Is this really art?

This is from the Nick Jr. show, Yo Gabba Gabba.  I know nothing of the show.  I stumbled upon this video because of a list of recommended children's youtube channels.  Yo Gabba Gabba was the favorite of the person putting together the list. 

I watched a few episodes with Inge.   Yes, she was interested.  Yes, she was involved.  Yes, she was stimulated. 

Strange.  At first glance, the whole show seemed to me little more than a retro hippy drug induced creation.  And at second glance.  Third....

As I watched the above clip, I was reminded of a discussion going on in worldview and education/homeschool philosophy circles many years ago.  Perhaps it still is.  I mostly no longer have the energy to pursue such intelligent philosophical banterings, so I can't say for sure.

The idea was that 20th century art is widely a reflection of the wider 20th century tendency to forgo rules and order.  What appears in this video to be a bunch of adults clowning around and making a huge mess, is called art.

I don't deny that art is everywhere.  Creativity abounds in humanity.  Beauty abounds in the earth.  Interesting and challenging ideas can be portrayed visually.  Touching moments, hardship, violence, accomplishment, virtue, etc.  These can all be portrayed through visual media.  That to me is art.  At least visual art.

But the above definition of art?  Really?  I think we as a society can and should do better than this.  We ought to hold higher standards before our children. 

Dueling Songs? Or Melding?

I've got competing songs going through my brain. It's kind of like dueling banjos. But not really.

Joe was listening to a guitar learning video, teaching about delta blues guitar riffs. John is building the birdhouse from the kit he got for Christmas.

Each of those activities have put a song in my head.  I really like both songs.  But they're spinning around in my poor noggin and combining in a strange sort of musical meld.





Maybe some musically inclined person can explore this idea and make his or her fortune.  Go for it!  I surrender all rights.

An Emotional Rescue

Imagine with me please...I'm jamming to 80s music on the radio.  Madonna, Hall and Oates, J. Geils Band.  All the good stuff.   When suddenly...SUDDENLY...they play a song that's so very familiar.  I know that I know it.  I know instantly that it had been a favorite.  But I can't quite place it...Is it Electric Avenue?  Funky Town?  No, neither of those sounds quite right.  It feels like a song from my grade school years, which would put it into the 70s rather than the 80s.  Hmmm.  I listen a little bit further.  Rolling Stones.  It's got to be Rolling Stones.

I cave, "Joe, what song is this?"

Joe checks the window on the media player he is using,  "Rolling Stones, 'Emotional Rescue.' " 

Oh, my goodness!  This is the signature song from my one of my berry field summers. I was instantly right back working for Matlock Farms in the Puyallup River valley.  I didn't know it was the Rolling Stones at that time, but I did think it was a cool song. 

I go over to the computer and stand beside where Joe is working.  I'm grooving along with the beat.  Waiting, just waiting for my favorite parts.

The,  "Uh-hoo, uh-hoo-hoo, uh-hoo-hoo-hoo, Uh-hoo, uh-hoo-hoo, uh-hoo-hoo-hoo," was something I thought was really cool.  I also liked the part about the "crying like a child."

But still, I had to wait for my very favorite lines

I will be your knight in shining armor
Coming to your emotional rescue
You will be mine, you will be mine, all mine
You will be mine, you will be mine, all mine
I will be your knight in shining armor
Riding across the desert on a fine Arab charger.

It appealed to the imaginary, knights and ladies, part of my young personality, but it also had a fun electronic sound and a cool beat.

Oh, here it comes!  We're almost there!

But suddenly!  Suddenly the sound is gone.  GONE.  And I see Joe pick up his phone.  He had muted the computer to talk on the phone.  Well, maybe it will be fast and he'll get the volume back up in time.  Maybe I'll still get to hear, in that funny, whispery, spooky voice I remember, the part about the guy riding across the desert on a fine Arab charger .

But no such luck.  Nope.   It was Issues, Etc., radio show calling to line up Joe's next interview.  Can you imagine something so trivial as that!  I bet they would have called back had they known it was the Rolling Stones.  Right?

Oyweh!

This song stuck with me throughout the years.  Now remember, most of these years were before google.  Before the internet.  I remember at one point, having heard that it was the Rolling Stones.  But when I asked Joe about it, (yes, that same Joe who seems to know everything about every eclectic kind of music around), he could not tell me anything about the song.  He did not recognize it at all.  I think he must not have been a Stones fan. 

