Riobard

At the risk of leaping to a flawed inference based on a small dataset, I am going to throw out a personal observation and recommendation here regarding procurers. As a pimp's 'newbie' customer I made the strategic error of responding with candour and balance to feedback request, assuming that the nuances of fitness of match and of client characteristics would be listened to. I won't spoil the plot line by specifying the identity of any one particular broker. However, anything less than a stellar review can compromise a provider's position, get back to the provider with a less than graceful approach by the procurer, and make things a little uncomfortable. That said, the broker's reactivity in front of me may be smoke and mirrors for my benefit as he pegs me a certain way, a dynamic I prefer over compromising a local CSW trying to make an honest peso for survival. Better to be vague and make an excuse for non- repeat. Convoluted Reasoning & Anti-intellectual Pomposity? Yes, perhaps.

*spl: Jaques (not Jacques)

I have more to add about my observations, and comments about others' interpretation of my cultural acumen, in relation to Santo Domingo, having witnessed in a short time there some exceptions to some of the thesis-grade content added here. However, I cannot figure out how to import applicable "quote" function into a new topic thread and I am conscious of my role in highjacking Snowbird's thread. I think it best to punctuate what can end up an arduous back-and-forth that may offer instant gratification for some but be long forgotten after a minute and buried in whatever news cycles emerge subsequently.

Kkkkkkk ... vid directed like a single handheld cam psychological horror thriller. "No, run! Don't go down those stairs!"

Encouraging ... I have locked in my flights and digs, essentially in Chapinero a Wed thru Sun inclusive. This may be asking too much precision, but I wonder if on weeknights when GEH is essentially closed (barring the suggestion that the Thurs StM show spreads up to the GEH space), for 1:1 private massage-room play would pre-show be any different than post-show in terms of selection and productivity? And I am thinking that maybe a solid midday repast works better as the day's main meal. Lighter fare in the evening to make time for venue play,

I actually don't have a complete clue what the first sentence means, in spite of being largely Québécois. Perhaps it is because I find it odd that a French Canadian, other than a run-of-the-mill blowhard, would react so vehemently to that inocuous a question. Perhaps it is 'life' not 'lie'? Perhaps I don't grasp the "rumours" aspect. Was the Canuck behaving like the stereotypical UA (the colloquialism, not the novel title or protaganist)? As for "boy", I do believe that is an Americanism. I don't know its use in Austria, though eg "house of boys" may be an influencer. I don't recall any introduction to the term up to the point of initially completed three decades of hiring. But having TO and MTL dual citizenship, it may be loaded partly in relation to the young Portuguese Torontonian Em Jacques shoeshine lad homicide. What I can say that is that it is cringeworthy and not normalized enough in my context for me to like or accept it. I would expect to be slapped across the face if I sidled up to a hot local stripper and said "you are the hottest boy (garçon) here". Though he would likely roll with it's ATM accompaniment. The preferred term would be guy/mec. His close friend is "boy" (see below). Garçon for non-adult male or male server. Confounding, perhaps, I know. Adult Canadian males even in Rouyn-Noranda have inexplicably both dropped Céline like a hot potatoe and appropriated the term "my boys", where boys can be like "le weekend", ie either tongue ("boys" another Americanism, I think), for their besties, an artefact of musical genres that Québécois lads go batcrap cray cray over, dare I say racially slanted!? [Careful, Riobard.] Less incongruous a term over time in the friends circle context up here. But I don't think "boy" for trade will ever stick in a lot of places.

Many of the Instagram hunks in my feed this week are using some neck-up aging app to look like baby boomers. Empathy with solidarity, or a send-up? It seems to be done with humourous intent. Maybe something like that would help sneak in the back door.

I think we have different take-aways from what we read, eg Mitchell, but such is life. I thought we were mainly focused on sex tourism, as was the book. I, admittedly, lazily skimmed the final chapter on Bahia because when I read it years back I had no inkling of going there. ------ Ugly Americans are an exclusive group, then, of which I cannot be a member. It seems unfair that everyone else is denied a special pejorative and can simply be douches or not, some or all of the time.

And now the socioeconomic variable of means has been tossed in: the ostentatious yet broke Paco's group fellows and, like, whatever, my poor vocabulary for finishing ...

