The Year in Review : To TV or not TV, that is the question

Not long ago I wrote about my shock and disbelief to find that MTV is not a music video tv station anymore but a "lifestyle" entertainment company. WTF?

Well, I have to admit that I don't miss the music --I'd rather watch music videos on the net. Which is probably why they've turned into basically a reality TV network using kids instead of the washed up celebrities that appear in VH1.

That said, it hasn't stopped me from watching the car-wrecks they've produced with My Super Sweet Sixteen (a show that even Anderson Cooper can't walk away from) and Flavor of Love (which will earn Flavor Flav many eons in hell --no matter how many hits he wrote for Public Enemy).

Not all is bad though. Here's some of my guilty TV pleasures :

"Avatar The Last Airbender
The Complete Book 1 Collection"
(Dave Filoni)
B000FZETI4

AVATAR - THE LAST AIR BENDER
If you've never seen this show, I can't tell you how awesomely cool it is. If there is anything that will teach American kids the principles of Taoism, it will be this show. The seson finale was about a whole thread on non-attachment and the consequences of not letting go. Really, this show is AMAZING.

"High School Musical"
(Kenny Ortega)
B000F2BNW2

HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL
Most people over 20 detest, nay, ABHOR this movie. But this movie was not made for twenty-somethings. This movie wasn't even made for teenagers. It's been a ginourmous hit among pre-teeners and even the kinder crowds.

It's so crazy successful the made-for-tv movie won a Grammy and the soundtrack has gone triple platinum!

The story is boy meets girl and boy and girl find out all they want to do it ... SING! It's not the stars who are really interesting --it's the supporting characters (Sharpay, eat that creme brulee!) and the chorus really who make that movie. Check out the movie for it's two most awesome moments : The b-ball stompish bit and the cafeteria "revival" scene.

"The Fairly OddParents - Fairy Idol"
(Butch Hartman, Larry Leichliter,
Jamie Diaz, Gary Conrad, John Fountain (II)
B000EQ5TRY

THE FAIRLY ODDPARENTS
I saw a photograph of Butch Hartman, the show's creator.

Oh.

My.

God.

I so could totally do him.

That said, he's not the reason I enjoy that show. I love it for two reasons : Cosmo and Jorgen Van Strangle. Just saying his name totally cracks me up.

Yes ... I am that simple. And while I am at it can I just say that ... ahem ...

UGLY BETTY RULZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

BTW, this it the only show I catch on the web ALWAYS. I have yet to see this show on TV. Why? It's aired to early for me.

The only shows I watch on TV are on after 10 like Mind of Mencia, Alton Brown's Good Eats, the filthy and disgusting Drawn Together which out-southpark's South Park, but could never be as disturbing as Dr. 90210.

The two show that have become almost a daily staple of my pop-culture diet are ...

Do I even have to say it? I was going to put up the Good Evening Sodomites bit but this is even better ...

Apologize John

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Submitted by liza on 31 December 2006 - 3:09am.
Animation | Children | Film | Movies | TV

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Words to live by

Sometimes I want to scream.
Iâ€™d like to say, â€œFrom now on, hats can be left on in the building, and food is welcome in all classrooms. Now, can we just move on, for Peteâ€™s sake?â€
But I donâ€™t. . .

Weâ€™re arguing about power. About consistency. About priorities. Weâ€™re trying to discuss the Big Issues, but weâ€™re afraid to name them.
So we bicker about minutiae.

We fall into the safe arguments that no one will ever win but that will surely fill the time allotted, ensuring that we can return to our classrooms, departments, and homes. . .

If weâ€™re actually going to talk about why kids need to eat in class, then we may have to break the silence surrounding the issues of poverty and inequity.

We donâ€™t really want to
do that. We prefer to stay safely ensconced in our ignorance, putting mountains of energy into talking about nothing at all. . .

(So) kids stay hungry, continue to lack basic
supplies, and, most important, fail to get a sense of what it is to recognize and be able to use their power as citizens. They donâ€™t learn how it feels to exercise power wisely because we refuse to show them.

They learn to pour their energies into petty battles rather than real civic engagement.

In this era of increasing political partisanship, isnâ€™t it time for us to teach our students that looking deeply into the well of our own shortcomings is the way to solve them? How long will we maintain the charade of infallibility, our blameless collective personae?

The greatest gift we can give our students, and ourselves, is the acknowledgment that things arenâ€™t OK â€” and wonâ€™t be OK, even if we build a school in which no one wears a hat indoors, everyone has a pencil, and neither Snickers bars nor apple cores can be found outside the cafeteria.

— LAURA THOMAS, Antioch Center for School Renewal director and core graduate faculty member, Keene, New Hampshire - Editorial Projects in Education, Vol. 17, Issue 02, Pages 50,53-54.