Observations on Diego: i've seen too much

Over Christmas break we found out that Maggie is a fan of Diego from Go Diego Go. Grandpa Evanson had DVRed a bunch of episodes. After seeing a couple of episodes, Maggie asked for Diego almost every day.

i may be projecting my own feelings onto Maggie, but i think that she at least likes Diego more than Dora. i feel a little better about that. Diego has animal stories and she can be quite cute as she says and signs all of the animal names. Her dancing and singing to the music is pretty good too.

Laura and i had avoided those kinds of shows for a long time; not having cable and much less TV in general made it easier to avoid the 30 minute commercials for kids. But now, Maggie's hooked.

To keep Maggie content from time to time, we have checked out a few DVDs from the library. I have seen too much Diego. ¿how do i know? i know because i have questions, queries and complaints about the strange place Diego comes from.
- gravity is SLOW: rocks, branches, ropes, and animals take FOREVER to fall.
- BRANCHES are DANGEROUS and apparently quite loosely connected to trees: i have seen parrots, marmosets, chinchillas, sloths, kinkajous (and possibly other animals too) barely escape these perilous limbs, and i haven't seen that many episodes.
- Diego is not very bright and needs more parental supervision: Adults are hardly ever around and for some reason and Diego is not the sharpest kid. Apparently he's to slow to realize that it's easier to get down a SNOWy slope with a SNOWboard than it is with a telephone. (idiot!)

And i keep waiting for the real animal lessons to kick in. i am a biologist after all.

Diego: Baby kikajous are afraid of harpy eagles!
Why?! Because harpy eagles EAT baby kinkajous!

or ¿how about this correction?

Diego: Help get the baby mountain gorillas out of the net before the poachers come back to cut off their hands to sell as ashtrays!

well, maybe those lessons won't happen anytime soon.

in the week or so before our requests for Diego from the library came up, Laura tried to find some episodes on YouTube. She didn't find any real episodes, but rather an abundance of odd Diego and Dora iterations.

i've seen a few video mash-ups, and have never been very impressed. i don't really like the music much, but i must say that this one isn't bad. they really synched up the audio and the video. watch for a bit. Laur and i got a chuckle out of it.



0z iEiO

Christmas Music: Not So Cheery

In our house, we've been listening to Sufjan Stevens' Songs for Christmas. It's a collection of 5 EPs that Sufjan originally recorded to send out to his friends. I generally prefer not to listen to Christmas music, but I bought this CD set for Laura one Christmas after we spent a week constantly going back to NPR to stream Stevens' "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing". (That song has tragically been removed, from the LDS hymn book, but the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and others still perform it.)

There are definitely some songs/hymns that I really like, but the way that Christmas music has been treated does little to inspire me.

I am wary of any band or entertainer that puts out a Christmas album. I use that word "entertainer" loosely... it was the best I could think of at the moment so as not to use "musician" or "artist" which are more debatable terms under these circumstances. Christmas albums seem like a cheap shot at sales that somehow someone still concedes to produce as another offering to the undiscriminating masses. I consider the Sufjan Stevens EPs as a definite exception because he recorded 5 EPs over 6 years for friends and then decided to make it commercially available.

To me, most Christmas albums are a tribute to those who don't want to bother with making a real choice about what to listen to. "Harmless" is the only requirement. Just think about how many Christmas albums that fall into these categories: adult contemporary, country, and new age - a selection that runs from bland and blah to downright putrid. Just type in "Christmas" while searching for music on Amazon and you'll get a good picture of this bleak landscape. The inspiration that was required for Handel's Messiah or "Silent Night" is wrung out and replaced by the simple sales point of "hey, listen to me... I know all the words", not to mention the smothering by "original" compositions. bleh.

I think that the hardest part for me about Christmas music is how it is rolled into the mass marketing of the Holiday season. I am frightened of those, and I'm mainly talking about commercial enterprises, who play Christmas music as soon as the turkey's off the Thanksgiving table. Few things are more grating than the barrage of pop-culture mediocrity. There were some definite music fiends that I had to listen to as a missionary because of my inability to convince some of my missionary companions that any album with "Christmas" in the title was not automatically "inspirational" music -- Boyz II Men are definitely going to hell for what they've done.

