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Care Bears: The Exiled Bears edition

November 25, 2011 by Jana 6 Comments

This is a post originally published on my food blog, The Empty Kitchen. On another note, I’m thinking of resurrecting that blog. What do you think?

My daughter has recently discovered the Care Bears. I couldn’t be happier. I love the Care Bears! They’re cute, come in multiple colors, and one of them has a cupcake as his tummy symbol!

Not as sweet as they seem

Unfortunately, my brain has gone where it shouldn’t go. While reading the books and watching the DVDs, I could not help but start to think of all the poor, rejected Care Bears  that so very badly want to live in Care-a-Lot but the Care Bears, wanting to keep the seedy element in another part of town and having  a lengthy list of rules for acceptable Care Bear behavior, have exiled these wannabes to neighboring island of the Land of Misfit Toys:

Convict Bear–the local criminal element. The original exiled Care Bear. Known for assaulting others with unwanted Care Bear stares and stealing clouds. He is black and white striped and his tummy sign is jail bars.

Porn Star Bear and her cousin, Stripper Bear–exiled for corrupting the minds and bodies of the male (and some female) Care Bears and violating the morality clause in the home owners association of Care-a-Lot. Porn Star bear is off-white and her tummy symbol is a bed; Stripper Bear is gold and her tummy symbol is (obviously) a pole.

Glam Bear–a true 80s throwback, Glam Bear loves hair band music, especially Poison and Motley Crüe. Known for driving an unnecessarily flashy car, he was exiled for dress code violations, specifically wearing spandex and way too much eyeliner. Glam Bear is blue with black zebra strips and his tummy symbol is star-shaped sunglasses.

Mullet Bear–Glam Bear’s sworn enemy. He was also exiled for dress code violations, except he prefers sleeveless flannel shirts and rocking a really awful Dee Snider mullet. Mullet Bear is mud brown and his tummy symbol is a Trans Am.

Spinster Bear–lives alone in a dark, creepy house surrounded by 1400 cats. She was exiled for never marrying or having Care Bear offspring, an essential tenet of the Care Bear Code. She is gray and her tummy symbol is a cat.

Jersey Bear–idolizes Snooki (an exileable offense in its own right). In fact, she looks like Snooki. She was exiled, like Glam Bear and Mullet Bear, for dress code violations. Instead of a regulation tuft of hair, Jersey Bear has coiffed her hair into a poof. She was originally beige but after applying way too much tanner, she is now more of an orange. Her tummy symbol is the state of New Jersey.

Smart Ass Bear–exiled for violating the cheery and sweet manner in which Care Bears are required to speak. Loves the Michael Scott phrase “That’s what she said”.  Smart Ass Bear is red and his tummy symbol is a set of rolling eyes.

Midlife Crisis Bear–this poor guy was living the perfect Care Bear life until one day, he realized that he wanted a younger Care Bear wife, a sports car and his hair was falling out. He started frequenting Stripper Bear’s workplace and was exiled for violating the Care Bear morality clause, as well as the penguin clause stating that each Care Bear will mate with only one other Care Bear. Midlife Crisis Bear is light gray, has a comb-over, and his tummy symbol is a Porsche.

Thrifty Bear–the only bear to be exiled for his financial status. Thrifty Bear loves a good bargain, manages his money and is completely debt free. This made the other Care Bears jealous and they threw him out. He has appealed the sentence and is currently awaiting his reinstatement hearing. Thrifty Bear is green and his tummy symbol is a dollar sign intertwined with a coupon.

Those are the names of the exiled Care Bears that the President of Care-a-Lot will make public. I have submitted a FOIA request for the others.

The one thing that struck me was how often they were exiled for dress code violations. Kind of strange for a bunch of bears that walk around naked…

 

 

Filed Under: entertainment, random

Money Tune Tuesday: Money Song

November 22, 2011 by Jana 4 Comments

I don’t know that I’ve adequately expressed just how excited I am that The Muppets are going to be back in movie theaters tomorrow. I have been a huge fan of The Muppets for pretty much my entire life and when I found out, almost 3 years ago, that there was going to be a new Muppets movie, I almost threw up with excitement. I actually published an article about my excitement on my essentially defunct Examiner parenting column (publish date: January 27, 2009). I wish my vocabulary was expansive enough to express how excited I am for tomorrow.

