Letters

Circuit vs. Substance
Tara Shioya's piece on circuit parties ("Tales of the Circuit") reveals some of the worst that gay men have created for themselves. It is a piece of writing whose characters will probably haunt me for a while, as will the emptiness of their physical pursuits.

Like most gay men, I spend more than my share of time at the gym in pursuit of the kind of physique plastered over every gay magazine, gay novel, club flier, and gay theater advertisement in the city. But I've stayed away from the circuit parties, mainly because that subculture reminds me horribly of high school, with its childish social strata and insecure posturing.

While circuit boys may talk about family and community, does that feeling last after the weekend drugs wear off and the work week begins again? What kind of family consists entirely of tan muscular white boys with 2 percent body fat and shaved chests? What kind of ghosts drive us to spend the rest of our lives trying to gain a foothold in the "popular crowd"?

It seems to me the vast majority of gay men continue to wait for familiar images and stories to appear in the media; stories like our own. When I come home from the gym I am greeted by my partner, my dog, my cat. That's my family. What about the gay men in San Francisco attempting to construct with friends, pets, children, and ex-lovers some real semblance of family, even as politicians and other citizens continue to deny us legal recognition of our relationships? What about the gay men striving to create a life for themselves and others that will retain meaning and satisfaction long after the physical fades in significance? I see these kinds of men around me every day, yet when people speak of "gay culture," they speak more and more of the physical, and less and less of the spirit.

Michael McAllister
Via Internet

Tara: You Go!
Great story on the Palm Springs White Party ("Tales of the Circuit")! I attended this year and, although words cannot come close to describing the utter blast it was, your feature article comes pretty damn close. A couple of things I'd like to mention:

1) There were many more people who attended than the 7,000 claimed in the article. I would estimate the crowd at about 1 zillion.

2) Although prevalent, drugs are not a prerequisite at the White Party. I am not anti-drug -- I've done my share of experimentation ... but I didn't do any the entire weekend (OK OK, martinis) and had just as fabulous a time as my tweaked-out, coked-up brothers -- including great sex!

3) The only sucky thing about the entire weekend was the fact that one had to buy drink tickets in order to imbibe, and the tickets were different colors each day, rendering the previous day's tickets useless. No one knew this and I myself ended up with 50 bucks' worth of "souvenirs."

4) It's true that there's a dearth of "real" girls who attend circuit parties, but every real girl I saw was decked bedazzlingly ... I'm assuming Tara Shioya was one of them. You go ghurl! SNAP!

Next stop Colossus '98, San Francisco!
Brendan G. Bailey
Via Internet

Correction
In our Best Of San Francisco issue (May 20) we gave an incorrect address and phone number for the Power Exchange nightclub. The address and phone number we published are those of the V/SF nightclub, which is not and has never been affiliated with the Power Exchange. SF Weekly regrets the error.