Mood: Purring, catlike.
Wonderland drag show with performer "Regime" and dancers.
(pron. "ray-jheem")
What a weekend. I couldn't have asked for a more incredible couple of days. Friday night was fun. Lots of friends turned up to Wonderland and I ended up staying out much longer than I thought I would, but we like that. It's so great when your friends remember your birthday, and I've got some great ones, who all wished me well.
Craig (left), Butch le Butch (centre) and Brett (right)
The boys from Shanty Town, one of Melbourne's most exclusive and longest running private recoveries. I've spent far too many mornings over there with this lot, entertaining or being entertained by them (especially by Craig who does the best shows). Brett used to be the bar manager at 44 which is where I first met him but we soon became friends. Butch is another one of Melbourne's best house/disco DJ/producers and should have way more gigs than he does.
Brett and his partner Mark went to a Trek Convention in Vegas one year and came home with com badges. OMG. They even make the sound the "real" ones make on the show. They informed me on Friday that they're going back in a few weeks for another convention, and this time Brooke and Olivia are going too. I would anything to be able to go with them.
Brooke and Olivia
How I love these girls. They came out especially and made me feel very special. Brooke was my favourite bar person at 44, before that was ripped away from us. I found out over a few months of working there every Friday that she was probably my biggest fan. She told me how she used to come to a house night I used to run called Egg, back in the mid-90's, and how she's followed me around to my gigs for years.
These days her and Olivia own their own pub, the very hip and very lovely Park Hotel in Abbotsford, where you can get a fantastic counter meal any night of the week, and you might even find Brooke on the decks there herself if you go on a Friday night...
One night before 44 closed I was having some fun with her on the dancefloor for the first time. We were laughing and carrying on, doing impressions of people and other silly things when she hugged me and said, "I love you, Liz Millar" (she always calls me "Liz Millar", even though we've known each other for years now) and for some reason the next thing I knew I was on the floor at her feet doing a headstand in the middle of the dancefloor (amongst other things), much to the amusement of everyone there. It's one of our favourite clubbing moments ever.
Reggie, just before the bubbles
Ah Reggie. I adore him. We've been disco friends for about 5 years or so - ever since the Freakazoid days. That's right, a disco friend. That's a person you can know for a decade or more but only ever see in darkened nightclubs the whole time you know each other. It's so weird having friends like that when you think about it. You can become unbelievably close to your disco friends, don't get me wrong, yet very often, you won't ever know their surname or have their number. You just see each other on the weekend and it's as though the time that's passed in between is just fluff.
Reggie's an ex-pat from the US who's lived here for awhile now. I knew he was crazy sometimes because I'd see him causing all kinds of mayhem in clubland in the days before I met him, but that just made me like him even more. Just being around him makes me feel as though I'm only one degree of separation away from the legendary NY club the Paradise Garage, and I don't even know if he went there. He just embodies the spirit of the place for me - a bit hot and sweaty, a bit sexy, a bit wild, very very funny, fabulous taste in music and he can ignite the dancefloor with his moves.e a demon! Larry Levan would've been proud. Actually, on second thought, he probably would've wanted his ass.
One of my favourite clubbing memories is of Reggie at Freakazoid one night, spinning around in the middle of the dancefloor laughing and screaming out something unintelligible (yet somehow you knew that it was funny), in just a pair of white, skin-fitting jocks and one of the fake marble columns that the promoters had made for the set that night - suspended in his arms above his head. He'd cleared a 10 ft diameter area of the usually packed dancefloor around him as people dived out of the way. Brilliant. And it wasn't like he wasn't being encouraged. He'd also ring Arlen back then before coming down to the club and say things like, "Hey Arlen, I'm coming down in my pajamas this week," to which Arlen would apparently reply, "I'll put your name on the guestlist then."
I took the photo of him above just after I finished my set on Friday. I was about to leave the club so I was on my way around saying my goodbyes when he grabbed me and told me that he'd been looking for me everywhere. "I'm buying you a bottle of champagne for your birthday," he said and directed me to the bar.
The last time we'd seen each other Reggie had stayed til the end, and I was on last. When I finished my set that night everyone demanded an encore but before I could put a record on the turntable the manager of the venue turned the house lights up. Well, in his typical fashion Reggie started chanting, "Just play it with the lights on!" and got everybody in the place to join in with him. Needless to say I gave in. For the spotters out there it was Moodymann's The Thief That Stole My Heart, and it went down a treat.
At the bar he told me that he'd called a friend of his in the States when he got home that morning because he just HAD to tell him about what a great time he'd had. "That is at the top of my best clubbing moments list," he said. "Wow, he's got quite a list," I thought, as I recalled some of his history. "How can that possibly be at the top?"
"I can't believe you actually did it. I've never seen anyone else who's had the balls. NO-ONE does that," he said, "And everyone loved it, did you see them?", laughing as he poured my champagne. Cool. Then he told me to drink up and he literally showered me with kisses. It was such a nice and unexpected surprise for my birthday. I'd had no idea it meant so much to him.
Now here's trouble. My beautiful friend Fernando, who also DJs with me in the main room at Wonderland. You'd think he was actually one of the hired dancers if you didn't know better though. Now don't get the wrong idea about him because of the outfit. The club pays for him to hire a costume each week. Last week he was a guerilla soldier. The week before that he wore a Hawthorne football jersey and shorts, which was hilarious; he's come as Zorro, as a policeman, an Indian Chief...basically we've already worked through the entire Village People and we're still going, god love him.
Fernandito on the Wonderland pole ...with Liz
Philip (below) turned to me at one point and said (looking at Fernando dancing on the pole on the bar), "It's a gay Captain Stubing from The Love Boat" (to giggles), then later while chatting to Jono, Wonderland's main promoter, I get, "It's An Officer and a Gentleman, but gay," (more laughs). Poor Fernando, but he asks for it sometimes. Amongst Fernando's many talents are a flair for graphic design and architecture, meeting men (he's just opened a gay website for Latinos), and he's not a bad Spanish teacher either. Toby and I are up to our third lesson with him in preparation for South America next year. We do a contra deal - Yoga classes and massages for Spanish lessons. Bartering is the shit peepz. Hola!
Philip and Jono
So that about wraps up Friday night. Busy weekend, but it certainly got started off in style!
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