modern day dad

Sesame Street Monster Gallery. Dad research I never thought I'd have to do.

So we're in Borders this past weekend, my 20 month old was acting up, and in a moment of desperation prudence, we bought her this simple Elmo board book called "Monster Faces." The whole book is just faces of different Sesame Street monsters making faces. You get the idea - hungry face, sad face, angry face, silly face, happy face etc.

It worked and calmed her down, except for the rest of the day (at least while she was with us in the stroller shopping) she wanted to know the names of the monsters. Every single one. Over and over.

And to be honest, after Elmo, Cookie Monster, Grover, Oscar the Grouch and Zoe I was kind of at a loss.

So later that night, I spent a little time looking on the magical internets, and I stumbled on the Muppet Wiki, specifically the Sesame Street Monster Gallery. If you've ever wondered what Elmo's dad's name is (Louie) or what the name of that baby monster is (Baby Natasha), it's definitely worth checking out.

Check out the Sesame Street Monster Gallery, and if you're shopping for a baby check out the super cute Monster Faces board book.

Jennifer Lopez must love PBS Kids Television.

So I bought a copy of the People Magazine with the Jennifer Lopez twins in it this week (purely for research for my blogging job, I swear) and while my wife was looking it over, she noticed something. J-Lo named her kids Max and Emme, which also happen to be the names of the boy and girl on PBS' kids' show Dragon Tales.

Which in as of itself is only mildly strange, except now my three year old knows J-Lo's kids' names.

"That's Max and Emme," she tells me whenever she sees the magazine. In fact, she just did it as I was writing this post.

Why am I not entirely comfortable with this?

The voice of Dora.

I don't know why this only occurred to me now and not two years ago, but what does Dora the Explorer really look like? That is to say, what does the person who does the voice of Dora look like?

Once again, hooray for YouTube.

Jack's Big Music Show DVD this month.

I must be slipping, because there's a DVD of Jack's Big Music show releasing in less than three weeks and I didn't even realize it. But thanks to MDD reader Andrea, now I'm fully caught up. Hopefully in my house Jack's Big Music Show: Let's Rock! will hopefully take the mantle of favorite DVD from Dora the Explorer: Super Babies (which, quite frankly, if I have to hear that "Super Babies" song one more time that DVD might have to disappear).

And for those of you also asking, I haven't heard any word on any other Jack's Big Music Show merchandise, but if I hear anything I'll pass it along.

In the meantime, you can pre-order the DVD (releasing October 23) from Amazon.com here.

Breaking news on CBS: Dads change diapers.

I missed the segment about stay at home Dads on the CBS Early Show yesterday, but I was just able to watch it online here. I thought it was fairly straight forward and obvious. And considering some of the portrayals of involved dads in the media it wasn't bad, just slightly condescending (my favorite was the Hannah Storm comment at the end "Does it meant they're actually changing diapers?...I'm glad we're making progress!" Ugh.). Thankfully they got a hold of Gary from Freelancedad.com who represented us well I thought. Nice job Gary.

The thing that bothered me the most about it though was the fact that they used the same old, tired clips from the movie Mr. Mom. Goddamn that gets under my skin. Then I read Greg at Daddytypes' take on the Mr. Mom thing in the segment yesterday, including his tete-a-tete with an Early Show producer about it, which made me feel a lot better. Thanks Greg.

Liveblogging the CBS Early Show Segment On  'Hip Hands-On Dads' [daddytypes.com]

On TV: Diaper Bags for Modern Dads [CBS.com video link]

Also on MDD, my old post from 2004 (where was Hannah Storm then?) - Diaper bags for dads.

How 'bout that? The new TWIB is terrible.

I'm going to use this Major League Baseball All-Star break to complain about something that's been bothering me for a while.

When I was a kid and very much into baseball, I used to love watching This Week In Baseball. Before ESPN, before Baseball Tonight, before "Web Gems," it was kind of a highlight show that showed all the great plays and bloopers of the previous week. Hosted by Mel Allen, it was also a Saturday morning kid's show with youth-focused segments like famous players showing baseball fundamentals (like Ozzie Smith showing you how to stop a ground ball for instance). And best of all it was a show that your mom and dad might like watching with you too. Oh, and it had a classic theme song.

So now that my oldest is rooting for Big Papi right along side me, I figured I could introduce her to TWIB and maybe it could be something that we would enjoy on Saturday mornings. Unfortunately the show isn't even close to what it used to be.

