Author: admin

MOM & Pop Culture. Here’s hoping that’s popular music and not another family blog. I got to the site and my hopes are dashed. It is another parenthood web log. But maybe with a difference; this mom has a life. She is a writer and a filmmaker, so with a lighter heart I plunge into the subject matter at hand.

The site looks cool. It has a nice banner and a good colour scheme with easy to read text. The banner acts as a home page icon which is helpful when travelling around the site. There are left and right hand panels with the perfunctory about me, contact, links to other related blogs, women film sites, recent post and comments, archives and her writing. There is a link to another web site she runs… The Philosophical Mother.

The web log has archives from December 2003 although she has been blogging in a previous incarnation since May 2003. There is a comments facility which is well used and links throughout her posts. Some didn’t function initially, but on rechecking most checked out okay. They open in the same window; I prefer it the other way.

Lizbeth, ‘tis she that authors this blog, is thirty something, married ten years and the mommie of a female eight and a male five. There is also a canine who has been christened Elvis.

Her writing is excellent. I like her style and her posts are interestingly laid out and the pace and depth of her prose leads to an enjoying read. Despite my misgivings the content of her posts is varied enough to prove interesting. Its not all mewling and puking and the chores of parenthood. Indeed she often manages to lift the chronicling of the path of parenthood from the usual tedious drudgery. It bodes well for The Philosophical Mother.

Her film making and the emotions tied up in the process thereof are well worth a read. Indeed I intend to bookmark the site and return from time to time to follow this process through.

She also comments on a variety of hot topics and trivia. She often has a reasonably argued point of view. I rarely agreed with her but that makes for engaging reading. Us lone male parents kinda get a little miffed at the whole “wonderful mother womb” thing.

I was particularly fond of her piece on the ending of the Sex and the City TV show, some stereotypes of motherhood and a whiny self pitying take on “why its so awful that girls have to pee the way they do.” Why do folk always blame others?

On the downside I can’t abide the “parenting is so…” angle or the “New York is so…” angle and the “as an artist I should contribute to the 9/11 thing” angle. Why do some people think their experience of bringing up children and loving their home town is so unique and priceless? Let the dead bury the dead.

Also let Bob, Britney and Courtney alone. If he wants to flog underwear, she wants to get fat and she wants to be mental; let them be and anyone who likes Harry Potter… well.

I enjoyed this review. The blog is well written, varied and interesting. Lizbeth engaged and enraged and had me agreeing with her on one or two occasions. I will be popping back to keep up to date with her film making. A deserved four out of five.MOM & Pop Culture

You will have to excuse me… my head is spinning. I have just spent a good solid hour (or was it two?) at MOM & Pop Culture. I think I need a beer. And I don’t even drink.

The page opens to a colorful repeating photo of our Mom and her kids. It’s cheerful, it’s cute. But what unfolds in the pages of this site will boggle your blog world. The page sports my least favorite three column layout. It is well organized but contains a dizzying array of links. Excess linkage is one of my pet peeves. But I know I may be in the minority here.

I have yet to encounter such an overachieving blogger in all my (admittedly short) weblog reviewing career. There is an About page which includes this statement: “I am a freelance writer and independent filmmaker and a mother of two (Olivia and Jared) and married to Mike for almost ten years. I live and work in suburban, New Jersey”, Then there is a list of “100 things about me” that I read in full.

I dived into the deep end of the blog and began reading the most recent posts. Our author writes on a variety of things that pique her interest. And she has many interests let me tell you! She writes often and at length. Her writing style is witty and irreverent and she gets her point across…. whether it is about Shrek II or Move On.org.

In one entry she describes herself, tongue in cheek thusly:

“Official Representative for Blogging Feminist Parents Obsessed with Pop Culture.”

She writes articles for at least two webzines that I found.(There may be more). “Literary Mama”, and “The Imperfect Parent”. She has a link to her filmaking web site “Olive Jar Films”. And if this was not enough, she is editor and publisher of her own webzine, “The Philosophical Mother”.

If you are looking for a feminist and liberal view of the world, this is your destination blog.
One has to admire this much creative energy. Although to be honest, I found the overabundance of linkage and information a bit overpowering. But being the more subtle type myself, I cannot speak for the general public.

Check it out and see what you think.

MOM & Pop Culture

Upon arriving at Screen Rant I found an aesthetically simple, easy to read to read website. The content is mainly reviews, news and commentary involving various forms of entertainment, mainly TV and movies.

The author, Brian, is conscious of his reader, usually letting them know if there will be *spoiler* content within the review. Which is great…there is nothing worse than reading a review to see if it worth watching only to read the movie ends in the first paragraph.

