George (1137 Hamilton Street) was one of my Yaletown bar-hopping destinations on Halloween last year. (Oh wow, time flies by quickly!) With its solid lounge decor (think of stepping into someone’s really nice living room – with plain furniture, but you know they spent a lot of money on it) and extensive cocktail list, George caters to an “older-than-YUPPIE” crowd.
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Anyway, George is hosting a “Goodbye George Bush” party on Tuesday January 20th. Whether you want to call it “By George” or “Bye, George!”, spend an evening “celebrating” US President George Bush’s last day in the oval office and watch the Obama inauguration on the big screen. Enjoy complimentary canapés all night. Celebritiy cocktails include the “BUrning BUsh” and “Fool Me Twice”. Ha, ha ha. They are really milking the play on words. Seating by guest list is $20 person in advance (includes canapés and a drink ticket) and you can reserve with a credit card by calling upstairs to Brix Restaurant and Wine Bar at 604-915-9463.

Looking for something to do? Every Monday morning, we present to you “Modern Mix Monday”, a brief but link-filled one-liner review of our past weekend loaded with suggestions to inspire you for your next!

Do you like electronic music? Trance, progressive house, and electro house – Believe on Saturday nights at Redroom has it all! The electronic scene in Vancouver is relatively small, but Believe at The Redroom (398 Richards Street) is filled with a crowd who enjoy and appreciate this music genre. The venue has a great layout with its open dance floor and a second backroom, but overall, it’s a little bit grungy and in need of some major upgrades and renovations. The beloved back corridor, with its black walls and neon space scene makes it a popular picture taking location. I remember when I first went to Redroom, I felt like I was in a maze with back corridors and passages and steps leading up, down and around the DJ booth. (There’s also a third secret room hidden in the wall, but I won’t get into that right now…) It keeps things interesting. I also like how there are separate entrances and exits to avoid crowding. Cover is $15 but there are a ton of “black cards” and VIP passes floating around so if you can get your hands on a couple of those, it’ll save you a ton of cash. Nonetheless, when party-goers congregate at a club solely for the music, nothing else matters. If you’re designated driver for the night, there is a parking lot just around the corner (on West Cordova and Richards) where you can park for $2 for four hours at night!!

Looking for something to do? Every Monday morning, we present to you “Modern Mix Monday”, a brief but link-filled one-liner review of our past weekend loaded with suggestions to inspire you for your next!

Despite the freezing cold weather and bare legs (thank goodness for nice bouncers and no line-up even at 11pm), we had another night out at Ginger 62. If there is such thing as a “resident club” that I frequent, this would be the one. But only on Friday nights with Canthrill’s Lobby Nights. And, what an appropriate way to celebrate my first Friday night out since exams, with a group of 10+ of us and DJ Kamm and Skilla spinning house tracks and a live percussionist and saxaphon(ist) on stage above a comfortably packed dance floor. All I drank that night were rounds of shooters – Red Dragons, Lemon Drops with a sugarcoated shotglass rim and my personal favorite – Pornstars, made with Blue Curacao and Sour Puss Raspberry. But do not be fooled by the sweetness – alcohol content definitely adds up. Ask for any of these 1-oz shots and they’ll know what you’re talking about – especially “Justin”, our bartender for the night.

