A night out

Sunday I spent the day finishing a video game (the excellent Bioshock) and doing "house stuff". Sunday night, I decided I needed to get out and do something interesting. This actually began earlier. During some menial house activity, such as folding clothes, I fire up a podcast. The newest Bottletree podcast featured the two bands playing Sunday. While neither band made me want to immediately go, neither was unappealing. So later when I decided to get out, that was the first thing that occurred to me.

I like The Bottletree (but I don't really like adding "The" to the title of it). I like crowd there. Mostly.

It's always an interesting mix. Sunday was no exception. One thing that those who know me well understand is that I'm quite solitary. There are plenty of times I like being alone. I also enjoy being alone in a crowd. Going to Bottletree is like that for me. I melted into a wall and did some quality people watching. There's a couple of classifications I see (and these are by no means the only ones).

a. Trendsters. You know who you are. You're wearing a funny hat or an ironic shirt. You're drinking a PBR. You're probably in your early 20's. You hope you're in your early 20's.

b. Grown up trendsters. I think I probably fall into this category. Those who are older, not quite as stupid, but are a little eclectic. I can handle these people.

c. The dragged-in. Those arriving at Bottletree through no choice of their own. They are the ones talking loudly during the quiet moments of the music, or spending the night on the patio.

I'm over-simplifying. And for that I apologize. My point is that Bottletree serves as kind of a nexus of things I love (good music) and hate (posturing scenesters). But I don't really hate them. In fact, I enjoy watching them.

The two bands I saw were Oh No! Oh My! and Au Revoir Simone.

ONOM for short were pretty good. catchy poppish. toe tapping or the classic Ditchell slight head bob. I'd see them again.

ARS. Three cutish girls and keyboards. Very Postal Servicy. Decent- but unfortunately they hit as much as they missed.

I ran into two denizens from my past- Mike F. from the Isley period (95-97) and Darryl from the Video Xpress days (Christ... 90-93?). I did not recognize either of them, but they did me.

Other notable appearances were the ubiquitous Red and Blonde of Red Blondehead. They were both shocked to see me, as if I had disappeared for some long period. Which I apparently have. Was last night my debutante ball, reintroducing myself to sociality?

Um no. Last night I was stir crazy. I sincerely appreciate Bottletree's function in the rich fabric of Birmingham, etcetera ad infinitum. But it's not really my place. 90% of the time, I'm going to On Tap. On Tap is a warm blanket. I can go to On Tap, play trivia, plant myself at the bar. That feels good. I don't think I will ever feel comfortable at Bottletree. This is not their fault and god knows they don't need to cater to my desire for trivia and sports. They are what they are, and I'm glad.

I'd like to end my first long winded blog with a explanation of what exactly you're reading. There was a time when I wrote quite often. I want to get back to that. And I am most certainly starting auspiciously. I am severely tempted to go back and edit this post, checking for tense violations and such...but at this point I am not too concerned with it. I think I just need to write something and actually put some effort into it. If for some reason you stumble upon this and actually enjoy it, then that's a bonus. One of my goals is to write not for anyone in particular, but develop a consistent tone and less rambling. Very boring stuff to you, but important to me.