Video: "Heading Home" - The Not-Its! (World Premiere!)

I am definitely all in favor of rave-ups from Seattle kid pop-punk masters The Not-Its!, but just like you sometimes want an apple instead of ice cream (or vice versa), the more tender songs on Not-Its albums are pleasant changes of pace. (Or tempo, sometimes.)

That’s the case with this track, “Heading Home.” It’s off their latest album Ready or Not!, and it’s a tender, mostly acoustic, exploration of a kid’s experience flying in a plane without their adults around. It’s inspired by the experiences of the band members’ kids, and the wide-eyed innocence of the song’s narrator is matched by the openness of the animations from animators Chris Looney, Clyde Petersen and Rhys O'Brien. You might even feel a touch of recognition thinking about your own solo travels, though it’s been some time since I’ve received a plastic set of airplane wings…

Anyway, I’m pleased as punch to present the world premiere of this video.

The Not-Its! - “Heading Home” [YouTube]

Photo credit: Symphony Space

Video: "PANORAMA" - Moona Luna (World Premiere!)

Summer is for many families a chance to travel and explore far and wide. Could be down the block or it could be in one of the world's great cities, like New York City.

Or, if you're Moona Luna in their latest video, it could be one and the same.

In this video for the title track from their latest album P A N O R A M A, Sandra Velasquez and her NYC-based bilingual band celebrate traveling by tooling around Governors Island, that small island located between the southern tip of Manhattan and Brooklyn that people pass on the ferry on the way to the Statue of Liberty. As you might expect from that description, there are a lot of familiar panoramic views (so to speak) in the video.

It's a fun video regardless of whether you're heading to the Big Apple this summer, and I'm glad to be offering the world premiere!

Moona Luna - "PANORAMA" [YouTube]

Review: Explorer of the World - Frances England

Frances England didn’t plan on becoming a kids musician when she made her first album more than a decade ago. She just wanted to contribute something to her son’s preschool fundraiser, and wrote songs for a homegrown CD while supervising her son’s baths. But that album’s popularity far surpassed the small world of that San Francisco school. Last Friday she officially released her fifth album for families, Explorer of the World.

As the album title suggests, England is concerned with themes of exploration, observation, and investigation. But rather than traveling long distances, she pays close attention to the world literally outside her front door -- walking her dog around her neighborhood, for example, noticing patterns and colors. She’s inspired as much by visual artists like Wendy McNaughton and Keri Smith as by musicians, and like those artists, she encourages her listeners to pay attention to the art around them daily.

England’s music isn’t as shiny and poppy as that of her peers, but this new album is even more experimental than most kids music. Instead of using chord progressions as the jumping-off point for songs, on some tracks she used field recordings she made walking around San Francisco. “City Don’t Sleep,” for example, started with recordings from late-night walks along North Beach.

Co-producers Dean Jones and Dave Winer bring a lot of different perspectives in terms of the musical production, and the result is an album that vibrates as their approaches (Jones: earthy kitchen-sink sound; Winer: try-anything sonic collage and percussion) differ, but resonate with each other and with England.

I was trying to come up with the appropriate age range for the album, and while I'm going to put at ages 5 through 9, like much of England's more recent work, it's probably broader than that. Not for toddlers, perhaps, but also for kids older than 9, if you get them to sit down and really listen. (You can listen to this album -- along with the rest of her music -- here.)

Even though this album celebrates exploring her own backyard, Frances England is more interested in the process of keeping her eyes open to the world around her. In discovering her own neighborhood, she reminds the rest of us that we can do the same with our own streets and sidewalks. Highly recommended.

Interview: Sandra Velasquez (Moona Luna)

Sandra Velasquez has worn a number of different musical hats -- the leader of the multicultural rock and dance band Pistolera, one-half of the duo SLV, and most relevant for this neck of the woods, the driving force behind the duolingual band (and Pistolera alter ego) Moona Luna.

