It’s the late 80’s. I’m exploding with excitement about my new buddy, a Cricket doll. This is no ordinary child’s toy; Cricket is a very large 25″ battery-operated doll that talks and sings when a cassette tape is inserted in her back! As the tape plays her high-pitched voice, her eyes and mouth move accordingly. She arrives clad in a pink sweater, yellow undies, a pleated mint green skirt, yellow socks and pink hi-top sneakers with monogrammed laces. Blue-eyed and blonde, Cricket embodied the chipper American girl prominent in TV and cartoons. I’m embarrassed to admit that I was smitten with my new friend. It’s only now, two decades later that I understand why, as an Israeli-born, brown-eyed brunette, I felt like the epitome of a foreigner (I’ll save my notions of Americanism and childhood trauma for another time).
Cricket came equipped with pre-recorded tapes and a full-sized cassette tape player lodged in her back! However, her tapes (which boasted corny songs paired with idioms such as “Are we having fun or what?” and “I’ll be talkin’ to ya!”) did not meet my musical standards and I quickly discovered that I could record my own tapes and control what she said and sang. This realization led to grand performances and operas featuring the dynamic duo: Leerone and Cricket, of course. I still can’t believe what my parents and grandparents were willing to endure! You can imagine, I’ve searched endlessly for these cassette tapes to see if maybe I was a child prodigy but, sadly they are nowhere to be found. And it’s probably for the best anyway because learning to sing in key required a few years of practice
For the record, Cricket was supposedly available in an African-American version as well with short curly hair and no ribbons, but I have yet to see her.
Here are some pics of one of my grand performances, including two additional stars- my grandma Suzanne and grandpa Jacques:
On Tuesday, January 15th, 2008, at precisely 11:32 am, Nic Harcourt played my song “To Fill the Void” on Morning Becomes Eclectic. What a sweet surprise to hear myself on the radio, sharing the airwaves with Sia, Iron and Wine!! Shortly there-after my inbox overflowed with emails from excited friends and fans (I hate saying fans, can we come up with a better term?) who had been listening to KCRW at the time my song was played. Text messages, phone calls, Myspace comments, eager to inform me of the news I confess, it was a rush and I thoroughly enjoyed the enthusiasm!
But, it wasn’t long before I started to wonder, “what does this mean?”… Was it a one time thing? Will he play the track again? Yes, very similar indeed to a one-night stand, particularly the stereotypical female experience, where she lays in the bed next to her lover in mental turmoil after the fact. If you don’t know what I mean, we can discuss it in detail some time over tea. Again, I said stereotypical, the assumption that she wants more, that she is or will be emotionally attached is the stereotype (and boy do I have a tangent about that).
Another KCRW DJ, Eric J. Lawrence also gave the song some love on his show Dragnet, and I have much to say about him but Eric gets his very own blog post!
Now, after 10 years at the station Nic Harcourt has announced that he is leaving Morning Becomes Eclectic, which occupied the airwaves Monday-Friday from 9a.m.-12p.m. He is still doing a weekly Sunday night show at 6-9 p.m., but after November 30th, his tenure is through.
The premise of the film, What the Bleep Do We Know!? (also written What tнe #$*! Dө ωΣ (k)πow!? is that a spiritual connection exists between quantum physics and consciousness and/or that quantum mechanics provides evidence that suggests that individual and group consciousness can influence the the physical world (another way to say that is, we create our own reality). The result: devoted Bleep addicts deepening their quest for spirituality and using quantum physics as their source for somewhat “scientifically” proven inspiration while on the road to enlightenment or harsh criticism for misrepresenting quantum physics, initiating what has been called a cult and a scam for money.
First and foremost, the movie made me think. I intend to learn more about quantum physics. More importantly though, upon doing research on the film and looking into it’s resources for information, I can across a swell of skeptics that shunned the film for the above mentioned reasons. My 2-cents: if this philosophy inspires you, makes you want to be a better person, helps you to develop/strengthen your sense of compassion toward yourself and others, gives you hope, encourages you to take absolute responsibility over your life, makes you think, question and search for more meaning- is it such a bad thing? I think it’s a wonderful thing. I don’t know enough about quantum physics to know whether or not the particular arguments and examples used in the film are accurate but it doesn’t really matter (is my point). Don’t get me wrong, I understand how inaccurate use of information could frustrate, even infuriate those well-learned on the subject. I get that, I do.
We could all use a little hope and maybe some faith could do us good too? But I will just speak for myself here, I can certainly use it. Don’t know about you?
