A Traditional Blog Post, WMC 2007

I guess a lot of traditional blogs are about the latest developments of their cat, or people's daily journal of what happens in Spokane, or what people did on their vacation. So for probably the 1st and last time, I also will document my recent vacation here, but only for documentation purposes because I would like to remember it, as it was something of a blur.

WMC 2007







WEDNESDAY
11:30pm LA time: Depart LAX

THURSDAY
7am Arrive at Miami Airport

8am Arrive at Shelbourne Hotel, they tell us we can't check in until 3pm. We've had a cumulative total of 2.5 hours of fitful neck crinking coach sleep.

8:30am set up camp in lobby, watch addled up all nighters rolling through, watch EC features of Inconvenient Truth on laptop, fall asleep on couch.

9:30am Woken by hotel staff, "sir you'll have to sit up, we can't have you sleeping in the lobby." Have Breakfast.

10am Check to see if rooms are available, score. Try to sleep with eye shades. Get some nice meditative shut eye, but no real sleep. Keep getting pumped up thinking about Sander, boat parties, and events of years past.

12:30pm Nicole: "I can't sleep." Chris: "Let's got to a party then." Take shower, get ready to rock.




1:30pm We walk down to see some good breaks at the Catalina Hotel. Have some Mojitos.

2:30pm Walk down to the Chelsea to see some great SF house DJs. Have a few beers and shot of patron. Kent joins up with us.

4:30pm Return to our hotel because some English bloke we met in the Shelbourne lobby while waiting to check in told us that he's promoting a party in the lounge later with Desyn Masiello. Run to liquor store for a few 6 packs, have a few beers in room and a puff while watching the Shelbourne pool party (not Desyn) out the window.



5:30pm On way to elevator, we spot a rocking party on the rooftop of the building across the street. Kent: "Wait, see that bald black guy, that looks like Freddy."



Chris: "Dude, it does! I'll call him." Bald black guy on adjacent rooftop lifts phone to his ear. Laughing ensues. He tells us to come there instead. The party is at capacity but he promises he can get us in. While waiting, Klyce arrives. The party was off the hook. Free food and drinks. Music by Masterkraft and Justice. We got just a little drunk.




Scion Party at Raleigh part 1

Scion Party at Raleigh part 2

Scion Party at Raleigh part 3

Scion Party at Raleigh part 4


8:30pm We return to the room for break, then Nicole, Matt, Kent, one of Kent's friends, and I, all have dinner at Jerry's Deli. I'm tired and drunk, bu the food is a much needed recharge.










9:30pm Jared has invited us to a party at a mansion up in Miami Beach somewhere. The mansion is amazing, but the party is winding down. Pretty good music if not a bit hard. Free drinks are a nice perk. Make a stop in the bathroom to find it is walls and ceiling, covered with mirrors. Its actually disorienting to step into. Some guy in kitchen is snapping pics of a porn star lifting up her dress for another to lick her kitty. Two other guys standing there chatting are not really paying attention.






10:30pm Cab back to Delano to meet Clint and Aldo. More drinks, good times. Aldo is a fucking maniac.

12am Jared has gotten us comps into OM at the Y Ultra Lounge downtown. Feeling very exhausted but also a bit obligated by the comps, so we cab it to downtown. Ultralounge is exactly that. The most amazing club I've ever seen in my life. They must have spent 20 million on this place. Its huge and decorated super classy and high tech. Its a maze. Room after room with yet another DJ, and oh look out here's a huge patio where DJ Heather just came on. Some of the best house music I've heard in a long time. Heather fucking killed it. At 3am, we decided that we have a big day tomorrow and its time to turn in. Get to bed at about 4.


FRIDAY

11:30am Feeling pretty well rested, we wake up and start getting ready for the day. Since I take 15 minutes and Nicole take an hour+, I tell her to keep going while I run out and take care of some things. Last weekend in Mammoth I seemed to have lost my bank card and drivers license, leaving me with only a passport for ID, and no way to get money other than credit cards. So I go to the bank, withdraw $500 cash, call Klyce because we both need to meet up with a friend to have some biscuits for later.


12:30pm Klyce and I take care of that business, but I need a new pair of sunglasses because the nose rest pad thing broke off my old ones. Stop at Walgreens to pick up a new pair of shades.

1pm Meet up with Nicole at hotel, go grab a slice of pizza to fuel our bodies before we have to be at the Scion Boat Party with Masters at Work and DJ Jazzy Jeff at 2.

something we saw along the way

2:15pm Arrive at the docks 45 minutes early, because we have no tickets and we're trying to crash. Talk to the Scion guys up front and they say we have a pretty good chance of getting on. Jared, Kat, Kat's brother and his girlfriend all arrive. We're 7 deep.

2:30pm The line starts moving, there are about 40-50 people ahead of us, they start playing some dope hiphop on the boat, I've got a good feeling.



