Trapeze Showcase - October 2009

We have a trapeze showcase in October. The last one was actually July of last year, if you can believe it, and it's kind of neat to look back and see the progress I've made since then.

I remember being so stressed, so anxious about looking like an idiot, missing my music cues, or just messing up. Everyone turned out to be feeling like that. Eventually one of our group gave all of us a wake up call. He reminded us that we're not in Cirque du Soleil so why should we have been feeling like we needed to have these A-list performances? After that, we ended up having fun, and that helped make the second evening go so much better (because the first night didn't go so well as a result of my being anxious). So now we have fun when we perform.

That's what I'm looking forward to next month. It's nice being so confident and not caring as much, and just having fun.

The big news? Steve might actually get up and do short performance during the night. He's new to the trapeze thing and hates any kind of public speaking (much less a performance involving tights) but the owners of the school are working him. We'll see how it goes.

Oh, and there won't be any Kylie Minogue music this year (though we are seeing her this Sunday at the Hollywood Bowl-- praise God). I'm going to perform to Sonny J's "Can't Stop Movin'." I'm thinking of an old fashioned Electric Company or Sesame Street style costume. But how will I show my arms? I'll figure it out, I'm sure...

Steve's Latest Disney Stuff

We shot over to The Disney Store yesterday because we thought they would have their new Christmas ornament display set up, and as you know Steve's the primary ornament designer. He doesn't get free samples of his work so we need to make sure we pick them up, and since every year his ornaments sell out we couldn't risk missing any of them.

Unfortunately, while the display was supposed to be set up yesterday the instructions never said what time. Thus, no Christmas ornaments. We assume they were building the display that night.

But it wasn't a total bust because, as you can see from this horrible photo, we picked up a bunch of Steve's snowglobes and frames. Here are some better images taken by professionals and put on The Disney Store website.

(For some reason their website doesn't have the larger Snow White globe. But they do have the "Be Our Guest Belle" snowglobe from Beauty and the Beast)
This is the mini Tinker Bell snowglobe. I can't get over the detail on something this small.
Same goes for the mini Cinderella globe.
I also love when he can do the less popular Princesses, like in this mini Jasmine globe.
There were also some really cool frames. We limited ourselves-- this is going to be an expensive month because so much of his product is coming out-- but we did pick up this Ariel frame that comes with a snowglobe on it.
Finally, there was the Sleeping Beauty frame with snowglobe. He did create all of the snowglobe frames you'll see on the site, but these were the only ones we picked up this week.
Of course, Steve is going to the store today to (hopefully) get the ornaments, so God only knows what stuff we'll have in the house tonight... Is it tacky to put up your tree before Halloween?

Palm Springs Fashion... Is INSANE

Palm Springs is the kind of town where gays visit from all over the country. A lot of them dress in clothing that they see in adult catalogs, porn movies, or hustler websites, so you sometimes see the greatest parings. Fishnet shirts with leather pairings, football jock shorts with lace shirts, or zippered sleeveless tops with acid-washed jeans.

On one hand, I love it. I think everyone should have the right to go out wearing whatever the heck they want because it makes them feel sexy. EVERYONE should have the right to feel sexy. So on that level I have huge respect for guys who commit to their look and don't apologize for it.

And yet... sometimes... you just can't help making observations.

Over the weekend Steve and I worked out at the Gold's Gym in Palm Springs. The biggest fashion trend?

Men in the shortest shorts we'd ever seen in our lives-- so short, in fact, that you knew everyone's religion. Or knew when they were winking at you. (Think on it... Right? I know. Ewwww.)

There was one guy in particular, who was actually handsome, and was probably known for his unstoppable butt and legs 10 years ago. But dammit if he hadn't spent those ten years over-working them so that they were the biggest parts of his body, looking all the bigger because his shorts were so small that they kept riding up his muffin.

Every time he did hamstring curls, lunges, or squats (which is all he did) he would stand up and spend the next two minutes pulling them from the muff. He'd then lumber to the next station, seemingly wounded from all the work on his legs.

We wanted to tell him to stop, that he was cute enough and his legs would be killer if he just let them be toned at their natural size. But of course we didn't.

Instead, Steve gave him a name. Legs McMuffin.

And there, my friends, is yet another reason why I love Steve.

The Wedding Anniversary Trip

Daisy Duke is in our hotel room.

It's true. Steve and I are staying at The Ace Hotel in Palm Springs. We'd stayed at The Ace in Portland, Oregon, over my birthday a couple years ago and wanted to check out the Palm Springs version, so here we are. It's simply designed, with clean lines and no frills and art like this-- a picture of Daisy Duke from a magazine clipped out and hung from the slats on the wall. It's absolutely perfect.

When we arrived a bottle of champagne was waiting for us because it was our anniversary. Such a nice, simple touch, and so much fun. The restaurant and bar at The Ace are both super cool-- a redesigned Denny's with great comfort food. The pool is a crazy place to be if you're in town visiting because everyone seems to come here like it was a Vegas resort. There was a second pool that we could have lounged by as well, and it's much quieter but there's no bar or waiter service there. Then there's the spa where we spent our Sunday.




Here we are at night, exploring the hotel and the many cool public spaces where you can hang out.

But now it's Monday morning. We need to grab breakfast and head back to town. More about the fun weekend in the next week.

Crafty Friday!

This weekend Steve and I are leaving town on our quickie wedding anniversary trip, but not before doing a quick craft project for the magazine's holiday issue. What craft could we possibly want to do in a magazine with clever articles and male nudity?

Pornaments.

