Monday, July 25, 2005
The Best Deal In Town
On Friday evening, I drove to Londonderry to go out to dinner at the Ninety-Nine with Jack, Meg, and Hufton. Hufton had already eaten dinner by the time he met us at the restaurant, but after looking at the menu for a few minutes, he decided he could probably stand to eat a little more.
Waiter: Can I get you guys anything else?
Hufton: Could you throw a Shipwreck Shrimp on the barbie for me?
(all erupt in laughter from Hufton's unexpected request)
Waiter: Haha. Oh, are you serious?
Hufton: Yeah.
Hufton did not, however, get a pina colada with purple sugar on the rim like he did last time. And to think people make fun of me because of my penchant for strawberry milk. Sheesh.
I spent most of Saturday afternoon hanging out with my Mom, then went back to Medford in the evening to work out before meeting up with Hufton at Boston Ave. We decided to go to see Wedding Crashers at Boston Common, so we drove to Porter Square and took the Red Line into Park Street. Once we got to the theater, Hufton went to buy tickets for us, only to find that the 9:45 show had been sold out. We briefly contemplated the 11:15 show, but quickly realized that the T would not be running by the time we got out. Just last week, Hufton and I had gone to see Wedding Crashers in Londonderry, but made a last second decision to see Batman Begins instead -- making this our second failed attempt at seeing the movie. Perhaps it just wasn't meant to be.
We found ourselves downtown with nothing to do, so we figured we should go to The Tam, which is only a stone's throw away from the theater. On our short walk there, we passed by Limelight, a relatively new karaoke bar.
Me: Maybe we should go there instead.
Hufton: Ha. Yeah...
Me: No, seriously -- maybe it would be fun to watch people make fools of themselves.
With that, we made a U-turn, paid the cover, got some beers, and plopped ourselves on the couch to watch terrible singers.
The initial problem was that the singers weren't terrible. They were actually decent. A pudgy Asian man led off, first giving a shout-out to his co-workers in the back of the room. He gave a visually confusing version of The Who's Pinball Wizard. By visually confusing, I mean his voice pretty much matched the song, but he looked more like this than this. I guess there's absolutely no reason to expect the amateur singers to look anything like their professional counterparts, but still, it was strange.
Later, a girl whose hair and outfit looked very much like Jeneane Garafolo's hair and outfit in Reality Bites, got up on stage with her friend to sing Weezer's Buddy Holly. When given the microphone, the girl introduced as Michelle said to the audience, "Hey, I'm drunk and I'm pregnant!". She was, of course, just kidding, but this was only the start of her attempts to make the audience uncomfortable. In the middle of their performance, it became clear that they had only heard the song a few times before, as they could hardly follow the lyrics. Michelle went into a death metal scream, "I LOOK JUST LIKE BUDDY HOLLY...AND YOU'RE MARY TYLER MOORE". It was a trainwreck, but Hufton and I were impressed with her ability to make so many people so uncomfortable all at once. After the pudgy Asian guy returned to do a rendition of Jerry Lee Lewis' Great Balls of Fire that brought the house down, there were a few more unremarkable acts before Michelle returned with her friend to sing Patsy Cline's Crazy in front of an audience that was now much bigger and unfamiliar with her previous performance. She eased them in, then dropped the hammer..."Crazy, crazy for feeling...(death metal scream) SO MOTHERF***ING LONELY!!". Words cannot do this justice. The people in front of us almost spit out their drinks and the people sitting at the tables in front of the stage started to leave. It was cringe-worthy moment, but Hufton and I were able to get beyond the discomfort and laugh at the discomfort of others. We might never go back to Limelight again, but at least there were a few characters who made our trip memorable.
I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay...
|
Waiter: Can I get you guys anything else?
Hufton: Could you throw a Shipwreck Shrimp on the barbie for me?
(all erupt in laughter from Hufton's unexpected request)
Waiter: Haha. Oh, are you serious?
Hufton: Yeah.
Hufton did not, however, get a pina colada with purple sugar on the rim like he did last time. And to think people make fun of me because of my penchant for strawberry milk. Sheesh.
I spent most of Saturday afternoon hanging out with my Mom, then went back to Medford in the evening to work out before meeting up with Hufton at Boston Ave. We decided to go to see Wedding Crashers at Boston Common, so we drove to Porter Square and took the Red Line into Park Street. Once we got to the theater, Hufton went to buy tickets for us, only to find that the 9:45 show had been sold out. We briefly contemplated the 11:15 show, but quickly realized that the T would not be running by the time we got out. Just last week, Hufton and I had gone to see Wedding Crashers in Londonderry, but made a last second decision to see Batman Begins instead -- making this our second failed attempt at seeing the movie. Perhaps it just wasn't meant to be.
We found ourselves downtown with nothing to do, so we figured we should go to The Tam, which is only a stone's throw away from the theater. On our short walk there, we passed by Limelight, a relatively new karaoke bar.
Me: Maybe we should go there instead.
Hufton: Ha. Yeah...
Me: No, seriously -- maybe it would be fun to watch people make fools of themselves.
With that, we made a U-turn, paid the cover, got some beers, and plopped ourselves on the couch to watch terrible singers.
The initial problem was that the singers weren't terrible. They were actually decent. A pudgy Asian man led off, first giving a shout-out to his co-workers in the back of the room. He gave a visually confusing version of The Who's Pinball Wizard. By visually confusing, I mean his voice pretty much matched the song, but he looked more like this than this. I guess there's absolutely no reason to expect the amateur singers to look anything like their professional counterparts, but still, it was strange.
Later, a girl whose hair and outfit looked very much like Jeneane Garafolo's hair and outfit in Reality Bites, got up on stage with her friend to sing Weezer's Buddy Holly. When given the microphone, the girl introduced as Michelle said to the audience, "Hey, I'm drunk and I'm pregnant!". She was, of course, just kidding, but this was only the start of her attempts to make the audience uncomfortable. In the middle of their performance, it became clear that they had only heard the song a few times before, as they could hardly follow the lyrics. Michelle went into a death metal scream, "I LOOK JUST LIKE BUDDY HOLLY...AND YOU'RE MARY TYLER MOORE". It was a trainwreck, but Hufton and I were impressed with her ability to make so many people so uncomfortable all at once. After the pudgy Asian guy returned to do a rendition of Jerry Lee Lewis' Great Balls of Fire that brought the house down, there were a few more unremarkable acts before Michelle returned with her friend to sing Patsy Cline's Crazy in front of an audience that was now much bigger and unfamiliar with her previous performance. She eased them in, then dropped the hammer..."Crazy, crazy for feeling...(death metal scream) SO MOTHERF***ING LONELY!!". Words cannot do this justice. The people in front of us almost spit out their drinks and the people sitting at the tables in front of the stage started to leave. It was cringe-worthy moment, but Hufton and I were able to get beyond the discomfort and laugh at the discomfort of others. We might never go back to Limelight again, but at least there were a few characters who made our trip memorable.
I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay...
|
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