13 Questions as Bootsy Collins Rattles the Plaster Off My Walls
I have come down. Truly. The Easter Weekend was the mighty Scott Holt weekend up north, and from that I finally have returned to Earth. I did not have voice, so I could not record anything at work, and as a result spent a whole week reading.
Tonight, the walls shake, the dog looks on me with a pained expression of self knowledge, and I dance. I dance the dance of release. The dance that brings it all around to 1991, and a joy for life that I have longed for. The big-brained super discussion from the past today, the collaboration of a willing partner that has inspired me since 1988, and lambasted my 20’s like a schooner in a storm.
So I come to you tonight, with a rolling piano in my head, and a booty I am backing up in my own basement. A booty rich in fun, and silly Nike Rufus shoes not made for dancing, but rather made for post hockey warmth. I no longer wonder who reads these questions, the questions in and of themselves matter in only the asking, not the lurking reader judging those of us who do drop that booty in our basement, not the lurking eye rolling at our celebration, not the scoff who doubts the joy of Keith Uhlig making burnout sound as he runs organinically through his days on Earth.
I have decided it’s not about the best and the shiniest. It’s about laughing, slow dancing, lilacing, and the secret language of friends. I wish you the best for this weekend. I wish you the best forever. I shall wear a watch, not to tell time, but if I ever see Cameron Loos I want to have a better tan line than he does.
I ride my bike, not to go fast, but to realize that someday Jim Frame and Steve Marshall will return and decide to jump the crik in Kennedy Park, or ride around the mountain until someone ends up in the hospital. But not for aerobic threshold work, but rather to go fast. Really fast.
Burritos rule.
- Let’s start off hot. Do you like spicy food? What is the hottest dish on a menu here in Wausau? Just an on the menu thing, not a custom deal. My friend Scott told a story of eating at 7 on Seventh, and the heat of what he touched actually made him hurt. I like spicy food, but the next day is often hardest.
- Can you name your city council person? Can you name your aldermanic district? Can you name the wife of your alderman? Have they knocked on your door?
- What kind of batteries do you buy? I am partial to duracell, but really would like to explore rechargeable batteries, but they seem a mystery to me.
- Are you a baseball fan? Did you think about the season as anything other than a steroid fill crapola deal? I love baseball.
- Were you a high school athlete? I was. I played tennis with Jim Beier. We actually had a chant…We suck at Practice. We threw challenge matches to other teams so we would not have to be the number 1 doubles team. That was bad. Coach John was sort of a moron though.
- When was your first kiss?
- Do you think we are in or going to be in a recession? What steps are you taking to protect yourself?
- Do you think that you will ever see gas prices so high you ride the bus? What is the ceiling? How much are we willing to take? All of a sudden that Rosenbergian scooter seems like a good idea.
- Does live music shake you to your soul? Or are you there to be entertained? I ask because I am faced with teh self doubt that I might be living my life the wrong way, the passionate pursuits might be a mistake. I might be doing it wrong. I listen to Pearl Jam and the TEN record, and it makes me shudder at the power of it. Yet to some, music is just music. Its not to me. I worship it.
- Am I going to out grow this anytime soon? This reflexive self discussion, the desire to communicate? Do we outgrow that? You old dudes, mentor a guy.
- Have you ever slept under the stars for a whole night? No tent. Just laid down, and slept outside. Drunk does not count.
- Who is the Paris Hilton of Wausau? When you go out, do you see a certain group everytime? Where do the cool kids go?
- How often do you get a new toothbrush?
I wish you nothing but the best. The world changes in every moment, in every tone, in every dial. Its right there, in the spinning of your arms in your backyard. Dizzy and powerful, your skin on fire in the cold air.
Thank you Walk Whitman. You bring me spring, and I laugh with joy at it.
timothyp said:
1. There is a little Asian market near my house on Thomas right next to Tremor’s bar, where they serve this beef soup that could also be used for paint remover… I tried it once and had to put it over rice to cool it down a bit. Never again though….like you said “the next day”!
2. Sure
3. I for the life of me cannot remember the last time I purchased batteries, I have nothing that uses them including a flashlight. Maybe a watch battery.
4. I love the game of baseball! To me, it is a pure sport. Although the individual aspect of the game is important, it must be played with teamwork to have success. If I were to move back to Milwaukee, the absolutely first thing I would do would be to get season tickets to the Brewers.