Now this "sticking with me thing" that a few tidbits of these lyrics did, it was not any big deal.  Just a curiosity.  A memory I'd occasionally pull out and dust off.  And wonder about.  I didn't know the name of the song.  And I only suspected that I knew it was the Rolling Stones. 

Now pan forward a few more years until shortly after we moved up north.  Once when we were in East Grand Forks visiting Rolf and Dort Preus, with whom we were still getting acquainted at the time, it came out that Rolf had been a big Rolling Stones fan in his day.  So I sang that lyric.  The one I included up above.  The lyric for the mystery song.  Rolf started laughing at the idea of this mother of six, this younger pastor's wife, knew that song from what must have been his college or seminary years. 

But Rolf was also good enough to solve the mystery for me.  "Yes, of course!  That would be "Emotional Rescue," from the 1980 album of the same name."

This is the Stones' Solid Gold performance of this song.  Aaaaahhhhh.  Solid Gold.  Now there's another story for another day.  Definitely a period show.

Rain, Glorious Rain!

We need rain so badly that several of the area cattle ranchers are finding their water holes going dry. Our water table is normally so high here, that if one has a large amount of livestock, he digs a big, deep pit called a cattle pit or cow pit or cow pond.  The pit fills in nicely and the cattle gather around the edges to drink and wander into it here and there.   Sometimes children swim in the cattle pits.  But I suspect that was mostly in the old days before we had so many experts to tell us that these pits might have germs.  Really?  Germs?  In standing water where cows pee and poop?  Good thing we have the experts.

But, alas! I digress.  These cattle pits are drying up this year.  One neighbor dug a new pit in a different location after his usual one dried up (think bulldozer and backhoe, 8-15 ft deep) and couldn't find water at all. Usually the water is only a couple of feet down.

But blessedly, praise the Lord, I woke up to the sound of a good heavy rain spattering on the house and flowing, gurglingly, through the downspouts.  

I instantly had a version of the song, "Food, Glorious Food," from the musical, Oliver, stuck in my head.  Instead of "Food," I was singing, "Rain, Glorious Rain!"



Who knows where such things come from?  I've never even seen Oliver.  Nor do I know any of the words to the song except "Food, Glorious Food."  Nor did I even know it was from that particular musical.  It was just a refrain stuck in my head.  

After I got up, I put on my bathrobe and went out on my front porch to stand in the falling rain.  I let it drizzle on my head, and bluster past and around me.  It was indeed glorious.  

Then the lightening struck a few times in the distance, so I figured I ought to come inside.  The thunder was not following it too closely, so I was probably safe.  But I remembered the exhortations of those experts, and how we are warned about the great many miles lightning can travel.  So I pulled myself away from the experience and came inside.

I might just as well have had "Singing in the Rain" stuck in my head.  But no, that's not how brains work. We take what we get in that regard.

I didn't exactly go out and dance around in the puddles like Gene Kelly, but I did find great pleasure in wiggling my toes in the little bit of standing water on my front porch.

 
We didn't get as much rain or as deep of puddles as the character, Don Lockwood, did in the movie, but we got some.  It's a start.  The forecast calls for more the rest of the day and into tomorrow.  I pray God sees fit to bless us as forecasted.  We do need it.

Laughter and Tears and Happiness

I got it all on the trip into Oklee today to pick up the Wednesday school kids. 

First off I heard Sara Evans singing Suds in the Bucket.  OK, no problem there.  I'm glad I'm not sentimental about music or kids growing up.

"Our little pony-tail girl growed up to be a woman
Now she's gone in the blink of an eye"

Oh-oh, in a spit second I went from just fine and enjoying the song, to tears springing up and even sobs wracking forth.

Can you say Looney Tunes?

In course of time, I recovered from that shocking outburst.  Shwew!

(The video I linked is hilarious, by the way.  Not at all sentimental.  Unless of course, I'm just seeing it through the lens of another of my wildly swinging moods.  Maybe?  Well, whatever.  Take what you want from it.)

Next up was Luke Bryan's Drunk on You.

"Girl you make my speakers go "BOOM BOOM""

Baaaah, haaaa haaaaaaaaaaa!  Belly laughter.  Oh my.  Really?  That's the kind of lyrics that make my sister so mock country music.  Puh-lease.   Speakers go boom booom.  Heard it called alot of things...  Haaaa, haaa, haaa.

