Fish on the Menu

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, and the Catholic in me has a craving for fish....so I'm going to take this opportunity to discuss Trout Fishing in America. Being a fan of great music and great kids' music, I've been asked by several people what I think of TFA. This duo is fairly well-known as one of the hippest musical acts for kids. Lots of very cool parents love them, as well as many cool non-parents. So what I'm about to say might come as a big surprise.

I don't get Trout Fishing in America.

I first got acquainted with TFA back in the mid-1990's (before kids) when a friend who had a young son recommended them. At the time, I thought they were okay - just okay - and kind of filed them away in the back of my brain for a time in the future when I would need kids' music.

In recent years, when I was actively seeking great music for kids, I gave them a listen again. Again, they were just okay. They sure do beat Raffi or "Kidz Bop" but they just aren't high on my list. Their lyrics are clever, yes, but their sound is like a cross between John Prine and The Beach Boys, and that's just not the mix I'm looking for.

And so, dear readers, that is my confession. Feel free to tell me why you love TFA, or why you think I am horribly wrong about them. Or feel free to tell me what you are giving up for Lent.

Mrs. Davis Recommends

Here are a few fun and cool things I've come across lately for grown-ups to enjoy:

If you have a deep fear of clowns, you will definitely not want to check out Miss Domestic's Open Letter to The Guy Who Was Whistling in Whole Foods Yesterday. This is one of the funniest things I've read in a long time.

If you liked SNL's "Lazy Sunday" mini-movie (have I mentioned I think Andy Samberg is da-bomb?), you might enjoy "Lazy Muncie", a brilliant spoof from fly-over country. Warning: You'll want to turn down the volume if you're around the kiddies or at work.

PerezHilton.com has a fabulous imaginary conversation between pregnant celeb-divas Gwen Stefani and Gwenyth Paltrow.

And for those of you who are parents....

These lunch labels from Martha Stewart look super cool. My husband often corrects me when I use the word cool to describe products such as this. He says, "Lou Reed is cool. Those labels are nice." And here are some fun clothes for cool moms and dads. I might need to order one of those "trophy wife" hoodies.

Honey, I'm Home!

I have recently discovered there are certain things I would rather NOT be doing when my husband walks in the door at 5:30......

1. Fishing small foreign object out of younger child's mouth.

2. Yelling at older child.

3. Sipping an adult beverage (unless maybe on a Friday, or if there is something remarkable to celebrate).

4. Talking on the phone to my sister while younger child destroys a box of Kleenex and older child plays Gameboy (as happened last week).

5. Burning dinner, or worse yet, realizing I have not even thought about dinner.

6. Checking out pictures of Ace Young on the "American Idol" Website.

7. Watching Oprah, The View, or anything besides CNN or educational children's television.

8. Eating cookies.

9. Waiting at the back door, holding younger child and saying, "What took you so long?"

10. A combination of numbers 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7.

It's not that I spend a great deal of time doing any of these things. It's just that many of them are more likely to happen later in the day. And it's not like my husband really reacts badly to any of this - he understands very well what my days are like, since he spent a year as a stay-at-home dad after our first son was born. But I have this urge inside of me to have something to show for all the work I have done throughout the day - something complete and finished and tangible - and when, at 4:30 or 5, I inevitably realize I have not accomplished anything of note, I begin to lose focus. And that's when I decide, Oh, what the hell, I'm going to sit here and watch Oprah and eat some cookies.

The Bottle Let Me Down

No, I have not taken to drinking in the afternoons. The Bottle Let Me Down: Songs for Bumpy Wagon Rides is a CD our friend Mike recently lent to us. It is fabulous.

Released in 2002 by Bloodshot Records (Chicago), this is a collection of mostly rockabilly and Western swing songs (Bloodshot refers to it as "roots rock") by various artists, including a favorite of mine - Kelly Hogan (formerly of the Atlanta band The Jody Grind). These artists cover some recognizable songs, like "Red, Red Robin," "Camptown Races," "On Top of Spaghetti," and "Rubber Duckie," while others sang some that were new to me like "Funky Butt" and "Down on the Farm."

