On Our Way To Crazy

Tuesday night was a good night. A night I really, really needed.

First, my friend Becka and I went to see the movie Once. Have you seen it? You need to. Now. I’ll wait.

Wasn’t it great? It was just the balance of sweet and sad and emotional that I needed. I have been telling everyone about it, but tonight is the last night it’s in Nashville. Did you go buy the soundtrack? You need to. It’s worth it. I haven’t listened to anything else in the last two days.

After the movie we had dinner and drinks on the patio of a restaurant across the street. Becka is one of those friends you can say anything to, and Tuesday was a night when we both had a lot to say. We sat and decompressed a bit over beer and pasta.

So. Movie? Amazing. Dinner? Fabulous. And then the awesome started.

We were walking back to the car when we saw a crowd of people gathered on the sidewalk by the theater. As we got closer, we realized there was a street band playing. It was three guys who call themselves Albania Mania – a banjo player, a trombone/trumpet/kickdrum player, and an accordion/tamborine player. They were playing these loud, crazy, italian/greek/russian sounding songs, with big voices and random tempo changes and funny lyrics. There were probably 30 people standing around them, clapping and dancing and giving them money. We stood there for about five songs before they took a break, claiming that as a street band they really only have five songs and will be starting the same set over in a few minutes if we wanted to stick around.

You want to make some money? Set up as a street musician outside a theater playing Once. Genius.

This week has been a trying one for me. I can’t say it solved my problems, but the combination of a great movie and great food and fun random musicians singing love songs to George Clooney certainly takes a bit of the edge off.