Cheap Discotheques and the Vampire Lestat in The Stuff That's Not Interesting But Is The Most Interesting Stuff I'll Write

Frankie invited me to his show a few weeks ago. Usually I try to stay out of the ballroom scene here because I feel it really isn’t my scene, but Frankie was going to DJ for the first time, so I decided to take the trip and be social. Amusingly, it was at the rooftop of the.... Ramada. Now, I don’t know how it goes in the rest of the world, but in America, the Ramada is like one step above Best Western… it’s not exactly known as a “classy establishment”, so the very idea that the Ramada in Bangkok has a rooftop bar (and a nice one at that) was a bit of disharmony that I couldn’t really get over. Especially since it was so over-priced.

Ark was there and we had a nice conversation for the first time in over a year. The last time I saw him and really chatted was the Tom of Finland couture line that debuted the night Good told me to back off and my grandfather died. He seems a little adrift. I mean, his dreams came true (I haven’t seen his boyfriend for quite a while, so who know’s if they’re still together), his series is set to debut soon and the promo work that the stars have been doing is getting ready to ramp-up, but the way he talks about it, I think there was quite a bit of behind-the-scenes drama. I spent enough time in Hollywood to know that post-production is when a project either gets shaped by the artist or by the corporate needs of the studio, so we’ll see how he comes out on the other side of that.

Frankie had me holding the spotlight for his vogue crew, which included this woman who fled Russia at the start of war. Her story about finding a group of people who accepted her and brought her into their group made me really proud to be Frankie’s friend… even if I can’t duck-walk.

I found a place to live, it happened much quicker than I really anticipated but I had to get the place because it suddenly came available. I found a room in this building that’s Spanish villa style. It’s smaller than my current place, but it’s much cheaper… and the terrace overlooks the pool and it’s steps from the train to work (literally, it’s outside my front door) and the nice part is that that part of the train is free to work, so not only am I saving on rent, but my train to work every day will be free. Until then, I’m paying rent on two condos (the expensive one and the cheap one) which means I’m extremely limited on time out.

Bane took me to a vampire bar the other night. He apparently had no idea it was a vampire bar, which I find incredibly hard to believe since the art there was all people being impaled by stakes and hanging sculptures of hearts and other organs. He thought it was some video game-themed bar and I looked at him and said, “Really? That’s Frank Langella as Dracula playing right now. They’ve got a giant photo of Tom Cruise as Lestat.”

I actually quite liked it and I’ll probably go back sometime, even though the drinks are quite expensive.

I’ve got another corporate gig next week. They requested me specifically, so it’s nice to know that I’ve got good word-of-mouth for my work. This time I’m teaching Conflict and Negotiation, which was a subject I specifically struggled with in university. Still, I’ll happily take the day off from the school (it’s midterms anyway, so I don’t have any classes to teach) so that I can make in one day roughly a quarter of my monthly salary. I’ll need the money to make it through this transition.

I’ve got to renegotiate my contract so that I’m not always going through financial drama every time Pride month rolls around… not that I’m that much of a joiner. But who knows, maybe I would’ve found some good gay fun at the vampire bar… or the Ramada. Ha