Sup, my Blog Brothers and Sisters?
Ok, that was my attempt at being gangster...I'll stop. Moving on...
I have a friend called...Graham...who is a rather epic drummer and a few days ago we all jollied over to Brighton to hear him play in this strange but quite awesome experimental Jazz band (I know, check out how cool I am.) When Graham's band were finished, with such hits as 'Here comes the onslaught, let's make love' and, my personal favourite, 'Grow, Kill, Grow', the headliners came on, who were this samba percussion type situation (I'm not advertising them well, they were very good) and, as much as you think experimental jazz and samba don't mix, it was a great night and fun times were had by all.
When the samba drums get going, it brings out the urge to dance in people in a way that Michael Buble never quite manages - you end up thinking you're cool and you've got the moves...you haven't. So, Polly, Jake and I were quite happy having a sit and having a giggle at the woman with, ahem, all the moves and no bra...when out of nowhere, our friends Laya and Neil jump up and start going for it. Laya is another drummer so she has great rhythm and is just generally one of those people who look effortlessly cool whatever they do...Neil is not one of those people. But, God love him, he gives it a bloody good go.
And Neil kept going for the entire set. I got up and had a bit of a boogie with him, and other women in the bar dotted in and out, but, apart from this one brazilian guy who was, frankly, mentally unstable, Neil was the only man up there doing his thing. And you find it in all sorts of occassions where we're all too shy or self-conscious to just have fun, and this is guys and girls. Girls do the whole 'I want to dance, maybe I will if my friends all do too and we can dance the same way...' thing, but blokes tend to just sit there with their arms folded. Not Neil.
In fact, I would go so far as to say that this is my favourite thing about Neil, and he's a fairly lovable kid anyway. Guys have a hard time feeling confident dancing, I guess it isn't very 'Manly' but Neil has no qualms, no doubts, no shame about getting down with the kids, he just has fun. And to me, I'd much rather hang out with guys like that than ones who are all 'I'm too cool and angsty for fun, I'm just gonna sit here in my skinny jeans and my Ray Bans and be better than you all'. That's not being manly, or even likable. And yes, his girlfriend picks his clothes, and there's not much evidence that I can see that he's started shaving yet...but in those moments, when he's bouncing around and waving his arms about like a numpty, my friend Neil is all man, my friends. And you have not lived until you've attempted to salsa with him without any regards to timing or basic rhythm.
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