Going All Bob Woodward on Ace Young

After posting about American Idol a couple weeks ago, I've found myself with many more thoughts on this cultural phenomenon rolling around in my head. (Plus, I got huge traffic for a couple days after that last post, thanks in large part to a Bo Bice fan club that sent tons of visitors my way.) First, I find it intersting that many people, including some of my readers, think that the talent is not as strong this year. Until last night (when nearly everyone blew it), I felt like there were at least six strong contenders: Ace, Chris, Katharine, Mandisa, Paris and Taylor.

Secondly, I have to totally disagree with those who think Ace Young is not a huge talent. Let's talk a bit about "Ace". He has an amazing voice, and he knows how to use it. He also knows how to play to the camera, how to say all the right things in the interview clips (did you see him nearly shed a tear when talking about meeting Stevie Wonder?), and how to create memorable gimmicks (did you see him talk about keeping a beanie in his back pocket at all times so when we're not looking at his steamy eyes, we're focused on his ass?). All of this has led me to believe that Ace Young may be completely made up. So allow me to share, briefly, my Ace Young Conspiracy Theory.

A handsome 20-something man named Murray Pasternak walks into the regional Idol auditions and does well enough to earn a trip to Hollywood. As the Idol folks are preparing to air the regional audition episodes, some Suit from Fox spots the handsome young man, pulls aside the Idol producers and informs them that this young man is IT. Idol has not yet produced a straight white male as the winner, and it is about damn time. And the only straight white male to come close to being crowned American Idol (that would be Bo Bice, let me say that again for the search engines, Bo Bice, Bo Bice, Bo Bice), has been doing quite well. America needs Murray Pasternak, says Mr. Suit. Do what you need to do to make sure he is the next American Idol.

So Murray Pasternak is swept away to Hollywood in advance of all the other contestants. He is polished, styled, coached.....he learns how to appeal to everyone. His name is changed to the vaguely super-heroic sounding "Ace Young". His teeth are whitened. His hair is deep conditioned. A biography is developed that will make women, men, children, Red States, and Blue States find him appealing. Ace is a sports junkie and played football - wide receiver, actually. He is the youngest of five brothers and he has two nephews. He loves kids, and goes to the children's hospital every year on Christmas Day. When asked if he has a lucky charm, he responds, "My mother." Who will he thank first if he wins? His parents. (By the way, I'm not making up any of that biographical information - it's all on the Idol Website and in his video clips.) By the time the field is narrowed to 24, Ace has a level of polish and composure far beyond the other 23, and a story to make every Good American wish he was their brother/son/boyfriend.

Which brings us to this week. Ace is now in the top 10. There are only 10 weeks remaining for the Ace Young conspiracy to be blown wide open. Will we find out that he's really a twice-divorced 34-year-old MBA who lost his job and took up karaoke singing back in 2005? Or will we find out that he's just some good-looking schmuck who was skillfully crafted into a hunky corporate superstar?

I predict that tonight all we will find out about Ace is that he has survived another week to make the top nine. Either Bucky or Lisa will be heading home. Please, either Bucky or Lisa.

Bo Bice.

Bo Bice.

Bo Bice.

Thank You, Nickelodeon

Jack-Jack-Jack-a-Jack-Jack-a-Jack-Black-he's a bringin' on the fun
On Nick-Nick-Nickety-Nick-a-Lick-a-Lickety-Nickelodeon.
Jack-Jack-Jack-a-Jack-Jack-a-Jack-Black-he's a kickin'out the jam
On Nick-Nick-Nickety-Nick-a-Lick-a-Lickety-Nickelodeon.


Thank you, Nickelodeon, for these hilarious promos for the Kids' Choice Awards, hosted by Jack Black.

UPDATE (04/09): The video of the Jack Black promo is no longer available on the Nickelodeon Website (this was the "hilarious promos" link above). My apologies to those of you who are here looking for that! If you find it somwhere available for download, I would love to hear from you via email: thelovelymrsdavis at hotmail.com.

Has anyone seen these promos? I'm thinking of actually watching the awards on April 1, although the categories and nominees look pretty bizarre (i.e. Raven-Symone, Jamie Lynn Spears, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Eve as nominees for Best TV Actress). Walter might find it amusing. And I'll watch just about any darn thing with Jack Black.

