Saturday, April 13, 2013

A Spinal Tap Moment

Every once in a while, something will happen when life imitates art. This beauty was straight out of the movie "This Is Spinal Tap" from the 80's. It involved our local college basketball team. They were brought in to my place of employment to shake hands, sign autographs, and take the odd photo or two. I happened to be going in the cafe to get a bite and a diet peach tea. I saw the players waiting around and not sure of what they should do. The entire team was sitting in the cafeteria of my work place. The thing was, that no one had promoted or mentioned that the team was going to be there. So at about 11am, the team is there, all dressed in their warm-ups, ready to schmooze and meet their fans. Well, people were just walking by them as they sat at a table in the cafeteria, waiting for someone... anyone... to come up and get an autograph. 11:30... 12 noon... 12:30... no one is going anywhere near them. There are mutual looks of bewilderment between players and employees, wondering what each other was doing there... finally at one o'clock, they got up and left. In the movie, record label rep Artie Fufkin arranges an in-store appearance by Spinal Tap to celebrate the release of the band's new album and when they make the appearance, NO ONE shows up! In utter shame and embarrassment, Artie begs the band to kick his backside because it was such a disaster. After watching my hometown's college basketball team go through a similar fate.... Somewhere, Artie Fufkin (Paul Shaffer) of Polymer Records, has to be smiling.