thanksgiving with the boys :: season 4 :: buenos aires

yesterday turned out to be way much more fun than we thought. after everyone was showered and ready - we headed over to the plaza de mayo for the pride celebration. it was just like a typical small-town pride (only in spanish - we imagined the festival was like any border town pride in the u.s.). bandstand in the middle of the plaza with performers and people making announcements - booths with information and things that you could buy to support various local charities - food and beer carts - and the parade trucks parked over to one side that would eventually be in the parade later that evening. evidently it's tradition for everyone to meet and party in the plaza and then at 6pm the real party starts. this is when the parade takes off down the avenue and suddenly you are in a sea of thousands of people walking with and in the parade. it was fantastic. of course we walked next to the woman selling canned beers to keep us sufficiently hydrated for our long long walk down the parade route.

we met a 16-year old girl who's parents live in wisconsin. she's always lived in ba and refuses to move to the u.s. as a sign of rebellion to her parents. she's a fashion designer and wants to live in japan and become a harajuku girl. we also met a group of 4 older men who were from san francisco but had retired down in palm springs. they are here in ba to study spanish for a month. oh to be retired - lol. we saw trannies - hotties - freaks - and everything in between. typical pride really when you boil it down to the basics.

after we had walked the length of the parade route - we pulled off to the side for some port-a-potty action and put together a game plan for the rest of the evening. since we didn't think we were going to take as much time walking the route as we did - we had little time to get a dinner plan together. we chose to go back to mott because the food is good and we were certain they could house a party of 8. everyone went home to freshen-up and assemble back in an hour for dinner. i was able to sneak in a power-nap so i was good to go.

turned out that shawn stayed home to rest and catch up on sleep as did joshua. so our party of 8 is now only 6. anthony, michael, ben, billy, aaron (newest addition from d.c. who arrived yesterday), and myself. dinner was great - as always. anthony and i took aaron to sitges to get him acclimated to ba nightlife. we had a few drinks there then went dancing at glam. at 5am we decided to call it an early night and left - aaron decided to stay - hopefully he made it home in one piece.

i think today we are going to head to san telmo for some flea market shopping and a tango class. yes - this year i may actually dance instead of observing from the side-line. ooh - and the sinus infection seems to be on it's very last legs - fantastic. too fun!

thanksgiving with the boys :: season 4 :: buenos aires

well here we are on day 4 of our trip and the sinus are going hay-wire from all the smoke in the clubs. i'm hopped up on everything to keep it under control and so far so good. hope to keep it contained to less than 3 days. never fails!

the water issues from the previous days fortunately were remedied after 7 grueling hours with plumbers and contractors at the house yesterday. in the middle of the turmoil - i thought it was a good idea to buzz my head. so - i grabbed my trusty clippers - plugged them into the converter and went at my head. all was fine and good except when i was only a third of the way into it - there was a pop and a burn and boom - the clippers met an untimely death. see pic of 'cancer-boy' - not pretty. finally found a place that sold clippers and was able to finish the job.

for dinner it was back to bar 6 for a light meal where we met two people from nyc and they joined us at our table. we left bar 6 and headed to bulnes class for some cocktails. it was friday night so it's the start of the 3 day club nights at palacio - so we headed there for dancing. it was just as i remembered it - huge dance floor - very loud music - affordable cover charge - it's the roxy of buenos aires.

today is gay pride. we'll be heading to the plaza later and then at 6pm is the parade down the avenue. should be fun. tomorrow we'll start the hard-core touristy stuff. can't wait to hit the cemetery and say hello to evita!

say something photo :: fat nap (buenos aires)

while dining at hooters at puerto madero, buenos aires (yes i understand i said hooters - yes i understand that's an american chain - yes - bad bad decision - but i digress) - i managed to find a fantastic fat nap. you know me - always looking for an opportunity to capture things on film - this was an excellent surprise to my vacation. aww - and she has a balloon!

thanksgiving with the boys :: season 4 :: buenos aires

well what can i say - when you find a good thing - keep it. last year we had such a fantastic time in buenos aires we decided to return this year for an encore performance. anthony is back for a 4th season of 'thanksgiving with the boys' - returning are shawn (amsterdam - season 1 and canary islands - season 2) and michael (canary islands - season 2). surprise guest stars are 2 friends from d.c. (joshua and ben) and their friend from nyc (billy). they just happened to be on the plane sitting next to shawn. joshua is an old friend from the d.c. days. they are staying across town but have been excellent additions to the cast.

we booked an 'amazing' place for our stay - beautiful - new - jacuzzi - and - no hot water - water pressure - heat control - oh - and the jacuzzi isn't working. we've been here for 48 hours and we are waiting for the plumber to work his magic so we can take an actual shower for a change. hopefully we can have the 'jacuzzi laundry party' after this is all done. the jacuzzi knocked out the power to the house for a good half day until they came to fix it. more concerning is the hot water situation - you know me - i do enjoy a hot shower!

we have returned to some of our favorite haunts already. dining at bar 6, olsen, and mott so far - and an unfortunate decision to have lunch at hooters at puerto madero. if you ever get the idea to eat hooters in argentina - don't - bad bad decision - not for the aftermath that usually happens with hooters - no no - this was just inedible freezer-burned chicken (pollo - pronounced here in buenos aires - pol'jzso) with no flavor, texture, or pop.

we've also entertained ourselves at some familiar nighttime haunts - sitges, glam, and titanic (now called something else but the name escapes me). as always - sitges had horrible drag shows and friendly people - glam was - well - glam - and titanic hardly fit it's new name since the murals from the movie are still painted on the walls.

so far we are off to a great start - well - assuming we get the plumbing issues taken care of. wish us luck!

wacky video :: jc survives