girl walks into a bar

at the end of day. monday. earlier she got an email from someone she asked a work favor from. he declined,

"a pox upon you and yours."

for reals #1.

so the girl goes to the bar after work for a date. she's a few minutes late. but he's late too. the bar's in downtown manhattan, not a dive, not too swank. when it opened several years ago, all you could drink there was beer and wine. now they've got scotch. once the girl saw a dog pee on the floor. it smelled. the waitress working there flaunts a rack that looks odder than a cartoon. it's hard not to stare and harder to explain. ask in person and i'll draw a picture. the girl walks around the joint, tin ceilings, candle-lit, two rooms, glass facade. everyone there is in pairs. on bar stools, at tables. girl takes a seat against the wall. two seats away is a couple; he's wearing a white button down shirt tucked into jeans, has a blazer or sport coat, whatever they're called. she's blonde, hair in a bun which eventually unravels.

he's got a gravel voice. smiles a lot. forehead seems short. he's hard to ignore, loud. hearty laugher. they're art people. girls hears them say "andrea rosen" and "collecting" and "lfl."

he tells her about his sister and her architect husband. they wanted to break away from the family who live in lincoln and cambridge so they bought a place in southie. unschooled in the nuances of suburban boston? here, friend: his family's got some bucks. lincoln is way swell. lots of cambridge is too, but not all of it. sis didn't want to live there. she wanted across the charles.

'what's southie?' the art girl asks.

'irish ghetto. that's all you need to know,' replies the overconfident boy.

for reals #2.

whitey's on the run and gentrification's come to southie. just like other nabes. alphabet city was kinda sorta rough once. so was 5th ave in bklyn.

non sequiter time:

in soho and the east village and clinton hill girls are rockin the chuck taylor look this season. makes me think of joan jett. fondly. peg legs and chuck taylors, hold the socks. but when lithe models wear them with skirts and oversized sunglasses...it won't be long til sunday styles puts them on the cover.