Watch D.O.G.S. meeting takeaways

Watch D.O.G.S. is a program that engages fathers in schools. Positive male role models are important for boys as well as girls, and having a positive male influence in a learning environment can be a powerful experience for a child. Primarily, the Watch D.O.G.S program has been an elementary-level program, completely run by volunteers, not administered by the school directly but usually via PTA organizations. I am signing up as a volunteer for the Evergreen School District and will be present at Covington Middle School with my daughter for one entire day, if not more.

My takeaway from the introduction meeting is not necessarily how wonderful this program is, which is definitely the impression I got about the program. It's not really the potential or the thought of influencing a child's life. It's how many men were there, estimating about 30, and how many of those took volunteer forms to fill out. Some wanted to fill them out immediately. It was amazing.

I am thrilled with the level of dad involvement at Covington. We have all heard the stereotypical dad scenario, overworked and not interested in being too involved with the children because the wife has that handled. This day and age, that is not as much the situation. Between two-income households where both parents are working, changes in work hours, and shifts in the dynamics of child-rearing, you would think it was obvious why men have that stereotype. However, it is more common, even if not enough so, to see a dad that has the responsibility of homework, parent-teacher conferences, extracurricular activities and, yes, even being the one volunteering at the school.

Consider joining the Watch D.O.G.S. program in your school, or start one up! Show your kid, and all the kids out there, that there is a positive male role model in town, and it's you!

Dog love on Instagram

Have you seen Yogurt the Pirate Dog? This is a trend on Instagram, pet love in the form of full accounts dedicated to the little stars. Yogurt is a one-eyed, floppy-tongued female chihuahua with a breathing problem and a following of almost 19,000 people as of this writing. She fits in that category of something that is so ugly it's cute. There are plenty of those kind of animals on Instagram. Here are a few animal-specific profiles for your family to oogle over:

• Dogs
• aikebulldog
• _humphreythegreat_
• little_aussie_scout
• phillipsfurchildren
• olivethefrenchbulldog
• kaceylamaney
• charlie_the_labmix
• chihuahuacharlie
• finntheaussie
• penny_thecavalier
• sammyofawesome
• tcthebeagle
• rosiegirlfriend
• Cats
• 4everfriendscattery
• oliver_the_kitten4
• mimichan_the_cat
• mrmickmarsbar
• thekiricat
• miss_smokeybelle
• kittycentral_
• instablackcats
• ohjellycat
• mrbruceleecat
• tuxxypoo_the_tuxedocat
• sushirulz
• prada_puss

Want to find some trends in Instagram pictures? Go to Statigram and search for a hashtag (like "dogsofinstagram" without the #). It's amazing what you might find. My personal favorite:

http://statigr.am/tag/gooberthepitbull/

I might be biased though.

Hot Cheetos and Takis: Implications of music and family

Get to know the people behind the production in this interview by The FADER.

If you haven't seen the recent buzz about the Hot Cheetos & Takis video (above), and the kids of the Minneapolis North Community YMCA extracurricular rap class Beats & Rhymes, known as Y.N.RichKids, you have missed out on a lot. These aren't just cute kids with a professional music production and a few videos. These kids have, in this parent's opinion, embodied the potential of music to be more than just background noise for kids. In a music market overrun by adult themes, it is the non-profit programs that have been instrumental in developing child-level music appreciation without the degradation of their status in society.

What does that mean? I mean to have you watch the video, the rest of the videos on their web site, and consider what they could be rapping about. The most controversial song I've heard so far on the free downloads (that's right, FREE) of music from Y.N.RichKids is "G.F." on the School House Rap album, about a boy seeing a pretty girl and wanting her to be his girl. Compared to what that could be, the spectrum of lyrics that could go along with a more adult subject like relationships, the song is more middle school "like" than the complexity of "love". In all, I am very impressed with the lyric choices, the subject matter and the professional polish of the music this program is producing. It's something I am not ashamed of letting my kids listen to.

Now, in full disclosure, rap is not generally the favorite of our family. I grew up with rap and hip hop in the 80s and 90s, but my tastes turned to guitar-related music as I was learning guitar and rock myself. Morgan has always been more into pop, country, rock and punk. The kids vary from pop music to tweenpop, though each has their own personal taste (Aiden loves rock and punk, Alayna is more into tweenpop like Sabrina Gomez and Demi Levato, Brooklyn likes pop like Bruno Mars, and Bella likes classic rock). However, it's not like they haven't heard rap and hip hop before. I listen to crossover hip hop and spoken word, like The Roots, Flobots, Scroobius Pip, KRS-One, or crossover beats like Portishead and Massive Attack, something with a message that doesn't include being a thug. Fooling yourself into complacency by rapping about how horrible of a human you can be is just not something I care about, nor is it something my kids should be interested in.

There are some exceptions. I've always been impressed with Eminem, Jay-Z and many of the rappers that came from the 80s. Maybe that's why I like Y.N.RichKids. It reminds me more of that old school sound and cadence, but with more contemporary producing quality.

We need more of this in the mainstream. Where are the record deals for the kid-friendly artists? Sure, the Aquabats have a TV show, but you don't hear them on any mainstream radio. The general public likes controversial. It sells. Meat dresses and naked wrecking ball videos are what sell music to adults that have money.

I haven't bought music in a long, long time. I don't download it illegally either. As I said in a previous post, there is plenty to hear on free radio and public downloads. And as my economic status improves, I'm not adverse to buying a song on iTunes or Google Play if it's something I really like. But album-based consumerism is dying. I'm more likely to find what I want on Pandora or iTunes Radio and then go out and buy it because I want to add it to a collection. And I am adding Y.N.RichKids to that collection.

Aiden is learning trombone, for what reason I still have not worked out. We showed him a video of Mighty Mighty Boss Tones as an example of what that could mean to him as an artist (incidentally, the guy playing trombone in that band is black, like the trombone player included in The Roots touring team). If he wants to try to create something, a recording perhaps, with that instrument, I can work out a hip hop style song on open source software and let him write it himself, using his trombone as a melody.

This is a true implication of what music could be for a family, an expressive channel without the adulthood if needed. Some kids have been through more, and maybe want to express that through song. That is completely fine, as long as the family considers what public performance of such songs can cause, the consequences, both good like support and bad like ridicule, that would occur from such promotion. But include music in your child's life, and do it early. Not just Elmo or nursery rhymes, but real music like Y.N.RichKids, Aquabats, or someone Greasy Kid Stuff plays on their radio show.

Join us as a family enjoying music. As a family.