No Wave is No Fun

Well, leave it to nearly-5-year-old DJ B to turn her back on music review duties. When I put on a CD these days, she's most likely to turn it off immediately. She's much more interested in watching TV, playing with her dollhouse, crafting imaginary worlds with her Barbies, or doing art projects. 

But sometimes I actually have to listen to music in order to write reviews for the radio station where I DJ. Normally I do my music reviews while Miss B is in school; but this week she was home with a cold on my designated day for music listening. So, I broke the news to her and told her that she was not allowed to turn off the CD player because I had work to do.

I managed to listen to 3 entire releases without too much protest from her; but by the end of the third one, the soundtrack to the film 135 Grand Street New York 1979, she was over the whole process. Although I found the no wave music to be artful and compelling, DJ B argued that, "This music is too noisy and no fun. Turn it off. I'm bored!"

Surprise, Surprise...Miss B Digs Classic Musicals

Following DJ B's second ballet class, she decided to investigate "Leading Men Sing the Movie Classics," a CD collection that she picked up from the San Francisco Public Library. After hearing the name of the CD, she asked, "Is this classic?" Then, as the music dramatically began with Gene Kelly's "Singin' In the Rain," Miss B started demonstrating her new ballet skills. She pounded her chest, grabbed a pair of flip flops, ran toward me, then stopped to dance in place. She then leaned on me and extended her leg in the air behind her. Following that, she twirled around with her hands over her head like a ballerina. As she spun in a circle, she got dizzy, then closed her eyes, swayed, and fell over.

Miss B then got on the floor, closed her eyes, and did a very slow dance before she started to roll around with her eyes still closed. We then danced together for awhile before Miss B opted to set up a picnic on the floor. She donned her sunhat and strapped her Hello Kitty purse over her shoulder in preparation for the pretend outing.

This morning during breakfast, we checked it out again. Miss B listened to it quietly, while bouncing her legs to the beat. After she finished eating, she marched around the room to James Cagney's version of "Yankee Doodle Boy." She did some ballet, played a few notes on her toy piano, and pranced about with an old baby teether in her mouth while simultaneously talking on her toy cell phone to her imaginary friend. Her dancing got faster and faster and we deemed this album full of songs from classic musicals from the 1930s to 1950s a big hit for a Saturday morning.

Luck be a Lady!

Last week Miss B was back in the saddle and happily picked three new CDs from the library. When we got home the first one that she wanted to check out was "Guys and Dolls: The Original Cast Album." She asked me, "What's this?" and I replied, "Guys and Dolls," to which she responded, "Ohhhh. Guys and Dolls."

From the opening notes Miss B was hooked. Her first response was to put on her silk fairy skirt and black patent leather shoes. With a huge grin on her face she said, "I'm like a fairy princess" as she spun around in circles to make herself dizzy. She then grabbed some rhinestone studded cat eye sunglasses and said, "I'm a fairy princess. I want my wand."

Ever since this first listen, DJ B has been reluctant to listen to anything else or do anything else. One day I asked, "do you want lunch?" and she answered, "No. I want to dance. Guys and Dolls. Guys and Dolls are coming to my house." We've probably heard the album nearly 100 times since it came home with us and each time Miss B dances feverishly the whole way through, doing her own version of musical theater.

Hooray for Bollywood

On Saturday Miss B and I hit a different branch of the San Francisco Public Library in order to scout out new CD selections. The shelves were tightly packed with goodies and DJ B's picks this week all had red spines. I'm starting to realize that she's drawn to items that stand out, so it should come as no surprise that many of her selections these first few weeks have red labels or spines.

When we got home the first CD that she wanted to hear was the Kronos Quartet and Asha Bhosle release "You've Stolen My Heart: Songs from R.D. Burman's Bollywood." Cool! This was the first thing that she's picked during this project that I was super excited to listen to.

DJ B's initial reaction was disinterest, though, and she stopped the CD before hearing even one song, quickly replacing it with another new CD.

Today, I again presented her with the 3 new CDs and she chose Kronos Quartet again. This time she responded quite favorably. She played with her stuffed princess castle, sat in a chair tapping her foot, then put her headphones on and grabbed her toy drum sticks. She proceeded to dance around the house, tapping her drum sticks on various surfaces while singing and dancing. I'm thrilled that she finally got into the Bollywood spirit!