I have neither the time, nor the desire to go all out on this blog... But who knows? At some point, my feelings on this matter may change, and all of a sudden, bam, kaplowie!, you may see some funny ass shit.. Your other option is going to be a boring account of my adventures in miami... (boring and adventures in the same sentence having to do with me? this should be interesting)
Where do I start? We arrived in Miami at 7am est (their time) and disembarked the plane... No no, wait, the adventures definitely started way before that. Monday morning, 8am.. Was up early, couldnt sleep tell you the truth. I had an impending flight to Miami later that night. I knew that I had a ton of stuff to get done before I left, so I pulled myself out of bed at an hour unusual for most Las Vegans... I spent the rest of the day running around like a chicken with my head cut off (which is not much different from what I do on a daily basis anyhow). Since the last week was so long and filled with so much partying, the things i did that day to get ready to leave are all a blur at this point. I remember getting laundry done, and I remember a ton of phone calls back and forth, but who cares at this point??
Fast forward to getting dropped off at the airport.. I had checked in online (thanks to the wonders of technology) and got there about an hour and a half before my flight. I had tried to arrive an hour before that even, but I had gotten caught up with This and That.. This and That are often very needy, so they often drag on many people's time schedules, not only my own... I met up with my friend Zee (Spundae, Risque) to give her a camera. We were on 2 different flights with tons of people from Vegas on each one. Needless to say, the photos started way early on the trip and didnt stop until we were well on our way home!
Here is an account of my plane ride to Miami:
"Here I sit, sandwiched between two guys (guys you may or may not know), Thousands of feet above the ground... How I ended up here is another story in itself, but where I am going is what may be of interest to you.. It's 1:05 am in Las Vegas. I would be just starting to head out of my house to go take photos on a Monday night at one of the many hotspots that vegas has to offer.. Instead, I am en route to Miami, FL for the yearly WMC, or Winter Music Conference for those of you who don't know! For years people have been trying to get me to head out to this event, and I am FINALLY going! In tow I have my camera equipment, laptop, and Las Vegas crew to keep me company. On my left, i have Bob Shindelar of ICE Meta Club. One row in front of me I have Shawn Olyiae of PURE nightclub inside Caesars, DJ Faarsheed of ICE and PURE, and Rochelle of ICE Metaclub. On my right, Faarsheed's cousin, Payam who doesn't live in Las Vegas but frequents it quite often. Sprinkled throughout the plane are various other local Las Vegans all with the same destination in mind! A week long trip of fun in the sun and partying all day and all night long!
The flight is a mere 4.5 hours. I would think that it would be MUCH longer,but due to amazing technological advancements, we will be there much sooner than I thought... still, the boys are restless and managed to befriend the people around us... At the time that I am writing this, they have a poker game going on around me; skittles being the source of the ante.. I keep trying to eat the skittles (they stole my brand new bag for their shenanigans!) and they keep slapping my hand away!
There is a plane in the air 30 minutes behind us. It is loaded with another crew from the Las Vegas nightclubs. Zee from Risque is on that plane so I made sure to hand her a camera to document the events of that flight.
Shawn snuck on the flight 2 bottles of vodka, so while we have become favorites of some of the people on the plane, we have also received many a dirty look from the others.
The hours dragged on and so did the poker game. Bob and payam walked away each 40 bucks richer, and I walked away with a kink in my neck.. I was bored and so was Bob, so we made friends with the Pilot. I sat on the pilot's lap, and Bob flew the plane! Everyone got off the plane at 7am, drunk as hell and not able to check in till 3pm... Who knows what the day may bring??? All I know is that at least half of the people who work in the Vegas Nightlife scene are out here, and I am on a mission to find them all and take their picture! I will upload them to keep you posted!!!"
Lol, Shawn staged a fall as we got off the airplane in miami.. He managed to scatter every single article he was carrying in every single direction around him. Bob "came to his rescue" and Shawn kept crying and saying how embarrassed he was, as loud as he could.. I couldn't stop laughing the whole time. Neither could the people around us it seemed..
It was like a Las Vegas Party down in Baggage Claim. For some reason security was watching Shawn. Bob couldnt wait to puff a cigarette and yanked shawn outside with him. I grabbed my MANY bags (cmon, a week in miami?? I sure as hell didnt pack light. In fact, they charged me an extra $25 because of the weight of my bag!) and pushed my little cart outside towards the cabs. Bob jumped in with me and spent his hard earned poker money on the $30 cab ride to South Beach.
