Thursday, June 25, 2009

Checkmate

Royal Clayton’s, 1855 Industrial St, Los Angeles, CA
“Beer is in the eye of the beer holder”. That was the quote for this unique bar, which is located in a very interesting area in downtown Los Angeles. That night, there was “free I.Q test for alcoholics”, or better known as “trivia night contest”. Amy, a friendly bartender, had a good list of imported beers for the picky clientele. Tetley’s Beer seemed a popular drink here. Most of the people had a British accent and was not the classic Angelino crowd. As I was reading the drink menu, two guys satdown near me. Wei Shen from Malaysia, and Wesley from England, two nice guys with whom I couldn’t help but strike up a conversation with. Wei Shen said he is a photographer, and tonight was his first night at this bar. I told him that recently I had a Malaysian dish, which unfortunately wasn’t very good. He smiled at me, and said “that’s a shame!” Wesley was more into the trivia game than any of us; he was quiet but aware of his surroundings. I noticed that he smoked “vanilla cigarettes”, which I had never seen before. He said that there was a bar nearby that had ping pong tables; he invited me to join them there after the trivia game. I wanted to have a longer conversation with Wesley, but he had a goal: to win the trivia prize. Finally they stepped outside for a smoke, and I followed. The security guard, who was also British, shared with me that his twelve year old son played soccer for an important club in England. I could tell how proud he was by the beaming expression on his face. Soccer is a popular sport in The United Kingdom; it’s like being a hero. Wesley and Wei Shen finished their cigarettes and invited me to play pool and I accepted the challenge. While we prepared the pool table for the friendly competition, we heard the trivia game had just finished and Wesley was disappointed for his loss. I grabbed the pool stick to show off a bit and they found this new contest titillating. I was impressed by Wei Shen’s skill at the game; he didn’t give me a chance to show off more. Wesley stood in the corner and secretly wrote a poem in my little black notebook: “very good pool players, accepting to the scene, one tall, one small both fair, both mean” by Wesley. I scored that night, not necessary for the win, but for the pleasure of getting to know two great artists in a royal bar.

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