Big Gay Frat House Blog

RuPaul's Drag Race - Season 2!

Earlier this year, the most famous drag queen in the world, RuPaul, hosted RuPaul's Drag Race on Logo. About 10 queens competed through a variety of competitions to ultimately be crowned as an heir to RuPaul's success.

There were some issues to the structure to the show mainly due, no doubt, to budget limitations. A true competition testing a drag's talent would be to throw the girls a theme and a budget and then let them pull together an outfit and a performance. They'd have to either make or purchase an outfit (some queens can sew, others can't, but that's not necessarily relevant to what makes a good drag superstar). They'd have to choose a song that matches the theme and then pull together a routine, either lipsynching or singing live. But the problem is that Logo, unlike American Idol, doesn't have the budget to pay song royalties, so the only actual lipsynching was at the end when the two queens facing elimination would simultaneously lipsynch to the same song chosen by the producers.

Which didn't stop me from watching, but a bigger budget could really make this a truly awesome show.

The winner of season 1 was Bebe Zahara Benet, a New York drag queen originally born and raised in Camaroon, Africa. Kevin had the chance to see Bebe and fellow competitor Tammie Brown perform at Toad Hall a few weeks ago. You can check out more pics from that night on Flickr.

Sadly, no San Francisco queens made it onto the show. San Francisco, home to the original Imperial Court and the very different Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Where a drag queen (Jose Sarria, aka the Widow Norton and founder of the Imperial Court) ran for the SF Board of Supervisors in 1961 when it was still illegal for two men to dance together. Where we have caberet singers who sing live and Trannyshack pushing the boundaries of taste and sensibility. But alas, no SF queens made the cut.

Now we have a chance to remedy that. It's time for the casting of Season 2 of RuPaul's Drag Race!

Artemis Chase

Artemis is our girl. Originally from Oregon, she honed her talent in New York City before moving cross country to San Francisco, where she quickly started getting booked at places like Trannyshack and the Monster Show before starting some of her own gigs and being involved in others. (One of my favorites of those was being the strip poker dealer at the sadly defunct Lucky Pierre.) And she performed twice at the Big Gay Frat House, first at the Midsummer Night's Dream fundraiser for Community United Against Violence, hosted by adult star Brent Corrigan, and then at the third Girl Drink Drunk where she was crowned Miss Desperate Diva for August 2007 -- our very first Miss Big Gay Frat House, as it were. And though she now has moved to Portland, San Francisco still can claim her as a daughter. So we really, really hope you'll vote for Artemis once a day, each and every day, for the remaining 52 days of online voting. Of all of the SF girls vying for a spot in Season 2, she's currently the frontrunner.

Landa Lakes

Artemis isn't the only SF girl competing who also performed at the BGFH. Our dear friend Landa Lakes performed at the very first Girl Drink Drunk and was the special guest emcee at the sixth one. She's also vying for a spot (and has the honor of being featured heavily last season in the recap episode when they showed clips from queens who didn't make it). Landa can use your votes too (and you can vote for more than one girl per day!).

Mercedez Munro

Finally, there's our beloved Mercedez Munro, who also performed at our sixth Girl Drink Drunk. Mercedez served as Miss Gay San Francisco a few years back and has the distinction of being the only person the BGFH has endorsed for office (when she ran for Empress a few years ago). Vote for Mercedez, too!

Pollo Del Mar

Pollo, the reigning Miss Trannyshack (for perpetuity, apparently, unless Heklina decides to have another pageant), performed at our third Girl Drink Drunk, a benefit for the AIDS Housing Alliance. She has recently taken the lead of all of our SF girls. She needs more votes to break into the top 5.

Raya Light

A former Miss Trannyshack, Raya has a shocking form of drag unlike anything that has ever graced RuPaul's catwalk. What a change of pace she'd bring! Raya performed at our second Girl Drink Drunk, benefitting Project Open Hand, and can also use your votes.

Cookie Dough

Cookie, a Trannyshack regular who brought drag back to the Castro with Cookie After Dark at Martuni's and the Monster Show at Harvey's (and now drag is everywhere here), performed at our fifth Girl Drink Drunk benefitting the Stop AIDS Project. Vote for her, too.

