Too Busy For Love - Year of the Crown Part 1

You know I've been lamenting how busy I've been, and these last few months have been crazy, but I assure you, it's not just a cute heading for my blog.  I've been so busy, it's taken a year for me to post this tidbit.   About half of my 2018 was dedicated to BEST IN DRAG SHOW, a fundraiser for Alliance For Housing and Healing, as well as for Aid for AIDS.

It started in April, when I auditioned.

Once I found out about the auditions I got to work getting the idea for my show together.  I had to come up with 4 categories; INTRO

SWIMSUIT

TALENT

Evening Gown/Interview

 And they announced their six contestants

David Anthony Flores (Miss Washington), me (Miss Texas), John Green (Miss New York), Andrew Felix Garside (Miss California) and Philip Watrous (Miss Louisiana)- Not pictured Jason De Puy (Miss Colorado)

Once I found out I made it into the show, I had 5 months to get it all together.  I immediately went to Carol at Carol's Bridal.  She's who I usually run to to get my dresses made.  She said, "Sure! Get the fabric and I will make these."  She immediately got started on my Intro dress.

Later, I realized that Carol and I  hadn't discussed fabrics and construction strategies, (really, what fabric does one use to make a Nacho Poncho that stays crisp on the catwalk?) so, I decided I needed some advice.  I remembered that my friend John Coulter usually had fabulous Halloween costumes;

John the Rock-n-roller and me as The Virgin Murray

 I made a call and invited him to breakfast to show him my costume designs for advice & wisdom.  He took a gander and said he would give it some thought.  The next morning he called and said he would make my costumes!  I was all "WHAAAAAAT?"  That was an amazing and miraculous blessing!  I shared my budget and John went to work!  He sent me photos of stuff in the works.

We discussed new ideas and he improved on my original designs and ideas.  I did my part crafting a few details

with a little help from friends

Here's Brett helping me figure stuff out and put it together

like my Intro Blue Bonnet head piece,

 rigging the pecans that would drop right under my my dress on cue and these Dora the Explorer shoes that would be the cherubs in my Lady of Guadalupe evening gown...

Before I knew it, a few months had passed and it was time for the photo shoot for pics used in the show 

to promote the show

and for the BIDS calendar

Miss May with Alam Wernick
(and for a peek at his naughty twitter click here)

Might I say, the Calendar shoot was my favorite part?

Arad Winwin, Trent Ducati, Devin Franco, Remy Cruze, Alam Wernick

With the main photography done, and publicity for the show going out, I had just a month and a half before the show! 

I'm really busy, so I'll show you the show tomorrow!

Gay of A Certain Age - Something To Look Forward To This Year

For those of you who were concerned about my monthly drama, you know, the fear of flipping the page of my hot nekked man calendar and seeing a dead porn star, (as experienced many a time with Colt Men calendars, ) I have mostly good news!  I am happy to report that all through 2018 I flipped 12 months and not one dead porn star!!  In that aspect, Raging Stallion did not let me down.  Where I have a quibble with Raging Stallion is that along with the large picture of the hot nekked man, the days of the month are listed at the bottom of the page, vertically, like little strips of paper on a flyer nailed to a utility post on the sidewalk advertising guitar lessons from Ramon.  Call me crazy, but in a calendar, the days should be featured a little bit more.  As you can see here in my favorite month of 2018, March, featuring Bruno Bernal, there along the bottom are the days that in no way help me determine how many Fridays there are in a month with just a glance. especially when my glance is distracted by his seahorse.

Bruno Bernal

Here's where part of this is my own fault, I don't like to preview.  I prefer to flip the page not knowing who's going to be on the page for the month.  It's an exciting little mystery that makes the passage of time a little less like a stab in the heart.  Because I do that, I can't look at the calendar page to see if the days are presented in a grid or in little phone number slips on the bottom.  So, hoping for a grid, I left Raging Stallion and moved to Hot House.  As you can see from the top photo, Austin Wolf is on the cover of the calendar... He's both one of my favorites and alive, so we're off to a good start. 

Unfortunately, as you can see from the January page, it's a Call Ramon For Lessons situation.

Arad Winwin

I'll deal with it.  It helps that Mr. January is another current favorite, Arad Winwin!  While I may not be able to determine what day it is right away, this month will always remind me of the day I got to actually cozy up wth Arad...

Me (Reba Areba), Arad Winwin

Speaking of calendars, the last time I got to touch this nice hottie, we were shooting the 

Best In Drag Show 2019 Pin up Calendar!

I told you about Best In Drag Show, right?

Anyway, I got to hang around these hotties for hours, creating the visions that people would be seeing for months at a time in 2019.

Alam Wernik, Arad Winwin,  me, Remy Cruz

Arad Winwin, Alam Wernik, Remy Cruz

Me (Reba Areba), Alam Wernik

My month partner was Alam Wernik and I think we did our month proud!

If you've neglected to get your 2019 Calendar and the men of Hot House are too racy with their cocks out, but seeing cute man tushy is as naughty as you wanna get, you can get your BIDS 2019 Pin up Calendar HERE

Physical calendars may seem obsolete, what with fancy computers and their Outlook programs and such, but as a Gay of A Certain Age, I know that a friendly face & cock along with a daily confirmation can make the days passing a more pleasant reminder that we're one day closer to death.

This Is Why I Am Single - The Drag/Porn Equation

Drag Season hasn't exactly disappeared, I'm still donning slap & drag for different events, here & there, which is a big reason I'm too busy for love.  There is one recent event which ticked off another box in my Die Alone With Me situation: This BEST IN DRAG SHOW photo shoot is another example of why I am single. 

No, it's not the drag thing, again; it's a nice perk of the drag.  Although, to look at the photo below, you might not think there is ANY perk to drag (OMG! It's jus the start of the process, don't judge!) 

The thing is, as part of the shoot for photos that will be shown during the big pageant, we also shot some calendar photos!  What makes the calendar a little extra special, aside from our fabulous outfits, is the naked male models.  Yeah!  I don't know who put together the equation Drag = Gay Porn's Friend, but I thank them profusely!!  As if it wasn't hard enough putting myself together (alright, not so difficult because my beautiful make-up was done by the amazing Glen Alen) and trying to think of interesting and original poses, they compound the difficulty by adding these guys walking around! I mean, how am I supposed to come up with an emotional and evocative Cinco de Mayo pose when I've got this guy standing right in front of me?

(Devin Franco)

It's hard, right?  I can't post many pictures of me as Reba Areba, because I'm not allowed to show my final looks. Fortunately, I can show you theirs, because these are not their final looks... their's were less encumbered.

(Devin Franco, Remy Cruze, Alam Wernik)

Also, you may know that I have a thing for Arad Winwin, whom I've long admired, since my first DragCon...

Well, having him on set made it doubly hard for me!

How am I supposed to hold still for Glen's eyeliner pencil, when I've got this scene happening right outside my make-up room?

Somehow, I made it through the day without making a complete spectacle of myself and without my tongue flopping out of my mouth and onto the floor.  Also, it was nice that each one of them was a sweetheart. Trenton Ducati (with whom I am coupled in the top photo) seems to have put together a very pleasant stable of models!

This is Why I Am Single: Sometimes my line of work puts me in the company of some very hot and very disrobed, friendly men!