Tag Archives: #TBRU

Bear bar worker Brian Mooney needs your help to fight colon cancer

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BrianMooney

Brian Mooney

One of the best things about my job is all the people I meet. But when you do it long enough, one of the worst things is seeing tragedy befall them.

That’s how I feel about Brian Mooney, whom I met about three years ago when he was our poster-boy for the 2010 Texas Bear Round-Up. I interviewed and did a photoshoot with Brian, and was immediately drawn to his personality and charisma.

Brian doesn’t look so good right now. He’s “40 and would like to see 41,” which is in danger due to his diagnosis of stage 4 colon cancer, the result of something called Lynch syndrome. The mischievous, friendly fellow needs $20,000 because he doesn’t have health insurance. It really is needed to save his life. (He’s raised about $6,000 so far.)

You may already know Brian from his job at Dallas Eagle, where he often would smile at you behind a thick beard while sporting a sexy singlet. We all wanna see this Navy veteran back there again, doing his thing. And with BearDance coming up this weekend, we’re thinking about him especially.

Click here to make a donation until May 31. Or you can come out the the Dallas Eagle on Sunday from 4 to 8 p.m. and support the barbecue and fundraiser sponsored by Brian’s friends to help him out. Do what you can.

—  Arnold Wayne Jones

Scenes from Texas Bear Round-Up 18

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Photos by Chuck Marcelo (Dallas Voice/MarceloMedia)

—  Chuck Marcelo

This week’s takeaways: Life+Style

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IMG_6871It would be difficult to conceive more events of interest to the gay community going on during a single week. Best of all, every taste is served.

Speaking of taste, Savor Dallas returns this weekend with the Friday wine stroll already sold out, but there are still tickets available for the International Grand Tasting at the Irving Convention Center Saturday night and the first-ever Savor at the Arboretum Sunday evening.

We know bears love to eat, but probably most of the gay bears in town this weekend will be on the prowl for fresh meat at the Texas Bear Round Up 18: Casino Bear Royale. The BearDance is on Friday with DJ John LePage, but there are plenty of other events spread out over three days.

You can still go to Bruce Wood Dance Project’s My Brother’s Keeper dance recital on Friday night and have time to make it to BearDance (it’s what I will be doing). A revised expansion of a piece Wood debuted last year, it runs Friday at 8 p.m. then again on Saturday.

On Sunday, the next exhibit of Cindy Sherman photographs opens at the Dallas Museum of Art. If you’ve never seen a Sherman photo — she’s the model in virtually all of them (pictured), as well as the photographer, conceiver, makeup artist, set decorator and location scout — you don’t want to miss this phenomenal show, which bends gender and identity in disturbing and hilarious ways.

Up in Addison, the Out of the Loop Fringe Festival continues at WaterTower Theatre. Among the offerings: Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays — a collection of nine 10-minute plays from eight different playwrights — is a hit-or-miss affair, but entirely worth Kristin Spires’ frantic performance as a beset GOP woman in Paul Rudnick’s The Gay Agenda and Todd Camp’s touching monologue about the loss of his partner of 36 years, London Mosquitoes by Moises Kaufman. You can catch that one on Sunday at 5 p.m. Before that, be sure to check out The Morning After Show (Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 5 p.m.), Ayala Hamilton’s riotous show.

And with the weather nice, it’s no better time to go out and enjoy Dallas Blooms at the Arboretum.

—  Arnold Wayne Jones

In time for TBRU, a fun, true story

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Mr-TBRU-entrants-and-winners-at-RU-copyWith Texas Bear Round Up starting today, I was thinking about this online exchange from a few weeks ago.

Iris McCallister, the wife of FT33 chef Matt McCallister, is a frequent LIKEr of my Facebook posts, and vice versa. A few weeks ago, Iris posted something like this on her Facebook page: “Just came from a beer tasting and never have I seen so many bearded men in flannel!”

Being the jokester I am, I said, “You should attend TBRU!”

Ha. Good one, I thought.

But Iris, being a straight married lady, didn’t get it.

“What’s TBRU?” she asked back. “Texas Bear Round Up,” I replied, figuring she’d finally get the joke.

But oh, no.

Next thing I know, Iris is inviting her girlfriends to attend. “Arnold Wayne Jones suggested we might want to check out the Texas BEER Round Up! Let’s go, should be fun!” she enthusiastically posted. Apparently, she read my post only fleetingly. Fortunately, one of her girlfriends was savvier.

“Ummm, Iris, I think you might want to take a look at this,” she posted, linking to the TBRU home page.

I could practically hear Iris shriek from miles away.

Personally, I think it would hilarious if Iris McCallister and her girlfriends showed up at the Crowne Plaza, all ready to taste artisinal beers and being met by fuzzy meatmen in Speedos. But it’s probably best she didn’t.

You can, though. See ya there. And if you see Iris, give her a big bear hug.

—  Arnold Wayne Jones

This week’s takeaways: Life+Style

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It’s a fun week for theater, with WaterTower Theatre’s Out of the Loop Fringe Festival in full swing, including such gayish shows as Standing on Ceremony: The Marriage Plays from Q Live!, David Parr’s Pluto Is Listening, The Morning After Show from writer/star Ayana Hampton and director Clayton Farris, as well as live performances from favorites Amy Stevenson, Walter Lee and Diana Sheehan. There’s something going on constantly, so explore!

