the musical fruit: movement #10.
song: "funny the way it is," dave matthews band
fruit: forelle pear



i don't mean to turn this column into a constant trip down memory lane, but here goes. i used to really like the dave matthews band. i saw them in concert a couple times around the first album & definitely had the exclusive recently ep you could only get via mail-order. it was during college, which is pretty much the only time i find it acceptable for anyone to listen to dave matthews & it was a time when i was playing a lot more guitar. my buddy tom & i had a band called "secret ninja." we had an album's worth of originals in our repertoire, but we definitely tried to learn a lot of the songs from under the table & dreaming and crash as well. a good portion of the time, my fingers were too small/inexperienced for the funky dave matthews chord structures that gave their songs their texture. anyway, good times but i haven't listened to the dmb in a decade.

now they have a new song--"funny the way it is," the first single off of their upcoming album big whiskey and the groogrux king. stupidest. name. ever. it's ten times worse than return to cookie mountain. i learned of it because tom mentioned a "new dave matthews band song" on his facebook wall. first i learn about michael jackson's death from my facebook wall & now i learn about this. who says facebook is a useless, mindless time suck? not me. the song's typical dmb. by that i mean that the opening lyrics are "lying in the park on a beautiful day, sunshine in the grass and the children play. siren’s passing, fire engine red, someone’s house is burning down on a day like this?" it goes on like that, with such groanworthy lyrics as "funny the way it is, if you think about it. one kid walks 10 miles to school, another’s dropping out." deep, dave. deep. it's like "ironic," but not as funny. the music's inoffensive enough, but i can't get past wanting to punch dave matthew's lyrics in the jeans.

last night whilst taking my trip to the dmb, i had myself a forelle pear, imported from dave matthew's homeland of south africa. this particular one was grown by capespan, a global fruit company that's located just a few miles east of parow, a northern cape town suburb. that's my last name! it's like i'm eating my neighbor! capespan grows a ton (bunch?) of fruits--citrus fruits, apricots, plums, avocados. junk like that. two of their avocado types are the "pinkerton" & the "ryan." that's my high school & roommate! so yeah, i really feel like i can identify with capespan.

the picture above is actually of a forelle pear i got earlier this month. by the time i finally got around to eating it, it was mealy & disgusting, but i liked the photo, so it stuck. last night's pear was significantly less orange & less mealy...tinier than your average pear but more enjoyable. i enjoy eating fruit with the skin on it if at all possible & the forelle passed the "skin on" challenge. the inside had a somewhat crisp feel & a taste that i can only describe as "peary but better." it wasn't the del monte's fruit cocktail pear of my childhood but a real, sweet but unsyruped pear. funny the way it is...it went down better than the new dave matthews band song did.