the Spider Monkey experiences the Gorillaz

our dear beloved daughter can be finicky about some things. Food happens to be a big thing. what toys that just happens to 'catch her eye' is another.
music is something we discovered she isn't AS finicky about as long as it has a good groove or beat to it. G and I both listen to music alot. I'm a musician and I have a certain kind of music I'm into playing and writing, but for the most part I listen to most anything. G is more into the alternative rock, punk, etc. although she does enjoy other genres occasionally. More often than not I'll be listening to the likes of Peter Gabriel, Genesis, Rush...harder rock like Disturbed, Metallica, Godsmack...and then trance/electronica (mostly because anything with lots of keyboards and such always gets my attention).
So we pretty much have a variety of music floating about the house at anytime. Autumn, as I mentioned, pretty much loves anything with a beat or a good groove. However, once in awhile she'll hear something that just makes her move and get excited more than anything else. I've discovered that there are songs by Big Country she likes alot. Then there is dance music. Three 'artists' that I've really been into lately are 4strings, Paul Van Dyk, and Armin Van Buuren. Each of the three have their own 'style' imprinted on the world dance/trance/electronica. Autumn apparently loves Armin's music because I was playing some earlier today and she was just moving up and down, nodding her head, waving her arms and being happy. And a happy Autumn is very good.

Now, you may ask, what's with the title of the post. Okay, I'll "get on with it". I dubbed AR my Spider Monkey because ever since we got her in China, she'd hang off of our necks, writhe around in our arms, loves to be held upside down (safely of course) and sit on my shoulders while I bounce up and down. She'll just drape herself over our bodies or arms and just get a kick out of it.
So tonight we were watching TV...we don't watch alot...and typically when we've got it on we've got it on cartoons for Autumn. She will look at the TV occasionally, but not for long...like nothing really keeps her attention for more than a minute. Tonight however, we were watching a show on HD-Net and right after they were showing the Gorillaz. The difference being that this was a live performance so the guys played, and they had backing musicians, singers, and the "guests" that appeared on the CD doing their thing. Now the Gorillaz have some songs that really groove, but I figured we'd be watching this for our own enjoyment. We were surprised when Autumn suddenly stopped playing with her toys on her playmat and sat and watched and moved around to the music. The stage was backlit with lots of colour and video, the backup singers were grooving, etc. It was quite something to realise that this kept her attention like nothing else had as well as had her grooving in her own little way. She even mimiced the crowd a couple of times and clapped...as well as clapped when a group of children who performed on one song were dancing and clapping. G and I both looked at each other and giggled with happiness. Who knew?!
the Spider Monkey experienced the Gorillaz...and it was good.