Posts Tagged ‘News’

NEW FATHER FREAKOUT

By Daddy Danny Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

So…I just experienced what I’m going to call “FIRST FATHER FREAKOUT”.  Do you remember the movie SPEED with Keanu Reeves?  The part where Dennis Hopper, the bad guy, tells Keanu that his partner is dead…and then Keanu proceeds to go f***ing nuts on the bus? That’s me, except in my reality, it’s the part where the bad guy, MY NEW LIFE, calls me and tells me my partner, MY OLD LIFE, is dead…and then I proceed to flip in my home, while my pregnant wife, who is NOT Sandra Bullock at this point in her pregnancy, is driving our couch and not a bus.

I digress.

The point is, I’m going to be a father and I feel like I haven’t accomplished anything as a film director or creative individual.  I have made only one film that’s having a hard time getting noticed or distributed.  I have made commercials that when submitted for awards have not won.  My music videos only go so far.  I’ve acted in a feature film that critics said where the worst acting they’ve ever seen.  The last time I won a “real” award for filmmaking was 2003 and that was in West Virginia.  Blah blah blah….does this happen to all first time fathers?  Do we all freak the @#*%#@ out?  How the hell do you raise a child, and still try to maintain the life you once had.  Why does everyone tell you your old life is over?!  I’m getting that damn call again from the bad guy from Speed! AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!

BTW…Miranda, my pregnant wife, was watching Speed when this happened, so that’s why the Speed reference.

NOTE: However, during my freak out, while I was screaming and yelling, I did manage to clean the toilet and straighten up the kitchen.  So am I quite productive when I’m angry.

Good News, Dad News — Live Getting New Day and Time!

By Daddy Clay Monday, October 3rd, 2011

Yes, the best 45-minute, half-hour live streaming show about modern fatherhood on Ustream is moving. You can now find us offering keen insight, analysis, giveaways and awe inspiring stories of personal grooming every Wednesday at 3pm Eastern, noon Pacific. And if you don’t want to listen to Brad and Clay, no problem! Just hit the mute button and join one of the liveliest chat rooms on parenting that you’ll find anywhere online.

This week on Good News, Dad News: DadLabs says to Stereotypes, Who’s Your Daddy?

In this week’s show hosts Daddy Brad and Daddy Clay (aka Brad Powell and Clay Nichols) contemplate the ideal of the 50/50 marriage and recent trends in dads’ consumer spending. We reheat the Ragu ad controversy and talk about dads in the kitchen. The dads review the Cinderella storybook app from NosyCrow and discuss the changes in bedtime reading that apps and tablets may bring in the future. We will also review the new Mazda 3 hatchback. We will announce the winner of last weeks Swingline Stack and Shred, and will also be going away with new and improved Travel Crib Light 2 from BabyBjorn.

Please join us on our new day and time.

NYTimes Gets Pew Study Right, Almost

By Daddy Clay Monday, January 25th, 2010

For the most part, the media coverage of the recent Pew Research study on the changing gender balance in household earnings has been pretty odd. As I ranted about on the live show, no less than three media outlets decided to frame the new study by pointing out that marriage is now much more beneficial to men than ever before. Making this study about men is like making the Tiger Woods story about the tree. Sure that’s what got hit, but is it really the lead?

Given how brain-dead most reporting is these days (warmed over press-releases anyone?), I’m guessing that the reporters for mainstream media all went with the angle that was pitched to them by the study’s authors.  Why would the authors try to make this about men?  Maybe they were fishing around for controversy to get greater pickup.  I understand the strategy. But I think this angle did the interesting data a disservice. Read the rest of this entry »

New Study: Wives Cursed With More Money and Education

By Daddy Clay Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

Often, when reading research reports on marriage or parenting, I wonder who the hell the pollsters have been talking to.  Not so with the most recent report out of the Pew Center for Research. “New Economics of Marriage:The Rise of Wives,” which has spawned some interesting coverage on NPR and in the NYTimes left me wondering if they had planted a bug in my house.

My wife makes more than me. (While DadLabs is an amazing gig, it is a labor of love, alas. Although I hasten to add that unlike those men featured in the study, I do have more education than my wife — a highly marketable MFA in playwriting.) Oddly the Times reporter characterized women to be “victims” of this trend, which is maybe the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard.  Making more and getting more education makes women victims?  Isn’t that a little turned around?  Somehow married men are the “beneficiaries” of the increased earning power of women. Read the rest of this entry »