Semi-lazy home day today. Summer's winding down. Still chipping away against clutter, schedule crowding, and other little things that intrude on the pursuit of a simpler life. I cleaned out the junk drawer and got rid of random extra stuff. Up next is bathroom cleaning, followed by an evening jog...
Had a grand time with the Fabulous Z's last week. Mr. Z. is deployed to the desert, so the Mrs. and their kids came to see us for a week. Made trips to the jumpy place, the library, and of course Sam's...sat around & talked a whole lot...hung out with some of my moms' group peeps (I decided Mrs. Z. would be a fantastic addition to the club if she lived here)...finished off the week with the carnival-esque Frontiercade on base and a surprise birthday dinner for the Cat Daddy. Awesome people, mediocre food: the Chili's in our town has gone down a bit in the way of quality. Not terrible, just not great.
Anyway, what was great was catching up with our friends. Mr. Z. and the Cat Daddy are BFF's from way back, and we always enjoy their company. The Cat Daddy took their youngest, age 7, for a haircut. His reaction to his new do? Giddy relief that he still had his ears (the Cat Daddy and Barber Glenn have a way with the youngers). Their last night, after the kids were in bed, we three grownups stayed up late making dumb jokes, talking about music, and testing my new erasable pens & hi-liters.
I'm very pleased to hear where kids' music has come lately. I found the kid-station on XM (116). My kids really like it, but I'm pretty sure I like it even better. I was working in the nursery at church recently, watching an old VHS of a very well-meaning lady who dressed up weird and sang cutesy songs. Certainly adequate for the kiddos, but pretty lame as far as I'm concerned. And what does that say about how we view our kiddos, that we are willing to let them listen to lame stuff? Maybe it says more about us that we are willing to tolerate it for our kids who go nuts for it. Who knows.
Meanwhile, in the car we jam with the likes of Jack Johnson (from the Curious George soundtrack), Amy Adams (Enchanted), and Averil Lavigne who did an awesome cover of the Spongebob theme song. Mrs. Z. told me about Dog Train, which I guess is a collection of mainstream artists doing songs written for kids. I've only heard a couple, but what I have heard is great. Catchy for the kids, but also cool enough that I don't mind getting them stuck in my head.
Go find the penguin song by John Ondrasik (of Five for Fighting) and see if you don't agree...
1 comment:
I remember in the documentary about Mr. Rogers how they talked about using serious music for the show -- something with subtlety, complexity. There are good reasons I preferred him to Sesame Street -- music for one, and a focus on psychological nurturing vs academic bits, for another.
Amy and I like Sandra Boynton's music, although some of the songs' lyrics meet my disapproval (Bad Babies, for instance). Sometimes we get some neat things at the library, too, like African music or the Smithsonian's Folkways stuff.
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