Philly Outfest 2011

I had always heard that once you got a bunch of gays or lesbians in large group there will always be some sort of trouble breaking out, but I had never seen it. I thought that was just one of those urban myths that hear about like the existence of Big Foot, or alligators living on the sewers of New York City, or Herman Cain having a chance in hell of becoming President.

You can imagine my surprise when at the Philly Outfest this year not only did I witness gang loads of police rushing into places that I was unable to follow them into, but I saw fights break out between girls on a day that was supposed to celebrating peace and love for all.

The whole purpose of National Coming Out Day is more than an excuse to shake your money maker in public and show those who are lesbian gay bi-sexual trans-gender people, but that the LGBT community is one that consists of people that you know, that you do business with, that are members of your own family. It's a recognition that they are us and that we are you.

October 11th was chosen for NCOD because that was the date of the second demonstration and march in Washington DC in 1986 for lesbian and gay rights which really is a misnomer because those rights are really no different form the rights that many non-gays and lesbians already have.

Anyway, in Philadelphia this day is celebrated as the Philly Outfest, a block party that is always held on the Sunday closest to the 11th in what is known as the Gayborhood. They say that it's the largest event of this kind in the world and that close to 40,000 people attended this year. But you know what people say and what things really are can be two different things.

Here now are some pictures from last Sunday's events.

"Play la Marsellaise. Play it!"

Paris is one of Philadelphia’s sister cities. I’m not sure what that means other than it has the Rodin Museum which has the largest public collection of artwork produced by August Rodin outside of Paris and that it has an excuse to do quirky little things that represent that bond.

One of those things is to do a re-enactment of the storming of the Bastille which was a castle turned prison where they kept a few people behind bars. The prison was overrun by the people in Paris back at the start of the French Revolution, the prisoners were released and the building torn down. Philadelphia relives this event by having actors invade, the now defunct, Eastern State Penitentiary on the weekend before or after Bastille Day.

Eastern State, if you remember is the first state penitentiary in the United States and is the one during the 30’s that kept gangster Al Capone for a few months and bank robber "Slick" Willie Sutton for 11 years not including the time that he spent on the outside after he tunneled his way to escape. But he was gone for only about 30 or 40 minutes so it doesn’t really count. Willie is also the one incorrectly known as the man who said when asked why he robbed banks, “Because that’s where the money is.”

Anyway during this year’s re-enactment of the Bastille, they had an actress on top of the ramparts of the prison play the role of the Marie Antoinette. From there she tossed free Tastykakes to the crowd below apparently referencing the “Let them eat cake” quote that the queen is supposed to have made when told that the people didn’t have bread to eat.

I didn’t attend this year’s performance because it was raining all day and plus I think it’s kind or corny. What I should have done instead was to rent or maybe even have bought a copy of my favorite movie Casablanca to celebrate Bastille Day. There is nothing that makes you feel more alive and free and maybe even want to fight Nazi tyranny than when Rick allows a resounding rendition of the Marsellaise to be played in his club, unless of course you happen to be female, Arabic and have a certain religious penchant about clothing. But then again which country is it that you know that doesn’t have flaws somewhere?

Vive la France!

Folsom Street East 2010

So I was at the Folsom Street East street festival in New York this weekend where I took a whole bunch of pictures. I realized two things, one of which was that I think that I have grown out of my camera. Sure some of the pictures are okay but I think I could do better with a better camera that shoots and focuses faster and captures the images with more pixel information in them that I want to see and not just the ones that I'm left with.

The other thing that I realized was that I wondered when was or is the appropriate age to hang all of this fetish thing up. Apparently for some like my friend below, not too soon. I wonder if I'll ever be that way?

Maybe, I'll post more pictures later.

Fire Island Invasion 2009

On Friday at around 4pm I was at Independence Mall in Philadelphia. There was, as some people may call it, a protest rally by some black owned construction companies. They were demanding that more construction work be opened for black people in the city. They said that the President’s House that George Washington lived in before the White House was built and which John Adams moved into, should be reconstructed on the mall with black labor at the exclusion of others since the first house would have been originally built with slave labor. All very interesting I thought, but not quite the spirit of “Brotherly Love” the city is supposed to have especially when we were supposed to be celebrating the birth of the nation in the city that it all began. I decided to go my gym and come back later for the concert that was being held on the mall with Peter Nero and the Philly Pops.