Thanks for the invitation to clarify, Paborn. I would likely not work hard to join a table with multiple conversations in the context of a setting with a lot of acoustic distractions. One:one or very small group works better for me. In another example, I might not throw in the cards (or towel in a sauna setting) so fast. What I meant by group composition and could have expressed better is that in this case, however erroneous my perception, the membership characteristics were relatively rigidified early on. Similarly, a considerably large group of midWest aid project workers at Grand's was solely one race. In another example, that SolaceSoul described his travel companions as being the same race, I have to read carefully so as not to assume the reason is exclusionary. A careless interpretation on my part would forecast that any expansion of his travel crew would not diversify beyond the woke and non-broke. Of course, in reality, the odds are the larger the group the greater the differences among members. This is, I believe, the universal law called 'regression to the mean'. Gregory Mitchell describes the diaspora link in relation to sex tourism in Bahia. The book Tourist Attractions that has been mentioned on the forum a few times. He made a convincing argument that in comparison to me, a white Canadian, Salvador had a distinctly different meaning for visiting African Americans. I am, admittedly, being far more simplistic than you, and perhaps too academia dependent in applying this theme to other parts of Brazil, RD, etc. And since, 99.99999999 % of all our DNA is shared, the notion that sex tourism is race-blind also holds water.

"Ugly American" has interesting provenance. The book's eponymous protaganist is depicted as culturally sensitive but physically unattractive, in contrast to the impeccably groomed bureaucrats we would view as the xenophobic, etc. Now a widely enough appropriated term as to transcend the contradiction. Also sometimes confused with Greene's The Quiet American.

I didn't really care much about being excluded, but it is fascinating to read more about it, particularly since two African American members have different takes on the value of mingling therein, irrespective of racial background of the would-be entrant. . But now perhaps I should feel offended at not having been made to feel more welcomed there! That my capacity for snotty bitchiness did not evidently pass muster?! I wasn't the one commenting on Rolodex or alluding to cramping access to trade. There may be a little mixup in the thread's who's who.

I was just joking, perhaps poorly, for exaggerated effect, like how welcome a Cullen (vampire) would be at a haemophilia support group. I realize there are many variables involved. As most would know, Dahmer's victims were predominantly young, likely marginalized, MSM African American. Opportunity over racial targetting, I think. I have found people of all backgrounds to be receptive, or not, to social reaching out. I have not witnessed any particular group of black gay men to behave nearly as obnoxiously as white groups I have seen and would avoid like the plague (just another mostly inocuous but perhaps subtly homonegative simile). Perhaps due to lack of exposure, and it was not until my adult years that I first experienced any ethnic group outs ide of Caucasian and far-north First Nations, and well into adult years before any immersion in gay culture. Would an all African American reboot of Boys in the Band fly? I think it would feel disconnected without alteration, and I may be the worst person to judge the feasibility. In actuality, some one-on-one exchanges with American American men in Brazil and Dominican Republic have been possible and very interesting. Thing is, some of these same guys will recognize me and respond to a greeting when they are seated in a larger cluster, but do not introduce me or say to pull up a chair. There is a social order and there is a history of references among the members that would be lost on a newbie. It is my job to not hover and disrupt the continuity of their gabbing. However, a group starts small and grows. Therefore, the larger the membership, the greater the tendency for it to be rigidly circumscribed according to nation, race, what have you, that characterizes it. And throw in the dynamic of sex tourism where purchasers and inventory share the same diaspora origin. If excluded in part for being white, it is understandable.

Well ... if I wanted it exclusively about stained glass and not stained panties I should have started a new topic.

Apologies, definitely too abstruse a metaphor for stand-up, so should scratch it. Perhaps works better mixing metaphor and simile, in written form, but the need for elaboration by rewording or explanation further supports canning my attempt to add to what I thought was the idea of tourist subgroups mixing fine versus like oil and water. I assumed the theme could relate to sex procurement agenda, cultural history including marginalization, compatibility, and distrust. --------- The cafe's true name is only important for map pinning, online reviews, and social media. And, my bias, the French do pastry better.

Yeah, I try (tried) to be friendly but ... Their perspective from my perspective: I am basically an aged Jeffery Dahmer in a KKK hood ... too soon? No disrespect. Sounds like nobody's loss. ------ You cannot miss the café's signage, but it is Café La Moricette serving a popular brand of Dominican coffee, Café Santo Domingo.

Point 202's Instagram since February: @ClubPoint202oficialRio

Do wonders never cease?! Jorge making a bit of an effort at New Meio Mundo ...

@bcdaron , I hope you will also write a few words about the Bogotá portion of your trip.

