2004-07-20 - 3:14 p.m.

chess club was pretty low-key on monday evening and i was still restless when we dispersed at 10p. luckily i ran into j who was on her way to galapagos for the monday night burlesque and she invited me to tag along. j is my new favorite person and i was happy for the invitation.

i don't know what is going on with the not-hot burlesque in nyc. the girls were lovely, they were really trying, but there was something missing. something important. the whole get-up was so campy. each girl in turn took the stage and acted out a scenario which inevitably culminated in a tame disrobing of one sort or another. one dressed as a goth and drank poison, one pretended a severed hand was masturbating her, my favorite was a woman disrobing while hula hooping (this last one wasn't any hotter than the rest, but her hooping skills were impressive). but noone got past stockings or pasties. it was all very self-aware and tongue-in-cheek. j speculated that it was burlesque tamed for gay men. i myself wondered aloud why no men were included in the lineup.

i hate to have to pan this show. regular readers will note how much i love strippers. but the show left me limp.

in other limpness, j took a phone call in the middle of the show and told me her friend k was going to join us. when he showed up i recognised him immediately. i'd been on a dreadful craig's list date with him. it wasn't the worst, but it was pretty bad. i tried to play it off legit, but he was visibly uncomfortable. he drained his beer hastily and beat a retreat. i apologised to j profusely, and felt genuinely bad about embarrassing k. she said not to sweat it, that k's kind of a freak, and that we should blow off the burlesque and go flirt with the bartender.

it's so good to find a true friend.