I’ve been thinking about contrast even more than usual. I do a lot of comparing. Whether it’s taking an hour to decide between two avocados in the deli, or ruminating on how I expected my life to turn out versus the reality, I can mostly be found daydreaming about the differences between things.
The way I started and ended the week has been sending my already-busy brain into overdrive. You see, I started it sipping mojitos in Miami. Strutting down Ocean Drive while trying not to be intimidated by the fierce Latin mamacitas. Drinking super-strength mezcal cocktails with Mexican émigrés. Stuffing my face with Cuban cuisine. It was, quite literally, a world away from Shawlands: a weird, technicolour fever dream that still doesn’t feel like it actually happened.
I flew home midweek and ended it jetlagged and caked in filth at T in the Park. Dancing to LCD Soundsystem in a mud pit with just a few hundred other resolute souls for company. Trying not to spill my cider during a frenzied Daft Punk Is Playing at My House. Gleefully scranning a questionable doner kebab while queuing for the bus home in the rain. Has there ever been a greater juxtaposition? I don’t think so, but they both made for incredible memories.
In between, I soaked up some less authentic Latin vibes in Mango, where this week’s photos were taken. It’s a bright, vibrant, student-orientated club and bar in the heart of the Sauchiehall Strip: a place where the Desperados flow freely and inoffensive chart and pop house attracts a varied and friendly crowd. A world away from its former life as the Soviet-themed Stavka, it lacks the edge of that... any of the clubs in South Beach. But then again, perhaps that comparison is more than a little unfair.
Night Moves
Salsa Saturday at Mango
Q: What’s your anthem of Summer 2016?
1. Lauren Fox, 21, Pollokshields, “Summertime, by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince”
Fiona Faint, 20, Pollokshields, “Summer of 69 by Bryan Adams”
2. Liam McCombie, 21, Dennistoun
Favourite Club? Buff Club
Favourite Bar? Nice & Sleazy
Favourite DJ? Saphu
Favourite Band? Arctic Monkeys
First Club? The Twig, in Bathgate
What You Drinking? Sailor Jerry’s and Coke
Describe Your Dancing? Minimal and self-conscious
3. Ally Stirrat, 21, Dennistoun, “Kids with Guns by Gorillaz”
Hannah Sharp, 21, East End, “Give it Up by KC and the Sunshine Band”
4. Alice Cahill, 20, Balfron, “This is What You Came For by Calvin Harris”
Rebecca Meechan, 20, Airdrie, “Firefly by Mura Masa”
5. Nadia Zanfardino, 26, Italy, “Ibiza by Mike Posner”
Luisa Police, 25, Italy, “L’ombelico del Mondo by Jovanotti”
6. Pasqualina Zumbo, 25, Naples, “O Ball Ro Cavall by Alberto Selly”
Melina Perna, 33, Naples, “Macarena by Los del Rio”
7. Libby Gough, 21, Finnieston, “Born in the 80s by Calvin Harris”
8. Bryce Thompson, 24, Merchant City, “That Pina Colada song.”
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