Friday, March 21, 2008

Wonder Pets and Cheerios

Well, it is Good Friday. I will be home with my 2 year old this morning and I can hear it now.
"Watch Wonder Pets Daddy. Watch Wonder Pets." For those of you without children, congratulations and you're lucky. This is the show that my lovely child is hooked on. Right now. Tomorrow it may change, last week it was different. The concept:
3 school pets, a turtle, a baby chick and a gerbil or hamster (who knows) are summoned on a regular basis, through a phone, to go rescue much larger animals from peril. Example: A baby elephant is trapped in some mud. They have to go fly to him in their quickly assembled fly machine consisting of an upside down frisbee, some cloth sail, 2 marker caps as "jets" and some toy wheels. When they get there, through the power of teamwork, a simple lever, and some horrible animation technique, they are able to free the Pachyderm without much fanfare. 3 animals weighing no more than 3 pounds collectively.
Actually, the interesting thing is that kids today have SO much more to watch on t.v than we did. I know, I know. I sound like my parents. Pathetic but bear with me here. When we were kids, you really only had a few channels to choose from as far as kid's entertainment. We're not talking about THAT long ago. 70's and 80's. Our house did not have cable back then and even if it did, if I remember correctly Nickelodeon had just started as I was in late grade school. Either way, at a younger age, Mr. Rogers, Sesame Street, (watch out, here comes a relic) The Electric company, and maybe a few others that are caught in the cobwebs of my brain at the moment, were really the only thing available for little little kids.
It's interesting to watch my child when it comes to what she likes on t.v. Mr. Rogers is still on, Sesame Street is as well. Once in a while she will go with Mr. Rogers but you can almost tell that it isn't quite stimulating enough for her brain that is used to the overload of noise and visuals she gets from modern day programming. Sesame Street has definitely withstood the test of time and certainly updates it's themes to remain current with the Pop Culture. All the while delivering us that tried and trusted stop animation technique that was the norm of almost all of their inter-cut videos like the "letter of the day" etc. It's great watching a nice racially mixed group of 3 to 6 year olds rap with some monsters about recycling and protecting the earth. That's about as real as a turtle, hamster, and a baby chick freeing an elephant from the muck.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Long awaited return

Well, to those of you that have been waiting in anticipation for many months, I am back. I have spent the last few months really deciding on how I want to take this medium, what I want to do with it, what I want to achieve.
You see, when I created Venti Bold, I was in a caffeinated haze. A coffee coma if you will, and I wasn't sure really what I wanted to do with it. I realized that I needed to take the idea and put it in my hands not unlike a sculptor does with his stone, marble or raw lump of clay. I needed to hold it in my hands a little and feel the density in its rawness. To squeeze it a bit and feel its mass and realize the potential of what I was holding. To look at it and see what it could become. To embrace it and ever so slowly, shape it into what I wanted. I knew that it would take some time but I could take that piece of stone, and turn it into my Venus di Milo! Venti Bold is my Goddess of Love! My woman with no arms! Naked even! What do you think of that?
So what will become of this place? What will I achieve here? Will I educate others? Maybe so. Will I stimulate others? Indeed. Will it entertain, anger or even outrage others? It better! Hopefully, all of the human emotions will be tickled when visiting Venti Bold.
By the way, as a side note. I actually do not drink Venti Bold anymore. Yeah. I was having a hard time with the old ticker after consuming 40 ounces of Starbucks High Octane Go Juice during the day. 20 in the morning, 20 in the evening. I started to feel like I was on a constant adrenaline rush and my body was getting exhausted, except when it came time to sleep, where I would stare at the ceiling at 2 am wondering how long it would take to walk to and from the moon. As a distance of course. NOT actually walking to the moon. That is impossible.
I know what you're thinking. "What will happen to all that insightful witty banter that you come up with when you're in the zone?" Fear not my devoted follower(s). I still get the taste of java in my orifice with the decaf. It just doesn't come with that jitter that courses through my body like a meth head looking for the next score. In addition, I do not feel that changing the name to Venti Decaf will benefit the overall feel and atmosphere of this blog so I think we will all stay pleased knowing that the name stays!
Ok, with that out of the way, let me say that after some hard thinking, some brain storming, a little think tank that I had earlier today with a trusted "hermano", I have decided that what would be a great addition to the blog would be guests, not unlike a talk show, that could "guest blog" so to speak about their lives and such. We could get a glimpse into the world of others and how they feel about politics, current issues, the profession that they are in etc. Hopefully starting next week, we will have these guests and listen to their thoughts a bit. I expect that you all will give them the same courtesy you give me.