The Juice Box

Pride and Summer Holidays

Posted on July 19th, 2008 by Jim.
Categories: Event Reviews, Travel.

Time certainly moves fast when you are having fun.

San Francisco Pride was the first part of the most recent activities during the past few weeks. Pride in San Francisco is always accompanied by many fun things to be a part of, from house parties with friends to great dance parties, to the pride event itself. Specifically, I was happy to see a few new events come into play, with the highlight of the weekend being the Frisco Disco dance party held at Mezzanine and the Unity dance party held at Temple.

Frisco Disco was a new twist on a fun party by a well known producer, Billy Worthen, with some fun shows and events, flow arts space for flaggers and fanners, and a great dance space with great music provided by DJ Cary Stringfellow. Frisco Disco was held on Saturday night of Pride, against several other events in San Francisco, but the crowd that attended was an attractive and fun group of guys who seemed to be in the spirit to show some pride and just have some fun. Unity, a party thrown by yet another very well known producer, Luke Johnstone, held on Sunday night of Pride, included top DJ talent Wayne G, Luke Johnstone, and others. The Unity party was held in the downstairs catacombs space of Temple night club, and was a nice blend of people and differing music styles. Both parties really painted a great picture of how the scene in San Francisco can be diverse, interesting, and fun. Sadly, while on my summer holidays, we found out that DJ Cary Stringfellow had passed away suddenly on July 6. The loss of a good DJ, let alone a wonderful guy like Cary, will leave a large hole in the dance community.

Tuesday, following pride, my partner and I gathered up our holiday gear and headed off to Barcelona, Spain, to begin our summer holidays. We had a few days to enjoy this wonderful city, seeing all the sites it had to offer. The city was clean and friendly, and certainly a place I will return to someday soon. The most memorable parts of the city were the wonderful architectural effects of Antoni Gaudi, and one that specifically calls greatest attention is the Sagrada Familia, or the Cathedral of the Holy Family. This amazing structure has been under construction for several decades and is not even 50% completed. It is anticipated to be completed sometime around the year 2030. You can see some of the amazing photos I took in my photo albums. Additionally, many other buildings around Barcelona show similar Gaudi styles.

After a few days in Barcelona, we caught a taxi to the pier and went off on the Atlantis Mediterranean Cruise from Barcelona to Rome aboard the Royal Caribbean Cruise Liner “Navigator of the Seas”. This trip stopped at such wonderful ports of call as Marseille, Livorno, Mykonos and Santorini. Each port had some amazing sites to offer and each was a very unique experience. I have placed many photos of these locations in my photo albums as well.

Highlights of the cruise are many. But again, churches and ancient ruins dominate the list of sites to see in most towns.

• Marseille, France, was our first stop on the cruise. In Marseille we were able to see the wonderful Basilica of Notre Dame de la Garde, set high atop the hills with an amazing view of the ocean, as well as the harbor area of the fishing town.
• Livorno, Italy was our second stop of the cruise. A train strike was in place in Livorno, making it hard to get to destinations like Florence and Pisa, and we did not book a shore excursion through the cruise, so instead, John and I were able to wonder around the small town and see some pretty churches and shop in some of the many outdoor shopping areas.
• Naples, Italy, was the third stop on our cruise. This busy Italian city showed us just how insane the driving in Italy can get. We took advantage of a shore excursion in this city to get to the ruins of Pompei. Seeing the archeological dig and restoration of this city was truly amazing, even on a very hot day.
• After a day at sea, our fourth stop on the cruise was Mykonos, Greece. This quaint fishing village with white washed buildings nestled on the hills of a desert island, was just amazing. We rented an ATV to tour around the island and see some of the outer areas and beaches and then returned to the fishing port to have an amazing meal at Sunset Restaurant (right along the ocean) and then walk through the many shops along the very narrow, small and winding streets of this town. There is something very magical about Mykonos, and I hope to return for an extended stay in the future.
• The fifth stop of the cruise was Santorini, Greece. This village, located along the ridges of an ancient volcano in the ocean, was a stop we did not get off the ship to see (we got up a little too late that day).

We had another day at sea before ending the cruise in Rome. The entertainment on this cruise was wonderful, and the DJ talent as well. We were able to enjoy a few of the dance parties with talents like Paul Goodyear, Abel, Wayne G, and Shigeki. The parties were typical of the Atlantis team; well run, good music, great guys. The White Party was the one event we hit for the long haul, making it to the very early hours of the morning. The music that Paul Goodyear and Abel played was some of the best we had heard, and the light show by Guy Smith and Lasers by Kyle were perfect additions for creating the most amazing club scene at sea.

Finally, we ended our holidays in Rome. We were able to see much of the ancient ruins of the city including the Coliseum, the Pantheon, the Forum, and many others including churches, obelisks and columns all over the city. We also spent an entire day touring the Vatican, seeing the Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museums, and St. Peter’s plaza and Basilica.

So, summer holidays come to an end. More travel on the horizon, more parties still to attend this year, and so much more coming up. Specifically, the Past Curfew Team will produce the Dore Alley weekend closing party, PLAY, at the DNA lounge on Sunday, July 27, with Lydia Prim. And summer would not be complete without Burning Man, Love Parade and of course Folsom Week, with the crown jewel of San Francisco parties, Real Bad. I will certainly report more on those events as they come up.

0 comments.