— पांच हजार नौ सौ सड़सठ —
Laney and I met at about 10 after 4:00 yesterday at the AMC Pacific Place, and we saw
The Moment, the Charli XCX mockumentary. I thought it was fine; Laney clearly liked it better than I did.
There's a young man who took our tickets, a guy we've seen before. When he asked what movie we're seeing and we told him, he said, "She was so popular when I was a kid." What, ten years ago? He mentioned how she had a MySpace page when she started, and he talked about how much better social media was then. What, when you were in elementary school? He even said of MySpace, "It was so emo." What does
that mean?
I wanted to say: "And you aren't?" Or did the meaning of "emo" change when I wasn't looking? This guy had a very "goth" look about him: black hair, a lot of piercings around his face, very youthful style of dress, the baggy-legged pants kind of thing. Maybe even some face makeup. It all made me assume he was in his twenties at the oldest, but then, if he were, say, 25, then he would have been like 10 years old at the height of MySpace's popularity, roughly 15 years ago.
I was mentioning all this to Laney after the movie, after Laney volunteered to him that he should see it. "Do you guys get to see movies for free?" she asked. "You should definitely see it." He said: "Was it rad?" and Laney said yes. Anyway, she told me as I shared all these observations that she thinks the guy is older than we think. She was thinking he is in his thirties. His
thirties? If I were a betting man, I would bet not. And if he is, then I would have to regard him as in a pretty terminal state of arrested development.
To be fair, being on the verge of 50 now, it's easy to misread age when it's significantly younger than I am. Even 30-year-olds kind of look like children to me now. It's a little depressing. On the upside, at least I can feel confident that any youthful guy I play with at the bathhouse has had to provide his ID upon entry.
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— पांच हजार नौ सौ सड़सठ —
I actually had a spontenous pivot to the evening after the movie. Shobhit was out getting his steps in, and happened to be in Pioneer Square checking out art as part of the monthly first-Thursday Art Walk there. He texted me that
Mirabelle by Orphée, the Parisian cafe we tried and loved
last summer, was open. They usually close at 3:00 every day but clearly stayed open for Pioneer Square Art Walk (apparently for the
very first time).
I remember them having maybe the best hot chocolate I had ever tasted, but after I caught Light Rail down to Pioneer Square and met up with Shobhit before walking to Mirabelle, we didn't order any drinks. Maybe I will next time. We did, however, order an
unbelievably delicious chocolate mousse encased in a crispy hazelnut chocolate shell, and a plate of breads with three different vegetable-based spreads. One was carrot based, and when the guy we learned is actually named Orpée was explaining it to us in his very thick French accent, he pronounced it "Care-ote." Shobhit was like, "What is care-ote?" and I said: "Carrot."
This Orphée guy is pretty cute. Now
this guy I would believe is in his thirties. Probably even late thirties; he could conveivably even be 40. More importantly, he makes reliably incredible food. I've been to this place twice now and I'm thinking I need to start dragging other people there. Maybe the next time Jennifer and Matthew come to stay we should go.
I didn't go looking at any of the art. Shobhit already had, and was slightly buzzed from two or three small cups of wine by the time I got to him. He did text me several art pieces and even asked if he should buy one of them for $80. I don't see the need to spend that kind of money, beautiful as it was. The Art Walks are super fun, but kind of dangerous in this way—Shobhit in particular keeps finding art he wants, particularly if it is gay themed in any way.
This is clearly what makes neighborhood Art Walks a worthy venture: free snacks and drinks abound; people wind up pulling out their wallets. I went researching a bit a few days ago, and wound up putting six different monthly neigborhood Art Walks on my calendar, just so I always know when one is happening: Pioneer Square Art Walk (every first Thursday); Central District Art Walk (every first Friday); Capitol Hill Art Walk (every second Thursday); Belltown Art Walk (every second Friday); U District Art Walk (every third Friday); and Downtown Art Walk (every fourth Friday). There are still others, but these are all either in my neighborhood or in adjacent or, as in the case of Pioneer Square and Belltown, just two neighborhoods away and easily accessible. Pioneer Square in particular has already proved to have lots of very cool art; I've done that Art Walk a couple of times already and this would have been the third.
This also means Central District Art Walk is tonight. We have no other plans and Shobhit can get his steps in. It will be interesting to see how the vibe of the art compares. I wonder if there will be noticeably more art from Black artists. In any case, I must say that any of these Art Walks are a fabulous thing to do that both helps strengthen neighborhoods and civic pride and is actually free and very fun. Highly recommend!
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[posted 12:33pm]
