Beuller, Beuller, Beuller...

I had a very Brent-like moment at the last night of Noise Pop. I was tending bar, and this woman came up and ordered a glass of wine. Then she stopped.

"Wait, I know you," she said.

I looked at her doubtfully.

"Yeah, we made out once."


I looked some more. Nope, nothing at all in the memory banks. "Sorry," I said, "I don't think so, I've got a pretty good memory for that."

"Yes," she said, "we did. We went to Ocean Beach at 4 in the morning. It was freezing. My name is Kelly."

You know that moment in Secrets and Lies where the mom remembers that she could in fact be the mom of this black woman because she did actually have a one-night stand with a black man? Well, that's probably what my face looked like.


"Oh, heyyyyy," I said, "you used to live in Berkeley, right?"

We had met at a party at Victoria's massive Mission Street loft. She was one of the few women I've ever successfully picked up at a party. We had made out - and more - over two occasions, including that night on a blanket on Ocean Beach and another time after a bizarre Oakland warehouse party in which Jake's friend Hans played stand-up bass to accompany his trapeze artist girlfriend. And she'd been going to school with Rolf in his Psych program, and had tried hitting on him and Chris a week after we met.

And here she was. I couldn't see the same person in her at all, save for the long blonde hair. She looked heavier, more conservative, older (duh), and, well, shorter than I remembered. But I didn't say any of that. I was the model of restraint for once. I gave her the wine for free, and I didn't see her again the rest of the night. It made me wonder how many other people I've "made out" with are wandering around the Rickshaw, or other places I frequent. I just read about how spouses are GPSing each other's cars these days, trying to catch each other at infidelities. Soon, we'll be able to map out our entire lives on a big video screen. I thought about making a map of SF, showing all the spots I've eaten dinner or gone to bars or made out with people.


Oh yeah, the Spinto Band ruled. They were the perfect embodiment of a TKS band: bouncy, cute, clever, and catchy, full of fun covers and goofy energy. Like the Muppets if they were college kids from Delaware. And I have a new favorite local band: The Old Fashioned Way, a 7-piece indie-pop orchestra of boys and girls with a main singer Asian guy with a super-deep voice. Like Stephin Merritt fronting Architecture in Helsinki. Very high school band atmosphere, in the best way.