debating the levels of geekdom
yesterday i was on the phone chatting with my friend The Reporter when we got into a nasty debate music geekdom.
it started beause he asked me who the all-time best canadian musician was.
“neil young,” i said with every ounce of duh-ness i could muster.
“you’re right,” he said.
“i’m not that stupid,” i said.
“i suppose a case could be made for robbie robertson,” he said.
“uh, i guess so,” i said. “but i have no idea who robbie robertson is.”
“you know, the band?” he said.
“the huh?” i said.
“ok,” he said taking a deep breath. “i just want you to know that you have totally signed up for this lecture.”
he then launched into a 15 minute lecture about The Band. allegedly they were a bunch of guys who played with Bob Dylan and lived in a pink house called Big Pink somewhere in new york. there was much more that i listened to with rapt attention. seriously. because i just love when boys geekout about whatever it is they’re passionate about (specifically movies, books and music) (sorry JackAss geeking out about role-playing games doesn’t count).
so then after he finished and i failed the quiz that followed the lecture, i said “you’re such a musicgeek.”
“you are too,” he said.
“i am not!”
“how many CDs do you have?” he asked.
“about 400 or so,” i said. “but i have 5003 MP3s on Roland.”
“yeah, you’re a musicgeek.”
“how do you figure?” i asked.
“the average person has 30 to 40 CDs.”
“what?”
“yes and those CDs will include Steve Millers Greatest Hits, the Eagles Greatest Hits and Bob Marley’s Legend.”
“i have legend,” i said as this would possibly hel him understand my non-musicgeekdom.
“so do i,” he said. “but i have about five other ones.”
“ok,” i said. “i do have natural mystic too.”
“HA!” he shouted.
“but that hardly makes me a music geek.”
“you love paul westerberg and the replacements,” he said.
“so?”
“that alone makes you a music geek AND you have boots from the current tour.”
“so?” i asked.
“music geek.”
“i am not,” i insisted. “i don’t know anything about the history of rock and am generally clueless about everything that happened before 1982.”
“perhaps,” he said. “but you have way more in commone with music geeks than you do with the average person.”
“i do not!”
then he went on to tell me about how he made this nerdy CD containing something like 22 different versions of tangled up and blue. and, because i am a supernerd, i had to tell him about my playlist featuring 18 different versions of “Can’t Hardly Wait.”
“only music geeks do that stuff,” he said.
“hrmph!” i said.
Does it make you feel better if I say you’re in a sub-category of music geekdom?
I’m astonished that you didn’t know who Robbie Robertson and The Band were! “The Weight”? “Up on Cripple Creek”? I’m shaking my head in bewilderment over here!
25 Apr 05 at 3:36 pm #Can someone explain why it is bad to be a music geek? or any kind of geek for that matter?
So you’ve got a passion about something…so what?
25 Apr 05 at 5:42 pm #I think I have 30 or so versions of “Its the End of the World As We Know It (and I Feel Fine)”.
The only reason I know this is because my iPod decided to play them ALL IN A ROW during the 15 hour drive from Toledo to Boston. (Random my ass!)
25 Apr 05 at 6:53 pm #yep, you are a music geek. lemme know if you want to borrow my signed copy of ‘This Wheels On Fire’ - Levon Helm’s biography of The Band.
25 Apr 05 at 6:55 pm #Earth to Supergenius, Earth to Supergenius:
Hello? THE LAST WALTZ? DO YOU COPY?
Over.
25 Apr 05 at 7:42 pm #no, i do not. but it’s just been moved to the top of the netflix queue. i will report back this weekend after i watch it.
25 Apr 05 at 7:45 pm #10-4 good buddy, I’m 10-10 on the side!
25 Apr 05 at 7:47 pm #10-10 on the side?
25 Apr 05 at 7:48 pm #*shrug*
I heard it in “Smokey and the Bandit”.
25 Apr 05 at 7:52 pm #i’m taking movie viewing advice from someone who has seen smokey and the bandit?
25 Apr 05 at 7:54 pm #We all have our dark little secrets.
25 Apr 05 at 7:56 pm #but your’s is no longer a secret.
25 Apr 05 at 7:59 pm #Oh, my dark movie-watching secrets go much, much darker than “Smokey and the Bandit”. Even darker than watching (and enjoying) “The Adventures of Ford Fairlane” and “Hudson Hawk”.
25 Apr 05 at 10:21 pm #i have a sneaking suspicion we aren’t talking about porn here.
25 Apr 05 at 10:24 pm #Is still trying to figure out why he got the role-playing game comment?
What gives?
25 Apr 05 at 10:37 pm #JJ
different jackass, perhaps a long lost wisconsin-bred cousin?
25 Apr 05 at 10:39 pm #Having a couple hundred concert boots by the Black Crowes and Pearl Jam doesn’t make me a geek, it makes me super cool!
25 Apr 05 at 11:34 pm #maybe in some flipped out weirdo psycho alternate universe.
(just kidding, kind of)
25 Apr 05 at 11:37 pm #tangled up IN blue
26 Apr 05 at 11:06 pm #