Soap Opera Musings

I suppose I could take time to talk about what I have listened to of late-waking up with the Everett fire and going to bed to the Omaha massacre, listening to ON POINT archives and noting that Tom Ashbrook foreshadowed his current health situation. Immediate on my mind though are soaps.

Anyone who really knows me is familar with the fact that for all that I am quite the intellect and at home at dry knowledge and that I cut my teeth on soaps. My mother watched them when I was young and well, I watched them on and off during school and then never looked back once I hit college.

The first soaps I cut my teeth on were All My Children and Another World (I thought my mother had something of a love for the "A's" until I saw that we also watched Days of Ours Lives, The Edge of Night, Ryan's Hope and Love of Life.)

My "first run memories" (meaning that I watched it when it was on and not as a rerun or as a part of the increasingly lame retrospective/compilation shows that networks have resorted to since 2000 to fill programming needs) are definitely of All My Children. Erica Kane and I go back. I remember when she was married to Tom Cudahy and I did at the age of 2.75 see the infamous episode when he finds out that Erica was taking birth control pills and that's why they weren't having babies and he kicked her out of the house. I remember most from that two things:

A) The dialogue:
(with admitted paraphrasing-c'mon I was almost 3)
Erica: where do I go?
Tom: I don't give damn where you go!

When I first saw "Gone With the Wind" on tv, I couldn't remember why the ending dialogue of Scarlett and Rhett seemed so familiar. When I was a teen, I put it all together.

B) Up to that moment, I had never seen a person be that furious on tv or real life. I think I may have asked if he was going to hit her.

Yeah, back in the days when it was okay to play with wooden toys that had wire parts and to eat peanut butter in everything.

I was with Erica for the most part through marriages 3-present (although she and Jack are divorced for now), through the drug addiction, the loss of mother Mona (not too long before the loss of my own), the jail term, Bianca's coming out, the roller coaster marriages to Adam and Dmitri, the arrival of Kendall (the Sarah Michelle Gellar version), the bear incident, Charlie 1.0 where Ruth Martin in Stephanie Forrester style asks Erica how many generations of the men in her family was she going to go through and her last wedding (so far) with Jack where all of her children were present.

Now I have a hard time watching the show simply because everyone looks a like on the show. I can make out Erica's daughters, Kendall and Bianca and sometimes I pick up Josh Madden (Erica's son by her first ever husband Jeff Martin who was conceived apparently in a manner that led me to call such things the soapdish rewrite.
Info dump: "Soapdish" was a movie in the 90s that starred Sally Field, Whoopi Goldberg, Kevin Kline, Elisabeth Shue and Robert Downey, Jr. that spoofed the soaps. The scene that was played forever in the movie trailer was of Whoopi as Rose the head writer and Robert as the producer having a difference of opinion about how to reintroduce Kevin Kline's character, since he was killed off in an accident that decapitated him. Robert apparently felt that saying that a groundbreaking surgery where they reattached the head would take care of it while Whoopi, speaking for all of those who have common sense kept saying, "but he doesn't have a head" in frustration to get him to see that this doesn't make sense. She did the rewrite per Robert's suggestion because he was the producer but I imagine that there are discussions that take place like that in the real world considering some of the ways retcons and aging and exits and returns are explained.)

I can't say that I can tell any of the blondes a part. This was once true for me of As The World Turns but I can tell Katie from Carly and now that they killed of Rose (though personally I felt they killed the wrong sister and yes, I know I incurred the wrath of all the 'Lilden' fans out there) and some recasts have alleviated the problem with the men although Carly and Jack's sons Parker and AJ (?) are still a problem with me.

Guiding Light is proof of what happens when you runs a show into a ditch. I don't listen to it so much anymore. I thought that it did a great thing by writing the storyline with Daisy choosing abortion and exploring the aftermath although that started getting a bit heavy handed. I got sick of the Marina-Cyrus-etc. storylines. The Marina/Cyrus relationship is the type that I wish soaps would stop doing. I never think that it's romantic to be kidnapped, shot and to place your family in danger-even if the perpetrator is handsome, has a "heart of gold" and "mends his ways" because of the love of a good woman. This is a fantasy and a stupid one.

