Sing Star Friday

After a lovely girls lunch and shopping afternoon with Linda (and a trip to the state-owned liquor store) we arrived back at Ostermalmsgatan 80 for an evening of "Sing Star" with the Stockholm gays.

"What is Sing Star?" I asked. Well, it's a singing game on Play Station where you 'compete' singing songs through the TV, and the game scores you on your performance and how well you match pitch - American r&b and pop, along with Swedish pop songs. I was a little intimidated by having to sing in front of people I was meeting for the first time. In fact, I refused to do it - initially. Some wine and a couple Swedish pop tunes later, I jumped in with the best of them.

Over terrific pizza and wine and lots of singing, I met Linda and Fred's lovely and creative friends. The cast of characters:

Magnus: a gaming journalist and law student who gets to play and review all the latest and greatest, while getting paid.

Christopher: Linda's gay husband. A lawyer and, even though he denies it, a budding pop star. (The pictures tell all.)

Anders: A very tall, saracastic character with lots of fantastic rings, who takes a great photos with mannequins.

Thomas: Also very lanky and blonde. He joined me in protesting Sing Star at first, but after a few jumped right in with the bunch.

Morgan: A friend of Christopher's who also secretly wants to be a pop start, despite his career as an IT expert. He'd just returned from a trip to NYC and a visit to Splash, where he says "Everyone was very friendly in the gay bars." (Again, when you see the pics, you'll realize why the normally cynical NYC gays were so friendly to Morgan.)

Then all tipsy and energized by several hours of Sing Star, Linda, Christopher, Morgan, and I headed out on the town to Coco Loco, where we danced to more Swedish pop music, and helped a 24-year old questioning Swede through his coming out process. All in a Fag Hag's day's work.

The night ended with the ultimate "It's a Small Gay World" story:

We are standing in line for our coats, and I squeeze the very nice bicep of a very dark and handsome man. "You're cute," I say in my best flirty Hag tone.

"Where are you from?" says tall, dark and muscular.

"New York."

"Really? I just came back from New York. We were there for the big Halloween party."

"At Allegria? My boyfriend was there. He's a DJ."

"Yes. Where does he DJ?" "At The Web," I say.

"We know DJ Sean! My boyfriend says that his girlfriend is going to be in Stockholm this week."

"That would be me," I say. "Does your boyfriend happen to be Song?"

"Yes, it is!" Song is a friend and loyal supporter of Sean's at The Web and other venues. He's part of Sean's whole gaysian club posse, and is living for a year abroad in STKHLM. So lots of "Oh my gods!" and hugs were exchanged before we headed off into the snowy wee hours.