lifeasdaddy

Wow. Just wow.

It's Friday afternoon.  Some of you may have had a hard week at work.  This will put a bit of a spring in your step:

lifeasdaddy - The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra plays VB Stubbies.

Victoria Bitter beer has had some great advertisements over the years, and this one is no exception, with the Melbourne Sympony Orchestra playing their version of the VB theme music.  The theme was actually composed by then newcomer Elmer Bernstein for the original soundtrack of the classic film The Magnificent Seven (1960).  Bernstein was nominated for an Oscar, but did not win.

Great!

[ Thanks to my friend Darren Waterworth for the tip ]

lifeasdaddy - I think there's a trend here ...

You know that tipping point thing?  Well, there's one happening right now.  What do you reckon is happening when a boy in the USA and a girl in UK both prefer to watch YouTube rather than television?

From Jeremy Clarkson's piece in The Sunday Times :

Now my daughter only really watches YouTube. There’s no plot. No Attenborough explaining stuff. No tedious instructions on how to make a space helmet out of a squeezy bottle. No adverts. Just loads of people falling off their bicycles and catching fire. And when she finds one she likes a lot, she watches it over and over again. For nothing.

From Doc Searls Weblog:

The main reason I’m posting this is to pass along what the kid said after we did a scan from one end of the “dial” to the other.

“There’s nothing on”, he said. And walked away.

What would “something” be?

“Oh, you know. Like on YouTube”.

There's something going on ...

lifeasdaddy - Alan Greenspan explains economics.

Here's an interview with Greenspan, one of the world's greatest practical economists.  From Jon Stewart's The Daily Show.  It's actually a really good bit about the basics of a monetary system. Stewart has a rep as a comedian, but shows here he's a more than competent general interviewer.  Stewart doesn't pretend to be an expert, but he does get the expert to say some interesting things.

Most enlightening quote:

"... I’ve been in the forecasting business for 50 years. … I’m no better than I ever was, and nobody else is. Forecasting 50 years ago was as good or as bad as it is today. And the reason is that human nature hasn’t changed. We can’t improve ourselves.”

It's about 7:45 minutes.

lifeasdaddy - Paris Hilton: In or out?

Something happened last night which I never expected:  Gabrielle and I discussed the incarceration of Paris Hilton.  Should she be in the Big House or not?

Then today I check out my friend Nico's blog 160typo, and there she is.

The zeitgeist of our times.  Paris Hilton.

lifeasdaddy - A stolen childhood?

I agree with Mark Day's view on the career of Bindi Irwin:

The Irwin story is a tragedy. And I fear it is not yet over, because it appears that Irwin's eight-year-old daughter Bindi is being groomed to take his place as a worldwide wildlife warrior.

She's an apealing little thing; a latter day Shirley Temple bubbling with a desire to do good.  But she's a little kid, and should be allowed to do the things that little kids do, and grow up without the pressures of being pulled this way or that by ambitious family members or managers, or promotional hucksters with their eyes on bank balances rather than the child's well-being. Sure, Bindi says she's only doing what she wants to do, but (a) what kids want is not always right for them and (b) how would she know?

There.  Someone has said it out loud.  Good.

We can be charmed by the precocious talents of Bindi Irwin, but most of us realise that we may well be watching a slow motion train wreck, years in the making.

There's all sorts of good reasons for Bindi Irwin to be doing what she's doing, none of them being what's probably best for her.  So none of those reasons are really good enough.

I realise that her child's labour was being used long before the death of her father.  That doesn't mean it has to continue now.  It's just come into starker focus.

Her childhood is being stolen.

As some asides, here is the list of the United States' Department of Labour's state-by-state analysis of Child Entertainment Provisions.

Here is an incomplete list of former child actors.

Here is an incomplete list of present child actors.

The Child Labour Problem in Australia: Patrick Parkinson, Professor of Law at the University of Sydney sees worrying gaps in local standards  (Think child labour is illegal in New South Wales?? Well, think again.)

lifeasdaddy - Jazz and classical treasures on YouTube

Terry Teachout, the Wall Street Journal's theatre critic, has written a good piece about jazz and classical treasures to be found on YouTube.  Read the article here. 

Want the YouTube links?    You need to scroll down to the "VIDEO" section in the right hand margin of Terry Teachout's blog. 

lifeasdaddy - The power of imagination and pretend play.

Edward's favourite TV show is Playschool.  It's been an Australian institution for over 40 years.

One of the charming things about Playschool, from an adult's view, is the use of everyday items in children's play.  There's lots of pretending that, say, a kitchen colander is a knight's helmet.   Watching Playschool has helped me to use everyday things in imaginative ways for Ed's play.

Ed has a couple of toy farm horses (named "Neddy" and "Nellie") who have a toy horse trailer.  One day he asked me what horses like to eat and drink.  I told him carrots and water.  Ed thought we had better feed and water the horses, so I made some carrots out of folded paper and a water trough out of an upturned bottle cap.

Ed thought that was just fine.

This evening on his way to bed Edward picked up this plastic hair comb and said, "This is my electric shaver."

He's seen me using an electric shaver to tonsor my noggin.

Good imagination.

lifeasdaddy - Domino toppling - Japanese guerilla style

Back in the 70's and early 80's there was a fad going on around the world to line up thousands of dominos and then topple them in a chain reaction.  Read about that old-school phenom here and here.  Those stunts used to feature on the nightly TV news.

A few Japanese guys have brought that tired old sport up to date.   Turn up the sound and view the YouTube here. 

[Pointer from Gulfstream.]