Remember when the clever people at Volkswagen (Farfegnugen!) did that thing with the kid and the Star Wars and we were all, "Whoa!" and you were like, "I know!"? Remember? That was awesome.
Not to be outdone, the clever people at Disney/Marvel have made the EXACT SAME commercial, but with hair. Okay, it's not exactly the same, there's a twist.
Is it just me or did the dad kind of have that coming? Added bonus, can anyone ever think of Thor without hearing this in their head (or computer as the case may be)?
If that's not in the movie I'm demanding a refund.
We've added a power hitter to the rotation: The Muskrat, who brings the lumber every time he blogs. A few of us have had the pleasure of hanging with him in Real Life, and he's an all-around great guy who threatens to bring some much-needed class to the joint. If you haven't read his stuff, please go to his blog (the aptly named "The Muskrat") and do so. We at DadCentric are pleased to continue to bring you some of the finest dad writers on the Internet, and we look forward to whatever bloggy awesomeness The Muskrat has to offer.
Well, sorta. A couple of the DadCentricians (The Holmes and Croutonboy) are Austinites, so they don't really count. I'll be attending SXSWi (that's "South By Southwest Interactive", the part of the gargantuan festival that deals with blogs and social media and The Internets) as a presenter/moderator, alongside my boss at Man of The House, the honorable Craig Heimbuch. The title of our presentation: "Are We Not Men? Reaching New American Dads". Here's the breakdown:
Men's media has changed tremendously- almost as much as men and dads have. Today's dads are active in every aspect of the household, from parenting to chores, and yet, they are largely overlooked as readers and consumers. New American Dads are thirsty for knowledge and a community that speaks their common language - that of the real man. The new language of men helps Jacks of all trades learn how to be better at all of them, retain their essential masculinity and perform well in a new paradigm of family, work and self. Traditional media outlets - those that espouse the virtues of supposedly manly interests ($10,000 suits, rare scotch and women, women, women) are missing an opportunity to serve this emerging male marked. In order to speak 'Dad,' media must speak to the realities of his life, his priorities, responsibilities, aspirations and, above all else, be useful. The growing online media directed at the New American Dad understands that service journalism - that which seeks to inform as well as entertain - is the next evolution in the daddy blogger. Blogs have their place, but in order to effect change in men's media, online resources must engage the reader in a conversation, one in which the consumer walks away feeling better informed than they had before engaging the site. Service journalism - how-tos, how it works and best-of lists - have practical applications in readers' lives, thus engendering loyalty and creating conversations with a long overlooked population, while developing an audience for whom older media models based on supposed aspiration and stereotype have little meaningful impact. Speak to dads in their language, encourage them to speak back, teach them something they can use and entertain them - this is the next evolution of men's media.
Pretty heady stuff, no? If you're attending SXSWi, pop on in and join the conversation. More details about the presentation can be found here, along with my ridiculously self-important bio and heavily photoshopped headshot. Regarding the question "are we not men?", here's your answer.
You may know that I moonlight over at Man of The House. One of my fellow MoTH writers, Josh Katzowitz, wrote a piece a few days ago that got me thinking about my age, and whether or not I act it. It inspired the following post:)
Conventional wisdom says that if you are a dad, you need to set aside foolish/dangerous activities for the sake of your children. Before I had kids, I did plenty: I was an avid surfer, a frequent rock climber, solo backpacker, rugby player and a pseudo-adrenaline junkie. I also went to a lot of Phish concerts, partied in bars until the wee hours and generally behaved like a beach-dwelling twenty-something well into my thirties.
Several years ago, I went through a Harley Obsession. Many guys do; few of those guys have wives who tacitly approved of adding a big V-Twin to the family. My wife did not encourage me, but she didn’t put up much resistance. She bought my logic: Harleys are safer because they’re easier to ride than “Crotch Rocket”-style street bikes, they’re bigger (thus easier for car drivers to see), and they come with a built-in collision avoidance warning system – their signature deafening engines. She wasn’t a Harley fan so much as a fan of the cool leather jacket she’d need to buy in order to be able to ride with me. I’d never ridden a motorcycle, so I did my research: there was a Motorcycle Rider’s School nearby, and my friends who owned Harleys assured me that riding them, once you got the hang of it, was fun and easy. (I didn’t think too much about the notion of “getting the hang” of riding a machine that weighs several hundred pounds, can reach speeds of 80+ mph, and only has two wheels.) I knew the model I wanted: the Heritage Softail. I took a few trips to Harley dealers, sat on the thing, and imagined myself rumbling up the Pacific Coast Highway, the wind in my face.
(You can find out how this all turns out over here. After you finish, pop on back - I wanna hear from you dads out there, and their Significant Others, about why you do or don't wanna grow up.)
