...flounder

One character in my life that I have not really spoken much about would be Dave. Dave is my oldest and best friend in the world. A part of my life for nearly as long as Tambo, I owe a great deal to his friendship. You see it was about 16 years ago, in the stock room of the only hip record store in town, where we met. Me, having recently embraced the rebellion and anger of rock & roll, disavowing organized religion and sporting a sporting a wicked “Flock of Seagulls” haircut watched in disgust as my boss interviewed this new guy. While far from the cool of say “Empire Records”, we did have a certain level of cool at this store that needed to be held up and this guy was not that. Pastel button down shirt, yuppie knit tie and seersucker slacks was not exactly what we would call hip those days. Of course it did not help that his look and demeanor screamed “conservative republican”, my inner social anarchist bristled at this. The very idea that he thought he could work here with us? Oh the nerve!

I made my displeasure known to my boss. An ex musician and rebel, he took pride in tweaking my world. It was his fault that I now listen to The Who and due to him I’ll forever have soft spot for Kate Bush. As I expressed my disgust, he just sat there and smiled his cockeyed smile. Nodding his head in mock concern as I told him how we could not hire anyone like that.
“That guy is a flounder!” I explained
“Really, a flounder you say?”
“Totally”
“Good, cuz you’re training him”

With clenched teeth I showed him about the job, waiting for the opportunity to pounce. “…just give me an opening and I’ll shred you” I thought. He returned my cold grimace with an affable smile. I found it hard to hate his jovial, easy going nature. Politics, that would do it. I’ll bait his right wing ass and then slam him with my biting socialist commentary! So while setting out magazines one day I noted a headline on the cover of the Rolling Stone and made some biting liberal comment about gun control. To my surprise he perked up and asked me to elaborate. So I did, and he listened attentively leaning in to take in my words. Then to my utter shock he did something I was not expecting. Responded calmly, “You know, that is an excellent point. However have you considered this…” and proceeded to eloquently argue the counter point. No venom, no ego just facts and ideas discussed. “Oh yeah? Well what about this…” as I countered his argument.

This became the nature of our early relationship. We loved to debate; pretty soon I was looking forward to the verbal fisticuffs. Researching topics and honing my arguments in hopes of winning the topic of the day. Eventually one day, while pointing out the flaws in his stand on the nature of the social contract, I stopped and realized. This guy is actually quite cool, he makes me think and won’t let me just rest on my mental ass.

Over the course of these 16 years, it has been my twisted pleasure to introduce Dave to… The Rocky Horror Picture Show, alcohol, impersonating police officers, pot, smuggling, girls, racing vintage cars, staring in micro budget cinema, Asian porn, and midnight grocery store bowling with frozen turkeys… but those are all stories for another day.

Of all the things we have done together over the years I am most proud of introducing him to his darling wife. I was there the day the met, I offered advice as he came to grips with these new feelings of love, I offered my house up so they could have a place to fuck when he came to visit her, I was there when he proposed to her, I was the best man at their wedding, and was there on the morning his first child was born.

He lives in the suburbs now, a devoted husband and doting father to his 2 adorable girls. We don’t see each other that much these days and that does sometimes makes me sad. However it only takes a few minutes together and it is like we were never parted. We share a friendship that has spanned many years and many of lives changes.

Upon recently discovering this journal he said this to me.
“I think that if the flounder were to meet the monk today, he would die of fright”
To which I had to respond, “The monk could not be who he is today if it were not for the flounder”


Happy birthday dear friend. Our lives may be very different these days but our bond is not. You are my oldest and dearest friend. I am proud to call you my brother.