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Post 1777, Day 336 of 2016
- 2,162 days since I started this blog -
Daily Comment
It was expected, but I got the definitive word that Mac's Bad Art Bar is closing in three weeks.
I have so many good memories about the place.
Some personal history: I moved to Syracuse at the end of June, 2008. I didn't have much going on musically, I was focused on recovering from the emotional and financial wreckage of my broken marriage, which meant focusing on the job, not on music.
But I needed the music, and my introduction to the Syracuse music scene came thanks to the local NPR Sunday night blues show, where the host mentioned, every week, at nine o'clock, that the blues jam at Rooter's was just getting started.
It took about five months of straightening myself out, and one night I went to Rooter's to check the jam out, found the scene friendly and welcoming. I made my first local friends there (not counting Al, the only person at work I had a friendship with, and that predated my move from North Carolina).
My first visit to Mac's was in the Summer of 2009. People had been telling me about a good rock open mic there, and I went to check it out. I had a pretty tepid reaction, mostly thanks to the house bass player, who seemed a bit paranoid. But I had found other open mics, so I gave Mac's a pass.
About a year later (now I'd been in Syracuse for two years) with my Reverend Ken nickname/brand well-established, I was going to open mics three and four times a week. Specifically invited to play with a musician friend, I revisited Mac's open mic. The unfriendly house bassist was gone (we're friends now, btw), and I had a great time. And came back, and became a regular.
One of the first new friends I made on that visit was Ronnie Dark, the new (to me) house band's lead singer/lead guitarist. Ronnie is younger than me by about twenty-five years, but has an encyclopedic knowledge of sixties rock, and we found we could just jam out on songs that other people didn't know. I was amazed.
Once I started showing up regularly, I came to know everybody in the bar, including the owner, Pat MacMurray. We became good friends, and that set the stage for an important next phase of my life(!).
One open mic night, after I'd done a set, Pat and I were hanging out at the stage-end of the bar listening to a trio play, and I looked at Pat and said, "These guys are good. They're the most interesting band that's come here in a while." Pat agreed.
The band had shown up without a bass player. After their set, I walked up to the leader and said, "I don't know if you have a bass player and he didn't show, or don't have a bass player and don't want one - you don't need one, you sounded great. But if you don't have a bass player and you're looking, here's my card. I'm interested."
Later that night, Pat was talking to the guy, telling him how much he liked the band, and offered that the band needed a bass player, that he knew a great one, and he'd heard the band and liked it; if you can get him, you should.
A couple of days later, I got a call from J. Brazill, songwriting leader of i am Fool, and the rest, as they say, is history. Fool played its first gig at Mac's two months later, and did our first headlining show at Mac's two months after that. We've played Mac's more than any other club.
Four months ago, after seven years hosting, Ronnie quit the open mic. Since then, the open mics have gone downhill, been less fun for me, excepting when Ronnie showed up as a player and we could jam.
Last night, I luckily learned that Ronnie was back, subbing for the guy who replaced him, I went, hoping we could throw down one more time, and we did, and, if I do say so myself, it was epic.
That's how I want to remember Mac's. Its closing saddens me. I have no idea what will take its place.
I can only be grateful for years of wonderful times there, and keep up with the friends I've made along the way.
Food and Diet
Today's Weight: 203.4 lbs.
Previous Weight (11/30): 206.0 lbs.
Net Loss/Gain: - 2.6 lbs.
Diet Comment
Finally! A one-meal, low-calorie, on-track day breaks the log jam. Sorry for mixing metaphors.
Food Log
Breakfast
3:15pm: London broil salad with Dubliner cheese, kale, spinach, chard, cabbage, chia seeds, hemp seeds and balsamic vinaigrette.
Lunch
8:00pm: Salmon curry (dal tadka (lentil curry) and wild-caught salmon with spaghetti squash.
Dinner
1:15am: Celery with cottage cheese, feta cheese and home-made mayonnaise, and a Quest bar.
Liquid Intake
Espressos: 1; Coffee: 0 oz.; Tea: 0 oz.; Water: 96+ oz. and a shot of Jameson's Irish whiskey
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Today's Weight: 200.2 lbs.
