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Radiolab is a show on NPR that everyone should listen to. Today while driving home from work, I started listening to a recent episode called “The Ring and I.” It’s about Wagner’s The Ring Cycle, which is a 4-part opera that lasts for about 18 hours.

Now, a brief digression: Once I was reading an article about opera, and someone had left this comment on the article:

“I just saw La Traviata and really enjoyed it. It was my first opera. I think I’ll try The Ring Cycle next.”

To me, this is like saying, “I like spaghetti. I think I’ll spend the rest of my life in Italy.” 18 hours is a long time, people.

But “The Ring and I” (available here) makes it sound pretty interesting — apparently Tolkein borrowed the idea of a ring of power from it. They compare the use of leitmotifs to guitar riffs (featuring the riff from Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love”). And I learned that the stereotypical image of an opera singer as a husky gal with blond braids and a horned helmet comes from the second part of The Ring, The Valkyrie. The Valkyrie in question is Brunnhilde, a character drawn straight out of Norse mythology (like a lot of stuff in The Ring).

But I told you all that so I could tell you this: I have decided what my life’s work shall be. It’s going to be a rap epic — a rap song of unprecedented scope and daring. In it, the hero fashions a gold chain of infinite power, which allows him to bust the phattest rhymes imaginable. It will be 18 hours in length, and it will be called: The Bling Cycle.

But until I get around to that, you might enjoy this rap song by one of my favorite Nerdcore rappers, MC Frontalot. (If you’re unfamiliar with nerdcore, well, that’s a whole other post… Just check it out.) It’s called The Rhyme of the Nibelung, and it’s about The Ring, and it samples from The Ride of the Valkyries. Lyrics are available here.

Tonight at bedtime I read one of Kaeta’s favorite Dr. Seuss books, Oh, the Places You’ll Go. Near the end, there’s the line: “Kid, you’ll move mountains!” Tonight I was really into the book, and when I got to that line, I set the book down, picked Kaeta up over my head, and said, “KID, YOU’LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!“

She got this big smile, and then she shouted, “I MOVE MOUNTAINS!” Then I put her down, and she gave me a high five.

I love being a dad!

For our 5th anniversary, I asked our friend Kellie Ryan from Pittsburgh to do a drawing for Karianne based on one of our wedding photos. It turned out great!

From even a few feet away, it looks like a photograph — she did an amazing job. You can check out her art here. Thanks, Kellie!

Yes, I know, we haven’t even posted Jonah’s baptism photos yet… but in an attempt to stay current, here are some Christmas galleries:

1. The Zilker Park Christmas Tree. This is a big tree made out of lights. The tradition is to stand underneath it, hold hands with someone, look up, and spin around. Given her proclivity for spinning around, Kaeta had a blast!

2. Christmas presents. Two words: Elmo. Couch.

3. Christmas Pooh. Aunt Laurie surprised us with an 8-foot Inflatable Pooh Bear lawn decoration back in December. These pictures are not from Kaeta’s first encounter with it, but she shows the same enthusiasm every time, so they might as well be. The first night I set it up, I took her outside and said, “Kaeta, who’s in the yard?” And she immediately said, “Tigger… *gasp* Pooh!” It was a big hit.

And here’s a New Year’s wish from Jonah:

Okay, just kidding, here’s a cuter picture:

Things Kaeta said at dinner last night:

• I want some salad, honey!
• Hey! I’m sticky! (pronounced “ticky”)
• Curious George naked baby!

Also, we’ve been singing with her at bedtime, and one of her favorite songs is “Away in a Manger.” She sometimes walks around singing the whole first verse by herself (at a VERY high pitch, incidentally).

One of the lines is “The stars in the sky looked down where he lay / The little Lord Jesus, asleep on the hay.” So last night, Karianne was putting Keata to bed, and during her bedtime prayer she sometimes pauses to let Kaeta complete a phrase. She said “Help us to sleep…” and expected Kaeta to say “well.” But instead she said, “On the hay?”

Rejoice! Unto YOU a savior is born!

By far the best thing we ever did.

My friend Curt introduced me to a website called The Sixty-One. The gist is, musicians upload songs, and users vote for (“bump”) those songs. Songs with a lot of bumps make it to the homepage.

So on Friday I created an artist account and uploaded a song I wrote called The Ballad of the T-1000. I started to upload a couple of other songs, and within a couple of minutes I had gotten a bump. Well, the song ended up doing really well, making it to the homepage (albeit briefly)!

On Saturday I added the acoustic version of Baby Got Back, and it did even better. In fact, it became the “hottest” song in the hip-hop genre for a long time — ahead of a song by Kanye West! Here’s a screenshot:

This cracks me up. Kanye West spends a lot of time and money making his song, but it’s still not as hot as a dorky white kid with a guitar. That is what I love about the internet.

My friend Johnathan has a song on the homepage right now! Click here to check him out. You can also click here for my songs. If you create an account on there, you can list me (“dkurth”) as a referer, and I’ll get some points. Points are good.

For a while around Halloween, we kept a bowl of candy corn in the kitchen. Kaeta became a serious fan of candy corn — she’d ask, in her cutest, most polite voice, “May I have candee cohn, peese?” Saying please is pretty effective around here, so she got quite a few pieces.

Anyway, we’ve been out of candy corn for a couple of weeks, but this afternoon she asked for some. Karianne told her, “I’m sorry, sweety, we’re out of candy corn.” She looked off into the distance, lost in thought, and whispered to herself, “I want candy.” Then she looked back at Mommy and said, “I want go trick-or-treat!”

While developing e-books for WORDsearch, my friend Curt will occasionally send me amusing snippets that he comes across. This one, written in 1658, cracked me up. Please note that I had to abbreviate it to get it to a length I thought people might read:

“Upon this occasion was I prevailed with to publish this late piece, wherein I have purposely used a homely and plain style, lest otherwise–though, when I have stretched myself to the utmost, I am below the judicious and more understanding–I should be above the reach of the rude and ignorant, whose advantage I have mainly, if not only, consulted. I have, likewise, studied brevity in everything, so far as I conceived it to be consistent with plainness and perspicuity; knowing that the persons to whom I address myself herein, have neither much money to spend upon books, nor much time to spare in reading.”

(from The Christian’s Great Interest, by William Guthrie)