Big Gay Frat House Blog

Brandon's Big Effen Trip

One of the bartenders at The Cafe, Brandon, is about to embark on a big effin trip.

Brandon is one of the few straight guys to bartend at The Cafe. He works the Monday and Wednesday happy hour shifts, but not for long. His last day is this Wednesday, and he embarks on a round-the-world trip on October 2nd.

Normally that wouldn't be something I'd bother mentioning here, but it actually relates to my previous posts about MTV's show The Buried Life (which returns on September 27th). I'm not sure Brandon has ever even heard of the show, but he is nevertheless coincidentally planning to spend the next year of his life like they do. Like the guys from The Buried Life, Brandon has made a list of things he wants to accomplish, and he's made a vow that he's not allowed to return home until his list has been completed.

Since one of the items on the list is to run with the bulls in Pamplona, which occurs in July, it promises to be a very long trip indeed. He's saved his money this year which he hopes to supplement with any money raised through ads on his website.

A few of the other items on his list include:

1. Tour the perimeter of India on a motorcycle

9. Be an extra in a Bollywood movie

14. Sling booze at an Irish Pub

15. Ride a camel

27. Drink Bordeaux, Champagne, Cognac, and Armagnac in their cities of origin

31. Go to a nude beach- Spain

35. Challenge someone to a “Tough Guy” shot

40. Smoke a real Cuban cigar

In addition to his list of things to accomplish, he also intends to have a drink in at least one bar in every country he visits (being a bartender and all) and then write about the bar, and to also read and review at least 50 books on his trip. He also plans to post updates at least weekly about his progress in accomplishing the goals on his list. (I think he needs to start his trip with a local adventure to kick things off, like a crazy last day at work or an only-in-San Francisco experience to start his blog off right -- maybe something wild at the Folsom Street Fair?)

This is someone who not only dreams big, like many of us, but actually has the guts to abandon everything for a year to live his life to the fullest before returning to complete his college education. You can follow Brandon's adventures through his site or on Facebook and Twitter.

Flickr Favorites #20 - Vacations & Traveling

[To celebrate achieving 50,000 photos on my Flickr stream since 2006, I'm posting my top 20 favorite photographic themes. Check out Top 20 Flickr Photo Themes and 50,000 Photos for more.]

For a lot of people (unless they have a new child), the vast majority of their photos are ones they took on vacation. And while my photos tend to focus more on nightlife, quite a lot were taken while traveling. Rounding out my top 20 list of my Flickr favorites are some of my favorite vacation photos.

RSVP Vacations' Mexican Riviera Cruise

In 2006, when I worked for PlanetOut, our company purchased RSVP Vacations, a company that chartered gay vacations, especially cruises. My first opportunity to take advantage of the employee discount was in October 2006 with a Princess cruise to the Mexican Riviera with stops in Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas. This was during the Halloween where nine people were shot in the Castro, so it was excellent that I was away that year.

The boy pictured here was named Billy. He was one of the models hired by RSVP to pose for their on-location advertising photoshoots. He also did other modeling jobs on the ship such as participating in this underwear fashion show. Most of my photos of him aren't tagged but a few are.

This was my first opportunity to go on a cruise and it was so much fun! In addition, my mother was in the process of building a new condo in San Jose (just outside of Cabo) and she happened to be down there at the time, so we met up for brunch almost 1,300 miles away! The same trip, I met my good friends Mark and Zach for the first time.

Here are a few more pictures from the cruise, and you can find more Mexican Riviera gay cruise photos on Flickr.

RSVP Vacations' Caribbean Cruise

My second cruise was less than six months after the first, when I again took advantage of the employee discount to go on a Caribbean cruise in February 2007, this time with my friends Mark and Zach whom I had met on the first cruise. We shared a cabin that happened to be the three-person cabin they had stayed in on their first cruise.

