Le Mixeur Six Invité Spécial: Jim Romdall

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Prelude


Once upon a time, T.Mixeur was in Derry (or some insist Londonderry) North Ireland. All the beauty, all the grace, all the torn-in-two of this blessed city did internalize in T.Mixeur, as he wandered the streets amongst the brawling boozers and tank wielding, bullet proof child-cops locked and loaded and ready to kill. Wonder did he what it must be like to walk to fetch a bus to one's place of employ in the morning, under the surveillance of armed youth, passing by three story high murals of the dead and buried of Bloody Sunday. And whether it was geographically or historically pertinent or not, he thought of the words of Patrick Kavanagh...

"On Pembroke Road look out for my ghost, disheveled with shoes untied. Playing through railings with little children, whose children have long since died."

Walking down a stone cobble street, T.Mixeur spotted the head of a rose, splayed out in the urban wilderness, decapitated by the closed steel garage door of one careless Derry florist. Compelled yet wordless, the rose head was quickly fetched, caressed, and contemplated.

At that very moment, a friend, dressed in all black, appeared down the hill, on that same cobbled street, and emanating similar bleatings of remorse to T.Mixeur and the rose head. Those two people did spot each other simultaneously, rushed towards one another, and embraced. The rose head passed hands, and the meaning of it all was self-evident.

JIM ROMDALL

So who was Jim Romdall in the preceding tale? Was he the friend dressed in black, or was he the rose head? Or was he the silent observer, not mentioned in the writing of the tale yet integral to its telling?

Perhaps he was all at the same time. Perhaps he was none at all. It is not the place of this meager blog to claim one or the other or the other. It is merely our place to report to you, the reader, that this man we know as Jim Romdall will most certainly be mixing drinks at Le Mixeur Six.

Jim is bar manager at Vessel in Seattle, he is universally respected by his peers as one of the finest bartenders you'll find, never mind where you might search. He was awarded the Rising Star Mixoligist nod from Star Chefs, which in some skewed way verifies what those of us who know him already knew: he's very, very good at what he does. Excellent, in fact.




Thank you Jim for joining us at Le Mixeur Six, and for somehow, surreally enough , conjuring a memory of that day in Derry (or some insist Londonderry). This memory illustrates one fundamental principal, which will be stated here and now:

At Le Mixeur we don't forget those who's poor, we don't forget those who's got no place to live or those who's lives have been destroyed by violence or hunger or disease, or those who's dying in the streets. We celebrate life in the most fitting manner we can conceive of because we can, and someone has to, and someone must. So let's.


Le Mixeur Six will be Saturday, May 30th, at 8pm at Mix Lounge in Seattle.

6006 12th Ave. South, Georgetown USA!

You may purchase tickets for this glorious event here.

You may learn more about this glorious event here.

You may listen to music performed by the bands of this glorious event here and here.

You may reflect upon this...here.


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