I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: BABY ISLAND-“King’s Crossing” (2013).

I have no idea where I downloaded this song from.  I assumed NPR but I can’t find it there.  So, I’ll just have to direct the reader to their bandcamp site where you can stream and order the whole album.

The song opens simply enough with two chords played in 4/4.  Then the vocals come in and they are gentle and slightly echoed (making them very soft).  The chorus has multilayered vocals and a beautiful melody line and a whole lot of oooohs. It has a feel like the jangly pop of the sixties (I mean, look at the cover), but the song is not terribly jangly and that angular guitar really distinguishes it from the bands that they sound like.

There’s also a keyboard that throws delicate melodies and riffs over the top of the confection as well.   It is a perfect folk rock pop song—reminiscent of Teenage Fanclub (and the sixties bands that they sound like of course).  It’s a very pretty, mellow song and I like it quite a lot.

[READ: September 12, 2013] “Walking Normally: The Facts”

I don’t always like Ian Frazier’s works, but man, this one was so funny (if you are a parent of a young child), that I not only laughed out loud, I had to immediately share it with Sarah (who also laughed out loud).

The set up is simple.  A Claim is made and the Claim is followed up by a Fact which disputes the Claim.

The first claim: “When we are at the mall you say that you have walked so much that you need to be carried, because your legs are ‘all stretched out.’”

The Fact: While hyper extension of muscles, tendons, and joints is a real and serious problem among certain demographics…it is rarely seen in anyone four and a half years old.

So you see, this is a dad talking to his son.  And each claim is very representative of a four year old’s (or even an eight year old’s) concerns.  And some hit uncannily close to home.

Some other claims include: skipping is faster than running, holding your hands inside your sleeves and flapping them when you walk somehow improves your walking, walking backward is better than walking forward (FACT: “Walking backward, as you are doing now, increases the likelihood that you will—O.K. maybe now you understand what I am trying to tell you, because you have walked backward into that lady.”)  And the entire pogo stick sequence “pogo sticks are a swindle” really made me laugh.

But my favorite, and it is so comforting and hilarious to read this, and it makes me laugh just rereading it, is this claim:

Pressing yourself flat against the counter by the cash register, extending your arms full length, and sliding along the counter and then along the wall and then along the door until someone opens the door from the outside and you tumble out onto the sidewalk is a good way to leave a restaurant.

It is possible that he filmed our son.