The Joys of Summer

Towards the end of last week I had this feeling that with my summer while winding to a close was oddly incomplete.  Aside from the fact that there’d been no summer lovin’,  there had no big moment that’s worth remembering for my entire life, no definitive blowout bash that makes a summer worthwhile, and no real progress in anything over the past three months.  While I can’t claim to have had all of those things occur this past weekend, the past few days have been chock full of activity  that would  certainly not qualify as boring.

Late Friday afternoon I wasn’t anticipating any plans materializing.  The usual steady stream of reply all emails from my friends was uncharacteristically silent.  I would’ve been okay with not doing anything and saving some cash, but as I sat around my apartment soaking up the emptiness, I sent a gchat to Jenny P asking what she and Matt were up to…and with that I had plans to go over Jenny and Filler’s to watch the Met game and relax in the back yard over drinks, the perfect relaxing Friday evening activity.

My original plan was to head over early to get in some hangout time before baseball began, but I got caught up writing a new story entitled “The Puppy Sniper”.  You may recall the title from the Sweeps Week Sweepstakes of ‘06…but only if your name is Andrew Morton.  In any case, after snapping out of a trance of creativity, I stuck some shoes on my feet and made my way over to Jenny and Filler’s to watch some baseball and drink a six-pack.

I was not the only guest on hand.  The get together also included Robert and a new face in their friend Courtney, whom I may have met at one point, but I don’t think we necessarily chatted it up if we had.  So we were reintroduced.  Matt and I split time between baseball and the backyard, but once the Mets won the game we pretty much hung out in the backyard.  At one point it was just me, Jenny, Robert, and Courtney in the backyard and the three of them were having what amounted to a heated political quarrel over the merits of Hillary Clinton against those of Barack Obama.  I’m not an overly political person, but I can’t stand bickering and so in the middle of the squabble a basically interrupted with probably one of the more lucid statement regarding politics that I had made in recent memory regarding the uselessness of arguing who is the better candidate between Barack and Hilary now that Barack is the candidate…and the extrapolation of a legacy that has yet to occur.  Actually, I’m not sure if that’s exactly what I said…but I sort of wish I had a tape recorder because it made a lot of sense…and then my brain shut off and I got a budweiser. I didn’t make the political argument end, but I think I lightened the relatively harsh tone towards which the conversation was turning.

The rest of the evening was a breeze despite getting bitten up a bit by the mosquitoes.  At one point I walked inside to find Matt blissing out on the couch to Guns ‘n’ Roses Use Your Illusion I. Soon after I found myself joining him, playing air guitar and singing along to “November Rain”.  It had been awhile since I actually listened to that album, but I found that I still knew all of the words…at least to that song.   The night came to a close as I headed home sometime around 1am.

Saturday afforded me the opportunity to mix ample laziness early and get into party mode a little later on.  I probably got out of bed around noon on Saturday, but there were good times  a plenty to fuel my good time fire.  At around 4pm Andrew came over and he Laura and I headed out to Bushwick to go to Dan F’s Bushwick Blowout.

If there’s one thing Dan can do, it’s throw a party.  If my new year’s post accurately depicted the madness and mayhem of the hours leading up to and after January 1st, then his summer blowout most certainly would be something to behold.

Prior to our arrival at Casa De Dan we met up with Kelly R on the subtrain at Bedford and had a bit of a hiccup in travel as the L train skipped over the Jefferson stop.  However, we eventually made it with plenty of time to spare. When we arrived, I was greeted by my friend Janet waiting at the entrance to Dan’s driveway type concrete yardspace in the back.  There was a table of food and two kegs on the premises.  Pete was preparing the grill for burgers and dogs and there was a very diverse crowd milling about, a good portion of which was comprised with familiar faces.  My roommate Mike was on hand,as well as Renga, Stephen, Katie, Pete F, Greg C, Ed, Krissy, and several other people who I always associate as being their co-workers who I pretty much see at every gathering involving my roommates.

Andrew and Renga Enjoy The Festivities With A Sneer

While people maneuvered around making small talk a mini-rockfest was being prepared.  The first band that went on was the Ex-Debutantes featuring all familiar faces, and playing a catchy blend of melodic pop and ended with a cover with Ed on vocals singing Summer of ‘69.

The Ex-Debutantes In Action

The band that followed was from Oakland as far as I can tell from their website and went by the name The Dashing Suns.  They were a pretty good rock band, if a little hipstery, as I think they were the ones sitting on a bench when I walked in and looking as if they were purposely not talking to anyone, but trying to look cool.  I could be wrong though.  It also could’ve been that maybe they didn’t know anyone, but whatever.