Oh, and seeing this post along with some of my other recent entries makes me think I should change my name to The Mom Who Watches Way Too Much TV.

Where the Girls Aren't

Watching CNN today, I was surprised to learn some of the statistics on the number of female characters in movies for children. For example, in a study of 101 G-rated movies:

• There are three male characters for every one female character.
• Fewer than one out of three (28 percent) of the speaking characters (both real and animated)are female.
• Fewer than one in five (17 percent) of the characters in crowd scenes are female.
• More than four out of five (83 percent) of the films’ narrators are male.

These are some of the findings of the study "Gender Portrayals in G-Rated Movies." See Jane, an organization founded by Geena Davis, sponsored this study, and the research was conducted by Stacy L. Smith, Ph.D., at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication. The findings are being released in a series of briefs, the first of which is "Where the Girls Aren't: Gender Disparity Saturates G-Rated Films."

For any of us who are parents - whether we have sons, daughters, or both - this is incredibly important stuff. The stories and characters our children see in movies impact them greatly. Realizing how under-represented female characters are in what my sons watch was surprising and disturbing. I feel like I've made a fairly decent effort over the last several years to expose my older son to strong female characters - Dora the Explorer, Kim Possible, The Power Puff Girls, Mulan - but hearing the ratio of female to male characters in movies made me stop and think. In many of the books we read our son, there is a female main character, but she is often the sister of a male co-lead character as in the Magic Treeehouse books.

Disney has done a decent job of featuring strong female characters in a number of movies over the last several years - Mulan, Pocahantas, Lilo and Stitch, The Little Mermaid - however, they also have an enormous line of "Princess" merchandise geared toward little girls, which reinforces every gender role stereotype. My older son (now 6) thought Mulan was a great movie until a few months ago, when he noticed that the Mulan character was part of the Disney Princess squad (along with Ariel from The Little Mermaid, Pocahantas, Cinderella, Snow White, and others). What was once a family movie with a positive feminist role model is now considered a chick flick for the 6 to 12 set - all because of its main character's new context as "princess." In my view, Disney's Princess line cancels out all the good they have done by developing these strong female leads. The Disney Princess Website greets new visitors with "Welcome, Princess!" and offers parenting tips in four categories - storytime tips, party tips, musical tips, and (hold on to your hat) beauty tips. Because we all know a good female role model would never go out without the proper makeup. Feh.

Geena Davis appeared on CNN's "Live From" today, discussing the survey and its findings. As an actress whose work has had a significant impact on images of women in the media (Thelma and Louise, A League of Their Own, Commander in Chief), Davis is the right woman to champion this cause. She is also the mother of twin boys and a two-year-old daughter, so she is familiar with the challenges parents face when trying to raise children with balanced views of gender. I believe the work See Jane is doing is vitally important to our children's future, and I urge you to check them out. The See Jane Website offers recommendations for parents, the entertainment industry, child professionals, researchers, and policy makers to address gender imbalance and stereotypes.

I've given you my view on why this research is important, but here is a quote from the brief "Where the Girls Aren't":

We know that a majority of children in this country have access to a variety of videos and/or DVDs in their homes, many of which may be G-rated. In a 2003 nationwide survey, the Kaiser Family Foundation found that over half (53 percent) of parents say that their zero to six-year olds have at least 20 videos or DVDs in the home. Further, almost half (46 percent) of the caregivers surveyed reported the children they care for watched at least one video or DVD per day. Content in G-rated movie videos and DVDs may have a particularly strong influence on children’s social learning about gender because children tend to watch the same movies over and over.

Additional research is underway by See Jane, and a study titled "Gender Portrayals in TV for Children Ages 0-11" will be released in Fall 2006. This is definitely something worthy of our attention. I will keep an eye on it (you should too) and I'll post more here.

The Long-Awaited Guest Review: Dev2.0

As promised, the following is a guest review by my husband, Dr. Davis.

When word got out a few months ago that the Evil Mouse Empire was releasing an album of Devo songs performed by kids, many of my hipster brethren and I were dismayed. Personally I had visions of a KidzBoppian reworking of some of the most influential American rock music. Luckily, after hearing the album, I'm sold. Not only is it true to the spirit of v1.0, but it also acts as an extension of the original Spudboys' aesthetic of De-Evolution.

