School programs done? check. Tree up? check. Presents? check. First holiday party? Check......Ready for Christmas? Hell no....lol. - Lisa
Published writer, compulsive reader, Old School Whovian, Match Game enthusiast, NKOTB fan, data hoarder, and - surprisingly, given that list - married with four kids. Welcome to my take on life, fatherhood, entertainment, and whatever strikes my fancy. Enjoy!
Monday, December 21, 2009
Thursday, December 17, 2009
FYI
Just received word I'll be in the Journal again on Christmas Day. You've got plenty of notice, so no excuses for not buying a paper that day :) That'll be the 13th or 14th column of the year for me. Kinda neat it's happened so often I've lost count.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Another Stupid List - Concerts I've seen
I'm not a big concert person, so don't expect a long list here. I don't like crowds, I don't appreciate start times that mean "two hours from the time printed on the ticket" and I don't like artists who F with their songs on stage in the name of 'art'.
Alice In Chains
Kenny Rogers
Creed
Tina Turner
Madonna
Bare Naked Ladies
Prince
New Kids on the Block
Cyndi Lauper
Billy Ray Cyrus
Black 47
Belinda Carlisle
Liz Phair
Dada
Joey McIntyre
Jordan Knight
Alanis Morrisette
Alice In Chains
Kenny Rogers
Creed
Tina Turner
Madonna
Bare Naked Ladies
Prince
New Kids on the Block
Cyndi Lauper
Billy Ray Cyrus
Black 47
Belinda Carlisle
Liz Phair
Dada
Joey McIntyre
Jordan Knight
Alanis Morrisette
I Love You, Man
"Jesus," Lisa said. "It's like they made a movie about you!"
Not true, I countered. Yes, "I Love you Man!" features a protagonist who is more comfortable among women than men, who hangs out at home with his lady rather than goes out with the boys, who doesn't drink often, and who.
But, I countered, unlike him I do have male friends, and rattled off a list.
"But you don't go hang out with them," Lisa said, "That's why your All-Star party is so important to you. It's the one time a year you do the guy thing."
"But that's my choice," I said. "It's different."
And so it is. Later in the film, however, it's revealed that the main character often slips into a cadence that resembles an Irish lilt. Lisa roared.
"That is SO YOU!"
I'll give her that. For some reason, I have developed a verbal tic where I slip into the same speech pattern. It's nuts, and I've been raked over the coals for it.
Anywho . . .
The great Paul Rudd plays Peter Klaven, all around nice guy without any male friends, and at the urging of his fiance he goes in search of a buddy to be the best man at his wedding. He finds him in the form of Sydney Fife, played by Jason Segal, and the two hit it off. Too well, as a matter of fact, because his fiance soon gets jealous. Will Klaven have keep his friend and his wife? Or will he have to choose between them both?
I thought this was a very good movie, and very funny at times. Segal is a little too laid back for the role, IMO, as you'd think it would take a complete extrovert to draw Klaven out, and not merely a more masculine introvert. There was also, as his fiance points out, a degree of awkward sexual tension between the two that seemed out of place at best.
Small potatoes really. An enjoyable film, and a 3.1 out of 4.
Tropic Thunder
This movie has everything it takes to implode the head of a Politically Correct watchdog.
There's an actor in blackface, a movie-in-a-movie portrayal of a mentally retarded man, a heroin addicted comedian who specializes in farts, a Jewish executive who's greedy and obnoxious, the kiling of a giant panda, and a whole mess of drug peddling violent South East Asians.
Yikes.
Tropic Thunder is a film about a Vietnam movie being filmed on location. Unbeknownst to the actors they are no longer part of an experimental film technique, they're actually at war with a local drug cartele. Hijinks ensue.
I thought it was a blast, a solid if not spectacular chuckler from beginning to end. And the cast was top notch - Robert Downey (who was great), Jack Black, Ben Stiller, Nick Nolte, Matthew McCaughnahay (sp?), and Tom Cruise (in a great part as the movie exec).
The drawbacks to the film are readily apparent and irrelevant - what, you wanted a complex plot and romance? - and shouldn't hold you back from seeing this movie.
2.5 out of 4.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Only One Left Tonight!
Down three for a minute tonight and into the morning, very excited! Anyone want a 2 year old, make it down to none? NOW THAT'S A FEAT! - Lisa
Friday, December 11, 2009
Yippee!
The robotic rodent race was won! Thanks to the hubby for going to Toys R Us at the butt crack of dawn, lol. We have succeeded in not paying over retail for those fuzzy little hamsters that have made so many others go broke paying 3-4x what retail was! Sad so many people had to buy them up to make a profit. Hopefully the same thing will happen to them next year when their kid wants the "must have" toy of the year! - Lisa
Barbie - a rejected Journal column
Bratz - a rejected Journal column
On the day my first community columnist piece was published (an article on swim safety on a cold and snowy day; - how’s that for timing?) the Journal-Sentinel ran a column directly above my own. Written by Jonathon V Last of the Philadelphia Inquirer, it traced the messy battle between the makers of the Bratz line of dolls and the Barbie empire.
