These are some of my favorite sounds:
- The Finsters cracking tiny seed hulls in their beaks.
- The crash when Peanut tosses the plastic cap out of his nest.
- The Finsters chirping their normal, nearly constant chirps.
- The Finsters singing their Hunka Hunka Burning Love song.
- The Finsters singing their Hunka Hunka Burning Love song when they're inside a nest box. Nice acoustics!
- Peanut squawking, chortling, arnking, or making other noises, particularly when he's eating at the same time!
- The loud call of a blue jay discovering we've put out more peanuts.
These are some of Peanut's favorite sounds:
- Loud music. Oh, he has his preferences. You can see his music list below. You can also see and hear him rocking out in this little movie (assuming my settings and your browser are set correctly).
- My lovely, lovely singing voice.
- Running water, and its subset:
- Peeing. When he's in the bathroom with you, for the added acoustics of a small room lined with tiles. Boys are better than girls since the stream starts higher and therefore is louder. That's all I'll say about that, except to point out that a small bird and a big bowl of water is a bad combination, so be careful if you try this at home.
- The corollary: The first toilet flush in the morning, because then Peanut knows I'm about to come out to greet him.
- Howard Dean's voice.
- Ovaltine's Hunka Hunka Burning Love song — it was so loud one day that Peanut flew right over and hung onto the Finsterium wall just a few inches away to listen.
- Plastic grocery bags getting crumpled. I think it sounds like water. Or something. He yells and yells at them, and occasionally gets up enough nerve to bite at them, which can make it very hard to put food away.
Peanut's Mix, version 1.0 (2003), in no particular order (except the first one):
- The theme song from the TV show Malcolm in the Middle by They Might Be Giants is Peanut's favorite, probably because Bruce and I sing along to it. If you scroll about halfway down this page you can hear a bit of it. You can also get the ringtone for your phone if you're interested.
- "Addicted to Love" by Robert Palmer, you can hear a clip from The Very Best of Robert Palmer (thanks for the clips, Amazon).
- "African Skies" by Simple Minds, from Real Life.
- "American Pie" by Don McLean, from American Pie.
- "Peter Gunn" (well, who wouldn't love this one?) and "Baby Elephant Walk" by Henry Mancini, hear clips of both from Henry Mancini Greatest Hits.
- "Body and Soul/Dinah" by Benny Goodman, Air Play.
- "Blackbird" by The Beatles, performed by my nephew Sam. Can't find clips of The Beatles' stuff anywhere, I suppose we blame Michael Jackson for that.
- "Cecilia" by Simon and Garfunkel, Bridge Over Troubled Water.
- "Don't Turn Out Like Your Mother" by The Proclaimers, from Hit the Highway, although I can't find a clip of it anywhere.
- "Graceful Ghost Rag" by William Bolcom, Bolcom - Piano Rags.
- "I'll Fly Away" by Gillian Welch & Alison Krauss, from Down From the Mountain.
- "Keep Young and Beautiful" (of all things!) by Annie Lenox, from Diva.
- "Loch Lomond" by Steve McDonald, from Sons of Somerled.
- "March of the King of Laois" by the Chieftains, from The Wide World Over.
- "Running up that Hill" by Kate Bush, from Hounds of Love.
- "The Girl From Ipanema" from Getz Plays Jobim, although almost any recording of this song would count.
- "Tracks" (or "Titles") by Vangelis, from Chariots of Fire.