Posts Tagged ‘youtube’
Bring Back The Cry Room To Movie Theaters
From Mental Floss, a trip down movie theater memory lane for some, a history lesson for others (the stuff on this list is before my time, despite what my kids may think). It’s worth reading, but I was drawn to the last item, The Cry Room:
Those elaborate movie palaces had many amenities that not every neighborhood theater had, including “cry rooms.” A cry room was a soundproofed elevated room in the back of the theater with a large glass window in front so Mama could still watch the movie (and hear it over a public address system) while trying to calm down a fussy baby. Many theatres that provided cry rooms also came equipped with electric bottle warmers, complimentary formula, and a nurse on duty.
Anyone who has ever experienced someone else’s cranky kid at the movies would likely welcome the return of The Cry Room.
Now let’s all go to the lobby!
via 11 Things We No Longer See in Movie Theaters | Mental Floss.
Draw My Life – Ryan Higa – YouTube
This video by popular YouTuber Ryan Higa (10 million subscribers and counting) surprised me. Not only does it feature no profanity, it’s intelligent, positive, and offers a reasonable message that… I’m hesitant to type these words, but it actually communicates something that might be worth sharing with your children.
I’m not saying “THIS VIDEO WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE DOOD GO GET YOUR OFFSPRINGS NOW NOW NOW”. I’m not even expressing that sentiment in a more coherent and less caps-locky manner. But Mr. Higa has a pleasant style and not only did I watch all seven minutes of his Draw My Life video, I was rather charmed by it.
(Aside: I suppose “Draw My Life” is a YouTube thing. Who knew? Probably lots of people, just not me.)
Without giving anything away (“no spoilers!”), Mr. Higa does indeed draw his life. Much of it deals with his time in school which makes sense because he was born in 1990. (You may pause to feel old now. It’s OK, we’ll wait.) When he mentioned bullying I thought “oh boy, here we go.” But he handles the topic gracefully, far better than anything I’ve seen so far. He manages to say that yes, it sucked, but also doesn’t try to tell people that his lot was as bad as many other people’s. He also points out that he was lucky to have a loving family. (That part is at the beginning so it’s NOT a spoiler.)
Bottom line: I like Ryan Higa’s Draw My Life video. So much content, online and in traditional media, is hurtful and negative. Higa manages to be positive, funny, and entertaining. It’s probably the first time I watched a YouTube video that is entirely original content without drifting away. Give it a look, maybe you’ll like it too.
Draw My Life – Ryan Higa – YouTube.
Get Lucky In Mario Paint Composer (Video)
This is fun. Via The Mary Sue, which is a really good site that we don’t read often enough.
Daft Punk’s Get Lucky Performed In Mario Paint Composer | The Mary Sue.
Odin Wonders Why Thor Doesn’t Have a Girlfriend (Texts From Superheroes)
Texts From Superheroes comes through again with an exchange between Odin and Thor and his “Midgard Girlfriend.”
Riiiight. She’s on MIDGARD. Of course she is.
Reminds me of this little ditty from the musical “Avenue Q.”
Tip: Deal With The Farm Share Right Away (Chef Dad)
The farm share. I’ve mentioned it before, and every year I say I’ll be better about dealing with the vegetables right away. Because if I don’t, they go bad.
And I do. Do better, that is. But I need to do better better.
Admittedly, it’s kind of a pain. I know. Call the wahhhbulance.
Which is why I’m saying I need to do better than I am, even though I’m doing better than I was before. You don’t want rotting vegetables. It’s wasteful. Besides, I need to eat my vegetables.
In case you don’t know what the hell I’m talking about, here’s the deal: a box of vegetables shows up at my door once a week. Also fruit. You never know what you’re going to get. (Sorry, Forrest
All together now — wahhhh.
Here’s another wahhhhbulance clip. (The Internet seems to spell it “wambulance”, but I prefer the extra h’s.)
I do better with the winter farm shares, which tend to be mostly root vegetables. Carrots? Easy. Even the kids will eat those. Brussel sprouts? I’m the only one who will eat them but they’re easy to cook (roast ’em with some olive oil, a little salt and pepper), healthy, and whatever I don’t eat right away I can freeze.
Gooseberries? Not my thing. I don’t bake. I suppose I could learn, but it’s not high on my list. I could probably put the berries in a salad. Or eat them plain. If I ever get them again. Because sadly, I waited too long, and the gooseberries gave up the ghost.
Again, to be clear — wasting food is a bad thing. I’m a little embarrassed to be talking about this. I don’t waste it all. Just… some of it.
Next time I get gooseberries, I’ll wash ’em right away.
Fear Of Not Waking Up On Time
Does anyone else have this? A fear of not waking up on time? I do.
At the moment I’m setting three alarms to ensure I get the hell out of bed in time to get people ready to go where they need to go. For some reason I’ve been more neurotic about waking up this summer than I have in previous years. Read more »
Hug Him And Squeeze Him And Call Him George (Video)
You’ve probably heard the line “I will hug him and squeeze him and call him George.” As I just wrote on Facebook, teaching it to my children is one of my great accomplishments as a parent. (Remember, quoting yourself may be tacky, but it makes fact-checking much easier.) I always thought the line came from a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Now I’m not so sure.
I might even have the line wrong. If so, I’m not the only one.
What follows is a condensed version of my attempt to figure out where “I will hug him and squeeze him and call him George” came from, which led me down a big Internet rabbit hole (pun intended) of cartoons, John Steinbeck, and other stuff.
At first the Internet seemed to be telling me that the cartoon in question was “The Abominable Snow Rabbit”.
In the video above, the line is, “I will name him George, and I will hug him and pet him and squeeze him…” Not an exact match, but very close. (Daffy Duck has a great line as well: “I know I’m a louse. But I’m a live louse.”)
Then I stumbled across an intriguing tidbit: “The Abominable Snow Rabbit” is an homage to John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men
OK. Sure. Why not?
However, according to the Internet there are many cartoon homages to “Of Mice and Men
Really. There are.
Here is “Lonesome Lenny”, a 1946 Tex Avery cartoon, described thusly on IMDB: “Screwy Squirrel is bought in a pet shop to be the companion of a daft dog so strong that he squeezes his playmates to death.” Well all righty then. The dog’s name is Lenny, and he calls his new pal George. (Lennie and George are the main characters in “Of Mice and Men.”)
(Tip of the hat to the folks on this AWN forum page for pointing me towards “Lonesome Lenny”.)
But there is another Tex Avery short, “Of Fox And Hounds”, released in 1940, that is also an “Of Mice and Men” thing. This is where the immortal line “Which way did he go, George? Which way did he go?” came from. (I taught that one to my kids as well. I’m an awesome dad.)
(Hat tip to LanguageHat.com. No pun intended that time.)
Research note: Lest anyone think that my sources are limited to Wikipedia and pages I found via The Google, here is a link to The New York Times’ review of the 1939 film version of Steinbeck’s book (starring Burgess Meredith and Lon Chaney, Jr.), which states that “Of Mice and Men
“Of Fox And Hounds” seems to be the first animated homage to “Of Mice and Men
Lennie, George and rabbits are apparently quite the thing. Who knew?
What did we learn? A lot. Haven’t answered my original question. But that’s OK.
(Thanks to the Facebook friends who inspired this post.)
Classic Looney Tunes – YouTube.
