OHLALA Mag

Summer Heat / Watch: Circuit Festival 2011 Official Promo

Here is the Circuit Festival 2011 official promo by Matinee Group [source] Those are Europe hottest summer parties and their new video shot in Barcelona kinda give you an idea of what's coming your way ;-)

2010 POOLWATCH in LOS ANGELES

This weekend we have sent our friend Darion, his amazing blue eyes and his speedo to the Pollwatch event in Los Angeles. Here is what he has to say along with some of the photos he took for us! Thank you Darion for enduring all this for us ;-)



On Saturday, June 5th 2010 Poolwatch was held at a private home in the Holmby Hills (near Beverly Hills, California). Poolwatch is organized by the Young Professionals Council, which is a part of the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center. Unfortunately, I was tasked with covering this event for Ohlalamag.com - yes, just for my friends and for charity, I had to party with over 700 beautiful people at the most epic pool party Los Angeles has all year! Life is rough. ;)



Poolwatch isn't just another fun pool party, it is a massive charity event with all proceeds going directly to the Gay and Lesbian Center! The Gay & Lesbian Center does fantastic work for the GLBTQ community and is one of the largest organizations of it's kind - for more info check out LAGLC.

Almost everything for Poolwatch was donated - the alcohol by Absolut Vodka and Karma Tequila, all served by the hot bartenders from the World Famous Abbey, including David Cooley himself! The title sponsor of the event was CauseForce, a company that works with non-profit organizations to help them fundraise for events, such as The Weekend To End Breast Cancer. Food was provided by Fit Food, and great music kept the party going by world famous DJ Brett Henrichsen. Even the beautiful home where the event took place was generously provided that day by a private citizen.



I started referring to the party as the 'Gay Playboy Mansion' party - there's really no other way to quickly describe what the scene is like! Walking up into the party and being greeted by loud music, strong drinks, and hundreds of men - and a few women - wearing little and showing off their summer bods is quite the sight! You can tell no one had eaten carbs since December. ;) It's such a crazy scene it almost feels like you've walked into another world, a fake world - and it's a wonderful place to visit. :)





Poolwatch is an epic party, but also a great way for the community to come together and generate thousands of dollars for charity. I'd like to give a big shout out to my good friends of the Young Professionals Council for putting on such an epic event - I had an amazing time partying with great friends!

ELEVATION 2010 AT MAMMOTH

This past weekend we have asked our friend Darion [Hollywood Gym People] to be our Ohlala Roving Reporter at the “Elevation” gay ski week @ Mammoth Mountain, located in Mid-Eastern California.


Elevation brings together over 2000 gay men and women from all over the world for five days of partying, dancing, hot gogo’s, and yes – skiing and snowboarding! The parties are so much fun that some people actually attend just for them and don’t even hit the slopes! Top DJ’s like Michael Paul, Manny Lehman and Josh Peace perform at the parties, spinning tunes from the afternoon till late into the night.







On Thursday, a great group of friends and I piled into a stylin’ minivan and took the 5 hour drive from Los Angeles to Mammoth Lakes, California. As soon as we arrived, the parties were already in full swing! There are two types of parties – the “Apres Ski” events, where they take over a local bar and have a great DJ spinning club hits, gogos on tables, etc., and then larger club events where they take over a section of the resort and turn it into a full scale dance club.







The Apres Ski events are really fun and feel different then a normal bar because people head straight there after hitting the slopes, still in their snowgear, cheeks rosy from the day’s snow adventures.

The weather for Elevation was nothing short of fantastic. The sun stayed out the entire weekend, and we had two great days of snowboarding, with it being so warm that many people went down in just t-shirts! And some adventurous people even went on a “panty run” on Saturday, careening down the mountain shirtless!


There were so many fun memories and adventures that happened there – from the crazy outfits, to the Bunny Raid that Loy, Brian, Daniel and I did on Saturday! We donned our Snow Bunny ears and tore through the woods, laying eggs and raiding the Apres Ski bar, hopping through the crowds and causing quite a stir!

We also visited the fabulous new Hyde club in Mammoth Village, which was celebrating an Abbey themed weekend! David Cooley was there, christening the packed club where people danced on tables till closing time – stumbling home through the snow. Have you ever had a drink at 10,000 feet? Let me tell you, it only takes half the drinks to get pretty drunk – which probably explains all those bunny ears we were courageous enough to wear. J

This was the 8th year of Elevation and it shows no signs of slowing down. For more information check out www.mammothgayski.com. Special thanks to Tom Whitman and his fabulous crew (John, Jordan, Justin, Mike, and Korianne) for putting on the event, Alek and Steph for sending me on a FUNtastic mission, and my friends Loy, Brian, Max, Jeremy, and Daniel for being such great snow bunnies to spend a weekend with!


We are glad our friend Darion had a fun time. You can follow his gym misadventures @ Hollywood Gym People. And check out more photos AFTER THE JUMP.

THE GAY SCENE 5 /by WGAW and GAY & LESBIAN WRITERS COMMITTEE

2 weeks ago we had a pleasure to be invited to THE GAY SCENE 5, organized by WGAW and Gay & Lesbian Writers Committee, to enjoy the reading of the screen plays written by some of the most talented Los Angeles script writers. We have seen gay scenes from eleven unproduced television pilots, stage plays, short films and features written by WGA members. We thank Gary Goldstein and David A. Lee and Daniel Vaillancourt for organizing this amazing event.



Here is the list of scenes and participants. NICK WAUTERS "Ryan's life", STEPHEN WITKIN "Off Ramp to Babylon", DAVID DEAN BOTTRELL & PAUL JENE "everybody's Gay", VICTOR BUMBALO"Two Boys", GARY GOLDSTEIN "Just Men", SCOTT SANDOE "Counting Matthew", KELLY ROUSE "Second Coming Of The Blues", RONALD ZATE "But Not For Me", DONALD MARTIN "A Journey to Moriah", SPIRO SKENTZOS "Three Mile Family", DAVID A. LEE & DANIEL VAILLANCOURT "True Blue".

What sets this event apart is that you rarely get so much talent gather together around a single subject and do the amazing reading routine (and really performing). Because of the success we have heard that other WGA committees has explored the concept with a great success.



And thanks for all the actors that has taken part in this exercise. It was amazing to see them go from one role to another and observe the complete transformation (without makeup costumes and stage scenography): Annie Quinn, Blake Boyd, Brett Chukerman, Jeffrey Christopher Todd, Zibby Allen, Patrick Hancock, David Heymann, Yuval David, Stephanie Courtney, Robert Catrini, Caroline Aaron, Julia Nickson-Soul (in order of appearance).

Photography by David A. Lee

2009 GAY PRIDE IN PARIS FRANCE

Today we are taking you to Paris for the Gay Pride, with some photos we have just received from our friend Vincent. Liza Minnelli opened the Gay Pride in Paris earlier today "Freedom" she cried, dancing on a float along with Paris gay mayor Bertrand Delanoe.



Unlike the Gay Prides in the US, the Gay Pride in Paris is not just a parade of associations and promoters for a mostly gay audience oriented to "gay ghetto", it is a parade of gay and straight people, dancing, celebrating, and protesting in front of a mixed audience in the heart of Paris. Gay Prides here are like the Disney parades on main street USA, in Europe it's not so organized in a sense that you can interact with the floats and follow the one you want (depending mostly on the music they are playing!).



+ Gay Pride Paris 2008
+ Gay Pride Paris 2007
+ Gay Pride Paris 2006
+ Gay Pride Paris 2005
+ Gay Pride Paris 2004

In the gallery below, see all the photos. Merci Vincent :-)

MATTHEW MITCHAMSYDNEY GAY MARDI GRAS PARADE

Today in Sydney more than 300,000 people celebrated the annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

The parade kicked off with Olympic gold medal diver Matthew Mitcham [As announced in December] who was on the first float surrounded by male dancers dressed in Speedos and carrying scorecards.



More than 130 floats and 9,500 people participated in the procession, which began as a protest march in 1978 by homosexual and transsexual men and women and has flourished into one of the world’s largest and most flamboyant gay pride events.

This year’s parade theme was “Nations United,” a tribute to homosexuals around the world, particularly in countries where they cannot live openly. Last year in Australia, legislators passed a bill giving homosexual couples the same rights as heterosexuals, though they have not legalized same-sex marriages.

Joan Rivers was also part of the parade ...