UNEXPECTED ENCOUNTERS OF THE NEW YORK KIND
Here's a story first written last fall for my now-defunct MySpace page. It's worth retelling. And I'm not above brazenly name-dropping over here on Blogger either.
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Tank Montreal hit Christopher Street late Sunday afternoon. Ty's was jammed, the Hangar overflowing. But fate pulled me past these old favorites towards the river-end of the street and the Dugout.
Fate, and Lady Luck: There, holding court just outside the bar, were two long-time pals of the American persuasion. I'd known them casually for probably 15 or 20 years during their periodic sojourns in Montreal. Whatever'd happened to them, anyway? It'd been awhile and I never really knew what they got up to outside my city. But it didn't matter: Friendly, familiar faces in a bustling bear bar were life rafts to a socially awkward type like myself.
Personal idiosyncrasies be damned, I grabbed a Rolling Rock, put on my people-person face and swaggered up to me ol' buds and made friendly.
How refreshing to be warmly welcomed by these guys! Already encircled by a phalanx of friends, they'd no reason to pay me any mind. Yet they introduced me around as if I were someone their group needed to know. You'll forgive me for being a Pollyanna (I am Canadian, after all), but I found their hospitality real sweet.
And lo and behold, my Montreal pals of yesteryear were identified to me as the formerly-faceless farmboyz of Connecticut. I'd been following Perge Modo for months without knowing i was already acquainted with its author. What were the chances of that???
Before long we were joined by birthday boy Joe.My.God., whom I recognized immediately and who turns out to be just as engaging as his blog suggests. And then there was Paul - and Mark too. My home computer was springing to life in this grungy West Village bar.
There I was, like Dorothy back in the barnyard after Oz, recognizing the farmhands as characters from her fantastical dream. It didn't matter the bear bloggers were oblivious to the significance of my Dugout visit, just as Hunk, Hickory and Zeke had been dismissive of Dorothy's adventure. I was in a surreal little barnyard of my own.
So, people, do I even need to write it down here?
Tapping together the heels of my ruby red sneakers, I repeated to myself... "There's no place like New York, there's no place like New York". Cue orchestra.
It's interludes like this that keep me going back.
8 comments:
Aren't you due for a return trip? Next weekend is a long one here with a number of events planned that should leave us all sleep-deprived.
oh how sweet!! i am a farmboyz stalker and would love to see them in the flesh.
i'm glad to hear all of those boys are as friendly in person as they seem in print. thanks for writing this. there really is no place like NYC, is there??
so did you go to last weekend's new york festivities?
bigassbelle: Regrettably, I didn't know about it until it was too late to make plans. I'm still awaiting my passport - your @#$^%& government and their new regulations for even mild-mannered, perfectly harmless Canadian travellers!!! *grimace*
You're a terrorist Tank. Even your blogging name strikes fear into this govt. and the people it represents! French/Canadian = Terrorist!
For anyone who actually knows "Tank" (the moniker he uses to describe his slightly more outgoing public self), you'll know why this story is as much a triumph as it is a whimsical tale. Tank is the consummate loner, usually too shy to approach any already-established gaggle of guys... so it speaks to the Farmboyz credit that they are apparently so approachable and kind as to intriduce him to their clan. See Tank? The world is waiting for you to say hello... people will like you if you just give them a chance. I hope you take this story to heart and remember it next time you come and go into a bar without so much as an attempt to speak to someone new, or the next time you think you need to get smashed to gfet up the courage to break loose and have fun. For that reason, this is an important story for you to remember. Kudos to the Farmboyz for bein' so cool and allowing thier social scene room for outsiders.
I don't want to be pushy, and I'm nowhere nearly as famous or engaging as the farmboyz or Joe.My.God, etc., but I hope that when you next hit NYC I would be able to say hello to you in person with my partner, or maybe when we next go to Montreal (hopefully within the next year). We never feel all that comfortable at the Dugout. Maybe it's because we're coupled. Maybe it's because we're from New Jersey, which to a Manhattanite is much worse than being Canadian!
rangergeek: Sointen'lly!
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