Oak Lawn

Dallas / Oak Lawn / TV

Sticking with Real Housewives of Dallas

June 7, 2016

We are still faithfully watching The Real Housewives of Dallas.

Somehow.

Real Housewives aired immediately following RuPaul’s Drag Race, which made the show really easy to add to our Monday night watch parties.

Watching Real Housewives of Dallas.

A bar down the street (called Brick) even hosted dual Drag Race / Housewives watch parties for a while. We attended one of the Brick watch parties, but the vibe was strange so we never went back. It felt like the Housewives event was encroaching on the bar karaoke plans of the grizzled regulars (and who are we to stand in the way?)

The Brick watch parties were canceled around the same time that the Housewives cast announced a watch party at a competing nightclub called JR’s. Perhaps this is a coincidence, and the Brick watch party was just canceled due to poor attendance. Maybe karaoke won out?

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Oak Lawn

The Field & The Bar

May 26, 2016

Some mornings I venture to a Starbucks on the outskirts of Oak Lawn near the Medical District.

This is a unique Starbucks because you can’t go inside – it only has a walkup window and an extremely busy drive-thru.

The walkup Starbucks at the edge of Oak Lawn.

Ingrid the Labradoodle at the walkup Starbucks. She’s being patient.

My regular barista says that the walkup Starbucks has a reputation for making terrible drinks. I thought this was unnecessary shade until the walkup Starbucks botched my usual order of coffee with cream.

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Cocktails / Just Sayin / Oak Lawn

Why Neighborhood Bars are Not on the Decline

May 19, 2016

After living in Texas for almost a year, I still occasionally experience culture shock.

For example, when I visited Whole Foods in Highland Park for the first time, I was surprised to see a woman inspecting the kale selection while nursing a glass of wine.

Apparently all of the Whole Foods stores in Dallas have bars and happy hour at the grocery store is “a thing.” Perhaps alcohol makes the prices easier to swallow?

Many business are getting into booze – you can drink at most fast-casual restaurants like Chipotle and Taco Cabana, and even Starbucks offers wine now.

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LGBT / Oak Lawn / TV

Purse First

May 17, 2016

The Gay Super Bowl was last night

The bars in the gayborhood were packed on Monday night for the season finale of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

We watched the finale at Alexandre’s while sitting between an underweight boy who kept screaming “YASSS COME THROUGH!” and an overweight man who kept asking whether every drink he ordered “had carbs.” (The bartender lied to him, of course.)

After much anxiety, tweeting, and YAS!, we learned that Bob the Drag Queen won the title of America’s Next Drag Super Star.

Thank god!

The top 3 contestants were very similar to last year’s finalists – two younger Instagram-famous queens and a slightly older queen who prioritized comedy over glamour.

Finalists Bob the Drag Queen, Kim Chi, and Naomi Smalls.

Last year, one of the pretty girls won.

This year, RuPaul made the right choice.

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Drag Shows / LGBT / Oak Lawn

Miss Dallas FFI Pageant at the Rose Room

May 13, 2016

Another Day, Another Pageant

We started the week with a drag pageant, and we ended the week with one too!

Yesterday, the Rose Room hosted the Miss Dallas FFI drag pageant and it was… colorful.

A contestant for Miss Dallas FFI at Large.

A very yellow look for the Dallas FFI “creative” drag competition.

A video posted by Dennis (@lowertownjnsn) on May 12, 2016 at 11:34pm PDT

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Cocktails / Oak Lawn

The Odyssey: Finding a Pabst Blue Ribbon Tallboy in Dallas

May 11, 2016

Michael and I went on an epic PBR journey in the gayborhood.

Pabst Blue Ribbon is a beer that I fell in love with back in Minnesota.

PBR is the beer of the hipster crowd – a cheap light beer that actively markets to young musicians and artists. You could not go to a dive bar or lesbian dance night in Minneapolis without seeing a sea of PBR cans.

The special thing about PBR is that it comes in 16 ounce “tallboy” cans despite being the same price (if not cheaper) than Budweiser. That’s why PBR is a favorite among broke grad school students.

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Drag Shows / LGBT / Oak Lawn

2016 Round-Up Turnabout Pageant

May 9, 2016

There was a pageant of sorts at the Round-Up Saloon last night.

I have attended many gay bar employee drag shows, but this was by far the most entertaining. The event was hosted by Anesta Roches and one of our favorite bartender as “Peaches.”

There were inventive costumes, high-glamour, a bearded queen, and a lot of surprisingly good live singing by the employees who normally host the Round-Up’s karaoke nights.

