Superheroes and Superpowers Weekender

Been awhile (again) since the last linkie…

Hands up, whose kids get influenced by all kinds of media stuff, at least some of which you would rather stick ’em in a hole so they never hear of, much less Google it……..

Because he’d found Scratches of Batman v Superman among others, Rockstar had a mild fascination with Superman in particular (he says Batman is too cynical about life so he prefers the alien). Thus began our conversation about powers:

Rockstar: …..So d’you think the real guy in the Superman movies also has powers? I mean like, super strength and speed, just not the flying or heat vision? D’you think there could really be superheroes from science accidents?  

Me: They’re actors. Sure some actors have to be especially physically fit for the role, but the original guy who played Superman was only acting as Superman…. right up until he had an accident in real life that is.

And then he became a real life superhero.

Superheroes exist in real life, they just don’t wear costumes. Or rather, instead of colourful spandex, cape and an irritating cowlick, their “costumes” look more like wheelchairs or a lack of limbs.  

It’s terrifying, yet true bravery, achievement and heroism is only through strife. Life sucks <shrugs>. I mean, something that costs you nothing is worth just that <shrugs again>. (Like I said, Life Sucks, but…)

(*On an aside, Tardar Sauce or, to use her celebrity name Grumpy Cat, Internet and Meme Phenom, is an accomplished coffee table and self help book model.)

In David and Goliath (which is, among others, a book about underdogs and how sometimes they’re “underdogs” only through our eyes), Malcolm Gladwell talks about the secret advantage of “disability”. Gary Cohn, President and COO of Goldman Sachs whose life and career experiences are cited in the book, has described his dyslexia, “I wouldn’t be where I am today without my disability.”

In other words…

pics from 50 Funniest Grumpy Cat Memes.

Ok, I’m sorry, while messing with the Memes I found another one I have to further digress with:

From Best Memes 2012 (this is my out for showing this horrible thing. “Jesus” btw is Facebook Update-ing a line from New God Flow, off Kanye West’s Cruel Summer album.)

There’s a convoluted aside in there about how when your kids are old enough to read there will come a time when you will not want them to. Then again:

This is from Daredevil Teens Take Extreme Selfie Video. It doesn’t say, but I suppose this might be illegal, and a little risky to life and limb?

Oh, I’m no fun?  Just a sec while I post these, before I respond to that:

    

Old blog post here, video here.

(Formatting – this is not too long after we first moved the blog to WordPress, having been on Kings’ old dream blog platform that he aspired to build, back then – Kings transferred the early posts hurriedly and without telling me, when he first decided to leave off the platform, which basically meant I would then lose the blog a few years in… Yes that’s why I even have one – the hub once needed an experimental blog to slice and dice. The blog has been taken apart and nearly flatlined more than once.)

Now back to my point about the Daredevil Teens: No these aren’t cool abilities, these kids are being incredibly irresponsible. They could get hurt, they could inspire other kids to try it and get hurt. (In fact, some already have.) So says the boring, gutless, near-middle-aged, otherwise-relatively-social-media-shying little killjoy who jumped out a plane at 15,000 feet.

(Remember I said I started out blogging only because the hub needed a Frankinblog to take apart? That included building traffic, but that was the worst bit because I couldn’t sleep when the blog first got publicised. Now I at least think it’s good for something – pressure to keep my thoughts (and typing) in check as I parent, in a way I can’t do if I have less accountability and can say anything without publicly signing my name to it. It forces me to “clean up my act”.

Can’t remember which famous motivational speaker I first heard say it – you can’t parent effectively with hypocrisy. The kids won’t listen to you (hell, even without the hypocrisy it’s almost impossible to get them to listen to you). I think it’s going to be a few more years of not getting arrested for stuff just because you don’t want your kids to go to jail (:D this is of course an exaggeration – I remember a mummy boss heading a mid-sized dealing room who bemoaned her loss of tv privileges when her 10 year old had exams – see how LIFE SUCKS? Kids are incredibly selfish, incapable of being blind to your transgressions even as you proceed to ban them from tv, alcohol, candy, recreational drugs, boyfriends/girlfriends, social media gossip, Candy Crush, smoking, spending too much on clothes/shoes/devices/buying pets/buying cars/buying tvs/ buying computers/ buying cellphones ok you get my drift :P)

For real though – every time you “like” one of these Daredevil Teen things on social media, you are another (otherwise) unnamed stranger encouraging someone else’s kid to take a horrible risk. Nope, I never thought of it this way either, until someone with 4 teenaged children mentioned it.

Here’s a “daredevil” teen/tween who got his kicks being um, just very hardworking at the tasks he was given:

I remember once watching Jackie Chan on B-roll telling Chris Tucker off for not switching his cell phone off during filming, and on another clip expressing disapproval at a young pretty co-star for having the giggles and wasting film. Each time he used the word “unprofessional”. And so when he said the quote below about Jaden Smith having described how he had his trusted staff observe the then-tween on-set during filming of Pursuit of Happyness for 3 months before taking his dad Will Smith up on doing Karate Kid with him:

“He can take the pain. He can take whatever we teach him. Even when he’s crying, he still does it… I think he’s the luckiest boy in the world, but he deserves it…”

Respect  this little kid ok. (And I have Rockstar to thank for coming across this)

Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never. Never mind what I think of JB and his hair, this one features Jaden Smith’s rap:

“…I been tryin’a chill, they been tryin’a sour the thrill; No pun intended I was raised by the Power of Will; So now I got the world at my hand, I was born of two stars so the moon’s my land…”

Love the rap. Thought it was especially significant how he owned it, acknowledged his privileged upbringing without being intimidated by his parents’ stardom, and then just worked his little butt off anyway. How would you like it if your dad called Jackie Chan for you? Thrilled? Yeah, for like, 5 minutes, before you maybe start to hyperventilate about everyone’s expectations and oh yeah, don’t forget you are 11 years old. (Jaden Smith btw is Will Smith’s second son, his eldest is an accomplished DJ with his own acronym, AcE, who was once offered a sports scholarship to college (that he turned down)).

I had the privilege of working/ being acquainted with a few people who had mega-successful parents and they sometimes hated for people to mention their familial connections (because they were super-sensitive about anyone thinking they didn’t get where they were on their own steam), or feel extremely intimidated or pressured professionally to keep up – regardless of anything their own parents said or did. 

While Malcolm Gladwell acknowledges the secret advantage of disability, I also think there is a secret disadvantage to privilege. (Think how difficult it is to “just have fun” on the soccer field if you grow up David Beckham’s son.)  

Oh…kay. Lemme see if I can possibly find my way back to the original point, which was…. erm….  Superheroes and Superpowers. Rockstar’s original question about powers.

Urban legend has it the late great Leonard Nimoy was so convincing as Dr Spock in Star Trek that he wanted to quit, after receiving fan mail from a little boy facing critical illness who so believed in Dr Spock’s powers that he wrote to Mr Nimoy beseeching to be healed.

Yet while the power to heal was not at those fingertips so famously poised in Vulcan greeting, Mr Nimoy is remembered as a gifted artist, author, and person, in some pretty memorable quotes. My favourites:

“You proceed from a false assumption: I have no ego to bruise.”

“Whatever I have given, I have gained…… The miracle is this: the more we share the more we have.”

ps: I know, I know. Pic of the kids before I get complaints 😉

Miss-Skit is titled Miss Does A Wally: