My Nephews (11/06)

The next generation of party makers, Anderson & Aidan. Too cute not to post!

Propapalooza 2006 ::: NYC and Tel Aviv Invade Barcelona (11/22-11/27/06)

I'm not sure exactly where to begin... let's just say, I love my friends, I love props and in combination... there is always going to be a few hundred hysterical stories to tell. Here we go...

11/22/06 ::: For those who don't already know the story... five people were supposed to come to Barcelona, but our sunniest Sunny fell off a horse, broke her arm and was forced to stay home on her birthday eating Benke's terrible cooking. The first thing we did when Nora and Shirley arrived on Wednesday was to drink some wine and pour out a glass in honor of our fallen friend. We love and missed you dearly, Sunny!! And promise to make it up to you!! The first night was spent catching up and drinking wine, not necessarily in that order.

11/23/06 ::: We woke up mid-morning and made our way to Las Ramblas, one of the most famous tourist areas in all of Barcelona. We did some walking, some eating and some sight-seeing, all while trying to perfectly time a meeting with our surprise guests (Sai and Dale who had flown in from NYC to surprise Shirley). Shirley, Nora and I were in position at 3pm at Bar Lobo as Sai and Dale approached from behind Shirley. Dale played captain as only he can and the surprise went off without a hitch - Shirley was absolutely shocked! Yay!!! After consuming a few lemonade beers and yummy tapas, we cruised up Paseo de Gracia taking in the Gaudi architecture and shopping with a stop to check out the roof of Casa Mila. Gaudi's roof is amazing anytime of day, but we caught the sun just as it was setting, which was a special treat. After the walking tour, we made our way back to my apartment for a snack and some chill out time before going to El Born for an incredible dinner at Cafe de la Academia. Jet lag finally got the best of Sai and Dale so they went home, but me, Nicole, Nora and Shirley made our way to a cool little neighborhood lounge, Fon Fone, where we invaded a snowboarding convention and started our bagging spree.

11/24/06 ::: We spent the entire day outside soaking up the sun and the sights - walking down Gran Via, through Plaza Espana, past the fountains, up to the Museo National Del Arte de Catalunya and through Montjuic. During that time we walked, we laughed and we bagged... repeatedly. When we finally made our way back down the mountain, we stumbled upon a shit store in Poble Sec and hit the prop jackpot. After buying a few bags of ridiculously silly items, we found a place to eat and then went back to my place in L'Eixample to nap and regroup for the big night ahead. Sometime around 10pm we got the pre-party underway with some tunes and wine. A few of my friends stopped by to hang out before we finally took the Metro to a converted theater called Sala Apollo (aka NITSA) for Luke Slater. We scouted out a little booth area as home base and then proceeded to dance and debach (like that word used as a verb?) until the club closed (early!) around 5:30am. After a quick stuffed animal stealing incident outside, we hit the road for home and continued the party on my roof until some hour that I'd rather not mention. Highlights include: sunrise grape and pineapple mimosas on the roof, Shirley biting faces and then making a quick exit with JC, my costume change into Steve "I Love Techno" Erkell, me and Nora "bringing sexy back," and Sai and Dale... well, being Sai and Dale.

11/25/06 ::: After a short sleep and rally, we hopped on the metro to Camp Nou, home of Football Club Barcelona and just under 100,000 nutty football fans. Barca was the heavy favorite in the Spanish league match vs. Vilarreal and they didn't disappoint. They won 4-0 and the last goal was an absolute stunner by Ronaldinho - a chest-trap, bicycle - the first such goal of his career. Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooal!!!!



After the match we went up to Tibidabo, a mountain town on the edge of Barcelona, with a stunning view of the city. We had a view drinks at Mirablau, enjoyed the view and then went to Danzatoria to people watch and dance the night away to cheesy house music hits. We couldn't find a cab at closing time (3am) so we walked and walked and walked some more until we finally found a city bus that was operational. And, just when we got back to my neighborhood and thought we were going to go home early for a chill night at home... we walked past some apartment on Avda Roma that had music blaring out the window. Within minutes we had been invited up to join the party... here we go! For some reason the hostess took a special liking to us and kept feeding us bottles of wine and whiskey. And while we enjoyed the music and the libations, we had the pleasure of getting to watch a wasted girl self-destruct - Tasmanian Devil-style - face planting the floor, the DJ gear and KJ's lap on the couch. We stayed a few hours and then went back to Arago where the afties action continued despite Uncle Dale's scolding (haha!). We played "Pin the Titty on the Titty" and even made a human sculpture out of KJ's passed out body - one of our best works yet! Let's just say once again for the record, EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE US.

11/26/06 ::: Somehow we missed church. Maybe next week! Sunday was spent chilling, eating and recovering. I even managed to do 20 minutes of Spanish homework. We had one last dinner together at 99.9 Origen and then came back to Arago to enjoy the last few hours of our wild adventure vacation together.

11/27/06 ::: Say it ain't so! I hated to say goodbye to Sai, Dale, Shirley and Nora but I guess the time had come. I couldn't be too sad knowing how special the trip was and how incredibly blessed I am to have such amazing, well-rounded friends who make life worth living. What an incredible trip... until next time, my locos!

