Caspar Babypants and Being Half Of A Creative Couple

brimming with creative potential

My son is watching every single conceptualization of “The Wheels on the Bus” ever video recorded and posted to YouTube on my iPhone.  Now he’s watching one in Japanese.  Atleast he’ll have a multicultural appreciation before JK.  Also in the background is Mighty Machines on the TV (Google the theme song now to share in my pain).  Upstairs, I’ve left Caspar Babypants playing on the CD player.  Energy conservationists we are not.  This is a recipe for ADD in the making if I ever saw one.

I’m writing today about Caspar Babypants.  Well not JUST about him, also about his wife, Kate Endle and well “artsy coupledom” and how darn aspirational it is.  I’m no mom blogger product endorser, but Caspar Babypants, if you’re not familiar, is a children’s musician/ entertainer also known as Chris Ballew the chrome-domed, former frontman of zany 90s band The Presidents of the United States of America.  “Peaches come in a can, they were put there by a man in a factory downtown.”  You might remember that little ditty.  Well, he’s reinvented himself after marrying and having babies and he’s amazing and prolific.  If you’re a parent you know the typical playlist: Yo Gabba Gabba, Justin Roberts, Elizabeth Mitchell, Frances England, Dan Zanes, (oh, and likely Sharon, Lois and Bram and Raffi are still in heavy rotation).  Well might I suggest you add all of Caspar Babypants albums to the virtual jukebox?  I’m not getting paid for this because my site traffic is laughable so I assure you I’m not part of his marketing strategy, I’m just a fan.  His original songs are hilarious (bug in the cuff of my pants, poor little broken truck, poor dust bunnies, my flea has dogs) and catchy (still singing small black ant and not annoyed by it).  And his wife is pretty darn amazing herself.  She’s a successful artist whose work has made it all over the place (to greeting cards, children’s books and just so happens to have graced all the covers of her hubby’s albums with her adorable collage art).  What might their house be like on a typical Sunday morning? I’m envisioning kids wearing newspaper pirate hats, feet warm inside hand-knit wool slippers in rainbow colours, they climb inside a cardboard box to eat their organic pancakes while dad plays his latest tune on a vintage bright green guitar and mom cuts out paper samples to collage the kitchen wall in owls.  Anyway, in my mind its the stuff of a Dwell center spread or a feature on Moomah.

This brings me to the actual point of this blog post which is: aspirational couples (those who I aspire to be like).  Couples who (publicly at least) are creative, artsy and successful and just authentically good at what they do.  I find this very inspiring.  Its all very artificial potentially.  I’m aware that their personal lives may be a shambles and for all I know they can’t stand the smell of each other’s breath, but their public personae as a couple is simply irresitable, and so that is why I find them aspirational.  They have that “thing”.  I consider myself somewhat creative and my husband very much so, and while we have careers that bring in the bucks, I think deep down, many of us are still trying to find that perfect-world scenario where you love what you do and make money doing it; when work doesn’t feel like work anymore.  Not rich and famous, that’s not the goal, but making ends meet (plus a little for an authentic espresso machine from Faema).  I’m not saying that every couple should try to become Paul and Linda and form Wings.  I’m just saying that if you and your spouse happen to have that particular sensibility then, well, embrace it and support each other embracing it.

So with that overly-philosophical point murkily made - here’s my dream dinner party guest list of some inspiring (and yes, famous) creative couples:

Chris Ballew and Kate Endle

Bono and Ali Hewson
Rufus Wainwright and Jorn Weisbrodt

Trudie Styler and Sting

Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin

Diana Krall and Elvis Costello

Tracey Stewart and Jon Stewart

Luke Doucette and Melissa MccLelland

Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner (ok, maybe they’re not around anymore, but this is a dream list)

Zoe Kazan and Paul Dano

Jay-Z and Beyonce

Who would you add to your list?