I have actually taken the day off of work tomorrow not to prepare for Thanksgiving but to take my daughter to see The Muppets (OK, fine. She’s taking me). I don’t care how much it costs. I don’t care how long of a line I need to wait in (make no mistake, there will be no line. I will get there 4 hours early if I have to. Which I’m hoping I won’t because most normal people will still be at work and/or school). I have been antsy with anticipation since the first trailer aired a couple of months ago. Yeah, it’s that bad.

For today’s money tune, I wanted to feature The Muppets. With so many good videos and songs, it was so hard to pick. But then, as if Jim Henson himself intervened, I found a song, sung by Dr. Teeth (the leader of Electric Mayhem. You know, the Muppets house band…the band Animal is the drummer in), entitled “Money Song”. Could this have worked out any better?

Filed Under: entertainment, Money Tune Tuesday

This one? Right here? This is MY dream!

November 18, 2011 by Jana 21 Comments

When I was pledging my sorority, my big sister gave me a poem entitled “Dream Big”. I still keep the poem in my office at work because although I can’t stand my sorority and the frame has our letters, the message of the poem is one that really hits home for me. Every single line in the poem is powerful and meaningful and applies in to so many aspects of my life, especially right now. Because right now? Dreaming big is exactly what I’m doing.

Over the years, I have amassed quite a collection of dreams I’d like to fulfill and goals I’d like to accomplish: publishing a fiction book, traveling to Europe (not France. I went there in high school. France and I are cool) and spending a month in Australia, living at the beach, attending the Emmys (any awards show will do, really), having a professional photo shoot, starting a charity, and being published on the Huffington Post. Some of these dreams and goals are practical and I have the ability to make come true with some ease. Others are a lot more difficult. Like the one I’m currently sitting on. That dream? Interview Jason Segel.

I have been obsessed a fan of Jason Segel ever since I first saw Freaks and Geeks in 1999. First of all, if you haven’t seen the show, rent the whole season (yup, it’s only one season) and watch it. It’s created by Paul Feig and Judd Apatow and also has Seth Rogen, James Franco, Busy Phillips, Martin Starr and whole host of other amazing actors. His character on the show, Nick Andopolis, is a) someone I absolutely would have been friends with and b) absolutely someone I would have had a crush on. That’s what drew me in at first. Since then, my fandom has grown with everything movie or TV show he’s in, every movie that he’s written, every interview I’ve seen or heard. And now, the chocolate covered cherry on the cake made entirely of buttercream frosting? He wrote the new Muppets movie.

I am equally as obsessed with the Muppets as I am with Jason Segel. So that fact that he wrote the new Muppets movie (and is starring in it as well), has sent me into a slight frenzy. I mean, it’s totally normal for a 34 year old woman to take the day off of work to go see the new Muppets movie on its opening day, right? Anyway, the fact that Jason Segel is a Muppet purist like me has made me want to sit down and talk to him even more than I did before.

Now that I have this dream, I’ve been trying to think of ways to make it happen. Here’s what I’ve come up with:

  1. Put it on a vision board, read The Secret and know that the universe will bring it to me. Magic 8 Ball success rating: Highly unlikely.
  2. Try to use the one family connection I have in the entertainment business to see if he has contacts in Jason Segel’s management. Magic 8 Ball success rating: More likely than #1 but still highly unlikely
  3. Contact Jason Segel on Twitter and try to engage with him that way. Hope we become Twitter BFFs and then he’ll be more than happy to hang out with me. Magic 8 Ball success rating: Plausible plan but not grounded in reality. Will not happen.
  4. Move to California, apply for a low paying job on the set of one of his movies or How I Met Your Mother, hope I get the job and then get to know him that way. Magic 8 Ball success rating: The outlook is not good. 

So that’s what I’ve got. As you can probably tell, my plans to make my dream come true are not exactly…good. But that’s all I could come up with. So I’m asking you–do you have any suggestions for me? Do you know Jason Segel or even his mother or siblings? Can you help me?

 

Filed Under: entertainment, goals, random

Money Tune Tuesday: The Middle

November 15, 2011 by Jana 8 Comments

I often say that I wish I had a soundtrack to my life. I would love to have appropriate and poignant music playing during sad moments, crazy, upbeat music playing during the fun moments…you know, just like you would hear in a movie. So far I’ve had that happen twice. One time was at my wedding and the other time was with Jimmy Eat World’s “The Middle”.

