07/03/10
Bay Dance Bursts Over the Bay
Fire Island Pines, New York


                                                                                      PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

For anyone in need of a massive infusion of romance, there are few things better than finding yourself on the top deck of the Fire Island Ferry heading back to Sayville under a moonlit night as fireworks explode over your shoulder in an already-starry sky.

And on top of that, you’re still beaming from Baydance, where the Perry Twins turned it out with a set of summer favorites remixed and mashed up in a loving Fire Island Pines style that focused on hands-in-the-air exuberance.  

[READ] [PICTURES]

06/27/10
Alegria Aladdin :: NYC Pride 2010
Nokia Theater, New York City


                                                                                      PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

Years ago, the Nokia Theatre on 44th Street was the Loews Astor Plaza, the largest movie theatre in Manhattan and the scene of numerous opening nights and film premieres—and it was in keeping with this illustrious history, that Alegria Aladdin debuted at the Nokia on Sunday night of Pride weekend.

Voted Best National Party of 2009 by EDGE Media Network, Alegria Pride is, for many, the definitive NYC Pride party—and there was widespread concern that when M2, the former home of Alegria, was shuttered by the authorities, Alegria would be left homeless.  

[READ] [PICTURES]

06/27/10
NYC Pride Parade, March & Pier Dance
New York City


                                                                                      PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

Every year in Manhattan, on the last Sunday in June, the Pride March/Parade travels the lavender line down the center of Fifth Avenue (this year from 36th Street to Christopher)—and then there’s the other Pride March/Parade: the one that happens along the sidewalks of Fifth Avenue. And while the floats on Fifth are always filled with stunning specimens of pulchritude and fabulousness, so, too, are the sidewalks a catwalk for some of the more fierce representatives of LGBT youth. For it’s on the sidewalks that you often find the kids whose faces reveal a steely determination: to love their partners in spite of adversity and inequality. These are the kids whose love for each other defines the future.  

[PICTURES]

06/26/10
Matinée Takes New York
Governors Island, New York City


                                                                                      PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

From the lip of the stage, for as far as the eye could travel, all you could see was an ocean of people: hands in the air, the lights reflecting off their jubilant faces. So overwhelmed was one boy that he kept repeating, “I wasn’t expecting this; this is amazing. I wasn’t expecting anything like this.” You might have thought it was the second coming—but no, this was Matinée New York Pride on Governors Island—and equally as revelatory.  

[READ] [PICTURES]

06/25/10
Desire :: A Masquerade Ball
Capitale, New York City


                                                                                      PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

If you’ve ever imagined the characters from Alice’s Wonderland romping through Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, while viewed through a kaleidoscope, then you might have an idea of the baroque, Venetian freak-and-glamour fest that filled Capitale on Friday night of NYC Pride weekend for Lee Chappell and Chris Ryan’s masquerade ball DESIRE.  

[READ] [PICTURES]

06/21/10
Garden Party 27: Foodie Paradise
Pier 54, New York City


                                                                                      PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

Here’s what we ate (and drank) in the first hour: strawberry crème tart, fried zucchini flower moo chu with pickled summer flower in rice crepe, green chile mac-and-cheese with tortilla crumbs, caramel crème sandwich, baked brie pops with strawberry coulis, mini cannoli cupcakes, drip bar iced coffee, pecan butterscotch bar, mac-and-cheese squares, maple buttercream banana cupcake, buttermilk gazpacho, rice balls, caramel buttercream chocolate cupcake, truffled robiola pizza—and two cryogenically chilled greyhounds.  

[READ] [PICTURES]

06/19/10
NYC Pride Rally Roars Back!
Rumsey Playfield, New York City


                                                                                      PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

The Rally is back—with a vengeance! After years of dwindling attendance and inclement weather, and after more than a decade spent at Bryant Park (where perhaps the New York Public Library’s sense of calm was a bit too counterintuitive for a civil rights rally), the NYC Rally roared back onto the Pride calendar on Saturday afternoon with an impressive roster of talent, including Ari Gold, Martha Wash, Me’shell Ndegeocello, and the cast of the Broadway hit Hair. With a new locale at Central Park’s SummerStage, and thanks to a change in date (so that the Rally no longer competes with Folsom Street East), the Rally at Rumsey Playfield played to a packed house of LGBT families, fashionistas, silver daddies, and prepsters. Award-winning comedians Bruce Vilanch and Vickie Shaw alternated MC duties, keeping the rainbow coalition giddy on a hot summer afternoon, while local boy and international recording star, Ari Gold, delivered a sizzling set with no less than three costume changes. And for inspiration, there was NYC Pride Grand Marshal Dan Choi whose motivational call-and-response speech had the crowd on its feet, cheering loudly. Wendy Williams was in the house, as was the NYC Gay Men’s Chorus, and there was ice cream and beer, and by the time Martha Wash took the stage, everyone was dancing, with the joy of Pride pervasive all through the Park. Welcome back, NYC Pride Rally; hello, NYC Pride 2010!  