Sufjan is half of the reason I am writing this post. The other half is because I heard a review of Bob Dylan's new Christmas album on NPR. After listening to the few samples of the songs that were included in that story, the first thing I'd like to say is: ¿Can someone please find Bob a losenge? His throat must be killing him..

Secondly, I do like Dylan's music. If you're not a fan of Bob or even dislike his music, one thing that can help you better appreciate his writing talent is to hear someone else sing his songs: Tim O'Brien's version of "Forever Young", nearly anyone's version of "Girl from the North Country", but I do like Sam Bush's rendition, and there are definite reasons why so many people have covered "Don'tThink Twice It's Alright" and "All Along the Watchtower".

With that preface, I have no idea why. ¿WHY?

¿WHY did Bob Dylan record a Christmas album?

Maybe you can listen to a track or two and tell me.

NPR's All Songs Considered has their yearly selection of Christmas Covers up and running, and The Annoying Music Show also has this year's post. Both programs have Bob Dylan, if that means anything.

* I stole the photo from New York Magazine.

Pop-culture Icons

This video is just over a week old and last i looked, the video is less than 15k short of reaching the 8 million mark. That's crazy. It's easy to understand. I loved "Bohemian Rhapsody" well before the Wayne's World revival, and the Muppets from even earlier. Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks that this is a good mash-up of pop culture.

Will nearly 8 million views, you've probably already seen this. In case you haven't, here it is:

Tales of Future Past

Laura said that watching a TV medical drama from a hospital bed was a little surreal. The program seemed much more three dimensional with Laura's own IV stand and other hospital equipment on the boarders of the television screen.

There is something to be said about what the environment adds to an experience. Even with the convenience of DVDs, i still prefer to see a movie in a theatre where you can see the film where it is presented in it's intended format. In addition, the experience is different because you're seeing the film with a group.

The connection between Laura's program choice and Laura's environment reminds me of a time when i watched a movie just for nature of the environment. i didn't really like the movie when it first came out and i'm not sure if i liked it this time through either, but the opportunity provided by the presentation format was hard to pass up. The environment for the experience was provided by several people's visions of the future of entertainment.

i saw the movie Tron (one of the first major movies to use computer animation) that was recorded on a Betamax tape that had been recorded from a Laserdisc. (they even kept the message to turn the disc over in the middle of the video recording.)

my roommate had a whole bookshelf full of Betamax tapes and two working players. i needed to watch at least one movie for the early 80s throwback. how could i pass up on seeing Tron?

like i said earlier, i'm still not sure if i liked the movie, but the experience was worth it.

(the image in this post came from http://www.benzilla.com/ and you can find ben's professional portfolio at http://www.trainedchimp.com/)

It's Eating My Brain

in 2004's Super-Size Me, a documentary about fast food, writer-director Morgan Spurlock notes the corrosive influence of fast food not only because of the poor nutritional value, but also the effect of fast food on american culture. Spurlock invites several people to recite the pledge of allegiance. standing on the sidewalk in front of the White House lawn several people give multiple efforts, but no successful recitations are presented in the film. then Spurlock invites them to quote the words to the jingle from the early 80s for the for the Big Mac. "Two all beef patties, special sauce..." and so on spills out easily.

i don't think Spurlock was trying to say that fast food or even jingles in general are the cause of memory loss, but there is something that should be noted: the way jingles etch out an apparent permanence in our brains. over 20 years later, that same type of corrosiveness still leaves its mark. perform a sad little experiment on the average american by singing a little "ba da buh ba bah" and see how many times you get "i'm lovin' it" in response. pathetic.

the ingredients for this mental deterioration are as follows: some simple words, a recognizable tune and endless repetition. the claws dig in and find a home. the words don't have to be good or clever. the tune doesn't have to be unique or even new. your brain doesn't even care if you like mcdonald's or whatever else they're trying to sell. there isn't even any respect for your value system. This last point was demonstrated by the shock on the faces of Spurlock's impromptu test subjects.

perhaps not quite as vile as some commercials are the theme songs to television shows. at least with the theme songs you are choosing to watch the program more often than not. you are intentionally supporting the product that the extended jingle was designed to sell. the same tactics are exploited, but without such malice.

