Lisa Loeb asks you: “Are You Ready for the Summer?”

So I made the trek to Barnes & Noble today to finally get myself a copy of Lisa Loeb’s newest Children’s Album “Camp Lisa.” I know that I ranted a lot about the whole exclusive B&N thing (see here) but it turns out there’s a reason for it.

“In conjunction with the release of the Camp Lisa CD, Loeb will launch the Camp Lisa Foundation, a non-profit organization that will raise funds to help send underprivileged kids to summer camp through its partnership with S.C.O.P.E. (Summer Camp Opportunities Provide an Edge, Inc.).” -Excerpt from Camplisa.com

Lisa Loeb has always been an amazing person and this is a beautiful step. I myself never went to Summer Camp, just a crazy Day Camp at a farm. So in a way this album gives me a melancholy smile every so often, but in most cases It just gave me the biggest, brightest grin.

The album starts out with the song “Are You Ready For Summer?” which is a just a sing-song listing of all the things we love about summer. Sure it’s directed towards children, but that doesn’t mean you and your inner child can’t relate. Every so often I caught myself snorting in laughter because something just pulled my heart string and tickled me in that perfect way that only Lisa Loeb could.

From there the CD kind of follows a journey through Summer Camp. From “Going Away” which about packing and all the little things that matter, to “The Wake Up Song” which is about… well waking up. But this CD doesn’t have to be complex to be amazing, it’s another clever catchy song (complete with alarm clocks and a wake up trumpet.) The last two songs on the CD are the perfect closing to a summer, “It’s Not Goodbye” and “Linger.”

In between the CD throws at you a bunch of classic camp fire songs, like “Home on the Range,” and the name game “The Cookie Jar.” (The Cookie Jar has two version, one with a group of kids and another more Harmonic version that she sings with Michelle Lewis, and Jill Sobule.) There’s even three tracks of her teaching the kids “Woodchuck.” All of it screams with Lisa Loeb innocence and charm. And her original contributions to the album (my favorite being “Best Friend”) make it a must have for any Lisa Loeb fan.

The album advertises guest appearance by Kay Hanley, Dave Gibbs, Nina Gordon, Jill Sobule, Lee Sklar, Maia Sharp and comedian Steve Martin. Some of these people you may recognize, others you may not. But they complete and round out all the songs. And at first I was amazed that Steve Martin was on that list, but it turns out he plays a mean Banjo in the song “The Disappointing Pancake.”

How could you not buy an album that has Steve Martin rocking out on a Banjo? Especially on a song called “The Disappointing Pancake?” Don’t “Linger” on that question too long, (see what I did there with the song title?) and run out to your nearest Barnes and Noble to pick up this album. It’s cute, it’s fun and catchy, you’re supporting a good cause, and your inner child will thank you for it.

 

Long Island’s Aid in the Destruction of the World

That’s right folks, number #9 on LiveScience’s, Top 10 Ways to Destroy the Earth, mentions our dear friends at Brookhaven National Lab and their Realistic Heavy Ion Collider, which I mentioned previously in my post “L.I. Danger…” LiveScience’s article is as follows:

Gobbled up by strangelets

You will need: a stable strangelet

Method: Hijack control of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider in Brookhaven National Laboratory, Long Island, New York. Use the RHIC to create and maintain a stable strangelet. Keep it stable for as long as it takes to absorb the entire Earth into a mass of strange quarks. Keeping the strangelet stable is incredibly difficult once it has absorbed the stabilizing machinery, but creative solutions may be possible.

A while back, there was some media hoo-hah about the possibility of this actually happening at the RHIC, but in actuality the chances of a stable strangelet forming are pretty much zero.

Earth’s final resting place: a huge glob of strange matter.

Again, the chances of this happening are practically nothing. But nothing is impossible…

While you’re browsing the LiveScience: Top 10 Ways to Destroy the Earth, be sure to read the user comments, makes the end of the world a bit more light hearted!

 

A strangely familiar, yet utterly wicked tale.

Hello Bloggees! As none of you know, I’ve always been a huge Alice in Wonderland fan. Everything from the classic Lewis Carroll poems and stories, the Disney movie, to that random psychedelic (fitting) 90’s cartoon, “Adventures in Wonderland.” It’s a story that has been translated into countless different mediums. Still my all time favorite version of Alice in Wonderland has to be “American McGee’s Alice,” a cult PC game that I’ve shredded through dozens of times.

Fungiferous Flora

The story of American McGee’s Alice starts with Alice (Duh,) sleeping soundly in her bed, off in dreamland. When an oil lamp, knocked over by a black cat, starts a fire that rapidly blazes across the house. Alice gets out alive, but only after not being able to save her parents as they scream for her to get out of the house. Only Alice survives. Blaming herself for the accident Alice falls into a dark depression. The darkness in her mind seeps into her fantasy world and Wonderland is no longer a place for dreams and teatime. It becomes a land of slaves and despair.

“Only the foolish believe suffering is just wages for being different”

The basis of the game is simple, you play Alice, armed with a myriad of demonic toys and aid her on her journey to the Red Queen, the source of her inner demons. Slay the Queen and you release Alice from her torment. All with the help of rhymes and riddles of the Cheshire Cat, who has a catchy verse for every toy you find (“Here’s a Riddle for you: When if a croquet mallet like a billy club? I’ll tell you: whenever you want it to be.”) Plus you get kick ass power ups like Dogs of War (above) and the crazy bug Tea that lets you jump around something crazy. Did I mention Chris Vrenna of Nine Inch Nails composed the soundtrack? It’s pretty bad ass.

The game is so fucking amazing I can hardly stand it. But now I fear for it’s life. Because something potentially horrible has happened to this cult classic: Sarah Michelle Gellar.

Don’t get me wrong. I own every season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and have an unnatural emotional involvement with the characters of both Buffy and Angel. But Miss Gellar has decided that with her small fortune she was going to buy the rights to the American McGee’s Alice film. It seems like most fans are horrified because her owning the film means she gets to star in it.

It doesn’t help that none of the writers have much previous experience. This movie is just one big Crap shoot.

The film’s scheduled for release in July, though that’s a very lose estimate. I’m really not sure how I feel about it. A film could be amazing. . . or it could be horribly tragic. Video Game movies have a really bad habit of sucking (Need I mention Final Fantasy: Advent Child/The Spirits Within or do I dare remind you of Alone in the Dark?)

Click the Poster for some IMDB Goodness

Still I do have hope! And even if the movie sucks major balls at least it won’t ever be the worst Alice in Wonderland film adaptation. I’m pretty sure Alice in Wonderland: The Musical Porno will hold that place forever.