After that I heard pretty much nothing.  Flipping through the stations for something good.  But then on the way home after getting all the kids loaded up, flipping through the stations again, I hit the jackpot.  I heard the announcer say something like, "Next up, Zac Brown Band with Chicken Fried."  All right!  Now that's more like it!  A great band's great song about the simple things in life.  Food, clothing, home, family and freedom.  And to acknowledge that we owe God above the thanks for all of it.  All that set in Zac Brown Band's richly textured musical style.

What more could a person ask for in a song?

Happy Anniversary, My Love!

Yes, I'm ready

Since it's not Joe's birthday or our anniversary, and even Father's Day is more than a week away, I guess there's just no real reason to gush about how much I love my husband.  And it's really a bit out of character for me anyway.  I'm not much of a public gusher.

But I just have to tell you about an incident that perfectly portrays one of the richest blessings Joe has brought to our life together and to me personally.  He has taught me to laugh.  I used to be of a somewhat somber disposition.  Grumpy, even.  Really.  I used to get hollered at for pouting when I was just being normal.  OK, probably some of the time I was pouting.  But not every time, and that's my point.  I was somber.  And I still tend to be that way if left to myself. 

When Joe and I were dating and newlyweds, before I had learned to laugh, I would get very frustrated with him and some of my girlfriends.  I'd get a little jealous even at times.  And the source of most of that angst was humor.  He and especially my friend, Lisa, would get laughing about some totally silly thing.  I either just didn't get it, or if I did, it never seemed to me to be nearly as funny as Joe and Lisa made it out to be.  They would go on and on, until I often felt on the periphery of their fun and games.  I even told Joe once I thought he liked Lisa better than me.  "What would make you think that, Mary?"  "Because you have more fun with her."

I think a person cannot live long with another person of silly temperament without some of it rubbing off.  And oh, how much richer life is when it does!



Last night, after getting home kind of late from our Bergeson Nursery outing, we knew we'd have to rush to get supper on at a decent hour.  Joe had some work to do in his office, so I went in to get started on supper.  But, alas!  The breakfast chores my kids were supposed to have done were not completed, and in fact they were barely started.  There was a huge mess in the kitchen.  I immediately got the bigger kids started with that, took care of a few little child matters, and then I dug in with the bigger kids on the kitchen chores. 

When we were mostly done, Joe came home and asked what I had planned for supper.  I said I had some chicken breasts thawing, but that I hadn't thought beyond that.  I mentioned some left-over rice that I might heat up.  But Joe, Mr. Connoisseur Cook, decided to take up the supper prep task.  He made us a nice fried rice with vegetables, a minced brat for a little pork flavor, and pine nuts.  On the side was broasted chicken breasts cooked with bacon.

It was all much fancier and nicer than I would have chosen.

But besides the fanciness, there was another bonus.  We let the kids go, and I finished the clean-up chores while he cooked, so Joe and I got some good time together, just visiting and listening to the kids play, and doing our mutual tasks.

At one point, one of the kids called to another, "Are you ready?"  and the second child replied, "Yes. I'm ready."



At this point, as often happens with us, we started in singing Barbara Mason's are you ready, complete with ooh-ooh-oohs and two part harmony. We sounded very fine. Then my Joe, always having to go one better, starts in with a dialogue featuring the voices of Bob and Larry and Pa Grape, of Veggie Tales fame.

"Hey Larry, why are we singing this silly song."

"I don't know, Bob, because we're silly?"

"Because that's what we do best.  We sing silly songs."

It was so funny and fit exactly perfectly with the setting.

And that, my friends, besides a few other reasons, is why I love my husband.

Sharing Pop Culture with my Teenaged Daughter

Louisa gets irritated because I am so negative/cynical of the state of chastity and commitment among the rich and famous.  She exhorts me to "put the best construction on everything."  She is right.  I ought not to assume someone is fornicating simply because he or she is a pop star.

Louisa has exhorted me to look at Taylor Swift and the Jonas Brothers as examples of stars who choose to wear purity as part of their persona.  So today, while I was having my coffee break, I started reading about Taylor Swift.  She is a lovely girl and seems to have her feet on solid ground.  But I didn't find anything that would indicate a particularly chaste lifestyle choice. Nor did I find anything particularly indicative of and unchaste lifestyle.  She did attend a Christian school for part of her high school and was homeschooled some of the time.   She doesn't like to talk about the degree of intimacy in her relationships.  That, at least, is laudable.  That's as much as I can say about her morals from what I could find readily on the internet. Perhaps Louisa is familiar with more sources than those I am finding.

