I can’t tell you how much of an impact this holiday has made on me. The last time I got away for more than a day or two was in fact, two years ago…that was 24 magazines that we have put out in the meantime. Now I’m back, feeling a renewed fire in my belly, and ready to take on all those things I had to put on hold while I was away.
I suppose it’s not really what I did while on holiday so much as the time I had away from the everyday grind – to reflect on all that has been happening, make plans and set goals. Nevertheless I did have some really great experiences down there in Baja. This trip I left my dad in charge of taking photographs, while I brought the camcorder to record video. I mainly focused on capturing wildlife on film, as well as the many breathtaking panoramas that we encountered on our journey.
The drive down took us two and a half days solid, from 4am to 10pm. My dad did most of the driving, though when he just couldn’t take it any more I swapped with him. We weren’t off to a very good start on the first day, as we nearly hit a shopping cart in the middle of the road before we even made it out of the city. At the border, the officials were rude pricks who made a fuss over the canned meat we were bringing with us, and sent us on our way before they gave us our passports back – luckily we noticed immediately and had the difficult job of approaching the checkpoint without actually crossing back into Canada. The second day we had dinner at a McDonalds, where the employees were bumbling and customers were shouting – contrasted to dinner on the third day once we had crossed the border, where the workers at the taco stand were friendly and everyone was happy.
My dad is a nut about fishing. Once we were all set up in our camp site at Bahia de Los Angeles, we would go out in a small Zodiac boat with a motor, cast two fishing rods in the water behind us (one was “mine”) and trawl until we caught something. Fortunately it’s rarely a question of catching something, so much as when you decide to stop. My dad would squeal in delight when both fishing rods were hit at the same time, and then it was a scramble to reel them in without tangling the lines. We often had so many fish that we needed to give them away, and this made plenty of friends in the camps where we stayed; thank god, I might have gone crazy with only my dad to talk to.
Other days we would take the boat out to explore the many islands. But perhaps the most memorable was the day we went to locate the whale sharks that often feed in the bay. From a distance we could see the dorsal fins in the water, and up close we saw the mammoth creatures just under the surface of the water, happily feeding on plankton. It’s common for people to try getting in the water with them, so I got on my snorkeling gear and plunged in. The whale shark had to be about three times my size or more, and I swam beside it for a while, even reaching out to touch its pectoral fin in front of me. Eventually I got tired and couldn’t keep up with the creature, and so let my dad have his turn.
Another pastime was spearing crabs to eat for dinner (okay, no jokes about me catching crabs in Mexico please). They sit in the shallow water along the beach, and if you can corner them between you and the shore, you have a chance to nab them before they slip past you. I managed to get a few, though my dad’s greed for more got him stung by a sting ray that was sunbathing in the shallow water. I sure didn’t envy him during that incident – we had to take the boat to the nearest house along the beach and get hot water to ease the pain. Even with it, my dad was doubled over like I had never seen him before. Too bad and thank goodness we only learned afterward that urinating on the wound would neutralize the venom, otherwise I might have been called to perform. I thought that only worked with sea urchins. But pissing on my dad…that would be disturbing, but seeing him in so much pain I couldn’t tell him no.
As for me, the ocean had the effect I was hoping for. Though I sustained a whole slough of cuts and scrapes on my hands and feet from our day to day activities, I didn’t queen-out or even bother with band-aids. Being in Baja peeled away the layers of things that I forgot I could survive without. This realization struck me a few days before flying back to Calgary, as my dad and I were returning from a walk along Playa de los Muertos. The sun was setting; I had found a suitable walking stick amongst the driftwood, and was walking barefoot in the sand as the waves lapped at my feet. I was overtaken by the feeling that I had found the indivisible core of myself, in the absence of the day-to-day rush where I often lose myself.
If there was one thing that made this holiday imperfect, it was the fact that Steve was not there with me. The last week I felt it the most, and even got a quite depressed with how much I missed him. Finding the core of myself was one thing, but it only made me realize more that I’m not the same without him. I even had my sentimental moments about Calgary, wishing for some impossible coincidence that I might bump into someone from back home while out there.
By the time I got on the plane in San Jose del Cabo, I was very excited to get back to Steve, even though I knew we would have little time for an affectionate reunion with the next press deadline looming. But I return with a new feeling of calm, close to 4 hours of video to review with Steve, and a last-minute sunburn on my torso as an attempt to thwart the inevitable farmer’s tan. I should be done peeling soon.
Last Month
While I was off gallivanting, Steve was on his own covering both Calgary and Edmonton. We got a ton of photos this month, though we apologize for any events we missed that we shouldn’t have.
