Merry Mis-Adventures

Red Bull Music Academy | London 2010

2010-04-25T21:18:00.002-06:00

I had the honor of attending Red Bull Music Academy 2010 in London. For those who don't know anything about the Academy, I would encourage you to go deep on the info below and hit up the site for more info. It's one of the most amazing events I've ever been a part of.

The 2010 RBMA highlights:

The scoop from the RBMA website:
Know The Score
The Red Bull Music Academy In A Nutshell

The Red Bull Music Academy is a platform for those who shape our musical future, a music workshop that has been traveling the world since 1998. Setting up our EQ HQ for two fortnight-long 'terms' in a different musical metropolis each year, we pull together pioneers of days-gone-by and musical legends of tomorrow from all aspects of rhythm and sound.

For two weeks, 60 selected participants - producers, vocalists, DJs, instrumentalists, and allround musical mavericks from all around the globe - come together to check gear, chat on tunes, play in clubs, get a rare glimpse into local musical hybrids in a different country, swap musical visions in the studio, and discover closely-guarded secrets of mixing desk magic - straight from those who started revolutions in sound. They're the people we look up to, and they're looking to you for a fresh perspective in turn.

Sofa Surfin'
The Lecture Sessions

Since the very first session back in '98, when Jeff Mills revealed his transglobal hotel secrets, the Academy lectures have offered a chance for participants to glean those pearls of renegade wisdom.

It's a long list, but whether they're house dons like Moodymann or Larry Heard, techno heads like Derrick May or Moritz von Oswald, bass steppers like Skream or Roska, disco nuts like Prins Thomas or DJ Harvey, hip hop heavyweights like Just Blaze and ?uestlove, trojan horses in popland like Mark Ronson and Joe Goddard, or just straight-up legends like Steve Reich or Bob Moog, they've all joined us on the couch for an honest insight into their musical minds - and many will follow in the years to come.

Strings Of Life
The Studio Sessions

Between times - usually there are two lecture sessions per day - Academy attendees record exclusive radio shows, and meet in the lounge to chat about the latest gear or their homeland scenes. Then they gather in the studios set up for the occasion, turning their fresh knowledge into melodies and basslines. You might find yourself exchanging licks with your favourite reggae-soul composer in a studio session, or writing sentimental lyrics with a Scandinavian singer/songwriter at a milkshake bar. The building echoes with noise and music well into the morning hours, and anything could happen.

(Night Time Is) The Right Time
The Concerts and Clubnights

And when stars come out on the dark side of the moon, studio time will give way to signature concerts and club nights in some of the host city's most inspiring venues. It might seem too good to be true, but it's actually a very simple recipe: the best in music, past & present, from around the world. All under one roof, getting down just for the funk of it. The Red Bull Music Academy is there to advance and inspire at a grassroots level.

Wherever We Lay Our Hats
The Wandering Feet of the Academy

The Academy shifts location to zoom in on micro-cultures and new musical hybrids that are springing up all over the world. Since 1998, its acoustically treated studio walls have been set up in cities such as Berlin, New York, São Paulo, Cape Town, Melbourne, and Barcelona, giving international participants a chance for an original adventure, their own unique set of experiences. The Academy also aims to link up with creative folks from every sector, from music production to arichtecture and graphic design, providing them with an international platform and allowing them to make contacts all across globe. It's a two-way street, and everyone's getting closer to the essence of creativity.

In 2010 we planted our stakes in London, shedding light on past, present and future of one of the most vibrant music scenes to ever exist. The location and exact date for the 2011 edition will be announced soon - watch this space!

If Your Name's On The List...
Who Can Apply for the Academy?

The Academy is intended for anyone with a strong yen for music and a desire to be involved in its evolution: producers, instrumentalists, MCs, singers, DJs, sound engineers, broadcasters, laptop lapdancers, guitar guerreros, soulful songwriters - they'll all be considered.

No particular set of skills is necessary. For each Academy, two groups of 30 participants are chosen to represent a wide range of cultures, musical backgrounds and set of skills. There are no set quotas for any country or genre of music. Therefore everyone has an equal chance of coming along - as long as they have a creative vision, an honest attitude and an open approach. You'll need to be 18 or over when the Academy workshops starts, but there's no age limit other than that.

No one will forbid you and your entire crew to enter individually. But please do understand that fairness, logistics and our desire to create open socio-dynamics alone do not allow us to invite entire crews.

If you don't get in, it does not mean that you're not the kind of person we're looking for. Often the number of potential participants far outnumbers the amount we are able to invite. You should definitely apply again: next year, you might be just the person to create the right balance in the final selection of 60 people.

Red Bull Music Academy Radio

London | Amsterdam | Helsinki (11/19-11/29)

2010-04-25T20:59:00.002-06:00

Thurs (10/19) – after only 3 hours of sleep and far too many Bull Hills (Red Bull + Sugar Hill beer), I had to get up and head to JFK for my flight to London. I crawled into the cab and quickly laid my head down on the back seat for a nap. About half way to JFK, I woke up suddenly and started screaming profanities…. Sh*t! Sh*t! Sh*t! … I forgot my passport! I was freaking out but the cabbie pulled a “U”ie and darted back to Chelsea and then back toward JFK. I made it *just* in time to check my bag and luckily preserved my “never missed a flight” status. Whew – that was close! I landed at Heathrow, hopped on the Tube to Angel through Kings Cross and was greeted on the street by KJ, Broen and a doner kebab. Yay! It had been way too long on all fronts. We spent the night catching up on gossip and sleep… as we knew a big weekend lie ahead.

Friday (10/20) – KJ went to work in the am so I was left to my own devices for the day. I had been to London many times before so wasn’t necessarily on a site-seeing crusade but decided to spend the day wandering around the city. I started things off with a mocha at a Café Mobile espresso cart (where I got grilled about the feasibility of such a cart in NYC) and then darted over to the London Bridge Tube stop for a walk along the Thames Path. I stopped at the Tower Bridge when I saw they had a Red Bull Experiment exhibit, showcasing Robbie Maddison’s recent back flip over the open bridge (web clip and pic). After that I walked and walked and walked until I realized that North Greenwich was probably too far to walk – even for me. A short Tube ride later, I was at the O2, the new entertainment complex which includes an arena, a nightclub (Matter, which is owned by the same people behind Fabric) and various other entertainment options. I had the choice between the Michael Jackson exhibit and the British Music Experience and opted for the latter given the contextual relevance. Overall it was great – although it may have been a bit interactive for its own good (or maybe I’m just lazy?). Ha.

After the O2, I ventured toward Soho and wandered for awhile longer. Along the way I walked past Busabi Eathai, a restaurant I had eaten at in 2001 on my very first trip out of the US. After that I met KJ for after dinner drinks at a funky little lounge called Graphic which rotates the work of various graphic designers. That night we grabbed some Turkish food in Angel and met up with Sami and Catherine for a low key night which ended on a particularly funny note: A wasted bloke was walking down the street toward us when all of the sudden his buddy shoved him (hard!) into a massive pile of empty boxes on the street. He was so drunk that he couldn’t move (let alone get up) and remained face down in the boxes for some time. Not to miss out on a good photo opportunity, me and the crew piled on more boxes and then proceeded to stand on the top, surfing on the wasted mess of a man below. I’m going to hell. Ha!

Sat (10/21) – KJ took me hat shopping at CA4LA in Shoreditch for a belated birthday present. We tried pretty much every hat in the joint before finally settling on our new lids. Goes without saying that KJ and my selections were quite different (-; After that we started a Bloody Mary and brunch crawl – stopping first at Cantaloupe and then at Breakfast Club before finally landing at Nir’s apartment. KJ and I let Nir go to the gym (someone’s gotta do it) and cabbed up to Camden for the Red Bull Street Style UK finals at St. Michael’s Church. (link). That night we had a DESLISH dinner at Elk in the Woods, got our pre-game on and then went to Fabric for the main event of the trip. We’re old and tired so we only lasted until 6am but not before catching Craig Richards, Jeremy P. Caufield, Zip, Pan Pot, Caesar & Disorder and Inland Knights. Fabric definitely lived up to its billing as world’s best sound system and all around amazing club – I can see why the Brits still venture out night after night for big room madness.

Sunday (10/22) – Laziest day ever: pay per view movies, Indian food and the couch.

Mon (10/23) – KJ was back to work so I decided to cruise over to Red Bull’s UK HQ right near the Tower Bridge to meet up with a colleague and check out their new digs and future site of RB Music Academy (Feb 2010). The afternoon was spent exploring Borough Market, eating Fish & Chips and walking, walking, walking until I couldn’t walk anymore. Since it was my last night in London, KJ, Broen, Sami, Catherine, Nir and Taj all gathered at a great tapas joint in Shoreditch where we sucked down Brandy sangria and pounded tapas like it was going out of style. yum, yum, yum. Then we had a final nightcap at Ottolinghi in Angel, where good friend Haim (aka Cam) is working.

Tues (10/24 & beyond)
Unfortunately the rest of the trip was not documented very well so I'll have to come back and edit this when I have some time to put *pen to paper*. In the meantime, just know that Amsterdam is amazing but not for any of the reasons everyone always talks about - ganja, red light district, etc. And... that my 24 hours in Helsinki was absolutely off the chain!

The highlights:
--Picked up by Red Bull local at the airport
--Stopped for afternoon drinks a super cool loungey hangout, Siltanen
--Toured the city's sights
--Got dropped off at a dope, boutique hotel, Klaus K
--Given clothing from a local company, Makia
--Taken out to a traditional Finnish dinner of meatballs and Brandy sauce at Tori
--Hit up a cool bar called Beetroot and drank Glögi (a wintery mulled wine drink with almonds and cranberries) and the most popular shot in Finland, Fishu (2 packs of ground up fisherman friends packets to ½ litre of vodka)
--Popped over to the 30th bday party of a few club owners at Motellet, rocked out a Mo-vember party at Klaus K and then made it to Redrum for Berghain resident, Ben Klock.
--Was very, very hungover for the long flight from Finland back to the US of A.

Red Bull BC One (11/18)

2009-11-19T20:53:00.000-06:00

Wed (10/18) – Months of plotting and planning resulted in another legendary Red Bull event in NYC. This time it was Red Bull BC One, our global b-boy competition, which took place at Hammerstein Ballroom and sold out in 53 minutes. The 16 b-boys from around the world did not disappoint, nor did host and after party performer, KRS One, or Talib Kweli who also threw down.

A new chapter was written in the birthplace of Hip Hop, New York City. Red Bull BC One shook iconic music venue, Hammerstein ballroom, to its core. Sixteen b-boys from eleven countries battled with pride in front of a sold-out crowd of more than 1,600 enthusiastic fans. French b-boy Lilou took home the honor of being "The One" for the second time, a first in Red Bull BC One's six year history. It was no easy task for Lilou, as all the night's competitors put their best foot forward or "up". He defeated USA's Cloud, who had a comeback after a four-year hiatus touring with Madonna, in a three-round intense finals face-off. In the end, Lilou’s character, style and confidence prevailed. The night featured performances by the original b-boys Rock Steady Crew, Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek, as well as Hip-Hop’s "Teacha” KRS One.

Preview:

Recap:

Bratislava | Salzburg | St. Wolfgang | Vienna (8/1-8/9)

2009-09-25T18:34:00.005-06:00

Summer has come and gone and I haven't blogged or beached. How sad! I did take a work trip to Austria in August, which I book-ended with fun weekends with friends. I figured I might as well drop a quick post with some pics and a few highlights.

I started things off by flying from NYC to Vienna (business class baby!) and then hopped a bus over the border to Bratislava, Slovakia to visit an old friend from the Barcelona days. For those who haven't already heard me talk about Branislav and his photos photos, check 'em: www.kropilak.com.

Some quick background from our friends at Wikipedia: Bratislava is the capital of the Slovak Republic and, with a population of about 429,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries, and it and Vienna are the two European national capitals closest to one another, at less than 60 kilometres (37 mi) apart.

We spent the weekend touring the old town, checking out some bars near the foot of Bratislava Castle, hitting up a few parties including one under the UFO restaurant near the Nový Most bridge and lounging on a dock at a nearby lake. Of course I chowed down on bryndzové halušky a traditional Slovak meal of small potato dumplings topped with sheep cheese and bacon. Holy heavy, batman. I could barely eat it! Saturday night Branislav and I intended to go out but somehow managed never to leave the house. Instead we killed a bottle of Bacardi and Kofola (Slovak cola) while tag teaming house and techno all night- Branislav on turntables and me on the iPod. Was an absolute blast!

Bratislava:

After the weekend, I left Slovakia and made my way across Austria to Salzburg by train. Salzburg is the fourth-largest city in Austria and birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Salzburg's "Old Town" (Altstadt) is famous for it's baroque architecture, shopping and Mozart sites, making it a very popular tourist destination. To be honest - it was a bit too touristy for me but I was only there for 24hrs so no harm done. From Salzburg, I made my way to St. Wolfgang, a market town of 2,700 people right on the northern shore of the Wolfgangsee (lake). I stayed at the Scalaria, a fairly ridiculous event hotel. My room had a lovely view of the lake and mountains. I stayed there all week plowing through business planning meetings and Red Bull all day every day (-;

Friday I made my way back to the city, this time Vienna. I was fortunate enough to be greeted at the train station by a friend of a friend who chauffeured me her apartment where I'd be staying for the weekend (while and her boyfriend were out of town). Isn't that convenient! I wandered around the city by day and night without much purpose (which was great!) and came across a lot of great architecture, food and fun. One of the highlights was a party at Pratersauna a one-time "sweat'n'bang" park sauna converted into a dope indoor/outdoor party spot (with a pool!).

Salzburg & Vienna:

3 Weeks - 17,242 Miles

2009-05-22T12:16:00.006-06:00

New York - San Diego - New York: Red Bull Air Race

New York - Las Vegas - New York: Cher @ Caesar's Palace with Mom for Cher's 63rd Birthday. Don't laugh- this show was amazing!

New York Pit Stop: I was home for less than 24 hours and decided to spend the bulk of it at the Blk Mkt Membership & Uddermaddess 3 Year Anniversary Party in a massive Brooklyn warehouse. And yes, I went straight from the party to the airport at 10am Saturday morning in a white limo with Crazy Larry, Taimur and the boys from Soulclap. Yes, that's how we roll!

New York - Detroit: Detroit Electronic Music Festival for the 4th year in a row. Luciano, Loco Dice, Adam Beyer, Marco Carola, Guy Gerber, Carl Cox, Francois K, Steve Bug, Wighnomy Bros, Tiefschwarz. The "I'm on a Boat" party on the Detroit Princess, The Old Miami and the Betty Kang's Angels reality TV show (in the making). Enough said.

Detroit - Los Angeles (via Las Vegas): Three days in a conference room. Yeah, not so much.

Los Angeles - Montreal (via Chicago): Amazing art, music, food and fun at Mutek and Piknic Electronik all weekend long. Not even the rain could put a damper on our fun as we rocked right through multiple showers at Piknic and lasted to Ricardo Villalobos' very last track. Oh and the Montreal party house legend lives on...

Montreal - Rochester - Buffalo - New York: Work, work, work... but I did get to go snow tubing (in June!?) at Snow Park Niagara ha!

Red Bull Air Race World Champsionship - San Diego (5/10/09)

2009-05-14T20:26:00.006-06:00

Last weekend I hopped a 747 to San Diego to catch the second race in the Red Bull Air Race World Championship
I had heard and seen quite a bit about the event since joining the company but had to experience it firsthand. The objective is to navigate an aerial race track featuring air-filled pylons in the fastest possible time incurring as few penalties as possible. Pilots can win World Championship points at each race and the one with the most points after the last race of the season becomes the Red Bull Air Race World Champion. The race is pretty amazing on TV but even better up close and personal while sitting in sunny San Diego harbor!

On his final flight of the weekend, French flight instructor, Nicholas Ivanoff, flew his fastest (1:17.21) and won the race. He defeated Paul Bonhomme of the United Kingdom by 1.11 seconds. Hannes Arch of Australia was third.

Next up is Windsor, Ontario... then the series is off to Budapest, Porto and Barcelona!

Highlight Reel:

NFL Player and Red Bull Athlete, Reggie Bush, Gets His Turn:

View from the Control Tower:

Dancing Rams VI: Animal Crackers

2009-04-23T18:23:00.007-06:00

The sixth year of Dancing Rams lived up to the hype with 400+ people showing up to Bar 13's rooftop for sunshine, shenanigans, super dope beats and of course... animal crackers. I could go on and on about all the hysterical costumes and antics but I think I'll let the pictures, videos and animations speak for themselves.

Extra special lovin to everyone who came in from out of town for the big the day as well as Melanie, Dill, Ali, Joel, Memo, Lloyd, Nora and Karen who all had extra special roles in VI.

Photos:

Betty Confetti Blasts the Cannon:

Wendy & The Zebra Sisters:

Animal Cracker Races (by Lloyd Alvarez):

Stadenco Beats:

Red Bull Big Tune (12/3/08)

2008-12-04T20:34:00.005-06:00

"Big Tune began as the brainchild of DJ/producer/emcee—Vitamin D and Hip Hop visionary/event producer --Jonathan Moore, in 2004 with the purpose of bringing emerging and established talent to the forefront. After three years of hosting thriving local battles in Seattle, they forged a creative partnership with Red Bull and the event evolved beyond a beat battle into a dynamic national producer program."

Over 800 people packed Highline Ballroom Wednesday night to see the 16 regional finalists battle it for Big Tune 2008 supremacy and me and a crew were right in the thick of things. It's rare that I'm out at hip hop events but this was something any beat lover could appreciate. These kids were so inspiring... dropping a ton of completely original tracks as well as some others that made use of some really clever samples. Best and most unexpected sample of the night had to go to Beat Makers (aka Country Club) who worked in Rosemary Clooney's Mambo Italiano. Straight up awesome! Besides the young guns, we were also treated to Ghostface Killah, Alchemist and the recently reunited Digable Planets who gave us what we REALLY wanted by playing their 1992 jam, Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat). I don't know how old they were in the early 90s but these cats still look young.

As for the 17 year-old winner, C-Sick, he earned the respect of everyone in the room as well as the chance to spend some time at Red Bull Studios in Santa Monica with either Common, Nas, Lupe Fiasco or The Game. Watch out world, this kid is gonna be big!

Girl Talk @ Terminal 5 (11/16/08)

2008-11-22T10:04:00.006-06:00

I first heard about Pittsburgh mash-up DJ, Girl Talk, in Detroit last May and finally got to catch the live act at the All Points West Festival in August. I was so impressed with the energy of the performance at APW I vowed not to miss Girl Talk (aka Greg Gilles) again. Me and a crew hit up the 2nd of 3 sold out shows at Terminal 5 and had a ridiculous time. So many people have been hating on Girl Talk but I must say, I'm leaning toward the party-rocking-hipster DJs these days - they are bringing the FUN back to nightlife and I'm all for it. I can't tell you how many times I've been to electronic music parties recently and found myself utterly bored by the music and the vibe. And... I know I'm not alone despite what many so-called pundits will admit publicly. Where else are you going to get 2 Live Crew, Journey, Notorious B.I.G., Kelley Clarkson and others all in one sitting? Awesome.

Definitely check out the videos below and get on Girl Talk's website to download his mix (pay whatever you want) if you haven't already.

Montage of My Videos:

ON STAGE with Girl Talk:

Photo Credit: NY Times

Ambergris Caye, Belize (11/7/08)

2008-11-13T15:56:00.005-06:00

As fate would have it, the very same day I gave notice to Unilever, Travel Zoo announced ridiculously low fares from NYC to Belize. Never one to pass up a chance to travel or soak the sun, I booked (for $200 RT!!) and decided to head down alone for 6 days for some r&r before starting my new job. It's a tiny country with only about 320,000 people but it has a rich history and diverse culture. Once part of the Mayan, and very briefly the Spanish Empire, it was most recently affiliated with the British Empire, prior to gaining its independence in 1981 (from Wiki). In 2007 I started my summer travel adventure in Caye Caulker so this time I opted for the other, more developed island, Ambergris Caye. You may not realize it but you've definitely heard of this island before... probably as early as 1987 when Madonna sung about it in "La Isla Bonita" or maybe more recently in 2001 when Fox aired the Temptation Island reality show. Either way, my blog will not be the first pop culture mention for the 25 square mile island.

I decided to do things a bit differently this time around. For your viewing pleasure I actually created a movie to entertain you and for your reading pleasure I'm going to forgo the day-by-day account and share some highlights by topic instead. Enjoy!

Average Time To Bed: 8:00 pm.

Average Time to Rise: 6:15 am (followed by a 4-mile run on the beach every morning!)

Best Meals: Lobster burrito at Waraguma; Puttanesca-style Cobia (fish) at Wild Mango's; Rice/Beans/Stew Chicken from a street vendor in Central Park; Calamari & Shrimp Salad in a light Peanut Sauce at Blue Water Grill; Creole Conch @ Lily's.

Best Drinks: Iced Mocha @ Island Perk; Michelada @ Cholo's Sports Bar (zinga!)

Biggest Disappointments: Getting a bad Magnum (which must have been melted and frozen many times in transit to the island); Not having a hammock at my hotel.

Biggest Surprise: Being treated to a snorkeling session by people I had met 20 minutes earlier.

Best Raining Morning Activity: 60 minute therapeutic massage.

Most Intense Moment: Having a sea version of a vulture swoop down above my head to try and steal the chum from the sharks I was swimming with!

Most Cathartic Moment: Sitting on my balcony listening to Dixon set thinking about myself, my goals and my purpose in life.

Best New Travel Friends: Patty & Todd from Boise; Yousef & Ahmed from Jordan; Mohamed from Lebanon; Andrew & Miguel from Ambergris Caye; Jennifer and Tenisha from Portland; Girls from San Antonio; Little Girl (name unknown) from Ambergris Caye; Roy Elvis from Ambergris Caye; Elliot and Samantha from NC.

Oddest New Travel Friend: B**** (name withheld) from Jersey City who within the course of a few hours told me everything about his: estranged daughter, crazy ex-wife, drug addictions, millions made, millions lost, views on free trade, thoughts on the bailout, food interests, sex life, rent, social security payments, etc.

Books Read: Water for Elephants, Tribes

Best Mini-Adventure: Renting a bike for the day and exploring all of north island.

Most Satisfying Travel Moment: Knowing many of the locals by name (and vice versa) after only a few days.

Most Annoying Travel Moment: Having to listen to the cat calls from all of the island men (but then again, that happens everywhere)

Circo Loco Halloween Party @ Supreme Trading (10/31/08)

2008-11-02T08:50:00.008-06:00

The world's craziest party, Circo Loco, finally made it's way to New York City... and just in time for Halloween. You may remember hearing about this party from my two trips to DC-10 in Ibiza in 2006 - which still sit in my top 5 clubbing adventures ever [Trip #1, Trip #2].

I got out to Williamsburg via the L train which might as well have been the Greenwich Village Parade for all of the drunk, costumed freaks that were piled inside. The venue, Supreme Trading, was just a short walk from the Bedford subway station but it took me 45 minutes to get through the entrance and coat check lines. Admittedly I was somewhat annoyed to start the night but once I saw the 7,500 sq ft space with a main bar room, outdoor area and two large galleries, I knew we were in for a good night. It was gritty, raw, had a truly underground vibe and went LATE...a combination not found very often in NYC these days.

Andrew Grant, the only American resident at DC-10, was already rockin the main room when I got there. He played dirty tech for about two hours and then handed things off to Cirillo who kept things moving nicely. He and Tania (who only played sporadically) played until sometime around sunrise (6:45ish) and then handed things off to a mysterious DJ who I later found out was Tania's boyfriend, Tatto. I thought the music up until that point had been good but was hoping someone would send it to the next level with some BIG ROOM BANGERS. And Tania's bf was just the man to do it. He literally tore the room apart by cranking out one monster bass line after another. The last few hours were pure bliss - a big room full of crazy party people smiling and grinding it out to some wicked beats. It's not easy to replicate the Circo Loco vibe outside of DC-10 but the room had a sky light which allowed the sun to pour into the dirty a$$ room for the last few hours once again proving that daylight is not the enemy of 24-hr party people. When they finally ended the party at 9am everyone in the room was soaked with sweat and covered with gnarly party sludge having just endured the elements of an 11-hour Halloween marathon... yet everyone wanted more.

I have to give a lot of credit to ReSOLUTE and Sheik'n'Beik for throwing a monster bash. It was one of the best parties I've been to in NYC in a long time and not one I'm going to forget anytime soon. Word on the street is that Supreme Trading has been taken over by party-minded management... I can only hope they bring the ReSOLUTE and Sheik'n'Beik boys back for round two.

David Mancuso's Legendary Loft Parties... Revisited (10/12/08)

2008-10-11T21:39:00.011-06:00

David Mancuso is now a dance music legend but when he first moved to NYC in the 1960s he was simply a music and electronics enthusiast who happened to have a large loft in an industrial section of Manhattan. At first "The Loft" was used to play records for a small group of friends but by 1971 David was playing host to regular parties. What made his parties unique then was that he kept them "invitation only" and spent a lot of time thinking about "the vibe" and how to avoid using a traditional nightclub business model. For him, it was all about the music and never about money. His success at keeping his parties both underground and legal for so long is quite amazing. Beyond creating his own incredible events in the 70s, David Mancuso can also take much of the credit for many of the most famous venues of the disco era (e.g. Paradise Garage, The Gallery and The Saint) as they were modeled after The Loft. In addition, his parties and music served as a huge inspiration for an entire generation of DJs such as Francois K, Frankie Knuckles, Larry Levan, Danny Krivit, David Morales and Nicky Siano who cut their teeth as party-goers at The Loft.

Believe it or not, the 64-year old is STILL throwing parties a few times a year. I was lucky enough to score an invite to his latest party which was held at a Ukrainian community center in the East Village from 6pm-12am on a Sunday. From the minute we walked in, I knew it was not going to be like any party I had ever attended and I mean that in the best possible way. True to original form, David didn't mix any records and while he was switching from one to the next, the crowd stopped dancing to applaud. He also still uses vintage equipment including Klipschorn speakers which were sprinkled in a circular pattern around the room. The volume was kept quite low (compared to what I'm used to!) but the smooth and crisp analog sound was more than enough to tickle our ears. The track selection is exactly what you'd expect if know anything about David Mancuso - lots of 70s disco and house jams - all happy and groovy. A few track IDs from the night: Afro Medusa - Pasilda, The Police (Unknown Remix) - Voices Inside My Head, Musique - Push Push in the Bush, Damon Harris - It's Music.

The vibe was great - with people of all shades, shapes and sizes grooving around the room - dancing in the middle and talking on the sides. A BYOB policy was in full effect and its such a respectful environment that people leave their drinks at side banquet tables all night without incident. Later in the night they even had a sizable buffet dinner. I had an absolute blast. It was so great to get "back to basics" and dance dance dance and smile smile smile for an entire night out. The way it should be.

If you're interested in reading more about David Mancuso and The Loft, I highly recommend Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, 1970-1979.

Push Push in the Bush

Photo Credit: John Dill

Banksy's Village Pet Store & Charcoal Grill (10/12/08)

2008-10-11T21:11:00.011-06:00

If you're not already familiar with the work of UK street artist, Banksy, you need to take a minute to get acquainted by reading my short blog post from last year. Traditionally known for his distinctive graffiti and stencil style of art, he's taken an interesting turn with his first official show in NYC. The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill is a fake store/restaurant located at 89 Seventh Ave South (near Bleecker) which started as a project to draw attention to the relationship between humans and animals. The Wooster Collective website has a direct quote from Banksy himself:

"New Yorkers don’t care about art, they care about pets. So I’m exhibiting them instead. I wanted to make art that questioned our relationship with animals and the ethics and sustainability of factory farming, but it ended up as chicken nuggets singing. I took all the money I made exploiting an animal in my last show and used it to fund a new show about the exploitation of animals. If its art and you can see it from the street, I guess it could still be considered street art."

Me, Lloyd and Christina went down this afternoon to check it out and it was simply awesome. I find myself bored with so much art but this was right in my wheel house - unique, creative and post-modern in both concept and delivery. The idea of an artist taking over an ordinary commercial space (with a parody of sorts) is simple yet so unique and effective (for me at least)! I've included some of the pictures of the installation I found online but it's worth noting that the work is all Hollywood-quality animatronics (mechanised puppets). There are swimming fish sticks, chicken McNuggets bobbing their heads into BBQ sauce and a chimp scratching himself and watching primate porn, among others. Really, really cool stuff. It's showing thru Halloween so if you're in NYC... get there!

FYI you should also check out Banksy's new street art around town as well - we stopped by Houston & MacDougal and Grand & Wooster. And to top off the day we had a Russell Simmons sighting in SoHo - he was cruising the streets on his dope old school bike!

--NY Times Article
--Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill Website
--Banksy's Website

NOTCOT: Banksy's Village Petstore & Charcoal Grill from Jean Aw on Vimeo.

LoveFest 2008 (10/3/08)

2008-10-08T17:12:00.010-06:00

The original Love Parade was held in Berlin in 1989 just a few months before the Berlin Wall came down. It started as a political demonstration for peace and international understanding through music and has since evolved into a showcase for electronic music and rave culture (PLUR) in cities throughout the world. This year was the fourth LoveFest, San Francisco's version of Love Parade, which drew over 100,000 people!! Click here for a bird's eye view.) Many of my friends had made the trip the past few years and after having such an amazing time in San Fran last year for Halloween, I was looking for any excuse to head back. LoveFest was absolutely incredible from start to finish.

Betty and I got to town late Thursday night (and were greeted by three of my favorite people ever - Gal, Steve and Casey - aka The Sheep!) and then spent Friday cruising around town shopping, sipping wine and feasting on oysters. Yes, it's a tough life... I know. We spent the evening enjoying a relaxing dinner at home with Angelina Jolie and an old friend, Artemis. Then... the weekend got underway.

We started things off with a pre-game and costume prep session at Casey and Steve's before heading over to Mighty for Lee Burridge's GET WEIRD party. The night couldn't have been better as I was surrounded by tons of friends and lots of weird. Lee absolutely assaulted the club for multiple hours. Lots of love to the Listed Productions crew who threw a great party which included a sidewalk DJ set-up and RV party-mobile that provided a much needed break in the sweat box action inside. The first trip back home to SF for Moon Beam (the gay dog marionette) who was adopted by my baby daddy (John Dill) during a visit earlier this summer was a resounding success. Some called his performance awe inspiring.

No rest for the wicked as we had to be up at 9:30am to get ready for the actual parade. Our crew was lucky enough to secure spots aboard the Listed "Get Spacey" float which had Lee Burridge, Three, Bill Patrick, Jason Emsley, Dory, Hac Le, Naveen G, Mike Khoury, Nikita and Tim McCormack. Everyone got dressed to the nines including Bill wearing a bumble bee matrix spandex suit and Lee in a full space robot costume (to start) and a unidentifiable dress and wig outfit (to finish). The float had a few difficult moments with lost sound and a lost wheel (ha!) but we made the most of it rockin all the way down Market Street. Sometime around 3pm the floats all parked near City Hall and a massive 100,000+ party raged on. Every type of music, vibe and crowd was represented which was extremely refreshing. We had a blast cruising around the perimeter taking it all in before finally landing back at the mothership which was GOING OFF! The six hours that followed are a bit of a blur but the highlights include: skateboard tricks, a dance-off with a homeless dude, a pair of cock-eyed sunglasses, a power drill, a big green frog, astronaut ice cream, space fairy push-ups, the debut of the San Fran Book of Bad Ideas, Hannah's "hole" decals, saving Lee's space slipper from certain death, "fishing" with The BoBI... and so many more! I went home after the parade, most others FORGOT TO GO HOME.

Sunday = Funday. Let's do it again! Betty and Casey started the day with Bloody Mary's while Steve and I polished off a bottle of Champers with breakfast. Then we went to Gal's to meet the rest of the boys for an 11am pre-party before the Castro Street Fair. I made the move from Champers to Cava Guava and was lit up like a Christmas tree by noon. Lovely. The boys moved on to the street fair while Betty and I resumed the party pole position at the infamous club, The End Up, where party goers had been chugging along since the night before. I had always heard great things about this legendary club but I had no idea it had such a massive outdoor space. I think my friends and I like to pretend we love dark and dirty hell holes, but when given the chance to party outdoors during the day, I realize that's all bullsh*t. The End Up DEFINITELY gets my vote for Best U.S. Club.

We arrived just as Billy and Lee were starting their annual 8-hour tag team set which was filled with filthy tunes. Throughout the party I oscillated between busting a move inside and running around causing trouble outside. Some of the more hilarious moments included: a pathetic air horn, the big hands, the coochie duster (of course!), an appearance by the dirty mo*fo rabbit, Nadia Gone Wild, two lost children (last in the care of Dane'lle and Jason Elmsley!), Moon Beam's Bollywood-esque dance under the waterfall, a late evening massage, Nancy's ketadventure, one ridiculously hot girl I never talked to and lots of new friends. I called it quits after The End Up but surprise, surprise many others FORGOT TO GO HOME (again).

Butt Biting In The Parade:

SIS - Nesrib Blowing Up Again!

Space Fairies Float Dance:

LoveFest 2008 San Francisco FPS (Fast Picture Sequence) from Thomas May on Vimeo.

Fashion Forward (For Once!) (9/27/08)

2008-09-27T15:32:00.008-06:00

October 2006

November 2007

Jigga What? Jigga Who? In fairness I think the Louis Vuitton Millionaire sunglasses launched in 2005 but I still beat Jay-Z to the punch! And now these things can be found at every cheap sunglasses table in NYC. If anyone wants to buy me a pair of the real thing, they are modestly priced at $1,250 on eBay.

EuJane's Wedding and The Boys' Birthday (9/21/08)

2008-09-22T18:55:00.004-06:00

Two of my dear friends - Jane and Eugene - got married last weekend in a beautiful upstate location. So many great friends were there for an amazing, happy day filled with dancing, drinking (vodka!) and absolutely delicious food. Couldn't have been better. Congrats guys!

