I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: MADISEN WARD AND THE MAMA BEAR-Tiny Desk Concert #444 (May 26, 2015).

I love that Mama Bear is actually Madisen Ward’s mother, Ruth.  They play some really wonderful roots music.

Madisen has a powerful soulful voice and Mama Bear’s harmonies are excellent–ranging from deep to high pitched.

And their joint harmonies on second song, “Sorrows and Woes” (especially the final note) are really amazing.

Mama Bear also adds some great licks to some of the songs (Madisen plays leads on “Silent Movies” while mama Bear plays the main riff on “Daisy Jane.”

Between songs, Madisen has some funny banter.  I laughed when he said that he was now going to retire since he has played the Tiny Desk.  And Mama Bear talks about how excited she is that their new record is on yellow vinyl.

The songs are delightful folk songs (with “Daisy Jane” being the boppiest of the lot with some delightful “ooh hoos” at the end).  I’d never heard of them before, but I wish them a lot of success.

[READ: February 11, 2014] The Flying Beaver Brothers and The Hot-Air Baboons

I saw this book in the library and was delighted to have another Flying Beaver Brothers book to read (I also just saw online that there is a sixth book too!).

Poor Beaver Island is under attack yet again (my kids were surprised to see that there were so many beavers on the island with them, and I admit I didn’t realize there were quite so many either).

The threat this time is a group of baboons who are melting the snow off of the skiing mountain (beaver island really has it all!).  When Ace and Bub finally get caught up to speed with what’s happening, the baboons (Pete, Kyle and Ringo) hilariously get mad about having to repeat the whole story that they told everyone earlier.  There is a helpful chart with Proboscis and Baboon listed as types of monkeys and buffoon as not a type of monkey.

The baboons say they are here to help–they plan to melt all of the ice of the mountain and collect it in a pool (with the dam they just erected).  And they promise to make swimming pools for everyone.  And if people don’t like their plan, they clearly hate swimming pools!

But when Ace asks the baboons what they plan to get out of this, they say just a little bit of water for themselves.  Ace and Bub are suspicious, of course, but even more so when an old enemy Captain JoJo (the mole who tried to steal the island’s dirt) offers to help them.  They can’t imagine why, but JoJo explains that the baboons tried to attack his island and he wants revenge (and also that he plans to re-attack Beaver Island and needs the baboons out of the way to do so.

The devilishly clever plan to get rid of the baboons and their snow melting device are, I must admit, not quite as clever as previous efforts, but it is rather funny.

And we all enjoyed reading this at bedtime the other night.  I still love how Eaton is able to convey a blank look with these characters (especially the beavers) and just how exasperated the baboons looked when they were mad.  And of course, I love that the penguins are still around. Ka!