a description of the amazing and exciting adventures i have here in baltimore--- and other lies.

 
Saturday night was a blast! Myself, Doug, Viki, her Brother, and his new Girlfriend went to Crazy Lil's. This restaurant in Federal Hill is now owned by my archnemesis' brother, Tim, who looks very much like the Fiend--- with the noticible difference of Tim's far more human countenance. After dining here, we proceeded, sans Douggie, to quest for karaoke. Now, earlier in the day, my student Esther had given me a sheet of possible places for singing our heart out, and one of them is called the Rainbow Lounge. (Now, before any of you start envisioning gay Korean night, this place had none of the panache one would perhaps mentally associate with a far eastern version of the American meetingplace of homosexualists. I do not know of any gay Korean bars, and while I am certain that there is a place for gay Koreans and Korean-Americans, I doubt that this is it.) She had a piece of paper with all the listings of places to go karaokeing, and this was a locale on the list which was fairly accessible. Or so we thought.

As we finished dining at Crazy Lil's, my other friends Lynda and Carolyn made point, and arrived there about half hour before we. They were no there when we arrived. Where were they? Well, as they could not get into the place, they bolted. We four approached the door, rang both buzzers available, and, after what seemed to be a while, were buzzed into the joint. We went into the hallway, where, from the top of a set of stairs, we were waved up by Korean lady who had too much makeup on, and who seemed to be someone who my mother would probably lable "fast" (a nice 1950's word, which has a connotation of trampiness to it, without coming outright and saying it). We ascended heavenwards, were led into a small private room with a book, a t.v. and some microphones, and were told that, yes, we would be able to sing American (read, "in
English") songs. This seemed a little sketchy to us at the time, and we fled. Now, while walking up, I tried calling Lynda, to check her whereabouts, and she called back to tell us they had left, because they had not felt comfortable either, and were en route to a bar on Eastern Ave. called Kelly's. Kelly's, according to my research on Sunspot, had karaoke too, but with a decidedly American flavour. I recommended that we also head there, and so we ran to the car to escape the frigid air, and drove over.

This place rocks. We were encouraged to sing, we did, we had a blast. We even got there early enough so that each of us who wished to do so could sing a couple of times. It has a mixture of country, classic rock, contemporary, and some "music-of-your-life" (Sinatra et alia). We sang our hearts out. I did a great rendition of Mack the Knife, in Satchmo, not Bobby Darrin style, tho' the music was the latters, not the formers. This was an instant hit. We saw a woman in a fur coat and sneakers (Tacky!), we saw older people dressed up in suits, and rowdy young people, all of us singing and dancing. Lynda and Carolyn have proclaimed this as their new joint, for both have been looking for a good place to sing karaoke for a while. And, of course, who delivers? Greggie G.

On a sadder note, Al Hirschfeld passed away today. Here is a gallery of his work.

posted by gregorio at 7:19 PM

 


Today's lecture will begin with some word on behalf of the benefits of a nice cuppa. (For those who only speak american, this means " a delicious cup of tea")
For the most part, Americans eschew tea for the more potent coffee drinks. Tea, however offers quite the health benefit, with green teas having antioxidents--- great cancer fighting agents.

But get anyone from the commonweath nations involved in the conversation, and it can turn almost as acrimonious as the drink itself. George Orwell has strong views of the subject, and will only drink the Indian varieties. In fact here are his steps to making "A Perfect Cup of Tea"Jean-Luc Picard was famous for his "Earl Grey: hot." and here a word from Tea Muse about how we msut erase all mysticism and exoticism from tea (presumably they mean green teas, as black tea (e.g., lipton) has no exoticity to it whasoever):Tea Vow of Chastity

We all remember the trouble Alice had with tea drinkers, but this should not make us shy in partaking of the potable.
But for me, a decent cup of tea (in Ireland, "a daysent cuppa") evokes this elegy:

A quiet corner,
A steaming cup.
Steam streams seems fairly fairylike,
Drink it up!

Final thought, of when I go to Japan, I hope to have my tea served to me in the ceremony at least once. delicious!

posted by gregorio at 5:46 PM

 

first, a note
next, a feeling
finally, a list:


1.find lots of url tags
2.make them available to the blog
3. use them with abandon





And with this next sort of thing, I will just jibber jabber to find a format. Hooray for me! I am doing HTML! How cute! How clever! How exciting! At least this bit of experimentation will hopefully prove to make this blog a more welcome place to visit.






Or not.




posted by gregorio at 5:55 PM

 
I'M BACK!

After a long hiatus of more than just the twelve days of XMass, I come back rested, ready and primed for action! With the end of the season with Epiphany, I can take down my paltry little tree, and gear up for the new year. So, since I have been away from this blog for so long, I will bring up more than one issue:

First, I want to extend a happy New Year to all of us. Michael T. (Miss T.) says that we should, instead of making resolutions, come out as something each year. This can consist of the traditional type of coming out (e.g., that one is gay); it can consist of admitting to others what they already know about you, but you have not had the courage to say yet; and it can also be the proclaimation of what one wishes to be.
I am coming out as a thin man this year.

Secondly, why are so many muscians covering 70's songs all of a sudden? The Dixie Chixies (I know, but that is how I think of them when I do) come out with Landslide by Fleetwood Mac. Then we have good ol' Uncle Kracker (n.b., this site is a little annoying) doing a version of (the completely underappreciated) Dobie Gray's Drift Away; a song that seems to have been covered by nearly eveyone else in this world. And, if this were not enough, Counting Crows does a cover of Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi! What's next, Sarah Maclaughlin doing Heart of Glass? Alanis Morrisette doing Year of the Cat? Michael Jackson sings Dancing in the Moonlight?How far will the music industry push our gullability? It only goes to prove a theory of mine: just as you think you have hit rock bottom, the ledge gives way, and you start falling again.

And, finally, how much can I pay any of you to find it in your heart to wield a weapon of sufficient caliber and force, so that a projectile of no less than .22 finds itself lodged sufficiently and squarely through the third eye of Ann Coulter? Can someone please rid the world of this shrill shill of the Republican radical right? How much longer must we suffer her "books" and other writings? When the revolution comes, she is one of the first to go. And this is saying something, because, as many of you know, that when the revolution comes I believe that there is not enough wall to line them all up against. I will have to have some of them build new wall, so I can them put them up against it. Coulter need not worry; we're taking care of her first.
posted by gregorio at 5:07 PM