[PICTURES]

06/19/10
Enjoying the Magic Carpet Ride :: Alegria Pride 2010
An Interview with DJ/producer Pagano


                                                                                     
Just as Aladdin and his magic carpet traveled to enchanted isles, so do circuit boys and their deejays fly over oceans to international parties in exotic locales. Today’s circuit knows no boundaries, as witnessed by the diversity of events produced around the world—and, more than ever, music has become the global language, the Esperanto of the dance floor.  

[READ]

06/09/10
Matinée New York Pride
Governors Island, New York City


                                                                                     
Let’s face it, New York City Pride is so big that there’s always room for another player to sit down at the table—and this year, the Iberian-based Matinée Group is making its presence felt in New York. Currently the world record holder for Largest Dance Party (according to the Guinness Book of World Records), Matinée Group recently announced its entry into the NYC Pride sweepstakes with a brand-new new Saturday afternoon/evening bacchanal on Governors Island.  

[READ]

06/09/10
Xanadu: Alegria Memorial Day
Pacha, New York City


                                                                                      PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

It was the opium den of your fantasy: a bordello-red pleasure dome hung with gargantuan Chinese lanterns and a green dragon so serpentine he required dissection above the dance floor—and yet still that dragon breathed fire, for this was Alegria and this party was smoking.

The recent closure of Alegria’s home, M2, forced Alegria producer, Ric Sena, to find a new locale for his much-loved party—but just as Kublai Khan built his Shang-tu, the Alegria family found their Xanadu at Pasha for Alegria Memorial Day.  

[READ] [PICTURES]

05/31/10
Freemasons Celebrate Pride
Pier 54, New York City


                                                                                      PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

Picture this: nearly 10,000 dancing queens frolicking on a pier in the Hudson River on a sizzling hot Pride Sunday in New York City—and as the sun sets, the Empire State Building glows lavender, while overhead, fireworks explode in the sky. One of the more exuberant displays of collective ecstasy, New York City Pride’s Dance on the Pier has a history of surprise performances from the likes of Janet, Whitney, Jennifer Lopez, Pussycat Dolls, Jennifer Hudson, amongst others. This year, it might be all about the music—as the announcement of the deejays for the 24th incarnation of this much-loved event has been greeted with the kind of enthusiasm one associates with musical superstars.  
  
[READ]

03/29/10
The Wonder of It All :: Mark Baker’s Wonderland
Orlando, Florida


                                                                                     
You just can’t keep a good circuit weekend down: out of the ashes, one of the circuit’s most beloved events rises anew. What has been known over the years as Gay Disney, GayDayS, Reunion, Gay Day, One Mighty Weekend, GD Weekend, Girls in Wonderland (as well as half a dozen other monikers) is poised to take flight like the phoenix again—thanks in no small part to the return of impresario Mark Baker. After a somewhat aborted take-off in 2009, the night events for Orlando’s premier circuit weekend have been re-christened Wonderland/Orlando—and given Baker’s reputation for producing spectacular events, there’s every reason to believe in Wonderland.  
  
[READ]

03/23/10
The USS Alegria Xtreme X
M2, New York, NY


                                                                                       PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

Like an outtake from a Hollywood war movie (post-DADT), the floor of Alegria Xtreme X was packed with a sea of handsome young military recruits and their commanding officers. These were faces so classically chiseled as to evoke Thirties screen stars such as Errol Flynn and Gary Cooper—men whose beauty was captured by photographers like Horst and Cecil Beaton. From sailors to infantrymen, to men in kilts and camouflage, every branch of the all-gay armed forces was represented—and rarely has a platoon looked more alluring (and none of them were asking—and all of them telling).  
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

03/21/10
Viva La Revolucion! The Black Party: Rites XXXI
Roseland Ballroom, New York, NY


                                                                                       PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

At two am, the floor was packed. At four am, there was a two-hour line down 52nd Street. Rites XXXI, the Black Party was SOLD OUT. Inside Roseland Ballroom, at the Saint-at-Large’s annual bacchanal to all things dark and handsome and sexy, DJ Hector Fonseca was throwing down a persuasive percussive tribal set that kept the boyz asking, “Who’s the deejay?” to which the only reply was, “It’s Fonseca, bitch.”  
  
