Get Started, Start a Fire

Let me say right up front that I was a weather wimp.

For the first time since 2007, I didn't march in the Halloween parade.

And why? Because it was raining.

Actually it was raining pretty steadily at 7:00, the meeting time in Monroe Park for the parade. I looked outside, I saw the puddles and I wimped out.

For all I know, they merely delayed the start of the Joan of Arc-themed parade, but either way, I didn't show up and I'm feeling pretty lame about that now.

That's a capital "L" on lame.

So instead of being part of a funeral march for Joan of Arc, I ended up at 821 eating nachos with a fellow nacho-lover.

And chuckling over his beer choice: Clown Shoes "Tramp Stamp" Belgian IPA and, yes, there was a girl's backside with the requisite slut tag on the label.

The nachos were their usual multi-layered perfection but the surprise tonight was the music.

I don't think I've ever been in 821 and not heard thrash or some sort of head-banging music.

Tonight I heard Hall and Oates' "One on One." I kid you not; I almost fell off my stool.

I'm hoping it was played for ironic reasons but I fear it's part of the 20-something obsession with the '80s.

Not all of them, though. My dining companion shared that he was in a bar recently when Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" came on and he chose to walk outside to escape the cheesy classic and mass singalong.

"I appreciate the musicianship," he allowed, "But I can't stand the songs." Amen. But he was the lone holdout.

Besides, if they're going to revere '80s music, let it be something worthwhile like Graham Parker.

Joan of Arc was burning at the stake
Somebody had made a big mistake
She had lit a cigarette in an airport where you get
All your fingers taken off for smoking
Meanwhile up the road a factory's choking
The ones who killed her work there, I'm not joking

Gee, I wonder what put that song in my head tonight? Not that it's not a great song.

Joan, I'm sorry I missed your funeral march. If it's any consolation, my regret is all-consuming.

Kind of like a fire.