It all started so nice and tidy: lovely pink pastry boxes lined up, neatly labeled, evenly spaced.

And then the Donut-teers descended like locusts and peace was forever destroyed by the sound of dozens of mouths chewing chewing chewing, moans of pleasure echoing across the park, up to Griffith Observatory where tourists stood, confused by the unearthly sounds of fried, frittered and glazed pleasure.

Come with me past the jump to see the full frontal donut porn.

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We came, we saw, we donutted. And it was awesome. A huge thank you, from me and from all of us here at Metblogs, to everyone, who came out to the Donut Summit today! We had an fifty entries – so basically, a heck of a lot of donuts – and a great crowd, and a beautiful afternoon! I’m sure you’re all dying to know the voting results, and who reigns supreme as DONUT KING (!!!) but first, there are a few people who need lots of thanking:

To our readers, old and new, for coming out and supporting us!

To all of the writers here at Metblogs who helped out in all kinds of ways but most especially the following people:

Kevin Ott, for writing a hilarious voting guide (which I’m going to ask him to post here for everyone to read), for helping scout locations, and for hanging out with me in Griffith Park for three hours this morning so that nobody would steal our picnic tables;

Our intrepid captain Lucinda, for her publicity know-how, her event-running smarts, her megaphone, her fantastic donut hats, for making last-minute trips to Smart and Final, and for thinking this event was a good idea in the first place;

Julia Frey, our coffee maven;

Queequeg, who drove all the way to Glendora to make sure that we would have those fresh strawberry Donut Man donuts;

The minds who came up with the idea of the Donut Summit – ,as I recall, it was hatched over pastrami sandwiches during the Classic Eats visit to Langer’s – I was there, Julia was there, Robnoxious was there, I think maybe Will Campbell was there, and I don’t remember who else – and I think it was Robnoxious who first suggested we bring all of LA’s donuts to one central location.  And thus the Donut Summit was born!

I also want to thank some of my non-Metblogger friends who drove me around to get Donut Summit supplies, and stayed up late with me spraypainting silver and gold donut medals. And special thanks to my friend Nikki who put her stage managerial skills to work and ran Donut Registration for us today.   I’m sure I’ve forgotten other people who deserve a huge thank you, but please know that we appreciate all your help and support!

I was so excited at the number of donut shops represented today – we had very little overlap, and later this week I’ll post a full list of the donut shops who were represented. I want to give a nod to what I thought were some of the highlights of the competition: DK’s Donuts, from Santa Monica absolutely floored me with their blueberry apple fritters (I think they were robbed of the Best Fritter title!) and fresh whipped cream donuts; Babycakes’ vegan donuts were delicious and light and tasty; and Frygirl’s homemade mini donuts were totally to die for (and she does catering!) and I will admit to personally saving all of the leftover Frygirl donuts for myself.

And now, after the jump, the results!

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There are full reports of the AMAZING event to come, but for now here is a small taste of what you missed.

Mmmmmmmmm…donuts!

It’s totally true; since 1970, when LA queers began marching in what became the annual Gay Pride Parade, we have sneakily invaded every corner of your hetero world.  From subculture to culture, you can’t tell us from you, or you from us!  This weekend, we are here to rub our invasion in your face: it’s Gay Pride Weekend, everyone, huzzah!  Various festivities in West Hollywood and Silver Lake are planned to remind you of how, even when we’re congregated en masse, we still look like you, and you us.

For the most part, West Hollywood is where you want to be, or want to avoid, depending on your tolerance for traffic and gays.  The guide to the family-friendly activities all around this gay ol’ town this weekend, after the jump.

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One week until the Donut Summit!  Yay!  There have been some questions floating around about how things will run, so I’ve tried to answer them all below:

1.  What will happen at the Donut Summit?
It’s going to work a little something like this:

- The festivities kick off at 1pm. So, from about 1-1:30, we’ll have Donut Registration. Just show up with your Donuts, check in with our illustrious Metbloggers, and we’ll make sure your donut box is clearly labeled with the name of your donut shop.

