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Cookie Monster in ‘Lord Of The Crumbs’

Part 2 of The Hobbit movie (or, as I call it, “there and back again and again and again”) hits theaters soon. This Sesame Street ‘Lord of the Rings’ parody starring Cookie Monster as Gobble in ‘Lord of the Crumbs’ is much shorter and probably better. Which one takes more liberties with Tolkein’s source material is debatable.

Cookie Monster stars in new ‘Sesame Street’ ‘Lord of the Rings’ parody | Hero Complex – movies, comics, pop culture – Los Angeles Times.

Tom Hiddleston teaches Cookie Monster about Delayed Gratification

Tom Hiddleston, aka Loki Laufeyson from Thor and The Avengers, made a video for PBS in which he, well, teaches Cookie Monster about the concept of delayed gratification. Really.

Yes, this is what happens in the video.

It’s not clear that this is a Sesame Street thing since it’s from the PBS YouTube channel. There’s also this weird camera angle switching; every time they do it, the clip changes from color to black and white. Not the typical Sesame Street style. That said, it’s a video of  Tom Hiddleston discussing the concept of self-control with Cookie Monster, and it’s only two minutes long. You’ve wasted more time than that on videos that are far less worthy. Check it out, right here, right now. You are burdened with glorious purpose.

‘Thor’ star Tom Hiddleston teaches Cookie Monster about patience | Hero Complex – movies, comics, pop culture – Los Angeles Times.

Get This Deal Before Somebody Notices

It’s Cyber Monday! Deals deals deals! (Conspicuous consumption, OK, not great, but it’s better than “Black Friday All Week!” which is impossible because it can’t even be FRIDAY all week.) This deal has been out there for awhile but we thought today was a good day to tell you about it.

Here’s the deal. It’s a little sneaky.

Amazon has this thing called “AutoRip”. You buy a CD, and can then immediately download an MP3 version of the album. Cool stuff. Very handy. Saves you from ripping the thing yourself.

But I don’t want CDs, you say. I’m a purely digital guy/gal/haven’t yet made up my mind.

Ah, sayeth I. Ye of little faith. Would we steer you wrong?

What would you say if I told you you could have the CD AND the MP3 version of the album for less than the price of the MP3 version alone?

Jimi would say, “That’s cool.”

Yes, ladies, gentlemen, and those who have yet to make up their minds. (That’s a line from Kinky Boots, a great Broadway show. Go see it. Buy the soundtrack. Just be.)  Amazon is indeed selling many of your favorite CDs for less than the price of their digital versions, while giving you a digital copy for free.

Free!

Here is the current pricing of Experience Hendrix: The Best Of Jimi Hendrix.

Such a deal!

See that?

Poke around Amazon’s music store and see what you find. I recently bought a bunch of James Taylor CDs, and I think all but one of them included a free MP3 download for less than the cost of buying the MP3 download alone.

If you don’t want the CD, you can, give it to someone else or use it as a coaster. You’re saving money even if you never crack open the plastic. I look at it this way — I get the high quality audio of a CD and the immediacy and convenience of MP3 for less than the cost of the MP3 alone. Did I mention that? I think I did.

Enjoy. Here’s a link to that Hendrix album to get you started.

Amazon.com: Experience Hendrix: The Best Of Jimi Hendrix: Jimi Hendrix: MP3 Downloads.

New Essential James Taylor CD – Great Thanksgivukkah Gift

This new James Taylor double CD set is a great Chanukah / Thanksgivukkah gift. Or a gift for one of those other holidays. Christmas, I think they call it? It doesn’t get much attention from the media but I think it’s still sort of a big deal to a few people. You know. Like hockey.

Full disclosure: DaddyTips received a review copy of the new double CD, The Essential James Taylor. That said, receiving the press release announcing the new collection caused us to go on a bit of a JT shopping spree. Seriously. We took a picture. Look.

What can we say? We like James Taylor.