But as you'll see in the interview below, Velasquez is as passionate about travel as she is about music. To my ears, the recently-released P A N O R A M A, Moona Luna's third studio album, is the band's most personal-sounding record, and after talking about travel with Velasquez, it's clear to me why that is. Read on for Velasquez's memories of her favorite travel spots, how travel informed the making of the new album, and pictures from Velasquez's own camera.

Zooglobble: What are your first memories of traveling?

Sandra Velasquez: First memories of traveling are with my family to Mexico. My mother is from Guerrero and we would go visit her family. Part of her family lives on a coconut plantation. I have distinct memories of watching people climb coconut trees barefoot with a machete strapped to their belt and cut down coconuts for everyone, then cut off the top, make a hole so you could drink the water. It's a real skill! I also remember the first time I felt humidity. I was lucky in that my parents took us somewhere every year. We went to Hawaii, Canada, Europe. I blame my family for my travel bug!

Did you travel more to cities or "scenic" areas? Did you like one more than the other?

Definitely more scenic areas. My mother is from the countryside of Mexico. In fact, where she is from no longer exists. It was washed away by water. I suppose I never really thought about it, but I have a leaning towards scenic country settings when I travel now. I like to be in nature as much as possible. I'm going to Lombok this summer and can't wait.

Do you visit the same places over and over, or do you generally prefer exploring new places?

Always someplace new if possible. I might repeat some places only to show them to my daughter. I have a list of places I want to take her now she's older and can enjoy and remember them. Every year I try to go somewhere new. I've been to Costa Rica, Australia, all over Latin America, and I'm looking forward to Indonesia and Lombok this summer! [And I] am dying to get to Vietnam and Thailand. Maybe next year....

Do you think that desire to visit someplace new if possible extends to your artistic endeavors -- music in particular?

I never thought of that either, but yes! I suppose my wanderlust extends through all of my life! It's not about getting bored so much as being curious and always growing, once I feel like I'm not growing anymore then I move on. This is why there hasn't been another Pistolera album for many years. I feel like I took that sound as far as I could g(r)o(w). And I can't fake things. I've seen people who are "stuck" in their successful band churning out the one sound people want to hear from them for decades. I don't want that. I need to create things that I want to create. Otherwise music becomes another day job.

What new sounds or adventures were you aiming for on your new album P A N O R A M A?

As someone who grew up in California, and by that I mean in car culture, I love me a good driving album. I really wrote the album and ordered the songs in order of taking a journey from one place to the next. I used my own memories of traveling extensively by bus through Central America as visual inspiration when writing. Each song is truly connected to an actual experience I had. I did a lot of traveling alone in Latin America, which allowed me to really blend in with whatever town I was in. Those solo adventures through Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador really shaped who I am. So to answer your question, I hope I am giving people the soundtrack to their own journey, whether they've taken it yet or not.

Are there any tracks that are more meaningful to you because they're associated with particular memories?

The first three tracks I associate with specific memories as well as tracks 6, 7 and 10. It's not that the others don't have a visual for me - they do - but they are imagined...

The title track - "Panorama" - I have many memories that insprired this song. First, going to Tikal in Guatemala at dawn. Climbing the pyramids and seeing nothing but jungle on the horizon. The only sounds were of monkeys. It was pretty magical.

I also think of being on the bus (I was on the bus a lot) where you are winding through dense mountains and there is no civilization for as long as the eye can see. Latin America is filled with tiny chapels at the tops of steep hills. It's almost like an olympic sport climbing hundreds of stairs. But then once you do, you have an eagle eye view.

Note: I did all of these travels before the iPhone. so my pictures are with a [expletive] disposable camera (I never travel with expensive gear).

Those are lovely photos! (Also: I think Instagram should add a "[expletive] disposable camera" filter.)

Track 2 - "Happiness" - this is basically is a "grass isn't greener" song. I love to travel, don't get me wrong, but I do feel that Americans often feel they need to go FAR away to "discover" new things/feelings/people, and actually there's alot right here! There are still pockets of New York that I haven't discovered! The Bronx is vast. The song is not only about finding physical spaces, but also about just finding yourself in your own life. Sometimes we do need go somewhere else and get lost to learn about ourselves. and sometimes we learn that those things were inside of us all along.

