Circuit parties with a side of E

Circuit parties are notoriously hard to define.

There are hundreds of promoters around the globe trying to cash in by calling their upstart events ‘circuit parties’.

Most circuit parties follow a certain template whether in a club, on a cruise ship or a beach. It is a several-day, several-location spectacular, with lights, big-name DJs, decorations and performances. Themes are mandatory. Many parties are tied to holidays, like Mardi Gras in Sydney or Songkran in Bangkok. Some clubs like Jump in Taipei organize a regular end-of-month party and is always well- attended.

Everywhere you look at these events there are men, men and more men. ”When I told my aunt I was gay, she said, “It’s a very lonely life”.

..If she only knew! I’m obviously not the only gay in this village!

To outsiders, the less well-informed and the biased, circuit parties are all about drugs, sex and spectacle. To the travel industry, they represent a profit-making opportunity. For many circuit party aficionados, the weekend celebrations are essentially a year-round extension of the ability to put ourselves out there and have a great time. It’s important for our gay identity to know that we’re part of a community that knows how to have fun, albeit safely.

Drugs – always a controversial part of the circuit life, were not part of the routine to begin with. Champagne was the only intoxicant most of my friends touched all weekend, despite dancing until the wee hours. Not everyone exhibits such self-control, of course. The circuit party scene is fueled by Ecstasy, much as the rest of any club scene is. Now it’s GHB and methamphetamine, better known as crystal meth. Not only does crystal meth give revelers the stamina to stay up for three days without a nap, it also enables marathon (and often unprotected) sex sessions.

While drugs may be a ‘don’t-ask-don’t-tell’ affair at these circuits, plenty of flesh-baring is certainly not a discreet topic. When I step on the dance floor, my shirt usually come off. It’s an excellent excuse for us to check out the latest in men’s underwear. Men with shaved chests and impeccable abs greet each other with hugs and kisses and dance with their arms around one another’s waists.

I define this as a form of liberation, this whole act of being able to flirt shamelessly without judgment or guilt. It’s just something I choose to call ‘life’.

And ‘life’ is a drug I could OD on.

Am I too old to take money from relatives?

As a kid, money was my favorite present – preferably cash – since I could go out and use it immediately. I could never leave a store with any money left over. The happiness was much anticipated and quickly over.

When I was 21, my Dad sent me to the US with a checking account of $600. It was a smart idea to try and teach his son about managing money. However, I saw through it immediately. It was like being given a neck tie, a symbol of the grey oppressive adulthood that lay before me.

That was not the last time I received money from my parents, but those times (in college) were rarely cause for celebration. There were a few other times after college when I legitimately needed help (for my first car, student loans) but that was nearly seven years ago. Still, every year like clockwork, the money comes on birthdays and Chinese New Year. They’ve been politely offering to buy me a housewarming present from IKEA since I moved into my own place.

For those of you who want to know about me, I’m 32 years old, living on my own and working as a newsroom journalist. I make relatively good money from the job and also have a property investment. As you’d expect from a gay yuppie, I live rather comfortably. So when my Dad hands me a $100 bill when I visit or when my Aunt sends a gift certificate, I am a bit mystified as to how I should feel.

While free money is good, I don’t have the most exciting plans for it. A large chunk of my personal savings is windfall money I put aside immediately rather than spend. It’s just the sort of responsible thing my Dad wished I would have done when I was a teenager.

Still it’s a little embarrassing for my inner adult, like having my Mom peel shrimps for me in a fancy restaurant. Whilst we go through many developmental milestones on our path to becoming independent adults, the relationship with our parents is sometimes slow to change. They still remember us in diapers, fondly.

I’ve never been a big fan of making an issue out of dollars & cents. If someone makes a move for the bill at a restaurant, I don’t try to tackle them. I generally trust that when people offer to do something it’s because they want to and I accept that graciously. When I take the bill, I also expect this same understanding.

After all I’m lucky to have supportive parents/relatives who are still in a position to offer their financial assistance.

e=mc2=Winning Formula= ?

Well, Mariah Carey is back. Fresh from the multi-platinum success of 2005’s “The Emancipation of Mimi”, everyone’s fave vocal stylist has returned with a thinly veiled clone of her prior commercial smash. Clocking in at fifty minutes of party-oriented hip-hop and sappy ballads, “E=MC2″ is a consistently mid-tempo set of cuts that should appease her loyal fans and continue to bewilder the rest of us.

In the interest of fairness, Mariah does deserve a degree of respect for the choices she’s made in creating this record. Unlike contemporaries Janet Jackson and Madonna, she’s (mostly) stayed away from scarring our precious eyeballs with spandex-clad crotch shots and innuendo-laden lyrics, maintaining the scantest connection to the demure young woman who sang all those cheesy ballads in the early Nineties. While I have quite a few concerns with the quality of this album’s songwriting, I can easily listen to two or three of its songs at a time, and find them blandly enjoyable. Mariah’s vocals are also worth commendation, showcasing some of her much-famed range and power while staying away from screeching (hello Alicia Keys!).

However, the praise stops here. One of the biggest question marks hovering over Mariah’s discography has always been her debatable degree of sincerity, and it appears here with a vengeance.

Although much is made of the fact that she writes her own songs, it doesn’t change the reality that she opts to give her tracks to corporate producers, who ultimately transform them into radio-ready formula. In addition, it hardly helps that she’s not particularly skilled in either the lyric or melody departments; relying heavily on saccharine/emotional statements that are de-personalised to the extent of losing all meaning. She then sets them to primitive tunes consisting of one hook repeated multiple times. Certainly, I can call the choruses of some of these songs (like the bouncy, disco-ish “I’ll Be Lovin’ U Long Time”) catchy, but they’re ephemerally so, drifting in one ear and out the other in a numbed haze.

To get an overall impression of her latest sound, you’re best served her current No.1 hit “Touch My Body”. I have neither the desire nor will to knock it down, but to me it sounds more like a teaser than a smash hit. Consisting of a flat drum machine track with finger snaps and minimal synth accompaniment, it presents a mediocre basic tune that’s made worst with meaningless lyric.

Sadly, plenty of the other songs sound almost identical – the cookie-cutter slow jams “I Stay In Love”, “Love Story”, “Last Kiss” and “For The Record” may employ superficially different styles, but they are just more of the same Hallmark power ballads that Mariah’s been dishing out since 1990.

Taken as a whole, there isn’t much that can be said about “E=MC2″ that wouldn’t already be obvious to anyone familiar with Mariah’s earlier output. She’s opted to play it incredibly safe, and anyone who has enjoyed her old records will find plenty to appreciate here. I’m skeptical as to whether she’ll be able to pull off another album in this vein, but at least she’s smart enough to stay away from half-baked political statements or coarse sexual vulgarity – and for the moment, that’s enough.

Tracks I repeat: “I Stay In Love”/”Side Effects”/”For The Record”/”Bye Bye”
Tracks I skip: “Touch My Body”/”O.O.C”