Tuesday, July 15, 2008

The Greatest Trick the Devil Ever Pulled, Was Convincing the World He Didn't Exist

The choker is an item of clothing that looks good on neither man nor woman. Most women, even if blindingly unprivy to the whorish effects of tube tops, fuck-me boots and garish eye shadow, have caught on to the 10-cent-hookerness that only a choker can convey. I applaud womankind for figuring this one out in time for my adulthood, because I certainly rocked a few in middle school that would now no doubt make me look like an elephant in a noose were I to don them now. But those days are behind me, and those chokers have been relegated to the old pink Caboodle locked away in my parents’ attic.

There is a certain type of man, whoever, who still wears the choker. He isn’t homosexual (they have far more developed sartorial judgment). He isn’t a musician, or an artist for that matter, or of of any other profession in which it’s somehow acceptable to wear leather chaps and satin shirts. No, he is the “Urbanized Absurdly Well-Traveled Pseudo International 30-ish Professional”, and, if not stopped, he must at least be known.

We all know this guy in one iteration or another. He is Venezuelan, or so he says until, a few drinks in, you realize he’s really from Westport Connecticut. He speaks a few languages, none of which are all that useful unless one happens to vacation frequently in the odd locales in which they are spoken (see: Italian, Portuguese, don’t see: Mandarin). He seems to get away with wearing linen in the winter, his button-down is always slightly untucked. He actually has a pretty prestigious career (lawyer, corporate strategist, distributor for a booze company) but he hates to discuss it. That’s the guy he’s ashamed of- the guy who wears a suit and takes clients out for lunch, who has business cards printed on thick stock and who sells his soul to a devil unseen. He doesn’t want to talk about that guy- he’s more concerned with having another Mojito…and breaking out into OLE OLE OLE OLE!! when he gets excited. He’s a fantastic dancer, a smooth talker, and a bon vivant.

He is: Choker Guy.

The most important thing you must know about Choker Guy is that he just got back from South America. It doesn’t matter when you talk to him; seasons change and time drags on, markets rise and crash, your own life is a jumbled mess of GMAT Studying, binge drinking, and trying not to get fired, but this guy always just got back from South America.

Brazil used to be Choker Guys’ most common haunt for time memorial, but then the frat boys caught on, and Choker Guy had to up and change his game. He fled for Los Roques, Cartagena, and Cuzco. The actual city isn’t important- the only crucial aspects are that a) the girls are hot b) the weather is warm and c) he has a friend who has this amazing farm/beach house where he can really be Himself.

And the choker itself? He just picked it up surfing in a non-descript town in India.


He appears to suck life dry of all its glory. Every day is a party, every night an opportunity for a steamy session in the sack, every Sunday a day for soccer games at Felix. But there’s something a bit sketch about him that you just can’t shake; he never really divulges details of his life, nor takes that much of an interest in yours. All that you found intriguing about him slowly begins to annoy you; he is an enigma of unanswered questions and the personification of flightiness. He is packing his bags for Buenos Aires, and no, you can't come along. He has some "business to attend to."

He senses your scorn for the choker, that singular symbol of his living in Neverland; your realization of his wierdness.


And just like that:

He's gone.

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