02/07/10
MRNY Interview :: DJ Boris
New York, NY


 
A few years ago in New York, there began appearing all over the city, on t-shirts and hats, on video screens and subway platforms, the three-word phrase: Believe in Boris. The ubiquity of the sentiment was a testament to the immense popularity of the resident deejay of the city’s largest nightclub, Crobar (now M2), who, for the three-year duration of his residency, regularly filled the 30,000 square foot club every weekend.
  
[READ]

01/31/10
Miss’d America Stalks the Boardwalk
Atlantic City, New Jersey


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT
As with awards' telecasts, beauty pageants can be a long slog through stage patter, swimsuit malfunctions, broken heels, and fire baton twirling—and yet, if an audience is lucky, there is sometimes one talent number that galvanizes the crowd into a spontaneous eruption of wild cheers and fanatical applause. Such was the case on Saturday night at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City as Miss'd America pageant contestant Michelle Dupree took the stage and delivered a knock-em-dead, eleven o'clock number channeling the spirits of Ethel, Ella, Judy, and Josephine that had the audience immediately on its feet with near-universal consensus of the night's most electrifying performance and ultimate winner.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

01/10/10
Smooth Cruising :: 747SL
Simyone Lounge, New York City


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

With skillful aplomb, Josh Wood Airlines brought its 747 groove jet in for a picture-perfect smooth landing at Simyone Lounge (formerly Lotus) in the Meatpacking District—and the sexy Sunday night bash tore up the place on its opening night. That’s right: the floorboards literally came unglued as birthday boy DJ/producer Hector Fonseca threw down a rambunctiously infectious set while lissome opener Miami-native DJ Theresa provided live percussion on her bongos.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

12/31/09
Sexy Class: The Black and White Ball
Chelsea Art Museum, New York City


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

It was forty-three years ago that the crème de la crème of New York society turned out for the legendary Black and White Ball thrown by Truman Capote at the Plaza Hotel, a party that became known as “the party of the century.” Well, guess what—we’re in a new century now, and the New Year’s Eve Black and White Ball at the Chelsea Art Museum, produced by Josh Wood, Tony Fornabaio and Brandon Voss, the powerhouse triumvirate behind the recent resurgence of New York nightlife, proved that there’s a whole new pack of sexy A-listers who know how to carouse with as much panache and élan as anyone on Truman’s guest list.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

12/27/09
Alegria New Year’s Holiday
M2, New York City


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

Due to heightened security concerns in the US, Santa’s sleigh couldn’t make it to Alegria to deliver the décor—but in the end, what did it matter? As we’ve all learned in a miserable economy, what are a few less presents under the tree when we’re surrounded by family? As it was, Alegria New Year’s Holiday delivered a streamlined, sleek package of a party that showcased the latest sounds in the evolution of the musical maestros DJs Tony Moran and Abel.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

11/29/09
White Party 25 :: Heat Wave Pool Party
National Hotel, Miami Beach, Fl


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

Like an underwear fashion shoot for over 600 nubile hunks, White Party’s Heat Wave Pool Party at the historic National Hotel was every pool fantasy come to life. Clear the sky of clouds, kick the mercury to eighty—and toss in two dozen litters of playful boy puppies—and you’ve got fun in the sun all afternoon. With DJ Joe G. working the tables, sending out groove-licious summer beats, Heat Wave Pool Party was the porno remake of “Where the Boys Are”—and they were everywhere. Boyz and porn stars, sipping cocktails and batting beach balls and generally behaving as if life were an endless summer vacation. White Party sponsor O.N.E. (that delicious coconut, electrolyte-loaded elixir) handed out beach towels, while calendar models and cover boys mingled with local power peeps and glamoristas—making it, in truth, just another glorious day in Paradise, also known as Miami Beach.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

11/29/09
White Party 25 :: Muscle Beach Christmas
12th Street Beach, Miami Beach, Fl


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

From a distance, it looked as if a heavily-garlanded, gargantuan Christmas tree had dropped from space and exploded in the middle of 12th Street Beach. Crimson-and-gold ornaments dangled beneath flapping yellow banners and strings of lights, all swaying above a mass of gold-flecked muscle gods. It was Christmas on Muscle Beach and DJ Oren Nizri was Santa Claus, promising “I’m Gonna Sex You Up”—as if the sea of Santa’s helpers needed any persuasion.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