For reasons that I cannot explain, “The Middle” has been on the radio at very important and specific moments in my life. It came on after I was hired after a stint of unemployment. It came on after a therapy appointment. It came on last week after I finally decided that maybe I might be able to make a little bit of money from blogging. I have no idea why but I think that the song is trying to tell me something.

So I’m sharing it with you for today’s Money Tune. Because right now, that’s where I am. The middle. And I hope I don’t go squish like grape.

 

Filed Under: entertainment, Money Tune Tuesday

Money Tune Tuesday: Cry Tough

November 1, 2011 by Jana 12 Comments

I really wanted to come up with something witty, smart and important to say about Occupy Wall Street. I sat and sat and sat, staring at my computer screen, trying to articulate how I feel about the movement. But I couldn’t. I have so many mixed emotions, and many of them start with the fact that I can’t figure out what the hell they actually want to accomplish. I can’t figure out what general, cohesive concept that they stand for. I get that they’re frustrated and desperate, and want things to change, but after spending hours (seriously, hours) on their blog, many of them just come across as whiny, spoiled brats who can’t accept the fact that they made poor choices. Granted, some stories are heart-wrenching and make me want to cry, but usually I just get pissed. I’m not pissed that their exercising their Constitutional right to free speech nor am I pissed that they’re taking time away from looking for a job to protest (how they use their time is none of my concern) nor am I pissed that they’re standing up for what they believe is right and just (whatever that may be).  No, I’m mainly pissed because I hate that they claim to represent 99% of the population and not one of them ever asked me if I wanted them speaking for me. Because you know what? I don’t. I do just fine speaking for myself. And for the record, the 1% and the 53% don’t speak for me either.

During one of the many hours I’ve spent on their blog, I noticed that Our Lady Peace, a band I generally like, wrote a song about the movement, “Fight the Good Fight”. Like the movement in general, I don’t know what I think about the song. I respect what OLP did, highlighting the protesters and quoting their handmade signs in the lyrics and giving somewhat mainstream support to the movement (I did enjoy the one sign that quoted Rage Against the Machine) but I have very (VERY) strong opinions about actors and musicians getting all up on a political soapbox. Even though this is my blog, my own soapbox if if you will, I’m not going to share those opinions.

No, instead, I’m going to offer a slightly different opinion on the OWS movement, particularly in response to those who say that they can’t fulfill their dreams for whatever reason they use (it varies from person to person). I feel that it is possible to achieve your dreams, even if you have to modify them a little bit. I’ll use myself as an example. I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. I dream of being a prolific and well-received author along the lines of Jen Lancaster or Jodi Picoult. But you know what? I’m pretty sure that’s not going to happen. I’m OK with that because I’ve found other ways to make my dream of being a writer come true. I’ve also learned that no one, absolutely no one, but me is going to make my dreams happen. And I have to work my ass off for it. And I will.

For today’s money tune, I chose Poison’s “Cry Tough”. I know you’re thinking that I’m out of my mind to chose a 25 year old song by, of all bands, Poison, to express a counteropinion to OWS (and, depending on how you interpret the lyrics, it can support the movement, too). Since the video is hard to watch (the teased hair and clown make-up are tough to look at it), here are the lyrics:

Remember the nights we’ve sat
and talked about all our dreams
Well little did we know then
they were more distant than they seemed
Well I knew it
and you knew it too
The things we’d go through
We knew the things we had to do
to make it, baby

Chorus:
You gotta cry tough
Out on the streets
To make your dreams happen
You gotta cry out
Out to the world
To make them all come true

Life ain’t no easy ride
At least that’s what I am told
Sometimes a rainbow baby
is better than a pot of gold, well
You’ve got to stick it out
whether you’re wrong or right
And you can’t give in without a fight
to make it baby

Chorus

You gotta aim high, baby
whether you lose or win
And when you get to the top
You gotta get off and go right back down again

And, in case you want to watch it, here’s the video:

Filed Under: entertainment, Money Tune Tuesday

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Jana

I'm Jana ...

A book reading, nail polish wearing, binge watching, music loving, dog owning, reluctant cheer mom.
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