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Last week I, um, sort of forgot to update SFoT because I was on vacation. Man, do I suck. As penance, I submit this week’s Pathetic Geek Stories-worthy podcast, which is subtitled “When we’re famous, they won’t be able to dig up any embarrassing stuff from my past, because I’ll have dug all of it up already and posted it on SFoT! Ha-HA!”

So. In early 2000, around the time I was applying to Grinnell, they used to (and still do) invite prospective students to hang out with current students for a weekend to get a sense of what college life is like. Sometimes, the result is positive. Other times, the result is keg parties overrun with gauche, dorky seventeen-year-olds eager to make a good impression. So here’s seventeen-year-old prospie me, at a party where I probably shouldn’t have been in the first place, and I saw a great-looking guy dancing. Our eyes met, just for a second: insta-crush! (When you’re 17, is there any other kind?)

The following morning, I had to go to an interview at the admissions office, and I was releasing some pre-interview tension on the piano in a nearby dorm lounge. As I was leaving, I caught the same guy in the hallway…he’d been listening outside the door. Damn. We talked for a while, but I’m not sure if I heard a word he said, because all I could think was, “Holy crap, I have to go to college here.”

Once I was actually going to school there, of course, I discovered that he (a) was gay and (b) had forgotten about the whole thing, which was probably just as well. Like any number of non-starter insta-crushes I’ve had, though, I managed to get a song out of it. I classify “Fairydust” along with “Compromise” and the other stuff I was working on at the time: too hastily written (the second verse? ugh — I’m cringing just typing it out, here), and I don’t like the way I sang it, but there’s still something salvageable, I think. If you can find it, it’s yours for the taking.

In non-six-years-ago news, Brian and I might finally get to make some decent recordings here in the next couple days. Our show on the 14th went really well, and we’re itchin’ to play out more. What would you choose for a three-song Tryst demo?

Have you ever seen beauty for a moment?
It comes between the best-laid plans
The fleeting flash of brilliant eyes, before you turn away
The perfect snowflake, melting in your hand
It was just the first or second time I saw you
I’ll never understand your gravity
Have you ever seen beauty for a moment?
I’ll take your fairydust with me

Have you ever seen beauty for a moment?
It comes when you would least expect
The lines of your face
Baby, don’t change
I’d hate to lose what I cannot forget
I was wrapped up in my own mind until I saw you
May everyone forgive your vanity
Have you ever seen beauty for a moment?
I’ll take your fairydust with me

Posted on Sunday, June 25th, 2006. Comments are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.