Nice Work host Tyler Lake talked to Mike Klinge, aka TV Mike, back in October. They talked about how hard it is to run a restaurant, or a bar or a performance venue in Bloomington, or just about anywhere, actually. And at a rate that feels too quick to keep up with, these places close. There’ve been a rash of them in town the last few months? Or is it years now?
And sadly, it happened to Orbit Room. They announced recently that they’ll be closing at the end of July.
In my appraisal, it's a major loss to Bloomington. It's a major loss for a pinball enthusiast, but more importantly, for people who want to see interesting movies, or experimental sonic oddities of the best kind, or just one of your favorite acts around town. Some of it at least, is the kind of stuff that might not have a place to live anywhere else in Bloomington. And I can already hear the laments from locals, it’ll start by fall, the eulogizing of the hot dogs. The Cosmic Chili Dog or the Full Tilt Dog, it doesn’t matter; a certain slice of people will vocally measure every new hot dog in Bloomington or wherever they find themselves to an Orbit dog. and they will, to a dog, be weighed, measured, and found wanting.
But there is a tiny, tiny, tiny Silver Lining, and that is that they don't close until the end of July. They close. So, I appeal to you now, and this is for you, not the folks at the Orbit Room, it’s looks like it’s too late for all that. If you haven't been to orbit room. You should probably go. I’m Pretty sure this is your last chance.
The thing about interesting local spots, like say, for example, Orbit Room in a town the size of Bloomington is this: If we want to be able to go check stuff out when it interests us at places like Orbit Room, we might have to patronize them with a little bit of regularity. So, you know, they are still there when the fancy strikes us to go.
I will admit, I am out here on my hypocrite’s soap box. I didn’t go to Orbit Room enough. I enjoyed myself every time I went, but I didn’t go enough. Bloomington has lost a lot of great spots, and now, after 8 years, it’s going to lose another one. And so it goes. But man, I sure wish I could learn a lesson from this particularly heartbreaking closure, I just don’t know what it is.