Friday CJ Random 11

It's one more random than 10!

Leap Year should be a national holiday. We should treat it like that extra hour of sleep we get when it’s time to move the clocks back, except let it be a whole day that's completely off the books.

I have a funny story to share from my brother, Tickle. He works in your standard office environment. Earlier this week, he noticed that one of his coworkers was away in the bathroom, so Tickle went to this guy’s desk and sent an e-mail to another male coworker, saying, “I think we should get weird after work.”

He happened to notice that the guy he sent the e-mail to was away from his desk as well. Tickle went to the third man’s desk and replied to the message he sent from the second guy, writing, “I agree.” My brother went back to his desk and waited.

According to Tickle, “This prompted an awkward exchange between the two before they pinned me down as the prime suspect.” Keep in mind Tickle is 30 and getting married this year.

Speaking of which, at the end of April I am heading to Vegas with Tickle and a posse of guys for Tickle’s bachelor party. Most of the colorful characters from earlier trips will be there. I intend to buy a lap dance for Tickle from Danny Gans, while Danny Gans imitates the entire cast of Saved by the Bell. I will ask him to save Screech for last.

On to the tunes....

1) “Eternal Life,” Jeff Buckley. Funny a song with this title comes up when I’ve been reading Kevin Brockmeier’s The Brief History of the Dead and working on some afterlife-related fiction.

2) “Friday’s Dust,” Doves. Not to be confused with “Dust in the Wind,” which blows every other day of the week.

3) “Survival Car,” Fountains of Wayne. I gained a decent amount of weight after we moved up here, and I finally decided enough was enough and went back on the South Beach Diet this week. This is as close to candy as I’ll get for a while.

4) “Whatcha Drinkin’,” Hüsker Dü. I am drinking the new bottle of Scotch that The Lovely Becky surprised me with. I really wish I had been listening to Hüsker Dü in high school instead of Dio. Well, maybe not Dio—I will always have a soft spot for Ronnie James and his magic ways. How about instead of Dokken?

5) “Houses of the Holy,” Led Zeppelin. Cowbell! TLB really, really hates Zeppelin. I flipped on VH1 Classic last week and caught a late 70s live performance of Zeppelin playing, "Nobody's Fault But Mine," which I love because it's not overplayed. My wife, bless her, sat on the couch working on her computer, saying not a word until she uttered an almost inaudible yet screamingly grateful "Thank you" when I changed the channel.

6) “Loudmouth,” The Ramones. I wonder if it took Joey less time to write the lyrics to this than it did to perform. Classic Ramones that still sounds pretty kicking.

7) “Long Distance Runaround,” Yes. This is precisely the kind of fruity wanking The Ramones rebelled against, yet I love both of them and want to bring these disperate groups together. I guess my ears are like Barack Obama.

8) “Von,” Sigur Rós. I can’t think of better music to play on a snowy UP day. This is an acoustic version of an old song of theirs, from the new Hvarf-Heim CD. Well worth getting if you love your ears.

9) “Scared Straight,” The Long Winters. Har dee har har at the band name considering it’s the last day of February and snowing like hell right now. But that doesn’t take away from a nice, catchy rock song with just the right touch of horns. The video shows what these crazy kids are doing with the You Tubes.

10) “The Other End (Of the Telescope),” Til Tuesday. TLB can sing this every bit as sweetly as Aimee Mann herself. This probably should have been our wedding song.

11) “Medley: YYZ/Temples of Syrinx/Tom Sawyer (live),” Rush. Or this could have worked for the wedding. Nothing says for better or for worse like Geddy Lee shrieking We are the priests...of the Temples...of SYRINX!

Twenty years of living with this, and she still surprises me with booze. That’s love.

Have a great weekend.