Category: New-To-Me Screen Candy

How did I NOT Know About Postmodern Jukebox?!?

Sometimes, social media gets it just right.

Thanks to a friend of The Girl for sharing this video on Facebook a couple days ago:

I could go on a bit more about the flotsam and jetsam adrift in the seas of the internet… but I won’t. I’ll just leave you with the links to see and hear more from Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox.

Here’s where to find Postmodern Jukebox on Facebook (which is where I lifted that nifty black and white photo featured above)

Another video from their You Tube channel, ScottBradleeLovesYa,  Jason Derulo/Snoop Dogg’s “Wiggle done up vintage 1920’s style. A Must Watch for the tap dancing alone!

Now go skip on over to You Tube for some fabulously reimagined tunes!

Movie Review with The Boy- “Kingsmen- The Secret Service”

Google link for "Kingsmen- The Secret Service"
Google link for “Kingsmen- The Secret Service”

Took The Boy to an R rated movie… that’s a first. While watching previews at another movie,”Kingsman- The Secret Service,” came up and we all thought it looked great. So, before our Mother and Son Night Out, I read the preview information online, like a good mom does, and thought it sounded about as raunchy or violent as your basic action-adventure movie. Whoops!

You know what isn’t a first? The Boy sharing what’s on his mind and asking questions about EVERYTHING. And he had a bunch about “Kingsman.” While he will turn to his father, I am usually the parent of choice when he wants answers. His usual M.O.? Plop down in my car after school, wait about five minutes, then go straight to the heart of some adolescent query. No subject is off limits. I frequently have to remember Parenting Rule #1: “When 14-year-olds ask surprising questions, do NOT bug your eyes out or do a spit take. Especially when driving. Remember the magic words: “Why do you ask, dear?'”

Both The Boy and I are on the squeamish side. Movies featuring hundreds of head blowing up while the soundtrack plays our favorite pop tunes are a bit much for us. His parting opinion was “Eesh, that changes my opinion of humanity somewhat!” I felt that for a spy flick, Kingsmen was silly, with much of the comedy I wanted to see there, but surprisingly worked into the violence. I like silly, and comedy, and despite the violence, I’d see it again. The Boy? Probably not.

For a great review, check MoviePilot.com, which is where I lifted that photo up top…

What Would a Haunch of the Devil’s Ass Taste Like? Giles Coren Has an Idea…

After running the gamut of errands, house work, and emotions, I plopped myself down and thoroughly enjoyed Giles Coren in “The Million Dollar Critic.” If you have access to BBCA Network, and are looking for something other than the usual sitcoms and Reality TV (LOL… I can hardly mention that poorly-named genre with a straight face), you might appreciate this show.

I enjoyed Giles Coren and comedian Sue Perkins in “The Supersizers…” The series, in which for one week they wear period costumes, live in close to or completely authentic settings, and eat the foods from different eras throughout history, was full of great banter and crammed in a lot of interesting facts. I caught “The Supersizers…” on American TV several years after it originally ran in the UK, from 2007-09, and I was happy to see Giles Coren on a new foodie show for North American audiences.

A lot of self deprecating humor in “The Million Dollar Critic” helps to balance the fact that he really is a highly regarded critic with much riding on his reviews. When dining with Eva Avila, the season four Canadian Idol winner, he shares “People imagine that having dinner with a restaurant critic is going to be informative, thrilling, and sexy. But in fact, as I’m demonstrating to Eva, it is as boring as having dinner with any other tedious, self obsessed middle-aged man who loves the sound of his own voice,” and then proceeds to embarrass himself with the cutlery.

Best lines included:

“An amuse bouche is something that restaurants that think they’re fancy give you because they’ve seen it on the TV… just the sort of thing that makes you wish you’ve gone for a burger instead.”

On trying seal meat- “This tastes like death. Like a small haunch of the Devil’s ass.”

On observing the chefs and owners of a popular restaurant- “Chefs should never be drunker than I am. That’s just showing off.”

There are about 120 other great lines, go watch this show. Great television viewing here, folks, it doesn’t get any better that this.

Foodie Websites- the Ridiculous and the Inspirational

I spent some time clicking through to some entertaining and motivational websites today… fascinating what we have available on The Web, isn’t it? Amusement, education and debauchery, all in one spot. Mind blowing, no? You Tube’s “Minimum Trip” is a channel that features miniature food preparation. The channel was featured on a morning news show, recently, and I bookmarked it to come back to eventually. I finally did, going through several of their videos… kind of left me speechless (not an easy feat). My first thought as I watched teeny-tiny shrimp get turned into tempura was “OH MY GOSH, KIDS, COME SEE, IT LOOKS LIKE SOMEONE IS FRYING SEA MONKEYS!!”

There is no music, only the sound of food prep and cooking and a whole lot of closeups of miniature food, little bitty cooking stations and doll house furniture.
What a trip! Interesting, to say the least. The boy and I decided that we liked it, though, and that he now wants to show his friends.

On a completely different scale is NeverSeconds. This is a fabulously interesting site featuring the observations of a young school-aged girl (nine years old at the start), blogging with her father to show what we are offering our children in the lunchrooms of the western world and beyond. Since beginning the blog in 2012, the family has gone on to publish a book on the whole experience (“Never Seconds- The Incredible Story of Martha Payne”), as well as spur on an impressive amount of fundraising for schools in Malawi with Mary’s Meals– these posts from March 2013, “Meeting Malawi’s Madame President,” and from May of 2012 are a great overview.
Click on through these underlined links for an international lesson about school lunches and what can happen when a family’s experiment collides with the blogsphere, social media, and local and international media. I’m pretty sure I’ll be buying Martha’s book.

Here’s to Web Exploration!

Headaches stink.

On the upside, when I am stuck with a two day headache, I have no qualms about doing nothing around the house. I’ll skip errands, tell the family to fend for themselves in the kitchen, ignore the dishes (broken dishwashers stink, too).

Laundry? Bah. I wave my paw at it.

Dogbert waves his paw at you and says "Bah!"
Dogbert waves his paw at you and says “Bah!”

I resorted to the same thing I did the last time I had a headache- pulled up Netflix and plowed through more of Agents of Shield, which is still new to me. If my head is going to hurt, I’m going to binge watch. One more migraine and I’ll have the first season finished!

I’m OK with that.