The Scenestress stays home (sort of…)
April 15th, 2009 by The Scenestress in Editor's Desk, Food and Drink, Music, Sarasota-Manatee
On Friday night Facebook was blowin up with infos. Party here, party there (and there, and there, and there); it was sure to be a fun night in the city. However, I decided to honor my promise to myself that I would stay in this weekend after so many SFF parties over the last several weeks. But it was not an easy decision. I was bummed to miss the Epic Future House Show over in Gillespie Park where some of my fave local acts like Maid Mosephine and the Equines, Jesus Chrysler Supercar, and This Is an Adventure played to a packed house. I also skipped the Kidrobot party at Clothesline, a cool senior thesis show at Ringling, and Jack Dowd’s opening party downtown. Damn!
Nonetheless, it was a much-needed weekend of rest. I indulged in some oft-neglected beauty rituals (painting toenails, plucking eyebrows), watched a movie and caught up on my fashion magazines. And by the time Saturday night rolled around, I was recharged and ready for a little action, so when friends called to invite me to an engagement party I strapped on my gold high heels and set out.
Gracious hosts C & T pumped out fun music and delicious vodka shots (and what did I find in the fridge but an ice-cold bottle of Szambelan. WTF. Their vodka shows up so often in my column you’d think it was product placement). After a couple hours of celebrating the to-be-married couple (congrats, kids!) we decided to hit the town. I complained about being dragged to Evie’s long enough that we all agreed to head to Witness Café (local headquarters for friends of Judy), which was perfect because I was totally ready to dance.
Have I said before that Witness is sooooo much fun? OMG it’s fun. In my posse of gays and girls and respective boyfriends, everybody had a great time. The gays love it (obvi) because of the videos of sexy boys on the walls and the impressive percentage of shirtless men. The straight boys love it because they are showered with attention and free drinks (all the gays trying to get them drunk and take advantage of them). And the girls love Witness because they can dance without being accosted by meatheads trying to drag the hottest hoe’s back to their cave and instead are met with sincere compliments from the ’mos on their fab dresses, shoes, or hair. Yes, good times at the old Witness Café. And an hour on the dance floor sure does a body good.
I wake up around 10 on Easter Sunday with a hankerin’ for a mimosa. Blast my lack of thinking ahead as we all know one cannot buy booze before noon on the Holy Day, and it’s an Official Holy Day to boot. Thankfully one of my besties, whom we will call (and who actually is called) the Captain of Spirits, is in the house and goes to work juicing everything in my fridge (satsumi, kiwis, pears, limes, carrots and ginger) to have something to combine with the lonely half bottle of rum left over from last week’s party. He throws that in the blender with a splash of Redbull and some frozen lemon-lime soda to create a delicious concoction that we’re calling the Hoppy E-Stir (haha, get it?), and I must say it is the perfect companion for Sunday afternoon gossip column writing. (And boy does that ginger give it a kick. Quoth the Captain: “It fixes your stomach at the same time as getting you drunk.” Yay.)
Please don’t concern yourself about The Scenestress goin’ soft. I will be back on the town in the next couple of weeks for a couple of exciting events, the first being this Saturday’s Zombie Fashion Show put on by the fabu Miss Joanna Coblentz at the Cabana (sexy dead girls uh huh you know you want it) and then the following week’s Underground Art Mix party at darling Matt Orr’s new space in the Rosemary District.
And wow, did y’all hear that Lindsay and Sam (Lohan and Ronson; stay with me now) split up? Drama! See what taking a little time off affords you? Quality celebrity gossip. It’s the little things, ya know?
April 15th, 2009 at 10:37 am
In the late 80’s, buried beneath pepper trees on a plot of land behind KFC where there is now a McDonald’s under construction, there was a recording studio the size of a walk in closet.
Owned by Doug Kaye (Produced Tech-master P.E.B.), and utilized by NoClubs (Tampa Bay club owners and concert promoters who got their start right here in SRQ) this nano-studio in the pepper trees was responsible for a handful of the most important recordings in Florida punk rock history.FACT, not just opinion.
Some of the names that would make marks on Florida music history were Belching Penguin, Ravage(who later became Atheist), and Pagan Faith. My favorite though, No Fraud. No Fraud was the third release on the No Clubs label, and arguably the best early Florida Punk/hardcore recording ever released…PERIOD.
So, when No Fraud members come to town from their homes in various parts of the country, practice for a week and actually play a show here in good old SRQ, you would hope that the only social publication in town would have something to say about it…….
I guess painting your toe nails was pretty important…
…..one more question, where are you from???? Odiously not here…..maybe your column should be written by a local……….TOURIST!
April 15th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Sorry we missed the show, Cakemangler. Where’d it go down? Is No Fraud playing anywhere else any time soon?
April 16th, 2009 at 11:36 am
@cakemangler:
In the late ’80s, I was in my jammies in another state watching Sesame Street. Quite odious indeed.
I am sorry I missed the show as I would’ve loved to check out something different. Unfortunately this is the first we here at CL are hearing about it. Even my friends who are familiar with the pseudo-retro-punk scene in FL didn’t know about the show.
Meh…next time keep us in the loop (before the event) if you want us to write about it. Thanks for the info.
April 21st, 2009 at 10:15 am
[...] already-crowded elevator to jet to the top floor for a cocktail before being dragged to Witness (yet again) for booty shakin’ and shirtless boys. The night winds down with a packaged bottle of vodka in a [...]
June 9th, 2009 at 10:23 am
[...] end up liking The Alley. There’s less attitude in the air than at the bar’s main competitor, Witness Café, and it’s always free to get in. Plus, I must say, the gays know how to do karaoke — it’s a [...]