I keep laughing at the notion of me "doing the town" as mentioned in a previous post about my journeys last Saturday night. It's atypical Laurel behavior, really. Not that I don't enjoy going out to eat, drink, dance, or be merry-- I just don't do it all that often. Nor am I generally concerned with hipness or scenes, it's more of a sarcastic thing. Well, I'm fascinated by it, but unconcerned with it, if that makes sense. I do read In Style though I know it's a vice . . .

Okay, so the thing is, years ago there was "Laurel's Journal," my not-so-creatively-named online journal. I quit doing it for a lot of reasons.

But now in a fit of insanity I'm starting a journal again, that's why I expect this weblog will have less personal natter and more links and quotes and stuff again. But this time the journal is private, sorta invitation only. I've started emailing invitations to friends, still working on sending 'em out.

I think it's been ages since I tried to Do The Town on a Saturday Night, but this past Saturday cryptoguy (and Hugo-nominee!) Bruce Schneier and myself decided to check out The Scene in Minneapolis.

We thought we'd waited long enough to start our journey, but it wasn't yet dark and the Warehouse District looked dead when we drove through it. We decided to kill some time at the Loring Bar, a place that is (IMHO) always hip. Alas, I began to doubt my humble opinion when we noticed at least five people wearing cowboy hats (!) in the bar. And then this woman on the patio began to Riverdance as her friends clapped rhythmically (more or less) and egged her on. Now-- I can see this happening for a minute or so, but she kept it up for a good 5 minutes or more. Long enough that we tired of staring and ordered stiff drinks.

We moved onward from the Loring to Chino Latino, the hippest place in Minneapolis if some folks are to be believed. And well, yeah. Very impressive. Crowded. Loud. Interesting Decor. Ally McBeal-esque bathrooms (Bruce says to me: "You have to go to the bathroom" and he was right). Large $7 martinis. We managed to somehow snag a table at the bar where we could watch the folks downstairs eat a roast pig (!) and we also had a good view of folks as they trooped back and forth to The Bathroom. All about being seen, it really was. No cowboy hats in sight, but we spotted some feather boas (!). And more leopard print pants, black leather, and see-through shirts. Um, yeah. All in all a pretty mixed, upscale crowd that didn't strike me as particularly Uptown even. Our appetizers weren't anything special, but then we didn't try anything particular exotic either. I've gotta say the service was impressive-- would've been impressive in a less-crowded place, really impressive in that Zoo. Definitely need to make a return trip to dine in the restaurant and maybe one to try out a Huge Drink (w/ umbrella, natch) just 'cuz.

From there we returned to the Warehouse District and were impressed by the throngs of people hanging out outside of the bars and restaurants-- the folks who used to complain Minneapolis was dead in the evening are being proven wrong in earnest. We weren't sure where to go next . . . so we parked the car in a ramp and went to the Gay '90s to see what we could see.

Alas, the side of the '90s where the dancing is was closed for a private party. :( Bummer. So we checked out the two stages/bars on the one side-- on the lower floor there were men gyrating in G-strings; on the upper floor was a drag show. It was too crowded upstairs to loiter for long so we did some peoplewatching downstairs (I was unimpressed by the gyrating guys, alas) where we didn't see any feather boas, but some leather, some overalls, plenty of black. And a woman in a too-short slipdress with butterfly wings. No Riverdancing, no cowboy hats (yay!) and fewer animal prints than anywhere else we'd been that night. All in all, it was the most relaxed crowd of the evening and quite mixed, too. With plenty of Tourists from the Suburbs who'd walk in and giggle at it all. ('Course we spied Suburban Tourists everywhere we went, really).

We never did find our friends Dean & Laura who we knew were out someplace that night! Eventually I think we both felt weary of Hipness and Scenes or at least had our fill until the next issue of InStyle hits the stands. I'm sure Bruce will be featured in their Man of Style column someday . . . or maybe one of Bruce and Karen's fab soirees will be featured, yeah . . . I'm holding out myself for a cover story (hahahahahahahaha).

Did I mention that I saw X-Men on it's opening weekend? I wasn't planning to, but when I attended a big-screen showing of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai (ghods I'm a nerd), all the geeks were raving about X-Men and declaring it the best comic adaptation ever or maybe second best or surely one of the best. So I got curious.

Saw it and loved it. It shouldn't surprise me, really, but the previews had left me cold. And I worried about the budget cuts and the fact that the film had been pushed up by six months! Nevermind that I like director Bryan Singer heaps, I was worried. I should point out that I've never read the comic, though I'm familiar with it through osmosis since so many people I know read it and talk about it, etc.