HOW STRANGE TIMES TURN OUT WELL

I had a most wondrous Friday night. I must admit it started off rather disappointing but it was all nice in the end. I met Monica and Jamie for a quick stop at “free happy hour” at Howl At The Moon. While there were free creepy nacho fixings, that were okay but if I opted not to get seconds when free food was involved they couldn’t have been that good. The free drinks actually cost $1 and I vowed not to drink one on principle. Monica and Jamie offered to get me drinks but I told them that it wouldn’t jive with my stand. There were some INTERESTING people there. The place was full of people in their 40s who were just having a swell old after work time and people in their 20s who were dressed like scandalous hot messes and couldn’t wait to get picked up by the first standard frat boy that offered to buy them a cosmo. I can’t remember the last time I saw so many people who were wearing clothes that didn’t fit them, heals they couldn’t walk in, and thought they were doing their thing. What can I expect from a place that played dueling piano versions of Gin and Juice and that Soulja Boy mess?

After that we went and got tickets for Avenue Q!!!!! Hooray!!!! Although I don’t know the songs how can I not enjoy such gems as: What Do You Do with a B.A. in English?, Everyone's A Little Bit Racist, The Internet Is For Porn, and I'm Not Wearing Underwear Today? Then when you add on the fact that the cast is full of Muppets you realize that this must be the best play EVER.

Jamie and I headed back North so I could meet up with Dave and go to Cake Chicago, a live music review that takes place on the last Friday of the month at the Red Line Tap (behind the Heartland Café). I must admit that I wasn’t particularly looking forward to it. I tend not to like music I haven’t heard of and hate paying covers, even $5 for said unknown music.

The first act was spoken word, and I was certain I would be in for a long night. The second act was a guitar/harmonica playing lady who was pretty good. The third act was this lady named Ripley who organizes the event and was also pretty good. We ordered some Nachos & Guac from Heartland drank plenty of beers and I was feeling like my night was worth the $5.

It suddenly got better. The last band, The Gwen Mitchell Experiment, was amazingly outstanding. Dave and I have big old crushes on Gwen Mitchell. After the show Tina told Gwen and Gwen’s girlfriend that the gay boy and the straight girl were completely hot for her, which was a little embarrassing. The thing is that Gwen is totally hot. I thought she was pretty cute when she got on stage but as she was performing she went from cute to amazingly hot. That girl really gets into her rock star persona. Look at her, she’s adorable. She kind of looks like Kevin Barnes. The band is a Chicago group made up of drums, bass, guitar, and electric violin. They have this kind of funk/gypsy/chick/Celtic/jam band/rock kind of thing going and it was absolutely wonderful. Tina and I bought the CD. I can’t remember the last time I bought a CD at a show, if ever. I must say the CD was a little less funky than the live show but there are a few cuts where they really do their thing. I think they are awesome. If you are in Chicago and they are playing it will be totally worth it to check them out.

1. Horses in my dreams/ Like waves like the sea/ They pull out of here/ They pull they are free


2. Oh here we go again/ It’s time for the same arguments about/ About that and a little bit of this

3. This old sun is slowly sinking down/ And the moon is slowly rising. And this old world must still be spinning round/ And I still love you. You Can Close Your Eyes, Richie Havens. Identified by Mom.

4. What about the time/ You were rolling over/ Fell on your face/ You must be having fun

5. Unexplainable things will happen when we really see into each others eyes/ Right/ So why is it we rarely find the time to see each other in the eyes