Our hotel was on 42nd and Collins. To give you an idea, everything was going on at 1st-15th streets. Somehow the hotel we had wanted to book was at 20th, and got confused with the one we actually booked. Oh well, made for more of an adventure! It was 8am, by this time and we werent able to check in till 3pm.. On no sleep, we headed down to News Cafe on Ocean to have breakfast and then went shopping. By 1pm, we were really dragging.. I was so delerious i thought I saw Darryl making out with the smallest Chihuahua you ever did see... We went back to the hotel and laid out on the beach till check in time (this is about the only time I actually saw the beach).. When we were finally checked into the hotel, we all took showers and then took off to have dinner. I dont know how we ended up at the Italian Restaurant on Lincoln, but it was an awesome time. Carlos and Nick (las vegas locals) metup with us. Our table faced the walkway so we waited for our food and oogled the hot guys and girls walking by. If we had score cards we definitely would have been using them. 10, 8, 7, 8, 9.... Hehe... Zee and I took off from dinner and headed down to the Spundae Event at Prive' where Richard Humpty Visson was spinning. Prive' is upstairs above Opium Gardens and both clubs were beautiful! Hanging out we spotted Bad Boy Bill and Steve Smooth, so I had to run over and snap a picture of them with Richard. We were kicking it with Alex, AJ, EJ, and Justin (most from Vegas) and Sean (Body English), Teresa (PURE) and Rob met up with us. We had been there for hours and I decided, I am OVER THIS! I drag the whole group out of the club and we run into DJ faarsheed, Shawn, and Payam. Sean keeps chanting Mansion, Mansion, so we head down there to check it out. The place was HUGE but not packed. All of a sudden at 3am, the music started going off, and the place started getting really busy. I ran into some club friends from my home town (Sacramento) and found out that DJ Dan was on the tables.. that explained everything! It was time to call it a night and I found myself at a Diner with justin. I was so exhausted i left him to eat his $11 bowl of soup and took off to crash at the hotel..
Breakfast had us at News Cafe again where we ran into Johnny and Mike (new las vegas locals, veterans to the nightlife scene-Funky Teckno Tribe) and their friends.. As we were leaving we ran into Chris Garcia (Drai's Afterhours) and his girlfriend,Julia. This was the start of our day prancing around South Beach from hotel to hotel, and party to party. Every single hotel lobby was turned into a club where you never knew who you might find spinning. I saw Darude and Richard Humpty Visson and DJ Dan (not together) walking around town. I found Ernesto (owner of Avalon in Sacramento) while I was trying to dodge the rain. I found Greg (foundation room) and his crew while we were sitting down to eat at Subway. I saw Brian Klimanski and his wife as we were leaving the hotel Scotty Boy was spinning at and hanging out with Lanette, Bo Town, and DJ L-1. We ended up at a free party at the Hotel Astor where the DJ Lineup included Donald Glaude, DJ Dan, and DJ Icey! As we were leaving I caught a photo of DJ Frances (Donald's Girl) and DJ Tatiana (The Playboy DJ). We went back to the hotel to get ready for the evening and then found ourselves hanging out at Travis' penthouse condo on 11th and Collins. This ended up being the meeting place many a night in Miami. Here we found TONS of vegas folk hanging out (really too many to name! Ok, I'll try- DJ Hollywood, Matt, Corey, Chad, Travis, Jesse, Tommy, Steve, ROB, Timmy, Lindsay, Zee, Darryl, Chad, Frank, Timmy, and a bunch of girls that I don't remember names to!) Lindsay and I dragged Steve off on a food mission and 30 minutes later came back with no food and 4 pairs of sunglasses.. We met up with DJ Miss Lisa and crew and then it was off to The Mansion for us! At the Mansion we met up with more of the Vegas Crew, and ran into the OC Crew (Gavin Haughey, Itz Andy, and more!!) I ran around with my LA Promoter friend Joe Joe, and we all took off to SPACE. lol... That was a joke. The place was insane and there was no way that we were all going to make it in past the HUGE line to a club that was at capacity with the Fire Marshall standing outside. SO we tried to go next door to the Warehouse that was DEAD and instead headed back into South Beach where a crew (joe joe, joe, justin, cameron, and billy) of us ended our night at News Cafe. JUstin got a hold of my camera and took a pic of himself. What do you think it was of? I stayed up long enough to see if the sunrise was as beautiful as our sunsets.. It wasn't...
Thursday, Lindsay and I rolled out of bed and ran over to the Shelbourne for the Wet Grooves Pool Party. I couldn't get a hold of John Huntington, so thankfully Everett came out and saved us. This place was jumpin' with some HOTTIES!!!! Not to mention all the incredible DJs!! Scumfrog, Christopher Lawrence, Paul Oakenfold, to name a few!! I ran a few doors down to the Sagamore to check out my friend Ricardo from Thrive Records.. I just missed DJ Skribble on the decks but got there in time to see Sandra Collins and Deep Dish hanging out! There was a crew of friends from Utah there kickin'it too! WE ran back to the hotel to get ready and had to run right back out the door to the Vegas Mansion Party. Lindsay and I hadnt eaten all day so we made the cab driver stop at McDonalds. We scarfed our food down; hiding behind an SUV in front of the party, and met up with some friend's from San Diego. We walked into the party and definitely felt at home.. EVeryone was there from Vegas. Too much going on to even try to explain, go check out the pics! My feet were hurting so bad by the end of the party from all the walking that I had been doing, that I walked BAREFOOT to the Crobar where Mike Fuller was spinning. Thanks to Dean from Crobar, and Mo from SMACent, they walked a shitload of us in past the line!! After Crobar, I took off with some of my friends from Scottsdale (DJ MCB, J Allen, and Steve) and we hit up Opium Gardens to see Donald Glaude spin. This club is partially outdoors and since it started raining, I had to take off for fear of getting the camera wet!! So I went and ate at News Cafe.. Again, lol...
