Hidden Gem

Sullivan Room, a hidden gem of a club located in the heart of village remains the only club in the city deeply committed to bringing the most outstanding, innovative, authentic, and groundbreaking House and Techno DJs to NYC. Without a hint of commercialism SR parties are always intimate and have a family like atmosphere propelled by deeply caring attitude of club’s staff. In the past 6 months Sullivan Room’s schedule included such heavy weights as Satoshi Tomiie, Luke Fair, DJ Heather, DJ Sneak, Derrick Carter, Jody Wisternoff, Jellybean Benitez, Radio Slave, Scumfrog and Tom Middleton. Residents Sleepy and Boo, 2 Damn Cheeky, Samsara always deliver fresh beats and get the crowd jumping for joy. Last Saturday I had a pleasure of attending 5 year anniversary of Basic NYC residence at Sullivan Room with Tom Middleton as a guest DJ. Opening set by Sleepy and Boo set the tone for the whole evening: funky, melodic, old school birthday bash complete with infectious, festive energy and decorations. Comprised of groovy base beats and trancy-ish top notes their set was uplifting and joyous just as the celebration itself. Crowd cheered and sang Happy Birthday as Middleton took over right after, starting with an old school sound reminiscent of FatBoy Slim early 90s interwoven with tribal beats and heavy instrumental interludes. His eclectic sound sampling of accordion, steel drum and bongos took me around the world as the crowd got lost in the dance. Tom Middleton rocked and place was filled with vocals and light-hearted, fun energy.
5 Stars based on service, treatment at the door, comfort of the place, crowd, energy and of course music.
Tip: the door is ruled by patience and politeness, so if you possess those characteristics you are in :)

We Are Glitter

We are glitter because we dress up in costumes to go out on a regular Friday. We dress up because we really should be costume designers or we already are. We dress up to entertain ourselves and everyone who sees us. We dress up because this city not only allows it but actually encourages it. And in some cases we undress because our bodies are just too hot to keep under wraps! We just want to add a spark, to try something different and to get your opinion. Because creativity needs an audience.

Try to do the same in Salt Lake City without being cast away to some permanent basement or better yet a mental institution. Freedom of speech and freedom of self expression which is actually a derivative of the former reins here in Gotham town. Case in point last weekend parties: Mr. Black's party @ Rebel Friday night. Imagine walking into count Dracula's Weekend retreat with crystal chandeliers everywhere, plush velvet couches begging for decadence, walls painted in juicy hues. You better be dressed to seduce for this spectacle! Oh they were beautiful and so well put together, the makeup, the hair and accessories, the outfits! Insane, gorgeous, and very detailed.

Unfortunately in terms of music innovation Mr. Black's party is just a pretty runway show. 3 DJ's and I was bored to tears. Slight movement on the dance floor but really nothing infectious at all. I spoke to one patron comfortably dressed in black latex suit and he actually takes a trek all the way from Philly just for this party, which made me think back to 1998 where spirit as such was very alive and kicking in Twilo. So, the spirit is here but music is not.

Oh look it's Saturday night and by all means I was supposed to be at Sullivan's 7 year celebration but I got intercepted right around the block when a club kid let me in on a secret: Junior Vasquez is playing @ Life! What? Junior is my all time favorite and I haven't heard about this party? That's not right...

Aaaah sweet memories of club Life! Our weekends started there on Thursday night and finished there on Monday morning with breaks in between for Tunnel Fridays and of course for papa Junior himself at Twilo Saturdays. But for the most part it was Thursday at Life just for starters and then Saturday with Junior. Truth be told that things that Junior Vasquez was doing at Twilo turned me into a music snob. When was the last time the DJ kept you from going to the bathroom for an hour because of the way he played? Because you couldn't miss one beat?
The last time the whole dance floor convulsed in orgasmic ecstasy? Exactly...

I used to tell my friends that everything besides Twilo was a waste of time and I think I was right, I am glad I had a chance to witness it because you can't compare that scene with anything that is happening now. Anything will pale in comparesment to Twilo and Vasquez!

