SOUNDTRACK: PETER BJORN & JOHN-“I Wish I Was a Spy” (2012).
Yo Gabba Gabba has always been a source of interesting music–very cool bands devote time and music to this, frankly bizarre kids show.
This song from Peter Bjorn and John is fantastic. While the lyrics are kid friendly, there’s no reason that this song need be played only for kids.
The song opens with a good vibrato “spy” guitar lick and vocal breaths. The unusual percussion really shows how much this song sounds like a PB&J song even if it is of a very specific genre. When the vocals come in (sounding very PB&J), the lyrics simply state that he wishes he was a spy, and then he gives some great examples of what he would do as a spy.
But the big surprise comes from the chorus which s bright and bouncy and talks about how we can all pretend we are all agents.
The Yo Gabba Gabba version ends at 2 minutes, but the extended version has more instrumental surf/spy guitar work. It’s kind of an extraneous coda, but the sound they capture is really cool, so it’s fun to get the extra minute of guitar work.
[READ: May 6, 2014] The Medusa Plot
When I finished Vespers Rising, I said I would pace myself because the Cahills vs. Vespers series was six book which would conclude in March 2013. Clearly I paced myself too slowly because here it is May 2014, Cahils vs. vespers is long done, and they are on the next series already.
But hey, I’m not playing the online game so there’s no time constraints for me.
Also, Clark started reading the original series so I wanted to keep a little ahead of him. It seemed like a good time to start this middle series.
And man, once I started reading I was immediately brought back into the exciting world of Dan and Amy Cahill. I had forgotten about the short story in Vespers Rising (about the ring that Amy now has) and about the Vespers in general. But that didn’t matter, because it was quickly set up that the Vespers (led by the unknown V-1) in particular are bad and they will stop at nothing to achieve their goal (which we don’t know yet).
It has been two years since the end of the 39 Clues. As the book opens, several members of the disparate Cahill family clan are kidnapped: Fiske Cahill, Reagan Holt, Natalie Kabra (who, with her brother is now poor since their evil mother disowned them for not being evil enough), Alistair Oh (no!) and Ted Starling (his brother Ned escaped), Phoenix Wizard (Jonah’s little cousin) and, gasp, Nellie Gomez! They are taken to an undisclosed location, given jumpsuits and left in a small cell with nothing to do and minimal food on a regular basis. (more…)
Mental Floss
Next comes the ubiquitous letters. This also contains the occasional feature of Readers and Their Famous Friends, which shows pictures of readers celebrities (pretty much the only celebrities they ever talk about). This is followed by the letter from the editor. Neely Harris (I have yet to determine if Neely is a boy or a girl and I’m not going to look it up either, somehow it’s more fun trying to imagine) is very funny and always sets a good tone for the magazine. 
I Just Read About That... 