11/10/2004: "David Lynch and the Almaden Lounge"

music: None
mood: Blue and Gray...but with a puppy to love

The older I get the more I think I’m not as big a freak as I think I am , or even as others think I am. There are just times where I am amazed at how seemingly normal I am. Point and case. I walked into the Almaden Lounge around 10pm last night to do a bit of Kareoking and chatting with my friend AJ and somehow I walked into a David Lynch film instead. It’s a happy dive, though a hygienic one, and the Soundtrack was a vivid mix of Country and Hard Core Rap. The Players:

I kid you not. A man with no arms and no legs in a electric wheelchair singing the nastiest most foul mouth rap lyrics I have ever heard. He was god too. If you like that kind of thing. Apparently a regular. Likes Lincoln park. Plays pool with his mouth and the bridge. Very bizarre.

A Very pretty and highly effeminate Hispanic boy. He was in fact a male cheerleader and sung a great country song. He was surrounded by San Jose State Cheerleaders, male and female, celebrating a girls 21st.

Ken. Another regular. Old and friendly. Gray in the moustache but made a point to learn everyone’s name. Threw a mic and me and Aj to sing Sonny and Cher’s I got you babe and then felt gypped and complained when we didn’t know it very well. He tried to get another song played. No dice.

The Bartender: A big girl with plenty of makeup ( that dark lip liner thing with filled in lighter lips), who sang several songs including “ I touch myself” from behind the bar. A multi-tasker and a good singer, but her tip from me reflected the fact that she wouldn’t put the mic down to serve me.

RON. Not to be confused with Artsopolis Ron. Ron was drunk we suspect, but harmless. A contract painter who does a lot of the AMC theatres vandalism touch up painting. Rona had some great stories about the dog that saved his life and being able to save his dogs life too. And his pet duck. Yes you read that correctly. He has a duck that he found in the alley way and it had its wings clipped. Strange. His name is Ducky. He sang a lot of Matchbox 20. He says it is empowering, but you have to drink a lot to sing. He gave us his phone number and wanted us to call.

Tough chick. (Not me, a REAL tough chick). This girl cleared a few tables of their bottle s and glasses but she did not appear to be working there. I think maybe just a kleptomaniac. She was a thin white girl with a red bandana on her head and saggy jeans. She wore boxers. I could tell. Did I mention her jeans were saggy? She had black rimmed glasses and a chain dangling that served no purpose other than looking dangerous looped to her belt. She doubled up on a raunchy but extremely clever rap song with Geoffrey the Kareoke meister and it was brilliant.

The night ended at 1:30 by walking outside to RAIN, to the echoes of a tall bald youngin’ singing a country song that RON almost flipped over because apparently they play the same song over and over at the AMC while he paints. At least he gets to preview a movie before covering up the graffiti.

I got a chance to songs by the Dixie Chicks, Third Eye Blind, Semisonic, Jewel, and Pearl Jam. Success was limited but fun was had.

Winner of the Week: Team Trivia Upon Avon ( that’s me, AJ and Michael Pease) who lost 3 out of 4 rounds of Pub trivia and then pulled into 4th out of 5 teams in the final round which allowed us to win a free dessert! (the other teams ahead of us had already won a round). Also the cute elderly couple that were country dancing (she brought her own powder for the floor to make it less slippery) to the live band that came in after Trivia was over at the King’s Head. The lead singer had smiling eyes and the woman on base was so damn happy we requested Patsy Cline she almost baked us cookies right there.

Loser of the Week: Whoever stole AJ’s Car. Who does that anymore? So not friendly. Boo and Hiss. Also, the karaoke man that put MICHAEL and I in a Kareoke contest with an experimental duet, without our knowledge. We tied for 3rd out of 6 contestants but one nothing.….again…we didn’t suck the worst. AH yeah.


More interesting tidbits later…back to the grindstone…