One of my friends predicted that because of the 18 and up nature that this event could possibly turn into a ghetto thug fest. Even though I was planning to hide out in the 21 up section the event turned out classier than he predicted. It was sort of a junior gaslamp event it was kinda prom like just because the age of kids involved.
Now that you need a passport to get across the border and the lack of 18 and up events in general the place was packed for a Thursday. There was no hope of finding the few friends I wanted to say hi to but I was told I was spotted from a distance.
So if you're ever stuck with entertaining younger relatives from out of town or you just turned 21 yourself and still have some younger friends than I'll recommend taking them to Deco's on any of the 18+ nights.
I should do a write up on Decos in general but I'm waiting until I buy a new camera. I have some new ideas about this section I want to try out!
Diverse crowd and most of the people actually dressed up. I just hope they aren't just pre-snobby downtown goers!.
One of my fave DJs Rampage. You can't tell here but he wasn't looking forward to DJing the 18 and up section because we were partying pretty hard with the bottles.
I ended up not going to anything I said I would on my front page. Ooops. I also ended up at Krush because my friend Michelle had a free bottle of 42 Below Vodka. There's was no way I was going to pass up that opportunity and thankfully I didn't pass out because of it! There's about 30 minutes missing from that night where all sorts of picture taking was going on. I'll also write a mini review of Krush right after this post.
42 Below Vodka
This is embarrassing! I'm winking at the camera! This is my super try to be scene picture. I swear I don't do this while in a more sober state of mind.
I thought this was just an innocent group picture with the Juicy girls but nope, I'm totally grouping someone in there. Oh well at least we're close like that haha.
This deserves an instant replay!
Yeah don't remember this either. Sad!
P.S.
To the guy who ran around to everyone he knew pointing at me and talking about how pimpin I'm am and guaranteed to take someone home. Thanks to whoever you are. Oh and we never made it home ;) hahahaha.
I took Friday off to spruce up this website a bit and work on some other writing. On Saturday was my friend's lingerie party that I kept talking about. I have a feeling I'm never going to see the pictures with me in it because that always happens!!! Not even the non-scandalous ones =/.
Hey look its the birthday boy! and the girl who didn't know about the Kanye West Glow in the Dark tour even though she's wearing his shades.
I was supposed to go to Thread Show Sunday but instead ended up getting sushi. Ah well, more about that in another post.
Yes my weekends can start on a Thursday if I want them too. Thursday started with the Sassy City Chicks event at the Witherby. Then it degenerated to waiting for someone to join us in downtown that never made it. So after 4 visits to Ralphs for drinks, bathroom, drinks, and another bathroom break we called it a night and watched kung fu hustle back at a friends pad.
Friday night was a marathon run on the gaslamp strip. I got out of my Filam Fest meeting early and headed downtwon. While waiting for the friends I was going to party with that night I went to say hi to my friend who's a manager over at Osetra. While waiting for her to get paged I bumped into my friend Bobby who told me it's his first night having to manage Belo and On Broadway at the same time and gave me a couple passes to Belo. Finally my friend's free so we head to EXY Chic Greek to do a little recon. The place doesn't do events weekly but have hosted a private event or too.
The night was supposed to start at 9pm at Martini Ranch but the girls where circling for parking. I sent them to my favorite parking garage with $8 valet parking. We made it to the bar with 15mins to go. I had to strategically elbow us into the head of the bartenders cue by throwing down my tip before ordering. You'd be surprised at how much people don't tip at an open bar! it's like come on the drinks are free already! We pounded drinks like it was a cure for cancer, boogied for a few songs, and bounced on out to location two.
Onyx was starting to go off as we barely made it in before the cut off to use the secret password for no cover. Norm Rockwell had the place going off early so after I bobbed the apple out of my friends appletini we raided the cracks between furniture for dance space. Figuring everyone wanted to lounge more than party we headed to location three.
When we got to Thin the drinks started to kick in so someone had to come up with the idea of getting "Slave 4 U" played by the dj. Did I want the rest of the dance floor to know it was us who requested it? No way! so I said fine but he has 15 minutes to play it or else we're going to head to the next club. When the DJ threw the cut on my friend quickly disarmed my scowl with an impromptu rendition of Britney's music video followed by a vivacious photo shoot on the nearby steel poles.
It was time to cash in on my Belo passes. I have the same reservations about Belo that I have with On Broadway. I'll save that for another entry though as one of my main pet peeves was taken care of. They used the big room for hip hop and the red room for techno. Music was better than average that night too but I wanted to make another appearance somewhere else. For some reason the sewer threw up next to the exit or no one bothered to clean the exit stairs since the place opened!
Osetra came next and we were randomly reunited with someone from Martini ranch. Turns out he met my friend who manages the events there and was invited over. Using Osetra as a meeting place for some very late friends to join our crew and to stock up on Tokyo Teas we went to our last destination.
The W is now only half of what it used to be because of construction. I called the night early and took everyone over to Golden Dragon because it's the best damn late night cuisine you can get!
You can probably tell that I got tired at the end of writing this post =/ Man it's easier to go party in 6 venues than write about it well!
People are hypocritical therefore they're going to ask for contradicting things. When you apply this maxim to your normal club goer it drives me insane.
No one wants to wait in a line but no one wants to go where it doesn't look like its busy. No one seems to be able to make it early to an event even when there is free alcohol! People don't like waiting for a drink at the bar but they don't like any place that isn't packed. People want it packed but complain of the heat. People want space on the dance floor but not too much space because they get self conscious.
