A chain of events has led us to Sesame Street.
(1) Some weeks ago, Kirst brought home Feist’s album, The Reminder. The only track I’d heard before was “1-2-3-4″, via the ipod nano ad.
(2) I felt having the album in the flat was definitely a good thing, but having not had the chance to listen to it I might well have forgotten if it wasn’t for…
(3) the fact that Saturday’s Guardian featured an enjoyable Alexis Petridis interview with Ms Leslie Feist herself. The profile concretized in my brain the necessity of borrowing Kirsty’s album soon but I was distracted by the paragraph in which the Canadian singer-songwriter mentions being invited to guest on, of all places, Sesame Street.
They asked her to sing 1-2-3-4, but “with the lyrics rewritten as a learning-to-count song”. Initially sceptical, Feist eventually agrees, having discovered that there’s a youtube-documented tradition of musicians transforming their art for the sake of education (and, one imagines, quite a lot of fun).
From here it was only a matter of clicks before…
(4) I’m watching endless Sesame St clips instead of a) reading one of the many doubtless compelling and potentially life-changing books currently piled jenga-style on my bedside table b) getting an early night c) watching the Enron documentary that lovefilm just sent through or even d) playing my BRAND-NEW KEYBOARD (long-awaited)
However.
For making me smile more or less continuously for about ten minutes, I think the Street was deserving of my time.
After all, it’s “one of the most highly regarded educational shows for children in the world” (wikipedia doesn’t lie about that stuff). (And yes, that is Kofi Annan with Elmo).
Probably my favourite video is Norah Jones singing about not understanding why her friend the letter Y has stood her up, with Elmo being adorably empathetic at her side.
See below.
Also recommended…
REM sing Furry Happy Monsters
Rick Moranis and Bert teach us to say hi to strangers
Sesame St rocks to Stevie Wonder singing Superstitious
Robert De Niro explains acting to Elmo
Elmo gets sung to sleep by Andrea Bocelli
Elmo gets sung to sleep by another opera singer, which he seems to enjoy more (maybe it’s her sudden costume change or maybe he’s just more of a Bizet fan)
Well, it’s amazing how one thing leads to another. But what is thrilling about this particular thread is the fact that it contains an array of exciting elements, such as Feist and Sesame Street. On the subject of the street, if there is one memory to hold on to, it has to be the regular screening of the Pointer Sisters Pinball Number Count! Get that and stick it on ya player, I dare you not to groove about the place like a puppet from sesame ; )