Thank goodness 2008 is over.
Not that it was entirely a horrible year, just lots of news, revelations and disappointments. Despite last year at this time I spent my holidays pretty isolated, minus a quick trip to visit my family, I had a good time, chilling in my pj's and listening to music. This year I decided very last minute to get the hell out of dodge.
So after spending a couple days at my parents house, playing with my relatively new niece, Charlotte (see picture right)
and my nephews Nathaniel and Simon, I headed to Atlanta to celebrate the new year's. And man, I had a kick-ass time.
Not knowing a soul there, I had emailed Moya (below )
who runs Quirky Black Girls and lives in Decatur. She and her friends Brandy and Carol met me at the coolest bar I have been to in awhile, El Myr Burrito Lounge in Little Five Points.
Brandy and
Carol (right) are into the punk / metal scene in Atlanta, and regaled me with stories that hopefully will be in the book. Thanks ladies!
The next day, I ventured back to Little Five Points to check out some record stores, most notably Criminal Records, which I had heard quite a bit about. I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed with their metal selections, so I went on over to another place, which was even worse. I made a mental note to hit up Amazon.com ( I don't use iTunes) when I got back home. After stopping in a few vintage clothing shops and realizing that I was way too old for most of the stuff, I decided to head back to El Myr for lunch and another fabulous burrito. After sitting, writing and reading for awhile, I almost fell off my stool when Mastodon's Bill Kelliher walked in and sat at the bar. He looked pretty good for being hospitalized in England last November. I poked the guy who was sitting beside me and asked if that was Bill. The dude, Chris (I'll get to that in a minute) who was a regular said that the guys from Mastodon came in all the time and some of them had worked there in the past. Cool!
So I debated whether I should venture over and introduce myself, but as I have been reading Pamela Des Barre's latest book, Let's Spend the Night Together, I decided to play cool and not come off looking like a frenzied fan - which admittedly I am, but whatever. I ended up having a lengthy discussion with Chris, whom I have to admit, was probably one of the most intriguing people I had ever met in my life. Chis is a veteran of the Atlanta punk scene, and told me a lot about the city, Atlanta bands and the people that he knew. All I can say about Chris, as I wouldn't repeat some of the things we talked about is that he really was a fabulous guy, had a very challenging life and I hope to meet up with him again. Holla, Chris!
So Chris became my drinking buddy for the afternoon, which in hindsight, was a helluva lot of fun, but later stumbling down the street for the 1 mile walk to the Metro, piss drunk in a strange city, alone, might have not been the greatest idea. I wasn't even walking, I stumbled down the street, walking onto people's lawns, laughing at myself. While I was at El Myr, we eventually joined a group of interesting people, who were really laid back and cool, answering my drunken questions about themselves and the city. I found myself sitting beside Darren Sanders, who works with Mastodon (he's Bassist Troy's brother - definitely cute!) He actually gave me a good contact of this woman in Chicago - (please email me if you are reading this - I forgot the name of her company). He also gave me some future scoop for the band, which was really cool of him to do.
After getting back to the hotel (surprisingly,being able to navigate the Metro and two connecting stops inebriated) I sobered up with some coffee and food and then headed out to the Clermont Lounge, this pretty notorious seedy strip joint (the cab driver laughed when I told him where I was going), to check out Subrig Destroyer & Zoroaster on New Years Eve. The Clermont has an interesting reputation for having some of the gnarliest strippers I have ever seen. I got there just when Subrig Destroyer started - awesome band, check it - and my eyes popped out when I saw this road hard womann, probably in her late 40's - 50's, dancing topless clad only in skanky baby blue panties. She must have been about 200+ pounds, not obese, but just sagging. She.......I don't know, it was just a bit weird to see this woman jiggle to the band.
But I had a great time. Rang in the new year with a group of college-aged guys, one of them whom said, "perhaps I should give the strippers some money." One of his friends said, "save your money man. These women do not have any self-respect." Yeah, that was weird.
After a day of shopping at the Lennox Mall ( I only came home with one pair of boots) I headed down to a part of town called Cabbage Town (south of Little Five Points, I believe, near the MLK house) and had a drink(s) at 97 Estoria, another must-go-to place if you are looking for a place to hang. Actually, I would want to go back in the summer. The bartender was really cool and surprisingly, I met Sarah Wilson who was a waitress there and most notably, the drummer for Odist. Check them, they are touring in New York in March.
I'll get to the rest of the trip in another post, but I will have to say, despite drinking waay too much, it was a great New Years vacation. It also made me feel really confident in what I am doing with my writing career.
Happy New Year!
