I admit to having strong negative opinions about certain musicians and types of music. For instance, I won’t listen to rap nor hip hop music. And I don’t like country music. That’s why I’ve never had a taste for Jimmy Buffett* and until last night I didn’t know what he looked or sounded like. Except for Margaritaville, I couldn’t have told you one song he sang. And – get this – if a Jimmy Buffett song happened to play on my lastfm or pandora radio song streams, I’d immediately ban it. Just because it was Jimmy Buffett.

But last night changed things for me a little. I watched the movie Hoot with my daughter. We’d listened to the book on tape at Christmas time, during our drive to Elgin and thought we’d enjoy the movie.

The movie was ok. It followed the book, which was ok.

There is a scene in the movie where two teenage boys are hanging out in Florida, walking on the beach and running through fields. The song that plays during this scene sounded, to Clare and me, like Tom Chapin. We were sure it was Tom Chapin. This morning I looked it up. We were wrong. It was Jimmy Buffett singing Floridays – but the version on the soundtrack is much faster, more upbeat than what I could find on YouTube.

Not only do I now know what Jimmy Buffett sounds like, but since he played the cool middle school science teacher in the movie, I know exactly what he looks like. And I’ll quit banning Buffett’s music – and maybe listen to some voluntarily. Hmm, think there is a rap or hip hop artist I should listen to?

*I assumed he played country music