Description 76 - Walking the Walk to the Club

I try to explain my absence on my way to see the latest immigrant to Canada to change my life.

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Associated links
Podcamp Toronto 2010
plentyoffish.com (your mileage may vary)
The Shops at Don Mills (inauspicious site of the first date)
Annex Billiards Club @Toronto Plus

When Matt and I got together, one thing I was hoping we could do on a regular basis was go to The Tap, pretty much my local, the home of Moe Berg DJing Saturday nights, a place I've mentioned many times here. Unfortunately, I could only take him there once: on its final night before closing.

I'd heard from Kevin on Facebook that The Tap had run into major tax problems or something and would be closing for good February 18, a few days after the terrible revelation. Moe had been sick, so unable to do one more DJ set before the end (he was able to get there later on the fateful night). So Matt and I went, ordered our beers, snuggled up on the couch which had been broken to the point where our asses were almost on the floor, and watched that night's Olympic hockey game. Then we left the other guys - Kev, Craig, Barry, Moe, et al - to finish cleaning out the beer fridge with whatever dodgy coolers had been left in the back in '97 or something.

While it's still a horrible thing that The Tap has closed, it does make a twisted kind of sense. Everyone is moving on with their lives, getting married, having kids (one of the old bartenders brought in his new baby in a stroller - what were they gonna do: shut 'em down?), getting mortgages...hell, even I'm moving on somehow with that guy in the bottom left of that photo up there. Who knows how much further we'll all go, or when/how we'll regress. But a shift does seem to have occurred, and I'm pretty excited to find out what happens from here.

Last time I walked by The Tap a couple days ago, after getting groceries for our next supper we'd be cooking together, I saw the windows were still sloppily covered from the inside by newspapers, but in the upper left-hand corner, there was still a hand-lettered sign that said "Don't Stop Believin'!"

Whether we ever get The Tap back or not, that's still what we have to do. No matter what. (Oh, wait, that's another song they'd play there...)