Holy McGrail

As a faux queen (a woman impersonating a man impersonating a woman, a la Victor/Victoria), Holy is one of the most unconventional choices here and is therefore someone that will shock Logo's audience. Tee hee! Holy performed at our second Girl Drink Drunk. Vote for her, too!

 

Of course, there are so many of other talented friends competing. But we really wanted to highlight the ones who have performed at the BGFH and thus have a very special place in our hearts. Some friends are entering the race a little later than others. If you're competing and you have performed at a BGFH fundraiser, let us know and we'll include you.

Good luck, girls. We'll be voting for you every day!

Another Gay Fundraiser ... with Brent Corrigan!

We're so excited to announce that we are partnering with our friend Brent Corrigan to produce Another Gay Fundraiser.

Thursday, June 26th
9pm until ....?

LookOut Bar
3600 Market Street @ 16th

The event is a benefit for Community United Against Violence, who was the beneficiary of our Midsummer Night's Dream fundraiser that Brent hosted at our house two years ago.

The event will feature:

• Porn raffles
• Jello shots sold by porn stars
• Limited edition auction of art prints by Ismael Alvaraz for "Another Gay Sequel"
• Tickets to the world premiere of "Another Gay Sequel" at the Castro Theatre on June 28th
• Performances by Katya Smirnoff-Skyy
• Live performances by Brent Corrigan and his boys

No cover charge! But bring your cash for the Jello shots, auctions, and raffles. All money raised goes directly to CUAV.

The Rejection

All right, since we're procrastinating with YouTube, I guess it's time to post an homage to Dangerous Muse. (Faithful readers may recall from a previous post that Kevin has a little crush on Mike Furey.)

Dangerous Muse is an up-and-coming band in New York who reached #2 on Logo's NewNowNext. Kevin first heard about them when they approached him (and half a million other Scissor Sisters fans) to be a friend on MySpace. We tried to get them to come out to SF for a charity fundraiser, but they had scheduling conflicts. Maybe someday...

In the meantime, here's their biggest hit, "The Rejection," which has been Kevin's MySpace profile song for months and months...

Oh, and here's a fan's recording of a live performance of it in L.A.:

Someday we'll get them to perform at the Big Gay Frat House...

Thank you all so much!

As we count down to the final days and hours of 2006, it's time to look back and thank everyone who has helped make this first full year of the Big Gay Frat House be such an amazing experience.

We've hosted a bewildering array of private parties and public fundraisers in 2006, including the Epiphany Party in January, the Balls-Out Ball rugby fundraiser in April, the 6th Annual Cosmique Movie Awards and the "Queer Duck" reception for Frameline in June, and the Midsummer Night's Dream frisky fairy fundraiser for CUAV in August.

In the process, we managed to raise about $17,000 net profit for charity in 2006.

But we couldn't do any of that without the help of a lot of friends.

First of all, we want to thank Richard Winchester, who has produced the lighting, sound, and stage production for every single stage performance ever held at the BGFH, and to Mark Sargent, who as either Janet Fly or Ethel Merman has performed at every event here.

And there are many, many more thank you's...

Trauma Flintstone, who performed at two of our three biggest events, the Epiphany Party and the Midsummer Night's Dream fundraiser, and is working closely with us for great things to come in 2007. (Stay tuned!)

The legendary Varla Jean Merman, co-star of Girls Will Be Girls, who graced our two three-car carport one year after performing at the Sydney Opera House to headline at the Balls-Out Ball rugby fundraiser. Varla has subsequently returned to San Francisco on two other occasions to entertain us with "Under a Big Top" and "Varla Jean Merman is Anatomically Incorrect." We love her every time, but we'll always have a special fondness for her performance in our humble garage.

Our fabulous emcees: our neighbor, Empress Donna Sachet, one of the most prodigious fundraisers in her own right, and Greg the Gay Sportscaster of radio station Energy 92.7, who emceed the Balls-Out Ball fundraiser for the San Francisco Fog gay inclusive rugby team. I don't think we've ever seen Donna more stunned than when the first rugby bachelor auction went for $1,200! Well, except when she witnessed someone getting tea-bagged during the post performance photo op. (No, it wasn't Greg, but rumor has it that Greg and his boyfriend almost broke up over the event, but we're not sure if that's true. If it is, fortunately they made up.)

