Heinekin, House & Hip-Hop (Fashion Only Forum 2/23/01)

The promoter told me to get there after eleven-thirty, but I was there at eleven, wondering why there seemed to be one security lump per pretty girl. Said girls were dancing in clusters on the tiny upstairs floor, while the basement was still taped off. Boys with slick hair and cel phones watched the girls, looking for reasons to get into the clusters, but never seeming to do so. Security was rude, but I went wherever it seemed I'd have a picture anyway, then nursed a beer waiting for the predicted crowd.

Sure as shootin' around half past they started drifting in. Looked like the core was high-end Asian and Black gangsters with trophy girls, and hangers-on with Nines (security didn't seem all that overdone at this point). The bar got crowded and the tape was opened for the basement, where hip-hop spun and a few buxom blondes and Asian girls danced and fished. The were augmented with other downtown girls, a brave tourist or two, then the Asian Boys, and the floor filled up. The far end of the basement bar, back against the wall looked to be where business was being done, so I wandered back and photographed an assortment of glasses, half-filled with drink and garnished with umbrellas and fruit slices. Large men asked me what I was doing back there. I weigh 220#. These men were really large. I told them.

Back upstairs house was spun by a DJ wearing a snowball bra, and go-go girls danced in matching snowball outfits with big cotton-candy wigs. That smaller crowd was mostly boys vogueing (sp.), and a few gawking at the (three) girls.

Back downstairs again, elbowing my way through some very hard backs, I climbed some furniture, made a few more pictures, finished the second roll, met another shooter from a local freebie club mag, had another Heinekin, then left.

Told the paper my fee's going up next time.

-Don