But you know him for something else, entirely.
In the early 1970s, Dorough was asked to write songs about multiplication tables for a yet-to-be-named children's program. His first effort, 'Three is a Magic Number' is now legendary, and led to dozens of other compositions that formed the basis for one of the most beloved educational entertainment icons of our time.
On Sunday evening, the Millenium Stage at the Kennedy Center celebrated the 40th Anniversary of Schoolhouse Rock!, which was based in large part on Dorough's work. I took my daughter, and while she loved it, I bet I enjoyed it even more. In addition to 'Three', Dorough wrote such classics as 'Conjunction Junction', 'Lolly, Lolly, Lolly Get Your Adverbs Here', 'The Shot Heard Round the World' and 'Electricity'. He performed several of these, then teamed with local kid-rock (definitely not Kid Rock) band Rocknocerous on the grand finale, 'Interjections'.
Did I mention that he's 89 years young? The video of the performance is 45 minutes long (and I can't figure out how to embed it), but if you let it play in background while you work, I guarantee you'll be more productive than normal. And you'll have a smile on your face.
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89 comments:
wait--you went to this??
I was there too!
no way! i took reilly. she got to sit right at the foot of the stage.
It was a great show--I was WAY in the back--there were SO MANY people there...very cool evening.
Did they have President Clinton come on stage for a sax rendition of "I'm just a Bill"?
"I did not have saxual relations..." (speaking of Rob's bad puns)
So that's what an adverb is...
How was the after-party?
After the party it's the hotel lobby.
proud to say i've never been to see any kid's music with my children. alex just learned the "iron man" riff on his little guitar!
The local alternative high school in Roanoke hosts a "Marginal Arts Festival" each year, with all kinds of off-beat stuff.
I've thought of putting together a kid-rock band and billing it as Kid Rock to entice to a sliver of our massive contingent of Dr. Pepper swilling bad-ass locals to attend.
Once I find a venue with suitable security for the kids, I just may do it!
Also, my boys are 6 and 9, and they love Schoolhouse Rock. Seriously.
Funny, Bob Dorough looks like George Carlin. And Rob described him as 89 years young. And Carlin once said:
"But the one I do resist, the one I keep resisting, is when they look at an old guy and say, 'Look at him Dan, he's ninety years young.' Imagine the fear of aging that reveals. To not even be able to use the word old to describe someone. To have to use an antonym. And fear of aging is natural. It's universal, isn't it? We all have that. No one wants to get old. No one wants to die. But we do. So we con ourselves. I started conning myself when I got in my forties. I'd look in the mirror and say, 'Well...I guess I'm getting ...older.' Older sounds a little better than old, doesn't it? Sounds like it might even last a little longer. I'm getting old. And it's okay. Because thanks to our fear of death in this country I won't have to die. I'll pass away."
Did anyone see on the ESPN crawl last night the breaking news that for the 2013 season baseball teams will be permitted to use cell phones to call the bullpen?
mike & mike were talking about it this morning. seems risky to me.
mark - i didn't disagree w/your sentiments yesterday on aj's girl. until i saw this.
http://tinyurl.com/bjpok2e
NY Times ran an article yesterday quoting several different sources that were outraged by Musberger's views on Katherine Webb. Was he a little creepy and over the top? Sure. But is it remarkable to remark that a remarkably beautiful woman is beautiful? Especially when her vocation is entering beauty pageants, which are generally won by the most beautiful entrant?
espn had to apologize for his comments yesterday. too bad he didn't insert a "snapped one off" comment in there somewhere.
Maybe I'm turning into a dirty and grumpy old man, but ESPN put the woman's face on the screen and captioned it with her name and relationship status. I also assume that they told the announcers that she is/was Miss Alabama. If she looked like me I doubt they would have showed her.
Are the Cardinals going to apologize for Darnell Dockett's invitation to Wing Stop?
And the Miss America pageant will be on ABC, so this was all free advertising for the Disney media complex.