I also got to spend some time with my nephews for their big birthdays - Aidan (2) and Anderson (5). Lots of fun was had in the bouncy castle and playing with dinosaurs (-:

Minitek (9/13/08)

2008-09-15T20:08:00.012-06:00

New York party people had been anxiously awaiting Minitek, New York's first electronic music and innovation festival, since promoter Jenny Tan made a dramatic announcement at one of her underground loft parties earlier in the summer. By all accounts the festival organizers were ill-equipped for the event which led to a lot of outspoken complaints and extremely mixed reviews. If you're interested in the minutia, I'll let you read the links below and decide for yourself. In my opinion, the Minitek peeps screwed up almost everything they possibly could but I still had a blast at the day sessions in Coney Island. All told I heard Insideout, Camea, Afternoon Coffee Boys, Exercise One, Jeremy P. Caulfield, Steven LeTigre, Heidi, Audiofly, Tiefschwarz vs. M.A.N.D.Y., Bill Patrick, Butane, Fase Music Sender, Konrad Black, Guide Schneider, David Squillace, Guy Gerber, Richie Hawtin and Francois K. Pretty damn incredible for $40 (I got in on the EARLY pre-sales). Musical highlights were definitely Audiofly, Tiefschwarz vs. M.A.N.D.Y., Bill Patrick, Guy Gerber and Francois K.

The Book of Bad Ideas was out in full force on Saturday and has since gone global with it's own Group on Facebook. The typical shenanigans were abound during the day but it was the D-train ride home that night that was most entertaining as we had an entire subway car full of locos. We read aloud from The Book, did the Macarena, put the rainbow umbrella hat on a random, old Chinese man, gave out lap dances, doused people with a squirt gun and then later solicited bad ideas from a bunch of innocent bystanders on another train. Only ONE person actually offered up an idea and it just so happened to be Ronnie from Bravo's "Make Me a Super Model". No, I'm not kidding. Zollie still owes me her pictures otherwise I'd have one of me and Ronnie posted here.

Sunday was even more eventful as I busted out the full Proptainer and set up camp as soon as I arrived. Bill Patrick of Robots fame was getting the day off to a great start musically with some awesome tech-house. I did a full booth re-design with a blow up doll, marionette, chicken head and chalk scribbles among other things. I'm to DJ booths what Xzibit is to shitty cars. Next up on MTV: "Prop my Booth"! After the early after hours sets, the crew stole a couch and decided to officially set up our own Prop HQ. Our cool factor hit a new level when a VIP section was actually created around us... yup, the ropes went up around us and we took over from there! The rest of the night was filled with wicked tunes and coochie dusting - what more can a girl ask for?! On a sad note, I do need to have a moment of silence for my fallen blow-up doll, Peter North, who apparently met his demise while crowd surfing during Audion's set Sunday evening (see picture above).

(-) Minitek Review for PESSIMISTS

(+) Minitek Review for OPTIMISTS

Special shout-out to Jeff and Wes from Chicago!

Photo Credits: RA, Anis, PJay, Obscene NYC and others!

SIS - Nesrib dropped by Phillip of M.A.N.D.Y.

Francois K Closing Out the Festival

Sunday School for Degenerates NYC (8/31/08)

2008-09-05T22:11:00.003-06:00

The party that originated at Downtown Miami's Pawn Shop during Winter Music Conference (2005) finally made it's way north. The NYC edition featured three back-to-back parties that spanned 30 hours, 2 boroughs and a few bodies of water. I didn't get totally nutragous and do the whole thing but I did at least manage to hit up all 3 parties.

Part I: OVERBOARD BOAT PARTY on the Paddlewheel Queen with Steve Bug + Adultnapper. Steve Bug and a boat is definitely a lethal combination...especially after dark. He dropped some seriously dirty, booty-grabbing bass lines all night long. Delicious! The gays got me into some trouble (as usual). Damn you, Jim!

Part II: SUNDAY SCHOOL FOR DEGENERATES @ Rebel with Dan Berkson & James What live + Kate Simko live + Mr. C + Martin Landsky + Three + Taimur Agha + Crazy Larry + Francis Harris. I made an appearance on the early side to catch the end of Taimur & Larry's set and all of Dan Berkson @ James What's live set. No 30hrs straight for me... this weekend I need some sleep!

Part III: AFTERSCHOOL SPECIAL @ The Yard with Cassy + Joel Mull + Nikola Baytala + Matt Dear + Steve Bug. The party started at 10am but I spent my morning warming up at home with some Guitar Hero. By time I got there at 2pm, Matt Dear was playing some good tunes for the mostly sedentary crew that had partied straight through from the boat and Rebel. Joel Mull came on after Matt and played some hardish techno that got people off their a$$ss and movin and then handed things off to Cassy (a resident at Berlin's Panorama Bar and one of my new favorites!). She definitely lived up to the hype with her impeccable taste in music and an indescribable 'x' factor. Her set was amazing and I REALLY appreciated the way she smiled and made eye contact with the crew of dancing fewls in the front. Steve Bug closed the night out with a set full of smooth and sexy house jams and a smattering of dirty bombs. It was much different than his work on the boat, but equally awesome.

I loved this party for so many reasons but what made it extra enjoyable for me was the fact that I was flying semi-solo (not many of my usual partners in crime were there) so I spent a lot of time meeting new people and connecting with party pilgrims I had met previously in passing. There were a lot of familiar faces from The Old Miami (who recognized the Book of Bad Ideas!) which helped bring that *special* vibe to the party. It was so nice to feel that great energy that only happens when everything - music, crowd, venue, puppets, etc. all come together (and seems to be so elusive in NYC lately).

The Flawless Sound with Stadenco & Down Deep @ Mansion (8/22/08)

2008-09-05T21:49:00.004-06:00

I have friends that throw parties.
I have friends that DJ parties.
I have friends that convince alcohol companies to sponsor parties.
I have friends that curate art exhibits.
I have friends that like to Make Party.™
I have a wild streak.
I have a marshmallow blaster.
I have party puppets.
I have an affinity for dressing up and acting like a fool in public.
I have friends that take pictures...

38 Hour Party People (8/7/08)

2008-08-11T18:02:00.005-06:00

I'm not sure how or why the party gods decided this weekend would be the true test of my ability to Make Party™ but the results are in and let's just say I've assured myself a spot in party heaven for my tireless devotion. 4 days, 8 parties and 38 hours logged...all on the sober-ish tip. It all started on Pier 84 after work on Thursday night with a sunset, a rain storm and a dancing cop... and ended Sunday with a mustache glass and a flying, communist chicken. Sometimes I amaze even myself!

Party 1: Stadenco & John Dill @ Sunset Thursdays (Pier 84). There was sun, there was rain and there was also an on-duty police officer doing the cabbage patch. That's all I'll say about that.

Party 2: Adam Freeland @ Hiro. I heard break beats and Swamy talk about drinking piss.

Party 3: All Points West Festival @ Liberty State Park, NJ. There was a great ferry ride, there was (more) rain, there was (more) sun, there was a black plastic cinch sack jumper on Joel, there was beer (although you had to drink them in beer jail and could only have five per person), there was an amazing view of the Statue of Liberty and NYC skyline, there was a RIDICULOUS performance by mash-up DJ, Girl Talk (don't miss the video below), there was lots of love during Underworld and lots of sadness during Radiohead. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed Radiohead's live performance but have decided I don't like to listen to sad music in public.

Party 4: Steve Lawler @ Cielo. The drums are back, b*tch! Every time Steve comes to town I head out with Lloyd to check him out and I'm never disappointed (see last year's boat cruise). Some tribal haters were glad to see the drums go a few years ago but then started hating on him for playing electro. Personally I've enjoyed all of Steve's incarnations over the year but I'm happy to report he was bringing the booty-rumbling baselines last weekend and Cielo was a rockin!

Party 5: Grace's 3rd Birthday Dance Party @ Liar's Pad. Yes, you read correctly. A 3-year old had a dance party and one of NYC's best underground electronic DJ's was on the decks. I haven't seen that many first pumps since PVD in the park! Grace got a bunch of birthday gifts including her first REAL record player and records from Joel, Nancy and Colleen and her first We Came to Make Party™ t-shirt from me. Awesome.

Party 6: Classic Rock BBQ @ Park Avenue Lounge Rooftop. After last year's R&BBQ, Spoony and Dave decided to mix things up and hit us with some Classic Rock this time around. The PAL is always a good time especially when you actually get to see the light of day!

Party 7: The Meth Rocket BBQ. Much love to Kendra & Deanna for their hospitality at this large and in-charge Bushwick rooftop with full DJ set-up and lots of cool peeps. The evening's tech-noise was provided by locals Kendra (whose classics set was the highlight!), Stefny, RJ Valeo, Eric Coultier and Montrealian, Pheek [Archipel]. It was pretty wicked to sit on a couch with friends kickin it to outdoor summer beats.

Party 8: Sean & Colleen's Going Away Red Party @ The Porch. You knew I'd save the best for last. The bad news is we were saying goodbye to two of my favorite nerds in the world... the good news is we are really good at Making (Going Away) Party™. So many hysterical things happened throughout the day not the least of which was the mustache glass which everyone put over their upper lip to create a hilarious series of photos (see below). Even a rubber chicken and a real chameleon got in on the mustache action! Speaking of rubber chickens, the one in question also tried to take flight off the 2nd floor balcony however his parachute failed to function properly (ahem, Sean!). Apparently my motor skills were also not functioning properly as I tried unsuccessfully to throw Mr. Chicken 'Stache back up to Lisa for additional flight attempts (ahem, Me!). There was also a FREE TIBET protest, couture socks by Dill, the highly anticipated second appearance by Moon Beam (the gay dog marionette), a serious make-out session, a hot straddle photo shoot and a party long pants-on, dance-on with Karen. I'd be remiss not to mention the boys on the decks who kept my a$$ movin all day - Stadenco, Lloyd Alvarez, Eric Andrew and John Dill - love you guys! Miss Nine also graced us with her presence although her looks and her beats weren't as SMOKIN HOT as everyone had promised. Don't get me wrong, I'd still... oh never mind! And last but not least... smoochie smoochie to Jen, John and Lisa.

Girl Talk @ All Points West (INSANE!!)

Name your price for Girl Talk's "Feed the Animals" mix here: CLICK ME

Pictures from All Points West, Grace's Birthday Party and BK BBQs:

Pictures from Sean & Colleen's Going Away Red Party:

Crazy But Lazy (8/6/08)

2008-08-06T18:44:00.005-06:00

I'm feeling lazy and not in the mood to detail my debauchery from the last few weeks but I'll still give you the highlights:

--2 going away parties
--3 extra delicious dinners with friends: Korean BBQ, Ethiopian and Italian
--1 extreme karaoke session
--1 Martin Gore (Depeche Mode) DJ set @ Hiro
--1 weekday afternoon visit to the roof of the Hotel Gansevoort
--5 fun hours with Dandy Jack @ The Bunker
--1 day at the nude beach
--1 hang out session with the work girlies that ended in laughs and digits
--12 lazy hours spent doing nothing on a Sunday
--2 hours of r&r aboard a schooner on the Hudson River
--1 visit by the crazy mo*fo wabbit from Paris
--1 boozy MILFY birthday brunch
--1 Booka Shade bonanza
--1 new marionette named Moon Beam (the gay dog)
--1 grape thrown off the chest of a certain someone on the mezzanine at Irving Plaza
--3 hours of catching up with my Peru boys (+ Gaby!)
--1 Kim Stolz (America's Next Top Model) spotting @ Stiletto

Turkish Paparazzi (7/24/08)

2008-07-24T12:59:00.000-06:00

For those who were following the ridiculous Turkish wedding stories from June... I have a few extra pictures to share. These are a handful of the photos that showed up in the Turkish society magazines, one of which is called DIVA... buwahahha!

Shagtastic Summer Swim-A-Thon for Sinners, Yachting & More (7/19/08)

2008-07-23T18:07:00.010-06:00

Everybody has one summer date with a huge red circle around it - that one party they look forward to all year round. For me it's Saisha's pool party which this year was aptly named the Shagtastic Summer Swim-A-Thon for Sinners. In years past I've done a lot *in the name* of the party - pulled off one of a kind diving board stunts, been electrocuted and lost 12 hours due to overly baked baked goods. This year I took my commitment to new levels providing enough shagtastic sinning for everyone in attendance...ha! The SSSfS will definitely go down in the record books for that reason and those listed below:

--Miss Pool Party 2008 - the babe-alicious, Sai
--A swim-up vodka, hookah and whip-it bar (what?!?!)
--The Spiderman slip & slide
--An ALL GIRLS hot tub
--An ALL BOYS volleyball game which ended with some naked laps around the front yard (apparently this is the only thing they could think to do when we banished them from the hot tub - ha!)
--Guest appearance by Connor Paolo (who plays Eric van der Woodsen on the hit CW show Gossip Girl)
--Lester, the underwater molester
--Seeing a fire crotch in a saran wrap diaper
--A pool full of people in tin foil accessories
--Googley eyes on tatas, in the toilet, on cups, on shirts, on glasses...everywhere!
--Bikini bottom headwear
--A lethal spank which drew blood (sorry Keith!)
--A full on pool dance party (finally!)
--Amazing music by Kevin, Mike, Tony, Lloyd, Jymmi and Joel!
--Saran wrap mummy diving
--Underwater misbehavior
--Out of water misbehavior
--An impromptu dance party in Penn Station

Thanks to Sai and Dale for the amazing hospitality and to everyone else who had a hand in my sinning! A big apology to the Chief Hooker for my lack of attendance on Saturday night... I was sooo hungover before I even got back to the city.

Saturday was so inspirational that the sinning continued on Sunday with an afternoon visit to the Stiletto party at Ono (at the Hotel Gansevoort) with Julie and friends. I should have known continued boozing was going to lead to more trouble... and oh boy did it! Somehow we managed to score an invite from a friend to go party on the massively pimp, Forbes yacht docked at Pier 60. I never thought I'd board a yacht bigger than the ones we chartered in Turkey but at 151 feet Mr. Forbes outdid us! The shenanigans continued (obviously). I'll spare the details (and the crew members) in case this entry turns up on a Google search (-; After that it was off to east village for Kim's birthday at The Porch. And more shenanigans. Do you see a pattern here?

Sergio, Si*Se and Sunsets (7/8/08)

2008-07-08T13:02:00.004-06:00

I've been trying for the last two years to get my Costa Rican friend, Oliver, to get his a$$ to NYC but he is still playing hard to get. However, this time he at least sent me the next best thing... his BFF, Sergio, who I first met during my visit to CR in 2007. Sergio's first night in town, we wasted no time grabbing dinner at one of my NYC faves, Miracle Grill (catfish tacos!), and then hitting up the Beige party at Bowery Bar a notoriously fabulous, Tuesday night spot for the boys. Joining us for dinner and debauchery were Julie and Melissa (who was in town for work a boondoggle) as well as some of the new friends we made during NYC Pride a few weeks ago. We drank and ogled the hundreds of hot hots for a few hours and then called it a night before trouble crossed our path.

Wednesday night after work Sergio, Julie and some other members of my tribe gathered on Pier 54 to catch Si*Se as part of the Hudson River Rocks free summer concert series. As expected lead singer, Carole C, looked hot and the band rocked it. We stayed for a few Yerba Buena songs, which was definitely enough to get my attention. They have an extremely unique sound (African-rooted Latin) and a wild lead singer, CuCu Diamantes, who at one point took a seat to shoot Patron while a lip-syncing midget took center stage. And you should have seen the slinky, tinfoil-ish dress she was wearing - whoa! The music by both bands was great and the setting couldn't have been better as we were treated to a blistering sunset over the Hudson.

My crew isn't satisfied with just one party in a night so we made our way uptown 30 blocks to Pier 84 for Sunset Thursdays hosted by Flawless Media. One might think that P.D. O'Hurley's is a suspect place to host an Ibiza-inspired event but it turns out the pub actually has the largest patio on the west side! Selectors for the night were local house faves, Down Deep, and Trent Cantrelle from LA. The weather was incredible, the music jackin and the crowd full of smiling faces...especially when Jilly, Sai, Sergio and I danced in the nearby fountain. We rocked it out until midnight and then made a quick getaway back to Chelsea to catch some zzz's (it is a school night, ya know!). Sergio, Si*Se and the sunset - it doesn't get much better than that! Lots of love to Sergio for such an awesome few days!

The 4th of July @ Asbury Park (7/4/08)

2008-07-06T18:08:00.006-06:00

Ahhh, Asbury Park. Thanks to dear friends, Justin & Jilly, our crew always has a home away from home in AP. Every single trip I've taken has been filled with food, fun, love and laughs and this weekend was no different. Many thanks to the hosts who have created something truly amazing and to all of "the friends" who give a little of themselves to the house with every visit.

A few highlights:
--A lovely day of haze rays at the beach with Nora, Karen and Lester the Molester (puppets on pretzels on parade!)
--The Asbury Park 4th of July Parade Awards Ceremony (#1 Best Pet!!!) and the convenient arrival of the getaway car
--Delish burgers
--Michael's birthday roast
--Spectacular fireworks on the beach
--Bangin beats in the AP cave
--The "Pants Off Dance Off"
--Finally getting THE BIG BED!
--Nora's sore paddle ball arm
--Aged Gouda orgasm
--Gabi aka Elvis aka the most quiet baby ever
--A canoe ride gone wrong
--Tee ball with Grace
--Movie time on the couch
--[INSERT WORD] CREW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For those who might be interested in some history on Asbury, an extremely interesting town, with a storied history and a promising future:
--Urban Exploration at the Jersey Shore
--Online Museum for Palace Amusements
--City of Asbury Park Official History

Short Documentary about Palace Amusements:

There goes the gayborhood: the urban renewal of Asbury Park, N.J., renews the debate: can gay men and lesbians single-handedly transform bad neighborhoods?

