Bushwick

Thursday night, I went deep into Brooklyn to see my friend Kamron perform a set. I started the evening enjoying a few ciders on Hani's rooftop. Hani had work the next day, so I headed towards Bushwick alone. I had my bike with me, because I'd been biking in Central Park, and had to wrestle a fair bit to get it into and out of the subway. I arrived at the stop - Halsey Street - in a daze; exhausted and slightly tipsy, but excited to see Kamron after such a long time.

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The world I emerge into is a strange one; a slightly rundown neighborhood with a laundromat and a few Chinese restaurants. The venue, "Trans-Pecos," is nowhere to be seen. However, after a few minutes, I hear the faint thumping of bass. I follow the sound to a glass door with green lighting indoors. A young man dressed in black tells me I'm on the list, so I go in free.

My first experience in this strange place is the restroom. One green lightbulb illuminates the room. There's no mirror. There's a bottle of industrial looking stuff that I tell myself must be drain cleaner. It is hand soap. The bottle, labeled "Fast Orange," boasts "Free of petroleum-based solvents!" It smells nice; a mixture of orange and something reminiscent of an art studio, and has little pieces of pumice mixed into it.

Fast Orange.

In the back, there's a nice terrace with a bunch of people smoking weed. Indoors, there are two large rooms. The main room has a stage and a screen where a kaleidoscopic bright blue and green light show is being projected. A DJ is playing dreamy trance. A very narrow staircase leads to the other room; the basement. Some decorative yellow light fixtures hang on the walls, but most of the lighting is red. A girl with a cool t-shirt is dropping some kickass beats. This is where I encounter Kamron.

Kamron is the only person dancing. Everybody is nodding their heads rhythmically but Kamron is jumping around the dancefloor from corner to corner of the room. I join him in this ritualistic dance. It's a lot of fun.

Yang, Kamron's friend, arrives. At some point, he turns to me and asks, enigmatically, "is this who Kamron is now?" "You never know," I reply.

Eventually, another girl takes over, using a touchpad to control the expensive sound system. She starts playing weird, experimental beats that confuse me. The room gets fairly full; this seems to be quite the attraction. However, nobody is really dancing anymore. They are just standing there to listen to this girl play weird sounds from her iPad.

I could not comprehend the music, so I told Kamron that unless he starts before 1 am, I will leave. 1 am strikes, so I begin my long journey back home. I have my bike, and I get to bike through the empty late night streets of Brooklyn with the beautiful Manhattan skyline looming ahead. Quite a thrilling experience.

My journey, and my night out in Brooklyn. ends at the Bedford Avenue subway stop. The subway drags me back home to my beckoning bed.

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Before hopping into the subway, I stopped for a slice at a pizza joint in Williamsburg. The people there were trendy night dwellers, but I couldn't help but feel that they weren't "true" Brooklynites. In my tired and dazed mind, these were just tourists from Manhattan. The people I had encountered earlier that night were the real deal, and these were just wannabes. Now I knew what real trend was.

Poor quality photo - but delicious pizza!