Thursday, May 31, Party for Shen Wei Dance Arts and Major Bang. Home of Susan Bass and Tom Bradford, undisclosed location in the French Quarter
Serious cyclists, Bradford and Bass know about replenishment. The healthy spread last night included rice salad, rotisserie chicken confit, grape tomatoes, gourmet slaw, roasted almonds. A table was set aside exclusively for performers. “The Major Bang crew was hoovering food,” Bass said.
With about 75 people in the side garden, this marked my third straight house party with a gorgeous hostess. Must be all the rides through the fresh marsh airs.
The Don of the local bike mafia, Don Sparks, took me and road racer Templeton Fletcher into his buddy Bradford’s workshop – eight bikes on the wall. Two fixed-gear track jobs, a full-suspenson Cannondale, Kestrel, ooooooh. (This is why I didn’t give their address.)
“Oh, so you saw the air-conditioned bike shed,” Susan said, “God forbid they’re exposed to any humidity.”
“Well, they live here too,” I said.
And with that you get eye-roll.
Sparks is so effective as a bike advocate because he’s both affable and, as Lenny Greene said, “easily riled up.”
Lenny’s brother, author Harlan Greene (Why We Never Danced the Charleston, more) and his partner Jonathan Ray, head of the Charleston Concierge Association, were keeping their chins up despite the recent death of their dog. Lenny’s wife was too upset to be photographed.
Edwin Gardner and his daughter Olive (8, home with sitter), regularly ride to Buist — he claims she’s the schools only bike commuter. Gardner and his young wife, architect Whitney Powers, took the kid to Shen Wei, but it failed to impress her.
“Olive was like, I could do that,” Powers said. “It’s sort of like how people think they can make a Jackson Pollock painting.”
For those not up on modern art, Pollock was that guy who threw paint just like any monkey could.
It wasn’t hard to spot the lean Shen Wei dancers, who looked like they could do many things none of us could do.
Gardner told dancer and North Carolina gal Jessica Harris she reminded him of 50s star (Anything Goes, South Pacific) Mitzi Gaynor, whom no one at the party, other than this guy named Roach, had heard of. When you look as young as Gardner you’re not afraid to show your age.
Harris/Gaynor was not afraid to show her dirty fingernails, residue from the “Connect Transfer” piece the company performs/creates on a giant canvas while coated in paint.
“I have a couple [of the resulting paintings] in my apartment,” Harris said. “It’s the only art I can afford.”
Had to ask what she thought of So You Think You Can Dance.
“I don’t know how they dance in those heels,” she said.
That’s Dancing with the Stars. And Joey Fatone was robbed, by the way.
Party Index:
Full moons in May: 2 (the second, on 5/31, was the blue one)
New cheeses eaten: 3. “You knew just what I was there for.” Swiss appenzeller, roquefort, and a terrific triple-cream brie. Nicest cheeses so far, by far.
Philip Glass mentions: 1, by Nunnally Kersh. I baited her by mentioning the many visitors who come in the store and ask who that guy is on all the posters. She said she’d heard people on the street guess: “Bruce Springsteen,” or“ it must be a big donor.”
