Fri 21 - Sun 23 - Men, Music and Madonna...

The weekend finally rolled around and it was supposed to be rainy. I hurried home and prepared for dinner. However I was focusing on music and mixing and so I ate later than I meant to but still finished up with the haircut and cleanup before heading out to Manhattan via the car service at 11:05. Russ was staying in so I was flying solo for the night but I still had plenty of people to see and places to go. The dispatcher at Castle Car had a car for me within 5 minutes and the driver, though smelling of other drinks, was happily drinking his Goya Malta as we headed into the city. The ride was fast and I arrived in downtown on 8th Ave and 18th street with time to head into the deli and pick up some Tums (to stop my late dinner from tasting like my drink) and then headed on into Gym. Barman Brett was holding court in the front as usual and I had my usual Stoli Orange and Rockstar and talked to Brett about our previous weekend and the music and DJ we had heard. The consensus was that it definitely could have been better and we were both waiting to see who was going to be in attendance at Roxy the next night. The night was young and Brett bid a good evening as I headed to the back of the bar and hung out some with DJ Smoky and discussed the fall and the thankful change in the weather. Even with the proposed rainy forecast for the weekend it was nothing like the previous week of 8 straight days of rain. Anything else could be dealt with. I also hung out some with John of Softball and NJ as well as meeting his friend as they played a game of pool near the back of the bar. I also showed off my new camera and took some pics before finally bidding the guys goodnight and heading out to the street and making my way over to 6th Ave and 17th Street. A bottle of water before I headed in and started off my night inside of Splash. I headed downstairs and decided that instead of checking my jacket for the first time this season I would just wear windbreaker tucked into my pants like my shirt and it pretty much stayed out of the way just like I would expect my shirt to and I moved on to get my Smirnoff Ice and Grenadine and headed back upstairs, said hi to Michelé and headed up to the DJ booth to give the light guy in the DJ booth a pair of CDs. I told him he was always so nice to me when I talked to the DJs so I wanted to give him something too. I headed back downstairs and listened to the beats being thrown out by Alex Lauterstein. The music was good, though I had missed Mariah Carey on my way in and I ended up just enjoying the songs from the dancefloor and when the energy picked up some I found myself on the speakerbox in front of the screens dancing with both hands lit, watching the people pass to and fro from the front bar to the back and moving on the dance floor. However I heard the music change again and this time I had to go dance on the box in front of the stage so I could be seen by the DJ and light guy as the familiar strains of "Solid Textures" began to play so I walked through the crowd on the floor and then continued dancing on the new location box. The time was right and the mood was high enough that I decided to leave on a high note and early as well. I made my way out the street and waited for a taxi to show which it quickly did and then I was on my way back to BK. The rain had started and even though I had some difficulty closing the car door I was able to give sufficient directions to get the driver back to BK and relax in the back seat. I refocused and gave further directions just as we turned off of 4th Ave and I was able to give the rest of the directions and get dropped of at my front door by my taxi driver. Another successful Friday night, with plenty of time to go to sleep.

Plenty of time to go to sleep. Well somebody didn't get the memo as I was woken up at 9:20am by some loud noises (drilling going through the very support structure of the building). I got dressed and set out to investigate the source and location. I followed the noise downstairs and found the guy in the lobby happily drilling away and actually argumentative that he had a lot of holes to drill and only took Sundays off. I had been woken up by this noise multiple days this past week and was definitely looking forward to some nice rest on a Saturday morning. The defiant one in the lobby would not take any explanation besides calling the management office (on Saturday?) and making my case with them. I came upstairs considered my options but in the meantime the noise had stopped. I guess another tenant had convinced him of the error of his ways. But at this point I was up and awake and was now looking for reading material and watching television. Nap time would come later. Now was the time for delivery breakfast and watching Batman Begins on DVD with Russ. The movie was good, (much better than those last two Joel S. directed fluff pieces) and I looked forward to the continuation films they had planned. Around 1:30 it was time to head out to the gym and do a little workout at the neighborhood NYSC. The weather was a lot cooler than even the previous night and the fall air definitely appeared to be in full effect. The jacket was sufficient and I was happy to go ahead and pack the pants and wallet and the rest of the accouterments in the locker as I went ahead and worked it out. The rest of the work out went well and I was able to get through the whole thing and then head back home up 5th Ave. Russ had to pick up some fruit at the fruit stand as well as some soda for the house at the Met Market and then the rest of the afternoon was spent waiting and seeing what was on the DVR and HD. Dinner was delivery of Italian (chicken Ceasar Salad) around 7:30. Between cleaning up, mixing music and previewing the new mix on the living room stereo, it was all about preparation for going out later in the night. I had the outfit planned for over a week, the desert tan button-fly military cargo pants, and the still store tagged Ecko Orange shirt. For the hat I stayed with the old faithful, the Tommy Hilfiger capital "T" baseball cap. Freshly showered, shaved and all cleaned up it was time to await the departure. The Jimmy arrived at 10:25 and after the boys had their Ketel One and Cranberry drinks in hand the World Series game on TV was well in hand it was time to head out the door at 11:05.