11/27/09
White Party 25 :: White Dreams
Club Space, Miami, Fl


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

With its big tent sound and funhouse feel, Miami’s club Space has always been a circus—and never more so than when host Flavio Nisti serves it up as ringleader for the night ahead. This year’s version of White Party week’s White Dreams was akin to Cirque de Soleil on a Miami vacation—with every sort of contortion and configuration on show before night’s end.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

11/28/09
White Party 25 :: The Silver Jubilee
Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, Miami, Fl


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

Like a film co-directed by Fellini and Pasolini, a twilight pastoral of silver-tongued decorum and orgiastic excess, White Party at Vizcaya has always been a fantasy-fueled evening limned by an elegiac escapism. For one thing, there’s the setting: a lushly-landscaped, thirty-acre Italian Renaissance-styled villa on Biscayne Bay. And then there are the guests: nearly two thousand visions in white, from centaurs and satyrs to angels and admirals, hustlers and hos—all wandering the formal gardens, sipping cocktails and champagne, beneath a nearly-full silvery moon.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

11/23/09
White Party 25 :: An Interview with Elaine
Lancaster, Chyna, and Kitty Meow


                                                                      
Certainly one of the most ground-breaking print ads to emerge in the history of American advertising was Bacardi's "Tom, Dick, and Harry By Day" campaign, starring drag divas Chyna, Kitty Meow, and Fantasy in a full-page national spread that brought the three gender-bending performance artists into mass America's living rooms-and sealed their position at the pinnacle of the circuit world's entertainers.
  
[READ]

11/13/09
The Taj Mahal, a Disco Ball
Trump Taj Mahal, Atlantic City, Nj


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

When the emcee at the Disco Ball at Trump Taj Mahal asks the audience for a hometown shout-out—and the largest cheers are for the boroughs of New York, it’s suddenly clear that Atlantic City must be doing something right to fill a 5,000-person arena on a Saturday night in November. In other words, the fabled Absecon Island resort, home to the biggest entertainment complexes on the East Coast, keeps on luring New Yorkers to its shores for a weekend of indulgent hedonism.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

11/01/09
The Eyes of Genius: Alegria Halloween
M2, New York City


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

They had their marathon—and we had ours—and let’s all admit it right now: the circuit marathon is a helluva lot more fun and fabulous than running 26 miles from Staten Island. Why? Because, number one, we were dancing for 26 miles—and number two, because the finish line was Alegria—and we all know that the final leg of the marathon is the best, and particularly when you cross the threshold into Ric Sena’s Alegria @ M2 where collective joy reigns.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

11/01/09
ALL SAINTS—AND EVERY SINNER IN PURGATORIO
Purgatorio, New York City


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

After-hours are for vampires. After-hours in New York are where it’s always Halloween—and never more debauched than on Halloween night at Purgatorio, rechristened PostPurgatorio by the Saint at Large for their All Saints priapic bacchanal. With four deejays and two dance floors, as well as a rooftop lounge for those vampires unafraid of light, PostPurgatorio proved to be the perfect crypt for those unwilling to return to their coffins.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

10/30/09
Microburst Hits Roseland: Blood on the Dancefloor
Roseland Ballroom, New York City


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

This past August, New Yorkers discovered that Mother Nature had yet another weapon in her arsenal of inclement weather: a sudden and violent storm called a microburst that wreaks havoc on the landscape—and last night at Roseland, an even more fearsome microburst hammered the crowd—and this one was called Peter Rauhofer.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

10/24/09
Saint at Large - Voodoo Afterhours
Purgatorio, New York City


 
Drama, drama, drama: it must be All Hallow’s Eve.  What else could be expected from party invites with blood splatters and lockets of hair, voodoo dolls and pins, and hatchets and axes (to grind)?  Drama and more drama.  Such is the consequence of parties called Blood on the Dance Floor, and Purgatorio, and Do That Voodoo That You Do.  Must be a full moon, must be Mercury in retrograde—must be New York Fuckin’ City on Halloween.
  
