Saturday, February 24, 2007

A NICE RECOVERY

Friday night was a nice bounceback to what had been a slow week for the neighborhood bars. Even with the sudden drop in temps, everyone seemed to be anxious to break out of that dreaded "cabin fever". So after a slow start, the bar filled up nicely around midnight and stayed busy until last call.

One unusual highlight involved an incident that took place (ironically enough) at another bar. A group of older patrons came into the bar, looking a bit frazzled and smelling like hickory smoke. Odd, but then again, this is New York, so nothing really surprises me.

Turns out, one of the neighborhood pubs down the block had a fire that required at least six firetrucks. The patrons were in the pub, enjoying drinks and not even realizing that there was a fire going on, until they were suddenly forced to evacuate by the fire department. To say they were frazzled would be an understatement. They way they described it, the whole building was engulfed in flames and that bodies were everywhere- a tragedy in their eyes.

After work I took a quick walk down the block to assess the damage. As it turns out, the pub wasn't damaged at all (aside from some minor smoke damage). The bulk of the fire took place in the doorway of the apartment building situated in between the pub and a Mexican restaurant. Talk about exaggeration. Well, I guess if I had been in that situation, I probably would have panicked and made the situation seem bigger than it was too.

I have the night off, but will be back behind the stick for my regular Sunday gig. It's also the Oscars, so that usually means a night of fun and predictions. I'm not one to toot my own horn, but I have to say that I usually kick ass when it comes to predicting the Oscars. Maybe I'll actually have someone that could challenge me this year, though I somehow doubt it. We'll see.


nuff said