born to belly...

last Friday night R and I went to Medjool for Aykut's party Habibi. Aykut's a really sweet guy, tall and Turkish, and as Mur once said, looks like a young Robert DeNiro... except from Turkey. we had a great time dancing, but more importantly, reclaiming the space. the last time we were there was last fall, when, over kir royals, vodka tonics, hummus, pita bread, baba ganouj and tears, i was telling R why I was leaving him, and he was explaining to me why I should stick around. we had a good laugh as we thanked Aykut for inviting us to his party and told him about our last experience there. he says, with a twinkle in his eye in that generous warm good natured DJ/event planner way of his, "oh you guys!! every time I see you my heart smiles!!" (if you look at the link with the photos from the party he's the pale, bald DJ.)

the women in that place were all gorgeous in that olive skin, long dark curly hair, smoldering eyes mediterranean/arabian/persian way! and i swear, these women were born to belly dance... everyone of them was doing that mesmerizing hip swirly thing belly dancers do. once in a while they'd play some hiphop blended persian music with the conga guy drumming away, and the crowd would go wild.... or they'd play some arabic music with some highpitch exotic singing and i have no idea what the words are, but it doesn't matter coz i don't get most songs in english anyway, and these women start that belly dancing gyrating thing with their arms over their heads all graceful with the hand movements and they're all singing along. it was lots of fun just watching people dance, and it was great to "cleanse" that space. Medjool is a great place to go if you like Mediterranean/African/Persian food. it's right next door to one of my favourite restaurants in town, Foreign Cinema.