noizemagazine - Index

noizemagazine - noiZe Magazine Issue 59 February 2009 - Index

out and do much.” Over the next
few years, August became friends
with many of the club promoters in
South Beach.
Partners in Life
In 1996, Parzh and August met during
Winter Party Festival in Miami
and hit it off immediately. At the
time, August was living in Ormond
Beach developing several highrise
timeshare buildings. “We both
had so much in common,” Parzh
remembers. For the next two years,
they kept in contact and saw each
other at Circuit events.
On April 17, 1998, Parzh received
a call from August saying that he
had moved back to South Beach.
“We went out that night, and I got
to meet all of his friends,” recalls
Parzh. “That night we skipped several
steps, and by that morning we
became partners. All of our friends
were shocked, especially since I had
never dated anyone.”
August moved his architectural
design company, August Cook
Design, to South Beach and worked
on several high-profile projects.
One year later, they bought a house
on North Bay Road, where they still
live. “Parzh was funny,” says August.
“When we bought our house, he
said it had to be walking distance to
Salvation.”
At the time, Salvation was the place to
be on Saturday nights. With Abel spinning
what would become his signature
tribal beats; Power Infiniti serving up the
fiercest shows in town; and hundreds of
shirtless, chiseled Miami boys on the
dance floor, it’s easy to understand that
"Criterion No. 1" for their new home
was proximity to the legendary club.
Nightlife became a major part of their
lives together. The couple started to
become known for hosting parties of
their own at home, including birthday
parties for Power, Salvation promoter
Mike Mazer, and Kitty Meow; and
their infamous Christmas parties. They
became bold-faced fixtures of The Wire,
the local bar weekly. They faithfully
checked every issue to see if they had
made it in, which led to collecting photo
albums. One of the editors at The Wire
gave Parzh a camera and told him to
point and shoot at everything in sight.
Happy Am I! Healthy Am I! holy Am I!
Partners in PhotograPhy
Which they did. “My life changed forever,”
Parzh says. Every week, he and
August snapped hundreds of photos for
The Wire. While Parzh worked behind
the camera, August arranged the boys.
"One little secret that the club owners
and promoters learned was that the
drunker I was, the more pictures I'd
take," says Parzh. No surprise that the
drinks kept flowing.