Wise & Young

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

The Inauguration ball had all the intrigue, controversy, competition, and recounts that made it a fitting tribute to the contemporary political landscape. The ball started around 6 am, at the Bryn Manor in Oxon Hill, MD. The venue was very spacious, well lit, and allowed for free movement for all those who attended. The commentator was Deshaun Evisu who was able to control the crowd, appease the judges, and keep the momentum of the ball going.

After the judges were seated, the first category was Best Dressed Spectator, now to me there were plenty, plenty of very well dressed folks in attendance. But with that said there came this Ebony looking as if she her driver had gotten lost on the way to National Airport to take her back to Paris and she came in looking to use the facilities, very opulent, and very poised.

Virgin Vogue was interesting they had a few people vogue for the first time and what was cool was that the audience was surprisingly supportive for those who were putting themselves out there to be judged for the first time. This guy from the House of Krayola won.

Then the discrepancy, it started started with the BQ realness category which was there by divided into Thug, Pretty boy, and Schoolboy. Each had a specific way they were supposed to dress

Thug – “I am in the Army now” Army Attire
Schoolboy – “Learning and Achieving” ROTC Cadet Attire
Pretty boy – “Accelerate your Life” Navy Attire

But what happened was one of the first contestants came out in what looked to be an official Army Class A uniform, also known as Dress greens. But he got chopped, and let me tell you, the guy who was chopped was highly upset. I mean there is nothing wrong with feeling that you were undeserving disqualified but to storm off pouting and whispering obscenities under your breath is just poor form. Granted there seem to be some discrepancy as if he was deserved to be chopped, so they called him back like two more times and the judges kept chopping him. Ah well, but then for the ROTC Cadet Attire it was mess all around, guys coming in there with some black sneakers on, wrinkled clothes. I mean where were the starched creases, the rifle or anything? So they all got chopped. Then Pretty boys much like the Schoolboys, did not put any real effort into their category, and thusly got chopped.


The Designer cuts was interesting this one guy had the American flag inspired design and a flashing red-white-blue star in his head.


The Hands Performance started off very, very interesting. They had like five or six competitors that were chopped, not because of their artistic merit, or lack thereof but because they performed too far away from the judges panel. The judges wanted to teach them a lesson. But what was interesting was a guy named Cabbage Ebony jumped in and started giving hands, with the vigor and audacity that read “Bitch, try and chop me and see what happens!” After this, and some grumbling from the judges panel, Desahun Evisu and RJ Aga, called all the competitors who got chopped to compete again. This time some of them were chopped twice but others proceeded on. I don’t remember who won but I will say this: Those folks were telling a story, what it was I don’t remember, but it did remind me of liturgical dancing.

The Runway category was pretty good actually. I’ve seem folks compete in runways before when some of my friends would drag me to go to some HBCU’s fashion show and the modeling clubs at the school would compete, one word BORING. But, surprisingly so not this time, the outfits were to recreate Uncle Sam’s uniform and walk the hell out of it, which most of the contestants did with a cool, calm collected grace of a gazelle on the Serengeti. Each had a different variation but the none of the walks were haphazard in the least. But there was person who was different, his gaze was unflinching as if no one was in the room except for him and the judges. His walk was like a lion stalking his prey, calculated, pensive, and at the same time rhythmic. His name is Derrick Allure, and let me tell you Allure was right. The final battle was between him and this guy who was giving a very European stylized walk, then Derrick Allure switched up the walk and did a very Haute Couture walk and them moved seamlessly into a very Ralph Lauren, Donna Karan, All-American walk. Derrick won the battle.

Female Figure Sex Siren had two contestants this light skin girl who was from the House of Belleza, which is interesting b/c the House of Belleza is an all female house, and a new house. It will definitely be interesting to see where and how this house will develop.

Old way Performance Sorry I wasn’t really paying attention I saw Frank Leon Roberts and was debating should I go over and speak, I did not b/c I am very shy.

Butch Queen Face, it was interesting the first guy had some serious cheekbones like Grace Jones. But honestly after the third contestant there were variations in shade but they all started to look alike. Albeit they were very handsome young men but they did not possess that striking double take face that you find yourself staring at them because their face was so appealing and interesting to gaze upon. But I’m not going to lie I did fight the urge to ask them what they use on their face to make their skin so clear, I mean those boys need to be on a commercial for some skin care product. In fact maybe that should be a theme for a category. Hmmm

Realness with a Twist, I must say I was extremely apprehensive about this category because at the Evisu Ball nearly 12,342 guys came out the wood work to compete and it took over 45 minutes for that one category alone. So when I saw a good number of guys line up for this category I was thinking “Oh no, not again!” But the judges did the damn thing and processed and chopped a good amount of the guys who came up. The guy who won was a free agent and very good, handsome too.

