Shelldon - cartoon

Just came across Shelldon today, a cartoon for very young kids. Features some kind of creatures in shells, snails I believe.

Shelldon, the lead, is a boy, of course. Has a bucktoothed crab friend named Herman (Herman the Hermit Crab) and a female snail friend whose name I don't remember.

So I'm watching, and the lead characters are going to school, and they get to go on a field trip - a turtle being their bus.

The class teacher, a squid, asks, "Can you guess where we're going on our field trip?"

And of course a girl character says excitedly, "The beauty salon?"

And a boy character says, "To have adventures hunting sharks?"

Typical.

Herman wants to follow a character named Cranky Crab for no good reason, and Shelldon won't let him go alone. The girl doesn't want them to go off on their own, but rather than calling a grownup to stop them, she just goes following after them. So then they all get lost.

They are washed up onto a beach. Shelldon goes for help while the girl stays behind to protect Hermit, who has gotten stuck in some branches, while a big bird menaces them. At least this shows that girls can be brave and not abandon their friends...

Finally Shelldon returns with someone bigger to rescue them - having had to blackmail first Cranky and then this big fish, because they won't help just because someone needs help. That's a rather disturbing lesson to teach little kids, I thought.

At the end of the show some character comes on and tells the audience always to carry their address with them, and to know their phone number, but most important, never to wander away from their teacher or parents.

Merry Melodies - Cartoon Network

I stopped my channel surfing at 11 am on Merry Melodies today. It starts with a baby Yosemite Sam, wearing a diaper but complete with bright red mustache, etc. He gets up and starts singing a rap song about blowing his top whenever he gets angry- complete with those stupid hand gestures that rappers make. But that wasn't all. He had three backup singers - human females, dressed skimpily. Not as skimpily as if they were showgirls in Las Vegas, but pretty damn skimpy for a cartoon being shown, presumably to kids, at 11 o'clock in the morning. And of course they were thrusting their hips one way and their bosoms the other way as they sang.

That's disgusting at any age, but isn't Merry Melodies aimed at children - it's a show with Bugs, Daffy, Porky Pig, etc. Do they really need to learn at an early age how to look like a rapping fool, and of course, using women as sexual props which is what rappers do? (Along with professional cheerleaders at football games to name only one other business that continues to perpetuate the woman as eye candy theme.)

The Pirates - claymation movie

I've only seen the trailer for this on TV... but what are we shown?

It's an all male crew.

Apparently there is one female pirate. We see her from the back. Her buttocks are curved in pneumatic fashion, and she wears her pants down so low that we see her butt-crack.

And she walks in a seductive way past a group of pirates.

One of them tries to cop a feel, and she slaps his hand away.

What message does this send little girls, and little boys?

Why, that it is a woman's function to dress provacatively to be eye candy for boys, and it's perfectly all right for boys to cop a feel. The girl will good-naturedly slap his hand away and won't feel violated at all. After all, why would she, since she's dressed that way for that specific purpose?

No, I'm not saying every female character (or every female, come to that) should go around wearing a burkha. But wearing pants so low that they show off a butt crack (if show off is the right word) and buttocks tilted up invitingly?

Wearing shirts that are little more than bras to show off the belly button, not to mention the breasts that have been augmented and are just a leeetle too big for the bra and the tight shirt?

And then women wonder why they get no respect?

Dress a guy in that kind of clothing, and first off you know he's gay, and second you know he's a rent-boy. And that same subliminal message goes to guys looking at girls dressed like that.

What's up with daughters and their dads on crime-series TV?

There's no doubt that there's a lack of originality coming out of TV shows - there always has been.

The latest that I've noticed - in those TV series with a female cop lead, they always seem to have a dad who is a con-man or a crook. (Well, in NCIS it was Tony DiNozzo's father who was the con-man, but that's just one guy. Most of 'em...women.)

Bones - originally Bones' mother and father had disappeared. Turns out they had been spies or something. Ryan O'Neal is introduced to the series as Bones' father, who is a conman/killer.

Rizzoli and Isles - Isles character was, at one point, similar to Bones's, but now they've debased the character a bit. In any event, her dad is a con man.

Psych - Juliet O'Hara's father (as played by William Shatner) is a con man

In Plain Sight - Mary Shannon's father is a con man.

(All this begs the question, how can these people pass security checks to get jobs in law enforcement when they have dads who are crooks?)

Spring Break - the tradition

As mentioned in my previous post, I was watching CIS: Miami today. The plot of the show is that Miami is awash in college students (presumably - I think in real life a few high school students get in on the act as well).

And all the young women are walking around in the skimpiest of bikinis, and all the guys in swimsuits (no mankinis on view, thank goodness), and of course they are getting drunk and having sex, and 3 of them end up murdered.

As the detective crew go around trying to solve the crime, they keep saying with irony - when learning of some particular excess - well, it's spring break.