We avoided several near misses as taxi's and regular civilians appeared to be having a hard time driving on the busy streets that were still wet from the afternoon, early eve showers. We were able to find a parking space right on 23rd street and 10th Ave right next to the now-closed gas station. We rested a bit to avoid appearing to early and the realized our folly after venturing down the street and seeing the predicament the front door to the Roxy had become. The far end of the street at West St. was closed off and the line extended to the end of the block. The line for people on the guest list went half-way up the block in the other direction. There were plenty of people in attendance so we knew that something special was definitely supposed to happen. It took us 25 minutes to get inside and then another 15 min to get up the stairs and to the cashiers. When we finally made it inside it was 12:50 and the place was far more crowded than we had seen it since Pride weekend. I was able to wait a sec for the bar to clear up and then said hello to Barman Barker and got our first round of drinks. Soon after that we headed to the back bar to see that there were no curtains around the dancefloor at all so there were clear sight lines in every part of the club. The place was packed with every speakerbox (except for the stage) packed with people dancing and trying to see what there was to see. We met up with Duane and Joseph and said hello to a few other passers by before I staked out a spot in the back of the Dance floor with Duane and Joseph and we danced some and took some digital pictures. We headed off the floor briefly to get something to drink but we decided to get back to the dancefloor before it got too late and plus DJ Peter Rauhofer was playing some cool new Madonna remixes from her new album. At the back bar I spotted DJ James Anderson and told him that he was missed on the Roxy roster as we had not heard him spin for a while. He thanked me very much and even typed his phone number into my cell phone so that I could call him to get on the guest list when he was spinning at Avalon the following night. I thanked him and then headed back to the dancefloor to get closer to the stage. At exactly 1:01 am. The spotlight came on and shown across the DJ booth and was quickly brought down to shine on the stage and the crowd started to make some noise. Into the midst of all of the already turbulent pandemonium here steps Madonna in her flowing purple dress, just made to dance in, and asked the crowd how they were doing. Of course the place erupted in some high level noise. She then proceeded to thank everyone for coming out and was totally looking forward to hanging out and dancing to her new songs with everyone. So then that is exactly what she did. For the next 30 minutes she danced on stage with all of her friends that had come out with her to 3-4 different songs from her album. Towards the end she pulled a few people onto the stage from the audience and they danced on stage with her and waved around their hands like they were holding up candles or just trying to wave to long lost friends. I tried to take some pictures but the hands and the lighting conspired to make picture-taking too difficult, so in the end I just held up the camera and recorded the whole event. The end result was a little shaky but definitely captures my experience of pushing and being pushed for space in the crowd with barely enough room to wave a finger as the crowd crushed forwards to be as close to the stage as possible. Finally the 4th song played she waved goodnight and the spotlight turned out. We had silence for the next 5 minutes as the crowd filed out of the place (most payed $25 dollars and if you did not have a card you payed $40) and the place got back to some semblance of normal and all of the people who were there to just stand around moved onto other venues and scenes. The music came back on shortly and Peter continued to take the crowd on further into the night. I stopped a few times to talk to friends, and offer the usual outgoing advice but mainly tried to stay focused, alert and in tune with the party. I remembered after one of my final appearances on the speaker (I was able to dance on just 2 of them on this overly crowded night) to give a gift CD to Joseph (Groove Summ More) before heading back to the front, apprising Russ of my status and then heading over to coat check (first time this season) and picking up my wrap before we called it an evening. The crowd had been nice but it was definitely time to turn in (5am). We said goodnight to our friends close by and then headed out to the ave to pick up a a taxi. Russ flagged one down and we piled in and headed back to BK. The driver got us there with no stress and we were able to get back to Park slope without any issues. The night drew to a close and so did my eye lids. So nice to finally have that rest.

Sunday morning I awoke and thankfully no sign of the hated drilling. I watched some television and fixed a few things up around the house before Russ decided we need to get out for something to eat. Since the time when this occurred was around 2:30pm we headed out to the car and drove over to the Fulton Street area in Brooklyn to park outside of Wendy's to pick up a nice lunch. Little did we know that the particular hour of travel we choose was dedicated to all of those church going folk who only drive on Sunday were leaving their services and clogging the nearby streets with all those people who had no where else pressing to be so they just took their time getting anywhere. We finally got past the snarl of cars and parked on Willoughby street outside of Wendys so I could head inside and pick up the food. Inside I saw someone who was the poster boy for people who need side-burns. I had never seen a hairstyle before that started at the front of the scalp even on the sides and went all the way back behind the ear with no hair thought of to make a semblance of shape of a sideburn. It was disturbing to look at and made someone who would normally have looked ok dressed up in dress pants and man tailor shirt look like a trailer park refugee that showed up in the heart of Brooklyn. After I got that image out my eyes I hurried back out to the car with the food fixings and we headed back home. Of course the two sodas rubbing against each other in my lap caused the pop top on one to come loose and proceed to soak me thoroughly on the seat. I made do with the napkins and kept the two troublemaking cups apart the rest of the trip and once back upstairs in the house I made short work of the lunch and my drink. The rest of the night was devoted to just more football and the World Series but in the end I decided that I could not take the DJ up on his offer and I just stayed in for Sunday night. It was a nice thought but I have so much else to be thinking of right now.

So many people getting laid off from work and not enough time in the day to even finish reading all I want to read and writing what I want to write and playing (music and video wise) what I want to play. But there will always be another weekend and their will always be friends to hang out with. Until next weekend (Halloween, Yay) I will catch up with the crowd then. Fond wishes of more of the Good Life to everyone...