When John Avelluto texted me on Saturday evening, I really didn’t expect to open the attachment and see a photograph of him with Angelo Badalamenti. The Owl’s Head wine bar in Bay Ridge hosted its second annual Twin Peaks costume party this weekend, timed to coincide with the birthday of the series’ composer, a native of neighboring Dyker Heights, where he once taught music to public school students. Co-owner Avelluto’s dream since year-one has been to get the man himself to attend, but even Avelluto didn’t expect it to be fulfilled so soon. Then on Saturday evening, none other than Badalamenti himself, who now lives in Los Angeles, strolled through the bar’s doors, where his music was on the speakers all night and scenes from Twin Peaks were projected against the wall.
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Badalamenti and his family left for dinner at nearby Gino’s, but came back around 10pm to a more crowded bar, whose patrons greeted his return with applause that he graciously returned. And when the crowd went straight into “Happy Birthday,” he stood in the middle of the room and conducted. “Aaaaand… cut!” he instructed a few seconds into the held final note.
He was given a piece of Robicelli’s cherry pie and a taste of the bakery’s Twin Peaks-themed cupcakes, which he said were excellent. Then he posed for photos with customers dressed up like the Log Lady and cheerleader-phase Nadine, and shook hands, including mine (!); his party stayed for a drink before piling into a SUV/limo hybrid, leaving a bunch of beaming Bay Ridgers. “We have to make this a thing,” Allison Robicelli told me later. “This can be southern Brooklyn’s Phil Collins Day.”
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What a fun, surprising evening, and how gracious he was!