Weekend Gifts

My wife Jay found a cool thing at the Thrift Store for $3. It's an old animatronic Big Bird toy from the mid-80s, when everyone jumped on the creepy Teddy Ruxpin talking toy craze. Surprisingly, it's in very good condition! There's a tape deck in his butt with stories narrated by Carroll Spinney himself as Big Bird, and nicely illustrated books to go with it. Unfortunately, his beak no longer works, but his eyes blink! Pretty cool. The best part is, Ariel loves him.






Jay also made a burger cake this weekend for her Dad's birthday celebration this evening. Yes, this is actually a cake, with icing for ketchup & mustard and gumdrops for lettuce. Inside is chocolate. It was good.



My brother Dan sent me a disc with tons of Frank Zappa albums for my iPod. I discovered his music when I was at U of M and became an obsessed fan for awhile. Most of the CDs I had were stolen from my apartment in Vancouver, so it's been a long time since I heard many of these tracks. I'm not as fond of some of his later material when he got a little bit too political and cynical even for my liking, but you can't beat his 70s period with Flo & Eddie and his band line-up from albums like Apostrophe, Overnight Sensation, and my favorite album One Size Fits All. The really early Mothers stuff like Lumpy Gravy and We're Only In It for the Money is also good for just plain ol' bizarre Dada music. Yes, good stuff.





On a very different musical note, another song I'm become obsessed with is from our good friend from church Gayle Salmond. Gayle is our worship pastor's wife and they are a dynamic song-producing team. Her song 'The Lorica' has been played in many of our church services lately, and it's based on the Breastplate of St Patrick. Absolutely amazing and uplifting. Check out an exceprt here (and click on The Lorica)

I also got the new platinum edition of Pinocchio on DVD, and watched it this afternoon with Ariel, who calls it 'Pee-kee-o.'



Also discovered a link to author Brian Sibley's blog which has some fascinating posts about the film, and also a really cool history of Snap, Crackle & Pop. Amazing stuff.

Pinocchio: Puppet's Progress
Wah Chang's Pinocchio model
Snap, Crackle & Pop

So much pop culture, so little time!