Beers for Siers 3 - Part One
This is the first posting in a three part series from the 3rd Annual Beers for Siers pub crawl in NYC.On Friday, July 25th, I jumped on a Bolt bus with my friend Dervon to head up to NYC for my good friend Adam Siers' annual birthday weekend pub-crawl. I've been back on the east coast for close to two years now and figured it was time I head up to visit Siers.
So when we got into town, we figured we'd take Friday night as a chance to hit up some NYC clubs and get our groove on. Naturally, I went online and found a few places that fit our interest and a few with some well-known DJs spinning. So we showered up and grabbed a cab from mid-town down to SoHo for our first stop, Sullivan Room.
Here's the cool thing about Sullivan Room. It was hidden off Bleeker Street on a side road in the neighborhood. To find it, you had to know where it was. There was no sign or anything else to let you know it was there, aside from the two very large men standing at a door. We walked up and they said we were in the right place. Ruben T was spinning on the decks, so I was excited to get into one of the cities true underground house music rooms. And let me tell you, it was underground. It was in the basement of a non-descript building. The room was dark, red and had one of the sweetest sound systems you could ever imagine. When Ruben T blended into his hard pulsing house beats, you felt it through every bone in your body. We were quite literally at the center of the NYC house music world.
Here's the strange thing about Sullivan Room...it reminded me of the Jam Cellar. Now let me explain. Most of you know of my passion for dancing. Well the Jam Cellar is regarded as one of the greatest swing dance venues in the world. It's small, intimate, and most people know each other. And it's full of some of the best dancers in the world, which makes it a tad bit intimidating for newbie’s. Well Sullivan Room clearly was the spot for house music dancers. People walked in around 12:30, dressed purely to dance and nothing else. They stretched, hugged others they knew and began practicing their craft on the dance floor. I swear it was no different than anything we see at a swing dance, except it was house music. And oh my, these people could dance. They moved their bodies unlike any club dancer I have ever seen. Sure, there were a few rave-kid types doing their glow-stick impersonations...but this was venue and the music was for hardcore house-heads. It was one of the more unique things I've ever seen.
So we finished our drinks there and decided it was time to open things up a bit. We wanted big. We wanted flashy. We wanted glitz and glamour. We wanted to experience a true mega-club in the greatest city on earth. So we got into a cab and set out to find Mansion, a club with a sister venue in Miami known for it's over-the-top club experiences. We got into the neighborhood where Mansion was, but we never made it there. We got sidetracked by a venue called Marquee.
Now there is no saying that Marquee was better than Mansion. We'll never know at this point. But the line to get into Marquee definitely had us curious at what all the fuss was about. So leave it to Dervon to work her magic. Two minutes talking with the bouncer and here we are being escorted past the line into the venue. I'm thinking her 2 inch shorts and 4 inch heals probably had something to do with it, but who's complaining.
So Marquee was exactly what we wanted. It was multiple rooms with house, trance, and hip-hop. Dervon got to do her booty dancing to hip hop, I got my trance fix and everyone was happy with quality beverages to go around. Night one in NYC was perfect except for one little flaw. Poor Dervon lost her little wallet at Marquee, where we assume it fell out of her pocket and was quickly swept up by the cleaning staff at the club. She tried over the next few days to get it back, but to no avail.
Aside from that little blemish, Friday in NYC was perfect! Even the tater tots at F.A.T.S. were amazing. Day two brings more...
Labels: Clubs, DJ, Nightlife, NYC, Urban, Vacation
The incredible waving squirrel
I've been meaning to post something on this for a few days now. Last week I grabbed some dinner and walked over to the National Mall to relax and watch the sunset at the Lincoln Memorial. It turned out to be an absolutely beautiful night to be outside and walking around this great city. Not too hot...but just right.
So here I am, sitting outside eating dinner when a little squirrel came wandering over. I figured he was used to tourist feeding him, so I tried to ignore his attempts to get my attention. Soon I realized that wasn't going to work when he came within 1 ft. of my food. At that point I knew I had to feed him a sun chip so he'd go away.
Five minutes later our little friend was back. So I waved at him. You'll never believe what he did next. The darn squirrel waved back. My friends didn't believe me until they turned to look and sure enough, he was waving again. Okay, okay...so maybe he was just imitating me. But if it wasn't the coolest thing to see.
The above photo was the best I could do. I tried to get one of him waving but he was more concerned with food and I had to keep my eyes out in case he tried to climb into my lap.
Overall it was a perfect evening to enjoy a picnic, the memorials and our little friend we now call "Chippy the Squirrel." The picture below was taken a few hours later after the sunset behind the Lincoln Memorial. I never get tired of all the great things to see and do in our nations capital.
Labels: Memorials, Random, Urban, Washington
Huh?
So as I'm leaving my apartment for work this morning, I go the elevator like I normally do. When the elevator I'm standing in doesn't move after I pushed the button, I start to worry. I push the button a few more times, hold it down for a good 5 seconds and then exit the obviously broken elevator. Since the broken elevator is going no where, the open door signal begins to beep loudly throughout the halls of my building.
So I take another elevator and go downstairs. Thinking I should let someone know, I tell our concierge the elevator is broken, won't close, and is beeping loudly on the 9th floor. He responds...