- Once everyone’s donuts are registered (so, by about 1:30), donut tasting will begin and will last until about 2:30. We’ll have donut tasting stations set up, and we’ll provide you with a ballot for voting on your top donuts. We’ll have Donut Marshalls on hand cutting up donuts for sharing, so that everyone can taste lots of different donuts from all over the city.

- Once all of the ballots are submitted, we’ll tally the votes! While vote tallying is going on, you lucky people get to hang out with Metbloggers, and there will be fun and games!

- At around 3:30, we’ll crown the Donut King!
(Please note that all times listed above are approximate and subject to change!)

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!!!!  John Waters himself will be at the Aratani/Japan America Theatre downtown on Tuesday to sit down and have a little chat with Princess Leia-turned-author (natch) Carrie Fisher about what they are titling “neurotic happiness.”  Really, I haven’t been this excited since the 5 seconds right before I was about to meet Jane Lynch.  The discussion is courtesy ALOUD, the Library Foundation of Los Angeles’ fantastic, cultural gem of a speakers’ series.  Waters probably will talk about this many role models, as he essays the topic in his new book, Role Models. From Johnny Mathis to Leslie Van Houten (one of the women convicted in the Manson murders (read his fascinating essay on his friendship with Van Houten here)), Waters talks about how he looked up to these individuals, amongst others, as wells of inspiration and fascination.  Did I mention how I’m so, so, oh so very so excited to see him in person discuss all this and more?

Tickets are $25, but before you balk at that, the fee helps support the Los Angeles Public Library, which you all know I heart-with-an-arrow-through-it.  Besides, what else are you going to spend $25 on – some overcrowded concert with expensive PBR and hipsters donning the same bulky Clark Kent glasses without the Superman suit underneath?  Thought so.

John Waters In Conversation With Carrie Fisher is on Tuesday, June 8 at 8pm at the Aratani/Japan America Theatre in Little Tokyo.  Tickets are  $25 for the general public; $17.50 for Library Associates. Role Models, incidentally, wins for Best Cover Art, Literary or Otherwise, of the Decade.

On June 18th, start your politically incorrect internal combustion engines for the 2010  Rental Car Rally (RCR), a 36-hour competitive road trip from Los Angeles to Tombstone, AZ.

RCR is a single leg competitive road trip in which teams of costumed players compete for cash and prizes. There is no set route, but each team must hit pre-defined checkpoints, the locations of which will be revealed in the rally booklet provided at the starting line. Each team must furnish photographic evidence of each checkpoint. Teams are scored by a combination of odometer reading, team style and hijinks (details on the RCR web site).

The event is organized by Supreme Commander, the co-founder of a huge, ludicrous water gun tournament, StreetWars, which I personally participated in a few years ago, and The Pants, who throws big video game parties.

The race begins Friday, June 18 and ends Sunday, June 20. A “Basic Team Ticket” will cost you $179 and includes entrance to the rally, admission to the rally pre-party, with drink specials and a briefcase stocked with mischief-making swag (which you can use to mess with the other teams). Each ticket covers one vehicle and unlimited teammates.

To register for the race or for more information, visit the RCR web site at rentalcarrally.com.

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There are four pairs of tickets in my hot little hand to give away for the Rescue Me Comedy Tour 2 on Thursday, June 10 at Club Nokia.

Denis Leary, along with musical guests The Enablers (featuring the Rehab Horns) will be on stage with some special guests that night, and only that night.

How do you get your hands on these tickets? Tell us in the comments what your favorite Denis Leary song, tv show or movie is and why. My favorite Denis Leary song is “I’m An Asshole.” I love that guy.

Be sure to leave your email address (it won’t be published) so we can contact you with ticket info.

Contest closes Wednesday at Noon!

More info: Rescue Me Comedy Tour

As the Donut Summit approaches (June 13^th!  Super soon!), we are turning to you, dear readers, for help!  We want to make sure that a fairly comprehensive range of LA’s donut shops are represented at the summit, so, if you’re coming, please comment below and let us know where you’re planning to bring your donuts from!

Below the jump is our working list of local donutteries:  those with an asterisk beside them have been claimed by Metrobloggers, but all of the rest are fair game!  And we are well aware that this list is currently far from complete, so if your favorite donut haunt isn’t on the list, that’s a-ok:  just comment below and let us know which local donut purveyor you want to add to the list!

