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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.
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Back in London
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@HOTEL. Well kids, we got back into London on Sunday evening and within an hour of checking into the hotel we were off to the White Party Salvation T-Dance. The music was out of this world and there were probably some of the best looking gay men I have ever seen in that club. We were a bit tired but danced our asses off anyway. Yesterday we caught up on some rest and then headed out for an afternoon around London. We ended up in Soho where we proceeded to hit every gay bar on Compton Street and get a little tipsy. We then headed over to Club G-A-Y at the Astoria which was also a blast. We ended up back in the room around 4 am.
Around noon today we headed up to Oxford Street to do some shopping. Following our shopping trip we stopped at an Indian Fusion restaurant for dinner and the food was awesome. Following dinner we walked from Licester Square down to Trafalgar Square and then over to the Parliament Building and Westminster Abbey. From there we headed across the river, around the London Eye and back across the walking bridge up to Soho again. We decided against another night of bar hopping, so we walked back to our hotel on Piccadilly where we winded down the evening with a nice bottle of German Reisling in the hotel lobby lounge which, I might add, is quite fabulous.
We're probably going to get up and do some sightseeing tomorrow and hopefully catch a show either Thursday or Friday. We're probably going to hit up the Club G-A-Y again on Thursday night and then head over to Club Fiction at the Cross on Friday night. We heard that club is supposed to be pretty hot here in London.
Well that's about it for now. I have so many photos I've taken, but I just don't have the energy right now to resize and post. I just wanted to post a quick update. I hope everyone is doing well. Cheers!Labels: Travel
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Off To London & Paris on Tuesday
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@HOME. Well it's been a weekend full of running around gathering last minute items for our trip. I think we have pretty much everything we need and are all packed and ready to go when we fly out of Phoenix at Noon on Tuesday.
First we'll be flying over to London Heathrow via a layover in Los Angeles. Once we arrive in London we'll be taking the tube to the Green Park Station in the Piccadilly Circus area where we'll be staying at the London Sheraton Parklane Hotel. We'll only be in London for one night as we're heading to Paris the next day on the Eurostar train. We'll be going through the chunnel, so that should be an exciting ride. Once in Paris we'll be staying for 4 days at the Paris Hotel Prince de Galles on the Champs Elysees pictured below.
 
 
It's one of the Starwood Luxury Collection hotels, so this should be pretty swank for a few days. I almost wish that we had decided to stay for a little longer in Paris, but this will give us a good introduction into Paris and the French. I'm sure it won't be our last trip to Paris. We don't have any plans yet, Justin and I are both pretty much 'do whatever we feel like at the moment' kind of people, so we just see what comes our way.
After our 4 days are up in Paris, it's once again onto the Eurostar train and back to London for another 10 days. We'll be staying back at the London Sheraton Park Lane Hotel pictured below, which I mentioned before is in the Piccadilly Circus area and just off of Green Park and Buckingham Palace.
 
 
I'm really excited to be back in London again but this time with Justin. He's never been to Europe yet so it will be really great for me to be there with him. As for me, I've worked in London and Switzerland, and traveled extensively through Germany, Austria and Switzerland, so this will be exciting for me to be back in London again. Our trip will total about 15 days with a day of flight travel on each end. I'm so excited for this trip, it seems like we've been waiting for this for months now and it's finally here.
Anyway, once we're back in London from Paris, I know the hotel has a wireless internet connection, so hopefully I should have some time in the evenings where I can patch in my laptop and try to post some photos and details of the trip.
If any of you want a postcard from London or Paris, shoot me an email with your postal address and I'll be sure to send you one :-) Well, that's it for now. Many thanks to Mark and Andrea for pooch and house sitting. Wish us good travels and a great vacation ... See you in Paris & London! Cheers!Labels: Travel
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What Drunk People in Arizona Do When It's Hot!
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@HOME. Ohhhhh baby, drop it like it's hot! Ok, so Friday night was another drunken fest spent with Mark and Andrea hereto referred to as 'The Straights'. Well, The straights ended up dragging us gay boys out to Heather's Wild Card, a local gay pub here in the east valley. I don't know what it is about that place, I like it there but whenever it gets mentioned as a destination I normally don't feel like going there. This time I really didn't feel like going there because I was not dressed appropriately to be seen out at a gay bar. I was all butched up (if that's at all possible) thinking we were just going over to Applebees for a beer. I really didn't want to go, but as is the norm, I ended up having a good time anyway. What is it with The Straights always wanting to go there anyway ... I don't get it.
