the INLAID EAR

Musical Pins Which silly songs should I sing to my offspring? Which among the endless favorites do I frame in fleeting windows of cultural training, training, bo-baining—banana, fana fame? The Ministry of Silly Walks. Ning Nang Nong. Everything on YouTube is, in ways, the same. Which silly songs will my offspring sing to me? Will they loop It’s Peanut Butter Jelly Time behind some failed candidate’s concession speech? I dig it’s a catchy spoof, though I’m aging with the standards in my organ’s memory. To share is share enough! We have in common maps, spots, sing-alongs, phrenological peaks. The specific GIFs, luckily there, carry our closeness closer in true and skewed rhymes—so Sing the Beer Barrel Polka, that peppy air, or make something up over Scarborough Fair. Bill Griffith!

Bill Griffith's "Musical Pins" inspired not just one queron but a second as footnotes. “Even if you’ve never had a piano lesson in your life…” 1            three Zippy the Pinhead comic strips 2 1. These days you can get a gloss of anything you don’t understand, watch Liberace’s spot for The Baldwin Fun Machine, get sold and ring it up with shipping—without leaving your post. Then videocapture with all your being! 2. Saturday Night Sing-a-longs—teens thing they’re tops! Mom puts out a plate of garbanzo crescents. Dad plugs in the home fog machine and flash pots. Suddenly you’re three of the many Osmonds. “I think about your lovin’.” “Double lovin’.” 3. We’re graced with a visit from our long-nosed friend, so we gather around the keyboard console. His face opens up—such a sweet audience. When he starts to get confused after a while, we explain: the organ sounds best off. So stop ...