Charlie McDonnell, prolific video-maker known on YouTube as charlieissocoollike, and who happens to turn 20 today, has made a video for the new song Saskia Hamilton starring, well, Charlie McDonnell. Ben says it’s the “official” video, even though it’s not issued through Nonesuch, as Ben did ask him to do it. Anyway, have a look and add your comments along with Charlie’s gazillion other fans. Update: As of October 9, Charlie says he’s had a half million views.
Talk with $#*! creator
Justin Halpern, the creator of the Twitter phenom known as $#*! My Dad Says, will be chatting live with fans following Thursday’s episode of the new CBS-TV series based on the Twitter feed. Â Potential chatters should register here.
This has relevance, of course, because Ben’s new track Your Dogs is the theme song for the show and Ben’s piano licks provide the interstitial music in and out of segments. And,  William Shatner, who has collaborated with Ben musically, plays the “My Dad” character.
“From Above” video premiere
The video for the track From Above is now up on AOL Music. It’s also linked on this page on the Nonesuch Records site.
About the video, Ben says:
Julius (Preite, VP Animation, Fox) and Justin interpretive danced the storyboard for this video for me in a hotel room and it gave me chills – the adjacent room then complained to the front desk . This unassuming video enhances the lyric and gives the song another dimension. Thank you Julius.
Release day
The long-awaited Folds/Hornby collaboration Lonely Avenue hits store shelves, both physical and virtual, today, and with it a flurry of events and upcoming tour. Â Ben and Nick were on NPR’s Morning Edition, discussing the art of penning lyrics and wrapping music around them. Â (More press items on the Check your Papers and the TV page.)
Folds concert proceeds benefit American Cancer Society
The University of Dayton Charity Concert Committee has announced that the $7,000 proceeds of the April 2010 charity concert, which was on the spring Ben Folds and a Piano tour, have been donated to the American Cancer Society.  According to the story in the Flyer News, U-D’s student paper, proceeds from the annual charity concert goes to support a charity jointly selected by the CCC and the student groups they work with, and the students themselves vote on the musical group they’d like to see.  Dayton, a Marian institution and the largest private university in Ohio, encourages service to others and leadership among its students.
