My one-year-old daughter Savannah (aka "Savvy" or "DJ Savvy") has learned how to search YouTube. They say the kids who grow up on all this technology will take to it as easy as their parents took to Super Mario Brothers on the Nintendo. I used to get such a charge out of that motivating music that played when Mario touched the star and started glowing, able to smash through anything and collect all those coins!
Back to my point. My young toddler has maybe six words in her vocabulary -- Mommy, Daddy, cat, puppy, up & Toot Toot (the name she gave the toy train she got for Christmas.) OK more than six, she also says "out," "fishies" (the goldfish crackers, her favorite snack) and "nana" which can either be a banana or her grandmother. We were on our way to see Nana at Christmastime when she got fussy in the car seat. So I whipped out my Droid smartphone to entertain her with some videos. She wouldn't stop whining until I gave her the phone I figure I have the insurance, if she destroys it it's no big deal. I must have left the YouTube app open and she searched and found the Gummy Bear. My baby can't talk in complete sentences yet but she can search YouTube!
The Gummy Bear is pretty cool. Some German animator obviously had fun with this, along with some fun with AutoTune! Apparently it's been an internet phenomenon for awhile Nana even knew about it. But just in case you're not hip to the Gummy Bear, you can click on it here:
The song is pretty catchy. I could hear it on KRZ next to Kesha and T-Pain easily! It's in heavy rotation in my car. Whenever DJ Savvy gets cranky in the car seat I plug my Droid into my iPod adapter and play Gummy Bear through my system. I can see her bobbing her little blonde head in my rear view mirror!
Do you have little ones? How do YOU keep 'em quiet in the car? Feel free to comment here, I need all the help I can get as I'm still pretty new at this!
Kevin Spacey in Horrible Bosses -- great movie! My boss is much cooler than this guy.
My boss is big on New Year's Resolutions. And every year I can count on one of them having to do with whipping me into shape! The week between Christmas and New Year's I prepare my inbox for the onslaught of e-mails beginning January 2nd. Memos, mandates, "Action Required," all with that red exclamation point in the header indicating URGENT, the cc to the higher bosses above him. Boss man is taking no prisoners. Better hop to it, if I like my job!
I do like my job. In fact, I love it! But just like big fat Aunt Bertha, there's a whole lot of it to love.
Technically, I have 3 jobs. My title has not one but two slashes in it: Assistant Program Director/Music Director/Midday Air Personality. And I fought hard for every one of those titles! I just don't think anyone, not even my boss, realizes what that means to me on an average workday. What am I talking about, I've NEVER HAD an average workday!
I won't bore you to tears with the details of what I do behind the scenes here at KRZ, but suffice it to say I haven't had a lot of time to blog. This troubled me enough to bring it up with my boss once. Do you know what he told me? "Maybe you just need to do it from home." Really??? That might be possible if my 1-year-old daughter wasn't so possessive about where Mommy spends her attention. Just last weekend I was on the phone wishing my mother a Happy New Year when Savannah lobbed a rather weighty plastic toy monkey upside my noggin! "So do it when she goes to bed!" I hear your perfectly reasonable solution. Problem is, that's the time I indulge lazily in luxurious hobbies such as eating, bathing, cleaning my toddler-destroyed house, or passing out from exhaustion.
But my boss doesn't want to hear excuses. Not in the New Year! His outrage justifiably screams from my inbox, "We have people going to our websites, clicking on your blog posts and they see something 6 months old. That's a joke… I am not trying to be preachy, but these are content areas on out sites that need to be met…Please put it in your task list…"
To be fair, my last blog post was a little more than TWO months ago!
But The Man has laid down the law. Blog or Die. And so I will blog with the only time I have to myself all day -- in the studio, on the air, while the music is playing. And I will blog about whatever comes to my warped little mind. Short of giving away trade secrets or libelous character assassinations, there will be no holds barred.
The more time passes, the more appreciation I get for the boybands of the late '90s and their innovative music videos.Â
I especially have respect for a group who, after having only one big hit in the US, put up their own money to have a video made because their record company wouldn't approve the big budget. It would have been a shame if this video had never been made, because it's gorgeous! The costumes, the make-up, the set, the choreography are all stunning. And unlike Michael Jackson's Halloween classic "Thriller," it had NOTHING to do with the lyrics of the song! Absolutely brilliant! I take back everything I ever said about these guys when I was trying to act too cool to like them back in the day.
