On the advice of my dear, dear cousin, I picked up a book and headed to a coffee house yesterday. I enjoyed the sunny afternoon by a window...reading Slowness by Milan Kundera...and sipping a raspberry Italian soda at Coffee Rush. It was lovely. If you're interested, Slowness is probably Kundera's lightest novel, likely because it was written in French rather than his native Czech. Though, like any of Kundera's works, I'd recommend it only for adult readers. Slowness is one of his later works and does not involve WWII Europe like many of his other novels.
After a couple hours at Coffee Rush and upon finishing the novel, I returned home to catch the ballgame. The Dodgers, trailing the Phillies in the series, pulled off a convincing win at home. I'm watching the next game as I write this and it's not looking good through 3 innings...we'll see.
After the game, I headed off to Dante's for a little thing we like to call Sinferno. Polly Panic opened the show and I hadn't been too impressed with their sampling of music presented online. Although I left the house later than usual, I was still early enough to get a table in the front row and catch Polly Panic's entire set. They were much better on stage than what I had heard on record. Even now, I'm surprised to report to you that I rather enjoyed their set.
I had the table to myself, partially by design. There were three seats at the table. I occupied one and kept a cup of water in front of another, content to enjoy a night alone. Between Polly Panic and Sinferno, however, a couple asked me if the seats were occupied. With no harm done, I invited them to sit. Not two minutes later, a guy sits in an empty chair already promised to the couple. The man turns to us and asks us if we're here together. We say we're not and when asked, I tell him that I was at the table first. I have a hard time believing what the man says next. He wants to give me $100 and the other guy $50 to vacate the table. Apparently he was there with a woman he really wanted to impress.
A handful of thoughts enter my mind:
1) No, thank you.
2) Gimme!
3) I come here all the time. You can have my seat for free.
4) Find a couple chairs and I'll share my table with you.
5) I could use the money.
So, yeah. I took him up on his offer. Dude just payed my next credit card bill...or whatever. No loss. I stand half the time anyway. And with my glasses on this nite, I'm not hard to spot from the stage. ;)
Like last week, this Sinferno was light on variety-style acts. No Masonious Max, no Bellini Twins. The fire has been different recently. Peach is noticeably absent as are Cherry and Miss Steak. A turnover of sorts? Are they away touring? Taking a break? I don't know or care too much as I'm equally entertained. Just curious, I guess. Reed McClintock was there in the Limbo Lounge doing great (as always) close-up magic. I need to stop on by one of these weeks. I haven't watched him in a long while.
Good night. Not good-night. Good night.
No comments:
Post a Comment