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Nothing pleases me more than those random moments in life where you unexpectedly discover something grand and amazing. Whether it be picking the one random bathroom stall where a $10 bill is lying, or having a friend call you up and say he’s got an extra ticket to the ball game tonight, or looking out your window on a random Tuesday and noticing that the hottest chick in the world is in the process of moving into the house across the street. About a week ago, such an event occurred to me. Julianne asked if I wanted to watch The Chronicles of Narnia with her and since I can rarely say no to her, we plopped in front of the TV with a big bowl of popcorn and stuck the DVD in. As the credits began to roll 9 hours later, Juls and I began to talk about what we thought of the movie, but just as we got going we both stopped and turned back to the screen, mesmerized. We sat silent for a minute listening to the song that was playing before it finally gave way to some crappy Alanis Morissette tune. Within 10 minutes I’d Google’d the song, found the artist, and “obtained” it.

I must have listened to that song 100 times within the next 48 hours. Ok, according to my iPod, it was actually only 54. Still, you get my point. But the story doesn’t end there, folks. As I listened to the song, I knew there was something eerily familiar about it. The song was by an artist named Imogen Heap, but the more I listened to it, the more it sounded like Frou Frou. Many of you probably have no idea who Frou Frou is, but back in 2004 one of their songs was not only in the movie Garden State, but was also the song used in all the previews and commercials. In fact, one their songs, Hear Me Out*, is prominently featured in the new I-swear-it’s-coming-one-of-these-days-even-though-I’ve-worked-on-it-for-over-three-years-now section on Shyzer known as Shlyircs. The only reason I tell you any of this is because finally it dawned on me that “Imogen Heap was simply the chick from Frou Frou,” which clearly meant she was now flying solo and hence there was a whole new CD out there just waiting for me to devour.

It was as if I’d picked up that $10 bill only to notice there was an extra zero on the end of all the tens, or the spare ticket my buddy had for the game was a box seat, or as I watched the hot chick move in, I spotted no wedding ring. And yet the story doesn’t even end there.

About a year ago, Blink 182 announced they were going on hiatus, which we all know is the secret word for “breaking up never to return and make new music.” Now, while this may have pleased some people, it was semi-tragic to those of us who loved Blink. Their music wasn’t just soothing; it was a staple in my development and upbringing. In fact, if I were forced to pick my favorite band, Blink would give Collective Soul a run for their money. But to be honest, I wasn’t that worried. Back in 2003, two of the members of Blink branched off on a little side project called Box Car Racer, which was brilliant (and again, even more prominently featured on Shlyrics than Frou Frou.) I held out hope that with Blink on hiatus, they both might return to Box Car and simply take that up full time. But sadly, I read last July that each and every member of Box Car had no desire to return, stating it had simply been a fun little band they had no desire of growing. And with that, I gave up all hope of hearing any new Blink music.

And then three nights ago Clay fell asleep with the TV still on and I randomly turned off my iPod exactly at the right moment. Suddenly, that $100 bill had become $1000. Those box seats were for game 7 of the World Series. The hot chick was not only single, but heavily attracted to me.

As soon as I switched my iPod off and got up to do the same to the TV, I froze. We all know the only time MTV plays music videos is between 1 and 4 AM and seeing as how I was the only person still awake in the house, it’s safe the say it was right around that time frame. It didn’t even take me 10 seconds to identify the voice coming from the TV. It was Tom DeLonge, the singer from Box Car, the singer from Blink. It turns out the reason he had no desire to grow Box Car was simply because he wanted to start yet another bad, one that was bigger and better. And yet as I listened to their music, in my mind, I was listening to a new Blink CD yet again, albeit one that was a little more advanced and mature, both in lyrics and sound. Thankfully the torrents were running well that night and within minutes, I had 12 songs on my desktop by Angels & Airwaves and I must say, I don’t think I’ll be deleting a single one of them.*

It’s not every day that you find $1000 on the floor. Or get free box seats to the World Series. Or get to take a smoking hot neighbor out for dinner. Or in this case, discover some of the best songs since Coldplay’s X & Y album. But in each and every case, you learn to appreciate the random event and thank your deity of choice for delivering such a special treat.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to jam.

* - AVA and Hear Me Out can now be heard on Shyzer Radio