January 2004

I started the year off at the Indulgence party at the Midnight Shift. This turned out to be a bad idea. Greig was at the Pride Party at Faux Studios. He was working bump-in so had a free ticket. I couldn't see the value in paying almost $100 for a much scaled down party so I took the cheaper option.

So here I am at the Midnight Shift with Jimi and his boyf, Mikey. While the crowd is friendly, the music is very average. Actually, the music is all over the shop. By 2am I have decided that I was having a crappy time so I went home.

I had the first six days of the year off work, which I spent doing absolutely nothing. Greig and I did spend Sunday night at fARQ which was fun, but that was the extent of my partying.

Trying to jam the container
into the shed.

Meanwhile, back at the Shed, we have just taken delivery of a 20 foot shipping container. It took a rather large hiab on the back of a truck and lots of pushing and shoving, but we managed to get the thing in the roller door and slid into place. Why would we want a 20 foot shipping container, you ask? Well, it's a self contained room that we can use for anything we like. It's pretty sound proof, solid and has lots of hanging points on the walls. You figure it out. :-)

For Greig's birthday I went out and bought a pair of Altec Lansing PC speakers with sub. They are nice and small and will take up very little space in the container while pumping out a good sound. You can't have a shipping container without decent sound.

We spent a fair bit of the early part of the month cleaning the shed up and preparing it for our annual party. We hung a couple of 1.2m mirror stars from the roof and set up a lighting rig. On the day of the party, a friend turned up with Mardi Gras banners from 6 separate years which we used to decorate one wall as well as a laser that was removed from the Imperial Hotel when Dawn sold it. I still haven't checked to see if the laser actually works.

House party becomes street party.

We had about 70 people turn up for the New Dulwich Hill Mostly Gay and Slightly Lesbian Mardi Gras - a lot less than we would normally have. Unfortunately, Gordon (aka "Ruby" who runs the Dance Party of the same name) chose the same night to put on a Ruby Party with the Space Brothers playing. As a lot of our friends are Ruby fans, we lost out. That's it. Gordon is now off our Christmas Card list.

The party was fun anyway, but it was obviously too hot in the Shed for everyone. By about 11pm almost everyone had moved out on to the street, blocking any traffic that might have tried to drive past.

Jimi held one of his semi-regular "Buffy-fests". He had 12 people crammed into his little flat all sitting around the TV eating pizza and watching Buffy. Up until that night, Greig was a Buffy virgin. The bastards made a point of playing the musical episode, "Once more with feeling". It is a great ep, but there is one song in it that just makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up, and they all know it.

For my birthday on the 25th, Greig gave me a voucher for a full facial at a local salon. (Should I take a hint?) I received a few cards including one from Greig's Grand Mother. Jimi bought me a ticket to Queer Nation at Home Nightclub which was on that night. He also bought me another 10 visits to City Gym. I now have 18 to use up in the next 3 months as well as using my Newtown Gym membership!

Greig and I met up with Jimi and Mikey before heading over to another friends for pre-party drinks and other things. We then all headed out to Home for the party. Another first for Greig - he's never been to Queer Nation and this is his first time back at Home for a few years. The place has changed a bit and the sound isn't as crappy as it was when the place was first built.

The party was fun - not too crowded which is unusual for Queer Nation. There were lots of cute boys there and Greig and I managed to get separated. By the time we found each other, he had a dark haired boy hanging off him and I had a blond boy hanging off me.

The afore mentioned blond boy was called Andrew. Our eyes kinda met near the bar and before long we were dancing. Yes, he was young but it was a licensed venue so obviously he's over 18. He was also shorter than me (a rarity) which was hot. I ended up taking Andrew back to the Shed as Greig was off with his boy. We spend the whole morning fucking and dozing intermittently.

James is a friend of mine from Wagga who works for ABC Radio. He's been the afternoon presenter across NSW for a few years now and has been offered the job as State Manager in Western Australia. He's taking up the post in a couple of weeks so he had a farewell party at a pub on Crown Street. It was a great opportunity to catch up before he heads off.

Greig and I chatted to another gay couple at James' drinks and we talked about the changing face of the gay community. We agreed that today it is more likely that young gay guys will go out with their straight mates to the local pub rather than going to a gay venue. Society is a lot more accepting than it was even 10 years ago. There is less need for a "gay haven".

This is a double edged sword. Lots of younger guys we talk to lament that they wished they could have experienced the excitement of the Sydney gay community at it's height. They missed the wild parties at the Showground and the vast variety of gay pubs and clubs on Oxford Street. But on the other hand, they are more likely to be accepted by their friends and family for who they are. They don't need to fit a stereotype in order to fit in to a gay "scene".

The other big change was the movement of guys out of the dwindling number of gay venues and into cyberspace. Guys are just as likely to spend the night at home sitting in front of their computer chatting to other guys on gay.com or picking up on Gaydar. I remember a few years ago when a busy night on Gaydar meant there were 300 guys in the Sydney area. These days a busy night is just under 1,000.

The last social event for the month was Rod and David's Summer Party at their home in St Peters. They had a good turn out with the back yard filled. Greig and I met Brad at the party and spent the evening catching up with people. The guys did a great job decorating with a small lighting rig across the back yard. These days it's not enough to string a few fairy lights along the fence for a party. The stakes are getting higher and the parties are getting more extravagant. I like to think that Greig and I are in some part responsible for this with our parties over the last 8 yeas.