Life on Planet C.C.
Okay, you know what? Having way too much good television to watch is becoming a burden for more reasons than just that no one could ever make the time to watch all of it! It also cuts into time we could be doing other things, such as, say, reading a fucking book. Last night, I wanted to spend at least a little while reading my library copy of Atlas of Cities, which I have checked out once, renewed twice before having to return it to the library, and then checked out again, and just today had to renew it for the second time again. And this book, unlike Stay Sexy and Don't Get Murdered, which I also have checked out -- now with only 16 days remaining, and this book is far too new and popular to allow me to renew it even once -- is far too big and heavy for me to read while walking anywhere. So, I only can take it on buses occasionally, or read at home.
But, Shobhit and I are watching the current reboot season of Tales of the City on Netflix, and enjoying it a lot, even though it often really overshoots with its aims to depict queer life and queer people (as in, it's so overdone at times it's almost painfully corny). We watched last week's episode of Pose and then two episodes of Tales of the City, at which point I thought I was going to go read for a bit -- but the way the episode ended, I could not help but move on to the next one, which was easily the best one of the ten episodes this season. Damn it!
And that's not all. What else does spending so much time on TV shows prevent me from doing? Well, posting blog entries, for one -- or, as in the cast of yesterday's post about the Fremont Solstice Parade on Saturday, being able to write nearly as much as I'd like to in a given post. I had to leave for a movie yesterday and I literally had 17 minutes to write that post, which I did not want to have to wait to finish until after the movie, because once I got back I needed to write my review of the movie!
And, guess what? I did a bunch of other things besides the Solstice Parade this weekend too! It's still saving me time today not to have to write about the Solstice Parade, so I can tell you about the other stuff -- starting with Friday night: June Happy Hour with Laney, at a brand new Capitol Hill place on Pike and Harvard, called Life On Mars.
We usually do our Happy Hour on the first Friday of every month, but we had to postpone two weeks this month because a) Life on Mars was not yet open on June 7, and b) I was not available June 14 as that was Shobhit's and my anniversary.
And I will say, Life on Mars -- full of vinyl records brought over by former KEXP employees who started the place -- is a pretty cool joint. During Happy Hour you can browse their wall of LPs and choose something for them to play, something Laney and I did not bother doing, even though I kind of fantasized about finding a copy of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours. I kept forgetting it was also an all-vegan place, which was why I wanted to try one of their burgers, which was . . . honestly, it was just all right.
The thing is, though, that was probably the cheapest Happy Hour I have ever managed, both by design and through sheer luck -- and stellar customer service on their part. To be honest, I think they're a little unnecessarily pricey; plenty of their regular priced house cocktails are $14, and happy hour knocks all of $2 off that. A Happy Hour cocktail that costs $12, even if it's a house cocktail, seems like a little much.
But! The great part is, one single Happy Hour cocktail is all I paid for! Two reasons for this. First, I had a pre-made piña colada at home, which I drank pretty quickly during my 15 minutes at home to feed the cats and then head out again. I had three shots of rum in it, which has never given me a buss in a hot drink I made at home, but somehow that one, that day, had me quite buzzed before I even met up with Laney -- which was by design, but also overshot the mark a tad. The pineapple coconut rum based cocktail I was there was . . . well, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't worth twelve bucks, not by a long shot.
And then? Laney had her two Happy Hour appetizers she had nearly finished before we asked the waitress to see how much longer my burger would be. My burger came soon thereafter, and by the time the bill came, she comped it! I still gave a tip as though I had paid for it, which meant a $6 tip, and still my total bill barely fell short of $20, which was pretty amazing. Would I go back again? Maybe I would . . . Laney's sweet potato fries were astonishingly good, and it was weird both because I don't usually care for sweet potato fries, nor do I much care for barbeque sauce, but that house-made sauce with those fries, together, were quite good -- and that plate was only four bucks! I won't ever have the broccoli dish she also got, though, I don't care how cheap it is. (She paid $7 for it. And she has two beers.)
We did not spend as much time at Happy Hour as we often do when it's just the two of us. But, being the summer solstice and also a sunny day, she was still up for my suggestion that we go hang out at Cal Anderson Park for a little bit. So we found a bench and we did just that. Not for super long; I bet we were there somewhere between 30 and 45 minutes. It was still nice, chatting away, watching park goers play fetch with their dogs. And then she said she was really tired and so we parted ways and I walked back home.
That brings us to Saturday. Specifically, Saturday evening, because I already posted about the Fremont Solstice Parade.