When I was a kid, I promised my aunt that when I was a rich and famous novelist, I would take her on a cruise to the Caribbean. Sadly, she passed away a few years before I got to go, but fortunately she did go with her husband several years before she passed away. Needless to say, I thought a lot about her that trip.

In addition to a lot of the shipboard activities (pool contests during the day, bingo, and other shows) we also did some of the activities off the boat, including trying absinthe before it was legal in the U.S. and snorkling for Mark and Zach's first time.

Here are a few more pictures and there are more Caribbean cruise photos on Flickr.

 

Hawaii

Living in California, we are so lucky that Hawaii is only an inexpensive five hour flight away. (East Coasters have that same advantage with Europe.) I've been lucky enough to go four times and see almost every major island. My first was over Thanksgiving in 1993, when my Mom and her husband lived on Molokai for a year. I got to see Molokai and Maui with her and then visited other friends in Honolulu for a long weekend. This, however, was before I had a digital camera.

My second was with my friend Andy. We visited Oahu for two weeks in 2002, I believe, while he was networking with the University of Hawaii (where he is now a professor of fashion merchandising). The third was on Kauai with my Dad and brother's families in 2004 after I was laid off from Looksmart. I brought my very first digital camera; the salt air forced me to buy a new one shortly after I got home. There are photos from that trip posted, though it was before I subscribed to Flickr.

The fourth was over Thanksgiving 2008 to visit my friend Andy, now living there, about six weeks before I got laid off from PlanetOut. We also hopped over to the Big Island for a long weekend while I was there. More photos on Flickr.

New Orleans

Although the Mardi Gras krewe that I'm in celebrates the holiday locally, we have made pilgrimmages to New Orleans twice, in 1994 and in 2000. In addition, I've gone one other time for Southern Decadence in 2001, I believe. All of these trips were before Katrina.

In addition, I also had the opportunity to go again in August 2009, this time a few weeks before Southern Decadence. And it was in many ways my favorite trip, as I got to see so much of the city during it's "down time" (such as it exists in one of the busiest tourist cities in the country). In addition to all of the fun of the French Quarter, we also wandered through a half-dozen cemetaries, spent a day in the Garden District, and went on a swamp tour.

More photos of New Orleans on Flickr.

 

Palm Springs

While my aforementioned Mardi Gras krewe usually celebrates in the San Francisco Bay Area, we have gone abroad on occasion -- twice to New Orleans and once, in 2005, to Palm Springs.

We rented out all 12 rooms of the Terrazzo Resort, and even the owners joined in on our Mardi Gras festivities. We had numerous competitions, including a swimsuit competition, a specialty cocktail competition, and a room decorating competition. And on Saturday, which happened to be my birthday, we held our Mardi Gras celebration with the selection of a new monarch. After 17 years of trying (they called me the Susan Lucci of our krewe), I finally became king. Truly a great vacation.

A few weeks ago I was able to go again, this time vacationing with different friends who rented out the entire Desert Eclipse Resort. Another amazing trip, but most of my posted photos are of the resort -- we were traveling with a nudist who didn't wanted his pics posted.

More photos from my trips to Palm Springs.

And More

Of course, there were other vacations, some posted, some not. Shout outs to some of my favorite other vacation spots: London, Rome, Paris, New York, Seattle, and more.

GayCities party at Trigger

GayCities.com, a travel-oriented gay social networking site that provides ratings and reviews of LGBT businesses, had an awesome party at Trigger on Wednesday to promote the new check-in feature on their iPhone app.

The check-in feature operates similar to FourSquare, allowing users with the free app to "check in" at a nightclub or other venue to let their friends know where they are. The app also allows users to look up nearby businesses to find descriptions and reviews, an invaluable tool for gay travelers.

The event featured a video display showing live check-ins at the party, a deejay, a free spread of appetizers, free Blue Angel vodka drinks from 8:00 til 9:00 (and drink specials after 9:00), and (of course!) go-go dancers wearing GayCities briefs.

