The Big Gay Marathon is Finished

I am happy to announce that I have completed all of the necessary tasks required to renew my Gay Card for another five years! I was getting a little worried for a bit because I was afraid that I would not be able to complete all of the CE Units by the Deadline. Fortunately TBGM was just what I needed and in the end I prevailed and came out of it with Gay Pride Flags raised and blowing in the wind.

Yeah, who knew that you had to renew your Gay Card every five years? I didn't and was just as surprised when I got my renewal notice in the mail.

Fortunately earlier in the week I had earned enough credits to complete my Showtune Badge by see two shows in two nights! In fact that badge had the gold star on it for Extra Credit.

Saturday night I earned the Comedy Badge by going to see Margaret Cho at the fabulous historic Chicago Theater. Any gay that's any gay was there, as we stood on the balcony like Evita overlooking the entrance it was a sea of homo's everywhere. Homo's and fag hags, EVERYWHERE! If the right-wing conspirators wanted to get id of a bunch of homo's that would have been the place to target on Saturday night.

Maggie (as I call her now) was funny. Not as funny as she's been in the past, but still funny. Fortunately they had a big projection screen behind her so even from our nose-bleed inducing seats we were able to see all of her priceless facial expressions (sometimes they were funnier than the jokes).

She talked an awful lot about vagina's....really an awful long time....

One of the funniest things she said was that she liked hanging out the The Bears because she knew she was going to eat. Hanging out with the Twinks all they want to do is drink and do lines - she's hungry!

After the concert we headed out to The North End (a venerable Gay Bar which is the farthest north on the Gay Strip) where my friend tried to get me to do Karaoke. I decided that I did not need to Gay Chorus Badge this time around. I told him that I don't sing in front of people, I just video tape myself singing to other people's songs and post them on the internet. You have to draw the line somewhere!

I had 3 whole days between the Maggie Cho Show and my last event in TBGM - and boy did I need them.

Tuesday Night I earned enough credits to get my Economical Entertainment Badge. My Best Friend's Boyfriend introduced us all to Yelle and we were excited to pay a whole $15 for tickets to see her only Chicago appearance. I was decked out in my most favorite Forever 21 outfit in hopes that I would mix in with the crowd of Hipsters that were attending the show. Let's just say, I still stuck out!

You can tell you're getting old when you go to a concert and they have 3 acts before the main act, and the main act isn't scheduled to be on stage until 10:30 and you're typically in bed by 9:30! I stuck it out as the DJ set before the concert was great, there was a band that played (the DJ was better) and finally Yelle arrived at 10:30. You can also tell you're getting old when everyone around you is screaming and you're sitting there giving the polite Opera Clap to show your appreciation for her only being 30 minutes late.

The show was in an old music hall, so no seats, just a big open room. When Yelle took the stage we were towards the front and center - pretty good standing spots. Suddenly everyone started jumping up and down in sync as they were dancing to her french raps that I didn't understand, and you could feel the floor moving up and down. That's when you realize you're old and say "Holy crap, I'm gonna move over to the side of the floor here so I'm not in the middle of the collapse when it happens."

Overall though, the concert was good, it was worth the $15, that's for sure, and it helped me get my final CE Requirement for my Gay Card.

Now I'm just waiting to get my laminated card in the mail!

And thus The Big Gay Marathon begins

4 Shows in 6 Days!

Starting last night and proceeding through Tuesday of next week I will be going to 4 shows.....someone has to do it.

I've been practicing the last few weeks, listening to only showtunes on my iPod, tap dancing while I'm waiting for the elevator (I had to stop that as my co-workers thought I just had to pee really badly), I've been working on my breathing so I can hold the long notes as long as the best Diva on stage, and I've stocked up on candies that don't make noises when they're unwrapped during the quiet romantic song at the end of Act I!

I just hope that all of my training will pay off, as I'll need it to get through this difficult time!

To kick off this hugely gay event, last evening I went to see Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and before you ask - NO, Johnny Depp was not there. This was the live version of the show that was recently on Broadway.

The great thing about this show is that it was staged by John Doyle and the actors are the orchestra. You may remember that back in November 2006 I went to New York and The Boyfriend and I went to see Company where I ended up starting a round of applause for a fabulously delivered line. Company was also directed by John Doyle (and it also happens to be a Sondheim) and it was on the same theme where the actors were the orchestra.

Sweeney was a great show, the actors were strong and after a few minutes the mysticism of them playing instruments while onstage faded away. I enjoyed the show a lot, but unfortunately my friend that joined me didn't enjoy it and actually left during intermission. He said that his knees were bothering him from being cramped in our seats at a high altitude, but I think he just didn't like the show!

Part II of TBGM (The Big Gay Marathon) is a viewing of Jersey Boys. This was part of the Broadway Series last year, but unfortunately I didn't get a chance to see it. Through a set of bizarre circumstances a friend of a friend of a friend had some extra tickets to this evenings performance - and so I pounced!

Part III of TBGM occurs on Saturday Evening when I'll be having a discrete conversation with Margaret Cho. Well I'm sure it won't be just me, there will probably be some other homo's there as well. I'll be interested to see how many Straight Boys show up at that concert as Maggie is pretty much a Gay Icon!

The Final Event of TBGM will be three more days in the making when we go see Yelle. Now this will probably be a more one-on-one type of show because she's not a huge artist (although her music is very cool) and the space she's performing in was basically someone's house a hundred years ago....hmmmm

So I'm finishing up my training today and getting my stockpile of protien shakes made so that I can have the strength to finish this Big Gay Marathon.

Hold on, cuz it's gonna be a bumpy ride!