I Will Accept Payment To Re-Sign Boston's Roadways

I've been spending a lot of time in the car with young children this week. I'm babysitting for two delightful kids, and we've been hitting a lot of destinations outside their neighborhood. On Monday we drove to the Children's Museum, and today we went all the way over to East Boston to Piers Park.

On Monday, we weren't in the car five minutes before one of them was asking for music. Um...will Neko Case do? You don't find her combination of bizarre lyrics and unconventional song structure compelling, five year-old child? Nor you, three-year old? I tried the radio--the kids cheered because "We love grown-up music!"--but the first song that came on was Eminem's new ode to domestic violence.


Too grown-up.

Luckily there was a copy of the soundtrack for O Brother, Where Art Thou? in the car. I would never choose to listen to that on my own. But the oldest child immediately dubbed it, "farm music" and said, "I never heard it before today but I LOVE farm music!" The younger one fell asleep immediately. Farm Music rules.

Today, I was nervous about navigating out to East Boston, so I convinced them to listen to Farm Music rather than their CD of kids' music. In return, I promised to play the kids' one during the ride home. Could anything be worse than missing your exit in Boston, where wrong turns are irrevocable errors that lead to hours of meandering and no, you're not lost, you know exactly where you are, but every street is one-way going the wrong way and you can SEE Storrow Drive, it's right there but there's no sign for how to get there, because if you really BELONGED here, you would already know how to get there, so just GO HOME already, you interloper!

Yes, it could. You could be driving in Boston while listening to this:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgx541LvPqg