Strollerderby : itunes

Review: Yo Gabba Gabba! Cuts an Album

JeanneSager — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 15:33:00 GMT

It's about time. I was out at a girls night (without the kid, rare, but it happens), when someone started talking about this show with Biz Markie and his "Beat of the Day."

"And it's for our kids!" they said. After I finished snorting a cosmo out my nose, I pressed for details. "You mean Biz "Youuuuuuuuu can't carry a tune, but it's OK cause you're just a friend" Markie? And there are no freakish overbearing bunnies? Tell me more."

Oh, admit it, you've got Yo Gabba Gabba! Tivo'd for AFTER the kid goes to bed, and you can pretend you're back in college and eat some munchies. Only now you can carry it on your iPod too. Because DJ Lance Rock, Toodee and their music biz friends have put out an album that's only on iTunes. And we've got the skinny for you.

With Biz's beat, the insta-classic "Party in My Tummy" and the tune guaranteed to leave them breathless from dancing in their footie pajamas, "Get the Sillies Out," the sounds of the Yo Gabba Gabba! (YGG to those in the know - or dorky moms like me) regulars would be worth adding to the iPod alone - if only for those days when you're out of the house and need to keep them absolutely transfixed on something OTHER than you. But with hip hop pioneers The Roots and indie popsters The Ting Tings putting a little hip in their pop, it's the kid music that will sneak into your playlist.

And they love it - in all its retro fabulousness. Literally, all it took was the first few beats of the "ska/rockers who think they're superheros" The Aquabats punk "Pool Party" for my three-year-old to come running from the living room and start bouncing around (OK, so she calls it the "cool party," but she's three people).

The album is available from iTunes or you can buy it song by song.

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A Halloween Playlist for Your Kids' Party

Jen Chaney — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 16:32:00 GMT

So you're planning a Halloween party for all the kids in the neighborhood and you want to fire up some holiday-appropriate tunes. But you don't want to choose any excessively scary selections from that overplayed Halloween mix CD. In other words, "Tubular Bells" and "Dead Man's Party" might be a bit too macabre.

Justine Lorelle Blanchard over at Cookie has compiled a short, nine-song Halloween playlist, and I am digging a few of her choices: "Lil' Red Riding Hood" and "Boris the Spider" strike me as particularly ideal tunes for kids. ("Thriller" is good, too, as long as your little ones are old enough not to be freaked by Vincent Price's voice.)

Naturally, I was inspired to devise my own list of Halloween songs that are fun and vaguely spooky but don't run the risk of causing any nightmares. Check it out and feel free to borrow liberally for your own family-friendly Halloween Greatest Hits compilation.

"Spiders and Snakes" by Jim Stafford: This '70s hit is catchy and incredibly silly, a natural for the tykes.
"Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker, Jr.: I know, we've all heard this one a few too many times. But honestly, who doesn't enjoy asking the timeless question: Who you gonna call?
"Little Ghost" by The White Stripes: Will put some genuine rock into your kids' Halloween celebration.
The Theme From "The Addams Family": Kids like saying altogether ooky. Come to think of it, so do some adults I know.
The Treehouse of Horror version of "The Simpsons" Theme: Really? Do I need to explain why the "Treehouse of Horror" episodes rule?
"Witchcraft" by Frank Sinatra: Because no children's party is complete with a nice loungey classic like this one.
"Walking With a Ghost" by Tegan & Sara: Celebrate All Hallow's Eve and turn your kids into fans of this indie-rock duo, all in one evening.
"Dracula's Wedding" by Outkast: The party needs some funk. And who better to provide it than Andre 3000?
"Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" -- The Disney Version: Sing along with me now: "Who's afraid of the big bad wold? Tra la la la la!"

Of course, I have undoubtedly omitted some goodies from this list. Feel free to post your song selections in the comments below.

Image: Fox via Tvshowsondvd.com

Related Links:

Defamer's Top 10 Halloween Specials

How To Fake Being the Crafty Mom This Halloween

The Halloween Poll

Top 10 Halloween Candies I Never Wanted in My Trick-or-Treat Bag

Like Your Kids? Don't Be So Smug!

As the Cookie Crumbles: The Disheveled Family Rescue Plan

Girl Wins Hannah Montana Tickets With Fake Essay

Madeline Holler — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 19:00:00 GMT

I have had countless conversations about Hannah Montana over the past couple of weeks, which is stunning, considering I don't think I had uttered the rather catchy (and fake) name more than once or twice total before that. In any case, all of the discussions involved one or more of these three elements: first-graders (first-graders!); $450 concert tickets (for a fake singer!); mothers living through their daughters (in this day and age!).

Until today, the sickest anecdote came from my aunt-in-law, a second-grade teacher, who told me about a first-grader at her school. The girl's mom shelled out nearly $2,000 for four concert tickets, plus transportation and dinner for the mother-daughter pairs in a limo that was taking them on the four-hour round trip. Did they open the wet bar too? Stand through the sunroof and lift up their Hanna Montana concert tees?

