It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

Happy Halloween!

If you missed it on TV the other night, please enjoy It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! here today. Nothing will get you in the spirit more! As for myself, I am currently finishing up my nutritional shake breakfast (I use the Isagenix system) and will be hitting the gym shortly thereafter to combat the 11 pounds of candy I have sitting in my kitchen right now. I stupidly bought the good stuff - Almond Joys, Heath bars, Rolos, etc. - and already put a dent in it last night. We haven't had Halloween on a weekend since we've lived in this house, so I have no idea what time kids will start showing up. In the five years we've been here it's always been on a weeknight, and because the kids can't go until the parents are home from work, our first usually come around 5:30. Should I be prepared for earlier today? Maybe the early bird kids will just get rocks like Charlie Brown.

The ol' magnet in a box shenanigan

Just say no to drugs, kids. (Love the silent film editing on this!)

Casper the Commuter Cat

Been spending the week getting our home ready for the arrival of a VIG (Very Important Guest)... Kai's father is visiting from South Africa for three weeks and gets here Saturday morning! Visitors are the perfect excuse to get all those odds and ends done around the house. I've sorted out all the closets, gone through all of my clothes and gathered three bags worth to bring to HALO Animal Rescue's resale shop, repainted the living room, washed the curtains, got a new living room rug and a matching one for the entryway, finally put a bed frame on the bed in the guest room, put new bookshelves in the guest room that coordinate with the rest of the furniture and hid the new ones that don't behind the couch as a sofa table, gave the grout in our tile floors a good scrubbing, gave the pussycat a hair cut (tummy and butt fur only)... We still need to hang additional shelves in the laundry room, wash the baseboards, tidy our own bathroom, drop off the stuff we want to donate (the aforementioned clothes and an old TV), drop a broken DVD player at our town's electronics recycling center, and tidy our office. And I need to plan some menus and go grocery shopping.

Sigh. I think I'd rather go for a ride on the bus through the English countryside with Casper. (FF the video to 10 seconds in past the advertisement.)

People will see me and cry

The PS 22 Chorus does it again... And check out Jennifer Hudson 2.0! I am so in love with these kids - and their an inspirational teacher.

"Once, there was a tree..."

"...and she loved a little boy." Found via Spike Jonze's neat little blog We Love You So, this is the original 1973 animated version of Shel Silverstein's classic "The Giving Tree," narrated by the author himself.

Shel was a master poet and lyricist and a personal favorite of mine since a family friend gifted me a copy of "Where the Sidewalk Ends" as a child. I still have those dog-eared pages on my bookshelf.

They make the coolest stuff in Japan

AAAAAAAAANNNNNNNDDDDDD I just died of the cuteness. That's it. I am now dead.

Interlude

I'm still on vacation (hence the lack of posting) but had to share this video... My awesome cousin Justin and his buddies are truly too fab for words!

Be back soon!

Sunday Zen

A brand new baby panda was born at the San Diego Zoo this week! None of these are it, obviously, but enjoy this video of a bunch of fuzzy baby pandas play fighting and making adorable baby panda noises. Happy Sunday!

Ray Charles covers Johnny Cash

I was very, very confused the first time I heard Johnny Cash's cover of NIN's Hurt - until I actually listened to it and realized how heart-wrenchingly awesome it was. I was likewise very, very confused when I ran across this video on BoingBoing of Ray Charles covering Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire - until I watched and listened and realized how blues-gasmically awesome it is. Check it out.

John Hughes

One of my favorite directors of all time, John Hughes, died yesterday of a heart attack at the ridiculous age of 59. I won't write his obit here - you can read the article I wrote yesterday about his life on SheKnows.com - but I do want to share this incredible tribute montage someone put together on YouTube. Love the increasingly frenzied dancing at the end.

This summer's a bummer. The 80's are dying. I hope Madonna's had a recent check-up.

Baby wolf's first howl!

Shaun Ellis is British a wolf expert who studies the behavior of these amazing animals and focuses on humane conservation efforts so they can live in harmony with their farmer neighbors. (You may have seen a couple of documentaries about his work on The National Geographic Channel or Animal Planet.)

In this video, Shaun gives a pup his first howling lesson. Look how readily the baby throws his head back and makes a perfect O with his mouth! Instinct is magical.

By the way, if you are as much of an animal lover as I am and you care deeply about conservation issues then you'll be appalled by the cruel and brutal practice of aerial wolf hunting in Alaska. If you want to help end this disgusting and scientifically unsound practice, write to your local legislators and help the Defenders of Wildlife get the PAW Act passed.

