| 1/23/2006 |
MRS. RITA
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I've written a couple posts about music and the people or situations they remind me of, even to this day. This one may be a little different because it is about someone who frequents this blog, let alone frequents my life as my best friend. So first of all I would like to publicly apologize if any of this is too awkward for you to read, Mike. I'm sorry. You know it's heartfelt and sincere.
AND NOW!!! On to the bashing!!!
Ok... Fine... No bashing. My earliest recollections of Mike are from the 3rd grade. Our grade school teachers usually sat us in alphabetical order so he and I were always with arms reach of each other. While I have no proof he actually did this, my memory calls up an image of him playing with glue on his hand.
In turn his earliest memory of me is being told off by me in 6th grade. I had a pair of foamy ear plugs. Mike saw them and asked... "What're those?" To which I snidely responded, "Ear plugs for when I don't want to hear someone. Like now..." Then I plunged a pieces of yellow foam into each ear.
What a rude little shit I was. While I don't recall saying that. I know I had yellow ear plugs that I'd got from some other classmate. I don't know why I had ear plugs in the first place. I should be hearing everything the teacher was telling me.
In junior high we became fast friends bonding over a love of video games. We would spend our weekends wearing our thumbs to the nub playing any number of early Nintendo games.
Beyond any of these situations, any time I hear a Gin Blossoms song I think of Mike. He was, what I would consider, a huge fan of their songs. While Mike may have a different favorite, Mrs. Rita stands out as the one in particular that screams "Mike" when I hear it.
Gin Blossoms were big right around the time of my high school graduation. Mike and I would drive to Lincoln on the weekends to buy comic books at Cosmic Comics. It was one of the few places that we knew of and knew how to get to. My Grandmother is the over protective type and I think we must've made trips to Lincoln for almost a year before I told her where I was going. Lincoln being the "big city" and all.
I had the Gin Blossoms cassette in my car and it was the one that was always being played on the way to the comics book store and back. It was also the catalyst for hearing Mike sing for the first time. By his own admission he doesn't sing and he is rarely known to belt out a tune. Yet, something about the Gin Blossoms made him get out the air drums and rock out.
Since I was always the more musical of the two of us, I tried turning Mike on to other bands that I thought he might like, as well as songs that I liked. No matter what cassette I had, the Old Stand-by was always the Gin Blossoms.
(I don't know that if he recalls or not, but I had their album playing in the car as I drove him to get married.)
In a lot of ways I think Mike is a lot like the Gin Blossoms when they were at their peak of popularity. They could sing a catchy rebel-rousing chorus. But they could also be more mellow and personal. They were warm and comfortable like coming home after a long day.
It was a sad day when the decided to creatively break-up. It felt like a part of my friendship had died. The Gin Blossoms have each done some solo or other group projects that have never seemed to have the same feel as when they were the Gin Blossoms. There was even talk of a reunion at one point. Though, no big radio play ever became of anything they did after their one time stardom.
I will still occasionally try to see if Mike might like a song. He typically doesn't. But if ever gets too mouthy about my music, I still have those same yellow ear plugs that I could put in. |
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I posted this @ 1/23/2006 12:18:00 PM.............Need a link?..........
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