Coral Amber

The charming Love Monkey was swiftly cancelled after on three episodes. Now you can see the eight originally filmed episodes on VH1 next month. The first three episodes will be featured back to back on April 11, starting at 7 p.m. ET/PT. The rest will air weekly starting April 18, Tuesdays at 9 p.m. The CBS show featured Tom Cavanagh as Tom Farrell, a record industry guy who gets fired from his big time label for caring more about the music than the money.

One of my favorite parts of the show were the performances by the young Teddy Geiger (also from VH1's "In Search of the New Partridge Family") as Wayne, a young fresh talent that everyone wants to sign. I was hoping for a soundtrack but instead Teddy came out with his own cd, Underage Thinking. It features a couple of songs that were showcased on Love Monkey and a whole lot more.

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New York Magazine recently ran an very entertaining article about a certain type of adults the writer called Grups:

"'Grups' is a nerdy reference to an old Star Trek episode in which Kirk and crew land on a planet run entirely by kids, who call grown-ups "grups." All the adults have been killed off by a terrible virus, which also slows the natural aging process, so the kids are trapped in a state of extended prepubescence. They will never grow up. And they are running the show."

Grups are listening to the latest music, dressing like that guy from the swiftly cancelled Love Monkey, and spend their downtime going to concerts and playing extreme sports. He went on to say that for the first time ever there is no generation gap:

"This is an obituary for the generation gap. It is a story about 40-year-old men and women who look, talk, act, and dress like people who are 22 years old."

Is he right?

While reading his article I begin to evaluate my family's potential to be grups.
At twenty-five, I am on the cusp of the grups age bracket. I have never liked loud music or crowded concerts and I feel like a poseur if I wear a concert tee if I'm not a huge fan of the band.

My dad is really into music and tried to take me to concerts when I was younger. He has a Jack Johnson cd, knows who The White Stripes are, but doesn't get the popularity of Gorillaz. He briefly tried to rollerblade when it was popular years ago, but thankfully never got into it.

My mom could care less about music, but happily watches shows with me and is currently on season three of my Buffy dvds. On her last vacation she spent most of her time bird watching.

They both wear sneakers, jeans and sweatshirts. My mom favors hoodies from Sears and my dad has more flannel than a lumberjack. We all agree that distressed jeans are a stupid idea and refuse to buy them. Of course we are middle class and I think my mom would have a heart attack if I told her I spent over $100 for a pair of pre-ripped jeans.

Relieved to find that my parents aren't grups, I try to think about why grups have emerged? A large part of the grups attitude may come from our country's current economic state. In the past, you worked hard for one company your entire life. You climbed the ladder, got health insurance and vacation time, and retired with a tidy pension. Now all around, grups are aware that the mode of work that was there for their parents doesn't even exist today. Layoffs, outsourcing, and debacles like Enron had made the job market tight. New jobs offer a fraction of the pay and benefits that were once part of a standard job offer and aren't even guaranteed to last.

I also believe that grups are very tech savvy and many were enjoying the affluent times and relaxed dress code of the dotcom era. Even though that bubble burst, grups still want the money without the restrictions of the corporate world.

I think that grups can only exist in a relative state of affluence. Although grups take pains to look like they shop at St. Vinnies their clothes are really a status symbol. Grups need the time to keep up with what's hot and the money to pay for it.

Hotness ain't cheap.

This led me to thinking about the advent of computers and the internet at home and at work. How many grups spend their morning scanning celebrity gossip columns online, downloading songs for their i-pods and shopping for Seven jeans? All without having to set foot in a trendy mall store manned by bored teens and blaring music loud enough to give you a migraine.

Also, there is a trend that has rendered children to be more like accessories. I was at a techno music fest in Detroit over the summer and I saw parents pushing their kids in strollers. It reminded me of a picture of Gwyneth Paltrow at a car race with her daughter Apple. Apple was wearing large noise canceling headphones and looking pretty cool for a baby. The writer emphasizes that grups want their kids to be cool.

What's the problem being pointed out here? Are grups irresponsible? Not really. Are they ruining their kids? Nah (although some of their worst fears involve their kids growing up to be republicans). Are they trying to hard to be cool? Maybe

But what does it mean to be an adult? Boring? Only liking the music you grew up listening to, stopping right after high school? Wearing pants that are too short and ties that are too tight? Grups seem to be finding their own way and as long as it's not Daddy's way. They want to have fun, freedom and enjoy their jobs instead of working at one they hate just to make ends meet.

Perhaps they are being facilitated by their boomer parents who are still raking in those pensions and are glad to help junior out with the bills until he finds whatever it is he's looking for and answers those nagging questions:

Was I ever cool? Will I have a chance now, with a wider social circle and more money, to be cool? If I influence them before they hate me, can my kids be cool?

I'm kind of getting stressed just thinking about it. As a friend of mine said, she's stressed enough without her jeans being stressed too. I think I'll leave it to the grups for now.

