SOUNDTRACK: NEIL INNES-Tiny Desk Concert #127 (May 11, 2011).
Neil Innes is one of the musical voices of Monty Python and The Rutles. He is also the creator of The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. I was delighted to see that he did a Tiny Desk concert.
In addition to creating clever songs, he is big into wordplay. So, he has some great statements before starting:
“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen here and viewer.”
“It’s wonderful to be.”
“You know, not so long ago and its been very lucky for me.”
He plays his perhaps most well-known song, “I’m the Urban Spaceman” on guitar. It is wonderfully surreal (at the end he describes it as a medley of hit).
For “Democracy” he play a tiny ukulele. This song is not funny (well a little). It is political, straightforward and pointed.
For the final song, he play The Rutles’ “I Must Be In Love” (with appropriate accent). He tries to get everyone to sing the really high Ooooh note and then gives up.
And then he’s gone. It’s delightful.
[READ: August 10 2015] Stick Dog Dreams of Ice Cream
By this point (the fourth book) the Stick Dog series has gotten a little predictable. I mean, basically the dogs want to get food right? But Watson still manages to keep the stories funny. I see that for this book the illustrations are “by Ethan Long based on original sketches by Tom Watson” I have a hard time believing that Watson was too busy to draw these very simple figures, but whatever.
I also find it hard to believe that these dogs have never tasted ice cream before–surely they have scavenged a wrapper somewhere. But best not to think too carefully, right?
because it is summer time and it is very hot. The dogs are all looking for something to cool them off. They go out in search of a nice cool water source.
But the best parts of the story are when the dogs get distracted. On the way for water, Poo-Poo smells something. They hope it is hot dogs or pizza, but it is…a squirrel. Stick Dog is afraid of this because Poo-Poo will be not let the squirrel go. But Stick Dog convinces him to leave it. And they are off.
I also love the author interruptions, like in this one, where Mutt gets something in his teeth and spends much time trying to get it out. The author says he hates that too, and that the worst food for that is celery.
With Poo-Poo willing to forget his arch-nemesis the squirrel for a bit, they go back in search of water. And that s when they see rain which is coming from the ground (a sprinkler). The dogs are smart enough to turns the hose on and get a cool bath before having to flee.
And then they hear music. Annoying music. The most annoying music they have ever heard. And it’s getting closer. It is coming from a truck. Stick Dog reads the side of the truck “Ice cream.”
And then the author interrupts to say that all dogs can read. He asks us to imagine if a dog picked up this book and read all this?
The dogs try to figure out what ice cream is. A drink? It’s liquid but also solid too. They spend some time arguing about it (hilariously) and when they look up again everyone is gone. All that is left are rainbow puddles.
And they taste them and they love them. Then they have to fight over which flavor is best.
As Stick Dog tells them his plan to get more ice cream, Karen keeps interrupting to change her mind about her favorite color of ice cream.
As in previous books the dogs offer very funny and very dangerous plans for getting ice cream out of the truck. Like one of them running in front of the truck to get hit so it comes to a stop).
But Stick Dog’s plan involves a see saw flinging him into the truck. He has some plans, but really he is trapped. And is that a police siren? is all of this worth it? For ice cream, absolutely.
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