Plug It Up! Plug It Up! Plug It Up!

Plug it up! as in shameless plug for my friends of NEKKED. But why not? It is my blog.

In an unusual twist of events last night, I went out on a school night. But only because my NEKKED friends were hosting another one of their monthly NEWD nights at the Eagle. Robopapi went last time and said it was really cool, very different, as in not your usual Eagle event.

The NEWD party bills itself as "an electro fetish kabaret". And that it was! As soon as I entered I was greeted by two small video screens. One was displaying the 1950s animated Animal Farm and another was showing some Jean Cocteau film that looked very ghostly errie but right up my alley (so to speak) in terms of old movies I like. There were live performances from a few hot go-go boys holding up large picture frames and wearing animal masks while dancing to the funtastic music I talk more about later. And by these 3 women, one clad in an ultra tight corsette (ouch) while they ran around acting like lions in the wilderness pursuing prey.

NEWD's new monthly, Wednesday night party, incorporating traditional entertainment, new technology and fetish performance for a unique event and new experience which helps represents the rekindling of New York nightlife's underground scene. The boys of NEKKED sang a few songs. Breath, which I love. And DJ Rich King was playing some crazy funtastic music which I was keenly aware of many sound samples; some of which were from...

• Valley of the Dolls; "you know how bitchy fags can be".
• Harold from Boys in the Band; (maybe not the entire quote but I love it anyway!) "You're a sad and pathetic man. You're a homosexual and you don't want to be, but there's nothing you can do to change it. Not all the prayers to your god, not all the analysis you can buy in all the years you've got left to live. You may one day be able to know a heterosexual life if you want it desperately enough. If you pursue it with the fervor with which you annihilate. But you'll always be homosexual as well. Always Michael. Always. Until the day you die."
• And one that I really recognized, Davros the creator of the DALEKS screaming in his reverberating maniacal way, "You will obey, You will obey me. I am Davros...I...I...I!!!!!!"
  

It was all very very cool. Alas I'm a 9-5er and I had to leave around midnight, just like Cinderella.

think ink

Here's my latest inking contemplatiton...Sri Chakra Mandala.

Interestingly, this symbol brings me back to my childhood in 1978. This was the same symbol Colonial Warriors wore in the TV show Battlestar Galactica. They never explained it's symbolic meaning on the show, although the BSG story was heavily infused with Egyptian symbology.

But I digress. I looked up some of the meaning of this Manadala; Sri Chakra the mystical construction of the Cosmos. The secrets of Cosmic unity held by the inter-penetration of nine triangles. Triangles - the product of three phases of cosmic process - creation, preservation, dissolution. And the triad of time. Past present and future. Into which the whole of the activities of the universe could be summed up. Contained. I guess this would certainly wear well with my Seals of Rassilon shoulder tats, which are very Mandala themselves. Its all about Time.



Obviously I had to research a bit on the Sri Chakra Mandala above, and of course I came across another, that not only spoke to me but was utterly beautiful. Hmmm, I need to think more on the new ink. This one is Bijhánn, and is about seeing beyond, about recognizing oneself in the universal flow, and about rejoicing in our unity with the cosmic. Oh decisions decisions.

Miss Cleo vs Milan vs Lady Catiria. No contest!

This video of Miss Cleo vs Milan makes me think of
Lady Catiria's awesome best of video of her amazing life and career.
But no one can beat Catiria.

So cool even girls dig 'em

Yup, robots are sooo cool, even girls dig 'em. This little girl's favorite toy. She chose this radio robot with microphone over the very popular Rocker Barbie radio n' mic set.

a Turkish ro[Bro]cub

So check it out. I have a Turkish bro named Emre, well sorta...

He's Turkish...as am I partly (my mom's a Turk).
He's sexy...as am (well I think I have my moments).
He's a boy lover...me too!
He's got the facial fuzz, as I have.
He's got my name Robocub, as I am.

Sucky for me, he already grabbed up the domain name robocub.com, but hasn't done anything with it. I woulda loved to own it, but alas we can't have everything in life. You can check his sexy-self out at his blog robocub.com/woof.

Jersey City is the New Gayborhood

Since the sad sad demise of Chelsea, and the West Village before it, as the uber Gayborhood of the North East in the past couple of years, Manhattan has yet to really establish a new Gayborhood. It seems the Gays have just spread out all over to places like Brooklyn, Washington Hights, and Long Island City, and now it's hard to say if there really is, or ever will be a new Gayborgood in Gotham. Sorry boys, but Hell's Kitchen just never could fit the bill. Way too many tourists and frankly not much of interest unless you're a theater queen.

That is until I recently discovered Jersey City, in of all places New Jersey! Yup, right across the river on a 10 minute Path train ride, there is what they call the Gold Coast of New Jersey. I guess because it's directly across from the West side of Manhattan and features stunning views of the Manhattan skyline. Jersey City is incredibly accessible to Manhattan, much more so than Brooklyn or Queens. Most New Yorkers have an innate and completely unfounded disdain for New Jersey. There's no real reason, it just is. So for many New Yorkers, NJ is never a consideration as a destination or a home.

But in Jersey City I discovered really nice neighborhoods (Hamilton Park) which resemble the West Village or Park Slope, just on a slightly smaller scale. Brownstones and Townhouses galore, plus many many new constructions and developments, lofts, high-rises, mid-rises, you name it they are building it. And imagine all this at real estate prices half of what you'd pay for in Manhattan. Simply amazing!

But what excited me even more was that there are tons of Gays over in Jersey City, I mean TONS. Contrary to popular belief and serious misconception, most Gays do not have tons of money to squander on $4500 rents or $1.5 million dollar condos. In fact most everyone I know is very middle-class and struggles (OK maybe not struggle but certainly cannot afford these million dollar condos going up every 10 inches across Manhattan) to pay their rent and bills. So I guess Jersey City is a blessing for us low-to-middle class homos.

So yes folks, here you have me, a genuine born & bred native New Yorker who is actually telling you that Jersey City is becomming the new Gayborhood of NYC. I've seen it, I've smelt it, I've experienced it. It be real. It's the future.