Weekend Update: Fast Friends, Lazy Day & Home (at The Mans) for the Holidays

The fastest friends are the ones you make where it's like you share the same brain. You're immediately on the same page as them when it comes to everything from what movie you want to go see to what candy you want to share with the popcorn when you get there.

Last night Seth Apper and I took in Eagle Eye ...with Reese's Pieces and Coke Icees. We did Numbers after for dinner and took in a drink at Here Lounge's "Destination" before deciding to call it an early night.

I'm glad I'm closer to Seth these days, both in proximity and friendship. We have come to find recently that we have so much in common, it's at times a little spooky. Waking up at the same time, calling each other at the same time, having the same thoughts on where we want to go and what we want to do when we get there and how long we want to stay! I like friends like that. You don't have to wonder what they're thinking because you're already thinking it! ;-)

I had an incredibly relaxing day here at The Mans too. I've barely gotten out of bed at all today. I've just been reading magazines, books, eating in bed, watching TV. Andy and Tristan are out of town for five days shooting a movie in New York and then visiting Tristan's family in Connecticut, so it was the perfect Sunday to really just veg out. I used to have at least one day a week where I did absolutely nothing and shut out the rest of the world. That hasn't happened since I moved in because I always want to play with my friends here! I had forgotten how amazing these days feel and how important it is for me to take them. I've never lived with friends before so I'm always tempted to just seize every moment and live it up for the day and take a trip to Crunky Town! That's my new term, by the way: What I call drinking excessively and getting crazy with friends.

But the amazing thing about living in a place this big is that you can have days in Crunky Town with your friends and then other days completely to yourself. If I were living in a small apartment with friends, a day to myself shutting off the rest of the world would be nearly impossible without dealing with other people and having to hear them. If I were living in a small apartment alone, I'd never have the roomies to stay in and go crazy with! So living in a place this big with friends but having my own private space really offers me the best of both worlds. I am so glad I no longer have to worry about being too loud because of thin apartment walls, not being able to play music after 10:00 at night, not having enough space for bringing my friends over, not having any place for Sadie to run around outside off leash without getting her to a park, etc. It really is an incredible gift to be able to be here.

Speaking of which, I made the decision this week that I am not going to leave town for the holidays. The expenses to see my dad in Indiana for Thanksgiving and my mom in Florida for Christmas would be too much and I can't feel comfortable seeing one without seeing the other. Besides that, I think it's important acclamating to my new home to really make it "mine" this holiday season. To decorate it to the nines with all my stuff, invite my friends over for holiday parties, make turkey dinner and Christmas cookies in the big kitchen here, all that good stuff.

I've spent only a couple Thanksgivings and Christmases in L.A. during the decade I've lived here and they have been A LOT of fun to spend with friends, although nothing is really like going home for the holidays. I will miss seeing my family for the season, but something tells me it is important that I be here this year. It feels right in my heart. I want to help make my friend's holidays special too -- many of them are without family, disowned from their families because they are gay or are not able to make it home because of finances.

Also, to stay in town means I can host holiday versions of each of my weekly events. To throw parties at these venues and make hundreds of people's holidays shine brighter by having a place to go and have fun is an opportunity I might not have next year. It just seems right on every level that I be here. After all, if I were meant to be elsewhere, I'd be headed elsewhere.

I need to get out a press release this week on my Fall/Winter schedule of shows. All of my Here Lounge nights are done for the moment and we're moving onto every Tuesday at Eleven Lounge, every Wednesday at Numbers, every Thursday at Apple Lounge and soon every other Sunday at Eleven as well.

The thing I'm most looking forward to is that I can go back to singing at The Other Side piano bar on Friday nights. Sometimes I would go on Mondays too to rehearse. I have missed it and am anxious to get back to it -- especially over the holiday season. I love doing the Christmas shows and singing those songs. I'm also thinking, since I will be in town this season, about taking the Christmas monologue that won me The Orange County Theater Award a few years ago and presenting it solo in Bobbie Chance's acting showcase from Thanksgiving through New Year's. I will have to move some scheduling around and it will keep me very busy, but it might be worth it to do all three for the season: hosting, singing and acting.

