A new meme has been floating around under variations of the title "Ten Things I've Done That You Probably Haven't," but I couldn't think of any of those.

1. Rebuilt the engine of a 1966 Plymouth Valiant over the course of more than a year, with a friend who knew how to do that kind of thing but didn't have lots of free time. The day we finished, I proudly drove it to the DMV for registration. The new bearings seized before I got there.
   
   
2. Got married in Seattle on the way to Alaska, where I lived in a tent and gutted salmon with two friends, but without my new bride, who'd flown back to Los Angeles. (This would be the practice wife, not that finest of spouses who, fifteen years later, took up a collection from friends and family and sent me to Paris to finish writing The Night Men.)
   
   
3. This one's just easiest to link to.
   
   
4. Discovered that if you put a marshmallow in the microwave, it makes a little hat.
   
   
5. Transcribed Amelie off the DVD into screenplay format because it wasn't available and I wanted to read it.
   
   
6. Was an assistant ballroom dance instructor with National Cotillions in high school. Attended Ballroom Dance Camp two (three?) summers running. Learned to clog dance.
   
   
7. Played Afropop, highlife, and reggae in a band in L.A. called Kadara for three years with this guy. Opened for Alpha Blondy. Gigged with Chief Ebenezer Obey. Believed for a week that we were going to tour Japan.
   
   
8. Learned the lead guitar part to Panama, including Eddie Van Halen's guitar solo, note for note on a strap-on keyboard. Cry when I listen to Arvo Pärt's Te Deum. Can't hear Mike Oldfield's Five Miles Out without being, at least a little, 16 again and excited about what I'm hearing (and iTunes had it).
   
   
9. Saw Parliament live at the Apollo in Harlem with my oldest friend Jason, in our new club shirts. Danced like a white guy. Couldn't hear for two days afterward, which made for fun after-concert conversation. Discovered that when someone with MS suffers temporary hearing threshhold shift, he also suffers temporary can't-stand-up-straight because it all happens in the inner ear. That was a fun weekend. (But worth it. Tear the roof off the sucka.)
   
   
10. Designed the best and most beautiful catalogue in the fluorescent lighting fixture industry. Put a chunk of the income into a short screen opera called CREDO, which will be finished and submitted to the Cannes Film Festival this Tuesday.
    
    

[Best of the Blog]