hockey monkey song

Last night, Dave Clement called from some motel near LaFayette. He, Tom, and Talis are touring, doing performances during her stay in North America. I talked to each of them as well as Corwin and Simon (Corwin is Talis's son).

Corwin is adorable (there's something about a British accent in children). I asked him how the convention was; he said that it was a bit boring (he said this quite cheerfully), though Talis and Simon seemed to like well it enough, that he had to do a lot of sitting around. But he also said that he was thinking about doing a CD himself, one of his violin playing.

"Would you like a CD, Debbie?" he asks.

"I would LOVE one, Corwin, thank you! Have you started working on the CD yet?"

"Not yet. I have to get a violin first, and then learn to play it. But after I do, I'll make a CD and send one to you."

Before we hung up, they all sang the Hockey Monkey song at me. For those of you that don't know, the Hockey Monkey song is a fun tune written by James Kochalka, a friend of Ookla's. We first heard Rand and Adam sing this song a couple of years ago, and we loved it. After hearing it only once (which accounts for the fact that our version differs a bit from Ookla's version), Allison transcribed a version for us, and we've sung it at children's concerts and in our regular concerts. We also tend to launch into it at odd moments, such as while standing in line at the grocery store or while waiting at the airport. :-)

We had lots of people singing it by the end of our stay in the UK when we were Guests of Honour at Didgeri-Douze. :-) Our goal is to get everyone in filkdom to learn this song eventually.

For me, the appeal of the song is its benevolence, silliness, and the pure of joy of it. It's a dancing, waving arms in the air type of song. When the hotel shuttle came to take me and Bob Kanefsky to the airport, Allison, Jodi, and a gang of other filker friends launched into a rendition as a send-off. If you want to hear a recorded version of this song, buy Ookla's next CD. Or feel free to request this from Urban Tapestry in open filk anytime. :-)

And it's 1, 2, 3...kids love the monkey and it's
4, 5, 6...monkey's got a hockey stick and
7, 8, 9...havin' a good time
YEAH!

Today's blatherpic:
Amanda and me, in the main function space at OVFF. Amanda and Scott are in the midst of a move (literally) to Seattle, where Scott starts work at Microsoft.