Full Circle

New York seems to collectively suffer in the rain. I love New York, but it's probably one of the ugliest cities when it rains; if cities could ugly cry, that's what New York does when it rains. Amsterdam cries pretty, but not Manhattan.

There are a lot of dogs in my neighborhood, and today all the ones I saw stood in protest. They came out of their buildings suspiciously, sniffed the air, and then dug in their heels and refused to go into the rain. Most New York dogs are small however, so with a sharp jerk of their leash they tumbled forward, and trotted grudgingly forward, looking balefully at the passerbys as their paws got wet in the puddles. I couldn't help but think, amusingly, of the Human Rights Watch slogan, "tyranny has a witness!"

Trader Joes is my local supermarket, and the line is always absurd on the weekends, wrapping around the entire store. Sometimes you even have to line up to get in. I have a dinner party though, so I had no choice but to brave the crowd. While standing in line, I heard a screech like a banshee, which turned out to be a child announcing her oncoming tantrum. She was probably on 3 or 4, but she screamed like she was being tortured. "No daddy," she managed to utter out through tears and huffing and random screams, "the line is too long. IT'S TOO LONG!!" She was right of course. But it got so bad that an employee came and took them out from the end of the line, directly to the register. A small part of me judged because I think it's not right for children to get their way just by making a scene, but for the most part I was simply grateful that the noise stopped. Rain puts everyone in a bad mood.

One of my favorite things about the city is the diversity. I spent yesterday evening in Koreatown, which isn't touristy like Chinatown. I used to only eat there, but in the past year I've come to discover a lot of really nice bars and lounges there too. 

Starry Night Lounge

I went to this restaurant called Starry Night Lounge that doubles as a bar, with Christmas Lights everywhere. They have a painting of Sailor Moon on the wall, though I'm not sure if that's for the benefit of the women or the men. The funny thing is though, they have a secret karaoke room under the stairs. We had gone there because a friend was looking for a friend, and couldn't find him anywhere. The waitress gestured to the secret room, and we opened the door. The room erupted in cheers in Korean as soon as they recognized my friend. Korean karaoke was blaring in the background. 

Leading to the second floor of Starry Night Lounge

One person in the party had suffered from a recent break up, so he really wanted to go to Circle, a Korean nightclub, which is predominantly attended by Asians directly from Asia. I have only been to Circle once, and didn't like it very much. That evening was an interesting cultural experience for me. I usually pride myself on being both Asian and American, but that night I felt very American, and very out of place, kind of like the last time I went to Circle. I wonder if it would be any different if it were a Chinese club, but I doubt it since there were a lot of Chinese people there too. I would say Circle may be the Asian equivalent of me going to a hoe down party in the Deep South, where I would probably feel extremely Asian, and also out of place. 

I don't know so much about Circle, but its reputation is that it's a racist organization. They allegedly only let East Asians in. Once I went with a white person, and they told us there was a "private party" that evening. Maybe that really was the case, but it was a bit fishy. My two German friends also tried to go once, and got denied entry. Maybe the only way a non Asian person would get in is either with a large bribe, or if they were hidden behind a chain of 10 Asians, or they were a celebrity. I think Usher was there once, with Psy, the Gangnam Style guy.

Conveniently placed inside, where most of the people who
might have been discriminated against would not see it.

We went there quite late, so the line was ridiculous. I had gone out straight from work, so I was pretty much dressed like the boys, in a suit, while the majority of the women were decked out in dresses. They had a policy of separating the women from the men in groups, so there was a line for the women, and a line for the men, with the women's line moving a lot faster. It was cold that night, but I have a pretty good jacket so that wasn't a major issue. I was more annoyed about being herded by gender like chickens--those who lay eggs here, those who don't there. I also wasn't a big fan of Circle to begin with, and when one of my friends came and told us that it would probably take at least 45 minutes for the boys to be able to go inside, I pretty much turned into a child and pulled a similar stunt as the little girl in Trader Joes.

"NO!" I said. "Just no! I am too old for this!" In reality it's probably not an age thing, because there were plenty of older people there, but I do remember being more inclined to obey bouncers and stand shivering in the winter, waiting on the doorman's whim when I was in my early twenties. Maybe I've just been in New York for long enough that clubs aren't so appealing anymore. "There are plenty of other places nearby where we don't have to go through this ridiculous line." 

Even though I explained in adult words, in my head I was thinking exactly what the little girl at trader joes had been shouting: "the line is too long. IT'S TOO LONG!!" I didn't quite go with all the gusto that the trader joes girl did, because I probably would have gotten arrested. We left the line, and a bunch of girls in five inch heels teetered forward happily to take our place. As we left however, they suddenly started letting everyone in (maybe tantrums do work), so we ended up just turning around and going in.

We ran into a friend of a friend's who was simply delighted to be there; he looked like the King of the club, beaming happily at everyone. I sang a song with him, which seemed to make him very happy. The next song came on, and I didn't know it. "You sing!" He commanded. 

"But I don't know this one," I said. 

"You hum!" He modified his request. I did my best, luckily it got drowned out by the sound of the fog machine coming on.

I did have fun, which isn't saying that much because I'm a pretty optimistic person and I usually manage to have fun wherever I go. Nevertheless, it was extremely crowded, and I felt like I was in a subway car during rush hour. I wouldn't recommend going to Circle again.

In another note, I went to a really nice concert venue in Williamsburg during the week. Not nice as in fancy, but nice as in not too crowded, smaller intimate space, and reasonably priced (tickets were 12 dollars) It's actually a record store called the Rough Trade. We went to see Shura, and she had two cover bands. Nobody was particularly famous, if at all, but they were all decent. 

I actually forgot the name of this band...but this is their guitarist