Track 3 - "Espejos" - I have lot of family in mexico still. I don't get to see them very much. It's almost a little overwhelming to have a big family in one place. because if you go there, you HAVE to see family. [Anyway,] when I did go to Mexico with my family when I was younger it made an impression on me. I saw where certain physical traits and even vocal tones came from. Isn't it a trip when you look at, say, your great uncle and you have their eyes or their shoulders? You know what I mean? It's quite intense to see how people that all come from the same lineage turn out. I have cousins that look JUST like my grandmother even though their mother does not. This song ("Mirrors," in English) is all about how we see ourselves in each other.

In discussing "Happiness," you mention finding out things about yourself while traveling -- what have you found while traveling?

The reason I love traveling is because of how it puts me in my place in the world. This is if you are truly traveling, not vacationing. When you truly travel and engage with the community you become aware of all of the things you take for granted. I should also interject that I have mostly traveled in Latin America. One might not have the same feeling after travelling in Scandanavia where health care is free!

Mostly what I have learned from traveling is how lucky I am, how many resources I have at my fingertips, and that I have a LOT to be grateful for.

In the end, what do you hope listeners take away from P A N O R A M A?

The album takeaway - I want it to be a soundtrack to your next adventure. maybe that's just a road trip three hours away, or maybe it across the pond. I love soundtracks, and if I can make one for someone else, that makes me feel like I've done my job.

Photo credits: Shervin Lainez (top), Signe Schloss (Moona Luna) Sandra Velasquez (all others)

Traveling to Disneyland as a Single Parent

There are many people for whom going to Disneyland is a lifelong dream, for whom mingling with 50,000 of their closest friends provides a huge thrill.

My wife is not part of that group. She hates crowds.

So when we figured out how to swing a trip to Los Angeles and include a day at Disneyland, I knew that it would be me and the kids and nobody else.

On the one hand, this was exciting: I'd get 72+ hours of one-on-one (or one-on-two) time with my kids away from all the distractions of day-to-day life at home. One the other hand: me, two kids, and a big public place. I'm confident in my parenting and child management skills (not to mention my directional skills), but traveling solo with kids provides a whole different set of challenges.

I should also note that this wasn't my first trip to Disneyland as a single parent -- four years ago I traveled with Miss Mary Mack and spent a couple days at the park. We had fun, but I also look back at that trip and see how it could have been improved upon. In many ways, I think this makes the advice I'm about to dole out particularly useful, because I've done the relatively-uninformed traveler thing and while this trip wasn't absolutely perfect, it went better enough that I know this advice is actually worth considering. So, without any further ado:

Picking a Date

This is step #1, of course, and one that you may have the least flexibility on. For us (like many), we were constrained by the school year and while we weren't totally opposed to pulling the kids out of school for a day or two for a decent vacation-related reason, that was not in the cards for this trip.

I heartily recommend Touring Plans' Disneyland Crowd Calendar, which predicts crowd levels for every day of the year. You can get predicted crowds for the a month out for the next month without subscribing. Subscribing unlocks the entire crowd calendar, and is well worth the price (which is $0.99 per week, $1.99 per month, and $6.99 per year when done through its Lines app).

Even if you have a lot of flexibility in your schedule, it's not as simple as picking out the day that has the lowest crowd levels, of course. Outside of the summer months, park hours are shorter (which may or may not affect your time in the park depending on your kids' stamina) and rides are more likely to be out of commission, either for holiday-related overlays (particularly after Labor Day as they prep for Halloween and Christmas) or major refurbishment. So if there's a particular ride you remember going on when you were a child that you want to revisit or there's some movie or character whose ride you want to make sure your child gets to experience, you can check the Mouseplanet weekly Disneyland update for and other items of note. But as any parent who has been in a crowded place with their kids knows, it can be a lot easier to keep track if it's not packed like a mosh pit.

