where everybody goes lai-di-dai
belmont and clark, where have you been all my life? I walked through this area last night on my way to meet GwenFriends jon shalvi and eve. it's a wonderland for punks, gays and bikers (punk gay bikers?), sort of a hard-core dupont circle, or adam's morgan in leather and drag. I passed shops with names like Disgraceland and Medousa's and a diner/bar called The Twisted Spoke, whose specialty was the "Bodacious Biker Brunch," broadcast in bright orange neon next to mangled motorcycle parts hanging like christmas ornaments over the entrance. and tattoo parlors, and a Reggae club, and bookshops and CD stores and windowfronts with ironic t-shirts of burt reynolds and hulk hogan.
it was brilliant, but unfortunately it wasn't where we were hanging out -- shalvi et al were about a mile or two north, which I sort of missed somewhere in the directions he gave me. it was cold and drizzly and I didn't have an umbrella, so I took a cab up to Andersonville, a district known for its lesbians, and met them in a diner/bar called Hamburger Mary's (I think there used to be one of these in Dupont a little while back -- I'm not sure). eve's brother was there, and his girlfriend, who's from tennessee but spent the last three years teaching english in berlin. they'd all already finished their burgers, so I ordered a hot tea while they drank beers, and we caught up. eve's in a show, and shalvi's just been cast in a production of Romeo and Juliet that plays at schools during the day. eve and her brother were both very tired -- they'd been up early to pick up the girlfriend from the airport -- so we split ways after about an hour. shalvi and I headed down to Improv Olympics, near Wrigley Field, to catch their midnight show (the dirty one!), which cost more than we expected but was riotous. I was hungry afterward, so shalvi took me to a jumbo-slice pizza place near the El that was full up with sports-bar-types and sparkly college girls ready to call it a night. I had the World's Largest Pizza Slice Ever, which I'm pretty sure will last me all the way through the day (today's the last day of Ramadan!), and then we headed home.
what I really want, though, is to head back to Belmont and taste the Bodacious Biker Brunch. kyle's coming next weekend -- maybe he'll indulge me? :)
it was brilliant, but unfortunately it wasn't where we were hanging out -- shalvi et al were about a mile or two north, which I sort of missed somewhere in the directions he gave me. it was cold and drizzly and I didn't have an umbrella, so I took a cab up to Andersonville, a district known for its lesbians, and met them in a diner/bar called Hamburger Mary's (I think there used to be one of these in Dupont a little while back -- I'm not sure). eve's brother was there, and his girlfriend, who's from tennessee but spent the last three years teaching english in berlin. they'd all already finished their burgers, so I ordered a hot tea while they drank beers, and we caught up. eve's in a show, and shalvi's just been cast in a production of Romeo and Juliet that plays at schools during the day. eve and her brother were both very tired -- they'd been up early to pick up the girlfriend from the airport -- so we split ways after about an hour. shalvi and I headed down to Improv Olympics, near Wrigley Field, to catch their midnight show (the dirty one!), which cost more than we expected but was riotous. I was hungry afterward, so shalvi took me to a jumbo-slice pizza place near the El that was full up with sports-bar-types and sparkly college girls ready to call it a night. I had the World's Largest Pizza Slice Ever, which I'm pretty sure will last me all the way through the day (today's the last day of Ramadan!), and then we headed home.
what I really want, though, is to head back to Belmont and taste the Bodacious Biker Brunch. kyle's coming next weekend -- maybe he'll indulge me? :)