Jottings from the Granite Studio

So Froog and I finally decided on Texas Tim’s Roadhouse for the Super Bowl. Breakfast, post-game Mexican food buffet and a big screen. The Rickshaw was a good alternate, but we’d rather have one giant screen over lots of little screens. Froog’s friend Tulsa told us that NBC might be filming the crowd at Goose and Duck for “reaction shots from around the world.” (NBC? Did she mean Fox?) I was already inclined against the Goose and Duck (the new G&D is a little too slick, very Dave & Busters meets the lobby sports bar from the Kansas City Radisson, plus its way the hell out on the 4th ring) and the camera thing cinched that. Sammy’s (Sunset Grill) was a dark horse choice, and Sammy is a very convivial host, but there are evenings when he can’t get the CD player to work right, much less an illegal satellite feed run through an overhead projector. So, Tim’s it is. I have a hunch it will be just Froog , me, and some sleepy and bemused bar staff. I watched the 2004 Super Bowl at the old John Bull, it was definitely a good time, but that pub has long passed on to trendier formats and so we head to Nuren Jie early in the morn for eggs and football. Go Pats!

On a related note (related in that this opportunity came courtesy of the aforementioned former barrister Froog) I snuck into Froog’s favorite tiny hole-in-the-wall hutong bar this afternoon to watch a jam session starring bluesman Charlie Musselwhite, who is visiting Beijing this week. Charlie played at Yugong on Friday and is scheduled to be at Cheers on Wednesday and G&D (okay, so I might have to make the trek for this one) next Saturday. It was a helluva way to pass a Sunday, I’ll tell you. Charlie was incredibly cordial and patient, taking questions from the assembled throng on positions and tongue blocks and all other fascinating topics from the realm of harmonica theory. Personally, I think the message I took away from this free clinic was simple: The Man. Can. Blow. Harp. Sweet mercy.