Stoopeck

2002-07-15 - 9:05 a.m.

You remember Stoo, right? He's the guy that played Transformers on the playground in elementary school. He's the one who loved Def Leppard. He claims I ruined his art career in Jr. High by telling him his art sucked. He grew his hair long in High School, and played in a band called Rhubarb McKinley (and the Squashmoggins). We used to hold open court in the corner booth of Denny's nightly, talking about music and the beat movement. We got a job together taking phone reservations for New York State Park campsites, but quit after the paid training to go buy records. He delivered pizzas in tornados in his K car. We avoided our habit of beer and trainspotting in the woods for a couple of weeks after the Blair Witch Project came out. Nobody talks more smack during video game play than Stoo.

Stoo claims to know how far it is to Iowa, but has no idea how long it takes to span New York state, especially in a blizzard. Stoo was my co-pilot in the Jeep as we braved flooded NYC streets during Hurricane Floyd to see the Chemical Brothers and Basement Jaxx (Stoo got me into dance music). Stoo decided he was going to be a DJ and did it. It was his idea we move to San Francisco.

Stoo grew his hair long again, but not for a band this time. Stoo wants to be Spike from Cowboy Bebop. Stoo likes Dragonball Z, Wes Anderson movies, Astralwerks bands, good ratios, Jersey sluts, and Jodie Foster (not to mention meatball subs).

You remember Stoo now? No? Well, it was his birthday yesterday just the same.

Happy Birthday Stoo.