The 007 Pentathlon

There are many ways to measure a gentleman - how he speaks, how he dresses, how he treats his mother. For me, ever since I was six or so, I thought that a genteel man should be able to do a number of things well: exercise knowledge on a wide range of topics; carry a conversation with anyone, no matter how high or base; defend himself and those he loved, either with a sword, a gun, or hand to hand; be able confidently ride a horse; and to dance a proper waltz. Think of these as a pentathlon if designed by James Bond. So far, I have been able to do all these things save the last, and tonight is my first private ballroom dancing lesson.

It should be a great time... My instructor is a cute brunette who is an accomplished dancer, and declares her name to strangers like an opera diva (as opposed to a contemporary diva). At the very least it should be entertaining. Hopefully I will actually learn something too.

B-E A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E, Aggressive, B-E Aggressive!

When Miss Daisy was in town, we checked out one of my standby clubs, CosmoLava. Beside the fact that the place is ten times seedier than when we visited two years ago and no girls were offering MD free drinks, one couldn't help but notice how aggressive the guys were. And I am not including myself. I have a reputation among my friends for being very eager to hit on random women, but to be honest I only react to cues that I receive from them. Even if those cues have no bearing in reality, I am a good enough salesman to turn nothing into something. Absolute naked aggression is actually outside my comfort zone, unless I have an audience.

It's weird - I feel like I am getting older, so I should act more responsibly. Yet even though I am becoming less the aggressor in a drunken social environment, I am still one of the younger guys in the place. Go figure.

"Dance" Clubs Are Pointless

Waste of time...? Probably.

Last Saturday I committed to going to Cosmopolitan/Lava Lounge for a friend's birthday celebration. I was on the verge of backing out because a) this friend has been flaky as of late, and b) Cosmo/Lava isn't the best venue for a party. For the non-ATLiens, Cosmo/Lava are two clubs joined together. Cosmo is a venue with a small dancefloor attached to an open air bar area, which has loud crappy music and inattentive bartenders. Lava Lounge is a small weakly lit and relaxing scene with an upstairs VIP area and a dark basement bar. Lava Lounge is a great place to meet new people of ill repute - while Cosmo is a great place to be if you are already smashed.

Unlike Twisted Taco, or even Leopard Lounge, I have rarely seen things get really wild at this place. The problem is that Cosmo/Lava bills itself as a dance club - but there are too many people and no good music to really dance to in any recognizable style; but there are too few people to do anything really ridiculous and wild without making the girls self-conscious. Maybe it is a product of me getting older, or just the fact that I am regaining some amount of shame - but I don't see the point in boogie (defined as shaking around, no contact) dancing with girls I don't know. Going to a latin club and doing a little salsa or reggaeton, or doing the bump and grind anywhere is acceptable, of course.

One of these days I am going to do a full review of every dance club in Buckhead/Midtown. This necessarily means I will have to go to Club 112 (one tweezy), in which case I will need to have backup.