FLASHBACK: White Partiers (2003)

 

I wanted to visit Palm Springs as much as go to the White Party.  Dan, Thom and I stayed at a gay guesthouse that seems to be no more.

I'm not sure I ever noticed bougainvillea before.  

Thom can nap anywhere and I've got two decades of photos to prove it.  This may be the first. I was too busy enjoying the eye candy and the whirlpool.  During the White Party, eye candy is as ubiquitous as the bougainvillea and can be just as thorny.

But I still couldn't wait to get to Joshua Tree National Park.  I had wanted to visit ever since U2 released The Joshua Tree, one of my favorite recordings.  I prayed a White Party DJ would play a remix of "Beautiful Day."  It didn't happen until Sunday afternoon, at the final event under the desert sky.  Pure bliss!

Donald joined us, too.  We made a posse of circuit seniors, my first.  He was less enthusiastic about the sightseeing especially as the cocktail hour approached.

We rented a convertible upon landing in LA, and slathered on sun block the next morning before making the hour-long drive to the park in the blazing sun with the CD player blasting.  I will forever associate the trip with BT's "Rare & Remixed" two-disc album, including Tori Amos's ethereal vocals on "Blue Skies," the perfectly meta soundtrack.

It really is a SPECTACULAR place.  That's why I went back with Florian in 2019.

Thom got a little chilly when the sun occasionally disappeared behind an afternoon cloud. His outfit might not have passed muster with airport security, then in its most intense phase. 

And I got annoyed when Donald insisted we head back to the hotel.  Nature gets me a lot higher than a margarita.

But the prospect of dancing ecstatically all night at the big Saturday event put everybody in a great mood.  I can't find the photo of Thom in the sheer white pants he he had custom-made for his first circuit party away from the Pines. Maybe that's a good thing!  Dan must be stargazing.  

On Sunday, we somehow roused ourselves after a night of debauchery for some more sightseeing and took the aerial tramway to the top of Chino Canyon in Mount San Jacinto State Park where the temperature dropped at least 15 degrees despite abundant sunshine.