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Entries in Blogs and Websites (70)

Monday
Sep282009

In Case You Missed Episode 1 of Peter Himmelman's Curious World...

... it's everywhere now. The Land of Nod Curious World page, Peter Himmelman's own Curious World page, McDonald's. OK, not sure about the McDonald's part, but seriously, all over the place. Episode 1, "Friends," was really top-notch -- love the way Himmelman interacts with the kids, love the theme song, love the incredibly slow way Himmelman walks with King Ferdinand in the credits for "Turtle Talk." I think elementary school kids are really gonna dig this. The next episode ("Animals") is Sunday at 11 AM Chicago time. Here's the YouTube embed, because I'm old school and will passive-aggressively deal with the way Flash sometimes hates me.

Peter Himmelman's Curious World, Episode 1 ("Friends") [YouTube]

Wednesday
Aug262009

The Fresh Beat Band Is Fresh, I'll Give 'Em That Much

What's that, parents? Your kids want to watch yesterday's episode of Nick Jr's new show The Fresh Beat Band and you don't have a DVR?

Well, it's iTunes to the rescue -- they already have the 3 episodes shown yesterday and today (Stomp the House, Stick Together, Doggone It!) available for sale, just $1.99 each.

I'm guessing that a lot of regular readers won't care much about this, but I do think it shows just how quickly the TV landscape has changed in a few years. Jack's Big Music Show? Just 4 episodes on iTunes, the ones on the Let's Rock DVD. But now even these shows for kids are being treated like The Office.

Obviously, I think this is a great idea. Why should I have to wait for the next Biscuit Brothers DVD when I could download the episodes immediately from iTunes? But I've heard from assorted musicians that iTunes isn't necessarily the fastest in responding if your name isn't "Hannah" or "Montana." Makes me the think that finding the best independent music/shows for kids is a niche that Kidos could nicely carve out for itself. (But I still want my Biscuit Brothers on iTunes.)

Wednesday
May202009

Dancing About Architecture From Kids Musicians

... or, in more search-friendly terms, writing about music -- ie, blogs -- by kids musicians. I know that Warren covered this last week, but I've had this on my to-do list for awhile, so I'm going to press forward with a highlighting of another wave of kids musicians turning their thoughts to the blogosphere. Some have a lot to do with the kids music genre, some very little. But I'm guessing at least one of 'em will be of interest to most of you and/or your RSS reader...

-- Ann Torralba, best known as Little Miss Ann, is trying her hand writing about kids music at littleshouldersmusic, focusing in particular about music in the Chicago area where Ann lives.
-- Bill Harley has long been one of the most talented wordsmiths in the kids music field, so I'm glad to see that he's started a blog. He tells his stories very well, and anyone interested about the arts and school culture generally will find this of value.
-- Robert Burke Warren had a long career making music for adults before starting to make music for kids as Uncle Rock. Now he's got a blog in which he's every bit as thoughtful on paper as he is in person.
-- Debbie Cavalier records music for kids under the moniker Debbie and Friends but her day job (OK, other day job) is Dean of Continuing Education at Berklee College, so, uh, yeah, she knows something about music education. She has not one, but two blogs. One, on Music, Education and Technology, is geared more toward Berklee's students, but occasionally deals with stuff of interest to a broader audience, while the other, Kid's Music Matters, is a pretty good example of an artist blog, mixing self-promotional stuff with more behind-the-scenes stuff.

Wednesday
May132009

Sure It's Just A Week, But It's A Pretty Good Week

I don't normally give shout-outs to splashy venture-funded sites that occasionally deign to review kids music, but at least Babble is going full out for its week called "Music and Video Issue 2009." Some commentary, more reviews from their childless interns, but the real reason to get on over there is for the interviews. A nice one by Tammy La Gorce with Robert Schneider (Robbert Bobbert) and a wonderful chat between Dan Zanes and Nerissa Nields (of The Nields, natch). They call 'em 5-Minute Time-Outs, but it'll really only take you a couple minutes...

Thursday
Dec112008

Videos, Videos, Videos

I post my fair share (or perhaps more than my fair share) of videos around here -- heck, I even have my own irregulalrly updated YouTube video list -- but I'd be remiss if I didn't point out a couple other sites that deal in the world of video.

First off, I've been really slack in mentioning this, but Jitterbug is a kid-safe site for kids music videos. So if you like the types of videos I link to here, but your kids could do without all the other blah blah blah, I recommend heading over there for their growing collection of stuff to watch.

Second, Rock Tots is a newly-started collection of videos of kids playing music. It's as if "From the Top" ditched the classical focus and went straight to YouTube. OK, it's not really like "From the Top" at all.

So there you have it -- videos of adults making songs for kids, and videos of kids making songs for adults.