You may have seen this, but it's getting near quitting time for a lot of us dads out there, and what gets us through the day is knowing that we all have such wonders to come home to. Sing us out, Jorge and Alexa.
(Video via Man of The House - our pal Craig Heimbuch sat down with Jorge and talked with him about his daughter and their newfound fame; read all about them here.)
Poor MTV. When I was a teen, I loved - nay, I wanted my MTV. 120 minutes! Headbanger's Ball! Unplugged! The ongoing Jheri Curl battle between Mark Goodman and J.J. Jackson! You know - MTV? The network that used to be Music Television? The one that actually played music videos? Money for nothing? Chicks for free? Anyone?
Sure, my parents disapproved of it ("Why is that man wearing lipstick?" "It's Motley Crue, mom! They're badass!") but deep down they knew it was harmless, a faux rebellion led by your cool college-aged babysitter Martha Quinn (who would later cut her hair off, put on a suit, and refer to herself as "Carson Daly"). I would totally let my kid watch that MTV. Sadly, that MTV is as dead as Gary Numan's career. To paraphrase the Buggles, the Internet and reality TV killed the video star, and MTV pretty much did away with the "M" part. Music videos gave way to game shows and reality series, America realized that the douchebags who inhabited The Real World were really just not douchebaggy enough, and so The Real World begat Jersey Shore, but that show wasn't vile enough and thus the afterbirth of Skins slithered out of MTV's filth.
Historians will look back on 2010 as The Year A Few People Said That 2010 Was The Year Of The Dadblogger. We're pretty sure that didn't happen - well, for most of you, anyway. I'm writing this from the deck of DadCentric's floating headquarters, the superyacht SS Dadcentric, resting at anchor off of Barbados. While I wait for the helicopter to arrive, bearing cases of Dom and fresh lobsters, I thought I'd put together a list of great dad-related things that happened this year. As we bid adieu to 2010, we look back on the year's Top 5 Dad Moments - events that brought the dad community together and propelled the Dadiverse further into...ah...dadnessness.
5. The M3 Summit. The dozen or so people that were there all agreed, in a completely earnest manner, without the slightest hint of derision or irony or snark: it changed everything.
4. Single Dad Laughing. Single Dad Laughing was started in July 2010 by Dan, who "decided to quit being a plague and a cancer and start writing things that would actually make people sit back and think". His blog - his message - is, in his words, "more about love and less about me". "So much more than a daddy blog"1, and certainly not a testament to Dan's own ego, Single Dad Laughing provides "intelligent humor"2, "deep, powerful content"3, and "sincere followers"4. "Powerful and heartbreaking"5, "passionate and desperate"6, and "have been viewed several hundred thousand times"7 are phrases used (by Dan, natch) to describe his posts8. Also, Dan is "not interested in co-authoring a book with you",9.
Do you know what Dads need? Music. They need the kind of music that reminds them that beyond their roles as fathers, husbands, colleagues and/or leaders of men... they are dynamic, complex individuals capable of appreciating art that steps out of the mainstream and reflects their individual aesthetics and sensibilities. There's plenty of "kid music" in the world, but personally I've found that my kids get a lot of enjoyment out of the music I listen to — and that by exposing them to a rich and wide array of musical styles, they're developing an appreciation for music that far exceeds anything I knew at their age... even as that appreciation helps me see music I already know and love through their eyes, and enjoy it even more. That's not to say my kids love everything listed below, but they've heard it all... and while it might surprise you, they've found something to love in almost every case.
With that in mind, check out the following 5 extraordinary albums. You probably don't own 'em - hell, you've probably never heard of most of these folks - but for my kids and me, they played a big role in defining the year that was.
5. Geneva - Russian Circles Okay... technically, it came out in '09, but I didn't get my hands on it until early this year. Subsequently: this is my post-rock album of 2010. Russian Circles is a post-rock trio from Chicago that brings a more aggressive, metal-based approach to the soaring, epic all-instrumental workouts generally associated with bands like Explosions in the Sky... and on Geneva, they introduce a new element that raisea their already-exceptional music to new levels: strings. They're not on every song, and certainly some of the non-string songs (the title track in particular) blister and rage like the the best music Pelican never recorded, but when Russian Circles seamlessly blends that aesthetic with the slow ache of cellos and gentle horns to create the kind of gradual build and ecstatic release you find on the closing "Philos"... honestly, it's tough to imagine anything more gorgeous.
Remember when your parents dragged you to go see your local dance theater's production of The Nutcracker, and you sat there bored out of your skull thinking to yourself "this would be so much more awesome if this was a 3D movie directed by the guy who gave the world Tango and Cash, and it featured Giant Mole Machines and rat-faced Nazis and helicopter gunships and Nathan Lane?"
Behold! A Christmas miracle! (And to answer the question posed in this post's title: yes. Yes it will.)
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