By far my favorite on this CD is "Don't Wipe Your Face on Your Shirt," an original track by the Cornell Hurd Band. The lyrics, spoken from a father to his sons, resonated so strongly with me:

Daddy's from the "do your own thing" generation.
No, I'm not afraid of mud or grime or dirt.
But you boys must understand, there's a line drawn in the sand -
Don't wipe your face on your shirt.

Well your parents are musicians and we must convince the neighbors
That we're civilized at our end of the block.
So what am I supposed to tell the Kalishes and Habers
If they see you running round with food or mucous on your smock.

This record is full of smart, funny, upbeat songs performed by some really great musicians. It is described on the Bloodshot Records site as "wholesome AND subversive" - and that really nails it.

Gotta Get Me Some Of These

Check out the MommyBiz Cards. I really want to order these, but I'm faced with two questions:

1. Couldn't they have come up with a better name than Susan Smith for the examples?

2. Would anyone ever take me seriously again? (Assuming that at least some people currently take me seriously.)

Someone else reviews "Zathura" so I don't have to

Here's a cool dad's review of "Zathura" from a fun blog I recently discovered:

CreativeTypes: Movie Review: "Zathura"

Walter has expressed quite a bit of interest in "Zathura" but after reading this review, we may need to put it off for a while. He is a total sponge right now when it comes to inappropriate language. The words he knows as "bad words" he is pretty militant about (Mommy, you said a bad word!), but since there are many bad words he has yet to learn, something like "Whatup Be-atch" could be catastrophic. It's just the kind of thing he would repeat at an inopportune time - like when visiting and elderly relative or running into my husband's department chair at the grocery store.

But I love that picture with the review.

Failed Parenting Experiment #73: The Mr. Rogers Episodes

So last week at the library, I spotted a DVD with a couple of episodes of "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood" on it. Surely you remember Mr. Rogers, don't you? Well, it turns out Walter has never seen Mr. Rogers, so we checked it out and I eagerly anticipated sharing this childhood classic with him. A couple episodes of Mr. Rogers, I thought, should be enough to counteract some of the episodes of "Sponge Bob Square Pants" and "Jimmy Neutron" he had seen in recent months.

Walter's reaction to Mr. Rogers was lukewarm, at best. Honestly, it was worse than that. It was as if I had asked a 13-year-old to wear the most un-cool jeans. He rolled his eyes, laughed a sarcastic little laugh (heh-heh-heh) as Mr. Rogers sang the theme song and changed his shoes, and looked at me as if to say, "Are you serious?"

When I threatened to turn off the TV entirely (Would you rather watch nothing, then?), he said, "Sure!" with a little too much enthusiasm, as if cleaning his room might be preferable to watching this nonsense.

"But wait! Here comes the trolley!" I said. "And the puppets!"

He was not amused by the trolley or the puppets. He was not amused by the singing or the funny voices.

Maybe I shouldn't be surprised, since Walter is almost six. He now considers himself too old for many things (although thankfully, he still enjoys "Sesame Street"). And Mr. Rogers, when compared to today's shows for kids, is admittedly dull. There's nothing quite like "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood" on TV anymore, and maybe there's a good reason for that. Mr. Rogers is probably best appreciated now by those of us who enjoyed him years ago.

So after only 10 or 15 minutes of "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood," the DVD went back in the case, and today it's going back to the library. Lesson learned.

Mimi and Roger go to the Mall

Okay, I'm off topic again....there's a review I need to share for something you definitely don't want to show your kids. The movie Rent is coming out on DVD this Tuesday. If you saw Rent on stage and loved it, there's a good chance you'll have major problems with the movie. However, if you saw Rent on stage and didn't quite get it, you might love the movie for spelling everything out very literally for you.

Rent on stage was an exciting and edgy portrayal of a bunch of 20-somethings living in Manhattan's lower east side in the early 90's. The characters are artists, activists, addicts, and AIDS-survivors. Throughout the show, they sing and dance about love, loss, creativity, selling out, and following their dreams. The music is rock-ish and energetic, catchy but with enough of an edge that it doesn't sound too Broadway-like. For Generation-X'ers who ever lived the starving artist lifestyle (or those who just wished they had), seeing Rent on stage is a moving experience. And for others further removed from the counter-culture - let's say Baby Boomer housewives from the suburbs - it is still an incredibly enjoyable show.

