LGBT New Year's Eve Parties near Napa

photo by aloha orangeneko

I asked around, and so far have only heard of a few LGBT specific New Year's Eve parties for the gays and gay-friendly near Napa--unfortunately, most aren't really that close to Napa and require an hour drive or so. However (and fortunately), most have great room rates so we can stay the night, party and ring in the New Year without drinking and driving:

• GLAM New Year's Eve * 9pm - 2am * $10 cover
  Santa Rosa, CA * Casbar inside the Days Inn * 3345 Santa Rosa Ave
  
  
  Brien Perry and CSquared Productions Proudly Present GLAM New Years Eve 2010! Yes you heard it right.... Brien Perry is back on board to bring you and your besties the BIGGEST HOTTEST New Years Eve Party North of the Gate! Free Champagne Toast @ Midnight with a Balloon Drop with Cash Prizes inside! Free Party favors... Room Rates start @ $79 for a Deluxe 2 bed room with Chocolate Dipped Strawberries and Champagne in the room awaiting your arrival! Special Surprises throughout the night! For VIP Bottle Service call Joy 707...332.4630... Full Red Carpet so Dress to Impress! Photographers will be on hand! Early Arrival is HIGHLY Suggested as this will be a Sell Out Event! Doors Open 9pm with a $10 cover charge for the Mature 21+
  
  
• Sapphire Lounge NYE * 8:30pm - 1am * $20 presale tickets
  Santa Rosa, CA * Hilton * 3555 Round Barn Blvd
  
  Join us for the Dawn of a New Year - a hopeful year - as we Throw the Sweetest Beats in the North Bay on this the last day of 2009...a party for Queer girlz and boyz and our Friends * Danceable Music at Comfortable Levels with DJ temadancer & DJ James Calamera * Balloon Drop with Cash&Prizes/Heated Patio/Full Bars/ Plentiful Seating/Free Parking/Large Dancefloor * If you haven't been out in a While.....This is the Party for YOU!!* and if you're a club kid...bring your Dancing shoes to Burn up the FLO! * All the best Old School Music to DANCE to, with splashes of today's groovin' Hits... ACTUAL places to Sit & lounge....Heated Patio for fresh air & Smoking (even though it's bad for you..)with drinks allowed...and a FABULOUS place to Crash afta da Party!! * Festive, Elegant Attire Encouraged!!
  ----
  $99 Room Rate at the Hilton call for your Room - Limited # of Rooms at this Rate; 707-523-7555 mention Sapphire: Get Your Sexy ON!!!
  

Heard of any other New Year's Eve celebrations that we should tell everyone about? What are you doing for New Year's Eve?

"Straightlaced" screening comes to Santa Rosa this Thurs, Nov 19

This Thursday the Rialto theater is hosting a benefit for the Face to Face Sonoma County AIDS Network, a screening of the film "Straightlaced: How Gender's Got Us All Tied Up", an award winning documentary that "unearths how popular pressures around gender and sexuality are confining American teens":

From girls confronting media messages about culture and body image to boys who are sexually active just to prove they aren’t gay, this fascinating array of students opens up with brave, intimate honesty about the toll that deeply held stereotypes and rigid gender policing have on all our lives.

WHEN:
Thursday, November 19, 2009
7:15-9:00pm

WHERE:
Rialto Cinemas Lakeside
551 Summerfield Road
Santa Rosa, CA 95405

TICKETS:
$10 for adults, $7 for seniors/students
Please call Rialto Cinemas at 707-525-4840 or visit Rialto Cinema's website.

Here's the trailer.

Queercoming masquerade youth dance in Santa Rosa, October 10

Thanks for some info from Napa Valley College's GSA, we got word that Santa Rosa's Positive Images' (youth center) annual Queercoming Dance is coming up. Many young people write in and ask, "I see all the great events you post about what's going on in the North Bay. Is there anything for youth under 21?", and now I have a good reply.

Yes!:

Queercoming
October 10, 2009
7:30p - 11:30p
1400 W College Avenue
Santa Rosa, CA

Tickets are $12 (or $10 presale).
Call 707-568-5830

Queercoming is a substance-free event for youth

Visit Positive Images for more information about their other events and programs.