Where To Stay

For those of you traveling to Disneyland and without the advantage of a local friend with a spare bed or three, you'll need to find a hotel. Actually, even if you have a local friend with a spare bed or three, depending on your budget, you may find it worthwhile to stay in a hotel, at least for each night before your excursions into the park. That's because there are so many advantages to staying as close as you can that investing the extra $100 (or more or less) per night could add much more value than that to the hundreds of dollars you're spending on park tickets.

I would suggest that choosing a hotel at Disneyland is like finding a house - pick the best one you can afford in the neighborhood you want. In this case, the neighborhood is called "Within (15-Minute) Walking Distance of the Front Gate." (I know, not very catchy.) I cannot stress enough the importance of being close enough to walk out of the park and being in your hotel room, collapsed on the bed, in maybe 10 minutes. Much longer, and the walk will seem too daunting at 2 pm or 8 pm. And, yes, you can take the Anaheim Resort Transit shuttles, but there is inevitably waiting time at either or both ends of the return/departure swing, not to mention the farther away you are, the less likely you are to return quickly. It's like the Disneyland gravitational field.

For what it's worth, we stayed at the Anaheim Plaza Resort, whose rooms were basic but fine, and which has a large pool (which they define as Olympic-sized). More importantly, for the purposes of this discussion, it was about a 10-minute walk from our room to the Mickey "compass" smack dab in the middle of the entry plaza. Most of those close hotels are on Harbor Boulevard, the north-south street that is the resort's eastern boundary. Some of the hotels on Harbor are actually closer to the Mickey "compass" than the 3 Disney hotels (Disneyland Hotel, the swanky Grand Californian Hotel, and Paradise Pier Hotel) for a fraction of the cost. What you miss by staying in a non-Disney hotel, besides the immersive Disney theming, is the right to go into the park an hour earlier than everyone else. The Extra Magic Hours, however, only apply (at this point) to the summer. It's unclear whether those Hours will continue. Whether it's worth the $200 or more per night that will cost you, only you can decide.

But the being close to the resort, that's non-negotiable. And I know that there are plenty of hotels that are connected to the resort via a shuttle, either their own or the Anaheim Resort Transit shuttle. All I'm saying is that we stayed at one of those hotels way south on Harbor (easily 1 1/2 miles from the resort) 4 years ago, and waiting for the shuttle to arrive, negotiate Harbor Boulevard traffic, and deposit us about a 3-minute walk from the "compass," took us a lot more time and wasn't that much cheaper (especially when you thrown in the cost of the shuttle) than the Anaheim Plaza Resort. And it took a lot more effort to get ourselves back to the park after a mid-afternoon break.

Your Day(s) at the Park(s)

Here's where I go all drill-sargeant on you and give you the number one piece of advice for your trip to Disneyland:

Set the alarm.

I know, you're on vacation, your kids are on vacation, you want to enjoy the time together, the last thing you want to do sometimes is set an alarm for a time that might even be earlier than a school morning.

Do it anyway.

I'm telling you, you can get so much done before 11 AM that the rest of the day is almost like a bonus because a lot of people aren't setting that alarm. Again, one of the advantages of staying close by is that you can set that alarm 15-30 minutes later. We were probably up and moving by 6:30 AM. After getting ready and having breakfast, we left about 7:35 AM and were at the Disneyland front gates before 7:50 AM to find... they were open. That's right, they'll often open up early (remember, there are already some early guests in the park) so that you're almost at Sleeping Beauty's castle at the center of the park. This means you can spend some time strolling down the Main Street USA section of the park admiring the theming; it also makes getting to the rides that much easier.

I am telling you, if you do one thing, it's get to the park before it opens. I assure you, I've done the not-early thing, and it makes a huge difference. Look at those pictures of Main Street and the Castle above -- those were taken at 7:50 AM and about 10:15 AM, respectively. On a busy summer Friday. Get there early enough, and the park is yours.

