So, when I went up to karaoke, I went a little early to get some primo tacos and then a coffee at these places relatively near the karaoke place, but when I got off the subway stop, I saw this little Polish restaurant I've always wanted to go to, so I stopped in spontaneously for a meal there. The stuffed cabbage was so-so and way over-priced, but for $3.20, they gave you a relatively big bowl of home-made soup - I got white borshcht with cut-up little chunks of pretty good Polish sausage in it, and fresh dill choppped up in it too - and a free glass of fruit compote and a free bread basket too. I'm definitely going back.
Anyhow, I walked then like two blocks to go to a hipster coffee shop/cupcake bakery - what the fuck is up with hipsters loving their cupcakes? - the hipsters have all pushed the Poles out of this neighborhood - and when I got to the counter to get my espresso, the early 30s, too-thin blonde hipster girl who came out from the back was like, "How are you?", and I was like, "I just ate so much Polish food I could vomit," and she was like, "That's a nice way to greet a person." Hipsters are no fun; they have a very narrow tolerance for the offbeat, and sneer (sp.?) at everything else.
Karaoke was odd since it was at this hipster bar in the part of town where the hipsters have pushed out all the Ukrainians - I saw some younger high-school age thug-like Ukrainian guys walking on the sidewalk near the bar, and they looked saddly out of place - and the setting just didn't work for the host as much as the basement of the American Legion Hall where he usually does his schtick. Luckily, though, I was able to make the most of it, and was able to do a three-song set with my smokey, phlegmy voice:
1) The Searchers' "Needles and Pins".
2) Avril Lavigne's "Complicated".
3) Alicia Bridges's "I Love the Nightlife (I Love to Boogie)".
After that last one, Kirby the fat but genuinely hip regular from Minneapolis who shows up on occasion and always by himself gave me a "rock out" sign followed by a fist bump. Everyone else, though, seemed to prefer the Avril, perhaps because they didn't recognize the intro immediately, but did as soon as I busted out the first words, which are the most memorable opening lines of a song of the past ten years, I think.
Also, after I sang "Needles and Pins", the host thanked me and noted that he himself has sung that song on occasion, and it's great to see people taking over the repertoire (this is the dude I got in with by opening up with "Georgie Girl" the first time I ever came to his karaoke).
Tonight I soak chick-peas, to cook them tomorrow. I asked a fellow Puerto Rican graduate student who I know for a fact eats a lot of beans how long and how exactly to soak them, and he said overnight, on the counter, and with a little bit of salt, so that's what I'll be doing.
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