Friday we got up early and went to the BBC Radio 1 party at Nikki Beach. This was a free party with such phenomenal DJs that they place was over capacity by noon and you couldnt move. Nikki Beach is a tops optional beach club so we saw many a half naked girl running around! It began to be too much for me, so I took off to try and load the pictures from the past couple days at starbucks and ran into some more friends from scottsdale. They tried to drag me off to eat sushi (which sounded awesome) but duty called and I went and loaded pics. It took me about half an hour to try and catch a cab back to the hotel to get ready for the night. I headed over to the Victor Hotel for an impromptu Vegas party thrown on the roof! Marc Jay was going to Sky Bar, so we followed and Chad, the manager took care of us there nicely! This was one of my favorite spots so far in Miami! we had a HUGE bed to relax on and the pool area was beautiful! The sounds of Underground Hip Hop were playing as we relaxed in the cool air (at 3am, lol)..
Saturday we went out to the Shelbourne Pool again. Jonathon Peters spun a 12 hour set! The new yorkers were in full force for this party! At one point there was a break in the music and a couple took this time to say their vows. Getting married on spring break in miami at a pool party?? To each their own, right?? The music came back up and the party kept going! we ran next door to another pool party where Scotty Boy and Jeff Bomb were spinning and then took off to the hotel (can you imagine how much we spent on cabs by now??)! Some of our group took off to the Ultra Music Festival and I took off to dinner on the beach with some friends. After dinner I dragged my group over to Sky Bar (told you I liked this place) and Chad took care of us again! I walked over to Amika (thought it was a 3 block walk, ended up being a mile in a short skirt & Heels) to check out a party some friends from Scottsdale were involved in. GOt to the Party and mind you, I was wearing a short skirt and heels, and was by myself.. I told the guy, "I'm with the DJ!" and he promptly told me, there is no list. I said, but yes, my friend is DJing here tonight, and he put me on the list. He goes, no list, $50 to get in. WHAT???? So I have to call my friend and he sends someone down to get me.. Half an hour later, I am FINALLY inside, but my mood was not very good... So I snapped some photos and went back to the hotel to wait for the rest of my crew to go to SPACE. Through a matter of unfortunate incidents (this translates to intoxicated, uncommunicative people) i didnt get down to SPACE until 5am, and even though we had presale tix through Wanttickets.com, we were not able to get in... So much for no line, no wait!! Looking back on the weekend, I had bought 3 different presale tickets (I knew it was going to be crazy and didnt want to assume that I was going to get hooked up everywhere) and not been able to use one.. BUMMER!!! Actually, will call was closed when we got there, the traffic was backed up 4 blocks away, fucked up people were all over the place trying to catch cabs, and if there had been a bar outside the club, you would have thought that there was a block party going on... at LEAST 2000 people outside waiting to get in... Fortunately for us, we didnt let our cab go, and headed back into south beach to party at a friends hotel.. I started falling asleep so I grabbed a cab to head back to my hotel.. changed my mind to go have breakfast at News Cafe... Are we noticing a trend?? Well the cabbie forgot to start his meter, and he was all intent on getting me there and then picking up an airport fare. He even tried to pick one up with me in the car and I demanded that he drop me off at my destination first. He was in such a hurry he drove on the wrong side of the road all the way down Ocean Ave. When we got there I threw him 2 bucks, and he yelled, thats not enough. And I said, "you didn't turn your fucking meter on.. How the hell am I supposed to know what to pay you?? And you tried to get me killed by driving down the wrong side of the road!!!" He stormed off and I had an english muffin. Fitting....
Sunday Morning... Our last day here.. we rolled out of bed about 11am, and tried to pack up all our stuff... 5 peoples stuff packed into a hotel room for 6 days means a total mess!!! but believe it or not I think we walked away with pretty much everything we came with... We had lunch at a place called Mojitos (Zee was addicted to drinking Mojitos all week and as soon as she saw the place, she HAD to eat there). We were so ravenous we made the waitress bring out loaf after loaf of bread. We ate like a pack of starving wolves, and then we went shopping! But the food coma had set in, and ZEE and I were dragging... So we passed out in every store on a couch set in the back for people like us... It must be a common thing out there.. On my 3rd couch of the afternoon in the back of a record store, I opened my eyes to recognize (I was the "recognizer" the whole trip- I kept seeing all the big name DJs, recognizing them and pointing them out.. I didnt realize I knew what that many looked like) the chick who sang the song that Zee had been singing the whole entire trip! I raced up to the front to tell Zee and she ran over to the girl to say hello! a photograph and an autograph later, and zee and I grabbed some ice cream and a cab back to the hotel to grab our bags, meet everyone, and head to the airport.. I was on a different plane than the rest of my roomies, but as you can see from the pictures, I was far from alone on my flight.... There were a ton of Las Vegans, all worn out from the trip, only thankful to be on their way home! It took me 3 days to recover, and then I was packing my bags for my next adventure...
