The End

I promised, way back when, to come back here one last time to post my personal top 10 kids' and family albums of 2008. Here they are:

1. They Might Be Giants, Here Come the 123s
2. (tie) Justin Roberts, Pop Fly
2. (tie)Frances England, Family Tree
4. Danielle Sansone, Two Flowers
5. Lisa Loeb, Camp Lisa
6. Terrible Twos, Jerzey the Giant
7. Medeski, Martin & Wood, Let's Go Everywhere
8. Dan Zanes, Nueva York
9. (tie) Scribble Monster, Songs with no Character
9. (tie) Me3, The Thin King

The full results of the 2008 Fids and Kamily Music Poll can be found here. And if you like lists, take a look at another list to which I contributed -- the Popdose 100, a list of 100 favorite singles of the last 50 years. I was pretty amazed, when all the votes were compiled, at how under-represented female artists were, but I still think it's a great list. My own 100 favorite singles can be found here.

Since my September post, I've been thinking about if and how and when I might ever get a new blog started. I'm still struggling with the eternal question -- what would I write? I'd love to open up my whole life, past and present, like some other bloggers and I know and love, but I don't think I have the guts to do that. Or maybe I just haven't found my voice for telling my own story yet. My biggest concern is who could be hurt in the process of me writing a memoir-type blog. God knows I've been pretty hard on a few kids' musicians, so it scares me to think if what could come out if I wrote honestly about my own life and all the people in it. Also, the issue of privacy (both mine and my children's), the imaginary pressure of keeping a blog updated and tracking how many people are reading it, and the feeling that I'm giving away my story for free -- these are all things that continue to hold me back.

But I still hope to be back in the blogosphere soon, in some form or fashion. Thanks for reading.

100 Singles

I was honored to be asked to participate in the Popdose 100 -- a list of favorite singles from the last 50 years, as ranked by the Popdose staff and few other friends of Popdose. The full list was published by Popdose back in November, and I've been meaning (since then, basically) to post my own votes in the Popdose 100. I'm sure there are a few songs here that will cause you to question my judgement, but keep in mind these are my favorites -- your favorites may be very different. Here they are -- my favorite 100 singles of the last 50 years:

Beach Boys, God Only Knows
Van Morrison, Moondance
The Beatles, In My Life
Nick Lowe, Cruel to be Kind
REM, Radio Free Europe
Elvis Costello, Everyday I Write the Book
Joe Jackson, Is She Really Going Out with Him
Dolly Parton, Here You Come Again
Derek and the Dominoes, Layla
Ben Folds Five, Brick
Nirvana, Smells Like Teen Spirit
Glen Campbell, Wichita Lineman
Beach Boys, Wouldn't it be Nice
Aretha Franklin, Think
Lisa Loeb, Stay
Springsteen, Born to Run
Rolling Stones, Satisfaction
James Taylor, Sweet Baby James
Christina Aguilera, Ain't No Other Man
Johnny Cash, Ring of Fire
Elvis Presley, Love Me Tender
Everclear, AM Radio
The Go Gos, We Got the Beat
J.Geils Band, Centerfold
Diana Ross, Ain’t No Mountain High Enough
Neil Young, Harvest Moon
Def Lepperd, Pour Some Sugar on Me
Eric Clapton, Wonderful Tonight
Elvis Costello, Peace, Love & Understanding
Liz Phair, Stratford-on-Guy
They Might Be Giants, Birdhouse in Your Soul
Jill Sobule, I Kissed a Girl
Bob Dylan, Tangled up in Blue
Prince, Purple rain
Percy Sledge, When a Man Loves a Woman
The Beatles, Let it Be
Beastie Boys, Intergalactic
Indigo Girls, Galileo
Van Morrison, Crazy Love
John Cougar, Jack and Diane
Sheryl Crow w/Kid Rock, Picture
Duran Duran, Hungry Like the Wolf
The Police, Don’t Stand so Close to Me
Spencer Davis Group, Gimme Some Lovin’
Nancy Sinatra, These Boots Were Made for Walking
John Hiatt, Slow Turning
Outkast, Hey Ya
Rolling Stones, Happy
Kid Rock, Bawitaba
Bangles, Walk Like an Egyptian
Gnarls Barkley, Crazy
Squeeze, Tempted
Janis Joplin, Me and Bobby McGee
Elton John, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
John Lennon, Imagine
Dixie Chicks, Goodbye Earl
Martha and the Vandellas, Dancing in the Street
Pearl Jam, Jeremy
REM, Losing my Religion
Aerosmith, Walk This Way
David Bowie, Changes
Carole King, You've Got a Friend
Black Crowes, Hard to Handle
The Impressions, People Get Ready
Credence Clear Water Revival, Proud Mary
The Kinks, Lola
Linda Rondstadt, You’re No Good
Peter Gabriel, In Your Eyes
Roy Orbison, Crying
Guns & Roses, Welcome to the Jungle
B-52s, Love Shack
Billy Vera and the Beaters, At This Moment
Beck, Loser
Tom Petty, American Girl
Blondie, Call Me
Dire Straits, Money for Nothin’
Hall and Oates, Maneater
Liz Phair, Never Said
Fiona Apple, Criminal
U2, Vertigo
The Hold Steady, Stuck Between Stations
Kermit the Frog, Rainbow Connection
The Police, Every Breath You Take
Stevie Wonder, You Are the Sunshine of my Life
Supremes, You Keep Me Hangin On
Violent Femmes, Blister in the Sun
Van Halen, Janie's Cryin'
Warren Zevon, Lawyers Guns & Money
Simon and Garfunkel, The Sound of Silence
George Michael, Faith
Stevie Wonder, Isn't She Lovely
Procol Harum, Whiter Shade of Pale
The Monkees, Daydream Believer
Madonna, Like a Prayer
Pogues, Fairytale of New York
Lovin' Spoonful, Do You Believe in Magic?
Crystal Gale, Don't it Make my Brown Eyes Blue
Barry Manilow, Mandy
Aerosmith, Dream On
Tommy James and the Shondells, Crimson and Clover

Out of Business

I tried to get Bank of America to buy this blog, but they didn't want it. And because it's not a bank, the government wasn't interested in bailing it out. It's going out of business.

