La Grippe

There's a flu bug getting passed around
And it's Spreading like fire through the town
There's a virus holing up inside us
Everyone that I know is coming down

Thursday night is Dance Party Night at our house. It’s when my wife and I just hang out and listen to music very loudly, dance in the living room, have a few drinks and talk about the world and how to solve all of society’s problems (I’ve got the solution, but I’m not sharing). It’s a chance to hang out, catch up and hide from friends and family for an evening.

There's an Asian influenza
Infecting us all by the score
And it's turning into pneumonia
We must go out once more

It’s also a chance to dig up old music that we were really into at one time, and may have forgotten about. This used to involve rifling through stacks of records and CDs for forgotten gems, but in the advent of iPods, it’s become much simpler; just rip a few more discs to the ‘Pod each day. The playlist gets very Schizophrenic; last night it ranged from Ike and Tina to Big Rude Jake to the New York Dolls to Golden Earring, and so on. And of course we spent some time with the Squirrel Nut Zippers.

There's a fool moon howling at the night
And it's bark is much worse than it's bite
So we must go out and dance around
Yes we must go tonight

Our first exposure to the Squirrel Nut Zippers was many years ago, on a trip to Charlotte, NC. We got engaged on that trip, and in our search to find entertainment, some young punk in a Best Buy gave us a flyer for a warehouse record release party for a local band. We ended up seeing the Squirrel Nut Zippers play a swinging Dixieland concert in a warehouse on the railroad tracks. It felt like a Prohibition speakeasy party, and remains one of my fondest concert memories.

So the doctors came on the evening train
With their flasks and their caskets and vials
Mass psychosis was their diagnosis
So we all cashed our checks and went wild

Last night, as we listened to “La Grippe”, we talked about this latest flu scare. If you listen to some sources, 75 percent of us are gonna be dead by the time it’s done tearing through here. They’re calling it a pandemic, which is apparently bigger than an epidemic, but either way, it’s gonna suck if you get it. So what do you do? Hole up, hide out and wait for it to pass you by? That’s probably not what you wanna do; if it’s gonna get you, it’s gonna get you. We’re going to throw a “Plague Party.”

There's a fool moon howling at the night
And it's bark is much worse than it's bite
So we must go out and dance around
Yes we must go tonight

So when this Avian flu hits Detroit, and we’re all wasting away and dropping off, you are all cordially invited to our “Plague Party.” It will be an event of massive decadence, loud music, flowing wine, bonfires and dancing in the garden. We’ll even roast a pig, I think. Drain your bank account and bring the most expensive liquor you can find. Get a new outfit, and plan on destroying it with wine stains and sweat from dancing and fever. As my wife said last night during Thursday Night Dance Party, “I would hate to know I only had a few days left and totally waste them.”

Mahalo.