natural sounds

One thing they never tell you about having a baby is that suddenly it won’t be embarrassing to do lots of stuff you like to do but were, you know, somewhat embarrassed about. Like singing at the top of your lungs at six in the evening or dedicating 30 minutes of your morning to rhyming and laughing.

Also, music. Suddenly it’s more than okay to admit to liking all that music you’ve always liked but were too cool to cop to. Cuz, you know. The baby LOVES it.

This Vampire Weekend song put me in an incredible mood today. The lyrics are smart and sweet. The video is one long shot trying really hard to be a Wes Anderson film.

“Who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma?
I climbed to Dharamsala too, I did
I met the highest Lama, his accent sounded fine
To me, to me

Check your handbook, it’s no trick
Take the chapstick, put it on your lips
Crack a smile, adjust my tie
Know your boyfriend, unlike other guys

Why would you lie about how much coal you have?
Why would you lie about something dumb like that?
Why would you lie about anything at all?
First the window, then it’s to the wall
Lil’ Jon, he always tells the truth”

I looked it up on SongMeanings and found a comment that put the good mood over the top (about 2/3s of the way down, from Minderella).

I teach remedial reading at an “alleged” special ed high school (smartest kids in the world are kids with learning differences!!) and I think this song is advocating “content before structure”. For example, my kids write essays and they may be spelled wrong and not have the proper grammatical structure but THEY ARE INCREDIBLE!! And like I say to my students – ‘I don’t care if it’s spelled right – grammar – whatever – I just want to know what you think – I want to know your ideas.” We analyze a song each week for comprehension and I can’t wait to tell them about this site. I’ve wanted to play this song for them – it tells them how smart they are – but of course it has fuck in it so i can’t. However, last week a bitchy teacher was complaining about how “dumb” the kids were and I said “Who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma?” and walked off. Ha ha sure she didn’t get it yet she thinks she is SO SMART!!
Remember – there is a difference between formal education and intelligence. INTELLIGENCE IS ORIGINAL AND CAN BE THE PRODUCT OF PEOPLE WHO DON’T FOLLOW THE RULES!!! Special Ed rocks …

Does it matter that I play Gabriel lots of music with swear words in it?

The other song we jammed out to this morning was “Jack and Neal” by Tom Waits … softly cooing lyrics like “And jack was almost at the bottom of his MD 20/20 / neal was yellin’ / Out the window tryin to buy some bennies / from a lincoln full of mexicans…”

I have a feeling this either makes me an awesome dad, or a horrible dad. It’ll take years to find out which.

This weekend we took Gabriel for his first swim lesson. We were crowded in the Pasadena Rose Bowl pool with tons of other parents and babies, singing songs and trying to get our kids to blow bubbles. All Gabriel wanted to do was eat the ducks.

“Ducks! Ducks!”