It's one of the few non-clickish house music scenes that I know of. At least it appears to be that way. When Louie called and said "Yo I'm doing this listening party thing at The Paradox from 9pm-11pm. Come. Bring friends." I thought that this sounds like fun. ROAD TRIP!!!! And it was early enough for Gloria so she wanted to hang. Baltimore is almost a 4 hour drive for me. So we talked about a lot of things, sang some classic rock, stopped at the Turkey Hill, which is one of my favorite parts of a road trip. I bought some Doritos(the Spicy Chile flavored kind in the purple bag). What would life be without those? Gloria has one of these fancy shmancy cars that can go really fast without the driver noticing. So we must have been doing 80 most of the time. We get to the club slightly early. Around 8:26pm. Now here's the thing. This is where men and women become opposite. You'd think we've been driving long enough, let's park and go in. I spoke to Lisa Moody. She sent someone to open the door for us. There's no one inside but the people preparing for the party. We're sure nuff early. "Come on Gloria. Let's go in." And that's when it happened. The 3 words that women say that men can't seem to understand. Scientist can't figure out the reasoning why this seems to be a factor in life. Women MUST do this. And men MUST accept it no matter how crazy it may seem. There is no point in fighting it or trying to make sense out of it. It's a part of life and in order to move on, men must accept that this is going to happen. She says, "I'm not ready." So of course, like an idiot, I say "Why don't we go in? There's no one inside. You'll have more room. There's a bathro..." Seemed like logical man thoughts, right? Before I could finish my statement she says "I'm more comfortable in my car." Men. Let me teach you something. There is a lesson in shutting up. Just try it one day. Don't waste time trying to ration the point. Women have things that they do. Accept it and move on. You'll know it when it happens. Right before the game is about to start. The first kick off is only a minute away, some ladies may ask a man to run to the store. That's when this rule is most important. Just shut up. You can't make sense of it. Don't even try. Shut up. Anyway....... We go in after she got ready. LOL!!!!!! Random thought, I may need a place to stay if she reads this blog.
The thing about House parties that I absolutely love that I almost never see at any other type of party is the feeling of family, and hospitality. The entire Deep Sugar crew made sure every T was crossed and ever I was dotted. I know Ultra, Lisa, Jonathan, Katie and Danny. But there were staff members that I've not met, asking me could they assist me in any way. Offering me water, something to drink, really accommodating. They had a team of people who made food for the guest of Louie's listening party. These 3 brothers made some really tasteful food. What was impressive was how sweet they were. They took the time to explain each dish. And the presentation was awesome. The food didn't come in the typical aluminum trays. They had these really fancy looking trays that gave it all a nice touch. And then they were saying "Take some home. Let me make you a plate." They were just being so beautiful about everything. Louie was his usual self. Excited. LOL. That always trips me out. Every time this guy does a song or an album, he's so excited. You'd think it was his very first release. His excitement exudes. He made me more excited about it. After eating and laughing with everyone, Louie is about to start. Now keep in mind, this is a listening party. He's just playing the songs from the album. Not really DJing per sé. Ultra introduced Louie and mentioned something about the purpose of this listening party. And that is to show that some of our artist are ALBUM(Full length project) artist. They have more to contribute than just a single. Louie is not only one of those artist but he comes with a concept to his projects. It's an art form that's easily overlooked and not given enough praise for. I felt very proud to be a part of the evening. And guess what? I danced! I did my little back and forth two step, but hey, I was dancing dangit!! The system sounded so sweet and the music was sounding so good. Sheila Ford, DJ Donna Jeffries and Kev Dot Cruz was in the house.
Although the night was about Louie and his new project that's about to come out, I was extremely proud and impressed with The Deep Sugar team. I happen to know that they do what they do purely for the love of it. A lot of these people have day jobs. This club thing IS NOT paying they're bills. It all looks good. Louie Vega, The food, the beautiful energy, Deep Sugar people wearing Vega tee shirts and all, looks and feels good. But a lot of the Deep Sugar team never get thanked or praised for making our nights enjoyable. Jonathan was on the move the entire time while I was there. Somebody took time to display the napkins in a funky little design. It's little touches like that that made it memorable for me. It gave the night a personable feeling. I don't know who hired the guys to bring the food, but there were Ribs, Curry Chicken, Ham, Fried Whole wings, collared greens, Mac & Cheese, potato salad and so much more. They weren't charging for the food. Somebody had to pay for it. And it wasn't cheap. I've paid $20 a plate for way less than what I had there. So let me say Thank you to everyone from the Sound Man(who may be one of the most overlooked people in clubs) to the clean up crew. You all afforded me a great night out. Throughout the night many people were coming up to me mentioning my last blog about my being arrested experience. It really touched my heart. I just want to acknowledge one couple who mentioned their son to me. I made them a promise that I'd pray for him. But I thought I'd ask you(the reader) to pray with me. The young mans name is Herman. Just pray a simple prayer for him. God already knows and loves Herman and his family. He already knows Hermans past and future. I'm going to pray that God will talk to Hermans heart and mind. I want God to make himself clear to Herman in a way the supersedes human understanding. I pray that one day Herman will see his reality for whatever it is, and never be complacent, but always striving for better, higher and stronger.
Last thing. Tondalayer Queen was holding the food down in the kitchen. I didn't realize that her food was separate from the food we had. I'll be sure to get some of her food the next time though. It looked delightful!
Shout outs to Ms. Renee, Kim Potrzuski, Yvette Jones, Jack McClelland, Kevin Anthony, Shellie Walker and my brother David Greenwood although I missed him.
Thanks again for reading this everyone. I love you. See you on the next blog.