So as with every Friday it happened to be Karoke night. Now mind you, none of us sing which is a good thing, I promise you. We do however make fun of all the people who think they can sing but can't. We met this 56 y/o black lesbian woman who was making us laugh the entire night. She was so spunky and kept picking on both Mark and Justin. She said Justin was the cutest man she had seen in a while. When she saw his tongue, she screamed, grabbed his face and said "oooooh, boy ... That tongue was made for pussy!" LOL. Anyway, now you get the gist of why we spent all night laughing.
Anyway after the bar closed at 2 AM. And we were booted out, we headed back to our place for Coronas and a mini-naked-pool party. Now that the weekend temperatures are hitting 110 degrees the pool has finally warmed up. This is normally what we do here in Arizona when we're drunk, it's 2 AM. And it's hot out ...
 
 
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Spring (or just the Smell of Puke) is in the Air!
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@HOME. Ok this is going to be a short one because I have to go to bed, but last night was a doozy. I wish I would have had my camera with me. Justin and I headed out for our usual Saturday night rounds around the Phoenix Gay scene. We didn't have dinner (Justin will forever blame that on me because I said I wasn't hungry, so I didn't really feel like eating ... I didn't stop him). First stop, Amsterdam. We ran into Mark (AZWarKing) because he was helping out there for the night. He sent me a text message inviting us to his pool party today, what a sweetie. The drinks were going down like water, so I knew that was a sign for what was to come. We ran into Kevin there as well and convinced him to go up to Charlie's with us.
Around midnight we headed up to Charlie's. While at Charlie's, we ran into several friends including my friend Don, who just moved back to Phoenix from Atlanta a week ago. So we proceeded to hang out, drink more and do shots. Shots ... right ... they always seem like such a good idea at the time. Why oh why can't I realize that they are EVIL! Anyway, several beers and a few shots later, including a vary large and awful Jagermeister Bomber, we were on the dance floor. Shortly after that I looked over and realized that Justin was about to pass out in the middle of the dance floor because he was so drunk. Kevin, Don and I grabbed him and headed straight for the door. I was first out, the door swung open and immediately behind me was Justin. As soon as he got to the door, he puked outside on the ground. At least he held it until we got outside. I had no idea he was so drunk. So we carried him to the car where he was in bad shape. I headed down the street to drop off Kevin at his place, and just as we got out of the parking lot, Justin's head went out the window and he decided to redecorate the corner of 7th avenue and Camelback (sorry City of Phoenix!) I dropped Kevin off and Don decided he was going to come and crash at our place for the night. We got to our house and Don and I had to basically carry Justin back to the bathroom (after puking one last time in the driveway I might add). After spending about 2 hours passed out over the toilet, I decided to get him put away. He was a monster to get undressed and put into bed, but I managed to do so. Anyway, today was a pretty rough day which we spent recuperating. We even missed Mark's pool party today which was a bummer. Hopefully next time.
Since our trip to London & Paris is coming up here in a little over a week I think we will be forgoing our normal festivities next weekend for a quiet weekend at home to relax. Alright, so much for a short post, but I'm out of here. Cheers!Labels: Travel
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Ok I Hate These Things But ...
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@HOME. Ok I really do hate these little 'Quizzes' but I saw this one on someone's blog and I had to take the test. The results are exactly what I expected and go figure there wasn't even a gay question on the quiz and they still knew I was a San Francisco lover.
American Cities That Best Fit You: | | 80% San Francisco | | 75% Los Angeles | | 70% New York City | | 65% Washington, DC | | 60% Philadelphia |
The reality of this these days is that I'm actually very happy here in Phoenix. I think moving back to San Francisco may be something that's in store for Justin and I down the road, but not something that we want to do or are ready to do right now. We have sort of settled in here in Phoenix and are really making some great new friends and enjoying our time here. The house, the weather, our friends, all make it a great place for us right now. With Philip leaving San Francisco, that only leaves our friend Bernard there. Aside from Bernard and Justin's family, who are about 2 hours south of San Fran, we don't know too many people there anymore. I mean I do love the city, the culture and the lifestyle, but that's a small factor to having a great group friends who you can spend time with. So for now we'll stay put here in Phoenix and continue working on our house and company, but who knows what the future may bring ... Los Angeles maybe? ;-)
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The P.B.Loco Boys and a Phoenix Night Out
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@HOME. Once again it was another fabulous night out on the Phoenix gay scene. This time we started out at Oreganos Pizza Bistro on 10th and Camelback for dinner where Justin and I met up with the P.B.Loco boys, Anthony and Keith, and some of their friends. Anthony's partner Keith was back in town visiting for the weekend from Vancouver where he is still living until he can get a transfer back here. Anthony moved back early a few months ago so that he could get started on opening their Arizona PB Loco stores, to which I heard a rumor that they were just given a location at the Scottsdale Fashion Square Mall! Wooo Hooo, gourmet peanut butter for everyone! So the weather in Phoenix has been very nice lately which prompted us to sit outside and enjoy our appetizers, drinks and dinner on the patio.
