Thursday, 27 October 2005 | Showy

I have some good news: I'm having a photography show, sort of. It's not in a gallery, but in a nice restaurant, so maybe it's not technically a show. Or it's a show designed specifically with hungry people in mind. Anyway, I'm excited, in part because I finally went through with it, after originally talking to the owner about it more than a year ago. I don't know what took me so long, apart from the long list of pretty good excuses I've come up with.

The restaurant (/bar) is one of the first places I used to hang out shortly after I moved to my neighborhood three years ago. At the time I didn't know many people in New York, so I'd head there alone and sit next to other solo people, and eventually those strangers became familiars or friends, or people on the other side of the bar who would give me discounts or let me hang out after closing hours. I've also been fortunate enough to witness the owner dancing to REO Speedwagon (turned up very loud), the return of my missing wallet from the friendly and honest dishwasher, watching the dancefloor clear when my German New Wave requests were answered, the smelling salts incident, and hip hop karaoke (which is terrifying but still pretty awesome). I'm glad that my first show will be at a place I really like.

Late Tuesday night I worked on my portfolio until I ran out of both ink and paper, and as soon as I was done, I headed to the restaurant to approach the owner with my work, to finally find out whether she'd like to display it. It felt kind of crazy, leaving the house after midnight for an impromptu meeting. When I walked through the restaurant door with my portfolio in hand, the owner looked at me and said, "It's about time."

(My show goes up in January. I'll give details when the date gets closer.)