Stories from a man who fails to meet media expectations of what it means to be gay:
white, frivolous, over sexed yet sexless, shrill, single, stylish, a clown, unimportant, et al.

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Industrial Tiaras and New Years

It�s a new year and all that. It should be a time to think about the future, but I�ve been thinking about the past. Specifically past New Year Eve�s I�ve had.

John and I used to live in Pasadena. We didn�t live on the parade route, but we were walking distance to it, so our New Years plans were always affected by the parade crowds. Grand stand seating goes up on street corners and fences and barriers are erected around buildings on the parade route in Pasadena. Going in and out of the city also gets difficult.

Every year there would be several parties going on in the old apartment complex. The parties were fun and one of the rituals was to go out and wave and yell New Years greetings at all the passing cars searching for parking for the next mornings parade.

One year, a group of us decided to walk over to parade route around two in the morning and see what was going on up there. What was going on were drunk people partying and throwing things at each other. Someone had set a car on fire and other people were getting rowdy, so John and I high tailed back to the safety of our party. We were almost mugged that night, but that�s a story for another day.

In all the years that we lived there, we only saw the parade in person once. It was usually way to hard to wake up on time after partying the night before. The year that we did, we walked around the staging area as the floats and other entries were prepped and started off. It was an interesting morning and you don�t get to experience the smells and aromas that come from the floats from watching it on TV, but getting up that early, ugh. For me, once was enough.

From the rest of this entry, I think it�s obvious why I�ve been thinking of the past. Anyway, the entry proper:

Friday 12/29/00:

I saw Shadow of the Vampire at the Pasadena Laemmle 7. There were fences up around the theater and bookstore for parade security and the movie lines weaved in and out of the fences. The movie wasn�t the best thing ever made, but I did enjoy it. The basic premise was what if the role of the vampire in Nosferatu had been played by a vampire pretending to be an actor pretending to be a vampire. Sort of a Horror Victor Victoria I guess. Both John Malcovitch and Willem Defoe were way over the top, but the roles called for that. Actually, I think that Defoe�s portrayal of the vampire was the best thing about the film. Very creepy and disturbing.

John�s Ni�os came up for a party at our place that night. They aren�t really his kids, but are rather a group of young people he is friends with. Some of them have worked for John in the past. They have known each other and John since they were in high school and now most of them are in college now. The festivities included a late Christmas gift exchange and party games.

Two of the guys were being really sweet. Arturo and Bryan had just met each other a few weeks ago and were in that early romance glowing phase. You could see the happiness they radiated just by being near each other. I sound like an old man describing them, but hey, they were really cute with each other. Bryan is a huge Bette Midler fan, so Arturo brought him some fan stuff for a present. I raised my eyebrow at the thought of a 19 year old Bette fan, but who am I to judge who the young kids are listening to these days. The group left to go on a field trip to a certain, uh, store, but I was getting a headache so I bowed out of the evening early and tried to get some sleep.

Saturday 12/30/00:

Kristen came over and we went into Old Town for dinner. I didn�t think that Pasadena was the best place to go that night, but Kristen really wanted some good Soba, so Kansai restaurant it was. Dinner was gyoza, a spinach dish that I forget the name of and Soba for Kristen with tempura and Udon for me. We ate a lot of good food that night. Old town was crowded with tourists walking around in shorts and T-shirts talking about how warm it was that night. They were here for the game and/or the parade and were obviously not natives, since we were the ones wearing sweaters and jackets talking about how chilly it was that night.

We headed over to the Rizzoli�s so Kristen could buy a calendar for half price. I got myself a book on brand names, product advertising and how they effect consumer choices. I have odd tastes at times.

We had another anime night after our bought of consumerism. We watched a tape of Fake. Kristen wouldn�t tell me anything about it, other than she had rented it on a whim and her jaw dropped when she watched it. I had the exact same reaction. Two tough male New York cops. One is in lust with the other and spends most of the episode attacking his partner and trying to stick his tongue down the other guys mouth. The story involved a lame and obvious murder mystery, but the antics of the two main protagonists were far more interesting. Kristen told me that she still didn�t know that much about the series, but that apparently there was a comedic love triangle going on with yet another cop. It was fun in a strange I don�t believe what I�m seeing way.

After that we watch an episode of Trigun. On a future wild west/mad max planet, a gunslinger named Vash the Stampede is so dangerous that he routinely destroys entire towns. Except that he�s actually a loony geek who destroys entire towns by accident. Maybe. The episode was funny in a wacky sort of way. We watched a couple of episodes of Bubble Gum Crises 2040 then called it a night.

Kristen lent me some episodes of a series called Gasaraki. Battle robots and the end of the world. The world seems to be about to end in a lot of theses series.

Sunday 12/31/00:

Sunday was kind of a lazy day. I haven�t been sleeping well lately and it doesn�t help that I�ve been going to bed late each night as well. I got some work done out back, then used baling wire to make a primitive looking tiara. The reason for the tiara was that James L. and Rob L. were throwing a tiara party. Everyone John and I told about the party said that they were going to steal the idea. John had borrowed a tiara from Lydia and I didn�t feel like going out and buying something, hence my homemade one.

Actually getting to the party proved a little difficult. We got stuck in Float traffic. Both John and I forgot that New Years Eve was when the parade floats were moved from assorted warehouses to the parade set up. We were delayed about 20 minutes by floats crossing the road. It wasn�t to bad of a delay actually. One of the guests at the party told us that the police wouldn�t let her cross the street to get a pizza she had ordered for her kids and baby-sitter so she was stuck for over a half hour as her pizza got cold. It was a little strange seeing how the floats were made to double over and fold to fit under assorted street lights

We got to the party a little late, but not too late. My �industrial� tiara got a lot compliments, but it was a glittery chicken wire Glenda the Good Witch looking one that got most original when prizes were given out. I�m not usually a huge fan of party games, but the ones that James L. and Rob L. had made up were so silly that even I had fun. The only bad thing was that John is starting to catch a cold, so I don�t think he wasn�t at his best that night.

Anyhow, Merry New Year and all that,

More later, nico.

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