President's Day Weekend 2006

Saturday, Feb. 18

I'd promised O that we'd go out for President's Day weekend. I was resolutely against going to Alegria, while my suggestion of Cielo with Junior Vasquez, garnered a violent, unpleasant reaction from him.

All that was left, the Roxy.

I hadn't had great expectations. It was the Roxy. It was the debut of a DJ, unbeknownst to me, untested and untried, DJ Joe Hickerson. Wow, he's handsome. Still his only listed credit on the Roxy advertisement…



A vote of confidence, but I've been burned before. Off we went into the freezing night.

Upon arrival, the line was short. The $30 admission was higher than I'd like to pay for Roxy. Trying to make up for the anticipated low attendance, I'm guessing. Regardless, O and I would enjoy each other's company.

Inside, the crowd was spartan, not a capacity crowd. Muscle Alley was noticeably absent, saving themselves up for Alegria.

At first, the music was so-so, nothing spectacular and jawdropping, nothing to scoff at either. Ok, maybe that clangy, noisy Madonna remix I could have done with out, and the remix of the Ferris Bueller track was completely and utterly necessary and unnecessarily long. Trying to be too cute. Joe Hickerson seemed to be feeling things out, slowly building the night up. Musical breaks were far to frequent. Soon he'd found his beat/sound by peak time, he kicked it up and the breaks were gone. I found myself pleasantly surprised by his mixing and his music selection. He kept it close to the classics and opting for tried and tested tracks. A remix of "Perfect Love" by House of Prince, I'd never heard before, completely blew my mind, followed into "Someone to Hold" by Veronica. Eventhough my expectations for the music were low, this musical highlight ranks high. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Eventually, my legs were tired and I was bored of dancing. But the music was making me stay. I waited for a "bad" song to come on, but Joe H. kept dropping classic after classic. I simply left.

Dropping O home, I raced the sunrise home.
Evilbuddha -1 Sunrise -0

Sunday, Feb. 19
After a long day visiting Pleasantville, where I ate and catnapped from the night before, I got home later than I'd hoped around 9:45PM. Junior was playing Cielo from 10PM-4AM or was it 8PM-4AM… there were conflicting/overlapping reports.

I should have headed out on my own, but I wanted to relax for a second. Instead, I was going with friend Frank, which I knew would be a bungled mess and I wasn't completely wrong. I'd arrived by his place around 11:45… he was still showering. Whatever. We were supposed to get to Cielo by 12:00. It was a quick drive into the city but I knew there was a distinct chance that we would not get in. A Junior party on the night of a long weekend, the Pre-Alegria crowd, it would be difficult for sure.

There was a line of 15 or so people when we arrived and we took our place in the queue. They weren't letting anyone in at the moment. They were at capacity and the fire department had been there. It was very, very cold and we waited for 20 minutes. Frank was ready to concede and head over to APT but I'd just overheard the door man saying it'll be another 5 minutes before they let more people in. Shortly they were allowing 10 people in. Fortunately, some people ahead of us had given up and left the line as I ended up being the tenth person.

I was immediately struck by the moisture, hot and sticky, when I walked into Cielo. Not cute at all. Guess AC was out of the question.

Coat check was a chore. They closed the front one moments before we got in and I had to wait on a line that extended into a main doorway to the bathrooms and smoking area. Bother. We were in I wasn't bothered.

People were having a great time. You could definitely tell the Pre-Alegria crowd was there, shirts off, twirling, buzzed bodies.

The music was typical Junior fare, vocals and heavy beats. Fun.

Nothing off color to speak of. We stayed until the end, which was 2.5 hours after we'd gotten in.
Short but sweet.

I was tired from the night before and the long day, and hadn't allowed my body and mind anytime to refract, so I never got going. Frank, his two friends and I headed around to APT, but the foyer was packed with people wanting to get in, pushing and shoving. I declared, I'd had enough, said my goodbyes and headed back to AutoLove and homewards. 5;30AM, another early evening.