In Which I Am Proud Of My Older Son's Good Taste In Music

I don't obsess about my kids much here -- which is odd, really, since I obsess about everything else -- so I hope you'll indulge me for once. I'd made a new mix CD this spring, mostly for Thing 1 (he has a CD boom-box in his room, and is more focused on music than his brother -- or his mother, most of the time). The Wife also appreciates it if I make new music available for the boys, so that she's not listening to the same thing over and over again as she drives them all over creation in the car.

So, anyway, at bedtime tonight, I asked Thing 1 what his favorite song on the new CD was. (Well, I knew his most favorite: that's the opening song, "Kaze ni Naru" by Ayano Tsuji, which is the closing credits theme from The Cat Returns -- he went happy-nuts when he found out I had that song, and was thrilled when I said I'd make a CD around that song for him.) But the song he liked second best was "Demolition" by The Kinks, a really kick-ass tune from their prime years (the record right before they fell over into self-parody the first time, actually). I put that one on the CD half-hoping he wouldn't hate it, but mostly because I love it, and wanted something really good in the middle of a disc I was pretty sure I'd be hearing a lot.

My older son may be weird, but I think he has the glimmerings of good taste. (As much of it as I can expect from a nine-year-old, at least.)

Oh, hell, let me waste some space here by listing the complete line-up of the CD I called "2007 [Thing 1] Birthday" (most of my previous mix CDs were tied to trips to Hershey Park, and so were titled things like "Hershey Mix 2005," so I was keeping up the naming convention).

1. Ayano Tsuji/Kaze ni Naru
2. Cracker/The Good Life
3. Thomas Dolby/Hyperactive!
4. Adam and the Ants/Antmusic
5. Duran Duran/Wild Boys
6. The Daddy Warhols/Boys Better
7. Talking Heads/Once in a Lifetime
8. Elvis Costello/The Imposter
9. Chris Mars/Popular Creeps
10. Guadalcanal Diary/Litany (Life Goes On)
11. Midnight Oil/The Dead Heart
12. Jason & the Scorchers/Take Me Home, Country Roads
13. Richard Thompson/I Ain't Going to Drag My Feet No More
14. Jimi Hendrix Experience/All Along the Watchtower
15. The Kinks/Demolition
16. The Pogues/South Australia
17. Los Lobos/La Bamba
18. Modest Mouse/Float On
19. Ramones/I Don't Wanna Grow Up
20. Faith No More/Epic
21. Fountains of Wayne/Better Things

(Oh, the other song he's crazy about right now, from a Fountains of Wayne compilation CD I made for The Wife -- and which I didn't really intend for her to play with the boys around, honestly -- is "Maureen," which is not something I would have played for him on purpose, though, luckily, so far the matter of the song is flying over his head...)