[READ]

03/17/10
Cariocas Conquer South Beach
12th Street Beach, Miami Beach, FL


                                                                                       PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

She came on like the Amazon, with a driving, hard beat—as if perhaps to threaten the clouds and clear the sky, or else to wake up the more than 6,000-person crowd and let them know who was in charge at the boards. She was Ana Paula, Rio’s deejay sensation, making her debut as the headliner for Winter Party Festival Beach Party, and with that thundering opening, Paula got the attention of the crowd—and made sure that they listened—really listened—to her music and followed her lead.   
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

03/14/10
Under One Sun Pool Party
Surfcomber Hotel, Miami Beach, FL


                                                                                       PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

With the temperature hovering in the mid-sixties, one might have imagined a sea of sweaters and hoodies at this year’s Winter Party Festival Pool Party, but no— Think again. This was Miami Beach, rival to Rio for thinly-disguised nudity—and to gaze across the expanse of nearly-naked muscle men and circuit boys frolicking amidst a backdrop of cotton candy-colored frills and furbelows, and glittering carousel horses, was to see a Candyland nudist camp. Recognized by EDGE Publications as “Best Pool Party of 2009,” this year’s version of the award-winning pool party at the Surfcomber Hotel brought in the Perry Twins from Los Angeles, as well as local favorite Charlmix, to create an uplifting set of sexy grooves that kept more than 2,500 near-nudists shaking their tailfeathers all afternoon long. Lesson learned: these boys work all year to showcase their wares—weather, be damned!  
  
[PICTURES]

03/12/10
Sex Shooters :: Rising Tide at Dolce
Dolce, Miami Beach, FL


                                                                                       PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

Clubs on the world’s most famous sandbar open and close with irritating frequency. Take Billboard Live, for example, a 25,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art, custom-built, three-story nightclub/lounge that had the unfortunate distinction of opening three days before 9/11 in 2001. The subsequent freeze on travel and leisure took its toll, and the club went through several schizophrenic incarnations in the ensuing years, before nearly collapsing beneath a heap of mismanagement and neglect. And yet if there’s one symbol Miami Beach holds dear, it’s the phoenix rising from the ashes—and on Friday night of Winter Party Festival, the father and son production team, Hilton and Myron Wolman, together with DJs Rosabel, put together a rousing, sold-out event called Rising Tide that recalled the glory days of South Beach parties.  
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

03/10/10
An Interview with DJ Paulo
New York, NY


                                                                              
The man who put "Tribal" in Lady Gaga’s "Bad Romance," the song of the year, DJ Paulo recently got the call from the Saint-at-Large to play Black Party XXXI, the annual pagan paean to everything debauched and decadent that takes place during the weekend of the vernal equinox at Roseland Ballroom in New York Fucking City. Given that Paulo (also known as "Lord of the Drums") has played Black Party twice before, this year’s version of the Saint-at-Large’s Rites make this Paulo’s Triple Crown, as it were.

Fresh from his sensational gigs in Rio for Carnaval and Sydney Mardi Gras, Paulo, co-founder of Pure Music Productions, took a break from the studio where’s he’s been mixing tracks for Black Party to tell us about what he’s got in store for his devoted tribal tribe on the night of March 20th, 2010.
  
[READ]

03/05/10
Musto Celebrates! 25 Years
230 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY


                                                                                       PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

Stepping from the elevator into the packed penthouse aerie of 230 Fifth Avenue, a man in full cravat with fedora, French cuffs, chain mail, and leather leggings said, “Oh, God, I feel so underdressed. Or do I mean, overdressed?” His chagrin was understandable, given the kaleidoscopic tableau of fashionistas, muses, club kidz, performance artists, sycophants--and celebs from A-list through D-, all gathered together atop Manhattan’s skyline for Michael Musto’s 25th celebration of his tenure at the Village Voice. This was a group for whom dressing up is their raison d’etre, their only reason to get out of bed at midnight—and the result made the recent fashion shows at the Bryant Park tents look closer to a mall at Levittown.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

03/04/10
BPXXXI :: Revolutionary Cell Block Tango
Roseland Ballroom, New York, NY


 
GOLPE! reads one headline. There’s anger in the air. Revolutionary fervor. Another headline reads: GOVERNMENT DEMOLISHED. NEW BLACK PARTY APPEARS.

