Even though I go to a lot of shows, I don’t really love Festivals. I actually enjoy concerts too much to enjoy Festivals. Which sounds dumb, but I’d rather see a band I like on their own play for a full set than for 30 minutes with a bunch of people who don’t really want to see them.
I’ve been to a few festivals over the years, and I have thought about going to other ones, but since I typically don’t want to spend a few days in the sun (and a few hundred dollars), I don’t go.
But the past two years we have seen some great headlining acts at XPN Fest. And we thought it would be fun to go for the day, bring the kids and just have a fun day outside with music and vendors. We bought tickets before the lineup was even announced.
WXPN members get half-priced tickets (which is cheaper than some of the regular shows I’ve been to) and kids’ tickets are $15 for the three days. Perfect.
In the past, I have loved most of the headliners, but this year I didn’t really like any of them. The three day pass includes lawn seats to the headliners, but we wound up not using them at all. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: HAM AND BURGER-“Don’t Put Your Finger in Your Nose” (2010).
A very serious and sad book needs a very silly song to accompany it.
I heard this on Kids Corner last night and it led me to this tribute album to Barry Louis Polishar, an artist whom I’ve never heard of (and am not sure why he has a tribute album to him, but whatever).
The title of the song tells you all you need to know. But I enjoyed the way it went beyond the nose, into other body parts where you shouldn’t put your finger–eyes, ears, throat. As with most kid’s songs, this one is short. And when it starts to fade out at around a minute fifty seconds, you think it’s over.
But they add an extra chorus and then a final punchline which is really funny. Check it out at this link to the Tribute to Barry Louis Polisar record.
[READ: September 8, 2014] The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
The students entering fourth grade in our town were supposed to read this book over the summer. Clark’s teacher actually read the book to them last year, and he was disinclined to read it again. So I offered to read the book to everyone in the family. I figured if it was important enough for all the kids to read, maybe I should read it, too. He said he really didn’t like it, but I persisted and read it to everyone anyway.
And I totally understand why he didn’t like it.
Although the cover looks kind of haunting (the illustrations by Bagram Ibatoulline are awesome), I didn’t realize just how dark this book could get–all in the name of love.
I’ve never read anything else by Kate DiCamillo so I don’t know if this is typical of her work. But man, is it a tear-jerker.
The book itself is rather short. It’s 200 pages, but there’s a lot of pictures and the type was very large. And it read fairly quickly, perhaps because it was so episodic. Before I get on to the story, I want to say how beautiful the illustrations are. The chapter headings are wonderful grayscale drawings, and the occasional full color plates are stunning. Very dark and foreboding and at times a little creepy, but very evocative of an older time.
The strange thing is that the book is summarized pretty well on the jacket, as well as in the book’s coda. So, if you prepare yourself in any way, you might expect just how low Edward has to go before the miracle happens. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: KEY WILD & MR. CLARKE-“Favorite Names” (2012).
This is a simple song (as kids songs should be). But what appealed immediately was the big fuzzy guitar that introduces the song. Lyrically it’s very simple: a list of the singer’s favorite names (all of which start with the letter J). After repeating them twice, a voice asks about girls names, and we get a few J fronted girls names.
The twist comes with the next verse when it is sung “en Espanol” and a new collection of Spanish names crop up (with the rest of the words in Spanish, too). And then they switch the en Francais. It’s multilingual!
I found out about Key Wild & Mr Clarke from WXPN, but I see that this song comes from an album that sounds awesome: Greasy Kids Stuff 3, a collection of songs from KNRK in Portland. The collection sounds great and I’ll mention more songs from it this week.
[READ: July 31, 2014] Guinea Dog
I was unfamiliar with Patrick Jennings when I grabbed this book. The title sounded intriguing, especially since we own guinea pigs. Interestingly, after reading this book we read several other Patrick Jennings books, so this will be like Patrick Jennings week here at I Just Read About That. I enjoyed reading this book to the kids, and they found it rather funny as well.
Guinea Dog is about a boy named Rufus. All he wants is a dog. He would like a big, friendly, fast, funny dog. Like the one his best friend has. In fact, he would love his best friend’s dog. The problem is that his father hates dogs. He hates them big time. He has a list of reasons why he hates dogs and that list goes on for two pages (and it was fun to read aloud).
Rufus’ father is an anal retentive, stay at home annoyance (a little over the top frankly, but it works for dramatic comeuppance, right?) who needs everything to be perfectly clean and who doesn’t want to be bothered while he is working. And there is no way he will cave on the dog thing.
