A Basic Cultural Education

[Bullgrit]

I'm all about nostalgia for my "old days," but I'm trying to be up on my kids' current pop culture, rather than trying to introduce them to mine. My kids are much more excited by my interest and knowledge of their Pokemon, Ben Ten, Clone Wars, Captain Underpants, Yu Gi Oh!, Sponge Bob Squarepants, and Bakugan.

At night, after the kids are in bed, I do enjoy watching some Magnum P.I. and/or Rockford Files.

Bullgrit

 

[Jack7]

To answer in general to what I'm trying to do. Some things (shows) we can watch or listen to the whole series because the series are short. Like we watched all of Kung Fu over a one month time period at lunch. It seems like there is a lot to many television series cause they go on for yearly seasons, but when you see them one hour at a time during lunch or breakfast, they go fast. Plus my kids loved Kung Fu so they kept after me to see it all. Same with some other shows.

Other things are much too long to watch all of them. No time for all of it. Just want my kids to get a taste of em so they can understand the popular, historical, and technological culture of that age, how it got where it has, what it was like before, and so forth. Before I started doing this kinda thing, informally, a couple of years back my kids had the idea that the world started in the 1990s sometimes, that computers and televisions and space shuttles have always existed. Sure my parents and grandparents would tell em stories on occasion, so would I, but they didn't see a whole culture in which the world was radically different. (Cops with no on-board computers in their cruisers? Homes with no video game consoles? Planes that you fly with a simple stick and no instruments? Televisions with no remote controls, but knobs? What's a slide rule? Nobody used to wear seat belts while riding in cars? No cell phones? Kids nowadays are ignorant of a lot, because they don't often really see the difference between the world now, and the world then. My kids were shocked to see the first episode of the Wild, Wild West, because it was in black and white. My youngest daughter asked me if the whole show was like that and why? Why would they make a show in black and white when everything is really in color? And I showed em an old television in an old show the other day and they asked me what those knobs were and why was the TV so fat? And why did it stand on legs like that? Ignorance born of simple non-exposure.)

So that's one of my points. I mean aside from the fact that having seen these shows now they like a lot of em. Not all, but most of em. My youngest daughter thought Kung Fu as good as Lost (I don't, but think it came close sometimes) and asked me why they didn't make Kung fu again?

I get the chance to actively point out the real differences between my life as a kid, what I did and had, and what they do and have. And watch and listen to.

On the other hand now we get to share the same basic popular culture and reference points. Now when I mention something as a reference, they're starting to get it. "Oh, you mean he's an idiot for doing that like that, like Wylie Coyote."

"Yes dear, that's what I mean. It won't work. He's courting disaster." A lot of the phrases I use, they now get it. We were watching the Wild, Wild West yesterday at lunch and Jim shot a bronze statue that covered over a gold statue that the father had hidden from his cowardly son. (The statue was of the son.) My oldest daughter said, "How ironic dad. The bronze hid the gold and the shot disfigured the statue in the same place the guy was shot in the Civil War." I like seeing em notice that kinda thing, and a lot of old shows are just better written than many modern shows. (Not all modern shows cause I think modern television is undergoing a real renaissance, but old shows are good at things like irony. they often make insightful mental and psychological observations, rather than just being filled with nifty special effects and clever comments.)

I'm having the explain far less of my references and it's like a little code I share with my kids. Kids at church or out in public or friends, they don't get what we're saying and ask what we mean by that, and my kids try and explain it to them.

But I'm not saying don't let kids have their own present day culture. I'm not saying "replace current popular culture with old popular culture." I like a good deal of modern popular culture. I like Spongebob, and Lost. But I don't have to limit myself to it, nor do I hav'ta limit my kids to that. It's not either/or. I'm saying add on to it. Let em know the past and the present.

Because the present is the way that it is because the past was the way it was.

Anyways, here are my lists so far.

I haven't included any books or films or music because they already have a Homeschooling Independent Reading Canon, and a Film and Music Canon. So when you guys suggest something good I haven't already got down, I just add them to that particular canon.

I've included both old stuff and more recent stuff in these lists. Things I think are really good, important to know about, or important to the popular culture.

By the way, do any of you guys or gals remember an old cartoon about a spaceship that looked like a submarine and had an hellaciously big gun that shot a huge energy beam out of the front of it? I'd like to remember what that was called if anybody knows.


POPULAR AND HISTORICAL CULTURE CANON:

Television: Rockford Files, Quincy, Emergency, Adam 12, Munsters, Addams Family, Kolchak the Night Stalker, McCloud, Mod Squad, Star Trek, Star Trek (TNG), Space 1999, Miami Vice, Hillstreet Blues, Combat!, Briscoe County Jr., Kung Fu, Wild, Wild West, Daniel Boone, UFO, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Get Smart, Batman, Lost, Battlestar Galactica (both versions, when appropriate), X-Files, Fringe, Dragnet, Streets of San Francisco, Banacek, A-Team, The Rifleman, High Chaparral, Happy Days, I Love Lucy, Carol Burnett, MacGyver, Magnum PI, Andy Griffith, Art Linkletter, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Beverly Hillbillies, Bewitched, Car 54, The Prisoner, Monty Python, Ironsides, FBI, Dick Cavet, Gilligan’s Isle, Gomer Pyle, Green Hornet, Howdy Doody, Hogan’s Heroes, The Fugitive, Jack Benny, Honeymooners, Good Times, Hawaii Five-O, Show of Shows, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Checkmate, Moonlighting, This is Your Life, Flipper, Lassie, You Are There, Ozzie and Harriet, Rawhide, Bonanza, Big Valley, Gunsmoke, Walt Disney Show, Twilight Zone, Scrubs, The Office, Seinfeld, Psyche, Burn Notice, All in the Family, Alfred Hitchcock, Bob Newhart, Cheers, Ed Sullivan, Odd Couple, Soap, Taxi, 24, Twin Peaks, WKRP in Cincinnati, Deadwood, M*A*S*H, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Northern Exposure, Larry Sanders, Band of Brothers, Stargate SG1, Stargate Universe, Stargate Atlantis, The Shield, Everybody Loves Raymond, The Wonder Years, Doctor Who, Over There, Carnivale, Smallville

Cartoons and Children: Captain Kangaroo, Superfriends, Thundarr, Conan, Batman (all time periods), Superman (all time periods), Land of the Lost, G-Force/Battle of the Planets, Hanna Barbera Cartoons and Shows, Banana Splits, Sesame Street, Dungeons and Dragons, Justice League, Three Stooges, Bugs Bunny/Roadrunner, Mickey Mouse, Mighty Mouse, Dangermouse, Herculoids, Space Ghost, Samurai Jack, Powerpuff Girls, X- Men, Fantastic Four, Spiderman, Popeye, Tom and Jerry, Transformers, Starblazer, Underdog, Jonny Quest, Fat Albert, Schoolhouse Rocks, G. I. Joe, Pinky and the Brain, Ren and Stimpy, Dexter’s Laboratory, The Tick, Spongebob Squarepants, Wolverine and the X-Men

Radio: Green Hornet, Phantom, Mystery Theater, Lone Ranger, Jack Flanders (all), Buck Rogers, Zero Hour, Weird Circle, Tales of the Texas Rangers, Superman, Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes, The Shadow, Sam Spade, The Saint, Philip Marlowe, Orson Welles, Jack Benny, Inner Sanctum, Have Gun will Travel, Dick Tracey, Dimension X, Escape, Abbot and Costello, Flash Gordon, Burns and Allen

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

By the way, do any of you guys or gals remember an old cartoon about a spaceship that looked like a submarine and had an hellaciously big gun that shot a huge energy beam out of the front of it? I'd like to remember what that was called if anybody knows.

Did you mean Star Blazers? It was a Battleship, rather than a submarine. [cue music] We're off to outer space. We're leaving Mother Earth. To save the human race...

Loved that show.

 

[coyote6]

Fire the wave-motion gun!

If you want them to be exposed to older rock music, you can get 'em Guitar Hero or Rock Band or the like. Especially the initial releases -- I bought Guitar Hero for Christmas a couple of years ago, and suddenly my sisters (who were adopted, and are ~20+ years younger than me) suddenly knew the words to Heart and Guns & Roses songs.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

The one film that has to be on your movie list is Casablanca. On your music list should definitely be ABBA. Starblazers is also called Space Cruiser Yamato, even though its a battleship. (The biggest one ever built, in real life.)

