Muppets the movie – why we love it

Posted on March 16, 2012 by admin

J and I have now seen the Muppets movie twice. It rocks.

The plot line is predictably corny. Walter (a sort of muppet, he’s a vertically challenged puppet anyway) lives with Gary. I’m guessing Gary (Jason Segel) is a foster-brother as he’s not a puppet (though he may well be a muppet). He’s a sort of well-meaning perennial stay-at-home bachelor who, in the interest of plot development, becomes engaged to the long-suffering lovely school teacher, Mary (Amy Adams).

 

headbanger animal

animal rocks

 

The Gary and Walter duo make an excellent case for family therapy. However, putting that to one side, the trio go on vacation to LA. Gary plans to ask Mary to marry him, but takes Walter along for the ride (as one does). And Walter plans to take a trip down Memory Lane and visit the Muppet theatre (now closed down and a ghost of its former self).

Dusty and decaying, the Muppet theatre is under threat of demolition from the evil Tex Richman (not a muppet, or a puppet, but a slimier, nastier, less pretty version of Gordon Gekko, excellently played by Chris Cooper). Complete with nasty muppet side-kicks, Tex plans to demolish the muppet theatre and to take over the muppet name. Can Walter persuad Kermit to rally the band and save the day with the biggest puppet reunion and benefit gig ever?

I guess we know the answer to that one, but the plot does a reasonably good job of keeping us guessing. And there are some pretty good one-liners and tongue-in-cheek laughs. Perhaps the great thing about Muppets the movie is that it doesn’t take itself too serioulsy. Actually, it doesn’t take anything seriously. So here are my five top reasons to go and see it-

  • Animal, the drummer, my favourite character, rescued from his Anger Management Class. (For some interesting background on Animal, see the Drummer. Jury’s out on who he was modelled on, but I can see the similarities to Keith Moon).
  • Some foot-tappingly good song-and-dance scenes. I defy you not to smile when you listen to Life’s’ a Happy Tune (see a clip on youtube).
  • Miss Piggy, as you’ve never seen her before, in her office suite at French Vogue, falling for the charms of MuppetMan. You’ve got to love that on-off thing with Kermit (Somebody needs to tell her she’s too good for him.)
  • Tex Richman’s comic foray into rap in Talk About Me, (“people call me rich cause i got my money, i got more cheddar then some super sized nachos”). And don’t forget his maniacal henchmen. You know they’re going to turn good when they’ve got all the sinister menace of an over-sized pajama case.
  • To see what all the fuss Courtney Love is making is about. According to newspaper reports, Love is claiming that the muppets have “raped” Kurt Cobain’s song “Smell’s like Teen Spirit”. As they say, life can be stranger than fiction. Even muppet fiction.

 

 

 

 

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Don’t skinny-size me. Boys under pressure to look good too

Posted on March 16, 2012 by admin

Boys at Clyst Vale School have revealed in a student survey that they feel under pressure to live up to media images too.

 

purple skeleton on parisian drain

too skinny by far?

 

A quarter of boys said that they feel under pressure to look cool. The girls, however, disagreed.

The survey is interesting for two other reasons. First, it supports other findings that boys aren’t really that in to super skinny models. Secondly, they knew more about eating disorders than girls. Could the boys be “new men” in the making?

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Things for spring – take a walk on the beach

Posted on March 15, 2012 by admin

As promised in an earlier post (Things for Spring – Release  that Testosterone), here’s another idea on what to do this Easter.

take a walk on the wet side

 

Take a walk on the beach. You may need your wellies, but it’s worth packing a (robust) bucket and spade and heading for your nearest bit of coast. In our case, it means getting as far west as we can.

Whilst we dream about donning our wet suits and joining the surfers at  Croyde, we usually stop at Blue Anchor Bay (and congratulate ourselves for at least making it past Weston). As it’s too cold for us to actually venture into the sea,  the tide is less of an issue than it is during the Summer. (Those of you familiar with the Bristol Channel will know what I mean!).

