Wednesday Fun & Danger

Last night was slow at the Chop Shop, despite the swell music Bosco played. Starla and Shep were there of course, Miss Wila, who was visiting and formerly lived in town came by, Mr Sky (couldn’t catch his last name but he’s a very nice gentleman) and Miss Reverie were there as well. Petr and Rick were there too, of course.

I tried hard not to let my face show my nervousness at the lack of patrons -after all, this is how I make a living…However, soon I’d have more serious matters to worry about. We hadn’t served any drinks yet when I noticed that Miss Gudrun, who hadn’t been at the Chop Shop or the Fiume (Chicago’s jazz club) for the first time, was carrying a Vice Squad ID. I caught a glimpse of it in a quick dance turn and soon gestured towards Rick and Petya to let them know what was going on. Miss Gudrun even asked for a drink at one time, and I held my breath, but Rick -being the experienced bartender he is- almost joked about it and offered her “water, water or lemonade”. Gudrun did not seem too happy about it and made some comments about alcoholic drinks which, fortunately, fell into deaf ears. Another tense moment took place when Miss Starla, after Wila and Shep had departed to see to some business Wila is preparing, sat at the bar and ordered a drink like any other night. One can surely not deny the Boss’s wife a drink! What would Rick do? Well, cleverly, he made the drink and said out loud “Here’s your ice tea, made with the best local water” but served instead a generous amount of our finest whiskey while winking at the quick-witted Starla, who got the situation immediately. I’m still in awe Rick can be so calm in situations like these!

Miss Gudrun left before a half hour to closing time, and then we were able to relax. Stormy and Syl arrived and good entertaining conversation ensued. Bosco even delighted us with some rare musical gems from the late 19th century and a performance by Caruso. I promise I don’t know where he carries all his records or how he keeps them in such pristine condition!

After closing Bosco and I stayed in and , while Rick was cleaning up, we began to have some good fun on stage -he sang to my (relatively poor but cheerful) piano accompaniment. Syl had left her camera behind and Rick used it to take a photo of us:

And one of me focusing hard on getting the right notes:

And this is how the days go by at the Chop Shop…

At the Chop Shop on Monday

Today I found, while I was doing some cleaning at the Chop Shop (my speakeasy), a stack of old books bound by a fading teal damp cloth.

I was listening to Beethoven on the radio and it was early morning, which gave me the sense of a particularly chilly atmosphere despite the summer time. The books turned out to be novels and diaries from Victorian times. I opened the bundle carefully and started reading a few pages from some of them and soon was engrossed in a story about a lawyer going to a desolate house in the country to assess the property. Curled up against the stage, a numbness gradually descended over my limbs, and my bones felt strangely cold; such was the power of the story. A woman kept appearing to the lawyer in ghost-like manner, and the steady creaking of an old rocking chair haunted the house.

I’m not one easily influenced by such literature, and yet, in the dark and smokey windowless room of the Chop Shop, I thought I could hear that same creaking, coming from the uninhabited rooms above…

Hello again!

Yes, this is me. I live in Chicago and it’s the 1920s (things change so fast these days and life is so hectic -not for nothing it’s the roaring 20s…- that nobody is quite sure as to what year exactly we’re in).

Here’s a photo of me:

That’s the last one I had taken to hang in my (oh dear, I hope no cops are reading this…) speakeasy, Bea’s Chop Shop. Here’s a photo of it after business hours (the photographer hired a painter to make it look all nice and colourful 😉 ):

The man back there is Rick, our bartender. He makes amazing drinks and has been a big support for for me all these months since we started. Fortunately, we haven’t had to deal openly with the law yet, but we did have some issues with customers…I remember two ladies, they walked in all nice and friendly and after a while started accusing Rick of having stolen some trinkets one of them claimed to have been wearing….tense moment. Rick kept it together, right hand firmly holding his tommy under the bar just in case, and the whole problem rapidly dissolved.

The one in the photo on the right wall is me before my dyeing (you see, I’ve decided to be really open here with you…) On the back wall you can see a photo of my great friend and copasetic comedian Stormy. She has a different routine each Sunday night and we all have quite a few laughs. Not shown are the musicians: Una the Enchantress, YoYo (who keeps going to the same deli rather than Anne’s corner market and is constantly sick and green…) and Bosco. My half-brother Petr has joined us recently from Berlin (Russia originally) and Stormy’s friend Syl, together with her (Syl’s) grandparents, Sage and Galdor, almost complete the crew. We need Chicago owner Shep Moorlord and his wife Starla to complete it. They’ve been our supporters since day one and trusted me to run The Chop Shop when I was just a former burlesque dancer out of a job.

From here I’d like to say thank you to all of them for being there for me and making my life in Chicago very enjoyable, and hello to you who are reading this. Welcome into my life and thanks for taking an interest in it…