There isn't any reason

Al made me a Stuart Davis CD. It's the first time she's burned a data CD--yes, they're all in mp3 form so I have practically every Stuart Davis song worth having, according to the local Stuart Davis authority.

And, in these 97 songs, which one am I listening to? THE SKIN CANCER SONG.

Perhaps I should explain. One day, probably a couple of weeks ago now, Jenn came into our room and said, "What's the name of that Stuart Davis song about the world going to shit?"

I laughed and said she'd have to be more specific than that.

"You know, the one where he talks about skin cancer and fur and..."

"What?" I had no idea what she was talking about. But then, I don't know that many Stuart Davis songs. "Ask Allison," I suggested, and then did it myself since I was sitting at my computer. I sent her an IM saying Jenn wanted to know the song about the world going to shit and she was babbling about fur and skin cancer.

"It's on the CD you have," Jenn said. "I know, I heard it earlier today."

in that case we could just play through the songs on that part of the CD, which is what I did. Of course when I got to "It's All Just Because" she said it was that one. I laughed; I'd never before thought that this song was about skin cancer and fur.

Then I turned back to my computer and saw that Al had replied to my message. "Is she talking about 'It's All Just Because'?" I was amazed that such a sentence would actually make sense to anyone, and that she came up with the right answer right away.

The sun causes cancer and lust causes sin
fashion causes people to fail to fit in
sex causes babies and sleep causes dreams
and chicks cause confusion and low self esteem

Six causes seven and life causes death
smoke causes asthma and shortness of breath
air causes bubbles and leaders cause war
and the truth about after is it causes before

Race causes hate, burgers cause fries
a million dead Iraqis causes national pride
bureaucrats cause poverty and clams causes pearls
and humans cause extinction in the animal world

Beauty causes envy, money causes greed
nature causes everyone to want what they don't need
deforestation causes deserts to occur
and vanity causes the murder of small endangered animals
so you can wear their fur

We all should try to change it, but nobody does
there isn't any reason it's all just because

Schools cause education, and children cause us joy
history causes knowledge than none of us employ
our culture causes apathy and vineyards cause grapes
a country's intervention causes nations to be raped

We all could make a difference but nobody does
there isn't any reason it's all just because

We all should try to change it, but nobody does
there isn't any reason it's all just because

So anyway ever since then Jenn has been on a Stuart Davis kick. Sometimes she'll say she just wants to listen to Stuart Davis and one time she said she wanted to listen to "Pipe Bomb Guru," but usually she says she wants to hear THE SKIN CANCER SONG! The upshot of all this is that I've heard the 10 or 12 Stuart Davis songs on that CD a lot and as much as I love his music I'm about to go crazy and beat Jenn with something and say "We do have other CDs, you know!"

So then Al makes me a Stuart Davis CD, something we've been talking about for a long time. I think I was jealous of the one she made for Matthew (because I asked her to; he independently discovered one of my friends' great obsessions and I thought it'd be cool to introduce him to "Pipe Bomb Guru" and "Atavistic Viking" and "Anesthesia Necrophilia" and all the rest of the songs we love so much). She ended up making me a data CD, and thus could fit all the Stuart Davis songs on it.

And out of all those, I turn it on this morning, put it on random, and what do I hear? THE SKIN CANCER SONG.