Day of Play

Today from noon to 3 pm, Nickelodeon is off the air to encourage kids to get out and play for the Worldwide Day of Play. During these three hours, the channel is running a message saying, "Get up, get out, and go play!" Depending on the time, you might still be able to catch the same message running on Nick.com or on TV.

But then, as that message scrolls past, you see: "Then, after you've, played, join Nick at 3 pm...."

Don't play all day. Get your priorities straight, and get back here for some afternoon TV.

Because at 3 pm, Nick is airing a SpongeBob marathon. Four and a half hours of SpongeBob. After only a three hour break for the Day of Play. So what's really important here?

Maybe instead of nine episodes of SpongeBob, Nick could air some shows that highlight physical activity or sports or healthy eating.

Or maybe they should change the name from Day of Play to something like One-Eighth of a Day of Play Followed by More Time Watching TV.

But who am I to judge? During the three hours Nick has allotted for play time, I am here blogging.

I've Been Replaced: Guest Review

Following is a guest review from Dr. Davis, whose qualifications for discussing the work of Paul Westerberg far surpass mine....Read on and enjoy! By the way, Open Season opens this Friday, and the soundtrack was released earlier this week.


A few years ago I read this article about veterans of the Minneapolis music scene of the 1980's. In it, Paul Westerberg talks about how his life had changed in his days since the breakup of his band, the Replacements, arguably the greatest American Rock and Roll band of all time. He tells about returning from a family outing to a water park and thinking, "I never thought I'd find myself doing that."

Well, Paul, life is full of surprises.

I have the standard rock geek take on Westerberg's career; drooling fanboy adulation of the early Replacements records, increasing disappointment with their music after they signed to Sire, and utter disillusionment and despair with Westerberg's namby-pamby solo work. However, I still held the glimmer of hope that Paul would redeem himself and go back to making kick-ass, beer-soaked rock and roll. So when his latest endeavor, the soundtrack to the new animated family movie Open Season, showed up in the mail, I was simultaneously taken aback, intrigued, offended, morbidly curious, and highly amused.

The soundtrack features six new Westerberg originals that sound like outtakes from Don't Tell a Soul, the final Replacements album* that sent the once great band out in a blaze of over-produced emasculation. However, even during that album's most yacht-rock moments, you could tell that there were great songs buried under all the Christopher Crossian glop. That's kind of what's going on with Open Season. The songs are strong, and despite the presence of string sections, back-up singers, and various brass combos, they do have some rocking moments. In particular, "Right to Arm Bears" is a legitimately funny song that harkens back to some of the Replacements' goofier material ("Headache", "Lovelines", "Gary's Got a...."). Even though the Westerberg originals on Open Season evoke the Replacements at their weakest, they still feature his trademark soaring melodies and catchy hooks.

The soundtrack also features Talking Heads' "Wild Life" ("The song 'Wild Life' in a movie about wildlife!! Get it!?!" I bet some guy at the record company is still cracking up about that one.), a track by Westerberg acolyte Pete Yorn, and a couple of throw-away "everybody party!" songs, neither of which stick with you, even after repeated listening.

The most incongruous moment of the soundtrack is the inclusion of "Good Day" - originally from Westerberg's 1996 album Eventually. The song was written as a meditation on the OD death of Bob Stinson, the Replacements' original lead guitarist. It's one of Westerberg's most evocative solo works - especially if you're familiar with its context. But it's going to be jarring to hear it as background music for a touching moment between a couple of funny forest friends.

So I'll go out on a limb here....I'm calling the Open Season soundtrack Paul Westerberg's best solo work. It might be reminiscent of the Replacements at their creative nadir, but you know what? Even when they weren't firing on all cylinders, The Replacements were better than pretty much anybody else. And at this point, particularly given my continuing apathy towards Westerberg's solo career, I'll take any Replacements I can get.

I'm looking forward to taking Walter to see Open Season. It will probably be funny enough to keep me entertained, and Walter is still into the novelty of seeing a film in the theatre. But mainly I'm excited about driving home and saying, "You know, the guy who wrote the songs for that movie used to be in a band. Listen to this..." and slipping my copy of Hootenanny into the CD player.

From the soundtrack to my misspent youth to the soundtrack to an animated movie....I never though I'd find myself listening to that.


*Final Replacements album that was remotely listenable. All Shook Down came out after Don't Tell A Soul, but it was just a depressing mess, so I've repressed any memory of its existence. And you should, too.

Stella! Hey, Stella!

Lately, it seems that our house has become The Place to hang out after school for some of my son's friends. In part, it's because our house is very near the bus stop, where about 15 kids unload every afternoon. But it's also because I am becoming known among these kids as The Mom who will wait outside with you until your own mom or dad or grandma shows up to meet you and walk you home, and The Mom who always has lots of food, and The Mom who is just around and happy to see you.