That story got trumped, though, when I came across this: one Texas mother's strategy to get her daughter (a first-grader ... it's always first-graders!) to a sold-out Hanna Montana concert.

The details:

Club Libby Lu, a Chicago-based store that sells clothes, accessories and other crap for young girls (we'll need to table our discussion of THIS particular merchandiser of hooker lifestyle for the pre-breast-budded for another time) sponsored a writing contest. The prize was a makeover at Club Libby Lu, a blonde HM wig and tickets for the Albany, N.Y., concert (where the debt-ridden Disney fans go to hang out with other first-graders and their moms, I presume).

The winning essay began: "My daddy died this year in Iraq." You know where this is going.

The girl's daddy didn't die this year in or out of Iraq. The named father wasn't even listed with the defense department. Instead, like customers leaving Libby Lu, the adoring fans of Hannah Montana, and anyone with a vagina appearing on the Disney Channel, that heart-breaking winning essay was all heavily made up.

Says the mother:

"We did the essay and that's what we did to win," Priscilla Ceballos, the mother, said in an interview with Dallas TV station KDFW. "We did whatever we could do to win."
Charming! Inspiring! A real warm holiday story, plus years of therapy for her humiliated and/or devastated daughter.

Here's the kicker for me: the company is reviewing the matter and "considering taking away the girl's tickets." Considering? This isn't a case-closed kind of thing? Oh, and that would also mean the mother -- already far behind the starting line on modeling, for her daughter, honesty, perspective, pride, those kinds of things -- hasn't given the tickets back? Doesn't she ...? Isn't she ...? Can someone please explain this to me?

Wasn't I just saying people are such entitled jackasses?

Sesame Street and Electric Company on iTunes

Kelly Mills — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 21:40:00 GMT

Sesame Workshop announced that they will be sharing some Sesame Street music and Electric Company episodes for free through iTunes. "You can sing along anywhere to your favorite Sesame Street songs such as: 'C is for Cookie,' 'Sesame Street Theme Song,' 'I Love Trash,' 'People in the Neighborhood,' 'Rubber Duckie,' 'Doin' the Pigeon.'" Aw yeah! "I Love Trash" is one of my all-time favs, as is "Doin' the Pigeon." You just don't get any better than Bert in saddle shoes and a dashing little hat, breaking it down all funky.

I also recommend you check out the Electric Company episodes. I watched a bunch of clips recently, and I was stunned by how smart and funny the show was. The star-studded cast is pretty impressive. Since I was a little young to follow cast members' careers back when I was a regular watcher, I had no idea so many great entertainers were on the show (Rita Moreno, Morgan Freeman, and Bill Cosby, to name a few.) Now I finally understand why the sight of Mel Brooks makes me want to suck my thumb. I can think of very few current kids shows (aside from maybe Peep) that have mastered the fine balance of goofy and intelligent the way EC did. Remember "Letterman"? "Easy Reader"? Though I do wonder if kids today will be able to follow the 70's lingo.

Here's hoping the excellent Sesame Ernie-Aaron Neville duet, "I Don't Want to Visit the Moon" will be available soon. I also loooove the Elmo and Robert DeNiro method acting sketch. What's your favorite Sesame or Electric Company moment?

iPhone Jones: The 5 Reasons Every Parent Needs One

Stefania Pomponi Butler (CityMama) — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 05:02:00 GMT

Steve Jobs gave the world a sneak-peak of the new and much-anticipated iPhone today during the keynote address of this year's MacWorld conference in San Francisco. Mixed reviews aside, I want. I don't even care what it does. It's thin and it's shiny and it must be mine.

An iPhone would make my life as a parent so much easier. You don't believe me? Here are five reasons why (as my toddler would say) I neeeeed it.

It has a 320 x 480 touch screen, built-in wi-fi, Bluetooth compatibility, and a full-touch keyboard. Now while I am waiting to pick up my daughter in school or sitting in the car with a toddler passed out in her carseat, I can (steal wireless and) check email or post to my blog without going blind. Also, when I go to the park, I'll ~~have something to do cuz ain't nothing more boring than having to watch my kids go down the curly slide for the thousandth time~~ look like all the dads.
It has a 2 megapixel camera and the high end model boasts 8GBs of storage. That's plenty of space to store my grainy pictures of soccer dads losing their shit, nannies behaving badly, or cheerleaders acting like strippers...and photos of my kids, of course.
There's no crap specialized mobile phone OS; this baby runs on Mac OS X. Have you tried browsing with the phone you have now? I'm all for anything that removes stress and frustration from my life. And (bonus!) an exclusive partnership with Cingular means I can trade in my shitty Razr (hopefully?) and keep my number.
iTunes integration. Music anytime, anywhere without having to carry an extra gadget. The iPhone will even display album artwork of songs being played. Kids acting up in a restaurant? Chill out to Laurie Berkner or listen to an audio book.
It's a video iPod, too, and you know what that means: "Dick in a Box" anytime, anywhere.*

* Okay, that last one might not make my parenting life easier, but I wouldn't mind being in the middle of a tasty JT-Andy Samberg sandwich...even if they are chanelling Color Me Badd. Hey, if mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.