October 20

It was a very special night at the Lucky Lounge. John and Rajean Gully were coming to town, so we easily persuaded them to meet us at the Lucky. We hurried down there, and found them already there. Rajean had tried to reserve a table, not knowing the casual sort of place it is, and they told her we could pull some of the little bar tables together. We did that.
Jack was the next to arrive, as I recall, then Jimmy and April came. They were not around in the old days, of course, but it was a nice blending of old friends and not-so-old ones. Finally Geraldine and Everett arrived.
The Bump Band was doing a benefit for Women's Advocacy, to which Jimmy was good enough to contribute. A couple of times a woman stood up front and spoke about it, but we were conversing happily enough that it was no bother at all. Otherwise it was a very normal, very wonderful show, except that our friends were there so we could tell them every song was our favorite and drag them up front at intervals.
They did one song that I don't know that I've mentioned. I don't know the name of it, but it is sweet and wistful, with the words '...build a home for you and me...'
Jimmy remarked how upbeat they were, like the old days, everyone said. There was one song in particular, the guitar was so very British, like Dave Clark 5 almost.
Yes, that's our band. Young Ben Gully came, so he got to see it as well. He lives here now, going to grad school.
Said he grabbed the first opportunity he got to come back to Austin.

October 13, 2005

The Lucky Lounge was decorated for Halloween last night. Maybe because my attention was all for Ian and Mark and Don and Scrappy, I didn't even notice for a while. On the east wall, each light fixture had a plastic skeleton sitting on it. From the overhead lights, spooky hooded heads hung, alternately black and white. At the back, up in front of the balcony, were orange lights and numerous lit jack o'lanterns. I really liked the jack o'lanterns; I have a serious weakness for the carved pumpkin faces.
Ian started a joke which he kept up about gonorrhea. I'm not sure why. I hadn't thought about GC in ages, but I could picture those big burly gram positive cocci, faintly triangular, in their distinctive pairs. Why do we hear so little about it these days? Because it's relatively easily cured?
Andrea Hopkins was there, that we used to see at the Hansons' parties. She said it was her first time, and her first time to be in a club with "older people." Seems she's been taking her 14 year old daughter to hear her favorite young bands. Seems she just got divorced. But she's happy.
The band hadn't played in several weeks. I ended up walking toward the front with Mark at the break, and I asked if they'd been out of town. He said he had been working with Alejandro (presumably our local hero musician by that name), and he thought Scrappy had been doing something else. He summed up rather grimly, "You gotta make a living."
Which all gives me a sad feeling that our Thursday nights at the Lucky Lounge are numbered. In fact, Ian said, toward the end, we'll be here for the next four weeks.
The next four weeks.
It made me realize I need to buy all the CDs. Nothing lasts forever. You have to make a living.