Goth Night at Black Circle Brewing Company

Wrote this last night after my first visit to Black Circle Brewing Company and it’s “Sins of the Flesh, Goth Night at Black Circle Brewing Company“.

Even since finding my “inner Goth” I’ve been looking into getting involved in the Goth Scene.  As I described elsewhere, when I first started looking I could only find one event, a “Goth night” in Broadripple (a neighborhood in Indianapolis with a cluster of entertainment establishments including clubs, bars, and restaurants).  This Goth Night was on Thursday nights and…well, at my age an “all nighter” when I have work the next day isn’t a challenge, it’s a mistake.  As the years creep up, you really start to appreciate a full night’s sleep.

For a long time I stopped looking in large part because I was married to someone who just plain did not understand.  I don’t intend to go into that here–nobody needs the blow-by-blow down-and-dirty on that–but that’s only a small part of why I’m single now.  So, I started looking again and this is one of the two events–both on Saturdays–I found going on in the Indianapolis area.

Kept it short that first night. Stayed just under an hour.  Wanted to leave while I was still having a good time and well before I “ran out of spoons“. I’d checked out the music of the performer they had scheduled and it was…different.  Folk who’ve been following this blog (or search “Musical Interlude” in the search box to the right) know what I like   This was decidedly different but interesting enough that I was willing to give it a chance.  The music did grow on me as I listened at the event. I’ll be honest.  It’s nothing I’d want a steady diet of, but it’s an interesting change of pace. All told and fantasies aside, I accomplished everything I set out to accomplish.

I was the most “dressed up” person there. It was billed as a “Goth night” and some people did sport a goth look. Others not so much. Again, I was the most “dressed up”: black dress shirt and tie. Black slacks. My boots (some of you have seen them at LibertyCon). The purple tail coat. A black top hat. And a walking stick with a large “glass” (actually acrylic plastic) knob on the end. Very “Victorian Goth”.

This is a pretty big step in my dressing up and I was a bit nervous to start–I mean, I liked the look and thought the outfit looked pretty good, but being in public… Remember “crippling social anxiety.” By the end of the time I was there, I was quite comfortable with it. To be honest, nobody really paid much attention, positive or negative. For a guy with the issues I have, this was a big plus.

It wasn’t a very large group there…enough to put me out of my comfort zone but not enough to send my social anxiety into screaming fits.

I did not get much of a “mingle and meet new people” vibe at this event.  I could be wrong (see “doesn’t get social cues” once again) but from what I saw people were present in small clusters and I didn’t really see any crossing between the groups.  While “exceeding my comfort zone” was one of my goals, trying to introduce myself into an established group where I don’t know anybody and may or may not be welcome was definitely a bridge too far.  It was a dozen bridges too far.  So “have a drink, listen to the music, and people watch”.  Mission accomplished.

Beverage choice was limited. I had asked ahead of time and and so I knew that going in.  I asked about a dry wine but the only ones they had to hand were sweet. I am aggressively low carb because I’m diabetic and trying to control as much with diet as possible.  Every gram of digestible carbohydrate turns into sugar in my body and I have to crank out gallons of insulin before my body says “oh, we need to do something with this” (Type II–Insulin resistant).

The place is a brewery so of course their main emphasis is on beer. I was not going to do light beer–as “Fuzzy Pink Niven’s Law” put it, “Never waste calories” (I.e. don’t eat soggy potato chips and the like; if you’re going to imbibe calories, imbibe the good stuff). I tried a cider they had and figured if I sipped it slowly it probably wouldn’t spike my blood sugar too badly. It was tasty and I made the glass (guessing about 12 oz) last 40 minutes. And, indeed, when I got home just under an hour after I finished, my blood glucose was 117 so it looks like we’re okay.