Partying in Hollywood
Friday night was L’Scorpion, Lucky Strike, Highlands, back to L’Scorpion, and finally, Del Taco. I got piss ass drunk even though I was supposed to be the DD for my coworker Ketchup. Ketchup’s best friend IndustryGirl was having her birthday at L’Scorpion, so she put Ketchup and me on her party of 63. When I told my friends that I was going to be DD for my coworker Ketchup, they all said, “Uhhh… you’re the DD?” Presumably because I drink a lot. Ketchup said I had 12 drinks that night. I counted about 7.
L’Scorpion was supposed to be an extremely trendy club full of famous celebrities and hot women. When I went, it was a nice, cozy bar filled with mostly OK looking mid to late 30’s people. The bartender was quite gorgeous though. I asked her how long she had been working there and she told me she’d only been in LA for six months, that she was originally from South Africa. She could have been lying. IndustryGirl showed up, but we didn’t see more than 6 out of 63 of her friends that were supposed to be there. We told her that we’d be taking a tour of the area and come back later.
We walked down the street to Lucky Strike. It seemed more of a lounge than an actual bowling alley, reinforced by how it only has ten lanes and how the bouncer said that you don’t go there to bowl, you go there to be seen. The bar area is nice and open, with plenty of plush leather couches available for seating. I wasn’t about to pay $10 a game to bowl, so I sat at the bar with Ketchup drinking $8 Stoli tonics. We looked around for a while, got bored and went upstairs to Highlands, where our ex-coworker Chest was spinning.
I tried to lie our way in for free, telling the guestlist bouncer boy that I was on the list. A little background on Highlands: I’ve tried to get in twice before and never made it past the line. The first time was for KoreanGirl’s birthday, where we waited in line for half an hour, watched the bouncer pick people out of line behind us to go in, told KoreanGirl to get the bouncer to get us in for her birthday but she barely made an effort and told us that we’d just have to wait, and so we just left. The second time, I was on the guestlist for Chest and brought my high school buddy and his girlfriend from up north with me. The line for the guestlist itself was huge, and so I didn’t want to waste my time and left. So I thought that the third time might be the charm. Yup, this time there was no line. The bouncer said guestlist was over and we had to pay twenty bucks each. Ketchup didn’t mind because he wanted to say whats up to Chest, since Chest would be astounded to see homebound Ketchup out and about in Hollywood.
Notables about Highlands:
- It was pretty empty for a Friday night. The dance floor was filled and so was the outdoor rooftop lounge, but the bar area was kind of empty. I was able to open a tab right away, but the bartender said I had a $20 minimum on credit cards and I could only order from him while the tab was open.
- The DJ in the main dance area was spinning the sort of stuff they play on 105.9
- After several rounds, we finally found Chest in the back VIP room. No one was there, but the lounge area itself was pretty nice. Bought Chest a drink, checked out a glass-encased room packed with people, then left.
- Stood next to 6 other guys as we all watched a 5'10 girl, all curves, dance for about fifteen minutes. She wasn't having none of us.
Side note: I need to find out about these afterparties that everyone seems to go to. I am thinking I would probably have more fun at an afterparty than an actual party at a place like Highlands.
Then we went back to L’Scorpion. Still only 6 out of the 63 people were there. By this time, I was pretty buzzed and feeling friendly, so I made conversation with all of the birthday girl’s friends. We took some pictures, asked “Are you gay if you do this” questions to the psychology grad student in the group, networked with an industry guy, and danced a little bit including giving the birthday girl a lapdance. I had two more drinks, and as soon as I finished them at 1:43AM, the lights went on and the workers told us to get out. Outside, I talked with some drunk girls while Ketchup patiently waited for me, and then we headed off to Del Taco. Ketchup had to drive my car because I was pretty toasted. And that is how I do DD.
I don’t know why I bother with the Hollywood party scene. I don’t consider myself particularly cool nor do I feel like I fit in or have much success in lying to women about how cool I am. Whenever I do go, I usually need about 5 drinks before I can start enjoying myself. A chill bar like Formosa Café suits me much better, where I can have a couple drinks, engage in pseudo-deep conversations and foist advice on my friends. I guess I’m brought back by the possibility that being on a guestlist of some new party hotspot will allow me to borrow some coolness from the place and maybe I’ll feel like I actually belong, but just for a night. Never happens that way though, and I just end up a little more broke and a little more aware of how uncool I really am.
All in all, a decent night, but definitely not worth the $110 I put on my credit card. Yeah, one day after I talk about needing to do the rest of the month on the cheap, and I let money flow out of my ass like diarrhea. I have a feeling this will be the worst adventure in terms of cash to fun quotient, even though I did enjoy myself for the most part.
Next time, pre-partying with a flask is in order.