i will admit that i know more words to television theme songs than i'd like to know. let's face it, i've seen too much TV. nevertheless, these songs have a knack for carving into your brain. the Brady Bunch and Gilligan's Island were well beyond the years in which they were filmed by the time i saw any episodes and it's been a long time since i found either show entertaining, but i can still sing along. i'm not the only one with that problem either. ¿which are your particular "favorites"? ¿The Fresh Prince of Bel Aire? ¿Cheers? ¿Friends? (i know that my roommate sings the "Thank You for Being a Friend" theme song from The Golden Girls more often than i am comfortable with.)

now let's come back to the present day. i have become the fan of another television show. along with that fandom, i think i'm well on my way to having another theme song burrowed into my brain for the rest of my life.

uuuuuuuuuooooooooOOOOWWWWAAAOOOOOHHHWWWAAAOOOOOOOEEEeeeaooeeeooooh!

Curse you LOST!... i'm going to be singing that song all week.

now i just have to be careful and not get addicted to watching all of those past seasons of 24 ("boop bip boop bip...")

i just don't understand the music business

i just can't get myself to watch MTV. it just doesn't mean anything to me.

my roommate flipped to the channel and started watching "Making the Band". if you're unfamiliar with this show, it's puff daddy's version of 'American Idol'. already the title is a little confusing. i grew up with the idea that a band consists of people who play musical instruments, but i guess i was wrong. "the Band" in "Making the Band" is basically just a bunch of folks who can follow the choreographer adequately enough and do some fancy karaoke while they wait for their pretty faces in the video to sell the record; the McDonald's version of music - mass produced, low quality, but it sells because the american public is afraid of what's not familiar.

and then there's puff daddy. okay, i know that he calls himself p. diddy these days, but i can't take either name very seriously. the names would be okay if it weren't for the fact that the diddy does take himself that seriously. ¿and how come the music industry takes him so seriously? ever since diddy's CRAPPY remake of Led Zepplin's 'Kashmir' (which followed that awful heisting of 'Every Breath You Take' from The Police) i've been trying to figure out just what the difference is between the puff and Weird Al; two guys with goofy names who take other people's music and put their own words to it. Al isn't unfamiliar with writing his own songs either, so don't start telling me about puffy's "original" works. Al has never had the same kind of respect from the music industry as puff and Al has had plenty of successful records to earn at least some respect.

come on Al. maybe you should just buy a little jewelry, put your name on some gym clothes and maybe you'll weasel your way into the hearts of the mainstream music industry. i'll be waiting to hear news about your upcoming show.

A Final Word on Peanuts

This post was originally written in early 2004. This is where you can find the final conclusion as to why there is no longer a M.D.H.O.P.A.I.R. newsletter.

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peanuts

the peanut is an interesting little fruit. the peanut is fairly simple and often easy to overlook and possibly undervalue. a can of mixed nuts touts it's quality by ensuring the consumer that the percentage of peanuts is less than half of the mix, peanuts being the cheapest nut of the bunch. the peanut is a metaphor for things small or of little value. the minor cost of an item may be expressed as costing only peanuts. unwanted and trivial comments have been referred to as coming from the"peanut gallery". one galaxy visible from earth's surface has beennicknamed "snickers" because it is peanuts compared to the Milky Way. (think about it.) even disparaging remarks towards a former president use the peanut as a measure of insignificance when Jimmy Carter has been referred to as a mere "peanut farmer from Georgia" who somehow made it to the White House. but the little bean still holds a place in society in pop culture and beyond.

one of the most long lived advertising spokesmen is Planters' Mr. Peanut. the peanut is a nostalgic baseball snack still sold inthe stands. ("buy me some peanuts and cracker jack...") the peanut is nearly the final result to which the airline food service has been reduced, and let's not forget Charlie brown and the other charactersfrom the classic comic strip "Peanuts". the peanut was a portion, and sometimes the only portion, of civil war rations for the southern armies, inspiring the writing of the then popular folk tune "GooberPeas". with efforts to make the peanut a more profitable crop, a healthy alternative for the land instead of cotton, George Washington Carver found some 325 uses for the plant. not only did the peanut become a leading crop in the South but it helped to place this former slave, educator and agricultural scientist in the public eye long before the civil rights movement, as he worked withthe U.S. Department of Agriculture and southern farmers.

