Rantings from the orchid garden
Behold
To those of you who were with me this weekend, however you chose to bless me, even if you didn't know you were supposed to bless me, you did in so many ways that an entire roomful of päronsaft, old friends, orchids and Victorian Goths couldn't top. But I won't complain about the roomful either!
Let's just get down to business shall we:
First I sincerely want to thank the following people for coming to The Black Orchid: dmcindc, gothicdoll1, fortyhumans, Thomas from Baltimore, in_remission, Marti, dj_panic and mrspanic, ladistrange and dark_space, and Edward.. You all looked absolutely fahhbulous (or in the words of Mr. Siriano: FIERCE!! hehe) I was blown away at the sheer elegance of this event, the orchids combined with the displays and, well, the very well-dressed friends, that made this event for me currently one of my absolute favorites to date..
And trust me, those_who_mourn is not slowing down by any means! Come to the next Those Who Munch Friday April 18 at 8PM at Bukom Cafe, 2442 18th St., N.W. (Adams Morgan) for African cuisine.. and then we have Freak Mini-Golf II in May, and a very VERY big event planned for sometime this spring that will be one of the most ambitious those_who_mourn events ever.. just you wait!!!
And dreammuse has a Hirshhorn Museum gathering coming up at the end of April, and I would highly suggest you get gothed up fancifully and attend as this sounds elegant, refined and educational.. all the things you hate but you need.. better than broccoli!
And Thursday, May 22: Goth Prom returns! Much in part due to the tireless efforts of pmhrh to make sure the Goth is on, and oh boy is it on this time!! Check out spellbound_dc for more info..
THURSDAY:
At the last minute I decided to go to Exposure even though I wasn't sure planning on going.. so after getting the wireless ethernet card from oldsmobile_mike, and then later on hanging with my friend Troy (who really needs to come out to my world once in a while), I went up to check out the industrial phenom.. I have to give rasdna, dj_missguided and George serious kudos on a very well job done.. very stompy and fun, great music, and a few very nice surprises, including dj_spawn in his very expensive (but sorry to say, very GOTH, oops!) suit, argon_boy, deadmoonrising, Sean (333), Emily, Chance and Keyska (welcome back!!), Matt, Misha, oldsmobile_mike, and lots of stompiness..
FRIDAY:
I sacrificed the entire evening to go shopping. I'm telling you, you try going from Maryland to Arlington (Marshall's), to Ballston, to Springfield, then to Court House, all in one night to get ready for The Black Orchid.. the worst part was that the souvenir giveaways took quite a bit of effort to put together.. I did manage to squeeze in time to pay for my Cornerstone 2008 ticket as well as contact Ticketmaster to make sure that my lost PaganFest 2008 ticket would be replaceable (and it was.. the yayness!!.. oh no, the MEÅL!!), and coordinate with Chris about my hopeful trip to Las Vegas in June..
SATURDAY:
This day did not start out on the greatest of high notes, or low notes, or any notes, or even sour notes.. I got up a bit later than I planned, scrambled to get dressed up for today's fun activities, tried to install the wireless ethernet card when the new mouse mysteriously died, so installation was impossible, then my envelope containing my old license plates and Smart Tag fell behind the "wall of furniture" in the basement, making it impossible to retrieve (w/o a stepladder and at least 2 people to help), then my new roommates had issues with the refrigerator being full (of their stuff, not mine), and my towels hanging in the bathroom, and their insistance on a house meeting on Sunday to address these "problems" (which I told them that I already told the landlord that that was not happening until next week at the earliest), oh, and the cab being late anyway in spite of all that, oh, and then the remaining batteries dying in the disc player requiring me to stop the cab at 7-11 to buy more batteries, only to discover that I left all of my music at home and was running late for my Swedish Meetup IKEA dinner..
That was the part of the day that required a do-over..
So I managed to be quite late, but so was Matthew (the organizer), so the 2 of us met Märta (who has an interesting connection to cerberus777, I'll let them figure it out), but we left anyway and went to IKEA..
IKEA: Sweden in a building!! Det var så mycket jättekult för att gå till där!! We met Eleonor, Anna and Janke there and talked back and forth in English and Swedish, and then went shopping for Swedish godis! I got päronsaft, lingonsylt, raspberry drops, sparkling pomegranate soda, and of course I had to get pepparkakor and äpelsinkakor, this after having a very nice dinner of köttbullare med potatis och lingonsylt What an awesome time!! Considering the crappy start of the day it wouldn't take much to improve it, but this went above and beyond!
After IKEA I went to Kinko's to do more prep work for The Black Orchid, then headed out to dcmidnight and spellbound_dc..
At dcmidnight I got to hang out with dmcindc, Marti, Eric, Ken, dharmata101 (thanx for the ticket) and valdyr (good new music), Ben SexPot, rivingmass, Stuart (it'll suck when you're gone), Jeep John, dj_vlad, in_remission, coffinwolf, dj_panic and mrspanic, gothicdoll1 and her fantastic array of wares, dreammuse and Sweeney Todd (WOW what a visually stunning ending!!), and of course my flyering up folk at the last minute to join us the next day, and it was so much fun even if I missed out on cake for the first time in ages..
At spellbound_dc I ran into Todd and Joah, groaninggirl and violinpadraic, Zee (my future tatt artist), Joseph Blackfeather, shadow27 and pmhrh promoting Goth Prom, pragmas_wife and pragma_x promoting karma_dc, dj_transept and loss_of_signal, verlise and some decent music..
SUNDAY:
Wow. That about sums it up. Ok I'll go into more detail. OH WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Black Orchid was one of my favorite those_who_mourn events ever, and in spite of questionable weather a really good turnout came out (and so nicely dressed!!), to view some of the most awesome orchid displays I've ever seen (dmcindc described it best as a "visual orgasm"), it was truly spectacular.. One of my favorite moments was when we literally became celebrities as people followed us around with cameras, taking tons of pics (trust me, more pics are coming, I am not joking!) and complimenting our looks.. sorry to take away from the poor little orchids, but well, what can I say? :)
We also managed to explore the "jungle" area and the herb gardens where I got to see what wormwood, cinnamon, coffee, vanilla, banana and other necessary ingredients for a weekend are found in their natural state (yes we also saw khat, but that is not included in my weekend, in case you wanted to ask)..
After an incredible experience at the U.S. Botanic Garden, as we were leaving, our "paparazzi" followed us and took more pics (hehe) and then one of the staff members informs us that she was so impressed with our candor, our demeanor and of course our Victorian style that she said the U.S. Botanic Garden newsletter will feature.. US!!! Yes, those_who_mourn is about to become an official part of the U.S. Federal Government!!! (other than where I work, of course hehe)
After all of that awesomeness, we spent more awesome time together at Tono Sushi up in Woodley Park (thanx so much to gothicdoll1 for the suggestion) for some of the best Japanese food I've had in a very long time! I had yellowtail miso soup, spicy tuna roll and katsudon.. YUM! Awesome conversation spilled out into the street as we stood and talked for a long time about the scene, my faith, how the scene views my faith, and how we really click as a group of very well-dressed freaks enough to..
..go shopping next weekend eh in_remission?
Wow what a weekend, I mean it culminated in one of the most awesome experiences I've had in years!!!
Phil
those_who_mourn