WMC - day 1
day 1 of winter music conference in miami offered more than we expected. here's a recap of our trip down weds night and day 1 in miami....
we arrived at dulles excited and ready to go, just to find out our flight was delayed an 70 minutes. oh well, no biggie, we'll grab dinner and beer and then be on our way to miami. the flight was uneventful and we managed to pick up the rental (got a deal on a convertible on priceline - woohoo!) without too much hassle and we checked into our south beach hotel shortly before midnight. an hour or so later, and we're off to bed for some much needed sleep.
yesterday, we had tickets to a techno party downtown (@ the white room) that started at noon, so we hung out in south beach for a bit and we headed downtown around 1 or so. the party apparently started on time (unlike when we went to minitek in NY), so that was a bonus. but i think other than 3 guys apparently from the ukraine who knew the first DJ, we were the only guests. the party was outside at a club, so we stayed for maybe an hour or so, had a drink, and then decided to head back to SOBE to grab some food. the white room party was scheduled to run until 10am the next day and we had tickets to 2 other parties at clubs within 3 blocks, so we figured, we'd eat, nap, get ready for the evening and head back to the white room until around 11, when the other parties should have started.
and that's exactly what we did. we sat outside on ocean drive, ate, had a couple of drinks, and people watched - and miami never fails to deliver when it comes to people watching. for those who've been here, you've seen it. for those who haven't, it's a never ending parade of people of all sorts. you have the people who live here and are working the tourists with photo ops and what not - people walking around with huge snakes, posing for pictures; one guy yesterday had a small monkey; another guy was making these praying mantis-like bugs out of reeds of some sort.... then you have the pretty people all made up with their designer sunglasses and bags, out and about enjoying the atmosphere and their friends. and of course, with that, you have a set of people who you can just tell are trying too hard - they're made up, but they just don't look genuine or comfortable with themselves. and you have regular joes walking around and soaking up the scene, muscle guys, flambouyant gay guys - sometimes one and the same. twice yesterday a muscle-y guy in a light yellow speedo, which left absolutely nothing to the imagination as it was yellow and a speedo, walked by with his muscle-y friend in a red speedo or boy shorts kind of bathing suit. they were making the rounds. in my head i heard "my eyes! my eyes!" ;)
so anyway, after that we napped, got ready for the evening, and headed back downtown. parked in a lot for $10 and on the way back to the white room, i fall and bust up my left knee. luckily it's not bleeding, just scratched and bruised and i had already taken 4 ibuprofen to keep my back from acting up. so i hoped that'd keep the swelling down. then luckily as i'm trying to "walk if off" some random guy walks by and tells me to wipe off my ass b/c i'm covered with dirt. :::phew::: thank you random guy. by the time we got back to the white room, the party was bumping. we hung out there for another couple of hours and bopped to the music, doing more people watching.
/aside
it's funny, when we came last year, we came down for one two-day party and that's pretty much all we did. the party started early in the day and ended at midnight. we were there all day and i clearly remember seeing people who obviously showed up around 8 or 9 at night. they were clean, well dressed, hair fixed, etc. and we had been out all day, were sweaty, in casual clothes, and definitely in need of a shower. at the time, i couldn't understand why those people missed most of the party and just showed up at the end. well this year, since we're here for longer and we have tickets to 5 different parties, i finally understand those people who showed up for the end of the party. when you have so much going on and so many places to go - and the best DJs are always on at the prime hours toward the end of a party - you pick and choose when to be where and you party hop.
/end aside
now here's where it gets interesting. our plan was this: go to the drums and bass party to get our armbands, do a walk around to check the place out, see the set times so we'd know when our favorite dj's were going to be on, then head to the minus techno party, soak up some more techno in a different environment, then drop by the car so i can change shoes and head back to the DNB party.
here's what happened. we got to 90 degrees for the drums and bass party and despite having VIP tickets, the line is moving SLOWLY. but the line was short, so we waited. then when we get up front, we discover it's moving slowly b/c it's also a will call line and the VIP ticket holders get a t-shirt and CD. so ppl are picking t-shirt sizes. so now i have a t-shirt to hold on to and we get mixed signals about whether you can go out and come back in again. what??? oh well, we're here, so we go check out the dnb. now mind you, i'm dressed for the techno party - i'm dressed up, in wedge strappy sandals, with a bunch of jewelry on. my plan was to take off some jewelry and change into black sneaker-like shoes for the dnb party. so i was not prepared to stay there for any length of time. after maybe an hour and one drink, we decide to just head to the minus party at karu & y. but, we figure, we parked right outside, so let's stop by the car and drop off these t-shirts and CDs.
