Ben Folds and Nick Hornby

I promise to post something other than a video clip sometime soon.

This looks like a fun collaboration. Ben Folds wrote the music and Nick Hornby wrote the lyrics (author of High Fidelity, About a Boy, Fever Pitch). Probably not an album I'd buy, but this is a fun piece - something I would have liked to have cut.

Friday!

It's been a crazy-in-a-good-way week, and I'm ready for the weekend. I'm going up to the Big Bear cabin with the fam. I'm making crepes for breakfast. yummers

This video is an oldie but a goodie. I'm a sucker for this kind of story.

Endeavor

My brother in law, who works at NASA, and I are planning on going to Florida in February to watch the Endeavor lift off in what will be the last American-built space shuttle launch. Bryn will certainly be there too.

I think commerce won the battle with art in this spot, but nevertheless, it's pretty good.

200 Yard Gong Shot

And these guys just turned 13 for a few minutes.

On a stop in Ireland, these pro golfers took a break from their game to... play a game. The challenge was to skim a golf ball 200 yards along a lake and hit a 9-inch gong. Pretty great.

Giant Bubbles

I just became a seven year old again for a minute and 24 seconds.

Happy Friday, from Cee Lo Green

I've always had a soft spot for this guy. This song cracked me up. I wonder who he's singing about.

Happy Friday everybody!

Music-tinted windows

Dear Chuck,

I get caught dancing or playing air drums in my car weekly. "Almost," but not quite.

- the staff at Helms-a-Lee

via

Bob Dylan comedy hour

This is awesome.

Waste Land

yep

In the back and in the front

Oh man. This made my day. Thx art!

how much hipster can you pack in a jazz?

El Sistema

I watched a TED presentation a couple months ago that got me all fired up about Gustavo Dudamel, the hot young musical director of the LA Phil.

Traditionally, youth symphony orchestra competitions have been a monopoly of elites (you would have never guessed that, right?) - internationally (London, Vienna, etc) and socioeconomically. Venezuela wasn't even on the radar, let alone the poorest children in Venezuela.

Thirty-five years ago, this charismatic pianist, economist, and activist Jose Antonio Abreu founded El Sistema, an innovative youth education system, to both teach lower and middle class Venezuelan children music and to help them develop confidence, responsibility, and ultimately become thoughtful, contributing members of society.

When Abreu started the El Sistema in 1975, only 11 kids showed up to the first rehearsal. Since then, Venezuela has become one of the top five youth orchestras in the world, consistently in contention to win the "Orchestral World Cup."

Gustavo Dudamel started playing violin as a boy in El Sistema. Now he's the musical director of the LA Philharmonic and conducts the world's greatest orchestras.

I'm going to both of Dudamel's shows, chock-full of crowd pleasers, this week at the Hollywood Bowl - a nice, summery and inexpensive way to see him, as he spends most of his time at the Di$ney Concert Hall. Tuesday I'm going with friends to see him lead the LA Phil in Gershwin's "An American in Paris" and "Rhapsody in Blue." Thursday, I'm taking my mom and dad for my dad's birthday to see him do Ravel's "Bolero."

That said -