The Love of Beer
Sleepwalking brings new styles and faces to the Whistle Stop
- Photo by Alex Zaragoza
New venues and special bar nights that appeal to a broader range of people have popped up in North Park and South Park in the last few years. That means that some urban-outfitted, white hipster kid is now more often grinding and sweating on the dance floor next to an actually urban black dude at Whistle Stop Bar’s bimonthly rap party, Booty Basement. It means that the next time you stumble out of Bar Pink after catching a local indie band, you might end up barfing your $2 Tecates in front of the long line of Pacific Beach and Downtown types outside True North.
Now we can add a new demographic to that mix of racially and culturally diverse characters: Mexican cholos and cholas, or at least a mild form of them. You can now find a bald Mexican ese in Dickies swaying to “I’m Your Puppet” alongside heinas with rock-hard, crunchy moussed hair bouncing to Zapp and Roger’s greatest hits at the Whistle Stop’s monthly Sleepwalking low-rider oldies and “old skool jamz” party.
The liquid eyeliner runs fierce and beautifully, and everyone is groovin’ to the best mixtape a DJ at Magic 92.5 could ever dream up. The crowd is a sea of styles with punk kids, drawn-on eyebrows, Nike Cortezes, skinny jeans, beards and acrylic nails all represented at last Wednesday’s Sleepwalking event— all of it brought to the world by a handsome, *one-third Mexican, gay man in a fitted Fred Perry polo. Even better.
Plus, there’s something really awesome about seeing brightcolored low-riders rolling down fern Street while couples in vegan shoes walk their dog and stare in amazement. Variety makes things more interesting and exciting, and I welcome it. Who wants to see the exact same face of the exact same color in the exact same place week after week?
*This story initially called the man behind Sleepwalking white. turns out his grandmother is Mexican, born in Guadalajara, Jalisco. She raised him to fear the cucuy, watch telenovelas, and drink lots of "chocomil." My apologies.
Email Alex Zaragoza. You can also bug her on Twitter.
