Kung Fu and Love

Kung Fu and Love
A great gift for Valentine's day or Chinese New Year

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Midway Cafe

"The Midway Cafe is...legendary and it's full of old ghosts and great artists like Joe Coughlin." screamed John Powhida when he finished his performance last night with his band John Powhida International Airport. A lot of the songs he sang are on his album Airport Life (which you can buy or listen to if you click on the link above.)

They are about his life and growing up and one of the songs (which will be on his next album) was a blues song called "Recycling day at Arlington Heights."

The whole thing was amazing and I've never heard songs about being a stay at home dad before. John may be 50 but THIS is the voice of our times and our American life.

After the Paris Attacks it kind of felt good to go out and do what the terrorist don't want you to do apparently. Go and see an American Rock Band, and everything about the band is about Real Americana through John's perspective.

As American as it was, and as American as I am, I felt like a traveler too. Why? Well let's be honest, I don't usually go to see bands. So signs like this one, below

crack me up and are somewhat foreign to me. 

Here is John signing and playing guitar. The guys in his band are great. In fact they are so great, that as John said, "We don't practice." They are an older band, and I think that experience is what makes them able to perform so well without rehearsing. That resonates with what I've experienced with our Lion Dance group.

The thing about the Midway Cafe is that it is legendary and a lot of people who are familiar with this scene can speak more to that. But me? I just found out about this place. And it's right down the street from my house, across from English High! There's a lot of parallels with that sentiment and what's happening in Chinatown. How many cool places have been around for so long, and are legendary in their own right, in their own scene... but will soon disappear?

My only advice is don't wait to go hang out there later. Go now, it soon may be gone.

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