I’m not totally sure about all of the music that came next, but one of the highlights of the evening was female drag performer (meaning a girl dressed as a guy) Billy Motion, belting out hits of the 80’s with a sportsjacket and pencil thin mustache.  Actually, the best part of his/her set was during her performance of Gerry Rafferty’s “Baker Street” a song pretty much solely recognizable for the sax solo.  The previous summer Stephen H, a talented sax player in his own right was supposed to play sax with my roommate Mike’s band Fear Surgeon on the song.  That never came to pass, but prior to Saturday night’s performance he was handed a Plastic Sax and the following is the result:

After that mesmerizing solo, Billy Motion performed a few more songs and that set the stage for the musical grand finale.  All along my roommate mike and his cohorts from Fear Surgeon insisted they would not perform at Dan’s party.  I was an unfortunate soul to have missed last years event…so I can’t speak to their musical dominance.  However, they surprised the crowd by donning jumpsuits and rocking crowd under the new moniker Peace Cobra, with Greg C on vocals, Mike H on drums, Ed on Guitar, Pete on Bass, and I think Ofer on Guitar in the mask.  They opened up by rocking the crowd to an impassioned version of INXS’s “Never Tear Us Apart”.  I don’t quite remember the other songs they played after that, but it was a helluva lot of fun and I know Dan jumped around the stage area wearing a banana suit dressed as a monkey.  Good times.

Dancing Ape, Singing Cobra

When the bands came to a close, I was feeling slightly Bushwick’d out (Bushwhacked?).  I decided that after five hours far from home, I would like to be closer to my apartment when the drunken witching hour struck.  Already, being sufficiently liquored up, I thought taking a 45 minutes train trip to Ajay’s in Carroll Gardens was a good idea…and so I followed that plan of attack, actually making pretty good time traveling cross-borough in Brooklyn.

I arrived to find a pretty good portion of my friends still hanging around.  Though I’d be lying if I said I remembered exactly who was there.  Kishore, Ajay, Suli, Kavalyn, Dmitry, Nina, Miller, Andy, and Ajay’s friend Julia who I had met several weeks back as well as far as I can recall.  It was a relatively chill affair, but one I was glad to be apart of.

Andy Not Sitting On His Thumb

Conversation and beer continued to flow and the hours passed quickly until the clock read close to 2am.  It was at this point Ajay, Julia, and I headed to another party in the Slope.  I still felt up for a good time and a good time was had.  Though honestly, I don’t remember anyone I met at the other party.  I think I just talked to Julia and Ajay anyway.  Whatever time we all decided to leave, i decided to walk 20 plus blocks home.  Quite the marathon party night.

Sunday I would’ve been content to stay collapsed in bed, but the previous night and over email the lot of my group of friends and I had been discussing going to the Yo La Tengo show at McCarren Pool Park.  Frankly, it was a miracle I got out of bed when I did, but by 2:30pm I was back on the G-Train on my way to Greenpoint, to meet up with folks at Schmook’s for a bite to eat prior to hitting up the concert.

The crowd was much the same as it was for my 2nd leg of the previous evening.  Miller, Morwin, Ajay, Kavalyn, Andrea, Enisha, Jeff P, and Andy were on hand.  I was feeling a bit punchy and hungover but was in super rapid fire joke mode early on.  I’m not sure why.  As we waited on the colossally long line to get into the free show, I felt as though I was talking a lot.  I could be wrong.  Not that that was important I just felt very oddly jokey and talkative.  I was trying to stuff paper flyers in Kayvalyn’s backpack like a 3rd grader.

By the time we got inside the packed venue I was surprised we found anywhere to sit.  Though we eventually found a nice place to sit that wasn’t block by a line to get free stuff.  Lauren, Rosario, Zerna, Baby Lea, Suli, Rich, Lina, Maya, Melissa, and Shayan eventually joined us.  We were a large wonderful crew of concert revelers spending the day in the hot sun and taking in the Yo La Tengo.

While I enjoyed the show, it wasn’t my favorite performance of all time by any means.  I wished the sound was  a bit better, though it wasn’t awful.  They opened up with “Mr. Tough” which is one of my favorite songs off of I Am Not Afraid of You And I Will Beat Your Ass, and they played a nice range of songs from other albums.  It wasn’t the most intense show, but it was kind of relaxing and fun to knee-bend , head-bob to.

Following the end of the show, I sort of wanted to go home, but the majority of the crew were looking to get fed.  We wandered around WIlliamsburg for a bit looking for a place to eat and ultimately settle on a place called Black Betty.  The food was okay, the service was pretty atrocious.   Granted, we had about 14 people…but our food and check took forever.  A bunch of us also felt like we were being bitten up as if the table were resting on a mosquito colony or red anthill.  I’m not a big fan of complaining at restaurants, but this place deserved at least a little wrath.  Anyway, after our lengthy meal for 14, we went our respective ways and I finally ended the long weekend, reaching home at 11pm ready to nap all the way into early monday morn.