If You Could Only See

It's the one & only hit by a band called Tonic. Shame as I liked a few of their other tunes, but this one was the best I've heard from them. The harmony is simple but effective which is a good description of the rest of the tune. Not overly complex but not pedestrian by any means. Here's the tune set to some film clips furthering the idea of Wolverine & Rogue being an item. I always liked the tune & was playing it a lot when it first came out. It stands out in my mind for two reasons. The first is that when I was playing the tune in bands I had a singer with a deep rich voice that had enough soul to do any tune justice & I was (for a change) catching the high harmony (my voice really isn't that high so I'd usually grab the bass or middle parts). The other reason is that for some reason it always reminded me of a not-so-tall hot blonde brunette friend of mine. Specifically the line "if you could only see how blue her eyes can be..."

& that is enough for me to turn this into a post about blues eyes, guns & tattoos (but not necessarily in that order). There'll be pics of tats & my friend and the former may not be work safe. Oh, there'll be kitty porn as well.

I was 2 days late for the start of classes. I had a construction gig at the time & I lost track of the date (which often happened when I was priming houses). So I walk in 2 days & 7 minutes late to a 9 a.m. Music Theory class. The back row was closest to the door & the first person I saw was beside the only empty seat I could see. She looked up (as did the whole class) & smiled in that sweet southern way. She was a blonde, built, clad in spandex & sporting a tattoo of “Thumper” in a place where more modest attire would have not revealed it. She could have walked straight into a Motley Crue video & no one would have thought her out of place. Babygirl was fine. But this isn’t about her. The second person I saw had the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen to this day. Sort of dirty blonde hair & dressed like most 19 year old college girls were dressed. Well, most 19 year old college girls who weren’t interested in being in a Motley Crue video. I can't recall exactly what she was wearing because all I can remember is her hair outlining her face & those stunningly blue eyes (which was unusual for me because typically I'm more attracted to brown eyed girls).

The first girl I saw I ended up dating very briefly (oddly enough one of the only southern girls I did date - the rest were either yankees or from the southwest or from outside the u.S. - no idea how that worked the way it did) & becoming decent friends with until we lost touch with each other some years later. But the second person I saw became my best friend & occasional roommate. Nothing of a serious romantic nature ever occurred between us (hey – it wasn’t my fault that she had taste) but we became as close as I think possible without becoming that involved. To be honest she & I are closer in many ways than most of the ladies I’ve dated. Alas she had her vision corrected before she met me so I had no chance with her in any other regard.

3 things I want to mention about her. The first I already have – she has these incredible blue eyes. The second is that she’s a helluva guitarist; much more talented than myself but terribly shy about it (& I don't give out such praise - or any praise for that matter - lightly). The third is that for years she’s talked of getting a tattoo but couldn’t decide on what she wanted. A few months back she had it narrowed down & asked for my input. I’ll give a better run down of my views on tats in a bit but for the meantime it’ll suffice to say that after the lecture I did some online digging to try to help her find something cool. She ended up going with something she thought of on her own but my search resulted in this post as I stumbled across a number of gun related tats that I thought were neat, cool or just a bit bizarre. I’ll show them to you first & at the end I’ll post a pic of my not-too-tall hot blonde brunette friend’s tat & a pic or 2 of her, just to make her blush a bit.

A site I stumbled across with some cool pictures of tats is http://modblog.bmezine.com. While looking at tats for my friend I ran across some gun related ones.

That one I found at this post. Note the dual religious undertones - the cross pictured with the biblical quote.

That one is from this post. I thought it was amusing although David J (formerly ZombyBoy) might not. :)

That was found at this post. I'm not quite sure how to take that one. It could be that their heart is in the right place but it'd have made more sense for it to say "kill your would-be rapist". I've always been more of a fan of prevention than revenge. Still, it's an interesting one.

I found that one at this post. It's not gun related at all; I just found it amusing.

I'm sure there are more gun themed tats on the net & I've seen a few in person, but that's all for now. Getting back to my friend...

As I said I gave her a lecture on tats when she told me she was determined to get one soon. Well a short lecture at least. I started off by telling her a story about one of our old classmates.

