Crystal Butterfly Morphs into Fax

Crystal Butterfly Morphs into Fax

John turned the big 2-8 today. An old man, though I must admit, we became an old married couple years before he became an old man. 🙂

We had a busy day. With the recent purchase of a new blender/juicer, John was on a mission to purchase fruits/veggies “from their source.” It wasn’t enough that we lived right down the street from an open-air produce market. He claimed those vendors were middle-people, who unnecessarily came between him and his produce. So what, he wanted to buy direct from the farmers, some of whom lived in the Phillipines or the US or whereever the goods were grown? I dunno–it was all rather unclear. He just knew he wanted to slice through the layers, so fine. We walked about 20 minutes south to a big warehouse, filled with vendors and their endless cases of fruit: oranges, apples, mangoes, pears, pummelos, strawberries, dates, tangerines, cherry tomatoes… It was weird. I felt like we should have been entrepreneurs running a restaurant or juice joint. Many of the vendors said the goods sold only by the case. Of course when it came down to the sale, they were more than willing to calculate by weight. We went home with a case of Sunkist navel oranges, mangoes, and Phillipino pears. Cheaper than the open market and so sweet and delicious! John and I are psyched about this latest find–the fruit and veggies are comparable to even those of California! Come visit and we’ll take you on the fruit safari.

For his birthday, John got to satisfy his hamburger craving– twice. Once at brunch and then again at dinner, where we shamefully went to TGI Friday’s. I know, we hated that place in the US, but someone (she’ll remain nameless) told us they had the best burgers. Well, big disappointment. The entire meal was expensive and just disgusting. I don’t know what we were thinking. Afterwards, we walked to the ritzy Xintiandi where this band called Crystal Butterfly was going to play covers of U2, the Cure, and Radiohead at the ARK (one of the restaurants). One horrendous Bloody Mary (I never learn) and Long Island Iced Tea later, the band got started… with some boy-band tune. Ok, so an odd beginning for an alternative rock band, but surely the good stuff would come later. Wrong. Next, we were subjected to a Japanese boyband song and then “Celebration.” Clearly, this was NOT Crystal Butterfly. According to my waiter, this band was Fax. My sources were all wrong. Crystal Butterfly hasn’t played there every Tuesday night (as my mag suggested) for a long time. ARGH!! We left. Hoping to find consolation in ice cream, we dropped in a sweets shop. Bombed again. Mediocre ice cream and a flavorless, gross ice cream/coffee drink. We decided to plug the money pit immediately. Caught a cab and headed home. Next time, I’ll call to confirm that Crystal Butterfly is playing. Of course, I’ll drop the expectations. After all, what kind of band would be dumb enough to perform covers of songs from such greats as U2 and the Cure?

Comments are closed.