It's all about the shot:

OUT of FUEL

This weekend I went out to Jacksonville with Luis. We had a lot of fun going around here and there. I showed him where I used to live in riverside and we had dinner at Gene's Seafoood Restaurant (on University). I used to live in Riverside. I loved it there. So, we drove around and ended up in "Five Points," at a coffee house called Fuel, that had "leather" flags flying that night. It was a total blast. It all started with our walk from the car to the coffee house. An obvious junkie started in with his "Excuse me... Can I axe you a quesjun..." I cut him short by saying, "NO! The ANSWER is NOOOO!" We pressed on without loosing a step. Meanwhile he went back to a group of kids sitting at their car and I over-heard one of them saying, "We gave you money for cigarettes a little while ago...." When will they ever learn, I thought. But that would be stating the obvious. We finally made it to Fuel.

Now, let me give you a visual. This place is dark, there is all kinds of ameteurish art on the walls and the front section is crowded with worn out black leather sofas from perhaps a hotel lobby rummage sale. Looking around I marvel at how this place could have possible passed any sort of sanitary inspection, but then I come to my senses and remember that I am in Florida and they probably don't have such things here. There is '70's and '80's pop/soul music playing in the background. Judging the age of the crowd here I imagine that it would be the contents of their parents' iPod (if they have one). But, I don't believe that I have ever witnessed a stranger group of folks anywhere. It was like I could just imbed myself in a show of lunatics. Ok, let me set the stage: A coffee house with bistro tables outside and blue/black striped "leather" flags hanging down outside. Seated at the bistro tables were the exotic assortment of youngsters that one would expect at a coffee house (although this one also has a bar, which makes it even more interesting). Men with very long goat-ees and white women with dredlock extensions.

Kinda predictable: But wait! A minivan full of rotund black women pull up in front, and they all jump out and start dancing in the street. A few lesbians from Fuel join in and soon I have the feeling that it's going to turn into a block party. This minivan was not pulled into a parking spot, it was just stopped right in the travel lane of this two-lane street. This goes on for a few minutes until a backup of cars on Park Street start honking and the black girls jump back into their minivan and take off for their next impromptu dance-a-thon. Minutes later a rather drunk guy comes into the coffee house and plops down next two three women who were sitting in some beat-up sofas next to us. We were sitting at a bistro table next to the front window. So this guy starts "rappin'" to these girls and he was hilarious. He said that he was involved in a Christian ministry. He was also a film maker from Ft. Lauderdale. I started joking with Luis and saying that we should take our private heilocopter and fly to a gay resort in Mexico. Soon I was making hand signs to Luis : "M" & "O"= "MO". What happens next: A Domino's Pizza was delivered to the man sitting in the next grouping of sofas. We were rolling with laughter imagining ordering a pizza and having it delivered to the second sofa on the left. Soon these classic "clone" gay men were spotted outside. They were chatting with each other and soon they entered Fuel and sat down behind Luis and I.

I wanted to take their picture [now, mind you, Luis is nearly dying of embarassment from my comments and hand signals]. So I pretend to take Luis' pic but I focus on the clones. Soon Luis and I are taking pix of each other. He was trying to get the classically bearish doorman and I am trying to get a good shot of the clones. Outside a kid with strawberry blonde beard and curly hair to match was trying to take MY pic with his camera phone! So I took his pic with mine as he flashed me the "bird!" We consumed Latte's and quadruple chocolate layer cakes each and later I had a Coke and Luis had a Sprite. What an entertaining evening