debontherocks's blog

Michael Jackson's Legacy Leads to an Awkward American Music Awards Ceremony

2009-11-20T16:03:27-06:00

With the American Music Awards scheduled to air on Sunday, I can't help but obsess about what Taylor Swift must be thinking.

Earlier in the year, she received the first MTV Video Music Award given to a country singer--only to be infamously stage-jacked by Kanye West. Earlier in the month she scored four big Country Music Awards--with the Kanye incident getting some serious lampoon attention as well. This weekend she's walking into the American Music Awards with six nominations based on the success of her second album Fearless, which was released a year ago. But she has to wonder if she's going to get spotlight-jacked again because of her very, er, stiff competition in some categories. And I'm not talking about Lady Gaga, Kings of Leon or Eminem, although they also have had incredible years and appear against Taylor Swift on the Artist of the Year shortlist.

I'm talking about the oddity of competing for a 2009 American Music Award for Artist of the Year against a very deceased pop king Michael Jackson. Michael is up for five awards, including nominations for Artist of the Year and for Favorite Album (in both the Pop/Rock and the Soul/R&B categories) for Number Ones, a best-of compilation released in 2003. Jackson's last original album release was Invincible, in 2001.

But the American Music Award nominees are selected on a very strange definition of "year." The nominees are based on a combination of the year's music sales data and radio Nielsen ratings, and then fan votes select the winner. Jackson's death in June disproportionately spiked all of those metrics, though no one could say that 2009 was a great year for him in any way other than sales.

It's odd, and many people say his nominations are unfair and point out the sales-heavy criteria of the AMAs. Not that the star doesn't deserve accolades for his contributions and memorials to his legacy. But the AMA show promises to offer memorial and celebration, with Janet Jackson slated to perform an eight-minute medley to open the show, and myriad other tributes are appropriate and would be welcome. But by definition a legend would be very likely to sweep sales in the year of his or her death, so the inclusion of deceased artists in the competition has been a topic of debate.

Maura at Idolator titled her AMA post Michael Jackson Should Really Just be Nominated For Every American Music Award at this Point, writing, "In the latest sign that “pop music” is breathing its last gasp in 2009."

But Deborah Ffrench commented on Heckler Spray's run-down on why old work should be ineligible if it becomes popular for because of unusual events. Deborah wrote:

Of course Michael should be nominated. He was and will remain one of the greatest entertainers that ever walked the earth. He also – and I say this for the benefit of some of the detractors above, has an album and a single out. And yes, I am aware that these nominations are as much about acknowledging the growing worldwide calls for Michael’s name to be decisively vindicated as they are about recognizing the peerlessness of his musical legacy.

Some fans want to look past the Award issues and just be happy for the chance to give Jackson the public welcome he was waiting for after a long lull in appearances. As Mona Darling wrote about the comeback Jackson hoped to make with the This Is It tour, "Michael will be remembered because of his music now, its a different kind of a come back now, and will remain forever."

I don't think there is enough juice in the show to make it appealing to watch for me, though I'll definitely look for clips on Monday. And I really don't have to worry about Taylor Swift. After her experiences this year she probably knows to expect anything...either the awkwardness of losing, the awkwardness of beating Jackson, or the awkwardness of any siting of Kanye West.

Are you into it, or do you think that Jackson shouldn't still be in the running for American Music Awards?

Deb Rox blogs at Deb on the Rocks and Tweets It, Just Tweets It at @debontherocks.

"Women in Trouble:" Skewering Exploitation Films, or Exploitation in an Indie Wrapper?

2009-11-13T17:44:04-06:00

My koan for the day: Is it possible to film a comedy riffing on women in exploitation films without exploiting women?

I have no idea.

Women in Trouble, a low-budget indie satire opening in limited release today, gives it a pretty good go. Writer and director Sebastian Gutierrez presents one day in the intersecting lives of a collage of ten archetypal Hollywood-scripted women in trouble--a flight attendant, sex workers, exotic dancers, therapist, mother, daughter, bartender. I saw Women in Trouble at its March premiere at SXSW, where the audience seemed to appreciate it both as a funny experience and as a skillful film. Reviews since then haven't raved though, which in large part is because Gutierrez ambitiously cites Pedro Almodóvar as his influence. No one is going to fair well in comparison to the body of Almodóvar's work. Including Almodóvar.

Still, there is plenty to love about Women in Trouble. The strong female cast is only marginally supported by male characters, and the script is sharp. The plotlines are Lifetime generic, making fun of the entertainment women are supposed to like (a problem pregnancy! a bizarre childhood trauma that leads to sexual dysfunction!). But that is balanced by an equally reductive satire of the entertainment men are supposed to crave (women in bras! sex on airplanes! porn star vagina replicas!). The movie shows us that women are fine, but Hollywood's pandering to our base and banal appetites means that we're in trouble, my fellow popcorn eaters.

But there's the rub. It takes tremendous finesse to tear into all of those themes without basically making a movie exploiting pretty women stripping in lovely lingerie and talking dirty? And as empowering as triumph against (and campy celebration of) pulp themes can be, wouldn't it be more interesting to see women as writers and directors on the film, too?

Bitch Magazine ran an interesting post by Kjerstin Johnson about how even the marketing for the film ended up slamming female audiences as it was trying too hard to distance itself from being a "chick flick" by reveling in its sexy approach to girl troubles:

It's obvious this movie isn't your average "Lonely successful career girl doesn't even know she's falling in love--and it's the best thing to ever happen to her!" That being said, I do suspect there is some female bonding and heart-to-hearts (to say nothing of Josh Brolin and Jospeh Gordon-Levitt's presence for chrissake!) But you guys, this is NOT A CHICK FLICK. ... Is the fact that the movie is about women (and has the W-word in the title!) really going to automatically ensure box office catastrophe? Why is any film about women that doesn't fit the cliche mold best described as NOT A CHICK FLICK?

Gutierrez himself posted in the comment stream, asking critics to give the film a chance to address things that are hard to describe in a trailer or marketing poster. He asserted that:

...it's a celebration of both the really cool actresses in it (who are mostly stuck playing the "girl" part in mainstream stuff) and female characters that are smart, confident, sexy, confused, vulnerable, strong -- in short: human. ... It's hard to express that in a preview because women are so used to being objectified and condescended to that any sexiness is immediately suspect (understandably so) and any heartstring-tugging stuff can immediately be misconstrued as sappy manipulation."

Jette Kernion also encourages audiences to look beyond the lacy surface. She blogged about Women in Trouble at Cinematical:

The female characters in this film might seem at first to be right out of an exploitation film, lurid comic book, or Sin City -- you automatically wonder if this will be a man's perception of what women are like, especially since the writer-director is male. But the actresses grab these roles and give them depth and personality and more humanity than you'd expect from their dialogue and costumes. And quite frankly, I'm not going to turn up my nose at a movie stocked full of strong and powerful women, even if they're scantily clad and tend to be focused on sex-related issues. There's a certain pleasure in seeing a movie where the men are relegated to the Supportive Spouse and Lust Interest roles, after I've seen so many films where those are the only roles for women.

After Ellen's Trish Bendix plans to give "Women in Trouble" a chance.

OK, it definitely doesn't sound like a typical chick flick. In fact, it sounds like the perfect anti-chick flick, and I'm psyched to see how these 10 women interact with one another and how it ends with sequel potential, as there is already one (Elektra Luxx) in the works.

It's true, Electra Luxx is in post-production, and Gutierrez has promised a trilogy in all.

Are you interested in going, or throwing it in your Netflix queue? I feel inspired to spend some time this weekend with real Almodóvar films, and maybe with 8 Femme too, for good measure, but I'm also going to watch Women in Trouble once more.

If nothing else, I might walk away from it determined to make my own low-budget indie pulp fiction comedy. I'm a woman! I have troubles! I have a video camera! I wonder how hard it could it be to round up other troubled women who have Victoria Secret wardrobes and something to say? Maybe even women with pants, shirts, sweaters, yoga pants and nubby-wool socks, too. Wouldn't that be crazy!?!

Contributing Editor Deb Rox blogs at Deb on the Rocks. Follow her on Twitter to learn of casting calls in case this movie idea pans out.

Grilling Eden Kennedy about NaBloPoMo's Glorious Madness

2009-11-10T20:58:59-06:00

You know you've reached Bloglebrity status when your name is synonymous with an entire month. I interviewed the fabulous Eden Kennedy, the blogging luminary behind National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo), about the madness she inspires in the blogosphere every year. NaBloPoMo is an annual ritual that drives many bloggers to commit to posting every day during the month of November, facing all of their demons, distractions, dearth of ideas and defiant natures along the way.

Now in its fourth year, NaBloPoMo has grown massively from its start as a little blogroll of participants on Eden's personal blog Fussy. Now the movement has a life of its own and a terrific site managed as a labor of love by Eden. Although bloggers don't have to register to be a part of NaBloPoMo, the site hosts a rich blogroll of those who submitted their blog link to the community pages.

Not every blogger goes for NaBloPoMo bragging rights. Some fail. (I already have failed this year. Please don't tell Mrs. Kennedy.) Some only do it once. Some just don't get into it, or tell PoMoers to GoBloMe. Regardless of each writer's choice to Po or not to Po, Eden's brainchild is big blogger buzz in late October and November. Whether bloggers do it as a challenge to master, a practice to improve their writing, a freeing exercise, an attempt to flog themselves, a community activity or for reasons all their own, it's undeniable that Eden has created a force and a meaningful ritual in NaBloPoMo.

It was very exciting to talk with Eden. Although I felt starstruck to be interviewing one of my top Bloglebrity heros/cult leaders, talking with her was inspiring and fun. She even confessed one of her crushing NaBloPoMo defeats, which has made me feel a tiny bit better about some of mine. I still don't want you to tell her about my NaBloPoMoFail this year, though. Let's just keep that between us right now.

Eden's blog: Fussy

Satirical babyraising fun: Let's Panic About Babies!

