Viva Italia!

It’d been a hectic few days with me taking over Manager’s responsibilities. It was trying to stay “on the ball” for many jobs moving through the studio at break neck speeds and deciphering cryptic and nonsensical requests from less than coherent and competent people.

By Friday, I was ready to just collapse. The weekend was loaded with activities, Saturday’s Sweet Sixteen and Sunday’s Easter dinner with the BF’s family. Any added activity would have been over the top.

Being the weekend of April 15th, D-Day for taxes, I was certainly ok with not going, financially since I had to make a massive payment to Uncle Sam.

There had been a fleeting thought of hearing Danny Tenaglia spin with Mauro Picotto at Spirit this Friday night, billed as an Italian DJ tag team night. But with the recent crackdown by the NYPD on various NYC night spots for drug and alcohol infractions, Spirit being one of them, the gig was moved to Crobar. The move all but put away most desire to go. I would’ve liked Spirit, a more intimate venue compared to Crobar, a mega club with zero intimacy and a clientele with near zero class. I was okay with not going.



Leave it to Friend Frank to throw my best laid, reasonable plans into upheaval.

Calling Friday afternoon.

What’s up? You going tonight?
Um, no. I don’t have a ticket.
What? G and I assumed you’d be going for sure.
No, it’s Crobar and I’ve got to get my car before 4:30 tomorrow.
You’re going. I’ll drop you to get your car. Call me later.
Click.

I agonized for all of 15 minutes before I found myself on Ticketweb buying a ticket. Yeah, twist my arm. I knew all the reasons I shouldn’t be going but they weren’t enough to override the desire to go. Still I was guilt stricken but things would work themselves out.

11:30PM I’d been unsuccessful at sleeping for the last 2 hours. Maybe I’d slept an hour before the BF had come in wrapping his cold legs around me, to which I responded “I’m trying to sleep too you know.” He shrunk back to his side of the bed, fell asleep and proceeded to snore.

Bother. I moved out to the living room.

3:30AM I gave up on trying to sleep, getting ready to head out. I hoped to get Crobar by 5ish, avoiding the larger crowd. I was waiting on Frank, who called me at 3:45AM and picked me up my 5AM. Shrug. I wasn’t bothered as I usually would be with his antics. This was an unscheduled and unanticipated night out so I had no expectations.

After what seemed like an inexorably long drive into the city, we arrived at the club by 5:30AM.

Crobar was blissfully roomy. The mass of the Friday evening crowd had already retired and gone. It was surprising to see the club so empty but I loved it as we moved easily from one of the club to another. Frank raged at some of the dancers on the floor. Flailing arms and limbs that had no regard for fellow dancers, they irritated him. We were also dumbfounded by the people that would be standing around, walking with arms folded in their ecstasy hazes. Amazingly annoying.

We’d missed Mauro Picotto’s opening set and Danny was in full swing, playing a heavy tech set following up on what Mauro played. I slowly warmed to the music but I was ripping up the floor in no time. I hadn’t danced like that in a while.

Danny threw down some mean tracks, most of which I did not know. One track that set the night off for us was a fantastic remix of Deelites’s “Groove is in the Heart.“ Phenomenal. So much so that he repeated it later in the morning with equal squeals of delight from the remaining crowd.

Danny highlighted a track, heh, well, he held up the vinyl cover and put a spotlight on it. He wanted every one to know what the track was.

Rej - Âme
Give it a listen, it's a pretty cool tune.

Some tracks I did know:
Cascade of Colors - Ananda Project (always a goodie)
Always Remember to Honor and Respect Your Mother - Dusted (Frank mocks me knowing that this is my fave track of all time.)
Dibiza - Danny Tenaglia/ Chus and Ceballos
Touch Me - Rui Da Silva feat. Cassandra (Classic Vinyl/Arc, Classic Danny)

Ran into a few of the Dtourists. It was good to see them. I was mostly distracted with seeing my club crush, G, whom I hadn’t seen in some time. It was a pleasant surprise. Equally surprised at the amount of club love we’d doted on each other that morning. Sigh. It was fun but I’m a little disappointed to have had to say good-bye. I don’t want to get into this. Double Sigh.

We’d ended the morning with ”Touch Me“ around 12:00. To his word, Frank dropped me by the VW service station after much dawdling at around 1:30PM. Sheesh.

It was off to blissful sleep in preparation for Saturday evening’s Sweet Sixteen.