Sunday, September 19, 2010

You Buy It. You Name It.

So, here’s the story. As part of my fundraising for LLS, I thought it would be cool to put together a musical fundraiser. Basically get some guys together and play a bunch of covers. And so far we’ve done it twice and it’s worked out really well. When I tell people about this, a lot of them say “You’re in a band?” And my reply is, well, I’m not sure you can call it a band. It’s a group of us that get together and play covers once a year. To qualify as a band you need to be rehearsing and playing regularly. At least that’s what it says in the Cool Guy In A Band handbook.

Anyway, Mary Ellen, who sings in our “band” posted on FB that she “loves being in a band.” And someone said “What’s your band’s name?” And I replied “Yeah, what’s your band’s name?” (see what I did there? Funny huh?).

We have no name, cuz I never really thought of us as a band. We’re sort of a collection of friends who play songs together. Until now. Cuz now we’re going to play a second show within a 12 month period. Actually within 7 month period. And at a real bar-type venue. Yeah. We’re now a regular, playing, touring (from Berkly to Birmingham baby!) band. So we need a proper name.

But I’ve never liked the naming process. There’s one of two ways you can go. First, there’s the completely overly-introspective, self-obsessive naming process. As in “Dude…this name has to reflect our being! Our essence! It tells the world what we stand for! This is art we’re making here. Our name must reflect that!. This is not really me. The other route is to pick something totally random that has no meaning. In this case, the weirder and more random the better. What better way to show the world your creativity!

I guess I’m gonna go with the latter, cuz here’s what I’m proposing. An auction to name the band. All the money from the auction goes to LLS. And the winner gets to name the band. Maybe we’ll even find a way to make t-shirts (anyone know a way to get free or nearly free t-shirts).

What do you think?

Let's Try Something Different

By the time you add up all the blogs, Twitter feeds, Facebook posts, YouTube videos and other miscellaneous consumer-generated-content out there…well, I’m not sure you even could or should bother trying. Let’s just say it’s a LOT.

I’ve come to realize I have no special gift for humor, no specialized knowledge of triathlon training, no unique perspective into the soul of mankind. But what I do have, whether unique or not, is a never-ending stream of consciousness conversation with myself during which I debate, ponder and sometimes agonize over, the stuff of life. Big and small. Call it an active imagination for the mundane and everyday.

Which brings me to my point (and I do have one). I’m going to start laying out what goes on in my life, and in my head, in all its ugly, honest glory (gory?). If for no other reason than so I can go back and have a look from time to time and see what’s going on, maybe laugh, probably grimace and hopefully learn and improve (insert your own self-awareness/improvement/image/actualization joke here).

Those are the real “Adventures of Triathpete.” The everyday challenges, trivial annoyances, and unexpected joys of a middle-aged, back-of-the-pack athlete, husband, father of three girls.

That’s what’s in my head today. Until next time.