I think that the net ad volume has grown quite a bit in 3 years. I follow them frequently and have only occasionally seen cross-over with the GdeP inventory in the clubs we frequent, never a Rio gogo but a few São Paulo gogos. ----- Has anyone other than me quietly observed outdoors the skittishness of program guys about being seen heading to 117? They are usually more comfortable at the busy corner, but there is no way many of them would be 'caught dead' entering a gay brothel, say, beside eatery Braseirinho just up from Vila Rica dining and across from other small but packed outdoor social venues. What with the cray-cray pop-up sidewalk seating busy evenings. Some guys approach from the west. Others do a quick surveillance. Discretion is important. Not sure Srs M or E have ever noticed this trend. Many clubs have low-exposure access. The Lion's corner is less saturated but the building design suggests the entrance is within view of two small corner eateries with pop-up sidewalk seating or standing with a snack and beverage, irrespective of the approach from Augusto Severino or easterly on Joaquim Silva. La Paris drinks and snacks named for the park, and Bico de Ouro full meals. The club entrance is also possibly visible from two other social gathering eateries on the opposite side of narrow Joaquim Silva.

Taking a room can work out well if it is the right "fit", you prefer to compartmentalize both your play in an accessible club setting, and interacting with hosts as part of the vacay cultural immersion, not succumbing to temptation to take a dodgy stranger to your place. Cost savings can be significant. Bedroom, private bath, breakfast and the run of the apto in a luxe building with a sweet retired professional couple, brokered by their young adult trilingual son ... compared to hotel, well, the daily difference covered cab, entrada, and one programa at Mezzaninu in Porto Alegre. My last stay in Barcelona was a few weeks in a room and run of place in a 4-bedroom stylish penthouse, one-third the cost of a small "entire place". Prices have skyrocketed there. Well-reviewed host; she was a busy professional hardly ever at home, only lets out the one bedroom. We kept the same hours. Tranquil sleep without constantly slamming doors you get in a hotel or in a private studio where often the bed is near the hall door. Again, cost savings redirected into the VIP suite, etc at Thermas. I had a crew travelling semi-together, not in the "sauna tribe", and being separate from their hotel enabled me to more easily squeeze in bed-bath-brothel-and-beyond while they siesta'd prior to dinner. Moreover, they did not pester me to swing by the place or crash there, because the host was on-site. Therefore, I was able to juggle agendas without style cramped. I have rented expensive upscale entire places only to be saddled with deafening construction/renovation in other units. Forebearance, or moving on and cutting losses, incurring cancellation penalties, much easier if the baseline price is low, much easier to negotiate with a roomie host.

Apologies ... On the city map I drew in the distance comparisons simply for illustration. In actuality, the stretch of the red line I drew from Torrassa to Europa Fina is L9 (Orange), not an extension of Line1.

I am now sold on what I believe to be an alternative efficient and stress-free airport transfer. The Aerobus always worked fine but requires Metro if not you're not walkable to Espanya or Catalunya. The bus can also be crowded and not enough luggage rack space. As you know it is €5.90 and I believe you still pay an attendant cash collector before getting on. Now that the new Metro Line9 (Orange) goes to both terminals, that is an option. Line9 cars are beautiful, spacious and you can sit with your luggage right by you. Car entrances line up with track markings. Every 7 mnutes. Sweet fast ride. It is a special ticket either way, €4.60, a minimum saving of: 1.30 plus one T10 fare use or one single Metro fare if you were to be getting to Aerobus via Metro. Note you cannot purchase T10 at the airport; logical reasons I will not go into unless asked. The 4.60 ticket purchased at airport will get you anywhere on the Metro line, where you can purchase T10 for subsequent use. The question is, particularly if you embark, or vice versa, on Line1 (Red) to commence, what transfer points to use? It is so funny that locals think Torrassa is a huge and inconvenient detour north because they assess it according to the Metro scale, rather than true distance. Line1 to Line 8 to Line 9, or Line 1 to Line 9? I have tried both and prefer the one transfer, staying on Line 1 and transfer at Torrassa to Line9. It is an additional 3 stops, about 4 kms of additional track, and about 5 minutes more time. However, the transfer point Line9 to Line8 is a very long walk and then the time lost at a second transfer, L8 to L9. At Torrassa, large passenger elevators to Line 9 or vice versa (to Line 1) are immediately in front of you, as is the longer escalator ride. Virtually no baggage haul. You will have purchased the special airport ticket and you must scan it to disembark at either terminal.

About midway between Clube 117 and Lion's, water source from the downflow system.