Maybe We All Have Some Inner Demons to Contend With

Name of Place Visited: JG’s Pizza
Street Address: 195 Lark Street
Date, Time of Day: 1/31/08, 1:30-2:30


I discovered JG’s Pizza quite randomly. I’ve never been here before. It seems like a pretty scary place at first because the music is so intense—some creepy, Halloween- style music. Oh well, I’ll make the best of it. I usually listen to all kinds of music, but I’ve never heard anything quite like this before. I wasn’t completely comfortable when I first walked in because it was new to me, but as the hour progresses I become more and more at ease. I like the place. It has me questioning my musical tastes—some of the songs are pretty cool—maybe I need to expand my collection even further.

I’m sitting in the chair by the door, so the few times somebody comes in my left leg gets the brunt of a cold gust. The song changes to one that has more screaming in it. Not exactly screaming—more like short bursts of sound being extracted from some primordial animal unwillingly. There’s a fair amount of sunlight in the front of the room, from the street-side windows, but towards the back is pretty neutral lighting-wise. There are posters everywhere: Led Zepplin, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Tom Waits: Downtown Train, Motorhead England, Pantera, AC/DC, Sex Pistols, Isis, and Ramones. The square tables are covered with magazine cutouts and comics, most of which are strange and/or unorthodox. There’s a shirt hanging in the window behind me that says 195 Lark St. followed by “Live Fast-Eat Pizza” which pretty much sums up this place. There’s a Family Guy calendar behind the counter. I can hear Counter Chick in the back shutting doors, and the soda cooler in front of me starts to hum.

From where I sit I can see into the back room, where Pizza Guy is making pizzas. He’s a middle-aged, cool, tattooed guy. I order two slices of pepperoni pizza from the Counter Chick. She’s pretty intensely pierced (on the body parts I can see at least). She has handcuff earrings and a bar through the bridge of her nose. I feel a sense of camaraderie, as I also have tattoos, and a fairly unique set of piercings on my back. Counter Chick is wearing a black bandana with red skulls on it, and a black zip-up hoodie. She’s wearing a white apron around her petite waist. She’s small, like 5’1” or 2”. She’s a lot friendlier than I expected. I can hear Pizza Guy in the back room patting down pizza dough. It happens every so often and it always catches me off guard because it sounds like a large sumo type individual patting his belly before wrestling. There’s a guy sitting at the middle table on the other side of the room. He’s white, in his late 20’s, chewing politely and shaking the foot of his crossed leg quite rhythmically. He seems nervous and a little out of place here, but it looks like he feels at home. Like an alter ego of his could be the one screaming on this track or playing the drums maniacally. Nervous Guy leaves, so I start observing the guy at the last table on the right. He’s the only other person here but me and Counter Chick and Pizza Guy. He’s a middle-aged black guy with thin-framed glasses and combat boots. His moustache moves as he also chews politely. So many quiet and polite people, myself included, are here in this fairly loud, chaotic, demonic sounding place. Weird. Maybe we all have some inner demons to contend with. Pizza Guy comes out from the back room. He has two full tattoo sleeves, and he’s wearing a LarkTattoo t-shirt and a black skullcap. He looks pretty badass, but he nicely asks Counter Chick if she wants anything “from the outside.” “Coffee, if you’re going that way,” she says. He leaves but comes right back in for some reason. I assume because he noticed a guy come in who stocks supplies of some sort. A young guy in a beige beanie with a brim comes in and asks Pizza Guy if they need any help. Pizza Guy says, “Not right now, it’s pretty dead.” The guy says “Thanks” and leaves as quickly as he came in. Counter Chick cleans the three empty tables on the other side of the room. A new song is on now that’s mostly drums and some psychedelic sounds in the background. It’s pretty mellow—a total stoner song. I feel like I’m floating right now—maybe I should check the ingredients in this pepperoni pizza. Fuck, I just bit my lip. Damn that really hurts. Now I taste blood along with my pizza. My Mountain Dew isn’t helping the situation either.