The LoBu area (Lower Burnet), my neighborhood of Austin, continues to thrive and expand as an entertainment district. But a few friends and I decided to head east.
We drove just a few blocks over to Tigress bar on 100 W. North Loop. Tigress can barely be spotted amidst a little complex of stores in the hip strip of North Loop. You gotta work your brain and eyes to find it. Looks like an abandoned store front.
Tigress is kind of unassuming inside also, very minimalist furnishings but a friendly vibe. They had AMC or some movie channel playing on a TV screen. We kept glancing at some Biblical epic in wide screen Panavision from the Sixties, I recognized Telly Savalas in Holy Land garb. Hollywood has a flair for apocalyptic lighting. Intense purple, oranges, reds lit up the screen.
A couple of women shared drinks and intimate conversation beneath the TV set. One looked pretty dramatic herself with a deeply scooped neckline that revealed much chest and back. She had a nice physiognomy. And more scoop than Ben & Jerry's. A little joke...
The Bible movie got us talking about the formative films in our lives. One guy saw Psycho as a 12 year old and savored the intense feeling of fright. Alfred Hitchcock knocked off his heroine about 20 minutes into the film. A surprise beginning!
My friend said he saw Carrie in a downtown movie house when downtown was for humble working folks. He recalled how an amazing shriek of fright and delight, collectively expressed by the African-American audience, emanated from the crowd in unison when Amy Irving's character visits Carrie's grave and the hand rises unexpectedly from the earth-- an unexpected twist with the movie seemingly over. People in that dollar theater audience felt they got their money's worth. A surprise ending!
We left Tigress feeling like our time and money had also been well spent.
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Hey John!
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