My wife got us in to a preview of Despicable Me, which Universal Studios will release nationwide on July 9. The trailer of the warring villains — Gru is voiced by Steve Carell and Vector is Jason Segel — was long on gimmicks but short on evidence of a story. The film itself is mostly sight gags and a barrage of clever lines until Gru meets three orphan children who significantly influence Gru’s plan to steal the moon. From then on, Despicable Me shows how Gru (Carell lends marvelous nuance to the character) evolves from an annoyed caretaker to an attentive father. This film belongs in acategory with The Incredibles for depicting parenting better than almost any live-action movie. With such a solid story and great voice performances, the 3D seemed superfluous. Touching and very, very funny.
Romi Lassally, Editor in Chief of the Truu Confessions sites (including True Mom Confessions), is distributing a weekly rundown of highlights from her sites. The concept is for people to unload their thoughts about what really matters in life in an anonymous way to form communities of people supporting each other to make it through all the nuttiness we experience. One example: Not So Quiet Time - “If I thought I could actually do it comfortably, I would go to the bathroom and try and take a nap while sitting on the toilet.” Check out this week’s list.
I’ve already revealed my fatherly adoration for Peter Himmelman in the review I did for his My Green Kite album. It’s not like I need to run down all the singer-songwriter’s accomplishments, such as his long career as a performer for grown-ups, his film and TV scoring (i.e., the show Bones, his entertaining Web site and the five family recordings — including his new My Trampoline on the aptly named Minivan record label. So, I’ll let the singer-songwriter do some talking for himself.
FM: What kind of grown man writes songs about African leopard tortoises and pinheads?
PH: I guess you could say that I’m a man who, for better or worse, is way tapped into to his seven-year-old self. Turtle wise: I love my tortoise as much as any man has ever loved a reptile. He’s wise, gentle and extremely big on patience, which is something I’ve discovered is important. As for the pinhead thing…it’s what my wife calls me (in the most tender way I might
add) when she compares the size of my head to my 19 year old son’s.
FM: What’s different or particularly outstanding about this bouncy new album of yours compared to your previous family-friendly discs?
PH: Oh, that question. It’s for the marketing department. My honest answer is that there’s nothing inherently unique about this record. No special new formula. No laboratory tested techniques on display. Just a continuation of the themes of wonder that I will most likely keep pursuing for a long time.
FM: In your live shows, you improvise songs with children’s names and random concepts. Is this talent the impetus for writing music for kids?
PH: No, I’d say that talent (which is partly innate and partly developed), has served me well in almost everything I do — from fatherhood, to being a husband, to my life as a creator in general. Notice I didn’t use a capital C in creator…
FM: How does making music for kids differ from making tunes for adults?
PH: The only real difference is the context from which I’m writing. With kids for example, I’d never write a song about losing a woman or a too high tax bill — these kinds of things are just outside of the experience of a kid and they’d go right by them just as if I were reciting a terse poem to you in Pashtun…which I assume you don’t speak.
FM: What do your children think of your music?
PH: It’s funny how uninterested they’ve always seemed. It’s as though I were an accountant who’s been crunching numbers at his desk after dinner. Making music is just something I’ve always done since they were babies. But, to be more reflective, I happen to know that they are all very proud and inspired to have been raised in a loving home where their father has been doing something rather daring and interesting.
FM: How has family music changed from the time you were a child…assuming you really are a grown-up?
PH: Oh I’m grown up all right. It’s just that at 49, I can’t (or refuse) to forget age 6 or 10 or 25. As far as the family music business or the adult music business goes, I’ve always been a bit outside of what goes on. I do remember some wonderful music by a the Animals, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, even Burl Ives and Mitch Miller that I enjoyed a lot as a kid.
FM: Who are some of your favorite musicians, classic to contemporary?
PH: Stravinsky, Debussy, Miles Davis, Pete Seeger, Mel Torme, Thelonius Monk, Bob Marley, JJ Cale, The Monkees, Woody Guthrie, Fats Domino, John Lee Hooker… and The Guess Who.
FM: What’s the best way to turn young people on to playing music and being open to listening to different artists?
PH: Keep them off network television, keep them tuned into Pandora radio, bring home new recordings for them to listen to, and open up yourself to new sounds and musical experiences.
*****
For more about Peter Himmelman, listen to/visit his podcast/blog at Furious World, go to his Web site, and be sure to read the review of My Trampoline.
