Better Than Michael Stipe

I’m turning my kids into R.E.M. fans. Their Aunt Kay would be proud.

After getting the class under control last night, Sarah came upstairs to hang out with me. I had told her a couple days ago about the “Man in the Moon” and “Stand” videos I had found on the ‘Net. Last night she asked to see them.

Well, we watched those two. Then I found the video for “Bad Day” — we laughed so hard we had to watch it three times. “Fall on Me”, “Losing My Religion”, “The End of the World as We Know It”, and several others followed. We sang, we laughed. We bonded.

And then, I hit gold. I found several videos from the Washington D.C. “Vote for Change” concert from October 2006. So, we had to go through not only all the R.E.M. videos, but all the Springsteen videos as well. Again, Aunt Kay would be proud. Sarah now knows who The Big Man is.

The funniest thing is watching Michael Stipe dance on stage. It’s like watching a programmer dance — flailing arms, disjointed movements, jumping up and down like a maniac. It is quite the sight to see. But through all of it, his voice remains strong and clear.

After we had missed Sarah’s bed time by two hours, it was time to stop. Sarah left me with these parting words: “Michael Stipe sings better than you, but you dance way better than Michael Stipe.”