Great Dads on TV

Dad's on TV keep changing. I can't speak much for what came before my time but I can say it has been dismal for a while. Pop-culture dads were showing up bafoonish, in the form of Homer Simpson and wannabes or weren't even existant at all. To be fair, real dads are and should be silly at times but I think the lack of good role models made it easy for us to let ourselves off the hook. Really, this father image was just an extension of the acceptable male image of the time. What happens when the dumb, milquetoast, codependent guy finally becomes a dad? To be fair, I don't watch many different shows anymore, so this list might be a very small percentage. Even then it's a start.

I'm fairly tired of watching gritty cop shows or gritty hospital dramas so that limits me quite a bit right there. However, one of the dads that seems decent on TV is from Criminal Minds (which I try not to watch but sometime you get stuck in the marathons). Aaron Hotchner, played by Thomas Gibson, has had many touching moments and many difficult moments in dealing with raising his son. All the serial killer who killed his ex-wife stuff aside his role as a father has been written and played well. Making a living and being a father can be a difficult thing to find balance it and that is important to show. He is a fairly cold seeming person, who has a warm relationship with his son.

Getting away from gritty cop shows that will keep you up at night worrying about the depravity of humanity, let's go to a humorous cop show - Castle. This show is formulaic in every way shape and form. However Rick Castle, played by Malcom Reynolds Nathan Fillion, is a good father. In fact the show often has his parenting dilemma a background story to the main murder investigation. Sometimes his case helps him parent better, sometimes it is the other way around. Yes, Castle can often times be juvenile but he, like all of us, still has an inner child that likes to play. This is good to show. Being a dad doesn't mean you can't have some fun.

Moving on from a silly show to another silly show, with serious overtones. I bring you Glee. I swear, all that singing out of nowhere happened at my school, okay maybe not. But it could have. The right people were there. I'm sorry where was I? Oh yeah, great fathers. This show has one of the best. Burt Hummel, played by Mike O'Malley,is the dad every outcast wants (and hey we all feel like an outcast now and then). His son, Kurt (I know, Kurt and Burt - the names are interesting in this show), is gay and deals with many things a gay son would deal with. As a heterosexual father he deals with them all magnifiscently. I can think of many great scenes where I thought to myself, wow what a great dad.

Some that stick out: 
• Telling his girlfriend's son, Finn, he can't live there after Finn starts talking about all Kurt's Faggy stuff. He had just invited them to live with him and this would probably ruin his new relationship
• Having a talk with his son about sex. How hard is this when both parties are heterosexual? He still does what he knows he needs to do for his son.

Basically, Dads are becoming important in pop culture again. Sure, some are still absent and some are still jokes but now some are stepping up to the plate. They aren't just showing up to the game and sitting on the bench. This is a good sign that the collective unconscious knows good dads are great characters. Here's to all the good dad's out there who show their great character every day they take the time to parent.

Biased/Edited Media

The following video shows a clip that aired on CNN's Death Grip:Inside Pro Wrestling

Now the WWE has been bit before by media agencies that edit what the wrestlers say so that it comes across more incriminating. I believe Mick Foley mentioned in one of his books how he should have had a WWE camera at the taping so that the true version could be available for people. Read on for the unedited version from the WWE camera. ...

In CNN's defense, Cena did say this in regards to the question. However, the reason he answered that was missed because it was edited out. Not to mention they did not show the first thing he answered after the question was asked, "Absolutely Not."

While I may have lauded John Cena for making it through his match with a torn pectoral muscle, I am not a Cena fan. As big as Cena is, he seems naturally built compared to a lot of others. Including, I'll admit, my favorite Triple H a few years back. However, the media is required by ad revenue to make stories more selacious. They need people to talk around the water cooler about the subject. This is just one more example of the requirement in this world to look past what appears to be truth to see what is actually there. To do this requires that we think for ourselves and question everything.

Ah, The Memories

With the imminent return of Triple H, I have been thinking about the first time he returned from a quadricep injury. At that return he let everyone know he was entering that year's Royal Rumble and ended up having an altercation with another one of my favorite wrestlers Kurt Angle. Being that this is Independence Day in the USA and Kurt Angle is my olympic cheeseball hero, I thought I would like to see one of the great moments WWE history. Read on to see a clip of Milk-o-Mania running wild on Raw. ...

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwzjPb36p6M]
A great parody of the old Steve Austin Beer truck. My favorite quote was from good ole JR

The million dollar princess has become the dairy queen

Considering this was a time when the WWE was combining its acquired brands ( WCW and ECW ), I'm not sure what this really has to do with Independence but hey, Kurt Angle is an All American :)

Return of the Game

If you don't already know my favorite wrestler is Triple H, bar none and hands down. Yes, there are others I like as well but nobody puts it all together as well as Triple H. Triple H is a true heel when he needs to be. When he is a heel, people hate him. They really hate him and will talk, blog and write all about it so everyone can hear. What better praise can you get? He can also be very silly at other times. It looks like he is about to come back to Raw from his injuries just in time for my favorite pay per view of the year Summerslam. ...

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7YDucuVlhA]
If this return goes anything like the last one, I am stoked.

Watching the debates

Last week both the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates held debates. The Democrats on Sunday and the Republicans on Tuesday. I don't have cable so I didn't get to watch either of them live. Thankfully, CNN has each debate broken up into 4 parts that allowed me to view both debates. I'm glad I got a chance to watch both debates. ...

