Early Thursday

            I've decided that this is going to be a blog about the things that I see and do when I am early for things, as I invariably am. Occasionally I see something interesting or do something besides walk around and calculate how early I can reasonably be to the thing for which I'm early. To that end -- I was early twice on Thursday.

I was early to a 2:15 appointment on the Upper West Side, and I’ve noticed that this is a very boring place and time for which to be early. I did dullish things like buying lentils and pretending to look at clothes in shop windows, when what I really wanted was to be even earlier so that I could sit down in a coffee shop and read for a bit. That’s one of the problems with chronic earliness: it becomes difficult to judge how early I want to be, whether I want to just be at the given place ahead of time, or spend a part of the day preceding the appointment in the area, the better to explore a little and settle in. Even worse, this is often out of my control, because I tend to leave for the subway with plenty of time to spare, but my actual arrival time is determined by when the train comes.

I was also early to hear a friend’s band play at a bar in the fashionable part of the East Village. This is an area in which it can be very interesting to be early, because it gives me an excuse to peek into all the very trendy restaurants and marvel at the long lines stretching onto the sidewalk from the very trendy clubs. Because I am totally mystified by the allure of club culture, which I find to be generally crass and loud and disposable, I am always impressed by people who are willing to stand in lines to get into clubs. (I will now put on my music-snob hat.) I do not find the music that is played at most dance clubs to be even remotely danceable. I am a person who like to dance, but in order to do so, I need one of two things to be happening: there must either be a live band with a good drummer; or, I must be in a situation where I feel the social stakes are low enough to dance to music that I would usually consider un-danceable. This last is fairly easy to accomplish; all that’s really needed is a few friends, a few drinks and a speaker. Some of the best dance parties I’ve been a part of have begun that way, though they usually end with someone realizing what they’re doing and abashedly backing away.