Female Figure “Who Shall be the First”, the idea was that you were supposed to dress as if you were the first female president. The first contestant came out in some plastic slippers and a long black velvet dress, CHOP. The next contestant came out in a great outfit if you worked in an office, CHOP. But the third had it down, she came out there with two secret service men with the ear pieces holding photos of her. Them she came out dressed in demure black Chanel inspired power suit, with the double strand pearl necklace. The outfit had Nancy Pelosi, Hilary Rodham Clinton, and Condi Rice written all over it!

Presidential Invitation had a very interesting premise where certain people are invited to attend and to then compete for the 1200 dollars. I have to say that this was not only interesting but the group was hype for it, people where craning their necks to see some nasty Voguing Battles that were going down. The participants were both FemQueens and ButchQueens who were at the top of their game. With the very first battle one of the judges couldn’t see the battle so he the contestants had to vogue all over again. Now for anyone who is not familiar with voguing, its a very hard art form to master and to compete against someone means that you not only have your our routine but its also very improvisational and very no holds bar. So to ask the competitors who are running on adrenaline and tired to do what they did just to see it again seems unfair to the performers. But that aside the battles were hot, and to a certain degree you could tell it was not about the money but about reputation and bragging rights. Shaderra Prodigy was the one who won the money, I mean she was great, but what seemed to help her out was that she voguing more “in your face”, whipping her hair and her body around like a doll in the spin cycle she would then fall back and pop back up. I hope she uses that money to see a good chiropractor because all that she gave to the audience must have been hell on her back.

All in all it was an interesting night/day, there were certain observations I had.

  • There was this guy handing out trophies with some Eskimo inspired boots and a blue and white tartan kilt, the kilt was HOT.
  • I felt sorry for RJ Aga the one who threw the ball because the ball ended prematurely but it was a great event. There seems to be a hierarchy of houses, and that helps determine, along with how good you are in your category, how far you advance.
  • The judges needed to have been chopped they were rude, annoying, and down right trifling at times. It was clear that RJ and the rest of the people in the ball did not agree with their decisions but for the sake of decorum let the bad judgment go, better have bad judgments than bad blood.
  • Some of the guys in the audience were wearing some of the hottest labels out, and I kept thinking how can they afford it.
  • Ayanna Khan was smart she was there to give a spiel about her upcoming ball in September but after that she was GONE!

Just my thoughts

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Oralsure Tests

Ok a few weeks ago one of my friends and I were talking about HIV prevention and thinking of ways we could help out, and what hasn’t been done. So we came up with a few ideas. One thing was to improve the type of condoms and lube that they pass out, they need to pass out the ultra-thin condoms that ribbed under the head in order to simulate sex without a condom. Also there are water based lubricants that are so much better than Wet, and ID. In fact there are some that actually moisturize the skin and dry off without leaving your skin feeling sticky or oily. So that may be one way to increase safe sex efforts, give the kids what they want. You show someone that yes safe sex can not only be safe, but also increase the pleasure derived through sex. More folks will be willing to strap it up and lube it down.

Another option was to increase efforts to teach people how to have safer forms of sex such as masturbation, jerking another person off, rimming, and etc. My rationale for this was b/c if you learn how to increase the intensity and the pleasure of an orgasm more guys would be willing to do other things other forms of sex that aren’t as safe. For instance if you’re with someone and they can provide you with pleasure and get you to…ahem…climax but there was no real risk of transference of Sexually Transmitted Infections then I think that guys would be more willing to do so.

Then my boy brought a very republican, Christian conservative idea, which was to really crack down on cruise spots such as parks, bathrooms, etc. He said that guys who go to places like that for the most part are not engaging in safer forms of sex, and that the police if they really wanted to could crack down on these spots, b/c most of these places have been in existence for over 30 years. He even pointed out to the Chicago Public Health officials raiding the studio of Cocodorms b/c there were guys who were knowingly HIV positive have unsafe sex putting others at risk.

But I think our best idea was the take home AIDS/HIV test. For those of you who have not been tested recently, they have this test called OraSure, which is when they take a wand and run it across your gums and then put it in a solution to see if you are hiv positive or not. It takes about 20 mins to get the results. I think if this was placed on the open market like Preganacy tests then more people would know that they are HIV positive, b/c they would have been tested either by themselves, by a lover, or even a hook up. Let me paint the scenario for you.

You see someone you like and its just a hook up, or someone you’re talking to and its at that time when you want to “make it do what it do”. So you ask them to take this test just to see, if it’s a hook up you tell them to bounce or you bounce b/c they are unwilling to take the test. If its someone you are seeing on something serious, then this is a pefrfect opportunity to talk to them about why not, trust issues, where you are coming from and where they are coming from. Let’s be honest here, we know that HIV infection rates are not going down, and are increasing so we know the current free lube and condom ethos is not working. We know folks are going raw, so we need to make sure that they know hey this guy you are about to have sex with is HIV pos, and let that person make the knowledgeable decision to go raw, use a condom, or decline having sex.

