Naughty: Washington Post's Date Lab. Here, the blame falls not on Post interviewer Christina Breda Antoniades, but on one of the feature's test bunnies: Mary Franklin, a 23-year-old graduate student. Franklin's answers to the Post's get-to-know-you questions reveal a common thread: "I'm very open to different kinds of people and experiences," she writes. "I like guys who are a little exotic in ethnicity/appearance, usually with dark hair and no facial hair." Franklin adds that her dream date is a person "perhaps of a different background—for example, an Asian or British version of Sam on 'The West Wing.'"
The Post did its best to satisfy Franklin's taste for the "exotic": Her date was Jay Singha, 23, a self-described "6-foot, loud Indian." Check out Franklin's first impression of Singha:
[The hostess] introduced us. [Jay's] family is Indian so [he has] darker skin, dark hair. He's not a bad-looking person, [but] he's not someone I probably would have been drawn to. Usually [I like] more of the East Asian, Japanese or Korean kind of thing. Or Spanish. But it takes me a little while to know if I'm attracted or not.
Looks like Franklin's only open to the "different kinds of people" who fit her particular craving for exoticism. Give me East Asian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, British—whatever. South Asian? No thanks. After the date, when Singha "invited her to a party," was Mary really "working"? You be the judge.
Nice: John over at Brightest Young Things has an interview with Shea Van Horn and Matt Bailer (along with a great photo spread by Shervin Lainez). Van Horn and Bailer are the DJs behind Mixtape, a new monthly alternative gay dance party at Eritrean restaurant Dahlak. The mainstream gay nightlife scene in D.C. is well-documented; BYT does well in highlighting the dearth of alternative options in the District:
“I can’t be the only person who wants to dance to a little Italo-disco or acid house or early Wax Trax! recordings. But, I’m not hearing that anywhere,” says Van Horn, a local DJ and performance artist best known for spinning local alternative queer parties at places like the DC9. . . . “[Alternative events] Taint and Homo/Sonic fill up just two nights per month, at best,” says Van Horn. “That leaves 28 other nights when the alt-gay crowd is stuck with Madonna-rama.”