Gnarls Barkley and my Dad should TOTALLY kick it.

I couldn't help it. I gave in.

I downloaded the Gnarls Barkley CD from i-tunes because having "crazy" and "smiley faces" at my disposal was just too good an offer. Really, both those songs are worth my $11.99 plus tax. Thanks, i-tunes for making me an offer I simply could not refuse. I give you money and you give me fodder for annoying everyone I know with talk of this album like I invented them. Give me a break.

Per my recent discussion of how much I like girl oohy ooohy music, I had to chuckle at myself for buying an album with a song entitled "necromancer".... But WHO CARES. I can't help it. This album makes me feel like I should have a car, and drive it around with this album blaring and do some awful white-girl dances involving invisible lassos, slapping invisible asses, and pounding my open palms against an invisible wall.

Though, I must say with all the buzz that this album is getting, I am totally digging the last song. I blame my love on this disco-flavored tune "The Last Time" that begs "when was the last time you danced?" squarely on my father.

My dad is a character. He's very straight-laced. He doesn't drink. He laughs REALLY hard at a good fart joke, and loves to talk about how he STILL, TO THIS DAY, didn't get The Matrix. He has pocket protectors and his favorite thing in the whole wide world is a sunny day and his deck full of bonsai trees. He is the kind of guy who can't sit still but doesn't really like to REALLY push it activity-wise so standing upright outside in old jeans and fastidiously pruning delicate, expensive plants REALLY just makes him SO HAPPY. My dad is a smart fellow, but one of very simple joys.

My father's other simple joy?

Disco.

My dad was one of those guys who in 1982 was in COMPLETE and UTTER denial that disco had died and that hip-hop, new wave, and the beginnings of electronica had taken over. NO way. Dad still did the hustle, and still had a VERY INTENSE leisure suit of yellow, orange, green, red and white plaid. I AM SO NOT KIDDING. (It made a very good Halloween costume for years. It still lives in the attic so my dad has physical proof that this time no longer exists.) I think he likes it because the 70's were when he was young and cool, and a pretty good dancer. Dad is a quiet fellow, so he sort of just let his feet do the talking. Disco is easy to understand, the lyrics don't make sense (HELLO, MacArthur Park?) and it harkens back to a simpler time where things weren't complicated by kids, money, a job that stresses him out, and a changing world. He and my mom fell in love by going out disco-dancing.

As a child, when my Mom was out and we would hang out with Dad, this meant he put on The BeeGees, or Donna Summer and we'd mug for the video camera. They have drawers full of enough blackmail to last us WELL through our adult lives. My brother would duck down and then appear RIGHT INFRONT of the camera and make gross faces and wiggle around. I would twirl.

At my cousin's wedding in March, I drunkenly told my father that at my wedding the dreaded Father-Daughter dance should be the hustle. You should have seen that face light up. It was like 24 years of dread + how ever many more years until WHENEVER that should be was lifted from his shoulders.

He doesn't dance much these days, but I think when my youngest sibling goes off to college in the fall he and my mom are going to get back to strutting their stuff, empty-nester styles.

So when was the last time you danced? I can tell you mine. Brit-pop night. April.