NEW YORK TRIP 12/2-6, DAYS 1 & 2 I landed in NEW YORK late in the evening on FRIDAY. I was excited and a little nervous about this trip to the big apple. It was to be a totally different experience, considering it’s the first time in forever I’d gone completely by myself, all my closest friends who I usually hung out with had either moved to L.A. or were in finals and it was my first time staying in the city and not in BROOKLYN. It felt like a fresh start. After my subway ride from the airport and a quick meal, I had to go straight to TRASH, where I was to DJ that night. The place was packed with strangers and a few familiar faces. The kids knew how to dance, and as I got more obliterated, I learned how to dance too, eventually climbing on the stage, and embarrassingly enough, competing with the go-go dancers. Calls were coming in from other friends around the city. They were at this bar or that, so after getting paid out, our little posse headed out into the evening. First stop was ORCHARD BAR, ULTRAGRRL’s night. I was totally wasted by the time we showed up, so much so, that I blacked out the rest of the night. It wasn’t until the next morning that I’d begin to finally piece back together what’d happened. I woke up SATURDAY afternoon on my friend Jenny’s couch with a terrible hang over and a confused recollection of the night previous. I’d had really intense dreams while I was sleeping and was unsure what had been real and what hadn’t. How’d I get to Jenny’s apartment? Where did I go after ORCHARD? Did I eat a crepe? Did I enjoy it? All very valid questions, and after some research, I found my answers. Turns out, after a drink at ORCHARD, we went over to LIT and had even more drinks. After staying for a little after hours action there, we wandered the streets back over to the Lower East Side, and that’s where I found the crepes, and from what I hear, I really enjoyed it. When we left the crepe place, that’s when we ran into Jenny, and she directed me to the safety of her couch from there. That was my night, or so I thought. I discovered another twist a couple days later…. SATURDAY afternoon was spent on the search for spray paint and other graffiti supplies (which I used quite extensively throughout the weekend), hanging in the AMERICAN APPAREL store and having dinner with the magnificent JONAH RAY. We hit up an art show deep in the heart of BROOKLYN after, then swapped friends and went our separate ways till late in the night. Another friend of mine, JENNIFER JAFFEY, had actually brought us to the art show. We’d had our fill, and besides, ANNIE was playing that night (we’re always in the same town!). we got lost on the way back to the subway, but discovered Christmas decorations galore. For a brief second, BROOKLYN began to feel more like INDIANA. We found our way to the ANNIE show at ROTHKO. The VICE crew was all there in full effect and hospitable as always. ANNIE played amazingly, showing off a lot of new songs and driving the crowd into a frenzy. I was bummed, but I had to leave mid show, the main event of the DJ portion of my weekend was ahead of me, I had to make it over to MISSHAPES. The kids who run MISSHAPES were all in MIAMI for the weekend for the ART BASEL FEST, so we came up with the idea, rather than they close, why not do the “L.A. INVASION” of MISSHAPES. COBRASNAKE came on board, we got JOSH MADDEN to join in, and that was it, ‘poof,’ rad night 101. JARED (one of the TROUBLE TWINS, had met up with me at ANNNIE) and I walked into what was already a madhouse, kids flailing themselves everywhere and drag queens towering over the dance floor (JOSH was killing it!). I got myself situated and kicked off my set at 1am. There may not be a more enthusiastic dance crowd in the whole world. The kids who come to dance at MISSHAPES are a dj’s dream, yelling and chanting along to everysong (including GREENDAY’s LONGVIEW!), sweating and making out all over each other, even crowd surfing! The place is just fun as shit. I left with some very high compliments and unexpected praise. I felt great, so much so, that it didn’t even bother me that it was snowing outside. JARED went home, but JENNIFER JADFFEY and I took it to the streets, roaming around, attacking buildings and objects with beautiful IHEARTCOMIX art. We also settled into two more crepes and right then and there in that moment, I decided that they were my new favorite food. All in all a successful first two days in NEW YORK. There were still two more to come, including the surprise twist from FRIDAY night’s blackout…..
12/6/05