Gummy Bear

Well, Ariel still has not scheduled an appointment with the neurologist or the follow-up visit with the general practioner.  She continues to have episodes pretty much every day.  She said she can feel it coming on for an hour beforehand.  It sounds horrible.  Sometimes I find her very frustrating.

We had a good weekend.  A friend came to visit from out of town so I had a few of our mutual friends over for dinner.  We stayed up late and I drank too much.  It was totally unplanned, but we had a great time!  We let Aiden stay up since our friends had their daughters with them (3 and 8 years old).  Both girls fell asleep on the couch while watching a movie.  Aiden was sitting straight up, eyes wide open, refusing to fall asleep.  When everyone left and it was time for him to go to bed, he still fought us.  I swear, that kid would never sleep if it was up to him.

Sunday we went over to the Yeager's house for dinner.  Aiden and Luke had a dance party towards the end of the night.  I had turned on music before everyone came on Saturday and he showed me his break dancing moves for the first time.  I had no idea he liked to dance like that!  In the past, he has pretty much refused to dance for us.  That's why we put him in the dance class at his daycare.  I guess it opened him up to getting his groove on because he chose to dance on his own.  The funny part is he and Luke have very similar moves.  It was so cute.  They really enjoyed dancing to this music (it really is very catchy):

This Seems Relevant

Redefining Terminology

A few months ago, a singer named Gotye was brought to my attention. He is from Australia and has some music that I really enjoy. You may have heard his most popular song in the US:

The new lab I work in is really big on playing music. It's a huge difference from previous labs I've worked in where most people frown on noise. The major difference here is that the majority of the lab is younger people and they are all American. It makes a difference, I promise.

Anyhoo, I've become an avid Pandora user in the past several months. Whenever I hear a new band, I type in their name in the Search engine and listen to their "station". It's a great way to get introduced to other bands I may not come across otherwise. Turns out my music of choice is Indie.  I've been listening to the Gotye station off and on for months now and I really like them. 

Yesterday I was driving to work listening to the radio (I am about to max out my data usage for the month on my phone so I wasn't using Pandora).  The morning show DJ I used to listen to every day came on after playing the Gotye song above.  He said he was sure they would be a one hit wonder.  I don't know why, but that statement really struck me wrong.  I love both of Gotye's albums.  Who is he to decide what music we like?  I almost felt like he was damning the singer in the area by not recommending anyone check out the rest of his albums.  Then he goes on to say lots of groups do good in other countries, but never take off in the US. 

But then I realized this guy does mainstream radio.  He's probably right in the sense that the rest of Gotye's music may not be popular on radio stations.  They play the same 20 songs over and over again, which doesn't leave much room for new music.  So I decided "one hit wonder" needs a new definition.  I think it needs to specifically relate to mainstream pop music.  Gotye is already popular in the US.  He has performed in many big name shows, selling some out to the point they need to be moved to larger venues. 

Hurrumph!

I Love This Song

Father-Daughter cover of Home by Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeroes.

It doesn't get any cuter than that.

Dog Days Are Over

This morning I was in the bathroom getting ready while Aiden was playing in his bedroom. He said, "Momma?", which is actually unusual in the morning. He's not much of a morning person. I was setting my makeup down to go see what was wrong when he started screaming crying. I realized his scream was a little muffled, so I started to panic a little. I found him stuck behind the futon in his room. He wasn't hurt, but I could tell it freaked him out a little.

Last night we were rolling the ball back and forth to each other. He always sits right in front of me when we do this, so we've never been very far apart. I decided to slowly move myself backward throughout the game to see how far he could accurately throw the ball. Keep in mind that he can't throw it from his hands to mine. The ball bounces along the way. But! He was able to get it to me from 10 feet away! It was getting to the point that I worried it might be too far away for me to get it back to him. If you know me at all, you know I don't have a sporty bone in my body.

The video is a little whacky, but I LOVE the song. Watch it. Or close your eyes and just listen to it.

Toast

I know I'm the queen of videos lately. Bear with me. I love so many of them! Including OK Go - they are always so creative. (See their last videos, here, and the one that started it all, here.)

This is just WEIRD: Part Deuce.

After some web surfing, I found out that the "little guy" in this video is a real person - Leon Botha. He is an artist from South Africa, suffering from Progeria, who has done some very interesting work using himself as the centerpiece.

This video reminds me of the movie District 9. Not so much because of the aliens. Mostly because everytime they say the expletive f-word, it sounds like they are faking their accent. It just does not sound real to me.

You can go to their website (DieAntwoord.com) to hear the entire album free of charge. Travis and I actually went through the whole thing the other night. At first I thought this video might be a South African spoof of Eminem or something, but after really listening to their stuff I find it intriguing.

This is just WEIRD.

My Russian co-worker Zhenya translated the title in the beginning:

"I'm very happy because I'm finally coming home."

It's more weird now.

***************UPDATE*******************

Zhenya found an interview with this guy. Turns out this video is from the 60's, while the Soviet Union was still together. They decided that his lyrics were not politically correct, so they told him he had to sing the song without the words. How do you sing a song with out words, you ask? This is how.

Just For Now

Rachel introduced me to a singer named Imogen Heap. Her music is amazing and I look forward to checking out more of her music. Anyway, Rachel was trying find one of her songs online to show me and she stumbled across this video. I was flabbergasted by her vocal ability and her electronic abilities. Watch as she creates a song from scratch in five minutes using only her voice, hands and a keyboard. It is incredible.