Ace had a thrill the other night: she got to stay up late and watch Katie Hoff in Olympic trials swimming on TV. We’d just returned from a rare after-dinner swim, and she was delirious with her good fortune. And while I wasn’t so keen on her introduction to commercials (long live our DVR), I felt much the same way.
I love everything about swimming. I’m happy to get up at dawn in the middle of winter to head to the pool. This has nothing to do with willpower, and more to do with I just freakin’ love it. Side benefits include being alone with my thoughts and showering afterwards without my kids around, both huge. I swam in a race across Provincetown harbor when Ace was four months-old amidst blinding sleep-deprivation—when even folding laundry seemed daunting–and loved it. (The gay male kayakers in cheerleading outfits screaming encouragement helped, too.) I nursed Ace right afterwards, lowering my wetsuit.
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Tags: Katie Hoff, Olympics, swimming
Filed under technology, television.
Fans of Mad Men don’t just like it; they’re obsessed with it. Count me in. Last Sunday’s New York Times magazine cover story on the show, by Alex Witchel, was just what I wanted. She describes what happens on-set, how creator Matthew Weiner works, what ad executives from the 60s make of the show.
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Tags: Alex Witchel, Mad Men, Matthew Weiner
Filed under Uncategorized, television.
If, when you type “beaver” into the YouTube search box, you’re looking for a broad-tailed rodent to show your kids, TOTLOL may be for you. It’s a “community-moderated” web site where parents can find YouTube videos vetted by other parents for kids by age group. It’s free to join.
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Tags: community-moderated, TOTLOL, youtube
Filed under children's tv.
For a TV show with a suburban partner-swapping premise, Swingtown is incredibly boring. It takes place in 1976, and features several Chicagoland families facing the sexual revolution and, god help them, Change. While the 70s set and costume details are museum-perfect, the parent-characters comprise not only two-dimensional, clichéd couples, but also cringe-inducing, ham-fisted metaphors. On the left, there’s Tom and Trina, the group-sex-lovin’, congenially predatory pilot-and-former-stewardess combo always up for anything. To the right are barbecue-throwing Roger and Janet who’ve remained fussily behind in the Eisenhower administration. And stuck-in-the-middle-with-you are Bruce and Susan, freaking over is-that-all-there-is, though about to trade up from Janet and Roger’s middle-American neighborhood to tonier and creepier Tom-and-Trina-Land a few blocks over. The kids from all parts are largely rip-offs from movies, and you can find them played more convincingly in The Ice Storm and American Beauty.
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Tags: Swingtown
Filed under television.
Watching Kim Cattrall’s character on Sex and the City is about as pleasurable as sucking a cotton ball for me. I used to have a real Samantha in my life, back when I was young, new to NYC, and grateful to have someone to hang out with. She’d insist that we go out to bars that we couldn’t afford and allow men to buy us drinks and then tell them lies about ourselves. She had an alter ego, Margaret, who was sometimes a Rockette, sometimes an Ice Capades skater. She dubbed me ‘Sheila’ and told them that I was a casting agent for Spielberg or an up-and-coming furniture designer. I was not the best companion for her. As uptight as Miranda, as prudish as Charlotte, as “hopelessly romantic” as Carrie, I did not want sexual adventures with men I couldn’t be honest with. As soon as I could, I’d divulge my real name and occupation to the B-squad dude who was buying my drink, and try to figure out how to excuse myself to go home to my book without ruining her game.
For this and other less anecdotal reasons, I have never liked Sex and the City. However I understand the appeal of choosing which SATC character you are most like. (During a six-week strike in the 90s, my colleagues and I entertained ourselves on the picket line by casting each other’s bio-pics. I would apparently best be portrayed by either Susan Sarandon or Mary-Louise Parker. Nice, albeit disgruntled, co-workers!) So, which Sex and the City character are you? And, while we’re at it, who’d play you in your bio-pic? Who’d play your partner? Your kid(s)?
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Filed under television.
