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