So I ended up going to Caprice’s Winter Wonderland Party on Thursday night. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, I was postal mailed invitations to this special event! And because i actually went, I guess that makes me a victim of direct-mail marketing!
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Nonetheless, I had quite a good time on Thursday night. However, I was a little bit disappointed by being mislead by the Caprice invitations I was sent. “Free cover” with a minimum $10 donation to the “John Kerasiotis Foundation”. “Free drinks” with a minimum $10 donation to the “John Kerasiotis Foundation” Foundation. (For all we know, that can be the owner’s name! (Which it’s not … but potentially!) Actually…I just tried to Google the name to link to it and couldn’t find anything relevant. Sketch, much? Can anyone confirm?
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Anyway, thank goodness we got our re-entry stamps early and didn’t have to stand in the notorious lineup for 30+ minutes. Apparently they were serving meat skewers and other appies at the beginning of the night. Overall, I was pleased with the music and its selection of not-so-mainstream progressive and electro house beats and even more impressed that the dance floor didn’t clear out as soon as a non-radio song was played. Steve Angello, Deadmau5, Benny Benassi … you get the idea? We were horrified when the ever-so-depressing “Last Christmas” remix was played, but nonetheless, a couple of holiday tunes were creatively spun into the to 40 dance mix. Overall, I like the Caprice as a venue with its open dance floor and its balcony overlooking the first floor. Bouncers can be a bit unfriendly at times, and the lineup unreasonable, but in general…decent, decent.

I can’t believe I got postal mailed VIP invitations to Caprice’s Winter Wonderland clubbing event this coming Thursday, December 18th. I guess this didn’t really come as a surprise because they called me a few days ago asking for my mailing address. But how they got my phone number is another mystery. I don’t know if I’m going to go yet, but it’s definitely an option for this Thursday since I have three postcard invitations for me and a guest! What music should you be expecting? “DJ DARYLO spinning the best of top 40, and Hip Hop.” Anyway, just because they took the time, effort and postage to do that for me, I feel like I should reward their targeted marketing and put up their event flyer on Modern Mix Vancouver.

Looking for something to do? Every Monday morning, we present to you “Modern Mix Monday”, a brief but link-filled one-liner review of our past weekend loaded with suggestions to inspire you for your next!

Despite being the the midst of exam season, I still managed to go out and celebrate a friend’s birthday at The Blarney Stone on Saturday night. The Blarney Stone is more “grungy bar” than modern Gastown joint. However, I was quite impressed by the size of the venue! Two floors with a pool table and a moderately large dancefloor on the bottom floor. On the second floor, picnic-style benches fit about six to a table – perfect for having a drink or looking out of the castle-like window openings to the floor below. However, despite spending my previous New Years Eve Celiah (”cay-lee”) dancing in Scotland, the live Celtic music at the Blarney Stone is not my preferred genre of music. Then again, with 2 for 1 shooters for $6.50, you could just drink a lot and drown out the music.

If you’re looking for a fine dining experience to ring in the new year, take your pick of Glowbal, Sanafir, Coast, Italian Kitchen or Trattoria.

Newly opened in April 2008, Boudoir (1230 Hamilton Street) is “bringing pretty back” with its first annual fashion show on Thursday November 27th at Opus Hotel in Yaletown. Doors open at 8pm with the fashion show beginning at 8:45pm. I’ll be there! Hope to see you there too.

And, afterwards, be sure to stay for the night event at Opus:

As you know, DJ Armin Van Buuren, the #1 trance DJ in the world, releases an annual CD collaborartion titled “A State of Trance”. How does this relate to Vancouver? Armin Van Buuren came to Plush Nightclub earlier this month to play two shows with the Friday show was completely sold out! The photo in this entry was taken by me at his Thursday October 9, 2008 show! Any excuse to post my amazing pictures up on Modern Mix Vancouver!
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Looking for something to do? Every Monday morning, we present to you “Modern Mix Monday”, a brief but link-filled one-paragraph review of our past weekend loaded with suggestions to inspire you for your next!

On Friday I went to Tunnel Multi-Lounge (622 West Pender Street) for their Traffik Fridays. I haven’t been to Tunnel since May when they first opened for their media/industry party (I wrote an entry about it here) but the service at Tunnel was as if it were opening night all over again. Friendly bouncers, patient bartenders and an efficient door girl who instantly sorted out my guest list issues. The white couches are definitely comfortable to just chill on when you’re taking a break from the dance floor and we didn’t get snobby treatment for turning down bottle service although we definitely gave more than enough business to the bar with our rounds of jagerbombs and gladiators!