vovat | I C A DVD

The Here Come the ABCs DVD that They Might Be Giants put out is actually quite good. As about twenty thousand million people have already mentioned, it's very much in the vein of Sesame Street, with its mixture of puppets, animation, and live action. I like the puppets of the Johns, who introduce various songs. The live performances are also nice, with the band in top form. Just look at how happy the Johns seem to be in "Fake-Believe (Type B)." Flansburgh in the bear suit in "Violin" kind of comes out of nowhere, but it's still amusing. And speaking of "Violin," the Johns seem to be particularly fond of the hippopotamus. I know hippos appear in both the song and the video for "Pictures Of Pandas Painting," and they're in another one as well, although I can't remember which one just now. By the way, both the hopping hippos and the rolling O leave a flying plane without parachutes. Is that a good example for the kids? :P And while on the subject of little things like that,

bethje mentioned that she thought the dials on the television sets would be confusing for the younger generation.

In addition to the Pac-Man maze that I mentioned in my last post, some of my favorite visual bits include the changing subway sign in "Can You Find It?", the space cow in "Z Y X," and the inclusion of pi in "Letter/Not A Letter." The videos made up entirely of stock footage are a bit on the weak side, and watching the DVD all the way through means seeing a few too many simple "let's recite the alphabet" bits, like the two segments with the robot. Overall, though, I thought it was a good product.

On a completely different subject, while searching for Oz-related pictures, I came across this photograph of myself dressed as Kabumpo for the Centennial Convention. It's not a particularly good picture, since I'm adjusting my mask or something, but it's always interesting to find pictures of yourself on the Internet.

In about an hour and a half, we leave for Bryn Mawr and the in-store. Maybe I'll actually get to meet the Johns this time.