workingdad's comments

70s Music - Top Ten Albums of the Decade - Blog Entry

09 Jun 2006 08:49 PM

I think you mean Saturday Night FEVER soundtrack. There was in fact an Original Cast Album to Saturday Night Live, with the cast from the first season, and it's great, for what it was -- a way of selling a TV show's content before video. The word association sketch involving Chase and Richard Pryor that turns into a shouting match of racist epithets is brilliant, and who could not laugh at Peter Boyle and Belushi as the Dueling Brandos? But I'm pretty sure that album is not as cultually significant as the disco soundtrack.

Did you forget Hotel California? Okay, so no one listens to side two. Enormously influential (maybe not rightly so, but influential nonetheless).

A Departure of Sorts - Blog Entry

01 Jun 2006 06:12 PM

The daytime American soap opera, is by design about threats to relationships, and not just marriages. It is also, by design, about how relationships are reconciled, transformed, grow, you name it. You hit it pretty much on the head. There is a strange relationship that exists for the audience members because on the one hand they can "relate" certain characters to their own lives and yet all the circumstances that often show the ups and downs of relationships are so "unreal" so that audiences can keep a certain distance. What's really interesting is that one person's version of a soap is different from another's version of the same soap because A only cares about characters 1-5 and B is only interested in 6-10.

an intersting academic book is Robert C. Allen's _Speaking of Soaps_ but there are lots of others, too. A friend of mine, Martha P. Nochimson, used to write for the soaps and you could probably google her find some of her writing about her experiences.

I was addicted to _Days_ around the time of Marlene's demonic possession. I got too involved. I had to quit cold turkey.

The Bronx Zoo - Blog Entry

30 May 2006 01:13 PM

It's a HUGE place, and great fun. We go once a year, and probably should go at least twice. We're members of the WCS, so we have some free parking (which we usually use up at the New York Aquarium), and lots of ride tickets, too. The butterfly section is new and amazing.

ALF Arrives on DVD May 30th - Blog Entry

29 May 2006 07:54 PM

Bizarre show -- superficially, it's incredibly stupid, but there is something there beyond the idiocy of the premise, one that owes much to shows like MY FAVORITE MARTIAN. It's almost surreal, and when it hits is satiric targets, it's hilarious. But it is, yes, often a guilty pleasure! ALF's talk show of a few years ago had its moments, too.

Getting Married in Florida? - Blog Entry

24 May 2006 09:33 PM

i like the idea that divorcing parents have to get a course on the issues pertaining to taking care of children even as the marriage is over, at least in theory. But a lot depends on why the couple is divorcing.

Ice Age 2: The Meltdown - Blog Entry

22 May 2006 07:12 PM

I enjoyed seeing it with my daughter, but we did know the story before going in. I have to say that the sequel is much more of a thrill ride, a spectacle. Of the characters, only Diego and to a degree Sid show us something new, and neither give us enough.

What made the first one as good as it was -- and it's not on my Greatest Hits List, but probably an Honorable Mention -- was seeing Manny's character grow. SPOILER ALERT FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT SEEN THE ORIGINAL ICE AGE FILM. STOP READING. The key to the film as a story that might be of interest to adults is when Manny gives the baby boy back to his father. It's awesome. Here's a character who lost his wife and child to human hunters, yet he has made this journey to reuinite a father with his son. It only hit me when thinking about the story of IA2 in relation to the original. The growth of Manny and even Diego is what makes the first film special. "That's what you do in a herd" has become a favorite line in our house. The Manny-Ellie story is not as powerful or as interesting. It's predictable -- if at times funny -- and even her backstory as to how she was raised by a mother possum does not generate the sympathy that Manny's own flashback (in the first film) of his loss does. IA2 is fun, but comparatively one-dimensional.

Cyndi Lauper: Brooklyn Born Talent - Blog Entry

22 May 2006 07:03 PM

Only #58? wow. Have you heard her singing on the album LARGO? it's an all-star line-up put together by her old friends Rob Hyman and Eric Bazilian, who wrote "Time after Time" with her. They founded the Hooters in the eighties, and were major contributors to Joan Osborne's big hit debut RELISH. Working with a lot of the same people for LARGO, Hyman and Bazilian and singer-songwriter David Forman created a beautiful album inspired in part by Dvorak's "New World Symphony." It's not an arty classical/pop album --it's roots music, featuring Taj Mahal, Levon Helm and Garth Hudson (of The Band), Lauper, Osborne, Carole King, Willie Nile, and even the Chieftans. It's great. Lauper sings on two tracks, one harmony vocal and one lead, and she's in fine form.

A Date with Dad - Blog Entry

22 May 2006 06:15 PM

thanks to you both.

Men & Stress - Blog Entry

16 May 2006 10:22 PM

Heather -- i was thinking... as i recalled what my brother always says to his wife... "I die first.." and yes i suppose it's still true that most men go before their wives do... and i'm wondering if SOME guys like the idea that they go first!

Okay this is my journal entry -- now what? - Journal Entry

16 May 2006 10:18 PM

But I probably would not want to share my journal with my family! I mean, wasn't that the point of having your diary locked up???? :-) Okay, i'm being a little flip, but at least i've got another blog post idea!