Afternoon View - Provincetown

Afternoon View - Sushi's Shoe

Key West's Bourbon Pub is all set for their famed Drag Queen Drop in which local star Sushi is lowered in a giant pump at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve.

Afternoon View - HRC Does Bear Week

Afternoon View - The Little Red

There's also a Little Red in Key West.

Afternoon View - DC Hotel

I'm in DC for the annual LGBT media convention and also in our hotel is the winter meeting of the Democratic National Committee. The place is swarming with German shepherds and ominous-looking men in trench coats. (I thought better of taking their photo, the guys above are DC cops, who are here by the dozens.) President Obama is due to give an address here shortly.

"The choice for Democrats is quite clear. Opportunity for a few – or opportunity for all. See, as Democrats, we have a different idea of what the future looks like – an idea rooted in our conviction that our economy grows best not from the top-down, but from the middle-out. That's what our opportunity agenda offers," Obama is expected to say in his prepared remarks. The President will also continue to tout his 2014 approach to use executive actions to pursue his agenda. "Obviously, this is an election year. But an election that's eight months away shouldn't stop us from making progress right now. I've said I want to work with Congress wherever I can – and there are places we can work together to get things done. But I've also shown that in this year of action, whenever I can act on my own to expand opportunity for more Americans, I will," Obama will say according to the excerpts released by a White House official.

Afternoon View - Gaysha Sushi

Directly across from Wilton Manors' all-gay strip mall and next door to the popular bear bar is Gaysha Sushi, whose menu includes the Wilton Rainbow Roll.

Afternoon View - Goodbye Key West

Another sunny week in Key West gone in a dizzying blur. Once again, Father Tony and I scarcely left the fabulous Island House except to visit a few of our favorite restaurants. Huge thanks to Island House owner Jon and his very friendly team. Now, back to Fort Lauderdale.

Afternoon View - Key West Xmas Tree

I think those are lobster traps. Photo by Father Tony.

Afternoon View - Island House Pool

OK this is really only a hint of the pool, but you know, discretion.

Afternoon View - Key West Cocks

There are thousands of wild chickens all over Key West and this little family unit started to follow me back to Island House after I shared some of my brioche from Old Town Bakery.  There have been periodic attempts to round up the chickens, but it's against the law here to kill them. Because voodoo. Seriously.

Afternoon View - The Strand

Key West's Strand Theater is now a Walgreens, but you can see they did a great job of preserving many of the old elements, including the box office. 

Afternoon View

From Father Tony's balcony.

Afternoon View - Palm Springs Detritus

Many thanks to all the wonderful and supportive folks I met at Palm Springs Pride! Executive director Ron De Harte and his team delivered a truly flawless series of dizzyingly diverse events over three days and there was just no way to attend all of them, although I think I gave it a pretty good shot. Special shout-out to the crowd at the JMG meet-up, where Bare Chest Calendar man Kelly Rivera Hart gifted me with the 2014 edition, which includes added messages to me from this year's featured hunks. The calendar benefits San Francisco's AIDS Emergency Fund and you can get it right now. I'll post a slideshow of the meet-up as soon I figure out where I put the file when I crashed back into the hotel that night. Go home, Joe, you're drunk.

Afternoon View - Bella De Ball

I ran into Bella De Ball and her giant inflatable self at the Palm Springs Pride Fest, which runs all day today and tomorrow.

Afternoon View - Palm Springs

Flying into Palm Springs you see endless beige deserts and rolling barren mountains. Then, quite suddenly, the landscape is punctuated by randomly connected squares and rectangles of bright green. Somewhat like this view from my hotel room. It's hot here! And not just because I ran into a couple of dozen bears at the airport.

Afternoon View - Cleveland Museum Of Art

The buildings on the right and left house the main exhibits. In the middle today local artists were selling prints of their work.

Afternoon View - Fire Island Pavilion

This (I think) is the third Fire Island Pines Pavilion, which contains two bars, a nightclub, a gym, and several retailers. It's rainy and grey here today and most folks haven't yet ventured out of their houses.

Afternoon View - Fire Island Marina

I'm with Father Tony as the guests of the hamlet of Fire Island Pines for a weekend press junket. I'll have more photos tomorrow and Sunday should the FSM provide me with reliable internet, something that Fire Island is notoriously short on.

Afternoon View - Pearl Street House

The house. I was taking a picture of the purple house. Swear.

Afternoon View - Bear Soup