Anne Belov paints, writes, makes prints, and is the founder of The Institute for Contemporary Panda Satire. You can find her paintings at the Rob Schouten Gallery and Fountainhead Gallery, her cartoons on The Panda Chronicles, and her new book here. She also writes regularly for The Whidbey Life Magazine, a free journal of art and culture on Whidbey Island. Her main regret in life is that there is no MacArthur Grant for Panda Satire.
Oh, Pinky…did you really think that you would not be found out when you brought underaged pandas across international borders? The wrath of Mommee may be the least of your problems! How does it look for a presidential candidate to appropriate pandas that do not belong to you, for your own evil purposes?
Do you think this is presidential behavior?????
Ahem….There may be another panda candidate running for office this year, if maybe you were thinking that Pinky was one of those extremist candidates. Hey! Why not vote for Bob?
Ooooh! Did Daddee actually yell at Pinky?
Ever the politician, did you notice how Pinky promises not to go to Canada again, but doesn’t promise not to leave the zoo? Very sneaky, Pinky, very sneaky! But I don’t think Unka Justin is going to let the twins get away quite this easily, since he is rather fond of them. Put those cubbies back right this minute, young lady!
Today, Fabulous Furry Friday looks at one of our favorite subjects, Panda Cams!!!! Where would we be without panda cams? (Yes, I know, I know… I’d be getting a lot more work done, but you know, watching panda videos is very relaxing, or so I’ve heard somewhere)
Back in the early days, the panda cams were only in black and white, in fixed positions, and often were only available a few hours a day. Now, they are mostly in color, high definition, viewable 24 hours a day, and camera operators follow the pandas around, at least during the pandas wakeful times. (Don’t say it. They do NOT sleep all the time) So put your paws together and give a big huzzah to the panda cam operators, who are mostly unpaid volunteers who are dedicated to giving pandaholics such as myself our daily fix of pandaliscious goodness.
Some of the new high definition panda cams are sponsored by places like Animal Planet (Zoo Atlanta Panda cam) or the Ford Motor Company (National Zoo). For this, we pandaholics thank you!
In the early days of panda cams….
And then there are those dedicated folks who record hours and hours of panda cam footage, and then edit it, so we can watch 20 minutes of pandas playing instead of 14 hours of pandas sleeping. One of my favorite panda video creators, is my Facebook friend who has a YouTube channel called Doxiemom19 who I would credit with supplying me with the best bits of panda life, so that I can turn it into panda satire and illustrations and not have to be constantly watching the panda cams raw footage, and instead, bring you my take on pandas.
What pandas get up to when they are in front of a camera…
#6 is getting ready to make his move!
Huzzah!….ooops.
Speaking of being mauled by bears…
And even wild pandas are subject to invasion of privacy…
The secret lives of the wild panda!
Hope you have a fabulous furry weekend! Be the bear!
I am probably revealing just how ancient I am when I say that I remember the TV show, Father Knows Best. Although to be honest, I don’t really remember much about the show, just that it was a thing, way back when. It’s possible that the hapless father in question never really called the shots, but hey, maybe I’m just misremembering or something. But when it comes to Pinky, it’s more like Mommee Knows Best, not that she has any chance of controlling her presidential Pink self. At times like this, she just has to throw up her paws and let Dad take a turn. I don’t think Mei believes that Tian will have any better luck than she does, it’s just, you know, she needs a break from being the enforcer.
Um…I think Pinky has Daddee wrapped around her fuzzy little paw. Just saying.
Will Mei Xiang discover what’s under the bed? Will Bubba get Pinky’s dessert? Will Mr. Bun apply for political asylum in Canada? Stay tuned and find out in our next exciting episode!
Was there ever a panda like Pinky, in all the history of panda-dom? So completely convinced of her rightness of her purpose? What could her mother be thinking as Pinky returns from Canada? She may be thinking, Why couldn’t I have a well behaved little panda, who just wanted to be a panda, and settle down, and have some little pandas of her own. But no…I had to have a panda cub who wants to be president…sigh….
uh oh…
And do we see a new boldness in Bubba’s attitude towards his sister? be careful, Bubba. Be very careful! You really don’t want to make Pinky mad.
Remember, you can find collections of cartoons about Pinky (and a couple other pandas) on the book page of this website! Check ’em out and collect the whole set!
Today is Earth Day and we almost forgot to celebrate it. Of course, anything with pandas is rather celebratory, so um…have I convinced you of anything yet? Darn… sO let’s just forget all about what we might or might not have forgotten, as Fabulous Furry Friday celebrates Earth Day because….
We R Endangered!
Yes, that’s right, pandas are endangered and if you think we are going to let you forget it, you have another think coming! Check out this fun video I found about pandas on youtube!
After you’re done watching that, here’s the Friday line up for this fabulously furry day!
You forgot your Binky Bar!
One of my early ‘toons! (and still one of my faves!)
Vote for pandas! We’re endangered!
Does being endangered have NO privileges?
Pandas support all endangered animals!
Keep cool, cat, and don’t go blaming women for stuff. That is SO not the way to get votes…
Hope you have a happy and fulfilling Earth day…um…when you’re endangered, does time really matter? Well, yeah, actually it does.
Poor Mei Xiang…when the phone rings, it is bound to be trouble, and it is bound to be about Pinky. She thought that only the Zoo Director and the President had this phone number, so well she might wonder, how did you get this number?
Meanwhile, back at the actual National Zoo, Pinky’s brother Bubba is going about the business of learning to be a panda, under the expert tutelage of his mother, who is also a panda. But what about Pinky? well….
“If Pinky is grounded, can I have her dessert?”
I think you will be all as pleased as I am to see that Bubba is beginning to understand his sister a bit better, it should help him to resist her involving him in her schemes. Maybe. We’ll see, won’t we?
Just a reminder, Pandas International is having their Spring Auction right now, and I have donated one of the signed reproductions from Pandamorphosis to help support their work with pandas. So, if you were thinking you would like to support Pandas international AND get some of the art from Pandamorphosis, this is a win win for everyone! Because remember, without pandas, there could be no panda satire! Here’s the link! Thee’s lots of other cool items to bid on too. Most of it…um…has pandas on them.
Well! Pinky is heating up the campaign by paying a little visit to our neighbors to the north and I am just guessing here, but I think her mother is going to be a little peeved, to say the least. It does spark a memory I have about taking off with a friend, on graduation from college. I bought a car, then got my drivers license (in that order) and headed for a month long trip to Canada. It did not end badly, as I fear this trip of Pinky’s might.
So let’s get this story going, because Pinky is a bit short on minions, ever since the triplets left her to pursue a film career in Kung Fu Panda 3.
Pinky and the Twinkies, eh?
Of course Canada is pro-panda, as we have seen from photographs of the twins and “Unka Justin”. All I can say is international incident!
A quick note, Pandas International is having their Spring Auction right now, and I have donated one of the signed reproductions from Pandamorphosis to help support their work with pandas. So, if you were thinking you would like to support Pandas international AND get some of the art from Pandamorphosis, this is a win win for everyone! Because remember, without pandas, there could be no panda satire! Here’s the link!
We are still popping champagne corks and eating cuppycakes to celebrate my newly agented status, so I thought I would share more of my literature of the panda ‘toons for this weeks fabulous Furry Friday! Huzzah!
From the earliest days of panda satire, pandas have been writing books about…well, about being pandas…
Everything I know
And then, there was Bob’s memoir, “Black and White Like Me”…
More literature of the panda!
And of course we wanted to encourage a love of reading in the panda kindergarten…
I think you get my point….
And what panda doesn’t have an abiding love of Shakespeare….?
After all, the playings the thing….
And let’s not forget that in addition to panda satire, I am also a painter…
Yes indeed, it’s true! The official announcement came out today, and I am now represented by Gordon Warnock of Fuse Literary Agency. So it only seems fair that Bob gets an agent too. Several people have suggested that Pinky will try to use this to her advantage, and that I might want to drop out of the presidential race and take a cabinet position. We shall see, we shall see.
So what does this mean for panda satire? It means that my graphic novel, The Pandyland Mysteries: The Case of the Picturesque Panda will get a professional eye and guidance. Actually it has been getting a lot of that for the last six months as Gordon acted as my mentor through the SCBWI program that I have mentioned before. It means that I won’t rush into publishing it before it is ready. I have lots of work to do before we start submitting it to publishers, but I am very excited about this book. Yeah, we’re going to have to wait for it, but I think it will be worth it.
Meanwhile, Bob is ready to give Mehitabel the news, and Pinky…well…she’s just being Pinky, isn’t she?
Do you smell smoke?
Next week, Pinky continues with her cubpaign to gather new minions from our neighbors to the north! Will Pinky succeed in getting the Toronto twinkles to campaign for her? Tune in next week and find out the latest Panda News!
Poor Bubba. Once again, he suffers the consequences of being Pinky’s younger sibling. If Pinky had been born sooner after Tai Shan, would she have developed as such a little terror? Who knows? We only know that Bubba is made of softer stuff (frosting?) and the least look from mom can send him into a quivering mass. He can’t lie to mom like Pinky can.
So, after Pinky has taken off for another campaign swing to get endorsements from some VIP’s (Very Important Pandas) Bubba is left to face the music…
