- I downloaded the new Guns N’ Roses album, Chinese Democracy, this morning and listened to it on my drive to work. I rarely like new albums on my first listen-through, but the album is surprisingly good. It passed my skip-over test. I didn’t skip over any of the songs. It’s typical rocking Guns N’ Roses. I look forward to the next album in 2022.
- I’ve been working out with the Wii Fit for the past few days and it’s lots of fun. It’s well worth the $90 we paid for it. I plan on writing a more comprehensive review after I’ve used it for a few weeks, but I thought I’d share my initial impressions here.
- I like the fact that it has a wide variety of exercises and fun activities. You can do various yoga, aerobic, strenth training, and balance exercises.
- There’s a strength exercise called “The Plank” where you put your forearms on the balance board, stretch your legs back, and hold yourself up for 30 seconds (which is the beginner’s time). That exercise is HARD!
- The balance activities are fun. As you continue to use the Wii Fit it unlocks more fun games and exercises, so there’s always something new to do. My favorite balance activities so far: Hula Hoop, Slalom Skiing, and Tightrope Walking.
- I’m also surprisingly enjoying the Yoga exercises, which look extremely easy to do. Trust me, they’re not. I’m feeling the burn in my legs today.
- I don’t like the fact that the balance board thinks it’s funny. During my initial weigh-in it told me I was overweight, and now when I step on the balance board to do activities it sometimes says “Oooofff”. Rude!
- I can’t wait to decorate our house with Christmas lights and decorations. This will be the first Christmas that The Babito truly understands that Christmas is a special holiday. Some of our neighbors have already put up their lights and he’s amazed by them. I told him we were going to put lights on our house this weekend and he’s excited about it. Now I just have to resist the urge to go all Clark Griswold on our house. We’re going old-school with the lights this year, with the big-bulbed multi-color lights. I bought eight packs.
Posts Tagged Music
I haven’t had time to put together a thoughtful, well-written post (have I ever done that?) lately, but I do have some things I’d like to share, in functional bullet-point style:
- Christmas season officially begins today at Disneyland. We’re taking Babito tomorrow. Supposedly they’ve greatly improved the lighting and the snow on Main Street this year. It should be fun. Also, they’re about to reopen the Sleeping Beauty walkthrough that’s been closed since 9/11. Lastly, It’s A Small World reopens today. I dread taking Babito on it because that damn song will be stuck in my head the rest of the day.
- I’m thinking about doing a giveaway in 2009 to all my loyal readers. My plan, which isn’t completely finalized right now, is to hook each of you up with a FREE ticket to Disneyland on your birthday. Any interest?
- Last Disneyland note, I was looking at the height requirements for the various rides to see how much taller Babito has to get to go on some new rides. I was shocked to see that he’s tall enough to go on the Matterhorn! I’m not sure if he’s ready for it. It’s somewhat of a rough ride, but he does love the kiddie roller coaster in Toontown. We’ll have to take a closer look at it tomorrow.
- The Social Security Administration has released their list of most popular baby names for 2007. The top five for boys: Jacob, Michael, Ethan, Joshua, Daniel (yes!). The top five for girls: Emily, Isabella, Emma, Ava, Madison. The SSA site also allows you to put in your type in your own name to see where it falls on the list and also allows you to view the most popular names by year, going all the way back to 1880.
- Lastly, I’d like to recommend the new album by Taylor Swift, called ‘Fearless’
. I know, she’s a teenage country singer, but she’s much more than that. Give it a listen, you may just like it. She got a rave review in the last issue of The New Yorker, where the reviewer compares her songwriting skills to Hank Williams, Prince, Elvis Costello, and Randy Newman.
- Have a great weekend everybody!
This week I asked the panel to share recording artists they love that you may not have heard yet. There’s some great music here. When available, I’ve shared a YouTube video of the artist so you can check them out yourselves. For some reason, some of the record companies block embedding of videos from YouTube. How stupid is that? You’d think they’d want their artists promoted.
Please share your favorite unknown artist in the comments.
Here’s this week’s question:
Which bands or singers do not get the level of recognition they deserve?
Jason from iVegasFamily:
I’m a fan of Marc Broussard. A native of Louisiana, his music is an eccletic mix of funk, blues, R&B, rock, and pop. I have a couple of his albums, but his first major label album, Carencro, is a favorite in our house. It’s named after his hometown and the songs heavily reflect his southern roots. He has a new album out now that’s also awesome.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zeU5taGKJY[/youtube]
Ali from Cheaper Than Therapy:
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Band of Horses:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93OTv6Cjk6U[/youtube]
Akron/Family:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KR85gYuKwI[/youtube]
Sunna:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGGCeEX2VMg[/youtube]
Pedro the Lion:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8a7MAcKeJ0[/youtube]
you won’t be sorry. i promise.
Sandy from Momisodes:
Hands down, jazz musicians. I’m not talking about Ella Fitzgerald or Louis Armstrong; they will always be the widely recognized great standards. I’m talking about amazing, talented jazz artists today who have kept the standards alive while redefining the art of jazz. Nothing evokes more emotion into my writing than the sounds of Michael Bublé , Diana Krall, and Jane Monheit. All of them have an incredible style of their own. Not to mention, they can sing. And I mean…sing.
