In search of grottiness
Mar-Vic, Gemma and My Giant Head. Look at that forehead, it’s like an airstrip. With lights! I had slept four hours in two days and was running on fumes.
My friend Mar-Vic has been a journalist in the Marianas (Saipan then Guam) for seven years. We used to work together at our late lamented newspaper Today. (Incidentally my Yoda Teddyboy is in New York for a couple of months. If you run into him at a bookstore or restaurant, two places where you are likely to run into him, please tell him to get back to writing. It must be fun yelling at the stupid/obtuse in the House, but we need him to start writing again.)
That’s Mar-Vic in the photo in a raspberry beret, the kind you buy in a second-hand store. Yesterday was her birthday. I went to her birthday dinner at a hotel buffet restaurant. Present was another Today alumnus, Gemma, who also works at a Guam newspaper.
After dinner Mar-Vic gave me a tour of the dive bars of Guam, presumably places frequented by military personnel and derelicts.
First we went to Wild Bill’s, which instantly disappointed me because it is not grotty enough. It is set in a low building, like a trailer, in an open field. The bartender was Pinay. There was a raffle for the benefit of a group that is raising money to go to New Zealand for some ultimate fighting tournament or something. Oddly enough the raffle prizes included cutlery (I suppose knives are always useful, and in a pinch a fork is a weapon) and baking instruments. I kept thinking, “How badass can a dive bar be if the TVs are all tuned to the Food Network?” Do brawls break out over Alton Brown?
Then we went to The Horse and Cow. It is sleazier, but not by much. The music playing was Word Up by Cameo. That’s all one needs to know.
The last stop was the Tower of London, an English pub, where I heard Smashing Pumpkins’s 1979 for the first time since 1997. Suddenly I missed Smashing Pumpkins. I was thinking, “How badass can a pub be if they still display framed wedding portraits of Prince Charles and the Lady Diana?”
Granted, I’d had four hours of sleep in two days and all I wanted to do was fall asleep. The most exciting part of the tour was stopping at a grocery for over-the-counter headache tablets. I love American groceries, even the small ones seem vast and they have so much stuff. Then I went back to my hotel and slept like the dead. It was wonderful.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
October 16th, 2010 at 20:54
Looks good to me. It’s not as if you’re the real firestarter…
October 17th, 2010 at 00:18
There’s probably an ancient English law, punishable by beheading, that you have to have some sort of regal memorabilia if you’re English. Even if it’s locked away in a deep dark place nobody will ever get to.
October 17th, 2010 at 07:22
Ms. J, I have that kind of forehead, too, but I hide it with bangs. It’s good that you’re brave enough to display it for all to see, unlike me.
In fairness, I love your arms. Mine have become humongous now that I’ve gain weight. Never thought you ARE thin…Peace! :D
October 17th, 2010 at 07:38
chinggay: Haha, I’ve looked the same since early childhood. Never had bangs, I’d probably spend all my time pushing them away from my forehead. Naah, I’ll never be thin. It’s the angle.
October 18th, 2010 at 00:53
none of these actually qualify as dive bars. i would suggest bob’s whispering palms, which you should visit during the day. it’s actually kind of frightening.
October 18th, 2010 at 06:31
:D Dunno, but if I myself would try that pose, I’m sure mine won’t look as small. I once struck a pose similar to that and my two sis giggled nonstop. I say you’re thin! :)