Posts Tagged ‘andre harris’

Birthday Party

Thursday early afternoon the decorating of Betty’s Blue Star began. After I picked up 2 dozen white balloons from the party store, Carlos and Raw Food Chris were kind enough in helping me hang up all the white stuff and throwing balloons everywhere. After 3 hours of decorating I rush down all the way to the southside to pick up five 3-foot-long hoagy sub sandwiches from this tiny weird shack called Taurus, then went over to another southside joint to get 150 pieces of chicken. Then it’s back to up north to get another black light and the birthday cake. At home all the tons and tons of food had to be cut up, arranged and brought down to the car. By that time (10:30pm) I had 30 minutes to try and look like a birthday goddess as opposed to the housekeeper look I was rocking all day.

I get to the club 35 minutes late, and amazingly the club is already crowded. It actually took my breath away when I saw all those people in white. Everyone looked so elegant! It took probably no more than 45 minutes for all the food to be gone. Literally. I turn around and all I see are bird carcasses. Damn. I guess everyone was hungry. But that made me happy :)

As the night wore on more and more people came, and Paul Johnson and Gene Hunt did their thing on the tables. The energy of the party was wonderful, and shots were being poured every which way towards me, even by all those broke and stingy people who never bought me shit. Yay! The drunker I got, the more I wanted to talk on the mic… thank God people steered me away from it whenever I mentioned getting on again. Emanuel, Terry Hunter, Stacy Kidd, Wayne Williams, Dave Risque, Alton Miller, Bear Who, Diz, Andre Harris, Lego, Hector Lopez and Mark Grant were some of the DJs that came through along with my old dancer friends and assorted househeads. It was so awesome!

By 3:00 when some folks were starting to leave, people asked me if anyone was going to sing happy birthday, after all there was still an untouched cake. I said I didn’t know I was hoping Rees was going to do that, so Scott the manager paged Rees on the mic several times. A few of my friends went outside to look for him, and I started getting antsy. Finally after several attempts by everyone to page/find him, the lovely Scott got on the mic himself, called me onstage and did a wonderful dedication to me. Everyone sang Happy Birthday and that really meant a lot to me. I am so grateful to the whole Betty’s staff because they take such good care of all of us.

At the end of the night Rees stumbles into the club like nothing happened. He had missed the whole thing. I guess the story goes was that one of my friends saw him outside the club and told him to come in, that they were about to sing to me. He waves the guy off and says “Hold on…” then proceeds to get inside a car with his boy and get fucked up. Isn’t that awesome? Fuck her birthday, I want to get loaded.

Despite that little tragedy, thank you to each and every one who came out and showed love. Especially those who wore white! I think I’m starting a bday tradition with this white party thing… it’s pretty cool :)

Recap

Okay so I’ve been on diary hiatus for quite some time. I really really wanted to give you daily updates of my time in Miami for the Winter Music Conference, but I was too busy running around trying to hit up every damn party there was! Now I know why they call it the Winter Conference, because quite frankly Miami aint as warm that time as it’s cut up to be. There’s sun, but the wind be blowing some cold ass nipple hardening air.

MIAMI:
Quick recap: I got to hang with lots of my girls and guys such as Lugo Rosado, Indiana Chris (eternally looking for the next party), Skendar (came with 1 bag the size of a girl’s purse, that’s it), Lego and Aida (thanks for the rides!), Dave Sabat, Kenny Ray, Marcello, Unified Records, Wanda, Alphonso and Pea (she got to meet my stripclub girlfriend of many years Angelina of Club Madonna and see her flexibility talents). Many many more but those pop up in my head. The next issue should have all the pictures, but saw and spoke with lots of our favorite House personalities such as Maurice Joshua, Stacy Kidd, Wayne Williams, Osunlade, 3 Degrees, Louie Louie, JoJo Flores, Tortured Soul, Alix Alvarez, Mr. V, King Britt, Rich Medina, Ron Carroll, CeCe Peniston, Frankie Knuckles, Dave Morales (had his shirt open at his party, be still my beating heart), Timmy Regisford, Gene Hunt, Vic Lavender, Ron Trent, Barbara Tucker, Andre Harris, DJ Spinna, Dave Harness, the Groove Junkies, Jellybean Benitez (I know he’s done so much more, but I’ll forever know him as Madonna’s former boyfriend who first played her music at the Limelight and blew her up), Dennis Ferrer, Karizma, and so many many more.

I hosted 3 parties, and the most important one… the Unified Records Party at Rain which closed out the conference… the one where I actually had to get up on the mic and introduce all the fabulous DJs/singers such as Tony Humphries and Robert Owens… I had by then lost my voice. GONE. The flaming and very drunk bartender at Rain insisted I try his “magic throat potion”, but all it did was make me even more mute. So thank you Alphonso of I Love House Music Wednesdays for being my voice and making people think I’m really a drag queen.

Favorite parties were of course Shelter and the Jump N’ Funk event. East Coast heads just be *dancing*.


SHOW:

Upon my return from Miami, I immediately had to jump into tech and dress rehearsals the whole week for my dance show, so I was locked into the Harold Washington Library theater for hours and hours on end, capping it off with great shows for the GI Alliance (congrats to my very good friend Jen whose company it is) 5 year anniversary dance concert. Saturday was the last show, and I was WIPED OUT. Early Sunday morning and going on no sleep for 2 weeks… flight to… YEY! NEW YORK CITY!!!

NEW YORK:
I get to stay here in a subletted apartment on the Lower East Side for most of April so I can dance, write my new show and get-away-far-far-away from painful Chicago, sort of relax, and enjoy my muse called New York. I haven’t gotten a chance to spend a lot of time here like I used to do pre-magazine days, so I’m soaking it all in. So far I’ve checked out the House Dance Conference (monthly event for dancers), the 3 Degrees party at the Sullivan Room last night, and the Shelter tonight! I’ve taken dance and gymnastics classes, had a DOPE massage from one of those Asian massage places (no happy ending), hooked up with my old dance teachers and friends, met some really cool people, and I’ve only been here a week. And not one drink, even when I was at the clubs. If only I could live here for a year. Or two.