Gay Pride NYC 2008 (6/29/08)

2008-06-30T19:56:00.018-06:00

BEST PRIDE EVER!

It was a really, really tall order to top 2006 but somehow, some way we managed to do it.

My Pride really didn't start until Sunday at 3am when me, Nora, Anne and Julie woke up to pre-game and head over to Alegria at Webster Hall. As expected the main room was packed like gay naked sardines - it was so hot that literally the walls and the stairs were sweating. The good news is that Ric Sena rented an additional, massive AC unit, parked it on the street and pumped it into the upstairs balcony. Downstairs was truly unbearable so we went upstairs, perched ourselves in the front row of the balcony with a stiff, cool breeze at our backs and got the party started. We danced and danced and danced... made friends, fan'd 'coochies' and other private parts, danced and danced some more. It wasn't until around 8am that the main floor had some breathing room - we finally jumped into the middle of madness. We spent the next few hours between our two spots and danced our little tooshies off - so much fun! I even ran into a few old friends from some of the first Alegria and Evolve parties I attended. We lasted in the sweat box until 10:30am when we saw the sun was shining outside and heard that some of our peeps were gathered on a roof deck in the east village.

After a short stint on the hot rooftop we decided that SHOWERS were a MUST. Anne went back to her place and Nora and I cruised back to mine to cleanup and rest (we lost Julie a few hours earlier). We did manage to shower but somehow decided that margaritas were a better choice than sleep. So... off to Cuba Cafe in Chelsea where met a fully-rested Zivy and a slightly rested, Julie. After some food, margaritas, mojitos and a downpour... we created a spontaneous dance party in the restaurant that spilled outside. I'm not quite sure how it happened but I wound up on the sidewalk outside the restaurant screaming at every passerby to "congo congo congo!" The only problem was that I was trying to get them to "limbo limbo limbo!" Whatever! I quickly revised my chant and proceeded to make a few hundred Pride revelers and innocent bystanders limbo under me and Julie's linked arms. It was definitely a big hit with everyone! Well, except this one guy who said, "stop touching me... don't talk to me... get out of this neighborhood." Umm, ok weirdo!

After we did the limbo and Nora found her gay baby daddy, we went to the Parade. But first... we bought a bottle of champagne, I convinced two hugging strangers to pose for a steamy photo shoot which ended with them both laying flat out on the street and I took pictures of myself in the reflection of some random dude's sunglasses. Oh yeah...the parade! As soon as we got to the Parade on 5th Avenue it started to rain...hard. So we did what 97% of people would not do... and we jumped INTO the parade and started marching south. We surveyed a few nearby floats and groups but decided nobody was hot enough or cool enough to deserve us. The disgustingly hot black guys on the W Hotel float were the first contenders but they were way too bitchy. Then we found a group of 20 of the hottest hot hots we'd ever seen and joined their group. It wasn't for a few blocks that we realized why everyone was cheering so loud for us (I mean, them)... they were PORN STARS. Perfect! We finished out the entire parade route drinking champagne, jumping on and biting the butts of the porn stars, putting stickers on #$@?s and otherwise acting silly. And at that point the day was only getting started.

Pinching Porn Star Butts

Champagne Celebration

As we walked up Greenwich Ave in our post-parade bliss (and SOPPING WET clothes), I saw a cute guy standing against an apartment building door so I did the next thing that popped into my brain... I took his hat off, kissed his bald head and wished him a Happy Pride. He LOVED IT and promptly invited us inside to his friend's party filled with models, photogs and a bunch of other fabulous people. And they welcomed us with open arms (as well as yummy Pimm's, white sangria, prosciutto and melon) despite our wet poodle appearance. After some indoor mingling we went back out to the sidewalk with my baldy friend to re-start the "limbo limbo limbo" game from earlier in the day. It was a big hit again...and this time no weirdos! I also vaguely remember jumping on a moving golf cart, flashing my a$$, jumping on someone's back and whipping people with a belt. Sometime around 7pm we realized we had to make the move to The Porch...we said goodbyes, collected some phone numbers and invited our new friends to join us later.

We started to walk east but encountered a major problem... we couldn't catch a cab. Now a lot of people would walk or take a train in that situation. But we are resourceful so instead we decided to hitchhike. Yes, hitchhike! It was reminiscent of my hitchhiking adventures on the mean streets of Moscow. Lucky for us this kind gentleman (who happened to be going to Alphabet City anyway) stopped and told us to jump in. The only downside to this plan was that he had a two-seater and Julie, Nora and I had to fit. Did I mention we sent drunk Zivy to class about an hour earlier? So back to the story... there were three of us for only one seat. But, not to be deterred we climbed in and made our way. This dude was beyond cool - super friendly, bumpin the R&B, not giving a sh*t when we passed cops, inviting us to a BBQ next weekend and telling us to pass the good karma forward when we thanked him profusely for his kindness. AWESOME. Homeboy dropped us off at the door of The Porch where we joined the party I was co-hosting. The day/night continued on and on and on. I remember dancing on the couches, being taunted like a bull by Sean (and picking his skinny ass up over my shoulder!) as well as some other assorted silliness. Some of the guys we had met at the previous party even showed up! We finally called it quits sometime after midnight when I just couldn't keep moving any longer. Just another 24 hrs in the life, I suppose!

Lots of love to Nora, Anne, Julie and Zivy who were wicked partners in crime! And some more love to John, Jen and Lisa who we missed dearly. Thanks for the hook-ups at both venues!

In separate but related news - two friends of mine (the sheep from The Bizarre Bazaar) got married on a float in San Francisco's Gay Pride Parade. For those who don't know, California recently legalized gay marriage. Click here to watch footage from Steve & Casey's wedding on the local San Fran news! Congratulations boys - so happy for you!

Francesca Viola Gargani (6/24/08)

2008-06-24T18:24:00.000-06:00

Viola Si Nasce!!

Congratulations to my dear friends, Lizzy & Alessandro, who welcomed Francesca Viola Gargani into the world during the wee hours of June 24th only a short time after Italy lost to Spain in the Euro Cup (sorry Ale!). The little blonde haired, blue-eyed beauty weighed in at 8lbs. I love her already!!!

Turkey (Part II) - The Blue Voyage (6/8/08)

2008-06-22T09:00:00.011-06:00

The Sunday after the wedding we had brunch at Onur's parents' summer home in Çeşme and then drove south along the coast to Fethiye. Askin and I actually drove separately in his car, while the rest of the crew took a minibus. It took us about 5 hours (and the minibus much longer) but the first sight of our chartered yachts made it all worthwhile. Let's just say the Duramaz and the Kayhan exceeded everyone's expectations...by far. The 6 cabin yachts were a whopping 100ft long with private bathroom, AC, TV, DVD, music system and refrigerator in each room. They had a back deck with a breakfast table and lounging area, an indoor table and kitchen with TV, a front deck with a dinner table, card table and plenty of space to hang out. And, the best part of all... the two-tiered top deck with enough cushions for everyone on board to sunbath. We also had an amazing crew of four guys who waited on our every need including pouring the shots when the time was right! Umm, yeah. Jay-Z and Beyonce ain't got nuthin on our big pimpin! Check out Alesta Yachting's website for more information. We left the dock right as the sun was setting which made for an amazing start to the trip. After that we ate the first of many delicious meals and played card games (choncho!) for a few hours before calling it a night.

I'm going to spare you the details of the six days that followed and simply summarize as follows:

--Morning: eat [breakfast = eggs, white cheese, olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, bread, nutella]
--Afternoon: sunbath, swim, snorkel, kayak, nap, the occasional excursion, drink, card games/backgammon, dance, eat [lunch = fresh salad, yogurt, eggplant, pasta and/or meat; snack = cookies, nuts, nutella, tea, coffee]
--Evening: nap, shower, drink, card games, eat [dinner = fish/meat, fresh salad, yogurt, eggplant, MAGNUMS!, Turkish coffee]
--Night: drink, play games, dance, be silly, sleep

As for the major high and low lights:
--Getting a full beer can bounced off my head
--Onur falling in the water one night while trying to go from one boat to the other
--Karel going to bed immediately after dinner every night
--Erick Morillo dance party on the top of the yacht
--Onur passing out while cuddling Ms. Molly
--Another "spank" heard round the world
--Paragliding off a 2,000 meter peak
--O-nur, O-nur, O-nur, O-nur... Ooooo-nur, O-nur! Chris-sy, Chris-sy, Chris-sy, Chris-sy... Chris-sy, Chris-sy!
--Sangria in the sea
--Maks crying about his LENSES right before he was about to get tossed in the water
--Double Chocolate Magnums!
--Chrissy's silk worm dance move
--Choncho! Uno! Wwah Waaah!
--Megan's last night hook-up with one of the crew members

We begrudgingly got off the boat Saturday morning around 10am and spent some time chilling in Fethiye and eating one last monstrosity of a meal at the fish market. Then we hopped a flight back to Istanbul, showered, ate another meal and then all met back up at Selim's apartment to have a few cocktails and listen to some tunes. A few of us ventured out for a nightcap but the only thing of note that happened was Sinem stopping our cab home very suddenly in favor of a late night intestine sandwich snack (the Istanbul version of the NYC pizza slice). And I must say, it was quite tasty! Sunday morning came quick and so I sad my final goodbyes before making the long journey back to New York by way of Frankfurt. Until next time, my friends!

Photo credits: Shirley, Eileen

Turkey (Part I) - Istanbul & Çeşme (6/1/08)

2008-06-01T15:03:00.026-06:00

After two party weekends, I was excited to start my *real* vacation in Turkey. I arrived on Sunday night around 11pm and was greeted at the airport by Askin, a good friend of mine who lives between NYC and Istanbul. Since it was already late and I was beat from Berlin, we just went to Askin's place in Şişli to relax. It was the third consecutive city where I was treated to an amazing view - this time from the 18th floor!

Monday: I got up at 9am, ate breakfast and then took the Metro to Taksim Square where I sipped some coffee and browsed my Istanbul guide book. Now's probably a good time to give you the quick skinny on Turkey. The republic was established in 1923 following the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of WWI. It is a democratic and secular republic whose political system was crafted by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the country's most revered leader. There are 70 million total people, 10 million of which are in Istanbul. It borders eight countries: Bulgaria to the northwest; Greece to the west, Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the southeast. Due to its strategic location straddling two continents (Europe and Asia), Turkey's culture is an interesting mix of East and West. Now that that's out of the way... let's get back to my vacation.

I spent my first morning exploring Taksim... wandering down İstiklal Avenue which reminded me of Las Ramblas in Barcelona. There were all sorts of cute boutiques, cafes and galleries so I took my time walking the side streets and stopping to do a bit of shopping. When I finally reached the end of the Avenue, I decided to hop aboard the trolley and take it back to where I had started. That afternoon I went back to Şişli to each lunch and meet Askin. We hopped in the car (it's definitely more of a car city!) and drove to Beyoğlu to walk around and catch a boat tour of the Bosporus, the strait connecting the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara. We spent an hour or two on the water looking at old castles and palaces, a few bridges, waterfront night clubs and small island owned by one of the local soccer clubs. After the boat tour we ate a local favorite, kumpir (a baked potato piled high with toppings like corn, olives and hot sauce), and then drove to Nişantaşı, Istanbul's Soho-like shopping district. We ate dinner at Midpoint Cafe and then took my stuff to Karel & Max's apartment (which is where I'd stay for the next few days).

Tuesday: I woke up, made an espresso and hit up the public transportation. After a few connections via metro, funicular, and tram I landed in the district called Eminönü. Tuesday was a full on sight-seeing day with stops at mosques (Yeni, Rüstem Pasa, Suleymaniye, Beyazit, Sultan Ahmet), the bazaars (Spice and Grand), a church (Aya Sofya), Gülhane Park and Hamdi for lunch. I ended the day by walking across the Galata bridge looking west toward Europe and east across the Bosporus to Asia on the way back to Karel and Max's apartment. That night Shirley arrived from Tel Aviv and we spent the night catching up.

Wednesday: Up, espresso and out...back to the old city, this time with Shirley. We grabbed a quick döner kebab (meat cooked on a vertical spit and sliced to order) and then walked over to Topkapı Palace, the official residence of the Ottoman Sultans from 1465 to 1853. There wasn't too much to see besides some jewels and weapons but we wandered the grounds and enjoyed the lovely weather.

After the Palace we went back toward the Grand Bazaar and found Cemberlitas Hamami, a Turkish bath built in 1584. For 80 Turkish Liras ($65) we got access to the large stone platform bath/sauna, a naked scrub and a 30 minute massage. Shirley and I were slightly unsure of protocol but were prodded along by the staff. After laying on the platform for a little while... a large, saggy-breasted woman motioned for me to come over for my scrub. She tugged at my bikini bottoms and so I yanked them off and she got down to business. She scrubbed the shit out of me, peeling off multiple layers of skin. I was slightly embarrassed by the sheer volume of nasty, gray skin sludge until later on that day when Shirley said she had the same. The saggy scrubber didn't speak English so I had to just follow along with her grunts and gestures - lay down, flip over, sit up, stand up, move over here, lay back down, etc. At one point when I was trying to rollover I slipped on the soapy platform and almost fell on the floor. It was hysterical. However, when all was said and done...Shirley and I were relaxed and glowing. After the bath, we did some more walking and eating (another döner) before heading back to Şişli. [Author's note: the Turkish döner doesn't come close to the Israeli shwarma!]

That night the rest of the crew got into town - Taj & Raggy (London), Jane & Eugene (NY), Eileen (Madrid) as well as a few others. We gathered at Karel and Max's and actually ate Domino's Pizza - ha! It was a relatively low key night until sometime around midnight when Shirley, Taj, Raggy and I decided to walk Eileen home (to her grandmother's apartment where she was staying). The trip turned into an urban, Turkish version of our Ibiza nature walk as we peered into windows, posed with cars and signs, stopped to eat a Turkish "wet" burger, harassed a man unloading a truck full of flour sacks, stuffed Raggy into a kebab cart and on the way home stopped at a bar/brothel called Miami Club.

It was a shading looking joint but I stormed across the street (locally purchased rainbow coochie duster in hand, mind you) and encouraged the crew to follow behind. When I asked the guy at the door if it was a "regular bar" he said yes so we continued inside. After a walk down a hallway and some stairs we found ourselves in a patron-less establishment with about 10 women standing in various places behind the bar and a gray-haired male DJ playing pounding electronic music from a laptop. We looked at each other, laughed and sat down to try and order a drink. As soon as we sat down we had the attention of everyone in the room - bringing us plates of fruit and nuts, asking us broken questions and starring. All I could think was, "oh shit... I hope this is not going to cost me a $1000 or a kidney". It was definitely an odd situation but as I've said before... there are two kinds of people in this world and I'm not the kind to just turn around and walk out. We're here, we might as well MAKE PARTY! So we ordered vodka tonics which turned out to be exclusively vodka (ouch!), made jokes among ourselves, fended off some female admirers and pumped our fists to the pounding music for about an hour. Slowly but surely some other patrons (all male, of course) entered the room and paired off 1 on 1 with the ladies behind the bar. I think we all were anxious to figure out how this little adventure was going to end so we asked for the check which was 100 Turkish Liras. They charged us a steep price for the nuts and fruit (which we didn't order) and the drinks (which we did) and although I knew we were getting ripped off, I didn't want to push our luck. I paid the bill and as we walked out we decided to ask for a picture with the guys standing outside. Surprisingly they were very willing and one of them (the owner!) even gave me his card. Ahh, the joys of travel!

Thursday: In a nutshell: pedicure, flight to Izmir, bus to Çeşme, food/sun on the pier at our hotel. And, we finally got to meet up with Onur & Chrissie (the bride and groom and the reason for the trip to Turkey)! That night Onur's mother treated the entire group to an amazing dinner in a nearby town. I thought I was going to die after eating the cold mezze (appetizers), let alone the hot mezze and then the half fish I had ordered. I avoided the black liquorice-flavored Raki (the unofficial national drink of Turkey) like the plague but watched others indulge at the strong urging of Onur's mom. After the meal we watched a slide show of Onur and Chrissie's Ohio wedding and then called it a night (who could move after all that food!)

Friday: The majority of us hopped on a bus for two hours to visit the ruins of Ephesus, an ancient city of Anatolia (circa 550BC), and the House of the Virgin Mary (where she apparently lived her last days). On the ride back we stopped at a restaurant for yet another feast, this time kebab and chop sis (tiny meat chunks on skewers) and then returned to Çeşme for a few hours of sun before the bachelorette/bachelor festivities. That night we split into two groups for dinner and then met up late night for drinks at relatively posh little outdoor bar where the staff was serving flaming shots and bottles. When the boys joined us they were all wearing matching t-shirts and chanting songs in Onur's honor. We co-mingled at the bar for a few hours and then took the party back to the hotel pier for some late night antics which included Eugene singing, dancing and otherwise entertaining the crowd of friends and strangers.

Saturday: The wedding wasn't until late evening so we had all day to chill out on the pier, in the water and on the trampolines. And then finally... it was time for the main event. The wedding was the first and only to be held at Çeşme castle which overlooks the Agean Sea. The official ceremony was extremely quick (just the way we like it!). The sun was setting during the beginning of the reception and then once it got dark, the wedding party made a grand entrance down the castle stairs with MASSIVE sparklers lighting the way. Later in the evening we were treated to a number of traditional Turkish dance routines, some of which we joined. As if the setting wasn't already majestic enough! Onur and Chrissy both looked stunning and their families couldn't have been happier. It was such a memorable event - I'm so glad I got to be a part of it. After the reception we all went to a beach club for a late night DJ set by Selim Cenkel a friend of Karel and Maks' from Istanbul.

Berlin (5/29/08)

2008-05-29T11:45:00.014-06:00

Detroit and Berlin in consecutive weekends... ahh, it's tough being an international party rocker! I got to Berlin at 10am Friday morning and took the bus to the Park Inn at Alexanderplatz to meet my friend Esteban who had flown in from Paris. [Many of you probably remember Esteban from previous adventures in Costa Rica, London and Barcelona.] After we checked into our 34th floor- corner suite- pimp palace in the sky we spent the afternoon eating, napping and riding bikes around Mitte Scheunenviertel and Prenzlauer Berg. After a few hours of exploring the city, we ate dinner and then went back to the hotel to greet Sami (also in from Paris) and KJ (in from London). We spent some time drinking and catching up in the hotel before meeting up with a few more Frenchie friends and a newly local Berliner that I had met last summer in New York.

The first stop of the night was a loft party on the 5th floor of a seemingly abandoned building which provided the exact graffiti-riden, gritty setting I had expected from Berlin. The loft was fully equipped with a bumpin sound system and a few locals pre-gaming. As Sami and Megan were introducing me to everyone, the host started shouting and gesturing in my direction. It turns out he had recognized me from Detroit... apparently I had nailed him in the forehead with my marshmallow blaster at DEMF...ha! He also happens to be the dear friend of NYC promoter, Minimoo Jenny... small, small world. We spent a few hours meeting people, listening to tunes and having photo shoots in the incredibly ghetto bathroom before making our move to our first club of the weekend, Watergate.

Watergate is a wicked split level club right on the River Spree. The upstairs is a dark and dirty mid-sized room with an extremely unique LED lighting strip that starts behind the DJ booth and goes all the way across the room's ceiling. The downstairs room has floor to ceiling plate glass windows overlooking the river - the view was beautiful at night and even better when the sun came up (at 4:30am!). And finally, the club has an outdoor terrace area that sits right on the river's edge and serves as the chillout area. I've included photos from the club's website so you can get an accurate representation of the scene. Clubs in Berlin are EXTREMELY vigilant with their no cameras policy (PRIVACY PLEASE!) so any snaps we did get were sneaky shots by KJ. The Friday we were there was Mo's Ferry night featuring Dapayk and friends. The night took a bunch of interesting turns (some of which aren't fit for print) but the highlights were as follows:

--Building a massive straw and sipping a drink from 4 ft away (Sami!)
--The dirty mo*fo mini rabbit smoking cigarettes on the patio
--Picking up some chick from LA and nearly tossing her in the river
--Quizzing party goers about how many straws it would take to retrieve a pirate flag hung on the top of a nearby building
--KJ and Esteban's stomachs of steal
--Chatting with new friends from the UK and Berlin
--Straw sword fighting perfect strangers
--KJ passing out and Esteban putting twists in her hair

We spent a ton of time downstairs and on the outside patio enjoying the incredible weather and then finally decided to call it quits sometime around 9am.

Sometime Saturday evening we rolled out of bed to return our rented bicycles and grab an authentic German dinner of sausage and lard. After that we showered, goofed around and met up with Sami, Megan, Roman and Damian at the Weekend Club rooftop (which is on the 12th floor of an old office building). We took in the view and a few drinks and then headed over to Club der Visionaere a riverside, outdoor club where I was meeting, Bill Patrick (Robots NYC) who just recently relocated to Berlin. Billy and I spent a couple hours catching up and enjoying the chill vibe and then around 2am the crew decided to make a move to one of Berlin's best clubs, Berghain/Panorama Bar. Unfortunately we got rejected at the door for no good reason. It seems that trying to enter with 7 non-Germans was enough for them to think we were regular tourists instead of party pilgrims. We were gutted not to get to experience the infamous power plant-turned club but decided to grab some zzz's and resume the party in the morning for afterhours.

We got up bright and early to go to another outdoor, riverside hot spot (Bar 25) which goes non-stop from Friday until sometime Monday morning. This place cannot even be described as a club - it's more of a wooden, cracker club house outfitted with broken glass, ripped couches, a bumper car, kiddie horse ride, photo booth and other misc. items and furniture. It's almost like the low-budget but better version of Miami's Pawn Shop. We spent the day rockin out to beats while party goers jumped into the river and tourist boats passed and waved with puzzled looks. Sometime in the late afternoon I looked up and saw an old party pal, Rozby, walking toward me. Rozby and I originally met back in 2006 while I was living in Barcelona. My friend, Andy, had invited me to go to the M2 Festival in Zaragoza with him and his German buddies, one of which was Rozby (who was visiting from Berlin). Yet again, it's a small world for the global party elite. Sadly the weekend had to end for me sometime in the late afternoon when I had to leave the party to head to the airport. It's always tough to call it quits and this time was no different...but at least I wasn't headed home... I was off to Istanbul!

We Came to Make Party™ baby!

Photo credits: Club websites, KJ

Movement: Detroit's Electronic Music Festival 2008 (5/24/08)

2008-05-28T19:34:00.001-06:00

For the third straight year I made the pilgrimage to the techno equivalent of Mecca, Detroit, and joined my fellow robots in submission to the electronic music gods. This year I arrived on Saturday evening, checked into the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center (overlooking the festival) and then walked over to meet Nora and Karen and pop my corn dog cherry for 2008. We caught a little Deadmau5 live, Alex Smoke live and Alex Under live (awesome!). Musically it was a nice start to the festival and on the social tip, I even ran into old Chicago buddy, Jeff (and his crew), for good measure. I vowed to take it easy on the night time after parties in an effort to save myself for the main event Monday morning and so I retired directly after the midnight end to the festival.

Sunday we got up around 10am and decided to skip the Resolute afterhours (questionable!) in favor of a ride on the People Mover and a yummy lunch in Greektown. As a side note, Nora was hitting the bottle early and often on Sunday - you know, that milky pink stuff? Ewww! After lunch we lounged on the grass in the back of the hotel overlooking the river and listened to the masterful track selection of iPod DJ Doubledip (that would be me) until we were ready to hit up the festival. We cruised over in the late afternoon, this time with props in hand and the now infamous "I <3 Corn Dog Techno" sign. Needless to say, it was a big hit with party goers many of whom made a point to come get their photos taken. My marshmallow blaster was also a hysterical addition to the day with the first and most impressive victory scored directly into the mouth of my friend, The Jass.

My day was spent mostly in the Beatport tent catching Matthew Hawtin, Konrad Black, Heartthrob live, Paco Osuna (good!), Magda (awful!), Richie Hawtin (decent) and then over to the main to close it out to Carl Craig live (ridiculous!). It's always a pleasure to catch Carl but this time he was playing live with some old school jazz musicians he had flown in for the event. Definitely a highlight of the festival for me and can only really be compared to the Laurent Garnier live set I heard at I Love Techno 2006. I also had a chance to meet up with new Belgian friend, Lieven, whose introduction came by way of a comment he made on this blog. I love the dance music scene! After the festival ended I made the unpopular decision to skip the Temporary Tattoos party thrown by good buddies from New York and Denver. It turned out to be a good decision as I got some well needed sleep and I later found out some dude got shot outside the club. Gotta love Detroit! I will offer one final apology to Taimur, Fahad, Larry and Memo - I'll make it up to you boys!

Memorial Day Monday... the day I had been anticipating for months. I got up at 8am and rallied the crew (including Nora who was on her death bed the night before) for the main event - Need I Say More, Part 3 @ The Old Miami. Last year's party was definitely in my top 3 of 2007 and I had big expectations going into DEMF 2008. Let's just say that Seth Troxler and Ryan Crosson (the hosts for the day) did not disappoint. In fact, this year was bigger and better despite what I'd consider *relatively* low energy sets by Jan Krueger, Ryan Elliot and Troy Pierce. But as most of you know, that didn't stop me from MAKING (legendary) PARTY! We arrived around 9am with a massive bag full of props and quickly went to work creating a Prop HQ and building a museum quality prop sculpture that would be marveled at all day long. It would be impossible for me to try to recap the exact happenings of the day so I'll just provide a few highlights and show the pictures (which are worth a few million words).

--Collecting enough BAD IDEAS to last me until next year
--Blasting marshmallows at every god damn person within a half mile of The Old Miami
--Dusting coochies
--Insisting everyone listen to the yodeling pickle
--Googly-eye-ing everything in sight (Nora!)
--Watching the lawn come alive with the sound of music (oh and the fence melt, too)
--Getting lubed publicly by Shelley and laughing my a$$ off the entire time
--Awarding Detroit the 2008 Cracker Olympics and being the first cracker decathlete (specialty in coochie duster javelin)
--Swinging on the swing (Karen!)
--Looking for my long lost husband from last year's party
--Getting my gun re-loaded, my coochie dusted and my neck rubbed (simultaneously) by my hangers-on
--Inventing three new genres of music: Corn Dog Techno, Yodel House and Horn House
--Making new friends from St. Louis
--Finding one of the reindeer that fled Santa at last year's party

Nora and I were the last of the crew at The Old Miami and reluctantly left in time to shower and get over to the festival to catch Lee Burridge (good!), Josh Wink (very good!) and Dubfire (surprisingly good!). The sound at the main stage was ridiculously harsh so sadly I bailed for the night without thrashing in the electronic mosh pit for Speedy J and Oscar Mulero. No complaints though - the day was off the hook. I climbed into bed around midnight only to get up 4 hours later to head to the airport for my lovely 6am flight from Detroit straight into work. To add one more hysterical story to the weekend... my pickle decided to start yodeling in my bag as I was approaching the silent, bleary-eyed travelers sitting at the gate. There was nothing I could do, say or gesture to explain the extremely strange noise coming from my person so I just smirked, put my sunglasses on and sat down. Ha!

No rest for the wicked though...it's off to Berlin for more techno on Thursday!

Photo credits: ResidentAdvisor.net, Nora, Karen
Hotel credit: Nora
Partner in crime credits: Nora, Karen, Joel, Betty, Nancy, Liar, Reds

Alex Under:

Lee Burridge:

Josh Wink:

More Josh Wink:

Carl Craig LIVE:

DBX Live playing Baby Judy (for Joel):

Revlon Run/Walk for Cancer, Cherry Blossom Festival & Flawless 5th Anniversary Loft Party (5/3/08)

2008-05-05T19:59:00.014-06:00

I always have busy weekends but this time I decided to cram all of the week's activities into ONE DAY. I started things off on the charitable tip with my mom, my mom's neighbor and 11 other friends at the Revlon Run/Walk for Women's Cancer. I raised over $1,000 thanks to a bunch of generous friends and co-workers and got to spend the morning walking from Times Square through Central Park. The weather could have been better but the company and the cause made it all worth while. Many thanks to Mom & Kathy for making the trip to the city and to all of the other great people who participated (Chrissy, Krista, Alla, JP, Tracey, Adelma, Yim, Martin, Jackie) and donated (Shannon, Ioulia, Drew & Jen, Leks, Mish, Allison, Mike, Billy, Justin & Jilly, Jamie, Emma, Michelle, Jaime, Eric, Ellen, Colby, Shane, Christina, Eileen, Kim, PJ, Colleen, Jenn & Joe, Regina, Laura, Sunil, Lizzy).

After the race and a little R&R on my couch... my mom, Kathy and I made the trek to Brooklyn to see the 27th annual Cherry Blossom Festival at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. Although we only got to spend a few hours there, it was well worth it to see the 220 cherry trees and various Japanese cultural events activities going on... not to mention the yummy vegetarian bento boxes they were serving! For those who haven't been to this event...it's a spring time must!

After a day filled with charity and culture... it was time for some... debauchery. Not that we ever need a reason, but this time we were celebrating the 5th anniversary of Flawless Media, that lively little nightlife marketing & PR company run by good friends Jen, John and Lisa. I wasn't there for the *original* and now infamous loft party five years ago but I'm fairly certain this year's edition will go down in both the history books and the Book of Bad Ideas. The private loft space, an open bar care of Red Bull and the music of Bennett, Eric Andrew (Sofa King), Stadenco and Hector Romero was MORE than enough to inspire sustained silliness. I had an absolute blast dancing my a$$ off up on the platform in front of the booth with friends both new and old. Joel and Hector both played peak time bomb-age which had everyone going nuts. Of course the night was sprinkled with all sorts of antics some of which will be talked about for years to come... and others of which, well... will also be talked about for years to come. Thanks again to Flawless for the all of the fun and friendship over the years. Much respect! xoxo

Kisses to Phil and Dany (who I met at the Rico Loco party in Montreal and happened to be in NYC this weekend) and to David (one of the newest members of Dancing Rams army) for bringing such an awesome energy to the party! And to TT for ditching her studies to rock out till the end!

Ruined Bowling (4/26/08)

2008-05-03T17:05:00.004-06:00

It's Saturday night... time to get our bowl on! We gathered once again in Shirley's honor this time at Leisure Time Bowl in the Port Authority. Nothing says classy quite like a night out at the PA, baby! Turns out they have made some serious upgrades to the bowling alley and it's actually quite nice. For the low price of $30 you can get 2 hours of bowling, shoes and a tower of beer! The amazing thing about my crew is that no matter where we go or what activity we choose, we always cause a huge raucous. This night was no different as we wrestled in the lanes, touched each other in inappropriate places, performed trick shots, slow danced, yelled at the DJ, drank starbursted beers, and broke the pinsetter. The only thing missing from the night was Nora, who was home faking an ankle injury she supposedly sustained while playing soccer against 5 year olds that day. Shame.

Matthew Dear & Ambivalent @ American Museum of Natural History (4/25/08)

2008-05-03T16:44:00.004-06:00

If Thursday was all about tequila then Friday was all about outer space. Shirley was in town from Tel Aviv so the crew gathered at The Rose Center for Earth and Space to catch Matthew Dear and Ambivalent play DJ sets in an intergalactic planetary environment. The crowd was pretty diverse - some music heads, some wine and cheese peeps, a smattering of randoms - which made for a very different vibe then your usual EDM party. Kevin (Ambivalent) played a really great 2.5hr opening set of funky nuggets that provided a nice energy. Matthew Dear's set was up and down but was definitely enough to keep us moving. At one point we even convinced a few people from each of the above mentioned groups to get funky in our dance circle in the back of the room. Led by "freak-out" All-Stars, Saisha and Colleen, we both entertained and scared at least 50% of event attendees. Matthew definitely finished on a high note playing a recent fave track of mine which has some THICK BOOTY BASS that makes me want to start grabbin shit! A few snaps c/o Colleen and Flavorpill below...

Jose Cuervo Platino Masquerade Ball @ Hudson Terrace (4/24/08)

2008-05-03T16:33:00.003-06:00

Those crazy kids at Flawless Media always have something fun going on and this time it involved tequila - some 30 cases in fact. Me and the crew got the invite to celebrate the launch of Jose Cuervo's newest Ultra-Premium Tequila, Platino, at a very cool indoor/outdoor event space on West 46th. What's better than free booze, an outdoor space and the beats of Cedric Gervais and Austin Leeds to get the weekend started? Not much! Some how I managed to get through Friday hangover-less... which some might consider a miracle. Thanks again to Flawless for the always stellar hospitality!

Dancing Rams V: The Bizarre Bazaar (4/12/08)

2008-04-18T20:27:00.021-06:00

Another year, another birthday, another Dancing Rams fiesta. This year Nora and I decided to step up our game and put all of our efforts toward MAKING the most ridiculous PARTY™ ever and what better theme to do so than The Bizarre Bazaar. We had high hopes and I must say - they were absolutely shattered. A few hundred revelers showed up to The Porch in the East Village last Saturday for what will surely go down in history as one of the most nutrageous affairs of the recent past. I'm not sure how exactly to describe what went down other than to say it was 12 straight hours (2pm-2am) of mayhem plus another 6 hrs of trouble we got into afterward. I'll let the shout-outs and pictures speak for themselves...but please forgive me if you aren't represented... so many people made it such an incredibly special day for Nora and I.

Herman the Hamster - one day you'll thank us for this psychedelic break from PetCo, my hairy little son! You probably won't, however, thank us for that excursion to Teen Wolf's crotch. Sorry!

Ginger the Goldfish - I hope that you met a quick and painless end down a disco dump-free toilet Sunday morning. RIP.

Justin & Jilly - still rockin, even AFTER the baby's due date... you guys never cease to amaze me. Thanks for coming and for waiting to have Gabrielle on my REAL BIRTHDAY!

Joel & Melanie - thank you, thank you and thank you again. Neither one of you has ever let me down! Perfect mix of daytime funk, dirty boomty-boomty jams and old school bombs.

