A few weeks ago, I received a review copy of Mama Said Nog You Out, the new holiday album from our friends The Jimmies. It is an absolute kick, one of those perfect "kids' albums" that works just fine for us grownups, thank you very much. Lucas and Zoe have made the band's version of "I'm Gettin' Nothin' For Christmas" their official, unironic, yet highly appropriate theme song. You can and should it download it over at iTunes, or you can run out to Barnes and Noble if you prefer packaging and actually discs. In the meantime, here's a sample, featuring my kids. Lucas has been listening to a lot of Jay-Z lately, it seems.
Family costumes are a popular part of Halloween. Go to any Halloween party and you're bound to see moms, dads, grandparents, brothers, and sisters working together to make the best group costume that Target can sell. It's sweet. In fact, my own extended family was thinking about going as the cast of Parenthood. Dibs on Coach!
If you need some ideas, this gentleman knows what works:
Booze and smokes were living in perfect harmony long before Wonder met McCartney and/or Sinatra. (Would also have accepted peanut butter and chocolate).
What do you think of this family costume? Is it missing Brother Blunt and Mommy Martini, or do you think they should be in hot water?
Please note, despite the pack of cigarettes, this is not a Herman Cain ad.
Another note, this Friday Funny is actually Jason's find, but his computer is on the proverbial toilet, so long story short, you're welcome.
As I'm wont to do when I have a ton of stuff on my plate, I turned over the job of reviewing the new Blu-ray release of The Lion King (disclosure: review copy provided by the good folks at Disney) over to my kids; this was done in one take, in compliance with Federal and state child labor laws. Regarding technical quality: the picture is, of course, fantastic, and I highly recommend cranking your 7.1 channel surround system to window-shaking levels for the opening "Circle of Life" sunrise sequence. Hakuna matata.
I've been watching, with some interest, the Bronie flame war that's erupted over at SD Momfia. Way back in June, my wife Beth wrote that post about Bronies - adult males who are rabid fans of My Little Pony - and how they're sort of, well, creepy. Since then, the Brony herd (I'm assuming that's what the collective is called?) has been piling it on, maybe protesting a bit too much about their whole deal and the greatness that is MLP. Here are some of the best comments:
Commenter "Marrik": "That man isn’t the head bronie. bronies are not lead by one individual so there is no leader at all."
Commenter "Brotaku": "...these little ponies are cute and small and sweet, and somewhere in our male minds, buried below the repressed feelings and pointless displays of masculinty, is an instinct to protect the cute, the small, the helpless. To prove my point ask any brony how he felt when Gilda made Fluttershy cry."
Commenter "Relictus": "I like the characters, and it’s a pleasant diversion from the real world of rampant unemployment and a faltering economy. Plus, you learn a little something about friendship every episode. I don’t really have friends – but ponies won’t judge me."
Commenter "Aiden Raccoon": "Oh come on. I’m in the furry community and, while true, furries find plenty of fap material, MLP is NOT one of them."
So, I don't see what the big deal is here, other than, you know, the whole "adults turning a cartoon show aimed at my four-year-old daughter into a fucking lifestyle choice" thing. Also, Hitler.
I obviously had to check out this new NBC show, depsite my pretend disdain for television. It features Will Arnett as a stay-at-home dad; and, as a real stay-at-home dad, it's my job to make sure no unflattering portrayals of us go uncriticized. We can't have TV audiences thinking that dads are bumbling idiots who don't know how to do the laundry, can we?
So I watched the pilot and...eh, it wasn't bad.
Frankly, my expectations were unrealistically high, given Arnett's genius performances on Arrested Development and 30 Rock. He's funny in Up All Night, but, as he said in a recent interview with Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air, this is one of the first times he has played a character that's not over-the-top. And that's a little disappointing for those of us who love him in his typical over-confident idiot roles.
Of course, if he played an over-confident idiot SAHD, I would have to be indignant. So there's really no way Arnett could have lived up to my expectations without offending me.
Anyway, the premise is very simple: couple has a kid, wife (Christina Applegate) goes back to work as a TV producer for her wacky Oprah-esque boss (Maya Rudolph), husband (Arnett) stays home with kid. The pilot didn't feature any gags about Dad being an incompetent child care provider, but focused instead on his isolation, anxiety, and borderline clinginess to his wife. There are a lot of the standard sleep-deprivation and diaper-changing gags, and they work fine. The cast is great and the writing is pretty good.
I'm going to give this show a chance. If they come up with some good storylines, it could be pretty funny. But they need to get Arnett into some situations that call for over-the-top behavior (while being careful not to stereotype men as incompetent parents, of course.)
The preview below shows pretty much every funny part of the pilot, or you can watch the whole episode on Hulu.
I belong to a number of different groups, official and casual, based around parenthood. I've got my imaginary internet parent-friends, my stay-at-home dad group, and my Asian mommies group, just to name a few.
Then there's my wife's mommy group. It's a long story, but they've been hanging out since before any of them were even pregnant.
Within my wife's mommy group, there's a sub-group of a few families with kids about the same age, and we often do stuff together that includes the moms, the dads, and the kids.
On the first Friday of every month, the ladies from the group have a "girls' night out." They talk big, like they're going to go out clubbing and leering at frat boys; but really they just go to tasteful restaurants and sip cocktails. It's all very civilized, and very organized.
The dads from the group also have "guys' nights out." So far there have been two of them. I didn't attend the first one because I didn't check my phone in time and missed the text that announced the outing two hours before it was to happen. But last week, the guy who spearheaded the event had his shit together and texted us all on Wednesday to see if we could go out on his boat on Friday night. I was all in.
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