Last weekend was a TCP polkstravaganza! I didn't grow up in Cleveland and I didn't grow up around polka, so I've always been a little bemused by this town's fervent devotion to the peppy oompah music that, quite frankly, all sounded the same to me.
After a weekend exploring polka, it still all sounds the same to me -- but boy, is it fun. Polka isn't profound or angsty or ironic or angry; it's nostalgia set to music. It's impossible not to think of a simpler, brighter, more technicolor era when you listen to polka, filled with social dancing and wholesome family entertainment.
