Lighting on the stage a few moments later, the Wet Guy tosses T-shirts to the crowd in the middle of a strut-and-pose number with a handful of backup performers.
Some of the partygoers are not impressed. A man seated near me says he just doesn't see the point in such a big production.
"Oh come on," says his friend, nudging him with an elbow. "We're fags -- we love drama."
Suddenly, two paramedics and a hotel security guard appear, rolling a stretcher through the crowd.
A young man has collapsed on the dance floor. He's breathing, but he's gone completely limp. Immediate rumor is that he's taken too much GHB and slipped into a G-coma. A small crowd gathers as the paramedics move him from a deck chair to the gurney and wheel him away. There is a momentary hush among the adjacent partygoers, and a few murmurs of surprise that nobody is following the paramedics. The collapsed man is seemingly alone.
Moments later, though, the DJ plays the opening bars of a disco remix of "Dream Weaver," and a wave of excitement floods the tennis courts.
The sun sets behind the desert mountains, silhouetting a mass of glowing, uplifted faces and arms, moving to the beat.
At 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday -- the day after the White Party ended -- Todd is back at work. He can't stop talking about what a fabulous time he had in Palm Springs. "It was everything I expected and just so much more," he says, with a huge grin. "It was overwhelming, in every sense of the word. We shouldn't be allowed to have this much fun!"
Arizona Scott sent Todd a dozen white roses a few days after the White Party, and visited the following weekend. They went to the beach, and out dancing with friends both Friday and Saturday. Then without any notice, Scott left early Sun-day morning.
Todd says he suspects that Scott's "kept" by another man. He hasn't heard from him since.
But Todd has already reserved a room at the Wyndham for next year's White Party, and is planning which parties he will attend in the upcoming months -- Hotlanta in August, the White Party Miami in November, and the Black and Blue Party in Montreal.
Mark had a great weekend too. Despite the plans he and James, his ex, had made, though, they spent barely an hour together. James was doing a lot of G and seemed primarily interested in making out with one of his friends from L.A.
Instead, Mark navigated the parties solo, traveling freely among different groups of people he knows from San Francisco, New York, and other cities he's lived in or visited.
After the White Party on Saturday, he accepted an invitation from a Scottsdale bar owner and his porn star boyfriend to go back to their vacation rental in the desert.
"It's almost like a trip to Oz," Mark says, reflecting on the weekend. "Along the way, you come across the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the guys from Scottsdale, or whoever you encounter. They travel along part of the way with you, and then you all disband."
And one of the DJs played "Hopelessly Devoted" at the after-party at the Marquis Sunday morning, making Mark's weekend complete.
Kurt, though, is miserable. Before he left San Francisco to go to Texas on business, he and Zack officially became boyfriends. And Kurt gave Zack his baby picture.
But when he came back from his business trip, Kurt spent a weekend with Zack -- and "Tina."
"Zack had told me he was addicted to crystal months ago," Kurt says. "But I didn't really understand what that meant until that weekend."
During his visit with Kurt, Zack was nervous, depressed, obsessive, and irritable. He took off on Kurt twice: Both times he said he would be back within 30 minutes, but did not return for hours.
Over the weekend, they talked about Zack's problem. Kurt also told Zack he'd fallen in love with him. But because of the drug problem and the disappearances, Kurt has lost some of his enthusiasm for the Circuit.
"I know now that these parties present an opportunity for people like Zack to do things that are bad for them," he says, but adds, "I still think that generally, circuit parties are positive things. And I'm glad they exist."
If Zack is able to kick his habit, and the relationship succeeds, there will be no more nightclubs and parties -- places where Zack would be around crystal. And this year's White Party will have been Kurt's first and last.
Back in D.C., Zack has put Kurt's baby picture on his desk at work. He says he doesn't want to disappoint the little boy in the photo, and, after years of vowing to get treatment, Zack finally enters a drug rehab program to try to beat his addiction to methamphetamines. He sends me this e-mail message: "I am going to retire from the Circuit for a while." He does not say for how long.
