My Big Fat Gay Weekend

In celebration of deep summer humidity, and random plans coming together, as they will, we spent twenty-four hours on Fire Island with great friends on a beach side deck with a pool in Cherry Grove.

Look, it’s just a fifty mile drive out there and a twenty minute ferry. And you get there and it’s about 100% gay, no cars, beautiful beach, cute shacks and lots of good will. First time I’ve ever been. The Pines are right there, too. And if you are so inclined, you can take off all your clothes and no one really cares. Or at least in my case no one did.

I highly recommend it. Plus, the breakfast sandwich at Floyd’s is a great deal and very welcome after a night of booze-ahol and carousing. Plus, there’s all the drama of people-on-a-barrier-island with their love dreams coming or not coming true. Like Junior High without that pesky part where you have to learn all about the Iroquois Native Americans. What were the five tribes? Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca and ---oh yes, Cayuga (had to Wikki that one). Okay, so a Junior High education was worth it. Plus, wasn’t it fun to make that long house diorama?

But I digress. If you’re gay, go to Cherry Grove/The Pines. You won’t be disappointed. If you’re not gay, please don’t try to buy in. We have like three spots left on earth.

But do go see La Cage aux Folles on Broadway, gay or not. With the incredible Douglas Hodge (Tony Winner and really, he should have gotten two Tony’s) and Kelsey Grammer (who once read an Auden poem at a wedding I attended in Malibu and out-cried the bride), directed by Terry Johnson (fantastic and true) and won the Tony for best Broadway revival, why would you want to miss this? Plus, my friend Tony works on the show as the resident director and he is making sure those Cagelles keep up their splits, aerials and other shenanigans to the standards of the original staging (first produced at the London Menier Chocolate Factory---it’s a theatre, not a candy store.) And with all that tangential name-ish dropping I am doing, just because I have ego problems, what I am really saying is---go see this damn show. You’ll flip your wig. Unless, of course, you find joyful, loving gay men and drag queens somehow not worth your time. But they actually are. Additionally, I attended with my parents, sister, her family, and my Recognized-by-the-State-of-California-Domestic Partner followed by dinner. All very affirming and worth the discounted price of admission (see my post about Broadway Box). La Cage aux Folles, a total pleasure. It’s funny. It’s smart. And it’s incredibly well done. Plus, they kick beach balls into the crowd.

Sometimes, you just have to get your gay on. And then, it’s back to regular life. Which includes planning trips, writing plays, singing and cavorting late hours in Hells Kitchen. So I guess, really, it never stops.

Happy are those who are members of a subculture. It does simplify the journey. However, it’s all an illusion.

Have a great summer.