[READ]

10/22/09
FIGHT THE PEOPLE (With Love)
Empulse, New York City


                     
Now that we’re living in Stonewall 2.0, it’s time for a new militant LGBT anthem—something that complements the rise of grassroots activism and blogger pride and the more than 250,000 LGBT youth who rallied in DC for full equality. Something a bit more assertive than “I Will Survive,” something more major than “(I’m) Coming Out.” It’s a new age, peeps—and we need a rallying anthem that’s ferocious enough to kick us onto the dance floors and then out into the streets—and what better track than “Fight The People (With Love),” the latest release from Empulse on Rambunctious Recordings/Hades Music.
  
[READ]

10/15/09
WORK! Presents, "Blood on the Dancefloor"
Roseland Ballroom, New York City


                     
DJ Peter Rauhofer’s WORK! party is dropping the gore on this Halloween’s dancefloor. On Friday, October 30, the Grammy Award-winning DJ producer presents “Blood on the Dancefloor” at Manhattan’s massive Roseland Ballroom. The party is set to be one of the largest Halloween events New York City has ever experienced with three of the world’s leading DJs – Paulo, Offer Nissim, and Peter Rauhofer - battling it out for turntable supremacy. It won’t be a friendly DJ battle; Rauhofer predicts a DJ bloodbath.
  
[READ]

10/11/09
WORK THAT FUN :
PETER RAUHOFER and ANA PAULA @ M2


                                                                                             PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT
       
As the song from Chicago has it, “The name on everybody’s lips is…Ana Paula.” Ever since her North American debut a year ago, the Brazilian bombshell has been rocketing through the nightlife galaxy, igniting dance floors from Montreal to Miami, New York and Toronto—and her M2 debut in Manhattan was no exception.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

09/25-27/09
ATLANTIC CITY RAINBOWS :: OUT in AC Weekend
Harrah’s Entertainment, Atlantic City, New Jersey


                                                                                             PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT
       
Imagine a private rail car filled with the likes of fashion muse transsexual performer Amanda Lepore, gay rapper Cazwell, print and screen legend Michael Musto, club kid and promoter King Ralphy, nightlife bad boy Daniel Nardicio, celebrity magnet Micah Jesse, prolific editor Steve Weinstein, as well as a sordid assortment of other New York celebutantes, all bound for Atlantic City—would you bail? Would you run the risk of being marooned on that fabled island for an entire weekend with this gaggle of Gilligan’s Island misfits? Stay the course—and you were rewarded with one of the most soulful and enjoyable LGBT celebratory weekends of the year.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

09/20/09
FREEMASONS SHAKEDOWN THE ISLAND
The Beach at Governor's Island, New York City


                                                                                             PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT
       
As yet another boatload of exuberant party boyz disembarked on Governors Island, two guys on bikes, waiting to return to Manhattan, watched in gawking amazement—until finally one turned to the other and said, “What?  Did we not get the memo?”

And it was right then, as the sun set behind Jersey, that opening DJ Corey Craig broke into a remix of that contagious chestnut, Patrice Rushen’s “Haven’t You Heard?”
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

09/06/09
ROCKET TO THE FUTURE: ALEGRIA MUSICA
M2, 530 West 28th Street, New York City


                                                                                             PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT
       
First of all: Welcome to the USA, Mr. Renato Cecin! And please—make New York your second home! What a Cecin-sational debut! What an introduction to the Alegria family! Burning hot, this man from São Paulo, this Mr. Renato Cecin, took the entire Alegria family on an intergalactic cosmic rocket ride fueled by relentless beat mixing and an escalating energy level that sent the boyz into overdrive—for the entire duration of Cecin’s four-hour set. A marvel to behold and a joy to be a part of, this was one of those legendary sets that make you glad you were in the house.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

08/16/09
ENGORGED ASS ENGINE: ASCENSION BEACH PARTY
Performance by Kelly Rowland


                                                                                             PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT
       
Let’s make it perfectly clear: this was one happy crowd. A crazy mad happy crowd. An engorged swimsuit happy crowd. Or as Mae West would say, “Is that a flashlight in your swimming trunks—or are you just happy to see me?” We’re talking a whole gaggle of happy sexy boys with flashlights poking out of their bikinis. “I can’t help it,” said one giddy boy with a super-sized flashlight.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

08/09/09
VICTOR CALDERONE
Governor's Island, New York City


                                                                                              PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT
       
Victor Calderone performed his inimitable blend of techno-house to an enthusiastic crowd at the waterfront space on Governor's Island (NYC), on Sunday, August 9, 2009. Governor's Island, the former 176 acre military outpost acquired by NYC in 2003, proved to be the perfect location for an open-sky event, including a beautiful NYC backdrop.
  
