okay, so the fact that I have a bit of a soft spot for at least some Skynyrd songs is surprising. It surprises me a bit, too. No, I don't have an inner wild-woman or anything. I can also appreciate CCR and some of Tina Turner's stuff. (Especially her version of "Proud Mary.")

I was also quite fond of, and interested in, doo wop music when I was in high school. (Understand: I graduated in 1987 so doo wop had been off the pop culture radar for almost 30 years at that point). But good doo wop is pretty amazing, you have to admit - the complex harmonization, the almost-scatting of the chorus. And frankly, compared to the ethos of some current pop music, doo wop is positively angelic - most of it is focused on either:

a. I have a really sweet girlfriend and I love her a lot.
b. I wish that cute girl would notice me.
c. I wish I had the guts to ask that cute girl out on a date.
d. I love that girl from afar but she doesn't know I exist.

(I think doo wop is pretty much exclusively male; there were some girl groups that approached the sound, like the Ronettes, but not quite.)

(Thank God no one's come up with a hardcore rap/doo wop clone. Because that would truly be sad: to hear guys with beautiful harmonic voices singing about ho's and popping caps in people)

I can't sing worth a dime, so it always amazes me to hear people harmonize. I also like the Everly Brothers and the Proclaimers (who are kind of a spiritual descendent of the Everly Brothers, only Scots, I think).

****
I was very happy yesterday when I found a book I thought I had loaned out and lost forever. It's called The Sandwalk Adventures, by Jay Hosler.

It's a comic book (or, sigh, "graphic novel," if you prefer) about Darwin. (The "Sandwalk" was a really real place - you can see it here. It was sort of Darwin's "Thoughful Spot." [if it's not disrespectful to place a Winnie-the-Pooh allusion in a discussion of Darwin].)

In the book, he is recounting some of the experiences that helped him come up with his theory of evolution, and also talking about some of the basic principles of the theory.

he's recounting it to a follicle mite. No fake. It's kind of hard to explain but it totally works in the context of the book.

I love the book very much and was on the verge of ordering myself another copy. It's one of those books - and don't be fooled by the fact that it is a comic book - where you see something new each time you read it. For example, there are subtle links made between the evolution of "stories" (how they are passed down through generations) and the evolution of species.

it's also really really funny in places.

It would be a good book, I think, to introduce a middle-schooler to the concepts, and just to get them interested in it.

The drawing style is pretty charming; I can see where Hosler draws some inspiration from "Calvin and Hobbes."

The reason I was sad to think I'd lost the book is that it's one of the rare pieces of 'comfort reading' I keep on my school-office shelves. One of the things I take out after the occasional hard day or confrontation and read a few pages of to restore my equilibrium.