My first exposure to Devo came in 1978 when they were the musical guests on an episode of Saturday Night Live. Their first performance was preceded by a short video of band mascot Booji Boy which scared the living crap out of me. My panic continued when I then witnessed the weirdest thing I’d ever seen (granted, I was 11 years old and living in Iowa, so I hadn’t been exposed to a great deal of weird…) - grown men in yellow jump suits, wearing inverted red flowerpots on their heads, singing a song called "Jocko Homo." Eventually I stopped worrying and learned to love the spuds and their music, but the image of the Booj running up a set of tenement steps screaming at the top of his lungs sticks with me to this day.

This brings me to today, and the appearance of Dev2.0. For those of you not familiar with the latest chapter in humanity’s devolution, Dev2.0 has the imprimatur of the original band. In Devo-land, this is seen as the next step in disseminating the music and message of the band – and this is where the fun starts. I’m very excited about the idea that some unsuspecting parent buys this for their kids because they saw it promoted on Disney Channel, and starts to listen to it with little Cody in the minivan. Despite its pop/novelty façade, this stuff – even in this new package – is pretty sophisticated. Devo always existed to critique mainstream culture, and 2.0 doesn’t pull many punches. Personally, I think the notion of a kid living in some isolated, anonymous place hearing and digesting the lyrics to "Through Being Cool" (even though they are slightly altered from the original) is encouraging. The fact that it is being issued by the Evil Mouse Empire makes the thing even more ironic (but I have really mixed feelings on Evil Mouse Empire. Sometime I’ll write my views on PB & J Otter as Marxist critique…)

Now we could debate the postmodern aspects of this – undermining performer’s identity, medium privileged over message, blahblahblah – but the punchline is the music is really good. Most notable is the performance of lead singer Nicole Stoehr. I don’t know how she does it, but she is able to replicate the spirit of Mark Mothersbaugh’s alien-type vocal delivery, but still maintain a sense of originality. All while being an 11-year-old girl. While the cynic in me says that this is entirely due to coaching by some corporate tool, I’ve watched the videos for the songs, and her performances demonstrate a real sense of ironic disengagement, which is really at the heart of this music. As I said, the cynic in me suspects otherwise, but this young woman may just be nutty enough to do this. Listen to her take on "Uncontrollable Urge" – her urge may not be the same as Mothersbaugh’s from 20-odd years ago, but it is equally uncontrollable, and that is where the genius lies.

They also have a drummer named Kane – which is totally advanced.

The only thing that keeps this from being a total success is the fact that all of the instrumental tracks on the album are played by some ofthe old school, energy dome-sporting Devo members. This is problematic in that the members of 2.0 are listed as the primary musicians. I think that the ultimate goal of this project is to turn the youngsters into a self-contained rock-an-roll unit. However, at this point, that's purely conceptual.

So buy this album. It’s catchy, it’s funny, it’s weird. We can debate the merits of selling out and corporate control of art some other time (Swiff it good, anyone?). But this is music that will entertain and challenge your kids – and undoubtedly a lot of parents – and can potentially open up some new horizons for them. And watching little kids dance to Devo songs is funny.

The Fan Comes Around

For the first two and a half seasons, I was an American Idol snob. I refused to watch, and I questioned the intelligence and taste of nearly anyone who did. Then, sometime near the end of the third season, I channel surfed over to Fox one night and was fairly intrigued with what I saw. I was instantly a fan of John Stevens (the red-headed boy who sang Sinatra), and when he was voted off just a couple weeks later, I was outraged. I continued to watch through the end of that season to see Diana DeGarmo, LaToya London, and others fight to the finish, at which Fantasia Barrino was crowned the new American Idol. But through it all, I maintained that many of my old friends (vocal music majors from college, and singer/actors I worked with after college doing semi-professional musical theatre) could out-sing and out-perform nearly any of these hacks, and that if they wanted real talent, they would be looking elsewhere, for people with solid musical training.

