The Playlist Made Me Do It

Some posts that find their way to your eyes have been germinating in my mind for minutes hours days weeks fortnights months years before they finally break through the crazy clutter of my thought process and actualize themselves as words on your screen of choice.

And then there are those posts that just seem to materialize into existence by way of circumstance, inspiration, perspiration, medication, or because the Eye Gaze told me to do it.

This post in particular, dear readers and friends, is a combination of both of those methods.  Here’s how:

Back in the days when I could do everything I can’t do any more, a couple of my teacher friends and I decided to start a little three piece rock band at the school where we taught.  Eventually it morphed into a group that included several talented students as well but in the early days, it was just drummer Darrell Sasagawa, guitarist/vocalist Mike Dumbra, and me, the singing bass player who formed the nucleus of the middle school superband named Detention.

We practiced every Friday afternoon for a few hours learning a handful of tunes.  We played a couple of talent shows and on-campus graduation parties but our longest lasting (in terms of songs played) and largest attended (in terms of folks who were forced to listen to us) performance had to be the year we played at the Family Picnic.

The La Entrada Family Picnic is a time-honored tradition at our school that takes place on the campus blacktop during the first month or so of each new school year.  Every student who attends the school — and his or her family — is invited to the two hour shindig for dinner, dessert, and lots of fun, student-centered activities.  A good time is had by all.

Several of Darrell’s fourth graders were Girl Scouts who were trying to raise money for a philanthropic cause.   They asked Detention to play at the picnic and to help them get the word out to the gathered masses of the LE school community about their fundraising endeavor.

They didn’t have to ask us twice.  We were in.

In the practices leading up to the big gig, I vividly recall debating my fellow band mates about whether it was appropriate to sing the lyric of the Weezer song Beverly Hills the way it was written -- "My automobile is a piece of crap" -- or to skip the c word all together for this specific instance. Being the guy singing the song my position was to let it fly, baby.

All the pre-show posturing and proclamations of artistic intent and creative expression did me absolutely no good as I looked out into the audience that had gathered in front of our pseudo stage area and I locked eyes with the Superintendent of the school district. Needless to say, I didn't sing that my car was a piece of crap!

Now, thinking back to the top of this post I told you I would tell you how this post came to be written.  I think I said that the Eye Gaze made me do it.

Well, the actual story has been itching to see the light of day ever since it went down but it was what happened this morning that finally convinced me to put retina to screen.  As I was listening to my 1300+ song playlist on shuffle through the Dynavox while checking my email, the weirdest thing happened:  I heard two of the tunes we used to play in Detention — What I Like About You and I Wanna Be Sedated — back to back.  I was slightly disappointed to hear Lady Gaga rounding out the three song set only because the odds of having Beverly Hills come on randomly after the other two were fairly astronomical in scope.

I figured two out of three was enough of a sign from the Eye Gaze that I started blinking and clicking immediately.

And there you have it.

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