Interesting, if Never Arresting

Before seven in the morning and the Pidge is on WFMU, hosting his 'Wake n’ Bake' show.  He has a strange voice that wouldn’t do for mainstream radio, fortunately.  He’s that guy you knew from middle school, that guy from summer camp who had oddly mature opinions about music, in spite of himself.  I had to park near Bank of America at the Tops mall and it appeared as if a number of geriatric pals had decided to rendezvous at this particular adjacent spot that sold bagels and coffee.  I parked amidst their tightly parked vehicles and I suspect they all looked me over and I flip-flopped over to the ATM. 

 

Back in the car, the Pidge was playing something I knew but couldn’t identify.  Is that . . . I guessed Queen Latifa “Give me body” someone sang, looped, over and over.  (I keep nodding off and visiting places that are more interesting that what’s in front of me.)  I haven’t heard the B52s in forever either and the Pidge enthusiastically threw them on next. Woke-and-certainly-baked, he enthusiastically confirmed that it had been the queen, I’d been enjoying in that number sans-rapping from her first LP, "All Hail the Queen." 

 

More driving, later in the morning.  Up and over the Mohonk to take my older one to her babysitting gig.  It was completely misty all the way up and once we crested the ridge the sun suddenly broke and it was now clear all the way out to the Catskills.  It’s an hour out of my morning to go and drop her off and then again another hour of my wife’s day later to pick her up, but neither of us mind.  Fleeting, precious time with her before she leaves, once again, forever. 

 

When all the family pile in the car together she never seems to want to play her music. Afforded the chance, she always demurs.  Her sister is so adamant.  She and I keep score.  You get to play tunes for the ride over.  I get to play them for the way back.  The older one would just as soon withdraw and throw on her headphones.  But when it is just she and I get to sample some of what she’s listening to, which isn’t Korean and is often interesting, if never arresting.  And we talk in a way that rarely happens, sitting around the house, when everyone has a role and the common-space conversations are predictable. 

 

 

 

Monday, 08/17/20