Harmonica Slim

1. She might have been distracted by the crazy syncopation of my snapping.

2. She was definitely offended distracted by my singing, the quality of which we will blame on low video quality.

3. It's hard to hold a camera still when you're snapping and singing.

4. Watch the eyebrows.

5. She's not much for big finishes.

Watchit Now Watchit

The other day I left Sophie in the living room, happily coloring on the coffee table, and went in to the powder room to, you know, powder my nose. I was mere steps away. As I sat there, I heard the distinctive sound of something heavy being dragged across the hardwood floor. I quickly finished up my business and skeedaddled back into the living room, whereupon I found this:



She had dragged the side table across the room up to the shelves, climbed up and turned on the stereo. My girl loves to shake a tail feather. What can I say, she just can't resist the classics.

Tickling The Ivories

We have an old, to be generous we'll call it antique, piano that a former coworker of mine gave us. It is in desperate need of a some love. It has several keys that have lost their ivory, is probably quite out of tune (not that I would know) and has at least one dead key. Neil has been pushing to get rid of it pretty much since the day it came in to our lives. I never learned an instrument and it is one of my great regrets so my thought was that it would be perfect for our kid(s) to learn how to play the piano. However that is at least a few years off.

For now, it just sits, gathering dust, in our living room.

After having walked past, under and into it for the last umpteen months, Sophie took notice of it for the first time yesterday. Since I would probably pee myself if one of the cats jumped up on the keys in the middle of the night, we usually keep the cover over them but she discovered that she could lift up the cover and stick her little hand in and make NOISE. Seeing an opportunity to keep my sweet pea occupied for a little bit, I took off the cover and let my little musician go to town. Now she can't get enough of it.

Neil had broken me down and I was just about ready to ship it off to wherever old pianos go to die, but now I'm not so sure. Maybe I'll call up a piano tuner. See if we can breath some life back into this old beast.

Update: The Power Of Music

Remember my friend's video of the couple playing the piano?? When I posted it just a week ago, it had had about 50,000 views on YouTube. Now it's over 190,000 and it's about to go worldwide. I don't want to say it's all because of me, but I think we all see the connection. They'll be playing it on Good Morning America at 7:45am EST tomorrow (Monday) morning. How awesome is that!! Tune in if you can!

The Power of Music

This amazing video was taken by a good friend of mine last fall while she was at the Mayo Clinic with her mother for the last of a series of reconstructive surgeries. You can read her inspiring story here.



The couple, Fran and Marlow Cowan, have been married for 62 years. I challenge you not to smile at their antics.

Circus

I have a confession. I hope you can all stay with me through this.

I am something of a music snob. I pride myself on liking music that is a little bit out of the mainstream. It doesn't have to be "popular" indie music, it just has to be not Top 40. Although I have always liked somewhat unusual music, I wasn't always this way. For many years, I could sing every word for all of the top songs. Somewhere along the way, though, I veered off and now I rarely listen to the radio, preferring instead my CDs or talk radio. These days, I discover most of my music through Rhapsody, where I can pick and choose my playlist based on suggestions they make from artists I have listened to previously.

Like the rest of the celebrity-obsessed world, I have followed the Britney Spears soap opera with amused (and slightly disgusted) curiosity. I thought her breakout hit was catchy, but her music since then has been unfocused. She has struggled to find her adult voice as the drama in her personal life has taken center stage.

So it was with more than a little skepticism that I listened to the title single off her newest album, Circus. The fact is that I haven't voluntarily listened to a song of hers since Oops. And even then, it was more of a I-didn't-change-the-radio-when-it-came-on kind of thing than that I loved it and had the CD, playing it over and over. But one night, as I was putting together a playlist for a trip around the blogosphere, I saw Circus and I clicked on it.

As I listened to it, I found myself tapping my toe and nodding my head to the beat. Against my will, I was (gasp!) actually liking it. Since then, it has worked its way into my regular rotation and I have listened to it many, MANY times.

Britney Spears - New Music - More Music Videos

So there it is. I'm revealing my dirty little secret. I'm almost 35 years old and I listen to Britney Spears. Can you still love me?