Ver tu amistad con Elliott Smith

You and Elliott become friends. April 1996.

Elliott tags you in a photo taken in the Anderson's back yard, eating cherries with Kris and David, listening to Last Call and having no idea what it's about. June 1996.

You perform a modern dance interpretation of Raymond Carver's "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" for your 10th grade English teacher, prancing about the classroom with a lamp as your partner and accompanied by Southern Bell. Baffled, your teacher likes this. May 1997.


You find an advance copy of Either/OR the week before it comes out. The cover spells it Elliot. LMFAO. October 1997.

You convince your dad to take you to see Elliott in Seattle. Your dad makes you leave before Elliott's set because he thinks 764-Hero's opening set is full of anger and hate, when in fact they're whiny high school poets. You pass Elliott on your way out. He's smoking a cigarette with Mary Lou Lord. December 1997.

You like Good Will Hunting even though you don't like Good Will Hunting. January 1998.

You go with David to see Elliott at La Luna, but in the middle of Waltz #2, David faints to the ground. Elliott stops playing and everyone assumes that you're using drugs and alcohol but you're not because you want to do good so you can go to college. You miss the rest of the show. April 1998.

You go to San Francisco with your family . You know the day that XO is due for release and you make them take you to the record store on the way to Golden Gate Park, then ignore your family as you listen to it on repeat. Pitselah becomes your favorite song. July 1998.

The hotel you work at includes Miss Misery in its corporate mix. You don't get sick of hearing it hourly. July 1999.

You plagiarize part of Good to Go in a poem that you write for a girl you like. She catches it immediately and is not impressed. A year later, the same girl breaks up with you, so you name your college radio show "The Biggest Lie" because you rode the subway with her a few times and you think the song is about her. Your show would have been more aptly named "2:45." January 2000.

You listen to Son of Sam on repeat during finals of your freshman year. You deserve your reputation for being eccentric. May 2000.

Your vinyl of the self-titled album is worn out so you buy it on cd. Some time in 2002.

Elliott stabs himself in the heart. You get the news in Peru and it stings. You go the French bar as soon as it opens and have two apertifs even though it's before noon and you're not planning on eating anything. October 2003.

Your girlfriend makes you a valentine's day card with allusions to Elliott's suicide. You appreciate her dark sense of humor. February 2004.

You run out of things to do in a foreign country and start to believe that A Distorted Reality is Now a Necessity to be Free. All of 2005.

Your cd of the self-titled album wears out so you buy another cd. Sometime in 2006.

You buy new moon on vinyl and spend the summer depressing your roommates with it. David laughs at you for thinking High Times is a good song. May 2007.

Your second cd of the self-album wears out so you buy it on MP3. July 2010.

You listen to the album on your ipod as you walk down the east side of the esplanade to meet a friend for happy hour. It puts you in a bitter mood. August 2010.

Your relationship with Elliott devolves to lurking. You just don't have much in common. You google Kings Crossing to see if he meant the bar in Manhattan or the city in England. Then you feel weird for googling something alluded to years ago by someone who's not really your friend. January 2011.

You leave a party early and find yourself walking around St. Marks, listening to St. Ides Heaven underneath the super moon. The moon is a lightbulb breaking. March 2011.