Time Has Told Me...

Another bunch of random thoughts in search of a theme…

1) I can’t believe that I forgot to include on my list of 43 things the following: Owning a pet monkey complete with costumes. First of all, this will allow me to test the notion that everything is funnier when it involves a monkey. Plus, you know you’ve made it when you have your own monkey. As I’ve said before, as a single guy if I get a cat it means that I’ve given up on life but if I get a monkey it means that I am now living life solely for my own enjoyment.

2) Speaking of costumes, I’ve been running through some ideas of what to wear for Halloween, if for some reason I had a need to don a costume for an event. Not likely, but still, you need to be prepared for all eventualities. I’ve decided to go with a backpack, red and white striped shirt and red and white stocking cap and be a real life Waldo. It’s retro, it’s cool, and I just think that the laughs that I could have sitting at a bar in that get-up would be off the hook.

3) People wonder how I know the answers to all of these trivia questions. It’s not that I have a lot of things memorized, it’s more like I can make connections between rather unrelated events. Example: on Friday the question was in what year did Queen Elizabeth II take the throne. My thought process: “Well, the Sex Pistols played “God Saved the Queen” on that barge on the Thames during the 25th anniversary and that had to be either 77 or 78. Probably 78 so I’ll go with 1953 as the date she took the throne.” Which was correct. (And Amy my teammate also guessed that answer and I promised that I would mention her insight on the blog.)

4) I’ve been having very odd bar experiences when it comes to the background music. On Friday night they were playing a CD I actually own (a Paste sampler disc from earlier this year). Last night I was at an Elliot Smith memorial show and the music played in between sets was the equivalent to just grabbing my CD collection and hitting shuffle. Seriously, in a span of about an hour they played Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright, Paul Burch, Cat Power and Sufjan Stevens. To be honest, it made me wonder whether I was at a bar of if somehow my apartment had in fact magically transformed itself into a place with beer taps. Which would be super cool.

5) Speaking of weird events, this happened a week or so ago. Was walking down the street in my neighborhood and saw across the way the mascot for the Kansas City Chiefs standing on the street corner. (By the way, the mascot is a wolf and if someone can explain to me what a wolf has to do with the Chiefs I’d be really grateful. And can explain why Slugerr (the Royals mascot) has his eyes in the crown that he wears on his head.) Anyway, while seeing this I wasn’t sure if KC Wolf was there because a) he was promoting a store, b) I was hallucinating after another late night or c) someone in my neighborhood thought it would be really cool to dress up in a mascot costume and wave at traffic. The odds are pretty even between those three.

6) Amazing Race update: the one team that I liked (Peter and Sarah) were eliminated tonight. At least Sarah realized that Peter is a horrible match for her and she could get someone much better (yes, that’s me waving my arms and yelling “Over here” right now). They were a fun team, if just because Peter made Sarah (who has an artificial leg) do every difficult task. Like climb up the side of buildings or scale cliff walls, she’d do them while Peter would lie on the ground and relax. I think he took a nap during one of them. I’m amazed she didn’t punch him out during the race.

The five random CDs for the week:
1) Nick Drake “Way To Blue”
2) Big Head Todd and the Monsters “Live Monsters”
3) Ryan Adams and the Cardinals “Cold Roses”
4) Wayne Toups and Zydecajun “Back to the Bayou”
5) Rufus Wainwright “Want Two”