Media Focus

When one is from an education family, and is the son of teachers, there is always available the option of just going off on a tangent because it is pleasing to you to do so. After so many years of teaching and answering questions, it pleases a teaching parent for a son or daughter to be perfectly abstract, for comic effect.

Son or daughter: "I thought I would take that architecture seminar at The New School and then do some work and then submit a bid on the apartment buildling on the corner. I read the sign. I could write about the experience on my college application. Can I borrow $80 bucks?"

Parent: - Very funny. Sure, here's $40. Don't screw up.

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So, to be perfectly unaccountable, here are some media topics. To be perfectly accountable, it is my belief that people really benefit from being coached on how to respect, disrespect and choose between our many media products, sort of like people need to be coached on how to experience criticism. It shouldn't really be that uncomfortable a process to learn something. It should be fun, it should be like learning to drive a car. We are all in the driver's seat of our lives, one shouldn't piss off the driver, even if one is a student at it.

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Media
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Rammstein - Deutche Neue Harte - The new German heart? The new German deer? Actually, looking it up, it is "The New German Hardness", which is a funny way to talk about a genre that is otherwise known as "Dance Metal". I was listening to a tape loop from a college radio station in the middle of Narragansett Bay, this song was on every 110 minutes. It was a good loop, I was thinking of something else, 2 am, 5 am, 7 am on a summer Sunday morning, I decided to tape the Rammstein when it came around, I also managed to get "Arthur Murray Taught Me Dancing in a Hurry" from the 50s. "Arthur Murray then advised me not to worry. He taught me the groundwork, the walking around work, and told me to take it from there."

Mo the bartender on The Simpsons - What is the deal with Mo? This show, which started in 1990?, has provided so much positive narcosis for teenagers of all ages, hopefully will still be around in 10 years.

Brian and Stewie on The Family Guy - These two, I am not sure who is really in control of this relationship, they are very good for each other.

Brian Giunta of the New Jersey Devils - Great. If one knows how to hit somebody then one can be an All Star NHL player. There are plenty of champion sumo wrestlers who are built like NFL lineman, who win all the time against the guys who are built like the fattest men in the world. "Career Opportunities - Do you really want to make a score?" Practice, practice, practice.

Trusty, the band from Dischord - There is nothing more interesting than accepting the conceit of a racehorse narrating a song - "Unsnowplow". "No one's checking on me. Why do you have to take me for a loser? Check me out, check me out, check me way out. I live in the laundry room seen in the movies. It's all there and no one's going to touch it. East side. North side. South side. West side. [You] said you got a reputation for taking chances, get out of my way 'cos I'm an amublance, you know." The rest of the song is more or less expressed instrumentally.

Lara Flynn Boyle - This person, who was a regular on David E. Kelley's The Practice, is a good poker player and has a gothic cross tattooed on her ankle.

The movie Tart - The protagonist in this great movie behaved badly part of the time, badly enough to make me question the salience of her world.

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I know this is all Chinese, but it does crack me up in a safe, productive way, and I am keeping with the theme. Cliche is the only enemy.

Son or daughter: "Gee, I am looking at these papers, and each and every single one of them says "William Blake was ahead of his time." How do you take each one completely seriously? It seems like hard work and a lot of them are pretty good."

Parent: - You got that right.

Son or daughter: "So, do I get credit for all this Chinese stuff?"

Parent: - Groan.