This Listening is Emphatic

We’re heading up to Vermont today.  I’ve called the school and told them we’re taking my daughter out around noon time.  I turned the car on to get it warmed up and walked up stairs past the Chagall painting and the BTS poster to ask her how she was doing and if she was ready.  “Do you have all your stuff for the trip?”  “Yeah, it’s all in the basement.”  As if I’m supposed to get it.  “Why don’t you go down and put it all together so we don’t have to guess what you want.  I don’t want to get up there and have to buy a hat because you forgot one."  This elicits a sigh. 

She has been up since 3:00AM.  BTS have released a new album.  She’s already heard it and commented on it with her friends for hours.  A new album in my day meant a trip down to NYC, to locate such a thing.  For her, its immediate.  But retail isn’t completely dead.  She insists that we drive by Target, who apparently will have this release, before we head up to Vermont, so she can secure a copy of the album.  “Wait, why do you want to buy the album if you already have all the songs?”  This elicits a hearty “duh?” "So I can get the official release with all the photos." 

I ask and she’s game to play me the tunes in the car.  She hops in a fiddles with her phone.  I do the same.  By the time I put my phone down and back up the car and find time to ask a question about this new “Persona 7” album we’re listening to, I can tell she is annoyed.  “What?  I’m just asking.”  “Yeah, but you weren’t listening when I just played it for you.” Rules are she can use her phone, but I should pay attention.

“Is that V?”  “No. Its’ Jung Guk.”  “Oh.  I thought V was the deeper voice?”  “He is!”   We park the car at the top of the hill and wait for the bus.  Across to the east, in the woods, the sun is just starting to peer up from the underbrush of the ridge. Do you know what the lyrics mean in English yet?  She silently hands me her phone with the English translation.  “Can you play me the one where they’re all rapping.”  “It’s coming up next!”  Everything to do with this listening is emphatic.  There are so many, many ways to get it wrong.  I can tell Suga and R.M.’s voices and by default the only other rapper is Jay Hope.  It sounds good to my ears.  There is certainly some convincing flow.  I turn the mix up nearly all the way in the car stereo but before we can enjoy much of the song, the yellow school bus appears over the ridge and she is reaching for the door handle. 

Friday 02/21/20