Ah, the viral video. This one has been around for a few days, and I hadn’t clicked on it, because, obviously, I can’t click on everything. But it kept showing up, time and again, and finally I thought, okay . . . and clicked away. Glad I did. It’s sort of a small miracle, magical, wondrous.
If you haven’t seen this yet, trust me and give it a try.
Yo Yo Ma and Lil Buck, together for the very first time. I can’t wait to show this to Maggie.
“Could I use butter and cheese and eggs in my cooking without going down some kind of hippie shame spiral? Yes. Of course I could.” — cookbook author, Gwyneth Paltrow
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Folks, I’m fresh back from a pretty great trip visiting schools on Long Island and Irvington, NY. So here’s a quick one, too good not to share.
I mean to say: Nice to be home. And, oh yes, I’m always up for a satiric, dramatic reading of any too-serious text. While Kristen Wiig’s take on the poetry of Suzanne Somers remains a personal favorite, here’s a recent performance by Robert Acquire reading from Gwyneth Paltrow’s autobiographical cookbook stew, My Father’s Daughter. Enjoy!
You need to stay to the end for this to make its full impact, and I strongly recommend that you do.
The video was produced by Mama Hope:
Mama Hope is a non-profit organization focused on building self-sufficient communities in Sub-Saharan Africa.Mama Hope partners with Community Based Organizations and invests in high impact, cost effective projects, that meet their fundamental needs for food, water, education and health care. Mama Hope’s successful projects to date have directly benefited over 55,000 people.
You can learn more about Mama Hope’s “Stop the Pity, Unlock the Potential” Campaign by clicking here.
As a personal comment, I believe this video makes a point about all boy stereotypes. Forget, for a moment, that Alex is an African boy in Tanzania. In many respects, he can be any boy, head filled with action movies and explosions and whatnot. But like any boy, he’s much more than the stereotypes will allow. He’s also charming, also hilarious, also bright, also curious, also hopeful, etc. And those whole qualities should be reflected in the range of books to which boys are exposed.
This is really sweet in an honest, unaffected, natural way — and that’s why you’ll love it.
Click here for an article about the young father, Jorge Narvaez, age 24, and his daughters. Said Narvaez, “Every moment I have with them is special. It just happens that I put this one on YouTube and it blew up.”
As I type, the clip nears 6,000,000 total views.
Any list of best music should really be called “favorite music,” and mine has to begin with the standard caveat: I didn’t listen to or absorb nearly enough to make an informed choice.
But in addition to that, and possibly as a result of my advancing age (49), I find myself less infatuated with “the new” and “the next,” so don’t chase after the latest & greatest with the same zeal I once had. And there are diminishing finances to consider in this slumping, sluggish economy. While I’m always interested in hearing great new music, sometimes that amounts to discovering early Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac or a neglected John Fahey disc. Shouldn’t I just spend more time exploring the Kinks back catalog? So a lot of things that were new to me in 2010 were not at all new to the world, just new to mine.
That said, here goes:
This was the year when I derived a lot of pleasure from the so-called British nu-folk movement, especially new disks from LAURA MARLING (“I Speak Because I Can”), MUMFORD & SONS (“Sigh No More”), TOM McRAE (“The Alphabet of Shadows”), and STORNOWAY’S debut (“Beachcomber’s Windowsill”).
I also fully endorse some of the obvious choices, more on the hipster tip: ARCADE FIRE (“The Suburbs”), THE NATIONAL (“High Violet”), BROKEN BELLS (“s/t”), BEACH HOUSE (“Teen Dream”), and BLACK KEYS (“Brothers”). Love each one of those disks.
In terms of singer-songwriters, I especially liked SHARON VAN ETTEN (“Epic”), LAURA VEIRS (“July Flame”), THE TALLEST MAN ON EARTH (“The Wild Hunt”), and CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG (“IRM”).
A few old favorites came through with solid efforts, led by TEENAGE FANCLUB (“Shadows”), their best since “Songs of Northern Britain.” Others: PETER WOLF (“Midnight Souveniers”), and THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS (“Together”). In the alt-country vein, RYAN BINGHAM & THE DEAD HORSES (“Junky Star”), PHOSPHERESCENT followed up their disk of Willie Nelson covers with “Here’s to Taking It Easy,” and I’m still trying to wrap my ears around JAMEY JOHNSON’S 25-song, double-CD, “The Guitar Song.”
More rock-based bands that I liked: TITUS ANDRONICUS (“The Monitor”), DEERHUNTER, (“Halcyon Digest”), and THE LIARS (“Sisterworld”).
Some things that didn’t easily fit into the categories above: BLITZEN TRAPPER (“Destroyer of the Void”), BAND OF HORSES (“Infinite Arms”), and WILLIAM TYLER (“Behold the Spirit”). Bubbling Under: JOSH RITTER (“So Runs the World Away”).
Lastly, things I would own (and likely like) if I had more money: CAROLINA CHOCOLATE DROPS (“Genuine Negro Jig”), JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE (“Harlem River Blues”), MIDLAKE (“The Courage of Others”), THE WALKMEN (“Lisbon”), FRIGHTENED RABBIT (“The Winter of Mixed Drinks”), THE ROOTS (“How I Got Over”), SPOON (“Transference”), THE VILLAGERS (Becoming a Jackel”), JOHNNY FLYNN (“Been Listening”).
Acclaimed that I did not care for: VAMPIRE WEEKEND (“Contra”), THE BOOKS (“This Way Out”). Then there’s a lot of stuff I elected not to own, based on limited listenings, such as SLEIGH BELLS, WAVVES, YEASAYER, and a boatload of others that were praised elsewhere and I never gave, for a variety of reasons, a fair listen. Hey, my ears can’t be everywhere. And my taste currently leans much more into wooden music than electronica, and for me song craft continues to trump attitude.
That leaves KANYE WEST’S “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” which is probably the most widely praised disk of the year. As a personality, I find Kanye unbearable –- and as a live performer on television I find him bloated and dull (an unlikely but devastating combo). Yet he does have an undeniable musical gift and made a compelling disk, with all kinds of high marks. The opening track, “Dark Fantasy” strikes me as ground-breaking and brilliant. Not to mention any time a rapper brings together King Crimson and Bon Iver is worth at least a wtf. I won’t listen to this CD much, but there’s definitely some head-turning moments that I couldn’t ignore.
So . . . My Top Nine:
Arcade Fire, Mumford & Sons, Laura Marling, The National, Black Keys, Beach House, Jamey Johnson, Tallest Man on Earth, Broken Bells, __________.
I’ll leave the tenth spot blank, because I probably didn’t hear it.
As always . . . your mileage may vary. Hopefully you’ll find something you like here.
