Thursday, January 22, 2009

Smoking Cocktail Mixer; My Brush With Fame

Last night was the Smoking Cocktail Mixer at O Bar. For weeks I was excited that I was actually going to be able to go this month. I always have such a great time at this event and meet or reconnect with really interesting people. This month's mixer was no exception; however, I almost did not go.

I was supposed to meet my friend Michael at the event around 8:00; however found out later in the day at the film he is currently working on decided to move the call time back to 9:00 am, so Michael said he was going to be done at 9:00 pm. Of course I know better than that, but Michael remained hopeful. Not really wanting to go to the event and sit around waiting for him all night, I was on the fence about whether or not to go. Of course I also knew that had I not gone, I would have sat at home regretting it all night, so I made my way to West Hollywood's O Bar.

Upon arriving in WeHo, as usual, my bladder was screaming at me. I am not sure if it is just me, but trying to find a public restroom in West Hollywood is like trying to find a homosexual in Idaho. Luckily for me and my pants, this time was different. As though it were coming from an angel in heaven, I heard the musical stylings of Melissa Etheridge, telling me to come to her window. After findind the source of this angelic message I knew I had found a place with a restroom that would be available to me.

After entering O Bar for the event I was so happy that I actually decided to go. I spent the majority of the night having various conversations with a few people I had just met that night. One of them, Rosie was the co-producer for "In Twilight's Shaddow," a lesbian vampire flick, that I hope to review my blog shortly. Just to show what a small world the independ film industry is, I just found out that my friend Erin Tanaka did the costume design on that same project. The other person I talked with a majority of the evening was Dalila Ali Rajah from After Ellen's "Cherry Bomb," which I have also not yet seen, but have heard is great.

In addition to these two fabulous lesbians I had many conversations with John W. McLaughlin, an out actor and producer. One of John's current projects is called "Slate and Kelly." John is seriously destined for a network sitcom, he is highly entertaining.

In between our conversations I made an interesting observation about the Gay community in West Hollywood. It appears as though they like to make it as difficult as possible to walk around in public spaces, there are numerous areas of impossible passage. In O Bar, if you want to move to the other side of the bar you either squeeze between herds of gay men and lesbians or go out onto the patio and walk around; which is still not a guarantee it will be easy. I assume that the reasoning behind this phenomenon is that some gay men will do whatever it takes to get a few free feels in.

For instance, I was walking out onto the patio with John and passed by a group of three men, one of whom I recognized at Allen Brocka, director of "Boy Culture" and "Rick and Steve" on LOGO. In a previous entry I wrote about how I saw Allan at a different event, probably an OUTFEST party, and while trying to squeeze behind him, my hand accidently brushed against his ass. Of course this accidental touch did not go unnoticed causing him to turn around to face his accidental molestor.

This time as John and I squeezed past the group in an attempt to see what was going on on the other side of the bar my right hand accidently brushed against a denim covered crotch. Looking back I noticed that the only person in that group wearing jeans was Allan Brocka! I'm afriad that if this continues to happen, I'll develope a reputation as a gorilla celebrity molestor; not exactly what I had in mind as a child looking forward to possible brushes with fame...

No comments: