With the summer upon us, gays everywhere begin to think of one thing… well two things: (1) Looking good in the least amount of clothing possible and (2) PRIDE! Gay pride really is a second Christmas for homos and their straight/bi-curious friends, a Christmas laden with Speedos, binge drinking, camaraderie and making out with complete strangers from out of town. For those living in the Northwest, our summers are dominated by Pride events, with Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver BC Prides all occurring in succession. Pride is a mini-vacation, with the majority of us taking three-day weekends (or calling in sick on Monday) and driving short distances to break from our normal lives.

What once started with a march through the city, has now become a three-day event, filled with house parties, pool parties, BBQ’s and get-togethers. All ending in a huge block party. For those that have never been to a pride, the block party is truly something interesting. Within this one city-block, the sidewalks are lined with makeshift bars, grills cooking the usual summer BBQ fare for those who dare to be seen eating at a gay event, and a stage with rainbows everywhere. Gracing the stage with their presence are numerous foul-mouthed drag queens, muscular porn stars, twinky go-go dancers and D-list entertainers, usually some one-hit-wonder from the late eighties/early nineties or an American Idol runner up. Most importantly though, the block party is filled with every ‘mo and mary in a 20 mile radius. It is a literal “who’s who” of the gay community, or a “who’s that” depending on the city. Although it may look like a harmless shirtless boy-party, the debauchery that can occur rivals that of Spring Break on Girls Gone Wild. I have seen the ads: I know straight people are no better. But I digress. The point is all of these homos gather for one purpose: to dance and drink from 11am ’till 2am.

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1. Calypso Crystal Dock $199-$349

Just in case your dock wasn’t cool or luxe enough… here’s the Calypso Crystal Dock which is made from crystal glass (think crystal champagne flutes). All pieces are handmade and go through a strict quality control process and only the perfect ones make the cut.

Technical

All CrystalDock products are made from perfect crystal glass.
Handcrafted and handmade in Europe.
Manually cut and polished.
Fitted with specially designed dock connectors.
Designed to perfectly fit your iPhone 3G and 3GS (of course each CrystalDock is also suitable for iPhone 2G and iPod Touch).
Carefully inspected and manually packed.

Dock connectors
Inside the CrystalDock there is specially designed dock connector. Simply slide in the iPhone and connect the dock connector USB cable (not supplied in the box, but this is the cable that you have received with iPhone) and you are ready to go. With your iPhone sitting in the CrystalDock you can recharge it and synchronize it with your computer.

see more cool stuff after the jump

Needless to say, the debauchery started the moment we closed the trunk of the car and hit the road. Our beautiful driver, David, couldn’t even get us out of Vancouver without two incidents of getting lost. What seemed like days later we finally made it through the border and into Seattle. After quick showers and some last minute primping we were headed to a house party on Capital Hill. It was a collection of all our favorites from Vancouver, Seattle and Portland ready to paint the town red – in our typical only-a-60-of-booze-will-suffice style.

The night exploded into supreme awesomeness when Kevin showed up to the party, complete with birthday balloons! Somehow, the Seattle boys managed to keep a secret, and the Canadians reactions ranged from screams of joy to messy tears (sorry Kyle and Stephen). The party eventually shifted to the local hotspot, The Cuff, where everything and anything could and did happen. After four shots of Tequilla and one consumed hot dog, by me and Stephen respectively, we shuttled over to the late-night Mexican diner (and I use diner VERY loosely) to eat our faces off. Thanks to our newly appointed friend – Stephen from Alabama – I managed to get an ounce of water in my system to save myself from complete destruction. Bless his heart!

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Over the past weekend I ventured down to Portland for the first time and after hearing a variety of recommendations/opinions on the city from both colleagues and friend I really wasn’t sure what to expect. The main purpose of the trip was to cover the North West Music Fest, with my reviews coming soon in a separate post. The minute the opportunity came up I jumped on the phone to call one of my closest buds Jason to see if he wanted to tag along as my latest photog. Naturally, he was on board for a weekend road trip and the following is history.

Outside of the two nights covering the NWMF we knew there was a lot to see in Portland and it was fortunate that Jason had been to Portland before and one of blessed American friends, Morgan was readily available to cart us to all the hot spots. Let me start with this, holy shizah is Portland almost EXACTLY like Vancouver! The similarities are shocking in reference to the people, the attitude, the layout and vibe of the city. I love that everything was within 10 minutes walk/cab – definitely a perk when a person only has two days to see a city! Jason and I stayed at the ridiculously trendy Jupiter Hotel. From an outsider looking in, this hotel appears to be THE hot spot, but our experience wasn’t exactly stellar. The room was nice, for a converted/updated 1970s motor inn, but I am obsessive compulsive when it comes to bathrooms, and this is NOT a strength for the Jupiter. I’ll admit, the atmosphere was rad, the staff were excellent (especially Danny – the cute little gay boy who worked the graveyard shift), and the outside patio with an open fire to sit around was incredible post-bar. The location was perfect, on Burnside Avenue, we were a simple jaunt over the bridge to downtown (Random Insert: Portland has SIX bridges leading into their downtown core – SIX – it’s intense).

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And no, Adam, it’s not because my boyfriend recently moved to Toronto. GUH! I’m referring to all of the new ways I can navigate my way around the city and beyond without my own personal vehicle. As a result, getting around town for this car-less eco-gay recently got a lot easier.

The biggest change to Vancouver’s infrastructure recently has been the construction of the 19 km long Canada Line opening this past month. The trains are spacious, fast, sleek, and most importantly, air conditioned! I was so impressed. Vancouver can finally take her training bra off and trade up to a C cup: we finally have what feels like a ‘big city’ rail system. The other day I zipped out to Richmond for some cheap dim sum, picked up some $2 stationery at Daiso, then headed over to the Vancouver Airport to their “Viewing Lounge” to watch airplanes land and take off (Full disclosure: I’m a nerd). I can’t wait for my trip to Vegas in early October with Kevin and a couple of our friends! Not only will do we have tickets to KYLIE (can’t even handle it) but we are planning on taking the new skytrain link out to the airport! My excitement could only be further amplified had we got to stay at the Airport HoJo. But seriously, it’s pretty cool to walk a block to the train station, pay $3 and end up at the airport in 20 minutes.

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In this episode of Homorazzi Hawt Topics, we have host Jonny Staub with Patrick, Saleem, Tommy, and Donovan behind the camera.

The five discuss Saleem’s two week vacation, recently watched movies, and the OFK soccer BBQ.