A while ago, Trent Dupuy and I picked up a long-running discussion while chatting online. You see, it has been my standing opinion since my original encounter with him (or rather, with his humongous collection of music that I encountered some hours before I ever met him in person) that Trent Dupuy is, in fact, completely obsessed with girl bands.
Let me explain.
When I first moved into our shared room on the NAU campus, I had no knowledge of who my roommate was slated to be (not even a name). As it happened, Trent arrived at a point when I wasn't around, and quickly departed (for Target, as I remember), thereby upon my return, I was left with two major clues. The first was a name that had been hand-written on one of those 'Hello, my name is . . ' stickers, and was stuck to Trent's CPU. Aptly, this name read 'Trent.'
The second bit of information that I was able to gather on 'Trent's' character was based on the huge (I mean like 500, all with jewel cases, arranged in five of those cd towers) collection of cds that had also been left behind. While there was a sizeable Cure section, the equally impressive amount of girl-band albums led me to the initial conclusion that this 'Trent,' if that indeed was his name, had an abnormal focus on bands headlined by females.
This initial judgement could not have been much closer to the truth.
Throughout the summer, Trent continued to confirm my wildest suspicions. Repeatedly, he shifted discussions on Weezer, Ben Folds, or the like into debates on more obscure bands like Concrete Blonde or Sleater-Kinney. His conflicted obsessions over Cheryl Crow and Jewel came to a head in mid July, when he was forced to choose a Cheryl Crow show in Tuscon over a Jewel show in Phoenix (as well as another show in Las Vegas the next night), all the while cursing the powers that be for allowing such a travesty to befall.
But perhaps the greatest boost to my intuition came in June, when Trent purchased two pairs of tickets to see the Cranberries in concert in L.A., a band that I was unaware still existed at all. To further complicate things, Trent, while arranging a family vacation to the coast in order to get himself to said concert, actually bought round-trip airfare as a 'just in case' measure, in case his parents decided not to come at the last minute.
Time and again, even beyond our time together in Flagstaff, I would pick up hints of Trent's extreme obsession over female groups. And then, in April, Trent dropped this post onto his site, proclaiming he'd found his list of quintessential albums of all time. As you can see, I stayed true to form and taunted Trent for his choice of bands. This renewed the debate off-site, which came to a boiling point where it was finally decided that I should host an official debate between the two of us.
So here it is: Trent, I dare you to prove me wrong, and I will laugh at your futile attempts to do so. You're a girly-man who listens to girly-music. Discuss.
My BirthWeekend is now in full swing. Sometime over the next week I'll be loading a good amount of pictures onto the site from my new digital camera.
Until then, here are a few highlights:
- On Thursday, a surprise visit from Lindsey and later lunch with a few friends at the first of my three favorite places to eat.
- That evening was later kicked into gear with a surprise beer float; a tastier concoction than I ever would have imagined.
- Yesterday saw a magnanimous success down at the Sunbreak Cafe (2 of 3 favorites), with an even larger group of friends than the day previous.
- The comic shop gave me an extra ten percent off my purchases there.
- Dinner at From the Bayou, the foremost and final of the three greatest restaurants in the area.
Today is about to kick it up a notch with a concert on the Seattle Pier, and the big finale tomorrow at Peter's promises to blow everything else out of the water! Literally!
As we reach the apex of a new era within The Greatest Summer Ever, I would like to reflect upon the various failures and successes that I've met with so far.
- Wherein, The Greatest Summer promised visits with old friends, this promise was delivered for the first time on Sunday the 27th of June as Lindsey and I met with Eric Furst in the wilds of the Olympic Peninsula. Shane Bussmann continues to deliver this promise with a visit on Thursday night, as well as joining us for The Cocktail Party at Lindsey's place tonight.
- Wherein, The Greatest Summer promised bringing the Triumph ever closer to my grasp, this was accomplished a few weeks ago on the day of paternal celebration when we brought the beast to life. Today, I'm working on getting it properly licensed.
- Wherein, The Greatest Summer held the promise of travel, Lindsey and I followed through last weekend as we made our way to the fair city of Portland, and an adventure it was. We wandered the Japanese Gardens and the Rose Garden, journeyed through Powell's City of Books, and even stumbled upon the Portland International Beerfest.
In fact, the most unfortunate mishap of the summer so far was our absence last weekend when the Birthday TriForce was kicked off in celebration of Jared Flood's big 22.
That said, the TriForce of Awesomeness is kicking the month long celebration into high gear this week in celebration of my own day (July 22 for you stalkers who have been waiting expectantly for an exact date). The festivities are set to include a 'Greatest Birthday Breakfast Ever,' an evening of friends and the frosty brew, a trip to Peter's place out on Fox Island, and a concert out on Seattle's Pier 62/63.
Further, plans are already underway to visit Seattle again the following weekend (in conjunction with Luke's own Triforce of Laziness) for the Seattle installation of the International Beerfest. This promises to be an event, indeed a month to remember.