I Tune

I finally broke down and paid for music on iTunes, as much as I hate the idea of paying Apple for music. Oh well. Fortunately, there aren’t many songs I’d pay for which I don’t already own, so at least it won’t be a recurring theme.

I figure it makes sense, though, for a certain set of conditions. Specifically: (a) for something I really want, (b) that’s incredibly obscure and can’t be found elsewhere, and (c) where I have no interest in buying the entire album. That usually means vintage obscurity, and that’s what I found myself buying on Thursday.

What’s doubly interesting is the contrast between the two songs I bought. Apparently I’ve always had pretty diverse, esoteric tastes, because you'd have a hard time finding two more opposite Seventies-era artists than James Taylor and Alice Cooper. “Is That the Way You Look?” is an atypical (for JT) doo-wop ditty full of infatuation, while “Go to Hell” is teenage angst-rock. And how can you argue with a lyric like: “You’d even force-feed a diabetic a candy cane”?

Happy Caturday!

It’s not every day that you go out and buy someone who’ll be your partner for the next ten or fifteen years. Say hello to Grady, a three year-old who will be moving in with me on Tuesday, after he gives up being a male. He was given up about two weeks ago, when the owner’s newborn developed an allergy.

Fortunately, he doesn’t have much stuff, because it’d be a nightmare trying to rent a U-Haul on the weekend when all the college kids move back into Boston!

The pix aren’t great—they’re all I could manage with a very affectionate cat in the kennel at Angell Memorial. You can bet there’ll be a lot more to come, starting next week!

Picking a cat was hard. I’m very controlling, especially of my living space, and it’s very hard to tell what you’re going to get when you check the cats out in a kennel. But at some point you have to make a decision, and I took it as practice in letting go and accepting (and trusting) what the circumstances provided.

What I do know is that he’s very affectionate, loves attention, and is big on head-butting. He’s a grey, which is what in my heart I hoped I could get; I think he’ll be very photogenic. According to the personality profile form that the owner filled out, he came from a good household, was the only cat, was an indoor-only cat, and doesn’t seem to have any bad behaviors related to eating or the catbox. They did answer “yes” to scratching the furniture, but I’ll work on that, and hopefully his neutering will further control any remaining problematic behaviors.

I’d always wondered what I’d do about naming any cat I adopted. Of course, any adult is going to come with their own name, but I also had my own list of names, including the ones I mentioned in this post. However, Grady is a fine name, and I really like the punnishness of “Gray-dee” for a gray cat.

However, he’s already gotten his first nickname: Gravy! And I suppose there’s also the predictable (Grey) Poupon, and (Stuart) O’Grady, the Australian bike racer. No songs yet, tho.

Amusingly, when the personality profile asked if the cat has any unique behaviors, the owner wrote: he claps his hands. Interesting. We’ll have to check that out! Might make for good pictures or video.

So here’s my first welcome of my new roommate. Puggie, I hope somewhere out there you’re proud of me, man.