Speaking of music…

I was Googling old friends and acquaintances the other day (what, like you’ve never done it?) and I found one of my old high school buddies. There were four of us who ran together back then: me, Alex, James, and Rick. (James moved away during our senior year, so me, Alex and Rick were really the core group.) I remember we used to come up with goofy group nicknames for ourselves — as the Blues Brothers we were Jake (me), Elwood (Rick) and Manny (the brother we invented for Alex); inspired by Battlestar Galactica we were Starbuck, Boomer and Skylar (BG fangeeks, please ignore the fact that Starbuck was a female character and that there was no Skylar); during our “Flavin” phase (take the first syllable of your name and and “boflavin” to the end) we were Riboflavin, Jimboflavin, Alboflavin and, uh, Chuboflavin (I was not a fan of the Flavin thing). We had a corner of the student parking lot staked out for ourselves and used to spray-paint our noms de jour on “our” spaces. We were pretty much inseparable. Until graduation. That very day we scattered to the wind.

I looked Alex up about 10 years ago, found him living in San Francisco, and went up there for a weekend visit. When we said our goodbyes we swore to keep in touch — but we didn’t. James called me out of the blue about two years ago and we talked on the phone for about an hour and swore we’d keep in touch — but we didn’t. Rick looked me up a few months later via classmates.com and it turned out he lives in Dallas and I was flying there for my job every two weeks, so we got together for dinner and swore to keep in touch — but we didn’t. Like I said in my bio, I’m not very good at being friends — or friendly, for that matter.

So years have gone by since I’ve seen or spoken with any of these guys. I was the only one of the group at both our 10 and 20 year high school reunions. The Flavin Brothers are ancient history. That’s okay, I’m fine with that, but I still wonder about them sometime. So I Googled. And I found Alex.

In high school he was just starting to play the bass and wanting to be a musician. Ten years ago he was doing the struggling musician thing up in San Francisco. Now he’s in a band called Laughingstock, they’re recording and releasing CDs, and they’re really good! He has some samples on his web page, so I downloaded them and I love them. I wondered at first if I liked the songs because I wanted to like them, but I’ve had them stuck in my head for three days and playing in my mental mp3 player during my rides to and from work, so it’s because they’re good. I like them so much I want to write a movie so I can use them in the soundtrack.

I emailed him through the contact link on his band’s page but I haven’t heard back. Maybe I won’t. Probably I won’t. That’s okay, I might not answer if it were him writing me. I just like knowing that he’s still making music and doing it well. I don’t know why I feel this way, and frankly it surprises me that I do, but knowing he’s still chasing his dream makes me happy.

Click on the titles to hear Like Texas and River Rushing, my favorites of the songs I downloaded from his page. I’m sure Alex wouldn’t mind me posting it here — any publicity is good publicity, right? — but I’ll take it down if he asks.

But he’d have to write to me to do that, wouldn’t he? Ha.

Listening to the new John Mayer CD Heavier Things here at work. This is the song that’s making me have to hide the fact that I’m tearing up:

Daughters
John Mayer

I know a girl
She puts the color inside of my world
But she’s just like a maze
Where all of the walls all continually change
And I’ve done all I can
To stand on her steps with my heart in my hands
Now I’m starting to see
Maybe it’s got nothing to do with me

So fathers, be good to your daughters
Daughters will love like you do
Girls become lovers who turn into mothers
So mothers, be good to your daughters too

Perhaps you’ll recall when I picked up a nail that flattened my rear tire back in June. If not, then surely you remember when I picked up another nail for another flat back in July. And there was a flat before those two that predated this blog by a few months that I never wrote about. So you’d think that getting 3 flats in a year would statistically insure me fully inflated tires for the next decade at least, if not the rest of my life, wouldn’t you? If you did, you would be wrong. Today it was a screw. Again, in the rear tire.

I can’t adequately describe for you just how exciting it is to discover your motorcycle’s rear tire going flat at 85 miles an hour. Everything start feeling loose, and the rear end starts sliding from side to side, and you know you have to fight the instinctive urge to hit the brakes because the rear brake will strip the tire off the wheel and the front brake will make the rear end even looser and want to swap places, and you stop breathing long enough to notice that your lungs hurt because you’re holding your breath, and… Well, let’s just say it gets your attention. All of it.

But I managed to get it off the road safely, and then AAA did their “we can’t help you” thing but sent a $65 flatbed anyway, and the nearby motorcycle shop did the $115 tire repair; you know, the usual story.

So how I’m at work 5 hours late and about $200 lighter. And I’m just happy to be here.

I get a buttload of spam, and most of it concerns either where I can get Viagra dirt cheap or how I can increase the size of my member.

Spam isn’t targeted advertising, is it? Or … is Beth submitting my name to the sites that sell this stuff???

Hmm…

Naivete is a wonderful thing, isn’t it? Oh, to be young and pampered and cluelessly arrogant again. It’s easy to pretend you’re a soldier from a foxhole in an air-conditioned cubicle.

His Vietnam vet co-worker should kick his smug little manicured ass all the way out to the parking lot and then give him the spanking he desperately needs.

Wise words tonight from Jedi Naze on the Art of Marriage. They were particularly relevant tonight. Wish I’d read them about two hours ago…

Love Ride 20 is just around the corner and I just found out this year’s musical guest will be ZZ Top. Cool! I’ve always wanted to see them in concert, now I’ll get my chance to do it surrounded by bikers. As Beth said, “They’re the perfect choice.”

I’m officially shifting into fundraising gear now. I’ve set up my donation page and I’m going to start pimping it everywhere I can — including here. Last year I hit up friends and family and coworkers and even set up an auction on eBay and I raised more than $200. This year I’m going for $600 and I’m hitting you up too.

Wanna help? Go to my donation page here and sponsor me for however much you can. Five bucks or five hundred, it doesn’t matter how much. I’ll appreciate any amount y’all contribute.

Thanks!

Say it ain’t so, JLo!

Reports are surfacing that America’s favorite couple (yours and mine, and your neighbor’s too!), Ben and Jen, are splitting up.

Sigh… I guess fairy tale romances just can’t survive in today’s paparazzi-scarred celebrity universe. Who could have seen this coming? I feel like I’ve been blindsided.

::sniff::

I so felt their love!

Wah!!!!!!

The title of this entry is potentially misleading. No, I did not sight a poker star like Phil Helmuth or Scotty Nguyen, instead I sighted a star while playing poker the other night — Richard Kind, best known from his role as Paul on Spin City. He’s a pretty solid player, too, he took me down for about $30 in one hand and racked up about $200 in his first half hour at the table.

He didn’t manage to hang on to it, but then neither did I. I think we both went home losers that night. Only difference is that he cashed a big sitcom star paycheck the next day to cover it, while I cashed a per diem check with quite a few less zeroes to cover my losses.

I saw this picture and started laughing hysterically. It’s sick and twisted, I know, but it’s also damned funny in a dark, dark way.

Or maybe I just have cat roadkill issues. Ever since that day, I’ve never looked at a dead cat the same way again.