Diplo, dancing and art
- First Fridays
- Jan. 6, Guggenheim Art Museum, New York City
- Diplo lays down some infectious grooves at the Guggenheim's monthly mix of music, art and booze.
“We have to go to this,” my friend Emily IM’d me last week. After clicking on her supplied link, I was still lost. She then explained to me that Diplo was going to be playing First Fridays at the Guggenheim. I needed more info. She then explained to me that Diplo was this crazy cool DJ — the guy behind M.I.A.’s phat beats.
Now M.I.A. I had heard, thanks to, of course, Emily, who tries her hardest to keep my cool factor from dipping from Sorta Hip to Poser Hip. And I must say “Arular” was one of the best albums of 2005. (Even though she failed to crack the like 37 Top Ten Album lists for 2005 produced by Crap Filter.)
So the deal is that the first Friday of each month the Guggenheim Museum in New York City has a DJ or a similar hot act come in and tear it up from 9 p.m.-1 a.m. while people dance, look at art and drink. Makes perfect sense.
I was definitely up for it, even though I always end up looking like a narc at these things. I just have no look whatsoever.
You see, I stopped caring about looking like an ass a while ago and I was up for something a little more invigorating than usual. That doesn’t mean I was ready to bust it on the dance floor. It just means I was comfortable bumping shoulders with people whose cool factor is significantly higher than mine. It also helps that these people that attend these events are so chill. They just want to have a good time. This ain’t no high school dance where jocks mosh to Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” before a frightened chaperone is forced to step in and break up the inevitable fight.
Getting into the event, that was another issue. The line wrapped around the block and Emily, Emily’s friend Emily (it wasn’t as confusing as it might seem) and I arrived a tad bit late, like 9:30. Fortunately, Emily had a couple friends holding a spot in line. Unfortunately, it was fucking cold and 89th street on the Upper East Side had become this giant wind tunnel. You’d think growing up near Boston and going to school in Syracuse would have prepared me for this. It didn’t. I’m not sure how long we spent outside in line, but it felt like a couple days. I’m just now getting the feeling back in my hands.
We got in after slapping down 15 bucks each for the non-membership fee (not bad for a night of entertainment). The people in my group fought their way through the packed rotunda and went right for the bar, then fought their way back to a spot near, of course, the blaring speakers right in front of the DJ stage, where I was destined to end up looking like a Super Narc. That’s because most of the dancing occurs there, and I really don’t go beyond my token white guy head bob.
But, like I said before, everyone was just there to have fun, and at the same time they were all trying their darndest to look like they weren’t having too much fun, so there wasn’t as much hard-core dancing as you might think. There was the occasional spastic dancer that threatened my balance once and a while, but that’s pretty much it. Therefore, I was able to fit in (I think).
And I was tempted to get on my full-on groove because Diplo was that good. He produced some pretty innovative beats using cool retro tracks like INXS’ “Mediate,” The Clash’s “Rock the Casbah” and Men Without Hats’ “Safety Dance.” The genuis in it was that the samples came in small doses. He’d get a rise out of all the 20-somethings with the nostalgia, then take them in a different direction before overdoing it. And the energy was maintained all night.
I won’t go as far as to say that I’m now a Diplo groupie, or even that I’ve been converted to a fan of DJ music. But the whole scene is definitely infectious, and carries a pulse that’s hard to not be sucked into.
And, oh yeah, the Guggenheim does have art too. It was cool to be able to break from the massive crowd on the ground floor and work our way above the action. However, you couldn’t bring drinks up into the museum, which meant I was unable to splash some wine on Russian art.
If you’ve never been to the Guggenheim, the museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, is one big spiral ramp. Since I had already seen the show RUSSIA! that was being displayed, I took the trips up as an opportunity to get a bird’s eye view of the main floor offered by the cool architecture, as did many others. Great people watching to say the least.
*Photos provided by Emily
January 9th, 2006 at 1:54 pm
That’s because I was too lazy to write my Top 10 list.