V-Bar 1, Igor 0

Last night, it was just a bit past 11:30 and I had gotten ready for bed. All of a sudden, somebody across the street started pounding on a drum in front of the V-Bar. It was a big drum. It was a loud drum. And they didn't stop. The playing was nothing fancy, just quarter notes at about 130 bpm. But that sort of thing shouldn't be happening at this time of night, I thought to myself. What happens if they want to keep beating it till closing time? By that time, I was pretty pissed. It had been a rainy, tranquil Friday evening and these guys were harshing my mellow. While it continued, I got dressed. I was going to go across there and personally tell them to shut it down and maybe put my foot through their stupid, big, loud drum. Once my shoes were on (no socks), I was very angry. And the drumming continued.

I strode purposefully from the Rivoli, fixed my gaze on the near distance and cut across 2nd Ave. with hatred in my eyes and murder in my heart. There could be, I told myself, no excuse for all this goddamn drumming. And why, I wondered, were the people who were perpetrating the drumming (two solid Asian guys) looking so happy when they were shattering my relative peace and relative quiet? And also why were there all these people standing on the sidewalk waiting expectantly for something? As soon as I looked toward the door, I immediately felt like a complete fool. It was a two-man dragon. They were celebrating the new year. Here's a surreal picture of it:

OK, the V-Bar is owned by Vietnamese, but hey, it's a free country; they can ring in the new year Chinese-style. After I took my picture, the drumming stopped and I retreated back to the Rivoli, feeling like a total chump. I can't believe that I wanted to kill those people with my bare hands! But the dragon, though small, totally squelched my homicidal impulses. Thank you, small dragon. I went back home and eventually fell asleep after the upstairs kids settled down. The drumming had woken them up as well and they were in a launching-themselves-off-the-furniture mood.

I've gotta say, I'm a big fan of the dragon. I always wait around to see the really big one at the Torchlight Parade. Here's 18 seconds of dragon from the 2008 parade:

Lovely, isn't it? Anyhow, Happy New Year, Asian people! Have fun with your dragons!