The next season, I planned to watch Idol again, but only after they had narrowed down to the 12 finalists. I could not waste my time watching the early weeks, with all those embarrassingly bad auditions. I tuned in to the final 12 weeks and was surprised at the line-up: Constantine, Vonzell, Anthony, and of course Bo Bice and Carrie Underwood. It was a different vibe than what I had seen before, and a very different slate of contestants. Many of these singers were actual - well, singers. I began to queston whether my old friends could compete with some of this talent. The main reason for my change of heart? Constantine Maroulis and Bo Bice. Not only were these two men hunky and charismatic, they were talented musicians who actually had experience performing. Constantine Maroulis attended Boston Conservatory, had years of experience as an actor and a singer, and was a member of the rock band Pray for the Soul of Betty prior to appearing on Idol. Bo Bice had seven years of experience as a rock musician, both in solo work and with several bands, before auditioning for Idol. These two gave American Idol a legitimacy which caused me to question many of my prior assumptions about the show, and I believe it made Idol more legitimate in the eyes of other viewers.

At the start of the current season of Idol, I began watching from day one. I watched most of those early regional auditions, fast-forwarding through the crazies (gotta love TiVo), and I found myself impressed with the kind of talent that was surfacing. I watched Hollywood Week, which answered many of my questions about how they weed out some of the weakest performers (who can't sing with a band, who can't sing as part of a group, who can't move on stage), and I watched the episodes which narrowed the field from 24 to 12 contestants. Having seen that entire process, I'm fairly confident that none of my old musician friends - as talented as they are (or were) - could make it to the final 12.

This was all incredibly eye-opening, and I truly have a new appreciation for the show, the contestants, and even the fans. Don't get me wrong....I still find Idol fairly cheesy, and it's definitely the kind of television viewing for times that I don't want to think too hard, but it does seem to have a new air of legitimacy, and I believe that's largely due to Constantine and Bo. I find myself taking this season's contestants more seriously, and feeling involved in their journey. (Although I did feel quite manipulated earlier this week when Ryan Seacrest held up Ace Young up to the camera, telling me I'd better vote or risk having him disappear; much like a thug would say, "Vote, or your friend here gets whacked," while holding a gun to his head.) So tell me, has American Idol evolved and improved and changed, or is it just my perception of it that has changed?

Mrs. Davis Recommends 2

I've come across some great stuff lately and must share.

1. I recently added a few new names to the blogroll. One that is definitely worth checking out RIGHT NOW is ((sm))all ages. Over the last several days, she has posted MP3's from many of the old Sid & Marty Krofft shows, including my favorite, Land of the Lost! She also has some cool Dan Zanes songs and much more to explore.

2. Every parent, it seems, has an opinion on Baby Einstein videos/DVD's. Mommymatic has a great post on Baby Einstein from several weeks back, and I share many of her sentiments. I believe the primary purpose for Baby Einstein DVD's is to keep my baby happy and quiet long enough for me to take a shower and get dressed, and they serve this purpose quite well. They are not the kind of kiddie entertainment that we are meant to enjoy with our babies, much like we do not share a jar of Gerber's apples and chicken with them over lunch. Sadly, much of the "action" in these videos are just adult hands manipulating toys....something my baby would love to watch me do, but that can't always happen.

3. A book I've added to my wish list recently is Queen Bee Moms and King Pin Dads: Dealing with the Parents, Teachers, Coaches, and Counselors Who Can Make--or Break--Your Child's Future , by the author of Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence. I saw the author, Rosaline Wiseman, on the Today show last week promoting her new book, and it sounds very appropriate for parents of school-age children. With Walter now in kindergarten, I've already encountered a few Queen Bee moms, and several of the other parent types Wiseman described. The book also discusses the phenomena of over-parenting, a problem I've witnessed a great deal with college kids, but one which starts much earlier. Wiseman claims the book will help parents find the middle ground between overparenting and "frightened passivity."

4. Zoinks! Robots!

Coming soon, I'll have a guest review of the new Dev2.O record....it's Devo for kids! My guest reviewer? None other than my husband! I was, unfortunately, not cool enough in 1979 to be listening to Devo. Stay tuned.

Too Much Information

Until fairly recently, I was a huge news junkie. I had CNN or other news on in the background when I was getting ready in the morning, cooking dinner, folding laundry, or sorting mail. I listened to news radio - even the dreaded Rush Limbaugh - when I was in the car alone. I read news websites and got e-mail alerts from CNN, just so I wouldn't miss something big. I watched bits of Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews in the evenings. I prided myself on being able to discuss even very trivial and esoteric current events with friends, co-workers, or even the guy bagging my groceries.

