Jun 25 2007
the nuge effect
So today I noticed a guy walking by the house. This, in itself, is not worth mentioning, because people walk past my house all the time. All day long! There is a sidewalk and people use it for walking! But anyway, it is worth mentioning when a guy walks past the house very slowly because he has his eyes closed. Why did he have his eyes closed? Because he was suicidal and hoped he’d accidentally trip on the sidewalk and fly over the curb into traffic? Perhaps. Per…haps. Or maybe it was just that he was experiencing a divine moment of ecstasy. No, not an orgasm, at least not as far as I could tell, but he was listening to his iPod, as people are wont to do while walking! down the sidewalk! and noiselessly humming along with whatever song was playing. I watched, fascinated, as he mouthed the following:
Daaaa da daa daa daa da daa daa daaa da da.
I thought for a moment, wondering what song in the world is great enough to make a fellow close his eyes while listening, yet continue walking down the sidewalk (albeit very very slowly) while cradling the iPod in both hands as though it were a precious and remarkably fragile creature, like, say, a really little puppy. And then it came to me:
Fred Bear.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I am simultaneously freaked out and fascinated by The Nuge, and in truth, I can’t listen to a single one of his songs all the way through without a part of my brain starting to twitch in a threatening “If you keep torturing me like this, I will have an aneurysm RIGHT NOW. DO NOT TEST ME” sort of way, but seriously, out of the entire Motor City Madman oeuvre, there is not a single song of more eye-closing wonder than Fred Bear, taking me down the trails again, taking me back! back! where I belong. Seriously, there isn’t, though “Cat Scratch Fever” might be a close second.
And why does it have to be The Nuge at all? Well, this is Michigan, people. He’s like our poet laureate. (Despite the fact that I heard he doesn’t even live here anymore. Details are insignificant in the face of such greatness. Wango Tango that, skeptics!)
Um, I obviously need to start sleeping more.
the fact that you can recognize the nuge from just a few “daaa da das” is slightly frightening, even if you were born and raised in the heart of nuge country, my dear.
did you ever see his reality show? i think it was on vh1. a bunch of 20 something competed in “extreme nuge activities” to win…well, i don’t know what the ultimate prize was…something nuge-tastic, i assume. (and i do think the show was filmed somewhere in the greater jackson area).
I totally thought at first that I had it from the daa daa daaas, even though it didn’t fit the title: Smoke on the Water, of course! I have to confess that I don’t even know that song, but, then again, I’m not from Michigan.
And here all these years I’ve thought of the Nuge as just another wacky Olympic sport.
the nuge came and performed at the music venue where i used to work. i have never seen such a crowd of batshit crazy weirdos (except for the juggalos who came to see the insane clown posse. but they’re in a class of their own.)
really. that was a very, very weird night. mullet-y, if you will.
haha MICHIGAN RULES! I don’t know why I feel like that’s what needs to be said here, but it is.
“batshit crazy weirdos” just made me laugh hysterically for about 5 minutes.
Nuuuuuuuge!!
I was watching a home movie (well home slideshow) from a UP family that might be related to me and yes, Fred Bear was one of the songs.
Walk with me, Fred … a little to the left so you can catch my good side.
I actually HAD cat scratch fever once. Word.
The Nuge was not involved, but my dearly departed cat Toonces was.
That is all.