Miami Harbor Hopeful

2:40pm The attendants, door men, whatever you call them, have a problem. The dock master, "is a dickhead," they say, and wants everyone off the dock. Meaning the 300 people all lined up and waiting orderly on the dock, now have to be lined up and waiting orderly back up on the concrete before the dock, and they will admit people at the entrance of the dock. "You won't lose your place in line, just everybody back up, keeping the same order," they tell us. What happened next was the most poorly managed thing I've ever seen. Rather than having everyone do an about face and march off the dock, they start telling everyone at the very front of the line to back up. Rather than pulling the rope from the back, they tried to push the rope from the front. And what happens when you do that? It bunches up into a tangled mess.

2:50pm The result was 300 people in a huddled angry mob all crowding and pushing to be near the gate to the dock. The doormen are frustrated and yelling and screaming at people, "you fat guy! Back the fuck up! You! Guy with the big nose, back up!" Everyone was so pissed. "Well, I guess I'm not buying a Scion!" and, "FUCK SCION!" are heard. Some guy smooshed next to me said he'd been waiting since 11:30, 3 hours, had now lost his place and gave up and went home.

4pm We give up and go home. Well actually after trying to find a way to sneak onto the dock from a back route, which would have entailed jumping over a 6 foot gap from a higher dock to a dock 4 feet lower, we gave up. The girls never would have been able to make the jump, but I could have gotten on if it was just me. Luckily there was a harbour club restaurant and bar right there, so we decided to go cool our tempers with some margaritas and appetizers.

5:30pm After a maragrita, a corona, and a shot of patron, the word is that the Radio One party at Surfcomber is going off, so we hop in a cab to go check it out.

5:45pm Barak was right, its going off. We arrive, Jared gets us wristbands, and we enter to about 1500 people rocking out at this pool party. Pete Tong is spinning, doing a live Essential Mix. Its so funny to actually see him speak the words, "Coming to you live from Miami for Radio One's Essential Mix, up next we've got the Chicago House legend, everybody give it up for Mr. Frankie.... KNUCKLEEEEEES!!" Frankies thrown down some high BPM house, we go up to the VIP area and Jared gets a bottle. We stay through DJ Dan's amazing set, and watch the 1st couple tracks of James Zabiela as the sky turns dark. We decide its time for a nap before we go to Space for Sander Kleinenberg.









8:45pm Nap time. The Shelbourne pool is at capacity for Paul Oakenfold, the earplugs reduce the noise by about 5%. Somehow we fall asleep.

11:45pm Cellphone alarm. Get ready for a long night of the best set I'll probably hear all year. I've missed this the past 3 years in a row and everyone says its just the best ever. I'm further pained by these raving because Sander is pretty much my favorite DJ. I have a text message from Klyce, who didn't buy a presale, who says he went down to Space at 10:30 to wait in line and they turned him away saying no general admission until 5am. He's downstairs at the Salted party with Miguel Migs. "Oh well," I tell him, "there's worse places to be, meet some chicks, get wasted, see you tomorrow morning."

1am Jump in a cab to Space. Walk right in. Head up to the Terrace where Rene Amesz, Sander's protege and the man he calls, "the best producer on the planet right now" is playing a wicked set. Many of the tracks are his own. He's just like Sander, baby faced little dutch guy who keeps a huge smile on his face the whole time and dances around in the booth whether anyone is looking or not.

4am Sander comes on. Memory fuzzy from about 3 to 6am. I just know that its 95% as good as I expected. Which is amazing, because when something has been hyped up to you for 3 years as the greatest most unbelievably earth shatteringly sick thing you'll ever experience in your life, usually the reality of it is a bit of a let down. I wasn't let down. We made a lot of dance floor friends, including this hilarious clown named Mitch. I can't remember what he was doing, but he was hilarious. His friends we're saying, "oh you've never met him before? I apologize in advance then."

I love when they do the nitrogen

I remember this track

we left before this, damn!

That disco track

SATURDAY

10am As amazing as Sander was, were getting weary and sober and decide to call it a night, er, day. Actually we decide to go to the beach and relax. We cab it home, grab the ipod, doobie, 12 pack, and head to the Century Hotel to reunite with Jared and Kat.

12am We arrive at the beach. Klyce meets us there. He did exactly as I instructed, met chicks, got wasted, went back to room with them for after party at 6am. We rent some chezs and an umbrella for something outrageous like $150. Continue to sip beers, puff, relax and come down from the rush of the night before. Usually I feel like a disgusting piece of shit zombie after staying up until the next afternoon, but I feel remarkably good. Klyce finds some perfectly intact fish carcass washed up on the beach, so it joins us to hang out for a while. At some point here I put my cellphone in the pocket of my board shorts. No further explantion needed.