NaBloPoMo Community: NaBloPoMo

IComLeavWe (Commit to commenting on blogs, in partnership with NaBloPoMo): IComLeavWe

Follow Eden on Twitter: Mrs. Kennedy

Transcript of the interview:

Deb Rox: Hi this is Deb Rox. I am a contributing Editor at BlogHer and today I am celebrating the wonder and madness of National Blog Posting Month with the Blogebrity behind the movement Eden Marriot Kennedy. I am so excited talk to Eden, I have read you for a long time and I am just excited to talk about this particular baby of yours. Eden blogs at Fussy.org and she is talking with me by phone today from her home in California. How are you today, Eden, and how is California?

Eden Kennedy: It's good, it's sunny.

Deb Rox: Excellent, what's going on at Fussy Headquarter today?

Eden Kennedy: Not a whole lot, I spent the whole morning in bed, which I have the luxury of doing because now I am writing – it's pretty awesome; I have nothing to complain about.

Deb Rox: The creative life gets to plan its own time and sleeping in is terrific. Well thanks for talking with us today. I love National Blog Posting Month.

Eden Kennedy: You do, you’ve been doing it?

Deb Rox: I do, and I am doing it, I have tried and failed before. I love it and I want to just talk to you about the history and the practice of posting everyday. I think of blogging as many things, I know we all think of it as a community and as a practice and as an art form. Like any art or sport or vocation there are seasons and I really look at blogging or personal blogging as having three distinct seasons and one is; pre-BlogHer conference, one is post or recovery time BlogHer conference and the third is National Blog Posting Month. Basically you're not just a blogebrity, you're a season.

Eden Kennedy: It is something you definitely have to gear up for, because it's a lot of work to post everyday. You think “I will find something”, but there are days, after you have run out of your first ten or so ideas, when all of a sudden you are in the mid month going “uh youtube video? What do I do here?”

Deb Rox: Right exactly, that’s at the core of it. Why don’t we start there, why don’t you talk about the core or in essence what is National Blog Posting Month?

Eden Kennedy: I tried to start it as a writer's exercise because it was based on National Novel Writing Month which also happens November; where thousands of people cycle through trying to write a novel. I forget what the word count is, is it 60,000 words or something in the space of 30 days. I tried to do that one year and I just failed utterly and I thought well I could still post my blog for 30 days in a row that wouldn’t be too hard, which its turns out it sort of is. I don’t know if necessarily this is a controversy, but a lot of people don't sort of take blog writing all that seriously. A lot of blog writers don’t take it that seriously themselves because they are posting links to current events, or using it as a discussion forum rather than as a place to thoughtfully express using good interesting verbs or good descriptive writing of what's going on in their life or in their brain. I thought let's just focus on that part of it, see if you can sit down and write something everyday and throw it up there. What happens after you do that for a while and you are doing it publicly it's not like you are writing it in your diary everyday, you are throwing it out there for between 10 and 100 or 1000 people to read depending on your traffic. Your barriers start to come down and you start that perfectionism thing and start to loosen up for better or worse sometimes worse. Sometimes you end up posting up stuff you never thought was worth writing about and it turns out "Hey I really liked writing that post and I want to explore that more." or you get more feedback or whatever. It's just a way of loosening up that nasty perfectionism thing if you have that.

Deb Rox: Absolutely, it sort of functions like writers pages or the basic practice of writing every day without doing your best in it to move beyond the anxiety of polishing and reading. Immediacy that comes from having a daily move. People sign up and they commit that they are going to try to do this and I know you have been blogging since 2001, when did you start National Blog Posting Month?

Eden Kennedy: I think it was 2006, 7, 8, 9, yes this is the fourth year.

Deb Rox: Fourth year, okay, in those years it has evolved and now you have a community site as well, how does that work?

Eden Kennedy: It works really well I think, I am note sure, I mean I suppose it could be better, it is not like Facebook. It is pretty good for what it is I think, people come, they get on a blog roll and a lot of groups have started, Canadian bloggers or people with ADD, or people who take their camera everywhere, or people who write about office supplies. It is just random, but it is all centered on blogging and so every once in a while you get some weirdo comment trying to come and sell real estate or they sell this commercial stuff and I try to clean them out, but for the most part people have been really sort of sincere about it and that's kind of awesome.

Deb Rox: National Blog Posting Monthers are unified by the idea I am going to post everyday, I am going to own this, I am going to share my thoughts, my art, or my ideas or whatever it is, everyday. In doing so they are sort of joined with different bloggers doing a lot of different types of blogging and its a great place to find what people are posting and people come there also to commiserate.

Eden Kennedy: Yes and they are like oh my god this is hard, or how do you get more traffic, or what's the best blogging platform. Everything from basic I am just starting how do I do this, to someone with slightly more sophisticated questions. One thing I think that helps is this year I had a friend help make the blog roll process a little more automated so that people could enter categories to describe what they do. Now you can go to a blog roll page on nablopomo.com - National Blog Posting Month.com – and you will see all of the craft bloggers together, and all of the parenting bloggers together and all of the anonymous ranting bloggers together and it makes it easier to find like-minded individuals that way. Before it was alphabetical and you could trip across some stuff randomly or if somebody has an interesting name for their blog, you’d get to go for it, maybe you find something great. This way narrowing it down this way it’s a little bit better, people really seem to be responding to that.

Deb Rox: And promotes community.

Eden Kennedy: Yes it does.

Deb Rox: One of the things that really I think is powerful … I think of it as a movement and like I said as a ritual, as a season in blogging because people talk about it throughout the year, make decisions about it definitely in the time period leading up to the month, people sometimes they are deciding, as you said decide between Novel Writing Month or Blog Writing Month and whether does this make sense in their life. It is also the busy month for people because there are other holidays.

Eden Kennedy: It's a terrible month actually; it has Thanksgiving right in there, it really is like the worst month you could have picked.

Deb Rox: That makes it a definite commitment; its almost like boot camp for bloggers, getting down to the…

Eden Kennedy: Really getting that obstacle right here.

Deb Rox: Down to the bone, I am going to post every month. It also brings bloggers back to the origin of blogging which is more the daily blog.

Eden Kennedy: Yes true

Deb Rox: People do it for a lot of different reasons, but I do think people feel a real a badge of honour. Success going through the tunnel. What are the kinds of things that you heard from people who have completed it?

Eden Kennedy: People they are really grateful for the momentum I think and it helps them if they do it to sort of commit to their blogs a little more.
On the one hand the last thing we all need is another blog, I mean there is millions of them, but in other ways who cares, do your thing these are your pixels; what are you going to do with them? You can make them in to anything that you want, and so what is gratifying is when people say I have so much momentum I am going to keep doing it. They slide right in to December and sometimes and there – in 2008 there was a blog 365 group that kind of splintered out of it that was people were trying to commit to doing it every single day of the year, which I thought was amazing.

Deb Rox: The crazy monk's bloggers; insane.

Eden Kennedy: Some people are just wired that way.

Deb Rox: Does somebody bring them rice and tea or do they make it, like Mozart won’t leave the piano. It's really pretty amazing because you don’t have a budget, you don’t have an advertising budget, and the word spreads – word of mouth?

Eden Kennedy: Yes I guess it does, yes, I have never done a Google adword or anything.

Deb Rox: It seems to increase ever year.

Eden Kennedy: It does we had a big leap when we moved it, because it started off just a page on my site with a couple thousand links to people who were doing it, but moving it over to the social network. People who don’t know who I am, it used to be people who knew me would come and do it, but now its just taking on a life of its own.

Deb Rox: That’s amazing; that really helps transcend the commitment into a movement and there is energy with that, and I think that's some of what people tap into. I would bet that most people know who you are because clearly your commitment and charisma and I don’t know guru type vibe is part of this commitment and I know that is what I hear from bloggers who are contemplating it or struggling to finish…

Eden Kennedy: Really?

Deb Rox: …yes, because you have been a blogger since the very early days of blogging – 2001 that's serious.

Eden Kennedy: Yes.

Deb Rox: People are inspired by, already, your longevity and your commitment, and your devotion to the community; it's inspiring and I want to be – I want to be good for Eden.

Deb Rox Or know that whenever you see someone who has achieved good things from commitment you want that, you want whatever it is that they have. I think that you probably could start a cult if you have successfully motivated. You’ve dominated the month of November for how many people?

Eden Kennedy: Right, start making people do things.

Deb Rox: What about you, do you still find the practise interesting?

Eden Kennedy: It comes and goes, like you say it is a seasonal thing and this year; this is the year it was hard, my mom died and I felt like I kind of went under water for a while and I really was not interested in sharing anything on the internet at all; I was just feeling kind of fragile. I just kind of moved through that and I thought well then I am going to withdraw, because if I force myself to post and there is some months where I think I maybe posted three times in August or something pathetic like that. I thought about closing down Fussy all together. I thought, well, I will regret that and I just moved through it and came back up, and November it was half dreading it and half looking forward to it, because I am doing it there is no way I can't do it. It had become less of a burden than an excuse to just – oh here is this other I was thinking of…oh well maybe nobody cares, but I have to put something out there. It is an excuse to just let loose with a bunch of stuff and so it's good.

Deb Rox: Great, I am glad that that was a good practise for you because you give so much to others and I know that there has to be a lot of labour involved in keeping the community rolling. You get together prizes for some of the completers, which is a nice little dangling carrot.

Eden Kennedy: I didn’t even think of that, people started offering the first year, like, “Let’s have prizes”. I don’t even know what created that impulse but I was like sure – it's amazing. We usually get 30 or 40 good prizes and so for whoever posts 30 posts in 30 days they go on a random list and then I just randomly pick people. It is not like you earn it; the first few people were kind of bummed. They were saying, “Oh but this woman she had cancer and she went through all of this stuff, and she posted everyday,” and I am like I am really sorry; I am really sorry we are not rewarding quality here at all – it’s sheer quantity.

Deb Rox: Yes, actually, the opposite; it's pushing past the boundaries, but I have seen some amazing things come out from that and I think it's the freedom or maybe it's the practise, when you know you have to do it you make time.

Eden Kennedy: Yes, I think maybe it’s just desperation I don’t know.

Deb Rox: Maybe that’s when we get to the really good stuff, whether that’s wild creative or heartfelt creative.

Eden Kennedy: Yes, I think sometimes that’s true.