More egregious is the "if I wait long enough, he'll mature and we'll be together..." General Hospital did this with the one character I thought was above that-Robin Scorpio. Robin and I go back to the 80s. She has the dubious distinction of being one of the few characters who has not been aged as well as being played by the same actress that originated the role-Kimberley McCullough. I rather liked Robin and her precociousness and her fearlessness and I was all for her and mobster Jason. Their breakup I thought was one of thse stupid soapdish moves and I am continually irritated that they will not put them back together. Robin came back to Port Charles in '05 to work in GH and then the writers decided that it would be fun to pair her with Patrick Drake, Noah Drake's arrogant son. He treated her like crap for months and then they became close-one of the main drivers of this was Patrick's exposure to HIV and the uncertainty. Then of course he would display behaviour that would remind you why this strategy never works-the "love of a good mature woman to make a man be better". They finally broke up over the fact that Robin wanted a baby and could with the means today have one as an HIV positive person. He did not want a child.
Then they have Robin go off the deep end in trying to find a donor for her father in a way that really make her character look pitiful. (Again running characters and stories into a ditch.).

The Young and The Restless is my "drug of choice" these days. I have always says that it is the best plotted-best written of the soaps with some of the best written characters.
Notice I said "some of" for characters because there are some good ones that are languishing on poorly written shows. Robin for the most part, Jason, Sonny and Spinelli on General Hospital for one.

Well, I think I will muse more about soaps later-it's time for The Young and The Restless.

Day 30

Well, here we are at day 30 of the "noble experiment. I can't believe a whole month has passed and that soon a whole year has passed.

As Forrest Gump once said (or would have said): " Bloggin' evr'y day is TOUGH."

I tried to do the every day thing and fell down definitely over the weekends when I just wanted to sleep or had other things to do.

Content. I don't think that I had a total shortage of things to blog about but I ran into time crunches, which made it dificult to expand on things the way I would have liked.

It was good to see some of the other blogs and to read them. I did think it was cool when I created a Massachusetts group at NaBloPoMo that people joined. I wished I could have been more involved there too.

I think that I did accomplish one of my goals for this thing. I will blog more at least once a week if not daily. I did miss it when I stopped doing it more religiously. I also took a step towards next year's goal of blogging every day. If I can blog 15 days out of the month, then I can blog next year for more than 15 days.

That's all for me and NaBloPoMo. See you next year!



BTW-for NaNoWriMO I got to over 32,000 words, which is short of the 50,000 goal but lightyears better than last year's 2611 and 2005's 500.

Second to last day

Today is the second to last day of the 'noble experiment'-to blog every day for a month. I fell short as I am sure many had. November is a funny month-sometimes it seems like nothing happens and then everything happens-especially since people feel the pressure to wrap up everything for the year.

Thanksgiving was solemn, casual, restful and work. While I did not participate in the 'Black Friday' madness, I did make a few small purchases on that Sunday.

Still coasting through the 'On Point' Archives. I surprise myself at how much economic analysis I like to hear...

24 HOURS TO THANKSGIVING

Well, here we are. 24 HOURS to Thanksgiving. Thankfully I am not travelling anywhere. To listen to news coverage, you would think that this was more important than anything else-traveling on Thanksgiving and shopping the day after. I will be making dinner this year. Unlike most people that I have been reading about, I have no worries. While I am not Betty Crocker, I was drafted into kitchen duty at a young age and can make some basic things. Thanksgiving and Christmas dishes were a required part of the curriculum. I did tell the person that will be joining me that he will not be sitting on the couch and watching tv or writing. While I was in bed sick yesterday, I automatically started mapping out his chores which will include dicing and chopping and mixing and table setting. We will be making more than two people should have for Thanksgiving. I don't expect us to eat it all. In addition to celebrating the bounty that we are able to have, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners also serve a way of providing easy to fix meals for at least two weeks. A harkening back to the days when people ate the same day in and day out-the days when you were just lucky to get fed, rather than fuss over what you got.

