hey,
sorry it's taken me almost a week to put an ending on
this, but i got home and my life kinda took over.
saturday the g/f and i went to the village (w 4th st)
to check out one of the many street festivals. as it
turned out, it was really just a row of different
concession stands on w. 3rd. i bought a badly needed
belt (i wasn't diggin' the west coast sag in all that
east coast heat--maybe i'm losing some weight?), and
she got a hat--we're both fans of hats. we also
managed to lose each other for about 15 mins--she went
to look for a hat while i finished up w/the belt bit
and i didn't quite see where she went, so i went
looking for her (shoulda stayed where i was).
anyway, when we re-found each other, she got something
to drink (lemonade, that cool refreshing drink!) and i
had some chinese food over rice--why do they give you
so much? as we sat in washington square a cute little
white dog practically introduced himself while i ate,
much to the annoyance of his owner. since i had quite
a bit more than i had planned on eating, i asked the
owner if i could give the dog the rest "no, i'm sorry,
he's on a restricted diet, and a bit overweight.
thank you for asking, though."
my girlfriend headed off to the wellington hotel
(which exists, even though it's not listed in the
phone book) where she was to have the best mojito of
her life--i introduced her to them after my trip to
miami. apparently, this bartender from hungary had
just returned from miami where he'd learned the drink
from some cubans. the next day (sunday) was his day
off and he wouldn't be back on until monday night
(when i'd be in l.a.), so i cannot veryify my
girlfriend's claims about this guy's mojitos, but i
can find out from her where this place is, if anyone
is interested in checking out her story.
i of course went off to shop for records. first i
stopped by a great place to root around in (although
the guy behind the counter has a practically
encyclopedic knowledge of his stock), disc-o-rama (the
one west of 6th av in the basement). i found the 2nd
blaze album, natural, that i have recently fallen in
love with. i also picked up an ibadan 12" that
sounded great in the store. when i listened to it at
home i started checking to see if there was a crack
pipe in my baggage, cuz i was *not* feeling it! it's
a re-press (remix?) of ten city's "that's the way love
is." i love ten city (it's that garage dj part of me,
seen?), so i freaked when i saw it, but i don't know
what i was thinking about when i bought it...
next i went off to eightball records (9th between 4th
& 3rd ave). i had been on an unsucsessful search for
the early fat jazzy groooves (1, 2 & 3--which were
issued on eightball) the other day, and i noticed that
they were having a 25% off sale--the perfect lure for
a vinyl junkie! as it turned out, the prices were
quite reasonable ($9.99 for import singles, 6 or 7.99
for domestic stuff), and i bought 7 records there (the
most of any this time out). the other reason i went
to eightball was that they have a sunday afternoon
2-step session as promotion for the fact that they
recently started carrying 2-step and drum & bass.
they are one of the sponsors of hatch, a thursday
night 2-step event. actually, greg poole of wikkid!
was trying to hook me up w/a set at hatch, but there
wasn't enough lead time, so it didn't work out.
shunji from hatch buys the 2-step records at
eightball, and there was a lot of good stuff there new
and old (i finally picked up "fly bi" w/teebone, kie &
sparks).
after that i had to head back to bk to pack my bag for
freeskool (thanks embee)! so i went back, sorted my
records, took a shower (why is it that humidity makes
one want to shower so much?), and then ran off to
catch the train back to manhattan. in the front room
(where i was) there was lots of broken beat &
downtempo goodies provided by the puerto rico crew
(great guys, and great dj'ing), a member of
nickodemus' crew (never caught his name--nate, you
were just hanging out, weren't you?), one of the giant
step posse, and me! i actually busted out a little
2-step (you know i had to!), but had to avoid going
for the jugular--we were in a lounge after all. i had
almost more fun talking to people (mark, puerto rico
crew, nicko & nate, peeps from giant step and k7) than
i did playing--great party!! oh, btw, takahashi, the
sushi place above opaline (where they hold freeskool)
is pretty good! thanks again to embee for the tip on
that one, i had to get my grub on, y'know.
on to sunday in the park... plaza. i had intended to
do the sunday in central park thang (nyc essential,
kinda like going to l.a. and checking the beach), and
we went to the plaza to have brunch (of course,
dahling...) turns out our waiter knows me from l.a.
(his friend was a regular at my store), and informs me
that (classic rockers prick up your ears here) *both*
robert plant & the who are staying at the hotel, and
this is the first day he hasn't seen pete townshend in
the restaurant!! he was suggesting that we try to
scalp who tickets and see them at madison square
gardens--i really considered it for a while, too. if
you happen to be dining in the plaza, the steak is
*phenomenal!*
so after that i rushed off to eightball to play 2-step
for the shoppers. i discovered that i had 2 1/2 hours
of 2-step (including the new records that i tried out
at the beginning of my set), because i played until i
ran out. of course, my girlfriend walked in on my
last record (mj cole's rmx of "gettin' in the way" by
jill scott), like i knew she would. she and her
cousin (who lives in queens) went nuts w/the
merchandise and bought about 5 or 6 shirts (her cousin
is more into pop than electronic stuff, but she seems
open...). we finally went to the apt (419 w. 13th in
the meatpacking district) that night. i was trying
(in vain) to track down the "musical director" alec.
he's harder to catch than your shadow!! anyway, i ran
into nate & greg there, and a guy i used to play for
in l.a.!! the place is really set up like an
apartment, including the fire escape balcony
w/hibachi!! it's kind of neat, although i thought the
music was a little loud. also, i asked the bartender
for a water and he didn't try to sell me bottled water
(pretty rare these days), so i left him $2 tip... not
much else of interest after that--slept, went to jfk,
flew to l.a., slept, got ready for my monday gig
(well, woke up, i took the same records i'd brought to
nyc + a little d&b), and went on w/my regular life...
thanks for reading this!
-t
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