Big Aunt Surprise

The Babys - "Isn't it Time?" (Broken Heart, 1977)



Yesterday my older neice, Mary, called me from the Buffalo airport to say that she and her sister, Kelley, along with their High School Bowl teammates were on their way to DC for the National tournament. Yee-haw! I got to see my girls! Best of all, I got to see them compete with their amazing thinking caps on; some of the stuff those kids know just blew me away. It was such a thrill to watch but I had to keep hold of myself to stop from shouting out answers like I do when I watch Jeopardy. I hope I get to see them again tomorrow.

Mary and Kelley both look great and it was fa-bu to have some time with them in between matches to chat. We oogled our jewelry and played with our hair, even had some fun scrunching the curls of Mary's best buddy, and fellow brainiac, Anna. All great girls, college bound and loving life. I'm so proud of them. Such great kids; they've been through so much and they're all doing so well. I'm looking forward to seeing the whole fam damnily at Mary's graduation later this month.

Drivin' and Singin'
I got to drive Rob's new car with the XM radio in it down to Marymount University (CUTE school!). I like XM well enough. They have those "Decades" stations that are fairly broad genre that can be fun. I heard several things that I had forgotten about, like Chicago's "No Tell Lover" which is pretty bad. I did hear a couple of songs that made me think about what the formula used to be for producing a pop "hit"--- it used to be that lyrics were fairly important. These days I think great lyrics are pretty unusual. I do love a couple of verses and the chorus from Train's "Drops of Jupiter":

Now that she's back in the atmosphere
With drops of Jupiter in her hair, hey, hey
She acts like summer and walks like rain
Reminds me that there's time to change, hey, hey
Since the return from her stay on the moon
She listens like spring and she talks like June, hey, hey

But tell me did you sail across the sun
Did you make it to the Milky Way to see the lights all faded
And that heaven is over rated
Tell me, did you fall for a shooting star
One without a permanent scar
And then you miss me while you were lookin' for yourself out there

Most of the rest of the song is excellent, too but they ruin it in the middle with some comment about "checking out Mozart while she does Tae-bo" which is supposed to speak to how varied her interests are but its a line that I think is cheap and will date the song. Kind of pisses me off because its an otherwise GREAT lyric. Train has more than one good song, I think. I also love "Meet Virginia":

She doesn't own a dress
Her hair is always a mess
If you catch her stealin' she won't confess
She's beautiful

She smokes a pack a day
Oh, wait, that's me, but anyway
She doesn't care a thing about that hair
She thinks I'm beautiful
Meet Virginia

She never compromises
Loves babies and surprises
Wears high heels when she exercises
Ain't that beautiful?
Meet Virginia

Well she wants to be the Queen
Then she thinks about her scene
Pulls her hair back as she screams
I don't really wanna be the queen
Her daddy wrestles alligators
Mama works on carburetors
Her brother is a fine mediator for the President

Well here she is again on the phone
Just like me, hates to be alone
We just like to sit at home and rip on the President
Meet Virginia

Well she wants to live her life
Then she thinks about her lies
Pulls her hair back as she screams
I don't really wanna live this life

She only drinks coffee at midnight
When the moment is not right
Her timing is quite .. unusual
You see her confidence is tragic
But her intuition magic
And the shape of her body - unusual
Meet Virginia- I can't wait to
Meet Virginia

Best Back-up Vocal ever?
On a somewhat different note--pardon the pun; on the drive downtown, I heard a song which Rob firmly believes has the best back-up vocal (not lyric, mind you) of all time. I'm inclined to agree with him. If, after you listening, you know a *better* back-up vocal, speak up.