Food and Drink c/o Moonshine and Late Night Randomness with Midnight Magic and Holy Ghost!

Sometimes when I don't go to the country I feel like my Philly weekends are wasted...I stay in instead of going out, seeing very few people and not having many new experiences. This is just how it is sometimes, but there are moments when I'd very much like it to be otherwise. Such a sentiment was in full effect a few weeks back, when I knew I was going to be in Philly but had no social plans. This was unacceptable to me so I reached out to the folks I do know in the city to see if some kind of fun time thing could be arranged. CPM reached out, saying that she and her hubby R.'s friend J. had invited them to a "Friends and Family" restaurant opening night, and that I was welcome to jump on in. I happily accepted and on a Saturday evening we went to Moonshine. It was totally packed with South Philly folks who knew the family behind this new venue. At first we stood awkwardly by one of the water stations, generally getting in the way of customer and server alike, but the mood was convivial - even when we bumped, no one was angry or perturbed. Eventually J.'s friend or another family member set us up at a proper table to better allow us to enjoy the free beverages and samples of a variety of dishes. I think before getting seated we got to try the lasagna, which was a nice change from overly cheesed and was, I believe, vegetarian. They also had housemade pineapple infused vodka that they then were willing to serve with seltzer. Here is me holding two cups, though I think only one was alcoholic.

Multitasking!

I believe this was kind of a Latin styled pulled pork with plantain, also tasty.

The pineapple drink was lovely, but most of us stuck mainly to bottle beers. At some point we decided it was time to depart. J. and his GF had to make sure that their overnight guests could get into their house out in the suburbs, and R. and CPM had some kind of early morning event...so I decided that I might as well try to swing by the TLA to catch the tail end of a concert I had learned was going on that very evening. In previous years I've always tried to swing by when either Holy Ghost! or Midnight Magic is in town because I tangentially knew a member or two of their respective groups back in my college days. CPM and AS came with me to see Holy Ghost! and Chromeo a few years back, and the dancing portion of my birthday night last year came c/o Midnight Magic. So even as my phone died and there would be no way for me to actually say hello to the guys, I figured I'd give it a good college try.  

I arrived so late into the show that the girl at the front door let me in without buying a ticket, which was nice of her because I basically caught one and a half songs before Holy Ghost! was done. Then I awkwardly stood at the front of the stage to see if I could catch a glimpse of either of the two dudes that I would want to say hello to/would recognize my face. I was not alone in this endeavor, which made me feel even funnier. After not too long one of the other members of HG made eye contact with me and I said 'Could you just tell Alex or Andrew that Caroline from Bard says hello?' and he seemed willing to do this like he did not think it strange, though it looked like he was disappointing some other dude who was standing next to me and wanted to talk about music. The surprising turn of events here is that neither Alex nor Andrew came out. Instead it was B., who was part of the main crew of folks I 'ran with' my freshmen year of college and was the conduit through which I ever knew the other two dudes. We have easily not seen each other in about 10 years so it was like, really neat, but also kind of awkward...any time when you try to have a conversation about what your life has been like over a whole decade, and to ask questions of any import in regards to another's decade of life, well it just makes the fact that you're basically strangers come into wider relief. Though I still reminisced a bit, for better or worse, and was glad to see B. after so many years. We then went backstage where folks really just wanted to pack up and haul stuff and I kept getting in the way because I wanted to be useful. I was also wearing ridiculously tall shoes so I think the whole thing was kind of wacky, but I stuck around nonetheless. And because I am myself, I wanted photographic evidence of the whole thing...but my phone had died, so I ended up asking Alex to take a phone with his phone and then send me a photo. Demanding I was, but the photo came out pretty good.

Then they really were getting into 'load the bus' mode, so I made my exit...but not before getting a snap with B. too. Ugh, I look round all over, but that's just what it is.

A blurry view of them packing up as I left.