Nora Robertson

Several months ago, I ran into my friend Shannon Wheeler at about 10 o’clock at the gym, and we decided to reward our efforts with a beer at Chopsticks karaoke bar, which is a Chinese restaurant that a lot of k-stars and musicians tend to sing at.  One of my favorite facts about Chopsticks is that Elliot Smith used to sing here.  We sat down on what I remember as red patent pleather bar stools and ordered a couple Pabst and tried to decide if we were brave enough to sing.

I put in a song slip under the name Natasha for Dancing Girl by Abba.  I like that one because even if you mess it up, people like to dance.  A pretty blonde girl from the group next to us went up to sing an AC/DC song.  I like watching people who are really good at karaoke, and it makes me nervous about how bad I am at remembering the melody for the verses.  The thing I remember hearing about Elliot is that one night he was singing here and a girl he had recently broken up with showed up with her friends, and he started singing song after song that had lyrics that could be heard as being pointed at her.  I wonder what it was like to be in the audience that night and watch him belt these out if you didn’t know, if the emotion was apparent.  The girl started to belt out the chorus, making that open-mouthed rock star face.  One of the guys at the table next to us leaned over and asked Shannon if he was the guy who does the Too Much Coffee Man comic that’s published by Dark Horse Comics.  He rolled up the sleeve of his plaid flannel shirt and showed him this tattoo on his forearm, the Dark Horse Comics logo.  I felt the world was very connected.