Hello again. I just returned from having breakfast with my good friend Chris Dilley, General Manager of the People's Food Co-op of Kalamazoo and all around good guy. We're pals. We do self-care together by hanging out for breakfast, seeing geeky guy movies our wives might not like, or playing games with other geeky-minded, nerd types (guys who may not self-identify as nerds or geeks, but really, who are we kidding, right?).
Getting dressed to meet Chris for breakfast at Kalamazoo's Crow's Nest, I decided to select a shirt and feature it on the blog. I mean, what else is the blog for?
I have already featured a People's Food Co-op shirt, and besides, Chris is more than his job. So, flipping through shirts in my closet, I chose this one because I am still sharing yellow/gold colored shirts which is my favorite color for spring, I figured Chris probably likes They Might Be Giants (TMBG) as much as I do, and TMBG has a great song about friends and big cities which immediately leapt to my mind (not sure why other than the friendship angle) when I thought of Chris Dilley (the song being "New York City" from the band's 1996 release Factory Showroom).
Friendship. Smart geeky people. They Might Be Giants. What else do we need today?
RANDOM DATA
- I have seen TMBG twice in concert. The second time was in Grand Rapids at the Intersection before the public smoking ban passed, and I could barely breathe and did not enjoy the show as much because of the venue. The first time was at Irving Place in New York City two days before New Year's Eve for the first of three shows TMBG played in what was probably 2002 or 2003. I may update this part of the blog entry when I can find my ticket stub. I save all my ticket stubs in a notebook. Yes, I am well aware that I am quite incurably insane.
- Oh Wait!! I think there's a third time from back in the early 1990s. I must consult my book. I have no shirt from that era, but I have a vague memory of driving to Ann Arbor to see them with some friends.
- The Wikipedia page for They Might Be Giants is actually quite well done and extensive. There's an unofficial site that well address the New York City song: The Unofficial TMBG site.
- The band They Might Be Giants is named after one of my favorite films, They Might Be Giants, starring George C. Scott and Joanne Woodward. Copies are hard to come by, and I am not sure if it's available as a streaming option, but it's a great film. Well worth a viewing. It's also about friendship, among other things.
- I discovered TMBG in 1988 with the release of Lincoln. I listened obsessively and soon knew all the words to every song; a practice that continued with Flood (1990) and many other releases. It's what you do if you're a TMBG fan, which I will explore in the next item.
- DO NOT JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER: Back in the early 1990s, because it was after the release of Flood, I was at a fraternity party at Indiana University because my friend Tom went to law school there (see T-shirt #40), and we were dragged to this party by some girls we liked. I have always been very anti-fraternity and found myself being very judgmental of these people as stupid, beer-guzzling, superficial, shallow jocks and preps. And then something magical happened. Someone put on the album Flood. Everyone (and I do mean everyone) started singing along. They ALL knew ALL the words by heart. They were ALL articulate and precise with their diction. I had a difficult time thinking of them as shallow or superficial since we shared a love for this album by TMBG, which I considered a band for smart people in my misanthropic stupidity (for more epiphanies about misanthropy, see, again, T-shirt #40).
- Friendship - not just for smart geeky people. And as the shirt illustrates, drunkenness is not just for supposedly shallow and superficial frat boys.
- chris tower - 1305.14 - 10:37
