Tuesday was going to be all about the DanceStar Awards and trying to line up transportation to Bayfront Park, but I resolved to enjoy the daytime as well. I went down to the Wyndham to catch Taborah's 1PM poolside performance and I just love her. She sang "I Am" as Blackwood and "All I Gave to You." She sounded incredible and was quite excited to be back on stage again. Her manager mentioned to me that Johnny Rocks was remixing "I Am," which excited me to no end. I hung out in the lobby and bumped into Jason Nevins who I convinced to come with me to the Defected Party and the Remix Hotel further down on Collins. Unfortunately I am a moron and didn't realize that Remix Hotel didn't open till 4pm, which is complete torture for tech toy geeks like Jason and myself. The line to get into the Defected party at the National was a mad house, no pun intended, but the wait was more than worth it. I can honestly say that I didn't know any of the DJs who were playing, but the music was incredible. The people watching was quite good too, with Bob Sinclar, Roger Sanchez, and Louie Devito all walking around. I was having such a good time but had to leave to make it out to Bayfront on time for DanceStar.
First off, I have to give props to DanceStar for being organized. There was a real red carpet with international TV, radio and print media covering the event. Attracting stars like Carmen Electra, Paris Hilton, and Boy George was obviously not an easy accomplishment either. DJ Irene was having a great time on the carpet going back and forth talking to everyone - she personally exudes the same incredible positive energy that is in her music. Zak, Mike and I worked the red caret doing mini-interviews and taking lots of pictures. Two of my favorite moments involved calling over artists who were surprised to be recognized - Amanda Ghost (who asked me how I know who she was) and Annette from Venus Hum (who was performing with Blue Man Group). It was also great to see friends of mine walking the red carpet as the stars that they deserve to be for their hardwork - Jennifer Warner, Jesse (Scumfrog) Houk, and Gabriel & Dresden come immediately to mind.
As the award show was starting we were led to the backstage press room. The TV stations had areas lined up, then the radio stations and then the print people in a back room. The provided table of food/drinks was attacked immediately by all the press people - we just aren't used to be fed this well. Winners and presenters were brought back to us print people at first one at a time then in small groups. Lady Bunny, Gramma Funk and Frankie Knuckles spoke about the lack of black female artists and gay-influenced dance music being present at the awards. An all-star group of producers - Moby, Paul Van Dyk, Carl Cox and Gabriel & Dresden spoke about the need for electronic music to encourage political activity through Rock the Vote and fighting the Rave Act. I cover these talks further in this article - but I must relay this fabulous quote from Dave Dresden "making an impact on people's life positively through music has always been a dream of mine - and its becoming a reality." For a list of DanceStar Winners - click here.
We headed back to SoBe and stopped for dinner at the Jerry’s Famous Deli with Kurt from The Face. Kurt's an interesting character who writes a monthly column for The Face about trying to make it as a pop star and supporting himself as a masseur. He is embraced by popbitch.com and has done shows with Pete Burns. Again, the best part of WMC is meeting people and getting to know them over random meals and Kurt shared a lot of his insight into the UK pop/dance world. His CD is quite good as well - www.worldofkurt.net, check out the mp3 samples. I headed to CroBar for Magic Sessions and danced my ass off to Todd Patterson. My energy soon disappeared and I found myself walking back to the hotel passing all kinds of great DJs who were enjoying the lovely night air.