In addition to hearing on [insert the name of any morning show] about how to avoid taking in too many calories at Thanksgiving, Jasmyne sent out a bulletin on MySpace that covered her feelings about Thanksgiving and "Black Friday."

I agreed with a lot of the sentiments of her bulletin. One of my favorite animated avatars is an Indian clocking a Pilgrim upside the head. However, I see celebrating Thanksgiving as celebrating the idea that we have something to be thankful for, particularly the bounty that we have no matter how big or small and not the landing of those who would wreak genocide upon most of the Native tribes of Northeast America.

As we are on the topic of being thankful for bounty, I really can't take the annual segments on the morning shows where person acting as expert gives hints on new ways not to indulge at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I understand if you have something really wrong with you and you need help on how to cope with whatever illness (e.g. diabetes, lupus, etc), but that is not who these segments are aimed at. They are aimed at many of the women that are already insane with calorie counting and dessert denying to meet that mythical weight, while the menfolks shrug their shoulders and wash it all down. I don't know how many ways it can be said that these are two days of out of a year of eating more than a tablespoon full of food each will not kill you. If you have something wrong with you or if you are in training, sure, plan accordingly. Otherwise, be thankful that you have the opportunity to have what you have and when you have it because many don't. I always find it curious that for the most part, those who both preach the calorie counting and do the interviewing are women.


It is true that Thanksgiving has become a way station on the road to Christmas Shopping land. It used to be that attaching the word "Black" to any day of the week meant that said day was doomed. Now "Black Friday" means "last chance for retailers to get back in the black." Artificially lowered prices, tele and cyber bullying by retailers to get you into the store and spend your money.


I can tell you how my Thanksgiving will play out:
-Cooking (after shower and travel to the Thanksgiving location) to the tune of whatever is on-They Might Be Giants, New Order, REM, Stylistics, 80s and 90s stuff, Holday cartoons

-Calls to family

-Changing into "nice clothes"

-Saying a specially crafted prayer

-Eating-a lot

-Sleeping

-Some walking

-Some sports watching (football and figure skatin')

-Going online to see if anyone has signed up for next week's volunteer projects.

-NaNoWriMo writing

-No "Black Friday" mall trips. Period.

Podcasting and Streaming again

I've been listening to NPR and soaps again as usual.

The Bold and The Beautiful: Of all of the soaps on daytime tv now, this one with the exception of Passions and NightShift is the youngster. Unfortunately, it is the youngster that doesn't understand why it's bad to go 100 miles an hour in a residential area and runs itself off into a ditch and continues to do things that shock, thinking they are being clever and cool but they aren't. I intermittedly listen to the show. They only time I paid exclusive attention was when they had storylines concerning Bridget Forrester, when she was portrayed by Jennifer Finnigan (now Mrs. Jonathan Silverman). Once she left to do Crossing Jordan, I lost interest and I completely hate what they did with her character after she left. Today's story featured the quagmire that is Eric and Stephanie's marriage or rather impending divorce. Mixed in this is the "reprucussions" of a stupid storyline where Stephanie, in order to discredit her longtime nemesis Brooke, hired a creep that ended up raping Brooke and now Brooke's family in their ways want to get her and Stephanie's children somehow found a way to excuse her. This irritated me because it seems that this show plays fast and loose with the issues of rape and abuse-one could argue in a very Beverly Hillsian-Paris Hilton way.

As The World Turns: An excellent example of what happens when you run a car into the ditch and you keep the engine running. The Paul/Meg/Craig/Rosanna storyline is truly irritating. Then I always get irritated when smart people (Meg) do really dumb things for no real reason other than it serves the demeted plot the writers wrote after their bender. This goes for the Carly/Jack/Katie/Brad/Holden/Lily/Dusty quagmire. I have to ask-what toxic chemical are these people being exposed to at the Snyder farm?
None of the Snyders can make a smart move to save their lives except the kids and they are falling prey to their parents' bad programming.

