Wow.

Have you heard these kids sing? Check out the PS22 Chorus. I particularly like their version of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin."

Noggin's great conspiracy

The folks at Noggin have developed a grand conspiracy to drive me insane. If I see the insipid, saccharine previews for The Fresh Beat Band, f/k/a The Jumparounds, one more time, I may lose it. The lame lyrics and bubble gum pop tunes are already affixed into my brain, stuck there like old gum on the under side of a desk. And to think, I've read rumors online that Noggin cut the fabulous Jack's Big Music Show in favor of this drivel.

Have you heard Alice Russell sing?

I heard this great story on NPR today about British neo-soul singer Alice Russell, and I can't wait to pick up a CD. She has just released "Pot of Gold," her first US album. You can hear several clips of her in the NPR story - and if you're as taken by her voice as I am, you may want to buy the album too.

Kid-Friendly Music That Adults Can Stand

I have discovered something miraculous: music that my kids *and* my husband enjoy. Hubs is extremely picky, and professes strong dislike for many of the kids' CDs that I actually enjoy (and I'm rather selective myself). But after I dragged him with us to a wonderful concert at our church last weekend, he actually requested one of these CDs to play on his laptop while he was hanging out with the kids (I was enjoying a lovely bit of solitary reading time while this happened).

Roger Day came to perform at our church, and since I was Roger's contact at the church, I dragged Hubs along and persuaded him to pitch in with set-up and break-down for the event. So Hubs chatted with Roger before and after, and he was there to see how much our kids and all of the others who attended loved the show. And Hubs will now listen, willingly and without complaints, to Roger Day CDs.

One of the things I like best about this music is the silly-factor. The lyrics aren't preachy or pedantic; they just encourage kids to move around and sing along and act silly. Two of my favorites are "It's a No-No to Kiss a Rhino!" from Ready to Fly and "Roly Poly" from Dream Big! You can hear samples from all three of his CDs on his website, and he also has the lyrics posted there as PDF files.

Roger also wrote some of the music for the Vacation Bible School curriculum that we used last summer, and those songs translate the fun quality into a more Christian-focused message (he has written songs for a number of the Cokesbury curricula in recent years, so if your kids have been to a VBS that used Cokesbury materials, they may have heard some of his songs - Big Girl is still singing some of the Beach Party songs from this summer). These VBS songs are great, but I really think his genius shines in his own CDs.

Big Day

I've been slightly less maniacal about posting this week, but I have a good excuse. I've been cleaning the house a bit, and then today I'm starting my new job. It's a part-time gig, so I'll still have plenty of time to blather on about nothing on this blog. I'm excited to try something new, and I'll be working in the same office as a lot of people I know and like, so hopefully this will be a very good situation for me. I'll still be teaching tomorrow's "leaders" at the local mecca of higher learning in spring and fall as well - that's only part-time too, so the two jobs will fit nicely together and still leave me plenty of time with the Big Girl and Two.

Speaking of Two, he's very persistent. He's trying to close my laptop for me, so I'll watch him drive his truck across the carpet. Big Girl and her baby dolls (dressed up in some of her clothes that she naughtily pilfered from her drawers) are dancing to this morning's kid-friendly selection, an old Phil Collins cd. Good times. I think I'll start making music, instead of Noggin, a part of our morning routine. They're not so zombie-fied and they don't throw tantrums when I interrupt music listening to get them dressed and wash the breakfast crumbs from their faces.

The sun is rising outside. It's getting hot in Georgia, y'all. Thank goodness for a/c and box fans.

If only this were the soundtrack to my life...

I've been listening to Watershed, the new k.d. lang release, and I am in love. This cd is so sensual, so rich, and I just keep playing it again and again. Confession: I know the words to almost every song on Ingénue and I sing along every time I listen to it. Not loud enough to keep me from hearing k.d. lang, but I can't help myself. If she sang the soundtrack to my life, I can only imagine how fabulous my life would be. I feel like I would be a silver screen siren dressed in fabulous gowns, with an amazing hourglass figure and perfectly coifed hair. Her music really stirs something within me, and when I started listening to Watershed this morning, I had one of those perfect moments. It's gloomy and gray and raining this morning, and "i dream of spring" came on and just cinched that moment for me. I can't really explain it. I'm probably sounding ridiculous, but I feel like sitting back and closing my eyes and just listening, because the music is touching something, lifting up something inside of me. This is the feeling I long for, when I listen to music, and sometimes I find it.