Bring Out Your Inner Slovak

Something that Spike and I have come to realize is that the weekends in Portland don't always necessarily mean that we'll have a ton of things to do. In San Francisco, we could take the train into the city and find some new restaurant or activity to experience every time. Portland isn't that kind of town - it's small even though its Maine's largest city.

This past Friday was no different. We'd finished dinner and were sitting on the couch watching tv at 8:00 when the feeling of being bored and lame came to us both at the same time. We asked ourselves, "When did we become some boring? What's wrong with us?" It is understood that we don't find each other boring, just the situations that we've found ourselves in lately. So Spike went back to the New York Times article (posted in the entry before this one) and suggested we go bowling. Sure, it seems like one of those last resort kind of things, but we were desperate to get out of the house.

Bayside Bowl is a fancy looking bowling alley that doesn't bring back memories of those seedy types you remember from being a kid. No obnoxious carpet, no cigarettes allowed, no arcade games, and certainly no soggy nachos with fake "queso." This place has a real kitchen with a menu and a full bar. Not to mention a stage with a band playing there that night! We were in for a treat. We put our name down to reserve an alley and got a beer while we waited.

The band that was playing that night was Slavic Soul Party. I can't liken it to anything specific because I really think they're the only band that does this kind of music. Take a New Orleans funeral procession. Now make them white and add one hispanic dude. Now make them play eastern European music, but put a funky soul beat behind it. Now you have the band. These guys killed. The drummers came off the stage a few times, trumpeters and trombonists soloed and the accordion player serenaded. We cancelled our lane and just listened to the band. And danced. And smiled. Now does anything like this exist in Texas? I don't know, but I'm just glad they came up to entertain us for the evening so we didn't have to watch "Bruce Almighty" on Fox.