When you're trying to entertain people you're also going to be faced with competing desires. People say that the "Downtown Set" are obsessed with looking cool than having fun and the "PB Crowd" are all Jar Heads, Frat Boys, and Bimbos and is pretty much America's Tijuana. Some people want to stick with the crowds they know and others want diversity. Hell I haven't even mentioned differences in music tastes yet!
So I feel like I can not really give you event and club reviews, only my own opinions. Events are the responsibility of a myriad of participants the audience, DJ, club, and promoters all contribute to a nights success or demise. With that many variables an event can suddenly change within just an hour so think about how different things are weekend to weekend. Most people can't map out on average how well a club does because of the low frequency they go out to check.
You know what they say about opinions, everyone's got one so please share yours. If you had more fun than I did somewhere then that's awesome! The point of going out is to have fun!
Just caught the screening of Planet Bboy presented by the San Diego Asian Film Festival. www.sdaff.org and www.myspace.com/sdaff at the Ken Cinema Theater http://www.landmarktheatres.com/market/SanDiego/KenCinema.htm
The screening was kicked off by a live performance of local breakers which was a nice surprise. I'm not much of a film critic just more of a supporter of SDAFF (because they never failed to have fun events) but I can tell you that Planet Bboy was like a Disney film, packed with all these personal stories of struggle, culture, and bonding... but the dancing doesn't suck.
Enjoy the vids until I'm able to update the past outings of the last two weekends!
Picked up 2 more consulting gigs
www.myspace.com/53atosetra
I'm helping with their online marketing
and
http://www.marketingmelodie.com
Helped my dear friend Melodie start her online presence! Go Melodie!
I'll be back on this in the coming week! Promise! <3
Jbar
www.jsixsandiego.com
616 J St
San Diego, CA 92101
(619) 531-8744
Approaching the bar the purple lighting is eye catching for a few blocks out.
This is left of the elevator next to the front entrance.
Here's the view from the right.
Further back of the ground level resturant.
You come out of that elevator to Jbar.
Main bar.
Outside deck.
And of course the hotel pool.
I've been at the downstairs bar for a birthday and recently at the pool bar for the TNT after party. Downstairs is welcoming and pleasant to hang around. There's no Dj or loud music so its a good place for a drink and a chat. Upstairs the new plastic tents they put in cheapened the place a bit. However, I'm sure it's to keep the place warmer. The purple gazebo is a lot less special looking up close. While the place was spacious there didn't seem to be anything special about this roof top bar. I suppose you can call it the most casual rooftop bar. I can never imagine a line outside for this place, only because there's no dance floor or loud music. I'd say this venue is good to keep on your list for a good sit and chat bar. My favorite place to do that is the top of the Hyatt but it feels a lot more formal in there.
I feel like this post is way too short. Maybe because I feel pretty meh about this place?
Thursday Night Thing @ Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
MCASD Downtown—Jacobs & Copley Buildings and 1001 Kettner
1100 & 1001 Kettner Blvd. (between Broadway and B Street)
858 454 3541
San Diego, CA 92101
http://www.mcasd.org
As taken from their website TNT is:
http://www.mcasd.org/events/lectures.asp#TNT
"The first Thursday of every month, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego hosts TNT (Thursday Night Thing), an ongoing program of intriguing events in MCASD's Downtown galleries. Beginning at 7 pm, something different and interesting will be happening downtown— from slide jams, DJ lessons, and poetry readings to live bands, artists' talks, and video projections— TNT's eclectic events will be occasions to interact with the arts and artists in the San Diego region."
Tonight's Thing was Sara Wookey's "Walking L.A. / (Sur)facing the city. I missed out on the discussion looking for friends, and then missed the live performance while socializing. What I could gleam from what I saw Sara wanted to and wants everyone one to walk in the city where no one walks. Walking just to explore? That's something I'm down with. There were free pin reflectors for night time walking and cheap tequila.
This has nothing to do with the nights event, it's just how they light the stair case and it kicks ass. The whole place is just wonderful. Sadly they're still installing some works so not everything was open.
This was the discussion room that afterward had these bean bags to chill on while watching breaking videos.
Outside of the 2nd floor room.
Outside patio from another angle.
View of downtown from 2nd floor.
First room when you enter.
I liked the expressions on the trolley passengers faces wondering what's going on. This outside area is straight through from the above picture.
Always thank the sponsors!
A large crowd starts to form for...
BRAAIINS! http://braaiins.com
You can't beat a band that sings about the undead!
More photos here on my myspace!
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.editAlbumPhotos&albumID=2520190&MyToken=7217e423-62c9-4b64-b1b7-283c7c53d22c
Is there any reason for drinks to cost more than $10 on a weekday night? I may be using an unfair measuring stick as my two normal drinks are Grateful Dead and Tokyo Tea.
These are far far from just being a well drink as Grateful Dead's are Vodka, Rum, Gin, Triple sec, Chambord raspberry liqueur, Sour mix, Sprite and Tokyo Teas are Vodka, Gin, Rum, Tequila, Melon liqueur. (Yeah I know, alcoholic drinks. Well at least it's not like everyone else's adios and long islands!)
Well on one hand I'll let a restaurant charge me more for one of their signature drinks during dinner but on the other hand if I'm at an event and I"m going to the bar I always scoff at paying that much.
Ok something positive. Banana Cream pie at Dave and Buster's is freaking amazing.
My photos suck.
On purpose.
Nothing is posed or taken in optimal settings because there's enough of that on a venue / club/ restaurant's own website and every other review site.
Not that I'm trying to go for the absolute opposite of everyone else, I'm first a natural fan of candids. With candids you can catch how people interact within the event. I also try to shoot in a way so people can visualize the layout in their head.
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