So it might not be St Kitts (or even Lanzorote), but here are five good reasons why we’ll be spending some time this Spring at Blue Anchor Bay

  • Eating fish and chips from the Driftwood Cafe on the beach
  • Wading through pools of salt water and mud in galoshes
  • Breathing in the salt air (great for the LO’s lungs and clearing up all those post-Winter sniffles)
  • Feeling a bit like a local
  • Knowing there’s always Butlins down the road In Minehead  if the weather gets really bad

 

 

 

 

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Easter bonnets for boys

Posted on March 15, 2012 by admin

After several years struggling with the Easter-bonnet dilemma, Mumsnet have come to the rescue.

Easter bonnet wsahout

J can breathe a sigh of relief. No more customised base-ball hats with over-size pink rabbits on.

 

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Another bad hair day. For a boy, how long is too long?

Posted on March 15, 2012 by admin

I wonder if my jaw was the only one hitting the floor when I saw the BBC’s report on little Rean Carter.  Like me, Rean’s mother resisted getting his hair cut.

I think long(ish) curly hair is cute on little boys – up to a point. I guess for me, that point is somewhere around the back of the neck.

how long is too long

For my son’s father, mother-in-law and prospective prep-school (which demands hair should be cut to “show a good degree of ear”) the point is rather shorter. So, unlike Rean’s Mum, I bowed to peer pressure and the power of societal mediation.

Rean’s a game little chap. Chopping off his golden locks will raise funds for charity, the Sunderland Royal Hospital children’s unit. And I’m all for individuality. But, I’m secretly a bit relieved that I cow-towed to the pressure.

I like a tuft of hair, even a little pony-tail, like the fluffy stump left when my dog had his tail docked (many years ago, when such barbaric practice was the canine equivalent of short-back-and-sides). It’s a gentle finger-in-the air to authority.  But, for me, looking like an extra for the Princess in Tangled is a step too far.

boy with long hair paris playground

the urchin look

 

 

 

 

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Is rugby safe (for my little boy)?

Posted on March 14, 2012 by admin

Ever since I (belatedly) saw the film Invictus, I’ve had concerns about rugby. Even the improbably good acting and plot line (Matt Damon under the tutelage of Morgan Freeman leading the beleaguered Springboks to victory) couldn’t distract me from the violence inherent in the sport.

matt damon as Francois Pienaar

At school, I was dimly aware that rugby was much tougher than football or cricket, and only marginally less life-threatening than lacrosse. But it never really bothered me until J got his call-up papers.

They expect my little boy to do that? I asked my other-half incredulously as I watched Damon stare pensively at a wall of muscle performing the haka. Not only has J got a serious medical condition, he’s the sort of child who can’t cross the playground without falling over.

We’ve still got to have that conversation with his new school’s games department. One of the girls who showed us around initially had said something nice and reassuring about tag rugby and I’d rather parked my concerns there. I’d pictured tag rugby (probably erroneously) as a sort of relay race – but with a funny-shaped ball replacing the baton.

Now this terribly sad news about little Leonie Nice who was killed when a rugby ball hit her in the chest has unsettled me again. J was listening to Newsround and picked up on it straight away. He’s not focused on the rugby ball, he’s just terribly sad and a bit scared that a little girl could die so suddenly in the playground.

It would be premature (and insensitive) to make any statement as to the safety of rugby, or otherwise, in the wake of Leonie’s death until all of the facts are known. However, I will be asking myself how safe it is for J.

On the one hand, I don’t want to wrap him up in cotton wool and I’m dimly aware of some of the good things RFU have done to make rugby safer in schools. On the other hand, Professor Allyson Pollock’s report two years ago on injuries sustained whilst playing rugby in schools makes uncomfortable reading. In her words, rugby “is not safe enough for schoolchildren and not enough is being done to protect the safety of children.”

Oh dear, another maternal dilemma. I’m beginning to know more about rugby than I ever wanted to.

 

 

 

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Things for Spring – Release that tesosterone

Posted on March 14, 2012 by admin

Well, in the Chilterns at least, it looks like Spring is nearly with us. The midwife toads are chattering away and the local cats are lurking in our wildlife garden with obvious evil intent.

spring has finally sprung?

