It’s Holly

Gabe has been raving about The Imperial House FOREVER. It’s his cool ass old folks meditation spot. So, Saturday night I finally fulfilled my promise to check it out.

Holy crap.

The Imperial House is… an experience, to say the least. My favorite part is Rick Lyon, the resident lounge singer at the Imperial House. Here’s a breakdown (forgive the terrible picture, you can only do so much in photoshop with low lighting and a quick moving Rick Lyon).

1. The Mirror : Just in case you were curious, you can see EXACTLY how Rick plays… and when he’s not playing (even though there’s still music in the air - more on this later).

2. Mr. Rick Lyon, himself.

3. The Toupee: It’s a pretty good one, actually. Gabe had to point that out to me.

4. The Tip Jar/Oversized Wine Glass: There was lots of skrilla in there. Especially from the folks that got in a good 3 rounds of cha cha cha-ing. Tipping Rick Lyon was usually done through the Costanza Method: i) wave tip in front of tipee; ii) make eye contact with tipee; iii) place tip in tip receptacle, making sure tipee is fully aware of amount of said tip and identity of tipper.

5. Cocktail: Gabe says it was water… I say it was straight vodka. Who drinks water with a wedge of lime? People who interchange vodka with water, that’s who!

6. Ricky Lyon Wood Placard: Definitely created at Seaport Village, probably not by Rick himself, but as a gift from one of his loyal patrons. Notice the lion’s matching toupee.

7. The Baby Grand Piano: Which serves as the stand for:

8. The Technics Keyboard: It’s no ordinary keyboard. Rick actually loads in 3.5″ diskettes (yeah, I said it… DISKETTES) with midi files that accompany his mad keyboard skillz. It funny to see Rick taking a swig of “water” while there’s still music playing, then you realize… oh shit, it’s the midi file. He had a HUGE case of diskettes…

Some of the better selections of the night were My Life by Bille Joel, I Want You Back by the Jackson 5, You Can Call Me Al by Paul Simon, Sugar Pie Honey Bunch by The Four Tops and Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison. We also had a Rick Lyon original titled “See You Next Saturday”, which he wrote about 20 years ago when he and his wife divorced, and he only had partial custody of his kids (”we’ll go fishing in the deep blue sea, but I’ll be sure to have you home by 3… see you next Saturday”). Just glorious! He had quite a selection.

So, thank you Gabe, for giving a whole new meaning to lounging around.