And if you need remindin’, you can find out more about the Donut Summit and how it will work here.  You can also follow@donutsummit on Twitter, join our facebook page, or visit the Donut Summit blog for a one-stop source of donut info!

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A couple of years ago, on the spur of the moment, my sweetie Dan and I hopped into the car for an adventure and ended up at Lightning in a Bottle up in the Santa Barbara/Santa Ynez area.  It was an amazingly blissful weekend, filled with great music, in-depth ‘green’ talks by cool speakers, great performance art and all around groovy goodness.  And fun.  Lots of fun, which can be hard to come by in the daily grind of living in the city.  Best of all, we ran into so many friends and made a hella lot of new ones, who we still hang with to this day!   After a couple of years of annual fun communing at this spectacular three day event, last year it suddenly disappeared. Poof.  I was bummed.

Well, now Lightning in a Bottle is back and looking wilder and better than ever.  But instead of the oaks of Santa Barbara, this year’s event takes place in a park on the outskirts of Irvine.  Yeah, I thought that too.  Irvine?  But there’s a beautiful park there called Oak Canyon, full of rolling hills and oaks.  Looks really tranquil.  (that won’t last long!) There’s even a lake to camp by.  The infamous radical art group The Do LaB puts on this event (as well as Lucent L’Amour) and they always deliver.

One of the things I like about it is the plethora of music genres.  From DJ’s who rock the house, to live music that gets you on your feet, it’s all there.  There’s even Kirtan and meditative music performances.  This year the line-up includes: DJ Garth, Sandra Collins, March Forth Marching Band (not to be missed!), Govinda, Beats Antique and many, many others.  There’s also a boatload of Performance Art, Dance and mind-blowing installations and best of all, some really wonderful workshops.  Everyone from Daniel Pinchbeck to Bellydancing.  If yoga is your thing (it is for me) there are classes and workshops every day in their Temple of Consciousness.  I’m pretty psyched about the whole thing.  If you go, bring an open mind and get ready for a blast!  You can go here to buy tickets for the whole event… or just get a day pass to check it out!  Very tribal.

The future of Metblogs is looking up (yay!), and we’re really energized after this weekend’s awesome Canter’s blogathon (yay again!), and, to top it all off, the Donut Summit is getting closer and closer!
Last week, Kevin and I headed up to Griffith Park to do some location scouting, and we think we’ve found the most donut-friendly spot in Griffith Park. If you’re looking for donuts on June 13th, you’ll want to head to the Vermont Ave entrance to the park. There are three picnic areas just slightly north of that entrance and slightly south of the Greek theatre, near the intersection of Vermont and Commonwealth Canyon drive. We’ll be in one of those three picnic areas, and we should be super easy to find – look for our donut signs! We’ll also post a quick update on the blog and on twitter the morning of the event to let you know which of those three picnic spots we’re in. And hey, look, here’s a map to help you find us on June 13!  We’ll be at one of the three spots indicated.

In the meantime, we’ve created a clearinghouse for Donut Summit info over at donutsummit.wordpress.com. You can also follow @donutsummit on twitter, and, if you’re still kicking around facebook, join our event page, and help spread the word!

In the booth behind me, an elderly gentleman sat eating his breakfast, when out of nowhere Canter’s owner Gary dove into the booth with a bag full of baked goods, apologizing profusely telling the gent that he was losing his mind.

In the next moment Gary was up walking away and gesticulating wildly in mysterious and distressed exasperation. And a few moments later he’d returned, again begging forgiveness before leaving.

Was the gent in the booth behind me some sort of mobster? Relative? Food critic? Of course I had to ask and it turned out none of the above.

“Gary is my good friend,” he said. “And usually he makes time to sit and talk with me, but this morning he’s too busy and it’s driving him crazy.”

Just then Gary returns and says he expects the man to be in attandance at his upcoming funeral before jetting off down the aisle and out of sight.

“He’s very upset,” I remark, and the man nods.

“I’m upset that he’s upset!” he says before getting up from his breakfast and settling his bill at the cashier.

