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bLink 15

Let the children dance.

Thom Wong 19 Jan 2006TheTyee.ca

Thom Wong writes regularly about music for The Tyee. He has also been a teacher and contract specialist. With eight years of education and three bachelor degree, Thom focuses mostly on marketing writing.
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I don't know if you have any children, but seeing the pabulum that passes for children's entertainment these days has made me seriously rethink procreating. I was raised on Sesame Street and The Muppet Show (I just bought the first season DVD, and rewatching it, remembered how acid-trippy-insane that show is), so watching a giant purple dinosaur parade around uttering banalities is torture.

If you've been searching in vain for something with a little more substance to give to your kids, head over to Kiddie Records Weekly, where you'll find "the golden age of children's records" available for download -- full Hollywood style productions of such classic fare as Peter and the Wolf and The Snow Goose.

The site painstakingly converts the vinyl recordings, some over 60 years old, into mp3s. You can then download the entire record as a zip torrent, or, if that's beyond your Internet savvy, as side-long mp3s.

I'm not sure what calendar they're using to mark time, as the weekly recordings are already into March of 2006. But if that's not enough for you, as of January 2007, the site will offer monthly records as well.

If you only download one album, make it The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, which happens to be one of my favourite Dr. Seuss books. You can stream the album in its entirety here.

Thom Wong is a law student who spends an unreasonable amount of time online. His 40 bLinks column runs every Monday and Thursday on The Tyee.

What's he all about? Click here.

For previous 40 bLinks, click here. [Tyee]

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