Jump with them all and move it
Jump back and forth
It feels like you were there yourself
work it out

September 2005. I’m in Amsterdam with Sandeman and his colleague Eric. We eat great Mexican with their colleague Fleur, walk in the rain (leopard print umbrellas courtesy Chris), and hop in a cab. While in the backseat Chris breaks off a piece of the chocolate bar purchased at a head shop in Berlin. Dot dot dot.

Chris decides that the Boat-el he’s staying in with Eric is too small so crashes with me in my wacky tropical themed hotel room in the Red Light district. There’s a beachscape on the wall, a hammock … it’s bizarre. And, thanks to Chris’ connections in the tourism industry, insanely affordable. He turns on the tube.

Chocolate bar hits me.

I’m doing God knows what but then I hear the music.

I look up.

There she is.

On the tube.

Little Noodle.

Dancing away.

Never did no harm
Never did no harm

There’s an explosion going on in my brain and I am riveted. The video lasts 30 seconds and fifteen hours all at once. Japanimated creatures meets electronica meets I don’t know what! Could this be bliss? Should I jump into the canal that my hotel window overlooks? How long have I been brushing my teeth and why does it feel so good?

Upon returning to Berlin, poor ‘Ver is perplexed by the fact that whenever he gets home, Demon Days is in his CD player, set to repeat on one track in particular.

December 2005. Dorie & Ari have a party at their place. It’s a grand time. Ari’s made chili and Dorie is beautifully preggers and I’m wearing my red knockoff Uggs as it is coldy-cold. I bring a date. I’m on the fence about him to begin with, but we’ve been hanging out for about six weeks and he’s really into me. Wanted to bring me home for Thanksgiving to meet his family, the whole nine. I try and overlook the fact that he voted for Bush and his occasionally Outbursts of Jackass, mostly because I am still trying to get that one guy out of my head, and I can’t decide if that funny feeling in the pit of my stomach is related to my fear of intimacy or my dislike of him.

Anyway I’m having a good time, there are drinks, there is music. A delightful Clap Your Hands Say Yeah tune comes up and I jump up, excited. I’d heard it when they opened for Ambulance LTD at Northsix in April and again when they played the Seaport in August. Skin of my yellow country teeth number — the one that wasn’t available for free download on their website. Quickly followed by

It’s coming up
It’s coming up
It’s coming up

Whee!!! DARE!!! It’s dancin’ time. I shimmy about, I’m so excited, there is a virtual Noodle in my brain and it’s delightful. My date is watching me, in his creepy smile with an undertone of psycho that I thought I was superimposing upon him but later found out that no, he really was psycho.

I am having a great time.

Naturally as soon as we leave the party I get berated for not knowing my audience, for making people at the party feel uncomfortable, for being too drunk, etc. etc. This from an idiot was just met the friends I have known for six years, the friends whose wedding I attended, the friends who confirmed the next morning when I asked if I had behaved inappropriately that I could come shake my booty at their apartment whenever I wanted.

It’s funny, at the party, I had joked that it was going to be the last date that psycho and I would be on (another friend had shared a funny anecdote about me), and I wish it had been. I wish I hadn’t let him engage me in a cycle of tantrum / apology for six more weeks.

April 2006. Gorillaz at the Apollo. And the experience is a multi media extravaganza of love. Orgasmic puppets! De La Soul! Dennis Hopper! Ike Turner! Seven year olds who can shake it better than I ever will! I’m introduced to something that practically triggers some residual substances still lodged firmly in the base of my spine, and I grooved to DARE and nobody told me I was making anyone else uncomfortable. The Apollo is beautiful, the lesbian pouring Sam Adams has a certain dredlocked je ne sais quoi about her, the freaky hippie with funky teeth and long hair in one of the visuals was sitting right across the aisle from us.

There will definitely be some fabulous people there tonight, the last night. Even though tickets for all five nights sold out within an hour, there’s going to be a webcast so that you can check it out from the comfort of your own home courtesy the wireless broadband connection that you’re stealing from your neighbor(s). Say it with me now, and invoke your memory of Starsky and Hutch: DO IT. Do it. DO IT.

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