Songs of 2010

Tame Impala, "Lucidity." This album is kind of poppy for me, but I played it a ton this year, especially when I was driving around in our bug convertible. It was just a summer lease, and that made it sweeter. The kids seemed to understand that it wouldn't be long before the family would be back to normal, trucking around in old Subarus, so they made the most of their time in their car seats, rarely fighting, hands shielding their eyes, listening to this album or Animal Collective's Fall Be Kind on our way to Wing Haven Nature Preserve or, more likely, Target.

38th Indiana Fiddler's Gathering

The glow things were reasonably priced.

People were jamming until 4 a.m. by our tent but the kids slept through it like the champion sleepers they are. And then I had this great breakfast burrito. There were lots of trees around us.

We were on the Tippecanoe battlefield, which I think had something to do with Indians. I'm about to remind myself on Wikipedia.

My friend Dean, picking until 5, back at it at 9.

Kids were mainly into running with other kids, but sometimes they sat down.

And then we were tired. A graduate of Indiana University, it is my sworn duty to disparage West Lafayette and everything related to it, especially for its supposed ugliness. But I have to say, the drive there was so nice. There are gentle hills that have rivers fitted between them with names like "The Tippecanoe," and the rivers move with a purpose that almost suggests a consciousness on their part that they are rivers and that there is a power in that. The rivers where I live don't behave that way. They need to be reminded which way is downstream sometimes, like they would rather seep outward, creep up their soaked banks, or just wait until August to dry out completely.