Anyway, these are the thoughts.

I hope to make it to bed early so I can wake up early for the gym. I saw some photos of me from this weekend and Lord do I need to start making that a priority again!

Election Night at The Mans

I felt it all day yesterday.

Change was in the air from the second my eyes popped open in the A.M. You could feel it, couldn't you? Everyone unified for the same goal and purpose. Would that we could all feel that sense of unity every day of our lives and continue reaching for it; to doing something proactive to work every day towards it. Peace. A better America. A better world.

I thought, "What can I do every day to get us closer to it?" and then reminded myself that it always begins in our own backyards and in the mirror. If we want a better country, we must become better people. If we want a peaceful nation, we must stop fighting with our our friends, our lover, our families and display patience, understanding, tolerance and diplomacy in our every day dealing.

This election is one of the things our children and grandchildren will come to us about. They'll be writing papers and want to know where we were the night Obama was elected into office. Who were we with? What were we doing? How did it feel?

Who were we with? Last night, I invited a few friends over to watch the poll results. Seth Adler, Kabbalah Nick and Josh Griffin helped make the evening so special as Andy, Tristan and I all busted open the champagne up in the pool house with Shannon.

What were we doing? Nick sat with me on the couch, riveted to every word and hushed people when they were talking over the speeches. Seth was chronicling the entire experience on Facebook via his laptop. Shannon was playing host, making sure everyone was take care of. Andy joked that LIVE backwards on the screen actually spelled EVIL and Tristan kept his party on, dancing to tunes in his own head. Josh was so well behaved for someone who is a devout Republican -- he only made a few jabs and jokes here and there. I appreciated the diversity of him being there and his willingness to still share in the victory with us.

How did it feel? I felt humbled. I felt like it was all so much bigger than me and yet I had something to do with it -- like a tiny rock falling from the mountain but still being made of the same particles as the mountain, like we are to God. I felt inspired. I felt hope. I felt confident that the rest of the world will see none of what has happened was what we wanted. I felt proud of the land that our house was sitting on and felt it moving beneath me, celebrating in its own way.

And I wondered if we could make the moment last.


"'What do you plan to do with all your freedom?' the new Sheriff said, quite proud of his badge. 'We'll weave them through every rockets red glare and huddled masses. You just lift your lamp.'" - Tori Amos, "Scarlet's Walk"

Post Halloween Blog

It has taken me two and a half entire days to recover from my Halloween antics, but woo hoo Thursday through Saturday was a lot of fun!

On Tuesday afternoon, I went shopping for some costume accessories that Chi Chi insisited I would be needing. I decided to team with her for ideas this year since we'd be throwing parties together on Thursday and Friday night. We'd decided on me doing a sort of emo/punk theme for Thursday where I pretty much looked like her son and then on Friday I would make my first appearance in full drag. And as what else but Liza Minnelli, of course! (Speaking of which, did you hear she's playing the Palace next month?! LizasatthePalace.com! She's singing her mom's "Judy at the Palace" medley too! You know, "...'cause vaudville's back at the Palace! And I'm on the bill!")

So Tuesday I ran a bunch of errands knowing it would be my only day to do so out of the week. Tristan came with me and we had a great lunch together at Pomodoro. He had just gotten home from being out of town dancing in Tuscon all weekend and had funny stories to tell about him performing Cher's "Bang Bang" on stage. Cher has become the mascot of The Mans. We can't stop listening to her these days and we're constantly picturing what she would do or say in any given situation around the house just for laughs.

Then I had to race home and get ready to go host "Penthouse 88" at Eleven Lounge with Josh Griffin. It was our first night there as the new weekly hosts and they went from having about 30 people there the week before to having 200+ on our night. Needless to say, we felt very proud and they were extremely happy with us. I went with Seth Aper actually who I have always adored but have gotten to spend more time with lately. He was back in town for the week after quite an extended absence from L.A.! It was good to have him back and to see so much of him during the Halloween parties. (He was dressed as Satan, head to toe in red paint, and won the costume contest at Here Lounge later in the week.)

