Not All Who Wander Are Lost

Comfortably numb before noon, and for all the wrong reasons. I am sipping an iced latte, unsatisfied, watching the precocious two-year-old pick at my favorite kind of croissant. My mouth tastes faintly of dentist's office: burnt enamel, overbite ink. The novacaine will wear off soon enough, but until then, the thick black forest ham and gooey cheese look enough like mangled tongue and mucus to keep me away.

Hours later, in the car with the family on the way to the grocery store. Rain falls in fat drops on the windshield. But we're driving towards a clear sky, and the sun is about to peek under the cloudlayer.

Rainbow conditions, I think.

Do you see a rainbow, I ask my wife, fully knowing that she'll get carsick if she looks back for long.

And then I see it, behind us, in the trees.

I yank the wheel at the next bare patch of ground and rush the kid out of her seat. Plop her on my shoulders. Point. Wait.

Because there's nothing like a child's first rainbow.

Except maybe giving it to her, there in an open field with the car door still open, your late afternoon shadow forever pointing towards its topmost point.

This week's playlist follows.

Tributary 5/2/05

Skavoovie and the Epitones -- Fat Soul
Trey Anastasio -- Cayman Review
Lucinda Williams -- Get Right With God
English Beat -- Mirror in the Bathroom
Ween -- Bananas and Blow (live)
Steve Earle -- Shadowlands
Ramones -- Spiderman
Cake -- No Phone

storybreak: alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

The Mavericks -- Dance The Night Away
Dan Hicks w/ Elvis Costello -- Meet Me On The Corner
Toots and the Maytals w/ Willie Nelson -- Still Is Still Moving To Me
Some weird megaphone-esque German cover of Oops I Did It Again I found on BoingBoing, you really have to hear this.
Indigo Girls -- Get Out The Map
John Mayer -- My Stupid Mouth

storybreak: green eggs and ham

Michael Franti -- Yes I Will (acoustic)
Olu Dara -- Your Lips
Johnny Cash -- Personal Jesus
The Band -- Rag Mama Rag
Mosquitoes -- Boombox
Nirvana -- Polly

storybreak: where the wild things are

Ryan Adams -- Desire
Ani Difranco -- Studying Stones
Marc Cohn -- Mama's In The Moon
Ray Lamontagne -- Jolene
Patty Griffin -- Take It Down
Willie Nelson -- Always On My Mind (live w/ Johnny Cash)
Simon & Garfunkel -- American Tune (live)
The Grascals -- Viva Las Vegas

You've been listening to Tributary, your ten to midnight show on WNMH Northfield, MA. Tributary: from the airwaves to the stream, it's all about flow.

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