{"id":508,"date":"2016-02-10T03:45:01","date_gmt":"2016-02-10T03:45:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=508"},"modified":"2016-02-10T03:50:41","modified_gmt":"2016-02-10T03:50:41","slug":"ftv-snow-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=508","title":{"rendered":"FTV: Snow Day!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It started as a simple link sent from our old roving NASA educator buddy Ralph Winrich. \u00a0It was just a clip he had seen on the internet and thought we might be interested. \u00a0\u00a0I can\u2019t say that I am captivated by too many viral videos that pop up here and there. \u00a0It seems that there are just too many folks with too much time on their hands and enough technology on hand to stream just about anything that they do, but this one got my attention and I am glad that it did. \u00a0Ontonagon and Providence, Rhode Island may be 900 miles apart, but somehow the topic of snow days has brought us much closer together. \u00a0Calling a snow day is a stressful even for the administration as there are many variables to consider. \u00a0It is hard to imagine a snow day that can cause so much anxiety for some can also bring \u00a0so much joy to others. \u00a0\u00a0I am not talking just about the joy generated in the students who get the occasional day off thanks to Mother Nature. \u00a0I am talking about the joy spread by the folks who can find away to make a snow day even more fun than normal.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Ralph sent me the link to the video that the Moses Brown School in Providence produced to announce snow days. \u00a0It was an artfully worded and recorded parody of the song <\/span>Let It Go<\/span><\/i> from the animated Disney feature <\/span>Frozen.<\/span><\/i> \u00a0The video starred the school headmaster Matt Glendinning lip synching his way through the song with lyrics not found in the film (ex: \u00a0<\/span>The snow glows white on Route 95, not a tire track to be seen. \u00a0We could make you come to school, but that would just be mean<\/span><\/i>), but behind the scenes, there was a team of folks who arranged, sang, filmed and choreographed the video. \u00a0For me, it ranks at the top of a large heap of <\/span>Let It Go<\/span><\/i> parodies that can be found all over the internet. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As we do from time to time, we sent a combination \u2018congratulations – thank you for sharing this\u2019 note to Matt at Moses Brown and a WOAS-FM cap. \u00a0Matt responded by sending us back a photo of himself wearing the cap in his office, one of the places shown in several scenes in the video. \u00a0He also shared some tidbits about how much fun it was to make this video. \u00a0He confessed that they had a plan, but in some cases, they improvised parts like the scene where he drops his phone and giddily runs out of his office. \u00a0According to Matt, \u00a0the cameraman was laughing so hard that he nearly dropped his camera. \u00a0Matt said, \u201cI am a little bit of a ham so I didn\u2019t mind doing my part.\u201d \u00a0He also mentioned that they were working on something new, but he couldn\u2019t give me any further details as it was strictly top secret.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As January 2016 gave way to February, it was no longer a secret: \u00a0their new video project was out and like the <\/span>School is Closed<\/span><\/i> video, it began making waves on the internet immediately. \u00a0When Matt shared the information that they were working on a new video, my first thought was, \u201cHow on Earth will they ever top the creativity and energy of <\/span>School is Closed<\/span><\/i>?\u201d \u00a0I should not have worried about it because creativity always seems to find a way to bubble to the surface. \u00a0Instead of trying to top the joyous fun of the <\/span>Frozen<\/span><\/i> parody, they decided to try something darker, more brooding. \u00a0As ominous as this sounds, it is tempered with the bits of humor that were allowed to show through.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The musical template this time around came from Adele and her hit <\/span>Hello. \u00a0<\/span><\/i>Shot in shades of sepia -tone, they made what reminds me of a film noir piece. \u00a0It seems quite dark until they let a little humor sneak into the production such as Matt lip synching outdoors with his scarf flipping in the breeze. \u00a0As the camera pans back, you are allowed to see an relatively uninspired helper hanging on to the end of his scarf and shaking it up and down to simulate the wind blown effect. \u00a0The video also flips the joy of a school day back and forth enough times that you begin to believe the students and staff are unhappy that school is closed and then react with joy when it resumes. \u00a0Well, King \u2018Doc\u2019 Odell (who appeared in the first video and is apparently stunned by the lost school day) doesn\u2019t act happy when school resumes, but the point is the kids are excited to come back.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As I told Matt in an e-mail a while back, \u201cCreativity is addicting\u201d and I have a sneaking suspicion that we haven\u2019t seen the last of Moses Brown School on the internet. \u00a0Sure, having a robo-call or an e-mail pop up message announcing a snow day is efficient, but who says a snow day announcement can\u2019t also be fun and creative? \u00a0Once again, we doff our cap to Matt and company for giving us another reason to smile while we anticipate \u00a0our next snow day! \u00a0If you haven\u2019t seen either video yet, you can pop on over to our web site at <\/span>www.woas-fm.org<\/span><\/a> and watch them both.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here is the original School Is Closed video from 2015 – the 2016 version is one post behind this one! \u00a0Of course, we could not let another opportunity to show you Matt wearing the WOAS-FM colors in his office slip by!<\/p>\n

\"If<\/a>

If we had a scarf to match the hat, this would be perfect!<\/p><\/div>