Turn Your Day to '11' and Celebrate Nigel Tufnel Day!

Nigel Tufnel is one-third of the powerhouse rock band Spinal Tap, the fictitious band at the center of the classic comedy "This is Spinal Tap." In the rock-mockumentary, there's an iconic scene with Nigel and the film's real and on-screen director, Rob Reiner (playing Marty DiBergi). The scene that finishes with Nigel, played pitch-perfectly by actor Christopher Guest, proudly showing off his Marshall amp with knobs that go to "11" instead of the traditional top setting of "10."

The film both skewers and pays loving homage to rock and roll excess and life on tour. I can assure you as a musician who logged thousands of miles on the road, there is quite a bit of authenticity and accuracy in "This is Spinal Tap." The "going to eleven" motif has become a sort of meme in the music world, and this year we have the chance to pay tribute to Mr. Tufnel in a very unique way. This month, the calendars will give us November 11th, 2011 or "11/11/11." What better day to celebrate all things Nigel than on the day when the month, day and year have all gone to eleven?

Here are some suggestions for your own personal tribute to Nigel Tufnel of Spinal Tap.

Watch "This is Spinal Tap" With the Commentary Turned On - For the DVD release of the film, Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer all recorded a commentary track as their alter-egos from the film. Now you can listen to Nigel, David and Derek crack you up, dishing dirt on the "documentary" and making observations about everyone who stars in it...mostly that they all apparently died after the making of the film.

Watch an episode or two of "Gumby" - Die hard fans of Tap know that Nigel has a love of the green angular clay-mated character and his pal Pokey. In honor of Nigel, find yourself a copy of the show somewhere and watch a few episodes.

Build a Small-Scale Replica of Stonehenge - In one of the film's funniest scenes, the band is shocked when what they thought was going to be a giant, full-scale representation of Stonehenge was flown onto their stage. What appeared was a tiny version of the famous stone pillars, all thanks to Nigel using the notation for inches instead of feet.

Listen to some Spinal Tap! - Maybe this is just too obvious to point out, but why not crank up "This is Spinal Tap," "Break Like the Wind" or "Back from the Dead," the band's three major studio releases and get your Tap on? Your day won't be complete until you've heard "Big Bottom" or "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight."