Toto, I Have a Feeling We're Not in San Francisco Any More!

Perhaps only Buddy Beaverhausen can fly out where the pilot announces in his Jamaican accent on the flight headed from Charlotte to NYC, "Hello, this is your captain, Donald Duque" Pronounced Duck, I kid you not. Either his parents were sadists or never watched a single Disney cartoon in their lives. Off, into the Wild Blue Yonder! Was this going to be a Mickey Mouse flight of just a little Goofy?

I went on another epic Coast-to-Coast journey and returned to Brooklyn in fine fettle except for my derriere, which arrived very numb. Who knew the hardships wrought by sitting for the large part of 6 and 1/2 hours! (And by "large part," I'm not referring to my bubble butt, thank you.)

Steve drove me to the airport in SF for 7am; my flight was at 9:15. SF security is not as intense as that in the NYC area. One needn't remove one's belt for one thing and things move along quicker with more cursory examination. I was left with plenty of time for breakfast and boarding.

I did not want to take American again after the fiasco flying out of Newark, therefore I booked my flight on SF via Phoenix via Charlotte to Brooklyn on United. I showed up at the gate with an American logo. Wouldn't you know the two airlines just merged. Buddy's lucky that way, duckies.

Nonetheless, service this time was first-rate. Now, I was left thinking about those American Airlines check-in folk when I left New York and how they were, perhaps, facing sudden lay-off, hence the "incompetent" job performances.

I was on the plane so long today, it felt like my second home. And, hey, is everyone influenced by Beaverhausen these days? When a flyer asked the stewardess nearest me, "What kind of jet is this?," the stewardess quipped ~ without missing a beat ~ "A big one. A really big one!" And no, she wasn't Pam Ann, though just as riotous! Stand-up comedy on a flight is wonderful.

I schmoozed with the people who got on to clean the cabins, took intensive interest ~ looking out my window ~ in the baggage handlers at each airport, and chatted up the flight attendants. Charlotte in Charlotte confided in me about recently returning from disability after surgery due to her diverticulitis! Not to be sniffed at. And can we get any more intimate than that on a flight? Maybe it was my groovy SF haircut that made me feel so free. Who knows!

I took a NYC cab at LGA and, at long last, I'm finally home. And oh, Auntie Em, there's no place like home!

Boots & Saddle Says It's the End of the Trail

Boots & Saddle

Boots & Saddle, on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, right off Sheridan Square, will be the latest gay landmark bar to close. The classic leather-and-levis dive bar still packs 'em in on the weekends but, as with the recent demise of Rawhide in Chelsea, will be forced into closing because of stratospheric Manhattan rent increases.

According to Boots' long-time manager, Robert Ziegler, talking to DNA Info, the building's new landlord plans to raise rent by thousands of dollars monthly, into the "high twenties." The exact date of the increase and the bar's closing have yet to be announced.

Known for its raucous atmosphere, stiff drinks, occasional live djs, go-go gods and drag queens, the bar once boasted a hitching post before one of its interior make-overs. Boots & Saddle (sometimes sardonically called Bras & Girdles by friends) is on the route of the annual Gay Pride March, in June, where it gets seriously overpacked, and getting in and out, and to and from, can be more than a bit of a struggle due to police barricades and herds of non-stop pedestrian traffic passing by.

Boots is in close proximity with the Stonewall Bar, The Monster, The Duplex and the homo-monuments in Sheridan Square Park.

Most importantly, of course, my promo cds frequently played at the bar from 2005 through 2010 during my dj phase. It was a neighborhood hang-out for me, as well, when I lived in the Village for many years, because it was within walking distance and I had befriended several other regulars who made the place comfortable and friendly.

Boots and Saddle won a bevy of Get Out! Awards last December at a ceremony at XL in midtown, at which I was present with promoter Barbara Sobel. http://djbuddybeaverhausen.blogspot.com/2014/01/eric-alan-at-xl-get-out-awards.html  There are rumors that Boots and Saddle may reopen at a new address but, so far, nothing in that regard has been confirmed.

A Bouncing Bundle of Brooklyn

Well, I just knew that, after I moved to Brooklyn, the borough would become tres chic! And so it has. Brooklyn Decker has emerged as a successful model/"actress"! David Beckham named his son Brooklyn.

Why, if I had a kid, I'd name it Bayridge!

Today, one of New York City's free papers, AM New York, had a front-page article about the trend of naming kids (mostly girls) Brooklyn all around the country and, in fact, the world. It's the 28th most popular name for girls that is also a geographical name. How cool! Does anyone name their ankle-biters Queens? Manhattan? Bronx? Why, I have the urge to go out and adopt a rugrat right now and name it Staten Island Beaverhausen. (Though Coney Island Beaverhausen might be more appropriate, living with me. Hectic Cyclone of a single parent, freakshows and all!)

The only place that Brooklyn is not a popular name for a baby? New York fucking City, people! Can you believe it?

The Brooklyn borough president's excuse was that New Yorkers felt that would be "overkill." Thing that makes me go hmmm.

Yes, there are celebrities named after cities (Paris Hilton! Cheyenne Jackson! Julie London?) But not many named after boroughs. There are neighborhood names. Chelsea is popular. Not so much Chinatown, Soho or Midtown, though I find those delightful toddler names!

Well, koochy-koochy-koo, little Brooklyns! I wish you well with your atttention-grabbing name. Now, how are you going to live up to it? Pressure from the cradle.

RONNIE SPECTOR & DARLENE LOVE, Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree (1992)

Thanksgiving dinner's over and tomorrow, in America, it's Black Friday: the unofficial first day heading toward Christmas when merchants hope to go into the black due to holiday shoppers. Many people in the USA have Thanksgiving and the following day off work, adding up to a four-day holiday weekend.

So, we're all heading toward Christmas now, all around the globe, and it's time for some good, hard to find holiday music. First up: the first and only (I believe) duet between Phil Spector's divas Ronnie Spector and Darlene Love, covering the famed Brenda Lee rock'n'roll Christmas number. It's a great production I think you'll all enjoy.

Ronnie will be singing, on Black Friday, at the lighting of the South Street Seaport Christmas tree. Her Christmas show, in New York City this year, will be at The Cutting Room in the Flatirons District. Darlene Love will again be at B. B. King's NYC, which I already have tickets to.

So, here are two legendary rock'n'roll women joining forces for the first and probably only time to wish us all a Merry Christmas.

By the way, if in NYC, doing your gift buying, stop in Rainbows & Triangles on 8th Ave. between 19th & 20th Streets for great cds and, at this time of year, Christmas music and other fabulous gifts to make the season gay.