[PICTURES]

08/04/09
INDABA DANCE for the Hetrick-Martin Institute
Bar 13, New York City


                                                                                              PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT
       
A committed crowd of dance enthusiasts gathered at Bar 13 on Tuesday night for the inaugural INDABA DANCE, celebrating the power of dance to do good for the community. The first beneficiary of the planned biannual event was the Hetrick-Martin Institute, home of the Harvey Milk High School. Hetrick-Martin provides a safe and supportive environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth, between the ages of 12 and 21, in order that they may achieve their full potential.
  
[PICTURES]

07/29/09
THE ASCENSION OF TONY MORAN
An MRNY/EDGE Interview


                                                                                             PHOTO BY GARY STEINBERG
       
If you’ve ever danced on one of Tony Moran’s packed floors—let’s say at one of his after-hours sets at Arabian Nights for Gay Disney, or at Cameo in South Beach during White Party or Winter Party, or at Black Party at Roseland—there most probably comes a point when you look around and feel as if you’re living inside the world evoked in the video of Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation” (itself a riff on Fritz Lang’s 1927 futuristic film Metropolis)—a world marked by futuristic glamour and high-tech spectacle.  With his propensity for romantic, hook-laden, hands-in-the-air house—take a listen to his hit “Put Your Hands Up”—Moran’s sets are equally haunted by a Blade Runner-esque pursuit of Elysium.  All of which is to say that as the man behind the music, Tony Moran’s personal journey has direct relevance to those of us working it out on his floor.  And if you think you know all there is to know about Tony…
  
[READ]

07/05/09
SUMMER CAMP HANGAR PARTY
Provincetown Airport, Provincetown


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT
       
Under a nearly full moon rising over the sand dunes out at Race Point in P’town, Mark Anthony revved up the Hangar Party like a jet readying for take-off—and sent the packed Cape Air hangar on a five-hour musical journey that kept the boyz bumping and grinding to his signature deep house sound. Hard to believe, but this was Mark Anthony’s inaugural P’town flight—and with red lights flashing and smoke machines bellowing across the floor, the Hangar Party had the feel of one of Mark Anthony’s Red Lite after-hours in Montreal.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

07/04/09
SUMMER CAMP PIER DANCE
Macmillan Wharf, Provincetown


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT
       
To find yourself dancing at the end of MacMillan Wharf in Provincetown on the Fourth of July as you stare across the harbor to the jetty leading to land’s end, the very tip, the endpoint, of Mainland, USA, you might consider how it was that nearly four hundred years ago the Pilgrims came ashore in the West End to build a self-governing community. A tribe of their own, so to speak—not unlike the circuit tribe that was doing their own version of a Native American dance.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

06/28/09
ALEGRIA IN WONDERLAND, Alegria Pride 2009
M2, 530 West 28th Street, NYC


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT
       
We slid down the Alegria Rabbit Hole shortly after three a.m.—and when we landed on our feet, we had to stop. We had to STOP—right where we were and take it all in: the cacophonous adrenal rush of sliding into Alegria in Wonderland at warp speed. So much to discover, as Alice might have said: the caterpillar perched atop the humongous mushroom, oversized tea cups and saucers (with Alegria tea bags—Drink me!), a double-spout tea pot—and a huge pink Cheshire cat whose grin illuminated the recesses of M2 like a crescent moon over Manhattan. We’d slipped through the looking glass and landed in Wonderland. 
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

06/28/09
NYC PRIDE MARCH/PARADE and PIER DANCE
Fifth Avenue and Pier 54 @ 14^th Street, NYC


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT
       
There wasn’t marriage equality to cheer—at least not in New York, not yet—but that didn’t keep Governor Paterson from marching and more than half a million spectators lining Fifth Avenue from 52^nd Street to the Village from cheering loudly and dancing in the streets.  It may not be right yet, our LGBT life on planet Earth, but all around the world, there were Pride celebrations on Sunday.  There’s change in the air—and the numerous banners and stickers listing the six states already standing tall for LGBT marriage equality were a reminder that change is coming.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

06/27/09
WE CAN!
Roseland Ballroom, 52nd Street, New York City


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT
       
RAUHOFER LAUGHS! RAUHOFER IN HYSTERICS! RAUHOFER CRACKS UP WATCHING ALAN T. PERFORM “WHATEVAH”!

