Friday night I attended a First Friday event at the Guggenheim museum. It was my first trip to the 5th Avenue museum and it was memorable. As I walked up 89th street I was moved by the mass of people waiting to enter the building. I relaxed as I realized that I held a VIP pass and would not have to stand in line to enter the event.
My friend and I approached the cafe entrance-- after she changed from flip flops into high heeled shoes. Because I work for St Germain-- a sponsor of the event and host of the VIP room-- my friend and I received green wrist bands that allowed us to drink St Germain cocktails for free all night long. Upon entrance we were first moved along into the grand rotunda where the majority of the attendees preened and posed. I didn't realize that spike heels and baby doll dresses were in. And to my delight, leather for men is making a comeback. The line to the VIP room moved slowly, giving us an opportunity to check out the Friday singles/date scene.
Finally, into the back room where there was plenty of space to move around and where the St Germain Cocktails lined the bar. I made contact with a few people from work: one of my bosses, a few of the women from the Philadelphia St Germain office, a bartender that I met at a cocktail challenge. Then my friend and I scored chairs along the wall and began to weave a tapestry of deep conversation, inspecting shoes and dresses and debating about which men were most interesting to look at.
The event ended at 1am, so at 12:30 we made our way back out to the rotunda. Wow! What an event. The room spirals up like a corkscrew with art on the walls and rooms off the main walkway that have small, cave-like entrances. The music was loud and echoed off the walls as we walked along the corkscrew. At one point, about 1/2 way up, I decided to lean out to the crowd of people dancing below. Yikes! My stomach fell as my head took in the distance we had climbed. We returned to the bottom floor to dance to the last song of the evening. The music was driven by a group of drummers and supplemented by house djs. The result was fun, body moving music.
We left the event promptly at 1am and made our way to a pizza joint outside the 6 train. After a slice and a water I hopped on the downtown train and my friend crossed the street to the uptown train.
An excellent Friday night and a great perk of my new job. Also, I am thrilled to be able to share the perks with my friends.
Check out this link for a description of Frank Lloyd Wright's building of the Guggenheim Museum.
