Friday Is A Story Day

Today you may call me “Scoop” because yesterday I found out (through public information) that Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks will be playing at Variety Playhouse on March 26th. I scooped this story over at Cable & Tweed (Rich’s ultra-cool Atlanta music blog for which I occasionally write) yesterday. Sadly tickets have yet to go on sale, so if I go missing for a while between now and the 26th of March you know that I am out seeking a ticket for this show. Will it sell out? Perhaps? Will I be in attendance? You bet your sweet ass I will!

Winning At Trivia: Not So “Last Year”
Another night of trivia, another victory. I was even able to contribute three, count’em three, sports answers last night.

I should probably give props to those of you who forced my to watch Madonna videos during this past holiday season because the final question was “Which artist has the most MTV Video Awards having won twenty-three?” My first guess may have been Madonna anyway, but there was little doubt in my mind after seeing so many of her videos over the past few weeks.

The team formerly known as “Meet The Hashers” was a mere one question away from perfection last evening. The question we missed had to do with who sang the vocals on the Santana song “Smooth” (which irks me because Santana used to be a running (as in constant, not exercise) joke between me and my friend Stacey). Not being able to remember the tune I guessed Everlast (he did sing with Carlos on one his latter hits? Right?) and of course the correct answer was Rob Thomas (of Matchbox Twenty infamy).

ITP Flickr Pic
I don’t have any new material to post (it’s a good think that I didn’t pledge to take a photo a day). So, I will again dig into the archives — this one even comes with a story….

I moved to Atlanta in 1995. I was 29 and full of hope. From all I heard the ratio of women to men was skewed in my favor and that Atlanta was a great place for young singles to meet. Having just successfully lost about forty pounds and working out daily I was in fantastic shape and ready to cash in all of those lonely nights for a better life.

I have never fooled myself into thinking that I was in the top ten percent of good-looking men, however, I also didn’t believe that I was in the bottom ten percent either. I tried virtually everything to meet women — co-ed sports, book clubs, volunteering, running groups, dinner/theater groups, tennis, dating websites, hashing — you name it, I tried it and was mostly unsuccessful.

On this day in 1999-2000 I was the group leader for a mulching project in Piedmont Park while volunteering for an organization known as “Single Atlantans Volunteering” (in hindsight I should have looked for a group called “Horny Atlantans Volunteering” — but I digress). Soon after this day the person running the organization announced that she had gotten engaged. I never returned because I felt that there was something fraudulent about a “singles group” being run by somebody planning her wedding.

In The Year 1985
Last night as I waited for my team to arrive at Raging Burrito I heard music from The Cars (there was an outside chance that it was Rik Ocasek solo material, but I really think that it was The Cars. This stream of conscience is important, so stay with me here.) playing in the room.

This music reminded me of the time that I tried to locate “Change No Change” the solo effort from former Cars guitarist Elliot Easton. I have/had “Change No Change” on cassette and wanted to update it to CD. At that time the CD was long-since out-of-print and hopes were dashed.

However last night I found out that “Change No Change” had been re-released and the music was also available for download from both Amazon and iTunes. While I am a pseudo-Apple-Fanboy I couldn’t determine if the iTunes downloads were 256kbps DRM-free tracks, so I purchased from Amazon (for the same price). Sweet!

Want to guess what I listened to on my drive in to work today?

What’s the morale of this story? Don’t give up. I’ll admit that finding “Change No Change” on CD (or mp3) is not a monumental, life-changing event, but it has proven to me that things can change, and sometimes change for the better.

btw- “Change No Change” is not quite as good as I remember it being, but I am still thrilled to once again have the chance to listen to it whenever the hell I want.

Hey, It Looks Great On You
Tonight I will be at Stacy & Phil’s Annual “Wine and Re-Gift Party.” Every January we all bring a bottle wine and some gift that we’d rather someone else have and do a “white elephant” exchange. Two years ago I ended up with makeup for little girls (huh?), last year my gift was a beer stein (at least this was useful to me), tonight no one knows.

What is the gift that I am bringing? You’ll have to wait until Monday to find out. I am sure that I’ll have at least one story to tell about the evening’s events.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood – thawing out, hopeful
Current Music – Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Sex Pistols — “Anarchy In The UK”
Website Of The Day – I love the internet! It’s so fucking bizarre! Check out the short story available at storytime.
Exercise (b)Log – nothing (this evil trend ends soon)
Monthly Foot Mileage – 0 miles
Monthly Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work – My car
Monthly Marta Rides – 0

January Goals
1) Run no fewer than 50 miles
2) Ride Marta no fewer than sixteen times (eight round-trips)
3) Read at least one book

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]