Last night, to celebrate Mark's end of the semester, we went to this venue called The Academy to see Tom Hingley from Inspiral Carpets do a Manchester-inspired DJ set. As it turns out, it was some other dude DJing at first, followed by Tom Hingley doing an acoustic set of songs, followed by more DJing by the other dude, then a DJ set by Tom. I went on The Academy web site and there happened to be a photo of the actual table where Mark and I had our first drink or two when we first arrived:


We danced our little hearts out -- I have to say, much more than last week at the goth night. I definitely upheld my "90s video 'ho" image (sorry Dad!) and I'm sure that we gave the bystanders around the dance floor something to watch. The first thing we noticed about the crowd was that it was mostly men -- I guess the Manchester craze of the late 80s and early 90s didn't make a lasting impression on the ladies of the day. And of the women in attendance, most were dressed in the typical Dublin women style with lots of makeup, frilly outfits featuring really short hemlines, and really high heels. Aside from the fact that I don't really like the way heels look on me, I just think it looks ridiculous to dance in them. So I guess I truly showed myself to be a foreigner with my style, especially, once again, as the only person in an entire room full of people with a large piece of artwork. I have to wonder what kind of impression it gives to people here -- do I seem trashy? exotic? simply American? or just stupid and tastless? or maybe all of the above.

Anyways I noticed so many interesting things last night, not the least of which is the obvious fraternity among men. I noticed that when men talked to each other, they touched each other, on the shoulders, around the waist, etc. And on the dance floor, when a popular song came on, people would dance and sing together, and dance arm in arm, embracing. Not in any sort of sexual way at all, but in a completely fraternal manner. I enjoyed watching it because I can only think of one other time I'd seen that sort of behavior back in the States, and that was actually at a Lucero show. We found that the crowd was friendly enough and the music was really a blast from the past. And I can't think of a better dance partner.