samedi soft launch
I am so full of love for & from the club
soft open polaroids by me
Club prep, hair wash day, Japanese mascara & three packs of Polaroids. Hamachi on the house at Marci, resto staff promising to pull up later. Rice lager instead of wine to pace ourselves.
pre-club dancefloor
Past the wedding dress shops, there’s a line outside Système at 9:30, we open at 10. Friends & bar staff twirl around the pre-party space, live acts set up. The DJs are running late, Guthrie plays Aphex Twin’s “Alberto Balsalm,” we catch up about Miami. The first partygoers arrive & spin around the pole together on the dance floor. The disco ball is huge. Oren puts his sunglasses on for a video.
dancing to Aphex Twin
Guthrie & I go upstairs to document the scene, & climb over the construction equipment in the soon-to-be third bar, accidentally locking ourselves out of the club. Seb comes to the rescue & bursts out laughing when he realizes what happened. My friends are everywhere, & I take Polaroids of all of them. The room is overflowing with love & relief that Système is back for the night.
Guthrie above Système
post-système // montreal sunday II
I wake up close to noon, I forgot my glasses & close my eyes in the Uber. I take my meds, eat a bagel & get organized.
It’s 4:30pm, I show up an hour late to 24 Hours of Vinyl. I forgot that every DJ in the city will be there & I’m wearing my Yung Lean adjacent skull shirt from Paris & jeans from Tokyo. Hot girl fit was last night, today I’m ok with blending in.
I take videos for Jason, a dancer apologizes to me when he realizes what I’m doing; he’s been putting his hands in my videos on purpose until then. Santi plays, Jason plays, Guthrie plays. I say hi to everyone, “it’s really nice to see you, I’m really tired,” and make the transition from caffeine to alcohol once again.
I talk about the night before, I dance with my eyes closed, I take off my zip-up hoodie. We decide to get dinner, everywhere’s closing. Santi carries Hidi’s mixer out after an interview, “what’s the future of DJing?” Everyone grabs their vinyl & we go to the cars.
Lazy on the license plate, we drive to L’Express. FOH recognizes me from 9 years ago, we get a table for reasons probably unrelated. I avoid my pickles, we get two bottles of red. The green salad is important; we get two. We get dessert, hit it hard & split three ice creams. Mint leaf on top, individual.
Hidi pulls a sticky note out of his shirt pocket & drives us home. Santi & I hop out at Laurier, “see you Wednesday,” & split ways