Among the parents, I worry that I am becoming known as The Responsible and Available Mom who will always be there to greet your kids when you are late, and The Energetic and Patient Mom who will often welcome kids into her yard and house to play. That's fine most of the time, but I'm learning there are days when I only want to be the Responsible and Available and Energetic and Patient Mom with my own children. And there are days when I can barely manage that.

Just after the start of the school year, a new family moved in a few houses away. They happen to have a little girl who is in Walter's first grade class. For the sake of her privacy, we'll call her Betty. Since Walter and Betty found each other, they have wanted to play together every day. Every Day.

It's fun to see Walter making a new friend so close by, but because they play mostly at our house, I've witnessed some interesting dynamics. It seems that girls, even at this young age, seem to instinctively know how to get what they want from boys. And boys, as strong-willed and independent as they seem, can turn into obedient little puppies in the presence of a such a girl. "Pull me in the wagon." "Walk me home." "Go find the other markers and some Scotch tape."

The other day, they were playing some kind of game - a cross between "What Not to Wear" and "Project Runway" - where Walter would run up to his room, put on different clothes, and come down to have his outfit "judged" by Betty. That was beyond disturbing, and I stopped the game after two rounds.

As they continue to get acquainted and play together, I am happier with what I see. Also, I see potential for another boy from Walter's class to become a "regular" when Walter and Betty play together. Most of the time, I'm enjoying having kids at our house after school, and I've heard from parents with older kids that it's very advantageous to establish your home as The Place to hang out. That way, you get to keep a close eye and ear on what your kids are doing, and you have a little more influence and control over what your kids do when they're with their friends.

But I think we may be in for some interesting times with Betty.

Over the weekend, Walter and Betty had a hard time connecting. When Betty came over looking for Walter on Saturday night, it was already bathtime for our kids. When Walter went looking for Betty on Sunday afternoon, she wasn't at home. Sunday night, desperate after two full days without her, Walter stood out at the end of the driveway and yelled her name. And it sounded a lot like this*




* For those of you who are familiar with A Streetcar Named Desire, please don't read too much into this. I'm not comparing my son in any way to Stanley Kowalski, nor am I comparing his friend to Stella. I am only amused by how much seeing Walter yelling "Betty!" reminds me of the above movie scene.

Better Late Than Never

Smithsonian Folkways released two albums for children and families in late August that are big news, especially for those of you needing a break from some of the more commercial-sounding kids' music. Since it's now late September, I thought it was high time to fill you in on these.

Whoever Shall Have Some Good Peanuts (and other folk songs for children) is a re-issue of a Sam Hinton recording from 1964. This is a stripped down sound from a time before anyone used the term "stripped down" to describe music - it's just Hinton's voice and acoustic guitar. The album features 20 traditional folk songs that were wonderful for children in the mid-1960's and are still entertaining today. Funny how that works with good music - it holds up well over time. Our family especially enjoyed "The Green Grass Growing All Around" and "The Barnyard Song". You can hear samples of all 20 tracks and order here.

You Are My Little Bird by Elizabeth Mitchell is family music in the tradition of Dan Zanes. In fact, Smithsonian Folkways sought out Mitchell on a tip from Zanes. Although I reviewed Little Bird over at Cool Mom Picks recently, I wanted to also be sure to mention it here, because I was so blown away. This is an album I've been listening to even when my kids aren't around, especially the covers of Bob Marley and Velvet Underground songs. You can hear several full tracks from the album at Mitchell's own site (I highly recommend "What Goes On" and "Three Little Birds"), and you can sample all 17 tracks and order your own at the Folkways site.

Whatever Happened to Melanie?

There continues to be a lot of fuss over the PBS Kids Sprout - Melanie Martinez issue, so I wanted to post a quick update. Martinez, former host of The Good Night Show, was fired by PBS Kids Sprout back in July for a video that she made seven years ago, which had recently surfaced on the internet. No much has changed since I posted about this in July, except for one bit of news. Sprout recently replaced Martinez with a "special guest host" who will fill that role until a more permanent replacement is found.

"Special guest host Leo" is played by Noel MacNeal, who is best known as the voice of Bear, of Bear in the Big Blue House. The Sprout website touts him as a 20-year veteran of children's television (because certainly, if he had any skeletons in his closet, someone would have found them by now, right?). But really....what's going to be more disturbing to children: the familiar voice of "Bear" coming from a man they've never seen before, or an internet video (which they will never see) made by the former host Melanie? MacNeal's episodes began airing last Monday, September 11.

I've been expecting to hear more from either Sprout or Martinez on the matter, but neither seems to have much to say. Martinez did this interview with the New York Observer in August, and there are two online petitions that her supporters can sign. I'm only half-heartedly encouraging you to sign a petition, because I haven't seen any sign that Martinez herself is seeking this kind of support. And I haven't been able to find any sign of progress. My email to one of the petition organizers has gone unanswered for more than a week, so signing a petition may be kind of an empty gesture at this point.

