Hold On

Start with a fairy and end with a spider.

Before meeting a friend at Amuse for our traditional Christmas drink, I stopped at the ticket desk to get one for tonight's showing of "The Blues Brothers."

Sure, I've had 35 years to see that movie, but I never seemed to make time to see it until tonight. 

No matter how little I got into the story, I was quite sure of two things: that the musical guests would be worth it and that the 1980 period details would be, too.

So you can imagine my surprise when I told the ticket girl I'd never seen it, presuming she would be surprised.

"I fell asleep trying to watch it," she said sounding half-guilty about it. "Maybe cause it was on TV with all the commercials, but I didn't get through the whole thing."

Then the girl next to her chimed in, saying she'd tried to watch it on Netflix and still found it hard to sit through.

Something about different editing back then and how she kept thinking the story was ending but there was always more.

It was not an auspicious start to a movie-going evening.

Leaving the naysayers behind, I walked upstairs to Amuse in time to see the very orange sun slide behind the trees, somehow a reminder of today's unexpectedly balmy weather.

We celebrated the impending holidays with red (her Ruby Slipper cocktail) and green (my absinthe drip) and some very groovy '60s songs like "Just Walk Away, Renee," one of those songs you don't hear every day.

The amuse bouche was creamed butternut squash with bacon jam and we followed that with pork belly poutine, because what could go better with what we were drinking and celebrating than over-indulgence?

Friend gave me a lovely pair of gloves, the kind that go far beyond my wrists and have polished-looking pleats and detailing, the kind that will make me look far more sophisticated than I am.

We gabbed about our holiday plans while finishing off round two and laughing a lot.

After saying goodnight, I made it down to the theater just in time for the movie to begin.

I'd wondered if there would be others who'd never seen it before and from the first condom joke, there was major tittering from one particular row in the back, providing my answer.

One of the first things that caught my eye was that the Blues Brothers' black and white police car, a 1974 Dodge, is so very like the design of the new Richmond cop cars.

The second was how young Dan Akyroid's face and body looked, striking because I'd recently seen him in 1984's "Ghostbusters" and he looked even younger here.

Of course, the music was terrific - John Lee Hooker, Cab Calloway, Aretha, Ray Charles and we'd been told to look for James Brown's song because he'd refused to lip-synch it so it'd been done live- and songs like "Crazy About That Hard-Headed Woman of Mine,"  didn't hurt.

Then there were the 1980 details like when someone puts a Decca record on or says a bottle of Dom Perignon '77 is $100 or record stores have three sections: gospel tapes, blues tapes, soul tapes.

Or when amplifiers upholstered in red shag are mentioned. Reel to reel tape players, working phone booths (occasionally being blown up), $2 show tickets.

Favorite line: I took the liberty of bullshitting you.

Now I've seen it, now I know.

From there I went to Zeus to meet a friend starting his celebration of the winter solstice tonight, arriving only in time for a piping hot Manchego and bacon croquette made even better with pickled peppadews before being invited to his place to listen to music. Again. Loudly.

As if that deal needed to be sweetened, he ordered the Belgian chocolate cake (it's practically an institution it's been on that menu for so long) to go with the bottle of Graham Beck Brut Rose chilling at his house to accompany the chocolate and musical volume.

Some would say that the fact that you can almost always get my attention with a South African is common knowledge.

With some clear insight and musical savvy, he led with the Finn Brothers "Everyone is Here," then slid into some mid 90s jangly indie pop only to then scored majorly with Captain Sensible.

I hate to give him too much credit because he was really trying to make a case for his idea that the good captain's song "I Am the Spider" be used by UR at basketball games.

Forget that, what I heard was a new wave version of well-crafted pop songs full of layers of sound a la Todd Rundgren.

He played me songs off of three different Captain Sensible albums covering twenty years, all of which made me want to dance in some fashion or other.

Best line of the night: It's not too loud, is it?

To this hard-headed woman, it certainly was not. And I am not taking the liberty of bullshitting you.