I think this is one of the most 'funny because it's true' observations I've ever made, so I'm inflicting it on all of you even though you'll probably have no idea what I'm talking about. There's this band called Beachwood Sparks. Brent downloaded a couple of their songs - actually I'd never heard of them before. They're very post-hard-night-out, washed out, pretty alt-country, from what I can gather, you know: 'we've taken a lot of acid and we love Gram Parsons'. (Someone I was at LSU with once called this genre 'y'all-ternative', which I think is cute.) Anyway, they do a really appealing cover of that recent Sade song, 'By Your Side' (which is like a wee miracle in her oeuvre, I think - gorgeous). I was trying to work out why I like it so much, and it occurred to me: the band *totally* sounds like the serious Muppets. You know, when the Muppets did a really slow, meaningful song and you tried not to be moved by it, but you found yourself sort of touched anyway, and if you were me you might even get a bit teary? Like their versions of 'Time in a Bottle' when the old scientist-Muppet is drinking potions to make himself younger, or 'For What it's Worth' when all the hunters come in and the chorus of little animals tries to escape from the guns... or when Kermit sings 'It's Not Easy Being Green'. When I was a kid I thought that was the saddest thing...

I'm explaining this to Brent as I write and he's laughing hysterically because he thinks these scenes are more 'scary funny acid' than serious. Maybe I'm the only person who ever thought the Muppets were serious. At all.