The Games We Play

This should be quick...

So, I get bored easily - such is modern life - and when I do get bored there are a couple of games I like to play with either myself or others.

The first is a simple variation of "That's what she said" but that game became officially dead to me when one of my uncles started using it too much.

Kinda for the musically inclined or straight up music snob, "That's the name of my band" is a fun way to point out interesting turns of phrase people use in normal conversations.

While you can just say, "that's the name of my band," the real trick is to take the turn of phrase and turn it into a theme appropriate music genre, album or song.

Example:

A: "Man, I wish I talked with a really cheerful accent, something along the lines of a very social brogue."

B: "Social Brogue is the name of my post-punk folk band."

A: "Yeah, and the first album is called Violin Tendencies."

Once you get going, you start to notice that certain phrases just lend themselves to certain genres of music and some can only be band names while others can only be albums.

Electric Sex - a electronic group whose first album has to be titled Neon Love

The Countup - has to be an album, better be good.

Patio Furniture - maybe a band, most certainly an album.

Wild, Wild, Super Wild - the greatest rock album of all time.

The Continents - 100% a band, but after they broke up and drifted apart, that's really when people started to follow them. I see them getting back together eventually, though.

What is What - album. Genre yet to be determined.

 Anyway, it's fun. Once you get started, it can become a game of competitive musical aptitude.

...Or it's just something less trite to say when people turn a phrase.

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The other game I've created is best played in large groups of people. People you don't know. And people who are mostly young (16-30).

It's a simple game with a simple premise and a simple name:

Drunk, High or Both?

I first came up with this game at Lollapalooza 2006 in Grant Park in Chicago. Surrounded by thousands of adolescents and young adults and policed by like 40 barely on-duty Chicago cops, the Grant Park fest is a haven for inebriated stumblin' and intoxicated bumblin'.

I mean, I've heard of the crazy shit that goes down at festivals like Bonnaroo, but because it's in the city and it's a less free-for-all atmosphere, Lolla usually has people get messed up on either booze or weed (not that I haven't seen or suspected other intoxicants).

What was so crazy about the whole thing to me was that I walked into my first Lolla as - basically - an ignorant teetotaler. At this point in my life, age 19, I had only been 'drunk' twice in my life and both were when I was in Italy and was of legal drinking age. Since that point I had only snuck a few beers in the intervening months.

Forget drugs, I hadn't (really) drank underage yet. It was like the scene in Animal House where they walk into the bar and their the only white people in the joint.

But what's amazing - year in and year out - is the variance in stumblefication.

Some people are always clearly just drunk and dehydrated. They're easy to spot because their less-drunk friends will be pouring water down their gullet and saying 'dude' way too much. Others who are clearly high will either just sit or stand in one place for inordinately long periods of time and sway independent of any music playing.

But where the game gets fun is that vast in-between area which is filled with people who are staring at their hands while their friends say 'man' way too much and make them pound bottles of water - he may just be 'high', but the safe bet's on 'both'. Or there's the guy who's dancing like crazy to far away dance music but also can't seem to keep his balance - he's a 'both'.

Lolla is pretty much the only place I play this game since 99% of my life takes place in normal society. Concerts, music fests and the rare street urchin sighting are the only times D,H or B comes out, but if you're playing D,H or B odds are you're watching someone do something hilarious.

No matter what you guess - unless you go up and ask - there is no right answer. As long as you can entertain yourself by people watching, D,H or B is just icing on the cake. Plus, they get to remain blissfully high or drunk while you enjoy their utter stupidity - everyone's a winner.