Maybe I'm just old and jaded, but I'm having trouble getting excited about supporting this cause. Sign a petition - if you feel like it. But I'm not sure anyone will really care.

Don't Be Alarmed

Whatever you do, please don't assume that I'm about to go all 1985 Tipper Gore on you right now. I want to point out a new item over there in the sidebar. See it there? The Common Sense Media box with the search button? Yes, there it is.

Now, don't be alarmed.

It's not the PMRC.

Common Sense Media is not here to tell you that you are corrupting your children with rock and roll music. They're not here to tell you to throw out your television. They're not here to censor anyone.

They're here (and by here, I mean in my sidebar) because they have some amazing resources about kids' media - including music, television, movies, and books.

Here is the first line of their statement of beliefs: "Media is fun and our kids love it." That was all it took to get my attention. Common Sense Media is a non-partisan, non-profit organization with some amazing resources for parents. You can read more about them here, but let me share with you just a few of their beliefs:

- We believe in media sanity, not censorship.

- We believe in teaching our kids to be savvy media interpreters -- we can'’t cover their eyes but we can teach them to see.

- We believe parents should have a choice and a voice about the media our kids consume. Every family is different but all need information.

Can you see now why I love them? That's a lot of what I believe, as I discussed a few months ago in my Treatise on Pop Culture. I've never been a fan of telling parents what's right or wrong for their kids in terms of media. I avoid discussingg age-appropriateness as much as possible around here, because I believe what's great for one four-year-old might be terrible for another four-year-old. But I appreciate how Common Sense Media approaches this.

I think parents know their children better than anyone else and should be the ones to ultimately determine what media is most appropriate for their children, but sometimes parents need information or opinions - from experts or from other parents. They can find that at Common Sense Media.

I'm still getting acquainted with all the resources and information on their site, and I encourage you to go over and take a look around, too. Or you can search a title from right here in the sidebar. If you check them out, be sure to let me know what you think.

TV Land, Part 2

It's time again to talk about kids' music on television. There have been many things happening, and a few things not happening (namely the new season of Jack's Big Music Show - read on) in this area.

Also, I've been thinking more about why I think kids' music on television is valuable and important. To explain briefly....98 to 99 percent of American households have at least one television in their homes (that's according to this U.S. Census press release), but I'm fairly certain not nearly that many homes have a collection of kids' and family music. Those of us who are online - writing blogs, reading blogs, downloading music online, ordering CD's on Amazon - are "early adopters" of technology, and therefore of new media. We have digital cameras, DVD players, laptops, mp3 players, high speed internet, and TiVo. And we probably had these things well in advance of many other parents.

As "early adopters" we have also been on the front end when it comes to discovering quality children's music. We have sought it out - very often finding this music (or information about the music) online. For the not-so-early adopters, television is going to be a major entry point for kids' music. (That's why a few years ago, many/most parents with young children thought The Wiggles were pretty much the only option in kids' music.) And if young children and their parents are being introduced to kids' music through television, I think most of us would prefer for that introduction to be made through music videos and shows like Jack's Big Music Show, than through commercials, like those for KidzBop, Laurie Berkner, and other artists.

So for some little four-year-old out there, whose only exposure to music so far has been listening to her mom's favorite Top 40 station while riding in the car, seeing a Dan Zanes video on Playhouse Disney is going to be potentially life-changing. Mind-blowing. Really.

And there you have it. That's why kids' music on TV is important. But enough pontificating....let's get on to what's new on television.

Playhouse Disney has been incorporating a number of children's artists into their daily line-up. Dan Zanes has his own "time slot" on Playhouse Disney with a 5-minute interstitial called "Dan Zanes House Party". Four different Dan Zanes videos air in this slot. Playhouse Disney is also airing videos from Imagination Movers (we saw the very fun song "My Favorite Snack" last week) and Ralph's World, including "Animal Friends". You can see other Ralph's World videos here.

Also on Playhouse Disney, you can catch They Might Be Giants performing the theme song and the excellent closing song ("Hot Dog!") for Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. You can see videos of both songs here. After years of avoiding Disney and swearing that our children would never know the likes of Mickey or Minnie, my husband and I have come around in the last few years, and the TMBG songs on this show pretty much seal it for me. Walt Disney now owns a piece of my soul.

PBS Kids, another emerging influence in kids' music, now has Milkshake and Rebecca Frezza videos airing daily on PBS during the morning pre-school programming block. You can check out these great videos online.

