Wine, food and music. It's all good.

Big fun last night with the crew. We started at Grapevine Market with a wine tasting they call "Friday Night Fights." They pick a kind of wine, then set out 2 or more bottles for a blind taste test, then people vote on their favorite. I'm a complete plebe about wines, so I try and look at these kinds of things as an opportunity to *learn* about wine, but that suggests that I have the ability to retain anything I'm told about it, which is patently untrue, so it's more "taste this, decide if you like it, maybe buy a bottle, then the next time you want to buy some, ask the people you were with if anyone remembers what the hell you bought when you did that tasting thing." No one ever does.

After the tasting, we had a fab-o dinner at Curra's, then took our show downtown (where all the lights are bright). Jason liquored us up with expensive booze at his condo, because he's cool like that, and then we went to Cedar Street to see a new band - new to us, that is, not anyone else. Apparently, they've been around for a while as "K-Tel Hit Machine," but they've relaunched themselves as Skyrocket! I'm not overly excited about their new name - the exclamation point is part of the name. Like Yahoo! No one uses it when they talk about Yahoo, so presumably if I refer to Skyrocket! in the future, I can leave off the exclamation point.

Anyway, they were really great! (I actually intended to use the exclamation point there.) Lots of fun music all executed extremely well. Great show! The crowd, though, was...unexpected. Usually, Cedar Street is a young crowd. Well, I should clarify that. It's in the Warehouse District, so not college kid young, but late 20s and 30s, I guess. Last night's crowd was, let's say, like wine (since that's our theme tonight), "better aged." They'd been resting in barrels for a while. I suppose this was good for me and mine, since by comparison, we were fresh and dewy. But it makes you wonder when you come upon a scene like that if you've perhaps stumbled into someone's high school reunion - like they're 30th. My friends have, in fact, stumbled into a high school reunion before, so this wouldn't be unprecedented.

It's not that I think late 40s is ancient. I'm closing in on 40 with alarming speed. But these people were definitely not my peers. And when I am their age (too, too soon), I hope I'm aware of the fact that the 20-something rock stah on stage is NOT fantasizing about going home with me as I gyrate in front of him. God willing, I'll know better than to do that. Several of the women last night did not. Another "teaching moment" from the universe. Thank you, God, for the heads-up.

The evening ended very late, but we all had a great time. After a big night out, though, I am doing tonight what I always do after a big night out, since I'm no longer 22 and made of steel - I'm staying in and going to bed early. As I type this, I think giddily about climbing into bed and sleeping many hours. I think I'll go get started on that...