On the Media on The Sound of Young America

It’s the podcast equivalent of chocolate and peanut butter.

Harper’s Island – Episode 1

True to the slasher genre, it’s off to a bit of a slow start, but it’s good enough for me to keep watching. The cast is better than expected, and the soundtrack is horror movie-perfect.

There’s a total of 13 episodes, ending in July. There’s also an accompanying series of webisodes, Harper’s Globe, about what’s happening to the intern at the island’s paper, the Globe, at the same time as the events of the TV series. Aspects of the TV and Web shows will apparently cross over occasionally. There’s even an iPhone app.

The Mother of All Funk Chords

I’m probably the last person to finally stumble over this, but it’s so awesome, I just had to share.

Read Across America 2009, Part II

So it went better this morning at Hollyvale Elementary School, where I read to three classes. The sixth graders were again the least impressed — the school put out a selection of books that I think were just too young for them — but the two fourth grade classes I read to loved the two books I read, both by Robert Munsch, the Farrelly Brothers of children’s books: Pigs and Angela’s Airplane.

Pigs, which features on the loose pigs that, among other things, pee on both the title character’s father’s and principal’s feet, was the bigger hit, although there were girls in one classroom that really seemed to click with Angela’s Airplane.

Read Across America 2009

I like doing this every year — reading to elementary school kids — but don’t let the school staff fool you: sixth graders are significantly tougher than younger kids. Younger kids don’t sigh and dangle their arms as you read (just a few in a class of about 30, but enough), and act as though you’re literally boring them to death.

I’ll get another chance, though: In addition to reading at Topaz Elementary School today, I’ll be reading at Hollyvale Elementary School on Monday and then, Monday afternoon, will be talking about newspapers at an assembly at Mission Crest Elementary School. (They’re using Read Across America as a kick-off to a month of reading.) Yes, I’ll be that guy at the school assembly.