All of the contestants at the 2016 Round-up Saloon employee drag pageant.

We go to a lot of drag pageants, but few are this good.

As a charity pageant, the expectations were very low – most employee pageants are half-assed comedy events featuring a lot of burly guys in Goodwill dresses. That is why we were pleasantly surprised by the effort that everyone put into their looks and acts.

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Life / Oak Lawn

Lingering Concerns

April 26, 2016

I ran into one of my neighbors in the hallway today:

Jill: “I am almost done moving to my new apartment!”

Me: “Nice. I hate moving. Are you doing Rug Doctor for the carpets?”

Jill: “Rug Doctor?”

Me: “The carpet steamer.”

Jill: “God no!”

Me: “…but aren’t you cleaning your carpets?”

Jill: “No.”

Me: “…but what if the building charges you?”

Jill: “Then fuck’em. I don’t care. I’ll fight that battle if I get to it.”

I wish I had this attitude to moving – the recent move would have been vastly less stressful.

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Life / music / Oak Lawn / TV

Weekends with Yonce

April 18, 2016

This weekend was delightfully quiet.

We spent our time chowing down on Gardein and watching TV.

This is what 29 looks like.

One of the best things about the new apartment is that we have HBO Go, which means that I finally got an opportunity to watch the Beyonce On The Run Tour special.

The timing for my Beyonce binge was perfect because she’s apparently going to release a new video album/TV special/whatever-the-hell soon:

I am so excited.

This must be how diehard Apple fans feel when a new product is about to be launched.

However, the brooding preview video looks like the silly clips that preceded Rihanna’s ANTI album. 

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Home Decor / Oak Lawn

New Digs

April 13, 2016

I am finally done moving!

Moving is always more time consuming and painful than I expect. Between scrubbing grout and an embarrassing number of Home Depot trips, I am exhausted.

And yet I survived, somehow.

Scrubbing the grout at my old apartment while moving out.

I was highly paranoid about getting charged move-out costs since my last building nailed me with a $1,000 bill. This time everything would be scrubbed, bleached, steamed, polished, and photographed.

So I spent the entire weekend cleaning, including shampooing the bedroom carpet. (I rented a Rug Doctor from the Kroger across the street. Super cheap, and easy to do. I highly recommend it.)

On Monday, I marched downstairs to schedule my move-out walk-through with the building manager. He was in the middle of dealing with the police and had to reschedule for that afternoon. Apparently two apartments were broken into over the weekend.

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Oak Lawn

Moving Day 1

April 7, 2016

The barista at the nearby Starbucks is super chatty.

She’s this nice slightly older woman, and she is usually in the middle of an oddball conversation when I walk into the store.

We had a bit of an awkward conversation the other day –

Barista: “So is that your partner outside?”
Me: “Yep!”
Barista: “Do you live together?”
Me: “Not yet, but he’s moving in next week.”
Barista: “You guys sure move fast. Is it because you can get gay married now?”
Me: “I think it has more to do with leases being up.”

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memories / Oak Lawn

The Move

April 6, 2016

I am transferring to a bigger apartment tomorrow and the packing process is well underway.

The worst part about moving is that you are confronted with all of your choices – the dirt, the dog hair, the bad purchasing decisions.

Moving this time around is still a hassle, but not so terrible as moving from Minnesota to Texas. This is mostly because I already ditched most of my belongings, so there isn’t a ton of extra crap to throw out.

Plus, this time I’m moving 90 feet instead of 900 miles.

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LGBT / Life / Oak Lawn

5 Rules of Gay Brunch

April 2, 2016

Some people go to church – others get mimosas.

Bottomless mimosa brunch is a time-honored gay tradition.

You pull yourself out of bed, slap on some sunglasses, and sashay to the local bar-restaurant for day drinking.

Over the years, I’ve learned that there are 5 cardinal rules for surviving a mimosa brunch.

Brunch at British Beverage Company in Dallas, Texas. They have a mimosa bar that allows you to choose your own garnishes and juices.

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Dallas / LGBT / Oak Lawn

Best Spring Ever: Dallas Edition

April 1, 2016

What a Spring

We had a little bit of everything this spring – Real Housewives, dog parades, cocktail competitions, Irish parades, celebrity drag queens, puppy drama, bingo, wine, hockey, cocktails, manure stench, more cocktails, a male pageant, and much, much more.

