Dean has been a larger than life figure in New York for many years (like 25, in fact) and he died in mysterious circumstances in Washington DC. Not that mysterious to me however, as he had told me a week prior to his death that he was going to visit a trick (yes, he hustled at 50!) and dean always had a penchant for drugs. I worked with Dean a lot when  I first started promoting. At the risk of talking ill about the dead, I'll say that he was difficult and pained, and there was a hint of shady-ness about him. But he WAS undeniably a force of nature and shamelessly sexual. Often at parties we threw I'd walk into a back area to see Dean naked, hard, with that HUGE cock he was known for, sitting back while some blond kid was sucking him off. Oh how I suddenly miss those days! We did two legendary parties that lasted for two years- one, called Triple XXX, was the mother of all filthy parties. Before Triple XXX, I had done some pretty debaucherous nights, but they were never designed to be that way. Things just devolved into madness. But Triple XXX was conceived to be an out and out sex party... And it never missed. The other Magnum, was the simplest and most effective theme I ever had: all dancers naked were 8 inches or longer. Period. And the place was packed. 

 

Never was throwing parties so fun and frankly, so easy.  But then dean and I drifted apart. He tried to say it was my fault, and frankly, I just found him too toxic. One night he called me at like 4am (pretty much a typical afternoon chat time for party promoters) rambling about how he loved my ideas about game shows. I had never talked about game shows with dean. So I knew something was amiss. Oddly enough I rekindled my relationship with him shortly before his death. I had decided to put together a big Dlist concert of all my favorite bands on the site. And, knowing dean, I knew that if I did this without his blessing he's forever malign me as stealing his idea (dean started this incredible rock-and-roll concert series called Homocore) and I figured its better to have him onboard than having problems. Well, he immediately started with tons of questions and getting bossy, and frankly, I regretted involving him at all. Then suddenly I stopped hearing from him. I enjoyed the blissful quiet until I was in Ptown working on a show and get the text message that dean was found dead in DC- am I horrible for at first feeling relief that I wouldn¹t have to deal with him about the concert when I got back? It really wasn¹t until I got back to New York and went to his memorial-the I realized what an impact he had on NYC- everyone was there and for a brief moment I got there I remembered how bright and shiny Nightlife looked when I first started: everyone was youngish and hot, no one had developed drug or drinking problems and no one had yet died. It was a sort of innocence that's incomprehensible for a group that made a living getting shitfaced and often, having sex in public. But they were all there, fucking dead-hot bartender Xavier, who was known for his drug habit but who's since moved on, performance artist The World Famous BOB, who used to do naked aerobics while eating cheeseburgers and was well over 250lbs, now svelte,also sober and a burlesque performer,  there was one eared Tony Rabbit, who used to dance for dean and I, then he got sober and now owns his own place on Fire Island- and all the freaks were out for this  one night, celebrating the life of this guy who, I came to realize talking to them, most of them had also avoided often because of his toxicity, but who just couldn¹t stay away from celebrating what he had contributed to all of our lives.