Posted by coral at 02:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Last Month I got a copy of Self magazine and, to my delight, Ellen Pompeo from Grey's Anatomy was on the cover. Inside there is an interview that put a lot of emphasis on what she eats and her overall health because Self is a magazine that prides itself on promoting a healthy lifestyle.

I learned that, because of her asthma, Pompeo has (naturally hypoallergenic) toy poodles and that she is naturally skinny to the point that she has to eat every few hours to keep her energy up and ends up consuming around 3,000 calories a day. Pompeo admits that it's a blessing to be able to eat whatever she wants, but laments at all the flack she gets for being thin and how people assume she's anorexic.

This month I opened my new issue of Self and found an entire section where readers wrote in about Pompeo. Two-thirds of the letters were negative! While a few wrote in to share their struggles with being thin and trying maintaining a healthy weight, most complained that Self magazine was promoting a person who looked like she had an eating disorder. Some readers went so far as to say that their lives were hard enough without being discouraged by someone who can eat whatever she wants.

I was shocked!

While Pompeo may not be an average woman (she is a star on a popular series), she is one of the many naturally thin people who make up a decent portion of the population. I want to scream at these negative women: I'm so sorry you're all so narrow minded that you get discouraged by someone who can't help what size she is!

I tend to take this stance because I was naturally skinny for the majority of my life. I've had girls look appraisingly at my boobs and tell me how lucky I am that I can wear a tank top without any extra support (Is that an actual compliment or a dig at my small chest?).

I think that a lot of women get a picture in their head of how they looked at maybe eighteen years old. When they get older and their bodies change, they get so dismayed that they don't look like a teenager anymore. To say that they are discouraged by someone like Pompeo is such a crock. To say she looks anorexic is just spiteful. What they are is envious that she can still fit into her prom dress. Guess what ladies, that prom dress is 20 years out of style and Pompeo is too busy living her life to even think about that chiffon nightmare.

I'm just as dismayed as everyone else when I see a healthy (and too often very young) girl rapidly lose weight. I loved the shapely Lindsay Lohan in Freaky Friday and Mean Girls. I wanted to know what in the world she was thinking as she got skinnier and bonier by the day. I actually shake my head when I see the sunken in cheeks and pointed chin of the once adorable Hillary Duff.

Unfortunately, these girls (and others in the public eye) feel real pressure: the demands of agents telling them to hit the gym a couple more times this week if they want to have a chance to work, the embarrassment of not being able to fit into clothes at a photo shoot because they are all size four or smaller, the pressure of a million dollar contract hinging on gaining or losing ten pounds; not just a magazine cover staring at them.

Posted by coral at 04:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

I recently tried to start dating again. My first real date was a while ago with a guy who seemed very nice and funny, much to my relief. We had a good date (with fun, laughter, and some appropriate arm touching) and got along great.

At the end of the date we hugged goodbye and I said something like, "I'll see you later." He replied with one of his standard phrases, "I hope so." So I stop getting into my car, turn to him and say "Don't hope. If you want to see me again, call me and ask me out on a date."

He says something along the lines of: I will, there will definately be another date.

I took that as a good sign. Gee, how could I not?

When I got home, he was online so I said I got home alright and thanked him again for the date. He replied with a nice "Your Welcome" and then we both said good night.

Yeah, can you guess where this is going yet? He didn't call. He didn't email. He never IMed me again and was only online in away mode or he would pop on and then dissapear...

Some of my friends said he didn't call because I was probably bitchy or mean to him (who me?). Others said that's just how guys are, but I don't buy that. In any event, I feel like the guy should have the guts to tell me how he feels one way or another. I have a real problem with people who don't say what they mean.

I was mad after about 5 days, after a week I turned more zen. I mean, I obviously don't want to date a guy who can't follow through on a simple phone call. So I was checking my email and I see that although the little smiley next to his email address indicates he is online, my chat program does not... So, being the confrontational type girl that I am, I write him an email. Here it is:

Hey [name witheld to protect the jerky],
Since it's been two weeks since our date I wanted to let you know again that I had a nice time and thought you were great. I also wanted to let you know that there are way cooler ways of blowing me off that don't include hiding from me every time you jump online. Letting me know that you don't want to go out again is really ok. It's really easy too! All you have to do is call, email, IM, or text me with an appropriate message.

See how easy and fun it can be?! I hope in the future you can man up and let a woman know how you feel right away. It is the kind, polite, gentlemanly, and right thing to do. Ask any girl you know.
Sincerely,
Coral

I know I should have just written him off, but I figure maybe he'll be nicer to the next girl.

Posted by coral at 05:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

I was watching Saturday morning cartoons and after Kim Possible I catch part of the JammXKids dance special, a group of multi-cultural kids dancing to promote... uh, moving (don't get me started on how much I hate the 'Verb, it's what you do' campaign).

I wonder if this stuff would be really impressive to me if I was their target audience of ten year olds. To me, it just seems that they are trying to hard to make something hip by creating a brand and throwing everything their trendsetters have seen on the street into it.

The kids are joined by a bevy of big name stars with G rated mass appeal: Shaq (does he still play professional basketball or does he spend his time doing this kind of thing and trying to forget the movie Kazaam?), Queen Latifa, Randy Jackson and JoJo (trying to bring kids to see her new movie, Aquamarine).

