Drag Shows: When You Don’t Want to Think About Cancer

Best buds from San Francisco in town for the Thanksgiving holiday so we had to make a good showing for them. Not that they demand it, but they inspire. Started the evening with martinis at the 360 Lounge on the rooftop of the very sad downtown St. Louis Hilton hotel. The kind of place where Midwestern families in sweat suits dedicated to their favorite football team wander the elevators in search for ice to cool down Budweiser tall boys in the hotel sink of their room. The bar, however, is the kind of place where everyone wears black and tries to outdo each other by ordering the most exotic vodka they can think of. “I’ll have the pomegranate whiskey chocolate chip cookie vodka. Up, please.” Fabulous views of the city.

Where Else To Go When You Don’t Want To Think About Cancer?

Next stop was Sasha’s on Shaw. A great little neighborhood restaurant where we drank wine on tap and ate gourmet pizza. The wine was seriously delicious and something we had never heard of. Not boxed wine, but a new concept in decreasing production costs while preserving the flavor by less packaging. The friendly trendy waitress suggested our next stop be The Grey Fox, a neighborhood haunt with drag shows from 10-2:00. The neighborhood was a bit dodgy but we were not deterred by the lion gargoyles guarding the entrance. We got a table right up front and enjoyed the Queens heckling the drunk straight girls. A beautiful lip sync to all things Whitney Houston and our favorite number sung to The Wizard of Oz’s “If I only had a brain”, but repackaged (pun intended) to “If I only had a sn*tch”. I did look at the performers with a new eye towards what I might look like wearing their outrageous wigs, if it comes to that. A perfect evening.

Think About Photo Shoots, Don’t Think About Cancer

Today, Zettl Photography is treating us to a special photo shoot. We may all have to wear eyeglasses to disguise the bags under our eyes, but the kids will hopefully distract from the adults who may have been over served the night before. I don’t know how professional models stay up all night and manage to look fabulous the next day. Seems an enviable skill.