My son recently turned two. He also recently became incredibly interested in all things mummy. This could be from the six-feet-tall Tut sarcophagus bookshelf we have or it could be from one of the shows that we’ve watched. Anyone who has children will tell you that if the like something you get to partake of it over and over again. Luckily, there are a few outlets for mummy content across the shows we’ve been watching. It’s an interesting list if for nothing else than to think about how solidly Egyptology and Mummies’ Curses are engrained into our popular culture. Continue reading Mummy Dearest
Category Archives: Television
Go West, Young Viewer
After putting together and talking about the post on Made for TV movies, I was talking to my grandfather (Papaw) about them. I call him every Sunday and have for nearly the entire time I haven’t been living in the same town. We lived on a dirt road in Texas and my grandparents’ house was at the end, we were about halfway down, hayfields, gardens, horses, cows, bees, emus at one time, all in between. He couldn’t remember watching The Spring, though he did say that was twenty years ago and he was starting to get old. He turned 89 this past May 4th.
Made for T.V.
Growing up in deep Southeast Texas we didn’t have cable or satellite. Looking back through things these past few weeks put me to thinking about the things we watched. We weren’t exactly a sit and watch television together as a family type with my father working shift-work. There are a few things I do remember though, mostly any National Geographic Special, and I remember seeing more than a few made for tv movies through the years. Maybe it was just the time I was coming up, but it seemed like there were more options than you’d expect for people limited to the big three network tv.
Continue reading Made for T.V.
Hat’s All Folks
This may be the most important post that I ever write. Also the most rigorously academic, and in 10 years probably the most read. We have recently gotten the Boomerang streaming app so that we have all of the stuff I already own conveniently playable from the Apple TV. Currently my son’s favoritest thing to watch is Magilla Gorilla so to stretch it out we’ve been watching a lot more of the Hanna Barbera productions that I remember watching growing up. They aren’t all on the app itself, so I’ve had to dig things out. As we’ve been going through I noticed how many of the characters’ personas are summed up in their clothes. Well, really hats. Many times their uniform is just a hat and a tie. We all know this, but I thought it was a great idea to consolidate them here, try and figure out what kind of hat it is, and, since the library recalled ALL of my checked out books and has yet to reshelve them so I can check them out again, a good way to keep up a word count weekend while not dissertating. And these are just from the Hanna-Barbera Universe
Summer at the Museum
I was originally just going to throw some fun screen grabs from these early time machine Phineas and Ferb episodes up on the Paleo Porch facebook page and be done. While going through the episodes for the shots though I noticed there was more to say and show about the museum than just the “back-in-time-with-dinosaurs” trope.
IRISH FOLKLORE IN POPULAR CULTURE
There are countless instances of Irish heritage showing up in popular culture one way or another. They range in seriousness from say the clan wars in Gangs of New York to a box of marshmallow cereal. I think that there are two reasons that The Real Ghostbusters cartoon series drug so much out Irish lore: 1) They live in New York City and B) There is a lot of it. Below is just a running list of things–episodes and issues–that can make your St. Patrick’s Day a little more Ghostbuster-y. Currently (as of 3.17.18 The Real Ghostbusters is streaming on Netflix and The Extreme Ghostbusters are on HULU)
When You Want to Know Everything
I am not entirely certain, but I think a great part of it might have to do with what I associated “science” and “engineering” with when I was a kid. Even when I was little the idea of scientists in white coats was a bit weird. I had seen them made fun of in cartoons enough to appreciate a caricature. My grandfather worked in a hospital lab and for me such lab coats were for doctors. I never could put my finger on it until recently but as I have went back through the franchises I enjoyed as a kid, I finally realized who I wanted to be:
Continue reading When You Want to Know Everything
Saturday Morning Cartoons: A tribute to the long 80s.
Today is another of those scenic turnout days from comps work. Instead of painting (I did that last week, and will post it after the next section break) I spent the day organizing and figuring out my bazillion bytes of animation data that I have spread across several hard drives.
This post will be filled with cartoon intros and very little thinking substance. While organizing and checking for new DVD releases I was checking the dates of some of my favorite series and noticed that they all happened about the same time. This isn’t a complete or exhaustive or even objective list. These are the series I remember watching, playing, and remembering from the three channels that we had on television.
Continue reading Saturday Morning Cartoons: A tribute to the long 80s.
The Road to Comps Part 2. The Darwinian Tradition
Midweek post, but I think I have a schedule and routine that will facilitate more efficient information acquisition and postings. This is a subset under the 19th century natural history block, the next few are particular to that as well. It will be a big deal when I get to the next “question” area of study.
My MAN! or How a mutant rhino reminded me who I was
I still haven’t put together all my thoughts on an action figure post yet (nor have I finished enough of my comps readings to make a useful post) so in the interim you get this, which, admittedly, is just an excuse to put all the Bebop and Rocksteady images I have in one place.
Continue reading My MAN! or How a mutant rhino reminded me who I was