Yes, that Alan T., the voice behind some of the fiercest bitch tracks ever recorded. That dominatrix voice belying the gentle soul beneath the crack exterior, the warm heart behind the class sass, Alan T. played the court jester to Rauhofer’s prince—and the two of them had the crowd at Roseland gagging with pleasure. 
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

06/22/09
THE GAY CENTER'S 26th ANNUAL GARDEN PARTY
Pier 54, Manhattan, NYC


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT
       
Remember that childhood dream of being locked in the grocery store—and nothing to do but eat your way through the aisles all night long?  Transfer that dream to Pier 54 in Manhattan on the Monday night of Pride Week—and you’ve got the Center’s Garden Party.  And even better than that locked-tight grocery store of your childhood fantasy, Pier 54 was a smorgasbord of lip-smacking treats from nearly forty favorite New York restaurants, complete with celebrity chefs, Food Network stars—and over two thousand foodies, all resplendent as a bowl of tropical fruits. 
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

06/20/09
NYC PRIDE RALLY 2009
Bryant Park, Sixth Avenue, Manhattan, NYC


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT
       
So much talent and passion: that’s what marks the NYC Pride Rally, the official kick-off to NYC Pride Week.  Even in the middle of a drizzly Manhattan Saturday afternoon, what becomes increasingly remarkable about the cavalcade of talent, speakers, and performers parading across the stage at Bryant Park is how incredibly gifted we are as a community. 
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

06/18/09
DOWN THE RUBY RED RABBIT HOLE : ALEGRIA PRIDE
Ric Sena Presents Alegria in Wonderland


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT
       
So what are you going to do when that old gal Pride hits the big four-oh?  Forty years of Pride, think about it: 1969-2009.  Forty years: that’s a ruby anniversary.  A big red…ruby—as in ruby slippers.  So you know you’d better celebrate—and if you’re producer Ric Sena, you know that 40 years of Pride merits a massive tea party.  Something called ALEGRIA IN WONDERLAND, for example, held at M2 (the former Crobar) on 28^th Street in the heart of New York City. 
  
[READ]

06/04/09
THEY CAN! THEY WILL! THEY DO! THEY WORK!
THEY LOVE NEW YORK!  THEY LIVE FOR PRIDE!
An EDGE/MRNY Interview with Peter Rauhofer and
Offer Nissim


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT
       
From the maestro who loves New York, Miami, Montreal, and Paris (and here we refer to the man’s CD Valentines to his favorites party towns, commencing with I Love New York, I Love Miami, I Love Montreal—and recently I Love Paris—and who would argue with any of those choices?) comes the mother of Pride parties WE CAN!  Clearly a reference to Obama’s victorious election slogan, the party’s theme might also be a reference to the current string of LGBT civil rights victories in New England and Iowa (California who?).  Either way, Saturday night the 27^th of June at Roseland Ballroom in New York City promises to be a Pride party for the annals, every bit as legendary as the man behind the music. 
  
[READ]

06/04/09
NYC PRIDE! THE GREATEST PRIDE OF THEM ALL!
40-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF STONEWALL!
An EDGE/MRNY Guide to Pride Extravaganzas


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT
       
So it’s summer—in the City—and you’re about to take a bite out of the Apple for the BIGGEST Pride celebration of them all.  What to do, where to start?  Where to go, what to wear?  Fear not, intrepid Pride-goers, we’re here to take you on the most phantasmagoric journey through NYC Pride.  Whether you’re a local celebutante ready for your close-up or a NYC Pride pioneer, here’s the skinny on what’s happening and where—with a healthy portion of why it’s ALL good for you.  Swallow big: this is the 40^th anniversary of Stonewall and everything gay in NYC has plenty to celebrate (and not only that recent survey about NYC being the city with the most tops…).  Dig in, Pride babies; it’s all here for the sharing.
  
