Tag Archives: Jeff Giles

Bailando!

As you might guess from the big “volume 5” slapped on Best of the Bowl‘s artwork, Hot Peas ‘N Butter have been around for awhile — in fact, their bilingual music should be familiar to anyone who spends time on the Nick Jr./Noggin end of the TV dial. They’ve certainly earned enough success to pause for a reassessment of their most popular material, which is exactly what co-founders Daniel Lapidus and Francisco Cotto do here, re-recording 11 favorites that, in the words of Lapidus, “are the songs that audiences ask for over and over again.

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Even for Hot Peas ‘N Butter novices, it shouldn’t be hard to hear why the band’s fans love these songs — they’re deliciously fun, danceable pan-cultural blends, and whether or not you live in a bilingual house, or are interested in exposing your children to world music, you should find Best of the Bowl wonderfully, instantly addictive. And if you do happen to be raising a miniature army of merengue listeners, well…it’s hard to imagine a better album to share with your kids this fall. To sample music, videos, and more from the band, visit their website — just be prepared to stay awhile, and probably spend some dinero while you’re there.

DVD Review: “Field Trips with Recess Monkey”

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Recess Monkey – Field Trips with Recess Monkey (2009, Monkey Mama)
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Our love for Recess Monkey has already been well documented, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t alert you to the imminent release of Field Trips with Recess Monkey, a DVD companion of sorts to the band’s most recent album, the stellar Field Trip.

For those not already in the know, Recess Monkey is a fun-loving, award-winning trio whose previous forays into kids’ music — including the aforementioned Field Trip, 2008’s Tabby Road, and others — have earned them a devoted following, as well as stacks of glowing reviews from outlets like NPR, Real Simple, and the notoriously cranky and difficult-to-please Stefan Shepherd of Zooglobble. (Just kidding. We love Stefan and he’s nothing but charming.) Field Trips with Recess Monkey is the band’s first DVD, and includes videos for four songs (“Marshmallow Farm,” “Haven’t Got a Pet Yet,” “Fort,” and the wickedly catchy “Hot Chocolate”) as well as a handful of vignettes following the Monkeys around Seattle. Continue reading →

DVD Review: “Pete’s Dragon — High-Flying Edition”

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Pete’s Dragon (High-Flying Edition) (2009, Walt Disney Studios)
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Released pretty much smack dab in the middle of Disney’s lost years, 1977’s Pete’s Dragon generally isn’t the first movie people tend to think of when they talk about the studio’s classics, and for good reason — though it was noteworthy at the time of its release as one of the few live-action/animation hybrids to grace the silver screen (1964’s Mary Poppins and 1971’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks used similar technology, but not as extensively or seamlessly), it was also the latest example of the distance Disney had drifted from its roots. Still, 1977 represented something of a miniature renaissance for the studio, at least in the context of the relatively barren ’70s; if you count The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, a Frankenstein-style stitching of short features, three of the five features Disney released that year contained animation. Things had been worse (Superdad) and would get worse again (Condorman), and probably as a result, Pete’s Dragon has become a source of rather fond memories for the generation that grew up with it. Continue reading →

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Tag Archives: Jeff Giles

CD Review: Hot Peas ‘N Butter, “Best of the Bowl: Ingles y Español”

DVD Review: “Field Trips with Recess Monkey”

DVD Review: “Pete’s Dragon — High-Flying Edition”