porn and aids

it was a big weekend. besides hanging out with friends, going out to bars, and eating a lot, the two main events were being an extra in a promo-shoot for the new michael lucas porn and doing aids walk new york. ahem, let me explain.

a few weeks ago i was reading my daily blogs (towleroad.com and queerty.com) and came across an item that michael lucas, a big name porn director/producer, was looking for extras for a new, um, "film" he was shooting. so, on a lark, i emailed. to my surprise, i got an email back from the casting director later that day. just so we're clear here: no, i was not in porn. no, i did not take any of my clothes off or have sex on camera for money.

i got to this bar on the west side called "secret" or something at 11am saturday morning, possibly the earliest i've ever been in a gay bar, and met the owner of the place. of course the porn company was running late, so i hung out with the owner of this random gay bar for a little while. talked about business. you know, the usual. then michael lucas walked in. for those of you who don't know who he is, just google his name and enjoy the results you get. he introduced himself to me and i was just like, "um, hi. i'm an extra today." highlights of the morning were:

• hanging out with a "titan media exclusive" named spencer. i don't know if this is his real name or fake name, but he was friendly and we talked about books and his move to provincetown.
• seeing michael lucas standing behind a table, his dick out of his pants, being offered up on a plate for the camera. mind you, i was sitting there reading at the time and just happened to glance up to catch that happening. my mouth literally fell open.
• being a fake paparrazzo in promo pictures for this random porn, pretending to take pictures of porn stars in bright pink thongs with this big, expensive camera and a deadpan look on my face.
• did i mention hanging out with porn stars?

anyway, crazy day on saturday. i went from the photo shoot to an audition for a big choral agent. the audition went fine--i sang ok, but was obviously nervous and she made me sing the craziest sight-reading piece ever. apparently it was her own composition. she said something like "i'm sure i'll be calling you for work," but she wasn't very enthused. so we'll see what comes of it.

yesterday, for something completely different, hilary, laura, bucket, and i walked in the new york aids walk. let me just tell you, this event is HUGE. we saw, from afar, naomi watts (like i care), carson and ted from queer eye (again, like i care) and debbie gibson, who sang a wretched rendition of "you'll never walk alone." sorry if you're reading this, debs, but your voice is officially blown. and you should've just stuck with "electric youth."

since the walk was so packed, it took us forever to walk the 10k. and it was actually, i think, a little more exhausting because we couldn't just, you know, walk. it was basically like walking on a crowded subway platform for four hours, though it was ok because we were outside and it was a gorgeous day and we were with friends. so it wasn't so bad after all. and since we raised $600 for gay men's health crisis, it was worth it.

what struck me about yesterday's aids walk is how much less gay it was than the last aids walk i did, indianapolis. that one, probably four years ago, was mainly gays or people related to gays. there were, i shit you not, rainbows and drag queens all over the place. i find it interesting because at the time it didn't strike me at all as strange: that this disease that statistically now most affects straight women was still seen as a gay disease, a gay cause. yesterday's aids walk more accurately reflected the scope of the epidemic. it was people from all walks of life, only about 25% of whom were gay. it's a difference in attitude between the midwest and new york. you know, there are just a few.