Friday, August 17, 2007

Little Rock and Easy Street

You know, every one warned me that Little Rock AR was not going to be a good place for a cross dresser to go out. We're talking the bible belt here where anything not found in your Sunday school classes is likely to be frowned on. To tell the truth, I had my own doubts, but I think they were unfounded.

Monday, my first day there, I went to a Barnes and Noble book store and purchased a couple of
books. Either no one "made" me or they were decent and polite - no worries there. The SA at the register was cute and adorable (wow I wish I were young again) and smiled at me as we did the debit card thing. Among other things she told me she thought my hair was cute! I am getting much more comfortable dealing with people and my smart a$$ tendencies had me biting my tongue before telling her that she too could own this hair for the low low price of . . . nah, I just smiled and told her thank you very much!

Went from there to the movies where I saw "Star Dust" - A real cute show! Wonderful scenes and costumes to die for! By the way, the movie has a few scenes about cross dressing! They were reasonably kind with their portrayal - I can't elaborate any more without giving away too much info and being a spoiler. It's not gonna make my top ten favorite movie list but it was worth the seeing.

I went from the movies to a place called Easy Street in Little Rock. It's a piano bar that I found on line.
On this night I was not terribly impressed to be honest. It was fairly nice way to spend the evening, but being all by myself it was not real exciting. I tried to order a Long Island Ice Tea (HEY! I never hid the fact that I'm a lush here!) and the bartender politely informed me that they serve wine and beer - suddenly a beer sounded like the ticket! I guess I never will pick up a taste for wine.

They had one gentleman on the piano and another on a small set of drums. They were OK, and drinking a beer and listening to them beat the hell outta sitting alone in my hotel room. There were a few people there, but they had their own little click going. I heard one of them joking with the others about fake nails when he did drag, so I made a wise crack or two as a feeble effort to join the conversation - no one took the bait so I pretty much kept to myself.

Tuesday and Wednesday sucked for me! The instrument installation I was here to perform had gone very poorly forcing me to work late both days thus killing any chance or desire for going out. Things went so poorly that I had to extend my stay until Friday to complete the install - this turned out to be a good thing as I would later find out! Things finally came together for my install on Thursday and I wound up getting off around 2PM - PLENTY of time to go out so I headed back to Easy Street!

Wow! If y'all weren't at "Easy Street" in Little Rock Arkansas Thursday night (and you weren't - I would have spotted you!) you missed a hell of a show! As you know from my posting my own songs in my blog, I am an amateur musician/song writer. While I don't place myself into the "good" category, I would like to think that I am good enough that I can at least spot good musicians. I've got to tell you, these guys were great!
Often with groups like this that get together once or twice a week, your dealing with a bunch of folks like me that have day jobs and then dabble with music at night - not these guys. Maybe that IS what they do, but if so, they are damn good at their night job! This sort of Jazz is not really my preferred style of music, but I was captivated the moment I walked in. They play together as a team - musicians will know what I mean. Often musicians all want to outdo each other, to wow the folks, and who cares if the music or song suffers a bit for it - not these guys. They played TOGETHER and when it came time for a solo (and there were a lot with this style of music) they backed of politely and let the soloist have the moment.

They had 6 players - a piano player, the drummer, the bass, and three horns. I've never actually been in the same room with people playing horns - every band I've ever been around was purely guitar and key boards. These guys were just awesome - each and everyone of them clearly an expert on their instrument - it was a joy to experience. There was a large crowd there and these folks were active and vocal, cheering them on, dancing, and just having a good time.

OK, so the band was good - doesn't mean you want to go there right? I was the only TGirl there and obviously stood out just a bit. Several patrons smiled, and one real cute little blond girl even smiled and waved hello to me, so we are talking nice folks. The owner himself came and sat with me twice - once to introduce himself, and once just to be a good host.

I was just way impressed with this place and with the people and band in it. Here I thought Little Rock was gonna suck, but after this, it is near the top of my list of places I will look forward to visiting. So, if you find yourself in Little Rock Arkansas for the night, especially a Thursday night, make sure you drop into Easy Street and enjoy the awesome music and the friendly atmosphere!

On my trip home, I went through the Detroit airport. They have a really awesome tunnel that takes you to one of the terminals. It provides both a music and light show, and I was so captivated that I made a short video using my cell phone:


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