I smiled all the way through this....

... and also almost broke down and cried from sheer pleasure. I've always loved the use of things other than instruments for percussion — ever since a transplendent Incredible String Band concert I saw when I was a teenager where they kicked an old trunk for a bass drum sound. But this beats all. We all need to work harder at whatever it is we're doing, just like Ben Folds. It's a cover of something that was already awfully wonderful:



The Ben Folds clip came recommended to me in the first email I opened as I got on line in my old favorite coffeehouse here in Madison, Wisconsin, where I arrived last night. This morning I got in my car — can I still drive after not driving for a month? — and the disc player came on in the middle of the song I'd played over and over the last time I was here:



Am I still in the mood to find that almost unbearably touching? Could I ever be in the mood to listen to the Incredible String Band again?