Drag Season - The Little Pageant That Could

 Hello!  Here's more of my 2025 recap:

I'm not going to assume that you remember that I won the BEST IN DRAG SHOW in 2018

Be nice! It's spoof of a beauty pageant!

Cast & Judges of 2018

In May of 2025, I was invited to a screening of a new documentary about Best in Drag Show called THE LITTLE PAGEANT THAT COULD, produced by World of Wonder.  Of course, I was delighted to attend and OF COURSE, I was very excited to see if I made the cut! Here's the thing, I'm not just reminding y'all that I won to show off. I'm also reminding you because I want to explain a misunderstanding I had about being a winner.  I thought it was like the Academy Awards, and once you win you're IN.  You know, you're part of the show FOREVER.  I thought that was the case because so many people who are involved have been winners or contestants, which is amazing because it's all charity for the Alliance for Housing and Healing and they do it year after year (There's even a documentary about it!)  Anyway, after I won, I got to ride the Pride Parade float and go back to the show to hand off the crown after performing a farewell number (I turned in a spectacularly mediocre rendition of WHERE YOU ARE from KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN) and I got to introduce the judges for the year with Kay Sedia.  That was fun!  After that, my phone never rang.  I thought maybe they don't want to impose.  So, invited myself to stuff. Like the time that I invited myself to ride the float in the Palm Springs Parade in 2022, even though I was pet sitting and knew it meant getting up very early, slapping on make-up, taking care of the dogs in LA, driving to Palm Springs, and driving back to LA IMMEDIATELY after the parade.  Director Jeffrey Drew was gracious enough to say, "Okay?" when I asked to join them, but I'm sure he wasn't ready for what showed up.  You see, time management was an issue that morning and I showed up looking like Karen Black after having a drunken stroke in a hurricane.

Apologies to Karen Black for the comparison 

He still let me ride, bless his heart...

It's spoof show, right?

So, after that, I think Jeffrey's, "We got a Lucy Ricardo on our hands" alarm went off and my phone didn't ring after that, either.

I couldn't understand why, as a winner and willing volunteer, I wasn't being utilized more.  I kept inserting myself where I could to get the message accross.  But alas, I was useless.

Then, I got the call.  An invite to this documentary!  I responded YES as quickly as I could and asked if I should show up in drag.  I got a pretty fast "No", which is fine, 'cause I'm sure I was really busy with other stuff. ...pretty sure.   Anyway, the night for the screening finally arrived!

I took a picture of myself on the fancy Step & Repeat, since none of the fancy photographers seemed interested in this former winner. 

I got a picture with the poster

I mingled with the other former contestants and show folk, like David Flores, who was a fellow contestant in 2018 and one of those that's always involved & doing stuff for the show.

David Neuendorff and Luis Camacho- always involved...

Lovely director & Karen Black whiplash recipient, Jeffrey Drew

Salina EsTitties, Jason De Puy, a fellow 2018 contestant who went on to compete on RuPaul's Drag Race and was the entertainer for the night! ...and always involved.

So, after all the bumping of elbows and reuniting, we poured into the Renberg Theatre at the LA LGBTQ Center and watched the movie.  As the title graphic hit the screen, I wondered excitedly, "Am I gonna see me?"

When the movie was over I felt like a total schmuck.  First, the movie itself is very well put together and tells an important story,  I was teary eyed several times.  Please, catch this documentary if you have means. It's great! The reason I felt like a schmuck was because of my misunderstanding.  I realized my interest in the show was simply being on stage, having fun & playing dress up. (I also appreciate that it is a great charity that benefits the AFHH, which is a factor for me.)  What I further realized (or was reminded) was that the people who started this show in their living room in 1989 have been working together, as much as they can, to continue going on to raise badly needed funds (especially in this DOGE-Fucked time) in memory of those who have passed.  They are fellow members in recovery; managing this show has changed and saved lives by giving people a community of support and an opportunity for service.  It's not another "C'mon kids, let's put on a show!" kind of thing, no matter how much if feels like it.  I left the screening with a greater understanding and appreciation for all that goes into doing this show- which includes a great emotional & spiritual investment.  Like most companies, especially theatrical, there have been squabbles and ego clashes throughout the years (remember that emotional & spiritual investment?) and some people come and go, but I rarely have seen anyone go for too long. Ultimately, they come together and put on the show every year, despite hurt feelings & bruised egos.  That is amazing.  Feeling foolish, but fulfilled, I headed out of the theatre and into the courtyard where Selina put on a good old fashioned , rip roaring drag show!

