Brush with Hurricane Ike

Well, it has been a wild week in Miami Beach. Just as I started to get some work done and take a few days at the beach the news started reporting about Ike. As Ike moved closer Florida declared a State of Emergency on Thursday and by Friday panic took over. We had a Category 4 Hurricane headed directly for us, so my business partner and I had to make evacuation plans, especially since we live 2 blocks from the beach and we work from home. Friday night I was coming home from, well I can't remember, but I stopped by Publix (our supermarket) and all the bottled water was gone, people were frantically pushing carts through the aisles, and about 50% of non-perishable items were ripped from the shelves. Ok, I'm usually not one to panic, but when I see other people panic I get nervous.

One of Ike's outter bands movin' in

However, the next morning we woke up to see that Ike started heading south. By mid-day we were almost out of the cone. Sunday morning rolled around and we were 95% sure we would miss the brunt of Ike. What better to do than to ask Eddie Diaz to head to the beach with me, but by the time we left home one of Ike's bands blew in and we headed to The Palace for shelter (and mojitos). We did get a quick dip in the turbulent ocean though!

One of the reasons I live on South Beach :)

Sunday evening I went to the closing party of Click at Dek 23. Omar, the promoter has been a friend for a long time so I agreed to bring my camera and film away! I had a great time playing with my camera and acting as interviewer (watch out Barbara Walters)! Later that night Rich and I popped by Twist to say "hi" to Pussila. Of course, she was acting as crazy as ever finding new ways to use colorful condoms! Monday night Rich and I went to Club Chat Noir at Dream. Chat Noir is the most fun on South Beach with a great mix of people. If you ever make it to South Beach Chat Noir is a must!


Now I am in NY writing this at a Starbucks and preparing for my next international adventure. More to come!

T.S. Fay, mom, dad, LA and back

I seem to have perfected how to shove 10 pounds of shit into a five pound bag. The only problem is that every so often I break down and crash for 2 days or so becoming a recluse. This adventure started with Tropical Storm Fay's dirty side hit Miami hard. FYI- the dirty side of a storm is the northwest quadrant and dirty meaning harsher winds and massive downpours. Fay started to hit Monday night so I was a bit worried about my Tuesday morning flight, but I lucked out and my flight took off between one of Fay's nasty bands. The take off of the large 777 was quite rough and then when we turned West and went directly over Fay the huge aircraft took a large dip....woo hoo!

Needless to say I made it safe to LA and then up to San Jose where my mom picked me up. I spent the next two days finishing the work in her yard I started last month then on Thursday I drove with my cousin Gina up to Sacramento. My cousin wanted to go see Air Supply at the Sacramento State Fair. This is the second time I went to see Air Supply with my cousin (the first in Las Vegas) so I guess I can be called an "Air Head." LOL! After a fun night at the fair we went out on the (gay) town in Sacramento and had a lot of fun...I even entered an underwear contest that I lost....you win some and you lose some, but in the end it is all fun and games.

The next day turned out to be a bit crazy. I was suppose to take a simple nonstop flight on United from Sacramento to LA, but United cancelled my flight and their Philippine call center put me on a US Airways flight via Vegas, but my cousin's GPS sent us to Sacramento Executive Airport so by the time we got to the right airport US Airways would not check me in. I called United again and the Philippine call center blamed me for everything refusing to change my ticket! Ah! After a huge fight and demanding a supervisor the agent finally rebooked me out of Oakland in 3 hours, but we didn't even make it to Oakland in time so United put me on a Delta flight departing 2 hours later. I arrived in LA just in time to get to my graphics company to pick up my promo DVDs...whew!

The next day I went to the Rentboy pool party and had a ton of fun with Chi Chi, Brandon Baker, Mark from the Grabby's and my buds from Specialty Publications. Between Tuesday and Thursday I flew up to Oregon to see my dad...not much happened except us argue over politics since the DNC was on tv. Once again I missed a flight on United because I am not a premium member of United's Mileage Plus Program so I had to be a normal traveler and deal with very slow and annoying TSA lines at one of United's major hubs: LAX. Over the next few days I hung out with friends, went to Sunset Junction and filmed a scene in San Diego before finally returning to Miami Beach.

Party Party Party....ugh!

So after the ex and his cousin left the same evening Scotty Boardman, my new Director of Sales, arrived! Clean, clean, clean and organize for the new arrival while trying to get some work done. We also decided to take our web administrator, Brian, to go see some gators before Scotty was to land at 9:45pm. Basically you can look here GATORVENTURE to see what non-beach, non-party, natural fun you can have in Miami in just a few short hours.



So Scotty arrived and the next few days we attended the Internext convention in Hallandale, Florida. We were able to meet with all of our business associates in a very fun and liquored-up environment...yee haw! I got to play Ms. Pacman, Donkey Kong, and Frogger with a friend from Maleflixxx and I totally kicked his butt! Bu-ya Jeremy! But my brain and hand remember the hours upon hours I spent in arcades as a kid.