NOGGIN is still highlighting plenty of music, although not much is new there. They began airing Justin Roberts' "Willy Was a Whale" video over the summer, in addition to their other videos. (Roberts also has "Willy" and a few other videos on his own site.) Also, NOGGIN continues to air the first season of Jack's Big Music Show. But I hope you're enjoying those 13 episodes of Jack, because the second season, originally scheduled to begin airing this fall, has been delayed until January 2007. And here's some interesting trivia about Jack. Did you know that Jack's Big Music Show is an homage, of sorts, to the Jack Benny Show? The characters - Jack, Mary, Mel, the Schwartzman Quartet - are all references to the Jack Benny Show (which had Jack Benny, Mary Livingstone, Mel Blanc, and the Sportsmen Quartet). Read about it here.

Stay tuned for more information about Jack's Big Music Show (as soon as I know more), more reviews this week, and my first artist interview - with Uncle Rock!


Also, don't forget - I have a copy of What's Eatin' Yosi? for some lucky reader who leaves a comment - on any post here on the blog - this weekend. Just include your e-mail address when you comment, and leave your comment (on any post) by Sunday night at 10 pm. I'll pick one at random and email the winner Monday morning.

Snow Day!

We have friends who, every Christmas season, go all out with decorations. They decorate their entire house, inside and out. They bake dozens of cookies and mega-batches of Chex mix. We normally visit their house on or around Christmas, and it is an incredibly busy place, with music, flashing lights, scents, beeping toys, Santa hats, squealing children, and yipping dogs. While their way of celebrating is quite different from ours, I usually end up enjoying myself when we are there because a) it's not my house, and b) it's fun to watch our kids have such a crazy-fun time and fall asleep in the car after we leave.

Eric Herman's summer release Snow Day! reminded me a lot of Christmas with these friends. It is non-stop fun with an enormous variety of musical sounds and styles, silly voices, and wacky lyrics. There is a lot going on in Herman's music, but it's fun and enjoyable, especially for kids. With plenty of experience doing workshops and assemblies for elementary students, he knows how to entertain and engage this age group. I would suspect that even an 8-year-old who forgot his Ritalin would sit still and give his undivided attention to an Eric Herman performance.

Herman incorporates a number of different musical styles on this album - reggae, country, disco - but representations of various styles and genres seem mostly satirical or tongue-in-cheek, like the mock-disco song "Dance Like and Animal". Several songs, including the surf-inspired "I Can't Wait for Summer", "Melody Ring", and "When I Grow Up" seem somewhat earnest, then end with an unexpected goofy punchline. Herman is a great example of the "goofy dad" sub-genre of children's music, with the "high-energy, laugh-a-minute approach" that I described here.

My favorite track on Snow Day! is "No Big Deal", which has a nurturing message about not getting angry when things don't go your way balanced with goofy humor like "My toothbrush fell into the toilet when I flushed / No big deal, I had already brushed." And the "sha-na-na" chorus reminded made me think, for just a moment, I was listening to the Brady kids singing "Time to Change".

The album turns very mellow and sincere on the last two tracks - the poetic ballad "Hide and Go Seek With the Moon" and "This Little Light of Mine", sung as a duet with Jen Marco Handy.

Overall, Herman's aesthetic (in terms of writing, arrangements, and mix) reminded me very much of TV theme songs - think Jimmy Neutron or 1970's sit-coms. He brought in a number of musicians and vocalists (including some who do character voices) for the album, so it has lots of bells and whistles. His writing is clearly geared toward elementary-age kids, but there is plenty here for parents to enjoy, too.


Updated: Phil over at A Family Runs Through It has also been discussing Eric Herman in a couple of recent posts. Take a look!

All You Can Eat

What's Eatin' Yosi?, an August release from Yosi Levin (you can just call him Yosi), is a playful and artistic collection of mostly original songs about food. Upon first approaching this album, I was skeptical of the food theme, but it worked surprisingly well for me. While all but one song on the album have very literal food themes and images, it helps that the songs were not all about eating - they were also about cooking food, buying food, gathering together for meals, and even playing with food.

Yosi represents a range of styles that are both musically and culturally diverse. Calypso, zydeco, New Orleans jazz, barbershop quartet, and even klezmer (think of a Jewish wedding circle dance) are all present on What's Eatin' Yosi?, making the album a vertiable smorgasbord of styles and genres. But having encountered this wide variety on both this album and Under a Big Bright Yellow Umbrella (Yosi's award-winning 2004 release), I was left wondering what Yosi's own sound is.

High points on What's Eatin' Yosi? are his duet with Brady Rymer on Brady's "Fresh Brown Eggs," and the mock-classic rock "Chicken Noodle Soup" with its frequent "oh, yeaaah's" and sax solo that are a hilarious send-up to Bob Seger. And for those of you who have at one time or another dressed your pre-schooler in a Ramones t-shirt, the punk rock "On Top of Spaghetti" will be this album's greatest selling point. The album is at times both goofy and sweet. While Yosi has hints of the "Goofy Dad" sub-genre discussed below, his education and background in psychology and counseling seem to inform his work to a certain degree, as does the time he spent playing in a college punk band, making for a great balance.