Laurent Garnier @ Pacha Barcelona (11/17/06)

Pacha Barcelona is a bit of a posh venue so I hadn't been too anxious to check it out. That is, until Larent Garnier was booked there. We rounded up a crew of school and non-school party people and finally made the pilgrimage to check out the club. I was so excited to see what kind of goodies Laurent would have in store after catching some of his DJ and live sets at I Love Techno last month in Belgium. The venue was in fact, fairly posh, and geared toward the more upscale party peeps. However, our crew was not to be stopped... we came, we danced, we made party, like only we do. Laurent did not disappoint, playing all over the electronic spectrum inspiring both us and the poshies to boogie the entire night. Apparently no set is complete these days without some version of Rej so Laurent dropped it 3/4 of the way into the night and then finished his set with "Man with a Red Face," which is always great to hear. After the party ended, we cruised back to Casa Arago for a fiesta and photo session on la terrazza. LEGENDARY.

M2 Festival 2006 ::: Zaragoza, Spain (11/11/06)

M2 was absolutely awesome - 19,000 people in two gigantic rooms!!

I took a party bus from Barcelona to Zaragoza (about 3.5 hrs) with some *new* friends - 5 Germans, 1 Kiwi and 1 Portuguese - an awesome crew of elite party peeps to get down with. We arrived at the festival sight at 6pm and spent the first 1-1.5 hrs eating, drinking and checking out the rooms. After that, we danced our a$$es off for 14-15 hrs until the party ended at 10am Sunday morning. Here goes the review:

6 - 8 pm ::: Carlos Palacio and then JLF - some decent beats, which got the legs stretched and ready to go.

8 - 9 pm ::: Ice Cube - I will probably never go to a rap concert again, so I figured this was my chance to hear Cube lay it down. I had a blast singing along - white girl style - to all the old NWA hits. I even had a West Coast gangsta style photo tribute to Cube. It was Cube's first trip to Spain and apparently he forgot that not everyone speaks English. He was yelling to to the crowd and was surprised when he wasn't getting a response.

9 - 11 pm ::: Tiefschwarz - Best set I've heard from them yet (and I've heard them a bunch this year including ILT and Ibiza). Relentless, funky, driving beats for 2 hours. So good.

11 pm - 12:30am ::: Kraftwerk - I was reluctant to go to Kraftwerk again but I was with 6 people who hadn't ever seen them including 4 Germans! (I didn't think that was possible!) In any case, the crowd reaction was much better this time than at ILT, where people seemed quite bored. At M2, people were really into it, "head grooving" and giving Kraftwerk their proper respect after each track.

12:30 - 5:30am ::: Francois K & Derrick May (2 hours each followed by an hour of tagging) - HOLY SHIZZNIT. They destroyed that place. I have to say, the two times that I've heard them together (M2 and PS1 a few years ago), I have been absolutely blown away. I don't think I'll ever miss a chance to catch them together again. FK played a nice re-edit of Rej, one of my favorite tracks that Victor always plays (brain dead at the moment, so no ID) and a bunch of other wicked stuff.

For 5 minutes sometime during the Cosmic Twins set ::: The Chemical Brothers dj set - My friends wanted to go check them out so I agreed to walk to the other tent. We stayed for a few minutes and then turned around and went back to FK & DM despite the fact that 75% of the festival was watching the Chems. It was like night and day - mass vs. underground. I knew where I had to be.

5:30 - 7.30 am ::: Miss Kittin - I have to hand it to her, she is always fun, always rockin, definitely knows how to throw a party. She played a lot of great underground stuff and then threw in some fun jams including a remix of "Sweet Dreams" and Trentmoller's remix of "Go". Say what you will, but the "Go" rmx is such an amazing piece of music - those vocals have and always will be so incredibly moving. I was standing on a chair in the middle of the dance floor motioning and singing to the crowd throughout the entire track. AWESOME MOMENT.

7:30 - 8am ::: DJ Hell - It was my first time hearing him and we only stayed for about 30 minutes, but I really enjoyed what he was playing. He led off with Audion's "Mouth to Mouth" which just gets better and better every time I hear it. Such a wicked track!

8 - 9:45am ::: Oscar Mulero - We closed the party out with some absolutely PUNISHING beats. I'm not one to really seek out hard techno and by the point we went to hear Oscar, I could barely feel my legs... however, I danced like a woman possessed for much of his set. At one point I sat down thinking I didn't have anything left and then somehow I managed to get off my ass and dance like a lunatic for another 45 minutes. Yet another incredible night of music - I've been so lucky to catch two festivals in Europe and a bunch of other great parties. Six more weeks to MAKE EURO PARTY before I head back to the States!

Bringing Sexy Back ::: Oliver's Going Away Party (11/4/06)

Say it ain't so!!! Our dear friend, Oliver, is headed back to Costa Rica after living in Barcelona for the past three months and we are extremely sad to see him go. Despite our best efforts to chain him to our kitchen table, it looks as though he's really leaving. So, we did the only thing we could think of... MAKE GOING AWAY PARTY at our place! I think the pictures speak for themselves... thank god the walls can't talk.

Halloween ::: Funk D'Void @ The Loft (10/31/06)

Halloween doesn't exist in Spain, but that didn't stop Team Barcelona (Wendy-KJ-Nico-Oliver) from celebrating! Dressed as DARK ANGELS - with the emphasis on dark - we hit up an IESE party first and then hit The Loft for an all out dance marathon with DJ Alexes from Germany and Funk D'Void, who resides in BCN. We had an absolute blast dancing the night away and then hosting afties at our apartment. When we finally woke up sometime Wednesday evening, our good friend, Glen was kind enough to come over to our place to cook dinner and entertain us with four episodes of HOUSE on his laptop. Have I mentioned that life is good here in Barcelona? Now... back to the pics!