Somehow, over the last few months, I've weaned myself away from the never-ending stream of news. I still stay somewhat current - I watch a little bit of morning news, I try to catch some of the Sunday morning political talk shows, and I sometimes flip to CNN for a little news "fix" when Ralph is napping. But I'm not on top of every story every day. And I was kind of enjoying it that way, until this morning.

After coming downstairs with Ralph, I flipped on CNN. There were commercials, so I surfed over to "Good Morning America." I landed there smack in the middle of a story about disaster preparation. Robin Roberts and a woman from the American Red Cross were discussing a table spread lavishly with Pampers, toilet paper, peanut butter, Cheez-It crackers, bottled water, and batteries. My eyes and ears perked up immediately. What impending doom is headed our way? And how was I not aware of it before now?

It turns out the reason these women are urging me to get to the store and stock up on non-perishables is....terrorism? No. Natural disaster? No. It's bird flu, something that in my mind is still far, far away from here. I've caught bits and pieces of this story recently, and I even learned over the weekend that there is much discussion about migratory birds arriving soon in the U.S., possibly carrying the flu virus. I had seen a story about flu masks (remember the kind they were wearing in other parts of the world during the big SARS scare), and I had briefly considered adding "masks" to my Target shopping list, mainly to amuse my husband. But none of the coverage I had seen until this morning really rattled me. I figured it was all hype - just an attempt to boost ratings. And besides, there were so many other things in the news to worry about, like mad cow disease, tornadoes, terrorists, fires, government corruption, and oh yes, that war going on in Iraq.

Robin Roberts reported that a bird flu pandemic is "unlikely" yet here she is telling me I should have 10 days worth of food and water....just in case. Over the weekend, I had missed government officials' recommending that Americans stockpile supplies to prepare for this possibility. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said, "When you go to the store and buy three cans of tuna fish, buy a fourth and put it under the bed. When you go to the store to buy some milk, pick up a box of powdered milk, put it under the bed."

So don't panic, but start stashing some tuna and powdered milk under your bed. Oh, boy. I think I may be back to my old ways of round-the-clock news very soon. As soon as I get back from the store.

The Best Week Ever for Kids' Music

Last week on Billboard's Top 200 Albums, the top three spots were occupied by music by and for kids. This is worth noting for several reasons, not the least of which is that these are three very different albums.

Number one on Billboard was the soundtrack to High School Musical, a made for TV movie which premiered on the Disney Channel earlier this year. Disney has not only released the soundtrack, they have also packaged this as a script and score for schools to purchase and produce as a high school musical (or junior high musical or summer music camp musical) on their own stages.

Number two was Kidz Bop 9, which was released on February 21 and shot up the charts faster than any of its eight predecessors. If you don't own any Kidz Bop records, you have probably seen the commercials on Disney Channel or Nickelodeon. These are compilations of current popular songs sung by a chorus of anonymous children's voices and sometimes modified slightly to be more kid-friendly. I continue to have very mixed feelings about Kidz Bop records. On one hand, they are genius, especially in terms of producing a cheap but super-slick record, and selling a gazillion copies. On the other hand, they are a cop out. Why not just let your kids listen to actual Weezer, or Green Day, or Avril Lavine songs? Can't parents take the time to screen these songs for inappriopriate lyrics, rather than relying on the Kidz Bop producers to filter and re-produce everything for them? Sure, Kidz Bop gives kids an appreciation for pop music (although I'm not sure if that's really a good thing), but in doing so it takes away the whole concept and identity of the recording artist. So kids end up being familiar with songs, but not the artist that originally recorded them or the album of which they were a part - they are learning about pop music entirely out of context. Robert Levine of The New York Times has a great piece on the Kidz Bop craze, and also discusses the phenomenon of last week's top three Billboard albums.

Number three was Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies for the Film Curious George, by Jack Johnson. For some reason, this is technically not considered a kids' album, yet it is wonderfully appropriate for kids. And of the three albums in Billboard's top three, it is the only one I would recommend. Jack Johnson has put out a number of "regular" albums (that is, albums for grown-ups), and he has a distinct, laid-back, acoustic sound that carries through nicely to the Curious George album.