On Saturday Dakota Rivers arrived for a Serbia release party I was going to throw Sunday evening at Twist. We basically went right from the airport back up to Hallandale. After a few meetings and drinks we wandered down to the lobby to eat at Azia, one of the Westin Diplomat's famous restaurants. As we were waiting for a table that was suppose to take 1 1/2 hours, out popped Dennis Rodman and three girls from the bar. At 6'7" he towered over all of us, but went right to the tallest one of the group, Dakota Rivers, and told all of us that we were too good looking to be waiting. The manager of the restaurant came out and Dennis ordered him, politely of course, to give us a table, which he did, leaving our 1 1/2 hour wait behind. Later in the evening Dennis came back, sat down, and chatted with us for about an hour. He's a really cool guy!





The following day we were all trapped at home since massive thunderstorms rolled through Miami. Oh, and Dakota and I went out a bit late, so we missed the morning sun and woke up just in time for thunderstorm time. After relaxing all day Dakota, Scotty, Rich and I headed to Twist for our Serbia release party. The night started out great with Pussila asking Dakota and I questions, having fun, and passing out DVDs. As the night went on and things got a bit crazy, we all had to call it a night at 4am.

The following day we all trekked to the beach to have a lazy day splashing around in the warm waters. That evening we all went out to Chat Noir at Dream in South Beach. Chat Noir is my favorite night out in Miami due to the great mix of people (both straight and gay) and the wonderful entertainment. Rich and I always have a lot of fun, but when we invite people like Eddie Diaz, Dakota Rivers and Scotty Boardman, well it turns into a really wild night out.

Now it is time to chill, get back to work and get back into my usual non-party routine! (For a bit)

Mom, work, Miami, break-up finalized

Lots going on, just no time to sit down and write. After Oregon I went to see my mom in Northern California. Instead of lazing around all day watching TV with her, I decided to start to clean out her garage and do some necessary maintenance to her back yard; she bitches a lot about things, but never gets around to doing it. After hard labor at mom's joint I drove to LA to get work done and get away from my boyfriend/ex-boyfriend/whatever. Long drives give me time to think and process info and that is exactly what I did. I knew I had to get rid of the boyfriend for good and refocus on work....sounds kinda shitty, but its not like I have no reason to let him go and the reasons to keep trying with him kept getting thinner and thinner.



I arrived in LA very late and then decided to refocus on getting some shooting done. I went to San Diego to get one shoot done that kinda turned messy. Right after announcing my retirement from being in front of the camera I had to jump in and pass the camera around to the other two models. I drove back to LA not 100% satisfied, but what can I do. Back in LA I started to organize another shoot with a guy that I have been trying to use for a long time. We met and right away hit it off. I really like him as a person and he is very sexy. I also was able to hang out with my good friend Chi Chi LaRue and my girlfriend Veronica from high school, so LA turned into a pretty good trip.



Once again I drove back up to Northern California for a quick day with my mom, a quick evening with my lesbian cousin at The Cafe in San Francisco and then I grabbed my ex and headed back to LA by plane. I let him go to the beach with a friend while I did some work and then he had one of his anxiety attacks so I went out myself. Actually, I have felt very alone in this relationship for a long time. The next day we flew to Miami where his cousin had arrived from Italy earlier on in the day. I really had to suck it up and deal with situation that made me feel very uncomfortable. The last thing I really needed at this point in time was to entertain my ex and his cousin and try to get work done at the same time...oh, and have my ex sleeping in my bed with me.

I did feel as though I needed to entertain so I took my ex and his cousin to Key West. Both slept nearly the whole way there (the drive is actually very beautiful once you get past Marathon). A quick overnight and we returned to Miami where I tried to hold it all together. I took my ex out one night where he eyed a physically attractive guy, got drunk, then the guy pushed him over to a not so physically attractive guy. It totally looked like a bait and switch and the hot guy was the bait. The other guy could not keep his hands to himself, specifically off my ex's ass, so I warned the hot guy, then I asked my ex if he really wanted the other guy touching and grinding on his ass. At this point my ex was drunk and would probably have sex with anyone to get to the hot guy, so I just became very enraged. I shot two warnings to the other guy, flipped my ex's hat off (since he was being belligerent and drunk letting the other guy grind on his ass) and finally pimp smacked the other guy and threw my beer on him. Sorry, but I am very protective of guys I think/thought were my boyfriend and don't appreciate random guys touching him inappropriately in front of people I know.

The next two days were completely frustrating for me. My ex ran off with the hot guy leaving his cousin to fend for himself (totally inappropriate) but came back at night begging to stay in my room (purely shitty). I made a decision it was over. I just can't be disrespected in such a way and to see how he abandoned his cousin for 2 days doesn't fit within my norms. All the anger built up into a huge argument between Rich (my business partner) and myself also! My ex and his cousin finally left on Wednesday and I resolved to do my best from communicating from him any further.

Forced Relaxation!