If you prefer to head south rather than north, well there’s gay-enough stuff at the 11th Annual New Play Competition at the Bishop Arts Theatre, from TeCo Theatrical Productions. Among the six finalists are two with gay themes (including Theophany) and one a “hetero romp” from local playwright Isabella Russell-Ides that has some delicious eye candy. It runs through Sunday.

Also on Sunday night is the queen of dishy humor, Joan Rivers. She’ll be performing at the Winspear Opera House (read our interview with Joan here). The Winspear is actually a hot-bed this week, with sexy South American dancing from Grupo Corpo Friday and the Dallas Opera gala Saturday, featuring a performance by acclaimed mezzo Susan Graves.

For midweek diversions without any acting, check out the DFW Auto Show, opening Wednesday, or laugh you ass off with hilarious gay comic Thai Rivera at the Addison Improv (also Wednesday). Then on Thursday, you can choose between the opening night festivities at the Texas Bear Round Up or check out the sneak preview of Trinity Groves as part of this year’s Savor Dallas food festival.

—  Arnold Wayne Jones

TBRU sells out host hotel in 2 hours

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Registration for Texas Bear Round Up is off to a fast start. TBRU 18 takes place March 14-17.

As of 11 p.m. Thursday, only four rooms were left for Thursday through Saturday at the The Crowne Plaza, the host hotel, just two hours after registration began. The hotel is now sold out. Last year, TBRU took 36 hours to sell as many rooms. Organizers assure attendees there are plenty of rooms at the overflow hotels. The host hotel requires a minimum three-night stay.

Early registration ends Dec. 2 when the price goes from $98 to $120.

The overflow hotel is The Park in near Love Field on Mockingbird Lane, The Comfort in on Stemmons Freeway and the Hawthorne Suites on Brookriver Drive, a block from the Crowne Plaza. Shuttles are provided all weekend from the overflow hotels to the host hotel.

Among the Saturday excursions are a trip to South Fork Ranch and a newly added Choctaw Casino trip.

Last year the weekend raised $30,000 for area nonprofits including Youth First Texas, AIDS Interfaith Network and the Greg Dollgener Memorial AIDS Fund.

—  David Taffet

TBRU unveils new logo

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The next Texas Bear Round Up isn’t for another six months, but you can already get a peek at its new logo, which appeared this morning on the group’s Facebook page. TBRU 18: Casino Bear Royale combines a little 007 theme with Las Vegas … and. of course, a touch of a Colt Video.

We’ve always been a fan of the cartoon artwork for the Dallas Bears’ big event, which has grown from 100 attendees to last last year’s 1,704. (Last year’s art, below, was based around the theme Bears Gone Wild.)  Next year’s event will take place March 14-17.

—  Arnold Wayne Jones

WATCH: Bearweek 2012

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Videographer Hector Marcus Juarez continues to focus his camera eye on the fur with his latest vid. Juarez documented the last Texas Bear Round Up into three-plus minute video here. Now, as Bearweek in Provincetown has wrapped up, he has recently posted this video recounting the hirsute event.

And through all the quick edits, you can see he gave local Beardance founder Mark Trimble a couple of flashes of screen time. Otherwise, I’m told by Trimble’s partner and also BD founder Ami Sadeh (who tipped me to the video) that mostly Houstonians made up a big Texas contingent in the just-under-four-minute clip. Makes sense since Juarez is based out of Houston.

I did have a slight chuckle with the song choice. I never would have thought of P-town as “a hopeless place,” but the video ends on the sweetest note.

Watch Bearweek 2012 after the jump.

Continue reading “WATCH: Bearweek 2012” »

—  Rich Lopez

Queer Music News: George Michael video stills, Mould’s new album, Lauper’s LGBT outreach

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In marking the 30th anniversary of Wham’s first release “Wham Rap,” George Michael announced a new single to be released this Friday. That’s last week’s news, actually. But starting yesterday, he’s been posting stills from his upcoming video for “White Light.” The above image was released today on his website (and far better than the darker one from yesterday). From GeorgeMichael.com.

Continue reading “Queer Music News: George Michael video stills, Mould’s new album, Lauper’s LGBT outreach” »

—  Rich Lopez

BearDance made Dallas Bears president Wayne Davis tear up with their $30k donation on Sunday

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Photos via Facebook.

The guys of BearDance outdid themselves this year. Last year, the nonprofit organization, which hosts its Big D party during Texas Bear Round Up, raised more than $21,000 for Dallas Bears’ beneficiaries. Yesterday, they presented the community group a check for an astounding $30,000 from this year’s March event. The following was posted on the BD’s Facebook page.

Thanks to a great collaboration between the Dallas Bears who put on Texas Bear Round Up and BearDance and all of our volunteers, we were able to make a $30,000 donation to the Dallas Bears which will be passed through 100% to their designated beneficiaries this year including Youth First Texas, the Greg Dollgener Memorial Fund, and AIDS Interfaith Network. And thanks to all the amazing guys who came out to the biggest BearDance we’ve ever had this past March!

Mark Trimble, one of the BD founders (pictured above at far right), said the guys are thrilled at the these level of donations, but had no idea their bear party endeavor would grow to this.

Continue reading “BearDance made Dallas Bears president Wayne Davis tear up with their $30k donation on Sunday” »

—  Rich Lopez