While I attempt to align myself with neither party, I mostly lean democrat and so far I am leaning very strongly towards one candidate I have written about before. Despite my leanings, I took the time to watch both debates.

I'm not going to be voting in the primaries for a Republican candidate so what's the point? I wanted to hear, the other side of the story. While I believe there are more than 2 sides to any story in politics, in the U.S. there are definately 2 stronger sides and it is important to at least listen to them. The obvious differences between Democrats and Republicans were present. However, by watching the Republicans hearing what they had to say I heard some ideas that I didn't hear from Democrats that had merit.

One topic they both brought up I have talked about before was English as the official language of the United States of America. Senator Hillary Clinton made a good distinction between English as the national language versus being the official language. It makes sense to respect the language so that we can all have some common glue, but making it official denies too many people full rights by not allowing translator requirements in hospitals, courts and other places. Only one Republican seemed like he may not be fully for making it official but one talked as though there was a conspiracy to remove the English language from our lexicon. On the Democratic debate, many were decidely against making it an official language.

Other than the Iraq war part of each debate, a large topic of discussion was gas prices and dependency on foreign oil. Both sides talked a good talk but only a few really talked about affecting the problem ( using up too much oil and other resources ) rather than doing something about the symptom ( gas prices ). Most republican's stuck with traditional forms of cleaner energy, such as clean coal and nuclear. I think nuclear is a good approach, it has gotten a bad rap but is scientifically proven to be very efficient and less damaging to the environment than many other options we have now. On the democratic side, people spoke more about alternatives, wind, solar, biofuels. All good options to research as well. As long as the focus is to improve energy efficiency. Only Governor Bill Richardson truly spoke about the problem - we use too much. Yes, he talked about alternative fuels, but he also talked about asking the American people to use less energy. Give them incentives to use less. That is the kind of talk I like to hear. Facing the problem from many angles, and it helps that it is aligned with what I believe :)

If you didn't watch the debates I recommend it. You can go to CNN and browse the videos. Do a search for GOP debate and Democratic debate and it should come up. As long as you start watching part 1 of 4 from either debate, the other parts will show up in the right hand menu.

Remember: It is your country. Be a part of shaping it!

Joost Review

For the past couple weeks I have been beta testing Joost. For those that don't know, Joost is a new web venture that puts on demand video on the web. The service is free, and paid for by advertising that is interspersed within the shows you watch. The grand plan for Joost seems very cool. On Demand television without paying the cable company. Let's see how well that plan is doing in my short review. ...

Joost is currently in an invitation only beta, though as of this week all users now have unlimited invitations, so take everything I say with the knowledge that things may change.

Joost is pretty nice system. It opens up in full screen mode when you first start it up. It seems more like a media center than a program running on your computer right away. The first thing that loaded up for me was a "Channel" of Joost recommendations so that I could get started. I had read on the Joost website that the "Fight Network" channel had Ring of Honor wrestling so I went to check that out first. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have any ROH material up so that was disappointing. Someone had told me about the show "Stella" on Comedy Central so I went to check that out. This was available and I got a chance to watch a whole show.

When I first started watching shows the commercials would jump in at random points, sometimes in the middle of a sentence. Since the latest upgrade it seems that has changed, the commercials now seem to come in at natural points in the shows.

Currently the Joost system is pretty basic. It allows you to watch shows from channels you select and it pretty decent quality as well. They also have a "My Joost" section that has some widgets for you to have up while you watch your shows. The selection of widgets is small right now but I have heard that they will be increasing the number of widgets and allowing others to make widgets. However, when I watch a show I don't need to be doing much else, especially with video on demand.

Once in a while I would run into a glitch or two. Sometimes I would just get disconnected from the network or the show would stop and go to the next in the list. However, these are minor inconveniences as you can easily get right back to what you were watching. The biggest problem I saw with Joost is the current availability of programs. What they have is pretty limited, but this is just beta. They have made deals with CBS and recently on their blog I read that they made a deal with Turner Broadcasting Systems. Content is on their way but will it be any good?

In conclusion I think the system is pretty sound for a beta product and will only get better as they increase the numbers of users. The only downfall for this system might be lack of quality content. At home, I only have very limited cable so that the network stations come in clearly. I don't really need cable because their really isn't that much to watch. That is why a system like Joost could be very good with the right content. I would love to be able to watch wrestling, the only thing I really miss from cable, and would love to be able to watch it on my schedule rather than it's broadcast schedule without having to pay for extra stuff.

By the way, if you'd like an invite just let me know. I am more than happy to let my friends and relations check out this new system.

Watching Firefly

Yesterday I posted a review on the Firefly Soundtrack. At the end I recommended watching the show ( buying the DVD is my real recommendation ) if you haven't already. If you aren't willing to buy an inexpensive and incredibly popular box set off of my recommendations then here is a way you can test it out. Through amazon's video download service you can download 1 or all of the shows to your computer, TiVo or personal video player.

Here is the link to Firefly on Amazon's Unbox ...

I highly recommend watching the pilot which is called "Serenity". Many people also fell in love with the show after watching "The Train Job", which was actually the first episode Fox aired I believe. Once you fall in love with the characters you may want to watch my favorite episode, "Out of Gas". However, once you fall in love with the characters you will want to buy the complete box set.