another eye opens

I went to the Bessie Awards at Symphony Space as the guest of Keith Hennessy. Like most awards, the Bessies are supposed to be a secret until they're announced onstage, but since Keith lives in San Francisco they let him know in advance, and he decided to fly in to accept his award in person.

We stopped for a piece of pizza on our way to the awards. Keith was wearing his pink cowboy shirt handmade in Bangkok.

He wore his brown suit with bright green shoes. I wore my handmade Italian wool three-piece navy pinstriped suit with my red faux-horsehair shoes from Daffy's. We took the subway.

Here's Keith with Carla Peterson, executive director of Dance Theater Workshop, where he performed his award-winning show CROTCH last year.

The reception was fun. I ran into people I haven't seen in years -- Lori E. Seid, Mark Russell, Stephen Greco, Dennis Cooper, and Harold Norris (pictured here with me).

Isaac Mizrahi was the MC. I thought he was funny and dishy and loving to the performers, but he horrified many audience members by telling a story about running into a former ballerina on the street and thinking to himself, "Omigod, you've blown up!"

The Bessies didn't happen last year, for various (mostly fiscal) reasons, so this year they played catch-up by citing 6 shows from the 2008-2009 season and 6 from the 2009-2010 season. Those awards were given to everyone involved in the show. Plus there were 7 awards given to performers, two of which were for multiple performers, one of which was the final award of the night given to Paradigm, the group of legendary veteran dancers pictured here: (from right) Carmen deLavallade, Gus Solomons Jr., Valda Setterfield, Dudley Williams, and Michael Blake. (not pictured: Hope Clarke and Keith Sabado)

Ish and Keith after the show

There was an after-party on Columbus at 71st Street, and then we walked home, stopping at Columbus Circle for a falafel sandwich and a peek at this emptied-out retail space on Broadway and 58th Street. Life in New York City.