And I found myself wondering, when this spring break phenomenon - of college students deliberately going out to party, get drunk and have sex - start?

I went to Amazon and did a search on books with the keywords Spring Break - and every single book that came back had some kind of sexual connotation, for example:

Showing 1 - 12 of 8,384 Result
--Spring Break (Summer) by Katherine A. Applegate (Jan 26, 2010)
--Spring Break: An Erotic Lesbian Seduction by Eva Scarlett (Aug 19, 2011) - Kindle eBook
--Spring Break Sex Stories, Volume One by Julieta Hyde (Jun 17, 2011) - Kindle eBook
--Spring Fling by Sabrina James (Feb 1, 2010)
--Revelations: A Tale of Spring Break, Sex, Drugs, & Alcohol by Chris Robertson (Aug 13, 2010) - Kindle eBook
--Confessions of a Sorority Girl: Spring Break Gangbang by Natalia Darque (Oct 19, 2011) - Kindle eBook
--Rites of Spring (Break) (An Ivy League Novel) by Diana Peterfreund (Jun 24, 2008)
--Spring Break by Kayla Perrin (Mar 2, 2010)
--Spring Break Submission by Jere Haken (Apr 13, 2012) - Kindle eBook
--It's Always Spring Break Somewhere In The Galaxy by Raven c.s. McCracken (Oct 31, 2011)
--Hooked Up Over Spring Break by Sandra Sookoo, Emma Lai and D. L. Shorts (Mar 13, 2012) - Kindle eBook
--Spring Fling (A Warm Night On The Beach) (College Girls On Spring Break) by Amber Hunt (Mar 13, 2012)

And of course all the covers featured the same types of things. The woman's body from the neck down. If she's facing the reader, the photo features large breasts about to break out of a small bikini top. If she's facing away from the reader, it features her rounded buttocks bisected by a thong.

There's a saying, "What happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas." There's another saying, if this ep of CSI Miami is to be believed, "What happens on Spring Break stays on Spring Break."

But of course neither statement is true. I wonder how many college girls get pregnant on spring break, and never know the name(s) of the father of their little bun in the oven. How many contract venereal diseases?

Of course TV series do "glamorize" things...maybe it's not as easy to get sex on spring break as CSI Miami would have you believe, but somehow I doubt it. College kids, hormones, the romanticization of spring break, the idea if you come back from spring break without being able to boast about your sexual exploits will forever leave you out of the popular cliques... oh, yes, I think these days that's all spring break is, an excuse to have free sex.

Very sad, and only going to get worse.

Subway commercial

watching CSI:Miami on A&E and saw this commercial. I've seen it a few times before and it irks me every time.

It's another commercial where people are going about their lives - jogging, biking, driving. They hear about some special sandwich price so they run into a pole, fall off their bike, crash into a pole - all without getting injured, and then extoll the merits of this great sandwich.

Another Exaltation of the Idiot.

We need way less of that and more Exaltation of the Smart/Common-sense Possessed People.

What in the world has happened to the Disney Channel?

Considering the impact media has on kids, and has had for many decades, I have to just look in horror at the crap on the Disney channel. (The more frightening because apparently this show is very popular.)

Take Wizards of Waverly Place. All the over-acting common for shows aimed at kids.So we've got a teen in a business suit, and we get another kid coming in dressed like a hippy complete with an obviously fake "soul patch" on his chin, strutting around like he owns the joint...and of course the female characters whose only interest is to find boyfriends.

The episode I saw was apparently where the two female characters had duplicated their brother, one straight-laced, one a rebel, and when they put him back together, only the rebel personality remained.

Wizards of Waverly Place

Wizards of Waverly Place is an American Disney Channel Original Series which ran from October 12, 2007 to January 6, 2012 on Disney Channel. The series was created by Todd J. Greenwald, and stars Selena Gomez, David Henrie and Jake T. Austin as three wizard siblings with magical abilities competing to win sole custody of the family powers. Further main cast includes Jennifer Stone, María Canals Barrera and David DeLuise.

The series won "Outstanding Children's Program" at the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards in 2009. A film adaptation of the series, Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie, premiered as a Disney Channel Original Movie on August 28, 2009. The film adaptation won "Outstanding Children's Program" at the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards earning the series its second consecutive Emmy. Wizards of Waverly Place ended as the longest-running Disney Channel Original Series (surpassing That's So Raven) with 106 episodes over four seasons. Its series finale averaged nearly 10 million viewers (live+same day), which made it the most-watched Disney Channel Original Series finale ever.

