The Kid Should See This.
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There's just so much science, nature, music, art, technology, storytelling and assorted good stuff out there that my kids (and maybe your kids) haven't seen. It's most likely not stuff that was made for them...
But we don't underestimate kids around here.
Kid-friendly not-made-for-kids videos for all! Collected by Rion Nakaya and her three four year old co-curator.
Tip Jar: Curating this blog takes work! If you like the videos on this site, please support the science education projects that we've picked on DonorsChoose.org.
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“Rooftops in the summer are hot. Cooling down buildings wastes energy. Solution: Painting roofs with energy saving white reflective paint.” The White Roof Project is a nonprofit dedicated to curbing climate change by painting NYC roofs white and then hopefully franchising the volunteering activity out across the United States.
And they’re absolutely onto something. In 2009, Energy Secretary Steven Chu pitched this idea. According to the Wall Street Journal, “white roofs and pavements could mean a one-time reduction of 44 billion tons of carbon dioxide. That… translates to removing all the cars in the world for 18 years.”
Former President Bill Clinton wrote last summer that white rooftops could lower “the utility bill in every apartment house 10 to 20 percent…”
And in the southeastern region of Almeria, Spain, the reflective roofs of their greenhouses (and they’re seriously into greenhouses) are cooling the air temperature in the region “by an average of 0.3 degrees Celsius per decade since 1983. The rest of Spain, however, has experienced temperatures rise 0.5 degrees Celsius.”
Sounds like it might be time to get some white paint and a few ladders. Read more about The White Roof Project, and if you’re in NYC, volunteer!
Giant piano! And on this particular giant piano (with rainbow light up keys!), a happy gentleman at NYC’s F.A.O. Schwartz plays the Mario theme song… and not perfectly, which is the best part! — It’s the only way you can tell how much practice and work it must take to tap out such an epic song on such a giant instrument.
h/t @mindfulmimi.
To Claire de Lune by Claude Debussy, here’s another Land of Nod short film, Coney Island Love Letter. (Previously, Allo Allo.)
via Laughing Squid.
Here’s Tito Puente rocking the Bronx with A Maria Cervantes on the vibraphone in 1945. And here he is again with the same song at the Montreal Jazz Festival almost 40 years later in 1983.
Not only does this classic Sesame Street short explain paper recycling in a relatable way, but it’s always great when the music is unique to the video rather than catering to popular music or “kid’s” music. Bonus: “Old papuh, new papuh!” …love that old NYC flavor.
The Pour Paintings by New York artist Holton Rower (grandson of Alexander Calder) are quite interesting looking at them from “above” — but the process of them being made is where the real fireworks are. Gravity has never looked so colorful!
Or has it?! Check out these poured paintings of urban landscapes by Amy Shackleton (with video).
via Open Culture.
A sound documentary! Shot within just a few hours in the NYC subway by filmmaker Tim Sessler, “Bending Sounds” is an experiment in capturing the music of buskers within the underground cacophony of people, trains, and turnstiles. The kid and I both love this.
Previously: the Sub City Series.
via Field Mic.
Classic Sesame Street time! Kids get help making drum from a barrel against the backdrop of New York City in the early 80s. The video doesn’t dive deep into it, but there’s even more detail in just how the notes are made exactly to specification:
…fine-tuning is done by lightly tapping the note area to stretch it appropriately. Tune down, hit it from above. Tune up, hit it from below. That’s the easy way to describe it, but the full tuning process involves making sure the whole note area is harmonically balanced (getting the octaves to match)…
For more detail, check out the set-up of the notes on the Tenor Pan.
via mikesenese.com.