As I understand it, the app currently only exists for the iPhone, but I believe I've heard rumors that they are working on a droid version. Of course, everyone use GayCities' other features through the website, though I believe the check-in feature only works through the app, not web-enabled phones.

Check out photos from the event (more on Flickr):

Spring has sprung in San Francisco!

Today is the first day of spring, and the weather in San Francisco has been absolutely gorgeous all week. (At the moment, it's a little foggy -- but it could very easily burn off in a few hours and turn into another lovely day.)

It's fitting that at Wet and Wild tonight (a monthly event at Club 8), the boys in the Haus of Glitterati will be presenting a swim wear fashion show. You know I'll be there to document it, and the photos will be up within days. There will also be performances by Charisma Glitterati and Lady TaTas. Fun way to usher in spring!

I've been reveling in the glorious weather by playing tourist, taking advantage of having days off in the middle of the week. A few weeks ago, we spent the day wandering around the Sutro Baths ruins, and then later the same week had a bonfire at Ocean Beach. 

Golden Gate Park

On Tuesday, I was downtown when on a whim I jumped on a bus, headed to Golden Gate Park, and then walked home meandering through the park. Like my friend Mark, I have a "fetish" for photos of trees -- especially gnarled, knotted ones with character. A sampling of the photos are in the slideshow below, but the full set can be found on Flickr:

Dolores Beach

As I mentioned in my review on GayCities.com, Dolores Park is basically the gay beach of the Castro. (GayCities.com even lists it in their beaches category rather than in parks.) The southwestern corner of the park (Church Street & 20th Street), there's a slopping plot of grass where the gay boys lie out in shorts (or sometimes just their underwear) and enjoy the sun and the view of downtown San Francisco. So on Wednesday, I grabbed a newspaper and headed down. Naturally, I took photos there as well as on the way down. Full sizes are available on Flickr but you can also see them here:

Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras

We've never really been a part of the circuit party scene. The closest, I guess, was two RSVP Cruises (but even then, we did RSVP rather than Atlantis). I've gone to New Orleans twice for Mardi Gras and once for Southern Decadence, but we mostly went to regular bars and clubs and skipped the huge circuit events. Even in San Francisco, we tend to skip the big monthly and holiday weekend mega-events and instead focus on regular-sized events in regular-sized bars.

But we're also big on Mardi Gras and the whole Carnival season, not to mention warm weather, beautiful beaches, and scantily-clad boys. So if there's one circuity-type event I'd give my nonexistant wisdom teeth to go to, it would be Sydney's annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

No, no, we aren't going this year. Who could afford it, especially after a year of unemployment? But I stumbled across this marketing video on Joe.My.God's blog and just had to share it. Someday I just have to go!

If any of our readers end up going, or have gone before, please post a comment and tell us about it.

RSVP Caribbean Cruise - Part 1

Faithful readers of this blog will recall that Kevin and Tim went on an RSVP Vacations cruise to the Mexican Riviera last Halloween. You can re-read our accounts of our experiences in parts one, two, and three.

On that cruise, our friends Jeremy and Alvin introduced us to some of their friends, Mark and Zach. Over the course of the cruise, Kevin became good friends with both of them and we continued to hang out a lot once when we returned to San Francisco. In the months that followed, we kept discussing wanting to do another cruise, and at the last minute (literally a week before it sailed) we booked a cabin on RSVP's Caribbean cruise, flying to Fort Lauderdale at midnight on Saturday, February 25th for a Sunday afternoon departure....

Day 1 - Sunday, February 25 (Bon Voyage from Fort Lauderdale)

In the airport in San Francisco, we saw adult star Benjamin Bradley and his boyfriend, Ethan Reynolds of Brat Boy Bulletin. They were flying through Chicago (we went through Dallas), but I knew they were going to be on the boat, too. We took a red eye because the cheaper daytime fares were already taken (plus it saved us hotel fare in Fort Lauderdale that first night). But Ethan and Ben flew out late from SF because they were at the GayVN Awards earlier at the Castro Theatre.

