Toronto Pride 2010 is done, and over a week later I emerge from the sludge of the dance floor in one piece!

This year I attended for the first time, the raising of the flag at Toronto City Hall, and once again I count myself lucky to be living in a city where I can be myself!

Last Friday was the huge kick off party to PRIDE WEEK TORONTO 2010 at Woody’s on Church Street.  Food, booze, friends, performances and skin! Miss Conceptions doing Lady Gaga and my fiance Shaun Proulx being interviewed by The National Post!

This year marks PRIDE TORONTO’S 30th year of celebrations, and I was there to catch it all!

Every year in the city of Toronto there is an event called ‘Idea City’.  The best of the best, the cream of the crop, the who’s who, the leaders and all the people of interest gather to discuss.

How the hell did I end up attending?  Hey!  I have connections o.k.!

Plus, this year my good friend Buck Angel was one of the speakers!  Maybe one year I’ll be a speaker.

It was a hike, but I made it!!

Here’s the video of me trying my best to hip hop in a class I took in West Hollywood.  What?  I had fun ok!

The past weekend for me was all about strolling down the streets (and alleys) of my old town, L.A..  Seeing old friends and making some new ones.

Champagne with Chi Chi at East/West, dancing at Eleven, popping into Micky’s, shopping on Rodeo and brunch at my favorite little place, BLT on Beverly.

I stopped into Chi Chi’s new porn shop on Santa Monica Blvd and took a hip hop class (video to come!)

The funniest was remembering all the gyms I used to belong to.  In L.A., the question isn’t ‘Which gym do you go to?’ it’s ‘Which gymS do you go to?”

He’s not just a porn actor.  He’s not just someone who can pose for the camera.  Oh no!  He is also a screenwriter!  Yes, it’s true, I’m talking about myself in the 3rd person.  I do that sometimes!

The first porn script I ever wrote was for Rascal Video.  The movie is called ‘Little Big League 2: Second Inning’.  Do yourself a favor and rent/buy this movie.  It is fucking hilarious.  It has a really hot cast of guys (including myself) and a really twisted story full of costume changes and elaborate settings.  What else would you expect from me?  I am nothing if not dramatic!

Then came a string of other movies, including the co-creation of ‘The Stone Age’ for Eon Films.  And somewhere in there I was even nominated for Best Screenplay at the GayVN Awards, a HUGE honor indeed!

Writing for porn is a funny process.  And I don’t mean funny, ha ha.  More like funny, queer.  You start with a basic story in which you have to fit a certain number of guys all performing certain sexual acts, and somehow, just somehow, you try to make it all make sense without it coming off as corny.

I’ve written comedies and I’ve written suspense/dramas (like Rascal Video’s “Sharp”), but my latest movie is the former.

“Cream Filled Twinkies” is a concept by Doug Jefferies and a script written by yours truely.  If you like twinks and/or cupcakes you are in for a treat here fellas.  So do yourselves a favor and check it out!

When you stop asking ‘What’s in it for me?’ or ‘What do I get out of it?’ or ‘How much do I get paid?’ and start focusing on the things that truly make you happy and feed your soul, good things can happen!

I was asked recently to help a friend out with a project of his.  He is an artsy guy and the project was an artsy one.  No pay.  No anything, except the satisfying of an artistic need of mine to create something interesting and new.  I said ‘Yes, I would be happy to help.”

The artistic endeavor was for me to have my photo taken.  Can you imagine?  Me?  Having my photo taken?  Oh no!  Whatever will I do?!

The photo would then be sliced in with other images as a poem is read as narration.

Having participated in the project was enough for me, but guess what I was told this week!?!

The  project, called ‘Men Together’ by Jared Mitchell has been selected by The Canadian Film Makers Distribution Centre as an entry for the 5th Zebra Poetry Film Festival taking place in Berlin Germany!!  What!!!???

Advice: Do something today that feeds your soul!

If you live in Montreal or you’re able to get your hands on the latest issue of Zip magazine (and you can read French), check out this interview/article!

In the interview I talk about everything from what life in L.A. was like, what brought me home to Toronto, how I got started in radio and what you can expect from my reality show soon to start filming for OUTtv.

And if you can’t get yourself a copy, no worries, all you have to do is keep coming here for all the Eddie news you can use!!

So, I’m in Montreal with Shaun, he’s just completed the PWA Friends For Life Bike Rally, and I’m off to have brunch with my mom. I thought a daytime meal out on a patio in the sunshine would help lend some levity to the situation. Of course, I met her at her’s and we walked down to a little brunch spot around the corner.

We chatted and laughed and when we got about half way through the meal (I didn’t want to save it for the end because if things went poorly I didn’t want to end on that note) when I said,

Me: “So have you been on the PROUD website lately?” (knowing full well that a link to the OUTLOOKS article that outs me as a porn star appears on my show page.

Mom: “Yesterday.”

Of course that doesn’t mean she saw or even read the article, she could just have been listening to the station online.

Me: “Have you seen the article on me and Shaun in OUTLOOKS?”

Mom: “No. What’s that?”

Shit. I thought if at least she had read the large print in the article she would already know and this would just be a formality.

Me: “Oh, well, it’s this great article in a nationwide magazine talking about me and Shaun and the radio and our pasts…”

I take a gulp of coffee

Me: “…and what makes us interesting as a couple.”

Mom: “That’s nice I’d love to read it!”

Me: “Ya. It’s a great article.” I had hit a dead end so I tried another tactic. “Oh, and I pitched a reality show idea to OUTtv and they loved it. We start filming this fall!”

Mom: “What? You never told me about a reality show! What’s it about?”

Here we are ladies and gentlemen, this is it, there was no going back now!

Me: “Well, it’s a reality show where contestants compete to become the next big porn star… and I’m the host.”

I paused here, hoping somehow the pieces would come together by themselves. They didn’t… It’s easier in my family when the pieces DO come together by themselves because we just don’t talk about things like this. We just don’t.

Mom: “Because of the radio, you’re going to host?”

I took a deep breath and said

Me: “No, because when I was in L.A. I became a pretty well known name as an adult performer.”

Image by: Keith Haring

There was a moment when I wasn’t sure she had heard, or understood. It was only a second or two, but it felt like forever. Her face did not change, but there was something in her eye that said ‘So, that’s what was going on in L.A., so many questions answered.’

I wasn’t ready for what she asked next, although it’s all I ever needed to hear.

Mom: “When do you start filming?”