 |  | | Oregano's Pizza Bistro | The P.B.Loco Boys, Keith & Anthony |  |  | | Keith #2 & Bob from San Diego | Brad & Keith #2 |  |  | | Justin & Rich | Justin |
After dinner we decided to haul ourselves down to Amsterdam for some cocktails where we met up with Tracy & Bruce and Don & Chris. Bruce felt it necessary to try out the versatility of his leather wardrobe accessories and wear out a leather cuff bands on each wrist. He swore he just couldn't decide on which watch to wear so that's why it was the leather cuffs instead. Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaa, right Bruce we really know why you wore those ... your secret identity of Wonder Woman has finally been revealed! Bruce decided to make us all choose our gay superhero twisted names, so I instantly dubbed myself the "Fushia Lantern" It was great to have a large group of people to hang out with, I honestly didn't notice anyone else in the room.
 |  | | The Bar at Amsterdam | Tracy & Bruce (aka Wonder Woman) |  |  | | The other side of Amsterdam | Justin & Tracy |  |  | | Don, Chris & Keith | Keith & Anthony |  |  | | The Gang | Rich and Justin |  |  | | Anthony Getting Bitchy at the Bar | Keith, Tracy & Bruce |  |  | | Chris | Holy White Teeth Batman |  |  | | The Crowd | Notice Wonder Woman's Bracelet |  |  | | The Boys | Rich and Chris |  | | | Settle down there Mary! | |
While we were at Amsterdam we ran into our friend Kevin. He was with his friend Kevin. So we now had Keith and Keith #2, and Kevin and Kevin #2. What is with the K names tonight anyway? So they were hanging out in the corner cruising for boys outside of the women's room when I found them. Of course being a photographer, Kevin had to approve every photo I was taking of him. There was a debate between Kevin and Kevin #2 over the proper use of the women's room in a gay bar. Kevin #2 felt it was appropriate to go into the women's room because after all it was a gay bar, and he didn't want to have to walk all the way around the corner of the wall to have to go to the men's room. Kevin disagreed with him, but Kevin #2 proceeded into the women's room anyway. Following Kevin #2's return from the women's room, Kevin had to check it out for himself, just to see if it really was everything he had heard it was.
 |  | | Kevin #2 & Kevin (Pouty Lips) | Kevin #2 & Kevin (No Pouty Lips) |  |  | | Kevin #2 debating on the use of this room | "OMG, how dare there be women in here!" |  | | | Don't take another picture of my Pouty Lips | |
Following a few hours of drinking at Amsterdam, we made our way over to Charlie's. It always seems like every week that the entire crowd from Amsterdam does a mass migration to Charlie's around midnight. We started out chatting and hanging out on the back patio with some drinks while the country music and line dancing was going on. We were waiting for the magic hour of 2:00 AM when the dance music kicks in and Charlie's turns into an after hours club. Bruce and Tracy were also supposed to meet us at Charlie's but we think they hit a detour on the way. I guess the Padlock must of had some very important issue that Wonder Woman had to attend too! So anyway, once the dance music started, we all made our way out to the dance floor and danced the night away under the not so shiny disco boots. Those things are in desperate need of some dusting.
