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I love this charming, creative short video:

Created by Vancouver Film School student Sarah Jolley

[Hat tip to Electronic Cerebrectomy]

"World Spins Madly On" - The Weepies

I don't usually post the same song twice in one year, but both videos are well animated and very different.  Last February 15, I posted Thought of You, a beautiful, animated, dance video set to the Weepies song, World Spins Madly On. 

Recently, daughter posted the official video for the song on my Facebook wall.  It's sweet:

"Bohemian Rhapsody" sung by the Porkka Playboys (Or "What would happen if the Musicians should be more?")

Since I've already posted the Muppet and Celtic versions of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, I was pleased to find this video of a Finnish group, the Porkka Playboys, singing the song (in English) in a VW Polo (circa 1980)(the VW, not the video):

I used Google Translate to try to read their website in English, but it was only of limited use.  It couldn't translate many of the words, and what did get translated doesn't always sound normal.  On the other hand, it might not just be fault of the translation!  Here's a taste from the translation of the Musicians page:

Grace in 2008, proper young gentleman and a musician first Kukkola Jonah went to the flea market driven by a higher power round. Kotvan pytinki touring and scrap boxes pengottuaan his eyes finally osuikin one of the most remote on the shelf nököttävä, poison green, musical little devils that contains an accordion, with whom she wobble like a trance.  Jonah, was completely impossible to resist these little creatures call viekkaiden screams, so immediately accordion oravannahkoihin exchanged Jonah astelikin the street and rang the hypnotized enchanted accordion solo, taking alms from the thrilled audience.  Tästäpä four FIM richer Jonah got a thought: "Hmm ... If you already have one accordion and one caller to the public so hullaantumaan what would happen if the Musicians should be more?" It took Jonah and wondering earned money wisely invested in soft drinks...*

It starts to seem rather existential... or maybe transcendental... after you read it for a while.  Here's the end of that page:

...Well, nothing! When all the four people still sing and the angels' languages, the band was noted to be finished.

Already the first session it was clear that such a common sound is heard in the streets kuunaan Finland - So olkaatten careful: if the ringer when ostosreissullanne Or, you can hear a beautiful song, close your ears, because if you do not do so, Porkka Playboys steal your heart.

 

• Porkka Playboys' video of their version of Motörhead's Ace of Spades.  They perform this in a traditional Finnish sauna, clothed in the traditional manner.  The instruments are strategically placed.  They are probably beating themselves with silver birch boughs.

 *  I had to take a break and read other blogs before finishing this post because I was starting to write in the style of the translation!

 [Hat tip to Geekosystem]

Hand dance to "We No Speak Americano" - Suzanne Cleary and Peter Harding

Suzanne Cleary and Peter Harding of Up And Over It do a hand dance to We No Speak Americano by Yolanda Be Cool and DCUP (Warning:  This song will get stuck in your head (but the hand dance is fun!)):

[We had a good time in Raleigh today - had lunch at Lily's Pizza, ice cream at Turkish Delights, and (between the four of us) got 63 books out of the Cameron Village Library.  We found out today that both college students have summer jobs so we're happy!!!]

Garuda by Alex Liddell

Older son showed us this video last week:

GARUDA from alexis liddell on Vimeo.

The Selfish Giant - Oscar Wilde

The Selfish Giant, by Oscar Wilde, is one of my favorite short stories.  It's a beautiful story, which always makes me teary at the end.  We watched the lovely animated version* this evening (this video is a bit blurrier than the version we have):

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Older son is still singing the songs from it. 

*  The movie was made in 1971, and it was nominated for an Academy Award for an animated short subject. 

"In and Out" - Kevin Kline

Since I'm a Kevin Kline fan, I'm surprised that In and Out has been out since 1997, and I've never seen it before last weekend.  I think that I thought it was a more serious film than it actually is.  I rethought that when we started watching and found out that it was directed by Frank Oz (so it's probably wouldn't be too much of a serious drama). 

For those who haven't seen it, it's a good comedy with a great cast.  Kevin Kline is wonderful, as usual.  The rest of the cast are wonderful too (including Joan Cusak, Debbie Reynolds, Tom Selleck, and Matt Dillon).

The one thing I didn't care for about the film was the negativity in the first half, but that has to happen in order for the second half to mean something.  Still, I found it difficult to watch after a while.

Here's one of my favorite scenes.  If you read even a one sentence synopsis of the plot then this scene won't really give anything away: 

Two fun videos

Daughter's going back to UNC-A this weekend, and older son starts back at NCSU on Monday - another reason for the light blogging the last few weeks.*  Here are two fun videos I found recently:

The Beauty of Pixar from Javier on Vimeo.

[Hat tip to kottke.org]

[Hat tip to Laughing Squid]

 

*  Actually, I did write two opinionated posts, but I didn't publish them in order not to offend.

Happy New Year - with penguins

A wonderful, court, New Year's Eve party last night, sleeping in this morning, lots of baking in a busy day today...

Happy New Year!!!

[Hat tip to Geekosystem]

Happy Places, Part 2: Dance

As I said in my introductory post, there probably won't be any surprises in this series - and this post is certainly no surprise. 

Like many girls, I took dance classes when I was little.  I quit dance in junior high because I wasn't skinny and therefore didn't belong in dance.  I took one dance class (and loved it) in college because you needed three PE classes, and dance was a whole lot better than team sports.  The dance teacher said I was good at it and I should take more dance.  Even though I was in my "eat every other day" dieting stage, I still wasn't skinny enough so I thought she was crazy. 

She wasn't talking about skinny, though.  She was talking about dance. 

Even though I taught aerobics for sixteen years, demonstrating my non-thinness to classes up to four times a week, I never considered dance.  Dance was not only just for thin people, it was for young people.

Daughter started taking a theater dance class five summers ago because her regular dance studio didn't have any summer classes.  She loved the class. 

I have loved musicals, particularly onstage, for decades.  Did it start with seeing the movie of The Sound of Music when I was five or with seeing Showboat onstage when I was a preteen?  It doesn't really matter. 

Still, she really had to twist my arm to get me to go try this class.  "There are other women who aren't skinny!"  

True.

"There are other women around your age!"  Actually, they were at least ten years younger, but, by the time I found this out, I was hooked.  I loved the class.  I ran through the dances at home, and I can still do some of the choreography I learned then.  I was sad that it would be over at the end of the summer.

The last day of class, however, our teacher told us he would be starting his own dance school!  Daughter and I started taking classes there - more and more as time went on.  I've taken theater dance and jazz.  She's taken theater dance, jazz, ballet, and hip hop.  It was a major focus of her high school years. 

It's always been a high point of my week!

Are most of the people in the dance classes skinnier than I am?

Pretty much.

Younger?

Mostly, but not always.

It doesn't matter.  I've always felt welcome there.  The one winter where the teen/adult Broadway class consisted of me and four teens felt strange occasionally, but they're all nice (and friends of daughter's) so it wasn't really a problem. 

I love talking to people there.

The last few weeks, we've been learning the Finale from "One" from A Chorus Line - the music and choreography from the original, 1970's production (unfortunately, it's a blurry video):*

So far, we've learned from 0:6 to 0:47.  The hardest part for me has been the step flick, turn/hat down, turn kick, turn/hat up at 0:13 to 0:15.  It's very fast!

I finally got that part today, and it's so fun!

 

* The 2006 video of the revival version is easier to see, and almost the same. 

[Photo taken this evening after class]