ΦΡΑΠΕ ΚΑΙ ΛΑΙΚΑ

So, the valet at one of the restaurants calls me and says that this customer of mine just walked into Muses cafe. I put a sign on the door “Be back in 5 min” lock up and run over there with some CDs. He buys them from me, meanwhile, I see one of my best friends in there ordering 3 frappes (1 of them for me). On my way out, another customer of mine asks me if I have any new mixes.. My friend goes, “meixes exei, kai exei kanourgia cds..” the customer laughs, and him and I walk out together… I thought he was walking to the store with me, but he ended up going to another cafe. I’ll see if he comes in to buy a cd or not. It usually takes him a week or so to finally come in. But, as i was unlocking the door and taking the sign down, another customer walking by sees me and comes and buys a couple cds. 

I booked a wedding in September in Omaha Nebraska. Boss. I kinda like it there, I’ve been there a bunch of times to DJ.

If you’ve grown up in a Greek household, or hung out in the χωριο, you are aware of the saying, “θα σου αλαξω τα φωτα” and its meaning. 

I have a customer that’s an electrician, and he used to come to Greektown Music and hang out picking out music for hours while drinking coffee that I made in back. One day, an American customer came in looking for a certain cd while Paul the electrician was hanging out. I was playing cds for the customer while she was deciding what she wanted.. Of course, Paul, being a huge music fan had to put his two cents in. After about 20 minutes or so, the customer decided what she wanted to buy. Before she left, she asked Paul what he does for a living. 

“I change people’s lights.” What? she says. “I’m an Electrician. I change people’s lights.”

I tried so hard to keep in the laughter until she left and then yelled at Paul for cracking me up. ha ha

So, here I am DJing this wedding last night, and the band is playing, so I obviously am not doing anything, besides sitting behind a table with my laptop, Dj controller and mixer, with wires sticking out of it going to my speakers. This old guy is walking by, and is staring at me.. he leans over and sees my computer on and raises his eyebrows like “ooooook, what’s this creepy guy doing here at a wedding with a computer?” The weird part was, I was confused and sort of speechless to say “I’m the guy who has been playing music for the last 2 hours, we’re called Djs” and he didn’t stick around long enough for me to get over that part. haha

I’m wondering if he went home thinking “wtf was that guy doing in the corner of the room with a computer?” 

I’ve been working in Greektown since late 1997 at my families store. I officially took it over about 5 years ago. Over the years, I’ve witnessed and heard a bunch of stories of weird, random stuff that has happened. I’m going to share some of these stories (and change peoples names, obviously) whenever I can. 

There used to be this sort of homeless guy, his name was Mavro Johnny. He would do odd jobs around Greektown and all the business owners would take care of him. If any bums in the area would cause problems, we’d just tell Mavro Johnny to take care of it. I never really had problems with the bums, they all liked and respected me so they never came into my store to bother me. About the time Mavro Johnny was getting back on his feet and found himself a wife, this other dude, Carwash was coming around taking jobs away from Mavro Johnny… I’ll talk about Carwash another time, though.

Mavro Johnny would come every night to take out the trash or whatever.. We used to have a couple bottles of Metaxa and Ouzo (as well as a briki for coffee and a frappe shaker), in case friends would come to the store to hang out. Well, every time Mavro Johnny would take the garbage out, he’d take a shot or 2 of Metaxa. We didn’t really notice because we trusted him in back alone, he wouldn’t steal from us. A month or so later, some friends of my brother inlaw’s came to the store, and he wanted to offer them a shot of Metaxa. They go in back, he takes the bottle out of the box… and it’s empty. All I hear is my brother inlaw yelling “JOHNNNNYYYYYYYYY!!!” 

I always wished I played baseball as a kid.. I would have loved to be a major league player.. That’s why it makes me so happy when I see little kids playing baseball. If we ever decide to have kids, I kinda want them to play.

On another note.. A person I know has a kid who he sees once a week and the way he talks, he seems so annoyed about it.. Like he can’t wait until he turns 18, as if his kid is a jail sentence. I know its not my place to judge, but damn.

Why are people so fuckin miserable? Mia zwh, complaining.. your world isn’t ending, you’re still healthy, screw everything else. I used to like ___ as a person, hell, I’ve known them for 15 something years.. but I began to notice how nosey and sneaky they are, and I became guarded around them. Plus, the whole “woe is me” malakies.. stop complaining. If you think positive, good will come. Oh, and if you are still holding a grudge against me and/or family members and its been over 10 years.. drop it. It was a petty beef to begin with, and not worth still being mad over. Especially if it’s been over 10 years. 

I had a customer that lived in Ohio that would order Greek CDs from me named Harry Potter. I took a picture of his receipt once as proof, but I dunno what happened to the picture. 

that I could help more people.. I’ve been working in Greektown for over 16 years, and I’ve heard 8 million stories about “my car broke down/friends left me/insert story here and I’m from _insert far suburb here_ and I need money to get on the train..” it’s always the same script but different. One time, i went with my gut and let this guy use my phone, and he legit had a problem. But all those other people who lie about it have jaded me..

I’m writing this because this lady just came in here with a little picture of a 2 year old and some papers with peoples names and addresses on it. She told me that this is her granddaughter and that she passed away on tuesday and she doesn’t have insurance and if i could donate.. part of me was naive enough to think that no one would lie about a little kid dying, but then again… I see how fucked up people are. 

Vincent Vega (Pulp Fiction) and Victor Vega (Reservoir Dogs) are brothers.

Laurence Dimmick a.k.a. Mr. White (Reservoir Dogs) and Jimmy Dimmick (Pulp Fiction) may be related somehow.

Jack Scagnetti (Natural Born Killers) and Seymour Scagnetti (mentioned in Reservoir Dogs) could be related.

Drexl Spivey (True Romance) and Marsellus Spivey (mentioned in Reservoir Dogs) could be related.

Earl McGraw (From Dusk Till Dawn, Kill Bill Vol. 1, Grindhouse) and Edgar McGraw (From Dusk till Dawn 2, Kill Bill Vol. 1, Grindhouse) are father and son.

Bill and Budd are brothers.

Sgt. Donny Donowitz (Inglorious Basterds) and Lee Donowitz (True Romance) are father and son

is done. Link to my site to purchase it coming soooooooooon…..

greektownmusic.com

My wife and I snuck off on Monday for a mini-mini vacation to St Joseph, Michigan. I’ve heard of the place before, I used to know someone who lived there.. and I knew of it from my wife, who would go there with her godsister and friends when they were younger… it was so gorgeous there, and exactly what I needed. Its so weird to think that it was just on the other side of lake michigan.. it seemed like a completely different world. It’s a hella small town, we walked pretty much the whole thing.. And we spent 4 or 5 hours on the beach. It’s funny, theres only 2 hotels, and two beaches. The one beach is the popular one that gets packed, and then there’s another beach on the other side of the pier, that’s the “hidden” beach. When we got there in the morning, there was probably about 30 to 45 people there.. Slowly more people started showing up, when we left there was probably another 100 or so people that were on the beach. Compare that to the other popular beach, which probably had a couple thousand people on it. 

It was really nice to get away, if only for a day.. I really needed it.