NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA

Well, Spring is in the air with lots of holidays to celebrate. How are you my "Grand Family"? As usual, I have been very busy. The Web, as you all know, has been kicking butt. As one of the webmasters for our many GAY sites I must say we have gotten a slew of new clients wanting to put themselves on the map in a more detailed manner.

My latest travel adventure was to Atlanta with Dr. Ron Wilcox to attend the Regional Pride Conference called POSE (Prides Of the South East.)

If you remember back in November I had to attend the International Pride Conference in Kansas City. This is where all the Gay Pride coordinators from around the world join together for teaching and training on how to put on a Pride Celebration successfully.

This time we joined forces to discuss gay & lesbian issues from the federal to local levels. Our region consisted of about 50 coordinators from the southeast of the United States along with Europe.

The conference was super informative and the resources & information was incredible. I'll tell you more about that later.

Of course you know that we all had to go and check out the night life of Atlanta. Yes, this was my first time going to play in Atlanta and it was phenominal. I just have to tell you that the reputation of Atlanta boys is very true. Good looking and very playful. I don't know what they put in their water but all I know is it must work. All the boys were gorgeous!

Upon our arrival at the airport, Ron's friends Paul and Steve picked us up and brought us to their apartment in Ansley Square. A very large and gay apartment complex. Very nice too!

This complex lies nestled alongside Piedmont Street which seems to be a gay mecca.

Ron and I were both hungry and we walked over to a fabuluos restaurant called Cowtippers, a gay owned and operated fine restaurant, with indoor and ourdoor dining, "family" serving the tables, serving the bar, and cooking the food. I had never been in such a warm & welcome restaurant.

On our approach to the restaurant, the outside dining area was full of beautiful groups of boys. Ouch, that makes me hurt! Of course my buddies were giggling at my tongue hanging out of my mouth as I gazed at all of them.

Once inside, I thought my heart was going to explode. From the door host, bartenders, & waiters, boys & girls...all were very attractive. All you New Orleans ladies out there...you need to go and visit this fabulous place; that is, if you are single. After being seated by a very handsome waiter, I probably looked like Carrie Fisher in the Exorcist. My head was spinning with all the beautiful men, customers and staff.

We started Friday night at the Armory. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Just standing outside the bar waiting for our designated driver to finish parking the car was an awesome sight. Everyone entering the building was breathtaking. Lots of chicken too! The bar was packed about 10pm. Now this is a large bar. With sections like: the patio, which was open air with tables and chairs; the cruise section with tables, bar seating and wide screen wall TV setup; the dance floor room and the quiet room, both with bars and, last but not least...the drag bar. The drag bar was enormous with a very large wall TV screen. It also had a bar, tables and chairs for cocktailing and enjoying the show. Enough about the bar. The boys, the boys, the boys!!!!!! All beautiful and quite the fun ones.

Later in the night my running buddies fizzeled out and headed back to the hotel. I had somemore cruising and sight-seeing to do.

So I headed for Backstreet, which was right across the parking lot from the Armory. Very large and just as beautiful! Past the front doors and around a wall brings you into a very large area where you can play pool, get a cocktail, and shop in their gift shop. The next set of doors brings you into the dance floor area. Now you want to talk about a wonderful dance floor area. With two bars, one on the scouting balcony over-looking the dance floor pit and one directly on the dance floor. The dance floor had several levels on which to dance. One could easily fit the Bourbon Pub, the Parade, Oz, Lafittes and Good Friends all into this room. The music was fantastic and the lighting was awesome.

It was time to checkout the rest of the bar. So I ventured up a flight of steps to find yet another room with seating, viewing of the light fixtures for the floor below, a gambling table...black jack or something like that, then a large hallway that led into an enormous drag bar.

This was Charlie Brown's X-rated Cabaret. With the flawless and funny Charlie Brown, Raven, Heather Daniels, Lily White, Shawnna Brooks, and a slew of others that I couldn't sit still long enough to see, especially with all the boy-chasing I had to do. Of course, my favorite part was when Raven pulled this gorgeous "straight" boy out of the audience and made him take his shirt off then made him drop his slacks to his knees to bare his goods. This boy was gorgeous! "Straight"? I have never met a "straight" boy in 20 years that I couldn't have one way or another. Go figure! Reminds me of my "Coming Out" process. >>>Detour>>>

[Speaking of "Coming Out" as you know Ms. Ellen Degeneris has come out and I have to say I have never been prouder of a celebrity. To use one's influence to benefit a people is to be commended greatly!] Anyway...the staff, the music, the lights, & the people were fabulous!

Saturday we attended pride seminars all day and headed back out Saturday night. This night we popped in at the Heretic, our equivilent to the Rawhide and Pheonix but with a massive dance floor which was packed with pretty men with their shirts off. The club is very dark and large! Fully equipped with a "Hall of Hands." That's right a cruise hall about 3 people wide. We played all night long till they started shutting down. About 3pm!

I have never laughed so hard and long in my life. My abs hurt so bad thanks to one of our Pride chiefs James Gilliam and my "comrade in crime" Neil, two friends I hope to never lose touch with. I miss you both very much, by the way!

[Speaking of friends, I would like to welcome back home one of the biggest loves of my life, Nick Dorst! Be good little boy or over the knee you go again! Welcome home boy, you are still loved!

And a sadful farewell to my very dear friend DJ/VJ Matt Myers. He will be moving to Oklahoma City to take on a new city and club scene. We wish you all the love, luck and support you need. Love you, Matt. Now a hearty congrats to Penny Young on becoming an offical scuba dive instructor. Girl, you are looking great!] Back to the trip to Atlanta. The conference was flawless and packed with valuable information as well as a great social time with the other pride coordinators and all the cute boys in Atlanta! Thank you IAL/GPC and POSE for making my flawless weekend possible. I will be going back for Atlanta's Pride Celebration in June to work their pride weekend. I can't fathom 300,000 gays and lesbians in one park. This is going to be awesome!

I hope everyone is getting ready for the summer fun coming up. As you know the ever popular Country Club is open again and it will be time to join our buddies in the pool to have fun in the sun.

For Memorial Weekend the 3rd Annual Abracadabra Party will be going on in Pensacola, put on by Oz. Hope to see you all out on the beach in your skivies. They estimate about 65,000 of our "family" to be out on the newly improved Navarre Beach. I hear they built new parking lots as well. Yes! I can't wait.

Question: In our last Pride meeting we planned on having the parade on Sunday evening of Pride weekend to close out the weekend with a bang.

We need your input if you want it during the day or night and on what day...Friday night, Saturday afternoon, Saturday night, Sunday afternoon, or Sunday night. Call the Pride Line at 504.949.9555 and leave a message with your thoughts. Also we have somemore board seats open for the Alliance of Pride, if any of you would like to be involved. Pride is improving by leaps and bounds since we have joined forces with the International Association of Lesbian/Gay Pride Coordinators (IAL/GPC). So there are lots of new and exciting things that we would like to accomplish. We just need somemore forces to do it with. Continue pouring in your emails & letters. I love hearing from you all!

Please don't forget to come out and celebrate my 30th Birthday Bash at Oz on Monday, April 14th @ 11pm.