Out and About
Despite what the contents of this blog might suggest, I do in fact enjoy going out, partying, and general social interaction. Lately I’ve been to a couple events I wanted to talk about so that’s what this is. Cool? Cool.
Make Jersey House Again
A new group has begun throwing events in my local area, the very unfortunately titled “Make Jersey House Again.” It’s a mission statement I can absolutely get behind but come on, we all agree that name’s rough right? I thought we left that whole joke back in 2016. Guess not everyone got the memo. Their most recent event was a Valentine’s themed dance party at Long Branch Distillery which is a literal 15 minute drive from me, so I figured why not. It was a great time, I got to meet some really cool people and dance along to some stellar house music and become a sweaty mess. But unfortunately one aspect of the night continued to loom heavily. You see, Long Branch Distillery is not a club. It is, according to their own website, a “Distilled Spirits Plant where [they] manufacture craft spirits.” What happens when you take a team of only three bartenders, trained mainly in making highly complicated drinks with multiple steps, and put them in charge of supplying the alcohol for a huge crowd of clubbers? Disaster. My group waited a half an hour at the bar to get a drink at one point due to the sheer volume of people present, and we heard from others later we didn’t even get the worst of it. Yikes. I did end up trying the Love Potion #7 (don’t remember the entire recipe but I know it involved strawberry vodka, pineapple juice and Peach Schnapps) and I can say that was a sweet hit. All in all I’m definitely looking forward to the future of Make Jersey House Again, but please god change that name. I’m begging you.
Midnight Madness
But of course one of the things I go out most regularly to do is, well, watch movies. My favorite time to do this is easily every other Saturday for Midnight Madness in Red Bank. Because that’s when I know I’m about to see some of the most insane and lovely movies from years past on a big screen, in the best quality possible. Recently I got to watch two of my favorite movies of all time, Perfect Blue and Akira, in a theater for the first time in my life, and I couldn’t be more happy. Akira in particular in 4K with surround sound is an experience I have unironically described to a few people as spiritual, and I mean it. I’m friends with the man who runs the event, Chris Bahr (@tape_hell on Instagram) and I can attest that not only is he a great dude, he cares deeply about cult horror films and is serious about allowing as many people as possible to view it in the best possible manner. In fact, my only possible complaint about the experience is four movies play in total, two at 10 PM and two at midnight. And the movie selection is always so good that me and my friends find the choice of what to watch nearly impossible. That and I keep planning on taking photos of myself there for and almost always forget too. Oh well. Next one is this Saturday the 16th of March and if you’re in the area I can’t recommend it enough.
Cherry Glazerr Touch of Chaos Tour at The Foundry
I was recently introduced to the band Cherry Glazerr and was immediately super into them, and so when I found out they were on tour and coming to New York I jumped at the chance. Then New York was sold out so I jumped at the chance to see them in Philadelphia. The show was fantastic, and the stage presence and energy of the band was infectious, spreading an overwhelming positive and rocking energy throughout the crowd culminating in one big final mosh pit at the encore. I also had never been to The Foundry before, and loved its intimate feel and how close you felt to the stage pretty much wherever you were in the room. Zero complaints about the night. Except for drink prices at music venues. $16 for a Bud Light. We need to have an intervention about this sometime soon.
Also photo credits to my friend Anna (@annaferster) you’re a lot better at that then me so thank you :)
NJ Chocolate Expo
Okay. Listen. It’s a convention for chocolate. Chocolate. That’s the easiest slam dunk in the world. Who doesn’t like chocolate other than that one old lady from SpongeBob? Well as it turns out you can make a whole event dedicated to chocolate and still mess it up.
To be fair, “mess it up” might be harsh. The event was pretty much exactly what was advertised. Big floor space, lots of vendors, most of them had free samples, buy some cool independent high quality chocolate. Great. And any of the chocolate that I did sample or take home was fantastic and I wish nothing but the best to everyone who was there selling. Where it gets a little dicey is that only about half the vendors were there selling chocolate. Of the other half, most of them were selling other food items which mostly made sense like cheese and wine, but some of them were selling stuff like hot sauce and jerk chicken and it didn’t make much sense to me why they’d be there. And then there were a few stands that completely baffled me. A roof tiling company. A gutter installation service. T-Mobile had a little van that seemingly served no purpose other than to advertise T-Mobile. What? Add onto this that the venue the convention was taking place in was far too large and so there was a decent amount of empty space, and the vibes were off from the start.
But the nail in the coffin was the one “lecture” I attended at the event’s main stage, an introduction to wine and chocolate pairing. Sounds great. Our “wine educator” comes on stage about five minutes late with a single bottle of Cabernet in his hands and asks everyone how we’ve been enjoying the event. Some applause. He tells us that Cabernet pairs well with dark chocolate. Then he tells us milk chocolate goes well with sweet and flavored wines. He asks if we have any questions. We don’t. He walks off stage after being up there for approximately five minutes if that. Me and my friend have to stop ourselves from bursting out laughing right then and there. It’s an event dedicated to chocolate HOW DO YOU MESS THAT UP? Baffling.
I just realized the point of this post was to talk about some fun stuff I’ve been up to lately and a lot of it is me complaining. I promise I’m not too unbearable.