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Published: January 11th 2006
Yay! It's the New Year!
Riva, Steve, Kelsey and half of Shauna ring in the New Year at the Black Dog Freehouse in Edmonton. This is the first picture the author took in 2006. Neat, huh?Welcome to 2006. And what a start to the New Year it was. Like 99% of the world’s population, I started 2006 incredibly liquored up, owing to the fact that I spent the last hours of 2005 downing a wide array of alcoholic beverages. But hey, there are few better reasons to party. It was New Year’s, I was back in E-town amongst my good friends here, the Oil were locked in a fight for control over the Northwest Division with the evil Calgary Flames, and gosh darn it, I was determined to party like I was 25 again.
The evening started with some pre-drinking drinking at Susan Sava’s new place. I’d heard grand stories about Susan’s funky down-town condo and I was not disappointed when I saw it for myself. Susan’s fixed up the place really nicely. The hard-wood flooring throughout the condo looks really impressive. Also, Susan has a keen eye for style, a fact I would never have guessed based on the “Maggie goes to Town” segment from Ukrainian Pie. Her place is fabulously furnished and decorated. Cheryl described the décor as “village-like,” and I have to agree. Sitting on the benches surrounding Susan’s kitchen table was
Pre-Drinking at Susan's
Jen, Hessen, Shawna, and Susan pose for the camera early in the evening while we are all still relatively sober. just like sitting around Grekyl house with a bunch of your mates on a rainy day at the Ukrainian Village.
Susan, ever the gracious host, had pizza waiting when I arrived and was just in the process of getting a HUGE tiramisu ready for the assembled party-goers. I mean this thing was big. A starving African nation could have lived on this thing for a month provided high blood sugar didn’t get them first. So yeah, it was a sizable tiramisu, and it looked as delicious as it was large. Regrettably, though, the cake was still slightly frozen when it was served. A tiramisu that size needs a lot more time to thaw than your conventional cakes, I guess. But Susan, I want you to know that it was still good. Even though it was frozen, the flavours came through sufficiently enough for me to envision what it would have been like not frozen and it was excellent. I’d also like to state that I finished Jen’s piece for her, just in case you want to know who your real friends are.
Over pizza and frozen tiramisu, I drank and laughed with my friends. It was a nice
Pre-Drinking at Susan's 2
But that sobriety isn’t going to last, because here comes Stephen with the shooters. feeling, being in the loop again. Someone once told me that you’ll know if someone is a good friend because you can go a long time without seeing one another yet pick up right where you left off as if only a day had passed rather than months and years. Being at Susan’s party reminded me of these wise words, even though I can’t remember who originally shared them with me. Nonetheless, I remember at that point being very content with life, and very grateful to be where I was, amongst good friends.
Unfortunately, recollection beyond this point gets a little sketchy. You see, after the tiramisu, Shawna Spady was getting anxious to check the score in the hockey game, but it was generally felt that turning on the game would be seen as somewhat antisocial. So in place of watching hockey, Shawna, Cheryl, myself and all the other hockey fans present were placated with shooters. And that’s about when the night really started to get going. Somewhere in-between our first shot and the final shot—the “one for the road,” as it were—prior to leaving for the Black Dog Freehouse, a bunch of people I didn’t recognize showed up,
Pre-Drinking at Susan's 3
Million dollar smiles from Sasha and Jen. Note that Jen is loading up on some water before heading out for the Black Dog. There's a true veteran for you folks. the Oilers lost a heart-breaker to those evil Flames (the game was eventually turned on once more partiers arrived. Shawna just had to know what was happening in her favourite sport), and we all made plans to come back to Susan’s for some post-drinking drinking.
An LRT ride and an invigorating 25 minute walk later, those of us who hadn’t curried favour with Sasha in order to get a ride to Whyte Avenue arrived at the Black Dog just in time to see the legendary Edmonton band The Uncas wrap up their first set. The bright side to missing The Uncas’ first set, however, was there were only 15 minutes to go until midnight and the bar staff were passing out complimentary champagne. Between those of us who just arrived and those who had arrived ahead of us, we had managed to amass a pretty impressive stash of complimentary champagne bottles. I only had to buy one beer during the whole night, and that was done to fill in the 15 minutes before midnight when I could officially crack into the cheap champagne. As soon as Sook Uncas counted in the New Year, you better believe I drank heartily
On Our Way...
Waiting at Bay Station for the LRT to whisk us away to the next party. on cheap champagne. And it was a good thing I was already quite thoroughly intoxicated at this point because I really didn’t mind that the cheap champagne was quite horrible.
