« Bring it on | Main | There is no Santa Claus »
November 23, 2005
Wacky
Yesterday I had one of the stranger nights of my life. My wonderful and awesome girlriend asked me to go to a musical performance by her former violin teacher, so of course I said yes. We were nearly late because the City of Chicago decided Tuesday night was a great night to cut down trees on Fullerton. This produced a most unsatisfactory situation, because in so doing they completely blocked my street.
We persevered, and arrived at the show in time because they started a half hour late. The music was very good, a jazzy sort of violin/saxophone/keyboard/guitar mish-mash. Christy's violin teacher guy is a certifiable violin virtuoso. He's got more talent in his nosehairs than I do in my whole body.
But, the experience was certifiably wacky. It was at a bar called Martyr's, which is on Lincoln Avenue. (Like you care.) First, a man with a hand-held camera recorded the entire show. He did not stand idly in front of the stage. Instead, he walked around the cramped stage, doing Wayne's World style Extreme Close-Ups on whichever musician happened to be ripping off a solo at that time. As if this wasn't disturbing enough, he then stuck the camera on a boom or pole or something, and used that to do extreme close ups on the musicians.
Meanwhile, every band has to have a drummer. This band had the greatest drummer ever. It was an Indian guy in a full, bright red turban and beard. It was the silliest sight I had ever seen. I think it seemed out of type for a guy in a turban to be going crazy on drums, but he flailed away for the entire set. Bravo to him.
After they finished up, we left because the next band was boring. Across the street, we spied a bar called The Grizzly Lodge. Christy dared me to take her there, so off we went. I thought I was in an outpost in the Northwest Territory. They had Blue on tap and hockey on the TV. I'd never seen so much flannel, either. It was strange, but it was really a nice little bar, until there was a minor scuffle over the Van Morrison classic "Moondance."
Of the ten people in the bar, one of them pronounced "Moondance" to be a "gay song." I, and Christy, disagreed with this fellow. I was not going to say anything, but Christy got a spiteful look on her face and said something like, "No, you're gay." (It wasn't that, but it was close.) That was when I knew it was time for us to leave.
So, for a truly schizophrenic night, I highly recommend jazz fusion at Martyr's, followed by a pint of beer at The Grizzly Lodge. I hope to be back!
Posted by oz115 at November 23, 2005 09:48 PM
Comments
I believe I told him to go home and remove his boyfriend's penis from his ass... something like that. Moondance is one of the most romantic songs EVER!
Posted by: Your Lady friend at November 24, 2005 11:32 PM
Speaking of Moondance......I recently purchased the album and was highly impressed with its content. I even brought it on my Thanksgiving trip to Seattle, WA. As we're pulling away Saturday in our rental car (to take to the airport) my older sister comes running after us and hands me three CDs that were underneath the car. In an attempt to clean out the rental, my damn Mom dropped a CD case with three CDs in it; one of which was Van Morrison's Moondance. It was scratched up and did not survive. Doesn't that suck?
Posted by: Stat Boy at November 28, 2005 10:51 AM
I think Katy and I did the weekend breakfast brunch at the Grizzly Lodge once.... it's spooky in there.
Posted by: Gentile at November 30, 2005 12:49 AM