even the peanut sandwich spread is nearly synonymous with childhood memories in America. ¿what childhood isn't measured with a few peanutbutter sandwiches at some point in time? there are plenty of creative variants to the standard PB&J wrought during those childhood years, and nearly everyone knows what side of the issue they stand on when it comes to creamy or chunky. when someone mentions giving a little peanut butter to a household pet, it gets a chuckle out of nearly everyone because so many have been there for themselves at one time or another. we should also recognize that there are more than just anational peanut day and month, but also national peanut butter and peanut brittle days and months.

it should be apparent that the peanut does have this capacity to be both common and significant all at once. the question could be asked, ¿when is the peanut ever out of place? here is a good place to start that story.

there's that place where you wear clothes that you don't wear during the rest of the week, the background noise of daily life is subdued, and thoughts are supposed to be focused on higher topics. sometimes that place is called church. enter the peanut. i had one, right there in my pocket. not just a single seed, but a whole legume, fibrous shell and all, and i was going to put it to some use.

seeing a friend who i thought would enjoy a little gift, i held my fist straight out, knuckles pointing towards the ceiling in the understood sign of "i have a surprise for you" and waited for the reciprocal sign of the receiving hand. the signs were given, a peanut was passed, and i left to the next meeting without a verbal exchange of any sort. not then, not later that day, or week or month or ever. the peanut itself was all the message there was. not that there hasn't been a verbal recognition later on as to the exchange of ownership of a little nut, but that is all that has been said and it was probably wasn't even that day.

now, ¿what is better than one peanut? ¿could it be any more obvious? more peanuts.

soon enough peanuts were being left behind on my visits to the apartment of the poor recipient of that first peanut. there were peanuts in the candy jar, a peanut taped to the front window, and eventhe title caption for a "Peanuts" cartoon for the front door. a peanut is easy to draw on a dry erase board, a simple blob w/ an odd little hourglass shape. a small jar of peanut butter was left next tothe couch. i sang "Goober Peas" every so often when they'd let me get one of their guitars in my hands. i even dropped of a belated birthday present of government issue dry roasted peanuts, straight from an MRE (Meals Ready to Eat).

the web is a wonderful accomplice. it's just so easy to cut and paste information about peanuts, George Washington Carver and even a few recipes and send them on their way. an email from the receiver of all these peanuts that announced her new email address was a fortunate little mishap that left me with a copy the addresses in her address book. not only did it prove to be an educational opportunity on the cultural value of the peanut for many people, but it was also a lessonon the use of BCC. soon enough, all those who had a mailbox large enough to receive a small MP3 got to hear Burl Ives sing "GooberPeas". that was followed by a couple of newsletters that, at least in part, discussed the merits of the peanut.

the best part about the email snafu was that now other people were asking my friend "why peanuts?" and with a little nudge, a younger sibling would sing his rendition of goober peas. i'm not even present and peanuts find their way into the conversation. ¿isn't that great?
after all this, the reason for the first or any of the subsequent peanuts has not been given. ¿are you sure you really want to know?

it was the end of christmas break. each roommate came back to school with his load of new clothes and other christmas gifts along with a fewthings that each mother thinks her child might need at school. one ofthe roommates came with a very odd selection: a huge bag, the bulk cereal variety, of peanuts still in their shells. ¿why would anyone's mother buy them a huge bag of peanuts to take back to school? they take up a lot of space and aren't very convenient. besides the production of the larger pieces of shell when trying to reach the seeds, cracking the shells open results in a fallout of little fibers and powdery flakes.

there it was; a huge bag of peanuts bought at random by someone's mom and left on the kitchen counter. soon enough they were being eaten, even though they weren't the most convenient. one sunday morning a few found their way into my pocket for the walk to church. (outside the dust and flakes are free to fall where they may.) i estimated one peanut too many; the extra peanut.

yes, ladies and gentlemen, rounds of entertainment through the peanut that lasted nearly two years can be attributed to the simple fact that they were just there on the counter one day. you could say there was no reason at all, other than the fact that i liked peanuts enough to eat them when they were free for the taking and i knew a few random facts and how to abuse the web. harassment via peanut for no reason at all.

"I hate television. I hate it as much as I hate peanuts. But I can't stop eating peanuts."
- Orson Welles (1915-1985)