Saturday, October 23, 2010

School Pride

NBC's School Pride just aired the episode the filmed here in Baton Rouge over the summer. They gave Lanier Charter School an extensive face lift, inside and out. One question they kept asking over and over again was, "How did it get this bad?" You can watch the episode here:



Trying to explain what happened to public schools in Baton Rouge is a tricky thing - and a decades long story. My original draft of this blog was too long, too hard to follow and meaningless to people who aren't from here.

What it boils down to is this: they're fucked. Most school plants are in terrible condition and too many teachers aren't competent. And people with money in Baton Rouge don't send their kids to public schools, so they aren't invested in making them better.

Some time ago, I blogged about an early morning trip to North Baton Rouge and how I felt the need to really make a difference but didn't know how because the problems are so big. It's the same deal. Where do you start?

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

2010 season so far

As I was replying to a post by my friend, The Pop Culture Curmudgeon, I realized that it was, in fact, an entire blog post about my feelings about the new t.v. season. Here you go:

Don’t bother with No Ordinary Family. If you want to see it, stick The Incredibles in the dvd player instead. Much better!

I’m really enjoying Raising Hope. I find it hilarious and oddly sweet at the same time. I feel the same about last year's Cougar Town. I really wish it had a better name, I have friends that refuse to watch it because of that very reason.

My favorite new show of the season is definitely Terriers. It reminds me oddly of my beloved Veronica Mars. I’m cautiously optimistic about a second season since the dvr numbers turned out to increase the viewership by 50%. If not, at least we got a whole season.

I haven’t really gotten into any of the other new shows this season. In addition to Cougar Town, I’m really enjoying the return of many of last season’s shows – The Vampire Diaries, Community, Modern Family and Glee, to name a few – as well as some old friends like Chuck, Supernatural, Bones, and Castle.

I’ve given up on House. Even with the House/Cuddy development, it still wasn’t able to hold my interest.

What I’m most excited about though, is the Oct. 27th return of Friday Night Lights on DirecTV’s 101 Channel. I was amazed at how quickly I came to care about the East Dillon Lions and view the Panthers as the enemy. (And, they better find a way to get my beloved Tim Riggins out of jail before the season is over!)

What new shows are you most enjoying this fall? Any older ones you've given up on?

Sesame Street videos

Is it just me or does Sesame Street seem to be releasing a plethora of video spoofs? Here are a few of the ones I've seen lately, but not all of them are new. I refuse to put the latest one up, the "whip your hair" song by Will Smith's daughter. That is quite possibly the most annoying song I've ever heard - worse than the macarena! I'm not sure how I missed some of these the first time around, lol. Do you have a favorite Sesame spoof that isn't shown here?














Friday, October 15, 2010

Random bits of interest 10.15.2010

I don't have any one thing that rates a whole blog entry, so I've decided to have one blog post with a bunch of different links that I found of interest recently.

1. Michael J. Fox wasn't the original Marty McFly in Back to the Future. WHAT?!?!? It was actually Eric Stoltz. The production had been shooting for five weeks when it was decided that he just wasn't right for the part. Click here to read more.

2. Possibly the worst idea ever: Top Gun 2 complete with Tom Cruise as Maverick. Need I say more? Click here for more info.

3. Lee Pace, the Pie Maker from Pushing Daisies and a complete cutie, is going to be in Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn. I could wish that he was headlining a project of his own, but I'm just happy to see him. :) click here.

4. Glee is featuring a Rocky Horror tribute. I was more than a little concerned when I first heard this but the video clip looks like a lot of fun.



5. A funeral director friend of mine posted a picture of this tombstone. Take a second and look at it. I think it is quite possibly the most awesome thing I've ever seen.

6. A man in Clinton, La., north of Baton Rouge, was recently in court and ordered to pull up his pants which were allowing his underwear to show. As he was leaving the courtroom, he pulled his pants back down, the bailiff saw, and the judge booked him on contempt of court. I love it - the sagging jeans look is not flattering and the origin is disturbing. I'm ready for it to go away... The article that appeared in Baton Rouge's newspaper, The Advocate, is here.