Taken from the Spanish term “golpe de estado,” golpe means coup d’etat: the sudden overthrowing of a state government—which means that, once again, this year’s Black Party invite has caught the American zeitgeist and the revolutionary zeal in the vox populi with uncanny prescience. The Great Recession, with its discomfiting parallels to the final years of the Weimar Republic, has unleashed the demons of debauchery and decadence, with a burning desire for a totally new order—and that’s where Black Party XXXI commences.
  
[READ]

02/14/10
MRNY Best Photos of 2009
New York, NY


                                                                                      PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT 

While 2009 had more than its share of economic, political, and natural disasters, there’s no question that the circuit year was filled with a plethora of celebratory occasions that were as inspirational as they were Dionysian in their excesses. Our selection of our best photos from 2009 highlight the people who made us smile, made us proud, and kept us dancing all year long.
  
[PICTURES]

02/07/10
MRNY Interview :: DJ Boris
New York, NY


 
A few years ago in New York, there began appearing all over the city, on t-shirts and hats, on video screens and subway platforms, the three-word phrase: Believe in Boris. The ubiquity of the sentiment was a testament to the immense popularity of the resident deejay of the city’s largest nightclub, Crobar (now M2), who, for the three-year duration of his residency, regularly filled the 30,000 square foot club every weekend.
  
[READ]

01/31/10
Miss’d America Stalks the Boardwalk
Atlantic City, New Jersey


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT
As with awards' telecasts, beauty pageants can be a long slog through stage patter, swimsuit malfunctions, broken heels, and fire baton twirling—and yet, if an audience is lucky, there is sometimes one talent number that galvanizes the crowd into a spontaneous eruption of wild cheers and fanatical applause. Such was the case on Saturday night at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City as Miss'd America pageant contestant Michelle Dupree took the stage and delivered a knock-em-dead, eleven o'clock number channeling the spirits of Ethel, Ella, Judy, and Josephine that had the audience immediately on its feet with near-universal consensus of the night's most electrifying performance and ultimate winner.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

01/10/10
Smooth Cruising :: 747SL
Simyone Lounge, New York City


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

With skillful aplomb, Josh Wood Airlines brought its 747 groove jet in for a picture-perfect smooth landing at Simyone Lounge (formerly Lotus) in the Meatpacking District—and the sexy Sunday night bash tore up the place on its opening night. That’s right: the floorboards literally came unglued as birthday boy DJ/producer Hector Fonseca threw down a rambunctiously infectious set while lissome opener Miami-native DJ Theresa provided live percussion on her bongos.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

12/31/09
Sexy Class: The Black and White Ball
Chelsea Art Museum, New York City


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

It was forty-three years ago that the crème de la crème of New York society turned out for the legendary Black and White Ball thrown by Truman Capote at the Plaza Hotel, a party that became known as “the party of the century.” Well, guess what—we’re in a new century now, and the New Year’s Eve Black and White Ball at the Chelsea Art Museum, produced by Josh Wood, Tony Fornabaio and Brandon Voss, the powerhouse triumvirate behind the recent resurgence of New York nightlife, proved that there’s a whole new pack of sexy A-listers who know how to carouse with as much panache and élan as anyone on Truman’s guest list.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

12/27/09
Alegria New Year’s Holiday
M2, New York City


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

Due to heightened security concerns in the US, Santa’s sleigh couldn’t make it to Alegria to deliver the décor—but in the end, what did it matter? As we’ve all learned in a miserable economy, what are a few less presents under the tree when we’re surrounded by family? As it was, Alegria New Year’s Holiday delivered a streamlined, sleek package of a party that showcased the latest sounds in the evolution of the musical maestros DJs Tony Moran and Abel.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

11/29/09
White Party 25 :: Heat Wave Pool Party
National Hotel, Miami Beach, Fl


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

Like an underwear fashion shoot for over 600 nubile hunks, White Party’s Heat Wave Pool Party at the historic National Hotel was every pool fantasy come to life. Clear the sky of clouds, kick the mercury to eighty—and toss in two dozen litters of playful boy puppies—and you’ve got fun in the sun all afternoon. With DJ Joe G. working the tables, sending out groove-licious summer beats, Heat Wave Pool Party was the porno remake of “Where the Boys Are”—and they were everywhere. Boyz and porn stars, sipping cocktails and batting beach balls and generally behaving as if life were an endless summer vacation. White Party sponsor O.N.E. (that delicious coconut, electrolyte-loaded elixir) handed out beach towels, while calendar models and cover boys mingled with local power peeps and glamoristas—making it, in truth, just another glorious day in Paradise, also known as Miami Beach.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

11/29/09
White Party 25 :: Muscle Beach Christmas
12th Street Beach, Miami Beach, Fl


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

From a distance, it looked as if a heavily-garlanded, gargantuan Christmas tree had dropped from space and exploded in the middle of 12th Street Beach. Crimson-and-gold ornaments dangled beneath flapping yellow banners and strings of lights, all swaying above a mass of gold-flecked muscle gods. It was Christmas on Muscle Beach and DJ Oren Nizri was Santa Claus, promising “I’m Gonna Sex You Up”—as if the sea of Santa’s helpers needed any persuasion.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

11/27/09
White Party 25 :: White Dreams
Club Space, Miami, Fl


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

With its big tent sound and funhouse feel, Miami’s club Space has always been a circus—and never more so than when host Flavio Nisti serves it up as ringleader for the night ahead. This year’s version of White Party week’s White Dreams was akin to Cirque de Soleil on a Miami vacation—with every sort of contortion and configuration on show before night’s end.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

11/28/09
White Party 25 :: The Silver Jubilee
Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, Miami, Fl


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

Like a film co-directed by Fellini and Pasolini, a twilight pastoral of silver-tongued decorum and orgiastic excess, White Party at Vizcaya has always been a fantasy-fueled evening limned by an elegiac escapism. For one thing, there’s the setting: a lushly-landscaped, thirty-acre Italian Renaissance-styled villa on Biscayne Bay. And then there are the guests: nearly two thousand visions in white, from centaurs and satyrs to angels and admirals, hustlers and hos—all wandering the formal gardens, sipping cocktails and champagne, beneath a nearly-full silvery moon.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

11/23/09
White Party 25 :: An Interview with Elaine
Lancaster, Chyna, and Kitty Meow


                                                                      
Certainly one of the most ground-breaking print ads to emerge in the history of American advertising was Bacardi's "Tom, Dick, and Harry By Day" campaign, starring drag divas Chyna, Kitty Meow, and Fantasy in a full-page national spread that brought the three gender-bending performance artists into mass America's living rooms-and sealed their position at the pinnacle of the circuit world's entertainers.
  
[READ]

11/13/09
The Taj Mahal, a Disco Ball
Trump Taj Mahal, Atlantic City, Nj


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

When the emcee at the Disco Ball at Trump Taj Mahal asks the audience for a hometown shout-out—and the largest cheers are for the boroughs of New York, it’s suddenly clear that Atlantic City must be doing something right to fill a 5,000-person arena on a Saturday night in November. In other words, the fabled Absecon Island resort, home to the biggest entertainment complexes on the East Coast, keeps on luring New Yorkers to its shores for a weekend of indulgent hedonism.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

11/01/09
The Eyes of Genius: Alegria Halloween
M2, New York City


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

They had their marathon—and we had ours—and let’s all admit it right now: the circuit marathon is a helluva lot more fun and fabulous than running 26 miles from Staten Island. Why? Because, number one, we were dancing for 26 miles—and number two, because the finish line was Alegria—and we all know that the final leg of the marathon is the best, and particularly when you cross the threshold into Ric Sena’s Alegria @ M2 where collective joy reigns.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

11/01/09
ALL SAINTS—AND EVERY SINNER IN PURGATORIO
Purgatorio, New York City


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT

After-hours are for vampires. After-hours in New York are where it’s always Halloween—and never more debauched than on Halloween night at Purgatorio, rechristened PostPurgatorio by the Saint at Large for their All Saints priapic bacchanal. With four deejays and two dance floors, as well as a rooftop lounge for those vampires unafraid of light, PostPurgatorio proved to be the perfect crypt for those unwilling to return to their coffins.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

10/24/09
Saint at Large - Voodoo Afterhours
Purgatorio, New York City


 
Drama, drama, drama: it must be All Hallow’s Eve.  What else could be expected from party invites with blood splatters and lockets of hair, voodoo dolls and pins, and hatchets and axes (to grind)?  Drama and more drama.  Such is the consequence of parties called Blood on the Dance Floor, and Purgatorio, and Do That Voodoo That You Do.  Must be a full moon, must be Mercury in retrograde—must be New York Fuckin’ City on Halloween.
  