Deb Rox: I wondered too if it’s a time, like you say, where I think all bloggers or anyone who shares any part of their creative work with any audience, let alone online with an audience you might not know, struggles with how long to continue blogging or when…times when you think of throwing in the code. Maybe it is also time to take stock; that’s a typical harvesting. Here you are the season, you’re Demeter – isn’t she the goddess of…you’re Eden, the goddess of NaBloPoMo. Maybe there is a taking stock piece as well.

Eden Kennedy: There are times when you should stop blogging; there is no reason to torture yourself. Some people…I had a friend who stopped and he said it is not that I quit, it was that that blog is complete; it's like I put everything that needed to be said there and now it's done – boom. Sometimes that’s true; it is not something that you have to do forever, but for me the ball just keeps on rolling and I would really regret it if I ever – I can't say if I ever stop, but if I stop now there is no reason for me to. As long as I feel comfortable backing off when I need to emotionally withdraw and then coming out when it’s time to party.

Deb Rox: There are no rules.

Eden Kennedy: There are no rules.

Deb Rox: Unless you sign up to post every month.

Eden Kennedy: Well yes, unless you start…yes.

Deb Rox: What would you tell someone who is considering, as a new blogger, because that’s the other thing about Blog Posting Month is that people who are veterans and who have an established traffic base and a really solid platform are members, and take on this challenge, and some very new bloggers, who are just experimenting, are just trying to create their definition for their own piece of ‘blogebrity’ give it a go. What would you tell someone who is not quite sure?

Eden Kennedy: I think if you are just starting out it's a good way to build up your blogging muscles very quickly. If you want to just start running, well I will just run twice a week and that will get you to a certain point, but if you run everyday you are going to get that point quicker; you will become fitter, faster. This is kind of a way of like seeing if you have got muscles for blogging and for writing daily and for doing it publicly, so those are the three big things right there.

Deb Rox: December is just a breeze?

Eden Kennedy: It does become after that and you say, “I’ll skip the day, whatever; it doesn’t matter.”

Deb Rox: What's the bottom of the barrel that you have ever scraped in order to get a post in by the end of the day?

Eden Kennedy: I remember the – was it the first year where I had just been putting it off all day and then all of a sudden it was like 11:30 and I was like I have got to do something and Blogger shut down the blogging platform I use. They were like sorry, “You won't be able to post now,” and I was just like, “No I have got half an hour left – shit.” I had to go. I went over to WordPress and started a new blog and I called it fussy.wordpress, and I was so angry and I was just blowing it, and I went and I thought I have got to calm down. And I had a copy of the Tao Te Ching or something like that and it was just like, “The master finds a way no matter what obstacle,” and I was like, “Aah” and I was furious, and I just typed this thing out and hit publish and said I'm done – whoops. I ceased to count at that point because all of your posts have to be on the same blog so I blew it big time right there; I got something out, but it wasn’t on my blog.

Deb Rox: Exactly, you were resourceful.

Eden Kennedy: Yes, so that was my dark night of the blogging soul right there.

Deb Rox: That was as PoMo as you can get.

Eden Kennedy: Yes, but it is true, but I got there.

Deb Rox: I know you have blogged while travelling and all sorts of other…

Eden Kennedy: Yes, which is if you don’t have a laptop, ooh. I think if people are planning to do that I let it be okay to schedule posts in advance, so if you need write a couple of days in advance and have them published automatically. I kind of let that go because what kind of cruel taskmistress would I be to not let everyone leave their Thanksgiving dinner and sit down at the computer.

Deb Rox: I love those posts and some people find solace in them, because I remember last year I was at a few blogs who were sad about the Christmas season. Surviving their family traumas, which is a driving force for many writers very much like your famous T-shirt shares with the world that “writing is the best revenge.” I love that T-shirt. That’s just a classic piece of your ‘blogebrity’ as well. I think it is very true for writers that sometimes their drive to wanting to communicate and sometimes with our family.

Eden Kennedy: Right, to tell your side of the story.

Deb Rox: Exactly and so having…even though it makes it hard month to have it over a holiday, it is kind of nice.

Eden Kennedy: Well that’s true actually; it gives you that valve, so that you can blow off some of the steam yes.

Deb Rox: Have been interested in looking to make it a corporate sponsored event or are you happy with the way that…

Eden Kennedy: I wouldn't even know how to go about doing that, frankly, and I am curious actually there are quite a few members of the network who are really frustrated with how I paste the blog roll and it sometimes takes a day, and it would be…yes, if had some corporate sponsorship and an assistant or something and I think it worked really sharp then I am sure people would be very thrilled, so yes maybe I should do that. I like the whole doop-di-doo homemade aspect of it though and I don’t want it to be slick, but maybe that’s…

Deb Rox: I do too, I love it, but everyone can do what they want to do in all of their intellectual creations, so I'm interested in whatever you want to do with it, but I think that it has a definite feeling – the feeling suits…you know, it’s a commitment and it’s just something that people can do without having barriers.

Eden Kennedy: Yes and I have got some blog ads up or BlogHer Ads up there and that covers…the revenue I get in November covers the hosting costs and stuff for the whole year, so whatever, I break even; it’s good.

Deb Rox: That’s great, it's definitely a gift, Eden; it's definitely a gift that you have given just the whole blogosphere in helping define some of the work that people do, but because by giving this month attention it let's everyone think through the rest of the year and what they want out of their blog, and one big important piece of the community. Like you say it helps people take it both a little more seriously and also just make it a little piece of them, so definitely a gift and an amazing creative endeavour that I am so glad that you shared.

Eden Kennedy: Thanks; I am glad it’s grown. I am glad people like it.

Deb Rox: When people want to find you and read more of you, if they haven’t found your blog yet, it's at fussy.org and they will know they are when they have a fortune cookie telling them...?

Eden Kennedy: Yes, at the moment it's telling them I think, “A true friend stabs them in the front.”

Deb Rox: Excellent, how long have you had fortune cookies up?

Eden Kennedy: The fortunes have come and gone depending on my template, but they are back.

Deb Rox: I remember them from just when I found you years and years ago. You are on Twitter @MrsKennedy and they can join up, and people can join halfway through the month; there is no reason to wait until next year.

Eden Kennedy: I was all set to be kind of a jerk about it this month, because just for my own selfish reasons I wanted everybody on the blogroll to have committed to starting from the beginning and to have people come in halfway through I am starting on the 15^th, I thought no I do not want you, but then I was like ‘relax’, so I opened it back up again. Anybody can join.

Deb Rox: They are not going to get a Girl Scout badge for their vest.

Eden Kennedy: No you won't and you won't be eligible for a prize, but there is always next year.

Deb Rox: You are welcome to practice for next year to give it a go or just to poke around the community. Participants would love readers and would love comments.

Eden Kennedy: Oh, we are hooking up with another site which does this thing called IComLeWe International Comment Leaving Week, so that’s the third week in November I believe and so that’s going to be a whole subset; am I going to start trying to get NaBlo people so if you failed to blog everyday you can go around and leave, I believe, five or six comments on different blogs every day for one week.

Deb Rox: I love that, so that’s new this year.

Eden Kennedy: Yes, that’s not my idea; that came from another - who we’re just – she started that separately and we are just going to join forces this year.

Deb Rox: Fantastic, so can we read about that on NaBloPoMo site?

Eden Kennedy: It will be though; I just haven’t announced it yet, but I was going to do that this weekend.

Deb Rox: Because it is later in the month?

Eden Kennedy: Yes, exactly.

Deb Rox: The comment leaving, so that’s terrific. Thank you so much for talking today about the amazing work and all the ‘blogebrity’ that you bring into it, and I will be looking to see how you handle the rest of the month as well as your devoted horde of cokies.

Eden Kennedy: You too.

Deb Rox: Thank you so much.

Eden Kennedy: Hang in there

Deb Rox: Bye.

Eden Kennedy: Bye

Contributing Editor Deb Rox blogs at Deb on the Rocks and is the author of 5 Ways to {Blank} Your Blog.

Finally Getting "Syked" about Diversity in Late Night TV

2009-11-06T16:00:00-06:00

Late night network talk shows are about to get the correction of all correction. Fox booted Mad TV and has now signed the Saturday night 11:00 EST slot to The Wanda Sykes Show. Provocative, acerbic, and unabashedly liberal, Wanda promises a show that will focus on ripping up and riffing on the news and pop culture trends of the week with monologues, taped pieces and a panel discussion with guests. Finally, Saturday night may once again showcase television to talk about.

The test show offered an incredibly funny and a fast-paced hour. I wouldn't rush home from a party to catch it, but I'd pause watching a recorded show to catch it live, because I'm betting The Wanda Sykes show will prompt a Twitter #sykes tag that will be cool to play with. I certainly wouldn't have flipped the channel midway through for Saturday Night Live--the shows will overlap by a half-hour. A variety of set-ups keep it moving. The Wanda Sykes Show reminds me most of Bill Maher's construct, but decidedly more appealing and relaxed. The panel rolls like a late night conversation with different types of people in an airport bar or at a comedy club after the show is over--and in fact, Wanda graciously has a swank bar onstage in case her guests want a cocktail. Wanda nurses a vodka.

Fox's choice is an exciting break to the monotony of current late night talk shows where hosts represent wide range of white dudes: from greyish-white Bill Maher, to pinkish Conan, to ruddy Letterman, to white white Leno. Same white smarmy, smug humor, too. Wanda's notably the first chick late-night network host since Joan Rivers. NBC has inexplicably dominated Saturday night with Saturday Night Live which continually marginalizes female cast members. Wanda is also an out lesbian mama who talks openly about her wife and six-month-old twins. In most ways on television, Sykes stands alone.

Starr Rhett thinks The Wanda Show will score. She blogged at BET.com: "We definitely need more people like Wanda Sykes. She’s relatable to everyone despite her sexuality. I think her show will do well. I’m particularly feeling the round table format. Plus, I’m still holding on to hope that someone will fill the late night talk show void that Arsenio Hall left wide open. At least now I’m grown and won’t have to sneak to watch it."

Like the comic equivalent of a rock anthem for individuality, Wanda apologetically proclaimed "I'ma Be Me" in the title of her recent HBO comedy special. One of the most exciting things about watching her new show is that Wanda is at a fascinating time in her life and career. At 45, she's a role model for midlife women coming into their own, with her personal life and biggest career successes (including roles on The New Adventures of Old Christine and Curb Your Enthusiasm) hitting a huge stride in the last few years. Television viewers are used to seeing her play "the friend," albeit the friend who will tell you the horrid truth while swearing and shaking her head. Her perspective is both daring and completely no-nonsense average, which creates a dynamic tension that many find engaging. Of course, it also makes her completely unbearable to others. But I'm not worried about those viewers, as they don't lack for other options.

Ma'at, who blogs at Confessions of a Young Black Woman, wants to hang at Wanda's table. "I'm watching her latest HBO special, and she's still funny as hell. I love the fact that she is shamelessly open about who she is. I love that she's not ashamed of her wife and kids. Plus, she looks DAMNED good."

Black Queer Radical blog highlighed Wanda's recent Jay Leno appearance where she talked about legalizing marijuana. Wanda's take:

That's nuts. I'm against it. You ever know a pot smoker that keeps a to-do list? You're not going to improve the economy or productivity. If Schwarzenegger wants to spark productivity and make some money, cocaine baby. You'll have people working 48 hour shifts. It will be good for the environment - people will be running to work.

Give her a few weeks to settle in to her new loft and the show will sail. SNL must be oblivious or not worried, though, as their choice of Taylor Swift as host against The Wanda Sykes premiere is absolutely puzzling. Maybe the writers and producers want to be free to catch Wanda's show too?

Contributing editor Deb Rox has her own bar at Deb on the Rocks. She also tweets about many things, including television (while trying to avoid spoilers for her West Coast friends, really, she tries).

Need a Last-Minute Halloween Costume? Channel Your Inner Lady Gaga, Sookie or Farrah

2009-10-29T17:05:34-05:00

People tend to fall into one of two categories in most things in life: Traditionalists or Modernists. Where do you fall on Halloween costumes? Do you go traditional and pile on the monster gore like these nasties captured by blogger and photographer Aimee Greeblemonkey during the Denver Zombie Crawl. Witches, monsters, serial killers -- Halloween can be a night to get good and ugly.

It's certainly the season to get creative, like blogger Adam Avitable who hosts an annual art happening/Avitaween party, with an open invitation to the entire blogosphere. Bloggers Britt and Hilly attended as Madonna and a Queen. Classic!

I tend to be a modernist. I say never turn down a chance to call yourself a V.I.P, channel the zeitgeist and celebrate your favorite media stars or characters. Don't worry if you are afraid it's too late. There are plenty of easy red carpet ideas inspired by movies and television to help you rock out with your pop culture out on All Hallow's Eve.

The buzz is that this year, Kate Gosselin and Lady Gaga costumes (tutorial from Threadbanger) are the frontrunners for Most Topical Costume Oscar. I love the Kate Gosselin or Octomom costume concept, because you can rope your family members and friends into dressing as your children and then you can make them get your drinks for you all night long. Or just stuff your shirt with a bag of oranges and go as Pregnant Octomom, and then you can eat candy for two, plus two, plus more. Nadya Suleman dressed as a pregnant nun herself, in a fine bit of self-satire. On the other hand, Renee at Womanist Musings wasn't amused by the racism inherent in the Octomom costume publicized on The View.

Maybe you'd prefer a motherhood costume that is more fiction-driven. If you have a few minutes, a grand Benjamin Button costume would be to mount a photo of Brad Pitt's face to a doll, for you to carry dressed as an old, old, old Cate Blanchett or his nurse Nana.

A gorgeous idea for this year is to go as a swank Mad Men lead. If you have a beautiful dress or Don Draper suit, you probably are thrilled for the excuse to wear it. Or you can not go wrong smoking a pack of cigarettes in a smoking Betty Draper nightgown. Even better, I would give all of my Skittles and most of my chocolate to a partygoer dressed as Joan in a red wig, structured Playtex bra and slinky slip. I don't know if she has ever appeared in Mad Men with this part of her outfit fully showing, but you know it's there.

The big movie costume theme this year is Where the Wild Things Are. If you are worried you don't have enough time to pull off an actual Wild Thing like amazing Sarah Clark, take the easy way out and simply add ears and a gold crown to a hat or a hoodie for instant Max appeal. I'm guessing you won't be alone in your rumpus making.

Some more easy no-Zombie-brainers include:

Serena Williams --Tennis clothes and a racket with a sign attached (words of your choice or Serena's).

Star Trek --This year's film may not have been your father's Star Trek, but you can go ahead an borrow his costume or Spock ears

Balloons -- You can pick between Balloon Boy or Up for your theme with this must-have 2009 accessory.

The Box -- Another prop costume that you can play two ways. BECOME the Box, or just CARRY one. I would issue "Morality Tickets" to anyone who chooses to push the button telling them who died because of their greed. Charo? Walt Disney's brain? E.T? Perhaps Elvis--because he WAS alive until the button was pressed.

Cheerios' Coach Sue from Glee -- Track suit + bullhorn + stopwatch = you get to say things like "You think that's hard? Try being waterboarded. That's hard."

Derby Girl from Whip-It --How can you turn down a chance to wear torn fishnets, a Girl Scout uniform and a lot of eyeshadow? In public?

Dead Celebrities are a specialty within the Modernist genre. Paying homage to Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett or Billy Mays would be very sweet. Also, not dead, but her career may be: this might be your last year to go at Paula Abdul, so go girl!

Of course, you can have the best of both Traditional and Modern world with vampires, the master monster of 2009. I'm sure every party will have enough True Blood and New Moon vampires to drain a blood bank. Don't forget the option of dressing as Vamp Lover Sookie Stackhouse, in short shorts, a Merlotte's T and a cute little gap between your front teeth. But if you like flowing robes, scarves and fruit, play it as Maryann. As a benefit you may find you have the power to shake like an egg timer and incite a Bacchanalia to keep the Halloween festivities rolling on through El Dios de las Muerte and on towards Thanksgiving.

Unless you are keeping it a masked surprise, I'm dying to know who you're dressing up as this year. Even IF it is a surprise, I want to know. I won't tell a (living) soul!

Contributing Editor Deb Rox is trick-or-treating as Don Draper. She expects to get a pumpkin full of cigarettes and airplane bottles of scotch.

Don't Make Me Put You in the Naughty Chair: Supernanny is Back

2009-10-23T14:30:31-05:00

ABC's Supernanny is back on the air tonight, launching its sixth season of naughty chairs full of wild things. I'm happy Nanny Jo is returning. I don't watch it every Friday, but I do like a little Supernanny now and again because it stirs up a juicy conflict for my inner reality-show-loving child. Like Pavlov's dog or a kid who has been Frosted, the show's Men at Work theme song "Be good, be good, be good be good be good, be good, be good, be good, be good Johnny!" makes me sit up a little straighter to — just for Nanny Jo — be good.

But at the same time Supernanny makes me feel scummy, because I know I'm about to be bombarded with wide-eyed "how do people live like that?" moments that I should be ashamed to enjoy. The frosting on my personal regressive conflict cake: Jo Frost is often super hot working the secretly-sexy-librarian-taking-control archetype, and surely it's wrong for me to objectify a stern Madonna in that stereotypical, manipulated way. Right?

Be good, indeed.

Supernanny producers have been hosting casting calls throughout the Southwest this month, with the show hoping to sally forth for a good long time. There seems to be no end to mums and dads willing to immolate their privacy and pride. Fixing dysfunctional families is the stated promise of the show and the books and forums in the Supernanny brand, and the producers certainly have found some notably unwell scenes.

In addition to focusing on communication, Jo models a 3-point strategy to get acting out kids under control: consistent, authoritative guidance; positive reinforcement, reward and attention; and, systems for time and chore management. Fairly basic behavior modification--of the parents, not the kids, with Jo trying to transform the ill-equipped, isolated, depressed, overwhelmed, anger-prone, disorganized, checked-out, formerly abused or neglected, unconventional, or mid-guided, simply ineffective grown-ups. When the parents become more productively engaged with any of Jo's suggestions, the kids seem to do better.

I'm quite a bit more laissez-faire than Jo, and too Rogerian to get into the level of withholding reward that is needed for stern behavior mod, plus my kids are really great older teenagers, so I don't watch the show for advice. To me, the show is appealing in the way that Wife Swap, Hoarders or Intervention draw on our fascination with the inner working of dysfunctional people. This type of reality show stretches our concept of the diversity of psychological experience even within our North American culture, while reassuring viewers that most of us don't have to work to be good, because in comparison, we are very, very good as is. The old Prince Charming promise of rescue from the dysfunction around you is offered as well.

My younger son hates it when I have Supernanny on because of the inevitable screaming or bizarre behavior of the children or the parents. I like his complaints, because I then get to remind him of how lucky he is to have such a fabulous mother because I neither scream at him nor ask him to hide in the attic while I call 911 and news stations to report him missing on a helium spacecraft ride, and he is compelled to agree. (Or he won't get a gold star on his chore board.)

The second best part of Supernanny is the ending, where Jo goes back to visit the happier family that has found insights and a smooth flow for their home life. It is nice, even if dubious, to wrap up each hour with a happy ending. The second best part of Supernanny is that the parents on Supernanny make me feel like I'm the lovechild of Maria Montessori and Mr. Rogers. That effect lasts a long, long time.

Here are some blogged reactions to the divinely superior Nanny Jo.

Margaret blogged on Take a Walk with Me about similar feelings:

My 9 yo daughter decided to spend the day watching the Super Nanny marathon. It was culture shock for her! LOL! One child called the mom a B-word. She looked at me wide eyed and said Mommy, I'm shocked, did you hear what he said! I'd be dead! All his mom did was wash his mouth out with soap!

Bingkee writes an interesting blog called I Love/Hate America where she posted about the American cultural issues evident in the parenting shown on Supernanny, and she likes how a nanny-cam, which typically is used by parents to spy on their caregivers, is flipped to reveal the secrets of the parents on the show:

The nanny-cam in Supernanny gives viewers glimpses of how terrible and embarrassing parents transform their children into potential monstrosities. It also gives us a montage of how some American parents shamefully breed brats.

Many parents do find help in Nanny Jo's techniques. Apollo's Gal writes about how hard it is to use consistent enforcement to bust a dysfuntional bedtime pattern.

I will have to say that it is more fun to watch on tv! After 15 minutes I was worn out, but I dug in and fought it out. Finally, he fell asleep....until 3 AM that is! Then we started back with the SuperNanny technique until Ben finally went back to sleep at 5 AM!!! It was pure misery!

So, thank you, SuperNanny, for the tips, but I'd rather just watch you use them and not have to use them at home!! I'm hoping tonight won't be a repeat of last night!

Tonight (8 pm EST) Jo is visiting a blended family with relationship problems. Will you tune in? Does Supernanny speak to your inner child, or your outer reality show hound, or do you want no part of her Supernanny superpowers? Be good, now.

BlogHer Contributing Editor Deb Rox blogs at Deb on the Rocks. If Supernanny would only give her a gold star each time she completed a task, Deb would hoard those stars forever and ever.

Righteous Rumpus: Where the Wild Things Are is for Grown Ups

2009-10-16T14:19:06-05:00

I was worried I wouldn't love Where the Wild Things Are, even though I trust the artistic skills of the director, Spike Jonze and the screenwriter, Dave Eggers. I've committed Jonze's Being John Malkovich to heart, and Dave Eggers is a phenom, a heartbreaking work of staggering genius in and of himself. So I shouldn't have been scared--though Jonze was also responsible for the unfortunate Jackass parade, so there's that. And I'll admit, a part of me resonate with Tatyana when she wrote at Seriously, You're the Worst, "my barf radar put my gag reflex on high alert when I heard Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers were teaming up to produce Childhood: Brought to You By Hipsters."

I was worried because the classic storybook Where the Wild Things Are is too precious to ruin. It is such a simple, beautifully illustrated story of a boy struggling to learn to master the raw emotions of rejection, fear, anger, and longing. Max, a young boy wearing a wolf costume, threatens his dog with a fork, is banished to his room without supper by his mother, and is then transported by his imagination to where the wonderous and potentially dangerous Wild Things are. He triumphs over them, becomes their King, and then eventually decides to return home where he is welcomed back with soup that is still hot.

I didn't want Hollywood treacle or jackassery to ruin the purity of that simple, good tale.

Fortunately, Jonze and Eggers fought for the film they wanted to make, and it soars. Where the Wild Things Are is moody, emotionally resonant, unflinching in its devotion to portraying the depth of children's emotions, and visually expansive. Not merely a children's movie, it is a movie about the experience of childhood; really, it is about all of the angst-filled crisises humans must conquer. It is very much a movie for grown-ups.

Thankfully they didn't break the book's strength by expanding it into a film. I love the way that Eggars layered the tensions that stoke Max's anger. The book hints at isolation, with Max playacting without peers, presumably home alone with his mother and dog. The film expands this theme, with Max (played convincingly by Max Record) suffering from the absence of a father, betrayals and the sting of exclusion.

Similarly, whereas the book only suggests a classic Oedipal tension (with Max trying to out-wild the top dog, only to be rejected by his mother), the film hits this nail much harder. Max is unsuccessful in getting the attention of his busy mother (played by Catherine Keener), and is filled with rage because her boyfriend is at their house. Max acts out wildly, baring his teeth and biting her, and then literally runs away from all of it: the exclusion, betrayal, loneliness, anger, isolation, expectations to be civilized and quiet his deeply unsettled feelings--he runs away from the noise of feeling too much.

Max finds a boat, sails to the land of the Wild Things, where he confronts fierce monsters, ultimately becoming their King, confidante and sounding board. Finally, Max has found a world where he is obeyed and celebrated for his strong will, where it is wild and wicked and everything goes, but it is all ultimately controllable by Max.

Jonze succeeds in creating a magical inner world that is unusual for a film. The sweeping Australian landscape and the fantastic soundtrack by Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs front Katie O lend to the the depth of the wild place that is evoked by thoughtfully acted, sublimely destructive Wild Things.

Jill Pantozzi from Has Boobs, Reads Comics called the film "a love letter to childhood." She wrote this about the monsters:

The Wild Things themselves? Wow, just wow. A combination of live action, suitmation, animatronics, and CGI were used to make these creatures that strongly reminded me of the assorted characters from The Neverending Story and Labyrinth. It's no surprise really, Jim Henson's Creature Shop were responsible for the suits. The combined effects allow the Wild Things to feel tangible and genuine, right down to the actors expressions mixed in. It's subtle but you can absolutely see each actor's face in their respective monster.

It's a huge feat to say that the monsters embody the nexus of fantasy, fear, power and neurosis in a child's mind. If Jonze erred at all it was in the tilt towards a heavy hand with their neuroses instead of their fierceness, and he perhaps could have trusted that the monsters would be recognized by viewers as the monsterfication of our own emotional barriers.

They do grow tiresome and the film lags, but I think that is Jonze's point. Max, it turns out, wants a deeper freedom than pure wildness, or even the power to control the rumpus. He wants neither to be afraid, nor to top his fear by being feared. Max is neither a hedonist nor Machiavellian (nor a parent) at all. Max is our little monk, his wolf hat as his robe, seeking release from Samsara; he's an aboriginal on a developmental Walkabout. He wants to just be, whatever that is, to be himself, dammit. Of course he does.

Rama at Rama's Screen liked the movie too. She says: "Even if you enter the theater with a certain expectation, WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE will offer something more genuine than what you had in mind. That said, I’m glad Jonze does not shy away from the danger that comes from interacting with the Wild Things. It is scary just as much as it is festive and playful, it doesn’t dumb you down or insult your intelligence, no matter how old you are."

It's exciting for a mainstream film to be provoking so much conversation already, as the film opens today. I hope the conversation continues. Right now, because many children expect Where the Wild Things Are to be a children's movie, parents are wondering if this intellectual, violent and emotional film about childhood is going to be appropriate for their children to see. Cafe Sheri at Cafe Mom is taking her six-year old, ready to have good discussions about what they they see. Author Ariel Gore blogged that she's cracking up at the interview where Sendak tells parents who wonder if the movie will be too scary "to go to hell." Professor What If wonders how the story would have been seen with a female protagonist. Straight up fan sites abound.

But movies like this aren't everyone's favorite way to spend time and money. What are your thoughts? Are you setting sail for Where the Wild Things Are? Let the wild rumpus start!

Follow Contributing Editor Deb Rox at Twitter. She is always up for a rumpus, but if you want to see a movie with her, she'd rather you don't talk DURING the film, but then again if you don't like to talk AFTER the film that won't work out well either.

Let's Make a Deal: Trade Your Aging Soap Opera Stars for What's Behind Curtain #1!

2009-10-09T15:05:58-05:00

Television can be an odd friend to those of us who spend time at home during weekdays. The elderly, the ill, third-shift workers, SAHMs, the unemployed, telecommuters, part-time students: we're a disparate audience, and we are sometimes lonesome. Daytime television can be a friendly voice to break the monotony, a connection to the outside world, or a grown-up friend to those home with young children and in need of words for their adult brains. Ellen and Oprah. A soap opera or movie. A recipe or home project demo. A juicy trumped-up airing of dirty laundry on a court or talk show. Something is always available.

When I was young, my mother turned our television on midday to watch the ABC soap opera line-up while ironing and folding clothes until the General Hospital closing credits, at which time my brother and I could watch Electric Company on PBS--and years later Gilligan's Island reruns on the local news channel We didn't have other options. But daytime viewing has changed. Fewer adults are home during the day watching television, and those who are have infinitely increasing options for their attention, including cable television, recorded prime time, satellite radio, and DVDs for their big screens, as well as Internet media, blogs and social media conversations.

Advertising dollars are therefore diluted as well. Soap operas with their huge casts, fleets of writers and numerous sets are expensive to maintain, so rating drops for daytime dramas in particular have been hard to justify financially. Once thought to be immune from the axe, CBS's seminal soap Guiding Light was snuffed September 18th after 72 years of programming. In the new dark age, networks are grappling with how to fill the soap void with frugal programming that will captivate the eyeballs of a recession-plagued country.

Enter Let's Make a Deal.

Game shows are cheap. One set, one host, and much lower production costs than talk shows or reality shows that spend resources cultivating guests and scripts. CBS's solution: Guiding Light has been replaced with a re-haul of a golden oldie game show: Let's Make a Deal, hosted by Wayne Brady. CBS must be hoping that this light, nostalgic fare, taped on a bright set in Las Vegas with an audience full of costumed aspirants, will appeal to home viewers. I can see their line of thinking, because what says "recession survival" more than "Let's Make a Deal?" Fantasy within reach plus humor is a good equation.

The show is very similar to the original game, except the contemporary version runs for a full hour--which may be a half-hour too long. Wayne Brady has cash--not crazy amounts, but hundreds of dollars, and he uses it to seduce gamers from prizes that are hidden behind curtains 1, 2 and 3. Curtains reveal AMAZING. NEW. APPLIANCES! or the like. (By giving away consumer goods Let's Make a Deal cuts even more expenses through product placement.) Or (ZOINK!) perhaps you'll win a goat. (Not sure about the costs there, but I know they are cheap to feed.)

Playing at home certainly isn't intellectually demanding like some quiz shows, and its simplicity gives it a fun-for-all-ages appeal. Did you guess Curtain Number 3? Zoink! Sorry, you won a rusty old bicycle! So Let's Make a Deal is an hour of exuberant citizens in over-sized wigs getting lucky--just like you may someday--or getting punked, which gives you a little hit of schadenfreude, knowing you would have handled it better. It's Win-Win in a Duck Suit.

The contestants pay for their shot at the curtains with hours of their time. Mo, who writes about living in Las Vegas at her blog Another Las Vegas Daily Photo, appeared on the show as a Black-Eyed Pea. She said taping was a long, tedious day. Susan, who blogs at The Najera Family, seems to have had fun, though, and lost her voice screaming.

Check out the babies-in-diapers costumes that bloggers Double D and Single D, who write at Reality Show Critic, wore when they appeared as contestants on Let's Make a Deal. Single D describes the deals and swaps that are the rhythm of the show, including the last big deal where one contestant gets a chance to go large:

Danielle now has my dvd that I gave to her. Wayne sweetens the deal and gives her another dvd which has money in it. He tells her she can keep the dvd's or trade it for door 1. She trades the dvds, which he opens and both only held $1.00!!! We were so relieved, because if there were thousands of dollars in it I would have cried! Danielle gets a exercise package. And lastly, he ask Danielle if she would like to be the big trader of the game and give up her door for a prize that is worth $23,000! Who wouldn't? She goes for it and wins the car!

