So my friend DJ Hugo Sanchez posts this Facebook thingy about an event he's having in his studio. Not long ago I had been to one that my New York DJ friend Ryan Smith spun at. It was an intimate affair, low-key but great music and cheap drinks so I figured what the hell. So I get there around 6 PM (I love those tea dance hours) and I don't see anyone going in or coming out and I'm like almost too paranoid to knock on the door wondering if it's been canceled.
So I get up the nerve to go in and there are a few people sitting around chatting with some lovely music playing in the background. Soon after Hugo introduces me to Severino Panzetta the London based DJ. He smiles and we are practically instantly intimate. A truly warm person. He motions for me to sit on the couch next to him and basically it turns out to be an interview with he and the people present. His whole story about leaving Monza in North Italy 18 years ago and his experience in the scene up there (Riccione, Cattolica, Radio Azzura etc.) previous to immigrating is very fascinating. Italians always love to hear when one of theirs does well, since it's so hard to get anything done in this country.
Of course I am eating it all up cause it's years that I've been dying to go to Horse Meat Disco. I just really want to see in person the fact that there are people today really dancing to disco and I mean fierce disco not that Holiday Inn bar I will Survive kinda tragedy. It seems like every time I'm in New York it's not the right weekend and I haven't had the coins to go to London in a spell.
So Severino started to spin a little in Hugo's studio but the whole affair remained low key enough that I decided to split and have dinner with my EX. Though there was a part of me that kept wondering if I was missing something and after dinner I contemplated going back. But it was a cold weekend in Roma and I am 50 now so it doesn't take much to get me lazy and yearning for coziness. I called my boyfriend who was at a dinner party figuring I'd join him and maybe we'd all go to Company for a drink and a laugh but he didn't hear the ring so I went home and moped a little. Mostly I wondered if Severino kept spinning and if it had transitioned into an actual party or not.
So the next night Hugo is holding another event. This time at a Centro Sociale Circolo Arci called Fanfulla in the oh so trendy Pigneto area. But those bear Monday guys, (currently Roma's hottest bear promoting team), were having an event at Piper and they were sort of implying that Patty Pravo would be there since it's the 50 year anniversary of the club. Meanwhile my boyfriend and his crew were at a competing buffet/party in the Colle Oppio at Club O which I definitely didn't want to go to because the DJ there plays freaking Katy Perry and Britney Spears and the queens dance like they are at Studio 54 while I roll my eyes and look at my watch.
Turns out it was only a drag queen doing a Patty Pravo impersonation after another doing a Tina Turner impersonation and I'm like well I've seen this before haven't I? So I break out.
Then I get there (Tropicantesimo was the name of the party) and one of the first songs is this tasteful delight by Max Berlin's from 1987. Here I provide it for you including two newer edits in addition to the original as is the tradition here on my blog.
ELLE ET MOI
And it continues in that vein one fabulous record after another. Severino himself is transmitting such a positive energy he is seriously dancing while he spins, throwing his arms up in the air and in general having a kiki and the young crowd who surely don't know these songs are fully enamored with the whole event. In fact there was a bit of that EDM scene let's just stare at the DJ spinning thing going on, but in a way it was cute, fresh and innocent in an Italian way, so it didn't even annoy me. Then I'm getting my drink on, 5 euro Long Island Ice Tea's are cute to say the least.
At one point I realize I am sobbing. That kind of thing just happens to me. I'm Italian, I'm emotional. It's happened at The Loft in New York and it just means that I'm letting myself get transported. There was only one other time in the 17 years that I've lived in Rome that I've had more fun at a club. It was at a party at Forte Prenestino in the late 90's. But this joy is almost purely because of the music and that is my favorite type of fun.
So then Severino says something to this kid, a real centro sociale type, you know the kind with the stretched ear lobes who rolls his own cigarettes. Then the kid gets on the mic. Now this could have been totally naff but it wasn't AT ALL. This boy was not only cute and butch but he had soul. I later found out his name is IGINO. He was literally singing old house lyrics over the beat and it sounded great. The levels were perfect too because they didn't overpower the music.
Then later on this androgynous creature got on another mic and she started doing it too. Hugo later told me her name is LOLA KOLA. That was also sweet but at this point I was getting fatigued. I haven't had my ass on a dance-floor this long in ages and by then Hugo Sanchez took over for the last hour. And as much as I enjoy his spinning style he lives here and I will have other opportunities to hear him play.
Now I just have to haul my ass to London. My buddy Fabrizio, a Roman transplant to London actually lives a 5 minute walk from The Eagle where they hold Horse Meat Disco on Sundays. I've got no excuse other then the $ so let's hope some people buy my records on eBay BUY MY VINYL I POST NEW STUFF EVERY FEW DAYS And my fingers are crossed that I get some new students to teach English to here in Rome. Feel free to leave your cell number below fellow Romans looking for an English teacher and I'll text you back.
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