Los Angeles, CA: Chacarera Love Boat

I flew down to LA on Saturday for a whirlwind night in celebration of my fren and guru Ana's 30th birthday. Kram and I choked down In-N-Out Burger on the way to SFO. This would have been fine but I flew Virgin America, located in the international terminal, so getting through security was a total clusterfuck with all of the ethnic profiling they have going on over there. I ended up cutting about 100 people and freaking out at TSA for double inspecting my bag (rogue hairspray!) but made the flight with 30 seconds to spare. Talia graciously picked me up from LAX - after campaigning all morning - to take me on a wild goose hunt around Venice Beach (mea culpa) to the hotel. At least the detour gave us extra time to catch up and feel the love!

I finally made it to the swanky Viceroy in Santa Monica to join Ana, Anna and Carl in a frenzied costume change. By 5pm we hit the road for our dock in Marina del Rey and boarded the glamorous birthday yacht. Drinks, dinner, dancing, and jamming ensued for many hours. The event was dripping with castellano, which of course made me super sentimental after a couple of cocktails. By nightfall, all sixty of the guests were getting funky on the dance floor thanks to DJ Honeymoon, aka the Birthday Girl. There was a lot of love going on and a lot of tambourine shaking (r.i.p. - sadly, another casualty of my drunky). Later into the evening the talent on the boat treated us to several musical performances (SEE VIDZ BELOW - and more HERE). Ana's roomie Anna opened with a beautiful song medley, then her Oscar-winning (!!) father sang several songs he had written when Ana was little. Later in the night, Ana's mother sang too. Her hysterical little brother, "DJ Fuck Yeeh" hammed up a few numbers as well. The real highlight for me was when Ana's cousin Barbara, who flew in from BA as a surprise, sang two chacareras from her folklore band Semilla. Though not previously revealed on this here blog, yours truly is a fine folklore dancer!!!! (Jord and I used to frequent many a peña when we first moved to BA) For her second song, Ana's mother Monica and I danced in front of the whole party. What a thrill!

After the party ended Carl and I closed the bar at the Viceroy then joined our room mates plus Ana's rad little sister for late night room service and laughs (I won't reveal more but it involves topless Cesar salad consumption - eh-hem!). The next morning we packed up, ate lunch at Boarder Grill, then schleped back to LAX.