All I can say is WOW! It was a perfect late afternoon for a concert. A little hot, but all and all a great day. I was starting to feel the effects of no sleep as we arrived at Merriweather. Some friends of my friend had gotten there early and was holding a spot for us on the lawn, so we leisurely made our way through the crowds, and food stations and found our spot. Excellent spot, dead center, in front of the stage (well as close as you can get, while on the lawn). I met our fellow concert goers, and headed down to grab a drink. It was amusing to me that, Merriweather, an out door venue, had a "strict no smoking" policy. Oh rubbish! We walked around and found a secluded spot to suck down a cigarette and headed back to the blanket. As we walked through, I couldn't help but notice people sitting around smoking on the lawn, oh ok, I thought, guess we can just smoke anywhere then. So, we hung out and got to know our new friends for a while, and out comes Margaret Cho. . .hooray!! She was a great MC, did a bit of comedy as the first band set up. The band was The Gossip, and I must say I had never heard of them before. They were a bit angry, but still enjoyable. They did about 4 songs, and then exited. More Margaret Cho, hooray!! The next band that played was Dresden Dolls. Now, I had heard of them, but could not think of what song I knew. Whatever song it was, they didn't play it. The drummer was pretty hot, he started out the set wearing a long white night gown, and mime like makeup. By the end of the first song, off came the night gown, and he was left wearing boxer briefs and Renaissance style tights. HOT! They also did a 4 song set, and then we got to watch a little Movie, well, they showed a movie, we went off to smoke and grab another beer. After the short movie, my boy Rufus Wainwright took the stage. He performed with a full orchestra, well. . fullish, about 8 people. His songs were really good, though I was not very familiar with his newer stuff. As he announced his last song, we were treated to a surprise appearance by Cindi! The music started on Gay Messiah, and he started the vocals. At the first chorus, Cindi piped up and the two of them continued the song. It sounded incredible! After his set, we got a few more minutes of Margaret Cho, and then it was Deborah Harry's turn to rock the stage. I wish she had rocked the stage. After the first half of her first song, we decided it was time to grab some food. So, we headed over to the picnic area, ate some crappy food, and had some beer and a smoke. I was disappointed that Deborah Harry was kinda lame. I only recognized one song that she did, what the name of that song is, I couldn't tell ya.

Once she finished, Cindi came back out to introduce a video about the Matthew Shepard fund, in support of a Hate Crime bill that includes gays, lesbians and transgendered people. I am SO not political, but I promised my self to learn more about this bill . . if you want to learn about it, or show your support go here http://www.hrcactioncenter.org/campaign/matthew_shepard_act_dfa
After the video, Rosie O'Donnell took the stage. She was pretty funny, but a good majority of her act was devoted to Donald Trump. I guess it was funny to hear her side, and how it affected her family and stuff, but come on. . .that is SO yesterday! But, I give her props, she was funny. Ok. . . at long last, Erasure took the stage next. They were AWESOME!! Andy Bell came onstage in a jacket with Deborah Harry's pic on the back. It was a great tribute to her. They started the set with a couple of songs from their new CD, Light at the End of the World, good stuff, will have to download it. Then, the crowd freaked out when they went into Ship of Fools from The Innocents. Sounded amazing! I must say that they really worked the crowd. The rest of their set was all older songs (Chains of Love, Blue Savannah, Drama, Love to Hate You) and then, they played it. . the song that we all craved, A Little Respect. The crowd went CRAZY! They ended their set with Oh L'amour. I was kind of disappointed that that was their last song, but still they kicked ass!!!!!

After they cleared, they showed a Margaret Cho short, and she did a little skit. We decided to grab one last drink and smoke before Cindi. Cindi strolled onto stage wearing a Rainbow colored hat, and a fabulous Bustier and funky black dress with flowers on it. She started her set with Good Enough (from the Goonies) and the crowd ate it up. From there, she grabbed a guitar and rocked out on some of her newer stuff. I can't remember which song it was, but after 3 songs, she said she had a surprise for us, and called Rosie out on stage. Rosie took a space behind a drum set and went to town! She was pretty good! So, Cindi continued, with Rosie on the drums. I honestly can't think of any of the songs she did after that point, they all rocked and we danced to all of them, but I can't recall them right now. . . .so, she finished up her set, and then she called everyone back onstage. Everyone came out, except Rufus and Deborah. . I guess they had to leave, or just didn't feel like it. . .but, they ended the concert singing, yup you guessed it, True Colors. Even Margaret Cho got to sing, and she sounded great! Cindi played the Sitar, and Rosie gave a light beat in the back ground, but that was the only instruments used. It was BEAUTIFUL!

I drove us back to Crystal City, and we decided to stop in to Freddies, how on earth I was still standing is beyond me. . .remember, no sleep? So, I hung as long as I could at Freddies, drinking coke so didn't fall asleep on the drive home, then headed back to my place. . .ahhhhhhh sleep.

