I can feel it coming in the air...

Last night was the San Diego regional qualifiers for the US Air Guitar championships. My cousin Cedric has always been the pride of the family, not just because he organizes the whole operation but because he finished 4th in the world Air Guitar Finals in Oulu, Finland in 2004. Obviously, when Cedric called me to say that he was in town on the Air Guitar tour bus (really), I had to go and check it out.

I had an ulterior motive in making the trek out to Viejas Casino and planed to finally fulfill my life's ambition of playing air guitar on stage for legions of screaming fans. A wildcard entry (and a few stiff whiskeys) was all it took and an hour later, my alter-ego "ShredMother" was tuning up the air axe and ready to let rip on of Radiohead's "My Iron Lung". 60 karate-kicking, head-banging, epileptic seconds later, I was smashing my air guitar in front of the baying crowd.

Though physically I gave it everything, I was a little disappointed with my performance. The judges scores of 5.3 / 5.3 / 5.4 (out of 6) were good but not enough to distinguish me from the 30+ entrants and get me into the final 5 and nowhere close to the majesty of the eventual winner (and US champion in 2005) the "Rockness Monster". Maybe a little practice would help next time. The highlight of the evening was getting to rock out for the Freebird finale with none other than (2006 US champ) Hot Lixx and Björn Türoque.

Powerful.