Premise

Wizards of Waverly Place chronicles the adventures of the Italian-Mexican Russo Family. The Russos live on Waverly Place in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, above a sub shop which they own and run. The family consists of siblings Alexandra "Alex" (Selena Gomez), Justin (David Henrie), and Maximillian "Max" (Jake T. Austin). The three teenagers are wizards and live with their Italian father, Jerry (David DeLuise), a former family wizard, and their mortal Mexican mother, Theresa (Maria Canals Barrera). When the Russo siblings complete their wizard training, they are to participate in a competition to decide who will become the Family Wizard (the one to keep his/her magical powers forever) of their generation, while the others lose their powers and become mortals.

Because of this, Jerry tries to teach his children to not become dependent on magic. Since one of them gets to keep their powers, though, Jerry also gives his children wizard lessons (the lessons end mid Season four). The storage room of the Russo family's sub station is a wizard's lair. In the lair is a Portal which allows them to visit the wizard world, and other creatures to visit them. The headmaster of the wizard council, Professor Crumbs (Ian Abercrombie), regularly pays visits to the Russo home.

The Russo siblings attend Tribeca Prep and constantly encounter their Old West style principal, Mr. Laritate (Bill Chott). Because they live in the mortal world, the Russo's are required to keep the existence of wizardry a secret. Even so, Alex's best friend, Harper Finkle (Jennifer Stone), discovers the secret in Season 2's episode "Harper Knows". Justin's best friend, Zeke Beakerman (Dan Benson), also finds out in Season 4's episode "Zeke Finds Out", also along with Alex's boyfriend, Mason Greyback (Gregg Sulkin).

Production

This series was created and as executive produced by Todd J. Greenwald, who began developing the show after working as a writer and consulting producer during the first season of Hannah Montana. The show is produced by It's a Laugh Productions and Disney Channel Original Productions. The theme song, "Everything Is Not What It Seems", written by John Adair and Steve Hampton, is of techno-pop style and is performed by Selena Gomez. The series is filmed at Hollywood Center Studios in Hollywood, California.

Opening sequence

For the first three seasons the show used the same title sequence, the opening title sequence, which is set to Selena Gomez's rendition of "Everything Is Not What It Seems", shows Alex, Justin, Max and Harper engaging in magical antics while preparing for school in the morning. The fourth season began using a slightly altered version of the song, and a different sequence involving the cast, who all appear in Times Square at the end of the sequence with Alex waving her wand.

Reception

The show debuted on Disney Channel on October 12, 2007 after the premiere of Twitches Too, gathering 5.9 million viewers. In January 2010, "Wizards vs. Werewolves" one-hour special episode became the series' most-watched (non-crossover) episode with 6.2 million viewers,[3] surpassing the 6 million viewers of "Paint By Committee" episode The series' most watched episode, including crossovers, was "Cast-Away (To Another Show)" episode, which was included in the special trilogy of crossover episodes between three Disney Channel original sitcoms, Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana. The broadcast was watched by 10.6 million viewers. In 2009, the series was the top scripted telecast for teens between the age of 9-14 (1.63 million/6.7 rating) and second in kids 6-11 (1.81 million/7.4 rating), which was only slightly behind The Suite Life on Deck (1.82 million/7.4 rating.

Maury Povich

Just saw a commercial for the Maury Povich show: "Most Unromantic Guests of 2012" or something like that.

Men and women just standing up and screaming in each other's faces, over whatever degradation one or the other has been involved in...

So sad...

Someone cheats on you? Leave them.

Someone cheats on you with your sister and mother? Leave the whole damn family!

Someone speaks rudely to you every day? (Not a subject that makes for great shouting matches, but a real problem.) It's called verbal abuse. Leave them.

Solutions are simple, no need to degrade yourself by appearing on Maury, or any of the other dozen reality shows.

It never ends redux

Now my computer monitor is going on the fritz...shorts out every few seconds and then comes back on...

I'll buy a new one tomorrow, and will get my posts started then!

Easter Pause

So sorry to have missed so many days of posting - unexpected family matters cropped up.

And now it's Easter, so more family matters.

Will get back on track Monday.

Thanks for your patience.

The Trayvon Martin Case

The media certainly believes that George Zimmerman - the "white" Hispanic - is guilty of murder in the case of the unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin.

So much so that when they share photographs of Martin, they always show the same one, one that is 3 years old and shows him as a baby faced 12 or 13 year old.

At the time he died, Martin was 17 years old and six feet tall. (But he was apparently only 140 pounds, which would have made him a beanpole football player, not a massive defensive back).

And that's what I find curious. I can understand the Zimmerman's not wanting to give a current photo of their son (he's apparently lost a lot of weight since the photo the newspapers use was taken), but Martin? Why use a 3-year old photograph for him? Why never show a current photograph?

The coverage of the Martin case is never-ending and on the national stage - but the coverage of all the black teens that have been killed since Martin's death - that has only been mentioned in local press. Yet since Martin's death at least 4 black adults have died, and 30 more wounded, some critically. (2 of them were killed, and 14 wounded, at a funeral!).

Why is it their deaths haven't made national headlines? Why is their no national outrage over their deaths?