Junior takes the decks @ Life and tunes the sound from hollow to cleanest, balanced, juicy, thumping in 15 minutes flat. Music was perfect, he was working on one track that night and he played it 3 times to tweak it out as I got lost in the dance. Crowd was great, generous, spiritual... good crowd. But there is no life @ Life, the place is dull and bartenders make up drink prices as they go along. Not sure if this is a good place for residency, but NYC needs a Junior Vasquez Saturday night residency to bring the innovation of underground house music scene back in focus. Things just aint the same without Mr. Vasquez Saturday extravaganza!!!
Question is does he want to breathe some life into what has been very lackluster underground scene? What does papa Junior want? Ummm, ummm, ummm, ummm

Recommended

Valentino: The Last Emperor @ Film Forum (Documentary)
Touching, humorous, inspiring, emotional and beautiful!

It's a Standard

Standard of Excellence? A Higher Standard? Read on and then go see for yourself.

One of my favorite city adventures is getting lost in hotels which provide fertile ground for my imagination.
Visiting a nice hotel can be almost as good as actually traveling considering that we New Yorkers are always short on time. So please forget your worries and join me at the Standard.

The hotel partially opened a month ago and will be fully open by end of summer or so, meaning that it is not yet over crowded and the rates are at bargain levels.

Standard towers over High Line in the heart of Meatpacking district clearly reaching for the stars. The building has a powerful presence and sweeping views.

Walk through the bright yellow front doors and find yourself in a quiet dim lobby surrounded by design from beginning of last century. Check your stresses at the door because from the first step the care of staff will be felt in most easy going way. Proceed towards the elevators never forgetting to look up and around often to be surprised by little touches as if designers wanted you to look for them. Never overpowering the design here flows like time.

Take an elevator to the 3rd floor and step out on the terrace to see the beauty of High Line coming together as work progresses. Marvel at fact that this preservation project was saved from destruction by 2 New Yorkers who found their voice. Remember that next time someone tells you: "It can't be done"!

Proceed inside...

3rd floor is all about Living Room lounge. Filled with light permeating from 2 huge windows on both sides of the room, Living Room is all about 1950s. Red lacquered tables and chairs, wood panel walls, beautiful plants and open space. It is the 50s vision of what an airport lounge of 21st century would look like. Relaxing and breezy the room was drenched in sunlight as staff were efficiently moving between customers and the DJ soothed with jazzy music of the world. And the world slowly turned up at the Living Room turning people-watching into a sport. Everyone mingled and cards were exchanged, lounge fully living up to it's name.

Things to consider: Thursday, Friday and Saturday there is a DJ and the place will get somewhat packed by 8 pm, so if you want to get a group of people together try getting there earlier to get a table as there are no reservations.

I am giving this place 5 stars based on design, comfort and service.

PURE HOUSE

Great crowd, great DJ, great sound, great club...

Where? Long Island City! Wait wait wait...did you say Long Island City? Uh huh

We might be onto something here...

Night: Friday

The place: Island Lounge, LIC. Just as the name suggests Island has a breezy light energy that makes you remember Mediterranean nights. Open space with two floors and a white-green interior, lots of candles and a solid sound system to rival any Manhattan mega club.

The crowd: 21-40 and very diverse, I saw seasoned music aficionados that used to attend raves and there were many rookies just getting into this whole scene. All mixed rather well and whole place could not stop moving.
Dancing, jumping, screaming, clapping, the crowd was on fire!

The DJ: Behrouz

The Verdict: Courteous staff at the door, at the bar and coat check. Nice bouncers with a relaxed vibe. Excellent sound system, although when we walked in there was just a hint of echo. Comfortable place, even when it got packed I didn't get this "I can't breathe/move feeling".
Indicant started with very clean pure house beats and some vocals, as crowd was still gathering, talking and getting drinks. His set was good overall except towards the end he dutifully succumbed to electro tech and people stopped dancing.
Behrouz took over and got right into it with a basic warm up beat that flowed right into tribal house where he kept it for a while. Lots of vocals with a little retro: "Keep Control" thrown in for a good measure, the beat was such that every one's feet moved in unison.
It felt personal as if he was talking to us and I have not heard that type of playing since Junior Vasquez's golden days.
After seeing the crowd fully in sync, he took us to a little deeper, darker tribal.
Clapping, screaming and whistling erupted often prompting smiles from the master. He danced himself, and the crowd watched him propelling more clapping. Last part of the set was good speed progressive peppered with a touch of trance. I had to leave to go to an after party so I didn't get to hear the closing song. Shame on me :)
Hope you enjoyed my broadcast...
Kisses to all!

