Just got back from an amazing night out. We went to see Video Soul: Wattstax to the Avant Garde. This was part of Duke's Soul Power series, as was the King Britt show 2 weeks ago. A really good crowd tonight -- even bigger than for Sylk 130. Lots o' XDU types, our friends S & D and some out-of-town guests of theirs, Charo... prolly some other folks I'm forgetting. Anyway. DJ Spooky put on an insane fucking performance. He was live-mixing audio and video, including clips from Wattstax, lots of 60s Stax/Volt soul stuff (Otis Redding, Booker T. etc), some Motown, plus hiphop, jazz, funk, and more more more. I think the most amazing part was this extended percussion mashup built around a drum break and a clip from a Jackie Chan movie. Mere words cannot do it justice. A mindblowing event.

After the show, we went back to Watts w/ S, D, C & C. Not nearly as insane tonight, but still a good late night crowd. This time Sarah had the grilled cheese and I had the hot ham and cheese sandwich. Actually, it came out as a turkey and cheese. Basically a panini. Very good, even w/ the substition. Next time, though, I'll probably go back to the sliders. We also had the ice cream sandwich for desert -- toasted coconut ice cream w/ chocolate cookies. Really really good. Maybe not quite as good as the red velvet cupcakes but not far off. Also got to try a taste of the deep-fried chicken gizzards. Which were actually quite good; If I didn't know they were gizzards I don't think I'd have guessed. I'm not sure what I would've guessed. And I'm not sure I'd want a whole order to myself. But they are proof of the awesome power of deep-frying.