Thursday, July 18, 2013

At least it keeps them off the streets....

This weekly wrap-up should really be presented with its own theme song...which would be composed by the not-yet-famous duo of Derek and Riley...but on second thought, given their band-practice antics during the past several days, I deeply fear what they might create from their diabolical little musical minds, so let's just skip that part, shall we? Perhaps I should back up and start from the beginning...

I guess it all kicked off when Derek asked if he could download something by Kanye to his iPod. As I opened my mouth to shoot down this clearly ludicrous (Ludacris? Yeah, he's right there on the banned list as well...) request, he hastened to assure me that "it's not marked E for explicit!" You mean to tell me you managed to find the possibly one-and-only tune unobjectionable enough for me to accept? Well, alrighty then! Next thing you know, the brothers have resurrected their basement band (I know: again? Let's just say they have more creative differences than Hostess has Twinkies...) and have sequestered themselves downstairs, rebuffing all who attempt to enter their sanctum so they can feverishly scribble away in secret, on the scraps of paper they have scattered around them on every available surface. It certainly looks like the work of mad songwriting geniuses...and they're getting along so well...so I leave them to it.

Thus I returned upstairs to...I don't know, do "Mom stuff". (Okay, okay, probably "surf FB rather than be productive", but hey, that's my prerogative, right?) Suddenly Derek came thudding up the stairs, careening around the corner, holding on to the door jamb to keep himself from tumbling into my room. He paused just long enough to blurt out--in a breathless manner--"Is DaVinci Italian?" Utterly mystified, I confirmed that yes, he was dead, but nevertheless hailed from Italy. With no further explanation whatsoever, he bolted off, leaving me staring after his departing back and wondering just what the HECK was going on in their underground lair. Of course, I was right to be worried, as I discovered when I gave in to my rampant curiosity and made an unscheduled visit to the center of the boys' creation station. (Um, that would also be known as "the air hockey table"...where they'd laid out the...pencils and notebooks of their craft...) Practically bubbling with enthusiasm, Derek informed me that "We're writing raps!" (Oh, help me to contain my overwhelming joy.) He continued, "In one verse, I managed to use Caesar, Fiat, Italy, and DaVinci!" Riley also quoted Derek as having enthused, "Hey, I used a metaphor! Metaphors are good!" Although in the recounting, Derek sounded inordinately pleased with himself, Riley felt compelled to correctly identify the structure as a simile instead. Derek's reply was apparently, "Whatever, similes are good, too!" (Um...at least they're...educated rappers? This just gets better and better, I tell ya...)

I really had no reasonable response to that little revelation, but it didn't matter, because a moment later my younger son had this to share about the writing process: "It's hard to keep it clean"--and as I gaped disbelievingly at him he explained, "You know, like rappers use all these bad words every other sentence, and we're not doing that." Darn right you're not, my children who--even if they DO actually know the curse words, also understand they'd better not get caught using them in front of me. Therefore, non-profane rapping it is, apparently...from the up-and-coming young group who would like to be known as (wait for it) Lawn Gnome Ecstasy. I. Don't. Know. Why. (But their sudden interest in all things rap-related makes me ponder the question: are they just extremely happy gnomes...or are they nipping at the illicit...garden...substances? Hmm...) And then, for their finale of the week, this evening they informed me that there's some kind of device that you can hook up to the computer to capture audio...and save it to iTunes. So naturally they want to order this wondrous gadget immediately and record themselves for posterity. Sigh. Some days, I reaaallly miss the simple, wholesome Jonas Brothers years...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

They could probably just use the laptop camera and mic for practice, and get the better cam and mic later when they're read to record/post. And 04Quad's "White Lines" doesn't have any "car words", I think? Maybe start with a cover of that?

Johna Enders said...

LOL, thanks for the flashback, dude (and I still remember some of the words...I'll have to look up the rest!)