Captain Jack Sparrow, Gio & Boz (from The Porch) - sorry that I tried to go into the bathroom with 5 people and 3 sheep, that I sprayed your faces with silly string and that we utterly DESTROYED your bar! Let's do it again soon (-;

KJ - you absolutely rock in every way possible. It would have NEVER been the same without you so thanks so much for hopping across the pond for a party!

Kellogg crew - thanks for showing up in droves, for laughing at my antics and for remembering...this ain't The Keg! Extra special love to all the boys who came in from out of town and lasted till the wee hours (and pissed in my courtyard)...that would be you Greg, Chris & Billy!

San Fran boys (aka sheep) - Gal, so happy we got to MAKE PARTY in yet another city...love you!! Steve & Casey - after Halloween and Dancing Rams, we are officially family! You guys added such a great vibe to the party!

Everyone - sorry that I threw two huge bags of marshmallows at your faces and dumped an entire bag of shredded paper onto your heads and into your drinks. Sorry if I violated you with a blunt object, shook my a$$ a little too hard in your personal space or did/said something that offended you, your religion, your family, your country or anything else.

Nora - thanks for always pushing me off the silly cliff then picking me up and pushing me off again. I haven't stopped laughing since the day I met you and never could have dreamed of a more perfect ram to dance with! Oh and btw, parakeets are on sale...$19!

Mikey Smilez - costume of the day! Holy shit!

Kim & Keith - giveaway of the day! One-way tickets to Mangladesh...priceless!

Anne & Dave - prop of the day! Yodeling pickle!

Bridge Art Fair NYC (3/30/08)

2008-03-30T10:58:00.003-06:00

Thanks to Colleen, my good friend and author of New Dork City, I was in the know on the eight international art fairs happening this weekend in New York. With so many choices...how's a girl to choose? I opted for the Bridge Art Fair over the Armory the others mostly because Colleen sent me an email about it, I read there was going to be some contemporary Asian art (something I haven't seen much of) and I wanted to check out the space. It was held in The Waterfront building, a 23,000-square-foot converted railway tunnel that was once home to the infamous Tunnel nightclub, a place I never got the chance to see. The Fair showcased more than 50 international exhibitors, many of whom had not yet shown their work in the States. The highlight for me was definitely the work of Polish photographer, Anna Druzcz. The basis for her work, part of a series called In Vitro Complex, are photographs of artificially reconstructed, natural environments which she later manipulates digitally. The content and aesthetic of the photos were very unique and interesting as was her statement about man's interaction with nature.

Si*Se @ Highline Ballroom (3/29/08)

2008-03-29T17:36:00.005-06:00

It's not often I actually hit up live (non-DJ) music events...shame on me! Luckily my peeps are always on the move and this time it was Saisha that provided the good word that NYC-based latin-soul-electronica group, Si*Se, was playing at Highline Ballroom - right in my neighborhood! Me and a few of the girls ventured over for the show and were blown away. Not only is lead singer Carol C's voice just as good in person as it is on Si*Se albums but she also happens to be gorgeous! Whoa! We took bets about her family's nationality and all guessed South America. However, after some quick research I found out that she's a Brooklyn-born, Dominican-American. Oh and apparently she's a house music DJ. Does it get any better? Check out the band online @ SiSeNYC.com . And if you're interested in buying some of their music, I would suggest "More Shine". One final tidbit about the night... we ran into Spike Lee @ Hiro after the show (-:

International Pillow Fight Day (3/22/08)

2008-03-23T20:02:00.003-06:00

So... when Nancy told me a few months ago that I could show up in Union Square and beat people at will with a pillow on March 22 I was all in! Yup, that's right... NYC was one of many cities to host International Pillow Fight Day - all out feather-filled mayhem! It turns out that I'm not as much of a brute as I originally thought as I was pretty content to watch from the sidelines after only a short while in the action. However, I did make sure to venture in early with my video camera rolling in one hand and my pillow pummeling in the other... to ensure you could live vicariously. Let's go to the video tape! PS - my pillow has brown squares on it.

Drag Queen Puppet Bingo & Rhythmism.com 4th Anniversary Party (2/22/07)

2008-02-23T11:04:00.016-06:00

DRAG QUEEN PUPPET BINGO.

Could you possibly think of a string of four more fun words or a better Friday night pre-game activity? I heard about this little Friday night affair about a year and a half ago while living in Chicago but wasn't able to check it out until this week. I met a few of my peeps at View Bar in Chelsea and was mesmerized within the first five minutes. Puppeteer Joe Kovacs and his lady friend, Greta Green, are outrageously hysterical. They had us laughing our a$$es off! Me, Mike and Karen even made our way on stage to take part in the antics.

After DQPB, we made a quick pit stop at Colleen and Sean's and then made our way to Pacha for the Rhythmism.com 4th Anniversary party featuring James Zabiela, Deadmau5, Sleepy & Boo, various NYC locals in the basement and The Martinez Brothers (the main reason why I even ventured out). TMB are a teenage DJ duo originally from the Bronx (they now live upstate in a town a few over from where I grew up) who broke on to the scene in 2006. Their dad is an old school Paradise Garage house head who introduced them to house music as an alternative to commercial rap and hip hop. Within no time, Chris (15) and Steve (19), were hooked and obsessing over vinyl and eventually dabbling in production. Lucky for them Dennis Ferrer actually reads his MySpace messages because after a few internet exchanges, TMB found themselves under the wing of the well known house music producer. During the last year and half, they've played Shelter, Pacha, Cielo, PS1 and 718 Sessions in NYC as well as in numerous cities around the world.

Their performance at Pachita on Friday night was truly inspiring. Not only are they the real deal when it comes to track selection and mixing but they also know their role as entertainers - something lost on a lot of veterans on the scene. I still don't trust DJs who can't (or won't) dance and that is certainly not the case with TMB who are movin and groovin behind decks, Joe Clausell style! They played some classics, some pop remixes, some deep, some dirty - pretty much everything I'd want in a night out. At one point they mixed Nelly Furtado "Say It Right" into a classic house anthem. Beautiful! Not only was the music on point, but they brought out a new generation of house music fans, many of whom I'm assuming may not have otherwise been interested. I'm not sure if it's their age, their race, their taste in music or cross-over appeal but the scene could use more DJs who attract a diverse group of young people to come out. The Martinez Brothers may just be a hot new thing, but they also might just be the breath of fresh air that the stagnating NYC scene needs to get it kick started. I'd put my money on the latter.

Spice Girls @ Madison Square Garden (2/18/08)

2008-02-18T23:15:00.006-06:00

Sunday night I got the call. That's right, free tickets to see the last of six sold out Spice Girls shows in the NYC area. The Spice Girls last visited New York City in July '98 on their first world tour and the concert sold out in 12 minutes. However, Ginger (Geri Halliwell) left the group in May of that year so as far as I can tell this was the first and only performance of all five Spice Girls in NYC. Granted I would have never paid to see them perform, but free tickets? Hell yes! Oh and did I mentioned I was sitting 20 rows from the stage? (-:

They played a bunch of the expected hits as well as a number of solo spots and covers (see below for full set list) all of which the capacity crowd loved. The pitch was high and the voices were shrill - it reminded me of being at a WNBA game. Ginger, Baby, Posh, Scary and Sporty - all between the ages of 32 and 35 - definitely still have enough entertainment value and Girl Power to rock an arena. Women of all ages (and a few gay boys) were really into it. I was however, pretty surprised at how risqué some of the numbers were given the audience - there was boob grabbing, a$$ smacking and even some simulated fellatio - whoa! One of the highlights was definitely the song "Mama" during which all the Girls (except Sporty) brought their kids on stage. Of course one of the Beckham boys, Cruz, stole the show by break dancing to the roars of the crowd (see video below). He and his mommy, Victoria, were definitely the most popular with the New York crowd. If you ask me, I think she needs to head a few hamburgers - way too skinny!!

'Spice Up Your Life'
'Stop'
'Say You'll Be There'
'Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)'
'Lady Is A Vamp'
'Too Much'
'2 Become 1'
'Who Do You Think You Are'
'Are You Gonna Go My Way' (feat. Mel B)
'Maybe' (feat. Emma Bunton)
'Viva Forever'
'Holler'
'It's Raining Men' (feat. Geri Halliwell)
'I Turn To You' (feat. Melanie C)
'Let Love Lead The Way'
'Mama'
'Celebration Medley'
'Goodbye'
'Wannabe'
'Spice Up Your Life' (Reprise)

"Mama" featuring Cruz Beckham breakdancing:

"Spice Up Your Life"

A Weekend Without a Party (2/16/08)

2008-02-16T16:22:00.008-06:00

Yes people, contrary to popular belief it's possible for me to go a weekend without MAKING PARTY™. Friday night I went to the Theater for the New City in the East Village to see "A Clear Midnight," a performance inspired by Walt Whitman's poem "Song of Myself." A work colleague, Ramiro Sandoval, starred as the young poet who reads a selection of verses illustrating his lifelong path. Along the way he encounters a solider, a woman, a maiden and death who each help depict various facets of the protagonist's life and being. It was great to get out for some theater - it's been too long! Kudos to Ramiro for an a job well done and to Death to giving the creepiest (and best) performance I've seen in a long time!

I woke up on Saturday, hit the gym and then made my way to Lusker Rink in North Central Park to ice skate with 20 autistic kids from the Bronx. The kids were so cute and so much fun. At first a few of them were really scared to leave the safety of the rink wall but after a little while I had them skating laps! What a great day - I had a blast and am really hoping to do more activities with the same kids in the future. For the NYers reading this, sign up with NY Cares for similar volunteer opportunitieshere!

Saturday night I stayed home and watched a documentary from 2004 called "The Future of Food" which according to its website is "an in-depth investigation into the disturbing truth behind the unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods that have quietly filled U.S. grocery store shelves for the past decade. From the prairies of Saskatchewan, Canada to the fields of Oaxaca, Mexico, this film gives a voice to farmers whose lives and livelihoods have been negatively impacted by this new technology. The health implications, government policies and push towards globalization are all part of the reason why many people are alarmed by the introduction of genetically altered crops into our food supply." I highly recommend checking it out as I think you'll be shocked at the impact of GMOs and the inner workings of the industry. I actually got the DVD from a young guy at the 8th Avenue "L" subway stop who was giving away copies of films he felt were important for people to see. I grabbed "The Future of Food" and "Sicko" so stay tuned for more on the latter.

"The Future of Food" Movie Trailer

Free Rice: Practice Your Vocab and Fight World Hunger!! (2/16/08)

2008-02-16T15:58:00.007-06:00

Visit FreeRice.com and practice your vocabulary. For every word you get right, they will donate 20 grains of rice through the United Nations to help stop world hunger. For those who are wondering about the details, donated dollars come through ad revenue generated by the site. 18 billion grains of rice have been donated since October 2007!!

And this just in, you can also do trivia for free flour here!

While we're on the topic, also check out their sister site Poverty.com which tallies the deaths per hour around the world for poverty-related illnesses like Hunger, AIDS, Pneumonia, Diarrhea, Tuberculosis, Malaria and Measles. According to the site: "The United Nations estimates that the cost to end world hunger completely, along with diseases related to hunger and poverty, is about $195 billion a year. Twenty-two countries have joined together to raise this money by each contributing 0.7% (less than 1%) of national income. Some of the countries have already met this goal. Others are being a little slow, but this can be fixed. You can see how the countries are doing here. Get involved by going here.

If you like this idea of *clicking* to help causes:

http://ecologyfund.com/ecology/_donate_species.html - Protect Wildlife!
http://www.buildaschool.org - Help build a School!
http://www.e-inclusionsite.org/en/clickDonate.php - Promote IT!
http://www.theliteracysite.com - Free Books to the poor!
http://www.ripple.org/give.php?p=education - Help Educate!
http://stopglobalwarming.care2.com/ - Offset Carbon, Stop Warming!
http://ecologyfund.com/ecology/_donate_pol.html - Reduce Pollution!
http://www.theenvironmentsite.org/donate.php - Help the Environment!
http://cannecy.free.fr/solar/index.php - Create Free Solar Energy!
http://www.ettklickforskogen.se/engelska/ettKlickeng.asp - Help Old Forests!
http://www.tree4life.com/ingles/ingles.htm - Plant a tree in Brazil!
http://ecologyfund.com/ecology/_donate_us.html - Save the Wilderness!
http://ecologyfund.com/ecology/donate_plant_tree.html - Plant a Tree!
http://redjellyfish.com/ - Help the Rainforest!
http://rainforest.care2.com/ - Help our Rainforests!
http://breastcancer.care2.com - Prevent Breast Cancer!
http://www.giveaminute.org/ - Give Healthcare!
http://www.thebreastcancersite.com - Stop Breast Cancer!
http://www.thechildhealthsite.com - Child Healthcare!
http://www.thestophivsite.com - Stop HIV/AIDS!
http://www.craigresearchlabs.com/cancer.html - Stop Cancer!
http://www.ripple.org/give.php?p=food - Start a Crop!
http://www.povertyfighters.com - Help Raise Money!
http://www.solvepoverty.com - Help Jobs!
http://dsmith11.tripod.com - Help Health and Poverty!
http://www.accse.net/rasa/donacion-rasa.html - Help Agriculture!
http://www.freeflour.com/ - Free Flour!
http://children.care2.com - Feed Children!
http://www.bhook.com/ - Feed People!
http://www.click2care.org - Feed People!
http://www.clickbokin.ekokoro.jp/50.html - Feed People!
http://www.feedsa.co.za - Feed People!
http://www.freerice.com - Feed Rice!
http://www.hungerfighters.com - Feed People!
http://www.hungrychildren.com - Feed Children!
http://stopviolence.care2.com - Stop Violence against Women!
http://www.clearlandmines.com - Stop Land mines!
http://www.ripple.org/give.php?p=water - Give 6 days of clean water!
http://www.cliquesemiarido.org.br/eng/default.asp - Free Clean Water!

Fashion Week NYC (2/9/08)

2008-02-08T22:06:00.000-06:00

Anyone who knows me realizes that I'm not fashion-forward or even fashion-interested, but that doesn't mean I'm not up for Fashion Week parties! In fact, I've been looking for a break in the monotony of my usual scene and the events on the bill this week provided just that. I started things off on Wednesday at Le Royale (formerly Luke & Leroy) for the NY debut of Paris' hippest event, WADKLUB, which was hosted by street fashion magazine WAD MAG (http://www.wadmag.com), New York’s Roxy Cottontail & Karmaloop TV. I was actually put on to WAD MAG by my friend, Sami, during a trip to Paris in 2006.

So when I found out the hip-hop/electro party was headed this way I jumped at the chance to go. I had the added incentive of meeting Sami's friend and WADKLUB resident, DJ DEE NICE, and the lure of a gift bag... but hey, whatever it takes! I had a good time listening to wacky mash-ups and mixes and chatting with lots of new and interesting peeps. Scoring a Manhattan Portage bag wasn't bad either!

Next up...the opening of Mansion (the NYC outpost of the Miami nightclub) in the space that used to house Crobar on West 28th Street. I've been told the club officially opens to the public next week, but I had a chance to attend one of two soft launch parties (the first one was a Zac Posen after party on Thursday). Friday's party was hosted by Jeremy Scott and NYC hipster DJ legends, The MisShapes. The venue has been transformed from a big room, electronic music haven to a 2,120-person, bi-level bottle service "ultra lounge" run by Opium Group's Eric Milon (a former male model) and Lotus owner Mark Baker.

The vibe at Mansion is obviously a stark contrast to its predecessor which had a good run but had long since lost the interest of my crew. When you walk in the front entrance, you're greeted with multiple fireplaces and are guided directly into the former "Reed Room" which is a different path of entry than what was used by Crobar. The Phazon sound system from Crobar's main room has been moved into the smaller side room (now called The Gallery) and the room has been opened up quite a bit. On it's own the side room should provide some pretty interesting party opportunities.

The main room (The Ballroom) has a 1940s Hollywood theme, an octagon couch with a cross-shaped runway in the middle and a brand-spanking- new Funktion One sound system which the music heads should appreciate. Obviously they are still working through quite a few last minute changes but overall the room is quite beautiful and has a lot of potential. When we walked in, there was a gospel choir singing on the stage and later on we were treated to acrobats, fire guns and some serious eye candy. Oh and did I mention the waitresses are dressed as french maids? Yup. It's almost a big room version of The Box... with a DJ. Speaking of DJs, The MisShapes played their usual mix of Rock, New Wave and Pop and had me and our small crew dancing up a storm. Granted, they couldn't mix a drink but let's be honest... nobody *really* cares about mixing anyway. I couldn't even begin to list the random accessories adorned by The MisShapes faithful or the smattering of songs we thrashed to all night but let's just say this... I heard the Rocky theme song for the first time in a club! Definitely no shortage of smiles or laughs!

For all the haters out there, I'll say this: I think you need to remember how to smile and have some *good old fashioned fun*. Isn't that what it's supposed to be all about? Kudos to Jen, John, Lisa and Stacey at Flawless for their role in the opening and as always, the amazing hospitality!

PS - for once I didn't take my camera out but I've included a random photo found online. Thankfully The Ballroom is not nearly as gaudy as it appears in this pic!

