The Family Film Series is a uniquely social movie theatre event for families. With short films and songs and dancing, you can come to the movies to interact with other kids, laugh at the movies with them, chomp on popcorn with them, and move to the music with them! No zoning out! Join us on Saturday, June 19 at 10 a.m. Tickets are $5.

Hosting this series is going to be fun! We’ll be helping to pick out the short films, coming up with songs to play (maybe even writing special ones to go along with the films) and thinking of all sorts of secret handshakes and running jokes and  other ways to get to know our Columbia, SC audience even better. We hope to see you there this year!

Here is the list of the Top Eleven (these awards go to eleven!) for 2009 - we hope you’ll discover some new favorites too!
P.S. We also love Honorable Mention winner Billy Kelly and his album Thank You for Joining the Happy Club!

1. They Might Be Giants - Here Comes Science
2. Lunch Money - Dizzy
3. Recess Monkey - Field Trip
4 (tie). Peter Himmelman - My Trampoline
4 (tie). Ziggy Marley - Family Time
6. Milkshake - Great Day
7. Gustafer Yellowgold - Mellow Fever
8. Billy Jonas - Happy Accidents
9. Captain Bogg & Salty - Emphatical Piratical
10. Sarah Lee Guthrie & Family - Go Waggaloo
11. The Not-Its - We Are The Not-Its

When my friend Jennifer and I got to college, we were comrades experiencing a new life away from home together, and in those first days we spent much of our time getting lost on campus, misunderstanding our meal plan, and coming up with secret funny names for the people in our classes. On our many excursions, despite frequent sheepish glances at our map, we could not help but notice something special about our university: the vibrant squirrel community. 

I think most people are used to the phenomenon of parks and colleges generating a friendlier, heck, even gregarious, style of squirrel. Our rodent friends get used to the winning ratio of spilled snacks to actual physical danger, and they come a little closer. But these squirrels were different. These squirrels were up to something. If you kept your eyes peeled, you would see squirrels engaged in what appeared to be…jobs.

It was never clear if this was productive or subversive behavior, but these squirrels were putting their paws to the task. We laughed at a squirrel gardener apparently making adjustments to the water valves on the State House grounds. But it was the squirrel mechanic who stole our hearts, busily reaching through the front grate of a car, intent on modifying the radiator. A fallen handrail in the student union was instantly understood to be the perfect height for a squirrel handrail, and I filled my Logic 101 notebook with images like squirrels in the cafeteria ordering Nut Lovers pizzas and slid them towards Jennifer, hoping to get a laugh.

Years later I needed to come up with a name for a record label to go along with my new band Lunch Money. I wanted it to be something fun, something different, something relatable for kids and yet likably cryptic too. When I thought of Squirrel Mechanic Records, I wrote to Jennifer and asked her permission, considering those shared memories our shared intellectual property (and suddenly memories seem like the nicest type of intellectual property in the world). She was all for it, and so it was that our private joke took on a new life and even got splendidly re-envisioned by the wonderful illustrator Brandon Reese.

So that is the story of Squirrel Mechanic Records. The love is in the details and I am all about the details. I went to college, got an English degree, and what did I take with me? The running jokes about squirrels that I shared with my friend, who luckily ended up in my pond (or I in hers) and made it so much richer.

I'm glad you found my pond.

Several years ago, I put a little pond in my yard. One of those black plastic ones that are like miniature swimming pools. We dug a hole, put some plants around it, got a little fountain and everything. At first, I tried to have it be a home for goldfish, but they kept disappearing (not sure where they went!), so eventually I left it alone.

Then one day I was walking past the pond and noticed a frog sitting on a long leaf that curved over the water. With amphibians being on the decline, a frog sighting, for me, is almost up there with a unicorn sighting. As I stood there admiring the gleaming little guy, my gaze drifted and I saw another…and another. These plants that made little diving boards over the water had become a frog community center.

I walked away marveling at the way a frog can find a pond. There were a few months when I worked at a Superpetz here in Columbia. I don’t recommend working at a big chain pet store if you love animals, but sometimes, you know, you just need a job. This particular Superpetz had just had its grand opening and was super-psyched about all its pet supply grandeur, including a display of a pond. Just the same type of pond I would later buy for my own yard.

