The Get Down and Boogie Drink

A Red Headed Slut

By Mollie Fager, 2-20-06

If anyone ever offers you one, quietly back away and then run screaming for the nearest exit. Now you may think that I’m referring to an actual woman of ill repute but no, I am referring to a newly popular alcoholic beverage found in any dance club, bar and most restaurants on the Front Range.

I had the misfortune of having this drink on Saturday as I celebrated with some girlfriends the upcoming marriage of one of our close friends. As we bravely bellied up to the bar and ordered a round of shots for ourselves and the bride to be we commanded the bartender to “surprise us�. And this is what he came up with, a syrupy concoction of Jaegermeister (that should have warned us right then), peach schnapps and red bull energy drink served over ice. A red headed slut. Bottoms up ladies! I made it through half my drink before my eyes went cross-eyed. I generously tried to pour the rest of mine into the bride’s drink who proceeded to berate me with, “What do you think I am 22? Forget it girlfriend, you’re on your own with that one.� Taking one for the team, I struggled through the rest of it, trying not to dwell on the drink’s taste of moldy Shirley Temple coupled with sticky floorboard and sucked on peppermint candy steeped in catnip.

Luckily, the DJ put on the Michael Jackson hit, “Wanna Be Starting Something� and I forgot my misery in my haste to hit the dance floor and shake my groove thang. And here really is the point of my blog -- which is supposed to be about art and not bad mixed drinks. Dancing has got to be one of the most universally loved and practiced art forms. I really live for it. I love to dance. And I love watching other people dance. I had so much fun watching the various people on the floor express themselves and just be in the music. It’s a very present tense art form. Most people are just in the music and doing whatever comes naturally to them without much thought involved. There was one guy who went through an interesting combination of line dancing, ballet and what I can only describe as spastic hula. He wasn’t about to win an award for quality movement but he was having the time of his life. His smile was fantastic. It turns out this man is a professional pilot for a well known airline. Who would’ve known as he asked his passengers to fasten their seat belts that this man liked to burn a hole in the dance floor? Or there was the couple that couldn’t take their eyes or hands off each other, each step an answer and call to their mutual attraction.

Big, small, earth shattering hip shaking to minor undulation and tiny toe tapping, everyone was somehow into the music and lost in their body’s response to the rhythms. You’ll find me insisting in my blogs that art is for everyone and that anyone can do it. Dancing is perhaps the most accessible art form of them all from cavorting in your undies in the living room to learning the tango. You can do it! If you get past your own hang-ups and give it a whirl (pun intended) I guarantee you’ll have a great time. And you could always loosen up with a red headed slut. It’s been known to work wonders.

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