With No $2 Bud Light, Will Beer Ever Be Special Again?

I heard some sad news on the way home today while talking to a friend. It wasn't that anyone had died. There was no breaking story of a divorce. No one had discovered a sickness. It was simply that TGI Friday's had closed down in Bowling Green. And while we had all slowly watched the place lose clients over the years and wonder how the hell it was still open as we passed annually for the Tidball's scramble, the news still upset me.

That place was the cherry on top of a perfect Funday Monday of skipping class and playing Crosswinds. That place was where I watched a friend eat pasta with one hand while holding a lit cigarette in the other. Thanks to Hitch hooking it up with a job senior year, it was how I paid rent for a little over a year. It was where "She'll show you her titty for a shot of Crown" was born. It was how "Code Blue", "My friends call me Spyder", "You can call me . . .at your momma's house", and "Gaaahh-bage" all became a part of our regular vocabulary. It gave us Logan. It was where I saw a manager wheelhouse-kick a dumpster only to walk inside to watch a dishwasher spray himself in what I can only perceive he considered to be a shower while playing an imaginary bass. It's where I made friends that I still run into from time to time and remember everything about them, even when the only moments we shared were while wearing a matching uniform. "Hey Guys!!!". It's the only place my wife and I ever worked together and competed regularly. It was the employer I associate with the semester I don't remember much of. And now it's gone.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not completely devastated by this and it would usually be a chuckle-get nostalgic-make it an afterthought-situation. And that's basically what happened until I was dicking around on the guitar tonight and played a song I hadn't heard in a long time. And then associated it with a night that involved that time and that Friday's crew. I had been looking for a great topic to bat leadoff on my music posts and this gave me that.

Without music, how much would we forget? How many moments can be defined simply by what song was playing? Or what concert you were at? Or what album you were really into at that time? Without music, how many of those moments may have been different? Would that one fall have been as great if Some Devil didn't seem to be playing everywhere we went? Would those 7 AM car rides to work not have seemed so horrible if Dream Theater hadn't been double bass-drumming in our barely-awake ears? Could that song get you teared up if you weren't picturing a certain moment while you were listening to it?

So rather than introduce what I'm listening to right now or start some theme, I wanted to take us all back to what we were listening to back then and let the memories do their thing. There'll be plenty of chance to let new music attach itself to new ones.

Enjoy.