Wire Magazine Issue #51, 2011: 2011 Year in Pictures by Wire Media Group

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ISSUE #51 | 12/22/11

E X C E P T I O N A L . B E C A U S E W E ’ R E M A D E T H I S W A Y. h a n d -h a rv ested, h a n dcr a f ted a n d e s t a t e b o t t l e d si n c e 1 8 7 0 .

H e r r a d u r a® T e q u i l a. N e v e r c o m p r o m i se.

ALL WIRED UP

BY THOMAS BARKER

A WONDERFUL YEAR IN PICTURES Well it’s official. We are in the midst of holiday season! Hanukah has begun, Christmas is this Sunday, and pretty soon, we will all be toasting to the New Year! One of my favorite things about the holidays is, that for a brief moment, we get the chance to take a break from the daily grind and hectic work schedule to really stop and appreciate the people, events, and opportunities that are given to us on a regular basis. I am sure that I am not the only one who feels that this has been a pretty hectic year. On a personal level 2011 has been such a tremendous year in so many aspects. From the really great things that have happened to the not so great, I have had the blessing of having some of the most incredible friends, clients, advertisers, co-workers, and colleagues to really make everything so great. Every year around this time, I can’t help but reflect on all the things that have really made the year so dynamic, and, in doing so, feel humbled by the wonderful events that have taken place. Because for every one bad experience, there have been 100 more really great things that have happened. This is why we always dedicate this issue to the fantastic events, memories, and experiences of each year through our Annual Year in Pictures Issue. Living in South Florida, we get the chance to revel in a fantastical place that offers so many wonderful things to see and

do on a daily basis. If you haven’t figured it out yet, South Florida truly is paradise, and that is exactly what you will see in this week’s issue. We kick off our Year in Pictures with the Annual Winter Party Festival. Last year, The Task Force had a record breaking year, attracting thousands of gay men and women to our sandy shores for a week of parties, cultural events, and dancing – and all in the name of LGBT rights! Less than a month later, Miami Beach held its third Annual Gay Pride event, which was the largest single day event for the LGBT community in Miami Beach with close to 45,000 people packing one of the most famous streets in the world, Ocean Drive. Over the summer, we got the chance to cool off from the summer heat during the Fourth Annual Summerfest Pool Party, which took place at the glamorous Shore Club Hotel. Most recently, we celebrated the 26th Annual White Party Week, and throughout the event, our photographers were able to snap some incredible photos of the thousands of revelers who came out to have a good time and raise some much needed funds for South Florida’s largest HIV/AIDS service organization, Care Resource. This year, the South Florida scene welcomed two lovely new additions, the sexually scandalous new Johnny’s Miami and North Miami’s Eros Lounge. In our Year in Pictures, you will get the chance to see some of the hottest images from the two new hot spots.

Of course, our seven-day-a-week gay bars really do keep South Florida popping with their weekly parties and events. As the longest running bar and restaurant in South Beach, The Palace has only gotten better with time. The drag performances continue to be one of the most famous attractions in South Beach. And when it comes to class, there is no more opulent gay watering hole than MOVA Lounge. Throughout 2011, MOVA has not only continued to bring out all that glitters in South Florida but has also paired it with a delicious martini! Every weekend at Score seems to be a hell of a time as they regularly feature some of the biggest DJs in the industry, while Discotekka Saturday nights have become a staple among the young and fabulous, looking to dance their asses off in one of the largest clubs in South Florida! And South Beach wouldn’t be the same without the nightly shenanigans that take place at Miami Beach’s longest running gay bar and club, TWIST! Just check out the pictures on page 16 to see for yourself! Edison Farrow has had a pretty busy year, re-launching some of his most infamous soirees. Most recently, his resurrected weekly party, Hype Fridays at MOVA has become the “it” place to party! And there’s even more to see in this week’s Year in Pictures Issue, so sit back, relax, and enjoy perusing some of the best memories South Florida has to offer! Merry Christmas!

