February 2005

Rod and David have been together for ten years now. I know this because this month we attended their tenth anniversary party. (I should have been a detective.) They held a huge affair in their home in St Peters attended by probably about 100 people. Once again they excelled themselves with a great lighting rig and live DJ. It was a great opportunity to catch up with lots of people that I normally don't get a chance to talk to.

Greig and I also did a gig at Sublime. They had their "Young Guns" night where up-and-coming DJ's get the opportunity to shit themselves playing in one of the biggest clubs in Sydney. They were all damn good. One of the DJ's (Matrix) played a great set with lots of layers of music and heaps of scratching. The scratching I could have done without (it was like the music had crabs) but the mix was really interesting.

The Mardi Gras month is now in full swing. There have been heaps of events, shows, movies and plays. I attended almost none of them.

Greig and I grinning stupidly at the launch

At the beginning of the month was the Mardi Gras Launch, held in Hyde Park in the city. As usual there was a big stage, a big TV screen, thousands of gay boys and lesbians and Bob Downe Bob Downe (a gay icon and alter ego of Mark Trevorrow). This event was strictly not BYO Alcohol. Anything you wanted to drink you had to buy at the bar there. This is why we were forced to smuggle our Sparkling Australian White Wine in with the cheese and bikkies.

We set up a picnic blanket with some friends and then, as usual, sat there and waited for others to pass by. It was a great night. My heart did skip a beat when one of our party "yoo-hoo'd" a passing policeman while we were refilling our glasses. The policeman kissed him on the lips and asked "How have you been, Luv?"

We also had a look at the "Naked Berlin" exhibition with photographs by Henning Von Berg. Maybe I don't know art, but apart from one sepia tone picture of a boy in a very strange position out the front of a great old train shed, they just looked like pictures of naked men in various places in Berlin. Not that I have anything against pictures of naked men, of course.

We went to Fair Day. Well, you have to, don't you? Fair Day is a huge event where lots of purveyors of items of gay and lesbian interest try to get their bite of the "pink dollar". Greig and I spent a couple of hours wandering around the stalls and bumping into just about everyone we know. Unfortunately it wasn't a particularly hot and sunny day so there weren't nearly enough cute guys with their shirts off. We walked away with pockets full of raffle tickets and a copy of the new Ruby CD.

We also had a very interesting dinner with Tom Brown who runs Live and Direct. He is the guy that pays us money to go to clubs and listen to music. He told us about an interesting new venture that he is trying to embark on. Naturally if I told you any more I'd be forced to kill you, so I'd best not. Stay tuned.

In any case, I had my first ever Spanish meal. (Imagine - my age and I'm a Spanish virgin!) They have great food. Lots of garlic, but great food. It's a good thing Greig was eating it too.