Okay Landras Mitchell is like my adopted Atlanta brother. He parties a little harder than I (though he probably disagrees) so I don’t see him as much as I once did. I headed to Halo around 11 or so. I was slightly late cause LSU was playing Georgia Tech in Atlanta and they had several motorcoaches guarded by Louisiana state troopers. They held up traffic along West Peachtree for a minute.
When I got to Halo, there was a good crowd. I was happy to see my friend writerzon Isoul Harris, along with his best friend David, whom I never see, and Kevin. Nashe was there. She and I became friends through Landras. The Grammy-nominated Anthony David, whom Michelle Obama is up on y’all, was there with his lovely fiance who is Guyanese. Now I know a few Guyanese folks especially my friends Kym Backer and Gillian Boyce who were in Guyana as we celebrated.
I didn’t see my friend Jolon Martin at first who was hanging with Dr. S. Mark McKenna from New Orleans who owns Shape Wellness Spa in Atlanta, www.shapemed.com, which addresses all your cosmetic needs, including weight loss, and one of his promotional models. One of Jolon’s many talents includes casting pretty girls to help promote products. Recently he decided to use his lifestyle marketing skills to do good in the world and established the Wake Up the Nation Foundation (www.wakeupthenation.com) to help prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Now the music got very bananas. DJ Menelik was doing the dang thang. I can’t describe it. Lots of good music you don’t hear anywhere and you could dance to it. Dallas Austin showed up and I got excited, not cause I’m into celebs or nothing like that but when I see something that I love like the Dallas Austin Experience I have to extend kudos. Unfortunately he was coming from the bathroom when I saw him and me chatting with him about the changes he made in the show that I dug just didn’t happen. When I first got a chance to speak to him about it, we were at the W Midtown on a Friday night where it was uber crowded but we chatted for a minute and it was cool. No luck this time around. I guess I could have hunted him down but that’s not my style. So I went upstairs to party. Donna Permell had arrived by now, with her hair looking fab I might add, and wanted to take pics but Halo was tripping.
We were upstairs and she snapped some pics of the DJ before management clamped down. I went and got the DJ’s info cause you never know right. As I was dancing a bit, King Esseen of esseenmusic (www.myspace.com/esseenmusic) approached me and we exchanged cards. He urged me to sign Menelik’s book, even gave me a pen. So I’m getting ready to write down my email address and I feel something wet hit me and lo and behold it’s a fight, a fight y’all. I’m right at the stairs so I decide to run down the stairs because I’m so close falling is possible. I can’t find Donna. I have to head outside though cause the fight seems to be following me.
I’m in Cypress, a cute cafe by Halo, and I’m texting and calling Donna. She’s still inside but ready to go. I’m like stay put for a minute cause they are fighting at the entrance. That gets cleared up and she comes outside. We’re walking and this Indian dude sees the dude he got beef with, flies out of Cypress’s patio area and charges at him but his friends hold him back for real. Dude is shouting out stuff and all I’m thinking is ‘we have to get rid of all these dang rap videos. Folks are losing their minds.’ I never felt any real danger but I believe in the run first, ask questions later approach. Better safe than sorry but, on the real, we absolutely must increase the peace. Still, I’m so down to hit Halo again, especially if DJ Menelik is handling the laptop.
