The Big Apple: ALMOST MBT

Image credit: greenwichmeantime.com

The countdown is almost over!  Tomorrow night I fly to NYC and I'm SUPER excited.

I'm only planning two really "big" activities.  One, which I'm still waiting for confirmation on, is seeing the Broadway production of Phantom of the Opera.  Boyfriend's best buddy just recently began playing the role of Monsieur Andre (funny story actually) and I'm looking forward to seeing him.

The other was JUST THIS MINUTE confirmed, and, as I'm currently keeping it as a surprise for my friends who might join me, I will only offer the following three clues:

• My girl crush
• Not U2
• Partially mentioned in a previous IMBT Birthday Shoutout (you'll have to figure out which one!)

Other than that, I just plan on lots of catching up with friends and enjoying Manhattan in the fall.  Speaking of which, I've been tracking the weather really closely because I really really REALLY don't want it to rain.  Having lived in LA for almost 7 years I just don't own appropriate clothing for any weather besides "nice".  I went a little nuts this week and impulse-purchased waterproof, cozy boots (see below) online and had them shipped to my friend's place in NY.  I also went on a shopping spree at Old Navy but will only bring about 5 of the items (out of, like, 15) with me - I just can't resist sparkly tank tops!  *Sigh*  At least I'll have these:

image credit: shoes.com

Cute, right?

I do have a couple questions for my fellow frequent travelers and NY natives:

1. Does Virgin America provide pillows on their red-eyes?  Continental does not and I have learned to bring one with me.  But I'd rather not if I don't have to...

2. I'm planning on inviting friends to join me for drinks on Friday evening and, as is always the case, I have no idea where.  Any thoughts about a fun, relaxed, not-too-expensive, centrally located bar in Manhattan (I've been looking mainly at lower Manhattan as that's where I'll be staying that night)?  Any and all suggestions are welcome.  I've been using this website and Yelp to check some out and am thinking about GoldBar (I mean, if for nothing else just to confirm it's a real place), Ward III, Whiskey Tavern (I love the quote on the front page: "I love this place." - Anonymous), or AnotherRoom.  If any of you have ever been let me know in the comments!

And now if you'll excuse me, it's time for me to go make a packing list!

I <3 Bootie LA - IMBT!

A few weeks ago I went to the BEST DANCE PARTY EVER called Bootie LA.

(BTW, This is another one of those times (just like this one) where I almost don't want to write about how awesome it was because a part of me wants it to stay "a secret."  But of course it's not a secret to begin with, and it kinda goes against the spirit of the party to not be inclusive.)

SO, at a dinner on a Friday night a couple of my girlfriends were talking about this amazing dance party they were going to check out the following night.  Neither had been before, but word on the street was that it was completely unpretentious (so unlike most LA clubs!) and that you basically just DANCE YOUR FACE OFF.

That was a completely accurate (if not literal) assessment.

The music was comprised solely of bootleg mashups.  As they say on their site, "Bootie’s DJs keep your brain guessing and body dancing with creative song combinations, celebrating — and satirizing — the many different forms of music. Mixing and matching every musical genre, era, and style into one big dance party where everyone feels welcome."

I've actually been holding off writing this post for a few weeks now because I wanted to include photos, and since I didn't bring a camera, I've been waiting on these guys to post theirs from the event.  There was only one of our group and it doesn't include all of us, but it's pretty rad anyway, am I right?:

More photos from the night here.  I'm in the background of a lot of the wide-shots of the crowd, but thankfully I doubt many of you will be able to make me out ;-)

In all the years I've lived in LA, I can only think of one other place similar to Bootie.  I think it was called World Bar (or something similar) and was situated right in middle of the madness on Hollywood Blvd at Sycamore.  It had multiple big rooms, each with different kinds of music, and ample opportunity to DANCE YOUR FACE OFF.  I think I even did a birthday "thing" there once (though a few friends over the years did too so I might be thinking of theirs).  However, a) there always seemed to be sketchy guys there trying to get in your pants (isn't that the worst?  When all you wanna do is dance with your buds and random stranger-dudes just keep moving into your personal space?  Ick.), b) there might have been a dress code (or we just felt like we had to wear heels and dress "hot"), and c) unless you got there at, like, 8 pm and had a coupon from LA Weekly, it was mad expensive (especially for being a poor early-20-something) and there was always a huge line.  I'm pretty sure it's closed now.

Aaaaanyway, none of those "however"s were the case at Bootie LA.  Granted, we did still get there pretty early (9:30/9:45 ish?), but there was no line, the cover was only $5, and they gave us free CDs!  The only dress code that I was aware of was a suggestion NOT to wear heels and to be prepared to sweat a lot - I was in flip-flops, leggings, a comfy skirt and a tank top (over a sports bra - best decision EVER!).  And best of all, while one person of the group certainly enjoyed making a new friend (and by "friend" I mean tongues-down-each others'-throats-hands-down-each others'-pants-make-out-partner), we basically were free to just DANCE OUR FACES OFF all night without being bothered.

So much fun!

Since then, I have downloaded tons of mashup tracks from their best-of collection (and the CD they gave out that night) on to my iPod, and have been listening to them pretty much non-stop.  I also will stream tracks from their blog while I'm at my desk to drown out some of the more distracting noise around me.

My fave track so far is the Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme song mashup.

What's yours?

Can't wait to go back to Bootie for another night of DANCING MY FACE OFF sometime soon!

New Best Drink: Banana Bread Beer

Went out for drinks the other night and a friend purchased one of these for me.  I'm not a huge beer person, but holy crap, it was deeeeee-licious.  I'm not 100% sure this was the same brand we had, but either way, YUMMMM.  Everyone in the group started ordering them and after some time the bar actually ran out  (which was probably a good thing because it about time for me to call it a night).

Bars of LA: start stocking these!

In the meantime, if you want to try one we found them at The Arsenal.  Just drink responsibly!