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Saturday, March 17, 2007 Road Hazzard  The Cincinnati Pops cancelled a planned performance with Bo and Luke Duke after complaints were made about the show's "racist overtones". The Dukes of Hazzard...racist? What? I think I might have heard more racial undertones in Different Strokes or Sanford and Son than I ever did on the Dukes, which never presented itself as more than light family fare. It seems to me this is solely centered on the flag plastered atop the General Lee, which was never made mention of except in reference to the name of the car. Why did the Pops have to cancel because of this. Could they not have had Tom Wopat and John Schneider on without referencing the car? On another note, I had no idea that Cooter had been so involved in the Civil Rights movement:
I think Jones sets a precedent for all actors who claim they have been typecast into a role and can't break out of it - dive into something else you believe in with all your heart, and you'll break away from that persona. Labels: Anti-Fun, Hooray for Hollywood, Spot the Pop Culture Reference ------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, March 13, 2007 When 2 plus 2 equals 300  Today I watched a great episode of Voyager that I'd never seen before. "Living Witness" details how an entire alien culture has developed over 700 years, based on an account of an encounter with Voyager that is made up of distortions and half-truths. It's a good parable of how history is written by the victors and, in the words of Obi-Wan "that you'll find that many of the truths we cling to depend on our point of view".In the real world, though, these nuances don't take 700 years. They can occur in just a few decades. Case in point: the People's Daily from China reported on an Iranian official's announcement that the new film 300 insults Persian civilization. According to Javad Shamqadri, President Ahmadinejad's art advisor, the film is "part of a comprehensive U.S. psychological war aimed at Iranian culture...following the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Hollywood and cultural authorities in the U.S. initiated studies to figure out how to attack Iranian culture...certainly, the recent movie is a product of such studies." If only Javad had checked the internet for all of five minutes before he spoke, he might have been able to discern this film is based on a graphic novel and was not hatched out of some psychological warfare unit in Tinseltown, but a cash machine ready to take another gamble on a film from the creator of Sin City. While the film does cast aspersions on the Persian army, it's the same kind of demonization that's down to the enemy in all of Hollywood's films. Declaring it as anything more involved is simply hyperbole. Now for an intelligent rebuttal to the film, listen to Ephraim Lytle, Assistant Professor of Hellenistic History at the University of Toronto. Labels: Hooray for Hollywood, Politics, Retcon ------------------------------------------------
Requiem for a Angioplasty  Goodbye to you, Ranch Burger. I will always remember that the slaw should go on the burger, and that old grandfathers told their son's son's they needed to make the pilgramige to the best burger in the world. ------------------------------------------------
Friday, March 09, 2007 A Friendly Reminder... From the missionaries that stopped at our door:  Labels: And We Are Rather Puny ------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, March 06, 2007 Oscar the Grouch  The Academy might believe in the magic of movies and their impact in people's livesbut they sure don't want people to celebrate except in a six hour telecast on Sunday. Variety reports that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences requested YouTube to pull all clips of the show. Several segments of the show had been among the most-viewed content of the week. The academy claimed this was to "to help manage the value of our telecast and our brand." They went on to say that they have clips available on their site; however, the clips were short and did not include the same content as the YouTube clips. Furthermore, the Academy said that the clips they offer will eventually be removed, to "whet people's appetite for next year's show." How myopic can the Academy get? The ratings for the Oscars have been in steady decline for years. Any segment on YouTube is FREE ADVERTISING for the brand and the telecast. If someone sees a segment in one years telecast that strikes them as funny or worth watching, they are more likely next year to tune in to see it for themselves. Not airing clips from the show for others to see means a steadily declining audience made up of die-hard watchers and does nothing to entice new viewers. And, given that the Academy never airs footage from their telecast except within future telecasts themselves, creates an insular and infertile medium for growth. Labels: Anti-Fun, Got a Permit for Breathing, Hooray for Hollywood ------------------------------------------------
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Saturday, March 24, 2007 Creativity .... An overheard conversation from Parker, 5-1/2 yo: "Star Destroyer, are you okay out there flying around all crazy?" "Yes" KABOOM!!!!! "Maybe" Labels: Parker ------------------------------------------------
Saturday, March 10, 2007 An *a-HA* Moment from a "seasoned" mom It is interesting how time and distance makes you forget things. Parker was most definitely a high needs child, but with time, and with reassurance, he has become a very independent child, to a point that I don't think of him as still high needs. Ironically, as I just shared with some friends a list of high needs child traits, I STILL saw Parker in them. And he's 5! For example, supersensitive -- just Wednesday at the Homeschool meeting/Gardening party, he was finally able to be convinced to try and dig in the dirt, and was able to enjoy it until .... he saw his hands were dirty. We had to immediately go in and scrub-scrub-scrub the sap from the roots off of his hands so he wouldn't melt down. At five years of age. And intense -- Thursday evening, as the night routine was getting prepared, he was watching Animal Planet's Funniest Animals and laughing SOOOOO loud. When I told him it was time for it to be turned off (the show ended, and it was time to eat, clean, read, etc.), he cried and carried on, even saying "I'll never watch TV again!!" This is NOT an isolated event solely about the television or the time of day. This can happen first thing in the morning over which cereal I suggest he eat or if I tell him he cannot have a lollipop as his breakfast. Jumping down to constantly feeding, he is always snacking, and probably has about 6 or 7 mini-meals a day. Maybe even 9. Some of the others ones aren't as noticeable to me anymore or no longer even an issue, but the above three still manage to bug me some days more than they should, because I've forgotten that he will always be "high needs" or "spirited". I'm really glad to have gotten a wake up call, and a validation that he's NOT doing this to make me crazy!!! ------------------------------------------------
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