Chillingly, however, someone reminded me that J’s school breaks up in a week’s time. (The rest of you need not necessarily panic. J’s school holds the record for having the longest holidays ever). I did, however, start thinking about what to do with all that surplus energy during the Easter holidays.

Here’s my hit list-

  • Get out on our bikes (after we’ve rescued them, rusting, from the debris in the garage).
  • Enjoy the garden (remind J why he wanted the tennis trainer/crochet set/trampoline, all of which form part of the debris covering the said bike).
  • Country walks and rambles (Note to self; find a similarly placed friend and a pub with an outside space and some swings).

Not much to go on, I know. But, over the next few days, we’ll be giving this more thought and hosting some guest posts on the topic of what to do over the Spring holidays!

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How gender affects bullying

Posted on March 13, 2012 by admin

I just noticed an article in today’s Sussex Argus, headlined, “Sussex survey shows girls more likely to report bullying.”

Boys bully and experience bullying differently

Referring to the annual survey carried out by East Sussex County Council, it’s a partial truth. Girls are more likely to report cyber-bullying. However, the report also revealed that boys are likely to be subject to direct physical bullying (which they are more likely to report than girls).

Girls tend to experience more verbal bullying, including cyber-bullying.

Nancy Darling, Professor of Psychology in Oberlin College, believes that boys and girls experience bullying very differently. Writing in Psychology Today, she attributes this difference to the way boys and girls manage hierarchies.

In a nutshell, girls tend to form shifting cliques (gossip, back-biting and bitching can destabilise and isolate). Boys, a bit like wildebeests and wolves,  tend to establish a more stable pecking order (which, sometimes literally, keeps the underdog down). As Darling puts it, “Choose your poison.” Either way, bullying is corrosive.

 

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What’s in a logo?

Posted on March 13, 2012 by admin

Engaged in another displacement activity (surfing the net for decorative cup cake wrappers) I happened on a “news” story that picked my interest. It’s actually a story run by that voice of reason and restrain, the Sun, re-circulated and given a new moral spin by that other voice of reason, the Daily Mail.

 

fruit sweets maligned

too fruity?

Apparently a couple of years back, Haribo were under fire by an incensed parent and Mail-reader who nearly choked on the pornographic intent of the little Haribo fruit men.

 

After a somewhat ribald internet support campaign which reasserted the Lime’s innocence, the troubled Dad relented. He’d misinterpreted the fruit’s intentions.

It got me thinking though about the sexualisation of childhood debate (well, it seemed slightly more worthy than searching for the perfect cup cake wrapper).

In an attempt to be politically correct, are we sometimes in danger of creating an issue where there isn’t one? Is smut, like beauty, in the eye of the beholder? Where will it all end?

Anybody with young (but growing) boys will understand the potential for puns and connotations lurking in everyday items, like the fruit bowl.  Who, for example, thought of a child’s program about Bananas in Pyjamas? Yet, who’s to judge? My husband may scowl and raise his eyebrows, but any double-entendre (intended or otherwise) is over the six year-old’s head.

Ever desperate to escape the scourge of work, it got me thinking some more. In my youth, the press were obsessed with satanic conspiracies. For several years I was convinced the toothpaste tube in our family bathroom was a form of demonic communication. Now, at least, I can lay that one to rest.

 

the devil may care

the man in the moon

The Proctor and Gamble symbol has no occult (or sexual or fruit-related) connotations. The urban myth I grew up with (and which Daily Mail also has to answer for) has finally been debunked (see the Straight Dope).

Sadly, in the face of  rumour and hysteria, Proctor and Gamble dropped the Man in the Moon and 103 years of history.

I’m surprised at myself for admiring any aspect of Haribo’s marketing strategy (which seems to have an almost occult and hypnotic effect on my 6YO). But all credit to them. I’ve checked and Mr Lime is still on the pay roll.  I wonder if he will still be as fresh and leery at 103?

 

 

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Stop Wycombe Museum from closing

Posted on August 25, 2011 by admin

I can’t believe the Council is planning to close our local museum (well, actually, I can…. but that’s another story).

I have started a petition to save it, click here and please sign.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/savewycombemuseum/

 

 

 

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