Yes, that's right, Christmas Pornaments. They're a great way to recycle your old VHS boxes, calendars and magazines you no longer want around the house. So I've researched four fun ideas, our friends Saydi and Eric are coming over for dinner and margaritas, and the group of us are going to make pornaments tonight.

You know you're jealous.

One Year This Weekend

September 20th last year, Steve and I had our (legal) gay wedding. We've been together 8 years, but since homos can't marry in California anymore this year seems even more significant.
So this weekend, even amidst Steve and I being insanely busy at work, we're headed to Palm Springs for a quick holiday. I'm freaking out because we're coming up on a deadline at the magazine but this is both a necessary break and important. Things like this really do need to be celebrated.

I'll try to post photos over the weekend. Later.

Steve's a Star at D23

This weekend was theD23 convention at the Anaheim Convention Center. D23 is the Disney organized convention where each area of the company shows what's happening in the next year. There were also dealers selling current and vintage Disney products, and licensees showing off products they're creating for the new year.

Needless to say, The Disney Store was there with a booth and a panel. The panel itself talked about the history of the company, new store designs, and the mission of the company. The only products they really showed were from the "role play" department. That's the costume department, but since it's not all Halloween focused they call it "role play." And the upside to this was an adorable fashion show featuring a bunch of cute kids.
I especially loved angry Tinkerbell on the far right-- where she's trying to steal the High School Musical girl's pom pom. Man, she was NOT going to do what they wanted her to do, and it made for a hilarious part of the show. Basic rule of thumb: NEVER tell Tinkerbell what to do.

Steve's stuff was on display at The Disney Store exhibit.
Here's the Snow White products. Steve created all snowglobes, frames, jewelry boxes-- any sculpted item.
Steve also created stuff from Princess and the Frog. Everyone is super happy with his work because it looks like it stepped directly out of a moment from the movie. Above is the jewelry box with Tiana at her dresser getting ready to kiss the frog.
And these are his bookends, one side with the fabulous Charlotte getting ready to go to a party, and the other side with Tiana wishing upon the wishing star. Between the two is his Tiana Christmas ornament.

Speaking of Christmas ornaments, I kind of wanted a tree display at the booth with all the ornaments on them. Unfortunately, there wasn't one so you guys will just have to wait until he starts bringing them home. (And I've seen them people, they're pretty frickin' cool.)

But here's the big news. Did you know Steve was going to be in a book?

The Art of the Disney Princess is a collection of work by artists from all over the company. Steve submitted to it a while ago, using some designs he'd created for product but that never got used.

The concept was to create a design that hearkened back to classic Golden Books, images that any parent who grew up in our age group would immediately recognize and snatch up for their kids. The work is also really sophisticated and yet incredibly simple, which is part of why it's so wonderful to me. Yes, I'm biased, but for a long time we've had these pictures on our refrigerator and I'm thrilled that others in the company not only saw their value but put four of them in the book for the public to enjoy.
Here he is with the Cinderella and Snow White page.
And here with a Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty page.
And there, my friends, is one of the credits. The book comes out in October (though you can pre-order it now) and I couldn't be prouder.

The Bears Love Kevin Gillespie from Top Chef

I avoided most of America's Next Top Midget last night (you know, the season of small models), mostly because I'm so burned out on all of the screaming and non-modelly contests the girls have to perform. Steve still watches so I caught the end, but not before seeing the latest episode of Top Chef.

Have you all been watching Kevin Gillespie? Not to make stereotypes, but between his look and his voice we were sure this guy was a gay bear. Then in week two he talked about his wife. WHAT? I know bears and if I had to make a money bet I'd say this dude was gayer than me.

Steve and I are somewhat suspicious about his supposed straightness. There was a moment in the wedding episode when lesbian Ashley Merriman made a reference to being one of three confirmed gays. (Or something like that; her words implied there were closeted or suspected gay people in the cast.) Then in tonight's episode, Kevin walked into the back room after judging and someone (I think the gay guy, Ash Fulk, but I could be wrong) said, "There she is."

For those of you without an edugaytion, gay people call one another "girl" and "she" and stuff like that. Plus, Steve and I think he's a brilliant chef whose food we'd love, so we want him for our team. All the cool people are gay, after all.

This motivated me to do an informal survey of gay bear friends. They think he's gay too. And if not, they hope he's gay because they think he's super hunky. And, well, he can cook. Which bears are kind of into.

So Kevin, if you're willing to embrace your other calling, there are dudes waiting.

I Was On CNN Last Week

Yes, this job just keeps getting stranger and stranger.

As you may recall, a couple weeks ago Levi Johnston, the father of Sarah Palin's grandchild, said he would pose nude if the money was right. So we made him an offer. We never heard anything back from his camp but we had lots of media outlets calling us about it.

Then last week the Vanity Fair article with video came out about Levi's involvement with the Palins and the nude topic came up again, so I got a call from a producer on CNN's The Situation Room asking me to talk about Levi as a gay icon.

Jeanne Moos and I had a great conversation (she's really hysterical) about the whole thing, including Levi's current offer to pose for Playgirl-- which, if you didn't know, isn't publishing any longer. (Jeanne didn't know that. I filled her in.) If the deal goes through he's probably going to pose in his undies. We won't go for that, FYI. If you want the cover, you gotta pose nude to get in our mag.

So here's the video in case you're interested. My voice is on toward the end for about 10 seconds. But it was crazy the amount of people who saw it, and how it brought our original offer letter back into the media spotlight. We even heard from a friend in Mumbai that we were on Yahoo India's home page (the link has since been removed but I did see it for a second). Enjoy.

You know you're with porn stars

I'm with The Jarics driving to a photo shoot. We are in West Hollywood. They just got invited to an opening party. I got ignored. Funny.