Tuesday, July 13,2010
Bash Compactor: On a ‘Casserole’
At VIG27 for Jeffery & Cole’s season premiere party
By Gerry Visco
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Jeffery Self takes it off / Photo by Gerry Visco
We were only munching on sliders, but last Wednesday night, Jeffery & Cole Casserole was what really filled me up. I was at VIG27 for a party celebrating the premiere of the second season of the LOGO sketch comedy show, which is nothing like your mother’s tuna fish surprise.
The show stars Jeffery Self and Cole Escola, who write, direct and edit the series, which is filmed on their webcam. They were discovered by LOGO executives, broadcasting their VGL Gay Boys videos on YouTube. “Jeffery and Cole have a DIY-style that makes them really funny,” said performance artist Erin Markey, who’s appeared on the show.
Escola is tiny and adorable, with big, saucer-shaped eyes. Self is handsome and tall. Their show is called “casserole” because it’s a mash-up that they make. The protagonists undergo absurd, Kafkaesque situations in a world gone mad. Their friends and fans, including Project Runway winner Christian Siriano, performer Bridget Everett, singer Kim Smith, actress Jenn Harris and more, filled the room with laughter and after the screening, the room was abuzz. This was a good party, I thought, as I was preparing to leave. “Visco, don’t leave now!” a friend of mine commanded. “No, I have to go,” I said. “There’s an open bar and food!” he added, seated with a posse noshing on crab cakes and champagne. Well, maybe I could linger.
A few G&Ts later, we were out on the dance floor and the boys were going mental, that kind of quirky dancing that only the truly trashed can pull off with aplomb. Wearing an open crisp white shirt, Self revealed a lovely and chiseled chest. “I never knew you were so handsome,” I gushed, picking him up as we danced. I lifted Escola, also; he was light as a feather.
Taking a breather from the dancing mob, some of us lounged out front in the hot summer night at the café tables, where playwright Ben Rimalower and I attempted to sing Supremes songs but had trouble with the lyrics. It was getting late.
And what about the show? Self told me they hope to keep the vibe from the first season, though they’re shooting in a new apartment. “I got evicted from the old one,” he said.
The season premiere aired Friday at midnight, featuring everything from a faux trailer for a movie called Babies With Money to a celebration of both moms and watersports. “There’s something for everyone!” Self said.
Tuesday, July 6,2010
Bash Compactor: So Many Little Eggies
Party hopping July 4th from Red Egg to Kenny Scharf’s Cosmic Cavern
By Gerry Visco
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Sadria Benge and Tyler Stone at Red Egg / Photo by Gerry Visco
July 4 should start with a bang, but my fireworks began a day or two earlier. Sometimes on holiday weekends, you start partying on the Friday, but luckily you have three full days to lie in bed recuperating. All I knew was by this past Saturday, my head was pounding like firecrackers and bottle rockets had already blasted me. But when you’re stuck in town, you might as well make the most of it.
Dim Sum and Then Sum was the name of the party located in Chinatown at Red Egg. “Red eggs in the Chinese culture are for good luck,” Darren Wan, the recently opened restaurant’s owner, told me. The restaurant has been renovated and dolled up into a sleek, black-lacquered boite with low lighting and cozy tables perfect for groups. And I was there with a bunch of club kids and party people.
Our host for the evening, Cole Nahal, is a designer who’s been plying his trade throwing splashy parties since the interior decorating business started to slow down. A few others at our table were in-between jobs, which was why the bottle of vodka languishing in ice at the table was appealing. We’d all get a generous glass or three.
The DJs were Kimyon Huggins, of The Danger, and MSG from The Standard. I was glad the music was cooking, but so was the kitchen. Red Egg serves up dim sum, which I’d heard was quite tasty, so I ordered vegetarian spring rolls and shrimp dumplings. I knew some at the table were low on pocket change, starved but broke, so I told the waitress to only bring out a couple of plates. “Can I have one?” one of my underemployed pals begged when the steaming platters came out. No problem. Greed is good, I figured, but that’s what friends are for.
I didn’t want to imbibe too much more of that vodka, though, because most of us had been out the night before—that’s when my headache began.
