Nigel Tufnel Day: ‘Turn it up to 11’
11 is a magic number for followers of the seminal rock mocumentary This is Spinal Tap. Fans of the beloved 1984 Rob Reiner film have officially declared November 11, 2011 (11/11/11) Nigel Tufnel Day, an auspicious day to honor the great man's specially-made guitar amps.
There is a Facebook page, a blog, and even popular Nigel Tufnel Day shirts dedicated to the honorary holiday.
In case you somehow missed this pop culture gem, Nigel Tufnel is the fiction character in This is Spinal Tap played by Christopher Guest. Guest would go on to create a series of mocumentaries of his own after Spinal Tap, beginning with Waiting for Guffman.
The idioms up to eleven and these go to eleven originated in Spinal Tap and have come to refer to anything being exploited to its utmost abilities, or exceeding them.
In perhaps the film's most famous scene, Tufnel shows off his Marshall amps that max out at eleven instead of the standard, pedestrian ten.
According to the Nigel Tufnel Day blog (purportedly run by the Nigel Tufnel Day Appreciation Society and Quilting Bee):
Only once in every century are we given the perfect opportunity to honor one of the greatest artists and philosophers of our time. This day, this apex of epic riffs, this nirvana of noise, this valhalla of virtuosity, this bodhi of broken eardrums, this moksha of mach, that you know as November 11, 2011, is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to collectively experience the enlightenment of Eleven.
It is a day when we may gather with loved ones and break bread into tinier pieces of bread for small sandwiches. It is a day for the admiration of guitars, and also for the not touching of them. And finally, when the haberdashery plays are all acted, we celebrate the freeing of the enfoiled trouser vegetables.
The site encourages fans to submit videos, quotes, and links for Nigel Tufnel Day, in recognition of its maximum elevenness.
By Friday afternoon, the Make 11/11/11 Nigel Tufnel day Facebook page had nearly 7,500 followers.
In honor of this pop-up holiday, here's a look at 11 Nigel Tufnel quotes from This is Spinal Tap:
1: What's wrong with being sexy?
2: It's like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is none. None more black.
3: I'm really influenced by Mozart and Bach, and it's kind of in-between. It's like a Mach piece, really.
4: As long as there's, you know, sex and drugs, I can do without rock 'n' roll.
5: Well, I suppose I could work in a shop of some kind, or do, uh, freelance selling of some sort of product. A salesman, like maybe in a haberdasher, or maybe like a chapeau shop or something. You know, like, 'Would you... what size do you wear, sir?'
6: You can't really dust for vomit.
7: This piece is called 'Lick My Love Pimp.'
8: Really [girls] are quite fearful, that's my theory. They see us on stage with tight trousers. We've got, you know, armadillos in our trousers.
9: I love tuna. Those little cans you've got here - tuna fish. No bones!
10: In ancient times, hundreds of years before the dawn of history, an ancient race of people... the Druids. No one knows who they were or what they were doing...
11: Your on 10 on your guitar, where can you go from there? Nowhere! Exactly! What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff - 11! One louder ... These go to 11.
More on 11/11/11
11/11/11 is turning out to be a busy day. Not only is it Nigel Tufnel Day, it's also Veterans Day/Armistice Day/Remembrance Day, a sacred time for many doomsday believers, and the busiest day of the year in Las Vegas.
Happy 11/11/11 ... however you celebrate it.
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