In theory, everyone was there to celebrate the newest issue of Pinups, the homosexual photo-zine created by photographer Christopher Schulz, but like any New York release party, most of the bearded boys in attendance were there to booze it up and be seen—and hopefully tasted. Sure, there was a constant crowd around Schulz, but they seemed mostly there to flirt with him and his intern Ross, as few walked away holding the $10 “exaggeration of the classic centerfold.”
Elsewhere, the crowd inside the packed bar was horny and festive. In the bathroom line, I heard a trio of bearded gentlemen debating energetically whether Pinups was porn or not, but all three ducked into one stall before they reached the conclusion of their debate. One friend of mine wandered up to me approximately 20 minutes after arriving to regale me with the tale of the bathroom blowjob he’d just had.
Previous Pinups models roamed the crowd in various states of sobriety (or lack thereof), but the current issue’s cover hunk, Scott Marks, was of course the beau of the ball, posing for photos and flashing grins around the room, making it even odder when the bearded model was spotted later in the evening getting multiple men to buy him beers before promptly walking away from each of them.
As the crowd thinned out, the mood loosened up a bit, with the crowd unabashedly dancing to the records DJ Shannon Michael Cane was spinning, from Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam to C&C Music Factory. It was around then that I realized the most important thing I would take away from the evening: cardigan sweaters are the new flannel shirt among this “postbear” crowd, which normally favors the sweaters nature bestowed upon it.
With the wait time at the bar now down to a
reasonable amount, I treated myself to one last round to celebrate
having ditched my cardigan at home and then went off into the night,
feeling no discernible chill.
