Latino!

Reggaeton explosion 3, @ club Spirit - in vials, ready to inject:

1- getting there is a trip. it takes me 15 minutes (come ON!) to get from the 1 train station on W28/7Ave to W27/10. You canNOT go straight from W27 to 10 Ave, after 8th the avenue hits a large patch of public housing. you have to go all the way round and round and round.

2- I get there, sweaty as a pig, I think I'm late, I'm not: female security guard starts searching me, very thoroughly (I offer to write a letter of recommendation for TSA), then flashing a toothed grin "No Mace baby?". She sounds disappointed. I notice no one is guarding the rear exits, so I'll recommend her, and fail the club.

3- Inside: a neon panel flashes a Dove commercial "Your hair is too clean. It's possible". Believe me it's not.

4- The outfits: boobs, boobs, boobs, gravity-defying boobs, squeezed, popping out, pushed up, pushed to the side, on camera. jewel belts. shades. camperos. shoulder towels. mix-tape crews wearing t-shirts like "Nouveau riches vol. 3". quite a propos. fishnets, corsets, caps, cowboy hats.

5- at the bar: bartender girl serves a drink. kiddo comes back with his drink, complains "it tastes like juice". She adds a splash of Malibu then leans over "that guy, orders a pussy drink then complains that it doesn't taste like alcohol. What eare you drinking?". Without batting a lash, "Diet Coke with lemon". I apologize. She says it's fine, "it's what I drink all the time". The soda is on her and she won't accept a tip, "It's my bar" she says. Girl is hot, my friends.

6- Free condoms, yay! I avoid them as I always do: as a memeber of the press I feel I should set the example for the others here (after all this is a benefit for Aids - protect yourself) but I always have this creeping doubt that free condoms may break. Who knows where they keep them right? Funny little dance all guys do in front of the table where female volounteers give them away: they debate on what size they should get, then end up with a few Magnums (glancing aroung "did y'all see? I use Magnums") and right before leaving they grab handfuls of the regulars. "Just in case"

7- The music: bwah. Not my favourite. A lot of ethnic pride in the house though: we like that. Opening DJ spins a lot of hip-hop mixed to reggaeton, you can tell hip-hop moves them, reggaeton fkng IGNITES them. DJ Nelson, headline DJ, gets on stage and asks lady promoter to quit English "not everybody here speaks it". Then to the audience, "hablas espanol?". ROAR. Every act opens with a ritual call "Latinooooooooo". ROAR

8- Cabbie on the way home on nyc nightlife as seen from his side of the plastic partition: kids getting in at 4am asking him to be take to an afterhour. He tries to talk them out of it and sometimes actually suceeds. Girls who "work the bathrooms" in clubs, "do you know what I mean?" asks cabbie. I know. How it's important to discipline your kids in this country if you don't want them to grow up like the ones he picks up. "I used my belt on my children you know? he says proudly. I tell him my Mom's slaps worked just fine. In fact it's only 12 and I'm home. Gotta get up early.