July 11, 2008
Crazy July 4th Weekend
with Andre Hatchettt and Jamie Principle @ The Gift |
FRANKIE PARTY
What a long, tiring holiday weekend! Thursday was The Gift, Frankie Knuckles' free party to all his fans. We at 5 Mag got there early to help D/E's Frederick and Dennis set up, and there were free t-shirts and cds to be given out to everyone. Green Dolphin was decorated beautifully, and by 1am there were so many people that I thought I was going to hyperventilate. An older gentleman working the front even fainted. Craig Loftis spun early on, and I had the honor of introducing vocalist Kenny Bobien as he sang an inspirational set. Frankie was unfortunately unable to make his party, with circumstances that were beyond his control. The awesome thing is that Craig totally threw down, and everyone had no complaints to this fantastic party :) D/E always throws the best events so much props to them.
Kenny Bobien singing @ The Gift |
FRIDAY
I hit up 3 Degrees' party at Sonoteque, and their guest DJ Karizma also could not show up due to unmitigating circumstances. Something weird is in the air :( Great party still, and we ended the night at Zentra to hear Cajmere.
CHOSEN FEW PICNIC
Saturday we get to the picnic at a late 1pm, all the lots are full and hundreds of tents have already been pitched up since early morning. There is food everywhere, drinks everywhere, a great vibe and a super super hot sun. We were melting, but we didn't care. It was a fantastic time. Lots of guest vocalists came up and did surprise performances such as K-Joy, Barbara Tucker, Dajae, Darryl Pandy and Jamie Principle. Plenty of northsiders (read: white folks) came and represented this year which is awesome.
The Chosen Few Picnic |
"CELEBRITIES"
As did happen last year, much hoopla was made of the local celebrities that graced the picnic with their presence. Last year it was R Kelly and his obnoxiously huge entourage, this year it was Lisa Raye and her little group. Why do they even need to be announced on the mic and brought up onstage... told to us that they are "househeads" and aren't we so honored? I honestly couldn't care less that some mainstream celebrity came, in an environment like that we are all equals. I would rather give props to our real House heroes such as Steve Silk Hurley, White Knight, Kenny Bobien, Liz Torres and Robert Williams who quietly go about their way and have fun with the rest of us.
FIGHT!
As the day goes on, the drunker people got and the more people needed to use the bathrooms. There was a designated section with porta-potties for those involved with the picnic, but apparently no one cared and used those anyway. At one point my friend got into a huge shouting/pushing match with a big woman over this one "vip" stall. Later on as I stood behind the enormous line of women for the same "VIP" stall, this loud woman in front of me told me I had to use the other porta-potties. I showed her my badge, she doesn't hear me and keeps telling me to move, I lose my temper and tell her we are a sponsor of this event so she needed to calm her ass down because the lady is clearly drunk and out of her mind. I called security and she started yelling at him and then everyone around her. I was sorely tempted to just clock this bitch, but I knew it "wouldn't look good." Her friend started apologizing on her behalf and I could care less because psycho drunk should have been thrown out immediately. I will punch next time.
AFTERMATH
We were exhausted, but I felt the need to hit up all the different afterparties so everyone got a copy of the new July issue. We went to 74th Street to hear Gene Hunt, then somehow ended up at SmartBar to hear Paul Johnson. I adore him. But by 4am and being out all week everything was working my nerves...an uninvited tag-along friend who kept "partying" in front of us, having to give rides to everyone when I didn't want to, and then Rees was talking to a blonde trannie all night completely ignoring me, making me sometimes wish I had a better bf than the model I currently own.
* All in all, much love and props to D/E Entertainment, the Chosen Few and all the other brave promoters who put their heart and soul out to provide us with a great time this 4th of July. (P.S. It's my 1 year anniversary of being a U.S. Citizen so yey!!!)
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