Here's where I take a detour and tell you that Touring Plans also offers free touring plans available to everyone, paid subscriber or not. It's well worth your time to plug in the rides and attractions your family is considering to be must-dos and have the computer spit out a suggested itinerary. For the most part, what it'll probably do is tell you to get "Fastpasses" for popular rides as soon as you are able (those are basically reservations to do the ride at a later time) and to ride the slow-loading rides quickly. [Also note: the plan assumes that you can bring back your Fastpass at any point once the reservation window opens, including 12 hours after that point, and well after the reservation window closes. There's always the possibility that that flexibility will go away (it's my understand that Walt Disney World, for example, enforces Fastpass windows more strictly), but for now, it's nice to be able to go back at 4 PM or 6 PM for a Fastpass picked up at 10 AM.]

We didn't follow the Touring Plan I created to the letter -- especially if you and/or your kids are new to the park, you and they will be distracted by certain attractions and telling your kids, "no, we can't ride Astro Blasters now, the Plan says to ride it at 8:15 PM!" is inflexible to the extreme. But because we were there so early, we rode more than half of the Fantasyland rides and navigated the temporary shutdown of Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad with nary a problem. While there were rides that I (or Miss Mary Mack or Little Boy Blue) would have wanted to ride (or ride again), we probably went on more rides in one day than in my comparatively uninformed two-day trip with Miss Mary Mack years ago.

By about noon or so, the park really does start getting crowded, and it is harder to find top-level rides and attractions without significant lines. That's the point at which finding meals and other ways to help give your overstimulated and underhydrated kids a break is important. We had our fancy meal at Cafe Orleans for lunch (those are the Pommes Frites above), but Disneyland's meal prices, while expensive, aren't dizzyingly so. They're reasonable for a captive market. And while you're not supposed to bring in food, the bag searches at the entry to the parks will permit things like waters and snacks, so it is possible to keep your kids hydrated and nourished (sort of) without having to spend money on every last snack. Which isn't to say you might not want a Dole Whip (soft serve ice cream blended with pineapple juice - delish!), just that you can use those opportunities as diversions and treats rather than essential nourishment.

You can, if you wish, leave the park, and on a hot, summer day -- or even other days -- this is a pretty good idea. We retreated to the hotel for a dip in the pool and Olympics on the TV. (We don't have cable at home, so I remember one of Miss Mary Mack's treats on our last trip being able to watch the Disney Channel in the hotel). Hopefully they're relaxing, taking in some fluids, resting their feet, and just generally "resetting" from a long day (which at that point already included about 6 1/2 hours in the park). Preschool-aged kids and toddlers may even take a nap -- so much the better. Obviously, if the park is only open from 10 AM 'til 6 PM, then you might not want to take a break in the middle if your kids' sleep patterns can avoid it. But if you're there in the summer months, I recommend the mid-afternoon break highly.

Saving Money in (and out of) the Parks

Disneyland is not cheap. Kids ages 10 and up pay "full fare," and those between the ages of 3 and 9 aren't much cheaper. Our one-day tickets limiting us to the use of just one park (we chose Disneyland rather than California Adventure, which is being overrun this summer by folks wanting to experience the just-opened Cars Land) cost $249 for the 3 of us. Multi-day tickets and "park hoppers" (which permit switching between parks during the day) would obviously drive that price up considerably.

That's one reason why I recommend staying in a close hotel -- we spent probably a total of more than 11 hours in the park, and that's something we could only have done if we had stayed in a hotel that close the night before and the night after. We invested in the hotel (a bit) so as to maximize the value of those tickets.

Beyond the tickets and lodging, your other major cost component is food. Most hotels along Harbor Boulevard have refrigerators and if you're driving in, you should definitely pack breakfasts and other foods in a cooler and use the fridge. Some hotels have free continental breakfast and some don't (ours didn't), but my sense is that even those who do have a fairly minimal breakfast, low on the protein, and so it's probably worth your time bringing some. (If you're flying in, I have read that Vons offers free delivery, one-time, if you sign up with them.)