I'm neither a soap opera fan nor a big game show geek, but sadly, Let's Make a Deal feels like it is trying too hard, while also being regressive and simplistic. This choice feels like the network is throwing in the paper towel, watching its formerly super-soapy daytime ad revenue slip down the drain. I wonder if a different game show with more substance would feel better--and there is buzz that $10,000 Pyramid is launching soon.

BlogHer Ad Network blogger Jada at In Other Words wrote about the loss of Guiding Light in a way that made me think that too many game shows won't feel like adequate replacement because our lives need story arcs for engagement:

To me Guiding Light and Gramma are always linked. My grandmother watched Guiding Light on a regular basis and for years after she died, I did too. Even when my mother abandoned the show and questioned why I watched it, I stayed true. In college, my friend watched Young and the Restless. Gramma watched Y&R too, so I joined them because it was a social experience, but Guiding Light was still #1 in my heart....And so it is is with the struggles of life. We tell ourselves stories to make sense of it all. Sure, there is something manipulative in the way that a soap opera will leave you hanging a bit to get you to return, but isn't that what the best storytellers do anyway? Gramma and gone. Guiding Light is gone. But the power of storytelling remains.

Are you home during the daytime? If you flip the television on for company, what do you watch? Or are blogs all you need to get you through the day?

Deb Rox blogs at Deb on the Rocks and is the author of 5 Ways to {Blank} Your Blog. She is not auditioning for Let's Make a Deal but would jump at a chance to sit with Meredith Viera in the magical inner circle of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Because (a), Deb very much does want to be an instant millionaire, final answer.

It's Not Too Late to Whip It, Whip It Good!

2009-10-02T13:27:40-05:00

You are so lucky today! In fact, I wish I were you. Because if you haven't yet seen Drew Barrymore's directorial debut Whip It, which opens in wide release October 2nd, you have a rollicking ride around a rink in your future. Tear up your fishnets, slip on your Docs, and head to the theater, because here comes the jammer!

That's roller derby lingo, Ace. Whip It is an adaptation of Shanna Cross' novel about the resurgence of the wicked chick sport roller derby, where teams of fearless women skate in full-contact bouts that are a bit of a mash-up of retro theater, mosh pit, girl power rally and even pro wrestling, with each player choosing a campy name to define their derby persona. Sort of like bloggers do. Derby rules!

So does Whip It. It's funny, sports terrific character development and dialogue, and like a good Girl Scout, leaves you better than it found you. I saw the midnight show last night and felt inspired to kick butt, and though I merely did push ups when I came home, the feeling sticks with me. Rawr.

It's clear that growing up in show business has given Drew Barrymore honed instincts for directing. Her cast is undeniable as well. Ellen Page fronts, with Kristin Wiig, Marcia Gay Harden and Juliette Lewis shining in support. Melissa Silverstein at Women and Hollywood wrote:

Whip It is exactly the perfect movie for our time. It doesn’t hit you over the head with the feminism but it is there in every breath and every beat. Ellen Page is adorable as Bliss Cavendar, a Texas girl who just doesn’t fit in with all the pageant obsessed folks in her town which includes her mom, played by Marcia Gay Harden. ...But Bliss wants more for her life than pageants and working in a dead end job. When she discovers roller derby she finds her tribe. These women get her. They get each other. They kick the shit out of each other on the track and have a ton of fun at it.

It is so rare to have a premise that is focused on women--and not only on their love lives. Although Ellen Page's character does have a cute little boyfriend, that storyline is only one part of her character's journey. As MaryAnn Johanson wrote at Flick Filosphere:

And even more to cheer: this is a movie not just about a young woman -- so hard to come by in tolerable form these days -- but one about lots of women. Lots of different women. The skaters Bliss encounters in the derby world are a wild bunch of tough, cool, strong, vulnerable women, all doing their stuff together or in opposition but with a rancor that is so good-natured that it cannot help but rub off on you. (The good-naturedness, that is, not the rancor. It’s hard to imagine anyone hating this movie.)

The spirit rubbed off on blogger Stacy Jill Jacobs, who tweeted and posted right after seeing the film yesterday. She wrote, 'It made me want to grab my roller skates, pull on the tights and start training to try out for Chicago’s team! I almost tried out for LA’s team a while back but I chickened out."

Time Out Chicago interviewed Chicago's derby girls about the film. It's worth a read to see what real derby players say is authentic and what is not. A skater called Ruthenasia said, “They got right the relationships that you build and how it translates back to your real life, if you wanna call it your real life. It becomes your real life, but there are skills and lessons you learn in derby that translate right back to everything else.”

I don't want to spoil the fun for you with any more details, but I do want you to watch for Zoe Bell, who plays Bloody Holly. I'm a super Zoe Bell fangirl, and I can't help but want you to join me in celebrating her genius. She's a hardcore stuntwoman and stunt coordinator who sometimes acts in films as well. She WAS Xena, and then doubled for Uma Thurman in the Kill Bill films. As if those roles aren't street cred enough, she has distinguished herself as the Bad Babe of all Bad Babes with her Deathproof Ship's Mast stunt. Watch her early years in the fantastic documentary Double Dare.

You can also continue your derby madness by making derby crafts at Craftster, and by reading about real life derby at Recovering Straight Girl. Or cut to the chase and find a bout near you!

This film holds a wide appeal with a PG-13 rating, and though it certainly could have been edgier it works as the entertainment vehicle so many people crave after a long week: it will make you laugh, inspire you a little, and welcome you to a new subculture populated by people quite a bit like you, or at least like a part of you. We need more simple, Friday night movies like this.

So, what's your derby name? Check the official list, use an unofficial generator, or just go rogue.

Guest Contributing Editor Deb Rox blogs at Deb on the Rocks and thinks either name would work fairly well for derby, too. Or maybe Deb U Taunt. Does that sound, you know, meaner? Grrr! She roots for the Capital Punishment.

Watching "The Good Wife," Whether or Not You Are One

2009-09-25T14:00:00-05:00

I've written enough risk- and damage-management talking points to be able to follow in my sleep the easy formula for recovering from a public mistake: acknowledge what you or your company has been caught doing, describe who has already forgiven you, ask for the same forgiveness from the public. We've all heard this loop countless times before.

"Describe who has already forgiven you" is essential. It models the graciousness the offender hopes to be given, and it sets listeners up to question the hubris of their judgment. This tactic is essential in political sex scandals. Strategists know you absolutely need the scoundrel's wife at his side: you need him to be able to say "I wholly regret the pain I have caused Elizabeth/Hillary/Silda am I am grateful that she is forgiving me."

A good wife, standing by her man, is the bad man's best shot at redemption. But what about her? How "good" does she feel?

CBS's new one-hour drama "The Good Wife" premiered this week. Julianna Margulies leads as Alicia, the good wife, while Chris Noth plays the bad husband, a swaggering state's attorney who has been indicted for corruption and trading in sordid sexual favors. She stands by him at the press conference but slaps his face behind the curtains, and therein the show starts with the story we rarely see as a family carries on after their lives after the public apology.

The storyline jumps ahead six months, showing Alicia starting a new job at a law firm now that her mommytrack hiatus has abruptly ended. She's sold the house to pay for her husband's legal bills, and her two children are adjusting to a new apartment, demotion to public school and their paternal grandmother's help. Alicia is the breadwinner now in a cut-throat field where her age and career gap are portrayed as barriers: when she says she's been away for thirteen years, a colleague says thirteen years ago, "I was twelve." It's clear that it's not going to be easy for Alicia to re-build her life, her career or her family.

So far, the show works. The first episode offered a good legal story as part of the plotline, but more importantly gave us a comeback story. Alicia's story has exotic political wrapping with rich and powerful players, but it is also a simple story that most people can relate to. How do you recover from public humiliation and private betrayal? How do you guide your children through embarrassment, loss and changes? How do you re-enter the workforce when your confidence has been shaken, you've lost everything or you've been out of the loop for a while? How do you visit your husband in jail when he's been a complete tool and ruined your life and is still smiling charismatically while making empty promises of love and hollow plans to get things back to normal any day now when you know it will never, ever be the same (but not be bitter)? What, exactly, makes a woman "good?"

I'll be giving it a chance this season. Margulies seems at her best in this role, and I would love to see a single mother take on the world--but in a great show, not in Cougar Town.

Blogger Sweatpantsmom loved it, too. "It already fit my criteria before I even saw it - 10pm to 11pm time slot, not science fiction or period drama, and better yet it starred ex-ER actress Margulies AND Sex And The City's Chris Noth - how perfect was this? And then I saw the first episode and I immediately put the kids to work cleaning my kitchen - mommy had found a new show."

Jan at Jan's Daily Dish said "Juliana Margulies is excellent, and her law firm’s in-house investigator, played by Archie Panjabi, yep, Archie is a girl, is quirky, edgy, just perfect for the role. So, it looks like I have a solid Tuesday night lineup for this fall. Dancing With The Stars and The Good Wife. How about that!!!!"

However, Jane Genova cautions, "The show needs a shot of bolder writing. There's none of the depth of "Boston Legal" in the understanding of what goes on inside one human being and among human beings. There were too many cliche interactions. For instance, all the cracks about age when Alicia returned to law firm practice, the Crusty Mother-in-Law type, the cocky associate pitted against her for one position."

I agree with Jane, the first show took plenty of short cuts, but I'm allowing for that because there is so much exposition to cover up front. I'm staying tuned to see if The Good Wife is good enough to marry until death do us part.

Contributing editor Deb Rox recommends liberal amounts of Alanis Morissette administered immediately after betrayals and repeated as necessary. She blogs at Deb on the Rocks and is the author of 5 Ways to {Blank} Your Blog.

Sources Say The Informant! is Worth the Exclamation Point

2009-09-18T11:33:06-05:00

I am so excited for my date tonight with a man known for his toupe, bad moustache, recent weight gain and prison sentence. The Smothers Brothers, the stalker chick from "Two and a Half Men," a punctuation mark and Decatur, Illinois are also involved. AND Scott Bakula! (Who didn't love "Quantum Leap?")