It's surprising to see kids' music driving album sales in such a major way, yet when you consider that parents may be more likely to buy music for their kids, rather than download, legally or illegally, it begins to make sense. Also, much of the market for both High School Musical and Kidz Bop have some babysitting money or lawn mowing money that is expendable. So in the months ahead will we see more artists and producers targeting this growing market? I, personally, will be looking forward to Kanye West's new release, The Second Grade Dropout, and don't even get me started on the possibilities in this market for R. Kelly.

Something to See

If you watched too much TV in the 1970's (as I did), you will enjoy Desperate Classic Housewives. You will need to allow pop-ups to see the video. An excellent giggle today.

You Don't Know Jack

There's a (fairly) new show on Noggin that's worth noting called "Jack's Big Music Show ." It's targeted for pre-schoolers, but seems to be of interest to kids on either side of that age range around our house. My one-year-old and my six-year-old both enjoy this show, and watching it has become an almost-daily ritual for us.

Noggin describes Jack as "a cool little music lovin' kid" (actually a puppet) who takes a break every day to visit his backyard clubhouse and have some musical adventures with his friend Mary and his dog Mel. What I love most about this show is that it exposes viewers to a huge variety of musical styles in a very age-appropriate way, making music like swing, rhythm and blues, opera, and country interesting and fun. It does this in a very loose, casual way, without ever saying, "Hey kids, today we're going to talk about opera!"

While each episode has a well-constructed plotline, it is also packed with music. Jack, Mary and Mel perform each day; and a puppet ensemble called the Schwartzman Quartet Singers stops by for most episodes. In addition, the clubhouse scenes are broken up by music videos by Laurie Berkner and a variety of other musicians - Jerry Lawson and the Talk of the Town, Rebecca Frezza, Buddy Guy, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Milkshake, and many more. And at times, some of these real live musicians step into the clubhouse.

The puppetry is very well-done, and reminiscent of the Henson style ("Sesame Street," "Bear in the Big Blue House"). At least one of the puppeteers spent some time on "Sesame Street," and they all do a fantastic job of making Jack and his friends appear natural and real. It's also worth mentioning here that Jack has a fabulous Website, which includes music videos from Laurie Berkner, Dan Zanes, and numerous other artists; plus printable lyric sheets for many of their songs.

So if you don't know Jack, I highly recommend getting to know him. This is a great show!

Mrs. Davis Finds Her Blogging Groove

After starting this blog back in October 2005, I finally made it public last month by changing my settings on Blogger. Up until then, I had only friends and family reading my blog, and several friends (non-parents themselves) had said they especially enjoyed my blog when I wrote about non-kid topics. After hearing that, I reconsidered my audience a bit and thought about changing my focus from kiddie culture to something entirely different. But wait a minute....I decided that instead of changing my focus I should just get out there and find more of the audience for which my blog was originally meant -- other cool parents.

So I started looking around for other blogs like mine - blogs by cool moms (or dads) who were writing about interesting things and offering an honest perspective on motherhood/parenthood. At first, I found lots of blogs with shiny, happy moms - moms who had household tips and recipes and adorable pictures of their many children. Moms who had fabulous lives and perfectly positive outlooks, and who had become moms without ever looking back. These moms would not enjoy my blog, I thought, as they are probably consuming the kind of mindless kiddie-culture-crap that I criticize (and mock) on my blog.

Then I came across a mom who was commenting on another blog I was reading. I noticed a logo on her blog for something called "Crazy Hip Blog Mamas." I noticed that she was writing about real mom stuff and not all shiny-happy mom nonsense. I checked out some of the blogs on her blogroll and noticed the CHBM logo on several of those, too. These mom blogs were what I had been looking for. So a few weeks ago, I checked out the CHBM link and signed myself up.

In CHBM, I have not only found the audience I was searching for (how narcissistic does that sound? but isn't it our hope or intention that someone will actually read what we're writing on these blogs?), I have also found a bunch of other real mom blogs, writers I have enjoyed reading and responding to. Since reading these other blogs, I have gotten more comfortable writing about motherhood, and more honest in my writing. I have found it easier to be spontaneous, and have ventured into topics that I wouldn't have formerly considered. And I think I've done all that without losing my edge, or losing my focus. I actually think my writing and my blog have been getting better over these last few weeks, if I do say so myself. I've finally found my groove.


