Harmony Found While Driving With The Window Down...

The only thing I like about my long commutes in the morning are the ones where I've just bought new music and pop in the CD, letting it rip on the drive in.

Though I don't broadcast it much, I am a closet Jazz fan, and just so happened to pick up the new Diana Krall album "From This Moment On". Okay, so she might be a bit on the mainstream, and some might argue her stylings aren't pure jazz, but hey, I love the way she croons.

Anyway, weather in LA was pretty fair, so I rolled down the window, letting the breeze blow through my scruffy hair as she hits the keys and serenades through what I think is a pretty darn good interpretation of "It Could Happen To You." Now, instead of taking a series of freeways that are absolutely congested, I drive along this street route that gets me pretty close before I have no choice but to get on the on ramp.

Stopping at a red light on an intersection, I pull up next to a car on my left that also had it's windows down - and blasting out something that sounded like a cross between 50 cent and Ludacris, but I can't say for certain. But to say that he was loud would be like saying the Grand Canyon is a tiny gorge in the ground. I mean, the subwoofers reverberated on the pavement so much I thought it'd trigger the San Andreas at any second!

Now, I'm not exactly sure why I did what I did next, but for some reason, I reached over to my volume knob and turned it a couple notches up. Diana is now screaming at the top of her lungs, sort of drowning out the Hip-Hop Video that is emanating from the car beside me.

The driver turns down his volume and screams out toward me. I turn to him, and couldn't make out what he asked me. I turn down my volume, shouting back,"What?"

The driver leans closer to the passenger side window. "I said, 'Who the hell is that?' "

"It's Diana Krall."

He looks at me for a sec, then replies back with something that I would have never expected:

"That shit's pretty tight."

Light turns green. He blasts out in front of me at near light-speed, his volume clearly cranked back up as he "thumps" away in the distance. I never catch back up to him.

I continue on my way to the on ramp, turn up Diana, and watch the world drift by. A smile crosses my face as I wonder about the harmony that drives us all... ;)