They talk about left-bank bars and where (they think) it all started
What’s the name of the place we’re in now, Jack?
Paradise.
Oh yeah, that’s right. What a great name! And the place before you got here was called Last Chance.
No. Okay, Dirk, I’ll explain it all to you again. Last Chance is the first place I started going to on the left bank of the city, here, in the district called Darnytsya, next to the metro stop of the same name.
Yeah, I see.
Yeah – now, what was I talking about?
Oh, ah, you were going to give me the history of how you started to frequent the drinking establishments around this part of the left bank of Kyiv back in the roaring ‘90s, and in what order and what they were called.
Oh, yeah, that’s right. Thanks. Okay, so, the first place was called Last Chance, and that was on the other side of the metro tracks.
So you’d have to go through the underpass over to the other side to find it. Last Chance – another great name!
Yeah, that’s right. You’d have to go through the underpass and walk along the row of attached stores of one cheap sort or another, made out of matchsticks and aluminum siding, like the hundreds of others of its kind they have throughout this city.
Throughout this country.
Yeah, that’s right, throughout this country… trying to squeeze the highest profit they can out of the cheapest real estate, selling third-rate crap at higher than first-rate prices. So anyway, you walk along the right-hand side as though you were going toward Dytyachi Svit – that’s Dyetski Myr in Russian – you know: Child World. You know where that is, don’t you?
Sure I do. So you walk along, and –
And nothing, because it’s no longer there. Hasn’t been for years. That was the last chance for Last Chance. The whole place was gutted and turned into one part of that store complex I just told you about.
Oh yeah. And when that happened, you started to go to…
Well, I crossed the metro tracks to this side and started going to the place on the cul-de-sac over there where the buses stop.
And that place had another great name.
Yeah, Boomerang. So eventually that place closes down to make way for other business, and so I started coming here, to Paradise.
And that’s when you started bringing me here.
That’s right. Well, yeah, eventually I started bringing you here too.
Until this place closed down, to make way for other business again, and then you found that other place.
Well, I didn’t exactly find it. It’s further inside the neighborhood, a few blocks away from the metro here. I already knew about it, I just didn’t go there, because it was too close to where I lived.
That’s right. It was practically right next door.
In a very accurate manner of speaking, it was the very next building over.
Sort of takes away the desire to go there.
Yeah, I’ll say. But when they closed this place down –
They keep sticking in buildings and buildings and buildings… every available nook and niche until –
Yeah, so anyway, when they closed this place down, I was sort of forced to start going to that place next to me.
Yeah, then you started taking me there, too. What was it called again? Time Out?
Oh, ah, no, no, wait a second, that wasn’t it. Hold on, let me think, it was – aaahh… that’s right, it was called Free Time…
That’s the one! Another pretty good name. Not as great as Last Chance, or, or… what was that – Boomerang? Or this place – Paradise. I think this is the best one.
Well, no, actually I think the first one’s the best – Last Chance.
Yeah, I think you’re right. It has that ring of inevitability about it. How about that other place, that last one – Free Time? Is it still going or did they close that down too?
No, no, as far as I know it’s still going.
But I take it you don’t have any urge to check it out again?
No, no – why bother?
Yeah, I see your point. So you say the drink doesn’t do it for you anymore.
No, it’s really kind of strange, kind of annoying. I mean, when I start I still get that initial burn inside and that starting feeling in my head, but then if I keep drinking, it doesn’t, you know, go any further. And the initial feeling – the reason you want to keep going in the first place – it sort of goes away. And then I can’t build on it. I can’t, you know, make it any worse.
Is that the point of drinking – to make it worse?
Yeah, I guess. For me it was, anyway.
So what’s that – which one you on now?
I don’t know, lost count. It could be something like the 12th.
The 12th 100 grams? 1.2 liters of whisky, Step?
That’s right. Doesn’t do a thing. Actually makes me feel bad for my old friend Johnnie Walker – like he has too much walking to do for my sake and he still doesn’t get anywhere. Gets to the point, you drink so much, they just keep letting you have it without asking you to pay.
Well, at least that much is good.
No, you’d think so, but that’s another part of it I miss. If you’re not paying for the damage, it takes out half the thrill.
Yeah? What’s the other half?
The drinking.
I see. But this is where it all started, isn’t it, Jack? Paradise.
Well, no, if you think back, all this actually started in The Lemon – back over on the right bank, sort of in the downtown but kind of out of it. Remember?
Ooohh, yeaaahh… that’s right!
Yeah, right next door to the original newsroom.
And we used to go down to The Lemon after work and –
Well, yeah, and drink, of course. But if you want to be accurate about it, that’s where it all really started.
Yeah, I guess you’re right. Except I don’t know if that was the original newsroom.
Oh, no, it was first enough. Also gone now. I mean, The Lemon, that is. And of course the newsroom up there on the sixth floor gave way to other business too – several times over by now. Bloody shame about The Lemon, too – the place had practically been a city landmark.
Yeah, I guess you’re right.
Yeah, and I guess it’s kind of appropriate, too. I mean, it being called The Lemon and all, personally for me anyway.
Why – what do you mean?
I mean, a lemon is a sort of tree, isn’t it? For what we did, I like to think about it as sort of the tree of life.
Step, I hate that fucking story.
Dickerson, with you, I knew it wouldn’t fucking last. What don’t you like about that story?
Continued in Part 2
October 10, 2014