7. Hannah Montana really is no more. I guess it's unrealistic of me, but I have these thoughts about Miley Cyrus' new video: 1) If I were the parent of a young Miley fan, I'd be horrified to see my children watching this extremely sexualized crap. 2) If I were Miley's parents, there's no way in heck that I'd let her writhe like that on screen at age 17 for all the world to see. Check it out for yourself.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Glee - Grilled Cheesus

So much to discuss and so little time!

The good stuff first:

1) Kurt's relationship with his dad, Burt, has always been a wonderful part of Glee. Burt, for a blue collar, football loving kind of guy, has always been amazingly accepting and supportive of his obviously gay son. The flashback scenes where they were at Kurt's mom's funeral and then having a tea party (complete with pinkies held just so!) were both heart-warming and heart-breaking. And, oh, my gosh! That kid they got to play young Kurt looked so much like teenage Kurt, it was ridiculous. I even wondered if they'd spent a fortune on special effects for those scenes.

2) I think that different sides of the God/no God opinions were well done and true to the characters that voiced them. I can easily see how Kurt would have trouble believing in a God that would make him gay and therefore easily made fun of. I can also see Sue claiming to have rejected God since he didn't do her bidding and "cure" her sister.

On the other side of the coin, I can easily see Finn, one of the dimmest and most naive of the gleeks, believing in God because his face appeared on a grilled cheese sandwich. I can also see the different gleeks wanting to express their feelings and support of Kurt through song and how they'd want to give him the kind of support they'd want, not necessarily what Kurt wants and/or needs.

I also loved the part where Sue realized that her sister, the one whom she'd lost her own faith over, believes in God and asks her to pray for her. I'm not ashamed to admit that I got a little teary.

The bad:

1) This is one of the few episodes where I didn't care for most of the song selections and felt like there were too many musical numbers crammed into the episode. I did enjoy Puck's Only the Good Die Young and thought Kurt's I Wanna Hold Your Hand was sweet (even if it was kind of an odd choice if you go beyond the title). I thought Mercedes' I Turn to You and Rachel's solos really felt like diva moments more than an outpouring of feeling. Finn's Losing My Religion was an understandable choice, but good grief, it was terrible...

There are so many good songs out there about faith (or lack of it) that I was kind of disappointed in the obvious song selections. One of Us? Really? It really felt like more of an opportunity to add hit songs to the Glee collection than anything else and I'm more than a little disappointed that they didn't figure out a way to add Don Henley's Little Tin God or The Doobie Brothers Jesus Is Just Alright.

2) The God/Christ that I know would never condemn a person for being gay or for believing/not believing a certain doctrine. After all, the greatest commandment is Love: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul; and love your neighbor as yourself. The God that preaches this would never condemn someone to hell.
It did feel kind of like the show was a little heavy on the Christians are crazy and narrow minded soapbox but then there was that scene with Sue and her sister. I did feel better after that bit.

the Awesome:

Brittany: I did an entire book report about heart attacks if you want to give it to the doctor. They took of a letter grade because it was written in crayon.

Sue: I realize you're only half orangutan but I'm still allergic to your lustrous ginger mane.

Kurt's hat! It was fantabulistic - quite possibly the most amazing hat I've ever seen.


I feel like I've rambled on. What did you think about this episode? Find it here if you haven't seen it yet.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Tiger fans are a bit crazy...

... but that's hardly news to anyone.

LSU won its game Friday night and boy, was it a nail-biter. I keep wondering just how many lives does Les Miles have? (ESPN has a blog with an opinion about that here.) The man seems to have an extraordinary amount of luck when it comes to coaching the Tigers.

Or maybe misfortune. How many other top 20 teams with a 5-0 start have sizable chunks of their fan base debating whether or not a new coach is needed? I have to say, I feel kind of sorry for him. The amount of pressure he's under must be incredible.

I really don't like the way Tiger fans are booing Jordan Jefferson. It's true, he isn't working out and something else needs to be tried, but it isn't his fault that he keeps getting sent back out. Remember folks, he's a KID and he DOESN'T GET PAID. How would you feel if you were in over your head and constantly being critiqued in a very vocal, very public way?

The Tigers are heading into the "tough" part of their season. If they've had to struggle to make it through the "easy" games, I'm a little worried about what's ahead. On the other hand, we do have Les' luck!

What do you think? Do changes need to be made? And, if so, what?