Geeking Out

“We’re through being cool, we’re through being cool, eliminate the ninnies and the twits.’  ( Devo)

The Urban Dictionary defines “Geeking Out” as “…freaking out over something that could be considered nerdy and knowing it.”  I might add to that, you also DON’T CARE that you’re geeking out.  Worrying and focusing on things that are ‘hip, trendy and happening’ is a folly I gave up on years ago. So with unabashed pride, I present to you some of the things I “Geek out” over.

My summer hair-cut has been the same for seventeen years.  I go to Sport Clips and ask for a buzz cut just one notch longer than a crew cut.  It’s not super stylish or suave but it is cool temperature wise, comfortable and requires little maintenance.  I get this cut at the end of May and usually repeat it in early August.  I’ll take comfort over a jelled up, slick combed style any day of the week!

Hanging out at East End Pool’s Adult Swim Sessions isn’t really geeky, especially since the adult swim regulars have become friends and they are far from nerdy.  Nobody puts on any pretense. Our talking topics while puddling around in the water range from sports and news of what we’re doing to music and where the good places are to eat & drink in the summer months.  However, I will grant you my summer hang is not as trendy as lounging at the East Bank Club pool or Oak Street Beach. Still, the camaraderie of this place is just fine by me, no need to be “cool” while having fun under the hot sun.

Keeping baseball scorecards at home.  This one falls into the sports nerd category.  Anytime I’ve ever gone to a Cubs or White Sox game I always bought a scorecard and kept track inning by inning of what hitters and pitchers on both teams were doing during the game.  Since I don’t go to many games in person these days, I print up blank scorebook pages from online and meticulously track what goes on while watching the games on TV.  All plays from 6-3 (shortstop to 1^st base ground-outs to backward K’s for hitters who get called out on strikes) are written down and tallied at game’s end.  I keep score of ballgames I’m watching about twice a week.  It’s cheaper than being at the game in person and besides not paying six bucks for a hot dog I also don’t have to stand in line to go pee in a men’s room trough.

Karaoke singing off of You Tube. In the warm weather I keep my windows open with the screens down unless the heat gets unbearable and the AC has to go on.  So my next door neighbors get an earful of me surfing YouTube for good music beds to songs I want to belt out with my limited vocal abilities. I can easily blow two hours warbling aloud to everything from Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game” to Badfinger’s “Baby Blue.”  You’ve heard the phrase “Dance like nobody’s watching?”  Well I sing like nobody’s listening.   

Powerball Plans-When a Powerball game rolls over where a single winner could take home many millions of greenbacks I’ll plunk down 20 bucks on quick picks. Then I head home and write down on a ledger sheet what I’d do with a big money pay-off.  Ten percent of the money would go to favored charities. After that, I allocate for family, a couple of friends and then mark down what dollars would be spent for some fix-ups to my house and the new car I’d get along with maybe a silly spending spree or two. If I won crazy ‘Screw you’ money I’d either hire the Eagles to play my birthday party or host a double act show of Clint Black and Travis Tritt. I know the chances of winning the lottery are ridiculously low, but it’s fun to fantasize and map out what I’d do if it happened.

Movie Man- When seeing movies at my local theater I almost always go to the first show of the day.  First off, it’s cheaper, second, there are no crowds so there’s quick service on my snacks and I don’t have to hear the chatter and jibber jabber of rude rookie cinema goers.  Also, I enjoy getting out of a theater and still having much of the day to enjoy.  Just as Woody Allen said in “Crimes and Misdemeanors”, seeing movies in the daytime feels like I’m playing hooky.  

Writing parody songs. If you’re on my e-mail list or see my Facebook page you know I write revised lyrics to hit songs and relate the new words to things happening in local sports and pop culture.  These parodies are done with my good friend Al Flash who sings almost all of them (since he’s the tech and software genius) and we collaborate on ideas for the videos that go with them.  Our works get aired on the WGN Morning News show as anchors Larry Potash and Robin Baumgarten know us as “Mick and Al.  There’s no money involved in these 60 to 80 second parodies, we just like coming up with goofy shit.  I’m usually the instigator or starter of the parodies and have been known to wake up at 4 in the morning to get cranking on a new idea. The late Glenn Frey was known as ‘The Lone Arranger” and that title fits me too.  Al takes on the Don Henley moniker of “Golden Throat” and it all works out pretty well.

A charter member of the Pop Culture Club.  Jim Turano is my longtime pal from Elmhurst College.  Besides acting in local plays Jim works in radio as a fill-in talk show host at WGN AM 720. Known as ‘Elton Jim’ for his lifelong dedication to Elton John (he’s been to over 190 EJ concerts) he has a feature called the “Pop Culture Club” and puts me on the air with him (on the phone) to discuss the latest trends in music, movies, and TV. Jim often does his air shifts between midnight and 5 a.m. and we usually do an hour together in the middle of that time slot. Turano and I have always had a great rapport and as much as we can yak for an hour on the air, off the air he and I can do a two hour phone call and still not cover all we want to share with each other.

So there you have it; plenty of things I “Geek out” on and am not ashamed to talk about.  Life is about finding pleasures where you can and this stuff brings me plenty of that. 

NEXT WEEK’S BLOG–   The next musical act I want to see a movie made about.