After exploring the ship a bit, we returned to the cabin to change (our bags finally arrived) before heading up to the bon voyage party. It started to sprinkle a bit, but Mark and I ventured to the top deck anyway and danced in the rain (Zach stayed below). What started as a few warm drops suddenly got heavy and cold, to the point where I was gasping for breath as if I had fallen into an icy river. We rushed back to our cabin to change before returning to find Zach.

Later that evening, we made a new friend: Brian. I went up to watch the Oscars in one of the lounges, but the red-eye and jet lag was finally catching up to me, so I returned to our cabin to watch the end of the Oscars and fall asleep...

(See more pics from Day 1)

Day 2 - Monday, February 26th (at sea)

Monday was our first full day, and it was an at-sea day (which I tend to like the best).

The night before, Mark and Kevin ran into Steven, a friend of Zach's from when they were camp counselors together fresh out of high school. Steven was an influential figure in Zach's coming out process, so for Zach it was both weird and exciting to see him. Steven was also a last-minute addition to the cruise, being RSVP's brand new Director of Marketing. (His official first day was the Monday after the cruise.) Steven used to work for Olivia, but this was his first cruise with mostly boys.

In the early afternoon, they held the 2(x)ist Underwear Fashion Show. I took pictures from above, which all look so tiny in thumbnails, but perhaps later I will crop some for a better shot.

There was a tea dance, too, like every day, but if it had a theme I'm sure I cannot recall what it was. But then at night we had one of the most fun parties: the Red Party. Because apparently red is the new white. Mark and Zach had thematically matching outfits: Mark as an angelic cupid and Zach as a red devil. Adorable. Me, I just had on a new red blouse which, because it was transparent, I put over a red t-shirt. But I did get a chance to finally meet Ben Bradley (who, for the record, was the second of my three porn star crushes) and Ethan Reynolds.

Jet lag finally caught up to Mark, though, so after the Red Party he put his head down for a quick nap and ended up sleeping on til morning. Zach and I meandered over to Skywalkers, the after hours club that doesn't even open til 2:00 am.

(See more pictures from Day 2)

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!

The RSVP Mexican Riviera Cruise, Part 3

(Continued from part 2.)

Day 5 - Wednesday, November 1

On the fifth day, we arrived at our second port: Mazatlan.

Tim and Kevin went ashore with Jonnie and our friend Alvin (whose partner, Jeremy, went kayaking). We went first to a bar valled Valentino's, which was having a special reception for the cruise, but it was too much like being on the boat and not enough like being in Mexico, so we headed off to wander a bit looking for pharmacias.

Back on the boat, it ended up being a relatively quiet evening. No dances for us. The ship's crew did indulge in a strange tradition that probably made more sense on a straight cruise: the champagne waterfall with an opportunity to dance with the cruise's female crew. Uh huh. They did choose music especially for us - songs like "Dancing Queen," "I'm Coming Out," Cher, Madonna, the Village People....

Weird.

(More pictures from Day 5.)

Day 6 - Thursday, November 2

Our third port was Cabo San Lucas, and Kevin went ashore to have lunch with ... his mom!

Kevin's mom and her husband recently purchased a vacation condo in a town about 20 miles from Cabo. The condo isn't done being built yet, but they stayed in a hotel to check on the progress (and, being recently retired, they could revel in a mid-winter get-away).

Cabo was by far the most beautiful port. Unlike the other cities, which also have large commerce and industry in addition to tourism, Cabo is a resort area that almost exclusively caters to tourists.

But for whatever reason, the ship had to depart unusually early, so we headed back to sea at 2:00 in the afternoon.

That afternoon was the swimsuit competition. All of the top contestants were in drag.

Later there was another tea dance. Not sure what the theme was but it was essentially another excuse for cute boys to dance wearing very little. That night was the Diamond Studded White Party with a special performance by Deborah Cox (because when gays congregate they have to throw a white party). Lots of cute, cute boys wearing a variety of white clothing - some in regular white clothes, some in costumes like togas, a lot in underwear and very little clothing at all.

