Wet, Wild & Woolly Weekend

This past weekend was certainly a whirlwind, starting with a quick nip after work on Thursday at the Cedarwood Lounge attached to the Willi Bowling Alley - not exactly the most glamorous place, but the drinks are strong, big & cheap....like some men I know...

Friday night, Bernie & accompanied Lushy Luke to the incredibly hideous Sneakers Sports Bar in Ashford (I would like to point out it was LL's idea and we are such loyal friends that we agreed to go). The pictures in the link make the place look good; I'm pretty sure we were the only three in there with a full set of teeth and not wearing plaid. The two video games they have are Bowling & Extreme Hunting and some scary looking guy was using the air hockey table as a coat rack. I'll bet the air hockey table is the cause of most of those people losing their teeth - extreme puck action! I think I drank all the Stoli they had in the two hours we were there....and then it was.....

Saturday.

I started off the day hungover because I apparently over-consumed during the two hours I was tortured at the above-mentioned redneck hell-hole. Fortunately, instead of feeling sorry for myself all day, I knew we had plans for the evening: hanging out with Miss Wendy in New London to celebrate her birthday at the Hygienic Art 29 festivities!

We had a restorative dinner at the Asian Bistro, then headed out to the Whaling City after switching outerwear and clothing around. We stopped first at the Golden Street Gallery and saw some great pieces by the artists featured there - it was also sanely populated, which was nice. On our way there, we popped in to see the work being done on the old El 'n' Gee club - they have completely redone the bathrooms (hooray- it had gotten CBGB-esque in those loos!) with Joan Jett & Johnny Cash painted on the doors, a new bar shaped like a guitar, new floors, and they've removed the separator between the bar & stage. The guys working told us the plan was to have a variety of acts, from theater to comedy to music. However, one of the local artists said she had heard it was being turned into a "gentlemen's club" - let's hope not.

We then popped over to Sarge's Comics (the Popular Place for Anniversaries & Birthdays!) and touched everything, but had to leave because they were closing. Miss Wendy did try to convince me to bargain for the Promethea action figure that's been sitting there forever....but I wasn't up to it.

So then, off to the events! It was icy cold out, which meant that once people were in a building, it was tough to get them out. We were not able to get into any of the rock shows at any time as the two clubs were seriously packed. We did give the Hygienic Gallery a try, but I got halfway through before having a major attack of claustrophobia & sprinting out the back door. There was very little to be seen well because there was no room to back up and look at any of the work- a return trip is necessary! Bernie & I managed to find & extricate Miss Wendy, then we all decided we needed drink, because after all, it was a birthday celebration.

We ended up at the Bank Street Roadhouse (which is generally rednecky on non-festival nights, but quite tolerable on this Saturday) and the Rivergods were playing- a very nice, upbeat set for sure (Fun Fact: Nancy from the Rivergods is the sister of my immediate supervisor). Drinks du nuit were vodka tonics and gin & tonics for Bernie. It started getting a little crowded in there so we moved on.

We left and looked at the other clubs, noticing the clientele at this point were spilling onto the sidewalk- no way we were going to shove our way into that! We ended up at a restaurant bar for the rest of the evening having a nice chat & more drinks before heading home.

Thanks, Wendy, for letting us celebrate with you!