I have the answer!

Apparently Timmy the emerald crab has a bit of OCD. Or he's shy. Either way, he's been sitting in the narrow space between two rocks (neither of which has any bubble algae) for the better part of a week. He's not dead -- I checked. I might need to get another one to give him some competition or something.

I got home today and found a big box of vegetarian marshmallows (from Sweet & Sara) on my doorstep, which means that the Kraken-cake (for the six year old's birthday party this weekend) can be gelatin free. I had to try a couple and let me say, they taste exactly how they should. I also got a couple packs of "specialty" flavors. Two words: peppermint chocolate. Hot cocoa is going to be good and guilt-free this year.

I'm now working at home two days a week (and after today's lunchtime conversation, Rvan almost made me work at home the other three days, too...). The great thing about working from home is that I can sit in a holey shirt and sweatpants, and listen to music. I realize that this is how Eric is at work, but I'm a consummate professional and I wear jeans to work.

Anyway, the new music this week is the album $O$ by Die Antwoord, a "zef"-style rap/hip-hop group from South Africa.

First off, let me say that I don't listen to a lot of rap. I'm pretty sure this qualifies as hip-hop because that's the category it's in and besides, they mention every band member in every single song.

I've never purchased an album with a little red "Explicit" warning next to every single song. Even the digital liner notes have an "Explicit" warning. But somehow I was exposed to a few of their songs (certainly not on the radio, because they would have to take out 90% of the lyrics) and there's something there that I like. The video for Evil Boy is visually stunning. (Please don't track it down at work and blame me when you get fired. It's really, really not safe for work. Really.)

Sure, one could argue that I have nothing in common with South African rappers, but let's face it -- if I have to limit my music to white women in their forties with multiple cats who write software and have a degree in veterinary medicine... it's going to be slim pickings.

Shockingly, there aren't any words on the album that I didn't know. Can you imagine that? Actually, that's a lie. There are all sorts of words on the album that I didn't know, but they're in Afrikaans or (some other language that I don't know and am too lazy to go look up).

The main thing I love about this band is the humor. They don't take themselves too seriously. In "She Makes Me A Killer" the male singer (known as "Ninja" -- see, they really don't take themselves seriously at all) talks about the problems he's having with women:
- The first one dumps him because he takes her home and she finds out he lives with his mother.
- The second one sleeps with him on the first date, then goes psycho when he's at the next gig signing "Ninja was here" on another fan's chest.
- The third one attacks him because they're getting hot and heavy when someone walks in and he offers her to his friend -- he explains "I thought Barney said 'Sharing is caring'?" (Yes, that's Barney as in Barney the purple dinosaur.)

The other singer is Yo-landi Va$er -- she looks like a schoolgirl with a weird mullet, but she has an impressive sound. If you read stuff on the web about this band, one of the complaints is that this group can't be "authentic" because Yo-landi may have (gasp!) a college degree... I say there are enough stupid people in the world (cf. Insane Clown Posse and the Juggalos); I don't need to disqualify people because they have brains.

Anyhow, they you have it, my mini-review of the new Die Antwoord album. I think it's a lot of fun, but I realize that many people won't agree. They can go back to their Celine Dion albums and ignore this.

Now I just need to make sure that I don't start singing anything under my breath while I'm concentrating on something else...