Take that cool, edgy, artsy bunch of characters who sing and dance, and put their story on film. Suddenly, realism takes over. They are singing and dancing in the actual subway station. They are singing and dancing on an actual New York street and in an actual New York bar - although I think parts of this may have been filmed in Toronto. But still. Singing and dancing is so believable on stage, but not so much when Rent hits the big screen. Seeing it on stage, you are thinking, "Yes, yes, I can just imagine my group of friends in a bar singing 'La Vie Boheme' and pounding our fists on the table." But in the movie, when you see such a literal portrayal of that very scene, you think, "Oh, come on....that would never happen."

A great piece of musical theatre can become a great musical movie (Chicago, Guys and Dolls, The Sound of Music), but to do so, those involved need to remember what makes it great and what makes it work - willing suspension of disbelief, metaphor, and spectacle. Rent the movie presented this musical much too literally and left nothing to the viewer's imagination. It was shot like an episode of Friends - if they had replaced Anthony Rapp's striped scarf with a capuchin monkey, it would have been nearly indistinguishable.

In the promos for Rent the movie, it is referred to as "the musical that defined a generation." Generation X, I presume? Yes, it defines much of my early-20's experience. But I doubt that the majority of GenX-ers can really identify with this.

Surprisingly, I was not terribly bothered by the fact that many of the Broadway cast members were a part of Rent the movie, even though most of them are mid-thirties. They all pulled off playing early 20's very well. Or maybe I was able to see them all as early 20's because I still see myself that way sometimes. The women in the cast were amazing, especially Idina Menzel and Rosario Dawson. The men were not nearly as strong, and Adam Pascal as Roger was downright weak. My husband referred to Pascal's performance as "possibly the worst in the history of American cinema." Jesse Martin was hot, though.

Maybe I was expecting too much of Rent the movie. I had identified so strongly with this musical in the mid and late 1990's, and I was soooo looking forward to seeing the movie. When I saw it in the big mall cineplex with my husband, we went to the food court afterwards to have a snack. That just seemed so wrong. Rent followed by Sbarro is just not right. As we sat in the food court, trying to digest what we had just seen, we decided it would have been better to make a movie about the Rent characters 10 years after the musical. Where did they end up? Have they all survived? Are they married with kids like us? Are they living in a subdivision, driving an SUV and going to see a movie at the mall cineplex? Are they dealing with daycare and t-ball leagues and yardwork and shopping at Whole Foods and Gymboree? That is the movie I would rather have seen. Heck, there are a lot of movies I would rather have seen. Sadly, I'll probably buy this DVD. Me not owning a copy of Rent would be like Nancy Kerrigan not owning a copy of Ice Castles.

Cardboard stick

Just so no one gets the mistaken idea from this blog that our home/family is a non-stop parade of fabulous, enriching books, music, movies and culture......our 11-month-old son is now playing with an empty wrapping paper roll. Yes, a big piece of cardboard. It has been entertaining him non-stop for nearly 20 minutes, and I am in heaven.

But while we are here re-purposing a cardboard roll, my husband is taking the older boy out to see a Czech black puppet show at the zoo. So maybe our home really is that non-stop parade of culture.

We have our moments.

He was a good little monkey, but always very curious

Based on the books by Margaret and H.A. Rey, "Curious George" is now a hit movie, and the adorable monkey is also being developed as a TV series for PBS kids. What a lovable, fun character for kids. And what excellent books. Formulaic, yes, but every story has some wacky, non-violent misadventures and lesson at the end.

Walter saw "Curious George" last weekend and thoroughly loved it. Casting Will Ferrell as the voice of The Man in the Yellow Hat (whose name is Ted, by the way) was brilliant. Kids are drawn to Will Farrell and his voice. His movie "Elf" is a family favorite of ours. (Unfortunately, he couldn't do much to save "Kicking and Screaming" from being a terrible, terrible movie, but generally speaking, he is fabulous.) Other voices include Drew Barrymore, David Cross, Eugene Levy, and Dick Van Dyke. And with music by Jack Johnson.....wow. They really got the right people involved with making this movie.

