MY LIFE: Trivia Games Of The Mind

I don't know about you, but as I get older, I find my mind playing more and more trivia games with me. And, of course, rude mind that it is – and my mind can be very rude! - it doesn't even ask me if I want to play.

So I was sitting there innocently at work doing quality control on data entry – yes, I know, exciting work. Which is why I have to have my music with me. If I forget my iPod, I take a 9 o'clock lunch to go get it! But that really has nothing to do with our story. Just an exciting tidbit of my exciting life I was throwing at you. I swear, if I wasn't getting a sex change, I'd be one of the most boring people on this planet!

Anyway! I'm at work listening to music, when I was trying to remember some of the punk rock and alternative rock I had on my old hard drive before it died. And for some reason, I remember this song “Last Nite”. I can kind of remember how it goes and some of the lyrics, but I can't remember the name of the band. I know they're The S-something.


Now normally, I would just google this, but our work has a really strict policy about internet usage. Almost any site having remotely to do with social networks is blocked. Even a local TV channel's site is blocked because we were picking up too many viruses from there. Of course, these rules don't stop me from using the internet, just careful about when I do use it.

And I wasn't ready to use it yet. I still had a couple of other resources.

And I turned to one of my cubicle mates. He was one of the trio of trivia experts in our department. I being another, and a data entry tech being the third. The third member of the trio wasn't a huge music fan. He liked well enough and could answer some general music trivia questions, but he wasn't one of the people you go to about music.

Now, my cubicle mate was into music quite a bit. Not as much as me of course, but more than almost everybody in the department. And as I said he was part of the trivia trio in our department.


So I tap his shoulder, he takes off his headphones, and I say, “I need help. I can't remember this name of a band. I know they had a song called “Last Nite” and it's spelled N-I-T-E. And their name starts with an S. They're The S-Something. They're a guitar-oriented alternative band from the 90s.” They're actually from the 00s, but anyway....

Then more information came to me. “And part of the lyrics was 'last nite she said'. And there's something about grandma doesn't know and UFOs don't know. And on their second album they sing something about the end having no end. And they've had 3 albums that I know of.”

“Oh, and I think their first album is called “Last Nite”.” It wasn't. If my mind is going to play trivia games with me, I wish it would play fair with accurate information.

My cubicle mate thought for a while. “Those lyrics sound familiar. Could you sing part of it?”

I smiled. “Um, I could, but you still probably wouldn't recognize it.”

He smiled back. “Yeah, I know what you mean.”

Then he added, “Well, dang, now I want to know who it is.”


Fortunately, I still had another ace up my sleeve. We have a second music fanatic in our department. But don't worry, she's about 25 years younger than me, so there's little overlap between us.

In fact, a couple years back, I was tried to impress her, show her that I didn't just listen to music from my time, the late 70s to mid 80s. I rattled off a bunch of "new" bands i was listening to.

And she said, and I quote... and yes, I can quote her because I'll never forget what she said! “Oh, yeah, the 90s, that was good music. I listen to some of that stuff when I was a kid.”


So anyway, I went to her cube but she wasn't there. So I left a note. Fortunately for once, I thought ahead and let her know what it was about, so she wouldn't worry and wonder why she was being summoned to the quality control cubicle. Figured she'd be a bit annoyed worrying about why the q.c. people to see her and find out it's just to name a band.

Well, I couldn't wait any longer. I broke company rules – shhh! - and looked up the lyrics on the internet. The band's name came right up.

The other music fanatic showed up shortly after that. She was kind of laughing. She asked if we figured it out and said we had, but gave her the information I had anyway.

And right away she said, “The Strokes?”

“Yep. Where were you when we needed you?”

She just smiled and kind of shrugged. And I just kind of shrugged at my slowly deteriorating mind and its stupid trivia games.

ENTERTAINMENT: My Favorite Song of the Day (That I Haven't Mentioned Already) - My Challenge to Myself

This from me, NOT some reprinted article. - OlderMusicGeek

I don't exactly where this idea came from - even though I just thought of it today - shows you what kind of memory I got. But I got all sorts of crazy ideas going through my head all the time - I can't keep track of them all - I'm like the Micheal Keaton character in the movie, Night Shift (IMDb link to Night Shift) - * starts singing Jumping Jack Flash*

But I remember that I kept reading and hearing about these different challenges for artists. In November, there's a challenge to writers to write a whole novel in that month. I had also heard ofa 48-hour challenge for film makers to write and film a short within 48 hours. And comic book creators have a once-a-year challenge to do a 24-page comic story in 24 hours. And in this month of February there is the RPM challenge, for musicians to write and record a cd of 10 songs or 35 minutes of music within this month.

And I wanted a challenge for myself.

I was trying to think of a way to show my love of music. I felt that I wasn't showing or explaining how much and what music means to me. After all, I am the OlderMUSICGeek. And by that, I meant that I am an older geek of MUSIC, all music, NOT a geek of just older music.

And somehow or another I remember hearing on NPR how one of the guys from Mystery Science Theatre 3000 saw one movie a day for a year and wrote a book about it.

I thought of listening to one album a day for a year and writing a blog post on it each day. It wouldn't be too difficult for me to do since I can listen to music at work. I have a 30 gig mp3 player I listen to at work with over 5000 songs on it - and I do a bit of rotating every two or three weeks. But then I thought of something that was more meaningful and would give a better reflection of me. I decided that I would write about my favorite song that I heard that day - and why I like it and why it holds meaning for me and touches me.

So I thought about it, mulled it over in my mind and even discussed it with my daughter, who told me if I wrote all 366 posts - it's a leap year - that she would give me $10. So, woo hoo, I've got to do it now!

I can't promise that I will write a piece everyday. But I will keep track of what what was my favorite song I heard that day and play catch up when I can. I won't fill up this blog with all these posts. Instead they will be my other blog dedicated to entertainment with the original title of OlderMusicGeek's Stupid Entertainment Stuff, which is at http://oldermusicgeekentertainment.blogspot.com/.

I should warn you though, most of the songs will probably be alternative rock or punk rock. And a lot will probably come from the 70's and 80's. But I listen to a wide range of music besides alternative, punk and electronica - I also enjoy big band and swing, oldies, classic rock, world music, folk, bluegrass, Irish, reggae, cajun/zydeco, African, Indian, movie scores among other types. So there should still be a good bit of variety. And I won't include any song twice. If my favorite song of some day was a favorite song before, I'll just go with #2 - or #3 or whatever!

So if you don't see as many posts at this site, I hope you'll understand why. I'm a man on a mission! - to educate, explain and spread my love of music.