And another delightful emcee, adult star Brent Corrigan (aka Fox Ryder, aka Sean Lockhart), who hosted our frisky fairy Midsummer Night's Dream fundraiser for Community United Against Violence (CUAV) wearing fairy wings and underpants (both of which came off during the course of the evening). The underwear was later auctioned off of Brent's website for CUAV, fetching another $852 for the organization. If you've seen him perform in pictures or on video, it isn't anything compared to meeting this sweet, generous guy in person.

Other performers not already mentioned, which have included: Tom Shaw at the Epiphany Party; the "Rugby Rockettes" at the Balls-Out Ball; our new Queen and King of the Fairies, Katya Ludmilla Smirnoff-Skyy and Foxy Cotton, and our other contestant performers at the Midsummer Night's Dream fundraiser: Artemis Chase, Michael Phillis, Varian with a V, and Jonnie Evergreen; the incomparable Connie Champagne; and Julian Marshburn, Mr. SF Leather 2004, our delightfully butch and leathery Puck.

Our fabulous Russian bartender, Zhenya, who has been the head (and sometimes sole) bartender at numerous BGFH events, including Epiphany, the "Queer Duck" reception, and the Midsummer Night's Dream party. And all of our other fabulous, heavy-on-the-vodka bartenders: Scott, Maka, George, and an army of rugby boys.

Everyone who got partially or even completely butt naked for fun or charity, and it's a looong list. First and foremost, the aforementioned Brent Corrigan, our Midsummer Night's Dream emcee who was the first porn star (but hopefully not the last) to get naked for charity in our house. Our army of nearly-to-totally naked bartenders, bar-backs, and go-go boys at Epiphany: Z, Scott, Ambrose, Brad, Justin, Jeremy, Billy, Robert, and Maka (not to mention other guests who stripped down, Rick who helped us recruit, and a few more staff whose names we're embarrassed to have forgotten). The seven hunky rugby boys who did a full monty strip show (no, not strip tease, the full monty), allowing Varla Jean and Ethel Merman to cut off their jockstraps not once but twice. And various risqué fairies at the Midsummer Night's Dream party, including Ambrose (again) and Nathan.

Everyone who volunteered to work the door, the coat room, the bars, the cameras, the kitchens, and all the other details that pulled these events together.

The lovely sponsors who donated goods and services in order to keep our costs down to raise as much as possible for charity: BelAmi, Channel 1 Releasing, Copymat Digibranch, Domicile Properties, Don Pedro Cruz, Gay.com Local Scene, Golden Brands, Joie de Vivre Hospitality, Frantix, Holmgren & Associates, Rock Hard, the San Francisco Chocolate Factory, Steamworks, Talisker, and Young's Market.

And to all of our amazing, wonderful, fabulous guests who bought tickets and made our parties so much fun.

Of course, we've also enjoyed our wonderful neighborhood and the great talents in our community. In addition to the performers already thanked above, who of course would also be repeated here, we also want to thank those in our community who have entertained us or helped us out this year: Amanda Lay, Anna Conda, Annie Mae Manga, the Andrews Sisters, Anita Cocktail, Athena Arquez, Chi Chi LaRue, Coco Canal, Cookie Dough, Dangerous Muse, the Diamond Daggers, DJ Earworm, Felicia Fallatio, Ginger Snap, Heklina, Holy McGrail, Jackie Beat, Jake Shears, Jerry Deal, Joe Kovaks and Madame, Juanita MORE!, Justin Weatherby, Lady Bunny, Linda Leer, Kielbasia, Marc Sterling, Matthew Martin, Megan Lynch, Mercedes Monroe, Mercy Fuque, Mike Furey, Miss Nix, Monistat, MORE!Boy Brandon, Nathan Temby, Nikki Starr, Paige Turner, Peaches Christ, Pete Ross, Poison Ivy, Pollo DelMar, RAndy, Raya Light, Renttecca, Roman Heart, Shirley Q Liquor, Sister Dana, Sister Roma, the Scissor Sisters, Starr, Summer Clearance, Suppositori Spelling, Veda De Voe, Veronica Lewinski, Visa DeKlein, and many, many, many others way too numerous to mention (so we probably shouldn't have tried, but too late now). Plus a special and completely gratuitous shout out to the boys of Boy Bar, including but not limited to Gus, Alex, Andrew, Andy, Hunter, Jae, Joey, Joey C, Just, N!ck, Sean, Steven ... and the Midori Boy.