One day a large frog (maybe a bull frog) came right through the automatic doors of this shiny pet shop. How did it navigate the hot pavement, the busy parking lot, the general lack of water in the vicinity? I have no idea. But it happened. And we, the new employees, did what seemed to be the right thing. We plopped him right into the pond display. One of my co-workers was a big guy named Roy who looked perfectly at home with a giant boa constrictor lounging on his shoulders. Roy started catching flies for the frog, dipping them in the water and watching for the inevitable frog tongue to zap them up. It really helped pass the time in between inventorying squeaky toys.

I don’t know how a frog finds a pond. Does a frog leave one secure pond to search bravely for another like some amphibian sodbuster? Are there intricate social factors that force a frog to leave one community and search for another? Do they gets tips from birds? It’s the kind of little miracle that makes me think about all the other ways we happen into our own life stories: all the moments of chance that lead up to where we live, how we pay the bills, and who we can call our lasting friends.

All of these thoughts are a part of “Somehow a Frog Finds a Pond,” especially the idea that eventually you will find a friend, which is the part I could have used some reassuring about along the way. You can listen to the song and you can visit the National Wildlife Federation’s Frogwatch USA here.

I'm the one with the striped socks.

This week we had reporter Otis Taylor and photographer Kim Kim Foster Tobin over to our house to take pictures for a story that ran today in our local paper, The State. Since our kids’ voices appear on the new CD, Kim Kim wanted to include them in the picture and decided to use our living room as the setting, since that is where we practice (now picture the mad scrambling we did to try to make our house look slightly less chaotic - actually getting it up to just “chaotic” was the goal).

With my blog in mind, I asked Otis if he would take a few pictures of us getting our picture taken, especially since Kim Kim’s vision involved trying lots of angles, including the one pictured above (I’m the one with the striped socks). Henry and Lucy were great sports, and I was able to keep them going with promise of an Icee and popcorn at Target later.

You can read the article and see the final photograph here. The State also used our song “Wake Up, World” as part of slideshow celebrating the first days of spring.

a cookie as big as my head (photo by J.P. Stephens)

This song was inspired by a boxed lunch which came with a chocolate chip cookie that totally dwarfed the box itself. Everyone was marvelling at their dessert, and soon it was suggested I try my hand at a song entitled, “A Cookie As Big As My Head.”

Where do you go from there? After a little soul-searching, I realized I had some strong opinions about cookies. I have always been disappointed to discover that a cookie I assumed to be chocolate chip was actually loaded down with all sorts of inappropriate ingredients like raisins, cornflakes, walnuts, carrot shavings, etc. Hey, I’m not some doomed Jack London character heading out into the tundra. Do I look like I’m dressed for an expedition? Did you just have some things in your cabinets that you needed to use before they went bad? Have you ever considered composting instead? My young friend Reilly recently wrote to me, saying, “I don’t like anything else on my cookie either.” Amen! I’m not alone. I highly recommend having an established cookie policy and communicating it to your friends and loved ones.

But seriously, folks. When we first began playing this song, I did wonder whether any parents would object. Having witnessed the civilizing of Cookie Monster with a sadness I normally reserve for King Kong, I worried that someone might find the song irresponsible or bratty. Not only does it crack on whole wheat bread, but it also models some persuasive techniques for children who might be in need of giant cookies.

As it turns out, the parents in the audience are the ones who often seem to get the biggest charge out of the song. And that makes me ridiculously happy.

P.S. We bought ours at Food Lion. Also, you can listen to the song at our myspace page.

Then came last Friday, when we got a major PR boost, thanks to a segment on NPR’s “All Things Considered” by children’s music blogger Stefan Shepherd. Spike! Instantly a lot of people bought our music, and we not only became the #1 children’s CD on iTunes for the weekend, but we also charted up there with the grown-up tunes (got up to #37 on Amazon.com). Everything about the experience was cool and surreal. Heck, one person even admitted to me over email that ours was the first CD she had not pirated! I mean, wow!

So now here we are - the same people but with a slightly altered sense of our place. We know if we do nothing we will return to secret status. It’s possible that will happen anyway, despite whatever efforts we put in. It’s a gamble. So what’s our plan? Well, we’re going to keep doing what we’ve been doing, only more of it. In other words, it’s on.

So as we begin a new era of Lunch Money - one in which we devote a lot more time and energy into getting in front of you (whether through live shows or avenues like this new blog) - I hope you will check back and see what’s happening with us. And we invite you to be a part of it. We’d love to know about the great kids’ concert series in your town or the nifty little independent toy store with the shelf of CDs for sale. We’re excited to get any leads you have to offer, and hey, if we finally get to your town, you’ll know you played a part in shaping our story. Can we pay you in stickers?