[READ]

06/04/09
DJ SHOWCASE: MAXIMUS 3000 GETS BIGGER!
Get down “At Midnight” with Maximus, Ceevox


                                                                                                 PHOTO BY DALE STINE
       
One of the joys of Miami and the Beaches is its propensity to breed schools of deejays.  Maybe it’s in the water, that deliciously salty ocean, but some of the best-tasting beatmasters come out of southern Florida.  Take Maximus 3000, for example.  Based in Miami, Maximus 3000 works a  punk star attitude with a funky, house style that he showcases at such diverse area locales as the Victor, dek23, and Halo—as well as his popular residency at Lauderdale’s Living Room.
  
[READ]

05/17/09
Broadway Impact’s MARRIAGE EQUALITY RALLY
45^th Street and Sixth Avenue, New York City


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT
       
Those Gavins!  Where would the marriage equality movement be without Gavin Newsom and Gavin Creel?  It was five years ago that Mayor Gavin Newsom opened the gates of San Francisco’s City Hall to same-sex marriage and more or less jumpstarted the marriage equality movement—and now here in New York, taking his cue from Governor David Paterson who introduced a same-sex marriage bill in the Legislature, actor/singer Gavin Creel with his newly-formed organization, Broadway Impact, is working to insure that New Yorkers aren’t left without a marriage bouquet.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

05/17/09
SINful Sundays Tea Dance: The Preview
The Ritz Bar and Lounge, 369 West 46th Street, NYC


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT
       
While the invite’s dress code stressed Speedos in anticipation of a long, hot summer, Mother Nature wasn’t listening: parkas wouldn’t have been overdress. Not that the porn stars, or those who’d just completed the AIDS Walk New York, or those coming from the Marriage Equality Rally, were the least bit bothered, because promoters Matthew, Alex and Justin of MAJestic New York have got themselves a hot little scene happening at that well-loved clubhouse at Ninth and 46th.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

05/17/09
AIDS WALK NEW YORK
Central Park, New York City


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT
       
Question: What do you get when you add up 45,000 committed and dedicated New Yorkers, plus Hilary Duff, Carson Kressley, Norm Lewis, and Sarah Dash of Labelle, plus members of Congress and the State Senate, plus record-breaking corporate sponsorships from Bristol-Myers Squibb, Delta Air Lines, and Duane Reade, plus a glorious spring morning in May in Manhattan’s Central Park?
  
[READ]

04/06/09
NGLTF New York Leadership Awards
Kimmel Center, New York City


                                                                                           PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT    
  
In an expansive ballroom high above Washington Square, one could follow city lights up Fifth Avenue, toward the Chrysler and the Empire buildings resplendent amidst the dazzling Manhattan nightscape.  This was a heady view for heady company.  This was a roomful of the city’s well-heeled and well-connected (New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Task Force Executive Director Rea Carey, Lucy Liu, Mark Nelson, Hal Rubenstein, Steve Weinstein, John Bartlett, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom), turning it out for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force New York Leadership Awards—and if there was more buzz than is customary for this annual presentation, it might have had to do with this year’s award recipients: San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, as well as menswear fashion designer, John Bartlett.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

03/22/09
ALEGRIA XTREME 9: NOCTURNAL HOMECOMING
530 West 28th Street, New York City


                                                                                           PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT     
             
There are some nights that make you feel so damn proud for being a New Yorker—and for being gay in New York. Some nights that make you so happy to be partying in New York—and some parties that make you know you’re part of something historic and great. That’s how it felt to be at Alegria Xtreme 9, the ninth incarnation of Ric Sena’s annual Black Party weekend closer. This year the party returned to 530 West 28th Street, to what was once known as Crobar, one of Alegria’s more beloved homes—and the night was nothing short of an Alegria alumni reunion, as well as a rebirth and a re-invention.
  
[READ] [PICTURES] [VIDEO]

03/02/09
Red Eye @ Nocturnal :: Winter Party Festival 2009
Nocturnal, 50 NE 11th Street, Miami


                                                                                           PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT     
             
Of course you knew you wanted to be there—because it was the final party of Winter Party Festival 2009, and mostly because it was Abel—but still, you were nearly beat down from a marathon of extraordinary parties—but then you thought about Abel, again—and somehow you got there, to downtown Miami in the middle of a chilly (well, for Miami, anyway) Monday morn—and weren’t you glad you did?
  
