music week! day 06

Two brushes
brushed all over with greatness

In 1993, I journeyed from my home, San Francisco, to Yosemite to attend the wedding of my friends J&A. The day that I was returning home, a group of friends (including my boyfriend at the time) were participating in a city-wide scavenger hunt.

My friend Mary had organized this hunt as a fundraiser (a precursor to the elaborate treasure hunt games that continue today in the Bay Area). Teams followed clues to obtain clever and oddball items as they madly tore around the city. Afterwards, everyone met at a designated location and time, where a winning team was selected.

As happy as I was to celebrate the glory of Yosemite and the joy of my friends in matrimony (blah blah blah), I was sad to have missed the hunt. However, I managed to get back to the City in time for the afterparty.

I found myself sitting next to a genial English bloke, whose bald head had writing on it. I asked him if he was on a team, and he said no, actually, he was one of the scavenger hunt items that needed to be procured: a bald man (who is a stranger to you) on whose head you must write a message.

“I was just sunning myself next to a fountain, enjoying the afternoon off,” he added, “when this crazed pack of people promised me free beer if I would come with them. And if I let them write on my head.”

I asked what he was doing in San Francisco. “I’m a drummer for a band from the UK. We’re on tour.”

It was Phil Selway from Radiohead. This was their first world tour, after Creep had become a hit.

Huh, I said. I asked him if their audiences were full of obnoxious college kids who stayed completely quiet until Radiohead played Creep — then they would explode, but just for that one song? “How’d you know?” he asked.

The planets aligned strangely that week, I remember. At the wedding, I met the woman who would become of my closest friends to this day; I would drink beer with a member of one of my favorite bands (but would not know that fact for several years); I would break up with my boyfriend the day after the scavenger hunt; and I would travel with Radiohead and write a lion’s share of The Bends and OK Computer.

Everything is true to the best of my recollection, except for that last little bit. But you already knew that. After all, you float like a feather in a beautiful world.

Photo: Two brushes, originally uploaded by flickruser Poagao. Thanks for letting me use it!