I interrupt the blogging at Canter’s to pop in a quick post to mention why I had to leave at 6:30pm instead of hanging out with the crew. I walked up the block on Fairfax to the auditorium of Fairfax High School to attend the premiere of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles (GMCLA) of Harvey Milk Schools Project which was co-presented by the Equality California Institute (EQCAI).

I was honored to be in the audience for the first ever public performance of The Harvey Milk Schools Project. GMCLA uses Harvey Milk’s life story to mix music and spoken-word to bring a message of equality to Los Angeles area high schools. The performance is compelling and poignant and brought the audience– which included State Senator Mark Leno– to its feet. As this program will be seen by thousands of students, I think this program is going to inspire and change the lives of young people! Huzzah, GMCLA!

What an amazing way to commemorate the first ever Harvey Milk Day (and what would have been Harvey’s 80th birthday). Other members of the audience included EQCA’s Executive Director Geoff Kors, Bruce Cohen (producer), and Dustin Lance Black (screenwriter) of the Academy Award-winning movie MILK.

If you know any schools which may benefit from the performance, here are just a few things GMCLA’s program offers at absolutely NO COST:

•Access to a live, on campus choral performance open to all interested students and faculty

•Historical information and education about various genres of music, composers, and important social issues such as racism, discrimination, civil rights, and human rights

•Lyric and music analysis experience

•Professional introductions from GMCLA’s diverse singing members about their careers, personal experiences with the chorus, and struggles as out, proud, non-stereotypical gay men

•FREE tickets and bus transportation to a main stage GMCLA concert

•A specialized, flexible program crafted to fit the scholastic and artistic needs of each individual school’s student body

•Master classes for choral students taught by GMCLA’s Assistant Conductor

GMCLA’s program engages students in the important work of comprehending and discussing the complexities surrounding human rights, civil rights, and the LGBT struggle for equality. This program actively promotes the reality that our community’s struggle for equal rights is not only universal, but an issue that has and can affect any group of people who find themselves in the minority.

The Brooklyn Sandwich, with SMOKED Turkey is the bomb-diggettiest.  Actually I got in trouble for taking pictures of the pickles.  Well whatever.

The LA Foodbank box is filling up.  REALLY filling up about half way already, the cash box needs a little help.  Times are tough I know, but if you got a spare dime or two to help them out please stop  by and see us and the other nearly dozen enjoying the food and fun times at Canter’s.

ps…this is my post #700. I’ll be returning control of my log-on to RUTH666

Sorry for the last minute posting. Didn’t want any intrepid souls to think it wasn’t happening, so to anyone considering/planning on joining me for tomorrow’s fourth of my five Bike Every (Satur)Day In May rides: tomorrow’s Two Rivers Ride is indeed on. I’m expecting attendance to be unlike past weeks not only because of the 65-plus mile distance involved, but also because I’ve ratcheted the start time to seven o’clock in the morning.

Why the gawd-awful early start? Well, what better way to conclude our long-distance roll than to enjoy some of the 7th stage of the Tour of California, whose 21-mile boomerang time trial course stretches between Bunker Hill south to the Coliseum and back.

The main difference with this trek is that there won’t be any of my usual stop & blah-blah (I’m saving my vocal chords for May 29′s Black Dahlia/Historic West Adams Ride). This is strictly a journey for the love of biking. From Silver Lake we’ll get downtown and from downtown we’ll get to the Real Eastside via the 6th Street Bridge and cruise Whittier Boulevard all the way across it to the San Gabriel River and its bikeway. From there we’ll roll downstream unhindered by cross traffic or door zones all the way to Seal Beach, work our way up into Long Beach to experience the joy of the 2nd Street sharrows before enjoying the serenity of the LBC’s beach bike path to get to the Los Angeles River where we’ll head inland back to the Arts District and lunch at Wurstkuche.

The route is mapped here. We start and finish at SilverSun Plaza (Sunset Boulevard & Parkman Avenue, Silver Lake). I’m estimating that without problems it’ll be approximately a five-hour tour, so if all goes well we’ll be lunching before 1 p.m. and  marveling at the time trials about an hour after that.

PS. Wanna join me but don’t have the time or the inclination to go all the way?  Then hop the Blue Line around mile 40 when we get near downtown Long Beach.