This entry is part of the writing collaboration at CHBM.

They Might Be Fabulous

I've been putting off writing about They Might Be Giants for quite some time now, mainly because it's so much easier to review things that I don't really like. I've wanted to say something incredibly intellingent about TMBG, and just haven't felt up to the task. So I'm going to stop putting off trying to write that "perfect" review of them, and say very plainly that TMBG's Here Come the ABC's CD is just plain amazing. We've had it for many months, and it's still a favorite. It's packed with catchy, fun tunes with lyrics that are both educational and clever. There is plenty of offbeat TMBG humor, especially in songs like "Alphabet Lost and Found," "Go for G," and "The Vowel Family," which I suspect may be a tribute to their friend Sarah Vowel. The CD also includes two bonus tracks - the theme song for "Higglytown Heroes" and "Clap Your Hands," which was originally released on TMBG's other fabulous kids' album No!

Walter memorized the lyrics to "Alphabet of Nations" almost immediately, so I was thrilled that my 5-year-old knew the names of countries like Pakistan and Uraguay. And "The Vowel Family," which teaches us that "Vowels are important letters; there's a vowel in every word," came at just the right time for him, as he was learning to sound out words. "Go for G" subtly teaches us dozens of words that start with both the hard and soft G sound, without telling us that's what's happening. So throughout many of these songs we learn some important things without feeling like we're on the receiving end of a lecture or an educational exercise.

In addition to the CD, there is a Here Come the ABC's DVD, which has music videos for all these songs, plus a few other bonus features. Many of the videos feature puppets from the "Deeply Felt Puppet Theatre," which are so bad they are funny. Other videos have some so-so animation, and only a couple include live video of TMBG frontmen John Flansburgh and John Linnell. While I highly recommend the CD, the DVD is something I could take or leave. The DVD Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns) would be a much better way to go if you are interested in seeing TMBG, however much of Gigantic is not for kids, mainly due to some adult language in the interviews. It does include several excellent videos of songs like "Don't Let's Start," "Ana Ng," and "Birdhouse in Your Soul," which kids might enjoy.

So check out Here Come the ABC's, and if you haven't already, check out No! Quite simply, TMBG is by far better than any of the artists I've come across in my ongoing search for cool kids' music.

Go Have Some More Plastic Surgery, Meg Ryan

So things have bottomed out here. I'm writing a review of "Oprah" instead of reviewing any great new stuff for kids. But I just can't resist this.

Meg Ryan was on Oprah today. At least I think it was Meg Ryan. Her face was pulled so tight and her lips were pumped so full of collagen that I couldn't quite tell. If I squinted a bit, I could swear it was Kim Basinger. But the program guide said it was, in fact, Meg Ryan. A very scary Meg Ryan. (More evidence to support my theory that Baby Boomers are NOT going to age gracefully.)

She spoke about the daughter she adopted from China last year. When she adopted this baby girl, she named her Charlotte. But on the girl's first birthday, Meg decided Charlotte didn't suit her, so she renamed her Daisy True. Now we can change our minds about a lot of things, but our children's names?!?! So Meg is crazy, I decided. Scary and crazy.

And at one point, when talking about arranging the adoption, she said, "...events conspired...." Uh, Meg, I think you mean TRANSpired. Events TRANSpired. Scary and crazy and dumb, she is.

She and Oprah went on to discuss at length the charitable support they have both provided to women and girls in India and Africa, which could have been quite inspiring had it not turned into a game of "My philanthropy is better than your philanthropy." Then Meg whined about how difficult it is to be famous and how the tabloids are always dissing her. And then, THEN, Oprah put her down in the most fabulous, back-handed way. Oprah said she would NEVER feel bitter about being famous and having to face all the masses of fans when she goes out in public, because what a GREAT thing it has been for her to come from her humble beginning to THIS! So Meg is scary and crazy and dumb and bitter.

No wonder she's been hiding out for the last two years.

So did anyone else see this today?

UPDATE: You can see pictures of Meg on the Oprah show here.