IT WAS 42 YEARS AGO TODAY

This has absolutely nothing to do with childrearing, but it's just so stunningly silly it begged for posting. Ladies and gentlemen, "She's Leaving Home":

IN WHICH YOUR HOST IS EASILY DISTRACTED BY OBSCURE B-SIDES

Oh, my. A learned treatise on one of my favorite songs.

True Love Travels on a Gravel Road.

And the blog from which that comes is just SICK. It's being added to my Tuneage links as we speak.

FLU BE DOO BE DOO BE DOO DAH DAY

Looks like the local health officials were right about this year's influenza peaking right on schedule, although what my kids have appears to be a mild case of the creeping shpilkes and not the full-blown flu that's laying people low. Beast has been cranking out the green schmutz at an impressive rate but that hasn't stopped his usual rascality, and now Noodle has picked up a mild fever and she likewise is far from debilitated; she's spending the morning at work with Her Awesomeness and I pick her up for the trip home in a few hours, then it's coloring and bumming out in front of the TV from there on in.

Here, have yourself a song you might never have heard before.

SATURDAY TUNEAGE (VALENTINE'S DAY EDITION)

Otis Redding and the Bar-Kays:



Lady and the Tramp



Marvin Gaye:



Lyle Lovett:

FRIDAY TUNEAGE

Take it away, Willie.

SATURDAY NIGHT TUNEAGE

And with a local angle, too! Rhinebeck's own Marshall Crenshaw:

CHRISTMAS TUNEAGE

Charles Brown:



Gordon Lightfoot:



Ray Charles:



Stevie Wonder:



That'll do ya a little, if you've had it up to here with "Wonderful Christmastime" by now.

Merry Christmas.

IN WHICH I GET ALL McGYVER

So tonight at dinner Noodle accidentally bit her tongue. Really gave it a good chomping as only a five-year-old can do. The standard cold packs and other refrigerated soothers were not remotely cutting the mustard...what's a dad to do?

Snapped one of these right off the gutter for my little girl, I did.

Oh, it's not perfectly sterile; of this I am aware. But having told her in the past not to lick the cat, not to eat off the floor, not to drink her bathwater, not to play by the litterbox, not to chew on the DVD case, and not to put the driveway chalk in her ear...how bad could an icicle be?

Reminds me of a song...

UPDATE: Woot! I've just received word this little solution of mine will be featured next week over at parenthacks.com. At last, my fifteen minutes arrives - and remember, you read it here first!

MENTAL HEALTH BREAK

Ladies and gents, the Benny Goodman Quartet with Lionel Hampton and Gene Krupa.

IT'S IN MY HEAD

And in yours now:

AND THEN -THIS- INDIGNITY

Bloody hell, I'm going to have to accost Jann Wenner if he ever shows his face in town. Rolling Stone's list of the Top 100 Singers of All Time starts out very well indeed with this fine lady atop it:


And then Ray Charles is at #2, Sam Cooke at 4, Marvin Gaye at 6, Stevie Wonder at 9, Orbison at 13, Al Green at 14...and then it falls to bits.

Snubbed: Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Teddy Pendergrass, Alison Krauss, Vince Gill, Philip Bailey, Levi Stubbs...and one Francis Albert Sinatra.

SATURDAY MORNING LOVE SONG

Neil Finn is a genius, and I am a big sap, but I defy you not to fall for the hook on Split Enz' "Message To My Girl".

IN WHICH I MAKE AN EMBARRASSING DISCOVERY

While searching for the spool of line for the weedwhacker today, I found an ancient mixtape from a woman who may have wanted to be my girifriend many many years ago - and who then came to her senses and ran all the way back home to Wisconsin just to be on the safe side, because the 30-year-old me wasn't the amazing specimen of Compleat Manhood you see before you today.

Having seen the site "Cassettes from my Ex" a while back, I thought I'd write its story as best as I could recall.

Suffice to say I'm going to do my damndest to teach my little Beast not to make the same mistakes I made back then, because if there's one regret I have in my life it's that I didn't have it together enough to meet Her Awesomeness when I was younger, so that we'd have had that much more time together now.

I also wish I had it together enough to remember where the hell I put that spool.

...AND ONE FOR YOU AND YOUR LADY, YOUR MAN, WHATEVER

My oh my my oh my. The new Al Green looks like it'll be tremendous:



Comes out Tuesday the 27th.

ODDS OF A FULL-ON GENESIS REUNION: 23.5 PERCENT

It may be the first piece in the history of Rolling Stone magazine that wasn't a snide slap at the guys. Mike Rutherford:

The thought was [that] maybe, since the Lamb is about a young Puerto Rican kid and Peter is an old English man, it would be harder to portray him.

Well, yes, there is that.

(pleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpuhLEEEZE do a tour with Pete and Steve...)

/fanboy

UPDATE: Pete says maybe one day it'll happen.

HE SAID HELLO GOODBYE

What? NO!

More than 100 million album sales into his career and roughly two thirds of the way through our interview, Phil Collins casually serves notice of his retirement. Having joined a reformed Genesis for a world tour last year, he says he’s through with the touring and there’s no album planned. He’ll write, but only because he doesn’t know how to stop writing.

I am most thoroughly bummed, but Phil's been known to change his mind before, yes?

AL WILSON, 1939-2008

Here's "Show and Tell".

NO ROCK-STAR FACES, NO SEQUINS, AND NO CAPES

Happy 58th birthday to the world's greatest keyboard player, Tony Banks of Genesis. Bonus points if you can find any depiction of Tony showing any kind of facial expression while playing. He's the Mariano Rivera of keyboard players. Here's "It's Gonna Get Better":

THE KIDS' PLAYLIST (FIRST IN A CONTINUING SERIES)

Since I spend a lot of time on the road in spots with crappy radio reception, I put together lots of mix CDs for my trips around the region - and the kids will occasionally seize on one and demand it again again again again. Maybe they work for you too! (I'll make links available ASAP)

Noodle: Pretty Flamingo - Manfred Mann

Beast: Junco Partner - Dr. John

HOLIDAY IN THE JONES HOUSEHOLD

Happy 57th birthday, Philip David Charles Collins: