OK I always have to start with my sappy
love story, here goes: It's times like these I reflect on different choices and
paths I have made in life. I am very sentimental and I live in nostalgia. This
is the place where I feel safe and warm. I reflect on how many times I have
chose happiness over what perhaps some may perceive as "prosperity".
I have gotten my fair share of flack for this throughout the years, mostly from
myself. Now I realize my path is unfolding beautifully, life is not just about
how other’s perceive me, it's about how you are able to perceive the world in
the end. Did I come out feeling positive and inspired in many things I CHOSE to
do? Well I can honestly say after this trip I was inspired in a very satisfying
and somewhat new way. Last time I did my west coast tour I was left with a
similar feeling. I often come home from anything involved in rave culture being
totally inspired by the music and somewhat inspired by the people. This time I
was totally static as a result of BOTH, it was for lack of better terminology a
"double whammy". haha. Thanks again to every single person I had the
pleasure of interacting with along the way, your hospitality and overall
positivity once again has reaffirmed for me that there are incredibly sane,
beautiful, fun loving, intelligent, kind hearted (among many other varying
attributes) people left in the world...it's humbling to say the least <3
So my trip couldn't have started off better. Speaking of hospitality, Daniel
you are the best. As soon as I am picked up, I am whisked off to a fantasy
wedding of a couple getting married for their third time. Talk about love! It
was all around me. The rose gardens were amazing, I felt a little like I was in
Alice in Wonderland "painting the roses red". The reception gorgeous,
the people made me feel at home. There was not a dull moment. After the wedding
we proceed to a desolate winding mountain road, Daniel and I both joked “so
this is the part where I never see civilization again, oh well it’s quite
beautiful up here, I’ll die happy” haha. Great bar, great view. We were having
a laugh riot, Dr. Claw?
Next day we get out to the
Steelers/Raiders game. It was really a great time. I was a little surprised
that I wasn’t harassed a little harder but like I always say, we travel very
well. Even though we lost I was very excited to be at a stadium coming off of a
big win for them. Commitment to EXCELLENCE. We then head up North to Russian
River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa. They had some incredibly good beers. I am not
usually a huge fan of sour beers but when they are casked in pinoit noir
barrels, it’s a completely different story. We stayed in Santa Rosa, woke up to
the billowing wine country mountains. Mexican at some insanely good Mexi place
and got back on the road home. We were exhausted, posted up to a friendly bar
and partook in some Monday night football. I really had a great time there.
Great food, great BEERS, and great FRIENDS, felt like I had known you guys for
years ;) Thanks for everything.
Next on my trail up the coast is of
course my lovelies in Portlandia. Book club tonight? Yes we will get some
salmon for the grill buy 50$ worth of beer and drink all of it at the house,
with the chickens <3 Coy ponds and puppy dogs. Cayvid there is never a dull
moment with the two of you. Cay you’ve got yourself a “mernly mern” there, roof
fix’in, coy pond building dream boat… I love you two.
Where to next? Oh yea, Seattle! So
walking up to the Turrets house I could hear the conversation flowing. I was
completely winded from my trek across the country (missing my flight in SFO and
running through the terminal like a mad woman was a great exercise after nights
of beer drinking, what the doc ordered). Making my way into Turrets I was
overwhelmed at the sheer beauty of our spot. Are you kidding me? And everyone
is just upstairs, even more friendly and inviting. So, I find everyone and we
make our way up to get our bands. Good choice because my friend Adrian was
playing at the opening bier garden party! Out of bands, again no big deal we
can get our optical tickets! Brian finally lands and meets us there. Then I am
whisked off into a magical fairytale land of Dalot, Brock van Wey and Robert
Henke. Thnx! We held out until the bitterest of ends too, as Henke walked out we
just looked upon him in awe. Great wine, my food was stellar, all around great
experience at triple door for the first optical.
I
had to head to Rebar for Slowhands. I was pleasantly surprised. They had my fav
beer on tap (Deschutes Porter) so I was pretty happy for awhile, saw a bit of
FaltyDL, his opening was majestic, cannot attest to the rest as I trekked
onwards to Nuemos for the end of BvDub and Monolake. WoW. Monolake, my ears, I
have never been that intrigued by sounds and like I said, my ears, they were
frightened and pleased in one fail swoop. Yummmm <3 I was curb dancing after
and during this show. I was lighting the town ablaze, if only in my own mind. I
wanted so badly to venture out to see Sinistarr but Henke and his encores! …
<3
Shall
we nap? No complaints from the chick that has been up for days as it is.
Thursday? Brunch for DbFest crew, thank you Arabica for your hospitality, the
croissants and beats were very much on point<3 Met Meg AMaybezing there! Had
to trek again up the hill into the unknown. Hit wall of sound on the way. Great
books (and of course better music) in that music/book/music/used to be
bookstore. Please check it out if you are ever close<3… Up the hill more to
2$ beers, ok thnx for that across from Nuemos where all of the magic had
unfolded just hours before. Back to the house for a few, drink vodka,
champagne, beer moar moar moar…. And then off to Udon noodles! O yum sake and
noodle (BOOM noodle) you are my solace, you are my companion, my close friend.
Feeling good enough to dance, ORBITAL!
Oh wow, Orbital..my expectations were
perhaps set all too low for you. My feet had blisters afterwards. That’s odd I
didn’t expect to dance so much. You cannot help it though when these vibes are
just on point and out of control. So we headed to modern love, there was love
in abundance but I was just too tired to find it unfortunately and went to my
pillow.
So next day, FRY day is a little still
on the blurry scale. Oysters today? What a fantastic idea. I know I showed up
for Optical but missed Biospehere, which may have been for the better because I
literally took a nap during Jon Wozencroft. A good nap, as I woke up
disoriented and literally drooling (as much as I hate to admit that) I thought
I was in my bed and just lost. REFRESHED and lost! Found Jeff and Annamae and preceded
onwards to Erykah Badu and Renegades of Funk. Such a stellar performance, the
band was astronomical. With the vocals, I am lost in some platitude of
righteous vocals and a symbiotic band of groovy luster. What I wouldn’t have
given to have been by all of your sides on stage during that performance of
funk grooves and outright debauchery. Heading again up the hill to catch the
tail end of Octave One and Carl Craig. Oh boy Oh boy Oh boy. What a proper way
to round out the night, getting
intriguing and flabbergasted glares from Detroit’s finest, Carl Craig. Dance
Dance Dance. Causing a ruckus on the dance floor with the few people that could
feel my hectic and bounced upon vibes. Let’s get nasty filthy dirty and lifted!
So then my journey begins to find electric tea garden? I must have walked into
every bear den in capitol hill looking for this place. As I wonder around I get
invited by some extremely attractive, assumedly same sex loving males to drive
me around to find it! I mean seriously, how freaking sweet is that? I decline,
I was enjoying my stroll, well stumble really, around the mean streets of
Seattle’s gay district(I say this with lightest and tenderest of hearts). Then
I hear some music, and think shit I will just camp out at this place for a few
minutes. I sneak passed the door guy, go up to the atm ::damn these beats are
fantastic:: upon finishing the atm transaction the screen says, “Welcome to
Electric Tea Garden”. I mean seriously I have robot ears, you would understand
if YOU had robot ears. As I look around I realize this place is familiar, I
have been here on my first dB visit. FANTASTIC! Dancing, Dancing, Dancing. My
Cay shows up, I pop out for a smoke and they will not let me back in for free L Well I am turning into a pumpkin
anyhows. I will take two pillows and a Turrets house and call you in the
morning <3
Wake up to a gorgeous Saturday morning.
Let’s get cleaned up, make breakfast, and head to a boat, shall we? Whew,
gathering up an entire house of people to be somewhere that is literally not
going to be there if you do not arrive on time is FABULOUS. I work well under
pressure in most circumstances. Boat is departing late, whew again. Wow, I
would say for me the boat party was up there in my favorite experience/music.
Just the kind of atmosphere and music I am more accustomed to? Not sure, I
really think there is just something to be said about dancing, scratch that,
ROCKING on a boat losing your footing and pulling it off as some sweet sick dance
moves. As Karl would put it, Rocking rocking flooooooooating. I need to find my
friends I made on the boat, my harem of gorgeous lovely Asian men. <3 We
were rocking/dancing/floating and having a grand time. I found my friend from
Detroit there too, Casey! Was grand seeing her and FINALLY getting the contact
info J. While we try to rope Ripperton into
coming to the house after the boat, I am paparazzi styling it up with my new
group of friends (again, have to find them) on one side and trying to convince
Ripperton it is a good idea to come get wasty faced with a bunch of us at the
house, “I have to be in NYC in the morning, I am from Switzerland” on the other
side. Haha. So great. We get a great car service to pick us up, thanks for that
Heidi! I think we headed back to the house, honestly this part is again a bit
blurred in my field of vision. I do however know that somewhere along the way I
ended up with Nils Frahm front in center. This part I can recall quite clearly.
Was glad to have Andrew by my side for this too because he had never seen Nils
either. As our jaws dropped to the floor and I had and extremely huge musically
inspired erection ..I began to drool in Optical, yet again, but this time with
my eyes opened and my senses exposed. I keep hearing someone banging their foot
on floor and I’m thinking, that guy must really be feeling this and look up to
realize it is in fact Nils, and he is most definitely feeling every single
note.
We were blown away by Nils honestly I
don’t think it would have mattered if Rochmaninoff had taken the stage
afterwards, we may have found it lackluster and to make little impression ;) So
we head to a little spot that Forza was intrigued with where they are playing
smooth and sultry house with the Lisa Shaw vocals and jazzy piano riffs. My
kind of music <3 Well we started drinking again, so “hazy jane” settles in.