WIRE STAFF CEO/PUBLISHER: rafa carvajal EXECUTIVE EDITOR/PUBLISHER: thomas barker DESIGN DIRECTOR/PRODUCTION: jose gonzalez/true ink designs l.l.c. COLUMNISTS/WRITERS/STAFF: alfredo barrios james cubby dr. gregg a pizzi michael sasser jesse spencer PHOTOGRAPHERS: henry perez | henry1dj@bellsouth.net jr davis | jrdavis12000@hotmail.com juan saco mironoff | miami-gay-blog.com NATIONAL ADVERTISING REP: rivendell media | 212-242-6863 WIRE MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED, PRODUCED AND OWNED BY WIRE MEDIA GROUP L.L.C. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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PUBLISHERS’ CORNER wow!

iT’S BeeN A yeAr? JoiN BY RAFA CARVAJAL

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

This week and last week have probably events and been the busiest weeks ever for Thomas parade, Ex and I working on wire magazine. why we ar Why? For a couple of very good can use as reasons: We have been working and times very hard on producing our second ever Pride collector’s edition of We also wire magazine – that we think you welcome y will really enjoy reading through. In Pool Par MICHAEL SASSER MODERN POLITICS dition,POST we have also been working non-stop on the firstBYever decided to YEAR-END WISH LIST ficial Gay Pride Pool Party, which Wire magazine year’s Prid l host on Saturday, April 17th at the hotel Victor with have fun nlandia Vodka and herradura Tequila as sponsors. compleme main stage eally is hard to believe that a year has already gone by since we for some a blished the first ever Pride Collector’s Edition of Wire magazine, from 1 p.m that is definitely the case. Pride is once again taking place in miik will ami Beach this Saturday and we hope that all our readers in complimen ami and Fort lauderdale will have a chance to enjoy this ticket purc ek’s 2010 Pride Collector’s Edition. We couldn’t have gotten e without all your support, and the support of our advertisers, make sure On behalf of everyone at Wire Magazine I want to wish you Happy Holidays and a very Merry Christmas in the company of your family and friends. I hope this holiday season brings you lots of joy as we prepare to celebrate the end of 2011 and the beginning of a new year.

This week we bring you one of my favorite special issues of the year, the Year in Pictures. Remember the old saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words”? As a Wire Magazine photographer myself, I know what it takes to capture those great moments for posterity. I want to thank all the contributing photographers who helped Wire Magazine bring you thousands of fabulous photos in 2011. The pages of every 2011 issue of Wire Magazine, our website, and our Facebook page are filled with thousands of photos captured throughout the year in Miami, the Beaches, and Fort Lauderdale. Many thanks to Henry Perez, Juan Saco Mironoff, J.R. Davis, Rey Aragon, John Anthony Sutton, Jesse Spencer, and Rob Davidson for all the photos they took during 2011. It is due to their hard work and dedication that you are able to enjoy this week’s Year in Pictures issue and so many more wonderful photos online

at www.wireweekly.com. You should definitely visit our website to reminisce on all the fun times our readers had this year at the many events, parties, and nights out captured by the lenses of Wire Magazine’s photographers.

I also want to extend my personal thanks to several very talented photographers who contributed amazing images for many hot Wire Magazine covers in 2011. Thank you so much to all of you! A very special thanks also goes out to Jose Gonzalez, our design director, for creating many stunning Wire Magazine covers this year, and to Rob Davidson for his illustration of Whoopi Goldberg - a special cover for my January interview of the multi-talented Academy Award winner.

