Kelvis Korner Blog

I went to go See Auntie Mame last night with Rafael and John for Outfest Wednesday’s annual Christmas tradition.

Rafael and I got to Hollywood and HIghland a bit early so that we can get a bite to eat. It was raining and freezing that night! It was so freaking cold that it was snowing in Malibu and Lancaster! It was just freezing rain in Hollywood though. We went to Johnny Rockets where we shared some chilli fries. We each had burgers. We were super stuffed! We were running kind of late so we swallowed it all down, and then headed over to the movie.

There was a reception before the movie and we got to have some free cocktails. YEH! We found some good seats and they did the Q&A portion of the program before the movie ended, SMART! Pippa Scott was there to talk a little bit about the movie and her new project. She played Pegeen Ryan. After the Q&A the movie got going.

It was a special treat for Rafael and I because we had never seen it before. We both loved it so much. It was so funny. It was amazing to me to see how this movie has really stood the test of time. It’s hard for a comedy to be so funny and relevant in modern times, and it was. So needless to say we are now huge Auntie Mame fans!!! HUGE! We’ll be coming every year to this!

Rafael also mentioned that he’s having a little New Year’s Eve get-together. So that’s going to be tons of fun!!! I’ll bring the camera…

John and I went to the grand opening of the Chi Chi LaRue store in West Hollywood last night. John came over and we walked down to the festivities. We were kinda early and one of the first ones there. We met Chi Chi and had tons of fun! There was tons of free champagne flowing and Jeremy Bilding was one of the servers. So we hung out with him a lot. John and I took turns taking pictures with our favorite porn stars:Jeremy Bilding, Johnny Hazzard, Barrett Long, and Perez Hilton was there so I needed take a picture to make Alina and Vivian jealous!

The party was over at around 10pm and then we moved over to the after party called Temptation @ Apple Restaurant and Lounge. It was a very beautiful place. I had never been in there before. We hung out at the party for a little bit but I was starving since I hadn’t had any dinner! And we had to work friday. So we partied for a little bit then headed over to Greenich Village for some pizza and then we walked back home! I had so much fun! Enjoy the pictures below!

Chi Chi LaRue Van

Chi Chi and John

Our Newest Model, Me, and Jeremy Bilding

Chi Chi and Me: Bad

Chi Chi and Me: Good

John and Johnny Hazzard

Johnny Hazzard and Kelvis

Perez Hilton and Kelvis

Barrett Long and John

Kelvis and Barrett Long

Porn Guy and John

John next to Chi Chi Mobile

HomoTracker sent me an email inviting me to a pre-showing of Gus Van Sant’s MILK, this past tuesday at the Grove in LA. The cost of the movie would be donated to help Lambda Legal with the California Supreme Court fight over Proposition 8. I was really anticipating the movie, so I invited Rafael with me and we went. We had dinner at the Farmer’s Market since it’s connected to the Grove. We went to my favorite place, which I suspect is Rafael’s favorite place now: Pampas Brazilian Grill. After an awesome meal and some espresso, we headed for the movie…

The movie was so beautiful. It took my breath away. The cast was amazing. Sean Penn was unbelievable in this movie. Although there is a special place in my heart for the love interest played by James Franco. He was too adorable for words. One of the things that I admired about this movie is that the movie sent home the message that gay culture should be visible and that we should come out to all our friends and family so that they understand that gay people are all around them and part of the family. In the movie when they are trying to oppose Prop 6, their counsel advises them to not focus on the gay aspect and focus more on the equality for all. Harvey dismisses this and focuses instead on making gay people visible and human. I thought it was especially beautiful how this metaphor carries out into the character of Harvey Milk. The script could of showed him as a perfect hero type, but instead it shows him as a hero who is a human being, capable of flirting, being stubborn, and not always acting in a way that society is comfortable with.

So much of this movie affected me. Especially in California where what happened to us with Proposition 8 parallels greatly the struggle to overcome Proposition 6. It gives me hope that we can once again begin a grassroots campaign and bring California to the once liberal, open-minded, state that it once was. The California that I dreamed of moving to since I was a kid. That California is alive today, it just needs a little reminding. I think this movie came at the right time. On a last note it was very interesting to me to see the movie show Anita Bryant. She was one of the strongest proponents against the gay cause in Florida and it was interesting to see how her meddling in civil rights issues in Florida, caused a tidal wave in California which ultimately led to more protection for gays and lesbians across America. It’s very similiar to the way that the Mormon church was so heavily involved with Prop 8 in California, and because of it’s passing, the gay and lesbian masses have been so charged up that now equality is something that WILL happen in the near future for us.

Check out the MILK website for a screening near you!

