WASHINGTON
Without a doubt,
gay Washington's center of gravity, and the hottest
new neighborhood in the American capital. Massive amounts
of development capital, backed by the spending power
of hundreds of re-settling gays on the move east from
Dupont Circle, have dotted the landscape with cranes.
Only a few years before Kevin, Sean and Matt arrived,
this neighborhood was a crumbling ruin. Today, it is
alive with a vibrant hum, and a bubbling sense of hipness
and glamour yet to be defined. When the cranes and the
trucks are gone, its full face will be visible. But
right now, there is only anticipation and hope.
Home
to: Kevin, Sean, Madison, David, Eric, Jason, Coco,
Ran & Jeff, Ken, Clancy and Pongo. (Matt moved away
in 2005)
Locales:
Halo,
Crescent
Tower, Lizard
Lounge, Titan,
The
BP Station, "2F04",
The Fried Fish Market [aka The Hovel], The
Green Lantern, Whole
Foods, SoLo
Piazza, Helix,
The Starbucks on P Street, Thai
Tanic, Rice,
Vegas
Lounge.
17th
Street The disputed
territory
Formerly the
rich heartland of an exclusively gay enclave in the
Dupont Circle neighborhood known to realtors as "East
Dupont," it is now disputed territory. Since
the late 1990's, gays have been decamping to the eastern
lands of Logan Circle, selling their drastically marked-up
condos and houses to willing heterosexual dupes. But
this demographic shift led to a clear territorial demarcation
right down the center of 17th Street, N.W. The western
side is largely residential, the edge of the swelling
heterosexual settlements. The eastern side is still
home to a strip of bars and restaurants where gays still
have the edge in numbers, but the foot traffic is approaching
a Sarajevo of orientational diversity. This is why the
Logan Circle gays, safe in their undisputed kingdom
to the east, claim the commercial side of this strip
and all lands east to 15th Street as "West Logan."
Locales: Cobalt,
JR's
Bar "and Grill", Club
Chaos, Universal
Gear (aka Uggi).
Georgetown
The old girl, who's still
got it
Where the great
Washington gay migration began, back in the 1950's.
The pulpy-but-notorious book, Washington Confidential,
described this tony enclave as "the bohemian colony
for every kind of pervert, subversive and deviant"
back in the day when gays made it their ghetto. And
in true form, the gays prettied up the place, marked
up the houses and sold them on to young, socially rising
heterosexual couples. Like the Kennedys. The gays then
packed up and migrated east to Dupont Circle in the
1960s, slowly turning it from hippie redoubt to fabulous
1980s guppie expensive. Georgetown is now bling-bling-central
for all sorts of odd heterosexual perverts, subversives
and deviants (all quite rich and flamboyant like their
gay forefathers), and the only gays you'll catch walking
around here are either going to meet their gorgeous
straight friends for a quiet dinner, or are shopping
along Wisconsin Avenue or M Street in the afternoon.
The new, wonderful Loew's googleplex theaters are also
a draw, but they are suitably tucked under the Whitehurst
Freeway, allowing for quick entries and exits from K
Street for the Logan Circle tribe.
Home to: Lulu
Locales: Cafe
Milano, Zara, Paolo's, Diesel, Ilo
The
Hinterlands Everything
else in Washington and environs
While there
are many interesting neighborhoods all over D.C. --
like the up-and-coming U Street corridor, Adams Morgan,
Bloomingdale, Penn Quarter, Capitol Hill, and the Navy
Yard (aka the Naughty Region)-- not to mention the suburbs
like Arlington and Alexandria over in that Dixie state
-- they
really are all truly far outside the Logan Circle orbit.
Even Nation seems unworthy of the long trek out there
-- especially because it all too often resembles a musical
production of "Night of the Living Dead."
The denizens of the gay ghetto often find themselves
short of breath if they travel to The Hinterlands for
too long at a stretch, and must scurry back in time
to recoup.Nothing person - it's a medical issue.
Home to: Dane [Arlington],
Roy [Penn Quarter], Chuck & Dirty (Adams Morgan),
Elaine (West End), John (Falls Church), Pyewacket (Falls
Church),
Locales: Apex,
The
Monuments, Nation,
The
Naughty Region,
PARIS
While official
Washington and official Paris can't stand to be in the
same room together, the social significance of Paris is
inviolate to politics. The DJ booths of Queen, Home Deluxe,
Be Lounge and Buddha Bar know no border, boundaries or
ethnicity. The universal language of Paris is music, the
kind of music that brings people from all over the world
together onto the dance floors. It's music from Dmitri
of Paris, from Kevin Aviance and Didier Sinclair, from
Gonzalo, Michael Marx and DJ Gregory. With all the talent
of the business, whether they make their "residence"
in London, Miami, Ibiza or Rome -- and for the clubbers
that worship them -- the vibrant love of joy on the floors
of Paris, and the beauty of the crowds, is too irresistible.
