Video: "Planet Hopping" Trailer - Lunch Money / Belle et Bête

I'm geeked about one of my favorite bands, Lunch Money, stretching their wings (or whatever it is bands collectively stretch) and doing new things.

Especially if those new things are with puppets. 

Next week is the world premiere of the space puppet musical the band has created with  Belle et Bête, a South Carolina-based puppetry duo.  If you are at all near the Columbia, South Carolina area next weekend (Nov. 15 & 16), please do check out the show and let this poor West Coast(-ish) guy know how it was.  'Cause otherwise I'll just have to rely on this trailer which, while it does feature Lunch Money music and puppets, won't really be like being there.

Video: "When I Look Into the Night Sky" - Lori Henriques (World Premiere)

On her 2011 debut Outside My Door, Lori Henriques exhibited a taste for brainy wordplay to go along with her jazzy and occasionally melancholic pianoplay, wrapped in packaging designed by her brother Joel Henriques.   How brainy?  Her contribution to the 2012 compilation Science Fair  dealt with Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle.

Henriques is now getting ready to release her follow-up album The World Is a Curious Place To Live on June 4, and I'm pleased as punch to debut the first video from the album.  It's for "When I Look Into the Night Sky," a nifty reworking of the classic "St. John's Infirmary."   Rather than wowing us with scientific fact, this new track is a wide-eyed and wondrous appreciation of the infinite expanse outside our planet and its connection to the individual.  Lori once again gets an assist from her brother Joel, who put together the video featuring the tiny paper puppets.   "Sparkle" and "marvel," indeed.

Bonus tidbit: Did you know that yesterday (98 years ago, at least), the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics -- the predecessor to NASA -- was founded?  Even almost a century ago, people were actively trying to figure out how to connect more closely with the stars and planets around us.

Lori Henriques - "When I Look Into the Night Sky" [YouTube]

Monday Morning Smile: The Cats of Mars Meet the Toy Car

It has been awhile since I've posted a Monday Morning Smile, but, y'know, I only post them when I find something worth sharing.  This 8-minute animated short from Sweden's Jacob Stalhammar has been dubbed into English, but the sound and look is retro all over the world.  The outer space theme gives it a bit of a Halloween feel to me.  It's lots of fun for any age -- make it a part of your own next personal animation festival.