I did go back and since I had my video camera I shot a few scenes of the Pop’s version of the theme from ET and something from Benny Goodman. Then when they started playing “When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again” it was time for me to go home before the South started to rise again. Plus I knew that I would have to get up early to celebrate July 4th, the next day, not by coming back to the mall to listen to speeches or thinking of the Founding Fathers or heading to someone’s horrible barbeque, but to where I seem to go every year now, Fire Island.

The story is that back in 1976 a few drag queens were refused service from a bar in the Pines on Fire Island. The men went back to Cherry Grove on another part of the island and with their friends on the day the country was celebrating the bi-centennial anniversary for independence, they boarded a boat and invaded the Pines in full drag regalia. They and others have been doing that every year since then and organized by Panzi in the yellow. It has become known as the Fire Island Invasion of the Pines.

I have been going for the last 5 or 6 years and I wish I could say that I have been in costume, but I haven’t worn mother’s wig and pearls since I was about 8 and never in public. Usually I just head to the beach, strip down and relax. This time however because of the mass of people this year they ran out of room on the ferry that I usually take so I arrived at Cherry Grove at around 1pm just as the revelers were about to leave the Grove for the Pines. I decided to shoot this video with too much wind noise going on and to steal some pictures from flickr.com and some of the music from Priscilla Queen of the Desert.

I hope you enjoy it just as much as hope you enjoyed your weekend as I did mine.

Philly Outfest 2008

I guess it's too late to say that it's the end of summer since it's now the middle of October, but for me National Coming Out Day, which is celebrated by the Outfest Festival in Philadelphia, always signals the start of fall. The nights start earlier and earlier and there is a chill in the air after 6pm that makes you wonder why you didn't come out with a jacket like your mother used to tell you to when you were young.

This year I wasn't sure that I was going to go, but it was time for a post and I couldn't finish anything that I had started writing. Showing pictures seemed like it would be so much easier. No syntax or logic of argument, or lack of logic to think about. Did you read the one about McCain and Palin that I wrote about? What was I smoking?

Anyway, I showed up late as usual. I never want too eager or too early and the thing be a dud, that could ruin the whole day. Best to show up late for the last hour and let anyone who is left see you there and then head for the nearest bar, restaurant, club or in my case home. It's all about meeting people and hanging out with old friends anyway. A sort of "game show" for the streets. The one where you run into someone after such a long time, pretend that it's great fun to see them and then walk away thinking that you hope you won't see them again for at least another year.

So they had the ususal fare there. Drag queens on stage performing, dull women singing, other people selling unwanted chachke from their stalls and spectators reaching up to see what was real or not.

I even saw a few people there that I knew. I ran into Curtis and a friend of his. I don't think that he's talking to me. I think I upset him when he insisted on my opinion on something and I answered him. A mistake he probably won't do again lightly. I'll figure out a way to make it up to him, later perhaps.

The rest were just people that I know slightly or seen before including my favorite criminal suspect. I suppose that if you can recognize who I am speaking about, you will probably assume that he must be the good twin because I belive the evil one still has not made bail yet and is still a guest of the state and I can't really tell them apart. Does jail mean that you are a guest of the city and not the state? I don't know.

Philly's Caribbean Fest 2008

When started this blog I never meant for it to be about my own personal escapades. I didn't want to do a diary or daily journal of my life, it would be too humdrum for even me to read. Neither was the blog to be a personal photo essay journal with pictures trying to make me look like I was trying to resurrect Life magazine. Does anyone remember Life magazine? But somehow I seem to be getting that feel.

Well anyway, I went to the Caribbean Fest last weekend at Penns Landing. It was the first time that I had ever done that. I had always missed it or even avoided it because it had no interests for me. But last weekend I had nothing to do and I found I found no reason to stay at home and do nothing there like I usually do in that situation.

I didn't stay for the whole event, and I'm not sure that I even enjoyed myself as much as I hoped I would, but my friend Curtis had said that the whole thing wouldn't be to bad so I took some pictures of the day.

I think that I might have been disappointed because of the heavily Jamaican theme going on and the lack of representation from many of the other Caribbean nations that would have made it more multi-cultural in nature. Plus there seemed to be a lack of cohesion with the stage acts and the other things that were being sold or were being given away around it. It kind of made me feel disjointed and disorganized.

All that being said, here is what I saw.