Psssst....I have a copy of What's Eatin' Yosi? for some lucky reader who leaves a comment - on any post here on the blog - this weekend. Just include your e-mail address when you comment (only I will see it), and leave your comment (on any post) by Sunday night at 10 pm. I'll pick one at random and email the winner Monday morning.

Fish on Friday

I could not let this week go by without mentioning the new release from Trout Fishing in America. And with so many new releases lately, I'm feeling more than a tiny bit guilty for not yet covering a few summer releases that are definitely worth bringing to your attention. So following this review will be several other mini-reviews as part of a big Weekend Music Extravaganza.

But for now, let's start with Trout Fishing in America and their brand new release, My Best Day. I've posted before about my lukewarm response to TFA, the duo of Ezra Idlet (guitar) and Keith Grimwood (bass). I must give them credit, though, for their longevity in the family music genre - they have been at this for 30 years and have released 12 CD's (seven of which are for kids and families). And they are the grand-daddys of the "Goofy Dad" sub-genre of family and children's music, which now includes the likes of Daddy-a-Go-Go, Eric Herman (coming right up as part of the Weekend Music Extravaganza), and several others.

The "Goofy Dads" are trying as hard to make kids laugh as they are trying to make kids sing and dance. They have high-energy, laugh-a-minute approach to music, and sometimes push the boundaries of appropriateness. For example....TFA's "I've Got an Alien in My Nose" is funny when they sing it, but less funny when a five-year-old re-enacts the song/story at the neighborhood barbecue.

A New York Times review of Trout Fishing in America referred to this quality as "a kind of goofball gestalt" which is counter to the "sugary sweet format" of other children's music. The Times description is troubling to me, as it implies that these two are mutually exclusive - I would argue they are not. In fact, there are many hybrids of goofiness and sugary sweetness, as well as numerous other approaches to kids' music. As an aside: the anti-sugary-sweet sentiment, which, I believe could be better described these days as anti-Wiggles, has led many artists (again, this is an "aside" and not directed at TFA) to try to show how "un-sweet" they can be, and they sometimes end up seeming crude and/or shallow. But I digress....

There are lots of dedicated TFA fans out there, and probably a good number of people who just don't "get" them. I would imagine this is similar to Jimmy Buffet fans - there are Parrot Heads and there are those who just don't appreciate or enjoy Buffet. As Stefan explained in his recent review at Zooglobble, TFA fans will very likely enjoy My Best Day, and TFA newcomers may find it a good point of entry. Although I am not much of a Trout fan, this album did move me a bit further toward an appreciation of them.

My Best Day is a live album, which is unique in kids' music, and it includes both old and new songs. The performance was recorded at the University of Central Arkansas, and the audience is as much a part of the show as Idlet and Grimwood. The TFA duo is joined by "multi-instrumentalist" Fred Bogert on guitar, piano, accordion, and more. Bogert also masterfully edited and mixed My Best Day - not an easy job with a live album.

What I most enjoyed about My Best Day were the Grateful Dead-sounding guitar tones and the Austin City Limits story-telling feel that came from the live performance. This was more enjoyable to me than TFA's studio recordings, but I still feel like somewhat of an outsider when it comes to this duo, like I'm not quite in on the joke.

Whoever tells the story defines the culture

Back in March, I posted about See Jane, an organization founded by Geena Davis to increase the percentages of female characters and reduce gender stereotyping in media made for children 11 and under. I was surprised to learn what disparity there was in gender roles, but also thrilled that someone was addressing the issue.

See Jane started by looking at movies for children. As part of their series on Gender Portrayals in G-Rated Movies, the organization released the first brief "Where the Girls Aren't: Gender Disparity Saturates G-Rated Films" early in 2006. What an eye-opener that was. Here are some of my thoughts (from my March post):

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.

Recently, See Jane released the second brief in this series - "G Movies Give Boys a D: Portraying Males as Dominant, Disconnected, and Dangerous." The research looked at the 101 top-grossing G-rated movies released from 1990 to 2004 (although, sadly, they didn't publish a list of these movies), and turned up some interesting findings:

* Characters of color are most often sidekicks, comic relief, or villains. (Not surprising, but disturbing.)

* G-rated films show "few examples" of male characters who are husbands and/or fathers. (That actually was surprising.)

* Pre-schoolers are especially impressionable regarding gender roles, as this is the age when children have their "ideas of manhood and womanhood shaped and integrated into their own personalities."

