As someone said, we need to write a book.  Or maybe it’s a reality show that we need to showcase the characters.  Or a graphic novel in Japanese animé.  Some form that might do justice to all the creatures of the day and night who wander in off the streets to play with Junior on his birthday. 

Good thing the party had been shifted from Spirit to Pacha.  Apparently the NYPD had yet to work its way uptown from Chelsea, what with Spirit closed for the weekend, and a rumor about Crobar, which maybe explained the high percentage of straight people in attendance early in the morning— Meanwhile, Roxy worked it with Offer, and so once eight a.m. rolled around, so did the hordes of boyz. 

Decorated to the max, over-the-top and over-done, that’s what Jerome said about the room, and once we get upstairs, we’re looking around, but it’s so dark and hard to tell.  Chiffon jellyfish, we see – and one in front of Junior which we wonder if it’s a metaphor.  And huge beach parasols, with fringe and frou-frou – but it’s not until the lights come up that we get a chance to see the fruits of Jerome’s labors: a bunch of fifth-graders on acid running around with scissors and glue guns.  We loved it – and especially thinking about that bunch having such fun decorating that room.

It’s eight a.m., and while we run into Matt K. right away, and then also Michael Circuit Dancer, it seems, for the first few minutes anyway, that we might be outnumbered.  Not that we mind – the real girls are turning it out with bags and booties and white leather skirts.  The straights really care how they look in a club – for them it’s so much more than just the right pair of jeans and a pair of pecs. 

And Junior’s making them work.  We’re watching from above the floor.  People still getting situated.  Finding their way in.  Junior’s playing a mash-up of classics.  Bits and pieces we recognize.  And then it’s “Ain’t No Other Man” and the kids go representing.  They been waiting for this one.  And it reminds us of seeing those paper fans from Junior’s Pride Party – before we knew Xtina’s song and when we thought “ain’t no other man” was a reference to The Man Himself – Mr. Birthday Boy. 

And then we spot Joe Caro, so we follow him in, right on his tail, and then position ourselves at a little distance so that when he turns around—  Of course he’s been to Roxy and “everyone was there except for you two.”  Duh.  And he’s got such the story about security at Pacha, for which he had to give up his flashlight.  But maybe he made out, after all.  And there’s Alan and Joey, who, like us, haven’t been out since Pride, and being surrounded again, by faces and people you know, and having Junior play his music, so you can dance on a rainy Sunday morning, you think again, “Well, duh, this is why we do this – it’s SO MUCH FUN!!!” 

And for the first time, we FINALLY meet Adam, who flew down from Boston, which if that isn’t Junior devotion, what is – and we also heard about people driving up from D.C. and so no wonder the floor is packed now, but in the best way – so there’s still room to dance, to do more than sway back-and-forth.  To werk it out to what Junior’s doing.  And what he’s doing is werking all the hotties around us.  There’s something about Junior’s crowd, something almost defying demographics – they’re all over the board, a veritable United Nations of Nightcrawlers.  And such a buncha hottie boyz.  They probably weren’t even born when Junior first played SoundFactory (the original). 

And then Joe Caro’s off on an errand.  He can’t stand being without his flashlight – which he traded for a pocketful of— miracles.  Well, whatever.  What goes around comes around and good thing for Adam.  And so Joe’s off to Circuit City – no, wait, Jersey City, because that’s where there’s a WalMart, or something like that.  Did we just hear that correctly?  Joe Caro’s leaving the party to get on a PATH train to head to Jersey to buy a flashlight?  Wait a minute.  Someone needs to write a book.

And Alan and Joey introduce us to the very sweet Glenn Aco (Glen Echo?  Are we hearing things?), and also to Alan’s “spiritual” advisor, Steve, who taught Alan everything he knows, or almost, anyway, or maybe not, and also Ian, whom Joey and Alan introduced to each other that one year out at FIP and they’ve been together ever since, and also, finally, we meet Dirty Sue, aka Joey – and see how it is that all our lives are a series of concentric circles?  Someone needs to write—

And now Junior’s throwing down Ms. Cox’s “Who Do You Love?” which takes us back to Arena, and also Earth/Exit, when Ms. Cox opened that party with a posse of hottie dancers – and now there are fishies and mermen, real ones, hanging from the rafters and along the columns, and maybe that’s a gold-lamed catfish – Junior’s current stable of dancing fish.  We see them later in the dressing room – THEY’RE ALL SO LITTLE.  Tiny little darting dancing fishboyz.  Where do they get all that energy? 

And maybe we hear a record bump once, but maybe we don’t because right away, Junior bumps it again, so we don’t know for sure, and it makes us think about how he said something recently in some article, about why he prefers vinyl, because it lets him “have a second thought.”  Which is all about being in the moment – and figuring how what’s right right then.   

And there’s Jonny McGovern with his posse of sixty.  Or at least sixteen.  They know all the words.  We’re singing “Your Child” like it was yesterday all over again.  And Mother Juan Aviance too, she’s kikiing along the bar.  And even Darrell’s come in from the door and they’ve sealed off the upstairs – and outside it’s raining, or more like pouring, and it’s Sunday, and now we’re one big school of fishies swimming happily in Junior’s Aquarium.

Some birthdays are good and some are better – and this one fit us perfectly.  Just what we wanted, just what we needed: that family that we’re all a part of, which is mostly New York, and mostly gay, and held together by Junior and his love of music.  When he’s on, we’re on – and that’s how it was yesterday.  Best wishes to all of us – it’s so nice to swim together.