GAYLETTER

David Sokolowski emailed us awhile back about this party so we knew he was serious about it. It’s one of those productions that takes A LOT of time and effort to pull together so you want to do everything you can to make sure people show up. I get that. We do our big Pride party at the Wythe Hotel each year (it’s probably bigger than this) and I’m always a nervous wreck until the place fills up. So what to expect from Psychic Snow? David says the party is “a harmony of music, performance, installation art, visual art, tarot/astrology, lounging & cruising for the funky queers who like to get down.” It’s giving me a very BK radical fairy type vibe. There’s going to be DJ tag team sets, trippy visuals mixed live, serene installation art and a fucking runway show! I mean, these queens are giving you everything AND the kitchen sink. The only thing they need is some food… oh wait, they have that. Empanada Lady will be serving hot pockets of deliciousness all night long. Settle in queens, a psychic snowstorm is headed your way.  —tom

I guess this is a party and a performance — two of our favorite things, I usually feel much better if there’s a performance at the party, I don’t feel like I wasted all those hours just drinking, I like being productive. Waking up hungover, but knowing you saw a great performance is better than just waking up hungover. I went to see Amber Martin and Nath Ann Carrera’s Witch Camp last year and it was super fun and weird, I love those two, they are so talented and witchy, they really get into it. I am assuming we’ll get the party and a bit of that Witch Camp performance, which is a perfect interruption for any party...you’ll see what I mean. “Featuring Thematic Classic Vinyl Sets And A Midnight Performance From The Ises Black: Libations prepared with alchemical precision by River And Ronnie! $5 Well Drinks! Curated Television From The Annals! Bored Altars Of The Flesh! Sharon Tate Sacrifices A Patriarch To Insure The Future Of The Vineyards Of France! A 1970’s Science Teacher As Green Screen Flying Egyptian Goddess Debunks A UFO Housing Depreciation Ring! And BEYOND!” Apparently this is all happening at Nowhere Bar, I doubt this bar can hold all of that, but I told you they get into it.  —Abi

Maybe I’m getting old, but last weekend’s Grammy’s were a real snoozefest. Taylor Swift, Adele, Ariana Grande, Gaga, boring, boring, boring and BORING. No one was taking any risks, even that performance by Gaga felt soulless considering immediately after it they aired an ad for Intel featuring her and a Bowie song — It’s just so tasteless to use an artist’s death to sell computer chips. I honestly think the Grammy’s are being produced by senior citizens. Bring back Britney, Mary J. or Janet! At the monthly BK party Props, they are doing just that with a night of adulation directed towards Ms Jackson and her illustrious multi-decade career. Music for the night is by DJ Sean McMahill and he promises it will be “all about Janet Jackson.” There’s not much else to this night than that. All Janet, all the time! I’m into it. She certainly has the back catalogue to keep a roomful of gays dancing for a few hours.  —tom

Here we go again with this stupid Holiday, not to sound bitter, but that red heart everywhere looks desperate. I mean, buy your lover flowers, chocolates or a bottle of wine any other day, but on Vday? Ground-breaking. There’s nothing inclusive about Valentine’s day, it’s like if you are not in love or on a date then you’re a loser. Even when I was dating someone, I was like I don’t do Valentine’s — it’s just commercial and cheesy. The good news is that you now have a chance to get laid on V-Day — that’s if you can find someone at this house party. Yes! It’s at Charlene’s house (she’s pictured) and we’ve been told we can invite all of you. Tyler Ashley tells us that  Charlene “started doing big house parties at her place in Bed-stuy with Alexis Blair Penny and Sam Banks...” Cute!. This event is a Casa Diva presentation (I love that name) and the lineup sounds promising — Leah James, Jake Dibeler, Patti Spliff, Grayson Squire, Neptune and many more. DJs Lemon Verbena, Exquisite and Alexis. Plus the party is 420++. Wish I could go, but I don’t do Valentine’s...  —Abi

This weekly party started out as Hair (we mentioned it when it began), then it was Sissy, now it’s Cissy, I can’t think of a better group of names for a party to go through. Dream, who’s one of the hosts of the party says, “I started calling it sissy because I wanted to play with language that had been used to hurt queers in the past, and reclaim it, and because even then I identified as a non-binary queer with serious femme leanings, cissy seemed right...and then as I started being more open about identifying as a trans woman. Cissy, is a joke about people who are/will never be cisgender, and play even further with those ideas.” Good for you Dream, it’s a great thing to be open about who you are. It’s 2016, it really is the year to say bye bye to those who don’t get us. It’s all about the gender spectrum, anything else just sounds boring. One last thing, I heard there’s a BK queen who’s been saying GAYLETTER doesn’t cover queer events in Brooklyn, yo what’s good? I’d recommend you go to the GAYLETTER archive and have a look at all the BK events we’ve featured before in the past years you come for us, k?  —Abi

