Jotting Down Some Randomness

The past week has been one of change and challenges for me. I am usually not lacking things I want to write about, but the past few days have been … well, busy. I’ve jotted little random thoughts in my “possible blog” notebook but none of them really warrants a full blown blog. So I decided to throw many of them all together for you. Consider it a Blogging Smorgasbord.

(Mental note: Use Smorgasbord in a sentence today. Check!)

Afternoon Adjustment

One of the biggest changes for me has been the switch from midnights to afternoons. Things have been very busy at work and I know that there are a lot of things that I still need to learn. However, I’ve sort of settled in and have taken care of reviewing patient charts, scoring records, helping techs with hook ups and whatever else is needed.

It’s weird to see the “day people.” We see their names in e-mails and on orders, but to actually see them … it’s just weird. There is a small window of time between when the day folks leave and the night folks come in where the building is strangely quiet. It’s almost too quiet. I have had to make sure that I turn some music on in order for me not to get distracted by the silence.

My entire eating schedule is out of whack, too. I’m used to lunch at 11pm and dinner at 3:30am. Now, I am eating on what you would call a “normal” schedule. I also have to deal with the never ending supply of sweets and snacks from the day staff. It seems that there are always some kind of goodies on the break room table.

The best part has been being able to crawl into bed and hold my wife at night (when one of the kids isn’t in our bed!). In just one week, I feel like we have talked more like when we first got married. Both of us are rested, get up and have coffee together, and have breakfast and lunch as a family. It really is wonderful.

Date Night

Sam and I have a date night coming up this weekend. If there is ever any question as to whether I love her or not, this should prove that the answer is a resounding YES. Look, I’ve seen a few episodes of the Golden Girls here and there. Sophia reminds me of my Italian grandma. However, I wouldn’t go out of my way to see a “Golden Girls” stage show – unless my wife wanted to see it. She does and we are.

I don’t know much about the show. The Golden Girls – The Laughs Continue. I heard it is a bit “raunchier” than the actual show. My co-worker saw it tonight and said it was good. He promised to not give away any spoilers. He took his wife.

We were talking about how some people really got into it and were dressing up to go to shows like this. My wife has informed me that she has something for us to wear to the show. If I wind up in a wig and a dress, I will be sure to share pictures.

Did You Ever ….

This doesn’t happen often, but have you ever started a book with the impression that it was going to be good only to find it slow and not what you expected? I am listening to an audiobook that I borrowed based solely on the title. The unabridged audio book is just over 11 hours. I am three hours in and I am just now feeling like it might be starting to get interesting, but I’m not sure. I debated whether or not to just stop listening.

I suppose it is my fault. I usually read the synopsis before deciding on reading a book. I never did for this one. Prior to blogging, I read the synopsis and afterward asked myself, “If I had read this before adding it to my ‘to read’ list, would I have actually wanted to read it?” I’m guessing not. I will probably listen a little longer just to see what, if anything, happens. At some point, though, I need to decide whether I want to finish it or not.

I Don’t Get the Hype

Someone posted the above on Facebook and I had to steal it. I truly don’t know how to take the hype surrounding the Barbie movie. My first thought is that Hollywood’s creativity is at an all time low and this was the result of someone scraping the bottom of the barrel for a movie idea. “Oooooo! I know! Let’s make a movie about Barbie and the various versions of dolls!” How does this idea even make it up the flagpole!?

Sam actually wondered if it would be something that Ella might like. Most people who did see it said it was probably not something to take kids to. It seems that this movie is made for adults who used to play with Barbie dolls or something. Urgh.

This leads to my second thought – adults are actually willing to pay big ticket prices to actually watch this in a theater. THIS is what the general public sees as “entertainment.” At what point do they just throw together two hours of 2 to 3 minute Tik Tok or Snapchat videos and market it as a “major motion picture?!” Sure, you can watch that crap on your phone, but if they did put it in theaters, you can bet that people would flock to see it. Next thing you know, some idiot Tik Tok “star” will get an Academy Award!

It has been a LONG time since there has been a movie that has come out that I would actually want to pay to see. I’ve been fascinated by the story of Hiroshima, so the Oppenheimer movie might be something I’d go see, but the reviews are mixed. I will probably do what I usually do – wait to stream it or rent it.