As far as the steroid subject, this is really nothing new. The use of drugs or substances to increase performance in sport has been around longer than I have been, I imagine.
5. Played a bit of football and a little baseball but I wasn’t all that athletic.
6. Maybe around the age of 10-11.
7. I think we’ve been in one for a year already but I’m not a economist. I’ve been stocking up on survival gear and ammo just in case it turns REALLY bad. j/k
8. I don’t drive.
9. I do have a strong internal passion for music, however when going out to live music events I want to be entertained… it should be more than just the songs.
After spending about 4 years going to see almost every band this area had to offer, the ones that stick out in my mind weren’t the ones that played the best tunes, had the best musicians or had the most people attending their shows, it was the ones that made me not take my eyes off of the stage… the ones that forced me to take notice. Like Sunspot, Area 51, Buggy Whip and even Beyond Therapy (didn’t like the music much, but loved the performances).
As I told many of the bands, we can sit at home and listen to your music, so when we come out to see your band …ENTERTAIN US! Make me notice you, otherwise the jukebox will suffice.
10. Everyone thinks differently, but no I don’t think you outgrow it.
11. Not for a long time, but sure.
13. Every couple of months or so.
Dino, I wish you the best also. I know we have had our differences in the past, but I always considered you one of those “Cool Dudes” you write articles about. Let’s have a non-lunch one of these days.
March 28th, 2008 at 11:52 am #
Dino Corvino said:
I am prone to eat.
March 28th, 2008 at 12:14 pm #
Alex said:
1.I can handle spicy food to a point, and I enjoy it. My wife could drink to hottest hot sauce on earth like it was water. Frickin’ amazing.
2.No, where I live everyone says they suck.
3.I hate buying batteries, so usually whatever is on sale.
4.Huge Brewer fan.
5.Read my blog. Melting the Snowman.
6.Damn you Dino.
7.I didn’t have any money to begin with, so I’m set.
8.No, I like driving. Luckily I like sitting at home too.
9.Watching live music makes me cry, every time.
10.No, and why would you want to?
11.Nope.
12.I don’t know now, but ten years ago it was a girl named Heather Hansen, her dad owned Hansen Photo. She may still live there. The most beautiful girl I have ever seen.
13.I have a specialty tooth brush that runs like a fine BMW. Subsequently, I’m set.
March 28th, 2008 at 2:15 pm #
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March 28th, 2008 at 6:17 pm #
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March 28th, 2008 at 7:11 pm #
oldwoodchair said:
1. I make chili that sets off the smoke alarms.
2. Yup, I can name her. Yup, I know my district. Nope, she doesn’t have a wife. And nope, she hasn’t knocked on my door…probably her opponent’s sign in my front yard made her decide not to knock.
3. Ray O Vac…the poor man’s Duracell.
4. I used to love baseball…still the only sport I’ll watch without being tied down (except golf…maybe). Actually, the best baseball is Little League…they play because they love it. Helped coach years ago…geez, I miss that.
5. Only if you count the sport of dodging the parking lot police to have a smoke in the car with the rest of the hoodlums.
6. I used to kiss my stuffed monkey Zippy goodnight.
7. Survived ‘em before, can survive ‘em again.
8. I have ridden the bus on occasion…everyone should do it…can be an interesting adventure.
9. The last live music I heard was Chris Botti at the Grand Theater. I walked around in a daze for days from the sheer joy of it.
10. Dino: let me mentor you on some communication: YOU are not allowed to call us “old dudes”…WE can call oursleves old dudes (& dudettes), but YOU (and all the other wipper snappers) must call us “experienced, mature, ripened, or finely aged dudes”.
11. Nope. I have always been lucky enough to own a bed.
12. Paris who???…is she a city council candidate?
13. It’s one of my obsessive/compulisive disorders…once a month…same time the cat gets his flea medication.
Thanks, Dino….these are a blast….even for an old dudette.
March 28th, 2008 at 9:02 pm #
erik said:
1. I loves the spicy food as well. I really wish we had a Thai place in town, it’s the thing I miss the most from Oshkosh.
2. Sadly I’m never home so even if Linda stopped by, I wouldn’t have been there to meet her.
3. I’m duracell all the way. They aren’t kidding in those ads when they say that professional equipment holds up better with duracells in them.
