Halloween in Reno!
Gotta get a pic under the Reno Arch
Reno is a community that constantly invents reasons to dress up and interact. I couldn’t have picked a better place to relocate after finally getting out of Michigan. Halloween in Reno is of course no exception.
Halloween 2009 in Reno was a total blast. Friday night we started at Patrick’s house, getting ready together and eating pizza and preparing to roll out for a hellafun night. The evening took us downtown Reno to participate in the Reno Zombie Crawl, a great bar crawl event founded by fabulous Ed Adkins.
210 North
We only managed to hit Imperial (one drink), Divine (a dance or two), Silver Legacy casino (various running around) and 210 North. We stayed at 210 most of the night dancing away. I’m not gonna lie, the crowd at 210 has in the past scared me a bit (and not just on Halloween) but as of late the club seems to attract a bit nicer crowd (maybe all the social media workin’ its magic?) and I’m no longer afraid of mean girls trying to fight me. 210 also has the nicest restroom attendant ever, tip her ladies!
My friends and I were ready to rally again on Saturday night, and opted to join a larger group and get a room in the Tuscany Tower as well as skip-the-line accommodations to Peppermill’s Edge Nightclub. Edge was just ridiculously packed, but it was a blast to see all of the people in costumes lining up as early as 9pm to get in (even better to pass right by them with our host.) Saturday night is fuzzy, but I do know that I should have entered the costume contents (c’mon Matt and I were WWE wrestlers and we even had a routine! We’d have killed it.) we ate late night snacks at Peppermill’s casual dining option, Coffee Shop (I passed out for a bit at the table, but-YUM), and enjoyed some much needed sleep in the comfy Tuscany Tower room. Great show, Peppermill.
Pre-party at Peppermill
Looking forward to the next big Reno dress-up event…Reno Santa Crawl!
Nada Dada Motel at Reno’s El Cortez
Experience Date: 6/20/09
Stars: 4
This particular Saturday night, Matt and I decided to explore the underground cultural side of Reno, and headed downtown to visit an art exhibit called the Nada Dada Motel held at the El Cortez.
The view down Arlington from Hotel El Cortez 6th floor fire escape
This was the third year for Nada Dada, and our first viewing. The gist of the show is that artists, both local and from across the country, each take over a hotel room at the El Cortez and create a space for their art–whatever it may be. Each room between floors 2 and 5 was completely unique and many really amazing. My favorite artist overall was John Molezzo. Molezzo does these wicked digital murals of Reno–and if I had any extra cash at all, I would have loved to buy a print. (I settled for snagging a couple of his postcards.) Also showing were my friends Jamie Kingham and Rachel Milon, displaying his photography and participating as players in one of the many weekend productions.
always so smiley
The folks over at Reno Passport and Metromix did a pretty good job summarizing the event, so I’ll suggest reading up over there for real detail. My final comments will note that this event was completely free and open to the public, and even cooler because you can bring your own beer (or etc….) and sip as you browse, interact and enjoy. My only disappointment occurred due to my own ignorance–not all rooms are open during viewing hours, so we missed out on some cool stuff.
This is definitely an event I’d go to again in ’10. And I’ll plan to hit it twice.
Paul Oakenfold at Grand Sierra Resort
Experience Date: 6/19/09
Stars: 5+
All I can safely say about this fantastical night is that we got to meet Paul Oakenfold before the show. Kick Ass. Everything blurs together after that. I love going to the Grand Sierra Resort. It is by far still my favorite casino in Reno. Nothing is better than going to an event there and being able to run around the casino, escalate between floors, crash our friends’ hotel rooms and slam beers at that corner bar (and okay, in the car in the parking lot) instead of forking over huge amounts of cash at The Beach poolside club. And they have a 24-hour bowling alley. Not that I’ve ever bowled after about 11pm, but still. Love it.
~yay~
Reno ’09 Summer Clubbin’ Kickoff at the Grand Sierra Resort (!)
Experience Date: 6/6/09
Stars: 5+
The GSR was all set to open their re-branded outdoor poolside club “The Beach” on Saturday, June 6 and we were stooooked! Unfortunately, Reno was having a stretch of rainy days to rival the record set in 1911 and plans were thwarted.
Luckily, in our extreme excitement to take on The Beach, we’d booked VIP Cabanas in advance, and GSR being kickass as they are, contacted all the VIP’s early in the day to invite them to take over Dolce inside the casino, and party all night with DJ Skribble and an OPEN BAR.
Photo stolen from GSR's facebook...click for more!
Our group took full, 100% advantage and did our best to party like rock stars. Thanks to The Beach and Grand Sierra’s terrific VIP hosts for making it a night to remember.
Keep tabs on what will be going on at the Grand Sierra Resort this summer by following these cats on the twit. They’re already giving away concert tickets to Paul Oakenfold, and I’m willing to put some cash on bigger and better prizes as the days get hotter!
A concert at Reno’s The Underground…
Experience date: 4/2/2009
stars ~ .5
My second time at The Underground in Reno, was to see a show by an underground hip hop group Matt liked called Swollen Members. According to their website, show was starting at 7:30, doors at 7. Naturally, we hung out at Matt’s until about 9ish eating some fantastic Papa Murphy’s pizza dinner and having you know just a couple Coors Lights. My roommate/cousin Holly was joining us tonight and we were all pretty excited it was almost the weekend and we had something fun to do on a Thursday evening.
Anyway, getting back to the review. I remembered why I don’t go to The Underground. Its lame. We paid 20 bucks to see the show, arrived purposefully late and the show still didn’t start for a couple more hours. (Why do some venues promote obnoxiously early start times?) We could only hang out and enjoy a beer in the half of the establishment that allowed 21+ to drink (the other half–where the show actually happens–had some sort of restriction, though it had a huge bar fully stocked with no people and empty bar stools). We did find some entertainment in Holly and I switching I.D.’s and still making it past the door guy between rooms.
Swollen Members was pretty good, but by the time they came on I was a couple deep (seeing as how we were segregated to hours of drinking in a room with no live music, forcing us to slam beers and go back to check on the show status several times, wondering if we were missing it). After so much waiting around I was less interested in bopping around than I normally would be at a show, and didn’t enjoy having to deal with avoiding fights started by punk little white boys.
Entertaining OURSELVES at The Underground
Over it before the band ended, we took off and hit McD’s on the way home. But that’s another review. I’m giving The Underground .5 stars.
.5, and that is taking in to account the first time I was there and the owner bought me a shot. Sorry Underground, I’m not coming back.