As the website subtitle title says there is little ‘sugar coating’ within Screen Rant’s content. Brian writes straight-forward, down-to-earth prose which allows for a highly accessible and easily digestible content. Screen Rant’s articles are at times reflective, such as in this entry, which I couldn’t agree more with entitled ‘Talking in Movie Theatres’. (Indeed! My Gawd people shut-up!) There are also many thought provoking entries such as ‘The End of an Era?’ or ‘Is Hollywood really this bereft of ideas?’ or his personally introspective review of the Mel Gibson’s ‘The Passion of the Christ’. To balance the serious, there are also some amusing entries such as ‘What would Simon Say?’ or ‘Green Lantern… a comedy??’.

There wasn’t a whole lot of content in the earlier months of Screen Rant but the author seems to have found his writing mojo in the past 2 or 3 months. The Sci-Fi reviews, movie content and commentaries are the most interesting entries… the numerous entries about American Idol were not… I would have preferred to read more reviews, articles or commentary other than another article on one of the various over hyped ‘Idol’ shows. The Michael Moore bashing also gets a little tiresome – ok, I get it – you don’t think Fahrenheit 9/11 is a documentary.

On the whole, there is a lot of great content at Screen Rant. There are even some embedded movie trailers and images that compliment the text and entries. If you’re looking for ‘another’ opinion on a film before you see it, Screen Rant is a good stop prior to renting or going to the theatre. The ‘topics’ link sorts things quickly and allows quick access to the meat of the site, the reviews. Well worth a bookmark to get some insightful entertainment talk.
Screen Rant

I’m popping in here for just a few minutes to whip out this review. I’m in a bit of a rush you see, because I have to get back to reading ALL the archives at Screen Rant. Though my eyes are a little strained from reading white text on black background, I really want to finish them all off and then bookmark this site.

The page is simple in layout, not too cluttered and it’s easy to navigate. There is no about page so we know virtually nothing about our author, but trust me, in the case of this blog it doesn’t matter. He has been writing movie and TV reviews since November 2003. In the first months of this blog’s life, there were few entries, but as time has gone by, it seems our blogger has gotten his reviewing legs under him and posts much more frequently.

You are in for a treat at this site. I am not usually all that jazzed by movie and TV blogs. The ones I have run in to so far have either been incredibly boring and predictable opinion fodder or of the “Oh wow, you HAVE to see this AWESOME movie!” variety. Vic goes nowhere near these dreaded waters. Instead he writes insightful, detailed, reviews that are quite articulate and very readable.

I enjoyed his rather fresh perspective. There is an obvious love of cinema and good TV, but he is not afraid to tell us when he is disappointed and to clearly explain WHY he is. I found myself admiring the time he takes to really ferret out the reasons some things work in films and why they don’t. I mean it’s really easy to say, “I thought this film sucked.” But it takes discipline to explain exactly why. Without this added work, all we have is raw opinion. Which makes for very boring reading.

And I must say that of all the blurbs I have read about Fahrenheit 9/11, his was the most detailed and complete. I felt that I came away with a clear picture of what was actually presented in the film for the first time. I am trying to put my finger on what it is that makes his reviews so enjoyable to read, and I think a one-word description would be: honesty.
Things are not black and white to our author. The shades of gray are not only admitted to, they are explored.

I plan to bookmark this site and return often. It’s a pleasure to read a thoughtful writer’s work. And this site is a good example of such for any aspiring movie or TV critic.

Screen Rant

Screen Rant. With a name like that I knew it had to be something about tv or movies. I was excited to read up on this so I dived right in.

Screen Rant is just that. One person’s opinions on what is going on with movies, tv, and more. I was immediately drawn into the site when the first post talked about CBS and everything that is going on with CSI right now. I was hooked. I just kept reading and reading and reading.

The design of the site is very simple; a two-column layout that I think was an old blogger template though I could be wrong. There is nothing fancy to this design, but there doesn’t need to be. This site is about reviews and thoughts and doesn’t need a design to back it up.

As I have stated numerous times, this is about movies and tv. My favorite posts were the movie reviews as they were very well done. I enjoyed re-living most of the movies through the authors own words on his reviews. The only downside to the content happens to also be my favorite thing. Since the movies are out, and most people have seen these, you may not want to read the archives. But it does leave you the reader wanting to come back for more.

Overall this is by far one of my favorite sites with regards to movies and tv. The author lets go of kissing butt and reports and reviews what should be. His perspectives on the movies is just that of an average person and not some “high paid” film critic. I look forward to coming back to this site for reviews of movies I plan to see.Screen Rant