[READ]

03/01/09
Orbit @ Cameo :: Winter Party Festival 2009
1445 Washington Avenue, Miami Beach


                                                                                           PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT     
             
No contest. It was so obvious—as soon as you entered the packed Cameo. That’s where the boyz were on Sunday night of Winter Party Festival—all the boys as well as all the variegated pageantry of South Beach, from Flavio and Chyna, to Mizz Cori and Hunni Dijon, and of course, hostess Elaine Lancaster. And there was DJ Kidd Madonny behind DJ Tony Moran in the booth, and Patti Razetto alongside Shane and Victor, and Karen and Michelle.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

03/01/09
The 16th Annual Winter Party Beach Party
12th Street Beach, Miami Beach


                                                                                           PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT     
             
From over on Ocean Drive, you could hear it calling: music luring you to the beach, music beckoning to you like a Siren, music pulling you through Lummus Park and over the dunes toward the 16th Annual Winter Party Beach Party. Everywhere you looked there was beauty: beautiful boyz, and the ocean so blue, and blue sky stippled with clouds. You passed under an immense gateway of billowing banners in Task Force purple and pink—and there, ahead of you, across the sand, was a riotous oasis of every floating inflatable beach toy ever lost on vacation—and now washed back ashore.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

02/28/09
Winter Party Festival: Mercury Rising
Parkwestnightclub, 30 NE 11th Street, Miami


                                                                                           PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT     
             
By Saturday night of Winter Party Festival, you actually heard New Yorkers complaining about not being able to keep up with the Miami boyz; as someone put it, “They’re insane.” And the testament of that remark was the scene at Mercury Rising at parkwestnightclub: nothing less than a big hot sweaty mess of boyz working it out to local legend Eddie X who kept the floor packed—with South Americans and all those others for whom heat is second nature.
  
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02/28/09
Winter Party Festival :: Under One Sun Pool Party
Surfcomber Hotel, Miami Beach


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT     
             
Failing economy, you say? What’s that you say? Judging from the attendance at this year’s Winter Party Festival Pool Party, there seemed to be scant evidence of economic crisis. We’re talking critical mass—and then some. Take all the traffic in New York, and the entire LA freeway system, as well as the DC Beltway—and replace all those cars with beautiful people and you have some idea of how insanely popular this party has become. Let’s face it—we’re talking a fabulous setting, complete with oceanfront views and swaying palms, cabana rooftop viewing platforms, a pool dotted with bobbing mermen, a dance floor packed with Terpsichorean beauty—and everyone smiling like they’ve discovered the elixir for eternal youth.
  
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02/28/09
VIP Cocktail Reception Winter Party Festival
Spa at Icon Brickell, Miami


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT     
             
Celebrities and more celebrities, from A-list to D-list—and a veritable media scrum to photograph their every inhalation, their every tremulous step over the brilliant sheen of the tortuous marble floor—a floor punctuated by rose-petal strewn reflecting pools and bubbling Jacuzzis. And woe to the VIPs who didn’t watch their step—for the next step was into ankle-deep water. Better than stepping into a New York puddle, of course, but drenched Manolos and Jimmy Choos, nonetheless. For this was the VIP Cocktail Reception at the Spa at Icon Brickell.
  
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02/27/09
FIVE RING CIRCUIT
Discotekka, 950 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT     
             
To walk into Five Ring Circuit on the Friday night of Winter Party Festival 2009 was to feel as if perhaps you had slipped into a time warp leading you back to the fall of the Berlin Wall—and into those labyrinthine warehouse raves that proliferated during the collapse of the Eastern bloc. What was once Metropolis and is now discotekka was a maelstrom of music emanating from no less than eleven deejays in five distinct rooms. The cavernous space was packed with happy snowbirds from all over the Northeast and northern Europe flitting about, trying out each room for size like Goldilocks and her three bear chairs.
  
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02/27/09
Winter Party Festival 2009
Shopping Spree on Lincoln Road


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT     
             
Kiehl’s kicked it! Or rather—Kiehl’s Since 1851 kicked it! The chic Lincoln Road boutique was a madhouse of emollient-crazed party boyz, boogieing down in the aisles—and hell, atop the tables—gargling Grey Goose vodka and lathering lotion in all the right places, all while ringing up sales for the benefit of the Task Force (and thereby, the betterment of our flawless-skinned LGBT community).
  
