Happy Valentine's Day, Adam Lambert

In nightlife, holidays spread over weekends, which gives everyone plenty of time this Valentine's Day weekend to fantastically celebrate or drown wallow in cocktails, depending upon if Cupid's struck you. At the F Word last night, there was a "Black Heart Valentine's" theme, though most of my friends like Matthew Heresy (pictured above) went with a bloody Valentine one. There was a lot of splattering all around, not just on DivaSteve (pictured below), or Demand Dahling (pictured further below left) or Nancy Nosecandy (pictured further below center).


Amanda Lepore and Cazwell are in San Francisco this weekend filming her new video for "Marilyn" and to do a show at Club 8; so Amanda wasn't on hand to sip Stoli with in VIP. In her place was the bodyguarded-up (and vodka'd-down) American Idol alum Adam Lambert. Eric Halliwell and I dropped in to VIP as we normally do to say hi to Bill Coleman, who was dancing to the Chew Fu mix of Rihanna's "Hard" when we made our way over to Adam. He was tucked into the corner behind the speakers to Bill's left, not on the couch where Amanda sits so she can see the crowd. His Stoli bottle was half empty. There seemed to be more bodyguards than friends with him. We said hello. Eric took a couple quick snaps when his bodyguards shooed us away with "No pictures of Adam." He was certainly partying hard. But we all do. And take lots of pictures as we do. Here's Kyle (pictured below left), giving us a little Leigh Bowery, and James, bringing bloody back with his Justin Timberlake look (pictured below right).


That's why Francis Legge (pictured just above left) sets up a green screen on the mezzanine level with his camera to film visuals for the party every week. We get trashed and act silly and document it for posterity. Everyone drifts in and out, like Devon Stone (pictured just above right), who hosted the Cage Room where the Daisy Spurs performed, and the guy in the middle who's name I didn't catch. Everyone, that is, but Adam. Clearly, he was trying to have a quiet evening after his Highline show. That's why he came out to the F Word, of course, to get trashed and silly with us, without the photographic evidence, aside from Eric's quick snaps. Too bad there aren't any of Adam from making out with a friend of mine, who somehow ended up with Adam's phone in the encounter.


Far less camera—and always gorgeous and charming—was RuPaul's Drag Race Season 2 star Sahara Davenport (pictured above). I congratulated her again for making it rain on last week's episode and cannot wait for Monday's new one. Two more lovely ladies who were out to dance the night away were Monique Fontaine (pictured below left) and Britney Houston (pictured below right).

Also there was go-go extraordinaire Matthew Camp, of course, giving us both blood and a black heart, and holding court in the Cage Room before roaming around to mingle.

The Glammy Monster, Part Two

I actually like awards shows, no matter how long they dawdle about, through seemingly endless categories and performances. I've set VCRs, TiVos, and DVRs to record them. I've re-watched the bits that I liked. I've used those moments to chart nosedives and breakthroughs in movie and music careers. Cherry Jubilee's Glammy Awards are no different. They're sort of like the Golden Globes, where everyone involved with a certain project sits 'round a table boozing it up. We do, too. I was with Glammy nominee and presenter Dina Delicous and my Wonder Twin and the maestro of the launching-on-December-12th Fierth.com site, Brian Mills (pictured above). Also at our table were Gay Socialites King Ralphy and Charles Winters.

Brian and I moved into the front-row fray of camera-wielders (us being two of them) to get a good gander at the fantastical performances. One was by Sahara Davenport (pictured above). Before Sahara took over the stage, Glammy Host Sweetie admitted, "She's one of my favorite performers in New York because she's just not afraid to come out and do whatever the fuck she feels like." Indeed, she wasn't. She started off with the theme song to RuPaul's Drag Race since she's a contestant on its second season; then she tore through a club mix that included Mary Mary's "Shackles." There were enough splits, leaps, hair twirls, and arm and leg extensions that presenter Bebe Zahara Benet said afterward, "I almost felt close to the Motherland." I couldn't tell if the "kinda, sorta" that Bebe added to that praise like a punctuation mark was a clarification or a dig.

Best Male Performer Cazwell (pictured below, with director Francis Legge) was clear about the fun he was having. He explained in his acceptance speech (above) that "I've had a smile on my face since I walked in the door." He also followed in Acid Betty's pumpsteps by proclaiming, "I fucking love the Glammys."

I did, too, Caz. That's why I'm presenting my own awards for the evening below. It's my small way to give back to a fantastical evening. The awards follow pictures of the winners.

