Ah, the Clermont Lounge. If there is a better venue to expose newcomers to Atlanta to, I can't think of it. That's where Chanda, Rob, Marc, E.B., Blondie, and I started out Saturday night. This really great freind of Chanda's went too, but I can't remember her name. (Which is really bad for two reasons...1) she was really bright, attractive, fun, and interesting to talk to, and 2) it means I am probably getting really self-centered and partially senile) For those of you who aren't hip to The Clermont, you can check out the poop about it at City Search's review. They rated it "Best Dive in Atlanta", and I have to agree. http://atlanta.citysearch.com/profile/2997498/atlanta_ga/clermont_lounge.html
It's the kind of place I just love to expose Atlanta new comers to simply for the shock value. It's a classic example of the sort of little velvet-lined, smoke-filled, basement hideaways that I'm sure we deriguor in the 60's. Now it's dingy, threadbare, and just scarey and strange enough to be fun. The clientele ranges from down trodden older frazzled folks to Midtown yuppie monsters and runs the entire gambit between. There is enough booze and off-beat strippers of every age, color, and size to keep things lively and the atmosphere is quirky and up-beat.
It's like a southern-fried Fellini film with a character named Blondie (not our Blondie) as the director and lead actress. The Clermont Blondie is an African American stripper with long blond hair and is approximately as wide as she is tall. Imagine Lil Kim at 50 and you have pretty good idea. She has two specialties and schtickes that are the real hook for this place...1) She ritually crushes beer cans with her breastesses..vertically and horizontally, then kisses and signs them with lipstick, offering them to you at a nominal charge as a souvenier and 2) she provides a service known as "titty shots", involving the placement of a liquor filled testube between her enormous ta-tas, at which point the customer receiving the shot has to retreive it with their mouth, and she performs mock felatio on the test tube as you down it...southern culture on the skids, kids!
The meeting of our Blondie and the Clermont Blondie was good clean fun..."i'm blondie/no, i'm blondie/no I'M BLONDIE" etc etc etc. We left only after 1) Clermont Blondie pulled my Seven Jeans (I look good in those, by the by) down and soundly spanked me, 2) Titty Shots were had by all, and 3) We danced our booties off.
Then off to MJQ Concourse http://www.mjqatlanta.com/ for some of their infamously awesome Deep House tunes served up Saturdays. This undergroundy, sorta hidden, dark, and artsy venue has been a cool destination for the ITP set for a few years, but too many people are discovering it now, and the bud is off the rose as it's draw for hard core Midtown elitist clubbers has somewhat faded. Still a great place to hear the best new tunes in Atlanta and hang, though.
Sunday was chill out at Rob and Chanda's and watch football and eat and drink like Roman senators. The newest gay whitey urban pioneeers that bought the house across the street came over and we partied, debated, played with the mastiffs, played dice games, and enjoyed each other's company. I love all these people and would pick them to be my family. Marc's brother Steve joined us, which made me very happy.
I AM STILL 18 YEARS OLD, by God. I then realized that it was 3am and I had to meet a distributor at the warehouse at 9. Work again rears it's ugly head, but I'm ready. I actually love my job..more to come about that.