New Bluey? Yes, I Will Watch!

My wife says to me today: “Have you watched the new Bluey episodes yet?”

I shout back, “What?! Are they one Disney + already? I didn’t think they were airing in the US yet!”

Yes. There are new episodes. Yes. I will watch them by myself.

I learned a long time ago that it is totally ok for an adult to watch cartoons without kids. It keeps me young!

The Omelette

Confession: I’m 51 and I love cartoons.

I have blogged about the cartoon Bluey before, and yes, I am blogging about it again. The third season of Bluey is still unavailable for viewing in the United States. There are some ways around that by changing your VPN or some other “tech” stuff I don’t understand.

I happen to belong to a Facebook group that will occasionally post some of the videos. As I held AJ this afternoon, I saw that they posted a cartoon from season 3, so I watched it. I literally laughed out loud throughout the episode, and at one point almost cried. That’s just one of the reasons I love this cartoon.

The episode is called “Omelette.” The cartoon starts with Dad (Bandit) opening his eyes to see his wife and two daughters looking at him. It’s his birthday, and they tell him they are going to make him breakfast in bed. He states he is hungry and mom suggests getting a move on, because when dad is hungry – he gets cranky. I can totally relate to this! Maybe it’s a guy thing?

Anyway, in the kitchen mom starts to make a “fast omelette” and tells Bluey to set up the table (the tray) and Bingo to make a birthday card for dad. As mom turns around, there is 4 year old Bingo. She tells mom that she made a card for dad at school and shows her. She then asks to help make the omelette.

First, she grabs the eggs, and as she walks to the counter, she drops about half of them on the floor. After cleaning it up, they attempt to crack eggs. She is not hitting the bowl hard enough, so mom tells her to try harder – which leads to another mess. After that mess is cleaned up, something happens where Bluey spills juice and that needs to be cleaned up.

Mom’s phone rings and it is dad asking how much longer breakfast will be – because, you know, he’s hungry! This totally cracked me up. I can see myself doing that. She tells him it won’t be long decides that Bingo should let mom just make the omelette. Cut to dad in bed ….. obviously getting more and more hungry (and cranky).

Mom whips up the omelette and is ready to take it to dad. She notices Bingo is pretending to play with two nutcracker salt and pepper shakers. Mom is watching as she basically tells the one salt shaker she’s “not good enough to help” with things. Mom now realizes that Bingo is playing out exactly how she felt when mom told her that she couldn’t help.

Dad now enters the kitchen and is begging for food. Mom tells Bluey to get dad back in bed and keep him there. He sees the omelette and begs to eat it. Mom tells him its not his and Bluey and dad are off to the bedroom. It’s pretty funny to hear Bluey tell dad to “Stay!” – they are dogs after all.

Mom then asks Bingo to help make the omelette, which makes her very happy. There is a montage of messes being made, borrowing more eggs from neighbors, phone calls from dad, more messes, more egg borrowing, and eventually – a pretty nasty looking omelette. They take the omelette to dad who wolfs it down in seconds!

He announces it was the best omelette he has ever had.

I’m not sure why I related so much to this particular episode, but I did. For some reason, I connect with this family and these characters. I also learn from them. Dad (Bandit) is the dad I want to be. He plays with his kids, often times more than any dad I know. I strive to be like him with my kids.

This episode was kind of a slap in the face to me (amidst the times I laughed at Bandit). Let me explain. My wife is all about letting the kids make messes. I’m not sure why, but when she does that, my anxiety levels go through the roof. One time, she gave Ella Jello or pudding and just let her play on her high chair. Jello and pudding was everywhere! What a mess that had to be cleaned up.

Last week, she bought one of those blow up pools. We don’t have a bath tub, so she filled this thing in the middle of our kitchen. There was water everywhere. Ella had a blast, but I could feel myself going crazy with anxiety! “The water is going to go through the floor to the basement!” I thought. “We’re going to ruin the floor!” My mind never stopped racing about those things.

When mom realized that all Bingo wants to do is help, she lets her – no matter how many messes had to be made. I need to step back and read the kids. I need to let them make messes. I need to let them help. The look on Bingo’s face and the excitement she shows when mom asks for her help – that is what it is all about.

Without it being an official New Year’s Resolution (because I don’t believe in them), I think this year, I’ll let the kids break a few eggs …..

