As the COVID number simmer in a shallow pool of water, most restrictions have loosened up in LA…for fully vaccinated individuals.
Even though I am fully jabbed, I don’t know about you, but I’m still a little uneasy entering stores or bars with no mask. But I guess it’s the new – old normal – that we’re gonna have to start getting used to. I also feel a little anxious meeting up with friends I haven’t seen at all during the pandemic as I’ve been either working (in a bubble) or keeping the knot real tight.
It’s time for Brits in LA to start considering in-person events finally – a lot of people have missed ouR breakfast get togethers and as much as Sandro Monetti has enjoyed and we have all appreciated it, pub quiz belongs back in a… pub, right?
A few of us Brits got together at the Market Tavern last week to watch the England vs Scotland game for the Euros. Awkwardness ensued as we weighed up a greeting…..should it be a fist bump, an elbow tap or to just go in for a big hug? It ended up being a weird fumble of both and with an ice-breaking chuckle and then there we were… back to normal… eating fish and chips and downing a cheeky pint! It was fitting that the somewhat dull game ended in a draw.
At the weekend we took a few friends out to Silver Lake, but we still took our precautionary masks. And to be honest it’s become somewhat of a security blanket.
It’s nice that even without a Pride Parade this year, plenty of establishments are acknowledging it.
Silver Lake used to be a Mecca for the LatinX and queer folks in the 70s – (and some people were both) giving a ery Armisted Maupin Tales Of The City/ San Francisco 1970s vibe.
Today’s it’s still very different to the Weho, a somewhat preppy six pack crowd that can get very messy. Silver Lake bars still have much more of an edge. From Akbar (4356 Sunset Boulevard) a dive bar with a juke box) where everyone’s welcome – to The Eagle, which is much more niche catering to the bears (burly men with beards and hairy chests) there’s a tiny room called The Tavern at the bottom of a flight of stairs behind a dingy Mexican restaurant, that is the home to the Queer Theatre. Current shows feature: an OTT rehashing of the Golden Girls revue played by drag queens. Pretty hilarious.
But one thing I really did miss during the pandemic, was dancing! Good music and great dancing, sweaty bodies on a dance floor, people getting lost in the music – high or not.
Club impresarios Gregory Alexander and Loren Granich brought back ”A club called Rhonda” at Los Globos (3040 Sunset Boulevard), featuring 1990s House music which plays all night so you truly can’t help but dance… although I had convinced myself I had forgotten how to and resorted to the dad shuffle many times. Oh how the coolness has left my body, as the blonde color turned to grey and the many fine lines turned into deep crevices. Inevitably thoughts of ‘am I getting to old for this’? creep in… but then considering the lost year of 2020 I thought, ‘to hell with it…let go of all fears and throw caution to the wind’. So I did. And I had one of the best nights ever with Real People!
Welcome back all! See you on the dance floor!
Love from the oldest man out there…Craig Young
