Who: Rock ‘n’ roll groupies and fashion-crazed hipsters
What: Voltage: Fashion Amplified
Where: First Ave.
When: Friday, April 16, 2010
Why: Where else would we wear that edgy new leather jacket and those spiky gladiator heels?

My Friday night was plagued with one question: What do you wear to a fashion event filled with trendy hipsters and local designers who are all the rage? Admittedly, my fashion sense is a little more BCBG than whacked-out D&G, but I wanted to fit in amongst the fashionistas at Voltage: Fashion Amplified. After settling on a one shoulder LaROK frock, my black leather motorcycle jacket, and a pair of never-before worn gladiator sandals, I hit the road ready to mingle with the style-obsessed. After a delicious dinner at Vincent with my plus one (the truffle mashed potatoes made the trip to downtown worth it), we headed to the star-covered walls of First Ave. for the event, which merges local fashion designers with local up-and-coming bands.

Who: Dan Buettner and his hoodrat friends
What: ButterBall 2009 aka BuettnerBall
Where: Graves 601 Hotel
When: Saturday, November, 21, 2009
Why: A benefit for Open Arms of Minnesota

It’s been two years since I wrote about Dan Buettner’s blue zones, and our relationship is still stuck in a weird blue period of our very own, but despite that fact (or maybe only because Mpls.St.Paul Magazine is a media sponsor), I got a media pass to Buettner’s big party, The ButterBall, held at the fifth floor ballroom at the Graves.

Who: Models, Photographers, and the People Who Like to Look at Them
What: Fashion Fight Night 3, a fashion extravaganza where models and photogs duke it out in the ring
When: Saturday, February 28, 2009
Where: Uppercut Boxing Gym, Northeast Minneapolis
Why: For fashion’s sake, also some of the events proceeds support The LEAD Project

A little over a week ago, I was at Uppercut Gym—Lisa Bauch’s sparkling new digs in Northeast—with my college philosophy professor Dr. Gordon Marino. We were shooting Doc for a story I’m writing for the April issue; we were in the ring because when he’s not down in Northfield at St. Olaf teaching Freud and Kierkegaard, Doc writes about boxing for The Wall Street Journal and trains amateur fighters. In between setups, Doc waved me over. “Put the gloves on,” he said. “I’ll give you your first lesson.” What am I going to learn, Doc? He looked at me like I had just fallen off the noob truck and rasped, “Stance and jab, man.”

Who: Local writers, musicians, a smattering of foul-mouthed broads, lots of concrete-sequential dudes
What: A party to commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of Robert Pirsing’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, as organized by Mpls.St.Paul scribe Steve Marsh
Where: In the south Minneapolis studio of Marsh’s buddy, the photographer Sean Smuda
When: Friday, February 27
Why: Male bonding, so far as I could tell . . . . Also, guests were invited to read favorite passages from the Pirsing book. If they preferred, they could read literature on the topics of “zen,” “art,” “motorcycles,” and “maintenance.”

Who: A smattering of art-loving attorneys, bankers, graphic designers, journalists, and angel-headed hipsters
What: Walker After Hours
Where: Walker Art Center
When: Friday, February 13, 2009
Why: To properly fête the opening of Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton

So I moseyed through the Live Forever exhibition and had an epiphany—Elizabeth Peyton and I have similar tastes in men. I was thrilled to see the Walker’s walls bedecked with tiny portraits of Kurt Cobain, John Lennon, and the like (also Napoleon and Sid Vicious, though they’re not exactly in my wheelhouse).

Who: Francophiles, oyster lovers, and beer fans
What: Barbette's Fête Nationale (aka Bastille Day) Block Party
When: Sunday, July 13
Where: Outside Barbette, in Uptown
Why: Because in 1789, unhappy French citizens stormed the Bastille in an act of defiance against the soon-to-fall Feudalist system. And if there is one thing this great melting pot is good at, it's using other country's triumphs as a reason to down some PBR.