As the mother of two sons, I expected these findings to hit me harder. Maybe I wasn't terribly surprised by any of it. Or maybe I've become desensitized from watching too many violent movies. Heh. In part, I guess I don't pay as much attention to adult male characters in G movies as I do to the young male characters. And those young males (think Andy in Toy Story) just don't seem very Disconnected, or Dangerous. I really don't think my 6-year-old pays nearly as much attention to adult male characters as he does to child characters (of either gender) in movies.

Although this brief did not get as strong of a reaction from me as the earlier one, I am looking forward to the next two in the series on Gender Portrayals in G Movies - "Occupational Expectations for Girls and Boys" and "Body Image and Hyper-Sexuality." Oh, I can hardly wait for that last one. I think I'll personally deliver a copy of it to the makers of Braatz dolls.

See Jane is also releasing a separate study this fall on Gender Portrayals in TV for Children 11 and Under. You can bet your Kim Possible action figures that I will be discussing that here.

The research and advocacy work being done by See Jane is incredibly important to our children. Because what David Walsh (founder of National Institute on Media and the Family) said is so, so true: "Whoever tells the story defines the culture." The stories being told in G-rated movies are defining the culture for our children. So to them, being a girl means being a Disney princess, and being a boy means being an action hero or adventurer or one who "saves" the girl/princess. Is that the culture in which we want our children to live?

I'm curious to hear from you. Who is "defining the culture" for your children? How are you addressing gender roles in kids' media with your own children? I'm especially interested in hearing from those of you who have daughters....How does a feminist mom (or dad) respond to Disney princesses?

Keep an eye on what See Jane is doing. Get on their e-mail list. Show your support. Check out their recommendations for parents and children. As I've said, they are doing some important work and calling attention to things that all of us, as parents, should be aware of. Most importantly, they're encouraging us to be active - not passive - in our consumption of media, and to think critically about what our children are hearing and seeing.


This post is in response to Her Bad Mother's Call to Action.

Dan Zanes on YouTube

Here is another bit of Dan Zanes goodness - an excellent video/interview from YouTube. Enjoy!

Get your FIXX of cool stuff

Have you stopped over at Spare the Rock this weekend? Bill has lots of CD's and DVD's to give away. Roger Day, Kid Pan Alley, Elizabeth Mitchell and more.....check it out!

Also, in case you missed it, Zooglobble has a new location AND an amazing interview with Dan Zanes. Go see!

I have some DVD's to give away in the next week or so....stay tuned. For now, here are a few pictures of what's been happening around here this weekend - our town's annual Black Swamp Arts Festival. We saw the Reverend Horton Heat in concert last night (by the way, we LOVE our babysitter!). And we enjoyed some art and food today. Tonight, I'm going back to see The FIXX and English Beat.

That's Dr. Davis (in the middle) hanging with our friends while we await the Reverend.

I clearly need to powder my shiny nose and forehead. And Lori needs another beer.

Dr. Davis and Walter enjoying some lunch at the festival today. Chicken on a stick....mmm, that's tasty.

From the Bad Idea File

This might get my award for Worst Idea Ever....a kids' album made by prison inmates. Right here in Ohio. Although no inmates convicted of sex crimes or crimes against children were to have been involved, one child rapist seems to have slipped through the cracks - he actually got two of his songs on the album. The article explains that the album, called Wings of Hope, was the "brainchild of Ohio first lady Hope Taft, who was not available for comment."

Although Hope Taft won't comment on this, I hope some of you will.

Sesame Street: Old School

Details have been released about the upcoming Sesame Street DVD box set, now called Sesame Street Old School. This set is Volume 1 in a who-knows-how-many-volume series of classic Sesame Street. Volume 1 includes five full episodes from the first five years, plus the original pilot, classics like "Ladybug Picnic" and "C is for Cookie", and lots more. For more details, check out Muppet Central.

Volume 1 will be released October 24, along with the documentary, The World According to Sesame Street.

And coming in November, more Electric Company on DVD.

The Video Deficit

Nearly all parents have opinions on television for kids - how much is too much, at what age it can be considered beneficial, which shows are appropriate for which ages. And there's a study out there to back up most of the various opinions that exist (except the opinion that plopping your child in front of the TV for 6-8 hours a day exhibits fine parenting skills).

There's an interesting article in the New York Times today that highlights research from Vanderbilt University on toddlers and television. Here's just a taste:

Developmental psychologists say the Vanderbilt research offers an intriguing clue to a phenomenon called the “video deficit.” Toddlers who have no trouble understanding a task demonstrated in real life often stumble when the same task is shown onscreen. They need repeated viewings to figure it out....Child-development experts say the deficit confirms the age-old wisdom that real-life interactions are best for babies. Parents can be assured, they say, that their presence trumps the tube.