Just my thoughts

FYI, I was surfing the internet and found out that you can actually buy Orasure tests. The link is here http://www.orasuretests.com/

Hope this helps

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Celibacy

Celibacy, that word has so much weight, for some it means an expression of their spirituality and making themselves pure once again, akin to virginity. For others they are saving themselves for the “one”, but some use it as a means to deal with their sexual demons. What better way to stop sexual addiction than to just stop. Just as there are different reasons for being celibate there are just as many ways to practice it.

When someone thinks of celibacy, the idea of not having sex is the first notion, but that is open to each person’s interpretation of sex. Some consider only anal and vaginal penetration sex and everything else is fair game. While others would attach masturbation, oral sex, rimming, and any touch thereof as off limits, to each his or her own.

Personally when I made the decision to be celibate is was for a number of reasons. The first was that I felt I was going “too fast”, that my sexual habits while not as much as others, was too much for me. Another reason for the decision was that the act of sex has lost a lot of its allure, not because I was not good at it. But it was because it just purely a physical act, no feelings involved. Without feelings involved there was no incentive for me or the guy to really make it something special. As any reader of my blog will know I am extremely concerned with contracting a STI (sexual transmitted infection), yes I practice safe sex, but there were times where I slipped up (show me someone who has never slipped up, and I will show you a liar, hell most of the worlds population were conceived because of slip ups).

As far as what I consider off limits is anal, vaginal (no worries there). I started my celibacy over five months ago, and I must say its going fairly well. I mean just b/c I’m celibate does not mean I am dead. But I can say when you take sex out of the equation certain things become clearer, well not clearer but easier to discern. It also it helps weed folks out, there are plenty of guys out there who say they are fine with dealing with someone who is celibate when they are really after a hook up and when they realize that me being celibate is actually in place.

One thing that most guys fail to realize is that if or when I am with someone seriously, its done, my celibacy will end. Because then I will be highly engaged in having and creating a memorable experience. But until then I am on self imposed celibacy, which isn’t bad, when I look at the alternative, for me.

Now before I get inundated with remarks on my posts that are sonnets praising the joys of anonymous sex, hook ups, and the like. Like me say this, do what you do, I cannot and will not judge you, because your sex life just not be how you define yourself. There is more to you than that, just as there is more to me than being celibate.

Now, I have a question for you all, is receiving head breaking vows of celibacy?

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Bette Midler: The Rose

They dont' make singers like this anymore.

Bette Midler - Friends

One of my all time favorite songs ever.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

30 year old Hoes

As you all know there are certain gay black hot spots in the US. DC, NYC, ATL, and I bet in the next 5 years Houston will be added to that list, but that’s another discussion. You all know how that being a gay black hot spot means having good clubs (I’ll discuss this later), having organizations that are geared towards helping each other, and of course a higher than average population of men and womyn who identify as same gender loving. With that high population comes a multitude of various type of people, good, bad, and the hoes. Now, hoe’s come in different shape, sizes, and etc. But one thing I have noticed is that there are more hoes who are over the age of 32 than under. Growing up, I was always told or it was implied that when you are in your 20’s that is when it is socially deemed appropriate if you are going to be a hoe or “sow your wild oats” and the older you get the more mature and the less hoe-ish you should be. But what I have realized that, this is not the case, its actually the reverse, I’m seeing guys who are over the age of 30 being bigger hoes than guys who are much younger.
Think I am being an age-ist, log on to Adam4adam, and don’t front like you don’t have an account there, and just take a look you will see more explicit shots from guys who classify their age as over 30. In DC it seems to be over the age of 32. Now part of this may be due to the fact that guys come out later in life and they feel the need to go through gay adolescence and freak anything and everyone. Maybe that’s true, I don’t know. Maybe this phenomenon is only in DC, because for guys in that age range DC was the hot spot to be, similar to what Atlanta is now, or what Houston will be. So they are just continuing their activities that they did when they were younger and now just more upfront with it.
To me, its just sad and pathetic, simple as that, you’re old enough to be a teenagers dad, I mean really do I want to see Mr. Jenkins trying to holla at me in some Evisu jeans, that 50 cent G unit tight shirt muscle T, with a du-rag on your head. That is not gangsta in the least. Or better yet you’re online with your ass all out spread on a leopard skin rug in your Ft. Washington home, I’ll pass.
Conversely, the guys who are between the ages of 21-29 seem to actually be less on some sex shit and more on some I want to meet people. Of course some of them are lying, but from my own experience is that guys in that age range tend to be very much true to their word.

Just my thoughts