He loves computers, and I guess he considers himself a gamer.  He also likes D&D (he is a “dungeon master” with his friends), he stills plays Minecraft once in a while, and lately has been into Magic the Gathering cards. But the thing I’ve been noticing is he has really been into music.  His taste seems to be in the electronica, mostly a crossover from soundtracks to the games he plays.  I first noticed this when he wanted to go see a live orchestra playing the soundtrack to one of his favorite video games.  “You want to go see live music?  I’m in!”

When we closed our office I had to relocate our studio audio system to my house.  It included a McIntosh integrated amp and turntable.  It’s a pretty sweet setup that W+R’s CFO and resident audiophile Karl Ziegler setup.  One of our devs, Paul Gustafson, build a pretty sweet custom walnut rack made especially for the setup.

At home, I showed him how to turn on the system, how to place a record on the turntable, and how to drop the needle. He watched intently and marveled at the “analog” of it all.

Earlier this week he said he wanted to buy an album of a musician/DJ he liked.  Album?  That means a visit to the record store. I’m in!

As we drove to my local record store (Port of Sound Record Shoppe in Costa Mesa), I walked him around the aisles full of pull out drawers, we let our fingers walk through albums in the bargain racks, and I pointed to the signs hanging from the ceiling, “Rock”, “Punk”, “Blues” and “Electronica”.  His face beamed with excitement when he found the album in one of the drawers. We bought it and started the short drive home.  As we drove I streamed the music of the new album (Nurture) in my car.  He told me about the artist (Porter Robinson), what were his favorite tracks, and told me to listen for the sounds of “running on crunchy grass” and that the music was meant to be “glitchy”, (Gahlord Dewald would approve).  

His excitement and knowledge were contagious. As we talked more about music together I missed the right turn to our neighborhood. So, I headed further down the road and took a right heading north on PCH driving into an orange sunset. Music coming through the speakers and the sound of his voice, not wanting this time with him to end.

He’s my oldest son.  He’ll be a junior in high school next year.  It’s all happening so fast.