As is expected, another exciting update on my summer off from doing shows. Had quite the weekend, and thought I would share some of the highlights here. It started out pretty mellow, left work on Friday to meet up with the real estate agent for another round of condo shopping. I am not sure why, but it seems that all of the places that I have been looking at don't seem to take into account the need for a sofa in the living room. It kind of amazes me. Sure, I could fit a sofa into most of them, but that would be about it, no tables, not shelves, not alot of decorating potentials. Sure, I am resigned to the fact that I will be downsizing, that in my price range, there are not going to be any places that would be comparable to the apartments I have had, but still. . .if nothing else. . .I need 1) to have room for a sofa and some sort of dining room arrangement 2) a normal person tub, not these ridiculous apartment size semi-tubs. That being said, I saw a couple of places I could make work, but nothing that screamed. . this is mine!! From there I met a friend for dinner at Tabaq Bistro on U Street. Good food, and company. From there, I dashed home to change and await my ride to the Guerilla Queer Bar being held at Tony and Joe's in Georgetown. Now, I had heard a little about this event, but had never attended. The basic premise, gather as many gay folks as you can, and descend upon a straight bar. From this understanding, I thought of it as a competition. Let's see if we can gather more gays at a straight bar than straight people. Yeah, silly, I know. I was standing there in the middle of silicon and metrosexual central thinking, where is the score board? Are the gays winning? We hung out there for a while, then decided we had had enough, and made our way back to the Dupont area. On our way, we received a call from a friend of my friend who invited us to go and hang out at his place. Perhaps it was the alcohol, or perhaps it was the lack of details on why we were going to this person's house, but the mere mention of hot tub sent a message to my brain saying. .hooray! Its a sex party! Alas, no. . .it was not. It was just a mellow hanging out and relaxing kind of situation. Oh well. So, we hung out at this GORGEOUS 3-level row home in the U St area, with a 2 tiered roof top deck, one of the tiers housing the hot tub. Did we ever get in the hot tub, alas, no. It just sat there, teasing me the entire time. From there, we headed home. Ahhhhh, sleep.

Saturday was a packed day for me, as I had carefully scheduled out many activities to accomplish in not alot of time. 1) Pick up rental car 2) head to Baltimore to take Dad out for Father's Day 3) be back in DC in time to meet friends for dinner and Show in Old Town. Seems simple enough, right? Well, I went to print off my confirmation for my rental car, when I discovered that i had selected 1:30, instead of 11:30. So, I call the rental car place and ask if I could pick up the car earlier, no dice. Damn you Hotwire!! So, that shortened my time with Dad, immensely. So, I head to the airport to get the car, and arrive at the counter to find a ridiculously long line. I hop in and stand there and wait, and wait, and wait. I then decide to get my paperwork ready, and am horrified to realize that after trying to re-arrange my reservation, I had neglected to print off my reservation, and did not have my confirmation number. So, I frantically text my friends to see if they were home, and could access my email for me to get the confirmation number. Found someone, phew. . .got that, so I relax abit and wait, and wait, and wait. I arrive at the counter at 3:30, I had since called my dad to reschedule, as there was no way I could get up there, do something with him and get back in time for dinner. . .so, that part was out. I finally got the car, and headed home to shower and change for the evening. I head to dinner with my BF(M)F's at Bilbo Baggins. Had a lovely onion soup and a chicken dish with a chicken breast stuffed with feta cheese and dill, served on egg noodles with a garlic oil. Quite good. From there it was off to see Philadelphia Story at LTA. I have to say that my friend Sam kicked ass on stage. He was so charming, relaxed and natural on that stage, it brought a smile to my face every time he appeared. The show is good, the performances are a bit uneven, but all and all an enjoyable evening.

After the show we descended upon Shirlington for some post show drinks. I am not sure how we end up at Capital City Brewery so often. Its an ok place, but I have never been there where there hasn't been so sort of tension or frustration and this night was no different. We started out having to deal with the bitchiest hostess I have ever encountered. But, once seated we were able to enjoy the remainder of our evening. From there, I dropped some friends off at the metro and headed to Freddies for last call. I met up with my buddies, and upon the closing of the bar was invited back for an after hours party. So, of course I had to go! We went back and drank some more, chatted and just hung out for the remainder of the early mornings. At around 6 am, I took a few people back to their cars at Freddies, and headed back to my place to watch a movie with a couple of my friends. We popped in Hedwig, but decided it was a little slow, so we played some board games instead. Pretty fun, we lost one at around 7:00 am, and then we headed back to my friends place to drop off his keys and hang a bit longer. We sat around and chatted and just hung out for a while, then at 1:30 pm, we headed into Crystal City for coffee at Caribou Coffee (no, I did not leave out when I slept, I didn't sleep. . .at all!!). After coffee, I headed home for a shower and to change, then my friend came over and we headed out to. . . . . . the TRUE COLORS concert!