Red Carpet Refugees: Ft Lauderdale

DJ Jeffrey Jacobs

DJ Scott Mann

Once upon a time there was a magic world called Circuit. And in this world boys & girls, but mainly boys, gathered in cities around the globe to dance in great big groups at parties where they would spend the weekend enjoying the local culture, amazing music & each others ummm, company!? The driving force behind all this merry making was House Music. The sound of House came out of the clubs in New York & Chicago. It tends to be upbeat, vocal music that lends itself to a tribal feel amongst its fans both on the dance floor & off. In this ongoing series “What Happened To House” we will be looking into the state of the dance scene in different cities. And Boy About Town will be doing tireless research for you, my fabulous readers. I will be chatting with the hottest DJ’s, hitting the hottest clubs & some of the not so famous ones to find out where we are and where we are heading as we take to the dance floor! Our first stop is a nod to my summer spent in South Florida as we check out Miami’s famed nightlife as well as Ft Lauderdale’s quiet, yet very fierce attempt to become the king of the south!
me set the scene, the tiny dance floor is packed with big hairy muscle men, a few leather Daddies & their boys (some Daddies are hunting for a boy or two but that is for my other blog) & girls that have packed themselves into Ramrod in Wilton Manors, Florida. Located just down “The Strip” as the Wilton Manor Dr is known to everyone in the know. This tiny bar bills itself as a Leather & Levi bar. And it is, where else could you buy a Bud Lite in a can and a 12 inch dildo all at the same place? But tonight the crowd is focused on the tiny DJ booth located just inches above the dance floor. In that booth , while not greeting his many friends & followers, DJ Jeffrey Jacobs takes the crowd on a trip with many peeks & valleys as he reads this group of hardcore music

fans. DJ Jeffrey Jacobs who hails from NYC came to SoFla (South Florida) about 10 years ago with a simple mission….bring the action! Well mission accomplished! You see while Ft Lauderdale has the largest Gay population percapata in the USA and a very upwardly mobile straight group as well there are very few true dance clubs. And those that try fail in spectacular fashion. So DJ Jeffrey Jacobs and his fellow Leather DJ’s , Scott Mann & Herbie James, countine to be the DJ’s that saved our lives in a tiny bar right off “The Strip”. Make sure to watch for DJ Jeffrey Jacobs on an upcoming segment of “In Bed With Boy”! Do you all see the lengths I am willing to go for you? Something that Ft Lauderdale has made big inroads into is the afterhours scene which at one time belonged solely to it’s neighbor to the south Miami Beach. Torpedo Afterhours offers a mix of all genres. While a bit off the beaten path it is the only game in town & worth the trip. But people, take a cab if you’re even thinking of partying hard because it is located right next door to a police station. And Broward County is no place to run afoul of the law.

DJ David-Tort

About 10 or 15 years ago South Beach was THE place to go if you wanted to sun yourself during the day & dance to big name DJ’s in super huge venues. Well sweet readers those days are behind SoBe. Now the clubs are packed with a weird combo of Jersey Shore wannabe’s & teenage rappers that still live with Mommy and work at Blockbuster. So Downtown Miami, once a dead zone, has stepped into the void with surpising results. has given birth to great art galleries, shops, café’s & yes nightclubs! Most famous among them is Space. I remember when Space open way back in the late 90’s and my group of party friends & myself dragged ourselves across the Bay to the party that kicked it all off! We being SoBe boys & girls gave the place 6 months tops (it is worth keeping in mind that most of us worked in clubs on the South Beach, Boy at Liquid, Justin at Score & Robin whenever she could pick up work) Well many years later Space in all it’s hugeness is still there & if the night I went is anything to judge by it is doing fine! There are 2 dance floors with enough room on each to play a game of football. And an outdoor area that while it does have music the vibe is much more chill. The crowd had plenty of the clueless, messy when partying crowd but there was also a lot of fun loving, crowd hopping party people that made one remember the glory days of house. The DJ that saved Boy’s life that night was David-Tort. He read the crowd like a dirty paperback romance novel & then like a true man left me wanting more! I swear I needed a cigeratte after his set. The hours of Space go hella later then most any other clubs in SoFla so make sure to bring your sunglasses for when you stumble out into the blinding Florida sun in the morning.

While House Music is no longer the celebration of life, love & diversity it once was these mix masters are leading the tribe back to solid ground & we should all keep our eyes on them…and it is not because they are all very hot men! Well maybe it is a little! So next time we visit the majic land of circuit it will be a bit more…well fabulous! In the meantime boys & girls play nice! And if you have been enjoying the background music for this posting...no folks it's not all in your head...visit the Mix Master himself DJ Jeffrey Jacobs.

Stay Fabulous!
Boy About Town

To some it's the Sunshine state or home of Mickey Mouse. Or maybe God's waiting room, amazing fishing or Margaritaville. How ever you know the state of Florida the fact remains you know it because this state can promote like nobody else. I have spent the summer here taking care of wreckage from my past & closing the door on a part of my life REALLY needed closing. However, while spending my 3 months bouncing around being fabulous & fun...and yes a bit annoying (I am not blind to myself people!) Boy About Town has found that this little corner of the world seems to be a war with it's self as Florida struggles to find an identity.

We all know that the world loves to flock to the beaches of Ft Lauderdale & South Beach to partake in all the fun both of these places offer, which Boy has enjoyed this summer to the dismay of his dermatologist. But are most of these fun loving adults aware that Broward County (Ft Lauderdale) & Dade County (South Beach) have rated number 1 and 2 in the nation for new HIV infections? And with a system that is already overwhelmed with huge numbers of people in need the local, as well as federal, goverments have picked now as the time to cut budgets that help combat this very issue. And these people come to enjoy the sun & nightlife only to find that the famed nightclubs and dance scene no longer the celebration of life they once were. The employment front is not a whole lot better. The largest employer in the southern most state is non other then the state it's self! And within this machine The Department Of Corrections is the king of the hill. Which is easy to understand since 1 in 5 adult males in Florida has or will be incarceted or on some kind of supervision. And that fun fact is easy to understand when you consider that Florida is at the LOW end of the high school graduation scale while at the HIGH end of the drop out rate.

With all this said I have to say congrads to those that fight the good fight both on social issues as well as the dance floor! Poverello, in Ft Lauderdale, provides life-saving food and basic life essentials to almost 2500 youth, women and men living with HIV/AIDS. This much needed & much loved agency has been backed by the local community, which defines the word diversity, for the past 25 years! Save Dade is an organization working to defend the Human Rights Ordinance which opposes discrimination, because this is the south & Florida does have it's own ghosts in that area. The Department Of Corrections is in an ongoing and never ending battle with the federal goverment as well as the ACLU over it's criminal treatment of the state's inmates and the EX offenders that find their road to rehabilitation blocked at every turn. And outstanding DJ's like Jeffrey Jacobs, pictured here with Boy, are leading the way back to the tribal feel of house music at smaller and yet fabulous venues like The Ramrod & Torpedo. And in all fairness, what was one of the most amazing parties Boy About Town has attended in years was Ryan Salazar's B-day bash this past weekend right off Ft Lauderdale Beach. So there is hope for Florida & I am praying the good guys win this one....Yes I do pray!