May 02, 2005

The Events of My Friday Night, In Order

1) After leaving work, I met my lovely girlfriend at Penn Station- always the ideal cure for a long and difficult week. From there, we took the subway down to the West Village to the restaurant/bar Chumley’s (which is pronounced, but not spelled, the same as the infamous campus coffee house at Brandeis, Cholmondeley's). Chumley’s, like all the cool bars in LA, is hard to find and doesn’t have a sign.

2) At “Chum’s” (ha ha)we met up with a veritable all-star team of bloggers: Bill (along with his fiancé Christie, who I introduced him to); Sheila; Mr. Bingley, Chris, and our guest of honor, Miss Emily Jones- a woman whose blog I’ve read for THREE YEARS, but I was just then meeting for the first time. In short, Emily rules, and we look forward to seeing her again in LA later this summer. Last but not least, also on hand was longtime commenter Dave J- who was so profoundly affected by the proceedings that he's begun blogging himself.

Chum’s was a great time, filled with beer, burgers, and conversation, and while there Bill presented Emily with a stuffed Jar Jar Binks. Not surprisingly, he ended up hanging from the rafters, and got into even more trouble later on.

3) From there we all walked across the Village to the East side to attend an opening-night screening of “The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy”- the reason for Emily’s 3000-mile-odd trip. The verdict? Very funny and entertaining, and not just for the considerable charms of Zooey Deschanel. I also liked Sam Rockwell’s decision to play Zaphod as what appeared to be an extended impersonation of pro wrestler Shawn Michaels. And I say this as someone who read the book once, ten years ago: an excellent film, that made me want to read more Douglas Adams, and soon.

4) After that we walked BACK to the West Village to visit the White Horse Tavern, which was too crowded, so we instead repaired across the street to another bar (no, not back to the East Side). Luckily, on both of our walks we completely missed the KGB Bar, although Bill did stage a punching out of an Orlando Bloom poster on 7th Ave. After that, he had no energy to attack the poster for Janeane Garofalo’s Air America show just five feet away.

5) The bar was great as we all riffed on everything from other blogs to the movies to politics to how we’re supposed to save Jar Jar from his sad downward spiral (though I’ve been convinced, for six years now, that he’s hopeless). And it continued through lunch and a walk the following day, as we were joined by blogworld megastar Pejman as well.

For other versions of the same events, be sure to check out Bill, Sheila, and Bingley. And here's a review of the movie, from some crazy girl who traveled all the way across the country just to see it.

Posted by Stephen Silver at May 2, 2005 06:44 PM
Comments

Oh, look! My first trackback ever. Thank you, Steve.

Posted by: Dave J at May 2, 2005 07:03 PM

I think you mean your "exceedingly sweet and lovely" girlfriend, Steve

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at May 2, 2005 07:05 PM

Hey, I flew all the way across the country to see you guys. The movie just happened to be playing...(*whistles*). Actually, believe you me, it would have been a better experience, show wise, to stay in LA and go to the El Capitan. But nothing could have beat hanging out with you guys that night. It was bliss.

Posted by: Emily at May 2, 2005 08:14 PM
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