December = End of the Year in New York

This is the last blog of 2010; we completed our New Year’s Resolution and are looking for a new one! For the final blog we went to the Shrine Bar in Harlem, New York City to ring in the New Year. We had been told it would be a good idea to get to the bar early, and me not being a true New Yorker quite yet took that literally. We got to the place a little after 9pm. It was very sparsely populated and we paid a $10 cover which was less than the website had advertised…. Early bird special? We got our first drink of the evening, a very strong Mount Gay and coke in a tiny glass. The drinks were very expensive, with an extra $1 inflation on the weekends. We sat at a table near the front where the DJ was dancing and mixing his music enthusiastically. He was playing dancehall music and other upbeat music from a French colonized country, perhaps the Ivory Coast. He had a great air horn and “bullet bullet” effect that made you jump every time. We ordered a delicious mango mojito and more people began filtering in.

Street View of the Shrine

The DJ had a special friend that we think was a gigolo because he was trying to get all the ladies to dance and he would say stuff over the mic such as, “If you need a good fix give me a call.” He tried to get Rachel and me to dance but we didn’t want to be “those girls”. During the 11 o’clock hour things stated getting a bit livelier. At one point a man ran through the bar and locked himself in the bathroom. Soon after 2 policeman came in and banged on the bathroom door and tried to get him out. He didn’t come out. The two policemen returned with 3 more of their co-workers and the bar tender who spoke to the lock-in man through the door in his language. Finally the man came out and the police took him away. This was all puzzling because the man didn’t seem to have been a patron before the incident.

Stage area where the DJ and TV screen were set up

The crowd got excited as the ball dropped, which was projected onto a large screen behind the DJ who continued to play bumpin' music. After the New Year was called everyone began dancing. Rachel and I sat and stared until a gentleman asked Rachel to dance. He was from Nigeria and was very sweaty and touchy. I danced by myself until I was led to the middle of the now-crowded dance floor. I danced with a Senegalese gentleman for a bit before I decided I needed to reunite with Rachel. I then went to the bathroom and Rachel started dancing with the Senegalese man. Then we were almost going to leave because we needed a breather from the male attention which was getting a bit overwhelming. But the music was great so we decided to get one last drink and stand near the front of the bar where it was less crowded.

However, we met even more friends who were a bit more low-key. One gentleman was from the Ivory Coast and was with his friend from Burkina Faso. Originally the gentleman introduced themselves by saying they were from “Africa” which we all know is a continent not a country so Rachel asked them to specify by country. Another of their friends walked by and he was introduced as being from Mali. The man from the Ivory Coast did not drink alcohol so he was sipping a ginger beer and they tried hard to get our numbers for their “contact lists” but we were able to divert the conversation towards different subjects. Finally after our last drink we decided it was time to go home. Overall the Shrine was a great place to ring in the New Year with a good DJ and delicious drinks, even though they were quite pricey.

Happy New Year!