Enjoy the Silence

My favorite Depeche Mode song refreshed by RAC. Words are very unnecessary, indeed. But I just had to say, this is the perfect soundtrack for this Sunday, while hanging out with the three coolest people I know. 

All I ever wanted, all I ever needed is here in my arms… Yes, yes, yes! Love and positive vibes back to all the kind people out there, wherever and whoever you are. 

Falalalala

Ten days to go. Getting the Christmas vibe in our little corner of the Internet.  Although it's already 2011 and the Richmond Book Drive is over, Deck The Halls Pomplamoose-style still sounds really good. This is my kind of Christmas song.

And by the way… in case you come from a highly dysfunctional family, notice how the season tends to up the crazy ante? 


As my Tito Cholo had told me, Just face the music and dance!  I'll take that advice. It can be fun and quite a learning experience having Christmas in Space (incidentally the title of Pomplamoose's Christmas album!) with all the aliens around. Shall we dance?

Let's all rock this Christmas!

Be Happy

So says my Chicha…

Just a post on random sweetness and memories. Here's something she recently tacked onto my Kindle. The ID picture she found is awful, but the whole thing is awesome for me anyway. 

To go with this Chicha-pachicha post, here's a song she loves because it reminds her of trips to Subic and this year's trip to Coron in Palawan. It was played in the van, the boat, by the beach while the adults were sipping cold beer, while on the hammock, in the cottage, etc.


 
I agree Chicha, RAC's Armistice remix goes well with these memories...

Remember waking up to the sound of the waves and having the shore just a few steps away?

Remember Kayangan Lake? Where salt and fresh waters meet and make love into the best National Park in Coron.

Remember when we had Bomol Beach all to ourselves? 


And so.

Just awhile ago I chanced upon her dancing to that Phoenix song blasting from her room, while big brother Bear was playing Minecraft and belting, "and when the lights are cutting out... and I come down in your room..." Et voila (Phoenix is a French band), a blog post is inspired.

She was in this outfit. Happy on a lazy, rainy Sunday, indeed. 

Positive weekend vibes Internet!

Melancholy Hill

Bear loves the Gorillaz and Melancholy Hill is one of his favorite songs from Plastic Beach, so I could easily say this post is for him. But no. Let's be honest. This is for me. Mama needs to treat herself special once in awhile. Sometimes all that takes is some you-tube watching or enjoying a meditative run while this is melodically wafting from my earphones…

Wouldn't that just make the coolest lullabye ever? As I pleaded on my tumbler, Damon Albarn please stop being so hot and talented already. 

Mom, what's a geometrical paradox?

I'm remembering this old song and video because Whitest Boy Alive is playing Manila this March. How many years hence, it is still one of the coolest, geekiest things I've ever seen. Take a break and watch. See how it can literally make your skin creep and crawl, but in a good way.

So now, in case your kid asks you, What's a geometrical paradox? you've got your answer.

Put the Lights on the Tree

It's the first day of December! Sufjan Stevens, through their signature brand of wonderful non-cheesy yuletide music, is reminding us to put the lights on the tree. Have you?

Merrily Yours,

Yo Gabba Gabba

Do you love Yo Gabba Gabba? We do. Here's one reason, Cornelius for Bear...

And another, Trembling Blue Stars for Chicha...

Japanese rock artists aside, plus The Shins, The Roots, The Ting Tings, Ladytron, Data Rock etc. we just love Yo Gabba Gabba. Just saying.

Pomplamoose Covers Telephone

This song is dedicated to my Lady Gaga singing kids. Si yaya kasi eh.  Good thing Pomplamoose makes it easier to sing along to Telephone. They even give the best matching nerdy dance moves.

This version has been kid-approved. Yay! Chicha and I have always loved Pomplamoose. I even used their version of Favorite Things for her 4th birthday video.

Stop calling, stop calling...

Since We're Being Retro...

It's perfect timing that I'm completely loving this song by super-producer-musician Mark Ronson. And the video, we super-duper love it. It's not just retro cool, it's Tron meets Tony Falcon meets Q-tip retro cool! With Japan, France and vinyl record diamond-studded watches thrown in.

