Accidental Tweetup

When virtual and terrestrial worlds collide

Earlier in the day yesterday, I was posting reminders about the People’s open Mic at Maxwell’s in Hoboken. There was a brief back and forth between myself and a person on Twitter called CraftLass. Apparently, there was a typo on the Maxwell’s site showing a $10 cover for the night. Luckily it was cleared up pretty quick.

In the meantime, I read a bit of CraftLass’s blog.

I clicked over expecting a blog about arts and crafts. Ya know, long, drawn out instructional blog entries about projects involving buttons and bottle caps and yarn and glue guns and fake flowers and such. Instead I found a snarky, thought-provoking string of opinion by a somewhat prolific girl referring to herself as, “a renaissance man in the body of a modern woman.”

That blog I was reading was just one of three. The other two are The Forgotten Size and CraftLass Gamer Girl. Satisfied that I had stumbled upon some talent, I confidently clicked the old follow button back on Twitter. Not giving it a second thought, I went about the rest of my day until it was time to go to Maxwell’s.

I got to the open mic late (of course). I missed most of the acts, but my friends were there which is always a good enough reason to hang out. The well-poured, ice-cold Guinness helped too. The night progressed (or regressed) as normal into a laugh-filled stumbling to a bar closer to my home; DC’s. This could become the Monday night tradition. Open Mic at Maxwell’s, nightcaps at DC’s.

While outside with Lloyd Gold of Lloyd United, we started chatting to these girls, one of whom was among the performers I had missed named Kassy. She was towing her guitar in a massive solid case balanced and tethered precariously on a little luggage cart. Oddly, every guy seemed to have some allergic reaction, repelling them from the cart as this tiny girl came barreling along.

Chivalry may not be dead, but it is not at all well. It lays weak on a hospital bed awaiting a drip of life from the nurse. In my head I’m thinking, if she’s coming to DC’s, I’ll wheel the beast for her. So I did. As I did, we started what would be a most wonderfully long conversation.

This continued at DC’s as Kassy, along with Lloyd, open mic host Dave Entwistle and a girl named Sara whom we met that night, played pool. We also Shanghaied comedian Adam Wade on our way into the bar. He has a new donut-inspired project coming up some time soon, but I digress.

Closing time came upon us pretty fast and we all were standing outside the bar saying our goodbyes. Since we had all made new friends, we thought it would be good to exchange information. Like a moment out of a movie Kassy takes my card she says, “Hey! You’re the Cultural Exchange Advocate?!” I said, “Yeah.” She said, “I’m CraftLass!” At which point I yelled, “Holy Shit!!” and we hugged as if we were long-lost family members separated in a war or something.

Just then, fellow open mic’er Ben Carmichael suggested we hang out in nearby Church Square Park and drink some beer. With my 43rd birthday creeping up, loitering in the middle of the night, hiding cans of PBR from the cops smacked a little too much of high school for me. Of course I went anyway.

Lloyd, Ben, Sara, Kassy and I (once again with guitar in tow), walked to the park where we pontificated about music and culture, politics and architecture, and pissing in the bushes. Until the cops came and shooed us away. But approaching dawn be damned! The night didn’t end there.

Ben and Sara wandered off leaving Lloyd, Kassy and myself to walk over to the grounds of an apartment complex closer to our homes. Coincidentally, we all live within in a couple of blocks of each other. There we sat on a metal barricade and continued debating the problems of the world.

This time, cops just passed us by. It went on like this until 4:00 AM when that familiar vibration of worried texts began to arrive from significant others.

I handed off my guitar towing duties to its rightful owner. On my short walk home, I relived that amazing moment when this craptastic social media nonsense that is normally the bane of my existence finally paid off in a real, tangible way. Not in money or web traffic, but in friendship.

Thanks Twitter. You’re still a pain in my ass though.