Hi fellas. U know the score of the notre dame game?
Brent's like 90, so give him a pass on the ogling. And if the game were more competitive, they wouldn't have to talk about pretty girls in the crowd...
That guy in the picture kind of looks like Charlie Utter.
'bama just scored again.
let's move on to a sunnier topic. how 'bout the jacksonville jaguars?
TEEEBOOOOWWWW!!!!!!!!
Do you like my new frock coat?
Baseball writers: clueless dipshits who consider themselves moral arbiters.
Discuss....
write a post, marls. put your money (note: we don't compensate) where your mouth is.
I'd like to see what the G:TB ballots would look like. Especially Mark's, which would just have curse words written on it.
tribe travels to a suddenly very frisky towson squad tonight. i don't think it's televised, but i could be wrong. wouldn't be the first time.
mike piazza is pretty cool: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/01/09/did-i-do-something-wrong-because-i-really-dont-understand-this-at-all/
I wonder if you guys will ever pass Ghanaweb as the #1 autofill entry when typing gh.
Curious about Piazza. Never been associated with juicing, but perhaps people just assume? Other than the handful of writers who won't vote any guy in on the 1st ballot (and they should get a Bart Giamatti-style lifelong ban from sportswriting), what's the thought process?
It's worth noting that since its inception, there has never been a completed baseball season without a J.G. Taylor Spink Award winner for sportswriting. (Also voted on by the BBWAA.)
Have you guys seen BOFOG:TB article/tweet on HOF? Gave up his vote due to PED mess. Piazza doesn't come off looking too good in it either..
I'd hyper link it but don't. know. how. that. works.
This is pretty amazing.
http://misterirrelevant.com/index.php/2013/01/09/james-harden-is-just-deangelo-hall-with-a-beard-gif/
I retweeted that earlier today Geoff because I felt like more people should see that. Amazing. Glad you feel the same way.
Clarence-my ballots are green and leafy. As for Piazza, I remember hearing he had some pretty epic backne. Now,my hat doesn't make him a steroid user but it certainly couldn't have helped his cause.
Mark...#racism...
Ahhh, the noble base-ball scribe. Modern day Herodotus and sacred vanguard of the new Valhalla.
And that guy does kind of look like Charlie Utter. Who is a prominent character on Sons of Anarchy, who i refer to as Charlie Utter.
What does this mean? Not being a smartass. Too many letters in a row for me to understand.
"BOFOG:TB article/tweet on HOF"
I am from the south, Geoff. And for what it's worth, all preppies look the same to me too.
TR - I was referring to KQ's bro, TJ Quinn - "Brother Of Friend Of" G:TB. He had a piece on giving up his vote to the Hall of Fame. Twas good stuff.
K-
Just read the piece. That's really impressive and if not unprecedented, a true rarity. Every voter should read that. And have to display their ballot. Thanks for forwarding.
soul patch update: looking better than mike piazza's hall of fame chances.
I do think what BOKQ said about Piazza was interesting. That there have been no failed tests or even accusations, but a number of writers have had their doubts. Which cuts to the very crux of the problem. Writers making judgments about whether performance has been unduly influenced by medicinal treatments. (Not to mention whether it matters.) The Bo Jackson 30 for 30 was vastly entertaining, but one of the things that was repeated on there was that 10 years later, we'd all have suspected him of juicing.
And that's one to grow on.
Ummm....anyone watching "Stars In Danger" where has been's including T.O. And J Woww compete at high diving? Yes. It's true.
here's the article by bofogtb:
http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/8769398/a-writer-gives-hall-fame-vote
admirable, i think. i don't know that i'd be able to give up the perks that come along with being a voter. mostly the one that would allow me to one-up clarence and jerry in baseball arguments.
This is horrific television. So much so it is pretty good.