so we head to the parking lot and the car's not there. for a moment, we think maybe we have the wrong lot, so we walk another block and realize no, this isn't the one. i'm certain that the first lot was where we parked and now i'm thinking someone stole our car. complete panick takes over. what the hell do we do now? i hardly even remember what kind of car it is! and then all those questions about rental cars and insurance start popping up. will state farm cover this? do i have some protection from the credit card i used? how much am i going to have to pay for this? and...and...and.... so the night turned to shit with a quickness.
i decide to go ask the guys in the lot (who are different guys than the ones we paid) if they had seen the car, knew who was there earlier, whatever. jonathan asked them what time they started working - 10:00, which was much later than when we got there. when i told them we had parked there, one guy said, "blue chrysler convertible?" yes! that's it! "got towed." oh my god such relief! jonathan was pissed as all hell, but i nearly passed out from relief and hyperventilating. i was so happy i could have kissed that guy. at least he saw that it was towed. apparently, during earlier hours, crackheads get people to park using fake signs and then the cars get towed. then the real company who has authorization to use the lots shows up. apparently, their gate was stolen - so the lot was probably locked up, but someone removed the gate and used the lot to rake in cash from a bunch of suckers like me.
so we call the towing company. the car is in miami beach and it's going to be $65. (the last time i had a car towed was the early 90s in dewey beach and the car was 90 minutes away and it cost me $150. in comparison, $65, near the hotel, and about a $20 cab ride away seemed not that bad.) at this point i figure - we know where the car is, we're going to have to cab it back to miami beach anyway, and we have tickets for another party, we might as well stay downtown, go get another drink and listen to more music. so that's what we did.
we headed over to karu & y for the minus party. that was awesome. it was outside in the buddha gardens and the scenery was really pretty. the crowd was a mix of pretty people and grungey (sp?) people and everyone was just having a good time. i have no idea what two DJs we heard, but we grooved there for a couple of hours and then decided to call it quits when they ran into some technical difficulties with the sound. by that time it was 2:45 am, so we grabbed a cab back to the beach to pick up the car. that went smoothly too, so we were back at our hotel by around 3:30 or so and were down for the count by 4:00.
all in all it was a fun day. we had a lot on our agenda to begin with and then it got expanded, but that's okay. how you say, all's well that ends well. today, we're going to hang around in SOBE for the day and we have tickets to that same two-day party we went to last year (ultra music festival). it starts today at 4:00 and goes until midnight and is outside in bicentennial park on the bay downtown. so we'll probably head down there around 6 or so. and then tomorrow ultra runs from noon to midnight.
here's hoping today is at least as fun as yesterday, but perhaps with a touch less excitement. ;)
we arrived at dulles excited and ready to go, just to find out our flight was delayed an 70 minutes. oh well, no biggie, we'll grab dinner and beer and then be on our way to miami. the flight was uneventful and we managed to pick up the rental (got a deal on a convertible on priceline - woohoo!) without too much hassle and we checked into our south beach hotel shortly before midnight. an hour or so later, and we're off to bed for some much needed sleep.
yesterday, we had tickets to a techno party downtown (@ the white room) that started at noon, so we hung out in south beach for a bit and we headed downtown around 1 or so. the party apparently started on time (unlike when we went to minitek in NY), so that was a bonus. but i think other than 3 guys apparently from the ukraine who knew the first DJ, we were the only guests. the party was outside at a club, so we stayed for maybe an hour or so, had a drink, and then decided to head back to SOBE to grab some food. the white room party was scheduled to run until 10am the next day and we had tickets to 2 other parties at clubs within 3 blocks, so we figured, we'd eat, nap, get ready for the evening and head back to the white room until around 11, when the other parties should have started.
and that's exactly what we did. we sat outside on ocean drive, ate, had a couple of drinks, and people watched - and miami never fails to deliver when it comes to people watching. for those who've been here, you've seen it. for those who haven't, it's a never ending parade of people of all sorts. you have the people who live here and are working the tourists with photo ops and what not - people walking around with huge snakes, posing for pictures; one guy yesterday had a small monkey; another guy was making these praying mantis-like bugs out of reeds of some sort.... then you have the pretty people all made up with their designer sunglasses and bags, out and about enjoying the atmosphere and their friends. and of course, with that, you have a set of people who you can just tell are trying too hard - they're made up, but they just don't look genuine or comfortable with themselves. and you have regular joes walking around and soaking up the scene, muscle guys, flambouyant gay guys - sometimes one and the same. twice yesterday a muscle-y guy in a light yellow speedo, which left absolutely nothing to the imagination as it was yellow and a speedo, walked by with his muscle-y friend in a red speedo or boy shorts kind of bathing suit. they were making the rounds. in my head i heard "my eyes! my eyes!" ;)
so anyway, after that we napped, got ready for the evening, and headed back downtown. parked in a lot for $10 and on the way back to the white room, i fall and bust up my left knee. luckily it's not bleeding, just scratched and bruised and i had already taken 4 ibuprofen to keep my back from acting up. so i hoped that'd keep the swelling down. then luckily as i'm trying to "walk if off" some random guy walks by and tells me to wipe off my ass b/c i'm covered with dirt. :::phew::: thank you random guy. by the time we got back to the white room, the party was bumping. we hung out there for another couple of hours and bopped to the music, doing more people watching.