The Young and the Restless: Still the best written soap by far-on CBS at least. Poor Victoria will either lose her life or her long hoped for baby and her parents are the one that have to make the decision and they are divided-Victor wants to save Victoria, Nikki wants to save the baby. Brad, the alleged baby daddy, has no say and for someone like him, that's not acceptable. It will force the issue of paternity.

What I like to do for the show archives for NPR is to pick a topic in each month of each year they have for archives in addition to listening to the daily broadcast. Today has been 'January Day.' Last week was 'November Day.'

What I heard on NPR:

SATs: They chucked antonyms and analogies (which I was really good) and the score was raised to 2400. They included more writing, which is good but is it serving a purpose-this test? I never really found that it did me any real good, the SATs. Personally, I think that if college is being paid for by the college or the government, then SAT testing may make sense. I imagine that it is a good tool to measure what is going on in terms of the education of merican students.

China in Africa: Sounds to me that China found a way to make a profit here and get away with it. I don't see the Chinese government as being particularly benevolent here. I think that they saw a buffet table called Africa's resources and the fact that the West is more interested in being missionaries at a distance in relation to Africa.

The Boston Weblogger November Meetup Group

A great opportunity to meet other local bloggers !

Host: The Boston Weblogger Meetup Group

Date: Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Time: 7:00pm - 8:00pm
Location: Algiers (cafe)
Street: 40 Brattle Street
City/Town: Cambridge, MA
Phone: 617.492.1557 (Algiers)
Email: alaiyo@gmail.com

Description
This month's meetup will feature a discussion about political blogging and will be led by local blogger, Ofer Inbar, who was a blogger and Internet advisor to several state legislative campaigns.

All are welcome to attend. We will be meeting upstairs at Algiers in Cambridge.

The Boston Weblogger Meetup Group is a monthly meetup group for people that are interested in blogging and meeting others who are interested in blogging. Topics discussed range from blog content to blog software. All interest levels are welcome.

The Boston Weblogger Meetup Group:
http://blog.meetup.com/3/

Give me a break...

There are times where I really hate being associated with Cambridge, Massachusetts.

I heard that Cambridge officials had put a stop to the local Boy Scouts care package drive for the troops in Iraq at polling places because "political messages are not allowed inside polling places."

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, not a fan of the Boy Scouts based on their history of and current practice of discrimination, particularly of homosexuals and not a fan of the war-we need to be out of there.

However, the troops need our support and care packages mean much. The scouts were supporting the soldiers NOT any political world order. IF you substituted "soldiers in Iraq" for "victims of wildfires" or "homeless families," it would be the same act. I think that is must also be said that many of the places where people voted in this past round of anemically attended elections are community places-churches, community centers, etc. where what these scouts did would not be out of the norm.

I don't understand where common sense has gone. The head of the election commission received the complaint from one resident that the message was "pro-war." I saw one of the bulletins in Cambridge mentioning that this was taking place and nothing about it was pro-war. If anything, it was pro-'so while you are taking time out to vote, you can do even more good by dropping something of for the soldiers in Iraq that may be your child, sibling, parent, friend or someone else's child, sibling, parent, friend. The city's law department was consulted and they gave the permission to pull them.

Based on one complaint? A complaint that apparently did not reflect the true language of the flyers? It usually takes a fatality in spite of many complaints for the city to do anything constructive in the interest of public safety but they jump because someone said that they saw care package collection boxes that might have read "pro-war"?

Of course those who have for years been skewering Cambridge for its more radical, liberals elements are having a field day-witness the editioral in the Boston Herald: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/editorials/view.bg?articleid=1044992

I can't says I blame them.

Those who want to support Troop 45's effort can send funds to purchase the supplies (toiletries etc.) for care packages for the soldiers in Iraq can send them to:

Boy Scouts
Troop 45
P.O. Box 381241
Cambridge, MA 02238.

Of course checks should be made payable to Troop 45.