We know the readers of Wire Magazine love to see our wonderful photos every week. Wire has captured part of the history of Miami, Miami Beach, and Fort Lauderdale in pictures throughout the years. We will continue to do that for your enjoyment and joyful memories. Keep picking up Wire Magazine every week and visiting www.wireweekly.com and www.facebook. com/wiremagazine to see yourself and your friends in our weekly photo albums. Some day those images will become part of the history of our lives, as the archives I have of old Wire Magazine issues from years past have become. So many memories are captured in those old photos! Life is short and goes by quick. The old photos in Wire

Initially this was the week I was going to share reader emails and notes that have come in over the past few months. The litany of racism allegations (racist for thinking Memorial Day shootings are bad, racist for opposing the Genting development, etc.) makes for entertaining reading, if somewhat predictable. But it didn’t seem in the spirit of the holidays for this, the final Postmodern Politics of 2011. So instead of the rants of angry reactionaries and my effervescent quips in retort, I thought that in the spirit of the start of a new year, I would offer up some thoughts on wishes for 2012 in the wonderful world of politics.

takes part in it. Neither facts nor reason interferes with media’s push to advance its own narrative and agenda. The result is a whole lot of citizens that have no idea what’s really going on, while it adversely affects their lives. That opens the door to demagogues coming in and selling them lies to advance their own agendas. A dishonest media can blame the local version of the evil one-percenters, while politicians go about their business of raping the public. The public would be better served by a town crier.

I wish people would stay pissed off.

It’s not that I’m against gambling in principle. It’s not that I’ve even decided my own opinion on the possibility of destination casino-resorts in the state. It’s that I find it an egregious breach of etiquette and incredibly presumptuous for developers to be rolling out their plans before the state has taken action. Can’t we at least pretend that there will be an open and honest debate in Tallahassee on the issue and that big-money interests and all of the lobbyists aren’t going to end up getting what they want, as they always do? It’s arrogant, brazen and annoying. Sure, they can probably buy what they want. But is it too much to ask that there be a pretense of legitimacy to the process?

Angry voters have really been a delight this past year. A delight in that it seems like folks are finally catching on to how crooked and self-serving the political class is. Sure, a rigged system only permits us to replace one narcissistic crackpot for another, but at least people caught on. My hope is that it continues and spreads like wildfire to Miami Beach and other municipalities where the political class is in need not of reform – but of a reckoning.

I wish local media would do its job or just die already. Sounds like I’m wishing myself out of a job, huh? Not really. Do you want to know why politicians, their funders, and the well-fed bureaucracy get away with what they do? Because the major media permits it and occasionally

I wish the casino developers would just back the f*&$ off.

I wish another Katy Sorenson would manifest.

Miami-Dade’s best commissioner in recent memory is sorely missed, despite the good work she’s doing now in the private sector.

Magazine are proof of that. Enjoy your life to the fullest so some day you can look back fondly at all the good times you had with your friends and family. Always remember that we don’t know when our time will be up. Unlike the many events we capture in our photo albums, that is an event that will happen at a time and day not of our choosing. As Steve Jobs reminded the graduating class of Stanford University on June 12, 2005, “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all our readers. Have fun, stay young at heart, live your life to the fullest, and have a camera, smartphone, or Wire photographer nearby to capture the great memories for posterity! Rafa For The Publishers

Rafa Carvajal: rafa@wireweekly.com Thomas Barker: thomas@wireweekly.com

I wish the State Attorney’s office would be more zealous in public corruption investigations.

One has to assume that the State Attorney’s office knows at least as much as does your columnist about public corruption. Sure they need evidence and all of that. But can it really be so difficult? Half the corrupt elected officials in town are too stupid to be very good at covering their tracks. And the other half is so prolific in their corruption that it would seem reasonably do-able to find enough evidence to at least move ahead. I know the office is heavily politicized. But, really? Really?

I hope North Miami figures out what to do with Biscayne Landing, and that it works. A wish for my original hometown and the total mess that the economy and a failed (albeit amusing in a dirty, crazy way) administration have made of Biscayne Landing. I wish that Miami Beach would discover a better class of political candidates.

And, finally, a wish for my more recent hometown. Of course, I’ve been harping on this issue for almost 20 years. One can still have hopes and dreams, though. At least this time of year, before a wave of reality washes over town on January 2. That’s what the season is all about.

WHITE PARTY WEEK