Dreams of "Wonderama"

I woke up at 6a today with Stephanie Mills and Wonderama on my mind. For those who don't know, Wonderama was a three-hour kids' show that started in the 1950s and ran for 30 years. All the sources say it aired on Sundays, but I vaguely remember it airing on weekdays, too. Although it was syndicated to seven stations on the east coast, it was taped in NY while I lived there so it always felt like a local show to me. Anyway, Stephanie Mills appeared on Wonderama when I was a kid and that appearance always pops into my head when I hear her name.

Looking at Nickelodeon, I sometimes think the musical acts they book on the network's various shows are a bit too grown-up for the age group. In reality, there have always been kids' shows that featured artists that probably appealed more to the big brothers and sisters in the house. Because Wonderama was taped in NY, the show had access to all kinds of TV, Broadway, and rock stars.

Thanks to quirky fans who collect such things, I found several clips from Wonderama on YouTube. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the Stephanie Mills performance that I remembered, but I did find a clip recorded around the same time. Enjoy!

A Blogger's Wake-Up Call

This evening, I read a blog entry about the update of Google Analytics. I had signed up for that service several moths ago but frankly, all the stats were confusing to me. After reading the article, I zipped over to check out the update. The new layout is easier for a inexperienced blogger to understand. I also have a better understanding of the terms, so I think the service will be more useful to me now.

Even with my limited knowledge of blog stats, one thing was very clear. I haven't had a visit to my blog since the first week of March. Not one. Not even by accident. Now I know that my writing has been sporadic lately, but I've posted at least 25 entries since the beginning of March. The blog hasn't exactly been stagnant, at least from my end.

Confronted with the fact that I haven't had any readers in three months, I am forced to reexamine why I am blogging.

--Is this blog an online diary for me? It might as well be, since no one is reading it.
--Is it a way to keep my family and friends apprised of the happenings in my life? I wanted it to be, but I have to face the fact that my real-life friends view technology as a tool and won't read blogs.
--Am I trying to promote myself or a product with this blog? Although I may try my hand at blogging for money some time in the future, I've never paid attention to keywords or put ads on this blog.

Will I keep blogging? Probably. Will I make changes to attract more readers? Probably not. There is something liberating in the knowledge that I will never be a high-profile blogger. Perhaps Google Analytics has cured me of my writer's block.

For "So You Think You Can Dance" Fans

Yes, my favorite dance show is back on the air for the summer season. I haven't written much about it because there are far more talented writers out there doing the job. If you are like me and enjoy in-depth analysis of your favorite TV shows, then check out Foxes on Idol & More. The current season of SYTYCD has barely started and they already several articles on their site about it, including an opinion piece on each eliminated contestant. I'm still working my way through the articles, but what I've read so far has been well-written and entertaining without being needlessly snarky. Avoiding the comments flame war that shows up on most TV commentary sites is a bonus.

My Christian friends will be so relieved

And here I thought I was being so risque :-).

Mingle² - Online Dating

Amy Winehouse: How Much Longer?

Biographies of performers like Billie Holiday and Janis Joplin have always bothered me. It is sad enough to read about how they died, but to read a full biography that details the mistakes they made that led to their tragic ends is difficult for me. Even though I know the how it ends, I get to the part where the artist enters rehab and I find myself wishing that they make a change for the better.

With today's 24/7 access to performers' lives, it is possible to watch someone destroy herself as it happens. My beloved Amy Winehouse is one such case. She has experienced an alarming weight loss between her first album and her current one. There are stories all over the internet about her angry outbursts toward her own husband and others. Ms. Winehouse has been up-front about her alcohol use and even if she hadn't been, there are videos online of drunken performances. It is disheartening to see an artist who has brought me so much joy tearing herself apart. If I could have a superpower, it would be the ability to give troubled artists a little telepathic therapy. As it is, all I can do is enjoy the good performances and and pray that she turns herself around.

Clean Sweep, NC Style

I have been in a funk lately. My local friends are laughing at that statement right now because to them, I always appear to be in a foul mood. However, I have been in a deeper funk than usual for the past week. Getting out of bed seemed like too much of a bother. All I wanted to do was sip tea and watch junk television. I think Lifetime TV was created for women in this kind of mood.

Luckily, I have kids. I don't have the luxury of wallowing in self-pity. They are young enough to need care and supervision but old enough to notice if Mommy is sad. So after three days of semi-wallowing, I told myself that I needed to get up and do something. I searched for the task that appealed to me most, and the garage won.

When I am low, making a dent in a huge task can be uplifting. Cleaning our garage definitely qualified as a huge task. Like most garages, the space is either too cold or too hot most of the year to spend much time out there. This means that we usually open the door and throw stuff out there that we don't have room for in the house. By the time I started attacking it on Friday, there was not a clear path from any wall to its opposite. I got the corner closest to the kitchen clean before ABM got home, then he and his friend CJ joined me on Saturday for an all-day purging.

If you have ever seen the show Clean Sweep, you may have wondered if there are really people who have that much junk crammed into one room. I can testify that there are. Seeing the contents of our garage fill our driveway was amazing and a little sickening at the same time. The final refuse pile alone covered a 5' x 5' patch of grass. We did a massive purging when we moved into this house six years' ago and for a while we kept our packrat tendencies in check. As the kids have gotten older, the piles have started growing again.

Although it would be more environmentally responsible to avoid buying the items in the first place, the good thing about letting your stash of belongings grow to critical mass is that it weakens your attachment to particular items. The stack of Spin magazines from their first three years of publication that I never read? Trashed. The vintage tweed coat with the torn lining that I know I will never get repaired? Donated to Goodwill. I was ruthless in a way that wouldn't have been possible if I didn't feel so weighed down. For the first time, I was the one coaxing ABM to let go of more and more.

Did cleaning the garage lift my mood? You bet. As an added bonus, cleaning one room gives me the boost I need to move on to other rooms. I gave the den a good once-over this morning. Hopefully this good feeling will carry me through the next few days.

Which is Worse?

I've been watching Prom Queen TV every day ever since day one. From the beginning there has been a black character named Brett. He's been given his own MySpace page just like all the other characters, yet they haven't done anything with him. He's labeled as the class clown, but they barely even show him on-screen. All the main plotlines follow the white characters. There are only 15 episodes left, so unless he turns out to be the one to kill the prom queen there isn't much time to involve him in the story.

Now, I am not one who generally comments very much on race, especially when it comes to my entertainment. If I enjoy the story, that is usually all that matters to me. So, I am not totally sure why it bothers me that the Brett character is underutilized. Maybe it is the perfectionist in me that objects to the "messiness" of having a loose end in a character whose story is unexplored. On the other hand, maybe it does have something to do with race.

The reality of my high school life was that the black and white kids hung out in separate groups. Judging from the list of M's closest friends, it is still the same today. So it rings true to me that all the characters shown hanging out with each other on Prom Queen TV are white. Why bother adding a black character? Having Brett on the website but never using him smacks of "We need to show a black student or else everyone will say our show is unrealistic". I'm wondering if that is any worse than the "rainbow coalition" that usually shows up on Disney TV movies. You guys know what I am talking about: a story with a white girl, a black girl, and an Asian or Latina girl who are all best friends. That combination also reeks of "Let's appeal to every racial group" and doesn't feel any more realistic than having one black character hanging around the fringes of the action.