Fierté

Now that was fun!

Yesterday was the 30th Pride parade here in Vancouver. In a lot of ways the folks who organize the shindig kicked things up a number of notches this year--a very good thing to my mind. If the $ in their books comes out ahead (or at least balanced) they should build on this momentum. Even if I find "community supporters" like Chittybank rather odious (supporting queer youth with exorbitant interest rates since Stonewall).

Friday night after the completion of Happy Hour we wandered up the street for Greek with A & V. Poor V's been having tummy trouble and he begged off the meal mere minutes after we got our table. So the 4 of us (A and V brought T, a friend from PoCo) had a lovely souvlaki and then wandered around the first time evar street fair on Davie. They blocked 2 blocks and put a beer garden and some booths in the middle of the street, leaving the sidewalks for the great unwashed and the great un-ID's (being the son of a cop I bring ID everywhere; querrelle was not similarly raised), since 2 forms of ID were required for entry to the actual partay. Still it was great people watching and the overall vibe was a super start to the fin-de-semaine.

Saturday I breakfasted with my mate Brian, who comes up every Pride from Texas. He, like others, felt it necessary to torture me with their new iPhone ("I only got it Tuesday, I still haven't figured it all out yet." Well then, fucking give it to someone who deserves it.). toneyvr and I met Brian on a cruise back in 1998 and he's a great friend. We wandered through the farmer's market on Comox before heading off in different directions. The rest of Saturday was spent at the Powell Street Festival with querrelle (mmm gyozas...), followed by hawt hawt man-lovin'. We then went to a gay biker potluck (my chili was the hit of the gathering, I know from potlucking) and to watch the fireworks. Our host smokes and it was weird being indoors with smoking. Weird as in fucking disgusting.

Sunday we hosted a Pride brunch, with a proper Irish English breakfast: eggs to order, gammon bacon, beef snags, crumpets, muffins, OJ, and great company. We wandered down to the parade, but les lutains must get down much earlier if we hope to see anything from the sides. So querrelle and I wandered the festival area (some great performers), ran into toneyvr 74 times, and then went home because we're old and tire easily. And it only took 5 hours to get the wind back in our sails.

Bear Bounce was a great party. The space was fab: the Scotia Dance Centre, with a downstairs dance-floor in the performance space and one upstairs adjacent to a patio overlooking Davie and Granville. We got there shortly before 9, and only one person was puking/falling over drunk. We saw lots of friends, made some new acquaintances, and danced a fair bit. Eventually A & V arrived from the pleather cruise, but our legs were already tiring. We left just before midnight, came home and snacked, and passed out in each other's arms. How do people do that stuff for like 12 hours? Oh, right...drugs. Coke Classic doesn't carry me quite far enough...

Today is a pubic holiday so my ambition is limited to: 1.) laying by the pool, and 2.) maybe going for a skate.


More photos here.

LJ roll call: bluebear2. toneyvrquerrelle, coreytanzola, rob_nickel