Nuttin but Muzic

One good thing about being over fifty is that you don't have to feel the angst of being fourteen and madly in unrequited love. That said, watching my daughter go through her first serious crush makes me feel a little nostalgic for those roller-coaster, heart-thumping days. Even the pain felt redemptive. We knew we were alive. And it's fun, and intriguing, to see how little things have changed in forty (40!!??) years. We hear these grim predictions about the future for our youth because they are so addicted, debased, and demoralized. I don't know about you, but my daughter has a whole lot more sense than I did, a lot more dignity, and a very bright future!

So, we're a little bit left out when it comes to silly, crazy, LOVE. But I have observed that the gap is not so wide when it comes to music. My daughter (14), my sons (23 & 26) and their friends don't seem to mind us listening to "their" music, learning their dances (try "Crank that Soulja Boy".... instructions on YouTube... if I can do it with a blown-out knee, you can too! Come on, it's FUN!), and even singing along. After all, they have been listening to our stuff all along.. Pink Floyd, the Who, Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, BON JOVI!! So how could they mind?

I would have been mortified, horrified, and repulsed had my dad and/or stepmother started enjoying hard rock in the 1970s. So... maybe some things are getting better.

I started this blog to tell you about an amazing duo that I saw perform here in Lexington at the Kentucky Theater where Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour is produced. Two young men from Brooklyn, trained at Julliard, play violin and RAP! You can see several videos of them on YouTube, or just go http://www.nuttinbutstringz.com/, or you can find a whole hour, ending with an amazing imromptu jam they do with an African cora player, by going to http://www.woodsongs.com/ and looking up show #459. (If you watch the encore to see the jam, look for a young member of the UU Church of Lexington, Malik Mahmud).

The way these brothers, Nuttin But Stringz, bring a hip-hop sensibility to the classical violin is amazing. It had a whole audience of fifty-somethings on their feet, cheering. Hey! It was heart-pumping. Maybe that's the closest we get to being in love. Check them out!