Wednesday, February 21, 2007

moderately overweight tuesday

So there I was, admiring myself in Oxygen's bathroom mirror, when I heard some serious social commentary about Fergie. "Glamorous" was playing in the background, and as Fergie spelled out the song's title for about the fortieth time, a party goer looked up from washing her hands and offered a succinct, "OK, Fergie...you're literate. Big deal."
The comment, if you ask me, is only partially true. Let's just refer to the spelling of "tasty" in "Fergalicious." Enough said.
Anyway, that scenario comes straight from my Fat Tuesday adventures in downtown Columbus. After a brief siesta, I hit downtown just after midnight, and was greeted by a large, but not overly impressive, crowd. Each open venue had its own group of partiers, but no bar was flooded anywhere near capacity.
A few impressions of the night:

Cheers to The Vault for bringing in Pistoltown, an especially rockin' three-man band from Nashville. These guys brought people to their feet for a pretty long set, and their take on "I Will Survive" was enough to get me in the door.
Jeers to the bearded hippie who tried to dance with me during Pistoltown's performance of "Mustang Sally." The era of free love is over. Deal with it.
Cheers to Big City Club for once again attracting a solid crowd of partiers. This downtown dance club has consistently impressed me in recent weeks. I'd call it utopia if we could just get rid of the guys who monopolize the center of the dance floor during virtually every Ciara song. What IS that?!?
Jeers to the lack of Fat Tuesday dancing at Oxygen. That, of course, may have something to do with the fact that "Ants Marching" was playing as I walked in the door.
Cheers to the guy who gave me a stellar set of Mardi Gras beads and had me surrender only my business card in return. And by "business," I mean the job I have with the Ledger. Really.
Jeers to the rain, a force that some bar owners said made this Fat Tuesday less popular than those of years past. Yet I also heard crowds were sparse before the rain even started, so I have my doubts.

All in all, the night was fun, but I wish the crowds would have been a bit stronger. Yes, I realize it was a weekday, and Tuesday is far from the new Friday, but you still had good reason to come out. I went the entire night without a single drink, and still had a blast.
I'm the last one to advocate all-hours partying with work demands looming the next morning, but there's no harm in perusing the social scene for an hour or two. Don't complain about your vacant datebook if you're not going to take a risk and put yourself on a social limb.
Happy hump day. Behave appropriately.