Saturday I took Nicola out for her birthday. She wanted to try this Thai place in North Hollywood called, Arunee House. We headed over around 7pm, Nicola was late as usual, and I was surprised to learn that the restaurant was right next to the Trader Joe’s that I go to all the time in Toulca Lake, when I’m at work. We had a great time. We had a feast with drinks, an appetizer, soup, and two entrees. And it was cheap! We will definitely be going there again. It’s half Chinese and half Thai. So you really can’t go wrong!

After dinner we headed down to the Sherman Oaks Galleria to catch a movie at the new ArcLight Cinemas. We wanted to see the new James Bond Movie: Quantum of Solace, but it was almost sold out and Nicola didn’t want to sit in the front row. We got some coffee and then went into Urban Home, where NIcola bought a really cute candle stool! Don’t ask what it is. It’s a stool. It holds candles! After that we went home. As we were leaving Sherman Oaks, we took Ventura Blvd. and I’m always amazed to see how many stores, restaurants there are in Los Angeles. If I ever do buy a house in Southern California, I’ll probably have to start in the Valley. I’m OK with that as long as I’m at least close to Ventura Blvd! It has that WeHo vibe to it!

Sunday, Nicola, Ivette, Luis and I had reservations to check out the Getty Villas in Malibu. The museum is free but the parking isn’t. The parking is not as big as the main Getty Museum, so you have to make reseverations. Every time I’ve tried in the past, it’s been booked! This time around it wasn’t. We had a great time. It was beautiful. I’m a big fan of the Getty Museum, and this one was great. The scenery was breath taking. The outdoor pools were amazing. My favorite exhibit was the mummy one. Check it out if you ever visit the Getty Villas!

Check out the full Getty Villas Photo Gallery.

Luis and I went to the National Protest Against Prop 8 today in downtown Los Angeles. I’ve been pretty bummed after this passed in California. Ever since I was a little kid I always thought California was so cutting edge and modern when it came to how to treat people fairly. I’m sad to say I lost a little bit of that when Prop 8 was passed. I have regained some hope watching people come out to all the rallies I’ve been too. I thought there were tons of people at the Silverlake rally. It was nothing compared to the amount of people that were at the downtown LA one!!

Cities from all over the world had demonstrations in our honor, which was humbling and amazing. Luis and I rode the metro and it was free today because so many people showed up to show their support. We were packed like sardines in the subway, but it felt great. Everyone had their signs, and they were ready to protest! There were a couple of speakers and then we marched around downtown. I took some pictures and video. I have attached the pictures and embedded the videos from youtube. Enjoy and I hope we don’t loose steam! This will get overturned.

Subway Protesters

Getting Ready to March

Sea of Protesters

Off the 101

Luis and I went last night to check out 9 to 5 the Musical at the Ahmanson Theater! I’ve been wanting to see this since Goldstar put up tickets to their preview. They were sold out! Since then I’ve been checking everyday to see if they post more tickets. The play is here until October and then it goes to New York where it will hopefully be in Broadway for a long time.

The minute Goldstar put some more tickets up I grabbed them! The Ahmanson has to be my favorite theater. The Pantages is beautiful and it’s right in Hollywood, but there is something about the energy in Downtown that makes this theater special to me! I would definitely live in Downtown. It’s changed so much and it’s on the up and up! The Mark Taper Forum just reopened recently, so I’m excited to see what events come to that venue! The plan was to go home from work, get ready and take the metro. When I took a shower it was hot as hell. I didn’t want to take the bus all the way to the subway station so I just drove in.

There was crazy amounts of traffic on Sunset but it turned out it was because there was a game going on at Dodger Stadium. Once I avoided that area it was smooth sailing. Right when I got a couple of blocks away from The Music Center, Luis called that he emerged from the subway station. He was coming in from the red line in North Hollywood. I thought the parking was going to be crazy expensive but it turned out to be only $8.00. And there were about eight floors of parking underground! So that was nice. One fast escalator ride up to the surface and I was right in front of the Ahmanson.

I went to will call to get our tickets. We had about 30 minutes before the musical started so I decided to get some snacks because I was starving! We’re never early to these events so we were spoiled! When it was time to sit down, our seats were pretty good. They were upstairs towards the back, as is usual with Goldstar, but you could see the stage perfectly. The price of the tickets were $34.00 for each ticket. Which was a nice deal!

The show was absolutely breathtaking. I enjoyed the music, the acting, and the stage and props. It has to be the most advanced stage I have ever seen in a Broadway play. Things came flying in and out, and as the actors moved, the set would move around them. It was very cool! Act I was very true to the movie, which I loved, and Luis hated. All the great lines from the movie are there! Act II strayed away from the movie somewhat. I would have to say that my favorite was Act I. The songs were fun, and the acting was top notch. Allison Janney wasn’t the greatest singer, but she was great in it! My favorite part is when they dream to kill the boss and she is dressed up in a Snow White costume. It’s priceless!! Dora Lee was played by Megan Hilty and she was phenomenal. She sounded like Dolly, looked like Dolly, and was an amazing vocalist.