Kevin managed to spot porn star Roman Heart who appears to have been trying to pass incognito by donning a white wig. After dancing with Mark, Zach, and Rick for awhile, it was time to call it a night...

All in all, a fun night and a great port to visit.

(More photos from Day 6.)

Day 7 - Friday, November 3rd

Our last day was a full sea day, but we were heading back towards colder climates and the weather was cold and windy. Gale force winds, in fact, which forced the military-themed tea dance into one of the inside bars. Roman Heart was supposed to dance, but due to the venue change just mingled with guests. Kevin had gotten Roman's signature at a signing (in the chapel!) earlier in the week, but Kevin finally managed to get a picture with him at the dance.

Afterwards, Kevin went to a private reception hosted by the president of PlanetOut, where he saw Roman Heart again and posed for another picture. (Picture whore!) He met up with the boys again and they ended up doing a hot tub - so relaxing!

(More pictures from Day 7.)

The next morning we arrived in Los Angeles. A delay due to insufficient customs officials trapped us on the boat for a few extra hours, but we were able to get to our car without much hassle to make our way back to San Francisco. A long, exhausting but ultimately way fun week!

The RSVP Mexican Riviera Cruise, Part 2

(Continued from Part 1...)

Day 3 - Monday, October 30

Our third day was another "at sea" day. I don't know what straight cruises do for entertainment (I can't imagine, actually), but RSVP does a great job coming up with all sorts of entertainment, especially during days at sea.

Today's activity was "Pool Games." Emcee Paul Williams led a series of three contests. The first involved pairing players up to toss a ball back and forth until only one team remained. Kevin kinda photo-stalked Billy, one of the cute model boys (who was later revealed to have attitude, surprise surprise). The second involved a wacky relay race. And the third, which could have been the sexiest (except all five contestants ended up being bears) was a "changing into leotards" contest.

Sigh. The games were fun, but we kinda were expecting them to be a little more risque on a gay cruise. Hello! But this was RSVP's first cruise with Princess, so I guess they were bending over backwards to be on their best behavior.

After the pool games there was the group photo shoot. Then time to relax a bit before the "Salsa T-Dance." Not all of the costumes made sense (see right), but that's ok. MORE than ok. (A few hours later there were many, many guys wearing similar or less.)

The real highlight of the day, and perhaps one of the best events of the whole ship, was the underwear party later that night.

Kevin bought special 2(x)ist soy underwear for the event -- softer than cashmere! It wasn't long before he ran into James David who was shy and demure in his bathrobe...which he discarded about three seconds later! And while wandering around, they ran into Mark, Zach, and Rick from the first night, and we all (including Jeremy and Alvin, who we met up with soon thereafter) ended up spending the rest of the evening together.

Lots of fun dancing and other stuff (ok, not everything gets blogged, but it's probably not what you're thinking). Truly one of the most fun events on the ship.

(More photos from Day 3)

Day 4 - Tuesday, October 31

Our first day at a port - Puerto Vallarta!

But after the night before, it ended up being a sluggish day. Neither Tim nor Kevin went ashore, though Jonny and Mason did. Kevin and Mark hung out by the pool for most of the day and just had a leisurely time.

Of course, the highlight was the "Princes and Pauper Renaissance Ball" that night for Halloween!

There were numerous really clever costumes. The "Three Must-Be-Queers." A beautiful Marie Antionette. A gaggle of jock-strapped bunnies. Six "one nightstands." A re-enactment of Raphael's angels. Lots of bare butts (and other things).

But the winner of the costume contest probably spent the least: a 400+ pound bear in drag wearing a way-too-small women's bikini carrying a sign advertising his lost dog -- and attached to his backside, a tiny stuffed dog.

After a special performance by Kristine W, Kevin rushed back to the cabin for a quick costume change (his Renaissance costume was chafing) before heading out to continue the party.