MUSIC EXCHANGE WMC Edition

Winter Music Conference 2009: The GOOD The BAD and The STUPID

Let's start with the STUPID shall we?

Club Space:
Walk in, get a drink a few promo items from the bar, the music is OK so far on the main floor, good beat, the place looks and sounds perfect. Upstairs to get a glimpse of Miss Nine and then straight to the terrace to wink at Chus and Ceballos. So far so good right? Wrong....
Here things get messy. Miss Nine is a beautiful girl but as a DJ I would say let's wait a few more years for her to mature, she doesn't feel the crowd and the sound was flat, one song to another, zero buildups, nothing innovative.
Chus and Ceballos started perfect with soulful groovy tribal that made me dance right away but slowly pulled into tech beats without any inspiration. Crowd starts pouring in and what a messy crowd. Don't know what they were on (GHB perhaps?) but bad energy all around. Imagine this...Tall stripper with ginormous breasts standing in the middle of the dance floor pounding her chest Tarzan style next to her is her body builder boyfriend smiling and looking proud. Oh boy
Then she takes her top of to fully expose the bad boob job that is covered only by shiny star nipple covers and someone next to her starts jumping up and down surely landing on innocent bystander's toes. Horror
Off we go downstairs to see the pride and joy of Deep Dish: Sharam
Sharam starts with a sound that came from another planet for sure and twists it into something that makes your ears hurt right away. Bad start but it gets worse, another stripper looking girl is dancing slowly on top of the speaker touching her puss often, she is Latin and wearing a pink bodysuit. Her boyfriend or admirer is looking up to her stealing a few grabs here and there. Sharam continues pounding our heads with alien tech house sounds mixed with jumping up and down in the booth. I have noticed that a DJ who is jumping up and down in the booth really gets a crowd going these days. We are in trouble
Back to Chus upstairs... hoping for fresh beats, but Chus is playing the same song that another DJ is playing in room right next to the terrace. Wow
Did everyone just went to Beatport top charts or something?
Time to leave we say and go downstairs, on our way out I notice that all three rooms sound the same, what a crying shame! Best club, best sound system and zero creativity at $100 entrance fee. Leaving Space was priceless.
The BAD:
If you think homelessness issue is bad in NYC, go to downtown Miami
I have never seen that many homeless people on same block. There were at least 20 and we are talking about just a few blocks away from really high maintenance apartment buildings, best clubs and stadium. Pure disaster of government incompetence. Whether these people are drug addicts or not doesn't even matter anymore, to see this was heartbreaking. One block away Space was charging $100 to get into the worst party at WMC and one more block away Ultra Music festival made a killing. And here were 20 people wrapped in blankets on the ground.
Shame Miami, pure shame
The GOOD:
Seeing the whole world of music fanatics congregate in South Beach. Awesome vibe...
Girls wearing nothing but bikinis and high heels on Collins Ave, boys who have been clearly working out just for the occasion, constant movement on the streets, traffic jams, house music blaring from every car passing by and every hotel. Pure energy. People exchanging information about the next good party, flirting, smiling, texting their friends back home, this scene was priceless. Old, young, pretty, pretty crazy, united by sound.
Basic NYC at Beach Plaza and Bentley Hotel:
Solid lineup of groovy, heartwarming NYC and Chicago House, beautiful crowd of stylish professionals in love with music.
Pacha Ibiza Pool Party @ Shelbourne Hotel:
Jazzy Jeff brought back memories of old school days gone gone gone...
Goldfish killed with just a saxophone and keyboard, it was stunning
All day the music was dancy house, next time I will write down all the DJ names and review by name. Promise. This WMC was an inspiration for this blog so forgive me for not writing down the details.
Body & Soul:
God bless these creative triplets who were all inspired by Larry Levan. The spirit of Paradise Garage lives on. Best party of WMC period. As usual the most diverse crowd...black, white, gay, straight, young, old and everything in between. A stage show of massive proportions with Erol Josue blessing us all with most soul wrenching prayer like songs. Voice of a true believer. Dancers dressed in white performing a tribal dance straight out of National Geographic special.

That was pure Vodou! Great courteous staff at Mansion and good sound considering you are not at Space. Beautiful spectacle and Rico at the door with his very creative head ornament as always...spreading the joy and the love.
Lovely times alltogether, can't wait till next year and I will keep the punters posted on all good things happening in my world of house music :)
That concludes my broadcast! Kisses to all