I loved one of the songs that Dora Lee sings called Backwoods Barbie. It’s also on Dolly Parton’s new CD and it was the name of her Musical Tour that I got to see at the Greek Theater! It was amazing to me that Dolly wrote all the music for the Musical! If you are in LA before the play leaves for NY in October, definitely check it out!!! The audience was so alive which tells me it’s going to be an audience favorite!

I was inspired to take the Beachwood Canyon Hike Sunday today after Take-a-Hike did it yesterday. I meant to go with them, but once again, I overslept! The hike was amazing. You go past Sunset Ranch, and you wind up all the way behind the Hollywood Sign. You get to see amazing views of the Valley and Hollywood!

Check out all the pictures at my Facebook Beachwood Canyon Hike.

Hollywood Sign

Twisting Trails

Elevated Views

Lake Hollywood

Burbank and Beyond

Desert Hike

Luis and I headed to uWink for some food and some games. I had heard about this place from my old neighbor Paul. He used to work at Hugo’s, and hook us up with free food all the time, and then he moved on to uWink. I never got a chance to visit uWink while Paul was working there since now he’s in the Bay Area. Which reminds me I have to text him sometime. Luis and I were excited to go because we got a buy-one-get-one-free entree coupon. You can’t beat that shit!

So we headed over to Hollywood and Highland where the uWink in Hollywood is. uWink was started by the creator of Chucke Cheese. The premise is that you sit at these tables and do everything through a computer kiosk. You order all your food and beverages through the computer and then there are games that you play with people in your party and with the whole restaurant. The idea sounds great but….

The games were pretty lame. There were no games that Luis and I could play against each other. The restaurant-wide games were few and came around like once every twenty minutes. It was either a trivia type of game or a photo quiz. After you’ve been in the restaurant for a while, the games get locked and you can unlock them only if you pay for tokens. I found this really lame because the games were lame. I would never pay for these games. The free games on Yahoo are better. Seriously. And my screen froze every 10 minutes. That was a nice added element of surprise.

The worst part about the whole ordeal was the food. It was mediocre at best! I had a burger with fries. The burger was ok but it all fell out and was messy. The fries tasted like crap you can fry at home from the freezer. Luis had a burger and mashed potatoes and the burger had the same issue as mine, messy and it was all over the place. His mashed potatoes tasted like instant!!! GHETTO. And can you believe this, they did not have any honey mustard. I love honey mustard. Any restaurant that’s a diner that doesn’t have it makes me suspicious.

We were so disappointed because there is so much potential in this type of social restaurant but it didn’t deliver. Would we go again? Yes only because we have one more 2-for-1 coupon to use. After that we’ll never go there again. We’ll try something else off the menu, but I bet it’s gonna be crappy! At least Dave and Busters and Gameworks has food comparable to Fridays. Denny’s could beat uWink easy in a competition. EASY!

Luis and I had seen a trailer for this movie when we went to see Boystown at the Laemmle 5 during TLA’s mini gay-film festival. It looked very interesting and we are both Chad Allen fans! When I got the newsletter from the Laemmle that the premiere was Friday in LA, I knew we had to go! The main actors were going to be there after the show for a Q&A.

After work I went home to drop Lola off, I changed and I headed for the theater. Luis was going to meet me there later since he got off work later than I did. Since I Had a little bit of time I decided to purchase the Premiere Card at the Laemmle. It’s kinda expensive at $100.00 but there are a lot of discounts and perks. Every week they have a 2-1 member movie and you get discounts all the time on movies! It’s great! So I bought our two tickets with the Premiere Card.

When I was waiting for the movie to start, and for Luis to get there, I saw Judith Light coming up the escalator. It struck me how skinny and pale she is! It was so cool to see her! I had grown up watching Who’s the boss and here she was! I never saw Chad Allen come up but I did see Robert Gant come up.

The movie was great! It was really nice to see such a well written piece. The movie dealt with an Ex-Gay ministry headed up by Judith Light’s character. Chad Allen’s character, through a series of events, ends up in the Christian ex-gay ministry, and eventually falls in love with another man in the group. The movie is great because every character was so well written. Every person who comes to the ministry has a different reason to be cured from their “gayness”. The most surprising part was how well written Judith Light’s character was. You usually want to hate her character as the evil oppressor, but towards the end of the movie you sympathize with why she’s doing it. You can see that she means well, even though she is way, way, way misguided. You should definitely check it out!

The Q&A afterwards was great. The Producer, Director, Judith Light, Chad Allen, and Robert Gant all came up to talk. Judith Light and Chad Allen were very articulate. Robert Grant seemed very shy! It was a great fun night. We saw a whole bunch of gay celebs that night: T.R. Knight and Reichen Lehmkuhl. After the movie we were both starving since we didn’t have dinner so we ended the night in one of my favorite restaurants: Koo Koo Roo!