 

[Jack7]

Starblazers! I thought that was it but wasn't sure. Could have sworn it was a submarine, but apparently not. And the Wave Motion gun. I loved that thing. It was a Fleet killer! It kinda remindned me of the Doomsday Machine put to the use of good.

My buddy got me to watching that thing. He knows I love Naval Warfare. Can't yak with him right now though, he's deployed.

Thanks guys.


By the way, here are the film and music and art canons I teach my kids by. Some just include types, others have specific bands or artists or films. If ya have suggestions for that too, let me know. Haven't had a chance to revise them in awhile.

But so far my kids have listened to, seen, or watched a lot of these.


MUSICAL CANON: Chant, Opera, Ancient Compilations, Medieval Compilations, Renaissance Compilations, Baroque Compilations, Classical Compilations, Romantic Compilations, Celtic, Folk, Bluegrass, Blues, Jazz, Rock and Roll, Rhythm, Foreign, Bach, Bartok, Berlin, Gilbert and Sullivan, Chopin, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Verdi, Wagner, Palestrina, Poulenc, Tsaichovsky, Strauss, Schubert, Debussy, Rachmaninov, Grieg, Borodin, Haydn, Moussorgsky, Mendlessohn, Brahms, Gounod, Bizet, Dvorak, Vivaldi, Schumann, Liszt, Smetana, Puccini, Rossini, Offenbach, Mascagni, Pachelbel, Barber, Sibelius, Copland, Purcell, Prokofiev, Ravel, Resphigi, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rubinstein, Saint-Saens, Scriabin, Stravinsky, Villa-Lobos, Vivaldi, Chieftains, Touchstone, Billie Holliday, Fats Dominoe, John Coltrane, Glenn Miller, BB King, 20s, 30s, and 40s Music, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s Rock Music, Greatest Hits Compilations, Buddy Holly, Bob Dylan, Beatles, Yes, Hall and Oates, REO Speedwagon, Journey, Kansas, Kinks, Foreigner, Styx, Heart, Roy Orbison, ABBA, Chicago, Peter Frampton, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Pink Floyd, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Rush, Electric Light Orchestra, Billy Joel, Cat Stevens, Dan Fogelberg, David Bowie, Who, James Taylor, Moody Blues, Neil Young, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Bread, Santana, Eagles, Creed, Jim Croce, Beach Boys, BB King, John Lee Hooker, Stevie Wonder, Temptations, Muddy Waters, Ray Charles, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Gordon Lightfoot, Supertramp, Don Mclean, The Byrds, Dr, Hook, Chicago, Steve Miller Band, Fleetwood Mac


ART CANON: Pre-Historic, Ancient Mesopotamian, Ancient Egyptian, Ancient Chinese, Ancient North American, Ancient South American, Ancient Jewish, Ancient Greek, Ancient Roman, Muslim and Arabic, Ancient Christian, Medieval, Renaissance, Realism, Surrealism, Symbological, Impressionism, Modern, Calligraphy, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rafael, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Gaugin, Wyeth, Appiani, Bartolini, Bellini, Bernini, Bizet, Blake, Brunelleschi, Caravaggio, Cesari, Cezanne, Chardin, Van Cleef, Dali, J.L. David, Pierre David, Degas, Delacroix, Durer, El Greco, Ernst, Van Eyck, Wright, Fontana, Gaugin, Giotto, Le Enfant, Manet, Matisse, Monet, de Morales, Myron, Phidias, Picasso, Polycleitus, Polydorus, Poussin, Renoir, Rubens, Seurat, Vasari, Velazquez, Vermeer, da Vignola, van der Meer,


