Friday, March 03, 2006

a busy week

While I don't mind spending my evenings at home watching TV and relaxing, sometimes it's fun to go out and do something different on a weeknight. I didn't plan to spend every night this week out on the town, but that's the way things have gone. The only ones who seem to mind are my cats, as you'll see.

On Tuesday, a friend e-mailed me asking if I wanted to see George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars at B.B. King's that night. I love the funk, and I try not to miss the Mothership when it lands, so I readily accepted. She and I met at the club around 6:30, so we had time to get a table, eat dinner, talk for a while, and then had seats for the show. The band was excellent as always, and at this point, seeing them for the fifth time, I was able to sing along with most of the songs. We sat a few tables away from Ed Bradley, who looked like he was having a good time. I sent a tip to Gawker, and made this week's "Gawker Stalker" column (see the next-to-last entry). George must be getting old, because the show started around 8:30 and ended about 11:30. One time I saw him at B.B. King's and the show went over four hours. No "Maggot Brain" this time around, but they made up for it by playing "One Nation," "Flashlight," and "Atomic Dog" among many other songs.

On Wednesday night, I went to see Brokeback Mountain with another friend. I thought the movie was worthy of the praise and recognition it's received, though it was a bit long. And no one ate pudding. Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal were both fantastic, especially Ledger. I think Phillip Seymour Hoffman's going to win the Best Actor Oscar on Sunday night, but Ledger has a good shot at the award too.

Last night was my second trip out to Queens for karaoke. While I'm much more comfortable singing in a chorus than by myself, I thought I'd give this a shot and see if I really liked it. The only previous time I'd sung karaoke was in Jamaica, on vacation and in front of a room full of drunken strangers, and I loved it. This bar in Queens has its share of drinkers, but I've got a few new friends who love to sing and have a really good time with it. I'm a little surprised at how much fun I'm having as well. My biggest problem is finding songs that are in my range. I'm a bass or a baritone, and most pop songs are sung by tenors or baritones with high upper registers. I feel most comfortable with Tom Jones, Johnny Cash, and everyone's favorite crooner, Englebert Humperdinck. If "After The Lovin'" doesn't make the ladies swoon, nothing will. The only problem is that the bar is far enough out in Queens that it takes me about 45 minutes to get home. So when I left last night, it was close to 2 AM, and I got home around 2:45 to two cats who were annoyed that they hadn't seen me all day. This morning I spent a few minutes of quality time with Vladi to make up for my absence.

Tonight I'm going to see Capote, which will complete my Best Picture Oscar roundup. Then I'm going home to crash until the ceremony on Sunday night.




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