Once the calendar had been officially turned, The Uncas started their second set by launching into a ripping version of the Stones’ Let’ Spend the Night Together. Quite a poignant choice in my mind. The Uncas never fail to deliver a quality show, even when liquored up on cheap New Year’s champagne. In fact, some may argue that they deliver an even better show when liquored up, with the exception of that one time when Sook fell off the bar rail at the PowerPlant. That was just scary. But I digress. The boys from Uncas were terrific as usual, and as is also the norm when they put on a gig, they drew a fun crowd. It was a good atmosphere at the Black Dog Freehouse (hampered only by those rowdies Jen and Shawna, who for some reason couldn’t restrain themselves from fighting for even one night. They endangered everyone and everything from the poor soundboard guy to Ivanko’s drink). In fact, we felt such a connection with our
New Year's @ the Black Dog
Johnny Carpenter belts out a tune as a bottle of Pil rests ominously in the foreground. fellow patrons that Cheryl had big hugs for everyone who walked by our table. What a nice gal, spreading the holiday cheer like that. Inspired by the atmosphere and Cheryl’s display of affection for her fellow New Year’s revellers, I starting distributing some holiday cheer of my own. My New Year’s smooches were not met with as much enthusiasm as Cheryl’s hugs, but I did have some willing takers from what I recall. And mercy be no sexual harassment charges.
Perhaps the only people who didn’t feel the love at the Black Dog that night were the staff, who, at around 2:30 am, half an hour after the bar had officially closed, decided to pull the plug on our fun and give us the boot. I heard rumours the morning after that some fine members of the Edmonton Police Service had stopped by to wish us a Happy New Year and to kindly escort us out of the Black Dog, but unfortunately I don’t recall any of this. If someone out there can confirm or deny this fact, please help me out.
So there we were, turned out onto the street on a surprisingly mild and pleasant January
New Year's @ the Black Dog
That's Merle Kasper back there on the drums. Can't forget about him. Poor drummers never seem to get enough attention. evening. But we were not without a plan. For the past hour, Hessen had been talking up the idea of going for something to eat. Realizing the sensibility of this course of action, our group, minus a few members who moved on to other parties or made for home, headed down the now crowded streets of Whyte Avenue toward Keegan’s, a nearby 24 hour eatery. At Keegan’s I was able to get that deliciously greasy breakfast of eggs, sausages, bacon, hash browns, and toast I had, for so many months, longed for while in Japan. I was not disappointed. Plus there’s nothing like a little grease to soak up some of that alcohol.
Eventually, Shawna and Jen, having reconciled their differences from earlier in the evening, decided that it was time to strike out for home. But those silly girls had their minds set on walking back to Cheryl’s place (aka The King’s Palace) which is like, literally on the other end of the city. And Edmonton is no small city (Is this not starting to sound like a horror story of my own, Andrea?). However, good fortune smiled upon the girls, and they managed to hail a cab:
New Year's @ the Black Dog
Up close and personal with Jen, the Author, and Shauna. no small feat considering it was New Year’s and cabs are harder to come by than winning Lotto 6-49 tickets (this wasn’t Hiroshima after all, where you can spit in any direction and hit a cab). What’s even more impressive is that they managed to get another cab for the rest of us.
So with a couple cabs at our disposal, we needed a place to go. Going back to the King’s Palace was an option, but I reminded the group that Susan said we could have an after-party at her place (this was said under the influence of several Jagermeister shots, so I don’t think we can therefore hold Susan accountable for any promises made while under said influence). We were on our way, and it didn’t really matter that Susan and Stephen had left for home several hours prior, likely with the intention of turning in for the evening. At least, it didn’t matter to us at that particular time. Upon arrival at Susan’s, we discovered the entrance to her apartment building firmly locked. To keep the riffraff out I suppose. However, we weren’t going to let something like a locked door keep this riffraff out, no
New Year's @ the Black Dog
Cheryl makes a new friend. ma’am. So Cheryl dialled Susan’s phone number. Of course she’d still be up and want to let us in so we could all drink more.
We were wrong. Susan did not answer her phone. So we could not go up and drink more. But that was okay, because we could still go to the King’s Palace. We were once again back in the cabs (one of our cabs having left, we stole a new one right out from under the noses of a quarrelling gay couple who couldn’t make up their minds over where they wanted to go) and on our way, leaving poor Susan to get some much deserved slumber.
We arrived at the King’s Palace ready to keep the New Year’s festivities rolling. At least I thought that was what we were going to do. But I can hardly be blamed for thinking that. To the casual observer, we all acted like we had more party left in us. Someone (likely Jen or Shawna, those rowdies) unsuccessfully tried to wake Cheryl’s friend and neighbour Jason with the intention of bringing him over for some drinks. Jen even kindly poured me a stiff rum and coke. She
New Year's @ the Black Dog
These kinds of pictures are always funny aren't they? Steve taking a picture of me taking a picture of him. Comic genius! did not, however, pour one for herself and declined my offer to reciprocate the favour. This was my first sign that the party at the King’s Palace was winding down before it ever really got going. It had also become evident that a few of our rank had disappeared, the opportunity to nab some of the more desirable sleeping spaces proving too enticing. Taking my cue, I soon did likewise, and, borrowing a pillow and Cheryl’s super cool The Fox and The Hound blankie, settled on the basement sofa.
And so another New Year’s celebration came to a close. But it was a fantastic one, and with any luck, this enjoyable introduction to 2006 is a sign of good times to come in the New Year.
Oh, and Jen, I never quite got around to finishing the rum and coke you so lovingly made. Sorry.
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kelsey
non-member comment
silly brother
oh ken, you are a silly drunk man!! you are going to have a disc of pictures to pass around right? kelsey