Hey, Music! Whatcha Tryin' to Tell Me?

Yesterday I moved most of the denizens of Plant World to their summer home on my balcony. It's surprising how much work moving plants is... Before completely finishing the job, I sat on my balcony to admire my plants (and rest), which is where Hardingfele and Tailor found me when they stopped by to pull garlic mustard and help me pump up my bike tires. Then somehow I never got around to moving the rest of the plants outside after that...

Plants always seem to be happier outside. Here is a direct quote from my coworker Palm Tree Fan regarding her house plants: "Most plants grow towards the sun.... mine grow towards the sink... the main water source!" Yet the bleeding hearts in her garden seem to be thriving:

Figure 1: Bleeding Hearts in Palm Tree Fan's Garden

(Photo credit: Palm Tree Fan)

On another topic dear to my heart, people often say music speaks to them. I usually don't know what people are singing in the songs I like, even when they are in English, but here are some examples of songs that speak to me. (Do I listen? That is another question.)

Kanye West says to me: "I ain't sayin' she's no gold digger, But she don't go with no broke n----"

Now I once had a date with a man who was both poor and black, but the take-home message I got from that relationship was that poets are bad news. He used to quote Nabokov over the phone to me and read me his own poetry, but after our one and only date we each thought the other one was completely insane. (Fair enough, we were probably both right.) I didn't learn my lesson anyhow, since I'm still stupid crazy about "artistic" men.

Andre 3000 says to me: "Now don't have me break this down for nuthin'! I wanna see you on your baddest behavior! Lend me some sugar - I am your neighbor! Sh-sh-shake it like a Polaroid picture. You know what to do!"

On a related theme (sugar), El Gran Combo asks me: "Que, que fue, fue azuquita pal' cafe?" Which translates to something like: "What, what was it, was it that sweetened the coffee?"

And of course Khaled says something to me in the song "Didi" that sounds like: "Eye leeky eye leeky eye kapom pee." Since I don't know Arabic, I don't have any idea what he's trying to tell me, but that doesn't stop me from singing along!

Famous Hat