Monday, August 11, 2008

Funny How the Mind Works

Hola, amigos!

I'd like to say that I'm wide awake this morning, but that ain't true. I'm still feeling a lot like a forty-five being played at thirty-three and a third.

Last night, after I made that last post, I turned on the TV to watch some FavreCenter, but I was out cold before the first commercial break, not knowing who won at Watkins Glen, how the Cards faired against the Cubbies, or how the PGA championship went down. That's how tired I was. Hell, I was dozing earlier during the poker tournament, but I won't use that as an excuse for my out-of-the-money finish...

Luckily, they have this thing called the 'internet' which allowed me to catch up on all the latest sports news this morning without having to put up with commercials, soccer highlights, or Stuart Scott. And mark it down--today is the day I officially stick a fork in my Cardinals for the season. They are Dee - You - In DONE for the year--too many injuries, and the Cubs are just too strong to catch. So once it becomes official in the eyes of MLB, I shall temporarily switch my allegiance to the Cubbies, rooting for them to finally get off the World Series schneid.

See, that's the difference between the Cards/Cubs rivalry versus those heathens in Boston and New York. You'd never catch a Sox fan rooting for the Yankees, or vice versa. But I don't begrudge my hot dog-eating, Old Style-drinking north-side brothers a shot at the title when my team is obviously overmatched and has no chance to compete. Normally, I love to see the Cards beat the Cubbies like a drum, but this is their year, and I'll unabashedly ride their bandwagon this October, even if they're facing the Angels.

So, Go Cubbies! We'll get ya next year.

But back to the bigger question. Why am I awake at 5:00 am, especially considering the week I've had?

Well, it goes back to Thursday night in the cigar lounge at Chicago Brewing Company. While Scottie and I were sitting there enjoying ourselves in the blue haze of our second-hand smoke, a song came on the overhead sound system that was just a little louder and more upbeat than the rest of the music I'd heard that night, and while we were talking, I was multi-tasking and trying to remember the 'hook' from the song so I could find out what the name of it was later on and maybe download it. It was a fairly catchy tune and it reminded me of some of the cooler 80's music I listened to back when I was just a pup.

Of course, a few minutes later, I completely forgot about it.

Fast forward to four days later. Here I was, passed out in my bed, dead to the world in the middle of the night. And I was having a funky dream about shopping over at the Zia used record store over by the ASU campus back in Tempe (a place I haven't set foot in for almost ten years), and that song started playing. In my dream, I remember asking the hippie at the desk what the name of it was, but not knowing in my conscious mind, that part of the dream was kind of a blur--all I remember was him handing me a blank CD.

Right then I woke up, thinking, Holy shiat--I need to get a copy of that song!

That was about 45 minutes ago. My laptop has been sitting right next to my pillow for the past week or so, so I opened it up and fired up the Google. I typed a few words into the search engine, and less than five minutes later, I had that same song downloaded on my hard drive.

Nowadays, we take that whole instant-gratification, all the info in the world at your fingertips technology for granted. But I consider it a small miracle that I tucked a few lines from a song into the dark recesses of my tired brain the other night while half in the bag on martinis and microbrew, and in the middle of the night a few days later, it works it's way to the top of my mental in-box, and with just a few keystrokes on the computer, I now have a copy of it to listen to whenever I feel the urge. Pretty f*ckin' cool, if you ask me.

What's the song, you ask? Well, I'm pretty sure it's actually called Chicka Cherry Cola or I Want You by Savage Garden, and coming from somebody who thinks music reached it's apex with Guns N Roses and old Van Halen, this is a bit different than what I usually listen to. Yeah, it's wuss-rock, and you'll never catch me at a Savage Garden concert waving my lighter in the air and yelling Free Bird! at the stage, but if you listen to it with a good set of speakers or in your earphones, it's actually a damn good song. Hell, if Bruce Springsteen can admit that he liked Achy-Breaky Heart, then dammit, I can admit that I like a Savage Garden tune...



I'm going back to sleep now.

Mikey

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