Lived-in Bars

This video was filmed inside the Lamplighter in Midtown Memphis, which is where I have a habit of ending the night after Drinking Liberally (probably far too liberally, if you want to know the truth). More on that after the video.

Cat Power - Lived in Bars [from Scenestars]

Once again, I had a great time at dish for the weekly meeting of assorted Midtown liberals, this time attended by DailyKos' Gina Cooper and Sen. Cohen himself. It made for quite a gathering, but not necessarily my kind; I prefer the group at a size where you can actually have a discussion and meet some new people. Instead, I hung out with Freedonian, Pesky Fly, WTL and the two Sarahs for the most part. It was like a safe haven for the blogger in a wilderness of cocktail party talk. Also once again, the cute guy was once again sitting at the bar when I arrived (don't know if you read about him here before, but there's a funny story behind him). He left soon, leaving me to drool over a cute guy who was much too young for me. I think he was gay---not because he ran away when I joined the group he was in; he was far too cute & clean, plus he had a Razr phone. Anyway, I enjoyed talking to Chris, Rick, David & the gang about blogging (specifically about our own blogs---bloggers are nothing if not narcissists!). It's nice to hear postive things about my self-absorbed lifestyle once in a while. Often I get a prick of conscience that I am wasting not only my own time but my readers' as well with the frivolities that masquerade as my life. Cause my real life is way less self-involved---I volunteer, listen to NPR, donate to worthy causes, am devoted to my family, etc. in real life. That's just not so fun to talk about as hanging out in seedy bars and going to shows.

Which makes a nice segue into last night, when I got to see my favorite local musician, hands down: Mr. Harlan T. Bobo. I'm sure some people will think I'm shallow and a bandwagon-jumper for just now sharing my secret love for him, but it's not entirely true (or at least that's not what makes it true, if I am all that). I actually get embarassed because I am so enamoured of him that I don't like to talk about it. It makes me blush, and it is like being 13 all over again. I wanted to stay at the show until he was absolutely finished playing so I could see if he remembered to pick up the shirt he'd used to wipe off his sweat (hey, it may be worth a lot one day) but I just couldn't do it. Personally, I was so slick with a fine sheen of sweat that I discovered my hand stamp had come off on other parts of my body when I got home. I know, eewwww... but that was nothing compared to Harlan, which is how I like my rock stars: good n'sweaty.

If you have made to the end of this super-sized post, congratulations. You win nothing but your freedom. I'm going to The Majestic with friends tonight, so I'm sure I'll be back with a review tomorrow, plus an update on our other downtown antics.

technorati tag: Cat Power

UPDATE: It was aiight, nothing too unique, but good anyway.

I adventurously tried the Cucumber-Lavendar martini, which my friend said "sound[ed] sexy as hell," but I told him there's nothing sexy about fresh bits of lavendar in your teeth. It was refreshing enough, though.

The shoetstring fries were great, but unfortunately I had to eat them off of M's plate, since they didn't come with the salmon. The shot-glass desserts were good, too---it's worth going just for them. It just seemed like the flavors weren't completely balanced, as if there was one really strong accent to each dish: lavendar in the martini; salt in the glaze on the salmon; sugar in the pork tenderloin; lemon in the raspberry Creme Sofia.

Pricing was in line with a mid-range white-tablecloth restaurant in Memphis, which is to say not outrageous but you don't feel like ordering 2 of the $9 drinks. I did like that the waitress pointed out the fact that they 20%ed us (there were 10 at our table). The service was very attentive, but there seemed to be a couple of extra servers because there was always someone draped over the balcony railing watching us below as if we were zoo animals. I hope Patrick & Deni will put a stop to that.