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02/26/09
BLAST OFF!
Winter Party Festival 2009


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT     
             
You know a party’s off the hook when none other than local flaneur and gadabout (and WIRE Publisher) Thomas Barker greets you, gasping, “It’s out of control.” Score’s entrance foyer and front room was bathed in bordello red light, reflecting off mirrors and shades—but there was no shade in this house. Everyone was way too happy. This was BLAST OFF, the official Winter Party Festival kick off party, and Brett Henrichsen piloted his passengers with Mary Mary’s admonition, “Get up, don’t sit back. Get up, if you want to get there.” Truer words rarely ever spoken—and this was a crowd of boyz cutting loose. We’re talking supreme specimens—and maybe particularly because Blast Off is also the Winter Party Festival Volunteer event—and those WPF volunteers are one pulchritudinous mass of deliciousness.
  
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02/25/09
First Class All the Way!
Departure Lounge: WPF Welcome Reception


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT     
             
Let’s face it, there’s nothing like a First Class lounge—a lounge filled with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, as well as a palpable sense of anticipation as you and your fellow travelers get ready to embark upon a journey to a tropical paradise. And that’s just how it was on Wednesday evening at the Doubletree Surfcomber, where illuminated palms swayed in the breeze as the waves crashed against the shore just beyond the dunes. This was Departure Lounge, the Showtime-sponsored Winter Party reception to welcome guests and supporters of Winter Party Festival (WPF). And what better way to welcome a plethora of south Florida and Gotham movers and shakers (David Bowers! Mark Nelson! Pussila! Flavio! Jason Tamanini! Chad Richter! Edison Farrow! Pennyback Boys! Rea Carey! Dale Stine!) than with ample Grey Goose vodka, and libations from Barefoot Wine, and a bevy of stunning WPF volunteers proffering delectable hors d’oeuvres.
  
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02/21/09
Let’s Take Care of Each Other: Safer Sex at WPF
SOBAP (South Beach AIDS Project) Cocktail Affair


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT     
             
Nestled at the feet of the glittering high-rise Art Deco hotels lining Miami Beach are private homes not unlike Casa Casuarina, the fabled Versace mansion—and it was at one such lushly-landscaped Mediterranean estate that SOBAP (South Beach AIDS Project) hosted its annual kick-off to this year’s edition of Winter Party Festival with a catered cocktail affair for LGBT community leaders and their friends.  Since its inception, SOBAP has served the needs of the LGBT community by providing prevention, education, care and testing services to the underserved and minority communities of Miami-Dade and Broward counties—and as Winter Party Chair Chad Richter so eloquently reminded all of us, it’s our responsibility to insure that our fellow revelers leave with a condom in their pockets.
  
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01/25/09
Atlantis Events Presents FREEDOM
on Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas
Miami/Labadee/San Juan/Philipsburg


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT     
             
During its twelve-year reign on the gay imagination and its dominance of January vacations, the Atlantis Events Caribbean cruise, leaving from Miami each January, has inspired numerous sobriquets such as “the Love Boat,” “the floating bathhouse,” and “the widowmaker”—and yet the Freedom Class series of Royal Caribbean Cruise Line mega-ships that each year return 3,600 gay men and women to a blissful state of primordial gayness are probably best known collectively as the Mothership.  For as the Sparkle Sisters said (and these two should know, having traveled on nine Atlantis cruises in just two years), “It’s a chance to be who we really are, and to do all the things straight people take for granted.”  All that and more, these two fashionista sistas might have added, for as anyone who’s ever been on this cruise knows, the Atlantis Freedom cruise is definitely about celebrating all your freedoms—and especially the ones you discover at sea.
  
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01/01/09
The Genius of GENESIS VI: Can We Say FEROSH!
Miami Beach, Florida


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT     
             
A clean slate, a fresh start—it’s what we all needed.  And that’s the genius of GENESIS—the first circuit party of the new year.  After all, “genesis” means “birth”—and after 2008, a year bittersweet at best, we needed rebirthing.  Out with the tired and weary—in with the shiny and new.  So let’s get this year started right—and where else but Genesis?  Simply put, Genesis is a party on the lip of legendary—born on a sandbar that knows legendary parties.
  
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