Our Man in Antigua

so…i’m in the mood for bbq..go by the new deli on \7th ave..got the display T-bone in the window..and a frozen one…I pick out the display steak…wrong choice…even with spices, bbq sauce and a swarm of black pepper..unedible except to a starving…fill in the blanks…it looked good but smelled to high heaven…alas…the night on the streets? deathly quiet except for Ocelot…Ron on sax, Nelson came by…’suggested that they combine forces….what a concept!  Ron and Nelson? killer…
Ocelot.packed….on a quiet friday night…El Muro and their ‘ladies drink free from 8-10?…three babes at 9….no sign of John or Max..the Whiskey Bar/Coffee Shop in the Ocelot space..opens in two weeks, one way or the other…Gallo coolers waiting in the space…Pangea? ask Neil about a ‘rusty trombone’ ..tis too sick to repeat here…the group known as the ‘unindicted co-conspirator’ s meeting…the tasty Ms E and a group of twisted perverts…our kinda people, pillars of the community…the conversation, after Neil’s input, turned a bit, graphic…someone said they were sometimes ‘wanton’…or was it won ton? Reillys? …unless they find/open another location soon…memories are good, but business is business…and people find other places to go…that part of 5ta north? Cashbah may survive…but the others, who fed off the overflow from Reilly’s..? Sangre? stick a fork in them… they’re done…Studio 35 and Gaia? concept and service? done… it ‘l be a while before that part of town comes back..too bad..as i said before, a stake in the heart of  antigua’s nightlife was delivered this week..hello…Ocelot and the others will do well..perhaps the whole traffic pattern will shift, night club-wise…Riki’s? maybe they’ll feed off of Ocelot’s traffic…’hope the other owners are happy with diminished rents or none at all..dipshits, one and all..welcome to the new reality..and vacancies….Hector’s…wall-to-wall people..the old Fusion joint? dead-ville..there’s some kind of ‘feng shui/critical mass concept for successful joints…Reilly’s had it, Hectors has it, Cazadore lo mismo, where when people walk by and its packed, they usually want to get in…’man, I went to this great place last night and it was jammed’…’where was it?’ call it ‘crowd psychology’ or herd behavior, when the noise level reaches a certain peak and the interpersonal/spatial barriors are crunched..assuming that the old Reilly’s doesn’t return to their previous location, where else is there, that might reproduce the buzz? El Cielo, in Riki’s? take over that So What Chow Chinese place on upper 5th? no one’s talking, even in private..Reilly’s Ghost…gawd, the Ghost Bar in ‘Vegas…top of the Palms..I dither…

E Bell, back from foot surgery and doing tours again(Alex off that hook)it seems that the cobble stone streets work their havoc on some of our gringo feet..her’s, alex’, mine and bill harriss, to name a few..

Karla Herrera has an art show opening at 5pm today…Pangea…who knew she has so many talents?

quality control