01266: A Sunday Night of Partying

Wow, yesterday was a great day for partying indeed. As much as this is sort of to be expected over the holidays, it's still a different thing entirely to actually experience it all. And between the company Christmas party and another wild night at O Bar, I'm pretty much beat.

First, yesterday marked the annual Christmas party over at the World Trade Center tent, which was the same venue as last year's party. The big difference was the thought that went into how the area was organized given this time we went with a large central stage in the middle of the tent instead of one built all the way at the end. It may not seem like much of a change but given how many people were at the party and how long the venue was, this made sure that the festivities on-stage were clearly accessible by everyone, which was a very good thing indeed.

The theme for this year's party was Glee (like the show), and so we had a bunch of folks in different Glee-inspired outfits involving bow ties (I counted at least 19), fedoras, over-sized glasses, poodle skirts and all that good stuff. Plus part of the night's program were the grand finals of the "VXI Idol" competition between the various sites and even the announcement of the company's "Biggest Loser". Yeah, we like TV a lot, now don't we? What was cool about the VXI Idol piece was how great the five finalist were (totally amazing song numbers) and we had some celebrity guests judging the event! I think it all went along rather well and clearly everyone had fun.

I didn't win anything in the raffle, but then I've sort of gotten used to this. But I have to admit that I was really hoping to go home with something like the home theater + Nintendo Wii package or even the big trip to Hong Kong. But after more than 8 years of going to these Christmas parties, I think it's pretty clear that my chances of winning remain next to none. Ah well.

After that, Tobie and I met up with Nico and CK in order to head on over to O Bar Ortigas to join in the 6th anniversary celebration for the weekend. While it's technically the anniversary of the main branch in Malate, this is still a celebration of the bar franchise as a whole and so the Ortigas branch was more than entitled to join in the celebrations.

A lot of friends were there that night - I did my best to list most if not all of them when I posted the photos from the night over on Facebook. And beyond friends, the bar was amazingly packed with a heck of a lot of people. Based on what a lot of folks were wearing, clearly a bunch of people decided to do what I did and used O Bar as an after party venue after coming from their own company Christmas parties. I bet it was a pretty successful night for the bar.

As a bit of a rarity for the night, the bar had the High Voltage poi spinners dancing as well, which is not something that we typically have on a Sunday. They make for really fun photography subjects given the play of the lights and the shapes they form as they move, but darn it's tricky. Add in the fact that there seem to be so many other people at the bar who are getting in the way of your shots with their own cameras and the like.

My main "nemesis" for the night was a guy who wasn't just taller than me, but was wielding a massive DSLR with which he insisted on using the flash all the time. Seriously, you're going to miss the value of trying to capture the poi lights themselves if you keep using your flash! So he messed up a number of my shots unknowingly and given it was a bar, I knew it wasn't worth the hassle of trying to instruct him on the finer details of using his camera. Seriously, there are far too many people who own DSLRs who use them like people use point and shoot cameras on full auto.

The night also featured a different mix of O Divas for the show including some I haven't seen in a while since they tend to perform on different nights. It was a pretty stellar performance when everything was put together and it certainly added to the fun of the night.

While I'm sure there are those who find the O Divas numbers mere annoyances that get in the way of their dancing or their cruising, but quite frankly they remain to be one of the biggest reasons I've come to love going to O Bar. It's a brand of entertainment that's uniquely queer in all sense of the word and it keeps me feeling like I'm really celebrating one of the more colorful aspects of LGBT culture. and while I don't foresee myself ever dressing up in drag myself, I continue to respect the effort these ladies put into their performances and the kind of magic they achieve on the stage.

And Tobie and I were certainly enjoying things enough to help sponsor a third set for the O Divas, just so that we could enjoy the campy hilarity even more. And man, the ladies REALLY delivered in that regard and the night was super, super fun.

We ended the night with a last-minute massage at a nearby 24-hour spa. While our massages clearly weren't the best we've had at the place, it still helped relieve some of the weariness that had built up from a night of partying and dancing. Although I do foresee us trying to get a better massage before the week is over and the holidays are truly upon us. Even now my legs still feel a bit sore and I have to factor in going to work in a few hours. Oh joy.

Comments

  1. Hi Rocky! wow, this was a super-fun line-up! I'm glad you guys had a great time. Would you know if O Bar will be open or have performances this Christmas week? (And will you guys be going?)

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  2. @Jonette:
    Oh it was totally awesome indeed! O Bar is celebrating it's sixth anniversary this month so for this Christmas weekend they have some special promos and such. I think Tobie and I should be there on the night of the 23rd. Not yet sure about Sunday night - depends on how our respective family plans go.

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