Advice, Pop Culture, television, Uncategorized

What Parents, School Boards, and Teachers Can Learn from The Great British Bake Off

by The Fancy BoysLeave a Comment on What Parents, School Boards, and Teachers Can Learn from The Great British Bake Off
What Parents, School Boards, and Teachers Can Learn from The Great British Bake Off

Like an aimless teenager wandering the halls, I am often late, not to important things– like class– but to pop culture. For instance, I just started watching Brooklyn 99 and started a TikTok  this past spring. 

So, as you might expect, The Great British Baking Bake Off was one such pop culture phenomenon that alluded me, until now. I’ll be honest: I have no other way to tell you what Series I have seen without referencing Big Streaming Service’s “Collections”. I have completed the most updated episodes of the recent “Collection” and “Collections” 1 and 2, which I can only assume is not Season, I mean Series, 1 and 2 because the contestants seem to already understand the show’s format and its hosts and judges.

As a teacher, I found myself watching this show and being simultaneously entertained and recognizing that the show has value in what we can learn from it about teaching and learning.

So, if you are a teacher, a parent, or a school board member or know someone who is or was a teacher, parent, or school board member, on your marks, get set, READ!

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Uncategorized

The Five Stages of Sports Fandom

by Brandon AndreasenLeave a Comment on The Five Stages of Sports Fandom

Fandom is a weird thing. It’s a cross between hopeless optimism and brutal fatalism, with a touch of immolation and joy sparkled in. It causes grown men to wear overpriced jerseys so they can look more like the players on the field. Vacations, road trips, weddings, and Bat Mitvahs are planned around it. Marriages have been lost and gained to it. People lived by it an people died by it. Fandom is as unexplainable as it is weird. It fills a void as much as it acts as a common demoninator between wide varieties of people across race, financial, and every other divide in the world. 

But what forms do sports fandom take? I’m going to hone in on sports fandom because I don’t watch superhero movies. I saw the first Transformers movie and decided, “you know what, this is where i’m going to check out.” If you are reading this and shreiking “Transformers isn’t a super hero movie. How dare youuuu!” Yes, it is you fucking dork.

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Music/Movies, The Swiftening, Uncategorized

The Swiftening, Part 3: Speak Now (2010)

by The Fancy Boys8 Comments on The Swiftening, Part 3: Speak Now (2010)
The Swiftening, Part 3: Speak Now (2010)

Until recently, Jordan Holmes had never, intentionally, listened to a Taylor Swift song in his life. Then began The Swiftening, in which he decided to listen to every album of hers in chronological order and give his thoughts. You can read his thoughts on her 2006 self-titled debut, and her 2008 breakout Fearless by clicking on the links.

I swear to you, I hit play on “Mine” the first track from Taylor Swift’s 3rd studio album, two seconds later I hit pause and audibly sighed, said – out loud, to no one – “This is going to be tough.” 

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Uncategorized

The Chicago Cubs are Embarrassing

by Brandon AndreasenLeave a Comment on The Chicago Cubs are Embarrassing
The Chicago Cubs are Embarrassing

It wasn’t supposed to end this way. It wasn’t supposed to end with fans, who had stayed loyal for so long, to get a taste of glory only for them to get punched in the stomach, over and over again. It was supposed to be a new era. Not the penny pinching from the ghosts of ownership past. There was supposed to be a run of talent in the minor league system that allowed for big name free agents to come to the team, as a destination point.

But that is over now. Because the Cubs are now a fucking embarassment.

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Pop Culture

Farewell to The Office on Netflix: the Union that Changed The Way We Watch TV

by Michael GraceLeave a Comment on Farewell to The Office on Netflix: the Union that Changed The Way We Watch TV
Farewell to The Office on Netflix: the Union that Changed The Way We Watch TV

When Netflix began, it was a novel concept. You request DVDs, you watch them, you mail them back, and then the next movie in your queue gets mailed to you. Kelly Kapoor actually explains this in an episode of The Office in which the employees of Dunder Mifflin gamble on various prop bets in the office. Netflix gets name-dropped a few times on the show, all during its primarily mail-only era. Once the service moved to streaming, it was super weird. For a time, there was softcore porn and DIY home repair videos. It was a brave, new, strange world. The only way I could watch at that time was through an app on my Nintendo Wii. The pickup of The Office, among many other 2000s sitcoms was, surprisingly, the best thing that the service could have done for itself. In doing so, it changed the trajectory of careers, made the show a second-hand success, and jumpstarted the endless, mindless binge. On January 1st, The Office leaves Netflix for NBC’s own streaming service, ending one of the most important unions in TV history.

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Music/Movies, Uncategorized

Fancy Boys Stay Home With The Movies: Wonder Woman 1984 & Soul

by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment on Fancy Boys Stay Home With The Movies: Wonder Woman 1984 & Soul
Fancy Boys Stay Home With The Movies: Wonder Woman 1984 & Soul

For me, going to the movie theater on Christmas Day is just a tradition; it’s something I’ve come to expect. Even without the dangers and restrictions of COVID, I would have broken that tradition this year, thanks to my five-month old son. Thanks a lot, you adorable, wonderful baby! Ugh! However, two of 2020’s biggest and most anticipated releases were dropped to streaming services on December 25th, so I got to watch them from the comfort of my house. Let’s dive into the newest film in the Detective Comics franchise and the 23rd film from Pixar.

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Music/Movies

Ranking the Songs of ‘The Muppets Christmas Carol’

by Michael GraceLeave a Comment on Ranking the Songs of ‘The Muppets Christmas Carol’
Ranking the Songs of ‘The Muppets Christmas Carol’

Today is Christmas Eve, just one more sleep ’til Christmas as Kermit sings in The Muppets Christmas Carol. There are many, perhaps too many, film versions of Charles Dickens’ classic holiday novella. In my opinion, the only opinion that matters in this column, the Brian Henson-directed, Sir Michael Caine-starring, Muppet-filled musical version from 1992 is the only one that stands the test of time. It combines childhood nostalgia with legitimate humor and tender tugs at heartstrings with legitimate terror. It’s a tradition in my family to watch it while putting up the Christmas tree, so I have decades of experience in annually singing along. I insist on you watching the movie before reading, but if you want to do the reverse, how could I possibly stop you? So here is the definitive, objective ranking of the songs in The Muppets Christmas Carol.

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Uncategorized

The Swiftening 2: No Fear T-Shirt [Fearless (2008)]

by The Fancy Boys9 Comments on The Swiftening 2: No Fear T-Shirt [Fearless (2008)]
The Swiftening 2: No Fear T-Shirt [Fearless (2008)]

Last week, special guest contributor Jordan Holmes began what he called “The Swiftening”, in which he would listen to every Taylor Swift album in chronological order despite never having, intentionally, listened to any of her songs before. It began with Swift’s 2006 self-titled debut, which you can read here.

Against all the odds, an unemployed podcast host struggling to start writing another – god knows whatever you’d call what he did last time – has managed to craft from his vast resource of quarantine time another bitter screed against someone vastly more talented and successful. 

(I wrote that before I finished, so if you didn’t read it… I didn’t.)

Continue reading “The Swiftening 2: No Fear T-Shirt [Fearless (2008)]” →