Last night I went to the madison pub with Erica (my picknick companion from sunday) to visit our friend Faye who was there to visit her friends who had just finished their first year med-school exams. I was a little apprehensive because sometimes when I would go and visit my sister in Med-School the parties could get a little dry but these med-students were really fun. The Madison was packed for a Monday and I was told that it was mostly med-students like Faye's Friends which means the total bar take was probably $117. I was wearing a new hat that I purchased in Kensington on Sunday and people seemed to like it although I felt like I was in grade 10 again when I would lend it to someone and then be embarressed about my "hat-head".
The Madison is fun but it is so filled with people exactly like me that you are garenteed to run into someone you know every time you go there which is fine if it is someone you want to see but will more likely be some distant guy you havent seen since university and is now super drunk (by definition anyone who is drunker than I am) and wants to hang out with you because you are with girls. Anyway I didn't run into anyone last night which is like the first time in years but I wasnt really looking either.
Even more disturbing about the Madison is that it seems somtimes like it has shifted demographics from being a pub you would go to with your friends to being a pick-up style place. you can tell because I used to be able to walk right through the place without anyone bothering me, but now I get up to get a drink and it is like drunk-girl central. Also the girls are dressing in a more clublike way which is fine especially since the madison has traditionnally had a good looking crowd (unlike say the bar My Appartment). The problem really is that as soon as you get the cute dressed up single girls you are of course going to have a parasite-like infusion of cheesy dudes trying to pick them up. I have been in a lot of pubs and seen a lot of tacky dudes trying to pick up a lot of girls but I think I could write an entire book on how NOT to meet girls based soley my experiences at the Madison in the last two years.
LUKES ADVICE FOR TACKY GUYS AT MADISON PUB:
1. dont stand in a group of more than two tacky guys all with your backs against the bar trying to leer at every girl who walks by. I think you probably know that this doesn't work but it is hard to break old habits.
2. if your friend has just approached a girl and he was "shot down" then you should probably wait at least 10 min. before approaching the same girl
3. If it is past 10:00 PM and you are still wearing a suit it may come accross that you are trying to hard to look like a business guy no matter what the circumstances are that have conspired to force you to still be in your suit later into the evening.

I have more advice but without corrosponding pictures I just dont think I am reaching my intended audience.