In "Soggy Swampland," L.A.'s Wildest Party

For almost fifty years Silver Platter has served as unofficial clubhouse of L.A.'s gay and transsexual community, and for the past two its weekly dance party has attracted the city's wildest artists, activists, club kids, and dancers to its Westlake location. Today Paper Mag outed this best-kept-secret, and the buzz is only guaranteed to get louder.

Described by Paper as "a soundscape as dynamic and compelling as the identity politics represented in their audience," Wildness is an anything-goes sanctuary for the bold, beautiful, brazen, and just plain weird. To get the full effect we went straight to the source. According to Silver Platter's website manifesto,

Wildness is a club. Wildness is a performance. We work together to produce a weekly night of music, dancing, and art (or whathaveyou spelling of amazing experiences). We've been acting like this since February 2008 to offer a creative platform for dialogue between communities, ours and yours. We intersect. Our mission is to invent new ways of visualizing, physically experiencing, and talking about complex identity politics that surround our queer lived experience through late night art-making and party having.

Of course you don't have to adhere to the Wildness lifestyle to be a part of the Wildness family; they welcome everyone, "lesbian, trans, queer, and friendly straight folks," as long as you love to party in a safe, open-minded, and, yes, wild environment. And we bloggers chained to our computers aren't the only ones who are intrigued. This relic from the swingin' 'Sixties has a Yelp page! Says Yelper Frank:

Need to get blasted on a Tuesday night but don't believe beer and wine will do it? Don't be such a college student. Mixing is the key...and then you'll find yourself on teh dance floor next to the ferociously sequined gender-benders and wretched hipsters grooving to an eclectic mix of M.I.A., electro-house and hip-loosening salsa music."

Bedazzle your best leotard, brave the crowds, and head to the Wildness on Tuesday nights. And maybe leave your valuables at home.

Into the Wildness [Paper]