With summer TV programming in its seasonal lull, I’ve been scouting the Internet for a few good video clips worth a chuckle. I haven’t spent nearly enough time with Will Ferrell’s FunnyOrDie.com site as I plan to spend, but I did fall upon this clever spoof of the Law & Order shows at the site. Titled Good Cop, Baby Cop, it approximates some of the feeling that I go through when my own kids grill me about breaking a rule that I expect them to follow (such as, “Why do you get two desserts?” or “How come you don’t have to play the silent game with us in the car?”). In any case, check out the clip, but be forewarned that there is some cursing in the beginning, though not by the toddler who co-stars in the video (she is the daughter of Adam McKay, frequent collaborator with Ferrell).
Thank God for kids. In all the doom and gloom of the flu, the economy, and general cynicism, children break through with perspectives that — at the very least — make us laugh. Simply click over to this kid drawing of her mother at work and read the mom’s very sober clarification. Has anything like this happened to you? Just last week, my four-year-old announced to his carpool that, “I have the meanest mommy.” “Why?” asked the mom who was driving that day. “She won’t let us roast marshmallows in our fireplace.” Ah, the injustice perpetrated on the young.
This blog posting is for no other reason than to vent. This Saturday was going perfectly well, parenting-wise. Wendy split the duties with the kids to get them all to sports practice and two games. Ari got dragged along as the youngest. After 6 hours of car shuttling, snacks, lunches (during which I ate too quickly and indulgently at Fatburger), finding missing mouth guards, yelling advice from the sidelines, and setting the kids up with activities at home, I wanted an hour or so to write. Sure. An hour. Is it asking too much (a question I ask at least several times a week)? It didn’t happen of course. Poor Wendy needed a nap after a sleepless night after a bad week at work. The younger boys violently practiced karate on each other (what did I expect after screening The Karate Kid for them the previous night). Benjamin finally started practicing piano, hitting more than a few errant notes that went straight to my nerves.
I’m trying to figure out my perspective here and I just can’t do it. I love this crazy life, but sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I’m so frustrated, I scream at the kids, pound the keyboard that can’t seem to help me focus, and dream of life as a college student. Sure, I’ll regain my composure eventually and gather a few of my considerable life rosebuds, but right now, I’m trampling all over them.
To paraphrase a great line from Casablanca (aren’t they all great lines), Capt. Renault says to Ilsa, “If I were a woman, I should be in love with Rick.” In the case of umpteen award-winning parenting columnist Carol Band, if I were a woman writer, I would want to be her. Before anyone goes so far as to imagine me in a skirt, let me point you in the direction of Carol’s work so you can see for yourself. You can find her gently satirical view of motherhood at her site, her blog, and at Parenthood.com, a national publication where we both publish our columns. After more than a decade of finding the funny in everything from kindergarten to college and long-term marriage to everyday mayhem, the Massachusetts-based author has collected many of her best pieces in her book, aptly named after her column, A Household Word. Read and learn from this wise and wacky mom.
A twenty-year veteran of early childhood education and consulting, Brett Berk writes in the intro to his new book that, “it was seeing firsthand — as a preschool teacher — just how difficult parenting is that convinced me that I was not cut out for it. But blind unconditional love [as shown by parents to their kids], by definition, must contain blind spots. My job in this book is to shine a light on these.”
Indeed, Berk’s “outsider” perspective in The Gay Uncle’s Guide to Parenting(http://brettberk.com/the-gay-uncles-guide-to-parenting/) offers analysis and solutions that cut through many assumptions — or what Berk calls “parenting bubbles” — about what’s supposed to work in parenting. And the fact that he presents such clearheaded ideas with witty commentary and personal anecdotes about his family and friends makes this a snappy read.
As a former teacher and preschool director, the author has insightful tips about handling school difficulties. As a consultant to media companies who aim toward kids, he has advice about managing your child’s media diet. And as a compassionate human being who believes parents can feel more in control and more balanced in their lives, he peppers this guide with checklists and sidebars that are easy to refer to again and again. One of the best charts in the book is the “How to Talk to Your Kids About: Everything.” This tool grabs the subject of communicating with children by the roots and branches out with vital strategies, assessments of the wrong way to talk to kids, and suggestions on what he’s seen work in the field. With its fresh viewpoint, The Gay Uncle’s Guide to Parenting is the standout family advice book of this young year.