After Panama going home to Miami was actually more like a vacation than the "vacations" I had been on. Living two blocks from the ocean, one block from my gym, and walking around in the steamy Miami Beach weather is bit of peace at home. My home vacation was cut short though when I had to fly to LA on July 4th for 3 days to set up my distribution business. I was able to hang out with my friend Sam on the 4th and then catch up with Scotty during the day working hard to get things up and running and then hanging out at night and running into Blake Riley and Jonathan Chang. I flew home on Monday and then Tuesday took a quick one day trip up to Minneapolis for some unfinished business...now finished! A few days at home and then off to Oregon. Yes, my right-wing, back country father lives in the outback of Oregon. Every time I come here it is forced relaxation because his computer is on a 56K modem, no wi-fi, and spotty cell service. So I basically kick back, talk politics and catch him up on the missing 6 years of my life......ok, you want the story, here's the story:

When I was 18 my brother told my father I was gay even though my brother was secretly gay himself. I'm sure my brother peeks at my blog, so George, if you disagree, post a comment, but I basically feel it was a social experiment on my brother's part since he is 5 years older than me. I really think he wanted to see how my father and step mother would react. I did not find out my brother was gay until I was 27. My father did not react well and I, in turn, reacted equally bad to his reaction to me being gay. This issue was just the icing on the cake of numerous issues I had with my father while growing up then compounded by me being a hard headed left winger and him being a harder headed right winger. The result being absolutely no communication for 6 years. My mother or my brother delivered absolutely no messages to me from my father and vice-versa. So when I decided to implement communication with my father and step mother again it was, well, a weird, but rewarding process. When I saw them for the first time after 6 years they told me they would not have recognized me if they would have passed me on the street. I would have recognized my step mother, but I'm not too sure about my father. Fast forward 9 years and now I have a very good relationship with them that is progressively getting better. They know I own a porn business, that I was involved in porn, and they, well, my father, is coming to closer to accepting me as being gay (my step mother already pretty much does) but he still struggles a bit with having two gay sons. A right-wing, Bush-can't-do-anything-wrong, excommunicated Mormon from a white trash family man that broke free as much as he could from his white trash roots with 16 brothers and sisters, as he could to accept a left-wing pro Obama, porn star, porn company owner gay son.

So here I am picking blueberries in central Oregon.....and you all thought Dubai and India was interesting? hhhmmmm.

Panama!

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Dubai, Bahrain and back home

So even though I did my best to relax my curiosity of the UAE (United Arab Emirates) and my sense of adventure got to me. After having mojitos at the Burj's pool the first day and meeting an American couple (gay couple) and Sikh's that were mates from work from England that got a kick that 2 Americans took interest in chatting them up a bit, Rich and I finally thought to rent a car and go beyond the grounds of The Burj. We took the Toyota Earth Destroyer we rented and headed to Abu Dhabi to see something different and also see the Picasso exhibit at the Grand Palace. We also decided to visit one of Rich's friends' cousin that actually lives in Dubai.

The last time I was in Dubai it was definitely not as developed as this time. Skyscrapers are flying out of the sand an the world's tallest building, the Burj Al Dubai, is near complete and in the center of the new Middle Eastern, or rather, Persian Gulf, Manhattan, that when done, will be much larger and more grand than Manhattan. I did my best also to meet local gays, but most sexually oriented websites, including social networking sites, are blocked. In the end we gave up on finding gays to socialize with and headed to The Mall of The Emirates www.malloftheemirates.com, which seemed to be a bit cruisy, but you didn't hear that from me!

The rest of the time we did laze around a bit but always made it a habit to go every night to Wild Wadi www.wildwadi.com! I had not been to a water park since I was very young so I was kinda excited to go, but was even more thrilled when I found out how the park worked! You see, I think it is the only water park in the world where you do not drag up a tube to the top, but rather are jetted up to the top (see Master Blaster under the rides section) by jets that continuously propel you up the slide until the top and then you choose how you want to get back down! FUN!

Our trip all the way back to The States was not going to be a piece of cake due to connection times between Gulf Air and American Airlines, so I decided to take a half a day in Bahrain just to check it out. We rented a car and decided to bum-rush Saudi Arabia for shits and giggles (Bahrain is an island connected to Saudi Arabia by a 21 mile causeway). On our way there we say an amazing building that we saw the night before on the Discovery Channel where the architect designed three large windmills in between the two legs of the building so it will be the first electricity self sufficient building in the world. So we bum-rushed Saudi and on our way back we heard an ad on the radio for Bahrain's water park so after shopping for shoes (shoes, shoes, let's get some shoes) we drove out into the Bahraini desert to The Lost Paradise of Dilmun www.lpodwaterpark.com (it does seem as though we went on a tour of the fabu water parks of the Persian Gulf, right?!?) A quick Cartman at Casa Bonita 1 hour run through The Lost Paradise of Dilmun and we headed back to watch a quick movie at the mall before getting on our flight to New Delhi, so instead of seeing the Indiana Jones movie which we missed by a few missed we watched a New Zealand flick called "The Ferryman." Sometimes it is cool to see other countries' flicks!

A quick night night flight back to New Delhi, continued sleep at the ITC Sheraton (ITC, ITC, luxury hotel, 5 star...LOL...you'd get the joke if you went to India!)a quick run through the markets and then finally out of (not so) Incredible India. Another 15 hour flight to Chicago, popped in to town to see a good friend that just moved there and then on to LA to have a quick night with good friends before going back home the next day (gotta get those Elite Qualifying Miles!)