Hella Gay Prom May 23, Santa Rosa

Positive Images is at it again, hosting their Hella Gay Prom 3 on May 23.

The only details I can find so far is from their site:

MAY 23, 2009 @ MONROE HALL 7:30-11:30PM $20
SUBSTANCE-FREE EVENT

Also from their site: Positive Images provides support and advocacy to Sonoma County’s gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, and intersexed youth and young adults, and educates the greater community. We envision a Sonoma County where all youth are valued, compassionate community members, creating a just society.

You can find more information and all about Positive Images other projects at their website.

"Men of Playgirl" Las Vegas show at Casbar Santa Rosa

Anyone planning on going to GLAM Thursday's hosting of "The Men of Playgirl" in Santa Rosa next Thursday?

Brian Perry, who produces the GLAM Thursday parties at Santa Rosa's Casbar, has announced the appearance of "The Men of Play Girl " live Las Vegas show at the Santa Rosa Avenue venue Thursday, February 19.

The hour and half show will include six performers.

Presale tickets are $15 and $20 at the door. Tickets can be purchased at The Days Inn, 3345 Santa Rosa Ave, or at ANY GLAM Thursday Event or online HERE. For up to the minute details check out at Myspace.com/glamthursdays

This is the only event The Men of Playgirl will do for a Gay crowd, so it would be wise to get your ticket in advance.

BSquared Productions is doing this for the community. Be sure you bring your dollar bills for tipping the performers and support this HUGE event to come through for the North Bay.

Perry previously has produced LGBT events in Petaluma and Santa Rosa locations and GLAM Thursdays is his latest effort to bring a Gay entertainment venue to Santa Rosa. Look for GLAM Saturday dates coming in February.

"Las Vegas Men of Playgirl" On You Tube

Thanks to Sonoma Boys Night Out for the text.

Glam Thursdays (Santa Rosa) Casbar now 18+

GLAM Thursdays used to be held at Infusions lounge in Petaluma, but have since moved to Casbar (the bar for the new Days Inn on Santa Rosa Avenue in Santa Rosa). Maybe not 100% glamorous, but it is billed as the only weekly queer party in Sonoma County (I'll have to look into that to see what happened with Club Seven's Sweet. In the meantime:

BSquared Productions Proudly Presents GLAM Thursdays @ Casbar! We are now 18 and over starting this Thursday January 15th 2009! So grab your GLAM Squad and come on down to the Casbar, and party with us! DJLue and MissDJMoniKa will be throwing it down all night long! Cheap Drink specials, stipper pole, Amazing light shows, and a warm friendly staff are awaiting you! 21+ $5 Cover, 21 under $10 Cover WITH VALID ID ONLY!!

Big gay parties for fabulous New Year's Eve 2008

[Update: Townhouse sent us some more details on what's happening at their cocktail lounge in Vallejo.]

Here are the celebrations I'm hearing about (please use the comments or the tipline if you know of others):

• Black Cat Club (@ 1746 Yajome St, Napa)
  "Ring in the New Year with hot boys". Come out and party at the north bays hottest private club for men, this wends the Black Cat in Napa is having its New Years eve party. The cover for the night is $15 but you will get $10 back in drink tickets, so if you dont want to deal with the high cost of cover charges at clubs, or the crowds in them, or even the drama, then the black cat club is for YOU!
  
  
• Saphire Lounge (@ Double Tree, Rohnert Park)
  Sapphire New Year's Eve Bashbr /for LGBTQ peeps and our Evolved friends...br /at the Beautiful DoubleTree Hotel
  
  
• Townhouse Lounge (401 Georgia Street, Vallejo)
  Food/Drink specials! Music by Clusterfunk Collective!
  