BEST SAVE FROM A FALSE START

-- PEPPERMINT

Her dancers lined up. Peppermint took center stage. The beat to her song "Working Girl" kicked in. Peppermint talked to us. We couldn't hear a thing she said. Sure, the crowd laughed when she made a "cut" motion with her hands and stage-whispered to the crowd, "Hold on." But after going to the DJ booth and finding out that something wasn't turned on, Peppermint laughed it off: "Oops. My bad. I'm ready if y'all are ready. Y'all ready?" The crowd was.

BEST ADDITIONAL HEIGHT

-- MISS-TER T-BOY

Glammy nominee T-Boy rocked his own black leather take on the vertigo-inspiring Alexander McQueen pumps that Lady Gaga sports in the "Bad Romance" video. I joked, "You could be a little taller tonight, you know." T-Boy's fierce looks and onstage force is why Acid Betty thought T-Boy was going to win Alternative Artist, not her. Betty said that T-Boy is one of her favorites. He's one of mine, too.

BEST. VERBAL. PACING. EVER.

-- AMANDA LEPORE

Whenever Amanda Lepore speaks. She knows exactly when. To stop. And pause. I wanted. Her to host. So that I could. Hear much more. Of her. On the microphone. And I'm not just giving her. This award because I loved Amanda for years. Before I had the opportunity to DJ a couple times. For her and Cazwell's Go-Go Idol Contest. At Boysroom. The second of those nights. I had her and Cazwell cutting a rug on the dance floor. All night. One of her friends. Kept running up to ask. What I was playing.

BEST SAVE FROM A WARDROBE MALFUNCTION

-- ERICKATOURE AVIANCE

Sure, Erickatoure won the Best Dance Performer Glammy; but she was serving her own Janet Jackson nipplegate while performing her song "My Pumps." As she strutted to and fro--in pumps, of course--her poof of a skirt kept slipping down to reveal some areolae that, unlike Ms. Jackon-If-You're-Nasty's, were not covered by nipple piercings. Erickatoure kept working the floor and adjusting her look as if the mishap illustrated the lyrics of her song: "You can't bring me down / Don't you sit and hate / Just congratulate." Yes.

BEST MEA CULPA

-- EPIPHANY

Epiphany's unprompted expression of gratitude to all of us working in New York City nightlife--she didn't win either the Entertainer of the Year or Best Vocalist award she was up for--came when she was onstage presenting another award. It was coupled with her admission that she had been less than kind to some of us. This was rare realness in a group priding themselves on serving all kinds of it. Epiphany made me so mushy inside that I wanted to scream out, "I fucking love the Glammys," too.

BEST INCONSPICUOUS EXIT AFTER NOT WINNING AN AWARD

-- WITHHELD

If I named all the winners for this category, they'd no longer be inconspicuous. I'm sure they were all off to paying gigs.

The Glammyrous Life

Next Sunday December 6th at Splash, Cherry Jubilee presents the eleventh annual Glammy Awards. Last year's Awards show had fantastical performances. This year's will, too, with Daisy Spurs, Mimi Imfurst, Narcissister, Peppermint, Dallas DuBois, Skyla Versai, and Sahara Davenport entertaining us. I'll be there sipping and snapping away--and cheering on the nominees, including Dina Delicious (pictured above, from one of her infamous Circus parties last January, from which all the pictures in this post come). Dina's up again for Best Host/Hostess. Everyone in New York nightlife will be there, including Jordan Fox (pictured below, posing with the gorgeous 2009 Glammy Calendar), I'm sure.

As will Epiphany (pictured below), who's up for Entertainer of the Year and Best Vocalist. Of course, there's more to look forward to than watching the performances and seeing everyone in their Sunday best, so to speak.

It's always fun watching people win their awards, too. Hands-down, the best acceptance speech last year was Acid Betty's for Best Alternative Artist. (Check out the video below that I took of Mimi Imfurst giving it to her).

Acid Betty (pictured below) also won Best Dressed last year. She's up for both again this year. Other double nominees include Celso and Bianca del Rio, and Britney Houston. Triple nominees include Mimi Imfurst, Peppermint, and Sherry Vine.

The only quadruple nominee is Logan Hardcore (pictured below), who's up for Entertainer of the Year, Best Dance Performer, Best Lip-Sync Artist, and Best Alternative Artist. We'll see if Logan can become the Glammy Michael Jackson and walk away with all four.