The Other One

If Kristin has a weakness, it's a lack of pop culture knowledge from the 80's and 90's. Sure, thanks to her daily commute and the horrendous FM stations she listens to, she can tell you all about TomKat's baby and the status of the latest failed celebrity marriage. But ask her about a classic 80's movie like "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" or "Revenge of the Nerds" and she has no idea what you're talking about. And it's even worse if the topic is music. If it wasn't Michael Jackson or New Kids on the Block, she probably hasn't heard it.

But she's been trying to catch up on everything she missed as a self-described sheltered child and it's kind of fun to watch movies that I've seen dozens of times with someone who hasn't ever seen them before. But despite the progress she's made, she still has a lot of catching up to do. Tonight reminded me just how far she has to go...

Kristin needed to use the computer to enter some receipts into Quicken, but I was in the middle of working. I had Photoshop and my Yahoo Launchcast music player open and the opening guitar intro to "Little Wing" by Jimi Hendrix started playing.

"I'll let you use the computer if you can tell me who sings this song."

She had no idea, but it was still the guitar solo so I thought I'd give her a hint.

"He's a really good guitarist from the Seattle area."

"Is it Dave Mathews?"

"What? No!"

"Well, how am I supposed to know who it is?"

"We toured an entire wing of a museum dedicated to him last year on your birthday."

By this time, Jimi's voice has kicked in and he's well into the first verse of the song.

"That doesn't help. There's a lot of famous guitarists from Seattle."

"Not with entire wings devoted to them in EMP. Come on, you really don't know who this is? Here's another hint: he's dead."

"Oh, wait, I know. It's not Bob Marley, but the other one. He kind of looks like Marley though, right? I mean, he's black right? He's got the big puffy black guy hair."

"You mean Jimi Hendrix?"

"Yeah, that's him. Not Marley, but the other one... that's what I said."

I never thought we would top the day Peal Jam's "Even Flow" was playing on the radio and Kristin blurted out, "This is the Red Hot Chili Peppers, right?" but apparently I was wrong. It took nearly a decade, but she has pushed the bar lower once again.