Pancake Mountain

Yea, our Pancake Mountain DVD arrived the other day! Still haven't had the chance to watch it, but it's DVD #3 (with episodes 5 & 6), which I chose because it featured Shonen Knife. I'd heard about the show a while back, but promptly forgot what it was called, because it only aired on D.C. area cable. Then my youngest brother told me his art director had mentioned Pancake Mountain, so now I know its name again. Yea!

More thoughts after we've viewed the DVD.

Muppets & existentialism

Yesterday, DS had a rather philosophical moment with his Cookie Monster "My First Pal" plush, while lounging on the sofa.

Is me a muppet?

No-o-o-o! I'm a [DS's name]!

I want to be a muppet.

That's silly!

Sometimes I think he's channeling Frank Oz, because he has also recently begun using YodaSpeak, without ever having seen a single work by George Lucas. For example, "A track excavator I am! Scoop the dirt I will!"

Yo Gabba Gabba!

Yesterday marked the debut of Yo Gabba Gabba on Nick Jr. and Noggin. We watched the premiere episode, "Eat," with our almost 4 year-old yesterday morning. He was entranced. He's still talking about various parts of the show, and already knows the names of all the characters, just from watching one episode on Noggin.

As a parent who apparently falls into the "grupster" (sans Manhattan lifestyle and $400 jeans) and Gen X categories, I found many appealing aspects to the program. Hip hop; kindie rock; 8-bit video and other retro-style animation; a dancing robot; guest appearances or contributions by the likes of Mark Mothersbaugh, Biz Markie, Paul Frank, and Cornelius; the designer vinyl toy aesthetic and KidRobot; and a preschool target audience.

Of course, it's a bit appalling to acknowledge that I'm such a demographical cliché. And that my kid is the lucky beneficiary of my pathetic attempts to cling to my former East Village cred. Greg at DaddyTypes had an interesting comment:

For a parent trying to manage or mitigate his kid's corporate conglomerate cultural intake, it can create a lot of ambivalence. The idea that by trafficking solely in "indie" culture for your kid somehow lifts you and him above the spoonfed, mainstream consumerist fray--that there's now a moral difference, not just between Target and Kidrobot, but betwen Kidrobot and Giant Robot, for example--seems more like a hipster delusion. [Source.]

At any rate, yesterday's show featured two guest stars. Mark Mothersbaugh did a drawing segment, in which he sketched a potato bug riding a skateboard. Elijah Wood did the "Puppet Master" dance with the monsters (and looked rather Hobbit-sized amongst them).

In keeping with the food theme, there were musical segments such as "Party in My Tummy" (yeah, it's all fun and games, till the digestion starts!) and "Try It, You'll Like It" (DS is a yogurt junkie, so he didn't really get the point). Plus, segments about snack time, counting with food props, brushing your teeth, etc.

Interspersed with these segments were brief clips of different children (mostly girls) who claimed, "I love to dance!" The show was hosted by the ebullient DJ Lance Rock, clad in a stylin' orange track suit.

I'm bummed that the official website redirects to Nick Jr. as of yesterday, though. The old site had video clips, recent press, and other cool info. But for background info, see the article published by the NYT in its 12 August 2007 edition, or Yo Blogga Blogga, the show's production blog.

The show airs on Noggin (see the August TV Specials schedule) and Nick Jr. (10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET).

Posts galore

Yes, gentle reader, a plethora of posts miraculously appeared overnight, thanks to the wonders of copy & paste, and Blogger's draft and post-dating features. Farewell, MySpace blog!

We are the rob(z)ots, Part II

Okay, it took me a little time, but I finally figured out what yellow robot DS meant: Plex from Yo Gabba Gabba! He kept talking about the "robots on Gabba Gabba," but when I asked him where he'd seen them, he said "Curious George." I thought he had perhaps misheard "gamma," or was confused about "Roberto the Robot" from a Dora episode.

Then, today, I finally remembered that my youngest bro (who works for a children's multimedia company) had shown me some Yo Gabba Gabba clips last year. And also that DS had recently seen the video for "Let's Get the Sillies Out," between programs on Noggin.

I looked up the official website, and learned that the show is debuting on Nick Jr. this Monday. I hope they air the program on Noggin, too, since we only have basic digital cable.

This new robot fascination has rekindled his interest in the Bzots, so we've been watching Escape a Go-Go! for the past few days.

I suddenly feel compelled to buy the "My Pet Human" T-shirt from Threadless....

We are the robots

As the Spawn was having his afternoon snack, he suddenly turned to me, and said:

"Mama is a mama yellow robot. So I love you [smooch]. Because I am your robot."

Awww! Such cuteness from my self-proclaimed "baby yellow robot."

[Viva Kraftwerk!]

These go to eleven!

Today was our 11th wedding anniversary. The traditional gift is steel, so I opted for heavy metal of the musical variety. Since we already had British Steel, I went with another metal: iron.

Here's the anniversary gift for the hubby. It's wrapped in silver paper, with a Fender amp decorating the front.


The gift contains:

Number of the Beast by Iron Maiden
Overkill by Motorhead
Ace of Spades by Motorhead
High 'N Dry by Def Leppard

Yup, we go to 11!

Dude, where’s my gallbladder?

So, 4 weeks ago today, I had my gallbladder removed by laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Now I have a nice collection of abdominal scars: four from the gallbladder surgery, and one from the stat C-section. Maybe I should have one more abdominal surgery, in the upper left quadrant, so I can have a smiley face on my abdomen, or at least be symmetrical. Any suggestions? ;)