 |  | | Charlie's Entrance | Line Dancing |  |  | | The Gang | Famous Disco Boots |  |  | | Happy Dancers | Bob checking out the crowd |  |  | | The Charlie's Sign | Keith & Anthony |  |  | | The Crowd | Keith #2 with some grinding action |  |  | | Bob and Keith #2 | Justin & Rich |  |  | | "I think I'm going to pass out" | Justin ... um did you pass out? |  |  | | "Oh you're so handsome" .. "No you are!" | Keith & Anthony |  |  | | The Crowd Again | Anthony & Keith #2 |
I believe it was around 3:30 am when we all said our goodbye's and departed from Charlie's. I asked Justin if he was hungry and he said no, so basically my plan to blame him for stopping for food was foiled. Oh well, I stopped anyway, and neither one of us had a problem eating. I of course had the 'Breakfast Sampler.' Mmmmmm, so good after a night at the bar. The Tempe IHOP where we stopped is located right off the Arizona State University campus, so it provided us with some cute straight boys and some interesting late night entertainment while we were eating.  |  | | Justin & Rich In The Car | Where We Ended Up at 4am ... The End |
All said it was another fun filled evening spent in Phoenix. We managed to hit Oreganos, Amsterdam, Charlie's and finally IHOP. It was a worldwide tour around Phoenix. We had the opportunity to hang out with friends and even meet a few new ones. This is why I love going out in Phoenix, you never know how your night may end up. Ok I'm off to bask in the sun. Cheers! Labels: P.B.Loco
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A Little On The Tipsy Side?
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@HOME. I'm back home from Mark and Andrea's house where Berg and I spent most of the afternoon and evening. Mark and I both work from home on Fridays so I went over their to patch in and work from their home instead while Justin was at the office. Justin finished up work at 5 and then came over. We headed over to Teakwoods Bar and Grill for dinner and a few drinks before heading back to Mark and Andrea's. Once back there, we started to crack open all the available wine and champagne bottles that Andrea could come up with. It was a nice relaxing evening which gave us the chance to discuss our business and enjoy the company of our friends. Tomorrow Justin and I are headed out with Bruce, Tracy, Anthony and Keith. That should be an interesting evening. Cheers!
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Dinner at AZ-88 and Hate Crime The Movie
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@HOME. Tonight was the special screening of the movie Hate Crime which is part of the Out Far! Gay and Lesbian Film Series.  Justin and I arranged to meet up with some friends beforehand at AZ-88 and then head over to view the movie. Overall it was a really great evening. We first met up with John, Bruce and Tracy at AZ-88 where we had dinner. There were actually supposed to be around 13 people meeting for dinner, but due to different circumstances, that number quickly dropped to only 5. Dinner was great and immediately following, we headed over to the Scottsdale Camelview Theatre for the special screening of this movie. We met up with Mykle and Doug at the theatre. All said the movie was very well done and the quality of the film as well as the writing was tremendous. There was an Q&A session with the Writer/Directors after the movie which really gave us all some insight into the movie itself. I really hope they are able to obtain a distribution company to promote this movie because I think it's a must see. I know it's traveling across the country right now at some pre-screenings and film festivals and I believe due in New York this month. If you have the opportunity to see it, please go, as it's really a nice piece of work. Cheers!
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Everything is Going Great!
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@WORK. I don't have much going on right now so I figured I would take a little break and update my Blog while I had a free moment. I really can't complain at the moment, everything is going great for me. I'm transitioning to a new position at the office and we're plugging right along with our company as well. Things between Justin and I couldn't be better, and we've been making a few new friends in the area as well. It's amazing how great life seems to be when you're happy. I guess reading the Conquest of Happiness has really helped me to figure out how to be happy. (Among other things.) I think I'll just enjoy it now while I can! Cheers!
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Wow It's May Already?
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@HOME. I can't believe it's already May. The weather here in Phoenix is great. Yesterday was the Phoenix Home and Landscape Show at the State Fairgrounds. That was Fab. So many really, really, really HOT gay boys all over the place. Who knew so many gay boys were into landscaping *LAUGH*. Anyway, we got back from the show and my friend Anthony came over to hang out for a while. I talked to Dave and Loren and asked them if they wanted to stop by, so they came down as well. We headed over to the Wild Card to grab a beer and a bit to eat. They had their usual Saturday night Drag show going on. This was our first time there on a Saturday night and I must say it was quite packed. Ever since they switched from a straight bar to a gay bar they've managed to bring in quite a crowd these days. I guess it's just was the East Valley needed. We had some apps, a few beers and then pretty much called it a night. Dave and Loren headed home while Justin, Anthony and I headed back to our house to hang out and chat for a little bit. It was around 2 AM when Anthony left and Justin and I headed off to bed.
Well kids, sorry for the sporadic posts, but as I said before, it's that time of the year and things are pretty busy right now. Also with the weather being so great outside, the last thing I want to do it sit inside on the computer. Alright, well we're off to the mall for some shopping and then headed over to Mark and Andrea's house for an early evening barbecue. Cheers!
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