I got a compliment from a friend the other day that made me feel very proud in a modest sort of way. He said, “Well, Paul, you do tend to finish things.” We were talking about a novel I have recently started. I have no idea if I will finish it. But with my friend’s kind approbations added to the analysis, I like my odds.
Tag: The St. Andrews Bar and Grill
-
“Confession at St. Andrews”: Chapter 11 of THE STARTING GATE at St. Andrews
We’re getting close now. I finished my book, The Starting Gate, a month or so ago. And now we’re even coming up on the end of my public chapter readings at the St. Andrews Bar and Grill. There are only three left now.
So I hope you’ll consider joining me as I read “Confession at St. Andrews”, the eleventh chapter of my book, about my favorite bar in Seattle.
I’m at the St. Andrew’s.
It doesn’t matter when. Unlike the Starting Gate the St. Andrew’s still exists in what I’m currently calling the present, and so there’s a changelessness to the time I spend here.
The bartender Mark, who also happens to be one of the owners, is again holding court, again stringing along some beer and food salesmen, who sit a few stools down from me. Mark has told me that he has the vendors come in only on Thursdays, which is his day to open the bar. He’ll listen to their sales spiels, but they in turn have to listen to his shtick: his filthy stories, his dumb dirty jokes, and his cutting critiques of the products they’re hawking.
I sit on the corner so I can watch both the stage (i.e behind the bar) and audience, (i.e the bar stools.) It’s an old trick from my playwright days. Always watch the audience. Mark knows I’m watching and he knows that I plan someday to write about this place, so his performance takes on an extra enthusiasm. I’m waiting for him to say something utterly filthy and outrageous. Something designed to shock the salesmen and even me. It’ll be tough. Together we make a pretty jaded crowd.
“These young guys, come in here, trying to score some hot chick their age. I say, ‘Let me give you some advice.’”
Okay, here we go. This should be good.
Here are the details:
When: Monday, January 12, at 8pm
Where: The St. Andrews Bar, 7406 Aurora Ave. North, Seattle, WA 98103
Who: Me, and you, and probably a few others you know
How: Quick and dirty, the readings rarely last longer than 25 minutes.
Why: Why not?
-
“Johnny Got his Gun”: Chapter 8 of THE STARTING GATE at St. Andrews
Next Monday I’ll be reading the eighth chapter of my book The Starting Gate at St. Andrews Bar And Grill in Green Lake. This chapter is titled “Johnny Got his Gun”, and tells the story of what happened when some hillbilly hold-up artists tried to rob the pharmacy across the street from the bar I worked in as a teenager.
Over the years, my views of the role of the gun in civilized society have evolved to a position practically diametric in opposition to the one inculcated in me as kid; but nothing in life is truly clear and simple, and if you think the myth of “The Good Guy with A Gun” is nothing but that, a harmful myth, then you might want come consider this story.
Here’s a quickie excerpt:
“See what happened was there was a guy at the door that was holding the girl and this other fellah with the screwdriver on the little girl’s throat.”
“Who does that?” my brother interjected at the table.
“Right?” said John. “One guy’s got this cannon of a .357. The other’s got nothing but a screw driver.” All three of us shook our heads and grimaced at the occasional idiocy of rednecks. Then John continued, “So I said ‘Frosty, are you carrying.’ Or I might’ve said, ‘Are you packin’?’”
“And he said, ‘Yeah.’”
And here are the details:
When: Monday, September 29 at 8pm
Where: The St. Andrews Bar, 7406 Aurora Ave. North, Seattle, WA 98103
Who: Me, and you, and probably a few others you know
How: Quick, dirty and FREE! PLUS the readings rarely last longer than 25 minutes.
Why: Why not?
-
“What Should I be Doing?”: Chapter 7 of THE STARTING GATE at St. Andrews
Next Monday I’ll be reading the seventh chapter of my book The Starting Gate at St. Andrews Bar And Grill in Green Lake. This chapter is titled “What Should I be Doing?”, and you could say that the entire book is both an response to—as well as a reiteration of—this question. For any artist the answer can be either easy and glib:“My art, what else?”; or excruciating and profound: “I have no idea, but I am doing it anyway.”
Life has meant a lot of changes for me in this past year or so. But I ain’t afraid. (Or, well, not much.) It ain’t the change that kills ya. (Or, well, not until it does.)
Here’s a quickie excerpt:
What should I be doing?
At the Starting Gate I always knew. Clear the rails. Drag and dump the trash cans. Clean the floors. Is it Wednesday? Then you better wax and buff them, too. Load beer. Stock the liquor shelves. Is it summer? Bag ice. Is it winter? Chop wood. But that was back when I was boy, learning to be a man. And the “what-should-I-be-doing?” question was a simple tactical one. Now is now, and now, like it or not—and I don’t like it at all—I am a middle-aged man, 13 years older than my father when he died and kicked off the perfect experiment, and my existential problem is no longer tactical, but stark strategy: trying to figure out what to do when there is nothing to do.
What should I be doing?
I got nothing
And here are the details:
When: Monday, August 18 at 8pm
Where: The St. Andrews Bar, 7406 Aurora Ave. North, Seattle, WA 98103
Who: Me, and you, and probably a few others you know
How: Quick and dirty, the readings rarely last longer than 25 minutes.
Why: Why not?