Music and Meaning

Music always permeates our house, from songs on our iPod to Bud's concerts on his homemade drum kit. There is dancing, singing, playing. lMusic is the first thing on Bud's mind at 6 a.m. when he wakes up--as in "can I play my drums?" (only if everyone is awake, which is why he had been standing by Sis's bed yelling her name until we nipped that in the bud, no pun intended)--and the last thought of the day, as their lullaby CD plays them to sleep after we sing our goodnight songs. It's almost never quiet.

But recently even our family's devotion to all things musical has been rachetted up a level. Every since our babysitter went to the Green Day concert a few weeks ago, Bud's interest in rock bands has increased. He always wants to wear his "rock star" underwear (he's going to hate me for telling you this). He always has his drum kit set up in the living room--in addition to his little wooden drum kit, there are several oatmeal-container drums, tambourines, "fifing drum," bongos, pots, pans, tin cups, anything that will make a sound when struck with a stick--our day punctuated with concerts and encores. And now even his guitar is a drum, as he imitates Melissa Etheridge playing "Occassionally" with only the accompaniment of her guitar-as-percussion; Mama had excitedly shown him the concert video, which he asks to watch several times a day. He also likes the Indigo Girls and Lilith Fair in concert, especially when Amy and Emily play "Get Out the Map" on banjo and mandolin and join others to sing "Water is Wide," one of our nighttime songs, and "Big Yellow Taxi." But Green Day is still his favorite, namely because it's Babysitter's favorite, and he has listened to them on her iPod and is excitedly waiting for her to show him the concert video (beyond what is on her iPhone). We tease him that he should call his rock band "Blue Day," after his favorite color. Or Bud and the Penguins. Or DinoBud.

When he isn't playing music, he's dancing, often with Sis. They don their favorite costumes--either black and orange pants and shirts from Thailand (last year's souvenir), black and red tunics and bottoms from Thailand (this year's souvenir), or pink tutus with a variety of shirts (usually baseball!)--and hop around to almost anything: "Jai Ho" from Slumdog Millionaire, "Lady Marmalade," "Joseph's Coat" from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, music from "Handy Mandy" and the Imagination Movers and Laurie Berkner, songs from Mary Poppins, The Music Man, Riverdance, or even Bob Marley. It's an eclectic mix.

And now they're gearing up for a concert. They vaguely remembering seeing Laurie Berkner in concert. Twice. But it is a happy vague memory. And so yesterday, Bud had asked, "Why are all the concerts at night? I want to go to a concert." And we proposed the idea of going to see the Imagination Movers in concert. Two happier and excited kiddos I haven't seen in a long time. And so I asked them if they even still liked the Movers--we listen to them in the car but don't watch the show anymore (mainly because there are no new ones). And Sis sagely said, "It's better to see tv for real than on tv." And so we'll be going to that concert this fall . . .

. . . and singing all the songs, and more, until then.