Through the Looking Glass

We walked through a translucent glass door with round, clear "eyes" and a "mouth." It was like parting a ski mask, going through this looking glass into the Happy Ending lounge. We were there to support my best friend Craig Seymour, who was taking part in the monthly Sex Worker Literati reading series sponsored by Hos, Hookers, Call Girls, and Rent Boys, an anthology and sex worker web site.

Craig read from his fantastical memoir All I Could Bare: My Life in the Strip Clubs of Gay Washington D.C.--and I'm not calling it fantastical just because I'm in it. As he read, he showed some of his photography from American Boys: a strip club diary, which you can preview and buy here. After a few rounds, Craig and I headed over to Campus Thursdays at Splash. It seemed appropriate to go watch underwear-clad boys dancing on bars. It was Campus Thursday's Britney birthday party, with $5 vodka drinks every time one of her songs came on. Craig and I soon grew restless, though, because there was no Brit to be had for quite a while.

So we headed over to Barracuda to watch the Star Search competition hosted by Peppermint (pictured above, with contestant Miss Kitten with a Whip to her left). The gang was all there: Kyle, Rudy, Jane Lane, and Cherry Jubilee were close to the stage. Yuhua and Demanda came after they were done with their show at Boots and Saddle. Miss Kitten served an impressive number with seven costume changes; but it was all about the showdown between Sheneeda Drink (pictured below) and Logan Hardcore. Week after week, the two tie and split the prize money.

Sheneeda did a timely number dressed as a more-than-pissed-off-by-marriage-inequality Lady Liberty. She set aflame a symbolic marriage license. Logan (pictured below) worked then doffed her leopard-print Snuggie and gave birth before doing her trademark acrobatics: handstands, flips, and splits in some fabulous new black stilettoes.

Peppermint closed out the contest performing "Whatta Man" by Salt-N-Pepa and En Vogue. Then, came the moment of truth. "One lucky queen," Peppermint explained, "is going to pay her phone bill." The crowd screamed, hollered, and cheered to vote for their favorite. Decibels ahead of the other contestants, Sheneeda and Logan waited patiently for Peppermint to announce Sheneeda the winner. Logan had her four Glammy Award nominations to keep her warm. I can't wait to see how many she wins tomorrow night.

A Little Bit of Star Search Helps Thursday Go Down

The gang milled out of Boots and Saddle after Yuhua and Demanda's show last Thursday, said goodbye to some friends out smoking in the drizzle, and made our way toward Eighth Avenue. It took a few minutes to find a cab all of us could crawl into; but once we did, we were off to Barracuda to support Logan Hardcore (pictured above) in the weekly Star Search competition, now hosted by Peppermint (pictured below).

Barracuda was a mob scene. We all made our way toward the stage to watch the competition already in progress. By the time Yuhua, Nicho, and I were able to nab seats near the stage, Pixie was listening to her critique by judges Michael Formika Jones and Miss-ter T-Boy. Up next was Mona Moore (pictured below) who worked Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff" spliced with the old Oscar Meyer jingle while she and her assistants ate hot dogs, then threw more out to the crowd. They were chicken dogs, she explained to Formika, because she was worried about everyone's waistline.

Next up was Chantelle Divine Roberts (pictured below), who gave a spirited Tina Turner medley, ending with "Proud Mary." Of course, much like Tina, she started nice and easy, and ended rough, doffing both shoes and wig.

Next up was Logan, who spliced Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" (check out last night's performance on Jay Leno here) with miscellaneous dialogue, as she always does, and ended with Chelley's "Took the Night." Logan didn't disappoint with her athleticism; but this time she threw into the mix a fantastical hand-less headstand.

Last but not least was Sheneeda Drink (pictured below) who served Mary Poppins doing "A Little Bit of Sugar Helps the Medicine Go Down" to roars from the crowd. From her jacket, she revealed a baggie filled with ... um ... flour, and used a spoon to ... um ... smell it to make sure it was still good. Over the course of the song, one spasm at a time, the flour competed with her make-up and accented her smoking jacket. During judging, T-Boy laughed that he thought he'd seen every coke joke--until she took the stage.

The audience vote was so close between Logan and Sheneeda that Peppermint asked all of their friends to take the stage and keep quiet. The people left cheering were equally divided; so, for the second week in a row, they split the Grand Prize. This Thursday, they'll battle it out again. Once the show was done, the crowd made their way to the bar. I couldn't find anyone but Nicho. We followed.