Friends of Dave #398: ⚡️electric bugaloo🕺
Vacation thoughts....
Friends, tried to get our annual week in on the beach, but Mother Nature had some other plans for us and most people on the East Coast of the US, making more than half of the week a washout.
Oh well. It happens. Could be a lot worse.
Still tried to manage getting a little downtime. Here are a few thoughts and observations:
People watching is amusing — even more so at the beach. And now that we have no longer have small kids in tow, it’s almost mandatory. I’m serious — why spend good money on a streaming service when you and a equally snarky companion could find a patch of sand attached to a body of water, pack a cooler full of adult beverages, bring a couple of comfortable chairs and just sit there being present in the moment waiting for the magic to happen? Honestly, just put the phones down, set your out of office notice, crack open a beer and do it.
And if for some reason you can’t get to a body of water and a beach, just drink a couple of Red Bulls and ride your closest city’s subway system on a Friday or Saturday evening. Similar effect — just don’t make eye contact with anyone and you should be fine.
So, based on my observation, the pendulum has definitely swung and now more people are walking around with visible tattoos than ever in modern human history. Body ink used to be considered edgy, counter culture or something you got when you went to jail or that one crazy weekend when you got blackout wasted or you really wanted to piss off your parents. Now you can see grandmas (plural) with tramp stamps at the beach. I’m pretty sure I saw one walking with an older gentleman with a picture of Bea Arthur eating a pickle etched on his shoulder followed by a 6 year old with a tear drop tattoo….
PREDICTION: within the next 5 years, kids will begin to yell at their parents, “I hate you so much, when I am finally able to get off the family phone plan I’m going to run away and GET ALL OF MY TATTOOS REMOVED! How do you like THAT Mom and Dad?!?” Group chats are going to light up when a kid brings home a significant other and they don’t have ink. “Did you see the guy she brought to the BBQ? No barbed wires, no Spongebob, no random Chinese symbols….it’s probably a phase 🦇💩🤪…..”
A few quick hot takes on the Olympics:
Gold Zone is an absolute revelation. If you don’t have Peacock (or NFL RedZone which spawned it), you have missed the future of live event broadcasting. March Madness is next.
The women’s sports (particularly if you are from the US) have been SO MUCH more compelling than the men’s. Women’s rugby (!!!!), gymnastics, swimming, track and field, powerlifting, cycling — all more exciting in my opinion. Name one big men’s star that will come out of these games — aside from Snoop Dogg.
Break dancing is now apparently a sport called “breaking”….most likely because Millennials who studied breakdancing in college need to come up with more reasons to get a trophy. Inner city kids spun on their heads on pieces of cardboard in the streets in the 80s so an SNL skit could happen 40 years later.
Honestly, I think this Paris Olympics, aside from the fever dream opening ceremony and e-coli fueled triathlon swim, may go down as the best organized and staged Games ever. The city basically served as the stadium for the last two weeks — what an amazing backdrop.
Hey Peacock: I would love to see Gold Zone expanded to family holiday dinners. Who needs football when we have an “octo box” highlighting tense, drama filled moments at Thanksgiving tables all over the country as well as relatives falling asleep in various positions on different pieces of furniture…..it could have a feature called the “Bitching Hour” (for those who watch Gold Zone or Red Zone, you know), with the motto “Where drunken debates lead to crying and insults and crying and insults lead to drunken debates.” NAME YOUR PRICE PEACOCK.
Back to breaking — I am onboard with it repeating for a second time as an Olympic sport but only if it is referred to as “Electric Bugaloo.”
Our local Dunkin’ Donuts already has the Halloween decorations up. You know that that means….we are two weeks away from pumpkin spice season and maybe 3.5 weeks away from the first signs of year end holiday stuff showing up in stores.
I have decided that I will vote for any candidate that advocates we have more time for naps. I’m okay if you welch on the promise of Social Security if you give me more naps.
Despite what we had planned, we were only able to get about 2 days on the beach this week out of 7. When this sort of thing happens, you can choose to look at that as a positive or a negative. Bummer for sure, but we still had lots of laughs, good food and drink, a needed change of scenery and some great family bonding time this week. Plus I was able to take a few naps.
Things could be a LOT worse, right?
XOXO
Dave
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