Mark Ronson & The Business INTL "Bang Bang Bang" from Warren Fu on Vimeo.

Wasn't that fun? The kiddos at home agree. In fact, we also like the video's Part Two of sorts... The Bike Song.

Something Good Can Work

Because sometimes we could use some cheering up. If no one's around to do it, a song can do it for me. Case in point...

A dear friend of mine was feeling, in these exact words, "blech and blah." So was/am I. The week can only get better, right? Here's to hoping it does. As Two Door Cinema Club sings it: Let's make this happen, girl you gonna show the world that something good can work and it can work for you. And you know that it will...  

Lisztomania!

Our favorite children's choir continues to make beautiful music. As a testament to Teacher Gregg's coolness, he got his PS22 kids to do a Phoenix song. Do you love Phoenix? I love their pop-rock-electronica sound so much I can put on my running shoes and hit the pavement for a whole hour listening to them and just them. So here it is, a personal family summer hit revisited. Lisztomania sung a cappella... 

As the band mentioned on The Creators Project, on paper it shouldn't work but it does, and even got them teary-eyed. Yes, PS 22 tends to do that. Now here are the boys from Versailles themselves, live, stripped of any sound engineering magic, but awesome, nevertheless...

Thank you teacher Jojie for the heads up on Lisztomania PS22 version. Thank you Entourage Season 1 (or 2?) for putting this song in one episode's end credits. I tracked it down with my google-investigating skills then et voila, have been in love with Phoenix ever since.  Falling, falling, falling, falling....

Tegan and Sara

If you like the music of Tegan and Sara well, FYI, they will be touring Asia this year. Pappy discovered the facebook survey going on to see if enough of us in Manila would watch them. Shall we? Let's go. Here they are at Coachella 2008. In lieu of Coachella... November 2010 in Manila? Say yes to the survey and it could happen.

For the kids... Alligator "sanitized" for a live performance on Canada's Mamma Yamma show. Cute. But as Bear points out, "There were no bad words in the real version... why'd they change it?"  Yes son, it had no bad words, but there were sex-related metaphors and descriptions of obsessive love. 

Of course I didn't tell him that!

They've been remixed by everyone from DJ Tiesto to Passion Pit... but my favorite is by these young guys from RAC/Remix Artist Collective. Press play to hear the track. Click down arrow to download. Free.

  Tegan & Sara - Alligator (RAC Mix) by Remix Artist Collective

You're welcome!

Natalie Merchant Rocks Children's Poems

I am a certified 80's kid who grew up listening and emoting to Natalie Merchant who was, back then, still part of 10,000 Maniacs. Remember What's the Matter Here? Like the Weather? Hey Jack Kerouac? These Are the Days? And I loved, loved... loved her obscure but nevertheless great version of Cat Steven's Peace Train.

Well, just this morning Natalie Merchant rocked my world again and I don't care if this makes me look like a complete weirdo but she made me cry watching her performance at this year's TED conference. She sang songs from her upcoming album Leave Your Sleep where she resurrects 19th century children's poems by setting them to music. When she started singing E.E. Cummings' Maggie and Millie and Molly and May I just couldn't help myself....

"Maggie and Milly

Molly and May

they went down to the beach

one day to play.

And Maggie discovered

a shell that sang

so sweetly she couldn't remember

her troubles...."

For anyone out there who might appreciate the words, the stories behind the poets, and the music, here's the lovely Ms. Merchant who completely deserved that standing ovation:

P.S. for our featured artist: You were once the sweet-singing seashell (a'la E.E. Cummings) for an awkward, kind-of-troubled teenager (a-Maggie-in-Manila) circa 1980s. La la la li la la la... Thank you.

Happy Weekend

Thanks Tashie's folks! I love the song... and the video is Clever-Creative and Crazy-Comical with the capital C. OK Go (love them, btw) really does great videos, but this new one you sent my way even tops their classic, legendary treadmill shenanigans. Let's share it right here to make a few more people -- and kids -- smile....

