Turtle's Tips: Bizarre web show

Remember way back when the television writers' strike was going on? We were all lamenting our lack of continuous, fresh media content to digest. Many of us went to the web, where original video content was flowing on a daily basis. A new media era was proclaimed. Television was dead.

Then the strike ended. The networks got their shows back up and running. People returned to the comfort of Two and a Half Men and whatnot.

I'm here to tell you there are still good web series out there. Principally hosted by Blip.tv.

A show that is way under-appreciated is Motherhoodlum. Now in its second season, Motherhoodlum tells the tales of Emily, a pretentious performance artist coping with unexpected parenting and the relationship with her fiance, Marty the accountant. They conceived after their first date.

The main characters are pretty screwed up, but everyone else they encounter are more wacky. There's the sex-and-relationship guru, who sneaks out early as he makes the couple do a relaxation exercise. There's the sought after nanny, who is the one doing the interview, not Emily. There's Emily's desperate sister, who is upset at Emily for discovering her boyfriend is just a con artist using kids as props to score with other women at the playground. Emily has her own problems. She's a compulsive liar and has been kicked out of 5, no 6, different mommy groups.

Here's the most recent episode. It's six minutes long. If you want to start from the beginning of the series, check out the archives. Warning: This episode, as well as many others, feature frank talk about sex and a fair amount of strong language.

A Womb Of One’s Own

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• | QuickTime
• | iPod

Motherhoodlum is hosted by Offsprung.com, a wonderful parent community that proclaimes "Your life didn't end when theirs began." It was started by writer and occasional Salon contributor Neal Pollock and also hosts Open Salon's Heather Ryan AKA Terrible Mother.

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Turtle's Tips is a semi-regular feature on which I shine the light on some little known art, movie, show, music, food, or anything else under the sun. It's a showcase of what I like.

Michael Phelps and John Belushi

UPDATE BELOW (with new SNL clip)

In a few hours, Michael Phelps will host the season premiere of Saturday Night Live.

With the "controversy" surrounding Phelps endorsing Frosted Flakes instead of Wheaties and Phelps' own colossal diet, I'd love to see a reprise of one of the best John Belushi bits on SNL.

UPDATE: So while they didn't mention Frosted Flakes or have him smoking a cigarette, SNL did have a great skit with the message that "you too can have a 12,000 calorie a day diet:"

Even more poo

With the yogurt and poo stuff and the fact that I have to collect a poo sample from my 4 year old for the doctor, I got poo on the mind. Here's one more video. It has a song!



This will be the last mention of poop here for a while. I promise.

More comedy

Here's a silly YouTube video I came across. With higher production values (think make-up and wig), they could be decent SNL cast members or something like that. They are Gabe and Jenny, apparently a comedy duo based in NYC.

Web show: Parenting and Sex

Via Offsprung.com, a new comedy web show on the difficulty of parenting and sex coexisting. This is episode two: Up and Around and Shake It and Down! You don't have to see the first episode to enjoy this one with the "sex therapist."

The Bicyclist is back!

Season 2 of The Bicyclist is back! I guess it must be warm enough in Portland for them to be filming. In Minnesota, it's still snow-covered and under 10 degrees.

This is a great internet-only series. You may have to watch a handful of Season 1 episodes to get the full appreciation for it.

Today's Blog: About white people

I recently received a tip to a funny blog called Stuff White People Like. On the whole it is pretty lighthearted and shouldn't be taken very seriously. In truth, it's more of a Stuff Yuppies and Hipsters Like.

A few examples of entries:

• #73 Gentrification - "When one of these white people tell you where they live, you should say “whoa, it’s pretty rough down there. I don’t think I could live there.” This will make them feel even better about their credibility and status as neighborhood pioneers."
• #70 Difficult Breakups - "Once breakup proceedings have been initiated, a white person is immediately thrust into the center of attention in their circle of friends. During this time, they are permitted to talk at great lengths about themselves, listen to The Smiths, and get free dinners from friends who think “they shouldn’t be alone right now.”"
• #63 Expensive Sandwiches - "In most cities, if you need to find a cache of white people get yourself to a sandwich shop."
• #57 Juno - "White people, especially ones over 30, also love movies that take them back to a time when there was zero hip hop influence in white high schools."
• #53 Sarah Silverman - "WARNING: under no circumstances should you EVER list Dane Cook as your favorite comedian. The wrong kind of white people like him. And mentioning him will cause white people to lose all respect for you."
• #51 Living by the water - "Mountain views are also acceptable, but generally seen as a poor substitute."
• #44 Public Radio - "[The] middle portion of the [This American Life] episode where the gay guy who doesn’t own a TV, talks about his one week experiment in TV watching, is an example of what White people love listening to."
• #32 Vegan/Vegetarianism - "As with many white people activities, being vegan/vegetarian enables them to feel as though they are helping the environment AND it gives them a sweet way to feel superior to others."
• #22 Having two last names - "I have a feeling that College Lacrosse and Soccer Jerseys are going to look pretty strange in the next few years."
• #16 "Gifted" children - "But NEVER under any circumstance imply that their child is less than a genius. The idea that something could come from them and be less than greatness is too much for them to bear."
• #5 Farmers Markets - "White people also like Farmer’s Markets because it is outdoors (they love being outdoors), they can bring their dogs and children in expensive strollers, and they get to see other white people."
• #1 Coffee - "I promise you that the first person at your school to drink coffee was a white person. You could kind of tell they didn’t enjoy it, but they did it anyways until they liked it - like cigarettes."

Adventures of Conventional Wisdom Man

Check out the most recent Tom Tomorrow cartoon: http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2008/01/14/tomo/