eyehawk and I drove to Rubulad last night for the first time in a VERY long time. After a Saturday of inking, compiling images for my upcoming comix lecture at the M.I.T. Colloquium [with Nick Bertozzi, Paul Pope, and Jessica Abel = The Fantastic Four!], answering questions for an email interview I'm doing for DC KIDS [a Philippino comics magazine that's reprinting the JUSTICE LEAGUE ADVENTURES story I drew], and watching the excellent action horror movie, DOG SOLDIERS, with purvision and ebess, I needed to cut loose.
The rain poured cats and dogs in that fake movie rain kinda way but it didn't sway us from making the trek. Once we entered the new Rubulad digs [which ain't that new since they moved years ago], it was like we'd never left the vibe. A vibe that, as of late [due to winter doldrums and THE QUITTER duties?], has been missing from my monthly diet of dancing hard enough to dancehall, deep fried soul, and Kraftwerk, that my muscles feel sore in the morning. Which they do. Within minutes, we saw
labrujah and she kindly plied us with drinks and danced with us on her break from the bar. There was a small table with two hipster chicks selling brownies for $5 each. Too steep for my wallet. Then I realized what they were. In parenthesis the sign claimed "Yes, they are." I hadda laugh.It's hard to describe the spooky electric maze of Rubulad. It's like a funhouse where the mirrors are rooms reflecting varying cultures and trends evoking the now and then. Haunted yet universal.
eyehawk and I kept pondering "If only the girls could be here!" We discovered a great tune called "Emerald City, Part 2" by JOHNNY DANGEROUS and watched in awe as two beautiful lesbians owned the floor. There were no naked amazons going commando and recruiting a nude conga line this time around but eyehawk and I gave each other that look that said "By hook or by crook, we're going to be spinning vinyl records and dancing in our wheelchairs when we're 90 years old." 
["Rubulad" was originally published in DIRTY STORIES #2 and later collected in OPPOSABLE THUMBS]
