So I headed up nawth to Starkville a couple Fridays back to see Law of Nature at Rick’s. The best thing is that I might very well have said that phrase in 1999, 2000, 2002: some things never change, even as we all have babies and can’t stay up all night the way we used to. I’m happy things never seem to get so different: after all, I am a Southerner.
Present and accounted for were XYZ, my gracious host; Kicker of Elves and his lovely wife Doctor Kicker; my brother-in-law Johnny Angel; the bulb, the CEO, and others too numerous to mention, all of whom jumped up and down to the Pixies and Johnny Cash covers and “Tomorrow,” just the way you’re supposed to and just the way we always do.
Maybe the best part was sitting in the Blue Parrot struggling to do a shot and trying not to throw it up (Irish Car Bomb-stijl) after the 1,000 beers and Jack + Cokes I’d had that nite and on the way up from Jaxxon. I’m falling off my stool and leaning up against XYZ and giggling after trying pathetically to talk to a girl who at the time I thought looked just like my “second real college girlfriend” and I’m totally about to heave and “Noise in the Hallway” is playing in the background and
it’s not 2002, or 2000, or 1999, it’s ninety-seven and I’m sick off too much OE and Southern Comfort and one architecture major or another has just walked out on me again, clutching two or three Vonnegut books on the way out the door and calling me ridiculous and charming and immature and hopelessly fucking worthless as a boyfriend,
and
I’m actually in the fucking Blue Parrot, it just smells different and is a little darker and Big Gray and I have just wasted two weeks of pay from WMSV on cheese sandwiches and Heineken (because we think Heineken is classy) in one goddamn perfect Friday afternoon while talking about Bowie and President Clinton and Neil Gaiman and
I had just heard a Sleater-Kinney record for the first time the week before and I have a crush on both “One More Hour” and Corin Tucker and sent Kill Rock Stars ten dollahs cash for a copy and “Noise in the Hallway” is playing in the background and I have pictures of the following hanging up on the robin’s egg blue concrete blocks in my dormitory: Martin Luther King, Jr.; Robert Altman; Andrew Wood; John Lennon; and
I’m back in oh-six and I’m starting to laugh in a probably slightly hysterical way and I sneak over by the Ms. Pac-Man machine to spit up Goldschläger and the last wispy remains of my youth while XYZ orders us one last round and I’m sort of embarassed by myself and at the same point having a fairly awexxome time because, after all, I’m watching Law of Nature and wearing Thee Scorpion Garment and, at least for one Friday night, all is right in the world.
All images from XYZ’s house, 06.02.06. Portions of the lyrics from “One More Hour” (written and performed by Sleater-Kinney, copyright Code Word Nemesis, ASCAP 1996) and “Tomorrow” (C. Welch, as performed by Law of Nature, copyright Sassy Fish Music, ASCAP 1998) appear on the images in this self-indulgent memoir. I last went to Starkville for Pinky’s wedding (“At Night I Drink Myself to Sleep, and Pretend I Don’t Care If You’re Not Here with Me”).
These pictures are raddddd. And xyz has had that poster in his room for like, 700 years.
1) Sleater-Kinney always brings the rock.
2) The Rockandroll can, and often does, make everything right in the world.
Awesome post, Gorjus.
Man, that was a great time at the Blue Parrot. I miss those days. You know, those days without real jobs and barely any money. Oh, wait. I still don’t have money. Sigh.
Excellently done, dude.
thanks for the reminder about the rock and the roll. sometimes the best friend you can have.
wow. i just relived a good six years of my life.
wow…takes me back…I would have gone and danced the night away… at least I would have a few years back. Thanks for making me remember good times gone past.
Jesus, I wish I was at the Blue Parrot with xyz, my pj uni and porn stache. In 96-97 xyz and I could walk to Blue Parrot/Ricks and the Tavern, only to stumble back home later.