For the past few weeks, my daughter has been watching Looney Tunes cartoons quite a bit…and I must admit that I've plopped down on the couch and joined her a few times. After all, who doesn't love the Looney Tunes ? Think of all the classic characters they created; Bugs Bunny, the Road Runner, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, Tweetie Bird, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Speedy Gonzales, Wile E. Coyote, Foghorn Leghorn, Sylvester Cat, the Tasmanian Devil, Pepé Le Pew, Marvin the Martian, the list goes on and on. Sheesh, my co-workers and I have even been reminiscing [...]
We had quite an exciting few days around our house this past weekend. To start with, Friday was the last night of Hanukkah. To celebrate, we had a small party with some friends and their children. We did it last year and it was so much fun that it we decided to make it an annual event. All the Christmas kids enjoy the chance to help light the menorah candles, play dreidel and eat some gelt, and our daughter loves sharing the holiday with her buddies. It's a great opportunity to spend time and commemorate an important event with our [...]
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! "Everybody Eats When They Come To My House" by Cab Calloway, 1947 From the compilation Are You Hep To The Jive? "Everybody Eats When They Come To My House" lyrics "What A Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong, 1967 From the compilation All-Time Greatest Hits "What A Wonderful World" lyrics
Over the summer, I began to think that about expanding R.O.pre-K. to include reviews of children's music albums. Not the typical stuff aimed at the little ones ( Sesame Street , Wiggles, Barney, etc.), but kid's records being put out by "serious" musicians. Through the years, there has been no shortage of artists who released records for tykes; Woody Guthrie, Elvis, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Carol King, Randy Newman, Tony Bennett…the list goes on and on. The past ten years have seen a rise in "adult" musicians who also decided to jump in the circle; Dan Zanes (the [...]
Hey kids, how is your school year going? Are you excited to be in a new grade? Do you like your teacher? Are you learning lots of good stuff? Are there any cool projects you will be working on? Since our daughter loves school, we all look forward to this time of year. She is especially excited because her grade will be learning about Greek mythology (her favorite topic), natural disasters (though scary, they are pretty amazing things to study), and they will hold a "living wax museum" where everyone dresses up as a historical figure and present [...]
So we had a yard/garage sale yesterday. This gave us a chance to go through all of our stuff to try and find a good home for all the things we were no longer using. The last time we did this was in Brooklyn, but since no one has a front yard there, everyone calls them "stoop sales". It's funny, there's a whole subculture of folks who spend their weekends going from yard to yard in search of stuff to buy. Whether they get it for themselves or just to resell I can't say, but unfortunately some of [...]
Here's a completely goofy song that I just can't stop listening to. Every time I put it on, I have to listen to it at least two or three times in a row, no matter how much my wife complains! The Trashmen were a 60's surf rock band based in Minneapolis, over a thousand miles from the nearest ocean. This is actually a mash-up of two songs by a doo-wop group called The Rivingtons; "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow" and "The Bird's the Word". Years later Big Bird would end up doing his own cover of this song. [...]
Well this is a little bit embarrassing…I've been working on this post so long that it's almost out of date. It was meant to be put up at the end of the school year as a way to kick off the summer, yet here we are in August and the summer is almost over! I even had to remove two "school is over" songs, since it seems kind of cruel to post them now, with the start of school only a few weeks away. The rest of them are related to summertime, so let's all enjoy it while it lasts. [...]
Since we've been so quiet lately, here's a bunch of songs to try and make up for it! Recently, my daughter has been learning about the solar system in school. As part of this, they put on a class play about all the planets and various other heavenly bodies (the sun, stars, comets, meteorites, etc.), which was a lot of fun to watch. In addition to the parents, they also performed it for the grade below them. As a result of this, she had been looking forward to being in the play since last year when she saw [...]
Well it's been a busy few weeks here (a few out of state trips, filing taxes, painting our kitchen, and other fun stuff), so please pardon our recent silence. Today is going to be a quick post to celebrate one of the most important holidays of the year, Mother's Day. "Here's To Mothers" by Hannah, 2009 "Here's To Mothers" lyrics My daughter came home with the lyrics to this song and sang it to her mom this morning as she woke up. It's so cute that we sat [...]
