GB:NYC 5: Bloggers, Bears, And A Mutant

On Friday night, the Farmboyz, Tater, and I started our weekend way uptown in the triple-digits at the book launch party for Joel Derfner's Swish, where I grabbed this shot of Joel and his editor, Andrew Corbin. Next stop was the opening party for GB:NYC-5 at the HK Lounge in Hell's Kitchen, where it got so crowded that our nametags were the only way to distinguish the bloggers from the blogless. There was immediate blogger-on-blogger action.

Saturday arrived sunny and warm, but our picnic on Central Park's Bear Hill was slightly disappointing in that due to the set up for the AIDS Walk, the weekly roller-disco did not take place. Without the usual wacky cast of roller-weirdos to entertain us, Eric Leven picked up the slack and produced his double-dutch jump ropes.

It turned out that nobody else could actually double-dutch, so after Eric demonstrated some fancy single-rope moves (below, with Mike on the left), Little David had a few spins (second photo below, with me in the red hat taking pics.) Second photo by Stash, who has some great shots of the picnic here.
The rain returned in the evening, turning the Furball at the LGBT Center into a muggy, sweaty, mancrush - which was actually kinda perfect. Little David (below) was particularly pleased with DJ Man Parrish's retro-80's set, but I spent most of the Furball in the first floor disco grooving to legendary DJ Frankie Knuckles (second photo below). Important dance music trivia: house music gets its name from the style pioneered by Knuckles during his residency at Chicago's Warehouse club, hence his moniker, "The Godfather Of House." And yes, he did play The Whistle Song, which never fails to give me goosebumps.After the Furball, most of the crew headed uptown to the Eagle, where the rain had finally let up and we found the roofdeck in its usual Saturday night state. As an interesting conclusion to the evening, we found ourselves parked a couple of feet away from a probably psychotic man who was talking non-stop to himself.

A paraphrased sampling: "Why is it that your many feeble minds cannot penetrate mine, while I can penetrate yours so easily? You do not know of the star fire and my power. You inferior beings, you humans. You know not the power of the mutant, you restless, thoughtless humans who spew your idiocy on the internet." I was standing closest to him, so I was repeating him to everybody, which he eventually confronted me on, saying, "You useless human! Why do you steal my words? You do not know their POWER!" I said, "Oh, we just think you're saying some very interesting things," and then I introduced myself. He said, "My name is Manic, human." Indeed. As crazy as he probably is, it was all rather performance arty. I bet they'd line up in the East Village to hear him.

Overall, another great GB:NYC. Lots of new friends and good times with folks we get to see far too rarely. I think we had about 40-50 bloggers taking part this year, and we're looking forward to even more for GB:NYC-6. Big thanks to Little David and Father Tony for organizing!