Thursday, September 9, 2010

The Thirties - Night of the Decade

Of course you know this excludes the birth of the boyos, who by the way were born in late afternoon and morning, no this is about a banner night and since i'm tired and lazy and waiting for the painkillers to really kick in this might be short and sweet, see they been killing me at the job lately, actually making me work and shit and lugging shit and loading trucks can wear on a man when really what i'm used to is mid-afternoon naps and reading books at my desk but so be it, i said i'd write about this decade a bit and though some of it will end up as Wilderness Years i must press on.

New Year's Eve- 2005, 2006 was just hours away when a gaggle of us poured into my favorite place, Ray's Marlin Bar and Grill, it's no longer there, well it is just with a new owner and a new name and more hipsters and less drag queens. Ray the owner was a little guy from Miami who knew how to make money and ran a top notch joint, he liked to dj and sit around on slow nights and bullshit about New Order, Joy Division, The Smiths and all kinds of old bands, he was a good ten years older than me but we enjoyed each others company and he once told me that i would be at home at any bar in the world, said i could walk in not knowing a soul and leave with the whole place saying "So long Kono", but this night was glorious, just the right amount of people downstairs, good tunes, better company and copious amounts of drugs, see my brother was in town from across the pond, he's not my blood brother and you may recognize him as the Limey or possibly this Gulfboot character, this was roughly ten years since we had met and it was/is the only long distance relationship i've ever been successful at, probably cuz he's not worried about me fucking around on him, that was a joke of course, but the Limey had brought a Manc by way of Spain who i hit it off with, spent much time with and enjoyed talking with to no end, of course he also brought Woody but we'll forgive him for that, and let's not forget the lovely Missus, but on this night i had my two or three best friends in the world, the girl was at home with child and was more than gracious in letting the impending Dad do his thing, the only stipulation was a call at midnight which was placed with tears in my eyes as i thought about how fucking happy i was, a son on the way, my brother handing me a drink, a cigarette dangling, when i hung up the phone i stood and stared at the barren Butler St. while listening to fireworks and hoots and hollers and was overwhelmed by how far i had come, how this fucking idiot could be the happiest and luckiest man alive, when i opened the door the Limey looked at me and pulled me aside and asked if everything was alright, i smiled and told him it couldn't be better and then Ray, who had begun dj'ing played Fairytale of New York by the Pogues and the Limey and his missus took turns singing while people just smiled and drank and joined in on the chorus, strangers kissed, friends hugged, and Ray being ever the expert and knowing he had a bunch of Englishman and Anglophiles in the house went right into Don't Look Back in Anger by Oasis and the whole bar was singing so loud that the private party from the second floor actually stopped and came down to see what the commotion was, mind you there was only 20-25 people in the main bar but we were screaming our lungs out cuz though no one wanted to say it but this was about as perfect as life fucking gets, your best friends and perfect strangers and a 6'6 inch drag queen and her slave in hot pants with a choker and being led on a leash, it was like the island of misfit toys and we knew we all had a place and we sang and danced and laughed and cried and as we walked towards the Ginger Yinzer's house in the cold a.m. of 2006 we knew that we had just had one of the best nights of our lives...

8 comments:

Diary of Why said...

1995/96? Do you mean 2006? Or else wouldn't that make that boy of yours 14 years old? Painkillers, eh? :)

Funny, I blogged about the exact same night here: http://diaryofwhy.blogspot.com/2008/01/why-im-glad-new-years-eve-only-comes_03.html (Ok, so it was one year later, but close enough.) It's pretty much the exact opposite of the post you wrote. Bizarro world, for sure.

Maybe I need to start doing more drugs?

Kono said...

DofW-Whoops, what's ten years you know, i don't even want to tell you what 95-96 was like but thanks for catching that for this aging, drug addled mind.

Gulfboot Johnson said...

That was just the start of the night for me. It was 8am before it wound up and then we watched Big Lebowski in German. Seems a long time ago now.

twin said...

Happy Birthday Old Boy.

I have a feeling your 40's will be no less eventful.

i'll slip 5 over for you...

sybil law said...

I love it when awesome nights happen. :)
My birthday last year was a spur of the moment night out and it ended up being incredible, so I totally get the tears i the eyes thing.

nursemyra said...

Anal brings tears to my eyes... oops did I really say that?

Anonymous said...

when life is good? shout it from the rooftops! we're all just a phonecall away from daytime nightmares... like to think you've got more perfect days ahead of you! why expect there to be only one?

Rassles said...

Love.