Things we're loving right now

Alex and I have developed a deep love for many things, mostly radio based since moving to NC. Dont be critical becuase most of them are on NPR. People on NPR are weird, but cool. And different- like way more liberal than we will ever be, but we're cool enough to tolerate strange ideas about things we've never really thought about. Some of the stuff we love:

Back Porch Music- there are no words to describe how much I love this program. I LOVE music and its always on at our house. Back porch music has helped me understand the south. I mean that seriously. Through BPM I've come to know and love groups like Hem, The Wailing Jenny's, the Steep Canyon Rangers, and Ricky Skaggs. And Patty Loveless. I cant even believe that I'm writing that. I hated Patty Loveless in high school. But now she's cool. Oh, and Appalchian Picking Society. See? I could keep going. I thnk its bordering on an illness. The Frey better look out. (I love them too.)

Wait, Wait, Dont Tell Me. I dont get to listen to this program as often as I like, but I download the podcast and laugh along. I love Carl Castle.

A Prairie Home Companion It's no secret around the house that I've read nearly everything Garrison Keillor wrote. I haunt the library waiting for new novels to show up. I download the News from Lake Wobegon and listen to my favorites over and over, and I listen to the poetry program he does every morning at the unearthly house of 5 AM (itunes of course. It would be really scary if I got up at 5 just for that).

Billy Collins I seriously cannot get enough of this poet. I once held my parents captive at my kitchen table while I read them such gems of poems like Hippos on Holiday and The Lanyard. My mother loved Country Mouse, and my Dad laughed at Afternoon with Irish Cows. We're a pretty nerdy family. My sister loves Longfellow and quotes him from memory, which I find impressive from a nerd standpoint.

My sister, Emily who loves Longfellow and cotton candy. We were being weird at the State fair, and Alex was taking a picture of me with our camera and thats why I'm staring off in a different direction.

Hippos on Holiday

is not really the title of a movie
but if it was I would be sure to see it.
I love their short legs and big heads,
the whole hippo look.
Hundreds of them would frolic
in the mud of a wide, slow-moving river,
and I would eat my popcorn
in the dark of a neighborhood theater.
When they opened their enormous mouths
lined with big stubby teeth
I would drink my enormous Coke.

I would be both in my seat
and in the water playing with the hippos,
which is the way it is
with a truly great movie.
Only a mean-spirited reviewer
would ask on holiday from what?