Happy Birthday Phil!

Around 7 PM, I headed over to meet Phil (whose alter ego at Q101 is Twitch) for his birthday bash. At Diversy Bowl! Woot! I was a bit nervous, as I didn’t really know all that many people there. But the whole bowling thing was a blast, and I had a great deal of fun. The best part was the lightshow, when all the lights dimmed down, disco flashing crap started happening everywhere, and they started to pump in fog from the ceilings. :D Ha!

The whole time, I kept trying to figure out what made this sort of thing so attractive. One idea was that this was as far as most of us would go, just shy of admitting that we might be attracted to disco. It’s not really a disco in this case. You’re merely bowling in what appears to be a discotech.

The other thing that seems attractive about bowling: it seems to be the one place where "victory dances" are entirely appropriate. For everyone. I mean, you can tank completely – roll a bowl right into the gutter, all the way down. But then you are entirely able to turn around and do any sort of silly dance you want. It works for strikes and spares, it works for fuckups. It’s brilliant.

And most of us, one time or another have heard Van Halens’ "Hot for Teacher" (say it with me now… "I don’t feel tardy"). But in a bowling alley, it’s perfectly ok to have it playing at ear-bursting levels. And to have that song be your particular soundtrack, as you’re hucking a twelve-pound glowing ball into the dark, trying to knock down ten flourescent pins… well, there are worse ways to spend a Friday.

Then again, it could have been the beer as well. :)

One tremendously cool thing. I heard "Me and Julio," as done by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. I ran up to the counter and asked if them to play their version of "Rainbow Connection." And the girl running the records gushed and said she loved that song too. What a fun place.