Puffer Fish
2:30pm We decide to go home and rest, but need to get some food 1st. We're looking for a cab. "Oh look, there's one letting someone out." Lo and behold, its Kent, just getting back from Sander at 2:30pm. "Holy shit, yo are a rock star dude." We find a place we can sit down outside and order a bottle of chianti. I have an awesome refreshing salad.

4pm We make it back to the room for some much needed sleep. Of course, there a pool party going downstairs again. There's pretty much always a pool party going on downstair. Earplugs are of little use, but the little is better than nothing.

8pm Rise and shine, we have to go see Kent spin at the GIANT hotel. Im really groggy.

9pm Kent and Jockton tag team on a nice set of house, progressive and breaks. The only way to keep going at this point is to drink. I have a Corona but quickly shift gears to vodkas with a splash of redbull.




Kent & Jockton

Kent



10:30pm We're hungry again so Nicole, Matt, and I head to the 11th Street Diner, a place in years past where Jared knew the owner and we got free food. Jared and Kat and Christian and Cindy all join us, Klyce tells of some funny stories and decides he wants to pick up the tab for all of us. Thanks Matty!

12am Lee Burridge is doing his 8 hour set at BED tonight, we we cab over there to see if we can get in. We can't, so we decided to go listen to some great SF house at the Jay J and Friends party down the street.

12:30am I don't know the name of this club but it was really cool. Small, but set up nicely. It had an outside area where they had another DJ set up playing what I can only descibe a downtempo house. Inside Mark Grant is killing it. I'd really love to see this guy again. Jared starts talking to the manager like they've known each other for a while, and we get a booth and a bottle of Grey Goose. We have a few drinks and get warmed up, I'm really tired and kind of just hanging in there because it not only be socially lame for me to do what I'd like to do which is go home and sleep, but I'd also kick myself and regret it too. So I have a couple vodka cranberries and try to perk up. The music is amazing but sometimes no matter how good it is isn't enough to get you on your feet shaking you ass. Pretty soon the manager steps behind the decks, he's not the managers, he's Jay J! He continues to kill it with high bpm bangin' yet sexy, soulful gospel house. Two black guys are dancing up a fucking storm, not like, gay or anything, just destroying it in a kind of battle with each other.

Jay J is dancing around, smiling, lip synching every single word to the the vocals. Nicole and Matt and I get up on the floor right in front of the booth smiling and fiving Jay J and dancing and generally having a great time. The fire had been lit.

3am This generally continues until about 4:30. Another bottle of Grey Goose and bottle of Veuve Clicquot are ordered. (Thanks Matty!) We get pretty drunk. A duo came on after Jay J playing really fucking hard bangin' house but either because we were shit faced drunk and having a blast, or because the night built up to this tempo in just the right way, hard house never sounded sound fucking sick. At one point we were all sitting around on the top of the back rest of the booth, smiling at eachother with wrinkled noses and holy shit expressions, pumping all our fists into the air just going, "ooooh ho ho hooo!" when they'd drop the bass of the next track.










Jay J

4:30am We decided its tme to go, the place is clearing out a bit, the booze was tapped out, I forgot my ear plugs and knew it was going to be bad the next day, so we all call it night and try to get a cab home.

5am Anyone whose done conference knows that half the cars on the road in South Beach are cabs, but hailing one at 5am is like trying to win the lottery. We walked about 15 blocks back to the Shelbourne and crashed.


SUNDAY

11:30am We wake up and pack out bags because we have to check out at 1pm. I'm hurting.

1pm Klyce had to change hotels to the Loewe's so we check our bags with the concierge and meet him in the lobby for a drink to kill time before Niki Beach. We walk down there and meet him, he has quite a story for us. It may not be fit for print so pending his authorization I'll just say that some little 5' 4" Puerto Rican crackhead tried to jack him on his way home so, Matt, being the aggressive brute that he is, breaks the guys nose and kicks him down a flight of stairs, and retrieves the crinkled wad of stolen money, minus 1 dollar that had AIDS blood on it.

1:30pm We finish our 16 dollar margaritas and head to Niki Beach. They are asking $40 each at the door and the guy who Jared told me to ask for is inside. We wait for about 20 minutes until the door girl feels sorry for us and offers to let Nicole in for free. We figure its either this or nothing, since we have to leave for the airport in 2 hours, so we pay and go in.

2pm Niki Beach is still jsut getting started, we walk around, have a couple beers, chill out at a table until the waitress tells us to buy a bottle or leave. So we cruise around a bit more, snap a few pics of a trio of really beat porn stars, and decide to head to the beach to finish off the roach I still have.









3:30pm We say our goodbys and hop in a cab to pick up our bags at the Shelbourne and head to Miami International Airport. I spot Olivia as we're boarding the plane and she trades seats so that she can sit next to us.

we were on the plane when Klyce shot this at Pawn Shop, but its too sick to leave out

We missed Sander at the Shelbourne too


More Sander at Shelbourne

8:30pm LA Time Ah, its good to be back in LA. WMC just keeps getting better.