Coincidence Weekend!

It's a pretty common belief that there are no coincidences, and that everything happens for a destiny-driven reason. While I don't deny the possibility of the existence of fate, I'll take the following events as mere chance encounters, even though some of them required such an uncanny crossing of paths that a larger, cosmic significance cannot be ruled out. For each event, I'll also be including a Coinky-dink Factor (CdF) score, on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being "wow, this is fucking insane!".

1. Charz - A few weeks ago I got a message from Charz. I'm pretty sure the exact words were "come to chicago on the 13th". Since I got this message in late September or early October, I could only (correctly) assume that he was referring to October 13, which was, coincidentally (!), the Saturday I would be driving down to see Superdrag's reunion show at the Metro (review of this will be posted soon, but I have a feeling it might take me quite a while to write). Charz was in town with his girlfriend, and the crossing of paths in the Windy City was a pleasant addition to what would already be a spectacular weekend.

CdF: 5.5. I'm in Chicago fairly often, and while it wasn't more likely than not that I'd be there this past weekend, it's not a highly implausible scenario for me to be there when someone else decides to take a weekend trip. Additionally, the time-range in question was pretty wide (4 days for Charz, 3 for me), and could have been widened had I decided to go down a day earlier. Take into account the heightened likelihood I'd venture down to Chi-town on a weekend versus during the week, and we've got a pretty cool, but ultimately unspectacular, Chicago reunion.

2. Rohan - After Superdrag finished their last song and the lights and house music came on at the Metro, Danny saw a guy in passing that looked familiar, at least enough for him to tell me "I think I know that guy". No additional thought was given to the encounter, and we ventured outside since the merch area was overwhelmed by people wanting to chat with the band and pick up the sweet early demos/rarities set and t-shirts they had for sale (Dave and I took care of this before the show).

After we get outside, we realize Danny hasn't gotten a copy of this double-disc set, which is a problem because it would not be available except at the seven reunion shows Superdrag was playing. This was a one-time only opportunity (aside from getting reamed by eBay prices later on), so with trepidation, Danny slinked back into the door after the timely distraction of the bouncer so he could get his CD set. Since there wasn't much to do in front of the Metro, but there was a hot dog place across the street (Wrigleyville Dogs?), we decided to grab some snacks/drinks and wait out Danny's quest somewhere we could sit down. The place was full of show-drunks, some of whom were quite hilarious, but that's not really important. About 20 minutes later, Danny comes back across the street with this weird surprised smile on his face..."You're never going to believe this, but there's a guy who went to Strake in there (where Danny, Dave, and I went to high school), who is in my poetry class at school in Houston, and he flew up here just for this show! How crazy is that!?"

It turns out Dave knew this guy in high school, but none of us knew he was a Superdrag fan. That he, like us (well, like Danny and Dave actually did, and I would have done if the circumstances had necessitated such a journey), would be willing to fly 1100 miles to see this show was absolutely mindblowing.

CdF: 9.0. When you go to a show that's literally halfway across the country, you don't expect to cross paths with someone from your fucking poetry class back home. This was one of those rare occurrences that merits special mention. It's almost like in the movies where the guy (or girl) goes to New York and the unrequited lover decides to follow with nary an idea of where their soulmate might be, but happens to run into them on the street, except that in this case the journeys were separate and unrelated.

3. Olga - When you're walking down the street in the third most populous city in the United States of America, you don't expect someone to yell your name from a passing vehicle. When I heard it, I turned and saw Olga in a silver Civic (I think), and the light turned so she was on her way. Who'd ever expect to run into a friend from college at the Belmont/Lincoln/Ashland intersection? Yeah it's bizarre.

CdF: 8.5. Since Olga actually lives in Chicago, this CdF is a bit lower because such a chance encounter is likelier (or so I'm inclined to believe) if one of the parties is a mainstay in the town of the meeting. Or it could be said that the Rohan meeting was likelier since all parties had a common destination, but the mere fact that he would have been going to the show in the first place is certainly worth 0.5 points.

4. Daughtry - A list seems pretty incomplete with only 3 items, so sometimes you have to throw another one on the fire, even if it's pretty inconsequential. While at the Reckless Records on Milwaukee, I picked up the copy of Daughtry's album from the used recent arrivals bin to show Danny in a sort of check-out-this-awesome-cd-i-found-but-it's-really-lame-actually sort of prank, where the anticipated reaction was recognition of the douche on the cover and a shared giggle, or maybe even full laugh. The cd went back in the bin right after that, and all was forgotten. All was forgotten, that is, until we were at the Reckless Records on Broadway and Danny overheard someone asking for Daughtry's cd only to be told that there were no copies at the Broadway location, but that the one in Wicker Park had a used one. Don't worry about rushing, dude, I'm sure it will still be there when you get there.

CdF: 1.6. This one only gets 1.6 because I'm so surprised anyone who bought this album would have sold it to a used record store. Since Wicker Park borders some slightly more "colorful" neighborhoods, I'm going to go ahead and assume that a crackhead stole it from a hipster's car and sold it for, you guessed it, crack rock money. There should probably be another point or two added because the guy asking for the album was in Lakeview. No one in Lakeview likes music that good; if they were truly awesome, they'd have moved to Wicker Park already (since they could easily afford it). Now I'm realizing the deficiency in my original rating, but it's too late to change. You see, I am at a loss for a reason as to why I did not buy this album myself, which would have made the coincidence in question impossible. Wow.