Finally, the songs about chickens!!! A few weeks ago when I picked my daughter up from school, she brought me into one of the first grade classrooms to show me the results of the latest "chicken project." Every year, a local farmer brings half a dozen chicken eggs to each first grade class for them to incubate. I remember her being so excited about this last year when her class was responsible for helping the eggs hatch…they even made a cool video of all the kids playing with the newborn little chickies. She loved the experience so much [...]
This one is for my wife, who just told me that she thought the last post stunk because it didn't really say anything…sheesh, tough crowd! Anyway, when I went shopping tonight, I bought some prepared food to eat while I got my groceries. I wanted to put some salt on it, but couldn't find any anywhere in the store. Sure, they had it for sale, but I didn't want to open a new container just for a pinch of salty goodness. Anyway, I went to the cheese counter where the woman gave me a handful of some fancy [...]
I know I said that the next post would be about chickens, but I have been caught up in writing a really long post for my other blog, "The College of Musical Knowledge" ( http://musicalknowledge.org/ ). I'm almost embarrassed how long it has taking me to write it, and I'm still not done! Since I try to alternate my posts (one here, then one there) and I knew the chicken post would take a little time to compile, I wanted to post something quick in the meantime. Here's another song that recently popped up on our iPod… [...]
I sat down after dinner and was in the middle of writing a post about chickens when my daughter called for help with her math homework. Her assignment was to measure her arm span and then find items in the house that were about the same length. While we were looking around, our iPod started playing the song below; strangely enough, I had been talking with someone else about the song just last week. As I watched my daughter start to dance around the kitchen, the proverbial light bulb came over my head, and here we are. (we'll [...]
Today we'll take a listen to songs that focus on the vocals. Selections include examples of a cappella ("without instrumental accompaniment") and scat ("improvised nonsense syllables are substituted for the words of a song") styles. "Helter Skelter" by The Bobs From the album The Bobs Written by Lennon/McCartney, 1983 "Helter Skelter" lyrics I know that in our first post I said I couldn't understand why anyone would listen to someone covering The Beatles instead of listening [...]
This time out we have a bunch of...well, a bunch of "songs." All that really ties them together is that they are a lot of fun to sing and they all have the word "song" in their title. So, grab yourself a pickle, a banana, and a fishing pole, then find someone to clap hands with and crank up the volume! Just make sure to watch out for the tornados… "The Clapping Song (Clap Pat Clap Slap)" by Shirley Ellis From the album The Name Game Written by Shirley Ellis [...]
Happy New Year everyone!!! No spare time to describe these songs, I've got a party to go to! "Wang Dang Doodle" , by Koko Taylor From the box set, Chess Blues Written by Willie Dixon, 1965 "Wang Dang Doodle" lyrics "House Party Time" , by Dan Zanes From the album House Party Written by Dan Zanes, 2003 "House Party Time" lyrics "Having a Party" , by Sam Cooke Written [...]
My wife and I were recently digging through our record collection and started listening to some of the 45's she had collected when she was in grade school. For you digital kids, 45's (or "singles") were mini-records that had one song on each side. Before the invention of cds and mp3s, they were what bands used to release their most popular songs. As we listened to record after record, we became immersed in the music of the 1970s, singing and dancing around to the songs we grew up with. One of the records we pulled out was "Little Willy", by [...]
A few days ago, we went to see The Nutcracker ballet. It was a great show; the dancing, the costumes, and the stage sets were all amazing. On top of that, there was the music! Even if you haven't seen The Nutcracker , you are probably familiar with songs like "March of the Wooden Soldiers," "The Waltz of the Flowers," and "The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy." If you don't know them by name, chances are you have heard them played during the Christmas season. "Nut Rocker" by [...]
The other day my daughter came home and told me that one of her friends said that Cookie Monster had changed his name to Veggie Monster! The way she told the story, Cookie Monster had sworn off cookies in favor of vegetables and changed his name to reflect his new lifestyle choice. Personally, it reminded me of the time they downgraded Pluto from a planet to a star; why hadn't I heard about this? After all, I was raised to believe certain things: there are nine planets in the solar system, practice makes perfect, and Cookie Monster loves cookies. (Don't [...]
R. O. pre-K.
Download: James Blake Live Album (Unofficial)
Lana Del Rey - Without You (Kill Paris Remix) [Dubstep]
My Funny Valentines
Miike Snow - “Paddling Out” Jacques Lu Cont Remix (MP3 Stream)
Iron & Wine and Patty Griffin