The only drawback to Curious George becoming a movie star is that he is now one of those "licensed characters" I discussed in an earlier post, and my friend Cori so wisely warned us about in her comment. He is no longer an innocent little monkey who only appears in books. In addition to being a movie star, George is now a Happy Meal toy at Wendy's, a character with a line of stuffed animals and toys, a video game title, a variety of Fruit Snacks, and a selling point for all sorts of goodies that none of us need (except bananas - he is now on the stickers that appear on Dole bananas). It's so easy for kids to become sucked into the way licensed characters are marketed - put one of these characters on a bag of Doritos or a box of French Toaster Sticks, and these products suddenly have very vocal consumers advocating for them from the seat in the shopping cart. I've often wondered why these evil people who try to get us to buy so much crap that's not on the shopping list don't try putting their characters on healthy foods like fruits or vegetables, and now it's finally happened. Curious George on Dole bananas. Genius. How could anyone miss that? But I will be honest.....Curious George stickers on the bananas make Walter more interested in buying them, but they've not yet increased his interest in eating them once they are in our house. Funny how that works.

So go see Curious George in theatres. Then stop and get a happy meal on the way home. And next time you're at the store, pick up some Curious George bananas. And don't forget your box of Curious George Life Cereal.....

Set List

Our friend Joe often posts his band's set lists on his blog. I find this an interesting way to tell other people about your music, your talents, even your identity. I used to have a set list. A real live rock and roll set list. In college, I played in a band with my husband (at that time, my boyfriend) and our friend Steve. Our set list included songs like "Gimme Some Lovin," "Route 66," and "Cinnamon Girl." We rocked, in a very 1990 kind of way. Seeing Joe's set list on his blog was a harsh reminder that I am now more than 15 years past my college days.

I frequently bring up my rock and roll past when I feel that I am sinking too deep into motherhood or adulthood, or having to make difficult grown-up decisions. The last few weeks before our second son was born, I found myself often chanting in my head: "I used to be in a rock band. I used to be cool. I still am cool. I don't drive a minivan....yet." And I even caught my husband saying, "I used to be cool," under his breath recently when we were walking through the grocery store pushing both boys in a "car cart" - one of those shopping carts with a big colorful plastic car frame built over the top and a steering wheel in front of the kids' seats.

As I said, seeing Joe's set lists was a jolt of reality to me. Although I am no longer part of a band, this made me think, what is my set list now? Is it the nagging list of things in my head that I know need to be done - sorting laundry, loading the dishwasher, thawing out some chicken, changing sheets, going grocery shopping? Or is it the list of things I do so instinctively that I don't need to write them down or check them off in my head - feeding Ralph, changing his diapers, getting Walter his after school snack, reading stories, vacuuming up crumbs under the high chair? Maybe it's the list of things I know I can do well but don't do as often - making a lasagna or a batch of monster cookies, planning a party, organizing our family for a road trip. Or perhaps it's the list of things I still want to do - get a graduate degree, buy our dream house, take a Disney cruise. I have many lists, but none of them can really take the place of that list of songs that we planned to play on Friday night.

I can still play the piano. And I still do - at home, in private. I play from a book of Schubert or Beethoven, or somtimes from a book of Broadway favorites. But none of that is the same as playing rock and roll in a college pub. People never dance and scream "WOOOOO-HOO" when I play Schubert or Beethoven. Even at my senior piano recital in 1991, when I peformed nearly an hour's worth of music for a respectable crowd in our college music hall, the biggest reaction I got was enthusiastic applause and some flowers. No dancing. No singing along. No screaming. No beer spilling on the floor. And when I worked as a pianist and musical director in Atlanta in the early 90's, doing shows like "Assassins" or "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, " there were sometimes standing ovations, rowdy cast parties, and sometimes even a very satisfying review in the newspaper, but again, the audience did not get up to dance and scream. There's nothing quite like that. And there's nothing quite like having that list of songs scribbled on a piece of notebook paper and taped to a microphone stand that tells you what's coming next.

Lisa, Lisa

Poor Lisa Loeb. I've been watching her on "Number 1 Single" trying to find a nice Jewish man to settle down with and make babies. She talks often on the show about her back-to-back six-year relationships, the latter of which was with Dweezil Zappa, and her realization (after SIX years) that Dweezil was not marriage material. Hint number one: his name is Dweezil. In conjuntion with "Number 1 Single" she is promoting a new album, "The Very Best of Lisa Loeb," but the album I want to share with you today is Loeb's "Catch the Moon," (2004) a collection of children's songs she recorded with her college friend and roommate Elizabeth Mitchell. Mitchell has recorded other children's music, and plays in a band I've never heard of called Ida.

