Scooter's Flashback Weekend

Okay, so this weekend was a totally major flashback to the 1980's for me. It started out with Kat and I going to see "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" on Friday. I first read the book in 8th grade, over Christmas vacation, if I remember correctly, finishing somewhere just before the start of 1983. I heard a part of the BBC radio drama on some obscure radio station around the same time. (Special note to emira0: yes, you can go see the movie - it only covers the first book). To anyone out there who's a fan of the books and hasn't seen it yet, if my two cents is worth anything, I totally dug it. Arthur is exactly as I have always imagined him, Zaphod is a total boob, Trillian has the requisite babe factor, and Marvin, although appearing quite a bit differently than I ever would have imagined, works great, especially his "at death's door" depressed-sounding voice.
The next event was last night - Kat, her mom and I drove out to Chinook Winds Casino on the Oregon coast, and saw... Huey Lewis and the News! Man, the Huester is 55 years old, but his voice is still good. Doesn't really dance around much anymore (if anyone remembers his videos, one of the things that stood out for me was his stomping up and down while carrying his mic stand in the video for "The Heart of Rock and Roll." He played, well, most of his hits, several new songs (they were pretty good), and some obscure older songs, including one of my very favorite non-hits of his, "Jacob's Ladder." The best part, by far, was when he and five of the guys from the News came out and sang some old 50's doo-wop songs acapella. Beautiful, just beautiful.

Of course, Huey Lewis will be remembered forever for his involvement in "Back to the Future" - contributing one of his best songs ever ("The Power of Love," which still holds up 20 years later), and his cameo role as a teacher at Marty McFly's 1985 battle of the bands tryouts, where Marty and his band (the actual members of the News, pretending to be high schoolers) start to play "The Power of Love," only to be silenced by a bespectacled Mr. Lewis who stands up and declares, "I'm afraid you're just too darn loud."

It should be noted that crowds who attend shows at casinos are an...ah...interesting bunch. There was a guy in front of us, beer belly, ball cap, drunk off his arse, who started bellowing "HUUUUUUUUUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYY!" about twenty minutes before the show began. Seated about five seats away from him was a guy who could only be described as the spiritual twin of Uncle Rico from "Napoleon Dynamite." He was wearing a t-shirt proudly declaring himself a patron of someplace called "Naughty Nellie's," and he nearly gave himself whiplash following the backsides of every woman who walked past him. No lie, Katrina actually heard him say to a friend, "Man, there's a bunch of good lookin' laaaaaaadies here - which ones you think we're gonna pick up?" Maybe LaFonda, Rico. Buh-bye, now.
All in all, though, it's been quite a fun little flashback weekend. It was really weird at the concert, though, to look around at all these... old people... only to realize many (although not all of them) were about my age. I guess I have a really hard time judging age, or I just can't imagine someone who's the same age as me looking so old. I'm sure a lot of you know those people out there - the ones who've had more than their share of heartache and pain the past 20 years, and it's aged them. But, this seems to be running off to another topic, so I'm going to stop for now.

"HUUUUUUUUUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYY!"