[READ]

10/22/09
FIGHT THE PEOPLE (With Love)
Empulse, New York City


                     
Now that we’re living in Stonewall 2.0, it’s time for a new militant LGBT anthem—something that complements the rise of grassroots activism and blogger pride and the more than 250,000 LGBT youth who rallied in DC for full equality. Something a bit more assertive than “I Will Survive,” something more major than “(I’m) Coming Out.” It’s a new age, peeps—and we need a rallying anthem that’s ferocious enough to kick us onto the dance floors and then out into the streets—and what better track than “Fight The People (With Love),” the latest release from Empulse on Rambunctious Recordings/Hades Music.
  
[READ]

10/11/09
WORK THAT FUN : ANA PAULA
M2, New York City


                                                                                             PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT
       
As the song from Chicago has it, “The name on everybody’s lips is…Ana Paula.” Ever since her North American debut a year ago, the Brazilian bombshell has been rocketing through the nightlife galaxy, igniting dance floors from Montreal to Miami, New York and Toronto—and her M2 debut in Manhattan was no exception.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

09/25-27/09
ATLANTIC CITY RAINBOWS :: OUT in AC Weekend
Harrah’s Entertainment, Atlantic City, New Jersey


                                                                                             PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT
       
Imagine a private rail car filled with the likes of fashion muse transsexual performer Amanda Lepore, gay rapper Cazwell, print and screen legend Michael Musto, club kid and promoter King Ralphy, nightlife bad boy Daniel Nardicio, celebrity magnet Micah Jesse, prolific editor Steve Weinstein, as well as a sordid assortment of other New York celebutantes, all bound for Atlantic City—would you bail? Would you run the risk of being marooned on that fabled island for an entire weekend with this gaggle of Gilligan’s Island misfits? Stay the course—and you were rewarded with one of the most soulful and enjoyable LGBT celebratory weekends of the year.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

09/20/09
FREEMASONS SHAKEDOWN THE ISLAND
The Beach at Governor's Island, New York City


                                                                                             PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT
       
As yet another boatload of exuberant party boyz disembarked on Governors Island, two guys on bikes, waiting to return to Manhattan, watched in gawking amazement—until finally one turned to the other and said, “What?  Did we not get the memo?”

And it was right then, as the sun set behind Jersey, that opening DJ Corey Craig broke into a remix of that contagious chestnut, Patrice Rushen’s “Haven’t You Heard?”
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

09/06/09
ROCKET TO THE FUTURE: ALEGRIA MUSICA
M2, 530 West 28th Street, New York City


                                                                                             PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT
       
First of all: Welcome to the USA, Mr. Renato Cecin! And please—make New York your second home! What a Cecin-sational debut! What an introduction to the Alegria family! Burning hot, this man from São Paulo, this Mr. Renato Cecin, took the entire Alegria family on an intergalactic cosmic rocket ride fueled by relentless beat mixing and an escalating energy level that sent the boyz into overdrive—for the entire duration of Cecin’s four-hour set. A marvel to behold and a joy to be a part of, this was one of those legendary sets that make you glad you were in the house.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

08/16/09
ENGORGED ASS ENGINE: ASCENSION BEACH PARTY
Performance by Kelly Rowland


                                                                                             PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT
       
Let’s make it perfectly clear: this was one happy crowd. A crazy mad happy crowd. An engorged swimsuit happy crowd. Or as Mae West would say, “Is that a flashlight in your swimming trunks—or are you just happy to see me?” We’re talking a whole gaggle of happy sexy boys with flashlights poking out of their bikinis. “I can’t help it,” said one giddy boy with a super-sized flashlight.
  
