I know I'm old, because I seldom listen to rock and roll, and like Hawaiian music and opera better than jazz and pop. I have every album of Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. I know "White, Sandy Beach of Hawaii" by heart and I often attempt the hula if no one's around. I also dance to opera, and I no longer care what they are saying or the storyline or who is singing. I just love the belting out thing. I'm turning into Ethel Merman in my old age. I went to a wedding last year and they played one of Iz's songs as they came down the isle (Yes!). They are my age, so I suppose this Hawaii thing is a metaphor for heaven, a kind of heaven us degenerates can imagine.
I have been influenced heavily by my kids, and due to them, I listened to The Cranberries, Dead Can Dance and Radiohead (okay, I still love Radiohead). Our younger son introduced me to Magnetic Fields' "69 Love Songs" and I can sing the complete lyrics to "Rodeo", "The Book of Love", and "There Will Be Time Enough for Rockin When We're Old". Check them out. I also have a soft spot for Hootie and the Blowfish, especially the songs "I Hope I Don't Fall in Love With You" and "I Go Blind".
But otherwise, my music tastes have changed. Oh, wait. Musicals. Yes, I have been super faithful to musicals, especially the Howard Keel kind. I love Kiss Me Kate, Kismet, Annie Get Your Gun, Calamity Jane, and other gems of the screen. I know, they're sexist, sometimes racist, politically incorrect, and historically inaccurate. If the songs are terrific enough, you forget to care. My father had to travel a lot, and the first musical I remember seeing in a movie theater, with my Mom and brother, on a Sunday afternoon, was "Lili" with Leslie Caron. But I might have seen ones before on TV. I'm unclear on that. My Mom had records of various musicals, and she and Dad would go some distance to see them. She was famous in our family for falling asleep during My Fair Lady with Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews. They'd taken the train up from Virginia to Manhattan just to see it. My parents occasionally took me to musicals in San Francisco, when we lived in the Bay Area, and I remember seeing "Bye, Bye, Birdie" and loving it.
The era of musicals is way over, and I was disappointed when I saw "Chicago", and didn't bother to see "Nine". Even though I have a crush on Daniel Day-Lewis. Yes, the elderly have crushes, too. Quite a distance from Howard Keel to Mr. Day-Lewis. But there you go. Aging is a journey, and a strange one, too.
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