A cautionary tale (actually, a cartoon) that should help kids see the value of a good night's shut eye. Featuring: a crazy guinea pig scientist and his cyborg pet sheep in a sleep
related adventure. Made by The Brothers McLeod for Children's BBC.
Bébé Lilly is one of my son's favorite web videos. When he saw this new one, he exclaimed: "Oh, this is in French". ForeignMama never got so proud! He is getting into recognizing languages - not only the Portuguese that I hammer in his head everyday, but pointing to things like: "oh, this is Spanish", "this song is in Arabic" and now, he noticed French, although we don't practice the "frogs' dialect" with him and we rarely mention that something is being said in French. That comes to prove that an early bilingual education opens mind roads to not only one extra foreign language, but several, allowing awareness of the "otherness" in communication early on! Have fun with Bébé Lilly:
I've already declared my love for Emiliana Torrini before, but I forgot to show my ever favorite song and video (and Tetti's also: whenever I play it, he has to watch it again five more times, over and over and over).
They are the cutest little things ever: Pennywell piglets born in a Devon, South West England farm, are amongst the smallest in the world. Check out the BBC story and video here. Or watch them right here, courtesy of YouTube:
So it seems that nowadays Brazil is the "cool factor". Just add some Brazilian spice and anything gets a little more... interesting. In our lounge/groove/Buddha Bar era, including some Brazil to your mix is a sure hit - the gringos hear something in a sweet girlish voice over an electronic background and they go "Coooooool...", even if the singer is just saying "café com leite é bom" (coffee with milk is good). Some DJs and fans tell me they just love the way Brazilian Portuguese sounds - sultry, warm and full of promises... A guy once told me that just listening to me talk in my native language made him "weak in the knees"! (he also told me he was still in love with a former Brazilian flirt...that should explain much of his weakness).
Maybe you don't even need to speak any Portuguese to borrow from our coolness: take the band Brazilian Girls; a bunch of guys and only one girl, the singer Sabina Sciubba, who, by the way, is Italian, and sings in English, French, Spanish, and German... they just needed a catchy name. Made you look, didn't it? Click here to listen to MP3s of their last album, "Talk to La Bomb". And click over here to watch the video for Don't Stop: With Smoking in YouTube. Here you can watch Pussy live in NYC (Parental Discretion is advised; the chorus goes like this: "Pussy pussy pussy marijuana").
The band Mosquitos, on the other hand, is not as cool!-the-latest-thing-to-be-aware-of-in-New-York-city as Brazilian Girls seems to be (who, by the way, may suffer from trying too hard - making too much effort to be edgy is so, uh, uncool), but they are really cute. Funny. Soft. And cozy. You can visit their site to listen to the "Songs of the Day". And they do have a Brazilian singer, who knows how to sing - in a lovely style - in Portuguese. And whose name is Juju (how dare her? Too bad I did not register my Trademark). Below you can watch the video for their hit Boombox:
Thanks to Angel, I discovered this sweet Icelandic singer, Emiliana Torrini who is as multicultural as one can get: Italian father, Icelandic mother, sings in English with that mellow, child-like accent that only Icelandic singers can pull off (Bjork and Selma come to mind). One more proof that there is an asset in having an accent (anyone remembers that ad, “Secret #24: Sometimes I fake an accent at parties” ?).The clip bellow - the song is "Sunny Road" - is a favorite with kids, maybe due to the fairy-tale/collage atmosphere...
ISRAEL THROUGH THE LENSES OF GEORGE LANGE Click here to enjoy his latest Flipbook (a very fast version of a slide show, with great musical background and hypnotic imagery). Mesmerizing. Shalom.
TODAY IS A JAMIROQUAI DAY - ALRIGHT? Nostalgic mood, remembering how much fun I used to have. Listening to Space Cowboy, Virtual Insanity and Cosmic Girl in YouTube. I've never thought I was going to be one of those people that go like "good times were the old times". But I haven't been in a party like that for a while...
TRUEMORS, YOUR COCKTAIL PARTY CONVERSATION FUEL If you need great conversation starters for social gatherings and stuff, check out Truemors.com daily. Soon you'll be generating heated debates starting like "have you heard that bat bandwidth is species specific?", or "did you hear that a cigar smoked by Elvis Presley sold for $550 at the Elvis Expo Tradeshow in Memphis?".
NOW LISTENING: Pandora, the radio from the Music Genome Project, is an automated music recommendation FREE service and highly addictive. Users enter a song or artist that they enjoy, and the service responds by playing selections that are musically similar. Users give feedback on each song choice — approving or disapproving — which Pandora takes in consideration when making future selections.
ANIMATED MUSIC VIDEOS CAN BE GREAT CROWD PLEASERS Who knew that my son would enjoy listening to Frejat? Nevertheless, he is always asking to see "Segredos" or "Tunel do Tempo" , thanks to the cute cartoon the famed Brazilian guitar player became. Teti's opinion? "Wow, this is so Brasil!" (click in the songs names to watch the videos through Daily Motion).