| Lutheran Church of the Redeemer | Birmingham, Michigan |
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Wuggie's
Music Media and More
January 2006 My reviews are not meant to replace your good judgment!! Please
be an active parent, not a robot!! If you disagree with me, I'd love to hear
your opinion. Send comments, questions and suggestions for material to be
reviewed to: Mwuggazer@redeemerbirmingham.org.
+ Conforms to Christian morals and value M Mature content X Mild objectionable content XX Objectionable content XXX Offensive content Hawk Nelson / Letters to the President / ++ Great new Christian punk band from Canada! Great guitar riffs, singable lyrics, fun and sun. This disc has it all. Our Youth Group has adopted Hawk Nelson as our new fav. band. Eminem / Curtain Call / XXX Lucky us. This greatest hits collection just came out in December right before Christmas, thereby making everyone who has always maintained that Eminem was in it for the art not the money look foolish. The disc contains 2 new songs, the more popular one being "When I'm Gone". The other, "Fack", is the more weird and disturbing of the two. That's like saying fudge is sweeter than ice cream. Readers of this column won't be surprised to know that I think Eminem is a cancer to the music industry, and a full throttle assault on the purity of this generation. This disc isn't really even safe for adults. I only wish this was his final curtain call. Pussycat Dolls / PCD / XX This act started as a burlesque show in LA in the late 90's. It moved to Vegas for an extended run, and attracted stars such as Christina Aguilera, Pamela Anderson, Kelly Osbourne and more on a revolving basis. No mistake - The Pussycat Dolls is a soft-core porn act. It is an example of how the music business and the porn business are converging. Aguilara and friends started in music and are moving to porn. The Pussycat Dolls started in porn and are now moving to music. I could only give the CD 2 X's because there really aren't any bad words. The lyrics are often sexual, but the innuendo is lofty - hardly in your face like much music reviewed here. It's the image and the cross-pollination I'm worried about. I didn't find anything patently offensive on The band's official web site, although the girls are always wearing next to nothing and really promote their bodies as sexual objects. A simple web search found tons of references to their burlesque show and their connections to the porn industry. Not exactly great role models for Christian teens. System of a Down / Hypnotize / XXX This heavy metal act is completely indecent. Four letter words crash through the guitars like bricks. There is no innuendo. There is no excuse. There are songs about prostitution and worse. Forget it. Family Friendly TV The Family Friendly Programming Forum, a coalition of advertisers that funds the development of major network family-oriented programming, has placed its seal of approval on several primetimes series, including ABC's Commander-in-Chief and UPN's Everybody Hates Chris. For the first time ever, all six broadcast networks participated in the forum's script Development Fund, which gives seed money to develop family-friendly scripts that otherwise may have been ignored. A record 61 scripts were submitted this year, and the networks ultimately decided to pick up a record of four forum-backed shows for this season: Everybody Hates Chris, a comedy produced by Chris Rock; Commander-in-Chief which stars Geena Davis; Related, a WB drama; the CBS comedy Old Christine, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus. In the past, other shows funded by the forum have included NBC's American Dreams, ABC's 8 Simple Rules, and CBS' Clubhouse-all of which were canceled last season. (Hollywood Reporter, June 20) Microsoft exec limits Xbox time for kids. That new Xbox came out just in time for Christmas (like you didn't know). If there is now one in your house, perhaps you've noticed that it gets a lot of use. As you'd expect, Microsoft execs have had them in their houses for months. On Nov. 22, the Associated Press reported that Bill Gates said that his kids rarely play at all. They are in elementary school. By contrast, said Gates, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer has talked about how his older kids are much bigger fans of Xbox, so much so that Gates said the Ballmers have had to limit play time. "They've had to set strict quotas," Gates said. MySpace.com Reprise I have gotten more positive feedback from my review of MySpace.com last month than any other article I have ever written in this column. Parents are shocked to know about MySpace, and are thankful someone alerted them. One Dad told me that he looked up his daughter on MySpace.com, and was shocked by what he found his own daughter had posted. He instructed her to delete her profile, and then blocked the site using the parental controls on his computer. I know his daughter. She is a good kid. I mean a really good kid. But the temptation to be a 'bad kid' on MySpace.com was too much for her. Everybody else posts highly sexual and immoral content on their profile, even good Christian kids get sucked into the temptation. That's why I think parents need to be aware of the media their kids are consuming. Bravo to Dad. I'm a big fan of letting teens be exposed to the sinful immoral world in measured doses. They do have to be taught the skills to deal with the immorality that surrounds them. One can't completely limit all exposure to secular media. On the other hand, this example shows that teens still need serious parental guidance in how to handle that exposure. I have no experience as a parent, but I do have plenty of experience with teenagers and a voracious appetite for reading what the experts have written. The teen years are deceptive in that many signs make you think that your role as parent is winding down, especially the amount of time you have to put in. The experts suggest, and I would agree, that the opposite it true. The good news is that I am a tool in your tool box, and I'm here to help you in any way I can. How to look up your teen's profile on MySpace.com. Go to www.Myspace.com Click on Search You can search by name, or Email. If the profile you are looking for doesn't come up, that may be because your teen is using a different Email than you know or an assumed name. In this case, search by school. You'll have to browse through 276 Students if you type in Seaholm, but if your teen is one of those 276, you'll eventually find it. In order to view the entire profile (highly recommended) you'll have to register. Just click SIGN UP in the upper right corner. You'll have to create a profile, but don't worry, you don't really have to post anything. Just create an empty profile - all you'll need to supply is a user name and password. Just make something up. It doesn't cost anything. |
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