But Red Egg was merely the first stop of this night. At 2 a.m., everyone insisted on cabbing out to Williamsburg for Kenny Scharf’s party Cosmic Cavern. Although late, things were in full swing. Scharf was all in DayGlo with a paint-spattered Egyptian headdress, cavorting with beauteous burlesque artist Amber Ray. I began wrestling with the tall lean actor Kyle Kupres, who was dancing with a girl newly arrived from a Minnesota pig farm. My weekend had just begun, but it would be days before the real pyrotechnics.
Tuesday, June 29,2010
Bash Compactor: Heavy Flo
At New York City Food Film Festival screening of Florent, Queen of the Meatmarket
By Gerry Visco
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Florent Morellet / Photo by Gerry Visco
Last Thursday night, The Altman Building was packed and abuzz. The idea behind the New York City Food Film Festival was to pair film with food and this was the night devoted to restaurateur Florent Morellet and Florent, his 24-hour French bistro in the Meatpacking District, which closed in 2008 after 23 fabulous years. “Where’s the food?” I whined, jealous of the other guests traipsing around with fragrant boxes of French fries. But I’d just located the open bar, serving wine and a strange tasting vodka cocktail, when it was time for the film to start. Dubbed Florent, Queen of the Meatmarket, the new documentary was premiering at the Festival.
Director David Sigal was on hand and there was Florent himself, standing near the entrance, smiling and saying hello to a few of his many friends—a popular guy, judging by the dozens of devoted customers who’d shown up. Both appearing in the film and gadding about at the party were entertainers Penny Arcade, Dirty Martini, Murray Hill and Tigger!, gay nightlife impresario Daniel Nardiccio and director Kevin Malony, among many others. Julianne Moore was a talking head in the film but was not present, but then neither were customers like Johnny Depp, Mick Jagger or Amy Winehouse.
Who would have thought a film about food would bring a tear to my eye? But Florent was never just about the food. Both the owner and the eatery will always be remembered as quintessential examples of everything that’s exciting about New York City. Dancing the can-can, burlesque artists taking it off on the counter, tough talking waiters, a clientele ranging from senior citizens to rock ‘n’ rollers, Hollywood actors and tranny hookers.
The difference between Florent, born in the bowels of the Meat Market, and the current glut of restaurants and bars in the new Meatpacking District is that Florent the bistro really was chic and the new breed are wannabes. We will always need people and places like Florent—even if we can only get them on the big screen.
Wednesday, June 23,2010
Bash Compactor: Easy Come, Easy Go
At the ‘Instant’ exhibition at Robert Goff Gallery
By Gerry Visco
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Why do men having an orgasm look like they’re about to croak? That’s what I discovered perusing the Instant exhibition at the Robert Goff Gallery last week presented by The Fearless Project art collective. Pasted upon the walls, lined with construction paper and wild colorful graffiti, were 80 Polaroids of men taken while they were about to bust. I get the feeling a lot of them were flying solo. Of course, faces look far better post-climax—afterglow is better and cheaper than a facelift.
The gallery was Meatpackingindustrial chic and filled with familiar faces from the arts, fashion and music worlds. While I enjoyed the concept of the art, I would have preferred for variety’s sake including some women, trannies, chubbies, seniors and a taxi driver or two, but the faces were mostly young, male and white. High fives for gay lib, but true rebels need diversity.
“I want you to meet a very talented photographer,” art curator Robert Greco told me, dragging over Diego Garon, whose work was in the show. Japanese artist Naruki Kukita was running around snapping photos of everyone, as was Baschti Pollin, the paparazzo from the website Suck It Boy.
Upon arriving, I bumped into the energetic half-naked gyrations of Gio Black Peter, premiering a new song and a fetching pair of American flag boxer briefs in the middle of the gallery. “Gio, do one of your handstands,” I urged. “No, I don’t feel like it,” he said, a crowd forming around him. “I’d rather do some pushups on top of you.” Afterglow here I come!
Wednesday, June 9,2010
Bash Compactor: The Bump And The Grind
With Jo Boobs at the release of The Burlesque Handbook
By Gerry Visco
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Jo Weldon (AKA Jo Boobs) / Photo by Gerry Visco
Walking into the dimly lit Slipper Room for a party celebrating the publication of The Burlesque Handbook by Jo Weldon, (AKA Jo Boobs) a shapely redhead with a quick smile who’s as smart as she is pretty, I expected to see a bevy of glamorous women parading around in dramatic headdresses, fans, pasties, tassels and g-strings. But as it was only 7 o’clock on a Tuesday, the sirens of shimmy on hand were looking gorgeous in plain old street clothes. The lipstick red booth near the entrance held a pile of the scarlet manuals on a table and the author was there in the flesh, chatting and signing books for her fans and friends.