Rufus’ mom looks for a way to make things better, so she buys Rufus a pet. The pet is… a guinea pig. Rufus is devastated. He decides to mock the guinea pig by naming her Fido. Rufus and his dad finally agree on one thing–they want the guinea pig taken back to the store. But when they go look for Petopia, the store is gone, without a trace. They are stuck with Fido.
But very soon, Fido starts acting like a dog. She makes little barking sounds, she plays, she catches Frisbees (sort of), she runs with him, she fetches things. She does everything a dog can do. Frankly, she is amazing (I certainly looked askance at my guinea pigs after reading this).
And yet, Rufus doesn’t want anyone to see this creature. He doesn’t like having attention drawn to himself (unlike his best friend who is a major attention hound). So he doesn’t want anyone to know about Fido’s skills. But of course Fido is a playful, outgoing creature (who follows hm to school one day). And soon, more and more people are aware of Fido. (more…)
This is a wonderful pop song from Justin Roberts. Roberts is regarded as a top-notch children’s song writer. I hadn’t heard him before, but i was totally sold by this one.
It’s a poppy almost dancey song–it certainly makes you want to move around, anyway. There’s a catchy acoustic guitar and a fast beat and Roberts’ voice is really solid and warm. Interestingly I didn’t even realize this song was about baseball when I heard it on the radio (I missed the song title). I was totally hooked by the pa pa pa pa pa pa chorus.
And there’s a great third section of the song that changes the mood but not the tempo. This reminds me a bit of Ralph’s World, but a bit…more full, perhaps? Or maybe like something from Phineas and Ferb. I’m going to have to check out more from him.
Oh, and the video, while cheaply made, is quite funny when the chorus kicks in.
[READ: April 8, 2014] Stickman Odyssey, Book 2
I enjoyed Book 2 of this series more than Book 1. It felt like it had a little more plot and was a little less slavish to the original myths. or maybe I just like quests.
The story starts in the middle, with Nestor having captured Zozimos and having tied him up for failing to avenge Sticatha (which was Nestor’s plan all along). He says that Zozimos has been doing nothing all this time. But Zozimos says no, he has been on an epic adventure.
Which brings us to where book one left off.
Praxis (the strongest man in the world) Atrukos (a guy who looks like a frog) and Zozimos set off to find a piece of the sky. In book one, Praxis had knocked a piece of the sky out when he hurled a cyclops at it. He wanted to retrieve it to prove to his love that he was actually a worthwhile person. This story is left all of a sudden (in a very funny way) so they can help Atrukos with the witch who cursed him before Book 1 even started. That’s when Nestor captured Zozimos, as he was on his way to help Atrukos. (more…)
Danny Weinkauf is one of the Band of Dans that plays with They Might Be Giants. In 2014 he successfully funded a Kickstarter campaign to create his solo album, No School Today. (I knew nothing about the Kickstarter campaign).
The album comes out this month and I have to say I really like what I’ve heard so far. This song has been played on Kids Corner a lot. It’s very catchy and reminds me of good indie pop music. There’s even a feel of 70s British pop (or like Davy Jones singing). It’s super catchy. The chorus and the oft-repeated “arc” “arc” “arc” before “archaeology” can be a bit much at the end of the song, but for the most part this is a real winner.
Danny also wrote “I am a Paleontologist” from They Might Be Giants Here Comes Science album, so his bona fides are good. And the lyrics are clever and smart, too:
Archaeology It’s human evolution From the Caveman to you and me analyzing their solutions (yeah now)
/Archaeology the secrets they left for us We can study activities Of those who came before us
[READ: April 7, 2014] Stickman Odyssey, Book 1
While I was looking for Stickdog books for C., I came across Stickman. There are two books in this series (with book two being set up for a third, but no sign of it yet).
This book is a kind of spoof of Homer’s Odyssey, but not really. It is set in the time of the ancient Greek gods and some of those gods make appearances. Even the style is done in a generically Homeric epic storytelling style. But none of the characters from Homer appear. This is an alternate reality of sorts. The Great Whirlpool exists (shades of Scylla and Charybdis), but so does Candy Island and a place called Odonoros and Stickman’s home world of Sticatha (which made me laugh once I pronounced it correctly). So, you don’t need familiarity with Homer to appreciate this, indeed, it kind of confused me at first because I wasn’t sure if I should be looking for parallels.
Stickman’s name is the awkward Zozimos (which I want to be significant but can’t figure out any reason why it would be).
The gods do play with the humans, though. On the second page we see that Athena wields a giant pen and makes Zozimos a raft while he is struggling in the ocean. Days later he lands on what he thinks is Sticatha, but no, he lands on an island with fair maidens. He tries to charm one of them, Asteria, but is immediately grabbed by a golem and dragged to jail. The evil King Marnox imprisons every castaway who lands on the island–he has his reasons.
But Asteria is mad that her father is locking up all of these eligible men, so he brings Zozimos out of the jail for him to tell his story. And it is…epic! (more…)
The Plants are Kids Corner favorites. And why not they are Philadelphia locals. I have enjoyed several of their songs but I wasn’t familiar with this one. And so I was surprised that it made the Top ten Kids Corner Countdown.
This song is another story song. It’s about a Chinese dragon called Aziphrale. It has a cool horn sound, reminding me of some mellow ska or like the Squirrel Nut Zippers. The song is bouncy and jaunty and has a kind of moral to it, which is always nice.
It even features a lengthy pirate section with people sailing a ship across the sea–(perhaps making future Decemberists fans?).
It’s an engaging story and a good song–a sea shanty about gold and dragons, what could be better? And I actually thought it was quite different from their other song that I reviewed–Monster Under My Bed, but that song is also a story and features prominent horns and is bouncy and jaunty. I bet they’d be fun to see live.
[READ: January 5, 2014] Desmond Pucket Makes Monster Magic
Although this book is about a sixth grader, C. loved it and encouraged me to read it. Which I did. And it is quite enjoyable. It reminds me of Captain Underpants in spirit. But it’s very different in execution.
Desmond Pucket is a kid who loves horror movies and special effects. And he is a great artist and creator. Which doesn’t always fly in school. So he gets an F on his math test but he draws a cool picture on the back. The teacher tells him that if he spent as much time on his math as on his drawing, he’d get straight A’s. Sigh. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: RATBOY JR.-“Champion of the Universe” (2013).
Ratboy Jr was also in the Top Ten of WXPNs 2013 Kids Corner countdown (and was also on the Kids Corner CD). This is a fun song told in a story. It opens slowly with acoustic guitars and tells the story of a young boy with a very big head who wants to be a luchador.
When the chorus comes around, it kicks into full Mexican style swing with horns and flamenco style guitars. Young Santos goes to a store where he gets a beautiful red wrestling mask. And we all sing “La Cabeza Grande, champion of the universe!” in full chanting chorus (complete with yips and yee hees!).
I actually wish the songs was about five minutes longer. But at just under 4 minutes it tells a good story and is super catchy.
[READ: January 2, 2014] Boom
I’ve read one adult book by Mark Haddon (but not his famous Curious Incident…). I didn’t know that he wrote kids books at all. But when this came out I learned that this was originally published in 1992 under the title Gridzbi Spudvetch! (and yes it was in English). He says in the Foreword that kids and teachers loved it, if they were able to pronounce it (and that with a title like that he was lucky that 23 people bought it).
So it went out of print. But fans said he should get it back in print. So he decided to rename it a more reasonable name. He also says the technology in the book was horribly out of date (which shouldn’t really matter, but if you’re going to update it, you might as well do it all). And as since he was updating, he decided to rewrite, as he puts it, “every sentence.” So I gather the story is the same, but it’s a very different book (and me being me, I’m very curious to read the original).
But now with the simple name of Boom, we get this fast paced and very enjoyable story. (And yes, gridzbi spudvetch is still in the book). (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: LUCKY DIAZ AND THE FAMILY JAM BAND-“Thingamajig” (2013).
This song made the XPN Kid’s Corner Top ten. When the played it on the radio, I was surprised at how ..quiet it was. Even now listening to it, it just seems like all of the sounds are at the same level, it all kind of blends together, which is a shame because the song is really kind of fun.
Now that I’ve listened a few times I like it more. It actually has a kind of Death Cab for Cutie feel. The bass is particularly nice, but of course the fun part is the lyrics (a thingamajig, a whatchamacallit, who what where why).
So a couple of listens and I’m won over by the song. I wish it was a bit more dynamic in the production, but it’s a catchy little number. And I’m curious to hear what the rest of the album sounds like.
[READ: December 27, 2013] Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck
Clark was so excited for this book! This is the first one that he knew about before I did. We decided to save it for a Christmas present, and man was he chomping at the bit. He even borrowed it from a friend (because there were 100 people on the waiting list a the library). And yet, even though he had already read it, when it arrived on Christmas, he was still really excited. And has already read it four times.
And what was sweeter was that he really wanted me to read it. He thought it was the best one yet.
