Take a Pill, Lady

I got a decent night's sleep last night (HR only woke up once between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.) so I am on point today. Maybe a little over-caffeinated on top of that, so I'm having the opposite issue from yesterday and it's that my mind is racing and I don't have the time to dedicate to everything I want to address.

Topic the first: I held a four-day-old baby last night and it was like holding a warm, adorable puff of air. As infants go, mine isn't all that heavy, but the difference between 16 pounds and 7 pounds is quite striking when you have immediate comparison. HR is still little-little enough that I get my fix from him, but I can see how I will be very susceptible to baby fever down the line. I caught myself being nostalgic for his first days-- the days when I was getting NO sleep and stressing every moment about whether I was starving him. Of course those parts fall away when you look into that sweet sleeping newborn face. It's a sort of mental illness, but probably has a lot to do with propagation of the species.

The other thing that is twisting around my brain like the treatment for the world's most useless dissertation is pop radio, specifically songs that reference alcohol. I'll back up a little. The other day I heard Tone Loc's "Funky Cold Medina" and in the midst to totally dorking out to it, it occurred to me that it belongs to a special strain of music that I will classify as "roofie ballads." The Beasties' "Brass Monkey" is in there too, as well as Jamie Foxx's ridiculously catchy "Blame It." Is it really acceptable to make danceable songs about drugging girls so they'll want to have sex with you? Of course not. Is it good humor to sing about your own comeuppance in the same song in the form of unknowingly drugging a transvestite, or just homophobia? Maybe when it wasn't the '80s he branched out from being "down with the ladies," but there's no sequel as far as I know. And even though I decided that "Blame It" is ultimately a celebration of a case of mutual beer goggles vs. a one-sided takedown, there's still a goldmine of gender politics as well as rape apology in popular music. It's a good thing education's so expensive or else I'd seriously be getting my PhD in shit like this.

Also on my mind: T-Pain and his auto-tune revolution is a) ruining music as we know it, b) acting as pied piper in the inevitable turn of humans into cyborgs or c) both? Discuss. Oh, and, don't you think Timbaland should have quit when he was ahead (i.e. stuck with Justin Timberlake) because he was the precursor to all this wasn't he? I acknowledge that this is the kind of hysteria people espoused during the birth of rock and roll and I accept that my rantings are those of an old fogey. If I had a lawn, I'd be yelling at you kids to get off it. I really need to start listening to books on tape.

Oh, but furthermore to the acceptance of my oldening: Monday is my 12-year wedding anniversary which is, frankly, preposterous. I'll be off that day, but when I get back I've got a 12-point salute to my saint-worthy husband in mind. Stay tuned.