Fort Defiance in full effect...

I didn't manage to take any pictures of the dancing throng at proprietor St. John Frizell's birthday bash at Fort Defiance on Friday night, because I was too busy selecting 45s back by the pass-through next to the kitchen. The original improvised deejay booth, the best seat in the house at the street end of the bar, had to be abandoned due to technical difficulties, and I ended up in a little nook near the basement stairs, with my boxes of records perched on top of tubs of cutlery and piles of napkins. From time to time I peered out into the room between records to gauge the crowd's reaction. I had forgotten how short 45rpm records are. Like the ubiquitous babies of Red Hook, they need constant changing. (For those of you too young even to remember what 45s are, they are 7" in diameter vinyl--analog--"singles" containing no more than two or three minutes of music per side).

We rocked the house until 4:30 in the morning and left the place a sweaty mess. By Saturday morning, so I'm told, the Fort was already back in business, serving Red Hook's most delicious sandwiches, coffees, and, well, actually, let's not talk about the cocktails right now. I would have blogged this yesterday, but I didn't really get a jump on the day...

Happy Birthday! You don't look a day over forty!