Spiral Entertainment, I Loathe Thee

Spiral Entertainment organizes quite a few parties in Atlanta such as Halloween, St. Patrick’s, NYE, Day Before Thanksgiving (WTF?) and most recently the OysterFest this weekend.

Now I went to their Halloween thing back in 2006 and that was pretty fun once I could squeeze my way through the crowd. OysterFest was pretty much a repeat. You could smell the seafood from Monroe. I didn’t get there until 5 and the place was packed. No overflow into the park… just cram everybody into Park Tavern. And they had a wedding reception upstairs last night too.

In a moment of brilliance, both my friend Tricia and myself forgot to get cash from the ATM before going. The on-site ATM was out of cash. There was only one bar which could accept plastic and about 200 people had the same idea as me. So we stood in “line” for about 45 minutes trying to get beer. People were ordering like seven drinks at a time, most of which were mixed drinks, and passing them along to their friends not in the line. Meanwhile, I’m missing pretty much all of Cowboy Mouth’s set. I was chatting with this girl next to me about how we could jump out of line right now, walk to the Kroger on Ponce, buy beer, walk back and drink most of it before the people in front of us got their drinks.

So we finally got beer. Hooray for double-fisting Guinness! Got pretty close to the band, saw the last four songs or so.

I have tons of respect for someone who can simultaneously play the drums and be the band’s frontman. And chick bassists are the hottest thing since heels and thongs.

Afterwards we bailed and drove over to Six Feet Under on Memorial Dr. for some more trustworthy seafood. If you’ve never been to this place, let me give you the rundown. It’s in the Grant Park area. They have a rooftop patio which is awesome in the spring, and you have this beautifully morbid view of the Oakland Cemetary. (Get the irony of the restaurant’s name… har har har) So this place was packed, line spilling into the parking lot. So Tricia suggests we go to their other location on 11th near Tech campus. Free valet parking = yes. Their rooftop patio gives this awesome panoramic view of the city, partially obscured by a parking garage that went up across the street. Food was good, music wasn’t live but still my taste, and it looked like a fun place to get a beer after work.

So we’re trying to see what everyone is doing later that night. Seems like I have a lot of friends who don’t like to go out. Phil was just enjoying a chicken nugget dinner and said he may go over to the Righteous Room later. By the time we left Six Feet he had already relocated to The Local on Ponce. We stayed there till about 12:30 drinking PBR and shooting the shit, giving the eye to college girls. One of the biggest challenges a guy faces when meeting girls is when they are in groups of three or more, especially if he’s flying solo. Here, not only does he need to open the whole group but win over his target AND her friends. Tough without a wingman.

Lesson of the day: Bring cash.

I’m off to see “No Country for Old Men.” It’s been out forever and I hear amazing things. But the Academy Awards are tonight and though I have no intention of watching, I’m sick of sticking my fingers in my ears whenever someone wants to discuss this movie.