It was a fine article, one that hit a nerve in my house. We’ve been discussing the mammoth decision against MGA Entertainment, the makers of Bratz, for some time now. To greatly simplify the issue, after winning a court decision in their favor Barbie’s owners at Mattel want all Bratz merchandise removed from store shelves. The action would remove the most serious threat in years to Barbie’s domination of the market.
It also greatly worries the resident seven-year old Bratz fan in my house.
That last sentence is what worries me. Just by admitting, - in print no less - that my daughter likes Bratz I’m inviting trouble. To some people that’s no better than bragging that I let her juggle steak knives (and obviously, for the record, I don’t.)
My daughter has gone to birthday parties where the invitation clearly stated that no Bratz toys would be accepted, and she’s gone to homes where no such toys may cross their threshold. Fine. I have no objection to that. Every parent has the right to decide what is right and acceptable for their own child.
To me and my wife, that line in the sand doesn’t begin or end with a doll.
Bratz’ signature has always been funkier than good ol’ Barbie, and yes, to most critics that difference comes off as sexual. It’s an odd world that spends forty years decrying Barbie as a sexualized and unrealistic ideal, then decides to hold her up as a model citizen, but compared to Bratz Barbie comes off as your sweet Aunt Marie.
Bratz dolls dress funkier, they have more fashionable hairstyles, their tie-in merchandise is colorful and flashy, they’re urban rather than Malibu, and their feet pop off. You read that right. Rather than force tiny shoes on the doll, leaving a hundred lost pair around as a threat to my toddler, the makers of Bratz have the dolls switch out entire foot/shoe combinations.
Let’s see Barbie do that.
Those are some of the reasons why Bratz made such inroads into the market. It wasn’t about sex, and it certainly wasn’t to aspire to the ridiculous hyperbole labeling the doll‘s ‘streetwalkers’. It was because someone finally presented an alternative to their Grandmother’s increasingly bland and predictable Barbie.
As much heat as Bratz takes in the media, there must be a great and silent majority of parents who agree with me on the issue. After all, in 2005 sales of Bratz reached $750 million. They couldn’t all have been bought by ‘bad’ parents.
Who knows. Maybe once Mattel gobbles up the Bratz line it can use some of that revenue to give Barbie a makeover of her own - but, uh, maybe skip the bare midriff
On the day my first community columnist piece was published (an article on swim safety on a cold and snowy day; - how’s that for timing?) the Journal-Sentinel ran a column directly above my own. Written by Jonathon V Last of the Philadelphia Inquirer, it traced the messy battle between the makers of the Bratz line of dolls and the Barbie empire.
It was a fine article, one that hit a nerve in my house. We’ve been discussing the mammoth decision against MGA Entertainment, the makers of Bratz, for some time now. To greatly simplify the issue, after winning a court decision in their favor Barbie’s owners at Mattel want all Bratz merchandise removed from store shelves. The action would remove the most serious threat in years to Barbie’s domination of the market.
It also greatly worries the resident seven-year old Bratz fan in my house.
That last sentence is what worries me. Just by admitting, - in print no less - that my daughter likes Bratz I’m inviting trouble. To some people that’s no better than bragging that I let her juggle steak knives (and obviously, for the record, I don’t.)
My daughter has gone to birthday parties where the invitation clearly stated that no Bratz toys would be accepted, and she’s gone to homes where no such toys may cross their threshold. Fine. I have no objection to that. Every parent has the right to decide what is right and acceptable for their own child.
To me and my wife, that line in the sand doesn’t begin or end with a doll.
Bratz’ signature has always been funkier than good ol’ Barbie, and yes, to most critics that difference comes off as sexual. It’s an odd world that spends forty years decrying Barbie as a sexualized and unrealistic ideal, then decides to hold her up as a model citizen, but compared to Bratz Barbie comes off as your sweet Aunt Marie.
Bratz dolls dress funkier, they have more fashionable hairstyles, their tie-in merchandise is colorful and flashy, they’re urban rather than Malibu, and their feet pop off. You read that right. Rather than force tiny shoes on the doll, leaving a hundred lost pair around as a threat to my toddler, the makers of Bratz have the dolls switch out entire foot/shoe combinations.
Let’s see Barbie do that.
Those are some of the reasons why Bratz made such inroads into the market. It wasn’t about sex, and it certainly wasn’t to aspire to the ridiculous hyperbole labeling the doll‘s ‘streetwalkers’. It was because someone finally presented an alternative to their Grandmother’s increasingly bland and predictable Barbie.
As much heat as Bratz takes in the media, there must be a great and silent majority of parents who agree with me on the issue. After all, in 2005 sales of Bratz reached $750 million. They couldn’t all have been bought by ‘bad’ parents.
Who knows. Maybe once Mattel gobbles up the Bratz line it can use some of that revenue to give Barbie a makeover of her own - but, uh, maybe skip the bare midriff
Gosh Darn It
Spent all evening getting the house ready for a visit from Smiley's speech therapist, only to have her cxl this morning because of illness. Good luck keeping this house clean until the rescheduled appt.
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