Beginning as a stripper and sex worker in Atlanta in 1980, Weldon moved to New York City in the 1990s and became a burlesque sensation. She’s great on a stage, but the girl can also write. The Burlesque Handbook is the definitive manual, thanks surely to Weldon’s honing of her talent at her New York School of Burlesque, which has inspired many women—and some men—to go off into the bright lights and shake it.
“So, you work on the burlesque circuit?” I asked ginger-haired actor Dale Harris, who’d appeared in a play with me a few months ago. He was standing by the table with two books ready to be signed. “I’m off to Miss Exotic World Pageant in Las Vegas,” he told me. It seemed like everyone except me was going to Sin City, including boylesque performer Tigger!, dancer Julie Atlas Muz and drag king Bevin Branlandingham. I grabbed a glass of champagne at the bar and made my way to the booth again.
I was talking to Bambi Jones, a 79year-old former stripper and burlesque artist when another comely blond joined our tete-a-tete. “I’m Bambi, too,” she said. “Bambi Themermaid.” I was getting confused. How many Bambis can fit into one room? “Come out to Coney Island and see me sometime,” she said, referring to her Burlesque on the Beach shows happening all summer.
Between the Bambis and Weldon’s tome, I was feeling inspired. After all, the book is full of fascinating nuggets: Weldon describes 10 nipple tassel-moves and even demos twirling a tassel on your derriere— naturally, it’s called an “assel.” Besides teaching you how to shake your ass, she even gives instructions on making your own pasties—they don’t call her Jo Boobs for nothing!
Gerry Visco in fighting form on her birthday: she’s armed and extremely dangerous!
Gerry Visco in fighting form on her birthday: she’s armed and extremely dangerous!
Originally uploaded by Gerry Visco
Gerry Visco Interviewed by Christo Mitov of www.gratefulgrapefruit.com
Check out the three videos Christo Mitov put up on his webzine for “horny nerds”, Grateful Grapefruit (and on YouTube). Mitov interviewed me from Berlin on SKYPE. I think you’ll enjoy my talking beauty tips, photography advice, and talking smack about some of our favorite celebreties! And check out the rest of Grateful Grapefruit. It’s a cool website and Mitov is fabulous and smart and goshdarnit, he likes me!
Grateful Grapefruit
Gerry Visco vol. 1, 2 and 3
This was a tough one. 2 days in a roll I’ve been nipping, tucking, editing, choosing music, converting, recycling and extracting. It was a rough ride, but I enjoyed every single step of it. What I’m talking about here is the video interview with Gerry Visco – devoted horny nerds don’t need further introduction.
For the wannabes: Geraldine Winfried Visco is writer with more than 150 articles in last 3 years; performer, photographer, and radio show host on WKCR FM; she regularly covers parties, events, and the arts for New York Press in a weekly column. But most of all she is the most fabulous celebutante, fashionista and a true diva I had the chance to meet (just online till now). Ever.
Her immense energy and creative power cannot be tamed (unlike Miley Cyrus). That’s why maybe it took me so long to nip/tuck the interview with her and produce 3 episodes. We sat one Sunday in front of our laptops and had a chat on skype. I won’t tease you, here come all 3 parts:
“Berlin, NYC and Timing” in which Gerry gives you the most precious advice you will ever get.
“Photography an (wo)Men” – Gerry explains why we should keep ALL our options opened.
“Bold And The Beautiful” – some may call it trash-talking, but they won’t watch anyway. Gerry is just being sincere about the New York celebrity scene. And about true beauty.
This entry should’ve been published yesterday – because yesterday was also Gerry’s birthday. Happy birthday on crooks, Gerry (as they say in Bulgaria when you haven’t made it with the video editing in one day).
Actress Jane Krakowski
I spotted actress Jane Krakowski of 30 Rock, Ally MacBeal, and the movie Go holding a press conference in the Meatpacking District promoting her summer Tupperware party
Recent Photos
