Dinner and a Movie

Every night, just after cleaning up dinner and just before the bath-tooth brush-get dressed-hair brush-story time-back tickle-I’m not tired yet-a-palooza, we take a few minutes to let the girls watch a movie. Or, if we’re gonna get all technical about it, it’s not really a movie. We huddle around the computer, turn out the lights, and watch one youtube video before going upstairs. A Pixar short, for example (Boundin’ is a favorite). Billie Jean. The classic Ladybug Picnic. Patti Labelle absolutley crushing her ABCs. Billie Jean. A young Ella Fitzgerald singing “A Tisket, A Tasket.” Anything directed by Spike Jonze. Billie Jean. An old Tex Avery cartoon. Uptown Girl, I’m ashamed to say. Lang Lang doing some piano craziness. “Make ‘Em Laugh” from Singin’ in the Rain. A live version of Hotel Yorba, which seems to touch some deep pleasure center in children’s brains. But the one we’ve been wearing out lately is “This Too Shall Pass” by OK Go, which my friend Joel sent to me a couple of weeks ago. There are two versions of it, here and above. I’m partial to the Rube Goldberg version, but they’re both so good, and so creative, that I feel bad even saying that. I can’t tell you how much joy they have brought me. Our kids might even like them, too. — Andy