Category: After Dark

Saturday Night Special

My friend Jeff’s birthday is on Tuesday so last night I offered to buy him a birthday beer somewhere. Against my better judgment, I allowed him to talk me into going to Greensboro’s giant queer dance club. It’s a big warehouse of a place and I hadn’t been there in probably twenty years. Not surprisingly, it’s pretty close to being my personal version of hell.

When we got there, I was surprised to see that even though it used to open right onto the street, it had now sprouted a huge parking lot in front. They’d also added a big front porch with rocking chairs and it felt a little like a Cracker Barrel…clientele and all. The whole industrial area had been transformed into something surprisingly suburban-looking.

Inside, it was as annoying as ever, and it wasn’t very long till I was ready to escape. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find Jeff anywhere. After spending more time that I wanted looking for him, I decided to just leave.

For the life of me I can’t remember how I ended up on Patterson Street near the Coliseum. About halfway between Holden and High Point Roads, I saw what I thought was Jeff’s car, which surprised me because Jeff doesn’t drive. I was curious and decided to try to see what was going on.

As I closed in on the car, I noticed another car next to it and the two of them seemed to be driving kind of erratically and aggressively. All of a sudden, shots were fired out of the car that I thought belonged to Jeff. The other car returned fire.

I noticed a police officer had someone stopped on the other side of the street. I wondered why he didn’t go chasing after the two cars that were shooting at each other but he never did.

I backed off, hoping to avoid the fireworks. The two cars sped on toward the Coliseum and I figured I was safe at that point. And then one of them made a sudden U-turn and I realized I was just about to be in the line of fire.

Then I woke up.

Randomly Monday night

It doesn’t matter how many times I look out the back door. There’s not going to be a cute orange cat there. And that sucks.

Happier thoughts and subjects:

  • I just booked my room for New York in January, although I may extend my stay by one more day since I got such a good deal. If anyone wants to hang out, please let me know.
  • Pondering my post-Christmas travel plans as well and whether I should continue my Virginia Beach tradition into its second year or opt for a different beach…or no beach at all. I really do like winter beach trips and Virginia Beach is a good choice because there’s a city there too, just in case I get bored. I opt for the cheap oceanfront room where I read all the books I didn’t have time to read the rest of the year.
  • In case you were wondering, I’ve had a really successful soup season this year. Okra seems to be the running theme.
  • For your amusement, the top twenty Toronto music videos of all time, at least by somebody’s count.
  • I’m finally getting back to the home video project. I finished digitizing all the analog stuff earlier this year and now I’m making MP4 derivatives from those masters for easy access on the Roku, etc. It’s much easier and “batchable” than the initial project was and I hope to be done by New Year’s. This will also make it easier for me to post old video on the site and/or YouTube if anyone cares (which I kind of doubt).
  • Despite my rotten state of mind Saturday night, my friend Jeff dragged me out to College Hill and other assorted destinations and I actually had a really great time. The secret to doing that in Greensboro is to remember never ever to go to the queer bar.

Like it’s 1998

The funny thing about this article is the way it suggests that the wholesale gentrification of San Francisco is a new trend. I could have written essentially the same piece in 1998 just substituting “lofts” for a couple of the “high rise” references. San Francisco has been a lost cause for much longer than the past couple of years.

More random stuff for a Monday night:

  • Me. Camper Van Beethoven. 10 January in Chapel Hill. I’m not counting on being reunited with my crush.
  • New York the following week for a workshop followed by a weekend in the city seeing some old friends and soaking up the urban. And the cold. Which is probably why the hotel rooms are all so cheap.
  • The first ice of the year is a possibility tomorrow morning. My enthusiasm is minimal.