I Wanna Be Like Bandit!

I realize that the title of this blog (and the picture above) may be misleading, because it is not about Burt Reynolds. In my defense, they say that having a good blog title will make people want to read it – and here you are! So just what is this blog about? A cartoon role model.

Never Heard of It

The age difference between my oldest boy and my daughter is 18 years. The difference between my youngest son and my daughter is 13 years. Kids shows are constantly changing. Sure, some of the same shows my oldest watched were still on when my youngest was born. However, it seems that outside of Sesame Street, there are always new shows on. PBS is barely recognizable now outside of Sesame Street and Curious George (to me anyway).

Let me say before I go on that the TV is usually background noise. I do not plant my daughter in front of it and use it as a babysitter. In fact, the things she likes most are the theme songs. Once they are over, she’s off playing with her toys or bringing me books to read. The only show that she really watches is Bubble Guppies. I think she likes it because of the bright colors and the fact that there is a lot of music in the show.

When Ella gets up in the morning, I usually give her a sippy cup of milk and turn on the TV. Most mornings I turn on Disney Channel. There is a show on there about a family of Australian dogs. It’s called Bluey. I had never heard of this show until recently. If I had to compare it to another show, I would say it is kind of like Peppa Pig, but better. So why I am writing about this silly little cartoon? And who could possibly be a role model on the show??

The Show

The show revolves around the Heeler Family – Dad (Bandit), Mum (Chilli) and the kids (Bingo and Bluey). The show was created by Joe Blumm, who based much of the show on raising his two daughters. He said that many of the story ideas were directly based on watching his daughters play. The program’s scripts show how children can use gameplay to learn lessons and integrate the world of adults into their own; Brumm noticed how his children would recreate interactions such as visits to the doctor, through roleplay. On the show, he wanted to portray the importance of imaginative play. His creative aims were to make children laugh, and show parents what children can learn while engaged in play.

The Role Model

Bluey’s Dad, Bandit, is a true role model for fathers. He is “all-in” as a dad. The reason I chose to write about him was that I noticed just what a fantastic dad he is! He doesn’t have his head in the newspaper, or his phone in his face while his kids are playing – he gets right in there with them. When the kids tell him what character he is – he becomes that character. Maybe he is a baby in the supermarket, or getting a shot at the doctor. Maybe he is a crazy robot or a garden gnome, whatever the role, he embraces it and plays the part like he is working toward an Academy Award!

Through it all, there are lessons to be learned as well. In one episode, Bluey finds a bird that is injured. She tells her dad who, rather than blowing it off or telling her to go talk with mommy, takes the bird to the vet. They wait for news at the vet, and find out that the bird died. He is there for her as she processes the new concept of death. There’s nothing funny about this, and there is no punch line (as you might see in a sitcom with your stereotypical sitcom dad). Bandit is a truly wonderful dad.

One thing parents tend to forget is that your time becomes your kid’s time. What do I mean by that? Simply this – if I want to sit down and watch a Detroit Tigers game on TV and Ella wants to play “Tea Party,” then I need to play with Ella! That’s that! Bandit is that way! If he is in the middle of mowing the grass and Bluey wants to play, the grass can wait! The kids are the priority! They get his full attention!

Looking back, I feel bad. I know there were many times that my boys asked me to do something and I was in the middle of something else. I found myself putting them on “hold.” The problem with that is – they keep growing and growing fast! By putting them on hold, you miss out on bonding and moments you will never get again. That being said, I turn to Bandit as my role model!! Maybe I need to ask myself in those instances “What Would Bandit Do?”

Do yourself a favor, especially if you are a parent – watch the episode of Bluey called “Take Away”. After watching it, you will see how wonderfully this cartoon shows the joys of parenthood and the occasional chaos that goes with it. If you don’t learn something from how Bandit handles the frustrations of the situation from this short cartoon, you missed something!

Almost every TV show today shows the dad as a goofball. Oh sure, they have their “moments” where they have the heart to heart talk with their kids and the lesson is taught, but most of the time TV dad’s are comic relief. Bandit is the dad that most of us dad’s should strive to be like.