My husband downloaded "Catch the Moon" for me from e-Music, and it's a fun bunch of songs. Liz and Lisa are a little too folksy and pretentious at times, especially the three foreign language songs they included (you can just picture them, in their college days at Brown, wearing black turtlenecks and funky glasses and playing their guitars), but overall they've put together a great album for kids and grownups. The instrumentation is sparse throughout, which works mostly in their favor by showcasing their beautiful and subtle harmonies. To be clear, there is nothing "rock and roll" about this album - it is definitely folksy, or what my friends and I would call "crunchy." Walter enjoys this album, too, especially when he notices some of the liberties Liz and Lisa take with well-known songs. "That's not how it goes," he will say, when he hears lyrics like "Twinkle, twinkle, little star....Mommy's playing her guitar."

This album includes catchy versions of favorites like "Big Rock Candy Mountain" and "Oh, Susanna," a fantastic cover of Bob Dylan's "New Morning," and a fun original piece called "Can You Catch the Moon?" On several of the tracks, Liz and Lisa have incorporated little kids yelling or singing, which I find kind of silly and unnecessary, but this annoying feature is fairly minimal. It's also a bit sad to think of poor Lisa Loeb wanting so badly - at age 37 or 38 - to settle down and have babies, and what she must have been thinking when she made this album. I hope she finds a nice Jewish man soon.

Hey, you guys!

The Best of the Electric Company was just released in a DVD box set! Four discs! The reviews on Amazon say it all, so I won't bother to review it here. Besides, I don't even own it yet....check it out!

Mary Had a Bad Idea

There are several rock/pop compilation albums for kids out there right now, and one that I recently added to my collection is a CD called "Mary Had a Little Amp," subtitled "Music's Biggest Stars: Childhood's Greatest Songs." This album was put out by People for the American Way (PFAW) in 2004 to benefit pre-school education. It might be worth buying if you're interested in supporting this worthy cause, but the artists and music did not live up to the Epic Records promo, which called it "the perfect addition to any parent's, child's, or music- lover's collection." Bah. Very few of the songs belong in a child's music collection, and it would take a parent or music lover with some very wide-ranging and sometimes just plain bad musical taste to appreciate this album.

It opens with Maroon 5 covering "Pure Imagination" from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Their cover is very acid-trippy and at times dissonant and eerie, with a cheezy drum track - definitely not a song to warm the hearts of children. Other tracks that might be musically difficult for kids to appreciate include Madonna's "Little Star," Moby's "Anchovie," and Nancy and Ann Wilson's "Lifeline."

REM's "We Walk" is an interesting inclusion, and I wondered what made this a good choice for a children's album until I heard Walter singing it to himself the other night: "Up the stairs and to the landing, up the stairs and to the hall, oh-oh...." Evidently, of the 4 or 5 songs he had heard from this album earlier that day, this one stuck with him, and it was very sweet to hear as he walked up to get ready for bed. And to me, an important measure of good music for kids is if it gets the kids to sing or dance (which is why I will always insist that the "Body Movin" by the Beastie Boys is a great song for kids - though unfortunately not on this album).

Although I found it overall very dissatisfying, I must point out two really wonderful tracks on this album: The Dixie Chicks' cover of "Rainbow Connection" and Roseanne Cash's original "How to be Strong," both of which melted my heart and made me hit the repeat button over and over again - in part to avoid listening to the other tracks. The Dixie Chicks and "Rainbow Connection" fit together so well - from the beautiful instrumentation with mandolin and strings to the bright vocals. And "How to be Strong" has lyrics that I wish I could implant in the head of any child who has ever felt discouraged or overwhelmed - a great song to pop in after a rough day at school -

How to be strong when the world is rough and you're learning how to get along.
How to be strong; you know you're good enough. Being you - that's how to be strong.

Unfortunately these two tracks don't make up for Bonnie Raitt's very forgettable cover of "Baby Mine," or Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson's "Gentle Breeze," or many of the other really weak songs. And one must ask, what is Lou Reed doing on a children's record, anyway?