I got a bit drunk. Actually, it would be more accurate to say I got pretty well buzzed -- and I didn't even intend to. But, I had gotten home from the Solstice Fair via the bus as Shobhit had gone to work, and I made myself a hot chocolate with two shots of rum and one shot of Bailey's in it. Mind you, that was the one and only drink I had on my agenda for the day at that point. Had I had any idea I'd be having more cocktails later that evening, I actually would not have made that one for myself at home at all.
I also had gotten a text from Gabriel right around 6:00, asking what I was up to that evening and if I wanted to go to CC's. Prior to that, he had texted me he was at the Seattle Men's Chorus show just prior to 2:00, so I knew he and Lea were downtown when I was transferring buses on my way home. By 6:00, I had posted all my Solstice photos, might have liked more time for some captioning but it was fine; I was all good with meeting up at CC's, which I decided to walk to. He had suggested 6:45 so I grabbed Stay Sexy and Don't Get Murdered to read on my twenty minute walk there when I left at about 6:25.
I was two blocks away from home when Gabriel called to tell me it would be closer to 7:00 because they still needed to get back to Lea's to walk her dog. I thought about going back home for a bit, then decided, fuck it, I'll just sit and read in Cal Anderson Park for a little while. I was about to walk right through there anyway. And then I spent a lot of time lusting after rather athletic young gay men playing volleyball, some of them in painfully sexy short shorts. One guy, a black guy, was wearing legging tights with no shorts over them, so his front pouch left little to the imagination.
It's always a little bit of a trip to see such things, queer guys who are young and self-actualized and engaging in sportsmanlike behavior of low-fives after plays or switching sides of the net, but also doing hi kicks with a slap between the thigh after an exciting play, like a cheerleader -- or, to put it in stereotypical terms but having no better way to describe it, running like girls. They were having a great time, getting a nice workout out of it, and by all appearances anyway, entirely unself-conscious. Particularly for their age, such a scenario would always have been entirely alien to me.
Anyway! Gabriel texted me at 7:12 that he was a "couple minutes away" and so I got up to walk the rest of the way to C.C. Attle's, and waited only a couple of minutes before he and Lea honked as they drove by up Olive Way, and I followed their car to their spot about two blocks away to meet them as they got out.
And then I proceeded to have a rather interesting, pleasant, and certainly unique evening, unlike my usual experience out at bars. It was unusually social, and I mean specifically for me personally. Honestly I think it was because everyone there was so friendly, largely enhanced by the fact that Joshua, whose boyfriend is in the chorus, is Lea's longtime BFF -- like, since they were 12. One year older than when Danielle and I met! Joshua is far more flamboyant than I am, although to be fair he and Gabriel both commented on how much more outgoing he was being than usual, apparently because he was drinking.
Anyway. I had an experience of an evening out drinking that I would typically assume to be far more normal for a much younger gay man than I, but then, who knows? I don't go out to bars often enough to speak on it with any authority. In any case, that evening certainly did nothing to dampen my already-well-developed self-esteem: I had two drinks, both of them paid for me (by two different people, one by Lea and one by Joshua); one 33-year-old gay man (Joshua) lavished compliments on my skin and wanted to know what I do with it, which actually isn’t a lot; one 28-year-old gay man (Joshua's boyfriend, Darren) lavished compliments on my "beautiful" hair -- something I don't get near as often as I used to when it was much longer; and yet a third gay guy, a friend from the group whose name I forget but I'll just assume is either in his late twenties or early thirties, went on about my eyes. In that last example, he was like, "Do you know how beautiful your eyes are!" and I was like, "Yes. But thank you!"
And all of that was after I ran into Mitch, who I used to sing with at the Seattle Lesbian and Gay Chorus, the moment we walked in! It had been so long since I last saw him (well, two years; turns out he had been at the SLGC Chorus Family Reunion Picnic two summers ago and I forgot) that I didn't recognize him at first. He has apparently been singing with the Seattle Men's Chorus for ten years, since 2019, having started two years after SLGC finally disbanded in 2007. Gabriel keeps thinking I used to sing for the Men's Chorus, which is an easy mistake for someone who isn't familiar with our local "queer chorus history" so it's really not his fault -- especially considering SLGC itself hasn't even existed for 12 years now. Darren later spent a few minutes trying to convince me to join, and I was basically like, "Yeah thanks, but nope!"
Anyway, everyone there was very kind and friendly and fun and honestly made me feel very comfortable and pretty well at east, which is always nice. I got a pretty good buzz going after two cocktails I didn't even have to pay for. (I really kind of made out like a bandit this weekend, didn't I?) A lot of people from the Men's Chorus were there -- albeit a fraction of the huge number who actually sing in it -- and there were several trans people present, who Gabriel loves to talk to because of Tess, and he had been deeply moved by a solo sung by a trans woman in the show.