I believe from there we ventured to Hotflush. I have to point out along the way
that we ran into the most interesting little group of people. We did not interact
with them, which seems a shame now. I think they may have literally been some
sort of circus performers, a little lady person, a guy with one of the single
most sparkling bedazzled belly dancing shirts on I have every seen, our motley
crew would not hold a candle to theirs. J
So I believe George Fitzgerald was playing at this showcase? The Dj was playing
some really greatly intense dancing vibes music. I was just kind of holding on
for the ride at this point, I was so dazed and confused, luckily my trusty
babysitters stood by my side. <3 Max Cooper! Ok on the way to Max Cooper,
anyone else remember that moving lighted dance floor thing that was rolling
around in the streets? Haha of course they are a friend of Cays. Maaax Coooper,
I have to apologize for myself at this point, I just sincerely hope that no
one’s night was in anyway hindered by my wastey-faced antics. So the boys
decide they need to get me back to the house. Crystal needs to wake the hell
up. As we shovel booze into my mouth I am just falling deeper into the couch
and realize it’s just a lost cause at this point. Damn you pillows at Turrets
house, I feel like you should buy me a steak dinner after all of that heavy
petting, and that goes for you too blanket and mattress <3 I just love pillows
what else can I say. So the guys, as freaking awesome as they are, hang out
with me until I FINALLY drift off into dreamland.
Wake up seriously bright and early,
like 7am and start cleaning, doing laundry the whole nine yards. Heidi sneaks
in and it’s time for bloody maries and breakfast. As it is our last day on the
island (hehe) I decide to cook every last thing in the kitchen. This literally
turned into countless people coming in and out of the house all day long. Heidi
and I just kind of entertained and fed everyone. It was a very relaxing and
great day. I think we had the same plate of food for something like 4 hours..
haha just rotating all of Heidi’s amazing crackers and cheeses! Thanks Heidi
you are a miracle worker, I left feeling like I owe you a ton of food. There is
plenty of time for that in future endeavors though <3 My Cay heads over and
Brian has an extra Optical ticket…hoooraaah! We head up to optical, we have a
table of I think 7 or so people and it was just perfect. I mean I literally
fell asleep but it was perfect, Windy and Carl’s last time performance ever. It
was quite magical to be a part of that <3 I unfortunately could not make
anything function properly, so again I fall into a night of servitude to the
pillows and blankets.
Morning leaving Turrets was a tough
one. Seriously glad I came up to say bye to the ladies on the second floor
because I almost couldn’t. I didn’t want you to think I was crazy because I was
feeling a bit emotional. Haha The journey home was aight. Las Vegas airport was
cool. The flight from Vegas to Orlando however was one of the worst I have ever
been on. Turbulence was terrible and I was literally having a panic attack!
Ugh. Someone even offered me xanax but I thought it was prob a good idea to lay
off of it. As we touched down it was literally like a kissing the ground
occurrence. Thank you dear sweet baby infant Tebow in your golden, fleece
diapers we made it. Then the loverly Miss Sexay Jackie picks me up at the
airport, and as it is Monday night and a tradition in Orlando we head to see
the Torque fam. Always a lovely way to end a trip with some familiar faces
<3 You guys were playing some excellent tunes and had a great crowd. I hope
to make it back very soon J. As we are
walking to get a late night snack we stumble upon, or better yet HE stumbled
upon, or into us, an English fellow who stammers to us “you are tall beautiful
women you look like you know where to get a good healthy snack”. This bloke was
outrageous!! What a laugh we had, he even bought us our dinner. I started
telling him I was just seeing Orbital and he went bananas, “Did you see
Underworld do the opening ceremonies!?” I said yup, “Did you see Orbital and
Stephen Hawking do the opening of the paraplympics? “Of course he did he’s from
Windsor. He lives in a castle there or something.. haha .He was a delightful treat for us, as I am sure we were
for him. I have to say though to finally be on the bus home was great. When I
felt everything was coming to a screeching halt I knew it was best to just make
my way home, and actually want to be there <3
Again, I may get a little sappy again here at the end. I know
this is one long run on sentence, so if you stuck with it I may have to get you
a lollipop for being such a fucking trooper. <3 I will reiterate, what a lovely
experience. Did not have a snafu other than missing the flight, which was
really not a big deal at all. So
all in all I can honestly say is that this trip and of course dB fest is
becoming a staple for me. It’s just a beautiful experience all around. We were
joking with the cab driver when he asked, “why do you come on vacation to
Seattle” umm “because we live in the south, this is where we go on vacation as
I am sure you might come to Florida for yours.” J
I have to admit I am having trouble properly closing this one out. I guess I
cannot say enough great things about this experience. Thanks for hanging in
there everyone, you are beautiful, you are beautiful you are perfect JUST THE
WAY YOU ARE !! <3 Love love and life. LIFE music FUN! What’s not to love
<3
MUAH xoxoxo
Ciao
for now beautiful dancing bouncing souls <3
