cranberry bogs and ska music

So, for some odd reason I decided to Google an album that I had about 10 or 11 years ago called "Ska Down her Way: Women of Ska."

I remember adoring this album back in my "ska-kid" days.

I spent countless evenings lying on my bedroom floor--my combat boots with the checkered laces tossed carelessly near the bed, my silver bomber jacket with sewn-on patches from all my favorite bands draped over my desk chair--singing along to that album.

And for some reason, it popped into my head to look up that album again. I found it on Amazon...although it's now out-of-print and only available through sellers willing to part with it. Luckily, many of the tracks can be heard in-full on Last.fm.

But listening to those old tracks again, with their island-y, poppy, trumpet-y melodies, I got to thinking about how much I still love that music. At Fat Cat on Thursday nights, our softball team usually gets together after games for some food and chit chat. We've always sat outside, but on occasion I've ventured inside to use the facilities, and I've noticed that they play a whole lot of ska music. I mean good stuff, old stuff, classic pure root-of-all-that-is-skafully-wonderful, unabashed ska.

And you know what I want right now? Like really bad? Especially since last.fm works like a radio station and is pumping some mad-awesome ska into my headphones right this very minute? (And it's based on what artists I like. For example, if I put in "Agent 99," which is an awesome ska band, Last.fm will continually stream related artists. And right now, they're playing one of the best Chicago soul, reggae, ska bands---ever: Deal's Gone Bad. This. Is. Fantastic!) But I'm digressing...here's what I want:

I want to sing in a ska band.

Not gonna happen, I know. But it's going on my list of weird things that I want to try at least once. It's one step below "Walk in a cranberry bog" and one step above "Visit a llama farm." Okay, maybe it's tied with the llama farm.

I could, possibly combine the two I guess. You know, visit a llama farm with a ska band and put on a show?

Actually, that *might* be cooler in a cranberry bog.

What to do? What to do?!