But psychologists still want to get to the bottom of what might explain the difference. Is it the two-dimensionality of the screen? Do young children have some innate difficulty in remembering information transmitted as symbols? “It’s definitely still a puzzle, and we’re trying to figure out the different components to it,” said Rachel Barr, a psychologist at Georgetown University who specializes in infant memory.

What the article doesn't explain is how or why at some age (as I recall, it was around age 4 or 5) the "video deficit" reverses itself, and children remember EVERYTHING they hear and see on television, but less and less of what their parents tell them.

New Music Tuesday: Snowdance

It's Tuesday, and that means there's new music. This week's new release in kids' music is Snowdance, the second album from Erin Lee and Marci.

The 12 tracks on Snowdance are fun, well-written songs that each represent a month of the year. As music and theatre educators, Erin Lee Kelly and Marci Applebaum are writing for kids, not for grown-ups; and their writing reflects their years of experience working with kids in the arts in New York. They've made an effort to appeal to children across a broad socio-economic spectrum, and in one of the toughest age ranges - the 5 to 10-year olds. The lyrics are all from the point of view of a child, and they're deliberately non-gender specific. Musically, the songs are written to be accessible for kids, not just for listening, but for singing and performing.

Once I understood their intent and approach, I was able to appreciate Snowdance on a new level. This would be great music for kids to learn and perform in a music class or theatre program. (On top of that, several of these would make fantastic audition songs for kids, if you're one of those parents who has visions of little Taylor starring in your community theatre's next big musical.)

While Erin Lee and Marci do a fine job with the vocals on the album, especially on tracks like "My Treehouse" and "Next Year", I realized that most of these songs are meant to be sung by kids. But for the purposes of listening to music at home or in the car, I'll happily take the two adult women with lovely, trained voices over a chorus of kids.

Musically, Snowdance has a full sound, with bright vocals and pop/rock arrangements. A few songs, like "September March" and "Thanksgiving with Aunt Pearl", have a definite musical theatre flavor. Tracks like "Mud Music" and "My Treehouse", with lots of rhythm guitar and tight harmonies, helped me understand why Erin Lee and Marci have been called "the Indigo Girls of Children's Music" (but unlike the Indigo Girls, their songs are happy and not full of disillusionment). With themes that address the passage of time and the changes taking place over the course of a year, and with the recurring rock-musical sound, the album actually reminded me a lot of Rent. You can hear tracks and order CD's here.

The more I listened to Snowdance, the more I liked it. But more than this album, what I really love about Erin Lee and Marci is their passion for bringing music and theatre to kids.

Panic! At How Old I Feel

As a pathetic hanger-on to youth culture, I tuned in for a little bit of the MTV Video Music Awards Thursday night. What makes it even more pathetic, though, is that I was interrupted by my husband while I was watching Celebrity Duets on FOX, and told duh! the VMAs are on MTV right NOW. (His subtext: Why are you watching more of that horrific crap? I don't care about Celebrity Duets anymore, now that Chris Jericho has been voted off.)

Watching the VMAs used to be a Major Event in our home. It usually culminated in me reaching a point of utter disgust with the behavior of some musician or band, screaming at the TV, Is there no such thing as decorum? Do these people not have mothers? Yet we would watch until the bitter end, and stay up even later to discuss the cultural meaning and implications of Pearl Jam performing with Neil Young or the nutjob bassist from Rage Against the Machine climbing the scaffolding during Limp Bizkit's acceptance speech.

Somewhere around turning 30 and having our first child, this Major Event devolved into me screaming at the TV (very quietly so as not to wake our son), then my husband and me deciding that we were too tired to stay up for the last hour and agreeing that we could just catch the rest of the show when it re-aired on the weekend. And then watching it on the weekend and lamenting over how many of the bands we I really don't even know anymore.

Last year, I completely missed the VMAs. So this year, I felt extraordinarily out of touch. There were bands I had never heard of. And there were bands I had only heard of in the context of a friend telling me that her children listen to them.

As I watched Panic! At the Disco perform, I asked myself, were these punks even born yet when MTV went on the air? Well, thank goodness for my laptop and Google, because I was able to get the answer to that question before the next commercial break. Are you ready for the answer?

Are you sure?

Not a single member of Panic! At the Disco was born when MTV went on the air in 1981. In fact, the eldest member of the group wasn't born until 1985. The youngest was born in 1987. Had I not been the uptight and repressed well-bred and responsible young woman that I was in high school, I could have been the mother of any of these boys.

To make it worse, while Panic! At the Disco performed, I asked my husband, "What is this song about? I can't understand these lyrics at all." This moment could have only been more sad if I had said that while peering over some bi-focals.

After that, I was relieved to see some familiar faces - Jordan Catalano (actually Jared Leto, but it's "cool" to refer to him as Jordan Catalano, the character he played on My So Called Life) and his band were there. Jack White and the Raconteurs were the house band, playing out to all the commercial breaks. Jack Black and Sarah Silverman were there, perhaps representing the late-thirty-something pathetic hangers-on. Excellent! Let's Google.