FILM/MEDIA CANON: Birth of a Nation, Black Orpheus, Metropolis, M, 400 Blows, Red Balloon, Star Wars Sextology, Alien Films, Doctor Zhivago, Bridge Over River Kwai, Robocop, Blade Runner, French Connection, Shane, Cyrano de Bergerac, Three Musketeers, 1776, Ran, Miller’s Crossing, Godzilla Films, Superman, Abbot and Costello, Marx Brothers, Three Stooges, Spiderman, Daredevil, Batman, Lord of the Rings, Schindler’s List, Silence of the Lambs, Nosferatu, Dracula,Wolfman, Frankenstein, Planet of the Apes Films, Gettysburg, Barry Lyndon, Character, All Quiet on the Western Front, Damn the Defiant, Glory, Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Blackhawk Down, Jesus, Passion of the Christ, The Robe, Posse, There was a Crooked Man, Wings of Desire, Black Robe, The Mission, Thing From Outer Space, War of the Worlds, Thing, Saving Private Ryan, Gladiator, Henry V, Richard III, Hamlet, Masada, Marx Brother’s Films, Pink Panther, Excalibur, Dances with Wolves, Bullshot, Unbreakable, Boys from Brazil, Memento, Serpico, Chinatown, Insomnia, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, 8 MM, Mystery of Rampo, 12 Angry Men, to Kill a Mockingbird, Pillow Book, 1984, Black Narcissus, Empire of the Sun, Yakuza, The Conversation, Big Sleep, Maltese Falcon, Man of the Century, Illustrated Man, Compulsion, Blood Simple, Dog Day Afternoon, Midnight Express, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Razor’s Edge, Forest Gump, Andrei Rublev, Lust for Life, Citizen Kane, Caine Mutiny, Mutiny on the Bounty, My Man Godfrey,
Seven Samurai, Rashomon, Burmese Harp, Breaking Away, All the President’s Men, The Graduate, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Sting, Raging Bull, Ben Hur, Spartacus, Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon, Ravenous, Soylent Green, Last of the Mohicans, Hunt for Red October, Longest Day, Gallipoli, Das Boot, Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Dead Poets Society, Electra Glide in Blue, Kwaidan, Raising Arizona, Dr. Strangelove, Pale Rider, Blazing Saddles, Wizard of Oz, Andromeda Strain, Countdown, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, ET, Silent Running, Pi, Blue Velvet, Terminator Films, Dunwich Horror, Shining, Stalker, Solaris, Young Lions, Agony and the Ecstasy, Closely Watched Trains, 2001, 2010, Ghandi, Sorcerer, Virgin Spring, Seventh Seal, 300, Iron Man, Superman Returns, Dark Knight, Batman Begins, 3:10 to Yuma, Open Range, Pale Rider, Jesse Stone Films

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Others worth a mention:

Warner Brothers Cartoons- NOT the edited ones that started showing up in the late 1980s- the full-strength Daffy-just-got-his-face-blasted-off-during-Wabbit-Season stuff.

The original Rollerball.

Blazing Saddles & Young Frankenstein.

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

Dio.

Giger.

Woodstock.

Dick Dale.

 

[nerfherder]

We were watching the Wild, Wild West yesterday at lunch and Jim shot a bronze statue that covered over a gold statue that the father had hidden from his cowardly son. (The statue was of the son.) My oldest daughter said, "How ironic dad. The bronze hid the gold and the shot disfigured the statue in the same place the guy was shot in the Civil War." I like seeing em notice that kinda thing, and a lot of old shows are just better written than many modern shows. (Not all modern shows cause I think modern television is undergoing a real renaissance, but old shows are good at things like irony. they often make insightful mental and psychological observations, rather than just being filled with nifty special effects and clever comments.)

I hope you corrected him about correct usage of the word "irony".

 

[Jack7]

I hope you corrected him about correct usage of the word "irony".

Well, technically it was Dramatic Irony (from the Greek eironeia), or, the Irony of Fate. Not verbal irony. But I wasn't gonna nitpick. We were just watching it for fun and I was just glad she noticed it.

After all the whole show was based around the idea that the subject was a fraud and a deceiver (as well as a murderer - he had pretended to die at the defense of Fort Steadman - then starting killing off his competitors from hiding), as the parrot kept saying. She (it was actually my daughter) had already assumed the gold would be in plain sight, she just didn't know where. So connotatively and dramatically she was right.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Fire the wave-motion gun!

If you want them to be exposed to older rock music, you can get 'em Guitar Hero or Rock Band or the like. Especially the initial releases -- I bought Guitar Hero for Christmas a couple of years ago, and suddenly my sisters (who were adopted, and are ~20+ years younger than me) suddenly knew the words to Heart and Guns & Roses songs.

In a related note, I was talking with some guitar teachers on another site, and to a man, they mentioned that they've experienced an uptick in new guitar students in the years since the various Guitar Hero/Rock Band games hit the market.