4. I dislike baseball, both playing and watching. The steroids thing matters not to me.
5. I was in football and track & field. I was a fullback for football, 5′8″ 190 is a little small for a fullback, but we won state my junior year so I think the coaches knew what they were doing when they put me there! For track I ran the hurdles. Truth be told that was so I could run varsity since we had a shortage of hurdles people >.>
6. Senior year of high school. I was seventeen.
7. We are very much in a recession. The only money I’m really putting away is my 401(k) because of all that awesome student loan debt I’ve racked up. I’m hoping that I’ll be fine, but at this point I’m not worried.
8. I’m wondering this as well, what’s the threshold before people just stop driving so much? I try not to drive if I can help it. I live within walking distance of my basic shopping needs and I can bike to work.
9. I don’t quite get existential about music, but I see no problem with it. I love the stuff, I’m always listening to some if possible, and anyone around the station will tell you that I randomly break into song all the time. But it’s not a “religious” experience for me. It’s just damn fine art.
10. You’re a good ten years older than me Dino, I think you need to be dolling out the pro tips on life :P
11. Negative.
12. As probably one of four people in the Wausau area that don’t drink, I rarely hit up the bars. And there’s little else the town offers in terms of night life outside of that, so I’m pretty unawares of the cool kids in Wausau.
13. Once a year, dentist gives me a free one and I use it ’til next time.
March 29th, 2008 at 10:33 am #
dwestcott said:
Thanks Dino…now I can’t get the image of you dancing out of my head!
1. Nope.
2. Yep, yepper and nope (I’m never home). Why do you specify “wife?”
3. I go through batteries like toilet paper. I have 2 young children… I buy whatever is on sale wherever I am…I try to buy in bulk.
4. Baseball is my feel good sport. Love it. Deep down.
5. Of course.
6. 8th grade. It scared me.
7. Pretty much. I’m riding it through. Carpé Diem…you can’t take it with you.
8. I’m hoping Wausau builds an underground (and/or above ground) rail system. I’d rather not ride the bus…unless they run at bar time like they do in London - rode it religiously there. What a concept, huh?
9. Music touches my soul…especially live music. I cry on the inside. No one needs to know.
10. I’m not and old “dude,” but I doubt you’ll ever outgrow it.
11. Damn, you had me before the word drunk. Actually….I have. Several times.
12. I’d tell you but I need to keep my cool status.
13. Every 6 months from the dentist.
March 30th, 2008 at 6:09 pm #
zeenawombat said:
1. Love spicy food. Mexican, Indian, Creole, …wasabi, horseradish… chipotle. mmmmmmmmmmmm
2. Yes, yes, no, yes
3. The kind that are on sale.
4. Yes. Wausau East, Brewers, Rangers. Take me out to the ballgame
5. I was a thespian.
6. I was 13, I think?
7. I think if we continue at this rate, it will be more like the French Revolution…off with their heads. I’m eating a lot of cake.
8. maybe. The ceiling is that thing over your head when you are inside.
9. Only if it is good. Bad live music hurts my head
10 Not if drunk does not count.
11. There are no cool kids, only elitists.
12. Every time I go to the dentist and I get to choose the color, too
March 31st, 2008 at 12:50 pm #
Boogenstein said:
1. I love spicy food but am dissapointed that Wausau has not yet got an Indian restaurant. Nothing beats a good curry!
2. No
3. Whatever is best value at the time.
4. Yes - Orioles all the way!
5. No, too busy skateboarding.
6. Don’t recall, was probably drunk at the time.
7. We are in it already. I am spending my money as quickly as possible before it loses any more of it’s value.
8. Bicycle before bus.
9. Somtimes.
10. Who you calling old?
11. Yes, but not in this weather.
12. Cool kids? In Wausau? Posers more like.
13. Every dentist visit.
March 31st, 2008 at 6:09 pm #
rockerchick said:
Hey, Dino - I dated Cameron Loos. For real. Quite briefly. He used to call my house and when my father would answer the phone and ask who it was, he would say his name was “Peter Lemon-Jello.” Dork!
My replies:
1. No spicy food - still weaning my way up from ketchup to A1, daring to try A1 bold and spicy. I heard the Thermonuclear was pretty hot at Thai Cafe.