/aside
it's funny, when we came last year, we came down for one two-day party and that's pretty much all we did. the party started early in the day and ended at midnight. we were there all day and i clearly remember seeing people who obviously showed up around 8 or 9 at night. they were clean, well dressed, hair fixed, etc. and we had been out all day, were sweaty, in casual clothes, and definitely in need of a shower. at the time, i couldn't understand why those people missed most of the party and just showed up at the end. well this year, since we're here for longer and we have tickets to 5 different parties, i finally understand those people who showed up for the end of the party. when you have so much going on and so many places to go - and the best DJs are always on at the prime hours toward the end of a party - you pick and choose when to be where and you party hop.
/end aside
now here's where it gets interesting. our plan was this: go to the drums and bass party to get our armbands, do a walk around to check the place out, see the set times so we'd know when our favorite dj's were going to be on, then head to the minus techno party, soak up some more techno in a different environment, then drop by the car so i can change shoes and head back to the DNB party.
here's what happened. we got to 90 degrees for the drums and bass party and despite having VIP tickets, the line is moving SLOWLY. but the line was short, so we waited. then when we get up front, we discover it's moving slowly b/c it's also a will call line and the VIP ticket holders get a t-shirt and CD. so ppl are picking t-shirt sizes. so now i have a t-shirt to hold on to and we get mixed signals about whether you can go out and come back in again. what??? oh well, we're here, so we go check out the dnb. now mind you, i'm dressed for the techno party - i'm dressed up, in wedge strappy sandals, with a bunch of jewelry on. my plan was to take off some jewelry and change into black sneaker-like shoes for the dnb party. so i was not prepared to stay there for any length of time. after maybe an hour and one drink, we decide to just head to the minus party at karu & y. but, we figure, we parked right outside, so let's stop by the car and drop off these t-shirts and CDs.
so we head to the parking lot and the car's not there. for a moment, we think maybe we have the wrong lot, so we walk another block and realize no, this isn't the one. i'm certain that the first lot was where we parked and now i'm thinking someone stole our car. complete panick takes over. what the hell do we do now? i hardly even remember what kind of car it is! and then all those questions about rental cars and insurance start popping up. will state farm cover this? do i have some protection from the credit card i used? how much am i going to have to pay for this? and...and...and.... so the night turned to shit with a quickness.
i decide to go ask the guys in the lot (who are different guys than the ones we paid) if they had seen the car, knew who was there earlier, whatever. jonathan asked them what time they started working - 10:00, which was much later than when we got there. when i told them we had parked there, one guy said, "blue chrysler convertible?" yes! that's it! "got towed." oh my god such relief! jonathan was pissed as all hell, but i nearly passed out from relief and hyperventilating. i was so happy i could have kissed that guy. at least he saw that it was towed. apparently, during earlier hours, crackheads get people to park using fake signs and then the cars get towed. then the real company who has authorization to use the lots shows up. apparently, their gate was stolen - so the lot was probably locked up, but someone removed the gate and used the lot to rake in cash from a bunch of suckers like me.
so we call the towing company. the car is in miami beach and it's going to be $65. (the last time i had a car towed was the early 90s in dewey beach and the car was 90 minutes away and it cost me $150. in comparison, $65, near the hotel, and about a $20 cab ride away seemed not that bad.) at this point i figure - we know where the car is, we're going to have to cab it back to miami beach anyway, and we have tickets for another party, we might as well stay downtown, go get another drink and listen to more music. so that's what we did.
we headed over to karu & y for the minus party. that was awesome. it was outside in the buddha gardens and the scenery was really pretty. the crowd was a mix of pretty people and grungey (sp?) people and everyone was just having a good time. i have no idea what two DJs we heard, but we grooved there for a couple of hours and then decided to call it quits when they ran into some technical difficulties with the sound. by that time it was 2:45 am, so we grabbed a cab back to the beach to pick up the car. that went smoothly too, so we were back at our hotel by around 3:30 or so and were down for the count by 4:00.
all in all it was a fun day. we had a lot on our agenda to begin with and then it got expanded, but that's okay. how you say, all's well that ends well. today, we're going to hang around in SOBE for the day and we have tickets to that same two-day party we went to last year (ultra music festival). it starts today at 4:00 and goes until midnight and is outside in bicentennial park on the bay downtown. so we'll probably head down there around 6 or so. and then tomorrow ultra runs from noon to midnight.
here's hoping today is at least as fun as yesterday, but perhaps with a touch less excitement. ;)