That's a lot of acknowledgements, and even after hours of proofing, we're still finding more to add. We deeply apologize to anyone omitted.

We haven't accomplished exactly everything we wanted to in 2006, but then, we had a lot of other things going on, too. Work, for one thing. Other real estate investments for some. An unbelievable amount of renovations at the BGFH. The Monster Show, Bijou, Katya Presents, Trannyshack... Various combinations of us traveling to Buenos Aires, the Caribbean, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, the Mexican Riviera, Sonoma County, Vacaville, and half of the small-town gay bars in the Midwest.

Stay tuned for announcements of many more adventures to come in 2007. The best is yet to come!

Random infatuations on a Sunday afternoon

For this post, Kevin is wresting full control of the blog from his roommates. David and Tim are fully exonerated from any thoughts or opinions that may be mentioned herein....

From time to time, I have a tendency to get a low-grade infatuation with someone in the public eye. And on this slow Sunday afternoon, I was inspired by a random entry in Queerty to give my infatuees a little shout out. After all, as our recent email from Fauxnique demonstrates, you never know when a celebrity will see themselves mentioned and decide to drop a line.

For these purposes, at least, I'm distinguishing between infatuations and crushes -- the latter, in my book, being situations where you've actually interacted with the subject directly and have a reason to be smitten with them. In the cases of infatuation below, these are people whom I've ever never interacted with, or have only done so in a very remote, distanced manner. I'm also choosing to exclude the obvious box office superstars like Orlando Bloom. If tens of millions of teenage girls have the exact same crush infatuation, it ain't all that special. I'm also skipping my three porn star crushes (two of whom are really just infatuations), mostly because that will probably be a blog entry all of its own eventually.

But these are also more than just "I think they're cute," because occasionally I find myself wondering about them and what they're really like. They're like mini-crushes.

Here, then (in no particular order) are some of my recent ones. Not an exhaustive list, by any means, but just the ones that came to mind at the moment that I wasn't too embarrassed to mention.

David Hauslaib, Editorial Director & Publisher of Queerty

I've never met him. We've never interacted directly. I've never heard him speak. And though I'm a regular reader of his blog, there are several other people who also write for it, so I don't even know for sure which entries he's written.

But even so, I have to confess to a little crush infatuation. He's obviously smart, eloquent, engaged in his world, interesting. He'd make a fabulous addition to (or co-host of?) a dinner party. And he's so damn cute! If I wasn't smitten before, this line from his Queerty bio totally would push me over the edge:

Think of David as the club owner in the back room sneaking barely legal twinks through the door with promises of coke. Minus the club, back room and barely legal twinks. And the coke. But he maintains the same philosophy. Sort of.

I don't know if he's single or not, and in any event is pretty geographically challenged (relationship-speaking, at least), being based in New York. Which is one of many reasons why this infatuation isn't likely to progress to the stage of crush. Sigh...

Adrian Acosta / Amnesia Sprinkles

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how I accidentally "outed" a go-go boy. I received an email from one of my Flickr friends, a New York drag queen named Amnesia Sparkles, mentioning that I was indirectly mentioned in her blog. We had never interacted directly on Flickr, but had favorited some pics of each other and had set each other as friends so that we could see private pictures.

Since then, I've become a regular reader of her blog and have become increasingly intrigued by Amnesia and her boy persona, Adrian. Amnesia doesn't want her Flickr pics downloaded, but you can check out Adrian by following this link.

Jason Sechrest, JasonCurious.com

Since we seem to be on the topic of bloggers, that brings us around to Jason Sechrest, once described by Unzipped magazine as "The Oprah of porn." His blog on JasonCurious.com is dedicated to the ins and outs (and ins and outs and ins and outs) of the porn industry, gay and straight, but it's just one of several projects. He's also the producer and host of a new live talk show called "The X Factor" hosted every week in a West Hollywood bar. You can read more about his professional career at JasonSechrest.com, his spirituality at KabbalahCurious.com, and his personal life on MySpace. It is his own personal blog entries that I find the most interesting and in fact have, on several occasions, made me cry. He's an intriguing individual.

