On this week's Round 2, we said goodbye to an enjoyable season of So You Think You Can Dance, congratulations to our mutual favorite Gaby (we love you too, Jaja!), and hooray for Jim finally getting that dance with Alex (though honestly, show, you couldn't have scared up some ballet choreography?). Then, we turn our attention the glittery world of Dancing With the Stars, where many of the contestants we don't think can dance at all. The sooner some of those trainwrecks get hauled off the better, though Catherine's daughter thinks way more of Hayes Grier than Terri does (he shall be hereafter referred to in this blog as "that punk") and DWTS history suggests that a decent dancer or two will be gone before all the wreckage is cleared. Still, there were enough non-cringe-worthy performances to suggest that the second half of the season will be enjoyable, and the least star-ry "star," French-train hero Alek Skarlatos, did respectably well for himself. Join us back here every week for DWTS chat, and if you like reading other people's snarky opinions of the show, may we recommend the previously.tv forums. (If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)
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On their next to last chat about the current season of So You Think You Can Dance, Catherine and Terri chat about their favorite routines, their least-favorite choreography styles, their favorites for the win, and their guesses on what in the world the show is going to fill two hours with in its results episode. That episode will go up against the opening ep of the next show we'll be discussing weekly, Dancing With the Stars, a show that once again interprets "star" exceedingly loosely. We typecast the current lineup as Terri clues Catherine in on some of the show's traditions and tropes. Finally, we slip in a little something serious with Catherine's review of Unbroken, which was in theaters a while back and watchable at home in all its traumatic glory now. (If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)
Noooooooooooo! Not Jim! Our mutual favorite for the top spot made his last leggy leap as a contestant this season on So You Think You Can Dance, and while the judges didn't have a vote in that, we'll blame them anyway for swaying America with their relentless dissing of Jim as just technically wondrous and flawless and the best ever. (I guess he should be grateful they didn't make him dance like a sexy fish.) We chatted about the dances, booed (or fast-forwarded past) the "expert" critiques, and picked our faves and best guesses for the big winner. Then we turned our sights to the next dance show on the horizon, Dancing With the Stars, taking a look at the "stars" so far announced (including singer Andy Grammer, whose performance on last season's show and video for the same song you should go watch after listening to the podcast) and the differences between the shows (like the fact that if the choreography stinks, at least the choreographer gets booted along with the dancer). Finally, we peeked in on the VMAs, and decided that the less said about that self-consiously provocative exercise, the better. (If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, go to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)
Our weeks for talking about So You Think You Can Dance are running out, with the cast whittled down to six this time around. We wished they'd stop calling attention to Jim's (alleged) lack of "connection" and Virgil's (undeniable) lack of height; felt sorry for Megz being dumped on by the judges; did not feel particularly sad to lose Derek and Neptune; and wondered how the few remaining episodes will pair or pare away our favorites. We also looked ahead to Dancing With the Stars, which Terri will be making Catherine watch with her this season. Then, turning to more literary topics, Catherine gave a book report on Go Set a Watchman, Harper Lee's controversial sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird. Spoiler warning! She totally ruins the ending. (If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)
A tweet this week from Catherine about a 14-year-old in her carpool lamenting "where did my life go?" inspired this week's first chat topic -- because where did our lives go, and why do kids seem to feel their lives are moving as fast as ours? We talked about the aging properties of seeing the edgy entertainers of your youth becoming cherished institutions (happy retirement, David Letterman!) and, in your own youth, finding out that the pop singers you enjoy are younger than your own young self (it's tough being the same age as Taylor Swift). At any rate, we agreed to all meet at Nicole's retirement fantasy home for bingo and bocce ball real soon.
One way to mark the passage of time is annual traditions, and we talked about one that's common at the high school behind Terri's house: a "don't drink and drive at prom" pageant involving a cracked up car, ambulance, body bags, staged teenage wailing, and a guy on a loudspeaker. Do presentations like this really convince kids who intended to drink and drive to stop, or do they just freak out the kids who would never do anything wrong but are easily spooked? We chatted about after-graduation events, the need to talk about not texting and driving as well as not drinking and driving, and the importance of "do what I do" over "do what I say."
Finally, we shared our recommendations for the week: Catherine has an article on 22 outdoor activities to do with your family (because it's Memorial Day weekend, ready or not); Amanda thinks you should use the weekend to go geocaching (on which Catherine has two articles); Nicole suggests visiting the website www.donttextdrive.com; and Terri has gathered links to all of Noah Galloway's dances on Dancing With the Stars for those who want to view them again or learn more about the army vet who danced with one arm and a prosthetic leg.
Thanks as always to Jon Morin for producing our episode and Kristin Eredics for our happy in-and-out music. (If you're reading this description somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)
Before TV networks started showing off their shiny new series to critics and advertisers at the upfronts this week, they cleared the decks of a whole lot of shows you may have hoped wouldn't get canceled. We started our chat with a different sort of canceled -- the kind where you get beheaded, as Anne Boleyn was at the end of this first season of Wolf Hall (500 year old spoiler alert!) -- and then took a brief spin past the Dancing With the Stars semifinals before landing in the TV show graveyard for a look at whether anything we cared about was lost in the carnage. (Wondering if your favorites still have a pulse? Mashable has a list of the dearly departed.) We also tipped a hat to shows that have survived in creative ways, by jumping to other content providers, getting a final year as a victory lap, or getting a gimmick (good luck with that all-live season, Undateable!) Are you mourning the dead, celebrating the living, or looking forward to something new? Share with us on Twitter at @RoundAboutChat, on our Facebook page, or on the comments here if you can get them to work. And if you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.