I like several of Ms Swift's songs that Louisa has shared with me.  But I thought Thug Story was especially cute.  Together with reading at least eight on-line biographies, this video helped me to appreciate the variety and personality behind Taylor Swift's stardom.

Fun Songs

Generally, I don't like that I spend so much time on the road running for kids stuff.  But today, during three trips out and back, I heard some fun songs



I remember listening to "Afternoon Delight" by Starland Vocal Band, when my sister, Kathy had her first radio.  I think she may also have featured it on some needle work for Girl Pioneers.  I seem to remember being somewhat jealous when comparing my bland pattern to her colorful rocket surrounded by floating lyrics.

I heard George Strait's "The Breath You Take" twice today. I checked on the lyrics after I got home to make sure I heard them all. I like them even better than I thought.



It seems like there was another one, too, but I can't remember right now. But these two are good enough to warrant a blog post.

A Treat for Lovers of Bach

As I was driving home today from Grand Forks I was flipping through stations, trying to find something that made me happy.

What a delight to find the classical MPR station was in the middle of an hour and a half of Bach. The host had taken requests from around the state and assembled a somewhat eclectic presentation, which combined into a veritable auditory and emotional feast.

When I first tuned in it was during an Aria from St. Matthew's Passion, that was followed by an orchestral arrangement of Bist du Bei Mir, Cantata 143, and a 1950s recording of Wanda Landowska on the harpsichord.

Then I was home and had to eventually get out of the vehicle, get sleeping kids unbuckled and hauled in, all the wares into the house and supper on.  But Joe had a nice hot chicken soup simmering on the stove, so we just needed to put on bowls.  The soup didn't, however, make leaving Bach any easier.

Back in our college days in Madison, there was always a Bagels and Bach event on Sunday mornings in the atrium of the museum formerly known as the Elvehjem Museum of Art.  I never went, since I worshiped at church instead of at the altar of Bach, but it always sounded fun.  I often wished they had scheduled it at a different time.

I'm disappointed that the Classical Music public radio apparently does not have the little "listen later" option that the non-music public radio does.  But if anyone wants to purchase any of the tracks, you may do that on their site.

Here is the playlist.  It is in backwards chronological order, since that is how they display it on the website.

6:30	JS Bach - Orchestral Suite No. 1 La Stravaganza Denon 78965

6:26	Johann Sebastian Bach - Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 Wendy Carlos, moog synthesizer Sony 42308

6:17	Johann Sebastian Bach - Sleepers Awake Nikolaus Harnoncourt, conductor Concentus Musicus Vienna Teldec 92626

6:11	JS Bach - Aria from Goldburg Variations Yo-Yo Ma Sony 60681

6:02	JS Bach - Prelude and Fugue No. 9 Wanda Landowska RCA 7825

5 - 6 PM

5:47	Johann Sebastian Bach - Cantata No. 143: Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele: Du Friedefurst, Herr Jesu Christ Gustav Leonhardt, conductor Leonhardt Consort Roger Cericius, boy soprano Teldec 42630

5:42	Johann Sebastian Bach - Bist du bei mir Eugene Ormandy, conductor Philadelphia Orchestra Sony 38915

5:36	Johann Sebastian Bach - St Matthew Passion: Blute nur, du liebes Herz Herbert von Karajan, conductor Berlin Philharmonic Gundula Janowitz, soprano DG 419789

Meet the Cowans

From what I can determine, it was in September of 2009, when this video of Marlow and Frances Cowan first "went viral" on youtube.  The following is that original video clip.



I enjoyed this video clip so much I did a little research on the Cowans. They are from Iowa. Marlow is 91 this month. They perform at local functions on both the piano with handbells.

Because of their youtube fame, the Cowans returned to the Mayo Clinic Atrium for a less impormptu performance last March.  The mayo clinic posted a series of videos of that performance.  I've not watched them all, yet.  (I have a somewhat slow connection.)  But I hope to take time to watch them all soon.

Return I


Return II


Return III


Return IV


Return V


Return VI


Return Finale


After that concert in March, their fame continued to escalate and they appeared on Good Morning America last year, in May.  I love their take on life.

