Rantings from the bonfire
The word to summarize this entire weekend:
Wow
Dare I say I had one of the most fun-filled weekends in a very long time, and in two different cities to boot:
DC: Yeah home but it was FUN at home this time! Yayness!
NYC: Ahhhhh the GREAT CITY with one awesome awesome scene (even if it doesn't have belladonnas_web or queen_mab_fae or dreammuse.. well, ok I love my own scene, I admit it hehe)
THURSDAY:
I'm rushing out of the gym, painkillers in hand, on my way to alchemy_dc, because I felt good enough after the eucalyptus steam baths at the gym to manage to go out, figuring I won't dance. Which I was able to do so anyway, especially after popping 1 magnesium pill. And huge thanx to ladyklife for the tonic suggestion, though I really hate gin thus substituting gin with vodka to have 2 vodka tonics (I felt NO pain! hehe). It was great to see Eddy back again and had fun with him and with that silly freak Chance (between him and Dirty B starting that "happy pit" in the Black Room.. oh my..).. Randy and Torrey and Simon were there to offer their support of DJ Jen Lasher and to be their usual hip-cool-freaky selves.. Major YAYNESS for exquisitetrash returning!! That was fun hanging with her and Christy, all the while abusing Max (which is always fun), and watching her playing Dualing Cameras with oldsmobile_mike.. Met someone "new" to the scene (actually he's far from new, Billy).. also saw deadmoonrising, Edward, Mike, Keyska and Gabriel (great stage dancing!), sadearthmonkie and one very strange little guy in all white with a white straw hat hitting on every woman in sight.. oh and Elphie's Ian too.. and did I see queen_mab_fae there in "casuals"?
FRIDAY:
I cancelled the "Snakes on a Plane" movie gathering since I was going to leave early for NYC, that and I'm still on painkillers galore and still planned to go to the strangelandrecs ego_likeness concert, which I did. Very good sound and had enough metal in it to appeal to me, and Donna's vocals are amazing, fantastic stage presence (lots of eye contact with everyone), and I grilled the perfect burger! Good to see groaninggirl and violinpadric, oldsmobile_mike, Eddy (who was there with coffinwolf and Michelle, plasma_arc, myruiner who spun well and reminded me of the insanity of the Chinatown buses coming back to DC from NYC, Dave Jones and Shasta (aww to the baby pics!), and was great to see the Old Guard there too (Slash and Tracy, Steve and Kitty).. I left relatively early to medicate myself once at home (not while driving, people, geez!) which was only 10 mins away (for once an event close to home)..
SATURDAY:
The Event Begins
Getting up at 7:00AM on a Saturday should be banned by the Geneva Convention for cruel and unusual punishment! Disturbing how there are people up at that hour by choice, including my roommate (who is himself disturbing anyway, in a "GIR ER DUN" kind of way) Had to to catch the cab to go to the Metro (that was an evil experience in and of itself) to get to the Chinatown bus depot on 6th and I in time to get a decent seat and on the way I go to...
The Great City of New York
And wow what a blast I had!!! This after finding the hotel I stayed at (Sohotel - 241 Broome St. somewhere between Chinatown and Lower East Side, great place, you should go!), and then realizing the bus arrived 2 hours late into Manhattan I didn't have enough time to mull about except to call manablast to tell him I've arrived and to attempt to hang out on Sunday. I prearranged to meet my Finnish friend Jaakob, who was also visiting NYC [he's there for 2 weeks grrrrrrr] near his hostel on West 30th and 8th Avenue, but the Subway trains were running ultra funky, so it took nearly an hour to get there. We met and went to Times Square for dinner at Tad's Steaks (one of my favorite steak places on earth), where the pepper shaker emptied on my baked potato (SPICY! *sigh*).. walked past the New York Public Library which seems to be inconveniently getting a facelift the very same weekend I'm up there for more NYC pics, then we went back to my hotel to chill for a bit and chat about music and theological matters, then he left, I took a nap, woke up and watched Cops (sad, isn't it?), and then got all gawthed up for Albion that night, excited to see Vasaria in concert..
Got up there to meet Jaakob again and the two of us went to Albion, and waited in line.. and waited and waited (I'm used to it, reminds me of home *sigh*).. finally got in and saw Vasaria.. fantastic goth metal, in fact, much MUCH more metal!! Even Jaakob digged them! And Baron Misuraca doesn't just have hair.. he has more hair than all metal bands combined!!! Hair down to your butt is very nice in metal; hair down to your KNEES in metal is unheard of!!!! WOW
Jaakob left because he was on "Finnish time" (like 6am for him) while I was on DC time (I'm used to clubs ending at 2am, Albion is just getting started.. welcome to NYC!) This guy who looked like the "Satanic version of Rick [of Rick and Layla of those_who_mourn]" told me about the entire upstairs floor..
[Personal note to belladonnas_web: YOU WERE NOT KIDDING!!! THIS PLACE IS HUGE!!!] And what blew my mind was that every floor, every room in that place was PACKED with people!!! The DC scene might fill up one floor at best.. I met a few interesting folks as well including DJ Polina, DJ Patrick, various people from Drop Dead Magazine, this Norwegian guy Sven that I swore I met here in DC once before even though he said he was never here (he was at alchemy_dc once), and this Norwegian-German guy Tarje, and people whose names were utterly unpronounceable there..
I stayed until I could stand it no more, 4:00AM, then I left, got on the train back to the hotel, where I had this cool conversation with this Italian guy Orlando (how random.. some hardnosed Italian pizza guy talking to a "foreign goth")..
SUNDAY:
I actually managed to get up w/o much pain.. for once.. yayness! I got up, packed up and left to spend the afternoon down near the Village where they were having a street market closing off 6th Avenue.. Got the most expensive steak and cheese ever made ($11 for steak and cheese sub = RIPOFF!).. was totally unable to talk to manablast but did get a rather random call from Richard thinking I was going to buy his friend's car (um, ok I'm in NYC BTW where I just spent $11 on a steak and cheese..) Once again ran late after hanging with some friends I know in the area, all the while completely unable to find Austin nor Brit or Melissa or Justin "Neo" or Derek or Diana.. Caught the insanity known as the bus (you were right myruiner), even though I was so late getting there I had to catch a cab to get to 88 East Broadway in time.. still.. ugh.. 5.5 hour bus ride home with chatty people near you is evil..
I got back to DC (yeah, missing NYC already), had some egg drop soup and minced meat congee at this one new place in Chinatown (the DC version of it), then Metro'ed and cabbed home..
So, who missed me?
Phil