Got a late start heading out to the Antic this year. Neither of us felt like going actually which was weird since I looked forward to it all month. We dragged our tired asses out there regardless and had a great time. We didn't partake in many of the food offerings but it was great to ponder each one.
The restaurants really took it up a few notches, especially Jolie with roast pigs and a boat filled with oysters and shrimp. I think they did that last year but it seemed so high-brow this time. The Last Chance had go-go dancers which is always fun. The belly dancer was a man the first time we went by the big ugly stage and then a very cool older woman on the walk back. Someone was serving lobster rolls that looked spectacular and the line was long so they musta been great.
The new Roebling Bar stage was nice because it was at the end and that block has become more and more interesting. The band was good, sounded like the Stone Roses to me but that might piss them off. You never want to say what a band sounds like, especially when they're real young and you're.. not. We hightailed it out of there pretty quick. I'm not sure I can get into the right loud indie mindset at a street fair. Maybe I'm wrong. The old guys playing Stones covers down the next block were more my thing and they were great but its always sad looking around and seeing what you might look like too, sort of out of date and not so good anymore. Sigh. It's almost like you have no business rockin' anymore, not in those shoes anyway.
It was too crowded to really browse the booths and to be honest, I really held P indoors a couple of hours past his manageable level. I musta heard 10 versions of Jesus Take the Wheel before I yanked him out of the house. So he was in no condition to really be cool or
stroll for that matter. It was more like a speedwalk through the first few blocks until we actually had a listen to a good band, then I think we both remembered why we like coming each year, to relax and just enjoy the whole scene. Plus its like a block away, so it hasn't exactly been a big trek.
But the whole reason that the Antic is special I think is because Atlantic Avenue is such a big, ugly block that's noisy and too wide and dangerous to cross on a normal day. There are cool restaurants and shops all along it though. But on this one day a year only you can really see those vendors and owners schlepping their goods in a simpler one-on-one kind of exchange. It makes it all more human. Even Hanks with a nice country band playing in front of the logo seemed like the nice corner bar. Usually it's obnoxious and the sidewalk crowd is weathered old fu%$s from the Mulenberg that may want to fight ya if they don't nod out first. This is so much better than that!
