Back on election day, as the world was anxiously awaiting to see if North Carolina and Ohio went blue for Barack Obama, Steve Trimboli spotted a "classic, 13-inch diagonal Sony trinitron" in a heap of garbage on a Bushwick Street. He grabbed the old set and brought it back to Goodbye Blue Monday, the coffee shop/performance space/second hand store he runs and owns, located at 1087 Broadway in Brooklyn.
Inside, an act known as "Musical Monk" was setting up to play his or her part of an election night concert. Just before midnight, Trimboli set the TV on an old cafe chair, grabbed the microphone from the soundboard, and set it against the speaker.
"Musical Monk" kindly stepped aside, and, as Trimboli puts it, "Obama’s words filled the air and we all listened and luxuriated in the moments. i began my bush countdown. there was a wonderful intimacy last night around the TV. It was just plain, “folksy.” The speech ended, everyone applauded, then the music resumed."
Throughout the day Tuesday, that same TV will be showing the inaugural events, and later at 6 p.m., Goodbye Blue Monday will be hosting an "an inauguration dance-off" to Michael Jackson's Thriller. That will be streamed online on their MySpace page, for those Jackson fans not living in Bushwick.