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that Randy Jackson was hosting the entire thing. I used to try counting how many times he would say 'dog' in a single episode of American Idol. I guess once you do reality tv every other appearance is icing. Has he been on Hollywood squares yet?

Randy tells us that, not only do those kids sing and dance, they are real life superheroes. You see, they go around the country and wherever they find a K.I.T. (kid in trouble) they help them L2D (learn to dance). Because the only real problems a middle schooler has is not being cool enough to dance with their first crush. Right.

Their first victim is played by a child actor who is actually part of the team. They show their superpowers by helping the kid who CDWT (can't dance won't try) by invading his living room, showing him dance moves, and offering encouraging platitudes when he gets frustrated. Soon he's proficient enough in hip hop and "street" dancing (which I believe involves the elusive crunk I've heard about) to impress his lady fair at the school dance. His bully and dance rival sees these awesome dance moves and immediately says he's "out of here" without even challenging the kid to a dance off. If the target audience were a few years older, there would have been a dance off.

And in a move that proves to me that these types of things feed off of each other: the man who got famous by being annoying on the first run of 'Beauty and the Geek', Richard, is going to be on next week's show to learn how to dance.

Part of me wonders whether people do reality tv for the chance to win money or maybe fulfill their dreams or if it's just a hope that they will be memorable enough in some way to get their 15 minutes of fame stretched out. If you're not lucky enough to become a part of the entertainment biz at the age of our JammXKids then you have to try making it through this new genre of tv entertainment.

I mean, it worked for William Hung right? Of course he was a nice guy with lots of class and these new guys are trying to stand out in the worst possible way. The new issue of Rolling Stone did a story on the American idol rejects. I look at the guys who scored the most air time during the American Idol auditions. Loud, flashy, rude, and inappropriate, these hopefuls seem so offended that the judges cannot see their greatness they lash out.

So what's worse? Being in the industry and going overboard trying to make the next big thing or glorifying average people with below average talents? Both have goals of entertaining, but both also leave a kind of bad taste in my mouth. I guess eventually the JammXKids will grow up, move onto their next project, and become more serious actors or pop sensations. What will happen to the people who got their fifteen minutes of fame by being deluded or jerky or wildly inappropriate? I guess if I ever meet Richard, I will ask him.

Posted by coral at 01:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Oh man, did anyone else catch the season premiere of 'Heist' last night? I've pretty much given up on new shows. Lately they have either been lackluster or cancelled so fast I felt gypped for even liking the characters. Things are still revving up after the mid season break and finally (finally!) I can get caught up in something besides short lived reality shows.

'Heist' is directed by the talented Doug Liman ("The Bourne Identity", "Mr. and Mrs. Smith") and stars cutie Dougray Scott who plays Mickey, the charismatic mastermind behind a plan to rob a row of jewelry stores on Rodeo Drive during Academy Awards week. He's got a crack team of quirky thieves and a secret vendetta against an old partner who shot him, left him for dead, and then insinuated himself with Mickey's wife and young daughter. His main opposition is the female detective Amy Sykes (Michele Hicks) who is tough, smart, and a bit of a kleptomaniac!

The best things about this show are:

• It's character driven and full of great banter. I immediate love that Mickey and his new partner James (Steve Harris) kill time by asking each other trivia questions. The detective duo, African-American Tyrece Evans (Reno Wilson) and Overweight-Irish Billy O'Brien (Billy Gardell), swap racial slurs and other insults. In the car Billy asks Tyrece if he enjoys riding up front for a change and Tyrece replies that he can hear Billy getting fatter. And the scene where Mickey, who has been checking out Detective Sykes, catches her shoving pink Daisy razors into her coat and calls her on it... cheeky.
• Our thieves are relatively good guys and very clever. While casing out a bank, Mickey tells James how he doesn't feel bad about robbing faceless hegemonic corporations. When they see a suspicious kid in a parka, they leave and call the police. The kid has a bomb strapped to his chest and is blown up by the real "bad guys" when he can't escape with the money. Mickey comes up with a plan to rob the other criminals instead of the bank.
• Action and execution and pacing. I'll admit when I first saw commercials for 'Heist' I wondered how they would make a weekly show about one big robbery so I wouldn't get bored. Now I know. Blow up a kid. Have layered plot lines. Execute skilled plans that are both believable and sharp. Let the criminals have fun doing it. Hint at volatile relationships and leave me wanting more. Oh yeah, and do it with a smirk.

The show had its weak points too. A couple things come off as just too convenient for our thieves and I think they overplay the "cat and mouse game" aspect of the show. Overall though I was very happy with this new offering. Although I've said a lot about the pilot, I swear I haven't ruined it. There are a lot more things that pleasantly surprised me that I hope others will discover on their own. Others can criticize the show as a rip-off of Ocean's Eleven, but that's just the genre and 'Heist' is doing it well. I wish I had taped it. Here's hoping for a quick rerun.

Posted by coral at 04:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)