  
• Faces/Bojangles/Headhunters (Sacramento)
  Come out & join Faces, Bojangles, & Headhunters as we celebrate the coming of a new year!
  Faces 21+ & is having a buffet, cash balloon drop, & $5 cover b4 8pm. Bojangles is hosting a 18+ New Years Party with a $10 cover for under 21 & a cash balloon drop. Headhunters will be serving gourmet food & Specialty Cocktails. Advance Tickets Available At Club or Online @ Faces.net

So proud of Sonoma Pride

How great that our neighboring county has it together enough to not only have plans for a North Bay Pride celebration, but there's a website too! And whoever keeps trying to stereotype gays as shallow (don't we all have our moments?) has it all wrong, especially if you go by Pride themes...

Sonoma County Pride: Loving Self, Loving Others kicks off a week long celebration on June 8th with an Interfaith Service, and ends with a festival at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts on June 15th. The week in between also includes other events throughout the county, including the Russian River area and a LGBTQ and Ally Prom (for those that never got one). Click here for more info from the Sonoma County Pride site.

Anyone heading over to Santa Rosa for any Pride events? Anyone hear anything about Pride in Napa for this year?

Get out your calendars, ladies! Here's more local-ish upcoming Pride events:

• Santa Cruz Pride: June 1st (Site)
  
• San Jose Pride: June 14th/15th (Laugh, Love and Be Proud)
• Sacramento Pride: June 21st (Site)
  
• San Francisco Pride: June 28th/29th (United by Pride, Bound for Equality)
  

Best wishes to LGBTQ dance & Attend the prom you never had

It's just an hour before the dance for LGBTQ youth and their allies at Concord's Olympic High starts. We wish the youth and their supporters a good and safe time.

Apparently they will be having fun: the dance is featuring Wild 94.9 DJs St. John (you're so fierce!) and Christie James.

For more info, check out the dance's myspace page.

If you're still bummed about not having a gay prom yourself, here are a couple north-bay oppportunities:

• A Night of Elegance: a benefit "prom" (for adults, 21+) and kick-off for Sonoma County Pride (Sat, May 31)
  
• Hella Gay Prom II: a north bay prom for middle school - college aged youth (Fri, May 23)

Over the Hills and Through the Woods: gay Sonoma County nightlife

Been getting some tips about where the gay nights are at bars around the North Bay, and so I thought I'd post them for you to check out instead of waiting for our full reviews. As far as I know, there aren't any specific "gay nights" at Napa Bars except for at Napa Billiards (which we covered last weekend). Sad, but true, we have to travel over the hills to Sonoma County to find any gay-bars with enough "guts" to hoist up the rainbow flag and welcome us. (Vallejo also has some gaity going on. And here.)

Keep in mind, though, readers, that Napa already has a DUI rate twice that of the State's average, so please designate a driver. Safety aside, you don't want to get published in the Napa Register, do you?

Here's what I've heard through the tipline, in order from closest to farthest:

Petaluma (26 miles from Napa, 44 mins):

• Thursdays: GLAM Thursdays (@ Infusions Nightclub)
  [update: Glam's gone once a month]
  

Cotati (33 mfn, 48 mins):

• Fridays: Yacht Club & Saloon

Santa Rosa (41 mfn, 56 mins):

• Mondays: Sweet (@ Seven Ultralounge)

Have any of you been to these bars/nights? We'd love your take. Look forward to full reviews from us as well...

[Note: we know the Sonoma County, City of Guerneville is a sort of Castro-in-the-North-Bay kind of town, but it's kind of far for "a night on the town" (59 miles and a 1.5 our drive). We'd be glad to cover day trips to Guerneville for Summer...any suggestions on what's gay that's also not-to-miss?]

Tomorrow Night: Dining Out (of town?) for Life

With all the hoopla about Earth Day yesterday and this last weekend, I didn't want you all to forget that tomorrow night is Dining Out for Life around (most of) the Bay Area.

Use the Dining Out for Life website to find a participating restaurant which will then donate 25% - 50% of your check to a local HIV/AIDS organization.

Unfortunately, you (and I) will have to go (and spend our MONEY) out of town to participate, because (as far as I can tell) no local restaurants (except Sonoma, but is that really local?) are participating. Don't worry, we DEFINITELY will be working on getting local restaurants on board for next year. [You hear that, local restaurants?]

In fact, Sonoma County doesn't hold their night until December 4th, so maybe the Napa Valley can get its act together by then. I'm down to help promote.