San Antonio (1/31/08)

2008-02-08T12:25:00.000-06:00

You gotta love when you get sent on a business trip to a place that a) you have friends and b) you'd probably never otherwise go. So when I started my new job in and found out I'd be headed to San Antonio, Texas this winter I was thrilled. Not much to report about the city itself unfortunately. As for the famed River Walk... well, let's just say it's an *interesting* little experiment in tourism for middle America. Fuddruckers or Hooters anyone? I did get to see the Alamo Mission which was built by the Spanish Empire in the 1740s for the education of local Native Americans after their conversion to Christianity. How nice of those Spaniards! According to Wikipedia, "after its abandonment as a mission, it was used as a fortress and was the scene of several military actions, including most notably the 1836 Battle of the Alamo, one of the pivotal battles between the forces of the Republic of Texas and Mexico during the Texas Revolution."

Pictures: Me and Princeton softball teammate, Michelle; The Alamo by Night; The River Walk

Craig Richards @ Love (1/26/08)

2008-01-29T21:39:00.000-06:00

Craig disappointed big-time but luckily there was enough tomfoolery to keep me distracted and entertained. Highlights include: the double and triple takes from friends and foes when they saw the mustache, Swamy's fist fight with my marionette, The Wiz, which got him thrown out of the club (albeit temporarily), quality time with Crazy Larry, the coochie duster's new record for coochie's dusted in a single club night and being called "Gallagher" by some message board asshat. Until next time, my amigos locos!

Tantric Ice Bath (1/26/08)

2008-01-26T14:47:00.000-06:00

Colleen called me this morning to see if I wanted to take a short walk to see some guy in tantric meditation in an ice bath in the middle of 17th Street. You know, just another day in New York City! Ha!

It turns out that Dutchman Wim Hof is the only non-Tibetan to have mastered the tantric practice of tumo, the ability to control the temperature of the body through meditation. When we arrived, he was 45 minutes into his attempt to break his own world record for immersion in an ice bath (1 hr, 11 minutes). Despite camera crews, throngs of onlookers and taxi drivers stopping right next to him to take pictures, he was able to stay in his meditative zone. I didn't stay to the end but heard he was successful in his quest for a new record. And I thought jumping in Lake Michigan for a few minutes in February was bold! The footage from today's event will actually be used as the start of a documentary film studying the medical ramifications of tumo practice which was developed by monks in order to survive the extreme conditions at 18,000 feet in the Indian Himalayas. According to the Rubin Museum of Art's website, "An attempt to study the physiological effects of tumo was made by Herbert Benson in the 1980s. Benson studied Indo-Tibetan Yogis in the Himalayas and in India and found that these subjects exhibited the capacity to increase the temperature of their fingers and toes by as much as 8.3°C." That's crazy!

Body & Soul (1/20/08)

2008-01-20T08:57:00.000-06:00

Just when I was starting to lose some interest in the electronic music scene... along comes Body & Soul to restore my faith! Wow, wow and more wow. I haven't been in NYC for the last few years so I think I forgot just how incredible the Body & Soul vibe could be. Young, old, gay, straight, black, white, brown and everything in between - everyone there for one love. Say what you will about dark and dirty tech-house and mental afterhours madness, but there is nothing quite like a thousand people all singing a soulful song from the heart in unison.

I got to Webster Hall alone at 7pm and went straight to the dance floor to warm up from the 20° weather outside. It didn't take long as the Body & Soul triumvirate - Danny Krivit, Francois K and Joe Claussell - were already tag-teaming. Danny and Francois played well, but for me Joe Claussell absolutely stole the show. If FK is the geeky, mad scientist behind the decks than Joe is the DJ version of James Brown. I don't know that I've ever seen another DJ with as much rhythm and flare - it's like the music is flowing directly from his body. I'd go as far as to say that Joe is in my top 10 - he's *that* good.

After a few hours I was joined by my dear friend, Susan, who I haven't shared a dance floor with in a long time (love you, Shabby!). Over the course of the night I ran into 5-6 other friends but for the most part it was just me, Susan and the music. It was a perfect night - 6.5 hours of non-stop smiling and dancing. I highly recommend you NYC heads get out for the next one! A couple trainspotted highlights: Mary J. Blige "Just Fine", Rolling Stones "Miss You", Dan Hartman "Relight My Fire", Aretha Franklin "Deeper Love".

Joe Claussell Playing Dan Hartman's 70s Disco Classic "Relight My Fire"

Danny Krivit Playing "Deeper Love"

More Joe Claussell

Full album:

2008_01_20 (Body & Soul @ Webster Hall)

Saints & Spinners (1/18/08)

2008-01-19T02:26:00.000-06:00

24 hours. 100 spin bikes. 1 Guinness World Record. Go.
Well actually for me it was more like: 1 hour. 1 spin bike. No Guinness World Record. Pain. At 2am on Friday night/Saturday morning I trekked up to Grand Central Station to participate in Saints & Spinners, a 24-hour spin party and benefit to raise money to fight teen obesity. This time last year I was jumping into Lake Michigan for charity (click here if you missed that moment of stupidity...) so I didn't hesitate when given the chance to do something good that didn't involve the loss of feeling in my extremities.

Somehow I managed to find ONE partner in crime for this event - an old buddy from Princeton. Christine and I were both a bit grouchy to start the ride since we had napped beforehand; however, we quickly woke up once the burn set in and were all smiles at the end knowing we had done a body and a charity some good! In addition to all of the normal participants, there were also a few guys riding the entire time trying to set a world record (which they already done by the time we arrived!). Gotta love their effort and enthusiasm but I'm not so sure sitting on a bike that long is good for the... ummm...

In any case... good times, good times! Can't wait for the next random-middle-of-the-night-NYC-event!

Birthday Explosion: Dill, Heather, Sleepy + Boo, Taimur + Fahad, Ryan Elliot

2008-01-12T10:44:00.000-06:00

After staying in and reading three books during the last few weeks, I finally decided to end my hibernation and head out to celebrate the birthdays of good friends, Dill & Taimur, and the return of Sami (that dirty mo*fo wabbit from Paris)!

The night started out with an incredible meal in honor of Dill at Cantina, the Latin-tapas hot spot in the East Village owned by the infamous Jason Swamy of Le Souk and Movida. Cantina's cozy vibe is reminiscent of Old Havana with a decor that New York Mag calls, "Alphabet City yard sale meets the Buena Vista Social Club." Jason (that's what we laughingly called him while in restaurateur mode) treated us to an immaculate sampling of the menu which was developed by consulting chef Jason Neroni (Porchetta, 71 Clinton). I know my foodie friends love to hear the details so here's what we had: warm Spanish olives; warm sheep's milk cheese with mint, piquillo peppers and green olives; radichio salad with manchego and pickle and oliver relish; papas bravas with a pickled jalapeño aioli; beef and pork meatballs with green beans, hard boiled eggs and almonds; pork shoulder dulce le leche; shrimp in salsa verde with potato; curry ice cream with guava and cream cheese pasteles and churros with saffron chocolate. Ummm, yum! Major kudos to Swamy for what he's done with Cantina. I will definitely be going back soon! Here's the website for those who are interested: www.CantinaNYC.com.

After dinner we grabbed cabs to Sullivan Room to hear Dill and DJ Heather, but not before I walked to Houston Street to buy a 1 gallon jar of kosher dills for Mr. Pickle himself. Last time I went pickle shopping all it took was a little Arabic and a smile to get them for a good price (for more background on the pickles...). This time around, I had to use my Spanish and brave a GHETTO bodega between Avenues B and C. The place was full of SKETCHY characters, almost none of which were actually buying anything. The only guy at the counter was buying beer (of course), only had one eye open and at most four teeth. I could feel his one eye and everyone else's weighing on me so I got out of dodge real quick. Despite the circumstances, I maintained my composure long enough to negotiate down the retail price. I'm 2 for 2! Looks like that MBA is really starting to pay dividends.

Ok, now back the story... in the cab and off to Sullivan Room where we were kindly greeted by doorman, AK, before marching down to the basement with the big 'ole jar of pickles in hand. I stormed the booth to celebrate with Dill and then joined Karen on the dance floor to dance around our pickle offering to the gods. Dill dropped some fun thumpity thumpin house music before handing the controls over to Heather who played her vintage style. I stuck around bs-ing with friends until around 2:30am when I had to depart for Bar 13. Before I left I instructed Dill to make sure there was "no pickle left behind" but somehow I got a late night text indicating that there had been POWs. So if anyone has any information on the whereabouts of jar #2, please send me a message asap! Thanks to Mike & Begona for a fun night!

Next stop...Blk Market Membership at Bar 13! When I got there, Ryan Elliot was droppin some techno lovin so I made my way directly to the sweaty center of the room. After some searching, I finally found Sami (sans-floppy-french-fro) holding court and greeted him wabbit style. After that I went search of the Taimur's birthday buns - what's a party without a visit from the pimp hand? Sometime around 4am I walked home with Sami in an effort to be well-rested for a big Sunday (damn, I'm so lame these days!) which included brunch, the dentist, a baby shower, a visit to a pregnant friend and The L Word with the girls in Brooklyn. Jeez! I might be headed back to hibernation after this one!

Ha! (1/7/08)

2008-01-07T18:42:00.000-06:00

Two fun photos I just had to share...

The Infamous Pliver Doin His Thang In Costa Rica

Wendy and TT on a Friday Night

New Year's Eve Weekend 2008

2008-01-01T22:53:00.001-06:00

The pre-NYE festivities started at the Jersey shore with the first stop in West Long Branch to visit two dear friends from Princeton, Ernie & Kathleen, and to finally meet their ridiculously adorable twins, EJ and Cole. It was really fun to spend some quality time with everyone, witness two WWF wrestlers in the making and watch the NY Giants self-destruct against the Patriots.

The second stop was in Asbury Park for a small gathering of the crew which consisted of the usual - eating, drinking and extreme silliness. This time we were treated to the yummy culinary delights of Leks, Dale, Justin and Joel and got to celebrate the birthdays of Eileen and Liar. In honor of the special occasion, we broke out an infamous game created during Propapalooza 2006 in Barcelona, "Pin the Titty on the Titty." This time, instead of using *the lady* and KJ's boob inserts we used human targets and titties of all shapes and sizes hand-crafted by Saisha. We threw on some JT "Sexy Back" and the game was on! Let's just say it was good for more than a few laughs.

On NYE, 35 of us gathered at Liar's pimp pad in the Lower East Side for an immaculate dinner and party. Lloyd, Benke and Leks outdid themselves with the following menu: lavender martinis, goat cheese medallions with balsamic reduction and blueberries, butternut squash soup with a dollop of spicy red pepper sauce, of skirt steak with chimichurri sauce, salmon with a pepper glaze and green beans. The food was met literally with cheers from the attendees - which were almost as loud as the cheers that came later in the night when Tony Lee's penis made an appearance in the slide show put together by Sunny. After dinner we were treated to an intimate soirée with a soundtrack provided by friends and local DJ heroes - Stadenco, Lloyd Alvarez and Leks. Nancy tried to Hooker-stamp everyone but little did she know that a certain someone would be wearing Hooker-proof serum...ha! Foiled again!

I actually wasn't feeling my best so the night ended early for me (4:30am) but the other party soldiers marched on to a variety of after hours including Blood & Thunder II at Galapagos and Get Sullied at Sullivan Room.

Happy New Year, everyone! Here's to a healthy and adventure-filled 2008!

My Friends Rock! Vol. 4 - ASKIN MERIC (1/1/08)

2008-01-01T22:24:00.000-06:00

On Valentine's Day 2002, I ventured out alone to a NYC night club in search of some dance floor therapy. Shortly after I arrived, I met a nice, young Turkish guy named Askin. 5 hours later we had talked, danced and bonded for life. Ahh, the power of music! In this edition of My Friends Rock! I'd like to pay homage to two things that have grown tremendously over the past four years - my friendship with Askin and his line of women's clothing, Mezza New York. His clothes are beautiful and continue to garner the attention of buyers throughout the U.S. He even outfitted me for the New Year's Eve soirée mentioned in the previous entry!

Lifted from an online retailer website: "Born in Turkey, Mezza New York designer Askin Meric grew up around the fashion industry, learning the ins and outs of fabric and design from an early age. Looking at his fabulous creations, you might say fashion’s in his blood. Meric designs his sophisticated clothes, known for modern silhouettes and natural fabrics, with an eye toward bringing out the beauty in every woman. If you have an appreciation for clean lines, elegant simplicity and high-end fabrics, look no further than Mezza New York."

Website: http://www.mezzanewyork.com/

Banksy Does New York (12/28/07)

2007-12-29T00:35:00.001-06:00

I had the day off from work today and picked up a copy of my neighborhood weekly, "Chelsea Now," as I was walking out of the gym. During my post-workout- pain-reflection- ceremony on my couch, I happened to read that one of the art galleries on West 27th St was exhibiting the work of Banksy, a well-known (and pseudo- anonymous) English graffiti artist. And, there was only one day left to see it! So I hit the shower and took a walk north to meet-up with Lloyd and check it out. Ah, the joy of days off in NYC!

According to Wikipedia, "Banksy started as a freehand graffiti artist in the late 1980s as one of Bristol's DryBreadZ Crew (DBZ)" and over the years got mixed attention from both the public and the art world. During the past few years he made some lucrative sales but it wasn't until earlier this year that he officially launched into another stratosphere. In February, "Sotheby's auction house in London auctioned three Banksy works and reached the highest ever price for a Banksy work at auction of over £102,000 for his Bombing Middle England." Over the next day, five more sold for between £31,200 and £96,000. Not bad for a street artist (or anyone for that matter!). One thing I absolutely love about Bansky is his sense of humor which is obvious from his work and his reaction to his own success. On the the second day of the auctions in February, he added the following to his website, "I Can't Believe You Morons Actually Buy This Shit." Ha!

If you're not familiar with his work, I highly recommend browsing his site: www.bansky.co.uk

Robots Final Blowout - Joris Voorn & Chris Liebing @ Cielo

2007-12-21T13:06:00.001-06:00

All good things must come to an end even for our Robot brothers from another mother. After 3+ years and 140 parties at NYC venues like Cafe Deville, Table 50, Canal Room, Cielo and Pacha, the Underground Robot Alliance is calling it quits. But Robots don't go quietly so the 'bot boys called in the big techno guns to tear the roof off Cielo one last time. Joris Voorn played 12-2am and dropped all sorts of fun house and Detroit techno jams. After that, the Robot reigns were handed off to Chris Liebing who played the best, most intense two hours of music of the year. God damn! It was like a heavy weight fight between Chris and the dance floor robot soldiers - we'd take a punch, get up and swing back...only to get hit again! Relentless energy and emotion for two hours... neither wind nor rain, sleet or bathroom run could tear me away from the ring. It's been a long time since I took such a beating from a DJ and I loved every minute of it.

As a HUGE added bonus...my Kellogg & Barcelona best bud, KJ, was passing through NYC to visit and celebrate her birthday so we had an added reason to get nutty. So great to see you honey!! Thanks for Making Robot Party™ with me!

Lots of love and respect goes out to residents Nick AC, Bill Patrick and Dennis Rodgers for providing NYC with it's techno soundtrack for the past few years. Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto!

Unfortunately I was too busy thrashing to get any videos of Chris' monster set, but I didn't manage one of Joris:

Two more vids from an unknown source:

Winter V: Disco Inferno (12/15/07)

2007-12-17T21:51:00.001-06:00

What's better than having a bunch of funny, crazy, talented, party-loving friends? Having funny, crazy, talented, party-loving friends with a dope loft in Brooklyn that's equipped with a club-caliber sound system and a homemade illuminated dance floor (see dance floor in the making photo above). Hellyeah boyee! It's time for Winter V: Disco Inferno at the Park Avenue Lounge.

Spoony and Dave definitely out-did themselves yet again by adding to their already pimp loft and building one of the coolest party environments I've ever seen. The hospitality was amazing, the decor was OVER THE TOP, the was music on fire and the crew of party peeps and vibe second-to-none. Frankie Pep, Spoony D, Stadenco and early morning surprise guest and APT resident, Neil Aline, all rocked it. Me and the crew werked that dance floor HARD. In fact, my sober self left at 9am and the booties were still shakin! Some other highlights include: Michael's mind control and Dear Diary entries, Benke riding the white horse's neck, the walk off: white horse vs. white trash, Prop Cat's prom dress and an appearance by Dr. Moody. My only lowlights were not getting to hear a remix of Laid Back's "White Horse" or "Billy Jean." But I guess you can't have it all! Thanks again to the PAL crew for hosting!

Video of the dance floor and lighting rig:

Thanks to Max for unknowingly providing pictures and video!

Burial, Imogen Heap & Richard Dawkins (12/13/07)

2007-12-13T19:05:00.000-06:00

I caught on to this album a bit late in the year but that's not going to stop me from telling everyone I know to buy it. It's a really rare combination of smooth- sexy-dubby electronic sounds that are great for chillin, jammin or sexy time. Seriously, it's the most LUSH audio I've heard in a damn long time. Enjoy!

--Read reviews HERE
--Listen below (YouTube video)
--Buy at Amazon.com or on iTunes.