Tunes from Toons

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I spent a lot of time in the car with my sons this past weekend. My oldest son asked me if I remembered some of the shows he used to watch as a kid. We began listing the shows he and his brother watched and had many laughs as we remembered specific episodes. This led to us talking about songs from shows. With every song we recalled, the more I thought about the possibility of it being a topic for a blog.

The picture above may be a little misleading. The Beatles cartoons all featured a Beatles song. There were cartoons that were about bands like Josie and the Pussycats, Jabberjaw, Butch Cassidy, The Banana Splits, The Archies, and The Chipmunks. I am not talking about these cartoons. This blog is about songs that were featured in cartoons NOT about bands.

The songs I wrote down are all songs that I remember instantly when I think about these cartoons. They are NOT the theme songs to the cartoons themselves, although many of those theme songs are just awesome. Some of these songs will stem from cartoons my kids watched, while many will be from toons I watched growing up.

I also want to point out that these songs are NOT from movies. Almost every Disney film has 2-5 songs that come from them. Yes, they are animated cartoons, but I am specifically talking about non-movie songs.

Let me start with a classic. In the Bugs Bunny cartoon “Hillbilly Hare”, an innocent square dance becomes a physical brawl between two brothers (thanks to Bugs). This scene and song was something my morning show partner and I talked about on the air one day!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9SrXRNPRCA

My brother grew up watching Animaniacs. We always laughed that they had a character based on Perry Como, who they called Perry Coma. Anyway, they have a few songs that stand out – one naming all the countries in the world, another naming all the presidents (up to Clinton, if I remember right), and one naming the all the states and their capitals. I wish I had this song to memorize when I was growing up.

There was a season of Scooby Doo where they would play songs during the “chase scenes”. There was always one song that stood out for me. I never knew the name of it until I found it on an album of Scooby Doo songs. It was called “Tell Me, Tell Me”. Remember this one?

My boys watched a lot of SpongeBob Squarepants. There were some episodes that were very funny, and others I found extra annoying. One song from this show that my boys just loved was “Sweet Victory”, which they performed at the “Bubble Bowl”

They weren’t all “Rock” songs, but the Flintstones certainly had a few that stick out to me. Hoagy Carmichael (one of the great songwriters of all time) appeared as himself on the show and sang “Yabba Dabba Doo”, there was the Soft Soap jingle, “Listen to the Rockin’ Bird”, and my favorite – The Bedrock Twitch, sung by Rock Roll (or in this clip, Fred).

There are some who would argue that the best song from the Flintstones came from Pebbles and Bamm Bamm, so here is that one.

There was one song from the Jetsons that I always remember. Judy loves singer Jet Screamer (played by Howie Morris). Elroy’s secret code gets sent into a song writing contest and becomes his next hit record. Remember Eep Opp Ork Ah Ah?

An earworm that drove parents everywhere crazy came from the Ren & Stimpy Show. Time to get Happy Happy with Stinky Wizzleteats…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVM1nUmDHHc

The Simpson’s has had their share of amazing music in their over 30 years on the air. There have even been albums of just music from the show. There is one little gem that I can’t get enough of – and it is only about 45 seconds long. Homer becomes a Stonecutter and they have their own song! Yes, I often hit repeat when this comes on the iPod.

Ok, technically, this entire cartoon is a song. I have to include it on my list, because, well, it’s my list and I love this! Stan Freberg tells the story of the Three Little Bops with music by Shorty Rogers!

If I had to pick one cartoon that I LOVED watching with my kids, it would be Phineas and Ferb. If you have never seen the show, its just plain fun with a new song in almost every episode. Candace is always trying to bust her brothers (Phineas and Ferb – who make the most out of every single day of summer) while Perry (their pet platypus – who is also a secret agent) tries to save the Tri-State area from the evil scientist Dr. Doofenshmirtz.

There are many songs I could pick from (My Undead Mummy and Me, My Nemesis, My Goody Two Shoes Brother, Busted, S.I.M.P – Squirrels In My Pants, and Perry’s Theme), but I will turn to one of their early episodes for my favorite.

In one episode, Flop Starz, they decide to write a hit song. Their mom explains what a “one hit wonder” is and they are off to write it! The result – Gitchee Gitchee Goo. The song itself has been reviewed by critics who have said that the song could have easily been a hit song!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi-aIvYsfHE

Your turn. What songs do YOU remember from your favorite cartoon shows?

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