07/28/2019
Shared from our amazing friend, David Zinn:
So on Wednesday, July 31t, Excelsior closes. for good. And look: cities change, and the landscape of late nights is changing, and people dont go to bars anymore and there are all sorts of REASONS.
But.
This place. This place was home.
Praising a bar and praising late nights out means i have to say something in praise of drinking, which is probably controversial. And not just “ooh this wine is delicious” drinking (though of course it is); but good old fashioned Bad Idea, One Too Many, Out Too Late, I’ll Just Have One More, Cry At Your Favorite Song, Bad Decision Drinking.
Drinking Out. At a Bar.
And i get it. It’s bad for you. And some people have too dangerous a relationship with it that threatens the balance of their lives. And that is bad. And i know what it does to your health. But also, while my physical heart might strain from the effects of drinking, might begin to close down, can you still say that my…emotional heart? that that hasnt been opened? wide? because it has.
Excelsior. “ever upward.” the NY State motto.
Im having a lot of feelings. and there’s a lot to say and i wont say it very well. but.
To Richard and Mark, i say thank you. But realize as soon as i type those words how little they convey the gratitude i have for the home they made. If i remember correctly, i said to them soon after id found their bar that i thought life in the city felt like walking on the beach? that you make footprints only to see them washed away every time. And that finally, it felt like i had found someplace where the footprints remained. Safe. Their extraordinary gift is hospitality, making a space that welcomes and accepts. Or rather, spaces—for every place they made a home was open for sharing which…is something remarkable in this time, any time. And while i mourn the fact that there wont be a lasting physical artifact of their generosity, i guess maybe that’s not the nature of generosity—it makes a bulwark that isn’t physical, but emotional, made of friends and lovers, of the company kept. Part of generosity i guess is not only making a home but making you feel at home in your..skin, your neighborhood. And Excelsior did that.
When i made a list of the people Id met there in the last 15 years that it was a part of my late night routine, It was pretty long. And…maybe? maybe i would have met them in some other context? but…would i have laughed with them, comforted them, been comforted by them, celebrated with them, cried with them, talked with them, complained with them, listened to them. Or just been with them, nursing a drink and listening to music or watching television and just …being?
I was trying to think of the world for what this ever-morphing and expanding group had become to me. Friends? some of them, surely, some of them very very close friends who have shaped the path of my last decade and a half. Company? Community? A tribe? I dunno. But in a time where people huddle up inside their nests and look further and further inward, only reaching out to the world electronically, remember that there is such a pleasure in the act of being in a room together with people you dont know and looking at each other in the eye to say, “i know, rigiht?” I know my life is richer because it expanded to include them, and that i am grateful they welcomed me into it even for an evening or a glance. We looked outward towards each other.
And they were nicer to me than i could have expected, or deserved.
And i learned about my neighborhood, from those that grew up there.
And always there was music. Which is so much better when listened to with friends.
But anyways, Excelsior. Ever Upward.
So, we go on. or…up. But friends…on the eve of Excelsior’s closing, please…go OUT. Sit in the company of others. Make some bad decisions. Play the jukebox. Listen to a stranger. You might find your tribe that way. Your open heart might open more. You might find comfort. Or Solace. Or only a laugh. Please tip your bartenders. Please thank the people that stay open late to make shelter for your…soul? spirit? that make space for your company. You wont be able to do it at Excelsior anymore after Wednesday, but carry the spirit of Mark and Richard’s generosity onward. upward. ever.
So. Richard, Mark, Will, Ray, Jim, Martin, Ben, Andrew, Chris, Dan, Mark, Chris, Louis, J Sterling, Tony, Octavio, Brian, Joe, Brett, Patrick, Liam, Lilah, Tommy, Mark, Giovanni, Steven, Richard, Glenn, Christian, and..on and on. Thank you.
Excelsior.
for Richard D. Kennedy and Mark Nayden
