How HW&H Does the Holidays

Seven-feet tall and gen­er­ously bespan­gled, a danc­ing white glove will for­ever hold cen­ter stage in our col­lec­tive mem­ory of HIGH WIDE & HANDSOME’s 2011 Hol­i­day Party in Las Vegas. Our eyes filled with won­der (nay, hor­ror) as a Ham­burger Helper-esque fig­ure con­torted to the strains of the King of Pop dur­ing the enter­tain­ment por­tion of our evening: Cirque du Soleil’s stage spec­tac­u­lar, “Michael Jack­son THE IMMORTAL World Tour.” When a pair of 12-foot-long black loafers with scrunched-down white socks rolled in and dis­patched two writhing dancers, we knew it was our cue to flee for less risky odds in the casino.

Ear­lier in the evening, our team gath­ered around a table at José Andrés’ crit­i­cally acclaimed tapas restau­rant, Jaleo. Our fes­tive din­ner cul­mi­nated in the pre­sen­ta­tion of a pan of paella so enor­mous, it could’ve fed a fam­ily of anthro­po­mor­phized giant gloves.

Yes, it can be said Vegas showed us a very good time before tuck­ing us in at The Cosmopolitan’s posh resort to dream of sugar plums, moon­walk­ing and the like. Now when asked how we’re going to top our­selves for Hol­i­day Party 2012, there seems to be only one viable answer: Cirque du Bieber, Dubai.