Interview


Very inspiring.  If only I had that much spunk and such an good attitude at my age, 40 something.  I will aspire to that in my daily life.  I didn't find any more recent news of this delightful couple.  I pray they are well.

A Basketful of Music

I've recently spoken ill of country music, both on this blog and a few facebook comments, so I'm going to make a few amends.  Sort of.  You'll have to read through to the end to find the best part.

Country is probably not my first choice in listening, but if one is in the car, and one is sleepy, and one has only a few stations from which to choose, I have found that country is a musical category that one can listen to, even when one is not familiar with the songs being played.  I don't know why that is.  Oldies, too.

But hip-hop, or rap...  Boy, if you don't know the songs, it just sounds like ever so much noise.  Perhaps that is due to my age?  My oldest daughters seem to have no trouble at all with new dance songs...

Regardless of my preference, the radios stations in my neck of the woods are somewhat limited.  I can pretty much always tune into a country station.  I can pretty much always get NPR.  And if it's during daylight hours I can get AM talk radio and an oldies station.  In the name of full disclosure, I can also, if I choose, get a variety of sports and Christian stations, but generally, I do not generally choose them.  I am not a sports nut, and I prefer to get my Spiritual Food from other venues.

Last night on the way into Thief River, I tuned into the Public Radio show, American Routes.   It's a show I've found interesting and entertaining in the past.

One of the reasons I rag on country and pop music is because of the blatant and subtle messages so often promoted.  But I heard an oldie last night on American Routes that totally cracked me up. I suppose that contemporary country and pop and rap have no monopoly on "untoward" messages. After So Round So Firm, So Fully Packed by Merle Travis was done, the announcer explained that back in the days when both cigarettes and commenting on the female shape were more in vogue, this song brought the two together metaphorically.    Apparently that description in the title is of the preferred kind of cigarette.  Hmmm.

I heard another very cool segment, an interview with Sonny Landreth, who has apperantly made a specialty of blues slide guitar.  I'm married to a quite adept guitarist, but I've never heard tones like this.  It was amazing. Mr. Landreth calls it the finding the voice of the guitar, and truly, it had a very vocal quality. 

I kind of lost interest in American Routes later in the show, and I'm quite glad I did.  I tuned in to a country music station. Yes, I did.  And I heard a song I really, really liked.  Good voice, good background music, and best of all terrific lyrics.  Good job, Craig Campbell.

There's dirty shirts to wash

Dishes in the sink to do

And there's how many times

Does 17 go into 52

There's bedtime prayers to pray

Sleep tights and I love you's

And then there's a pair of eyes

I get to lose myself into 

 Sounds like my life.

Fun Future of Hunting Clip

The vitriolic name calling in the letter Kevin Hoyt reads, exhibits well how difficult it sometimes is to discuss issues with people from an opposing viewpoint.  I hope I never cling to my stereotypes with such vehemence and senseless attacks against a person. 

But in spite of the silliness of it, or perhaps because of it, the letter makes me laugh every time.

I like the brief statements kids make that add up to a simple but pretty well articulated answer to the ad hominem attack of the letter writer.

Besides the historical, economic, constitutional, and practical arguments presented by the kids, Keven Hoyt finishes up by saying simply, he likes guns.  As a fitting finale, the clip ends by including Steve Lee's "I Like Guns" video. 

Another Steve Lee Winner

"She Don't Like Guns" is the third song from Steve Lee's I Like Guns album, for which he has released a video.  I love the age related pun and the guns as instruments scene.  I like seeing more of Steve's wife and her frequent smiles toward him.   And as with the Lee Family videos I've watched, they all seem to really enjoy what they do.

Apparently this song has a dual role, being featured in both the family album, Welcome Road, and in an acoustic version on the Guns album.  If you, too, like guns and haven't seen the original I Like Guns video, be sure to check it out.

1980 NBA playoffs Western Conference Semifinals Seattle Supersonics vs Milwaukee Bucks

This is highlights from the 6th game and intro to the 7th.



This one is the first few minutes of the 7th game.



I wish I could find the last quarter.  I'd love to see it again.

The Life of Riley

I remember my mom using this phrase when I was young.  Most often it was in the context of me not doing my chores in a responsible, "This is not the Life of Riley, Mary."  Although I do remember asking once what it meant, and although I did understand, contextually, what Mom meant, I really don't remember where the phrase came from.

So today, in typical sound like mother style, I used that phrase on my daughter.

