Filk Friday: Roll a D6

I can't believe I almost forgot to do my Friday post again. Well, since gaming is on my mind, here's a parody on "Like a G6" called Roll a D6. For those of you less familiar, a d6 is a six-sided die used in many roleplaying games. D&D usually uses several different dice: the d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, and the d20. Sometimes you have to roll a d3, but for that we usually use d6 (1-2, 3-4, 5-6 for 1, 2, 3).

Now my gaming group doesn't this deep into our roles, but technically we do play in the basement at our friends' house. Both the husband and wife play, so I'm not the only gal there. But the guys are all pretty cool. My husband is our Gamemaster, and he comes up with some tough challenges of various kinds, a nice balance between hack-n-slash and roleplaying. It's the sort of balance that makes for great retelling later.

Ah the stories I could tell from various campaigns I've been in... But I digress. Enjoy this catchy bit of gamer filk, grab some friends, and roll a d6!

Filk Friday: I Had a Shoggoth

Here's another Tom Smith gem. I Had a Shoggoth might be one way to introduce kids to various monstrous creatures such as werewolves, zombies, and vampires. Oh yes, and of course, the Shoggoth of HP Lovecraft.

Copied from the video description:

A kids' song, written for The Funny Music Project, and performed live at MarCon 2008. ASL signing by the amazing Judi Miller, who had no idea what was coming.

Song and video © 2008 Tom Smith. Released under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial ShareAlike license.

Downloadable audio available at http://www.thefump.com

http://www.tomsmithonline.com

Judi's signing makes the song extra funny. Even Tom was entertained. "That was worth diamonds, man." Then again, he gave her a great song to start with. Enjoy!

Filk Friday: Monster's Lullaby

Here's an oldie but goodie. "Monster's Lullaby" by Meg Davis is off the cassette tape Quarks and Quests. It's a whimsical piece about finding a little monster in the garden. I hope you find the song as cute as I do. It's one kids might enjoy, too.

Monsters Vs Aliens

I finally got to see Monsters Vs Aliens earlier this week. Such a cute movie. The plot may have been a straight forward learning-to-accept-yourself storyline, but the characters kept me laughing. Between the references to other movies to the banter and one liners, this movie is full of humor, even if some of it is entirely for the benefit of the adults watching it with their kids.

Just minutes before her wedding, Susan Murphy is hit by a meteorite infused with quantonium, a rare element that causes her to grow. The government captures her as a monster and sends her to a secret government facility (don't say the name!) with other monsters collected over the years where they are watched over by General W.R. Monger. She desperately wants to find some way to become normal again in order to go back to Derek, her weatherman fiancee. Dr. Cockroach, B.O.B., the Missing Link, and Insectosaurus try to help her.

When the alien, Gallaxhar, shows up looking for the quantonium in his quest for world domination, the monsters are called upon to fight the menace. Mayhem and laughter ensue.

I allowed my preschooler to watch this with us, despite its PG rating. After all, this is the child who is already a fan of the original Star Wars trilogy. He dressed as a Clone Trooper this past Halloween, his choice. I find it fascinating to note what he found to be "scary." Was it the monsters, Gallaxhar, the giant robot, or the clones? Was it the battles? No, he thought those parts were exciting. It was Susan's capture and inprisonment that had him huddling against us and complaining about it being "too scary."

We paused the movie, a benefit to watching on DVD, to talk him through what was going on. We even gave him the option of turning it off, but he decided he wanted to keep watching. Then once Susan met the other monsters and made friends, he was fine. Not only fine but got excited about the fight scenes. (He's such a superhero wanna-be. I love it.) Now he likes the movie and doesn't think it scary after all.

This movie is now on my purchase list. Too bad I missed it in the theater; 3D would have been fun.