The first girl I saw in Music Theory class & I had a conversation once about 2 months before her 6 month marriage to a guy she’d known 7 months prior ended. When she got hitched I expressed a bit of concern that she hadn’t known the guy that long but she assured me she knew what she was doing. So I let it go. Hell, I even went to her bachelorette party (I was the only guy invited & felt obligated on behalf of guys everywhere to attend such an auspicious occasion where poor drunken maids of questionable clothing choices would be making merry). But then she called me one day after the nuptials had been performed. She told me she had gotten a tattoo of her husband’s name on her arm. His name was “Jessie”. So I kinda lost it. Not in the “medicate him - now! kinda way, but I gave her an unsolicited assessment of the situation:

”Babygirl, look ya know I love ya & want you to be happy. I never tried to interfere in your affairs even when I was one of them, but girl - have you lost yo' damn mind??? Look, marriage is one thing but a tattoo is forever!”

She laughed & assured me so was the marriage. I told her that I hoped so otherwise she’d be stuck with dating guys named “Jessie” for the rest of her life. Or girls named "Jessie" depending on how bad the divorce hit her.

A few months later she called me up asking if I knew any cute guys named "Jessie" that had at least heard someone talking about monogamy. A year later she had it covered with some sort of design. I never pulled the "I told you so" routine on her because that's not my style, but after that she at least listened to my advice a little bit more carefully. Not that she ever followed it, but you can only hope for so much. Besides, I rarely follow my own advice so how could I blame her?

Anyway, I never advised anyone to not get a tat unless they asked for my opinion (which reminds me, the USMC has a ban on large tattoos now). But personally I don’t dig them. Some of the artwork is cool but it’s the choice of canvas that leaves me a bit unenthused. I’ve seen some very cool tats both small & large & thought they were cool when I saw them. But at least on the ladies I’ve known with tats (& that’d be more than 80% of the ones I’ve dated & around 60% of my friends) the tat always detracted from their beauty rather than added to it or accentuated it. Their bare unaltered skin would have been much more flattering than the coolest, most elaborate & artistic tats I’ve seen.

But that’s just my preference. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder & all & I’m objective enough to realize that the lady I think is the most beautiful extent most of you would look at & think she’s merely pretty or cute (but I admit my definition of beauty is as much internal as external). One lady I used to know has a few tats & they're all very nice. I think she's perhaps the most attractive lady on the planet (to me at least - again it's perceptual) but if she didn't have the tats she'd be twice as lovely (though I'll admit that she's an exception - they don't detract from her appearance per se, they just aren't as flattering as she'd be naturally). But I’ve never held a tat against someone or been turned off because a lady had a tat. I’ve just accepted that part of them despite my disapproval & judged them like I’d judge a non-tattooed lady. I never took it as a sign of weak character or any other negative indicator of uncool motivation that some folks who dislike tats ascribe to it. It is their body after all & however they wish to treat it is not my business. But needless to say I'm tattoo free. That I know of. :) (Course once I did think of getting a tat - it was going to be of my entire body but 2 inches taller...)

Getting to the point I didn’t want my not-so-tall hot blonde brunette friend to get inked. But she’s a big little girl & capable of making her own decisions so I let it go & tried to be helpful. Well in my own devious way.

She decided on a cat. An artistic rendition of a cat. Le Chat Noir to be precise. On her ankle. So I told her to have them start with the cat’s head. She asked why & I told her that if the pain was too bad & she stopped it’d be better to walk through life with a cat’s head on her ankle than a cat’s ass. So she laughed but apparently took me seriously because the tat guy told her (when she asked him to start with the head of the cat) that if he had a nickel for every smart as comment made about how bad it supposedly hurts…

So here is her tat:

& here is my much typed about not-so-tall hot blonde brunette friend:

& to prove what I was saying about her eyes (in case the last pic didn't do it) as well as fulfill my promise of kitty porn here she is when she was my not-so-tall hot blonde friend:

Purdy, ain’t she? & by the time she gets to this probably a bit embarrassed. But that's what friends with blogs are for right? :) Yes; she'd look nice modeling a Garand but unfortunately she's declined all my offers to take her shooting. She just doesn't care for guns. Shame as she'd make a good pro-gun model. :) & no: I won't give out her MySpace page - well not unless she forgets to drink some jager & listen to Queensryche on my birthday again (oddly enough when we live in different towns she never calls on my b-day though I haven't missed one of hers yet, but anytime we've been within an hour of each other she's been there with me drinking me under the table & making fun of me being a light weight that's another year older as she's putting paper & cards & such in my hair because I'm too close to passing out to stop her enjoying a refreshing beverage or two so I let her slide when I'm usually a bit overly sensitive about that kinda thing).

& this post may be subject to alteration, depending on how cool she is with me posting her pics (we discussed it before but I'm not sure she thought I was serious). Blog consistency & permanence (relatively that is) is something I always valued, but since she can kick my ass...

Posted by Publicola at April 14, 2007 04:57 PM | TrackBack