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Tuesday, Jan. 27
The Indiana Daily Student

Djembes and drive-by serenades

Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend the Howie Day and Nickel Creek concert, and I've decided that's the way to go.\nWhat are you talking about "that's the way to go?"\nI mean the whole singing thing. That's totally the way to get girls. Look at Howie Day, John Mayer and Gavin DeGraw. The girls love that kind of stuff.\nMatt, you can't play guitar. Do you plan on learning any time soon?\nNope. I did the typical high school guy thing and tried to learn for a few months, but it didn't work out.\nI thought you only tried to learn for like a week and a half.\nShut up, it hurt my fingers, and it was really hard.\nSo how do you plan on being the next singer/songwriter phenomenon? I mean, you have zero musical talent.\nThat's simply not true. I can play the djembe. \nWhat the hell is a djembe?\nIt's an African drum. It's about 2 1/2-feet tall and about 16 inches in diameter. You play it with your hands, and I can get some pretty sweet tunes out of that baby.\nYou're an idiot.\nNo, check this out. I even hooked up a guitar strap to it so I can play standing up.\nNo, really, you're an idiot. How are you going to serenade beautiful women playing a drum?\nIt worked in ancient civilizations, didn't it?\nYeah, and that's just about as far as you've progressed.\nShut up, I have it all planned out. I'm going to throw the drum on my back, jump on my bike and re-create one of those scenes like in "Say Anything."\nMatt, there is no way you can ride a bike with that huge thing strapped to your back.\nI totally could. I've been working out. And once I got to my serenading location, all that I would have to do is jump off, swing that drum around and start singing.\nYou can't sing.\nYou don't know what you're talking about. I was in choir in elementary school.\nYeah. Didn't you sing the high stuff with all the girls?\nBack off, a lot of guys had really high voices. Besides, I took like four voice lessons in high school. \nYou took voices lessons? What a loser.\nHey man, we'll see who's laughing when I've got the girl.\nWhat girl?\nI don't know ... a girl.\nOK pretending that you could play an actual instrument and that you could actually sing, what song would you choose? \nI'm glad you asked because I have given this careful consideration. I think my best bet right now is "Blue Eyes" by the Cary Brothers. It's on the "Garden State" soundtrack, and it's a goodie.\nUmm ... what happens if she doesn't have blue eyes?\nI'll just change the word 'blue' to 'brown' or whatever in the song. Duh.\nThis is a terrible plan. You're riding your bike to an unknown location to sing a song to a girl who is yet to be determined with your weird drum. What's next?\nWhat are you talking about?\nWell, you can't just finish the song and then stand there and stare at her.\nThat's a good point. Shoot, I don't really know what to do. They seem to leave that part out of the movies a lot, don't they? I suppose I could jump back on my bike and make a dramatic exit.\nSo, you're thinking of this as a sort of drive-by serenade?\nYeah. Oh man, this is totally the best plan I've ever had.\nMatt, you're an idiot.\nYeah, but I'm a romantic idiot.

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