And Brian Kelly has spoken with the Eagles. I do hope this is a move to get more cash out of n.d.
tribe blows a 13-point lead late in a flurry of turnovers, headed to overtime at towson, where they will lose yet another game they should have won. motherfuck me.
fucking tribe. this is enough to make an optimistic man think that maybe this isn't their year.
And the pain was enough to make a shy bald Buddhist reflect and plan a mass murder.
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These will remain the best thing we had as kids between cartoon. to bad the kids today don't have a saturday morning like i did. Amanda Vanderpool CEO
What is going on here?
Are we allowed to comment on this here? I feel like I'm Marty McFly here.
Hey, guys, don't worry about it, Piazza will get in in a couple of years.
Oh, but the Tribe still hasn't danced.
time machine!
I miss Jerry & Greg.
Early Rootsy, Goff still posting...
we should do this more often. we’ve got a mountain of crappy content we can mine, and in many cases the comments are at least as entertaining as the posts. posts are like celery to the comments’ peanut butter.
Gheorghe: The Blog--Reboot Edition.
Rob, I'm not really sure how you even did this. Very clever, though.
I think he went to an old post in the place where you draft new posts and changed the "post on" date. Evil genius.
Gheorghe: The Remix.
It's the remix to ignition
Hot and gheorghe out the kitchen
i also added some italicized text to give it a fresh new veneer. wizardry!
So it's the anti-postcount option...
oh, fuck. i may have ripped a hole in the space-time-postcount continuum.
Does this take postcount away from 2013 and add it to 2018? If so, we've got a great new way to improve our metrics! rob clearly majored in accounting.
Hell yes. Postcount 2019. It’s like new Coke.
patton oswalt's late wife was working on a book based on her investigation of the golden state killer, who allegedly killed 12 and raped 45 women and was never caught. after she died, oswalt and some of her collaborators finished the book (which is called 'i'll be gone in the dark' after something the killer allegedly said to a rape victim), which was published a few months ago.
today, police in california arrested a 72 year-old ex-cop on suspicion of being the culprit.
patton oswalt's twitter feed is amaaaaaazing today. catharsis and emotion and vindication and joy and grief.
i really want to buy an outdoor ping-pong table for the backyard. should i? they are kind of expensive but i want one. i am trusting your advice.
if you would also plan to use it for beer pong, you could amortize your investment over multiple types of recreation
Comment 69 has never been achieved more easily.
Or more sinisterly.
did you...delete...my comment? you're a fucking comment deleter. a rabid anti-commentite. this kind of power should not be consolidated in any one person.
Say, man... you erode postcount, I do the same to commentcount. That’s just the way I am.
For the record, your comment was “Nice!!” I dare say the blogosphere suffers not from its absence.
i'm pretty sure it only had one exclamation point. but i guess we'll never know.
commentcount! nice!!
Z....tonight is a big night. Taking my wife out to the only joint in town that has.....Pinhook Rye! If it isn’t good, I am sending you the bill. It is also my wife’s 40th.
is zman humblebragging about his young wife? because 40 sounds very sexy . . . although i expect whit to do some one-upping.
That was Danimal. zwoman is 42.
whit's ladyfriend has a big month ahead, what with college graduation and all
True fact: I am taking a 29-year-old to my 30 year high school reunion in a week. I mean, how much crap can they really give me?
That's a gangster move.
Holy shit holy shit holy shit. LBJ just flexed so goddam hard in the last two plays of the Cavs-Pacers game. 44 pts. Beast.
yeah, that was cool. you know i know him, right?
And Indy had a foul to give, major blunder.
I forgot, Rob. How long have you been waxing Maverick Carter’s cars?
Lookit TR using flex in a sentence. He's like Mad Cobra.
1. I still love Schoolhouse Rock songs
2. This re-post and extended comment section is confusing me
3. I have an article I want to share for Gheorghie comments, but I don't want it to get lost here, so someone put a new post up soon
the Z confused me.
Just like in college. Zing!
Figliano.
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