This week we have off because my friends Jeffrey Sanker and Paul Nicholls had booked Election Day to host their "Ballot Ball" at Eleven quite a while ago. I will probably stop by for a few minutes. But Josh and I will be back the following week to resume our weekly all-night hosting duties.

On Wednesday, I answered over 300 emails in the morning, got a lot of JasonCurious.com work done in the afternoon, went to a Rosh Hodesh lecture on Scorpio at The Kabbalah Centre with Kaballah Nick at 8:00 pm, picked Chi Chi up from the airport at 10:45, came home and collapsed onto my bed.

The next day, my Halloween began. I made my way over to Chi Chi's early in the afternoon to begin getting all dolled up for our party at Apple Lounge's "Temptation." I had a pre-cocktail happy hour to host at Numbers beforehand and she had to stop by Michael Lucas's wedding so we both needed to be out the door by 7:30 and were afraid we weren't going to have enough time. Turns out, we were both practically done nearly two hours before we even had to step foot out the door! But it was good to hang out, catch up, find Halloween music online and talk about how hungry we were. Have you noticed she's lost over 50 pounds? Yup. She gave them to me.

Brandon Baker and his crew joined me at Numbers. He was dressed like a bell boy with freaky eyes and the second I saw him I thought, "Hmm... emo boy and freaky bellhop! I likey, I likey!" Dean Newton head of CockyBoys.com and Howard Andrew from FabScout stopped by too with their boys and it's always good to see them.

From there, we headed to Apple Lounge where I met up with Cheech. She DJ'd the night away and I hosted, though my microphone duties are really minimal as it is and even moreso when she's there! It's more my job to get my friends in the door, to circulate, to work the room and to make sure everyone's taken care of and having a good time. Chi Chi's exclusive Benjamin Bradley was performing along with a slew of other hot go-go boys. So many of my friends were there and it was a really good time.

I opted against after parties with my "Dirty, Sexy, Scary Halloween Party" at Here Lounge coming the next day and was in bed by 3:00 am.

The next day, I had a few more last minute errands to run and a few last minute fires to put out with the big Halloween party. Then it was off to Chi Chi's again, this time to become Liza! She helped a great deal. My costumes on both nights would have not been AT ALL if it weren't for her expertise, really. I'm so bad at that sort of thing. I love me some eyeliner and I always wear makeup, but I'm not a big fan of "dress up." She made it fun and made me look like I knew what I was doing.

I was really impressed with how much Here Lounge did to decorate for Halloween! They really turned that place into something spooky! Chi Chi DJ'd, I hosted a costume contest, Tammie Brown poured out the poison punch, the FabScout boys were all on hand throughout the night, Brent Everett and Josh West performed live on stage -- and we brought in the biggest, earliest crowd the place has EVER had on Halloween! Another successful adventure.

My own adventure went on for hours after the club closed, seeing as I waltzed through my door at around 8:30 am. But hey, it's Halloween! And the intimate after party I attended with some of my closest pals was really a blast! ;-)

It could've gone on even longer I suppose! I was invited by Brandon to head out to Palm Springs with the RentBoy.com crew for pride, but I decided to stay in L.A. for the weekend and rest. I'm glad I did. I needed it more than I expected after two days of non-stop fun.

Saturday I recovered eating pizza and pasta while watching the mini-series Stephen King's "IT" with Andy and Tristan. I had barely spent time with Andy all week so it was good to relax and hang with him. Sunday was more of the same as I still felt like shit from Halloween. More food. More movies.

This morning, I was up early and spent an hour cleaning up my "office area" (aka: MY DESK!). When I finally emerged from my cave, I found Andy and Michelle rearranging the living room and dining room, removing a lot of the clutter. So I took it upon myself to help clean up in there while they moved things. I cleaned the dining room chandellier for what must have been the first time in many years and dusted coffee tables and such. The living area of The Mans is now much more... well, livable!

Had dinner with the gang and uploaded pics from Thursday and Friday to the "News Desk."

Photos from Tuesday, Thursday and Friday's events can all be seen at: jasoncurious.com/desk/

Hurry! Before they become "members only" entries in the archives.