The Informant! has benefited from a year of foreplay, mostly stemming from photos of Matt Damon looking decidedly un-Bourne on set. Damon's partnership with Oceans' director Steven Soderbergh adds to the buzz of this tongue-in-cheek (and exclamation-point-in-title) dark comedy/espionage caper/thriller. The film is based on a reporter's version of a perplexing whistleblower story from the 90s. As a highly paid Vice President of agri-buisness giant Archer Daniels Midland, why would Whitacre risk his prosperity by covertly spying to get information about price collusion to the FBI after he already was knee-deep in the muck? And we know he ended up serving time in prison, so apparently there is more to the story than a good man's drive to do the right thing. But what?

Soderbergh takes viewers on a Magic Schoolbus ride through the twisted mind of Whitacre. Christy Lemire at Entertainment Daily blogs that the joke's meant to be on the viewer. "It’s a kick, really, but it also keeps you guessing: Is Damon, as Mark Whitacre, just a regular guy who gets in over his head? Is he far more scheming and malevolent than his folksy Midwestern demeanor would suggest? Or is something else entirely going on here? (...) One of the neatest tricks that throws us off course is Whitacre’s running interior monologue: a series of voiceovers in which he provides stream-of-consciousness musings on everything from indoor pools to Brioni ties to the Japanese word for tuna. His thoughts may not be as innocuous as they seem."

So a psychological thriller, yes, but at heart a dark comedy. The review at Katie Walsh's The Playlist says: "Soderbergh could have made a straightforward, righteous anti-corporate greed screed, something like Michael Mann's The Insider, but he didn't. He stayed true to himself and his sensibilities (who else would have used that garish disco font?), and concocted this bizarre comedy-thriller-biopic model, creating something wholly unique and powerful (and, yes, goofy)."

One thing is clear, the film has geeks of all types geeking out. Design geeks are noting the 70's feel to the promotional materials and set decoration despite the fact the story happens two decades later. Tech geeks have been tracking the way Soderbergh used the HD digital RED Camera which allows low level lighting, warm colors and fast, flexible shooting. Film geeks marvel that eight pages a day were shot, which is a fast, television rate of filming. Music enthusiasts are praising the ridiculous, over-the-top The Spy Who Loves Me score by Marvin Hamlisch himself--Jen Johan calls it "the ultimate accompaniment for a film about a whistleblower who compares himself to James Bond ("only twice as smart"), Tom Cruise in The Firm, and the Michael Crichton novel Rising Sun."

Still, success comes down to performance, though critics are mostly praising Damon; some even offer Oscar nods. Sasha Stone at Awards Daily posted, "Damon gives one of his best turns in The Informant! He’s a bit overdue at this rate; helping him greatly is his success with the Bourne movies. Juxtapose the two roles and you’ll see probably the least showy versatile character actor around."

Will this all translate into box office success? Are you up for cheeky sarcasm and a wacky! fun-filled! deceptive! ride! through the high-fructose-corn-syrup fields of corporate greed? Can you get behind a Matt Damon who looks like the love child of William Macy Jr. and Phillip Seymour Hoffman? Will I see you in the popcorn line? Because I'll be there, absolutely. I could never deny a carefully selected punctuation mark it's moment.

Guest Contributing Editor Deb Rox only gives up the goods if immunity is promised and her lawyer is present, or in her book 5 Ways to {Blank} Your Blog.

Who Needs Oprah? Kathy Griffin's Memoir is an Official Book Club Selection With or Without O

2009-09-11T11:17:58-05:00

Love her or loathe her, Kathy Griffin has become a PR expert by pretending to be a celebrity loser. The finale for the 5th season of her award-winning Bravo reality show "My Life on the D-List" aired a few weeks ago, but Kathy timed the launch of her book Official Book Club Selection for this week so that she is currently saturating every media market as though she had a network fall season show. Say what you will about her blatant attention-whoring about her blatant attention-whoring: Griffin studies the game and plays it hard.

Official Book Club Selection has garnered A-List media coverage, and she's played it broad. She told Kathie Lee and Hoda that she planned for her first memoir to outsell the Bible. (Awkward!) She trumped Jon Gosslin's media binge this week with a mock-trailer clip for "Kate is Enough" on Jimmy Kimmel Live. She's also played it (somewhat) straight as well, with painful stories of an abusive brother and eating disorders on ET and about her plastic surgery and about sexism in Time. Kathy Griffin is everywhere, selling her show, selling her book, selling the Hollywood dream that if the star of YOU doesn't supernova on its own, you can claw your way to the top of the shiny, manmade mountain of fame via commoditized narcissism.

I've talked with many people who loathe her, but I'll keep buying what Kathy Griffin is selling. Heiress apparent to Joan Rivers' celebrity roasting legacy, Kathy brings a corrupt-but-worshipping skew to A-List bashing. "My Life on the D-List" has shown audiences that Kathy actually loves her targets, which simultaneously redeems her cutting humor and makes it all the more brutal. Yes, she's crass and caustic, but she understands celebrity so well that she walks the tightrope between setting fire to the House of Hollywood while banging on the door to get in.

She's also pretty damn smart. The title of her book is the most genius book title in celebrity publishing history, even better than when Madonna named a coffee table book "Sex." What better way to show that you are desperate for Oprah's stamp of approval but that you've got the balls to Book List yourself, all the while trashing the gimmicks and power of the Grand One? Official Book Club Selection works on two levels: it is a gossipy parody of the use of books and interviews as vehicles for the consumption of curated celebrity backstories, but it is also a tell-all from Kathy's life and ambitious career. Bad men, ugly events, heartbreak, bulimia, divorce, sexism, botched plastic surgery (with pictures!)--Kathy knows what Oprah, and readers, want to hear in between jokes. She says as much in the book's Forward, which is an open pitch letter to Oprah:

By the way, don't even think about Skype-ing my mom for this episode. She'll throw me under the bus in a heartbeat. She's got a thing for Gayle. Ring a bell? ... Here's why you will admire me. I'm living the life you secretly wish you could. I've got the dysfunctional family like a lot of people. I've bitten, scratched and clawed to get where I am, just like you. But I don't have to be nice about it.

Leigh McEachran loves it that Kathy is not nice. "She throws every celebrity under the bus (you better read up Steve Martin, you’re in for a doozy!) and includes great anecdotes of her encounters with A-Listers. But even when she’s not discussing dating Jack Black and Quentin Tarantino, everything written is an incredible page turner. Many comedians cannot seem to translate their humour from oral to written word. It either comes across as too serious or trying too hard. But Kathy Griffin fans will not be disappointed, this red-headed comedian is just as funny in text as she is in speech."

With so much Kathy available everywhere in your face for free, some might wonder how she could possibly succeed with a book. Kat Dub at Story Boutique nails the mystery of what we crave from a performer who is as over-the-top as Kathy plays herself. "We know about her plastic surgery, her mom, and her claw-you-way-to-the-top mentality, but in the back of your mind you wonder if this is how she always is. In my case, my curiousity as well as Kathy's crazy, magnetic personality had me sneaking out to Border's and picking up her memoire, Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin."

Kat Dub is not alone. Kathy Griffin has built a huge and devoted fan base, and over 1,000 New Yorkers lined up at her Tribeca book signing. Feminist blogstars The Evil Slut Clique from Evil Slutopia give a fantastic wrap-up of the event, including how they coped with the massive crowd control debacles. (You've got to read their Tweets from their time in line in Kathy Griffin Purgatory.) In their post they said:

We were able to slip her an EvilSlutClique sticker before we left. She asked to be an honorary member of the clique and we, of course, agreed. We told her that she's basically the patron saint celebrity of Evil Slutopia, and she said, "I love 'saint' and 'slut' in the same sentence."

Josh and Josh were also at the Barnes & Noble in Tribeca for Kathy's signing. They posted a blog message for Kathy that ended up on her (Maggie-managed!) Facebook page:

All of that said, do we love Kathy Griffin? To bits and pieces. Would we shell out cash for another of her stand-up shows at Madison Square Garden, or anywhere else? Without question. Worth every penny. But wow, Kathy, can we talk? Honey, you're not D-list anymore. You're now officially on the A-list.

So, is Kathy on your A-List yet, or do you refer to her with a different letter?

Deb Rox is a Guest Contributing Editor who is all about giving yourself honorary titles. Her blog Deb on the Rocks is an Official Blogosphere Selection, and her book 5 Ways to {Blank} Your Blog is currently under consideration by Oprah, or perhaps by one of Oprah's staff members. It's in Chicago, anyway.

Don't Take Me to Cougar Town: ABC's Sitcom Isn't Worth Trying to Look Past an Atrocious Name

2009-09-04T14:00:00-05:00

Weeks before premiering, Courtney Cox's new ABC comedy has already pulled in a big award: Worst Named Fall Season Network Television Show. Cougar Town is a title you have to claw through before you can find out if the show is worth watching.

Cox plays a 40-year-old single mother entering the dating world again, but "cougar" has already become such a has-been term (2005 is old for slang, yo yo yo!) for women who date younger men. Unless you are writing high camp, Town O' Cougars might as well be called Desperateville. Executive Producer Bill Lawrence, who cleaned up royally with Scrubs, knows it, and he's been back-pedaling and overexplaining Cox's character and the premise during press junkets to counteract the early bad buzz. Not a great start.

Debbie McDuffee,who writes about television at Clique Clack TV, thinks that there has been too much early criticism centering on the name alone. In her Cougar Town post, McDuffee says to look past the name: "Lighten up! It’s not demeaning; Courtney Cox’s character, Jules,is pathetic in the most tongue-in-cheek way, and there are quirky laughs throughout. Plus, Jules is a caring mom who is just trying to have her own life too — is that so wrong?"

ABC hopes to go up against the much anticipated FOX debut Glee with a string of new shows on Wednesday night. Cougar Town claims the 9:30 - 10 EST slot, following three other half-hour sitcoms including Modern Family featuring Ed O'Neill (Married With Children). Cougar Town might play better if it had given us a campy, post-Married-With-Children Peg on the prowl, but as it is Cox plays it pretty straight, as though the Monica we knew in Friends has lost the last remnants of her confidence during marriage and divorce and is now trying to find a self-imposed Bonnie Franklin-esque post-feminist equity wave.