Random thoughts from Canada, eh

I’ll get back to the daily trip entries soon, but some random thoughts for late at night:

  • Why did I never think before about seeing if there were white noise apps? There are, by the way, and I’ll tell you how effective they are tomorrow. I think I’m going to opt for “airplane cabin” tonight.
  • Watching two bored-looking guys get bound together with any number of nonbiodegradable substances (cellophane, trash bags, duct tape…) to the tune of “Ghostbusters” has a certain whimsy about it–unplanned, I fear.
  • That whole “eliminating pennies” thing? Brilliant.
  • McDonald’s hummus wrap and Wendy’s falafel sub: Two things that really exist now in Canada. This is a good thing, right?

Bed now. I actually have plans both for lunch and dinner tomorrow, which is more of a social calendar than I’m used to.

Randomly Sunday night

Thoughts while doing laundry and eating surprisingly good low-carb butter pecan ice cream:

  • We’ve documented that I’ve become something of a neat freak and a much more attentive housekeeper over the past several years but I’ve also become a much better (and somewhat more creative) cook. If I were ever going to get married again (ain’t gonna happen BTW) I might make someone a really good wife.
  • I am beat. I didn’t sleep well last night; I had really weird dreams all night, probably brought on by the death metal show I was at earlier in the evening. And I moved another load of stuff this afternoon. Thus the  long and introspective post I’d planned is on hold. Fuck introspection; I’m going to sit on my ass and watch a movie.
  • I may actually get to see one of my favorite Canadian power pop bands while I’m in Toronto in a couple of weeks. That would be nice.
  • Did I mention that I’m beat?

Pictures after the jump, if you care… Continue reading “Randomly Sunday night” →

Why yes…

It was a band I’m familiar with through my unusual status as an anglophone American guy with a strange affection for francophone Canadian alt-rock.

Other random Monday stuff:

  • Students are back along with free print copies of the New York Times, part of a “newspapers in education” program that’s meant to get students reading newspapers but realistically is probably more about giving faculty and staff free ones.
  • A good weekend, all in all, highlighted by another batch of my Pollo Vindaloo (recipe upon request) in all its Tex-Mex-Indian deliciousness and some of someone else’s leftover birthday cake since I purposefully didn’t have one of my own last weekend.
  • Had a nice time at Westerwood and College Hill Saturday night…as long as you don’t count the part where someone slashed one of my tires. That part kind of sucked.
  • I should (finally) have a new toilet and bathroom floor by the end of the day. That’s pretty exciting. Fortunately it’s a two-bathroom house so I haven’t been having to run down to the Texaco station at the corner while I waited.
  • No, we no longer have Texaco stations here, but it flowed better than “Shell station” so I rolled with it anyway.
  • Anyone need a really nice 2011 Buick Regal? I have one for sale if you want to match what they offered me at Carmax.

On the town

I spent a good chunk of my Canada Day weekend throwing out more crap from my two houses, but I took a break Saturday night to do the town with my friend Jeff.

I really should get out more. We had a  great time at College Hill and Westerwood, where there were interesting people and passably good music. Then we hit what is apparently Greensboro’s newest queer bar. I don’t know how new it is in terms of opening date but I can assure you there’s nothing else new about it, including the exorbitant cover charge. The crowd consisted of the same thirty or forty homos who have inhabited every Greensboro queer bar since time began, all of them wearing the same cologne and dancing to the same shitty music they were dancing to twenty or thirty years ago. For good measure, some guy I was a little embarrassed to have slept with almost thirty years ago hit on me. Suffice to say I declined his advances. If I were looking for a new hangout in Greensboro, it would be one of the two former bars, not the latter.

Today, I dealt with some stuff for Mom, took care of some things in Winston, had lunch at Cagney’s, and came home to watch the rain–there have been lots of opportunities for that this summer–while pondering my Fourth of July road trip. It’s looking like DC right now. I’m trying to decide between the cheaper hotel that’s not as nice and is farther from transit but is closer to Old Town Alexandria, and the slightly more expensive one that’s really nice and is right next to the Metro station but is more of a hike to anything local.

There was also German food in Durham on Friday and shawarma on Saturday.