Bear watched it five times tonight eating up some book reading time... tsk tsk tsk. But justified by, "kids this is a Rube Goldberg Machine (RGM) or in Japan they'd call it a Pythagoras switch. See, physics and engineering can be fun?" Haha... happy weekend!

Grizzly Bear and Other Internet Wonders

I love the Grizzly Bear song Two Weeks and I love the children's film classic La Ballon Rouge. The kids love that film too, actually. So of course I had to post this homage to the Lamorisse film set to the Grizzly Bear song.

Now this! There's another must-see visual-feast inspired by Two Weeks, created by Vimeo member Gabe Askew. Feast your eyes on Mr. Askew's FAN video, of which the kids and I are now fans of....

Two Weeks - Grizzly Bear from Gabe Askew on Vimeo.

Does Grizzly Bear have the coolest, most creative fans or what?

Music Please!

A word about music posted at the bulletin board at Explorations, Chicha's preschool:

Children who grow up hearing music, singing songs and moving to the beat are enjoying what experts call "a rich sensory environment." That's just a fancy way of saying a child is exposed to a wide variety of tastes, smells, textures, colors and sounds. Kids who enjoy such a rich environment do more than have fun. Researchers believe they forge more pathways between cells in their brains.

Musical experiences are an important way to help create these pathways - also called neural connections. While listening to music is certainly key to creating them, it's when your child actively participates in music that she makes the strongest connections.

Research has shown that children who are actively involved in music (who play it or sing it regularly): do better in reading and math; are able to focus and control their bodies; play better with others and have higher self-esteem.

In light of that, it's high time we pay tribute to They Might Be Giants - who have been rocking for kids and forging pathways even way before we discovered The Alphabet of Nations. They have so so many songs we love, but here's three that can get Bear and Chicha singing, dancing and laughing. And hopefully... creating those neural connections.

Here's one about shapes. Everyone at the party is a many-sided polygon. When a guest arrives they will count how many sides it has on....

Here's a super-witty-funny song about words and letters. An epidemic of missing letters has swept the land. Whatever the cause, for the sake of future generations, in the limited time we have been permitted, these stories must be told....

Here you can have your toddler provide letter ID's with some cool visuals and funky tunes as background...

More They Might Be Giants here. Party at the playroom!

the reeling

At 5-years-old Bear seems to already feel the soul of this song from Passion Pit. He sings at the top of his lungs his own version of the lyrics: Look at me oh look at me I'M OVER THREE... Oh nooo! The Reeling is now on heavy rotation on his little boom box. Sound tripping with my baby... Happy Sunday!

now that's viva la vida

Here's some sunshine on a rainy day.

Thanks to Candy ah este Belly, I came across Mr. B and his choir of 5th graders at New York's PS 22. They've made Suzanne Vega and Tori Amos cry. They've performed live with Crowded House. Private Universe! They recorded with Passion Pit. The kids singing in Little Secrets - that's them. Wow!

Mr. B is on a mission to keep music alive - and kicking and rocking - in US public schools threatened by budget cuts. Check out the kids' faces while they're singing. You just know none of them are going to get into any trouble. As Neil Finn of Crowded House says: it's the most hopeful sound on earth.

Here's their version of Fleetwood Mac's Landslide. Get the hankies out.

two-punks

My lovely editor at Working Mom Magazine assigned me to write about how to get young couch potatoes up and moving. This got me thinking. In our house, the couch becomes a trampoline and mosh-pit-catapult of sorts - when you're playing some Vampire Weekend. So then we get a good impromptu work out. In this instance, Bear and Chicha asked me to play A-Punk at least ten times. Maybe even 15. This was around replay numbers 8 and 9....

So it ends up that one of my suggestions in the article is to let your kids rock out to music. In our experience, track selection is crucial to getting hearts pumping and endorphins running. This track is a current hit at home. We love Vampire Weekend! Now get moving....

ear candy

Two sweet you tube moments shared from our home to yours. So sweet, they could make Kim Jong-il reconsider his nuclear non-sense or they could make you cry rainbows. Go call the kids, cuddle and watch.

This one is from Renee and Jeremy...

This one is from Gruff Rhyss...

Happy weekend from the Kingdom of Candy!