Ask and You Shall Receive. A Response Video to Jorge & Alexa’s “Home” Video

Caution:  This isn’t much of a response video.

When the fans speak, the Dude listens. After the Behind the Curve post, we were so flooded with fan requests for the Princess to make a video (all 2 of them), that we felt we owed it to our loyal readers to come up with something.  Well, that and the events unfolded serendipitously so all the Dude had to do was point and click. No effort, my favorite type of work.

However, prior to jumping into the video, I want to mention the Jorge and Alexa video again. I didn’t mention this in the last post, but their back-story is interesting. Based solely on the 30 seconds I spent on their Facebook page, it seems Jorge is a 24 year old, single father of two young girls (at least one of which loves to sing), working his way through college.

The video has a good story too. After 9 or 10 practice runs with a mic that ended up being turned off the entire time, at 11 PM they were both ready to hit the hay, but gave one last run at it with the mic on. Clearly it worked.

It’s a great rendition of a great song. There are a few pieces of the video that stand out for me. Alexa’s fake whistle around 1:35 is great, and her question, “One day I’m going to whistle?” was timed perfectly and seemed spontaneous. The stifled yawn at about 2:30 is perfect, and definitely shows it was the end of the night. But I guess most importantly, even in a short video, a strong father-daughter bond seems to come across.

Was this the breakout weekend for this song everywhere, or just in our world? It’s been around for a while, so I have to guess it was just our world. Like when you buy a new car you start to see the same cars all over the road. It was popping up everywhere we turned. Radio, Facebook, email, Pandora. The Princess can’t stop singing it.  Which I guess leads us to our “response” video.

The Dude doesn’t have the same musical acumen that it appears Jorge has. At least not yet. I’d love to learn the guitar, but I’ve been stuck trying to teach myself the harmonica for the past five years. And judging by that progress, learning the first verse of Home would probably take me another 3 years. So, I probably won’t be performing anytime soon. I only make a small cameo, from the waist down, with some poor bongo banging. But the Princess is building her stage presence.

I was feeding the dogs when I noticed The Princess was jamming on the bongo and singing. The camera was close by, so I grabbed it. I tried to catch her without her noticing.  It was a bad angle and she noticed, so I moved in for a closer look. Most of her quiet singing is drowned out by the bongo. She starts out singing this country song. But as she’s playing, Home randomly comes on Mrs. Dude’s Phoenix mix on Pandora. (Go Mrs. Dude. Nice selection. Quality musical taste; another item on the long list of “I love you’s.”)

So, we seize the moment and poorly sing along with song…kind of.  But not really because the Princess knows about three words…and the bongo is loud. In the end, The Princess poorly lipsync’s the song and ends up licking a microphone.

All in all, an unremarkable response to a remarkable video.

Enjoy.

Pixels: I Do Declare!

In honor of Mrs. Dude’s southern roots, I figured I’d spice up the blog with a little “southern speak.” Although, considering the majority of my “southern speak” comes from The Princess’ DVD of old My Little Pony episodes, please forgive me if I misuse any phrases.  I “might could” make a mistake here and there.

As I did who knows what in the other room, Mrs. Dude snapped this picture. What could warm the Dude’s heart more than my boys looking for Daddy?!

“I do declare!”

I do declare!

I do declare!

So Behind the Curve

Here we are at five years old, and The Princess has yet to have a hit music video getting a million hits on YouTube.  We have some catching up to do.

The Dude got a hot tip from a loyal reader today (thanks M.) about this amazing father-daughter duo that is taking YouTube by storm. This peanut can’t be more than four, and she’s already got over 5 million views!

Sweet rendition of “Home.”

Here’s the original.

Week 30: Grrrr…

7 months.  How does it goes so fast?

He’s like a little man.  We refer to him as the business man.  I’m on the hunt for a sweet pinstripe suit, so he can take over the E-Trade baby’s spot.

Although I guess this picture doesn’t really say “business.”  More like Grrrr…

The Dude’s newest nephew, i.e. The Intimdator, is three weeks older than Little Dude, and he started to crawl last week.  L.D. is starting to realize he can get around by rolling.  I suspect he’ll be on the move soon.

So bittersweet to reach another stage of development.

But the good news is we can have baby races, and hopefully I can win some money off the Lady in a Shoe.

Grrrr...

Grrrr...

Ridin’ Dirty

Ridin' Dirty

Ridin' Dirty

For those of you not as down with the Hip Hop community as the Dude, ridin’ dirty is slang for:

the act of driving with illegal weapons or drugs. First coined by Houston Rap group U.G.K.(Bun B and Pimp C) In a song “ridin dirty”

“Somebody told the laws that Bun was the one ridin dirty.”

Mrs. Dude and I don’t let Little Dude play with illegal weapons or drugs just yet, but he’s been ridin’ dirty baby style for the past week; a walker!

The Dude’s parental units graced us with their presence last weekend, and while visiting the Mrs. mentioned that we recently ordered a “walker” for the Boy. Grammie then proceeded to explain that the “toy” we just ordered, and is now being delivered,  does not pass the Grammie-nurse standards; it should not be called a “walker” because it doesn’t teach a baby to walk, and it’s actually an accident waiting to happen because kids roll down stairs in them.

While Grammie was preaching her Grammie-nurse laws of the land (which are almost always accurate regardless of how much I try to resist them), Papa was chiming in asking her if walkers are outlawed.

Is Walmart now selling black market baby products?  That helps explain how they keep their prices so low.

To add insult to injury, the first thing Grammie-nurse #2, aka Nina, said was “kids roll down stairs in those.”  And I believe she half-jokingly referred to it as “the death trap” when she saw it.

Sweet, we’re providing deadly toys for our son, and the Grammie’s don’t approve.  Thanks Walmart.

Oh well, it was already paid for and on the way.  Hope Little Dude is tough.

Can’t wait to hear the I told you so’s when he rolls off the cliff we let him play on.

Pixels: Happy New Year

Sickie

Sickie

Just like many other New Years Eve celebrations, the Dude house rang in 2011 with copious amounts of vomit. Unfortunately, we didn’t enjoy any of the benefits of overindulgence that usually accompany New Years revelry.

The Dude and The Princess rang in the New Year with our heads in the toilet thanks to a tummy bug that stowed away in our luggage from The Lady in a Shoe’s house.  Mrs. Shoe’s house not only incubates chaos, but also germs.  As a result, Casa de Dude resembled, and smelled like, a frat house as the ball dropped.

Thankfully, Mrs. Dude and Little Dude have escaped the bug so far.  And a big thanks goes out to the Mrs. for working into the wee hours of the morning taking care of the sickies (and the infant).

Thanks again for a great visit Lady in a Shoe.  However, in the future, please make sure your germs pass through customs before following us home.

The good news is that starting from the toilet, 2011 has no where to go but up.  Here’s to a great 2011!