"Well the beeping is because the door is open. You should let the door close and push which floor you want to go to."Huh? Is he serious?
Sadly, he was... I just left the building shaking my head.
Labels: Idiocy, Random
Swing Dance Rant
So most of you who read this blog know that my biggest passion in life is dancing. And most of you know that if you every need to reach me, it's a safe bet you'll find me on one of the various dance floors throughout the DC region. So it should be no surprise that I was at
Glen Echo this past Saturday night. But what is a surprise is how horrible the dance was.
Now, I've been meaning to opine on this subject for awhile, but keep getting distracted by...you know, dancing. But this weekend was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's humps.
I had talked with a few folks about going, so I took my friend Bethany and we set out for a night of dancing. When we walked up to the Spanish Ballroom, I started to get a sense it was going to be rough by the wailing sounds of rock music coming from the venue. I also started to have second thoughts when I saw it was the
Washington Swing Dance Committee hosting the event. But we paid our money and went in anyway. I guess it was an hour later we were leaving what was probably the worst dance I've seen in DC.
Here's my problem. DC has a great swing dance scene.
Monday at CCB is always fun and
Tuesday at the Jam Cellar is regarded as one of the best dance nights around the world. The Spanish Ballroom at Glen Echo is probably the nicest ballrooms in existence and we have more than our fair share of great bands in and around the DC metro area. And in terms of numbers, DC is home to more of the best dancers than any other city in the world. So in my opinion, there is no reason we should run into a bad dance. But week after week, month after month, the Washington Swing Dance Committee (we'll just say WSDC from now on) hosts these horrible dances.
This past Saturday they hosted the rock and blues band The Nighthawks. Now if I'm watching a NASCAR race or at a bar enjoying a Bud, I'd have no problem with this band. And from a music stand-point, they aren't bad. But they certainly were not a swing band. They certainly did not play swing music. And they certainly should not have been performing at a swing dance inside the venerable Spanish Ballroom.
Surely the WSDC has heard of jazz. Surely they know what real swing music sounds like. I have to believe they realize we have orchestras like Tom Cunningham's and Eric Felton's right here in our backyards. And surely the know bands like the Boilermaker Jazz Band and Harlem Renaissance Orchestra aren't far. So why, please tell me why, they keep bringing in these roadhouse rock bands for swing dances?
Their web site says they're "dedicated to preserving and promoting all forms of swing dance, instruction and music." But their approach to their dances is only driving people away. Sure, Billy Joe Jim Bob may like the Nighthawks. Sure, Billy Joe Jim Bob might find an occasional young girl to look at with creepy eyes while he's dancing. But the average swing dancer...those who really do care about the history and roots of the dance...are not showing up. And those that do are never coming back.
We're at a cross-roads here where the Lindy and other forms of swing are growing in interest around the world. DC will host the first ever
International Lindy Hop Championships this summer and almost every major city hosts Lindy and Balboa exchanges for hordes of young and older dancers. The last thing we need is a swing committee that either hires their friends and the wrong bands or is out of touch with real Lindy world. For every young dancer that arrived at Glen Echo this past Saturday, I'm sorry. That is not swing. That is not what
Frankie Manning and Al Minns had in mind when they did their thing in the ballrooms of Harlem 70 years ago. Visit CCB on a Monday night or The Jam Cellar on a Tuesday and you'll see the true version of this dance and people who really do care about preserving and promoting what we love.
Labels: Lindy Hop, Random, Swing Dance
Weekend Independence
Independence Day has always been cause for celebration. I've taken part in July 4th festivities in cities all over the country. But nothing compares to enjoying our nations independence in the heart of Washington, DC. The fireworks are some of the best in the world and hearing the National Symphony perform Stars and Stripes with rockets red glare over the Washington Monument is as patriotic as one could get.
So this year we set out a plan to enjoy a potluck picnic and watch the fireworks from the Iwo Jima War Memorial in Arlington. Only one problem...the weather didn't cooperate. I picked up Bethany to head out to our picnic location and quickly found every street closed and rain coming down like crazy. So we made quick alternate plans with our party. We enjoyed our potluck picnic with Michele and Elliot and a bunch of other friends at Michele's home and moved the fireworks watching location to my rooftop.
I have to say, it was probably the best July 4th I've ever experienced. My good friend Brian was in town from Delaware and staying with me, so he along with a group of others met up with us at my building. As we walked out onto the 12th floor rooftop, we were greeted with about 100 neighbors, free food and drinks and one of the best fireworks views you could ask for. The best part was looking around the city and seeing fireworks going off as far as the eye could see.
The weekend continued to be a blast well past July 4th. On Saturday, some friends and I had planned to go hiking, but with rainy weather in the area we decided to stay local and visit a museum. We took in the sights of the newly opened Newseum on Pennsylvania Ave. The Newseum is an interactive look at the history and theory of news as well as the news gathering industry as a whole. For a journalist, this is must see!
The highlight of our visit was seeing an old classmate of mine and then getting a behind the scenes tour of the various studios and control rooms. Oh, we also got to announce the weather in front of an actual weather screen and have it taped. Yeah, without a prompter it was a train wreck, but we had a blast. I'll have a photo and video of that uploaded in a few days, so stay tuned.
Overall, it was an amazing July 4th and holiday weekend!