Straight 2 Diva, the annual fundraiser for HIV Peer Support Group hosted by the Calgary Eagle, was a resounding success. Organizers of the event report that the charity received $5620 from the funds raised that night!
The Mr. Calgary Leather competition also had a very good turn out, with a large helping of familiar faces from Edmonton. It is a good sign to see such support this year between the leather communities in our two cities. Though perhaps it has always been this strong and we are only getting better at recognizing faces.
The municipal elections last month had mayoral candidate Alnoor touting now re-elected Mayor Dave Bronconnier as a homophobe, after he made a tragically ambiguous statement regarding his approval of the Outgames at a press conference. In this magazine’s experience, Bronconnier has been wonderful to deal with. A homophobic mayor would not congratulate GayCalgary and Edmonton Magazine for this and past anniversaries. A homophobic mayor might have denied signing the proclamation for the Pride Parade each year, but this was not the case either. I think that Alnoor knew full well that pushing the perception of Bronconnier being homophobic into the gay community might bring more votes his own way. However, now that Bronconnier is elected, I don’t think the gay community need lose any sleep over it.
This Month
This month GayCalgary and Edmonton Magazine is celebrating it’s 4th year in operation. A number of politicians and non-profit groups have written letters of congratulation to us, which we appreciate immensely. Some appear in the Letters to the Publisher on page 45, while the others appear with their official letterhead in quarter-page spots throughout the magazine.
However, Goliaths has us beaten by far as they celebrate their 20th anniversary over the course of several days. Check out their ad on page 3 for more details. Twisted Element also has their 3rd anniversary party early this month.
The Taboo Sex Show (ad on page 63) is coming to Calgary and Edmonton this month, and we will be there to hand out magazines as we have done in Calgary since the magazine started. This event is like a trade show of sex toys, videos, magazines, clothing, strippers and much more. It is great exposure for us, as we give out hundreds of magazines to people each year.
Speaking of exposure, don’t forget about Exposure Fest in Edmonton (ad on page 48/49) at the end of this month, from November 23rd to December 1st. We are proud to be sponsoring the event for the first time, and look forward to checking it out. You should too!
The New GayCalgary.com
Last month we launched the new GayCalgary.com website, and as I warned, it is a work in progress. With me on holidays, Steve made final preparations and launched the site. Major updates will start happening again now that I’m back.
Currently we are reviewing all of the listings in our business directory database to weed out any that have gone defunct, or that need the information updated. If you had a listing on our old website and notice it is not activated yet, you can help speed up the process by E-mailing us with updated information, or simply to confirm that your listing is still active. We plan to have an area of the site running soon where businesses and organizations can submit and update their own listing information.
The framework for the new photo gallery is in place and will start to grow as we make our way back through our extensive photo archives. Steve used the sorting software I invented for the first time this month while reviewing photographs for the magazine, so the work is already half done getting this month’s photographs online. Still to be completed is the system for purchasing prints and full resolution files of the photographs in the gallery.
If you are concerned about people finding photos of you on our website, we have a number of precautions in place. This should hopefully not be a problem, as we do make a point of asking permission to publish from everyone that we photograph. Access to the larger 640x480 pixel photos is not possible unless logged in; only the 80x80 pixel thumbnails can be viewed by someone that is not signed in with a valid GayCalgary.com user account. The category search feature is inaccessible to non-members, so if you are tagged in a photo you need not worry that your name can be publicly found on our site. Barring all that, we will honour any take-down requests with proof that you are personally present in the offending photo.
Finally, the new events calendar will start to fill up as we input upcoming events. This will be a valuable resource in giving a complete view of what is happening in the community throughout the month. We hope that event organizers will be able to use the calendar as a planning tool to prevent accidental conflicts with the events of other businesses and organizations. I also have several interactive features in mind for GayCalgary.com members, such as reminders and notifications.
Gay Wizards?
Yes, even out in Mexico I heard that J.K. Rowling had outed Dumbledore. For any who don’t know, this character is probably the wisest and noblest wizard in the Harry Potter series – he is the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and an (at times) elusive mentor and father figure to the main character, Harry. For Dumbledore to be gay is probably the biggest complement the author could give to the gay community worldwide.
Admittedly I am a modest Harry Potter fan myself - actually I had just finished reading the final book in the series only days before the announcement came, and I didn’t even catch the subtle hints about Dumbledore’s relationship with Grindelwald in his younger days. I had wondered on many occasions how homosexuality would be viewed in the wizarding world that Rowling had constructed, but sadly this branch of the plotline was not expanded upon. Maybe this leaves room for the die-hards to write their own fan fiction stories…not me though. Reading the 7 books and watching the 7 movies will be enough.
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