As for saving money on food in the park, good luck with that. Like I said, I didn't think the food prices were terribly outrageous, but they're not cheap. At "counter-service" restaurants, you are more likely to be able to mix and match meals and may find that a single adult meal may be sufficient to feed you and a kid.

As always, bringing waters and snacks will help reduce the mid-morning, mid-afternoon, late night munchies. Not totally eliminate them, of course, and part of the fun of an immersive environment like that of Disneyland is to try the food.

One way I tried to extend the Disneyland Resort experience without spending money on tickets was to experience more of the resort. So after we got settled into our room on Thursday afternoon, we wandered around Downtown Disney (the shopping/dining/entertainment district just west of the parks) and the Disneyland Hotel. We ate at Tangaroa Terrace (a "counter service" restaurant overlooking the Hotel's large pool area), then soaked in the atmosphere at Downtown Disney. ("Soaking in atmosphere" means enjoying the crowds, something my wife definitely would not do.) I am very much against window-shopping as entertainment, but the LEGO store has some amazing Disney-themed structures and lots of LEGOs for freeplay, and wandering through the World of Disney store is a good way to let off some of that "gimme gimme" steam your kids are likely to have. (I didn't want to spend our time in the park itself being in shops.)

On that note, I'm sure you all have your own rules for spending money our trips, but for what it's worth I let each kid spend no more than $15 of their own money, and they were perfectly happy with that. Letting them know that the trip itself was their gift drew no whining on their part.

Another way to extend the experience is through a character meal. There are character meals in the parks themselves, but you can also have character meals in which a variety of Disney characters stop by, interact, and pose for pictures. The meals are, again, on the expensive side (especially for what tends to be a buffet), but if your kids are particularly into a character, the opportunity to have a relaxed (and air-conditioned) interaction may be worth the cost compared to waiting in line 30 minutes in the park. We had a Sunday morning buffet at the Storytellers Cafe at the Grand Californian Hotel. The buffet was pretty good, Little Boy Blue (and Miss Mary Mack, a little) enjoyed the characters, and it gave us an excuse to go through the hotel, which is a themed wonder. Again, you don't need to have a meal here to wander through, but it was a nice way to extend the Disneyland experience before heading home.

Other Tips (and Things I Would Do Differently)

Bring water. It seems like you shouldn't have to remind people, but I'm doing so just in case. I brought water (those foldable plastic bottles that are now all the rage), but wish I could have brought more.

Bring a small backpack. What I really wanted to bring was a fannypack, but I couldn't find mine -- maybe I'd tossed it out. I didn't want to haul around a backpack, which meant my pockets were stuffed full of stuff. Next time, I'll find a fannypack (or a small backpack) so I could store more stuff, like my sunglasses.

On that point: When they say you can lose your sunglasses on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, they're not kidding.

Assess your kids' maturity level before you go. Miss Mary Mack is mature for her age; Little Boy Blue not so much for his age. Just because he was tall enough to ride Indiana Jones doesn't mean (in retrospect) he should have. That sort of assessment is especially hard to engage in if you yourself have never ridden the ride (which I hadn't), though I suspected it would be somewhat dicey. In some respects, I spent a good part of the day bouncing between ride types -- a slow ride that would be Little Boy Blue's speed and a fast ride for his older sister -- and telling each of them that they would get to do something they wanted to do next. If your child is mature enough (and certainly in double-digit ages), you may choose to let them ride via a single-rider line, which some popular rides have and which may let the person ride with less than a 5-minute wait. That's a good way to let the older child have some freedom ("yay! I get to ride by myself and without my younger brother") without too much of a wait as you park yourself outside the ride exit.

Finally, remember to have fun. That goes for you, the parent, too. As parents, we can get so wrapped up in trying to make sure our kids have a memorable experience that we forget to have a memorable experience (and ruin theirs, too). Have a plan, permit yourself to deviate from it, watch your kids laugh, snap a few pictures, and laugh yourself. I'd like to think that I did fairly well in that regard. And considering the kids want to go back, I guess I did.