I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: BABYMETAL – いいね！- Iine!

I had to throw another BABYMETAL song up here, but what else to choose?  The options are astounding–the live version of “Gimme Chocolate!” where you can see them actually sing (and dance) along to the headbanging band?.  Or “ド・キ・ド・キ☆モーニング – Doki Doki☆Morning” which shows the band actually playing (although they are covered head to toe in skeleton costumes and has a chorus like Buddy Holly’s “Everyday”.  Or even “Death” which opens with some super heavy metal chords and chanting has the cute little girls singing about death.  But I chose this song whose name I don’t even understand-even the English part.

It has fast heavy guitars but the song is primarily taken over by staccato vocals and melodies.  It has one of the girls processed into death metal vocal.

And then comes the chorus which is nothing but pure J-pop–frenetic and treacly.  And then, at 1:35 (yes this has all been in about 90 seconds) the three girls start rapping. Yes.  Then at 2 minutes the whole thing reverts into the heaviest of death metal growls and a wild and catchy guitar solo.  By 2:45 the song has turned into a super fast rave up with pogoing.  And your brain just turns to mush as you want to dance along.  Surrender to the power of BABYMETAL, before they graduate from junior high.

[READ: March 5, 2014] Stick Dog Wants a Hot Dog

The second Stick Dog book follows the same basic format as the first one.  And I have to admit that while I laughed, I found it a little bit samey.  I hope the third book can keep the freshness factor).

It lacks the amusing narrator introduction that the first one had (there is some, but it’s much more brief).  And, surprisingly, the book is 40 pages longer.  This time Stick Dog and his friends are after some hot dogs.  The book is lengthened because each time there are possible ideas for the dogs to have, Watson really runs with them (it was a highlight in book one).  This pads out the book quite a lot and even the narrator makes a (quite funny) joke about delayed gratification.

But indeed, there were some very funny sequences and scenarios.  And of course the mocking of the drawings is very funny (the pancake or UFO picture is very good).

This time, instead of getting hamburgers from a family, the dogs are after hot dogs from Peter, the man with the cart that says Peter’s Frankfurters.  (There’ a very funny sequence in which the narrator explains that the dogs, or at least Stick Dog, can read and how they can do so).  How are these hungry dogs going to get the hot dogs from Peter?

What ups the ante in this book is that there is a Frankfurter Assault Squadron of raccoons hiding in a nearby tree waiting with their bandit masks to surprise Peter as well. (I did enjoy the sequence in which the dogs feel compelled to name the first raccoon).  The other dogs’ plans for getting the hot dogs are wonderfully absurd and involve a helicopter (from Stripes), Karen pretending to be a hot dog (from Karen), bribing him with hamburgers (that they don’t have mind you) (from Poo-Poo) and pretending to be part of the Furter family, looking for their cousins named Frank (from Mutt).

Stick Dog’s plan is much simpler and involves hiding behind the laundry of the house near the frankfurter cart.  It’s a genius plan until Karen accidentally gets picked up with the laundry and brought into a man’s house.  The sequence with the man and the strange device that he puts in his ears is very very funny.  In fact, the whole end of the book is quite satisfying.

It always makes me laugh when characters get someone ‘s name wrong, so the fact that none of the four dogs can remember “Peter” and say things like “Patsy Puffenstuff” and “Piddly Pants” (with Stick Dog getting more exasperated with them) makes me laugh every time.

It’s no spoiler to say that they succeed (and are even generous). And while I admit that the way they finally distracted Peter was very funny, I felt bad that he would have to pay for all those missing hot dogs (of course, only an adult would be concerned about that).