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Fay, my biggest fan and the individual who, at the moment, holds the title of Greatest Person in the World, had just sent me a couple They Might Be Giants albums. And my parents had recently made me get my permit. So, I'm baking cookies (or preparing to, at least), which is one of my latest pastimes, when I realize that we are out of brown sugar. Mom says we can go to the store if I will drive. "Fine," I say, but I get to pick the music.

A couple of minutes later, we're pulling onto the street leading out of my neighborhood and a slightly nasaly voice sings "S-E-X-X-Y." Mom gets a funny look on her face, turns to me, and shakes her head in disbelief. Anything that gets me a look like that is fine by me.

Like anyone else who has ever seen Tiny Toons, The Daily Show, or Malcolm in the Middle, I had heard the group before ninth grade when I met Gesture, but I never really got interested in them until she accidentally left Apollo 18 at my house and I listened to it a couple of times before getting it back to her. Over the next year or two, she fed me a fairly decent diet of Flood, and I found "Dead" and "Birdhouse in Your Soul." And that's where Fay comes in.

This music is brilliant. It's not necessarily dance music, but it does make good background music for parties. I don't think any of it is less than 100 bpm (even "Hopeless Bleak Despair"). Marshall says it's "just this side of girl music," which I still haven't figured out, but maybe someone will... The lyrics are rather odd; if I'm not mistaken, one of the warning sides of several mental disorders (or maybe just sleep deprivation...) is to start understanding TMBG lyrics. True story - late one night at Gesture's when I had had too much to drink {by which I mean orange soda}, "The Statue Got Me High" started making sense. And then, of course, there's "Mammal," "James K. Polk," and other such songs that sound like they're being read from text books.

My favourite songs are "Dead" and "If I Wasn't Shy" at the moment. That is not to say that there's a single song on Flood, Factory Showroom, or Apollo 18 that I don't like. TMBG is made up of John Flansburgh and John Linnell (humourously enough, all the sidemen in their live band are named Dan), has been around for 21 years, and has remained something of a cult favourite. But in addition to all of this, we know it's great - it has Terry Pratchett's approval.

By the way, Fay, I've got some time now, so I'll get to your figurines right quick.

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Created June 30, 2003.