Hello I'm Rich Brown and this is my personal website and blog. I'm just your simple, average, down to earth, professional, out gay man and aspiring circuit boy, living in Phoenix, Arizona with a few things to say while trying to find my place among all the scary, conservative, religious nuts in this sick and twisted world.
Saturday, September 17, 2005
The Old Spaghetti Factory, Falsettos & Drinks
@HOME. After an afternoon of rest, Justin and I started our evening early. We headed up to have dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory on Central Avenue. Justin used to frequent the one in San Jose, and I this one here in Phoenix, but neither of us has been to one in several years. We decided it was due time. We arrived around 5 PM and the there was already a 30 minute wait. I thought to myself "What the hell is wrong with these people? No one eats before 8 PM in Phoenix without a good reason" Of course our good reason was that we were headed to see a performance at 7:30, so dinner had to be early.
As my memories served me correctly, the Old Spaghetti Factory was no less scrumptious then it has been in the past. Justin had the Spaghetti, Meatballs & Sausage and I had the Chicken Parmesan with a small side of Spaghetti. We both overindulged on the garlic cheese bread as an appetizer. The meal was both fabulous and completely filling.
As we wolbled ourselves, and now bulging tummies, out of the restaurant we had a little time to kill so we headed up to Unique on Central to do some gay shopping. Unique is always, well, unique. It's the only place in Phoenix you can listen to the latest club music while shopping for trendy underwear, men's sized women's shoes, cards, candles, gay porn and poppers. It's truly a gay man's paradise. Other then Justin being tempted by the fancy Ginch Gonch underwear (Which he already has 4 pairs of I might add here ...), we were just browsing to kill a little time.
Soon enough it was nearly 7:30 PM so we headed out the door and over to 'The Space', which was literally next door, to meet Bruce & Tracy for the performance of Falsettos.
Falsettos is a former Broadway musical that is being put on by the Arizona Alternate Theatre Company this month. Falsettos is described as:
"A 1992 Tony Award winning, charmingly, disarming musical, in which William Finn tackles a variety of challenging subjects with wit and intelligence. The characters are members of the Â?typical modern American nuclear familyÂ?; a son, his mother, his divorced father, his fatherÂ?s gay lover and the family psychiatrist who makes house calls and marries mom. This play is filled with warmth, love, resilience and affirmation of life. Everyone is a human being, feeling hearing, living intensely emotional upheavals as honestly as they know how, and coping with the consequences."
The show lasted for 2 hours with a brief intermission and it was quite nice. We enjoyed the story, the singing and the performance.
Following the show we parted ways with Bruce, Tracy & Friends as they were headed over to their usual Saturday night hotspot of PadlocUnfortunatelytly Justin and I had left the chaps and leathharnessesses at home *WINK*WINK*, so that spot was pretty much out for us tonight. We decided to do our usual circuit of Amsterdam and Charlie's.
We arrived at Amsterdam and it was completely packed. We ran into Mark, Gilbert, Steve and a few others as we made our to the bar and then over to the Club Miami side to hangout. I don't know if it was the new bright blue floor, or the shitty DJ, but we just weren't feeling the thumpa thumpa. We quickly finished off our drinks and left for Charlie's.
We arrived at Charlie's only to find out that parking was completely nexistentant. What in GAY-HELL was going on here? Did the Big Gay Bus let out all the homosexuals in Phoenix at Charlie's. Well apparently it wasn't the Big Gay Bus because they all DROVE. One word ... CARPOOL people, CARPOOL. We can usually find a spot in the parking lot, or at the worst, just out on the street. Well tonight, we were not only on the street, but we were all the way UP the street, almost a full block away from the place. Good heavens, this is Phoenix, they don't actually expect us to WALK from there do they? Apparently so because we did. Anyway once inside it was completely packed to the dirty dried out walls. I swear, one day that place is going to catch fire and the entire Phoenix gay community is going to be wiped out in one fell swoop, but I digress.
We made our way through the bar and ran into several friends including Dirk. Surprise, surprise, that boy is getting as bad as us, he's always there these days too. We headed out to our usual gawking area, the back patio, and ran into Brett, Lance, Nate and Kevin.
Justin and Brett. Check out those fancy, schmanspectaclesals on Brett!
Nate (Lance's new, umm friend *wink*), and Lance (a fellow co-worker of ours).
Kevin, Nate, Lance, Justin and Brett hanging out on the Charlie's Patio.
Justin and I stood and chatted with the boys for a while over a few beers before everyone started to part ways for the evening. Right before we left we ran into Firefighter Don and friend, so we stayed to chat for a little longer. I believe it was around 3 AM when we finally called it quits, trekked back out to the car and headed home for the night. I know I always say this but yet another fabulous evening in Phoenix. Ta Ta for now, Cheers!