The newest iteration feels like you're watching some kind of lame 30 minute infomercial. They rely heavily on "film look" video and the segments themselves often feel like some third-rate episode of MTV Cribs. A lot of my problem with the show is due to the unbelievably bad voice over work of the current host "Buzz Brainard," who, although he's a fine voice-over guy, has all the narrative excitement of a guy reading a billboard. He even sounds condescending at some points, as if he's talking down to the kids. I'm not saying anyone could replace Mel Allen, but can't MLB Productions find someone with some baseball credibility who can also convey some of the excitement of the game?

You be the judge. Check out the latest TWIB segments at MLB.com (and be sure to click on the "Classic TWIB Theme" link at the top of the page).

Yo Gabba Gabba! So yummy! So yummy!

Has anyone else noticed on Noggin the promo for this new show coming out in August, Yo Gabba Gabba? It's a crazy song with this nutty furry green monster who is eating and singing. And it (mostly) goes like this:

THERE'S A PARTY IN MY TUMMY!
So Yummy! So Yummy!
THERE'S A PARTY IN MY TUMMY!
So yummy! So yummy!

The song is like LCD Soundsystem meets Newcleus, meets The Electric Company, and let me tell you it's freaking infectious. The tag line is "Yo Gabba Gabba! Life Lessons with a Beat." BIz Markie is even going to be a guest host on one of the episodes. THE BIZ for chrissakes!

It's premiering on August 20th, and I for one (oh yeah, and my girls) will be watching.

Check out the "Trailer" for the Yo Gabba Gabba! season at their old web site.

Maraka the Explorer

Apparently last weekend there was a great Dora the Explorer parody on Saturday Night Live.

Can you help Maraka and Mittens save the baby penguin? Only if you have free will.

SNL - TV Funhouse: Maraka [YouTube - Thanks Pat!]

Jack's Big Music Show CD.

OK. September's almost over and was mid-August the last time I posted. If you still check in on this blog from time to time, thanks. I know I've been neglecting it. (And thanks especially to everyone who's emailed me with stuff to post that I haven't responded to yet - thanks especially to you.)

Now that's out of the way, I kind of feel I have to mention that today the new Jack's Big Music Show CD was released. After finally finding it in a store (my local Borders - seriously, where do people buy CDs these days?) we came home and waited until the modern day mom came home to test it out.

The result? Success. Kind of. My two year old knows almost all of the words to the songs, but was kind of annoyed that there wasn't any video to watch with it. She still danced and sang, but reminded us between each song that it wasn't on the TV and we needed to listen for the next song.

While I definitely recommend it, my only criticism is that while it's got a good mix of music from season one, it could have more of the songs they actually play in the clubhouse (not just the music videos). And where is Cathy? The most frequent clubhouse visitor got stone-cold snubbed.

Get Jack's Big Music Show Season One CD from Amazon.com for $11.97.

Jack's Big Music Show merchandise scuttlebut.

Many of us are big fans of Jack's Big Music Show on Noggin, and I've written about it more than once in this blog. Because of that I get a lot of people leaving comments and contacting me about how much they also love the show, and a lot of them (myself included) are wondering when we might be able to get some merchandise. You know, a puppet or a DVD or something. Well, MDD reader [name removed -ed.] just might have some inside info for us. She posted this the other day in a comment to one of the JBMS posts:

OK, I have good, reliable info for all of you.  #1 - me, my husband, and our 14-month old son are huge fans.  We have all of the episodes TIVO'd and I LOVE Bongo Bird!!!!  #2 - my dad is on the production crew of JBMS and that is how we discovered the show when my son was itty-bitty.  My "source" (dad!) told me that they are striking a deal with one of the big-box giants (I don't know if it's ok for me to say the name of the place...??) and that they will have videos, music, toys, dolls, & the whole marketing caboodle.  I think they are working on the line right now.  My dad has told me that I (meaning you, too) will not be able to find any of the JBMS stuff online or anywhere else until it is available at this store.  Also of interest is that they are shooting new episodes right now - they started a few weeks ago and crank one out every few days or so.  I got to go to the set one day and it was waaaay cool to see Jack, Mary, and Mel "in person."  They were rehearsing and setting up the scenes, but it was still cool.  I can't wait for the new ones to come out.  Hope this helps all of you other JBMS fans!!

"Big box store"? Target maybe? And I wonder when it might be. Christmas '06 would make sense, but who knows how long this stuff takes. Thanks for the info.