TetRefine

We're going to Masterbeat on the Saturday night before Halloween, which is one of the biggest gay parties of the weekend here. We have a couple friends flying in from all over for the party who we haven't seen in awhile, so it should be fun.

My boyfriend and I both got it about a month and a half ago, despite the fact we are both fully vaccinated. The weekend before we tested positive, we had been to a packed nightclub one night, and then a 2,000 person party two nights later. He started showing symptoms less than a week after that, and then I started showing the same the next day. Even though I am vaccinated, I still had a fever, headache, fatigue, and body aches for the first couple days. Being quarantined in an apartment for 10 days in the dead of summer when everyone else is out having fun really sucked. Because I live in New York, I'd say probably 60-70% of my friends have been infected, but luckily none of them seriously. I'm surprised it took me this long to get it.

Dancer From The Dance by Andrew Holleran is one of the few novels that has profoundly impacted my life. Despite the novel being set/written in the 1970s, I felt such a deep connection to the main character and saw so much of my own life in him and his surroundings. I could very much relate to the feeling of trying to drown out the baggage of a past life through hedonism, and getting swallowed up in the process.

Summer weather in New York sucks. It's hot, it's humid, you're surrounded by nothing but concrete, and it's jam-packed with cars and people. Waiting on the platform for a train to come feels like sitting in a sauna that smells like grease and homeless people's piss. I watch the countdown clock for when the train is coming and don't go down to the platform until right before it comes. We try to get out of the city as many weekends as we can, whether that means going to the beach out on Long Island or leaving the area entirely. When we do stay in the city, we have a membership to a gym that has a beautiful rooftop pool overlooking the river, or we hang out in Central Park in the shade.

This is one reason I love Fire Island Pines. It's all gay men, and it's the only place I've ever been where I never had to "straighten" myself up. There's also a very popular gay campground in Pennsylvania called "The Woods". It's clothing-optional too.

So June 1st is upon is, and that means Pride Month! Last year was muted because of COVID, but with things rapidly opening up here in the US, there is a lot of pent up energy to celebrate! Here in New York City, most of the official events are still virtual, but there are movie screenings, panel discussions, gatherings, and of course parties happening all week every week from now till the end of the month. What are your Pride plans?

Offer Nissim- Cha Cha Cha (Peter Rauhofer NYC Remix) There's just something about that repetitive, circuit-tribal beat that can keep you dancing for hours. Also, it fits perfectly for this very hedonistic scene from Queer As Folk.

The thing about astrology is that it's so vague and general that it's easily applied to just about everybody. That wasn't by accident, it was purposely done that way to rope people in and con them. Most of the guys I've dated or had flings with were what my supposed sign said I should be with. And yet, I didn't end up with them.

I absolutely hate them. I walk past them through Central Park every day on my way to work, and they absolutely tower over everything. It's not that they're so big, but the fact that just look absolutely awful from an aesthetic point of view. And the worst part is that almost all of the 8-9 figure units in the buildings are nothing but trophy investment properties that will rarely, if ever, be lived in. I guess I simply prefer things in smaller packages.

I actually don't think it's bad looking, and it is definitely unique. Hell, it looks a heck of a lot better than the super-tall condos they're building here in New York with no architectural quality and selling penthouses for upwards of a $100M.

Reminds me of the dildo tower in London.

Naughty Boy - Runnin' (Lose It All) ft. Beyoncé (DJ Aron Remix) The first time I heard this song was at a party in Shanghai in 2017. When they hit the 'Runnin', Runnin, 'Runnin, Runnin' line the DJ would pause the track and a thousand shirtless Chinese boys dancing below would belt out the chorus. It was awesome.

I'm currently watching Tyrant. The first season was really good, but the second season was kinda 'meh'. Hopefully Season 3 goes back to the style that made Season 1 great. My guilty pleasures are Below Deck and 90 Day Fiance. My boyfriend and I will binge watch those shows for hours.

When I first joined, I was an avid Tetris player (hence the 'Tet' part). As I was signing up, I had just read an article about an oil refinery, hence the 'Refine' part. It was basically just random.

I was browsing YouTube the other day and came across some amazing footage of the 1982 Castro Street Fair. It's almost an hour of footage, just showing the beauty, freedom, and sex of urban gay life at the time. For some reason I was just enthralled watching this little video time capsule. But...the year was 1982, HIV was just beginning to be identified, but people didn't really understand what it was. The highly sexual atmosphere of San Francisco at the time was the perfect breeding ground for the virus to sow death onto so many. The Castro Street Fair (now known as the Folsom Street Fair) is a very sexual event, and you'll see people having sex all over the place. I can't imagine it was anything different back then, and was probably a huge spreading event that led to countless sickness and death. I'm guessing that most of the men in this video, especially the younger ones, never made it out of the '80s. Their very liberation was their ultimate undoing and I can only imagine how that must have felt when they realized it. I'll be making the pilgrimage to San Francisco this coming year for the event (virus permitting...how ironic). The weekend still retains its sexually liberated atmosphere (just go Google some videos), but the threat that wiped out so many in this video decades ago is now greatly diminished. Thousands of men in 2021 will do what thousands of men did in 1982 on that street, but it won't bring about the mass death it did in this bygone era. I feel like keeping the festival's original atmosphere is a way to keep alive the memories of those who didn't make it out of that awful period. But now, with all the advances, we can do it at much less of a price. That feels like progress to me.