Happy Monday morning, folks. I'm back after a relaxing weekend in the Palm Springs area and ready to bloggy woggy woggy til I just can't bloggy no more. Sorry, I don't know where that came from.
I mentioned in Friday's post about my honest, natural reaction to my brother reading me a bumper sticker he saw. That reminded me of a game I played with Dusty a few times. It was imaginatively called "Honest Reaction," and we would've played more often, but we were busy talking about other more important things like our bowels.
Sidebar, your honor: Writing "Honest Reaction" got a song called "Common Reactor" in my head by Silversun Pickups. I got their cd recently, and I like it quite a bit. They're kinda early-Smashing-Pumpkins-esque, so if you like that sort of thing, check them out. The only problem I'm having so far with the album is that I'm big into lyrics, and I just can't make out a lot of what the lead singer says. I thought I knew one line of one song, and I sang it loudly and proudly in my car: "And there's no way to know, a beautiful scenario." Then I looked at the back of the cd and saw that the song was called "Future Foe Scenarios." As it turns out, I didn't even know the one line I knew. Oh vell.
Let's go back in time, shall we? My friend Twilight and I went out to lunch with some of our co-workers one day in 2000 or 2001. On the way back to the office, she and I were sitting in the back seat together. Twilight was glancing out the window, and she said, "Wow, we must be really close to the airport because that plane almost looks like it's going to land on us." Knowing I wouldn't be able to see it out her window, I leaned back to look out the rear windshield. What did I see? A gigantic plane with it's landing gear down, about...ten feet from the car. At least that's how close it looked. I jolted forward, turned my palms up to the air, moved my arms back and forth, and loudly said, "A goo goo!"
Twilight looked over at me and smiled, thinking I was mocking her for saying the plane was close. A minute later, I confessed: "Uh, Twilight," I said, "before when I said 'A goo goo!'...that was my honest reaction to seeing the plane." She thought that was the funniest thing she'd ever heard. "Really? Come on," she said. "I'm serious. In fact, my heart rate is just calming down now." "And that's the sound you made?" "Apparently. I'm just as shocked as you are."
The story quickly spread throughout my circle of friends. For a while after that, anytime there was something even remotely scary, someone would yell "A goo goo!" to mock me (unless I could self-mock before they got to it.)
I mentioned in Friday's post about my honest, natural reaction to my brother reading me a bumper sticker he saw. That reminded me of a game I played with Dusty a few times. It was imaginatively called "Honest Reaction," and we would've played more often, but we were busy talking about other more important things like our bowels.
Sidebar, your honor: Writing "Honest Reaction" got a song called "Common Reactor" in my head by Silversun Pickups. I got their cd recently, and I like it quite a bit. They're kinda early-Smashing-Pumpkins-esque, so if you like that sort of thing, check them out. The only problem I'm having so far with the album is that I'm big into lyrics, and I just can't make out a lot of what the lead singer says. I thought I knew one line of one song, and I sang it loudly and proudly in my car: "And there's no way to know, a beautiful scenario." Then I looked at the back of the cd and saw that the song was called "Future Foe Scenarios." As it turns out, I didn't even know the one line I knew. Oh vell.
Let's go back in time, shall we? My friend Twilight and I went out to lunch with some of our co-workers one day in 2000 or 2001. On the way back to the office, she and I were sitting in the back seat together. Twilight was glancing out the window, and she said, "Wow, we must be really close to the airport because that plane almost looks like it's going to land on us." Knowing I wouldn't be able to see it out her window, I leaned back to look out the rear windshield. What did I see? A gigantic plane with it's landing gear down, about...ten feet from the car. At least that's how close it looked. I jolted forward, turned my palms up to the air, moved my arms back and forth, and loudly said, "A goo goo!"
Twilight looked over at me and smiled, thinking I was mocking her for saying the plane was close. A minute later, I confessed: "Uh, Twilight," I said, "before when I said 'A goo goo!'...that was my honest reaction to seeing the plane." She thought that was the funniest thing she'd ever heard. "Really? Come on," she said. "I'm serious. In fact, my heart rate is just calming down now." "And that's the sound you made?" "Apparently. I'm just as shocked as you are."
The story quickly spread throughout my circle of friends. For a while after that, anytime there was something even remotely scary, someone would yell "A goo goo!" to mock me (unless I could self-mock before they got to it.)
So Dusty and I turned that bizarre outburst of fear into a game. We were driving somewhere, and there was a slow car in front of us. Using my Jedi mind trickery, I told the car to get over one lane. It did, and we were both impressed by my powers. He suggested that I try something bigger, like making something explode. I pointed to an old likely-uninhabited building and said, "Explode." It didn't, and we shrugged it off. "What would you have done if that really happened?" I asked. He laughed, not thinking I really wanted an answer. Seriously, what would've been your honest reaction if that building burst into flames there? He thought about it for a second, and then full of shock and wonderment yelled, "Wha- wha- oh my God!"
"Not bad, not bad," I said. "Your turn." And a game was born. "Ok," Dusty muttered as he tried thinking of a good Honest Reaction card to play. "What if my head exploded right now while I was driving?" (Yes, boys like explosions.) I thought about it, and then replied, "First I'd scream a little, then upon realizing the dire nature of the situation, I would yell 'Shit' a couple of times as I grabbed the steering wheel and tried guiding us to safety." That wasn't good enough for him, so I had to then act it out (minus the steering wheel part). I won him over with the masterfully sad yet adrenaline-filled yellings of "shit."
This went on for a while, and I realized that I would jump to either "Oh shit!" or "Holy shit!" in almost every one of the situations. At first Dusty thought I was just being unoriginal, but when I put myself in the moment, that's what came out. It didn't matter much if Dusty had a leg sprout out of his forehead or if a chicken flew out of his mouth, my surprise-expletive-of-choice is "shit." Well, that and "A goo goo!"
It was a fun game, and I wish we had played it more. At the very least, I feel like I'm a little more prepared now for unexpected events. Ya know, just in case Dusty ever turns into a cartoon for five seconds, I can react with the strength of someone who's seen it before. Have a good Monday, gentle readers. I have to go look up some lyrics now because not knowing them is killing me.
5 comments:
Recently, Peter told me about his misunderstanding of the Silverson Pickups song as saying "Beautiful scenario." However, when he told me what it really was, I heard it as "Future faux scenario," not "foe." So, it turns out that even hearing the words correctly doesn't mean that they'll be interpreted correctly. English (well, with some French mixed in) can be pretty complicated.
Yeah, perhaps blowing up a building would have been cool. But imagine if you predicted someones death like the sister of a friends roommate. That would be some real jedi magic.
Jewish Defense League
Also, speaking of lyrics that get misunderstood, I heard that Lit song this last weekend, I think it's called "My own worst enemy". The lyrics I think go like this:
Can we forget about the things I said when I was drunk,
I didn't mean to call you that,
Well needless to say I think the majority of the population sings along, "I didn't mean to call you fat". Such a better line, I mean honestly.
jdl
Ah, homophones. Aren't they great. JDL, I also thought it was "I didn't mean to call you fat" in that song by Lit. I was upset when I learned the truth, because my misunderstanding was so much better.
The Silversun Pickups got their name from this janky liquor store in Silverlake. Apparently they would pick booze up from Silversun before/after/during rehearsals.
Post a Comment