While we're on the topic if music, I might as well give you the scoop on my favorite female artist discovery of 2007, Imogen Heap (thanks Nora!). Imogen has actually been around (the UK) for a longtime - her first album (I Megaphone) came out 1998 and the follow-up (Speak for Yourself) in 2005. Once again, I'm slow! And once again, I'm sharing.

--Learn more on her website
--Listen below (YouTube videos)
--Buy Speak For Yourself and I Megaphone at Amazon.com or on iTunes

And finally, the best and most important read of the year for me... "The God Delusion" by British biologist, Richard Dawkins. As one Amazon.com reviewer wrote: "'As a scientist,' Richard Dawkins writes, 'I am hostile to fundamentalist religion because it actively debauches the scientific enterprise. It teaches us not to change our minds, and not to want to know exciting things that are available to be known. It subverts science and saps the intellect' (p. 284). In other words, the greatest crime of fundamental Christianity is to think without asking scientific questions. For those readers already familiar with Dawkins' work, it will come as no surprise that this book is nothing less than brilliant. Pity those readers, however, who either won't read this book (they should) or who will find nothing positive to say about it, because this is the work of one the greatest thinkers of our time."

Buy it on Amazon.com

I Can't Believe It's Not Fabio! (12/7/07)

2007-12-08T08:45:00.000-06:00

Just another day in the office...this time hanging with "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" spokesperson, Fabio. What a sexy beast!

John Tejada @ Sullivan Room & The New Museum Opening (12/1/07)

2007-12-02T11:33:00.003-06:00

I've been laying relatively low lately, but somehow Nora managed to get me out of the house for a bit on Saturday night. We hit up Sullivan Room which had a nice vibe going on the early side for the Samsara boys. Unfortunately when headliner, John Tejada, came on with his live PA the sound and the vibe took a turn downward. Maybe it was just me or maybe it wasn't, but I thought his first hour was pretty boring. Oh and I never thought I'd see the day when there would be a break dancing circle at a live minimal show... what?!!? The good news is we had other plans at 3am...

Earlier in the night a good buddy of ours mentioned she had extra tickets to the the New Museum, which was having it's 30-hour (all night) opening at its new location on the Bowery. Our tickets were for 3am entrance... only in NYC!

I'm not going to lie, I think a lot of contemporary art is bullshit. And I admit that may very well be because I have a simple mind and/or unsophisticated taste in art. Unfortunately the exhibits in the opening were right in my sour spot - I'm sorry, but a bunch of junk thrown in a heap just doesn't do it for me. The lead exhibit, "'Unmonumental', is an exhibition about fragmented forms, torn pictures and clashing sounds. Investigating the nature of collage in contemporary art practices, 'Unmonumental' also describes the present as an age of crumbling symbols and broken icons. Inspired by the art it presents, 'Unmonumental' grows over time like an assemblage."

Cough*bullshit*cough*cough*

The good news however is that no matter where Nora and I go we somehow entertain ourselves. It all started on the top floor where there was an indoor/outdoor dance party. We made friends with a girl who had been at a bar mitzvah all day and stuffed our faces with candy. Then we made our way to the exhibits taking pictures on the first floor before realizing photos weren't allowed. Not to be denied, we just started messing around with security and before he knew what hit him, he had on the supersonic glasses and was posing for pics! As we were making our way to the second room, people kept asking us where we got our sunglasses. I told them "the 9th floor" to which they responded, "there is no 9th floor." I promptly replied, "you have to take the Hogwarts Express." Nora and I were doubled over in laughter. Maybe you had to be there. In any case, we ran around and caused trouble on all floors...laughing at the art the entire way.

Now that was an *interesting* night!

The Box (11/29/07)

2007-11-30T22:15:00.000-06:00

If you live in NYC then you've definitely heard The Buzz about The Box. I first heard mention of it about a year ago with anticipation of it's opening in early 2007. I was in Chicago at the time and didn't think about it much about it until I got back to the east coast and heard a few first hand accounts. For those who don't know, The Box is the brainchild of Richard Kimmel (The Wooster Group), Randy Weiner (The Donkey Show), Simon Hammerstein (of last name fame) and Serge Becker (La Esquina, Club Area). They spent a few million bucks to convert a historic Lower East Side sign factory into a dinner theater-performance-lounge space that would serve as home to their fun and freaky burlesque show. Cordell Lochin (La Esquina, 205 Club) is also involved in the venue as designer and man with the deep celebrity rolodex. I read that he got his start as the doorman at Twilo before becoming special events director at Life - ha! In any case, now that you have the background, let's get to the good stuff!

The Box is not at all easy to infiltrate. Apparently it's very tough to get on the list which is run through the owners and even if you do, you're gonna drop some serious coin. Most bottles will run you *at least* $500 and you *could* drop $50,000 on a bottle of Dom Pérignon if you're a real baller. If you're on a budget don't worry because you can stick to the martinis which are a steal at $19. Normally I wouldn't even consider going to a joint like this, but the promise of vaudeville and the list were enough to lure me (thanks Dale!). We warmed things up in the bar area and then hovered in the front room before being whisked upstairs by one of the owners to the front, right box overlooking the stage. We were greeted with bottles, popcorn and french fries (yes!) and a birds eye view of the action which included: a woman with a bloody vaheen straddling a mirror, a man pulling a balloon out of his arse, a cowboy doing lasso tricks, a beat-boxing-break/tap-dancing duo, a fire eater, aerial dancing gay batman and robin, a jazz band and the act of the night... The Porcelain Twins (pictured). I can't even describe what they were doing (my mom reads this!) but I'm guessing your dirty minds can read between The Box(es).

The show was obviously very fun and entertaining, but the patrons provide their own, separate drama. That place has everything from booty spanking and fry flinging to waiter humping and goth girls gone wild... and that was only in our booth! Downstairs there was even testosterone rage vodka bottle chugging and couch grinding, among other things. All in all an extremely fun and entertaining night out...I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND it especially if it's on somebody else's dime (-:

On a separate, but related note... we started the night up the street at 205 which I mentioned earlier. I was really digging the vibe during our short stay at that place and would love to go back. And now I know why... an article I just read quoted Creative Director, Aaron Bondaroff, as saying "we just wanna bring in junkies, faggots, skaters, and weirdos.” Love it!

Pliver Works Hard For The Money (11/28/07)

2007-11-28T20:28:00.000-06:00

You may have seen him in his first Imperial Beer commercial, which I posted in October (CLICK HERE). Well... Oliver is back for Part II. He's the Tico loco in the green t-shirt. Jajajajajja!

Asbury Park Reunion (11/17/07)

2007-11-19T22:00:00.000-06:00

Chili + Travel Club + Jengalingus + Beats + Showgirls + Sunday Snuzzling.

Thanks so much to Jilly + Justin for hosting! And to the rest of the crew for always being up for breaking new boundaries of silly!

Wikipedia on Showgirls: "Today, it is a favorite of homosexual audiences and audiences in general have considered it to be a comedy thanks to frequent midnight madness." Review on IMDb: "Don't know whether to give it a 1 as drama or a 10 as comedy." Ha!

Training (11/12/07)

2007-11-19T21:53:00.000-06:00

One week of training... the question is training for what???

I like 'em round, and big
And when I'm throwin' a gig
I just can't help myself, I'm actin' like an animal
Now here's my scandal
I wanna get you home
And ugh, double-up, ugh, ugh
I ain't talkin' bout Playboy
'Cause silicone parts are made for toys
I want 'em real thick and juicy
So find that juicy double
Mix-a-Lot's in trouble
Beggin' for a piece of that bubble
So I'm lookin' at rock videos
Knock-kneeded bimbos walkin' like hoes
You can have them bimbos
I'll keep my women like Flo Jo
A word to the thick soul sistas, I wanna get with ya
I won't cuss or hit ya
But I gotta be straight when I say I wanna ****
Til the break of dawn
Baby got it goin' on
A lot of simps won't like this song
'Cause them punks like to hit it and quit it
And I'd rather stay and play
'Cause I'm long, and I'm strong
And I'm down to get the friction on
So, ladies! {Yeah!} Ladies! {Yeah}
If you wanna role in my Mercedes {Yeah!}
Then turn around! Stick it out!
Even white boys got to shout
Baby got back!

Laurent Garnier @ Cielo (10/10/07)

2007-11-11T12:47:00.000-06:00

Laurent Garnier finally graced us with his presence after a 3+ year hiatus from the United States. I was fortunate enough to catch him twice in Europe last year - once in Belgium where he played live with horns and strings and once in Barcelona which was for a DJ set at Pacha. The latter turned into one of the most legendary nights of all-time, partially because of Laurent but mostly because The Hand made it's first appearance and I climbed to the *top* of Arago 95 and talked on the green shoe phone. That night will not be forgotten anytime soon. Anyway, back to the present.

Last night Laurent played really diverse, tasteful music which sounded great over Cielo's Funktion One sound system. While he kept it interesting with tidbits of soul, funk, D&B, house and techno, I felt like he played fairly safe and never *went for it*. He kept the night at a 4 of 5 level fairly consistently throughout only getting the crowd into a real frenzy on two occasions - Man with a Red Face (easy) and Song 2 by Blur (even easier). I'm sorry, but I expect a legend like Laurent to be able to get that energy out of an up-for-it-NYC-music-head-crowd with something other than catchy pop lyrics like "woo hoo". Don't get me wrong, I had a really fun time and continue to appreciate Laurent's genius (wicked mixing and great track selection), but when I go out I want to get kicked in the a$$ and that just didn't happen last night.

After Cielo closed it's doors, the NYC crackerati gathered at an undisclosed afterhours location for a few unidentified DJs and Damien Lazarus (not sure who else actually played after I left around 7am). Good times although a bit of a clusterf*ck.

Going Back to Old Nassau: Princeton vs. Yale (11/10/07)

2007-11-11T12:14:00.001-06:00

It's been quite a while since I made it back to Princeton, but this weekend was homecoming and the Cap & Gown Club's 100th Anniversary. And of course most importantly, the boys were back in town with the deep fryer in tow for turkey tailgate treats. I met Ernie + Kat, Eric, Drew + Jen, Jeremy + Kim, Jason + Laura and Daryl + fam at our normal plot for lot of food, drink and bean bag fun. Unfortunately Princeton lost to undefeated Yale 27-6 and for the first time in my football watching history, I actually didn't make it into the game *at all*. Instead, we were entertained by a mud pit fraternity war in the field beyond Jadwin Gym. I'm fairly certain there was no one in the student section inside the game because they were all with us in the parking lot (see video below). Ahh, to be young and drunk.

Fuerzabruta (10/7/07)

2007-11-09T15:03:00.000-06:00

Diqui James, one of the creators of "De La Guarda," is back in Union Square with a new show called "Fuerzabruta" (brute force). When I saw De La Guarda way-back-when, it really blew me away because it was fresh, new and truly interactive. The follow-up is definitely a fun, entertaining experience but lacks a little bit of it's predecessor's buzz worthiness. I'm not sure if that's because of the content, the fact that's its the second of it's kind, it's lacking an overall story or something else. I had to laugh at the NY Times review:

"For true enjoyment, a powerful affection for thumping techno music would probably help. So would a delight in being befogged by acrid smoke, blasted by bright lights and shuttled around in packs like cattle. Also getting wet in public. The key demographic for “Fuerzabruta” is probably clubgoing, overstimulated college kids not worried about soiling their togs from H&M. Not to mention all those on the dark side of 30 who wish they were still clubgoing, overstimulated college kids."

I'm 30 and still going to clubs so I'm not sure where that leaves me! In any case, it's definitely something fun and original - certain moments were definitely very memorable - so if you have some time check it out...just don't expect anything life changing (-;

Trailer:

Pictures c/o NY Times.

San Francisco By Night (10/26/07)

2007-10-31T19:10:00.000-06:00

Believe it or not, I had never been to San Francisco before last week! So when I heard my first official work trip would be out west I was especially excited. Unfortunately I was on lock down every minute of every day, so I didn't get a chance to see any of the sights. However, not even the j-o-b could hold me back at NIGHT.

Thursday night I hit up Craig Richards at underground spot, Mighty. I got a chance to catch up with Craig for a few minutes before he went on and re-introduced myself as the birthday-having, headdress-wearing, bible puppet-toting loco that he last saw running around Bar 13 in April. He laughed and said he remembered me and we reminisced about what will probably go down as one of the best parties of 2007. His set in San Fran was prototypical dirty Craig and the Thursday night crowd was definitely up for it. Mighty is a great club with the biggest speaker stacks I've seen in a long while! Thanks to the fine people of the San Fran underground that I met, especially Jason from Auralism.

[all day spent working - uggg]

Friday night I did the b-school thing and met up with a friend from exchange in Barcelona as well as a bunch of Kellogg heads at The Bubble Lounge. I got slightly bored with the clientele so I initiated a pillow fight and made everyone who passed by shake their a$$. After that I met up with boys at a place called Pink where, to my surprise, Miss Honey Dijon was rockin the decks. She tore it up and I let her know that NYC was in the house.

[all day spent at a conference - gag]

Halloween Saturday. As someone who gets dressed up on a regular basis, you'd think I'd go all out on Halloween. But for whatever reason I can never seem to get my shit together in time. This year was no different and thank god I had Julie and Gal on the mission, because I was stuck at work all day without a minute to spare for costume shopping. Gal and five other boys spent most of the weekend slaving away over fabulous costumes for Orgy, The Gladiator Ball (our destination for the evening). We gathered near The Castro for a pre-game, a viewing of the movie 300 and last minute costume alterations before heading to 525 Harrison, a massive club in SoMa. We made our way in, warmed up the dance floor a bit and then got ready for the costume contest. Right before we went up on the stage, I proposed adding a bit of theater to our grand entrance. So, the boys all went up on stage and were getting introduced by the drag queen hostess while Julie and I waited in the wings. Right when it got quiet, we bum-rushed the stage and started slaying and castrating the boys. Let's just say the crowd, the hostess and the judges (one of which was Davis from the Real World Denver) loved it. We got third place after two amazing contestants (Gladiola and a character from 300). We were happy with our victory and leveraged our time on stage into dance floor notoriety for the rest of the night. There was, however, one guy who took home the unofficial prize...holy sh*t (see picture).

[all day spent at a conference - ouch]

Sunday night I actually took it easy and met up with an old friend from high school before crawling into bed exhausted around midnight. After that, I wrapped up the conference and finished up the trip with an incredible meal at Citiscape, the restaurant on the 46th floor of the Hilton, which overlooks the entire city.

[all day spent at a conference - uggh]

Check out the rest of the pics from Saturday night below.

Return of the Rabbit (10/20/07)

2007-10-31T18:59:00.000-06:00

Sami got a haircut and the waskly wabbit made it's NYC debut! Miss you Missah!

Pliver Hits the Airwaves (10/17/07)

2007-10-17T21:31:00.001-06:00

Check out my friend, Oliver, in his latest commercial for Imperial Beer (Costa Rica)... he's the stud at the end who hits on the chick (ha!)

Dove Campaign For Real Beauty (10/16/07)

2007-10-16T20:42:00.000-06:00

By now you've probably all heard about the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty and Self-Esteem Fund... but have you seen the commercials? Take a minute to watch both Evolution (the transformation of a model) and Onslaught (the barrage of beauty messages)...they are amazing!

Trentemøller Live @ Rebel (10/13/07)

2007-10-14T11:40:00.000-06:00

I heard that Trentemøller's DJ set in NYC a few months back was a bit of a disappointment, but the live show was absolutely incredible. He and his band played for an hour and a half and I can say without hesitation, it was the most energetic and inspirational music I've heard in a long time. It had all the best elements of a DJ set along with the energy of a live band. Rebel's system was tuned to perfection, which made for amazing listening experience - Trentemøller's music is so layered and lush. About 20 minutes into the show, Sami and I made our way to the cage on Rebel's main floor and got to watch Anders and the band from the best spot in the house. Check out the bird's eye view pictures and videos below. The band played Jaydee's Plastic Dreams, Moby's Go as well Trentemøller's Moan, Always Something Better, Vamp, Snowflake and various others. After the live set, me and the UN Nation party boys (Sami-France, Askin-Turkey, Darren-Australia) hit up Sullivan Room for the last part of Evil Eddie Richards set and a dope closer by Amos (DJ Fame).

Röyksopp What Else Is There? (Trentemøller Remix)

Trentemøller Moan (Vocal Version)

Jaydee Plastic Dreams

A few pis from Diego:

R&BBQ @ Park Avenue Lounge (10/13/07)

2007-10-14T09:55:00.001-06:00

D'Angelo, Montell Jordan, Al Green, TLC, H-Town, R. Kelly, Blackstreet plus pork in every form imaginable... what more could you ask for from an R&BBQ!?! Thanks to Dave & Spoony for hosting us on the roof of the Park Avenue Lounge for a boogie down and some good eats. And to Sean and Colleen for that ridiculous dance-freak-out-session. I don't see nothin wrong... with a little bump and grind!!

My Friends Rock! Vol. 3 - BRANISLAV KROPILAK (10/11/07)

2007-10-12T07:22:00.000-06:00

Branislav is originally from Slovakia, but he and I met while we were both living in Barcelona last fall. He's an amazing contemporary photographer and I'll let his work speak for itself. Definitely check out www.kropilak.com for all of the photos in each of his series which range in subject matter from Garages, Landings, Trains, Lobbies and Barcelona.

Landings

Garages