[READ] [PICTURES]

08/09/09
VICTOR CALDERONE
Governor's Island, New York City


                                                                                              PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT
       
Victor Calderone performed his inimitable blend of techno-house to an enthusiastic crowd at the waterfront space on Governor's Island (NYC), on Sunday, August 9, 2009. Governor's Island, the former 176 acre military outpost acquired by NYC in 2003, proved to be the perfect location for an open-sky event, including a beautiful NYC backdrop.
  
[PICTURES]

08/04/09
INDABA DANCE for the Hetrick-Martin Institute
Bar 13, New York City


                                                                                              PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT
       
A committed crowd of dance enthusiasts gathered at Bar 13 on Tuesday night for the inaugural INDABA DANCE, celebrating the power of dance to do good for the community. The first beneficiary of the planned biannual event was the Hetrick-Martin Institute, home of the Harvey Milk High School. Hetrick-Martin provides a safe and supportive environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth, between the ages of 12 and 21, in order that they may achieve their full potential.
  
[PICTURES]

07/29/09
THE ASCENSION OF TONY MORAN
An MRNY/EDGE Interview


                                                                                             PHOTO BY GARY STEINBERG
       
If you’ve ever danced on one of Tony Moran’s packed floors—let’s say at one of his after-hours sets at Arabian Nights for Gay Disney, or at Cameo in South Beach during White Party or Winter Party, or at Black Party at Roseland—there most probably comes a point when you look around and feel as if you’re living inside the world evoked in the video of Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation” (itself a riff on Fritz Lang’s 1927 futuristic film Metropolis)—a world marked by futuristic glamour and high-tech spectacle.  With his propensity for romantic, hook-laden, hands-in-the-air house—take a listen to his hit “Put Your Hands Up”—Moran’s sets are equally haunted by a Blade Runner-esque pursuit of Elysium.  All of which is to say that as the man behind the music, Tony Moran’s personal journey has direct relevance to those of us working it out on his floor.  And if you think you know all there is to know about Tony…
  
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07/05/09
SUMMER CAMP HANGAR PARTY
Provincetown Airport, Provincetown


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT
       
Under a nearly full moon rising over the sand dunes out at Race Point in P’town, Mark Anthony revved up the Hangar Party like a jet readying for take-off—and sent the packed Cape Air hangar on a five-hour musical journey that kept the boyz bumping and grinding to his signature deep house sound. Hard to believe, but this was Mark Anthony’s inaugural P’town flight—and with red lights flashing and smoke machines bellowing across the floor, the Hangar Party had the feel of one of Mark Anthony’s Red Lite after-hours in Montreal.
  
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07/04/09
SUMMER CAMP PIER DANCE
Macmillan Wharf, Provincetown


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT
       
To find yourself dancing at the end of MacMillan Wharf in Provincetown on the Fourth of July as you stare across the harbor to the jetty leading to land’s end, the very tip, the endpoint, of Mainland, USA, you might consider how it was that nearly four hundred years ago the Pilgrims came ashore in the West End to build a self-governing community. A tribe of their own, so to speak—not unlike the circuit tribe that was doing their own version of a Native American dance.
  
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06/28/09
ALEGRIA IN WONDERLAND, Alegria Pride 2009
M2, 530 West 28th Street, NYC


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT
       
We slid down the Alegria Rabbit Hole shortly after three a.m.—and when we landed on our feet, we had to stop. We had to STOP—right where we were and take it all in: the cacophonous adrenal rush of sliding into Alegria in Wonderland at warp speed. So much to discover, as Alice might have said: the caterpillar perched atop the humongous mushroom, oversized tea cups and saucers (with Alegria tea bags—Drink me!), a double-spout tea pot—and a huge pink Cheshire cat whose grin illuminated the recesses of M2 like a crescent moon over Manhattan. We’d slipped through the looking glass and landed in Wonderland. 
  
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06/28/09
NYC PRIDE MARCH/PARADE and PIER DANCE
Fifth Avenue and Pier 54 @ 14^th Street, NYC


                                                                                            PHOTO BY MARK & ROBERT
       
There wasn’t marriage equality to cheer—at least not in New York, not yet—but that didn’t keep Governor Paterson from marching and more than half a million spectators lining Fifth Avenue from 52^nd Street to the Village from cheering loudly and dancing in the streets.  It may not be right yet, our LGBT life on planet Earth, but all around the world, there were Pride celebrations on Sunday.  There’s change in the air—and the numerous banners and stickers listing the six states already standing tall for LGBT marriage equality were a reminder that change is coming.
  
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