Hypnotic

Kuroshio Sea - 2nd largest aquarium tank in the world - (song is Please don't go by Barcelona) from Jon Rawlinson on Vimeo.

We live in a world of wonders...

(Watch in full screen with your volume on. Every time you watch it you'll discover something new... I like how tiny the human divers at the bottom of the tank are compared to the other creatures... And the reactions of the crowd watching them float by.)

Tribute

I think we'll see lots of tributes in the wake of the death of Michael Jackson, but thus far this one is my fave... David Ryan Harris is a renowned guitarist who, in addition to his own bands and solo efforts, regularly plays with John Mayer, Dave Matthews, Santana and Guy Sebastian.

I love the simplicity of this cover, and the completely new spin Harris' voice puts on the song, compared to MJ's. I do have a soft spot in my heart for acoustic covers, though...

Michael Jackson tribute

Michael Jackson dead? Say it ain't so, Jacko... I think the greatest legacy Michael Jackson left is that his music was so transcendent that even Philippine prisoners got their groove on to it.

I don't think there's anything I can say that others already have not. He was an incredibly gifted, yet incredibly troubled man who lived and died in a way the rest of us can never imagine, nor should we judge him for it - that's someone else's job, in whose presence he is right now. Unless he's still waiting in line - maybe he and Farrah are chatting over a Starbucks at the gates?

Buffy takes on Edward Cullen

In this brilliant video mashup from Rebellious Pixels, Buffy the Vampire Slayer takes on Twilight's Edward Cullen. I hate Twilight (I find the books to be very poorly written and the movie, which I was forced to watch while getting a Vietnamese mani/pedi to be an abomination of film). And as any TV viewer of the 90's knows, Buffy always wins. Go kick some Cullen ass, Buffy.

Who would ever want to be king?

Mr. B teaches music at PS22 in NYC. As you can see, he does a bang-up job of it! The PS 22 Chorus has garnered the attention and accolades of Nightline, the Bonnie Hunt Show, Tori Amos, Stevie Nicks, Crowded House, Suzanne Vega, among many others... Even Ashton Kutcher says they're his fave!

These kids are seriously amazing, and are a testament to what a good arts education program can do for kids in public schools. Beyond the people they are meeting and places they are performing, there are a multitude of benefits that come along with participation in the arts. And how excited are these kids to go to school every day, even if only for the chance to sing?

Every child should have a teacher who inspires her as much as Mr. B inspires these kids.

Lisztomania

I think you should treat yourself today. Go to iTunes and download the album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix by the French band Phoenix. Go ahead, I'll wait.

..................................

Awesome, right?

Okay, so that track Lisztomania? Phoenix shot an official video for it, and it was pretty cool, and they were happy. But then this girl thought how much better the song would be set to dance scenes from 80's movies. So she did it. We're talking perfect shots from The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Footloose and Mannequin (yes that is Kim Cattrall).




I know, right?!?!

P.S. - Cameron's dad's house is for sale.

Ask me about my homepage

Auto Tuning from Casey Donahue on Vimeo.

Man, I wish I had an autotuner.

My husband and I currently share an office, and we've both been doing a lot of work in it over the past few weeks. This is great except I like to work totally uninterrupted and become surly after the eighth time being asked something he could totally just Google OMG.

I'm thinking autotuned R&B answers would quickly nip that in the bud.

The Greatest Show on Earth

I was stood up by the New Kids on the Block yesterday. Pathetic, right? Sadly, this is not the first time this has happened. The first time I was supposed to interview them was last September. They didn't even call and cancel; I was totally stood up. And they did it again! I am totally removing them from my Twitter feed. No one cares about that tink business anyway.

After my grave disappointment (seriously, what keeps NKOTB so busy that they can't spare a half hour on the phone?) I was super stoked to come across this stellar concert footage of the supergroup to end all supergroups: Rick Astley, Debbie Gibson, Tiffany and Samantha Fox! It's like 7th grade came back from the dead and ate the brains of NKOTB in retribution. 

And I was even more stoked to see this footage was not old, not vintage, but just recorded live a few weeks ago! Which means they may be coming soon to a city near you - and me!

Maybe I can get an interview.

Last Day Dream

Director Chris Milk is best known for creating powerful videos for the likes of Kanye West, U2 and Green Day, but I think this is his best work yet. A life in 42 seconds, "Last Day Dream" was Milk's entry in the Bejing 42x42 film festival. 

What do you think this guy did to get Pauly Shore so pissed?