I'm Going to Bet Ed Robertson Still Doesn't Like Heights So Much

Often when the kids are in the car we'll listen to KidStuff on Sirius. Occasionally I'll flip over to the First Wave, and I'm delighted to report that the Boy really likes the Pretenders.

Anyway, I tell you this to explain why I am overly familiar with the Barenaked Ladies' kids' album, Snacktime. There's a song, "I Don't Like," for which Ed Robertson sings lead vocals. One of the lines of the song is "I don't like heights so much."

So, yeah, if you don't like heights so much, private planes are likely not the best idea.

While I"m at it: it's tough to tell your four-year-old the name of the band he's enjoying when the name of the band is "Barenaked Ladies."

Also while I"m at it: how do you think career children's performers feel about the novelty-ish children's albums released by successful pop groups? I kind of get the sense that members of these groups have children who have reached a certain age and would like to start schooling them on the awesomeness of music. But, they don't want to regale them with tunes about sex and drugs, so they turn to children's music. And they are dissatisfied and think, "Well, I could do better than that." Et voila: children's CDs by Barenaked Ladies, They Might Be Giants, Belle and Sebastian, etc.

Man, He Probably Thinks I'm a Subtle Racist

We're having Verizon FiOS installed today, because I am young and hip and want all of my communications to be delivered at the speed of light. Actually, it's just cheaper to bundle my services through FiOS. But anyway, a stranger has open access to my home, so I've been alternately playing the radio and DVDs to conjure up a little background noise.

Well, Mr. Verizon came upstairs a few minutes ago to mess around with the TV. I'd been watching an episode of "Slings and Arrows" on my laptop while I plowed through my lunch. Mr. Verizon was futzing around in back of the entertainment center, and my laptop starting screaming things like "penetration" and "ejaculate." This is not high-brow porn -- it's a show about a theater and the character was using a metaphor to dissect another character's psyche. Yeah, so I decided this was not the most appropriate white noise for a fiber optic installation tech, and shut it down. But then the awkward silence resumed, which inspired me to hop up and turn on 94.7, the Globe.

I've blogged about this radio station before. It's the one that will only play critically respected music -- U2, Bruce Springsteen, Talking Heads, Jimi Hendrix, etc. I figured I'd be safe, right? I mean, this kind of music might not inspire impromptu dancing, but whatevs. I just wanted something pleasing to the ear. Yeah, except as soon as I turned it on, the mid-day DJ starts yapping about how they are celebrating Black History Month, and that they are exclusively playing black artists today.

Oh, GOD. Mr. Verizon probably thinks that I chose a radio station that plays music by black artists so that I could demonstrate how down I am. Aargh.

Could My Fellow Hoyas Be Any More Boring?

From my Facebook homepage:

Don't get me wrong. I own CDs by every single one of those artists/groups. But it's all so...safe. I'm not exactly a poster child for musical edginess, but it'd be nice of those that Bleed Hoya Blue didn't exclusively favor BMG darlings.