I was surprised by this as the whole first section is about how lost Greg feels now that Rowley has a girlfriend, Abigail. I can’t really imagine how he related to that as it’s not an issue for an 8-year-old (in fact the whole series is skewed a little old for an 8-year-old, but he still loves it). Mostly Greg isn’t so much jealous that Rowley has a girlfriend so much as he is jealous that she is keeping Rowley from being Greg’s slave, I mean, friend. Normally, Rowley walks in front of Greg to look out for the (newly added, I think) Mingo kids who threaten anyone who comes close to their wood (which is on their way to school) or for dog land mines–the scene where the dog figures out how the electric fence works is so funny. And speaking of dogs, Clark absolutely cracked up about the joke with the little dog Sweetie who sniffs herself if you make a raspberry sound near her. (more…)
Every year I’m curious to see what the kids who vote for Kids Corner music will pick as their top ten. It is usually reliably silly. But this year I have to say I was a bit disappointed in their selections. Here’s the Top um, Eleven (two were tied of tenth) from 11 to 1.
Allan Sherman – You Went The Wrong Way Old King Louie
Dan Zanes – Turn Turn Turn
The Plants – Aziphrale
Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band – Thingamajig
Shine And The Moonbeams – Bully Bully
Trout Fishing In America – My Sister Kissed Her Boyfriend
Weird Al Yankovic – The Saga Begins
The Doubleclicks – Worst Superpower Ever
Ratboy Jr. – Champion Of The Universe
Sara Hickman – Radiation Man
The Board Of Education – Why Is Dad So Mad?
I am especially surprised by Allan Sherman as I can’t imagine that too many kids would enjoy that song (which is funny if you know your history, but not really otherwise) and while I love Dan Zanes, “Turn Turn Turn” is not exactly a rollicking fun Top Ten song. I actually dislike “Bully Bully” and while I love Trout Fishing in America and like “My Sister,” it’s certainly not their best song (and this list isn’t just new songs obviously). The rest of the list is quite good, though.
And it’s a great choice for number one. But next year, kids, more silliness!
[READ: January 1, 2014] The Flying Beaver Brothers: Birds vs. Bunnies
We were unreasonably excited to see that there was a new Flying Beaver Brothers book out! We loved the first two quite a lot, so any return of Ace and Bub is a good thing. But to also have the return of a nasty villain is quite nice too.
Yet it’s not all the same faces, because this time there are birds and bunnies causing havoc with our heroes.
Bob and Bob (the penguins who get a brief cameo) are rebuilding Beaver Island and Bub and Ace are heading there in a boat. But a storm rages and makes them crash. They walk around an island where they are quickly captured by an angry bunch of bunnies who accuse them of being bird spies (those are real?). Indeed, the birds have been playing a very loud sound that hurts the bunnies ears and makes them go underground. So the bunnies are fighting back with a wind machine that makes the birds leave the sky. Both of these machines were funded by a mysterious fellow named Wally (unbeknownst to the others). (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: THE HIPWADERS-Dewey Decimal System (2007).
A bouncy bass line introduces this song about the Bookmobile crashing into your house. The librarian gives him a card and teaches him how to use the library. The bridge is very sweet, especially compared to the silly, bouncy “Dewey Dewey Dewey Dewey Dewey decimal system” part.
Then the clever song teaches you the basic categories of the Dewey Decimal System. That section musically reminds me of School House Rock. It’s kind of a harsh switch from the School House Rock section to the Dewey Dewey section, but that Dewey part is so catchy that it’s a fun change.
It’s an enjoyable song (and informative too). This song appears on the WXPN Kids Corner CD.
[READ: October 23, 2013] Goofballs #5: The Ha-Ha-Haunting of Hyde House
Goofballs #5 continues this enjoyable series. This one seemed to be even funnier than the others (more jokes per page!). I enjoyed this joke which was if not laugh out loud funny is certainly smile-worthy: “The official Goofball definition of toddler is someone too short to reach a doorknob but not too short to reach a cupcake.”
What was also funny, but strange funny, was that lead Goofball Jeff Bunter started finding clues without evening having a case. Jeff is heading to the library for Fun Day for the toddlers. But when he sees a woman walking out of store with pink balloons, he deems it a clue. How can that possibly be? Well, he is the detective, after all.
It’s also nearly Halloween. And of course the other Goofballs are there. Brian is there in a tuxedo (which he imagines he can wear for Halloween. He also has a top hat that is way too big for him (although he assumed that since he brain is so big it should have fit). And the other Goofballs and Goofdog are there to help out, of course. (more…)
Even though I go to a lot of shows, I don’t really love Festivals. I actually enjoy concerts too much to enjoy Festivals. Which sounds dumb, but I’d rather see a band I like on their own play for a full set than for 30 minutes with a bunch of people who don’t really want to see them.
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