(More photos from Day 4)

Stay tuned for more covering days 5 through 7...

The RSVP Mexican Riviera Cruise, Part 1

Kevin and Tim managed to miss the shootings in the Castro on Halloween by setting sail on RSVP Vacations's special gay and lesbian cruise to the Mexican Riviera.

This was Kevin's first cruise of any kind, but Tim had already done two other RSVP cruises within the last year -- the Alaskan cruise in the fall of 2005, and the Caribbean in the spring of 2006. But with a passenger capacity of 2,674, this was the largest ship RSVP has ever chartered and a whole new adventure for even Tim.

We were joined in our adventures by our friend Jonny and his straight-but-not-narrow nephew, Mason. In addition, our friend Donna Sachet was on board as one of the emcees, and Kevin had several other friends on board as passengers or crew (the company Kevin works for purchased RSVP last year).

Day -1 (Friday, October 27)

The four of us (Tim, Kevin, Jonny, and Mason) drove from San Francisco to Long Beach. With four passengers, driving was cheaper than flying and in theory would make for a much less stressful return.

We spent the night at a hotel in Long Beach. After "painting the town" (rather unsuccessfully), we returned to the hotel where Kevin and Mason went for a quick swim in the hotel pool. We were immediately approached by two older gentlemen who somehow knew we were going on the cruise. Are we that obviously gay? (And hell, Mason isn't gay.)

Day 1 (Saturday, October 28)

We arrived around 1:30 or so to board, and it proved to be the easiest boarding process ever -- far easier than Tim's previous two cruises. Rather than waiting in line for hours, it took us a mere 15 minutes to get processed and maybe 10 more to get through security. Easy as pie, and then we were already on the ship!

We went to our rooms to unpack (prematurely, as it turns out, since our boarding process was so fast that we beat our luggage), and Kevin bumped into our friend Julian -- who played Puck for our Midsummer Night's Dream fundraiser. This sort of thing would happen all week long (the day before we left, Kevin was still bumping into friends and co-workers we hadn't seen all week).

We then proceeded to explore the ship, kick-starting it with a round of top-shelf Long Island Ice Teas. And then it was time for the "Tiaras, Crowns & Scepters" bon voyage party (which were provided by RSVP, but we brought our own from the costume kitchen). At the bon voyage, Kevin bumped into our friends Jeremy and Alvin who were chatting with three boys who would become new friends: Mark, Zach, and Rick.

Kevin ended up missing the "early dining" and went to see the San Diego Gay Men's Chorus. He met back up with Tim later, but then decided to head off to the Day of the Dead Dance while Tim caught some of the other shows. At the dance, Kevin ran into his co-worker James David, on board to play escort to the gaggle of visiting journalists. Afterwards, they headed to the Skywalker Lounge to dance before calling it a night.

Here are some other pictures from that first day...

(More pictures from Day 1)

Day 2 - Sunday, October 29

Our first full day at sea, and still a few more days before Halloween.

After a leisurely room-service breakfast, it was time to catch the "LA Sports Center and 2(x)ist Fashion Show" where five cute boys hired by RSVP were modeling sportswear, swimwear, and underwear. As anyone who has seen Kevin's Flickr galleries knows, Kevin has quite the reputation for pushing his way to the front to get good pictures, and this time was no exception. No indeed.

Hundreds of pictures later, we headed back to do a swim in the indoor pool before freshening up before Jeremy and Alvin stopped by for dinner.

Alvin ended up getting a little inebriated and went to bed after dinner. Tim and Jonny went off to a cabaret show, so Kevin and Jeremy went together to the "Dungeons & Dragons Leather Party" with special guest porn star Roman Heart and an awesome performance by Abigail. Kevin chose to focus on the fantasy element rather than the leather side, and wore a beautiful (but ultimately a little annoying) black-and-gold dragon mask.

(More photos from Day 2)

Stay tuned for more blog entries covering days 3 through 7....