There were also TV monitors everywhere showing slide shows of guys with their cocks out -- a pretty old-school practice of gay bars that older ones like C.C. Attle's (and The Cuff) still do. Gabriel commented on it a lot. It was kind of funny to me, because after seeing the nude cyclists at the Solstice Parade, I had already seen far more cock in Fremont earlier in the day. Granted, most of those were much smaller, with perhaps some "shrinkage" due to the chilly weather. But still! I saw a lot of cock on Saturday.
Shobhit got off work that night at 10:15, and had a little bit of frustration when he decided to come and pick me up. There was a short period before he arrived where I was kind of feeling done with the large group setting, and knowing Shobhit was on his way, I tried to tell Gabriel I was going to leave. "Five minutes," he said, which in the Gabriel Glossary means at least fifteen minutes . . . once Shobhit finally did arrive and I kind of just shot out of there, one I overheard someone say something like, "He's ready to go I guess!"
Gabriel came out to give me a hug and he even leaned into the car to give Shobhit one -- which is a pretty good indicator of how drunk he was. Gabriel has a seriously high tolerance for alcohol so that was unusual. Shobhit was pleased to hear me tell him Lea had asked him for the keys, and he gave them to her. (Gabriel and Shobhit may have a contentious history, but Shobhit still has concern for his safety.) I then told Shobhit that Lea had suggested maybe going to get some pizza, and somewhat to my surprise, Shobhit was totally open to this idea.
We drove home, and I both texted and tried to call Gabriel to ask about meeting for pizza. Gabriel called me back almost instantly and said they were headed for Pagliacci Pizza on Broadway. He balked a little at my saying it would take us twenty minutes to walk there, but we still went, and I don't think they had actually been there too long when we arrived anyway.
It was just the two of them; Joshua and Darren had evidently stayed behind. I wouldn't mind hanging out with those guys again sometime though, they were cool and made a nice first impression. (And not just because they complimented my looks so much!) Shobhit had been told by a Pagliacci Pizza employee at his work, I think at Total Wine, that he should try this seasonal pizza they have right now with caramelized onion and gorgonzola cheese on it, and they did not have it by the slice and so he just bought a large pizza, and shared it with Gabriel and Lea. I usually think Pagliacci is wildly overrated, but this pizza, holy fuck was it delicious.
And we actually had a pretty good time just the four of us at pizza too. Gabriel probably will be seeking out this entry just to see how much I might have talked shit about him. I think it's been okay though, don't you? We all had a nice time! Even Shobhit, who can sometimes have a real stick up his ass! He really didn't on Saturday though, and Gabriel was rather appreciative of the pizza. Also! Lea officially invited us to view the 4th of July fireworks from her place! Now I'm really excited -- it took a herculean effort for me to reign in my usual level of tackiness and not basically invite myself the moment I walked into that place. And this will be the last chance: Gabriel and Lea are moving into a place in Columbia City in August! Considering Gabriel's love of Tacoma and the fact that he works in Tacoma, I keep thinking about this, and . . . I have questions. I mean, selfishly this works spectacularly for me (apparently they will be very close to the Light Rail station, which may potentially make it much easier for me to see them more often), but I still have questions. I need to understand! So I should call him soon, or something.
What else? I guess I could tell you about yesterday, though there's not nearly as much to tell about it. I did have to content with pretty notable hangover grossness well into mid-afternoon, which sucked and makes me really want to actively avoid getting drunk anymore -- even sticking to one kind of liquor, in this case rum, did not seem to make a difference. Although maybe it did make a difference that I had also just gotten pretty buzzed just the night before, and maybe I should start avoiding heavy drinking two nights in a row. In any event, I get hangovers way more than I used to and they don't seem particularly worth it. I'm not going to stop drinking, but I need to get more conscientious about it.
I took the bus to the Uptown Theatre on Lower Queen Anne to see The Last Black Man in San Francisco, and it was very, very good -- easily top five of the year so far, for me. I wish it were directed by a black person, but whatever, I guess; the director and the star, who is a black man, grew up together in San Francisco, and they wrote the story together, and I suppose that makes some difference. I do want to seek out black critics and see whether they like it as much as the otherwise incredibly high overall critical consensus has been.
My movie ended about half an hour before Shobhit got off work, so I just walked down to Elliott Avenue so he could pick me up on his way home. I wrote the movie review, and then, as I already said at the start of this post, we spent the rest of the evening watching TV. I also made some pretty good chai.
[posted 12:31 pm]