Initial Public Offerings

 "Did I tell you that I was kidnapped?" I have many friends who could say these words to me at a party in lower Manhattan and I would be forced to respond, "Which time?" Over the decades I hav...

http://www.derekhartley.com/2023/04/since-last-we-matt.html

 Are we out of the woods? I fear I have strayed far from the path. But are any of us sure of our journey these days? Is this finally our long promised Hot Girl Summer or is that burning sensatio...

http://www.derekhartley.com/2022/07/the-99-cent-match.html

 For more than a year, my social life has consisted almost entirely of mouthing "thank you!" and waving through a window at delivery people leaving near daily Amazon care packages on the front s...

http://www.derekhartley.com/2021/06/the-lack-of-rhythm-is-gonna-get-you.html

 I think we can all agree: it's been a crazy few years.  My radio show was canceled , but then we successfully relaunched ourselves and have grown into a podcast network with our own smartph...

http://www.derekhartley.com/2021/06/ready-reset-go.html

 I was 38 years old when Jonathan introduced himself to me at the Javitz Center. He didn't necessarily want to meet me. I was at the Gay Life Expo and had wandered over to the Here TV booth to ...

http://www.derekhartley.com/2021/01/the-time-between-us.html

It was very late on a Wednesday night in 1992 and we were not tired.  Michael Duggan and I were lingering outside Micky's West Hollywood immersed in the "fire sale," that sadly familiar last...

http://www.derekhartley.com/2020/08/the-derek-and-eric-show-revisited.html

Hello friends.  I suppose you thought I had darkened your door for the last time. How many mortified mornings after have I caused? We had a good run and even I thought the old grey mare, who...

http://www.derekhartley.com/2018/11/elder-gay-twink.html

A Cute Guy On The Cruise, Derek and Terry - March 2002 We were friends for 23 years or as Terry would say “at least twenty-five.” He was always counting because it counts, but also alway...

http://www.derekhartley.com/2017/09/terry-goldman-ter-bear.html

New York City has several recurring themes, most built around notions of high highs and low lows. The city has never been lovelier than it is right now. A perfect summer fading into a truly lusci...

http://www.derekhartley.com/2014/09/fall-back-disposition.html

Providence is not only humanity's cruel scorekeeper but also a dark chalet on West 57th Street filled with a complex labyrinth of stairs and levels. It's like a Hamburger Hamlet designed by M.C...

http://www.derekhartley.com/2014/03/club-step.html

To every generation a dance floor is born. Matty pointed up at the spray of antlers (painted white and tangled together) that hung overhead. "Remember when they used to have disco balls up t...

http://www.derekhartley.com/2013/12/the-vast-haze-of-disco.html

"Why are you here so early?" Ryan Hahn 's voice rang out across his empty apartment as I dodged three eager waiters desperate to put a drink in my hand before I even had a chance to dispatch my ...

http://www.derekhartley.com/2013/12/model-home.html

Yesterday was my birthday and with my roommate's encouragement, I hastily arranged some happy hour fun at Therapy Bar in midtown. I had a nice turnout, a good cross-section of people I know and ...

http://www.derekhartley.com/2013/10/post-natal-trip.html

Turning thirty is a big deal when you're gay. I should know. I've done it enough times. Tonight was the eve of Stephen Bauer 's birthday and he celebrated it by working. Times are tough for Mi...

http://www.derekhartley.com/2013/09/disc-jocular.html

Elmore Leonard is dead .  That is the kind of spare opener he would have enjoyed. Obviously, I have a very different writing style. But when famous writers die these days, the internet brief...

http://www.derekhartley.com/2013/08/fallowfridays.html

So there is a super moon going on right now. This means the moon is full and at its closest point so it looks a lot larger and brighter than usual. This also means everyone is batshit crazy. What...

http://www.derekhartley.com/2013/06/moon-stuck.html

Well if you were wondering if it is summer in New York yet. It’s fucking summer. After struggling last weekend to resist the urge to turn the heat back on after the nighttime temperature plung...

http://www.derekhartley.com/2013/06/two-night-show.html

I never go downtown, all the way downtown. When I first moved to Manhattan, I declared that I would never go south of Houston unless I was fucking a celebrity. So far, the most famous person I ev...

http://www.derekhartley.com/2013/05/route-canal.html

To say that I fell off the map in the last few months is an understatement. Moving to the suburbs has gone from nightlife inconvenience to the real estate equivalent of faking your own death. Fo...

http://www.derekhartley.com/2013/04/cuts-like-night.html

By this point, The Park is like an old friend. I haven’t seen it in a while, but coming back was like I never left. It was the place, downstairs by the fire, that Romaine and I first met a dec...

http://www.derekhartley.com/2013/01/the-americanization-of-richard.html

It was just one of those nights, where you know you won't have any control over what happens so you just have to give yourself over to the run-on sentences that will be. This feeling about tonigh...

http://www.derekhartley.com/2012/12/alls-well-that-cazwell.html

There I was, shivering as the icy wind kicked up off the East River. It’s night in DUMBO and I am in line outside the Galapagos Art Space. I have been here so many times that I can’t possibly...

http://www.derekhartley.com/2012/12/ben-there-done-that.html

I don't have a lot of friends. Some of that is by choice (I hate people). Some of it is by geography (I live in the suburbs). But most of it is purely my personality (I am unpleasant to people I ...

http://www.derekhartley.com/2012/11/grant-central.html

The doorman waved me into Vlada with a smooth gesture, “Go right in. I know your face.” He was as unknown to me as Jupiter. I know your old face he meant as he didn't bother to ask for my I...

http://www.derekhartley.com/2012/10/card-again.html

All this talk about the 1% and the 99% percent has finally piqued my curiosity. It is time to see how the other half lives. Unfortunately, I haven’t been invited into the home of a billionaire...

http://www.derekhartley.com/2012/07/partying-ways.html