The Happy Hooker

Last night I had a drink with Mike Jones, your 2006 choice as Queer Of The Year. Jones is in New York City to meet with the publisher of his coming tell-all book, and to appear as the guest of the Gay & Lesbian Task Force at their cocktail reception tonight.

Mike was charming, a gentle muscleman with arms so huge (sorry folks, I had no camera) that ten minutes into our conversation, another patron at the pub interupted our conversation to say, "Oh, man! That how I wanna get, like that!", jabbing his fingers into Mike's biceps. Mike just smiled and shook the guy's hand and thanked him, and the man drifted away.

I asked Mike if he planned on staying in Denver, with his high visibility as America's most famous hooker (not to mention the death threats!), and he just shrugged, saying, "Hey, I'm fourth-generation there. I'm not going anywhere, for now." Mike thanked me and readers of JMG profusely, referring to our Paypal project, telling me, "You guys saved my life, you really did. It meant so very much to me, I want you all to know that."

Mike Jones seems to be naturally happy, an almost soft-spoken guy who interupts his own stories to laugh at himself. I asked him why he kept his notorious AOL email address (massageandmuscle@aol.com) after the scandal broke, and he said, "You know what? I just said to myself, 'Fuck that and fuck THEM!'. I kept my email and I kept my phone number, death threats and all." And then he laughed again.

This weekend, Mike had dinner with Steve Schalchlin and Jim Brochu, after attending their hit musical The Big Voice: God Or Merman. Steve wrote a great piece about their meeting on his blog, and included a video clip of Mike at dinner. Check it out. It's encouraging (if overdue), that a major gay organization like the Gay & Lesbian Task Force is honoring Mike Jones tonight. Finally!

UPDATE: A Denver Post article about Mike Jones appears today, and it includes a mention of JMG.