I had an image of what I wanted my birthday party to look like, but I didn’t know just how magical it would end up being. It was quite possibly the best birthday I had ever had. On 2/20 night, I played a show with Lara at King King, and since our set finished right around 12:01am, she had everyone in the audience since happy birthday to me while I sat behind the drums on stage. It was so wild, wonderful, magical, unexpected. I have brought the past 4 birthdays in with drumming, and I hope I can continue this tradition indefinitely. Drumming is the heartbeat. Drumming gives life!!
When I came home on my birthday eve night, Cioffi and Frankie had hung yellow balloons all across my room, it was the best. When I woke up in the morning, Cioff had created this amazing pulley system by my bed – I woke up to a sign that said “pull me” and as I pulled the string attached to the pipe over my bed, a bucket appeared to my left, full of amazing goodies like soybean milk chocolate and macaroons from Botega Louie.
From there, I went to work, but then had to drive to the airport to go pick up Thomas Blondet and Angela Varela, who had flown all the way from DC to be part of the birthday celebrations!! We were so excited and such a good group hug that a woman at LAX insisted on taking a photo to document the love. It was awesome. They took my car later and passed out at my place at Art Share before the party later that night.
I went in to work and it was a beautiful day. Christian planned a gluten-free gathering of amazing pastries, and called everyone to come to my desk some time in the afternoon. Cioffi even came up and joined!! He wrote something ridiculous to the company like:
After the party at work, I finished up some things for Brooke, and then went back downtown with Cioffi. Her mom, Kathy, cutely left adorable yellow flowers in front of the car!! They were so beautiful!!!
We prepared for the party that I was having and by 9pm it was all happening. We hosted it in the theater below the loft I live in at Art Share LA, and the pink, flower-shaped theater lights paired with the tea candles gave the space the dreamy effervescent glow I wanted. Will Hawkins, my neighbor, opened up the show, while a local conguero named the “Conga Poet” played congas live and sang a funkified version of Happy Birthday while Hannah and Becky brought out a gluten-free vegan cake from Baby Cakes. Friends from Georgetown, Interscope, Tom Tom, Art Share, Squash, various bands I had played in and even DC friends came – it was exactly what I had hoped for – spending my birthday with friends and with drums. I played a set with Runson and then jammed on congas while DJ Thomas Blondet spun the rest of the night. He flew in from DC and we paid homage to our regular Sunday night slot at Eighteenth Street Lounge we used to do in 2010-2011.
When I came in the next day to work, Brooke, my boss and idol left gluten free treats and dozens of yellow roses on my desk at Interscope. It made me weep. I celebrated the day in love and music and can only hope that it was representative of the year to come.
Madame Gandhi | BLOG 