Hit by a Pitch

On Saturday night, while he was rocking Soren to sleep, Ben said something about how he loves Soren’s room — it has a very good vibe, or something like that, and is just awesome. Compared to all the rooms I see on Ohdeedoh, it’s not really all that. Some of the furniture is silly and our entire house has unfortunate textured walls that will be very hard to fix, for starters. He’s right about the room having a very good vibe, though.

We’d had a (small) argument about chili (yes, it was as stupid as it sounds) and just before putting Soren in his crib at 10:00 (baby is a night owl), Ben said that there was no reason to be mad and this is pretty much as good as it gets — Bob Marley on the iPod shuffle and a cute little guy asleep in his paw-print sleep sack. Of course Ben was right. He always is.

The next song that came on was Never Said by Liz Phair. (When I was in Chicago back in the heyday of Liz Phair and practically lived at bars like Sweet Alice and Estelle’s [before it was all fancy and shit], I hated her music — what’s up with that?) I sat on the rocking chair and figured I’d hang out there, watching the baby sleep, until a song came on that disrupted the vibe. Soon I had a cat on my lap (VIP). I sat there for a while because here’s what happened:

Fall in Love – Tortured Soul (When we lived in Nederland, we went to see these guys at Cervantes. This was back when Ben used to accidentally spill beer on me all the time. He got pulled over after leaving a gas station in Boulder because apparently there was supposed to be a “no left turn” sign [there wasn't]. The car smelled like a brewery and it was late at night in Boulder, so the officer made him do a bunch of field sobriety tests and, while I waited, I saw a fox run across Broadway. Ben wasn’t drunk and eventually we went home. I loved living in Nederland, a lot, but don’t miss the long-ass drives to get anywhere.)

Africa – Toto (Embarrassing! I guess I like the powerful vocal stylings? I think there’s this thing that happens to you when you have a kid, where you kind of like listening to some stuff from like 20 years ago that you didn’t even think you liked. Or maybe that’s just me.)

Gigantic – The Pixies (This is a classic.)

Little Bit – Lykke Li

Crazy – Gnarls Barkley

Just Like Honey – The Jesus and Mary Chain (The Jesus and Mary Chain was my favorite band when I was in high school and I’d say for the early college years, too. Psychocandy changed my life, I shit you not. I even drew the album cover on the back of a denim jacket I wore all the time. I remember seeing them at the Riviera, where my friend and I waited in line for hours so we could get a good spot, but after being totally smushed against the stage for a while until we almost couldn’t breathe we had to be pulled out by one of the security dudes. I’m still kind of annoyed they used this song in that movie I didn’t like with the big-headed girl and the old dude. Why is Hollywood obsessed with young hottish women with old dude and hottish woman with fat and/or ugly dude? I hate that.)

Don’t Trust Me – 3Oh!3 (Okay, that ends the vibe.)

Last night, while Ben was putting Soren to bed, Mark Grant’s There 4 Me (Soul Bounce (Vocal)) was playing on the shuffle. Wouldn’t it be cool if the iPod was, like, magic or something — if it could sense what the listener needed to hear and play it? Maybe eventually the iPod would get really good at it and play shit you didn’t even put on there at just the right moment. A magic iPod wouldn’t be the greatest thing that ever happened in the world, but it would be pretty cool.