Juke and Opal

“WINTER 1973. Late afternoon: the entr'acte between dusk and darkness when the people who conduct their business in the street -- numbers runners in gray chesterfields out-of-work barmaids playing the dozens adolescents cultivating their cigarette jones and lust small-time hustlers selling ‘authentic’ gold wristwatches that are platinum bright---look for a place to roost and to drink in the day's sin. Young black guy looks like the comedian Richard Pryor walks into one of his hangouts Opal's Silver Spoon Café. A greasy dive with a R & B jukebox it could be in Detroit or in New York could be anywhere. Opal's has a proprietor -- Opal a young and wise black woman who looks like the comedian Lily Tomlin -- and a little bell over the door that goes tink-a-link announcing all the handouts and gimmes who come to sit at Opal's counter and talk about how needy their respective asses are.” — Hilton Als