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If you're lucky, you arrive at a party at just the right time. Most times, you're either too early and drink nervously and get too sloshed to communicate. Or, worse, you arrive a tad later than the majority, and everyone else is already shit-hammered, and you are left feeling sort of, well, sober. The latter is what happened to me at the Flavorpill launch party for their Le Tourment Vert Absinthe brand drink, the "Orange Fresh." But all was not lost. After a full day of work and with my belly full of tacos, I headed back to Culver City (yes, again!) to the Denizen Design Gallery to drink some absinthe, look at art by Terrell Moore and listen to beats by Jason Eldredge. It's the kind of effortlessly cool thing that Flavorpill usually touts in their weekly letters.The artist: Terrell Moore

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The DJ: Jason Eldredge

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I arrived just as someone was sparking a doobie. The smell wafted through the gallery, and no one seemed to notice or care. A beautiful dog, a weimaraner, wandered around and deigned to let you touch it.

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One of Moore's claims to fame was that his work— cool subtle minimalist pale paintings—were featured in scenes in Iron Man.

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There were a few interesting pieces — bright and colorful, candy-like that were appealing if only I had several hundred or five thousand dollars to blow.

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On a table there was a collection of hats. Trucker hats, to be specific. Now, there's one thing I hope doesn't come back. Still, this fashion no-no didn't stop people from taking the some of the hats and walking around. Managing Editor of Flavorpill LA Shana Nys Dambrot yelled at one person walking by, half-jokingly, "Those are a $100, did you buy it?"

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However, the main draw, as was readily apparent by the soused state of the revelers still clinging to drinks during the last hour of the party, was the Absinthe. The much-maligned liquor has been banned in this country for most of the last century; it garnered a reputation during the run up to Prohibition as being much more dangerous and psychoactive than regular old alcohol, and it was found that Absinthe made with wormwood could be deadly. This new shiny Absinthe is sort of like Absinthe-light; so in other words, lacking much of the psychoactive properties, but keeping the disgusting medicinal look and tastes. (Yum, green!) Also: it's not as fun, as you don't do that cool light-the-sugar-with-a-spoon-thing you do with straight up Absinthe.

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I tried a shot, made it a third of the way; gave the Flavorpill "Orange Fresh" a try, which wasn't orange or fresh, and couldn't stomach that, either. But this was not the case of my companions. Whatever the Absinthe is made of, it seemed to be working. Any way, that wasn't the highlight of my evening. About halfway through, I met this guy, Brandon Maxwell, who was very nice and chatty. Then, I started to wonder if maybe I was actually high. He is working on a short instructional film about men having multiple orgasms. He proceeded to explain that men are actually very repressed when it comes to talking and thinking about their sexuality, and are stumped when it comes to achieving the multiple big O. Did I mention that this film has cartoon illustration? Oh, and it's called, The Multiple Maxwell Climax. He has a blog, called "Master Your Johnson," and a website, climaxwell.com. At the end of the night, Shana whips out her camera and Brandon asks if we can pose together. He bends down and says, just before she snaps the picture: "Pretend like we're dating." Exit stage left. And scene!