Angel Andy

It was one week ago today that I stumbled across some information on the internet that caught my eye: Logo, MTV's Gay cable channel, was to have a launch party somewhere in Los Angeles on Thursday, March 8. The only details I had were that the band Dangerous Muse would be DJ'ing at the event, as well as the legendary Erasure.
Being gay and in a band, I knew this would not only be an opportunity of a lifetime to meet lots of cool people, but I was also pretty sure it was going to be a really fun time. Over a year ago, I subscribed to cable mainly because I wanted to be able to watch Logo. And watch it, I have! It's usually the first channel I turn to, and I've followed several of it's documentary and reality series, re-watched some of the first gay films I ever saw way back in the 90's, and have discovered some great new music because of their "NewNowNext" program as well as "The Click List" countdown.
Of course, after seeing so many great videos by obscure and independent queer bands and artists, it has got me itching to see my own band on Logo. Several friends and acquantances who have tuned in to Logo have even asked me why we aren't on there. The answer is simple; we don't have a good-quality music video, and getting one seems to be way more complicated than one might think.
Anyway, within about five seconds of reading about this Logo Launch Party, I knew I had to be there. I immediately assessed the situation and brainstormed for contacts - who could get me in to this? I called my boyfriend Dylan who works at the Television Academy. Maybe he could use some tv-related contact through his job. Then I messaged Marc, a Shitting Glitter associate and friend, who has lots of contacts with record labels through his job. Then I sat about myself calling anyone I could think of - someone I vaguely knew at Time Warner (who was co-sponsoring the party), and ultimately the MTV office of Brian Graden, president of programming for Logo (as well as MTV, VH1, CMT, etc) where an assistant, Odin Ozdil, was kind enough to take my information and then followed through with a return call. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do for me.
By Wednesday, Marc and I had tried everything we could think of and hadn't gotten anywhere. I held onto the tiny bit of faith I had left that someone we had contact would come through for us, but by that night even I was about to give up.
Almost every Wednesday night, my friends and I go to FUBAR for Chi Chi LaRue's "Dirty Deeds" night, a club which lives up to it's name. On this night, we walked in around 10:30 and as soon as we entered, Marc pointed to a man just five feet in front of us and asked me "Isn't that Andy Bell?" Shocked, I looked and said "I think it is!" Suddently, we saw the other half of Erasure, Vince Clarke, sitting at a table next to him. I about fell over. Seeing a band that I had so much history with sitting right there at my neighborhood bar was disorienting enough - but adding that to this whole drama of trying to get in to the party that they themselves would be DJ'ing at the next night was just almost too much. I couldn't function. Thank God for Marc, because he was able to go right up to them and start a conversation. It helped that Marc had already met them several times in the past, and had even given Andy a rare Deborah Harry CD once that Andy had apparently remembered.
After a few minutes, Marc introduced us all to each other, and we ended up spending much of the night hanging out with Andy (Vince left early on to go back to the hotel). We did end up giving him our numbers and asking if there was any way he could get us in to the party.
Thursday came and I had gotten two more replies from people I had asked, both saying no; there was nothing they could do.
With only one hope left, I came home from work that afternoon, and distracted myself by working on video projects. My brother called to ask me what I was doing that night, to which I said "Nothing, if Erasure doesn't call." Apparently, Brandon and Amy found this hilarious and had several good laughs at my expense. However, I was the one laughing minutes later when I called them, excitedly, to tell them that Marc had just called - Andy had left a message on his machine letting him know that Marc Loren + 1 would be on the guest list. We couldn't quite make out the location of the party from the message, but I felt we had enough to go on, so around 7:30 we headed up to Sunset Blvd. Andy had mentioned something about the Hollywood Social Club, which reminded me of the Hollywood Athletic Club, so we drove there and the party was obviously there - a huge "Logo" was projected onto a wall inside and a line of well-dressed people was entering the door.
The whole night, Marc and I were giddy and couldn't stop talking about how surreal the whole experience had been. We laughed just thinking about how the stars had aligned for us. I pulled every ounce of schmoozing ability I had gained through years of feeling worthless at schmoozing, and actually did a decent job - hey, I even dropped the name Shitting Glitter to Brian Graden himself.
I met and talked to so many people, all of whom were so nice and friendly, it was just a really fun night. Near the end, Marc and I got to sit outside for a few minutes with Andy and thank him for getting us in. We had a nice conversation about this and that, and before I knew it, the night was ending.
I'm not sure what, if any, return I'll get for my promotional efforts but I definitely felt like I had finally reached a new plateau in my Hollywood lifestyle. As a boy from a farm in the middle of nowhere Kansas, it felt like I was finally in the big league. And it felt like there are only bigger things to come.