thebroadroom.net
Wish I Really Looked Like Grace Kelly

This is actually a post about the meetup last night, but Grace does figure into this story eventually. Anyway, the only bloggers on the MassLive blogroll that I recognized by name, Henning and Suki, weren't there. I was sorry to miss them but was glad to meet Greg Saulmon of Life On State along with his lovely wife Mary, and Pete Deville of Group DeVille. I was particularly glad to meet Debbie from Craftytown. I had read her yesterday for the first time and I thought our writing style was kind of alike and we have the same kind of earthy energy in person.

In any event, all of us of in this Lovely Downtown Noho contingent realized before the end of the evening, that the common thread in our vague recollection of each other was the Baystate Hotel. I passed them a drink from behind the bar more than once as a bartender there, but they weren't regulars like Henning who ran part of the music operation.

Meanwhile the Springfield contingent didn't know quite what to make of me. I kind of came in charged from the walk over, and drinking coffee, even decaf at that hour was not a great move. I should have asked for water but the Woodstar Cafe smells so good. How could I not order coffee. I was buzzed in three sips and I must admit I got just a little boisterous. I think I may have scared them.

Jennifer Adams of West Side Story apparently wasn't that impressed. She didn't link to me in her account of the event but she may just forgotten my name. There were a lot of people. Kristen of Sound Check and Sigh Club and I didn't get to spend much time together either, but I wished we had after chatting with her briefly at the end of the evening.

Meanwhile, gently is MassLive revenged for my taking pot shots at Scott Brodeur's butt. Scott posted a photo of me in full harangue mode, one of the rare times I wasn't smiling and at my absolute worst camera angle, (thank you very much to the photog), blasting away at Mr. Big, Greg Movie Boy Tulonen, for dissing my blog and ignoring my correspondence. I noticed I was getting a little jowly in my old age. I swear, next lifetime, I'm going to be photogenic.

In any event I want to say thanks to the guys for putting me on their blogroll so quickly. I hope we can call it even now for my earlier post. They really do seem to be nice guys who are trying to make a blog thing happen on the local level and deserve some support.

So what does this have to do with Grace Kelly, you may ask. I'm going to tell you. I really do wish I looked like her. My friend Ron owned the Baystate Hotel when I bartended there and met all these Northampton bloggers. Ron and I used to watch old movies together when the bar was slow and we spoke often of this. I had other choices as well, Ingrid Bergman, Audrey Hepburn, Kathleen Turner... but Grace was definitely my first choice.

The Baystate is long gone now but Ron and I have maintained a solid friendship and every now and then, in our warmer moments, he still calls me Grace.

Graphic courtesy of www.thebroadroom.net, a site by and for women..., often imitated, never equaled.