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The Road Less Traveled

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by DrFrylock, Jun 21, 2011.

  1. DrFrylock

    DrFrylock
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    The White

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    With the untimely deaths of Clarence Clemons and Ryan Dunn looming over us, it got me thinking about opportunities taken and missed. I am glad I got to see Clarence play with the E-Street band a couple times, because that is fucking legendary.

    I actually almost got to see Dunn once, too - I attended a stop on the very random Dunn & Vito Rock Tour (it was free, OK?), but Dunn did not show up and sent Raab Himself in his place. So for that night it was the Raab and Vito Rock Tour. I did get to see Don Vito, though, before he was legally banned from being Don Vito.

    FOCUS: What event or experience did you turn down (or accept?) that you later regretted?

    RULE: We're not talking about hypothetical what-ifs, like you wish you had married an architect, not had three babies with your baby mama, and gone to live in Polynesia. I'm talking about a specific, punctuated event where you had the opportunity to say "yes, I will do that" or "no, I won't" and you said the wrong thing.
     
  2. iczorro

    iczorro
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    Roughly a week before I joined the Navy my buddies took me to a strip club in the small college town of St. Cloud. I hit it off very well with the stripper I got a dance from, a college sophomore who played Lacrosse. Well enough that she started feeling me up, then invited me back to her place when she got off shift to smoke weed with her and some of the other girls.

    Beeing a dumbass kid, I was more worried about the Navy piss test and working my last day at my job in the morning. I said no. Basically my one regret in life.
     
  3. ghettoastronaut

    ghettoastronaut
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    I could have gone to see Christopher Hitchens speak in Waterloo a few weekends ago. But, there was my class' grad formal to go to. And Hitchens was actually being broadcast via streaming video, not there in person. I really would love to see the man speak, but I don't regret not going.
     
  4. Puffman

    Puffman
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    In 1985 I had a chance to see Buddy Rich at a small club in San Francisco. My roommate at the time was providing the sound system that night. He came home after the sound check and said that I needed to go see this guy as he had never seen such a great band leader, drummer in his life. I said no as I had to work the next day. Buddy Rich never came around on tour after that and died less than two years later.

    I consistently found every reason in the world to not go see the Ramones, even though I really enjoy their music. The last time was in 1995, they were on their farewell tour, playing in a small club in San Francisco, on a weekend, not during my busy season and I still found an excuse not to go.

    Now when the twins want to see a group, I make every effort to take them. You never know if they will get that chance again.
     
  5. dixiebandit69

    dixiebandit69
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    I think I have mentioned this on here before, but I missed seeing one of my favorite bands (Monster Magnet) when I was 16. The only thing I can tell you is that at the time (1998), they were nowhere near being my favorite band, so I didn't think too much of it at the time.
    Here's how it happened:
    Megadeth, Monster Magnet, and Drain were scheduled to play this venue, and I got a ticket ($22!). Megadeth had released Cryptic Writings, a mediocre album, and Monster Magnet had just released Powertrip, one of thier best albums (but I didn't know it at the time).
    So I went to the concert, and was escorting two hot chicks who were 19, and I was pumped. Drain cancelled at the last minute, and were replaced by a band called Soak, but they should have been called "Suck," because Jesus Christ, did they suck.
    Unenthused and sober, we found some guys of legal drinking age who said that they could get us beer. We took off with them and did score some beer, but the guys were flirting with the girls and taking their sweetass time, and I ended up missing all of Monster Magnet's set. I didn't feel too bad about it at the time, because I had only heard 2 or 3 of their songs and didn't know what I was missing, and I got beer.
    We did get back in time for Megadeth, and they played a short set because heathens in the crowd kept throwing trash on the stage (a constant problem down here*).
    Cut ahead to about 2002, and I realized what I missed. Worst part: Monster Magnet only tours in Europe these days, because no one seems to appreciate their music in the US, except for guys like me and Crown Royal. Fuck me running.

    *When I saw Velvet Revolver play down here in 2005, Scott Weiland beat the hell out of a guy with his microphone who threw a glass of water on the stage. He stopped the band right in the middle of the song and demanded that the guilty party step forward. The crowd just turned on this moron and pushed him to the front, and then Weiland jumped into the crowd and started wailing on the guy until security personnel dragged him off (the punk, not Weiland).
    Nobody threw shit after that.
     
  6. kuhjäger

    kuhjäger
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    Years ago I was working in a camera shop/photolab in Los Angeles. At the time of this story I was 19. We had a lot of famous clientele, and other people who were big movers and shakers.

    One day a guy came in, and he asked my boss for someone who could print photos for him that were confidential, and could keep a secret. My boss pointed to me because I was closest. I helped the guy, and we went aside, loaded his pictures, and it was him and Angelia Jolie, with Angelina holding her and her new first born baby in Africa. (Remember how that dumb ass woman flew to Africa to have a baby?) This guy was very close to her and Brad Pitt, and they flew him out there to be with them at the birth. They hadn't even released the pictures of the baby to the public, and here I was printing them out for him.

    He and I got to talking and we were talking about just about everything thing. I mentioned to him that I was moving to Germany to study. He told me about his son who was living there in a different city, and we just got to talking he told me about some foundation he ran and so on. The next day he came back to pick up his prints, and we talked for about another hour about what was going on in the world, my opinions and so on. He then asked casually if I would bring in some of my writings and opinion pieces in for him to read. My boss was joking that I had an old guy into me, and what not. (The guy wasn't gay at all)

    So I did bring in some work the next day, and he stopped by on his way from the post office: (Side story incoming:
    He told me his foundation had sent out some stuff to their donors recently, and one person hadn't updated their address, so he gave me the box with her mug from the foundation addressed to someone else. It was a cool mug, and I took it home in the box that had been "returned to sender". I left it out on the counter and went to my room to do various things and I heard my mom call out:

    "Kuhjäger, why do you have a box addressed to Mary on the counter?"

    I replied: "Some guy at work who works at the foundation gave it to me. And why do you call the recipient 'Mary'?"

    Kuhmom: "Because it is addressed to Mary Travers"

    Me: "Who is that?"

    Kuhmom: "Mary. From Peter, Paul and Mary"

    So the guy knew a lot of people

    Anyway:

    So a couple of days later the guy comes back in and says: "Look, I know you are going to Germany, and still in school, but I want you to be the editor of our foundation's periodical. The stuff you have written is great, and we work with some of the best writers, and I believe that you would help us put a great publication. If you can come back from Germany right after Christmas, we can put you in the spot."

    It turns out that this guy worked for a pretty major literature journal, and passed over graduate students from some of the best schools in Southern California to offer a 19 year old a nearly top spot at a reputable publication in the literature world.

    Unfortunately as I had already paid thousands of dollars to go to study in Germany I had to turn down the offer.

    I still wonder where I would be today if I had taken the offer.
     
  7. Mr. Satanism

    Mr. Satanism
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    I'm a huge old-school punk fan, but I passed up a chance to see the Ramones (for five bucks!) solely to spite my girlfriend at the time because she was being a bitch and couldn't get to the show without me. Then Joey died, and now I will never get to see the Ramones.