I can't really think of a better shot I could have gotten than the above photo for "Capitol Hill Pride Festival 2020." I'm not calling this one "Virtual Capitol Hill Pride" only because this time when I went for a walk to see what Pride related shots I could still get from storefronts up and down Broadway even as the traditional "Festival" was not actually happening there this year, it still yielded a good 18 shots—not the smallest number of in-person shots I have ever gotten along Broadway the day before Pride Sunday, but close: I only got 19 shots in 2012.

But, of course, there was plenty of virtual, online content all day yesterday, from which I got another 19 shots, taking the full photo album for the day to 37 shots, putting it square in the middle if I were to rank each year's Capitol Hill Pride Festival photo albums by number of shots. Given the circumstances this year, I say that's not half bad.

And? I actually rather enjoyed a lot of the stuff I found online. It's a bummer that the number of viewers online has always been but a tiny fraction of the crowds we would be seeing on the streets under normal circumstances, but that's okay. I'll take what I can get.

It was interesting to see the "hosts" start off the online festivities, shared by Pride Festival Egan Orion, and who I used to know back in the 2001 Seattle Gay Standard days as local drag queen Gaysha Starr—who came out as straight-up trans within the first several minutes of hostinng, apparently a decision made just within the past couple of years.

Okay, so this is semi-cheating, but I did get on FaceTime briefly with Gabriel yesterday while I was watching the fantastic iHeart Radio special Can't Cancel Pride, and we also exchanged several texts during it . . . so, I'm giving him a Social Review point for it. He'd have gotten one for Pride Weekend at least twice under normal circumstances anyway, so I consider it fair. (Shobhit won't be getting any, for two reasons: one, he's had work shifts every day this weekend; and two, he has had no interest in watching any of the online Pride stuff, no doubt in large part due to knowing there would be no hot guys dancing in their underwear like we usually get to see during the Pride Parade.)

I got very excited at the end of that iHeart Radio special, as it included a reunion performance featuring lots of past cast members of Hedwig and the Angry Inch—my third-favorite movie of all time. Gabriel had to text me a photo of the concert T-shirt he was wearing from when he and Lea had gone to see a John Cameron Mitchell concert at the Moore Theater, which featured many songs from that play/movie. The T-shirt had Hedwig standng in the Statue of Liberty pose holding a heart, and I was amazed he happened to be wearing that shirt when I texted him about it.

Anyway. Aside from that walk up and down Broadway, which I'm really glad I did—and people on social media who don't live as close as I do were glad too—I spent most of my time yesterday while Shobhit was at work watching the virtual Pride Festival programming, or the aforementioned special. Once Shobhit got home, he ate some of the ravioli I made for dinner and we watched a few episodes of Designing Women on Hulu.

[posted 4:24 pm]