She looked gorgeous

and kicked ass like a chola should!

Oh yeah, I was included in the movie, at the end when they listed the winners of the show.  It was fast and simple, which after my epiphany, I was very grateful for.

I'll admit, when I got home I felt a little lighter, not having to carry that "Lucy Ricardo fueled" wonder of why I wasn't asked to be more involved.  It felt good to let go of that need.  Then, a few months later, my phone rang.  More on that later...

Gay of A Certain Age - Paris Done Burnt Up

Friday night I happened to be the lucky recipient of tickets to a sold out screening at OUTFEST 2016.  Muh DAB, Steven K, decided he had too much going on this weekend and had to let something go.  This was it.  It was serendipitous, because I was going to accompany muh DAB, Dennis, to dinner and wait with him to see if he got a ticket on standby.  Thanks to Steven, he didn't have to wait and I had an unexpected movie treat.  To be honest I wasn't very interested in the movie, STRIKE A POSE because, while I enjoyed watching TRUTH OR DARE, I just didn't buy Madonna's story, so this follow up would probably be entertaining, but prolly just as airy.  

I didn't think it so truthful...

On the other hand...

Immediately, I was intrigued when one of the film's subjects, (the documentary centers on the male dancers of that monumental tour), who was introducing the movie said something like "At least we knew this one was being made."  I thought, "How could you have cameras on you throughout the entire tour and not know a documentary was being made?"  then I thought a few more question marks, "?????".   Well, my knowledgable friend Ray, a dancer who has toured a few times told me, that there are always cameras and you don't know whose they are, you assume they're your friends' and sometimes they're your own, but it's possible that they didn't know that everything that was shot could end up in a documentary.  So the documentary unfolds and I found myself wrapped in the lives of these dancers after the tour and how expectations of continued success and popularity are met... or not. I was very touched.

I found my eyes most moist toward the end of the film when the dancers reunite for the first time in many years.  All but one straighty are gays of a certain age and their vulnerability with each other had me in tears.  Each one has their own battle and at that dinner table they find they have allies in each other.  I couldn't help but identify with some of those battles, as a Gay of A Certain Age who despite being basically happy, did/does have few expectations of how my life would be that have not come to fruition.  I really felt like I was seated at their table.

So, I am a fan of this documentary because it provides a much more real story than was projected in TRUTH OR DARE.  These are men/performers/humans I can identify with and root for.  I also appreciate that it wasn't a Madonna bash-fest, although there are a few revelations I had no clue about.  I hope you get a chance to see it.

The Trials Of Man Solo - A Certain Kind of Death

When you visit a blog named DieAloneWithMe.Com,
you know you gotta consider the literal aspect of dying alone.
I know I've thought about it often.  You don't have to be elderly to die in your apartment
and lay there for days before people realize you're missing, then either look for you
or get informed by the apartment manager who smelled the stench of death.
I've imagined all kinds of interesting accidents that would leave me dead and waiting for discovery.
There's the one where I'm dancing like an idiot, trip over my own foot, slam my head on the
corner of my entertainment center and lay unconscious bleeding out on the carpet.
Or the one where I'm in the kitchen and am so hungry I pop six gluten-free mushroom ravioli
from Gelson's in my mouth all at once, then choke on them.  I desperately throw myself on the
floor to try to get a good rush of air to push the tasty Italian treat out, but I don't get it quite right and stay on the floor choking and ouching from the unsuccessful throw down, I pass out & die.
My absolute favorite is the one where I slip in the shower and fall through the glass shower door, in just the right way to completely cut myself entirely in half, leaving a gruesome & awful mess.
I have a great circle of friends, but honestly, I think I'd be down for at least two days before someone got worried enough to come looking for me.  Yes, contemplating my own lonesome death can be a little depressing, but with some morbid imaginings, it can be kind of fun, too!

If the subject hasn't scared you off, might I suggest for your morbid viewing curiosity,
a documentary I stumbled upon a few years back that has stayed with me.
It's called A CERTAIN KIND OF DEATH and it's about people whose job it is to identify the
dead who are all alone in the world, with little clue who they are.  It is depressing but fascinating!
You can catch it on the Video On Demand sites or HERE, on the YouTubes.
Watch it alone for full effect!

I'd watch it alone with you, but I have to set up a daily appointment with one of my DABs,
in order to lessen the likelihood of such a demise.