I was quickly inspired to do a google search to investigate the origins of "the Life of Riley."

From several sources I learned that most agree the phrase originated among Irish American immigrant in the early decades of the 20th Century.  It appears to have been in somewhat common use among Irish American immigrants by the nineteen teens.

There seem to be some earlier references to a wealthy Riley or Reilley or O'Reilly in song and theater, but nothing that seems to be generally acknowledged as the source of the phrase.  The most well known of these was in a Vaudeville song by Pat Ronney in the 1890s, in which Mr. Reilley is a wealthy hotel keeper.

The earliest written reference appears in a Hartford Courant article, in December 1911; the author has the phrase in quotes as one might a new or less familiar idiom.

Later, the phrase commonly used among Irish American soldiers in World War I.

And finally, the phrase came into popular use because of a radio and TV character, Chester A. Riley. The radio show began in the 1940, with a feature film coming in 1949, followed by the television series that ran for seven seasons.



And there you have it, The Life of Riley.

Cult, the Occult, and the Cult Classic

My first experience with the term cult was in youth group Bible studies during my junior high aged years. Then there is the term occult, another youth group Bible study word, the two of which although significantly different in meaning, I often confused.

Introduce years later, the term cult classic when referring to pop culture, or a movie or book with a cult following, and I was really confused. I mean, did people who love The Quest for the Holy Grail get together and drink poisoned Kool-aid? Or do people who have watched Better Off Dead fifteen times sacrifice their cats? I suppose if you're a Joe Versus the Volcano groupie, you might drink orange soda and throw your cat into the belching cone of a tropical island.

Eventually I got that all sorted out, that definition stuff. But still, I wonder sometimes what makes a movie a cult classic? What determines which movies get watched 100s of times by an eclectic group of followers who, when they meet, can recite a random line and elicit an appropriate response?

In a given family or among a certain set of people who spend enough time together, it is natural for one or another title to become a favorite. My daughters and I are like that with A&Es, Pride and Prejudice.

I have to insert a little family story here. Earlier today, because there are several of us recovering from illness, we decided to watch a movie for quiet time. Generally, movies are a privilege saved for Friday night with an occasional midweek movie stuck in. After I asked the kids if they wanted to watch a movie, there ensued a bit of bickering about which title to choose. I gave a few suggestions and warned that if they couldn't come to a peaceable decision, I would choose for them. John's response, "Oh, no, please not Pride and Prejudice."

Getting back to the idea of cult followers of a movie, I understand how those who spend time together can become very familiar with a certain favorite movie. But it always makes me curious when a title gets a wide-spread eclectic following. How does it get started? What makes some movies more prone to gathering people in this way?

And when you're a member of such a group, do you ever notice those sitting on the sidelines with a confused expression on their faces? A good friend or loved one may end up feeling like a stranger, while you engage in a recitation episode with a near total stranger. Or if you happen to be that person not in the know, have you ever been in a mixed crowd when suddenly, some movie or book comes up and several people animatedly attack the subject, tossing out favorite scenes or chapters.

Since I'm somewhat famous for being out of the loop with regard to pop culture, I'm usually the one on the sideline. My husband on the other hand, is in the thick of things. Somehow, even though I've often considered our lifestyle as sheltered from the ebb and flow of pop culture, Joe always knows about everything.

Nowadays, this cult following phenomenon is happening with youTube videos.

I was feeling very culturally illiterate because everyone but me, wherever we went and among whatever group of people we found ourselves, everyone knew about "the Charlie video". At the littlest provocation, people would ready their British accent and start in with, "Ah. Ooh. Ouch! OUCH! OW, CHARLIE! AAAGGHH!" or, "Charlie, that really hurt."

I sincerely doubt any of my readers are as unaware as I, myself, was. But to ensure that you never need to experience that same lost and lonely feeling at some point in the future, here for your viewing pleasure, is the Charlie-bit-my-finger video.



What is it about this movie? I mean, what makes this movie stand out. There are hundreds of videos on youTube of kids, whose parents think they are just the cutest ever. What makes this one so beloved? Is it the British accent? Is it the infant younger brother who looks almost bigger than his older brother? Is it the priceless smile and chuckle with which Charlie responds?

Tell me about your favorite youTube video or cult classic book or movie.

Joe and I amused ourselves with this one the other night.



Don't ask...

But were I to name a favorite, I'd have to choose this one. I love the expressions on everyone's faces as they come out the door.