Fab Filippo

Of the five actors that I have created Tivo wishlists for, Fabrizio Filippo was the first, and this was even before his brief 11-episode stint as Ethan Gold on the U.S. version of Queer as Folk. Fab first caught my eye when he appeared as Scott Hope in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (Many seasons later, his Buffy character was outed, most likely a nod to his then-recent QaF appearance. He's also appeared in a handful of other US television programs, including Action and MTV's Undressed, but he's probably much better known in hs native Canada where he is a prolific actor and screenwriter.

I have absolutely no insights into his actual personality -- I've never even seen him appear as himself, like on a talk show or something. But since he was my first Tivo wishlist, he deserves a shout-out.

Scott Mechlowicz

Ok, I've never really seen Scott Mechlowicz out of character, either, but he picks fascinating roles. Okay, maybe Eurotrip wasn't exactly a fascinating role, but it was a fun guilty pleasure and he sure was a hottie. But it was his performance in Mean Creek that made me sit up and take notice. In fact, he received three Cosmique Movie Award nominations for it: Best Villain, Best Ensemble, and a surprise Best Supporting Actor. (The Cosmo Awards are a fan-based movie award that I created six years ago with my friends -- sort of our blend between the gravitas of the Oscars and the irreverence of the MTV Movie Awards.) I have not yet seen his two 2006 films, Gone and Peaceful Warrior, but judging from the trailers, they both look fascinating.

Jonathan Bennett

Ok, this one is almost too silly to include, but since I have a Tivo wishlist for him, I feel obligated. Although Jonathan Bennett has numerous screen credits, Mean Girls is the only time I've seen him perform. And even then, though I really liked the film and thought he was a cutie, he wasn't really on my radar until he appeared in two episodes of Kathy Griffin's reality TV series, My Life on the D-List. He was so silly and goofy and fun that he instantly became someone I wanted to sleep with stalk meet. So far my Tivo wishlist hasn't come up with a lot of new things, but I keep trying.

Like the other actor celebs here, I don't even know if he likes boys or girls (and even if it ends up being boys, what are the odds that I'm his type?), but one can dream...

Mike Furey, Dangerous Muse

My most recent infatuation is Mike Furey, one-half of the emo band Dangerous Muse. You may have seen them profiled in The Advocate or their song "The Rejection" featured on Logo. Other songs I just love of theirs include "Give Me Danger," and "The Break Up," among others.

Mike and his musical parter Tom Napack make no secret about the fact that they sleep with guys, but they still dislike being called gay -- but not out of some sort of self-hatingness or an attempt to avoid disappointing the fan base or having their music marginalized. Rather, as Adam Vary wrote in a recent article in The Advocate, "He and Tom are the product of a growing pansexual New York City nightlife they discovered while students at Fordham University in the Bronx, so much so that when asked they both avoid placing a definitive flag anywhere on the Kinsey scale of sexuality."

Kids these days! That fascinates me. Plus, their music is really, really good and I'd love to have them perform at the BGFH someday.

(For the record, their song "The Rejection" was my MySpace song even before Logo started to play it.)

Jake Shears, Scissor Sisters

Ok, I wasn't going to include him, because he almost seems too famous and obvious for this list, but anyone who really knows me would tease me for trying to keep the lid on it. Yes, I am totally, totally, totally infatuated with Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters. I mean, hello! Beautiful voice, talented singer and writer, fantastic stage presence, articulate in interviews, seems to love to perform without clothes (always a plus), and is a former go-go boy. A go-go boy who made good, who got rich and famous. It's true (and just plain silly to hide it, given the 1,203 Flickr pictures I have dedicated to the profession, all personally taken): I have a thing for go-go boys. And to them, Jake Shears is like a patron saint, or a god. Well, and to me, too. But honestly, I loved the Scissor Sisters and had an infatuation with crush on Jake even before I know about his former life.

Alas, Jake has a boyfriend. And I don't want to be mean and hateful about that because that would be, well, mean and hateful.

But Scissor Sisters bandmate Del Marquis -- he's really cute and talented, too. And openly gay. And potentially single (insofar as I haven't heard otherwise). So...I don't know much about him, but...hmmmm.....