open mike report
Jul. 5th, 2003 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Sweetwater, 2003-07-05
I've been playing around the south bay for a few years but have never made it up to the north bay for Sweetwater's well-regarded open mike. Today I learned why. It only took me half an hour to get to San Francisco, and then it took AN HOUR to drive a few miles from the freeway to the Golden Gate Bridge. A local assured me that it usually isn't that bad. We'll see.
Anyway, it was a light crowd--Saturday afternoons are sort of a new thing there, plus it's a holiday weekend, so people are out of town, plus it was a gorgeous day and who would want to be sitting in a bar? Still, there was some walk-in traffic, and the other musicians were very friendly. One of them gave me cherry-peach pie! (It was her birthday yesterday.) I'm hoping to get up there again for a Monday night open mike soon. Surely it'll be a faster trip during rush hour!
Afterwards I walked around looking for a place to eat, and learned that Mill Valley drivers are maddeningly polite about crosswalks. One guy stopped his car at a crosswalk when I was just standing on the sidewalk deciding where to go, and I had to cross the street just to be polite. That took me to a place called Avatar's Punjabi Burritos, where I had a Punjabi burrito, something I had never encountered before even as a phrase. It was good, though.
I've been playing around the south bay for a few years but have never made it up to the north bay for Sweetwater's well-regarded open mike. Today I learned why. It only took me half an hour to get to San Francisco, and then it took AN HOUR to drive a few miles from the freeway to the Golden Gate Bridge. A local assured me that it usually isn't that bad. We'll see.
Anyway, it was a light crowd--Saturday afternoons are sort of a new thing there, plus it's a holiday weekend, so people are out of town, plus it was a gorgeous day and who would want to be sitting in a bar? Still, there was some walk-in traffic, and the other musicians were very friendly. One of them gave me cherry-peach pie! (It was her birthday yesterday.) I'm hoping to get up there again for a Monday night open mike soon. Surely it'll be a faster trip during rush hour!
Afterwards I walked around looking for a place to eat, and learned that Mill Valley drivers are maddeningly polite about crosswalks. One guy stopped his car at a crosswalk when I was just standing on the sidewalk deciding where to go, and I had to cross the street just to be polite. That took me to a place called Avatar's Punjabi Burritos, where I had a Punjabi burrito, something I had never encountered before even as a phrase. It was good, though.