Our current favorite shows and some old favorites coming back from the dead were on our minds for this week's Round 2 chat. Catherine provided an update on Wolf Hall, and we talked about the pop-culture proliferation of the property with a book, a TV show, and a two-part play that got eight Tony nominations shortly before our chat. Terri gave a review of where Dancing With the Stars is at the moment, with a goodbye to young Willow Shields (doing her final age-appropriate dance in the video here) and the continued participation of Noah Galloway (who Terri is rooting for) and Chris Soules (who she is not.)
From there, we took a look at some TV shows from the '80s and '90s that are poised to return to our screens, including former Dancing With the Stars contestant Candace Cameron Bure reprising her role as DJ Tanner in the Full House sequel Fuller House. What does it say about the state of current TV that things like Boy Meets World, Twin Peaks, The X-Files, and Coach (Coach?!) are getting a second life (Terri mentioned Dan Feinberg's take, which you can read on Hitfix.com)? And what shows should be joining in the revival? We shared our thoughts, now you give us yours in the comments. And if you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.
Catherine and Terri overcame killer deadlines and risky audio problems (which drove Terri away from her microphone and onto the phone) to bring you our weekly entertainment-themed mini-podcast. We started with Catherine’s violent book-group pick, Karin Slaughter’s Criminal, which she wouldn’t have traumatized herself with if she’d had a choice but was interested to discuss with other readers. She mentions another group pick, The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade, and the value of talking about books with other people with other life experiences, even if they do occasionally peer-pressure you into something icky. If there's not a book group available to you but you like the idea, Terri again recommends the book-and-a-movie discussion podcast Try It, You’ll Like it. (The latest episode is on the Jhumpa Lahiri novel The Namesake and Amanda's favorite '80s movie, Sixteen Candles.)
On the TV side, Terri chats about last night’s elimination on Dancing With the Stars, and the fact that it’s not just kids in the schoolyard and trolls online that bully; reality shows and institutions can bully quite well through misrepresentation and selective editing and outright mean talk and even just putting someone in a position to fail without appropriate support. Terri also checked in on the newest late-night host, James Corden of CBS’s Late Late Show, and had a favorable first impression, though she’ll likely be sleeping through it from now on. (You can watch the Tom Hanks clip Catherine mentioned on YouTube.)
Tell us about the pop culture you've been taking in this week in the comments, and if you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.
What kind of entertainment do you enjoy with your kids? For Catherine, it's audiobooks, chosen to fill long car trips with something more appropriate and adult-friendly than Top 40 radio. Among those she and her kids have listened to and enjoyed are the Harry Potter series; the Origami Yoda series and Fake Mustache by Tom Angleberger; the Charlie Bone series by Jenny Nimmo; The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd (kind of a Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time for younger readers); and Every Day by David Levithan.
Terri wishes she had something similarly noble and educational to talk about, but getting kids to read or even listen to books has always been more struggle than sharing in her house. The entertainment she and her daughter have been enjoying together is Dancing With the Stars, ABC's sparkly and silly "dance competition" featuring "celebrities" and a vast array of sequins and tiny outfits. She gives her thoughts on the current lineup of alleged stars, names her early favorites, commisserates with good dad Bruce Willis, considers Julianne's violation of the 10-Point Comfort Scale, and gives everybody a good excuse for watching: It's really about inclusion, y'all!
Share your favorite audiobooks, DWTS contestants, or other kid-parent entertainment choices in the comments. And if you're reading this description somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)
For this week's podcast, our friend Kathy Ceceri subbed in for Amanda, who was busy at SXSWedu, for a chat on standardized testing, pushing your kid, and all those things schools and parents are doing wrong. And since it's Friday the 13th, our recording was unluckily haunted by a variety of unwanted sounds, including answering-machine messages and my son talking to his computer. But no dogs barking! Catherine's dogs outsourced the disturbances.
As for the part of the podcast we really do want you to listen to, we discussed those all-too-frequent standardized tests, the anxiety they cause for kids, the complications of opting out, and what value standardized evaluations have for non-standardized kids. Next, we chatted about the various ways parents try to motivate kids to do well, if not on standardized tests then on report cards and in college and in life. We considered the merits of bribing, rewarding, pushing, and letting kids set their own goals and hoping for the best. Of course, if your child's future path isn't clear to you, it's not so easy to know which way to push or pull.
Finally, we made our recommendations for the week: Catherine shared a post on Alphamom about the difference between rewards and bribes and her own post on helping kids compete to excel rather than compete to beat; Kathy mentioned a Cognoscenti post on why it might not really matter what college your child goes to that got some attention on her All About Homeschooling Facebook page; Nicole said you really should be listening to the Inclusive Class podcast, which has enough episodes waiting in the archives to last you quite a while; and Terri suggested some questions to ask about standardized tests, an article that takes Dancing With the Stars way too seriously, and an interview with a regular watch by Linda Holmes on NPR's Monkey See blog.
Thanks as always to Jon Morin for producing our episode and Kristin Eredics for our happy in-and-out music. (If you're reading this description somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)