Musical, Free, Gay-- Not Theatre, Just My Week

I have a strong liking for free events. Especially when included in the price of $0 is a few drinks. It is for this reasons that this week (so far) has been a good one. The fun began when I arrived at my desk Monday morning to receive an email from a friend stating, "I have to do a write up for Duran Duran's album release party tonight. Who wants to be my +1?" Shortly after responding with a, "why the hell not?" I received a second email from a friend planning Genre Magazine's Pride week party, asking me to attend the event on Tuesday.

Ok, so I'm pretty far from being gay and even further from being a Duran Duran fanatic, but there's no harm in supporting other communities (especially the latter...the Duran Durans aren't doing so well). The weirdest thing about these invitations is that the events were in the same place-- a 9th floor loft space on West (and I mean West) 28th.

The first night was pretty silly. The fans and coworkers of Duran Duran in 2007 are an amusing bunch. I'm pretty sure the bouncer didn't let anyone in who had symmetrical hair (thanks, side bangs). The centerpiece of the room was giant cut-outs of the band members, which you could pose with-- pretty awkward considering the 3-D versions were walking around. I wish I could give a review of the new tracks, but they didn't perform--LAME. And there was a super long line for weak drinks--LAMER.

My second night at the venue "The Exchange" was far more enjoyable. Though speciality drinks included cotton candy margaritas, I wasn't messing around this time. I ordered a vodka martini, and lacking proper ingredients, received a giant glass of vodka. Perfect. Adding to the perfection was the high number of college friends I ran into. My alma mater always did have a large gay population. The icing on this cake were my friends/gay twins/jugglers/apparently Genre cover boys posing for pictures. Indeed, I received a few glares as took the attention of the cute brothers (http://www.genremagazine.com/2007/6-1/magazine/content/441.cfm).

Upon leaving the event, I received a goody bag with the likes of men's underwear and shirts. Even if I can't use the items, I thought maybe I could give it to a man as a parting gift after a good night. When is that going to happen next, by the way? No fretting. I've had a wonderful (free) week so far. As it turns out, Gay week has been just that. And the parade hasn't even happened yet.