Now that the big Season 4 finale of Lost is over, and you still have no idea what’s up with that freaky island, take heart. El Maestro del Fotoshop provides you with a muy civilized approach to your favorite castaways, until next year, when Season 5 screws with you all over again.
If it’s Sayid that makes your leg twitch, look no further:
Nice.
What fresh hell does Season 5 hold?
Tags: El Maestro del Fotoshop, lost
Filed under television.
One great thing about the Wonder Pets: we don’t have to clean their cages. While some parents can’t stand these warbling classroom-animal TV heroes, I admire the producers for managing a whole kid-friendly Gilbert-and-Sullivan-like operetta in every single segment. Lucky, an ardent fan of big productions such as marching bands and Queen, was instantly sold.
As for pets here at home, though, Lucky is not so easily swayed. Ace turned six a few weeks ago, making this the third birthday in a row in which she’s pleaded for a gift-rodent. First it was a guinea pig, and this year she turned her attention to hamsters. Lucky was having none of it. I was initially neutral, but influenced by his compelling argument that “we’ll be the ones cleaning crap out of its cage.”
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Tags: gerbils, pets, wonder pets
Filed under parenting, television.
The Electric Company is coming back. A seventies sibling to Sesame Street, The Electric Company helped older kids learn to read through skits, short films, and music with a slightly more raucous and sophisticated tone. During its initial 6-year run, the cast intermittently featured the likes of Morgan Freeman, Rita Moreno, and Irene Cara as well as the voice work of Mel Brooks, Joan Rivers, and Gene Wilder. The series will begin shooting this month in NYC with, alas, a new cast.
(I swear to you, when I hear certain mellifluous baritone announcer voices, I still think of the closing phrase of The Electric Company’s recurring soap opera, “And… what about Naomi?” You may think your zoned-out kid isn’t really absorbing that TV show you plop them down in front of while you snatch a quick phone call but 25 years later, they’ll start humming the theme song and wonder where it came from…)
What do you remember from The Electric Company?
Tags: educational tv, pbs
Filed under children's tv.
So I’m wondering: should toddlers be involved in any marathons, let alone television marathons? And in honor of their mothers, no less? In what seems to be the most clueless television programming since NBC decided that “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” should be part of “Family Hour” (because nothin’ says warm ‘n’ fuzzy like a crazy-eyed D’Onofrio standing over a bloody corpse!), Nickelodeon’s younger-skewing offshoot, Nick Jr., has announced a marathon of themed episodes for Mother’s Day, slated for tomorrow, Friday, May 9, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The network has apparently decided that the perfect way for the preschool set to celebrate their mommies is to sit in front of the TV for five hours and watch cartoon characters relate to their cartoon mothers, all the while either (a) completely ignoring the actual human women who spawned them, who would then, of course, be freed up to start dinner, do laundry, or pay bills (unless, of course, they are at the office); or (2) forcing said women to sit through (if it hasn’t already sunk in) three hundred minutes of cloying Nick Jr. shows with them!
And to think, I asked for a cordless vacuum before I heard about this opportunity.
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Filed under children's tv.
Because I carry the dreaded musical theater gene,* the watching of American Idol is strictly forbidden in our household. However, ratings indicate that other viewers enjoy this spectacle. To ensure that the series producers never ever run out of eager fodder, they are inviting interested 10- to 15-year-olds to participate in an American Idol summer camp. Alas, the 2008 application deadline has passed but if you believe your little skootchy pumpkin can belt out “Always and Forever” like the next Clay Aiken, get a jump on next January’s early application process. Scholarships are available for Idols without means.
*diagnosed through a battery of tests involving lyrics to lesser know musicals like Finian’s Rainbow and Stop the World I Want to Get Off. Thankfully, my gene is peculiar in that I’m only susceptible to infection by pre-1964 musicals, eliminating dreck like Rent and Cats.
Any specialty camps in your kid’s future?
Tags: american idol, summer camp
Filed under television.
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