hash, jelly, fruit, etc, etc! No way I could consume that much fat in the morning on a regular basis, ha!

The day before, Pebs, ET, luca and I had gone shopping at the New Ceasar's Forum Shops...




The new addition to Ceasar's Forum shops is fabulous! There's a curved escalator...

We also went to the new Fashion Show Mall, which was really amazing; seven major department stores anchor this huge mall: Neiman-Marcus, Robinson's/May, Sak's Fifth Avenue, Macy's, Nordstom, Dillard's, and Bloomindale's! And a hundred other shops including an Apple Store.



When you add in all the casino shopping areas, the Vegas strip has become the biggest shopping mall in the country. (I purchased some simple black tees from Banana Republic... they were on sale).


We did get out to the desert for half a day... Red Rock, a very sweet place...



It was lovely there, as always... nice with the snow on the mountains...

...and zilla! leaping about on the rocks.




We left there and headed back into town, with a stop at Whole Foods... (luca did it! It wasn't my call... hehe). Then we hit the strip again, saw a very interesting lil' show and decked out for the night.

The next day was the day of the "mansion party"...

... but that's for the next bit...