Waking Ear

I forgot to mention the best musical moment of my weekend trip. The aforementioned ATA also plays music videos during boarding, and most of them are relatively current. But randomly, they played "On My Own," the 1986 duet by Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald. Now that's a song I've not heard for a long time.

In the video, LaBelle and McDonald stroll around the city on a split screen, looking forlorn. They're a horrible match musically, and they don't even look like they'd hang out -- LaBelle with her wild hair and stylish clothes, McDonald in lots of khaki. McDonald even misses some notes. The whole song's much worse than I remember it being.

Which is why I can't really explain how giddy I felt watching it. I think it was the sheer nuttiness of seeing the video on the airplane. Airlines usually only show you video from their entertainment partners, who are promoting movies or TV shows or gadgets or SkyMall or whatever. It's very coordinated. But ghetto-ass ATA had no agenda! They were bringing the people Patti LaBelle, because why the hell not?