Oh, crap.

I'm older than both of them. But at least Jack Black and I were born in the same decade. Sarah Silverman was born in 1970, making her - on a technicality - much younger.

Lou Reed was there, but he's too old to make me feel any better. He's older than Keith Richards, if you can imagine that. (But he looks great, don't you think?)

And I found out later that Al Gore was there, although I had fallen asleep by the time he showed up (presumably with special permission from Tipper and the PMRC). Somehow my concerns about being a pathetic hanger-on to youth culture faded away when I heard about his appearance.

You can view the VMAs, check out the winners, and see photos at MTV's VMA site.

One to Add to Your Reading List

"People all over have simply stopped acting their age."

Rejuvenile, a new book by Christopher Noxon, caught my attention a few weeks ago, and has since filled my head with all kinds of new ideas about kiddie culture, kids' media, mass marketing, and much more. It turns out Noxon has been thinking about and writing about many of the same things that have been rustling around in my brain and spilling out occasionally here on the blog, but he has taken an approach to these ideas/observations that I had never considered. He identifies and defines a type of adult which he calls the Rejuvenile. These are adults who "cultivate tastes and mindsets traditionally associated with those younger than themselves."

In other words, these are adults who play in kickball leagues or pursue extreme sports, who collect action figures or comic books or dolls, who make frequent trips to Disneyland, or who enjoy (yes, enjoy) dining regularly at Chuck E. Cheese. Not all Rejuveniles exhibit all of these interests; in fact, many live a large part of their lives under the guise of "traditional" adult appearances and behaviors, and save their Rejuvenile passions for the weekends.

Early on, Noxon makes very clear that he's not talking just about a trend among Generation X. He talks about Gen X-ers and Baby Boomers (and even older individuals), parents and non-parents, and couples and singles as Rejuveniles. He doesn't generalize, but he does point out that most Rejuveniles are upper class and urban, that many work in creative and/or high tech fields, and that this group appears to be more heavily male than female.

He takes a broad approach to Rejuveniles - giving examples of different ways that people stay young, and different societal and generational trends that have led to the growing prevalence of Rejuveniles. The early chapter on the history and roots of Rejuvenalia was a bit tedious, although he needed to cover a lot of that ground to credibly establish his theory. But beyond the first chapter, the book goes at a fun and fast pace through dozens of examples of Rejuveniles. Noxon interviewed, among others, the founder of an adult tag league called the Tag Institute, a woman who had a brief career as a professional skipper, numerous toy collectors, a 40-something couple (without children) who spend at least one weekend a month at one of the Disney parks, and a mom who returned to her pre-teen passion of skateboarding as a way of coping with post-partum depression.

Quite necessarily, Noxon addresses the darker side of the Rejuvenile concept - Michael Jackson, Furries, and a few not-so-well-adjusted adults who are highlighted. He also struggles openly in the book with his own view of Rejuveniles and with his own identity, at times stepping out of the mostly-objective voice into a "now here's my own experience and perspective" voice.

Noxon spends part of a chapter discussing Rejuveniles as parents, and points out that parents today - generally speaking - are more likely than past generations to engage in playing with their children. Also in this chapter, he ventures briefly into children's media, and shared an interview with Belinda Miller and Hova Najarian, parents and founders of the kids' radio show Greasy Kid Stuff.

In the final chapter, he touches on a few ideas that I thought were deserving of more time and attention, especially the reluctance of Rejuveniles (or adults in general) to "give up the magical thinking of childhood" - so belief in Santa and the Tooth Fairy is replaced by belief in UFO's, psychics, and angels. Noxon's very brief discussion of pop spirituality and what has been called the "counter-Enlightenment" left me wanting more. But that is just one almost-peripheral aspect of Rejuveniles.

In some ways, as I read, I identified strongly as a Rejuvenile. But at other points in the book, I reacted like a Harrumphing Codger (Noxon's term for people who frown on Rejuvenile behaviors). Identifying with Rejuveniles is not essential at all to the enjoyment of this book - it provides a fascinating look at a cleverly-defined concept, with plenty of unique "case studies" and some insightful personal views.

To learn more, click on over to Noxon's Rejuvenile blog, or head straight to Amazon to get your own copy. I highly recommend this one.

Perfection

I've discovered a whole lotta new blogs in the last month or so, and one of my favorites these days is WordGirl's blog, Half of the Sky. She had a post a couple weeks ago that I thought was just perfect, so I am sending WordGirl a Perfect Post award for "Greetings from the Last Car on the Roller Coaster".

To see the rest of August's Perfect Post awards, visit Suburban Turmoil or Petroville.