SO click HERE for the Retro Track Rewind Video Spoiler. You'll still have to be caller 9 when the song starts playing on the radio to give me the artist & title to win. Reaper's Revenge tickets today! Mwooohahahahaha...
Been awhile since I posted one of these. But I found it hard to give a clue for this one-hit wonder without refrencing the visual of this group. It was so '60s psychadelic lollipop fantasy, I don't know how else to put it!Â
They looked like throwbacks, and their music track was made up entirely of samples from old songs -- really old songs, including the theme song from Green Acres.  But they were innovators, putting DJ skills out in front of the band when David Guetta was still in diapers. And they were recycling before green was trendy, turning real old school music from the likes of Bill Withers and Herbie Hancock into danceable grooves. Sure everyone's doing it now, but in 1990 it was still underground, mostly happening in the hip hop clubs and city parks in the Bronx. And this is just a super-fun video! Click here to watch: Â
Lady Gaga made her appearance on the 2011 MTV VMA's as her male model alter-ego, Jo Calderone. The dude looked familiar! Check out the pictures below. One is Gaga, one is Prince. Can you tell which is which?
I guess she got tired of the Madonna comparisons and moved on to the next '80s icon. What will Gaga do next? My prediction: she will clone herself 4 times and they will all come out on the 2012 VMAs as the spittin' image of Duran Duran!
Maybe he got sick of getting carded everytime he went to the Wine & Spirits store? Maybe he got sick of shaving? Constantly having to replace the blade in his Schick to prevent nicks? Not sure the reason, but I'm ambivalent about Matt Nathanson's new look. Just seems kinda '70s.
Clockwise from top left: Kevin Houston, age 35, W. Hyannisport, MA; Brian Bill, age 31, Stamford, CT ; Patrick Hamburger, age 30, Lincoln, NE; John W. Brown, age 33, Talahassee, FL; Michael Strange, age 25, Philadelphia, PA; Chris Campbell, age 36, Jacksonville, NC.Â
Photos courtesy of their families, published in People.com
The U.S. Defense Department yesterday released the names of the 30 U.S. military personnel killed in Saturday's downing of the Chinook helicopter in Afghanistan.  22 were Navy personnel, the other 7 were Air Force Special Ops.  Of the 17 SEALS lost in the blast, 15 were members of SEAL Team Six, the elite force that took out Osama Bin Laden. CNN.com has published a beautiful tribute to these men and their families who remember them. They were real people, men mostly in their early 30s -- the prime of their lives. Some were fathers of young children. Many leave behind grieving young widows or fiancees. Many were fondly recalled by their high school football and wrestling coaches, their friends and their parents. All were heroes. All are gone too soon.
Click here for the article, get to know these guys a little bit:Â Â
I would have been proud to have known any of them. Please consider making a donation to the Navy SEAL Foundation by clicking on the NEPA Perks banner on the homepage of 985krz.com. We're extending the fundraiser through the weekend. Every penny benefits the families of these fallen heroes. Thank you.
The Spears women have a penchant for making babies under dubious circumstances. Say what you want about them, the kids are gorgeous! Jamie Lynn's daughter, little Maddie Brianna Aldridge, is just 3 years old and already a YouTube sensation thanks to Aunt Britney, who posted this video of Maddie covering one of her songs. This is beyond adorable, click here to watch: Â
Does this kid look like anyone you know? He immerses himself in hip-hop culture, not because he loves it or even understands it, but because it's trendy, makes him feel tough and irresistable to the laideez... In 1998 a pop-punk band from California dedicated a song and this music video to the "Wangsta" (wannabe gangsta) culture in the middle-class suburbs all across America. Click here to see: Â
He's lucky all that happened to him was that he got thrown in the pool!
Identify the song artist and title when I play it on the radio around 11:20 this morning and I'll hook you and your crew up with free lunch from Wendy's, plus you'll get Arthur starring Russell Brand on DVD & Blue Ray.  Watch this video and you will know the artist and title, so you just have to try to be caller 9. 1-800-222-0985.
K-Mak
"So do it when she goes to bed!" I hear your perfectly reasonable solution. Problem is, that's the time I indulge lazily in luxurious hobbies such as eating, bathing, cleaning my toddler-destroyed house, or passing out from exhaustion. 