Here are some of my favorite shots of the spring:

The dogs by Trinity River Bridge

A man blasting music from a segway on the Katy Trail

Gunter the chihuahua chowing down in front of Starbucks (we always get them whip creme)

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Oak Lawn

The Leasing Game

March 29, 2016

Transferring apartments is proving to be more difficult than I expected.

After several tries, we finally got the correct lease from my apartment building.

The next step is transferring utilities, such as electricity. (Texas forces you to pick your own power company, which I still think is strange.)

I now have to find a new energy provider, because I just got fired by my current energy company.

This was the phone call earlier today:

Me: “Hi. I’m moving to a new unit in the same building and would like to transfer my energy plan.”

Energy company: “Is this it a new part of the building?”

Me: “…no…”

Energy company: “We can’t find it in the system, so we are canceling your plan since we can’t provide service to your new unit.”

Me: “So you’re telling me that you can provide service to my current unit, but not to an apartment 50 feet away in the same building?”

Energy company: “Yep. That’s right. Nice knowing you. Toodles!“

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dogs / Oak Lawn

A Very Dallas Easter

March 28, 2016

My mom came to town this weekend for a business meeting, so we showed her how Dallas does Easter.

We had Easter brunch at Quesa MX, which is a Mexican restaurant on Cedar Springs.

I recently became re-interested in Quesa after they hosted a happy hour at iLume – the new manager said that he overhauled the menu and promised that the food was better.

We also passed Quesa on Saturday afternoon and realized that they still did bottomless mimosa brunch.

The way we could tell is because there was a guy on the patio laying in his own vomit.

His friend looked so upset…

Quesa was considerably calmer on Sunday, and the food was surprisingly good. I think Quesa will be a nice alternative to Mattito’s and Cedar Springs Tap House, which both get incredibly packed.

After brunch, we grabbed the dogs and went to the Easter dog parade near Turtle Creek.

It was quite the production.

The crowd at Easter in Lee Park / Dallas Pooch Parade.

Guys with matching outfits and bunny ears at Easter in Lee Park

A guy with a matching dog at the 2016 Easter Pooch Parade in Dallas.

A pink poodle at the Dallas Easter Pooch Parade.

Spectators taking a selfie during the Easter Parade – is that Dustin in the background?!

Picnics at Lee Park near Arlington Hall

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Oak Lawn

Gay Bingo!

March 23, 2016

I made it to my second gay bingo event at S4 this weekend.

Gay bingo at Station 4 is a fabulous event. It is basically a Texas-sized version of Minneapolis bar bingo.

Gay bingo events in Minneapolis and Dallas both support local HIV/AIDS resource centers, but the experience is dramatically different. In Minneapolis, bingo is informal, occasionally violent, and very frequent – you can play up to 4 times per week.

However in Dallas, bingo is a once-per-month extravaganza.

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Oak Lawn

The Great Stink of Oak Lawn

March 14, 2016

Something is rotten in Oak Lawn.

One of the things that I love about my apartment building is being right across the street from a Kroger.

Sure, I also love being right next to all of the gay bars, but Kroger is there for me when I need rotisserie chicken and Franzia on a Saturday morning. And unlike Whole Paycheck Whole Foods, I won’t go broke shopping at Kroger.

But something is amiss at my beloved grocery store and the nearby homeless shelter public library: a very foul smell.

The smell is an assault to the senses – it mugs us when we trot home from the bars. The stink also bops us on the head during the morning dog walks, and side-slaps us when we guy groceries.

It is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad stench, but what is it?

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LGBT / Oak Lawn

Willam at Station 4

March 13, 2016

Thousands of guys from across the country descended upon Oak Lawn this weekend for Texas Bear Roundup.

On Friday, Station 4 hosted a massive Mardi Gras themed party, and we got to see Willam from Rupaul’s Drag Race!

We were hesitant to drop $35/each on cover, but it was totally worth it – Willam sang live and performed on a hover board in heels.

Now that’s talent.

WIllam of RuPaul’s drag race performing live while on a hover board.

Willam performing on a hover board while singing live at Station 4.

Willam performing on a hover board.

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Cocktails / Oak Lawn

Smirnoff Coconut Cocktails

March 8, 2016

It is pool season in Dallas again, and that means it is time for tropical cocktails.

This Sunday we had a large grill-out at the iLume Park pool (before the National Showman Pageant) and we got tropical.

Although the go-to tropical drinks are typically rum-based, I decided that it was time to give Smirnoff Coconut a try.

Getting ready to make Smirnoff Coconut Cocktails.

How to Make a Smirnoff Coconut Cocktail

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