Are you ever in the grocery store just walking down the aisle and you realize you are walking with the beat of the song piped over the speakers, you gaze at the items on the shelves as though they are magical. You see the montage clearly in your head as though you were watching it on a screen happening to someone else. You pass someone else in the aisle and give an agreeing nod to each other and you just know that at any second a choreographed dance scene was going to happen. Life is perfect, the song is perfect, you are exactly in that space between what’s real and what is perfectly scripted and acted out around you…
That is a movie moment.
Sometimes it is when things are at the worst, when you are the most broken, again the most perfect song that completely encapsulates your emotions comes on and you see outside yourself as though you are watching it all play out on screen.
(Obviously music heavily impacts me.)
It’s almost as though you step into some sort of universal check point. Like when you discover the perfect space between two speakers where the stereo is balanced in such a way to completely transfix you. Something that says “Hey, really absorb this moment. You are at this specific space in your journey, exactly at the time and place you are supposed to be for the next part of your adventure. Feel this, remember this”
Most times the experiences are subtle, just a glimpse of a short montage of mundane things set to the perfect soundtrack, BUT, once in a while - a moment comes so truly epic - so magnificently orchestrated that it transcends a regular movie moment to the point it becomes an actual movie moment.
I’ve had two of those experiences - one deeply spiritual, and the other straight out of an 80’s buddy comedy.
This is one of those times -
My bff Trish and I worked in the call center for a wholesale club type company, NuMart. I don’t know for sure it was a scam, but I’m kinda thinking it was scamish.
We were telemarketers who would cold call and invite people to come tour this showroom that was like a micro Ikea showcasing some of the furniture and things they could buy at wholesale prices. It was lame but at the time it paid pretty good even though it was a sucky drive downtown.
Trish and I hooked up with a few guys we worked with. We’d party in the showroom, it was set up like various rooms in a house. (I might have even spent the night there a few times)
One of the guys was Dewey, I realize the name doesn’t scream “hot guy” but trust me…
So, Trish and I both liked him and our rivalry came boiling up one night at a bar in Kansas City.
It was 4th of July, 1980 something and Kansas City always did a fantastic fireworks show downtown. Well, one of the owners was friends with the owner of the bar that was right on the Main Street bridge that they fired them off of. The street was closed off but the bar was open and it was packed. (We were well under the drinking age btw, but that never stopped us, shhh.)
The bar was super fun and had this train that wound it’s way all around the entire place. There was an upper level that had a railing to look down onto the main level.
As the night went on and I got more and more liquid courage in me, it was time to confront Trish and fight for the man.
Now, Trish was always MY protector. She was a bad ass bitch and I was a scrawny insecure little thing who could NEVER have won a fight with her, but for some reason I decided I’d try, lol.
So we are in the bathroom of this bar just circling around each other, howling like a couple of cats and something happened…
Something broke the moment and we heard “dun dun dun dun dun dun….Just take those old records off the shelf…”
HOLY SHIT! That’s our jam!
In that instant we forgot we were fighting and ran out of the bathroom and - in the most perfect “movie moment” fashion - we were up on tables singing this song and the ENTIRE bar joined in with us.
For real - the ENTIRE PLACE!
People hanging over the top railing holding out their drinks, everyone syncing in perfect togetherness for 3 minutes and 18 seconds just like you’d see in every movie of the time.
I will never forget that experience, it was pure perfection and I didn’t care about the guy any more.
I relive it every time I hear that song and it reminds me - every single time - of togetherness and friendship. Nothing is stronger than love, and the love we have for each other is beyond measure - and far beyond the affection of some dude who’s face I can’t even remember.
Here’s to the moments that live forever!
Be present, always.
The plan was made, that night we would go out and ….