It's the little things

Last night we were trying to re-settle Thing 2 sometime around midnight-thirty. I fear he has inherited some of my insomniac tendencies and there are other complicating factors that would distract from the point of this post so, later.

As I was leaving his room having gotten him settled he said,

See you today.

I barely avoided busting out laughing, told him I loved him and he should go to sleep, and left the room. Only to squee at Pygment a moment later about our kid.

I don't know if this sort of event happens in other families, or even if it makes sense to anyone who isn't me, but I'm having a hard time putting to words how much joy I get from these little flashes of Thing2 being who he is.

Dance together

As I write this, SoundCloud has changed its logo to a cloud on a rainbow background. I grin every time I glance over at it. Here, have some tracks to dance with, a set that begins and ends in beauty. ETA: I've been told that some of these may be "private" tracks, which means that even with the URL you'll need to be logged into SoundCloud to hear them. Since I leave myself logged in all the time I don't notice; if this is a problem for anyone please let me know.

https://soundcloud.com/beatsantique/major-lazer-be-together-feat-wild-belle-beats-antique-remix
I play this again and again because it's so beautiful and so unlike what I expect. It's Beats Antique remixing Major Lazer/Wild Belle's "Be Together". B.A. has a 'sound' that I expect and so does M.L. And this isn't either of those things. It's trance-y and it makes me want to grab a partner and dance.

https://soundcloud.com/djenergy-5-1/major-lazer-dj-snake-lean-on
Following the Major Lazer thread I found this - a DJEnergy bootleg of Lazer/DJ Snake/M0 doing "Lean On" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqeW9_5kURI). I really like the original - the strong snap rhythms and floating vocals - and the bootleg presents a sped-up version with added house dance tropes. I just wish they'd done a little more careful job with the vocals. The speed-up doesn't do M0's voice a lot of favors.

https://soundcloud.com/hirshee/the-police-message-in-a-bottle-hirshee-remix-free-download
I think I found this via Mashup Radio - it's a Canadian DJ who goes by Hirshee giving the Police classic "Message in a Bottle" a very modern treatment. It's dirty house dancing music mixed with a large helping of nostalgia.

https://soundcloud.com/the-mashup-wyvern/tove-lo-vs-vonikk-blazing-body-edm-mashup
Another Tove Lo mash-up, this time an A|B against Vonikk's 2013 electro-house stomper "Blaze" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHKz3r-jGMc). The DJ goes as The Mashup Wyvern - yes, really. The Blaze track is hard and heavy, so it has to be toned down quite a bit and moved into the background so it doesn't overwhelm Tove Lo's vocals. It's an interesting idea but not a combination I would inherently have picked. However, finding "Blaze" makes it all worthwhile.

https://soundcloud.com/mashupgermany/tanz-mal-samba
Mashup Germany builds what can only be called a "samba style" mash. It's got nine tracks, several of which are well-known dance tunes themselves, but the core is a German samba track that's adapted to club rhythms. Gotta love those moves and fast-paced vocals.

https://soundcloud.com/color-station/baile-leaves-feat-felicia-douglass
Normally I'd go out on a Mashup German track, but this one is so different it deserves the encore spot. This is so-called "slow house", which is almost downtempo, not quite minor-key dominated. It's definitely the sort of thing you end a set with, letting people wind down and filter off the floor. I found this by following a set of links from Class Actress, so it's no surprise that Felicia Douglass - the featured vocalist here - has a similar-sounding voice. Baile builds a more complex soundscape around the voice than I'm used to, with complex tempos and timing changes throughout.