Five things for one year...: Dirt: I'm Slim Shady.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Dirt: I'm Slim Shady.

"I'm Slim Shady

Yes, I'm the real Shady

All you other Slim Shadys are just imitating

So, won't the real Slim Shady please stand UP

Please stand UP"

Slim Shady

Yes, my daughter and I blasted that song this morning on the way to school. And yes, I realize the words are a little R for a 5th grader. But before you get all Child Services on me, hear me out.

We love music in our house. Love it. All kinds of music.

Britney, Gaga, Dr. Dre, LMFAO, Grateful Dead, Florence and the Machine, Modest Mouse, R.E.M. (r.i.p), Adele, Yonder Mountain, Guns n Roses, Jack Johnson and Miles Davis all live at Casa Swann.

We are equal opportunity music lovers. Sometimes, it gets a little inappropriate as we realize the lyrics are a little racier than we remember and the channel gets changed. However, as a kid who belted the lyrics to AC/DC's " Shook Me All Night Long" on the way to 3rd grade while riding on the bus, I don't really see the harm in it. I mean really, I was in college before I "got it".

This is me...I am blonde.

So, we rock. And sometimes, we rap a little too. I hope my kids love music the way my husband and I do. We spent our honeymoon at a Jazz festival. We have spent a lot of dates in front of a band. Years, actually. We reminisce about songs and what they meant to us the first time we heard them. We race to be the first to "discover" a band. Yes, we are white . Very much so.

Our daughter got some grief last year for having "uncool" music on her ipod by one of her classmates. Little does that girl know, three years from now, when she is in high school, she will be seeking out those Indie bands my daughter loves so much. And, my daughter will be on to newer, cooler stuff.

I think accepting other people's music taste is a lot like accepting their religion or even their race. Being able to appreciate it and embrace that it is different from yours goes a very long way toward being a good person and being tolerant. We need more of that, I think.

Of course, I am quick to call out my husband and his "Christmas music" he was listening to last night. It was jazz, which, while I love Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong, and know who Thelonius Monk was, I do not love it so much. He does. I am guilty of being intolerant...to jazz being played very softly while I am making dinner. What can I say "I'm Slim Shady...yes, I'm the real Shady..."