I love that almost every letter in 2016 so far has featured a new party. We heard from Dream about this new one. “I’m throwing a new party with Katie Rex at Alphaville in Bushwick. It’s called Software and it’s an all-femme lineup, which I think is sort of unprecedented and super important in the Brooklyn queer scene — NYC’s queer scene is still primarily dominated by cis white men…” Dream told me that Katie is one of her favorite DJs in NYC, who also runs the all-girl collective Factory Girls. “We both love being girly and dancing to techno, so throwing an all-femme party together seemed obvious. Katie and I both identify as female and primarily work in the gay scene, so we wanted to throw a party by gurls, for everyone.” I’m so glad that Dream is so good at writing a party description, let me just do one more last quote: “This party is to remind them [people] that the girls know how to turn it out — and look amazing while doing it. The name Software perfectly embodies this, juxtaposing our soft femininity with our mastery of technology, making you sweat on the dance floor…” DJs for the night are  Serena Jara, Katie rex, Suga Shay, Umfang and Dream gurl herself. Performances by Slater G. String and Momo Shade. Girl power, get it girls!  —Abi

It seems that the Cock in its new location is popping off since it opened, the boys are really into the new space. Even the boys that have never been to the Cock are trying it out. I mean it’s always fun there, just make sure you keep your eyes on your wallet. We got an email from the musician Casey Spooner telling us that he’s celebrating his birthday this Wednesday, February 3rd at the Cock. It’s presented by Dreamhouse, and it’s being called “Nights of the Templar.” I don’t know why, but that’s let’s just go with it, Casey is very creative, recently got a text message from Victor Jeffreys (who’s co-hosting the event along with Gage of the Boone from The Spectrum) with an image of Casey’s head surrounded by a crown of cocks. DJs for the night are A Village Raid and Lauren Flax. Let’s go celebrate Casey’s day of birth with some sleazy fun. If you’re not so familiar with this queen, check out the great feature/interview we did with Casey in GAYLETTER issue 2. Yeah, that’s a shameless plug, but someone’s got to do it! Mmm mmm mmm.  —Abi

Here’s a new monthly party for you bitches, brought to you by artist/dancer Richard Kennedy. “Hiii! Yes it’s my new monthly! It’s in prime Williamsburg and it’s a straight up dance party” I say yessss 2016 keep the new parties coming — Kwik come thru! The DJ sets at this party are all under an hour, they’re Kwik, get it? I think this is great because you’ll get a nice variety of talents in the same night. Richard told me more about Kwik, (the name does have a nice sound to it, I can’t stop repeating it) “The venue is small and run by my homie. I haven’t done my own party in a while and I aim to create a space that’s less about exclusivity and hype and more about dancing, not super gay but very mix-y. Very music focused and showcasing of my favorite New York talents…there’s a great sound system and a stage. It’s way nice to hear people performing on a proper system.” The line-up seems promising, it includes some cool people: Slava, DJ DJ DESE, DonChristian, Prince Harvey, Tygapaw, Avillageraid, Andy Pandy, Mistervaction, Robofoxnyc, and more. The party is booked through April and they are promising “lots of surprises.”  —Abi

We wrote about this party the last time they threw it, and we try to not repeat, but we can’t help it because we love Julius way too much. That bar is a fucking institution. I’m not one of those people who bemoans gentrification, as far as I am concerned cities change, we all evolve, it’s a part of life blah, blah. HOWEVER, Julius needs landmark status. If that bar were to close, I would be majorly bummed. But fear not, it is open this Thursday for the latest edition of Owl. To give you some idea of what to expect the organizers of this party have decided to share with us the 3 things they believe in: “1. Disco music that ripples the buns. 2. Free mini-therapy sessions by an actual therapist. 3. Bad caricatures.” So, yes, admittedly they are three pretty obscure things to have a strong belief system around, but gay people are weird, and if you’re planning on going to this party you’re probably weird to. So just go with it. Dance, having some therapy and take a drawing of yourself home as a souvenir.  —tom

I got a message recently from Matthu Placek about his bi-monthly dance party Wet Noise and it sounds promising to me. Here’s what Matthu told me about it: “I started this party a few years ago and only did the one. It was a huge success and hella fun! The point was to create a party that offered up filthy dirty funk music on vinyl and urged everyone to put their damn phones away, don’t take pictures, check your chatter boxes at the door…” I think that’s a great initiative, but these kids are not gonna put their phones away, he told me that he wishes he could literally omit phones at the party, but he can’t, cos people are cunts when it comes to their devices. Make Matthew happy and at least keep it out of sight all night. You’ll probably have more fun. He also wants “people to be prepared to dance and sweat! I want bass lines that grab you by the taint… anchored straight down the center with pelvic thrust.” Sounds wonderful!  —Abi