Actually, if you've been a follower for very long, you probably know this blog has been on the way out for about a year now. It's like that TV series that stayed on one season too long. It should have quit while it was ahead. But there was always one more album or artist or concert or event I thought I was going to write about. Ohhhh, I can't wrap things up until I write about that new Frances England album, or about meeting her when she played in Charlotte. And I can't wrap things up until I review the new Justin Roberts album and Sesame Street Playground or until the Yo Gabba Gabba DVD comes out or until I write about DragonCon. But it seems I'm never going to get around to writing about all those things. I'm just not.

I'm still planning to help Stefan and Bill with this year's Fids and Kamily Awards, and I'll come back here in November to post my top 10 of 2008. That's a nice way to end things, don't you think?

Until then, there's not much left to say. Except GO CUBS! Because they won their division yesterday! And because Eddie Vedder has written and recorded a song about the Cubs! And most of all because there's a new book out called Northsiders: Essays on the History and Culture of the Chicago Cubs, which happens to include a chapter by my husband.


Tell your friends! Tell your family! Buy yours now! What an incredible holiday gift for any baseball fan! OMG, my husband is in this book! Go Cubs!

Stop back around Thanksgiving for my Fids and Kamily picks for 2008. And keep in touch. You can still find me on Flickr and Facebook and (for a while at least) on Twitter.

Disney: Fail

Disgusted. Sad. Disappointed. Disillusioned. Crap-tastically dumbfounded.

These are just a few of the feelings I've had after hearing that the Disney Music Block Party Tour suddenly canceled a whole bunch of their dates. Clearly, tickets weren't selling.

No, we didn't have tickets. The tour wasn't coming near Atlanta. Although looking at the tour site, it appears that the tour has only ever planned to play Long Island (the only dates from the tour that have not been canceled). All the other dates are just gone. Cancellations? Never happened. Failure? Disney? No, no, no. Nothin' to see here, folks. It's all good.

In fact, Disney hasn't issued any sort of statement, leaving it to the artists to break the news to their fans. Oh, and also leaving it to the venue staff in East Hartford, Connecticut, who had to explain to many families who showed up for today's show at an empty Rentschler Field. Oy. Imagine how those conversations must have gone.

Tickets for the Long Island shows are $36 a head, with kids under 2 free. I'm guessing (but someone can fill me in if this is wrong) that tickets for other shows were the same -- or at least a similar -- price. That $36 ticket gets you hours upon hours of music and other outdoor festival-type activities. That's comparable to (or even less than) the ticket price for the good seats at Disney on Ice, Sesame Street Live, or even Playhouse Disney Live. I'm trying to get my mind around the notion that parents are more willing to pay $35 or $40 for tickets to see a costumed character dance around and lip-synch to canned music than they are to pay for Dan Zanes, Ralph's World, and a slew of other artists performing LIVE MUSIC for kids. Gah.

DOES NOT COMPUTE. DOES NOT COMPUTE.

Would scheduling more shows at smaller venues have helped? Would a different mix of acts have helped? Would this have gone over better last summer, when gas prices and grocery prices weren't stressing out parents everywhere? We'll never know.

It must have been quite a shock for Disney to put out something with their name and their trademark mouse ears on it and see it fail. That doesn't happen often, does it?

Disney may end up blaming the whole thing on gas prices. Or the artists. Or Steven Page's unfortunate run-in with the law (back before Barenaked Ladies left the tour). I doubt they will take the blame themselves.

My husband's answer, when I asked him why he thought this tour fell apart, was that perhaps Disney was too ambitious. And I tend to agree. The Disney Music Block Party Tour wasn't necessarily "too ambitious" with the number of shows, or with ticket prices, or even the size of the venues. But it may have been too ambitious in putting together a tour in response to a perceived surge in the popularity of kids' music and kindie rock. If Disney had done their homework (i.e. market research), they might have found that many of the families that are most passionate about kids' music, and especially the "kindie rock" variety, are not big Disney consumers. They're also less interested in safe, mediatized, processed events for kids (such as Playhouse Disney Live) and more interested in taking their children to a Dan Zanes concert on a university campus. Many of them are families that watch little or no television. But I'm not sure Disney is even aware that such families exist. And is the perceived kindie rock surge even all that real? Or is it just something created by a lot of media hype over the last 24 months?

On a happier note, I had a nice reminder today of why Bill Childs is a genius. I couldn't have said this better myself.

It's Especially Sunny in Philadelphia...

...because there's a great article on kids' music and this summer's tours in the Philly Inquirer. There's a brief quote in there from "Blogger Amy Davis" -- hey, that's me! The best part is, my little blurb is sandwiched between quotes from Dan Zanes and Lisa Loeb. I'm honored to be included.

Welcome to those of you who found me via the Inquirer! If you're looking for more on kiddie rock, check out the "Minivan Rotation" section over in the sidebar. Also, be sure to visit Zooglobble and Spare the Rock for more kids' music news, reviews, and witty banter.