Redeye - Of benefits and blurry vision August 09 2006

Getting turned away from an event is usually deeply frustrating, even possibly insulting if you’re working press. But being turned away from a benefit can actually be reassuring. On Fri., Aug. 4, I attempted to attend the Justin Parker Blue Ribbon Benefit held at the Star Bar, only to find the venue already bulging from capacity at barely 10 p.m.

Walking by choppers gleaming from a sheen of light rain, then past a patio overflowing into the parking lot, I was heartened to see a deluge of support even while the weather threatened to offer a comparable surge. Others who were also forced to forego Brass Castle, the Selmanaires, Bitch, Artemis Pyledriver and Stevie T. & the Tombstones, among others (as well as those who did or didn’t attend the Earl’s simultaneous benefit), can still donate to Parker, who had both legs amputated after an SUV struck Liberty Tattoo. For more information, email ria@riasbluebird.com or alexis@rivalentertainment.com.

On Sat., Aug 5, there was also a benefit and a perceivable threat of being denied entry. I mounted this challenge from the rear (as always), arriving uncomfortably early to dip inside Vision’s back door for the Midtown megaclub’s closing night. Right before I entered, a fireworks barrage went off from Piedmont Park’s direction, marking the surreal beginning of one excessive evening.

In the “Heaven” room around 10 p.m., Jezebel magazine held its “20 Most Eligible Bachelors and Bachelorettes Auction,” to benefit Dare to Share. I hung around long enough to see a date with sponsor Q100’s Jamie Massey (a seemingly winsome lass) go for over $1,000, then began twitching, allergic to the indulgent lifestyles oozing around me. The next four hours proved equally incongruous.

From the central V.I.P. circle, I watched a steady trickle become an untamed swell. A stomping house remix of Flashdance’s “What a Feeling” somehow became a fitting witching-hour tribute to what was briefly a Peachtree-corridor anchor. And by night’s end, the walls were as sweat-slathered as another dearly departed temple of decadence, Backstreet. My head was swooning, I’ll say from humidity, so I struggled upstream.

Later, I found that Vision’s Gidewon brothers purchased Compound as of Fri., Aug. 4. They also have money down on the former Velvet Room’s neighboring plot, so expect a club around November. It’s like a Diddy production: “Can’t stop, won’t stop, bad boy for life.”

RedEye celebrates going out and going off. Send comments to redeye@creativeloafing.com, but hand-scrawled hate mail is preferred.