Cox's character Jules tries too hard, of course, which is supposed to create the humor. She mothers her young paramour with peanut butter crackers just like she makes for her son's friends; but then is shown having sexualized jokes with or in front of her son Travis, played by Dan Byrd.

Travis' character, timing and delivery seems completely derivative of Shane, Nancy Botwin's son in Showtime's half-hour success Weeds. There are enough other parallels -- including street shots of the suburbs (though Cougar Town is set in Florida), a plotline centering on stolen signs, Jules career selling real estate -- to make Cougar Town feel as though it's trying to be Weeds Lite. Unfortunately, there's not enough there catch a buzz. If pressed I could proclaim Cougar Town bad enough to start a drinking game that dispenses shots every time Jules makes an awkward reference to anatomy, ranging from her C-section scar and "farm animal" elbows to the anatomy of her prospective boy toys. But then we'd just be drunk and bummed that we didn't spend our time watching something else.

Michelle St. James at Shakefire wasn't impressed, either. She gave Cougar Town a D: "Cox is too good at playing a spastic neurotic for Cougar Town to be completely horrible, but the show is all over the place, I can’t relate to any of the characters, and I don’t think I laughed out loud once. These are not good signs."

Kat at My Single Mom Life is willing to try to get past the name and the poor reviews, though. She says, "I'll probably give the show a chance, watch 2-3 episodes because it might actually be funny, it might show older women getting on with life after divorce positively, but if every other person is calling her a cougar, I'll change the channel. I hate the term, I just think it's a nasty way to describe older women dating again."

Cougar Town, Modern Life and the rest of the ABC Wednesday line up premiere Wedneday, September 23rd. Do you plan to book a ticket to Cougar Town?

Guest Contributing Editor Deb Rox is over 40, but she's likely to claw your eyes out if you call her friends "cougars," "pumas," or other feline (or canine, for that matter) terms. She blogs at Deb on the Rocks; follow her on Twitter at @debontherocks and she'll promise not to abuse her Eastern Standard Time location by tweeting television spoilers.

Garbage Dreams Sweeps Up Accolades with a Compelling Story of Trash Salvagers

2009-08-28T14:00:00-05:00

When I see films in our big chain movie theater, I like to get the mega-large soft drink. They have a good fountain, and I like to have the big, iceburg of a drink to share throughout the movie, and then get a refill to take home. It's a bit obscene, I think it's 64 ounces and crammed with ice, and takes two hands to carry. Do you ever look in the trash cans on the way out of the theater? The cups and buckets are huge. I'm lucky if I don't spill half of my drink, and then I have the crappy, soggy cup to contend with. It's a bad habit.

I am so glad that I didn't have my giant sippy cup when I saw Garbage Dreams at SXSW in March 2009. Garbage Dreams is an excellent film, and it leaves you thinking about every cup, straw wrapper, and paper towel you use. Filmmaker Mai Iskander premiered her documentary in Austin to sold-out screenings, and it has been lauded in frequent festival showings since then. If you can make it to one of the five upcoming fall festivals screenings listed below, you should. Garbage Dreams changes the way you look at the world. At your garbage, for starters.

Garbage Dreams follows the lives of three young men who are born into the trash trade, growing up in the world's largest garbage village, on the outskirts of Cairo. Generations of "Zaballeen" entrepreneurs have removed trash from Cairo for only minimal payment from individuals. The trash has transformed their village into a massive dump and recycling center. Rudimentary tools and the will to survive created an extremely efficient (recycling 80% of trash collected) operation. The streets serve as sorting centers. Cardboard compactors, plastic chippers and rag shredders chug along on generators, but the majority of work is done by hand and then the reclaimed materials are sold to the industrial trade.

The story is a compelling look at the change the boys face when Cairo formally outsourced their village's work to multi-national companies.

I attended the screening to see how the film was made, but I felt much like film student Chelsea Hernandez did, who blogged about seeing the film in her Introduction to Documentary class blog: "There is not much I can say about the filmmaking, because the story took all my attention. So, saying that actually says the filmmaking was wonderful. Isn't that what we're taught in film school? The story should drive the audience emotions and keep their attention, rather than calling attention to the filmmaking process." On Chelsea's blog you can see the outstanding Q&A session from one of the screenings at SXSW, including the thoughts of one of the young subjects, Adham, who at 17-years old is his family's breadwinner.

Leila Darabi, from whom I learned the lingo "garblogging," wrote at everydaytrash: "It’s an emotionally pulling conflict. My natural instinct is to root for the Zaballeen to win out and remain the city’s trash collection system, but it’s hard to feel good about all that comes along with that profession…life in a garbage slum, generation after generation working harder for less money, dangerous contact with sharp and toxic materials…"

Christina Lingstrom is currently blogging her trip to work with Honduran trash salvagers at Take Part. She describes the landfill as "highly competitive and violent." Before her team left for Hondoras they met with Mai to learn some of the expertise she gained following her subject for four years.

After festival runs throughout the rest of the year, Garbage Dreams will reach a television-viewing audience with a spring feature on PBS's Independent Lens series which is kicking off with an engaging fall line-up of documentaries.

I'm so excited to follow the progress of Mai Iskander's Garbage Dreams, and for her to continue to collect the kind of recognition that will attract funding for whatever projects she envisions next. The PBS viewership is massive, and it's a prestigious coup for a filmmaker.

Watching at home has advantages, too, in that you can pop your own corn and spare the world one more paper tub and one more massive soda cup. Something has got to give.

Garbage Dreams Fall Festival Screenings

Landlocked Film Festival (Iowa) August 27-30

Ferndale Film Festival (Michigan) September 3-7

Kansas International Film Festival (Kansas) September 18-24

Camden International Film Festival (Maine) October 1-4

Arab Film Festival (California) October 15-25

Deb Rox is a consultant, blogger and mother of teenagers who collect pizza boxes in her house when she is at conferences and festivals. She blogs at Deb on the Rocks and is the author of 5 Ways to {Blank} Your Blog which she would love to shoot as a tell-all documentary.

Controversial Horror Flicks "Grace" and "Orphan" Give Mothers a Bloodbath

2009-08-21T16:00:00-05:00

Horror films are at heart fairy tales, and the morals of the stories tend to hit you over the head with the subtlety of a witch's oven door. This summer, two psychological thriller/horror flicks with big buzz, Orphan and Grace, want you to know that pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, and adopting a child are all selfish, destructive,bloody pursuits. Breeder beware! Unlike Rosemary's Baby which cast the mother as the victim of a demon seed, these two new kids on the block scrape at a deeper vulnerability: our culture's judgment of women who long for children after loss.

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, the controversial Orphan opened July 24 with the story a murderous child from Russia who is adopted (rather easily, much like picking out new furniture) by a couple with two children whose third child was stillborn. This premise, starting with the name of the film, elicited protests, petitions, and a specific request from the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute to
remove the line "It must be hard to love an adopted child as much as your own" from the movie's trailer. Warner Brothers removed the line from advertisements, though it actually fits a screenplay that has the adoptive mother (played by Vera Farmiga) vehemently affirming "I am not your mother!" in a critical scene.

The other summer horror-child is Grace, writer-director Paul Solet's first feature-length film. It opened in theaters August 14 following successful international festival runs, and it will hit DVD release mid-September. Grace arrived swaddled in drama including early reports that two men fainted during the Sundance Film Festival screening. The story is bloody, to be sure. A car accident kills a soon-to-be father and causes his wife (played by Jordan Ladd) to have her third miscarriage. She carries her child two more months until her due date, however, and delivers the child with a midwife's help. Then the miraculous and horrific happens: in the bloody waterbirth hot tub the mother lifts her stillborn child to her breast in grief, and the child comes back to life. Sort of.

The troubling thing about both films is that each mother is portrayed as damaged, self-absorbed and in the ethical world of each film, deserving of torture because of her desperate, twisted need for a child. In Orphan, the adoptive mother is an recovering alcoholic, SUV-driving, reluctant SAHM whose desperation brings her own doppelganger to her family in the form of a daughter who personifies traumatized attachment disorder squared, harms her new siblings, attempts to seduce her new fatherm and hides secret health issues. The movie is haunted by the refrain if only her adoptive mother could accept and love her... .

The lifestyle choices of Grace's mother, played by Jordan Ladd, are similarly scrutinized, vilified and punished. She's obsessed with her pregnancy, doesn't miss her sperm-donor of a husband after his death, and, in a bizarre lesbian back-story, still harbors feelings for her midwife who was her former lover. Her vegan,bi-sexual, feminist, breastfeeding ways are more than suspect--they create a high-needs baby who is at turns a screaming fly-attracting zombie and a breast-biting blood-guzzling vampire of a child. There is a third grief-stricken mother in these stories, too: Grace's grandmother, who copes with the sudden death of her son by getting baby crazy (of course) for Grace. In perhaps the most unsettling scene of the movie the grandmother gruesomely tries to produce milk using a horrific breast pump. Women will do anything, you know, to heal their inner demons by becoming mothers.

The moral of these fractured fairy tales? Mothers are full of narcissism and decay, and they manifest as much in their sub-human children. Both movies left me feeling desperate, all right--desperate to get money in the hands of female filmmakers. Understandably, the blogosphere has been buzzing about both films, though not many women have written about seeing them.

Kristen writes about Orphan and the stigma of adoption at the Howerton Family Blog.
On Xianing's Chinaspout blog, hear from Bethann Buddenbaum who started the Orphan protest Facebook page.
Bethany at Our Adoption Journeywas also offended by Orphan's trailer.
Heather Wixson, who writes as thehorrorchick at Dread Central, has a great interview with Solet and producer Adam Green from Sundance, including Solet saying “I’d rather kick your soul around the room than kick you in the gut.”
Pretty Scary describes one of the unconventional marketing strategies used by Grace.

What do you think about this shower of horrific summer offspring? Did you support the protests, or are either of these films in your queue?

Deb Rox thinks the real horror is movie theatres who use fake seasoning powder instead of real salt. She blogs at Deb on the Rocks and is the author of Five Ways to {Blank} Your Blog.