Adonis NYC Post-Pride Wrap Up & 2 NEW Videos!

[Adonis Lounge]

Post NYC Gay Pride Wrap-Up!

 

This past weekend was a hustle to say the least. Sleep certainly wasn't the buzz word for the weekend, but filthy debauchery on the best kind certainly was! Organizing these things are always challenging and a ton of work, but certainly rewarding when things go as planned...of course they never do, which makes for good stories which reinforce our 5 year ongoing theme of: YOU CANT MAKE THIS SHIT UP!

 

The itinerary I was given from the Pride people called for us to meet at 1230pm on 37th Street where our float would be parked. Our partners form Aid For Aids did a magnificent job on the float and all the paperwork to get us to that point. My job was to bring the noise so to speak, in the form of boys! Surprisingly everyone manged to meet on time for the most part. The hustle began as AFA team members began painting up the boys with positive messages aimed at getting tested and HIV awareness. As this was happening, I would pull each guy aside for an interview. We'll get to that in a bit...

 

Everything was flowing all too well for our scheduled "launch" time of 130ish. The boys were painted, the interviews completed, generators running...but the music wasn't working! At this point, I got yelled at by 3 different people concurrently: The AFA "team leader" (who happens to be a close friend) let me know I was really dropping the ball by not having the necessary equipment to get our DJ up and running. Next a doctor, like an actual doctor from the AFA team, let me know that I was really about to ruin 2 months worth of work. After lambasting #2, I reverted back to my failsafe- I began nodding, saying "yes," "ok," "I'm sorry," and "you're right" not necessarily in that order, then ultimately opening my mouth wide, agape, and holding it...just in case I needed to take one for the team. Luckily I was able to sweet talk the float next to us into giving me their extra power strip, knowing damn well it would never get returned as I promised them! I nearly forgot to mention that to the East, North, and South of our float, were different churches or religious organization floats...gotta luv it! With the newly stolen power cord, we managed to get our DJ up and running. We ran a sound test which prompted a guy from the Pride staff, very much not in the Pride spirit, to start screaming at me that he would disqualify our float since we've been blasting music for an hour, which certainly was not true! Again, I nodded, apologized, mouth agape, then kneeled to seal the deal. We were almost ready to launch at this point, but after an hour of waiting the boys got antsy which was more than understandable. Luckily for them, I had a couple of longtime Adonis patron/friends who offered to do the responsible thing ant take them all to the corner bar to get hammered. I have the best friends...

 

An hour later, now pats 3pm, we began to move. I texted the boys and their chaperones that we were moving, so like a scene out of a movie, 10 hookers (and that includes my friends/patrons) were all running down 37th Street to catch the float! I'm not embellishing any of this btw. So the boys, staff, and few 12 packs which mysteriously showed up were ready to roll...BUT then 2 trannys wearing enormous head dresses that nearly knocked us all off the float and a small child they used as a pawn, hopped onto our float. I politely asked them who said they could come on. They replied "THEY" said we could. Wrong answer...fuk outta here I replied nicely! I used a Pride flag to push the small child they brought, in an effort to keep with the spirit of the event. My mama didn't raise no fool. The score was oficially Ho's 1- Tranny's- 0, a stark contrast to most nights at Adonis when the trannys get the better of our boys...

 

The next couple of hours really cannot accurately be put into words. Besides the obvious fun, dancing, and craziness related to the parade, it was humbling to be part of this year's Pride parade and team up with AFA. Their ENTIRE team marched at ground level, at least 10-15 people, distributing literature, shirts, condoms, and all kinds of other great stuff to raise awareness. This is no easy job, as it's very hot and we had all been waiting for many hour prior to getting the go ahead to launch. After about 10 minutes of seeing the dynamic of how our float was functioning, a bunch of our guys nothing short of demanded to help the AFA staff with their duties. They proceeded to ALL take turns dancing, keeping the crowd entertained, and running back and forth from the float to the crowd to help disperse the BOXES full of stuff AFA and their team had to hand out. Being part of something like this was nothing short of a blessing and reaffirmed something I stand firmly behind and tell the guys often- After all the jokes and messing around we do, it takes a very special person to do this job and there are truly are some amazing young men who pass through these clubs. I included a bunch of pictures and there are more coming...

 

But, now back to goofing around. This sounds terrible, but I'll say it anyway...If our float had caught fire and we never got to launch, the material we got in these video interviews would still have mad it all worth it! I may be a bit twisted, but after you watch these, you'll either understand or just shake your head. I'll take either!

 

Special thanks to everyone from AFA who made Sunday possible, to Matthew Rettenmund (owner of the Boy Culture Blog-http://www.boyculture.com/) for taking the video and doing an incredible job editing, as well as ALL pics taken for the event, to Milano for asking these ridiculous question with Sean Hannity like seriousness to make it work, and to all the boys who held it down for Adonis-Roman, Zarko, Million Dollar Bill, Duncan Black, Bryce X, Elija, Collin, Randy, Manu, Jaxton Wheeler, & Paolo.

 

If you ever wondered what would happen if you asked a bunch of strippers completely fabricated political and current event questions,

you probably need to get a life. Luckily I have no life, so I did the honors for you....

 

 

And...FULL Pride/Float Wrap Up Video from the Parade: http://vimeo.com/99770646

[Cooper]

Mr. Adonis. Thanks for sharing that amazing story of your Pride journey. I really enjoyed it. Glad you kept your cool through out that hectic day. Love the answer, "they did".

 

Excellent "Ask a stripper" video. Great answers & so natural. Those men are smart!

 

Thanks for sharing!

Coop

[Adonis Lounge]

Thanks Coop! Always an adventure leading the troops...presumably from my knees!

[tyro]

The interview vid is PRICELESS!

BTW, my personal favorite was the valedicktorian.

T

[kjun]

Congratulations. You and the guys did a great job!