geekent's Buy Nothing Year

My overwhelming affection for Stephin Merritt and his numerous side projects dissipated about two or three years ago with both "i" (under the Magnetic Fields banner) and "Showtunes" (under his own name) being disappointing diversions (I didn't even manage to locate his Lemony Snicket instrumental project, but also didn't put much effort into trying). I think Merritt is one of today's greatest lyricists and equally one of the most talented composers, but I'm almost loathe to say that he piqued at his epic "69 Love Songs" and he has been working in the shadows of that behemoth ever since.

As well, the conceptual meaning behind his side projects, like Gothic Archies and Future Bible Heroes have essentially been integrated into his Magnetic Fields gig, and somehow it's less interesting this way. I should be terribly disappointed that I can't buy Merritt's latest album, but previewing it now, I'm not.

With BNY keeping me away from buying new music, I've turned to podcasts to help keep me in new and different music. My goodly buddy GAK has his very own radio show on CITR, the Radio 3 of CBC giving me all the indie slice of Canadiana I can cope with, and They Might Be Giant's Family Friday Podcast because the little guy loves their kids albums (and even some of their non-kids stuff), which is where we found this gem.

For all my friends not working right now, for whatever reason, it's a joyful mantra you can get behind, and for all us corporate drones and wage slaves, it's a message of hope, or at the very least, a great way to kick off a vacation. My stepson and I have both declared this as our new favourite song.

Listen and love it, and if you can, live it.