Whatever Ales You

Line up going around the block for the AWOL gallery space.


Rob Greb (right) and two Mr.X coordinators in line.


Jim, one of the 525 to 600 artists featuring their work.


Anna-Lea poses with a Peach photo while Joelle's camera focuses.


Joelle looks at some art up close.


Joelle sits next to her piece of art work (on her lower left)


Me with a beer... that I'm actually drinking!

While seeing me with a beer may not be as rare as seeing me without a camera, it is still an uncommon occurrence. I can probably count on my one hand how many times I've drunk beer, a full glass or bottle. The first time would have been with uncaringbear at the Only Cafe located on the Danforth. It was my 21st birthday and John had it in him that I was going to get drunk.

Instead of getting hammered by drinking the cheapest alcohol we could find, John systematically ordered various beers of various brands for me to try one after another. We stopped shortly after I started laughing uncontrollably at the TV set that was playing the commercial for the hair club for men. "I'm not only the president, I'm the client." That commercial. Then getting up and running across the street to the park because my center of gravity was two meters in front of me and fell over a number of times on my way home. I'm a clumsy, laughing, drunk it seems. That and the fact that I thought all beer felt gassy and I really never got used to the taste. I stopped drinking it.

There are conditions in place for me to drink beer.

1. I have to be thirsty.
2. The place does not serve non-alcoholic drinks.
3. A pretty girl buys and gives me the beer.
4. The beer is ice cold.
5. The beer tastes okay.

All five conditions were met. I suppose it's really only the last three points that apply. Although the first two are important factors. Like a hamster to peanut butter. Wow, us guys are pretty easy. I'm speaking in general terms of course. In this case the pretty girl was Joelle, a friend of Anna-Lea's. An alluring young gazelle that has action packed features, oozes positive energy, and is an overall nice person. She must be. Afterall she and Anna-Lea bought me the drink).

There have been three times in my entire life where a girl has bought me a drink. This excludes people I worked with or my floor hockey team captain after a game. The first time was at the Fame launch May 18, 2006 (aren't blogs fun?). The second time was during a boat cruise sometime during the two month recap period. Tonight was the third. I must be getting more attractive in my old age... or more sorry looking. "Geez, that poor guy could use a drink." I'll go with the more charismatic angle (because it's true).

The beer I was given was a green bottled Grelsch. Not only did it surprisingly taste okay (maybe due to the fact I was really thirsty) but it also didn't have that filling gaseous effect I normally attribute to beer drinking. As an added bonus the bottle comes with one of those reusable flip on caps which allowed me to put the beer away every now and then without having to worry about it spilling while I took some pictures.

The art gallery event was quite cool to see because there were so many artists (525 of them or more) the art was very diverse. Each piece of art had to be one foot square in size. It made the room look like it had a bunch of various tiles.