geezerpunks

Sunday night's O'Banion's reunion was at LateBar, a new venue on Belmont Avenue in Chicago's Avondale neighborhood. It's a typical shiny-clean brand new neighborhood bar, with silver-framed square format photos on the walls, 10x10-inch very tightly cropped head shots of fashionable women, and a big screen on the back wall behind the dance floor.

The crowd peaked early and had largely dispersed by a little after midnight, pretty much the reverse of the old days when many of us would grab an early evening nap, and then go out from midnight til dawn.

The punk documentaries on the screen were fascinating even without sound, as the DJs filled the aural spectrum with old tunes. The energy on the dance floor was as intense as ever, and I worked up a pretty good sweat in the crowded and warm room. A thunderstorm passing just to the south, lighting illuminating the front windows, added a bit of menace to the air.

Mariah joined me for the event, and Chrystyne was present for a couple of hours mid-evening. I stayed til closing, then went to breakfast at Hollywood Grill in time to witness some low-level drama; four 20-somethings who refused to wait their turn in the very crowded restaurant, piling into a table still being cleaned up ahead of others who had been waiting. The waitstaff simply ignored them, refused to serve them, and when the protests rose to the level of yelling armed security arrived to suggest a quiet departure. Well, it wasn't exactly quiet, but the troublemakers did depart as additional security and a few cops began to arrive outside.

It was almost light by the end of breakfast, and I took a nearly empty Lake Shore Drive north, Lake Michigan calm as glass in the grey dawn.

Monday was mostly a rest day, and today it was back to work... with e-mails flying all morning, as paperwork related to two large projects came in from clients and was forwarded to admin, and as I arranged to fly out additional folks to help get it all done. There's also a document in quality control, due to go to the client tomorrow, and several other things happening. It's going to be a busy week, leading up to another gallery reception and more photos next weekend.