.....Here we go again! My, My! (But don't tell THEM that, it would just make it worse.)

In fifth grade choir, I learned a bizarre song that was stuck in my head for twelve years.  Twelve years.  Anytime my brain fell idle, it would subconsciously pull the weird lyrics of that song to the foreground and I'd run it through my head for a few days until I couldn't handle it anymore and had to sing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" out loud until I felt I'd been cured of "Aye, yi, yi, yi, In China they never grow chili..."  In fact, just writing those words, I'm having a relapse.  I thought I was alone in this never ending oddity, but I have since learned otherwise.


My sister-in-law, Susie, came to visit last spring, and she and her three kids must have listened to the Mama Mia! soundtrack all the way from Portland to Kaysville.  As far as musicals go, that one isn't on my top fifty list of favorites, nor do I think that Peirce Brosnan or Meryl Streep are particularly talented vocalists; but to each his own.  By the time they arrived, both of Susie's boys knew every word to every song on that CD.  I can still hear Jayden singing, "Don't go wastin' your emoooootions..."  It was a lovely rendition, but not all that pleasant to hear over and over again.  After about two days of listening to the Schmitz Boys performing the songs of Mama Mia!, my own kids started to sing along and I had to cringe.  Mama Mia seemed a little too girly.  Not that I'm worried that my boys would start wearing skirts and obsessing over shades of lipstick or anything, I'd just rather they had some other musical selection imprinted in their brains, because here's the real stink - it's been six months since our house was invaded by little boy voices endlessly chanting, "Mama Mia!", and it remains the only phrase of any of those songs that my kids can remember.  So they just sing those same two words over and over and over and over again.  

I now know exactly what hell will be like when I get there - I'll be forced to sort through stacks of third grade homework without the aid of Cherry Coke while the Mama Mia! soundtrack is playing in the background, stuck on that one phrase like an eternal broken record.  Thanks, Susie!  Love ya!

Giving In

I changed my lovely music so that you have to push "play" if you want to hear it. I love it, so I will push it all the time. You, however, may shun the good works of Benny Goodman, Dean Martin, and Louis Armstrong, if you must.

Everclear vs. Miley Cyrus vs. Pop Goes the Weasel

I believe that there is nothing like some cranked up tunes to make your work more fun and to help it go more quickly. So last week I dragged my boys outside to do some weeding and let them take turns listening to my Sony Walkman. (Not the old school kind, it's the same deal as an iPOD.) As they tugged and dug and piled up their weeds, I noticed that the child that was listening to the music was usually quite a bit more productive. I also noticed that Cameron, who is usually a bit of a withering flower, toughened up quite a bit under the influence of Finger 11, Pink and Everclear. Hmmm... My six and eight year olds were listening to punk and alternative rock. I don't have songs on my Walkman that have bad lyrics, but I wondered if I was causing them further damage. They already have a few favorite movies that I know some adults won't watch, such as I Am Legend, but I figured as long as there were no curse words or derogatory phrases, we were all right. We carried on with our weeding. Not long after my music observation, I was given some more material to ponder. A twelve year old neighbor kid came out of his house to do a little work of his own, and he brought out his MP3 player with speakers so we could all listen. He plugged that sucker into the speakers, and no joke, "London Bridges" was the first song that came blaring out at us. He is twelve!! And will be thirteen in September! I admit to ducking my head so he wouldn't see my huge grin, but the next song he provided for our listening pleasure was Pop Goes the Weasel. It was too much. I bit my tongue and tried not to laugh out loud as he sang along with the music. I feel a little bad about it now, but what kind of teenager listens to Nursery Rhyme songs? There has got to be something wrong with that. There is something to be said for innocence, but that is going a bit far, I think. So my kids were listening to music that was not inappropriate, but may have been a little old for them, and the neighbor kid was a fan of some five year olds singing London Bridges. Maybe both are a little wrong?
I told Andrew about it later that night and he said that he knows a guy who is a fan of Miley Cyrus. WHAT IS GOING ON?!?!?! Does no one listen to age appropriate music? Is it right for a grown man to have a Miley Cyrus CD? I've only heard her sing once on some TV show, and it was pretty horrid. I will say that it was live, and a lot of singers sound less than perfect when they are on stage, so I'll try not to judge. But really? Miley Cyrus? Maybe I should be listening to the Jonas Brothers and buy Ethan a copy of Jay-Z's latest album for his birthday. So is there such a thing as music that is too old or too young for a person? I had thought there was. Maybe it's just all about taste. I'm so conflicted.