Home
to: Steve - and his beloved circle of friends.
Frequenters:
Kevin, Lulu, Roy, Eric, Claudia, Sean, John, Dane &
Elaine.
Locales:
Confession, Be,
Queen,
Open Cafe, Follow Me, La Scene, Les Baines, Amnesia,
5 Rue Bouchardon, Tropic Cafe, Le Cab, Home
Deluxe, Buddha
Bar, CDG,
Printemps
de l'Homme, FNAC
SÃO PAULO
While Rio steals
the beach traffic, one is reminded that there isn't much
more to Rio than the beach. Sampa has everything else.
For Kevin, this city is the perfect mix of business and
pleasure, as he and his sidekick, Claudia, engage in healthy
doses of both every chance they get. Sean and Dane have
sampled the pleasures of Sampa shopping, clubbing and
dining -- and a bit of the social scene in the biggest
and most vibrant city in South America. But alas, they
had to be lured down with a promise of beaching it up
in Ipanema, a 30-minute shuttle flight away. No matter,
Kevin is content to keep this city as his little secret.
He and Claudia find themselves confined mostly to the
"bubble" of Jardins, where everything is happening,
and where club-hopping is matched only by the helipad-hopping.
Home
to: Claudia.
Frequenters:
Kevin, Dane, Sean, Roy, Eric
Locales:
Ultralounge,
Cristallo, Skye-Hotel
Unique, Suplicy Cafes Especias, Forum-
Oscar Freire, Tatou, Emiliano,
Fasano,
Ritz, D-Edge,
Ellus
Second Floor, The
Week
NEW YORK
Washingtonians
tend to be from other places. (And some Senators who are
really Washingtonians tend to get elected from places
they don't really live in, but that's another story...)
Many of the Club Whirled gang are from New York -- Kevin,
Dirty and Ran, for example. A common exodus over the years
has been the Long Island-to-D.C.-for-college migration.
Those who stay in Washington tend to lose their accents
eventually -- but a New Yorker never really LOSES the
accent. It just comes out when angry (Kevin) or drunk
(Dirty) or both (Ran). Interestingly though, despite its
proximity, the original Metropolis hasn't been so super
for this crowd in recent years. The drug scene has pretty
much killed the party circuit up there, and a lack of
vibrant originality pervades all but the boutiques and
the music stores. The most frequent outlet lately has
been exercising the show queen in all of us -- therefore,
most of the Club Whirled crowd tends to park their keesters
at the W Times Square to be near the foot lights.
But then again....
Since Matt and Christopher
very suddenly met, decamped to Manhattan, got married
and settled down in a single-digit of months (talk about
a whirl!) things have really changed in the dynamic of
New York. Alas, it's the city that renews itself more
often than a web-porn subscription, and still the home
of winged hearts and high-flying dreams.
Home to: Matt and Christopher
Frequenters: Sean, Dane,
Kevin, Chuck & Dirty, Elaine, Roy, Ken, John
Locales:
W Times Square,
Broadway, hopefully new and interesting places will be
added soon...once they appear.
BRUSSELS
Sure, it's a lovely,
quaint city. Not much larger than Washington in scale,
but older, grander and more floral in the summertime.
But let's face it -- we don't go there for the chocolates
and the Catholicism. We go to Brussels for La Demence
-- a "bank holiday" party at Fuse, where a lovely
cross-section of Belgian, Flemish, Dutch, French, English
and German boys gather to dance till noon, travel the
many layers of trancedom, and float gently to their rooms
at the Royal Windsor to crash. Americans are a scarce
element there - it makes it all the more interesting (and
like the rest of Europe, more or less, Tina
is a very unwelcome guest - bravissimo!). It is one of
the few regular parties in the world that has a very serious
DJ program, with real shifts in style from anthems to
trance to deeeeeep house to chill-out. The 3am-6am program
by DJ Wild is a signature of the party. Steve introduced
Kevin to La Demence in August 2002, and he spread the
love by bringing Lulu, Roy, Eric and Bryan in March 2003.
It is a frequent destination for the hardcore Parisian
clubbers who haven't quite had enough fun on New Year's
Eve -- as La Demence doesn't celebrate the new year until
the evening of January 1.
Frequenters:
Steve, Kevin, Lulu, Eric, Roy
Locales:
La
Demence, Royal
Windsor Hotel, Brussels-Midi,
BRU
REHOBOTH
BEACH
"WHAT HAPPENS
ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BRIDGE...STAYS ON THE OTHER SIDE
OF THE BRIDGE."
For a town as
notoriously stuffed-shirted as Washington (at least on
the surface), there must be a refuge like Rehoboth Beach
or the whole town would just go postal. A cute and quaint
beach community that is now largely ruled by the gays
of Washington and Philadelphia, Rehoboth is where many
a summer is passed. It is also where the infamous Heather
House once was -- the beach house shared by Kevin, Sean,
Dane, Lulu, Eric and Clancy, and visited many times by
Matt, Chuck, Dirty, John, Roy, Ken, David, Sasha and Elaine.
The house, on Scarborough, was a short walk to David's
house on 6th. But Heather House died peacefully in 2004
when its owner finally sold her, and the group found themselves
at the doorstep of 5 Prospect, with their refugee-bundles
under their arms, looking for asylum only steps away from
Poodle Beach.
Rehoboth will always be there, and it will always be Washington's
discreet playground.
Frequenters: All the Washingtonians
Locales:
Blue
Moon, Crowd
9, the
Atlantic Ocean
PITTSBURGH
The British and French
duked it out here, in the late eighteenth century. The
triumvirate of any modern economy – the steel, coal,
and ketchup industries – made their fortunes here.
Andy Warhol developed his art here, before emigrating
to Manhattan. Jennifer Beals flashdanced her way through
here. And now “Queer as Folk” films its fiction
here, presenting a world that is scarcely recognizable
to the locals. (George Romero’s films are a much
better reference point.) Today, Pittsburgh is clean and
green, anchored by 3 rivers and 3 major universities,
and is in the midst of its latest renaissance. Will this
latest rebirth bring young people back to the ‘burgh
or will the erosion of its tax base bring total collapse
in another dawn
of the dead?
Birthplace of: Dane,
Sean, Steve
Locales: Warhol
Museum, Liberty
Avenue (the real, quite unglamorous one), True,
Duquesne, CMU, Monroeville
Mall
RIO de JANEIRO
It lives up to
its global reputation for natural beauty -- one of the
most luscious urban beach scenes on Earth. But beyond
the perimeter of the shoreline, Rio can be a sad and awful
place. But luckily, we don't ever see much of that, nor
would we be too welcome to those parts of town. Copacabana
is as faded as Lola the Showgirl, and unbearably straight,
right down to the pushy hookers. Ipanema is still a glorious
gay reserve, more residential and more friendly. The restaurants
are getting better all the time, and the word has arrived
that Phillippe Starck will build a second FAENA right
in the middle of gay central, like his
masterpiece in Buenos Aires. God love that man - we
will finally have a palace of our own to visit.
Frequenters: Claudia,
Kevin, Dane, Sean, Roy, Steve
Locales:
Gero,
Le
Boy, Galeria, Pao
de Acucar, Ipanema,
Caesar
Park, Rio
Sul, SDA
BALTIMORE
The oft-maligned
capital of camp, Baltimore is often referred to as the
Paris of White Trash America. Its proximity makes for
the occasional humorous jaunt, especially to listen to
the old ladies yell at each other in discount stores and
greasy-spoon diners. There was a small migration of real-estate-seeking
Washingtonians a few years back -- but the utter horror
that is Baltimore's nightlife was enough of a motivation
to pull up stakes and return in shame. Dane planned Kevin's
birthday celebration in 2004 as a group jaunt to this
quaint harbor town (joined by Sean, John, Roy, David,
Lulu, Ken and Eric), and the hilarious encounter with
a threesome of Baltimore gay boys who found everything
"faaaaaaaaaascinating" and drank whiskey from
the minibar bottles, made for a memorable weekend. The
proximity of Baltimore also makes it easier for everyone
to see Sasha on the weekends. Smart boy -- he does the
social commute.
Home
to: Sasha, John Waters
Frequenters:
John
Locales:
Fells
Point
BUENOS AIRES
Ever since the
Perons conquered this city, it has had a kind of ravishing
glamour. It lives up to its billing as a European city
in America - the architecture, the laid-back attitudes,
the beautiful people and the sense of frisky fun at all
hours. Yet, it will always be the place where a simple
woman from the sticks became a queen. So naturally, every
red blooded American gay boy wants a shot at the crown,
too.
Frequenters:
Claudia, Kevin, Dane
Locales:
ArtSuites,
Sucre,
Bar
Uriarte, Faena
(aka Heaven on Earth), Goddess,
Casa
Rosada, Four
Seasons, Museo
Evita