2. One.
3. Duracell Rechargeable - $21 at Target, and I love them!
4. Not the biggest baseball fan, but I love stadium grub!
5. Yes, very much so. Track & Field, Volleyball, and embarrasingly enough, cheerleading. Okay, here’s the deal….didn’t like the girl’s basketball coach, and because I was so into Track & Field and I needed to use the weightroom throughout the winter season to stay in shape for track I joined the cheerleading squad. Rah!
6. My first kiss was in 2nd grade, Danny Prihoda in the closet of Sister Sharon’s homeroom. Ugh!
7. I do not think we are in or going to be in a recession, therefore I have not taken steps toward protection.
8. Yes, I have pondered riding the bus and may do so soon.
9. Yes, I am a live musician in a local band here in Wausau. I support local music.
10. No, you will not outgrow this. You will continue to question until you seek all the answers you need!
11. Yes, I have slept outside all night. When we were growing up we couldn’t afford a tent!
12. There is this one annoying chick that I see every time I go out, but she’s nowhere as pretty as Paris, and I don’t even think Paris is that pretty. I don’t know where the cool kids go. I go where the music is played.
13. Once a month or sooner if I get a cold or something yucky, or if I drop it in the John….
April 1st, 2008 at 9:55 am #
drrent said:
1. I have no sense of smell… or more accurately said very sense of smell. Therefore, food for me tastes like if you were trying to eat with a very bad cold. Smell and odor contributes quite a bit to taste. But not for me. So.. yes.. I do like spicy food… food I can taste. I have been known to race others doing shots of Tabasco sauce. The best hot food I have found was a Chinese place on E. Wash in Madison. The smell of their mustard two booths a way would make your nose hairs tingle.. that was some good stuff.
2. Live in the Town of Wausau and yes… I know them.. have met them. They are good people. Its hard for me to consider a run for public office when I am pretty happy with all that represent me. (Okay… State Senate I have issues with…)
3. I tend to favor energizer. For my old digital camera at work I have been using rechargeables for some time now. I do prefer the Duracell rechargeable system… they last just as long as the energizers.. but takes like 30 minutes to charge vs the bunny’s 30 days.
4. I love the sport of baseball.. but I have no use for pro-ball.. none.. stopped following it after the big strike some years ago. I will watch high school ball.. have season tickets to the ‘Chucks (right behind home plate)… I even love watching little league (though hard to do as if you watch without any kids playing, the parents think you are a stalker or pediphile). For true entertainment, you need to watch the good Dr. play fast pitch softball.
5. Wasn’t so much an athlete in school as I was afterwards… once the Army actually gave me a little physical fitness. Raced mtn bikes, played soccer (was one hell of a sweeper for my unit’s team… only red-carded twice), did all kinds of stuff. It seams as when I left the military, I left that physically fit me there. However, still love my softball (see #4).
6. 1988, 19 years old, Monterey, CA. A girl named Eileen in the army, from ND half german/half native American, training to be an interagator.
7. Economically defined, we are not yet in a recession… I think the occastional recession is a good thing, the economy runs in cycles. If you don’t allow the cycle to follow through, bad things happen… sort of like holding in a fart. The government can do things to try to minimize the severity.. but if they try to stop the inevitable… well… enough said. What am I doing? Hoping the government doesn’t go overboard. I am in an industry where a recession is actually good for business.
8. Gas would have to get pretty high for me to give up the independence of driving. When I lived in Europe.. I couldn’t live without bus service, same in D.C. But.. I love driving. I have made sacrifices… I do drive the Kia more than the V10 Ford… and think I need to pull my motorcycle out of storage.
9. Live music doesn’t do it for me… I can’t stand large crowds of people. A Metalica or Tesla concert just for me… well that would ROCK!
10. I don’t know that you will grow out of it.. and I hope you don’t. As we get older, we get more reflective or more cynical. I fear I fall into the latter.
11. Not by choice… no stars though… there was, afterall, a war going on at the time and we just didn’t have time for tents…
12. Lost me on that one.
13. Every dentist appointment they give me a new one. I don’t think the old one is bad but hey.. they must know.. I pay them a lot of money to know more than me about such things.
April 1st, 2008 at 2:32 pm #
Alex said:
Dino should be congratulated. These questions are a great concept for many reasons. I have started using your concept in a couple different areas, it works well. Let’s have more.
April 4th, 2008 at 9:40 am #
eraser’s blog » Blog Archive » 13 Questions as Bootsy Collins Rattles the Plaster Off My Walls said:
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May 9th, 2008 at 3:47 pm #