Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a…guitar?!

You know what’s funny? Going through your phone on Monday morning and finding a photo from Saturday night you don’t even remember taking. That’s the sign of a great weekend!

The photo wasn’t even of me. It was Tara, dancing in front of a mural in Art Alley after dark. She may have paid for that carefree moment the next day with a killer hangover, but she looked pretty happy when I snapped the pic.

No hangover for this guy. Then again, I never seem to get them. Which my wife just loves about me.

(By loves, I mean the opposite of loves. She can’t stand that I am bright, chipper, and full of boundless energy when she’s queasy and her head feels like a grenade just went off inside it.) And she’s the young one!

It had been a while since we’d had a night out on the town. Usually, we hole up in the basement, with records and cards. We’d been planning to do this a month ago but a snowstorm derailed those plans. Well, there was no snow on Saturday—just wind (shocker), so we headed downtown about 1:30. Our first stop was St. Joes Antique Mall, where I kicked off my quest to turn a DVD shelf into a display for cool vintage bar paraphernalia. I found a few items that fit the bill.

It always amazes me just how much time we spend in St. Joes. Nearly two hours had elapsed before we left. With 21,000 square feet of treasure spread over two floors, it’s no wonder.

After dropping off our purchases in the car, we crossed the street to browse the bins at Black Hills Vinyl. Even though our record collection is rapidly approaching 800, we still managed to find a handful of albums to buy. They’re mostly new releases at this point, though we did score a cool picture disk pressing of Electric Light Orchestra’s Out of the Blue.

We’re still on the hunt for Boston’s debut album. Rivergirl blew my mind last month when she shared a post about how the spaceship on the cover of that album is an upside-down guitar. I’d been a Boston fan for decades and never noticed that! Tara hadn’t either. Once you see it, you’ll wonder how you ever missed it before.

I was also blown away to discover that we don’t have that album in our collection. We do have their second album, Don’t Look Back. And, whaddaya know?

Man. Inverted guitars have been hidden right beneath our noses for decades. Who knew?

I have more than a feeling we’re going to be scooping up a copy of their first album sooner rather than later.

Next, we hit up Paddy O’Neill’s, our favorite Irish pub. Filled the virtual jukebox with a solid mix of indie, alternative, and ‘80s pop, and kicked it for a couple of hours with cocktails and pretzel sticks. Then we stopped into Pour 54, a self-serve taphouse where you swipe an electronic wristband next to the keg of your choice to fill your glass. There are, well, 54 selections from which to choose, and you can pour as little as a sip or as much as your glass can hold. Cool, innovative concept. We grabbed a cribbage board and played a game while enjoying live music and beer.

The dancing-in-the-alley happened after we left.

All in all, it was a great night out and a much-needed break from the regular routine.

Next up: the regular routine. Stay tuned!

26 thoughts on “Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a…guitar?!”

  3. Pretty cool about the guitar! Do the kegs somehow know if you only poured a sip vs a full glass and charge you accordingly? You’ve talked about this place before, which made me look up a similar place nearby. I’d forgotten I need to put going there on my list!

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  4. It took me a while to see the upside down guitars but, once you do, you wonder how on earth you’d missed them. It sounds like a hugely fun time out. I got one of those queasy stomach hangovers recently, after – and I kid you not – just 1 pint of Italian beer. I rarely drink beer, but now I refuse to risk even the occasional cold one. I rarely get bad hangovers, only the seriously slow & stupid ones. Himself, despite being my younger, has always hangovered (?is there such a word) badly, so I fear I may be suffering biteback from karma due to my past smugness. Heed my warning! 😀

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  5. How fun! We have an antique mall about a half hour away and it’s soooo easy to spend hours there. But honestly, not much I’d ever buy! More like, I remember having that in our house in the 1970’s!

    Never noticed the UFO guitar before!

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  6. The fact that you rave about a dancing Tara picture and then fail to produce it is the epitome of cruel. Please relinquish your blogging card by the end of business day.
    Atomic Cocktails? Most excellent!
    How can you have 800 albums and not have Boston’s first? This does not compute.

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    1. I thought about it, but decided to err on the side of caution and not embarrass my wife publicly. Some would call that a smart move!

      I’ve got the second and third Boston albums. Always just assumed I had the first! Don’t worry, I’ll fix that ASAP.

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  9. I love when you can do something out of the regular routine!
    I’m also shocked about the guitars being upside down, I had no clue! We would be terrible detectives.
    Yeah, it’s pretty crappy about you never having a hangover.
    You should start faking it to make your wife feel better.

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  10. For what it’s worth, I have that Boston album on vinyl, along with another 100 or so that haven’t seen a turntable in many, many years. Too bad you’re not a little closer, you could have a look.

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