Alan Smithee Wouldn't Even Touch This One

Mavis has a new favorite music video. It is the work of the "Night Rider" himself, David Hasselhoff. The first time I saw it, I thought it was by far the worst piece of so-called "professional video" that I had ever seen. Now I'm beginning to think it's the best.

Grandma and Gigi Come Visit

Grandma and Gigi came to Austin for a visit this week. Mavis has really enjoyed having them around. She's getting just a little bit of attention, you know. 

Mavis and Gigi. 

New Teeth!

The new teeth have arived. Two up top. They totally change the way she looks -- make her look much more mature. 

Teething

Need we say anymore? 

Peek-a-Boo!

Mavis is figuring out how to play peek-a-boo. She usually only covers one eye, & sometimes not even that, but she's getting it, & is so tickled when she takes her hand off to a rousing chorus of "peek-a-boo". She's a genius, don't you know. 

Further evidence that she is the world's cutest baby. As if any more were needed. 

Mavis is Crawling!!!

Yes, Mavis is crawling. Just kidding. Mom put her in the crawling position, she looked very confused, sat there for a few seconds, and started crying.

SXSW Flashback

I've been looking for this picture for months -- since it was taken in March at SXSW. I finally realized why I couldn't find it on our camera when I came across it among Susan's Flickr pics. Apparently, it was taken with Susan's camera, not ours. Anyway, thanks for the pic Susan. And thanks for helping Mavis explore the concept of teeth Aimee.

My Favorite Sketch

Loretta and Mavis. 

Our Favorite Videos

We usually don't let Mavis watch TV/video, but occasionally I'll allow (often out of necessity) a small bit. She has recently become very interested in videos of herself, but I wonder if it is not because she can hear her mommy in the background. Anyway, she absolutely loves the video for Grandaddy's "The Nature Anthem."




It is undoubtedly a great song and a great video, and considering that this is a favorite band of her parents, this seems like "a good thing."

However, Mavis was very disappointed to learn that the band is using this song to shill for the automotive industry, and, in fact, this isn't actually a music video at all. It is a long-form commercial. These may as well be hired actors who sing songs devised by "Honda World Global Super Special Marketing." It would have just as much artistic integrity.

On the other hand, they are shilling for the Honda Civic Hybrid, and what's wrong with that?

As William S. Burroughs said: "Just... about...everything..."

You see, on the other other hand, Consumer Reports indicates that hybrids are not as "green" as they may seem. In fact, because of flaws in the way tests are conducted (which are, of course, exploited by the auto industry), hybrids' fuel economy can be overstated by up to 50%. Combine that with the production and disposal of several enormous batteries over the car's lifetime, and this does not seem like such a "green" -- or economical -- choice.

On the other other other hand, if automotive companies are going to eventually produce efficient hybrids, they have to start somewhere.

On the other other other other hand, Mavis and I are out of hands. It's all a bit overwhelming for a 9-month-old. So sometimes we resort to watching daddy's favorite video ever: "Total Eclipse of the Heart" by Hurra Torepdo. This is a 1995 cover of an 80's classic, done by a post-something punk-experimental group from Norway. Watch this video and I'm sure you will agree there is no way this band could/would shill for the automotive industry (Warning: contains brief male backal (as opposed to frontal) nudity):



OK, you did watch the video, right?

Guess what? They actually are automotive industry corporate shills! They are doing some bizarre reverse Spinal Tap thing where a strange, tongue-in-cheek, but very real band devolves into a fictionalized version of itself. And all in the name of the almighty Ford (Prefect?) It's the state-of-the-art in viral marketing. (By the way, I think the name for this should be more specific -- something like "Ebola Marketing" or "Bird Flu Marketing." Something that would more accurately reflect its true purpose. Just looking for precision in language here.)

Well, this is beginning to sound too much like a real blog instead of just a place to post our baby's pictures. Pretty soon I'm going to have to start running advertising. Or maybe I already have...

Mavis Sketches

So we had a couple of sketches done by this website/blog thing called Sketch-It. They do sketches for $1. Yep, only $1. The idea is that they will spend about 60 seconds on each sketch. Illustrators typically make about $60 an hour, so by charging $1 per sketch, it theoretically all works out (and what they lose on each sketch, they make up in volume, apparently.) Anyway, here are two sketches we "commissioned" (gee, I feel like a Medici...) This one is Mavis in her easter dress. Not bad, but I think it looks a bit more like me than Mavis, especially if you were to add the goatee.

Mavis and Great-Grandmother Nadine. In case you were wondering what they would look like if they were the stars of an anime film.

Hi!

  

Where's the fan Mavis?

  

Mavis abuses/loves her dog

 
And Zed very obligingly lets Mavis pull his hair & poke his eyes. She likes feeding him her food a lot now, so it's not all bad for him. 

There's hope yet that Mavis might try crawling!

 
So she's not even very close yet, but at least she's leaning forward more now, leaning out, getting close to almost being in the position to start rocking, which then leads to crawling. We take what we can get. 

 
Assume the position... 

MMMmmmm, Cookies!

 
Mavis loves her biscuits. She doesn't need to know that they're organic barley & cane juice teething biscuits (they actually do taste good). Actually, when she's done with the cookie--she never finishes even a half one--she LOVES to give it to the dog. She just laughs & laughs when he eats it.