Elizabeth Bird

Video Sunday: Good Work, Sycophants

Remember those old Mr. Rogers sequences where you would get to see him visiting a factory or a business of some sort that, under normal circumstances, you never would get to see? Well, Chad Beckerman alerted me to a video that falls under the same auspices. The newest Diary of a Wimpy is due out soon [checks watch] and so what better way to celebrate than to watch Chad going to the Leigh Pheonix Color printing plant in Hagerstown, Maryland? I love the moment when he dips his gloved finger in the thick yellow paint to check its color.

Okay.  Pace changing of.  Chronicle has sort of leapt ahead in the whole Book Trailer game.  It isn't just that they do them for their books.  It's that they know how to make them work as a genre.  A lot of people poo-poo the very existence of book trailers.  However, I think that this one is an excellent example of staying true to the format while also getting you interested in the book.

Plus I love the idea of Giselle giving a roundhouse kick to a prince.

I've been taking a great deal of pleasure in watching the antics of the Guys With Books tour the last few weeks.  In a perfect world, you'd get to hang out with David Shannon, Jon Scieszka, Adam Rex, and Mac Barnett all the time, and not just when they happen to come to your town.  A quickie video has been made so far about their escapades. 

4 Guys Tour from Adam Rex on Vimeo.

Earlier I mentioned those old Mr. Rogers videos that would show you how mushrooms are grown or crayons are made.  And I am under the distinct impression that kids today just don't see as many of those as we did growing up.  Mind you, there are other advantages to being young right now.  Cool music videos, for one.  This video from a Brian Vogan follows the process of how a pumpkin grows.  Good old pumpkins.  Always good for a larf.

I actually found this next video a while ago and even posted it on a Video Sunday.  It seems appropriate to bring it out now for your amusement, though.  There's a fun site that discusses the history of computer animation at Disney.  And here too is what the text says about this next video: "When Lasseter, blown away by early Tron footage, tried to convince the Animation department to get into this new computer thing, he was rebuffed and then fired (while working on a computer animation test based on Where The Wild Things Are (video, right), just to add insult to injury). Catmull, who had met Lasseter when the latter was trying to get Wild Things going, invited him up to Lucasfilm. The two animation enthusiasts formed an incredibly successful working partnership (and still do), Lasseter providing the creative spark and sense of character that brought Catmull's techniques to life."

So I thought I'd found the perfect off-topic video to end the day.  Then my husband had to go and show me that, yes, Sesame Street once made fun of Mad Men.  Wow.

I hate to say it, but I kind of agree with the commenter to said that the progression should have been mad, sad, glad.  Ah well.  Still sort of blows the mind a tad.

Posted by Elizabeth Bird on October 4, 2009 | Comments (1)