March 11 - Blood Sugar Sex Magik

Today is Arve's birthday, and I think that I need to pick a song for him. While I really should find some ZZ Top, I decided to stay in 1991 and found Red Hot Chili Peppers, whose Rick Rubin produced masterpiece Blood Sugar Sex Magik also was released that year. It was their mainstream breakthrough as well, with songs like Give It Away and Under The Bridge becoming megahits, but for me, the title track is by far my favorite song off the album.

Some friends you just know will be with you for a lifetime, and for me, Arve is one of those friends. We have seen a lot together, and although we've barely lived in the same city since we graduated high school in 1991, we keep staying in touch. I studied for Examen Philosophicum with him in the fall of 1991 - the all-nighter we pulled has become a great teachable moment I continue to use when I talk about study skills in the classes I teach - and he was one of the reason I decided to try to study anthropology - although he stuck with it and I didn't. He was my first bandmate and the first person I ever wrote music with. And I think I still can claim that I taught him how to play the guitar - although he took it places I'd never go.

And then there is the shared love for horror and role playing games in the realms of H.P. Lovecraft. And that is really why today's song was chosen on his birthday. Call of Cthulhu is a roleplaying game set in the 1920s - or in the 1990s with the Cthulhu Now expansion - and we played that like there was no tomorrow. Both our minds are warped, so there was definitely blood and magic in the scenarios we played through. So Arve, this one's for you!