Who Do I Think I Am??

This one's about a few personalities.

THE PROMPT: “If you could speak to anyone alive or dead throughout history who would you choose and why?”

Good evening everyone! It's been a lousy night at work, so I'm ready to take my mind off it by fantacizing a little...

So, do I have to pick just one person, or can I have a roundtable? Cuz honestly, I could be asked this same question everyday for a month and give you 30-31 different answers depending on the month (excluding February, the red-headed stepchild of months).

Tell ya what, good people...I'll break it down to literature, music and sports. Me and three others, havin' a few beers at the bar talkin' about what they want to talk about: themselves.

MUSIC: Eddie Vedder, singer/guitarist for Pearl Jam; Thom Yorke, singer/guitarist for Radiohead; John Lennon, LEGEND.

I would love to hear how Eddie keeps coming up with phenomenal lyrics, and would enjoy hearing him in person tell his story of how he came together with the other members of the band to form Pearl Jam (I know it's already lore and legend, and it's also on the Pearl Jam Twenty documentary, but c'mon, who wouldn't want to hear that in person?).

Thom Yorke would just be a riot, I think. I'd want to know what goes into the creative process of making a Radiohead song. I'd want him to teach me to dance as weirdly as he does. I'd also want to know how he crafts his lyrics...he was very influential on me at one point when I was writing a lot more.

And John Lennon? Who wouldn't want to pick his brain? I mean, really? When you get the chance to have John Lennon at your get-together, you don't say anything else but "Dude, c'mon!" Imagine (no pun intended) if he and George Harrison were still alive...you know the Beatles would've reunited by now for sure.

SPORTS: Marv Levy, who coached the Buffalo Bills when they were great; Gilbert Perreault, Sabres legend; Larry Felser, former sports editor of the Buffalo News and AFL historian.

Marv Levy coached some of the most talented teams in Buffalo history. He did it in an era where the athlete was becoming bigger than the game itself. How did he manage all of those egos? How did he motivate them to get them working at such a high level? And why did he do those Coors Light commercials?

#11, Gil Perreault. The centre of the French Connection. The greatest Sabre player not named "Hasek" ever (and that might be the greatest debate in all of Buffalo's rich sporting history..."Who's better, Hasek or Perreault?"). The only player to score at least 500 goals in the Blue and Gold. I'd want to know what it was like playing in the '70's and '80's and his thoughts on the landscape of hockey now. I might be curious as to why he tried a brief singing career also.

Larry Felser...I grew up reading his columns in the news. He was intelligent, articulate, and well-versed in his analysis. I loved sports less from playing them and more from reading his takes, which made me love to play even more. I have a couple of his books, but he would be the napkin ring at that table with Levy and Perreault (thanks to justjessica1 for the answer when I asked her what that thing was that they put around rolled napkins).

LITERATURE: Jack Kerouac, poet and novelist; Saul Williams, poet and musician; Richard Brautigan, poet.

Kerouac's an icon. 'Nuff said. Just to hear him rattling off tales of his journeys would be worth giving up half of the next day to the night before.

Saul Williams is the best kind of challenging read. Everyone should go out and get a copy of , Said The Shotgun To The Head. It's a beautiful, quick read about love in these times. The imagery in the poetry is beautiful and stunning all at once. It's the best kind of confrontation poetry can produce.

A friend of mine turned me on to Richard Brautigan. He was an old soul with a definite flair for the weird and obscure. I would start with In Watermelon Sugar and go from there. His works are hard to find these days, but they're very satisfying. The Hawkline Monster is a wonderful novel, and Trout Fishing In America is another great series of stories. He was truly ahead of his time. I'd really want to know what propelled him to create his brand of magic with words.

So there's my lists of dinner party guests. And there's so many more who didn't make tonight's cut. Ask me again tomorrow and you'll get a totally different list, I swear.

MUSICAL BREAK!!

I'd ask Thom Yorke the secret behind this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_qMagfZtv8&ob=av2e

I'd ponder Jack Kerouac's thoughts about this, which was written as part of a soundtrack for a movie about him: {http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bnakJc03OE}

VITAL STATS:

Ugh, it's been such a crappy day. The anticipation of going back to work, the slow night at the shop, and then everything going to hell at the end. I'll be dead of an ulcer by Friday; I can see it coming. Nothing funny and nobody's bullshit stupidity to promote, so Imma leave you there and hope I can get to bed at a decent hour. Priorities, ya know? And they're a mess too! GOODNIGHT NOW!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNCaGTCOdd8