loveletter

joy & pain - it's like sunshine & rain


tonight it's dedicated to skip. skip, whoever you are, thank you for founding your tavern. instead of one more night at a crowded, hip mission bar, i suggested to my two friends we meet in the neighborhood i've been living in for the past year. good old bernal heights. hello, bernal heights, thank you for housing me.

after a drink at a fine establishment, stray dog, which only today i peeked into for the first time while fetching moving boxes, we headed to skip's. i have some distant memory of a night a skip's, with some of my oldest san francisco friends, and feeling like i really found something that night. for 4, 5 years, i've held skip's in my mind: the search for that jazz club in the sky continues ever onward, but in skip's i believed i'd found the blues club of my dreams. tonight i confirmed that supposition.

tonight at skip's, the subsitute bartender, long ponytail down his back and shirt broadcasting "atencion, gringos" poured a drink with 4 bottles in his hands at once. this quadruple feat trumped by flaming shots and more importantly the geniality that one wishes of all bartenders. but really, let's get down to brass tacks. the band. electric guitar, drums and bass. easy does it. the set we walk in on features shuggie otis and jimi hendrix. (not necessarily blues, but) the second set blows in with a woman vocalist, just ruling the bar. all eyes on her. an impromptu dancefloor develops. her skinny friend, in subdued collar shirt and zipper jacket joins her on backups. let's get it on. she's the cause for hootin' and hollerin'.

guitarists switch in and out. two drinkers hop on a mike to accompany a blues number. a glass is broken near the stage; a broom is requested. drummers switch in and out. all around the 360 bar, heads are bobbbing. the backup man steps forward to sing sittin' on the dock of the bay. we all know this one. we all know this one.