As for the item in question, it happens to be a great collection of JT’s music.

Even if you already own copies of “Never Die Young”, et al, you could do worse than to pop in this well-selected collection of great songs. As for gift giving, get “The Essential James Taylor” is a perfect fit for anyone on your list. (We’re assuming your list consists of people who like great music.)

Some reviewers on Amazon take issue with the “Essential” title, saying that they would have preferred one song over another. This is one of those dopey arguments that occurs with any collection from any musical artist. I happen to have a soft spot for “New Moon Shine“. Was I bothered by the fact that “Essential” doesn’t include the song The Frozen Man?
Lord have mercy, of course not. (See what I did there? If not,  Frozen happens to be a tune that I particularly love; I have fond memories of seeing JT do it live when he was on tour after “New Moon Shine” came out.

But once you start down that road, the one marked “Why Didn’t They Put (Fill In Song Title Here) On This 2 CD Set?”, you’ve kind of gone off the rails.

Bottom line: After listening to both discs, all I can say is that there isn’t a single bad track. How often can you say that about any collection of music?

Buy The Essential James Taylor at Amazon.com

Happy Chanukah And a Jewish NFL Player

DaddyTips wishes everyone a Happy Chanukah, and also offers these Tweets from and about a Jewish NFL player, the New England Patriots‘ Julian Edelman. Also some videos showing that the dude can play.

Edelman had a big week for the Pats this past week, accounting for two of the team’s touchdowns. We should have predicted this because we dropped him in our fantasy football league. (Sorry Mr. Edelman, it’s nothing personal. Or maybe we shouldn’t apologize. Any player we drop in fantasy football tends to be successful on the field immediately after said droppage. Not that we think we control the sports universe or anything. It’s just something we’ve noticed.)

#Killinit RT @solongrachel: @Edelman11 @DannyAmendola @RobGronkowski my laptop background makes me so happy pic.twitter.com/pPr13iSAWz

— Julian Edelman (@Edelman11) November 26, 2013

Moving away from Edelman’s real football success (and our fantasy football failures), here is a tweet from the Patriots’ wide receiver, who spent some time being charitable recently.

Just had a great time giving out #thanksgiving baskets at the #goodwill in Boston. Unbelievable experience.

— Julian Edelman (@Edelman11) November 27, 2013

And here are two tweets that Mr. Edelman re-tweeted, including one in which Happy Chanukah wishes are offered.

Wishing both @wbpfk_bosstown & @edelman11 along with my other tweeps who celebrate a very Happy Hanukah http://t.co/bQ6Zi1NAmb

— Jan (@NEPatsFan_11) November 27, 2013

@Edelman11 how about a RT for ur biggest "little" fan in Chicago: Gabriel!!! He wants to dive in the end zone too! pic.twitter.com/gwhXCGvqfq

— Dennis Rose (@dennisrose25) November 26, 2013

There aren’t a ton of Jewish NFL players, not because of a conspiracy or anything, there simply aren’t a lot of Jewish football players in general as far as we know.

Edelman, for what it’s worth, is a player that we’ve always liked. Plays well, plays hard, gets the job done. Here is a video of Edelman returning a punt 94 yards for a touchdown back in 2011.

And here is a video of Edelman blocking, delivering a rather serious hit to an opposing player.

Makes me want to watch some football. Oh! Tomorrow is Thanksgiving! Chanukah being so frickin’ early this year just became more OK.

Happy Chanukah from DaddyTips!

See also:

Julian Edelman on Twitter

DaddyDeals (Chanukah starts tonight but there are eight nights, so you’ve got shopping time if you need it)

Relevant Recall – Angelcare Movement and Sound Baby Monitor

The CPSC (Consumer Products Safety Commission — who says this isn’t the DaddyTips age of explaining acronyms?) has announced a voluntary recall of the product “Angelcare Movement and Sound Monitors with Sensor Pads” in cooperation with the Canadian company Angelcare Monitors Inc.®. We mention this because we think that this recall may be relevant to a wide swath of readers — the product is listed as having been sold as far back as 1999. That’s pre-Y2K, folks.

