Copied from my blog.
" One Saturday I took a walk to Zipperhead......", or My Trip to the Dracula's Ball
No, really we did.
So we left Friday morning for the trip to Philadelphia, and the Dracula's Ball. We had a rented car full of snacks, drinks, books, magazines, etc. We took our time, and stopped whenever we felt like it, going up I-81 to I-95 around the DC area. The drive through Virginia was amazing. Such beautiful views. We stopped around 7:30 in Aberdeen, Maryland to get a room and some dinner. My entire body was sore from being in the car all day, but I don't think that it was due to being pregnant. Jason and Morgan appeared to feel the same way. After some food, and a bath, we went to bed around 11 p.m., and left a wake up call for 8:00.
Getting up the next day an hour before our wake up call was a pain in my ass, but I just couldn't go back to sleep. I think it was a good idea after all though, because I went donwstairs in my pj's to get my coffee and breakfast to take back to our room. Morgan and Jason stated waking up when I was eating, and I went back down with Morgan to get Jason some food and coffee (good wifey that I am). We were out of there around 9:30 and in Philadelphia around 10:45/11. The first thing that we did was find our hotel, which was on the Delaware river in the Penn's Landing/Center City district. Our room had a beautiful view of the river, and a huge suspension bridge that crosses it.
After that, we decided to find the club, Shampoo, where the event was going to be held. It wasn't that far away from us. It was to the northwest of us by about 4 blocks north and 7 or so blocks west. By going south down the street a block east of the club we hit the South Street area. It runs east to west about 8 blocks or so, and is the trendy little shopping district comparable to little 5 points in Atlanta. I would say it had more places to eat or pick up a beverage than I have ever noticed in 5 points. It's a couple of blocks deep in certain spots, so it's highly worth it to step out of the main shopping area, South Street proper, and wander around a little more. That's how we found the wonderful, little, Kosher deli we ate a late lunch at. I've never had pastrami that good, or piled so thick on a sandwich. We mainly shopped at Passionale, a fetish store where Morgan got a GORGEOUS new outfit, Armed and Dangerous, a sort of "luxury" Gothic store that carried jewelry, art, clothing, etc.,
Zipperhead, made famous by The Dead Milkmen and where we all were DYING to ask for MoJo Nixon *snicker*, and a couple of other places where I just can't remember their names. The staff at Zipper head were very helpful, and horribly sweet to us in that " I'm an older punk guy/girl that gets to do/wear what ever I want at work and still get paid for it" kind of way. The guy gave Jason a CD of his band to check out and Jason gave him a KG card to keep in touch with us. The girl was REALLY cool, and funny, and thought that Jason had more of a southern accent than I did. *HAHA*
I'm not even going to talk about all of the independent music stores. There were so many, and most of them were dedicated to specific genres. I will say that the Dancing Ferret record store, sponsors of the Dracula's Ball, was so neat that morgan wanted to roll it up into a ball and out it in her pocket. The staff is really nice, their stock was AMAZING, and we could've spent the entire time just there.
So, my poor, very pregnant body shopped with Morgan and Jason for almost 4 hours. *YIKES* We got back to our room around 5, after driving around some more. We had to be at the club at 8. Silly us didn't have dinner, but fortunately they a had a backstage area for the "talent", Seraphim Shock, THe Empire Hideous, and all 3 DJ's, and that area was catered. Morgan and Jason and I had 2 wristbands to wear, one for being over 21, the other said VIP all over it so that we could get back to that area.
*snort*
Shampoo was a very big club. If they had put more money into the Underground/Boiler Room, it could've compared to Shampoo. The main level had an immense dancefloor/Stage area, with plenty of standing room and little alcoves. On that same floor was an outdoor patio that had the cool framework and fabric covering like the ampitheatre we used to have here. There was a raised area out there that had a sunken hot tub with L shaped banquette seating around it. Both the main floor, and the patio were where the two other DJ's were. Jason had the coolest room I thought. This was an all-ages event, but they had to have somewhere for the over 21 crowd to drink. This would be the Velvet Lounge, which was downstairs, and you had to have an over 21 bracelet to get in. It had velvet wall coverings and ceiling draperies in a beautiful burgandy velvet. There were velvet covered, cushy, built-in benches everywhere. Even Jason's booth was covered in velvet. Swank-ness abounded.
There were 3 rooms on this floor, and this was Jason's section of the club. Luckily for me and Morgan, our "VIP" room was on this level, hidden through a back hall way that was guarded by bouncers. Unfortunately for Jason was that the bathroom was upstairs, and he didn't get any breaks. I never knew he could run that fast.
What I had of the food there was good. I stayed mostly by Jason's booth, and only walked around with Morgan a little. I'm glad she didn't feel like she had to babysit me, and that she seemed happy to wander about on her own. She hung out with the bands quite a bit. O_o , Go Morgie!! We waled around and took pictures of the club, and the people there. There were some very nice vendors there, they had jewelry , clothing, ,leathergoods, chain maille, etc. We were at one of the booths that we had stopped by before, so that Morgan could get these really cute barrettes. I was talking to the male of the duo t6hat runs their actual store in D.C., when all of a sudden Morgan hands me this handbag and says "Here" and smiles. She got me this adorable handbag I've wanted for quite awhile. *Tears* She's a sweetie, and a very good ASSistant. Lol.
The night ended around 2. The lights came on, and the camera crew from National geographic was still there. ????????? I'm still not sure what that was aboot. We met some very nice people, and Jason had a shit-ton of compliments on his set. Oh, and for all of you fuck-tards that bitch about the music at Sanctus, and we tell you OVER and OVER about what people request, at an event like this that has over 1500 people there, THEY STILL REQUESTED BLACK NO. 1, THE CHAUFFER, AND ALL OF THE OTHER "OLD" STUFF THAT YOU PEOPLE BITCH ABOOT. And, DJ's are always gonna TRY to fill those requests. Unless they are Caustic.
(love ya).
The rest is pretty routine. Not much sleep. Leaving that day, we decided to go back by the Edgar Allan Poe house, where Morgan took pictures and I got yelled at by people in that neighborhood. I have no idea why. We got out of town around 10 a.m., and got back home by around 9:30 p.m.
Well, that's that. Pictures to come later.
p.s. Forgive any typos,please. I'm still exhausted.
Hopefully more of us can make it to the next one...