Michael Bublé:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDQnkYwfNfk[/youtube]
Diana Krall:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNp79hF-xZw[/youtube]
Jane Monheit:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHcBKkSd7z8[/youtube]
And here’s Michael Bublé AND Jane Monheit together!:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DSrJXQV9Og[/youtube]
Maya from Gemini Girl:
My favorite band, Take That, originally started off as a boy band back in 1990. They are a British group, and became a worldwide phenomena. Unfortunately for them, they never managed to break into the US market. They broke up in 1995 (shortly after Robbie Williams left the group), and left millions of people heart broken. Ten years later, they reunited and put out an amazing album (ala Coldplay). Today, they are no longer considered a “boy band”, and are making incredible music. They have won tons of awards in Europe and put on a great concert. I truly wish they would make it big in the US so that I could see them live in concert!
Take That:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txtq29e7KQo[/youtube]
Katie from K Squared:
I’m not usually one to discover new music as I don’t listen to radio very much, but I recently started using itunes’ Genuis tool, and I’ve found some great new artists from that!
I really like Matt Nathanson, especially his songs “Come on Get Higher” and “Bent.” His music I believe has been showing up on some TV shows out there, which should really help him out. Check out his website at http://www.mattnathanson.com/.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7xTRh6G784[/youtube]
I also like Sister Hazel a lot, but I think many people don’t know their music beyond “All for You,” which was their hit in the 90s. I just love the sound of their voices, and really that’s true for a lot of the music I like is the voice, not always just the beat or the guitar. The band actually formed in Gainesville, FL, about 2 hours from where I now live, and they named themselves after Sister Hazel Williams, a nun who ran a local homeless shelter. You can check out the band on itunes or their website www.sisterhazel.com.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx4366cP1Dg[/youtube]
Daddy Dan:
I have a few to share too.
Mindy Smith (amazing voice and great lyrics):
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jzu3Ihyq50c[/youtube]
Tristan Prettyman:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2vx7B4tAgA[/youtube]
Duffy:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4jPXp7LxyI[/youtube]
Keane (I know they’re popular, but not to the extent they should be. The song in the link below is amazing.):
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQQpWmKoB4g[/youtube]
Brother Yusef: He’s a regular at Downtown Disney. He’s a bluesman extraordinare, and he’s a super nice guy too. He also has a great blues album for kids that the Babito loves and that we like too. It’s kids music that’s bearable for adults.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GOebXVOxsc[/youtube]
Dr. Heather from BabyShrink:
EVAN LURIE, composer extraordinaire, who writes most of the music for the Backyardigans. I’m not kidding, folks! Just listen to the music next time the kids are watching.
(And yes, I DO need to get out more.)
The Babito’s Taste in Music
Oct 21
As Babito continues transform from a baby/toddler to a little boy, he has definitely began to develop strong likes and dislikes. One such example is his taste in music.
The other night I met my wife and The Babito at Chik Fil-A for dinner after work. That’s right, nothing but the best for us! After dinner, my wife needed to stop at the store, so I took The Babito home with me.
On the way home I decided to look for an elaborate Halloween display I’d heard about that someone had set up in their front lawn. I didn’t remember exactly where it was, but I knew the general area. This display is awesome. The guy setting it up works for Disney, and he goes all out with a full walk-through pirate ship, waterfall, etc, based on The Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. Here’s a short video clip of it:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB7lr9hlGU4[/youtube]
But we never found it. And we looked for a good 30 minutes.
Anyway, back to my point about The Babito’s strong musical tastes.
I had created a playlist on iTunes using their new Genius feature. I based it on The Cure classic “Close to Me.” I picked this playlist because I knew it had Babito’s favorite song on it, “Our House” by Madness. After we sang along with Madness, we continued to listen to the rest of the playlist. Babito would listen to each song for a good 5-10 seconds before making his judgment.
If he didn’t like the song, he’d say “Nooo, don’t like dat song, Daddy.” If he liked it, he wouldn’t say anything. I’d ask him, “Do you like this song?” and every time he’d say that he did. I only played each song for about a minute to get his opinion on as many songs as possible.
So here’s the playlist, divided between the songs he liked and disliked. Let me know what you think of his musical taste.
Liked
- Our House – Madness
- Roam – The B-52s
- She Sells Sanctuary – The Cult
- God Only Knows – The Beach Boys
- Train in Vain – The Clash
- Should I Stay or Should I Go – The Clash
- China Girl – David Bowie
- Miss You – The Rolling Stones
- True Faith – New Order
Disliked
- Lay Lady Lay – Bob Dylan
- Under the Milky Way – The Church
- Faith – George Michael
- Lips Like Sugar – Echo and the Bunnymen
- I Melt With You – Modern English
- Here’s Where The Story Ends – The Sundays
- New Year’s Day – U2
- Wicked Game – Chris Isaak
- Rio – Duran Duran
- Celebrity Skin – Hole
- Eyes Without a Face – Billy Idol
- Mushaboom – Feist
Yes, he only liked 9 of the 21 songs I played for him. Very picky little boy, isn’t he? And what a strange mix iTunes came up with, don’t you think? George Michael, The Beach Boys, and Chris Isaak don’t seem to fit in with the rest of the songs.
Let me know what you think of Babito’s musical taste. And don’t say it’s impeccable. After all, he loves the entire Barney playlist, as well as the Cedarmont Kids. Scary!
Cedarmont Kids:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75tgZl2WfEg[/youtube]