Make sure that you click through to the CPSC’s web site for the full story and to see if you own one of the Angelcare products being recalled.

We’ll stop being flippant now because the voluntary recall is due to “reports of two infant cord strangulation deaths” received by Angelcare and the CPSC, and two other reports “which did not result in fatalities,” according to a press release.

My kids aren’t babies anymore, but I remember this product. I specifically recall (unintentional pun) using only the baby monitor component and not the sensor pad. That, according to information on the CPSC’s web site, is where the potential problem lies, specifically with the attached cord.

Here is the offered remedy:

“Angelcare is providing consumers with a repair kit that includes rigid protective cord covers through which the sensor pad cords can be threaded, a new, permanent electric cord warning label about the strangulation risk, and revised instructions.”

Specific Angelcare model numbers mentioned are “AC1100, AC201, AC300, AC401 AC601 and 49255 that did not include rigid cord covers.”

Remember that we are only reporting this information as it appears on CPSC.gov; we highly recommend clicking this link and reading the full press release yourself.

Here is a gallery of Angelcare Movement and Sound Baby Monitor images from CPSC.gov.

Angelcare Recalls to Repair Movement and Sound Baby Monitors After Two Deaths Due to Strangulation Hazard | CPSC.gov.

Captain Ultimate Halloween Spooktacular (Comics)

We’ve written before about Captain Ultimate, a kid-friendly comic written by Joey Esposito and Benjamin Bailey, with art by Boykoesh, colors by Ed Ryzowski, lettering and production by Adam O. Pruett, published by Monkeybrain Comics. Guess what? They’re already up to issue #4, and it’s a Halloween Spooktacular!

According to the official Captain Ultimate blog, issue #4 features “an evil punk rock band, Shakespeare, hot rods, and, of course, buckets and buckets of candy.” The band is called The Pumpkills, which is Spooktacularly awesome. As someone who played in a band many moons ago (click this link to listen to me playing at CBGBs but not when the kids are around because there’s probably some cussing), I was psyched to see music, especially a band who finishes their show by shouting “We hate you! Goodnight!”, feature prominently in the story. And yes, they even quote Shakespeare, something many Marvel Comics writers have done often over the years, beginning with Stan the Man Lee himself. (Spider-Man in particular seems to inspire quite a bit of Shakespeare espousing, but that’s a tale for another time, True Believer.)

As a tremendous cheapskate, I’m very psyched to tell you that Captain Ultimate #4 is only 99 cents over at Comixology. 99 cents! That’s change from your digital dollar.

Still not convinced? Here are some preview pages from Captain Ultimate #4, generously provided to us by the authors.

Captain Ultimate #4 is listed as being appropriate for ages 9 and up. That sounds about right to us, although there is a letter from a parent on this issue’s Ulti-Mail page saying that he shares the comic with his offspring, ages 3 and 5.  As always, use your own judgment about what level of entertainment your kids will tolerate.

Personally we think Captain Ultimate is a good one for the young’uns. The art alone is a huge draw… no pun intended. (Seriously, that was an accident.) The story in issue #4 is good clean fun, with barely anything one would call violence, and not a drop of blood gets spilled. There may be some injured candy, but to say anything more would be a spoiler.

With so many entertainment options vying for your wallet, we think it’s important to support independent publishers and creators. Don’t get us wrong. Spider-Man is awesome. We’re 1000% ready for the new Thor movie. We’ve seen every episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. at least three times. The Avengers movie… we might have watched it 15 times so far. And we will watch it again. But it’s important to make room for other stuff as well. After all, Spider-Man was once the new hero on the block.

Buy Captain Ultimate #4 at Comixology

More info at the Captain Ultimate Blog:

Captain Ultimate #4 On Sale Now! | Captain Ultimate