Monkeys

Monkeys is the third song on the Here We Go CD. It's a song about...well...being a monkey...or at least the fun parts of being a monkey. (I'm sure they have their bad days too). This song came from a piece of music that had been on the back burner for a LONG time. I had almost finished it a few times through the years, but I just couldn't seem to write any lyrics that would fit. I had been trying to make it a SERIOUS song...but the music didn't sound serious at all. I wasn't sure how it could ever be whatever it was that it was meant to be...that is until I started writing "kids' music". 

Doing this CD opened up a whole new world to me. I felt like my rule book had been thrown out the window. I really could do anything, as long as it was fun. If it would be fun to put in a tuba part, or a ukulele part...well...I could!! A broken Speak and Spell voice spelling the word M.O.N.K.E.Y...why not? I guess the best way to describe it is that I felt like a kid again. It taught me a great lesson that has taken off a lot of the pressure of creating something fun for kids:  just have fun!! Simple as that.

It's not that there isn't a lot of hard work involved. There are a lot of steps in the process which are really tedious. But there is something really refreshing about doing something silly. Even just for a moment. Making yourself smile...even if it's at yourself. And if someone is watching, they'll probably get a smile out of it too.

I guess that's what this song is about. Just swing from trees and always eat...bananas, bananas, bananas.

You can listen to a clip of the song, "Monkeys", here.

- Phil

Baby Food pt.2 - The Ultimate Baby Food Taste Test

OK...it may not be THE ultimate baby food taste test...but as far as our family goes, it's as close as we'll get. I took the girls for a trip to the supermarket and we chose a selection of flavors. The girls thought it was the best thing ever (at least for that day). They helped get all the jars organized on the table and got every baby spoon they could find. We got out the video camera to document it all, got a piece of paper and a pen, and then started tasting.

We chose Gerber flavors since it's a well known brand, and having one brand seemed a little more scientific somehow. I did choose one flavor from another brand: Country Breakfast, which is made by the Beech Nut brand. I only chose this one because it sounded so intriguing.... How were they going to get an entire country breakfast in that jar?!

Things started off well enough. First up was Pear, which everyone thought was a winner. Next came Sweet Potato and things went quickly downhill. M (5yr old) just said, "YUCK!" E (3yr old) wasn't sure at first....but then decided, "It tastes weird." Erin said it would be OK if you've never tasted the real thing. I thought it was kind of like bland V8 yogurt....hmmm.

Apple Blueberry came next and everyone was happy again. E summed it up: "Yummy, Yummy, Yummy!"

The fruit flavors were definitely the winners. (we also tried Apple Strawberry Banana) The vegetable flavors were more of a challenge. Typical coments: "Yucky, and it looks GROSS!" I think Erin summed up the vegetable ones the best: "Tastes like it should be good for you...but there is no joy in it." Unless you're a baby I guess.

Well.. that brings us to the meat ones! The fact that an entire meat dinner is made into something that looks (and smells a bit) like bad yoghurt.....this should be warning enough to stay away. But for the sake of science we carried on.

It started off OK. M actually liked the Beef and Gravy. Erin: "A little too close to what I would expect dog food to taste like." Me: "Amazingly captured the concept of roast beef without including the enjoyment."

As we came to Vegetable Chicken Dinner, M decided it was all a bit much. "I think there must be a prize for this because I don't really like many of them," she said, and decided to pass on the rest of the meat ones.

Which brings us to Country Breakfast! M decided to give it a try since it said breakfast. "This is the yuckiest one of all!!" was her conclusion. E: "YUCKY!!!" Erin: "Sour yet bland....just HORRIBLE with an AWFUL aftertaste." My conclusion: "If that's country breakfast, I'm staying in the city!!!" (at least at breakfast time).

And so ended our taste test. Our conclusions:

• Pureed fruit = GOOD
• Pureed meat = BAD
  
• It's a good thing we start out our lives with that food, because it would be awful if we had to progress to it as we became adults.
  
• Those tiny little jars are incredibly hard to get through when they're filled with "Country Breakfast!"

Hope this review was helpful for you :)

Baby Food pt.1

There's a lot that can be said about Baby Food....and even a few things that can be sung about it. So I decided to make this part 1 and stay on the subject for a few more entries. Later I'll write about our experiment: The Ultimate Baby Food Taste Test! But for now I'll continue with going through the songs on the Here We Go CD and writing  a bit about the stories behind them.

"Baby Food" is the oldest song on the CD. As teenagers my friend James and I had great plans of being the world's greatest rock band... but in song-writing we seemed to have a lot more fun seeing who could write the silliest song. So if you ever came to one of our "gigs" you might hear one of our U2-ish, change the world power rock anthems, closely followed by a raucous rendition of "Baby Food". Somehow it made perfect sense to us... 

Is it a song about being secure in your quirkiness? About the joy and freedom of childhood? About weird eating habits??? Well....it could be if you like. When I wrote it though I just thought it would be a lot of fun to have a song where you could shout out "I eat baby food!" 

When I wrote the song I had never actually eaten baby food. I couldn't even look at it! Many years later when Erin and I had our first baby, I gave it a try. I reasoned that if I expected our baby to eat it I should at least know what it tastes like..... and I must admit that I was a bit curious too. It has been quite while since then, so today I took our kids to the supermarket and we bought a whole lot of baby food so that we could have a baby food taste test. They thought it was the best thing ever (at least until we got to some of the meat-ish flavors!) But more on that in the next entry...

- Phil

              

Here We Go

Take a short walk down the hall, being careful to step over the toys on the way. Just past the bedroom and bathroom, at the end of the hall, you’ll find a door which opens into the home of Here We Go Productions. This amazing room is a recording studio, graphic design house, video production studio, and.... as far as our kids are concerned...an extra place to spread their toys and coloring books. If you look carefully you might find a Cheerio or Goldfish cracker behind the desk. (We try to keep it clean but those things seem to appear out of thin air!!!) If you find one, please don’t eat it... we’re not sure how or when it got there... Welcome to Here We Go Productions.

Since this is the first blog, I’ll give a quick overview of what you’ll find here in the future. Of course you’ll be able to read about what’s happening with Here We Go, but you’ll also be able to find out more about the songs and get a few random thoughts thrown in along the way.

Here We Go: This is the first song on the CD...and the name of the CD...and the name of our LLC...and...well, you get the idea. We liked the name. The song came first though. It’s about someone (I was picturing a bear) getting ready to go outside. If you’ve got little kids, you’ll know that just getting out the door can be a major production. And when you
finally step outside, there is such a feeling of accomplishment and relief. I was trying to think what that feeling might sound like, and the first thing that came to mind was, “Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba.” That became the chorus, and the whole song became about the fun adventure of getting “out the door.”

We are hoping to do videos for some of the songs, and this is probably the one we’ll do first. I’m planning on using this little bear (in the picture)...just need to figure out how to make him some fuzzy slippers, pajamas, and “outdoor” clothes. (If you have any patterns for teddy bear clothes please feel free to send them our way. We’d really appreciate it!)

- Phil