Not Your Momma's Bake Sale Cupcakes

(Sweet! By Good Golly Miss Holly)

Remember when Mom used to make cupcakes for you on a rainy day, or when the PTA needed a quick fundraiser, she'd whip up a batch at a glance.

Back then, cupcakes were simply chocolate, vanilla or lemon with butter cream frosting made from scratch or with Duncan Hines.  And if Mom was feeling adventurous, you'd find a batch of marble or cupcakes with sprinkles on top.

If your cupcakes didn't come from Mom's kitchen, they came from the avenue bake shop.  We didn't have cafes solely whipping up cupcakes and washed down with a cappuccino or Chai.

(Avenue E Starbucks - New York City)

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(iCafe Woman Moderne)

Where the 1980s and 1990s made everyone want a Latte and wile away at a coffee bar sipping three dollar coffees on a comfy couch, this New Millennium puts you on another comfy couch munching a Vegan cupcake.  This tasty rage doesn't seem to be slowing down any time soon.

 (Vegan Chocolate Strawberry Shortcake Cupcake - Cupcake Wars)

Gone are the simple chocolate, vanilla and lemon cupcakes .... now we have Crystallized Ginger Olive Oil with Lime Buttercream, Gluten-Free Chocolate Cardamon, Creamsicle, Strawberry Bacon and Maple Cream Cheese, Pink Peppercorn with Chocolate Ganache, Vegan Tiramisu, Dulce de Leche ... the sky's the limit.  Cupcakes have even replaced the wedding cake.

(Wedding Cupcakes)



If cake artists can battle it out in a cooking arena, why can't cupcake bakers show they're no wusses either.  And they're not.

(Cupcake Wars)

Just like the cooking show, Chopped on Food Network, the contestants on Cup Cake Wars (also on Food Network) are given the challenge of transforming wild, non-cup cake ingredients into "knock your socks off delicious cupcakes"  that'll win them the  $10,000 prize and exposure at a coveted venue like ... oh, I don't know ...  a little event called The Rose Bowl Parade.  That's what returning winners were competing for when I watched a few days ago. 

 (Sweet: By Good Golly Miss Holly)  

There' a new trend in town and it's not backing down from a fight.  You may scoff at the idea of earning a nice living baking cupcakes, but that's exactly what's happening from sea to shining sea.  Corporate honchos, former lawyers, movers and shakers of commerce are cashing out their 401Ks and stock options and living their dreams with a really good mixer.

 (Georgetown Cupcake)

I wonder what will be the next culinary big thing.  We're into a new decade ... the sky's the limit or should I say, your appetite's the limit.

 

So Crazy About Toons!

You Can Have Grant Writing Success!

 (Kim Possible)
 

Animation writing is another one of my adventures into the creative world of possibilities I'm rediscovering.  Several years ago, I was busy at writing spec scripts for the children's animation markets.  I churned out Rugrats., Kim Possible, Angela Anaconda, Powderpuff Girls ... submitted a few, but other writing opportunities put the animation market on the back-burner. 

 Rugrats Season 2 (3 Disc Set)

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 (Sponge Bob, Square Pants)

Now fast forward to 2011, we have Sponge Bob, Square Pants and Fairly Odd Parents reigning supreme on Nickelodeon; Hannah Montana on Disney (final season) and ABC Family focusing on live action with our old toon favorites elbowed out of the production studios, but alive and well in the Sahari Desert of syndication programming.  

Fairly Odd Parents - Season 6, Vol. 1

I regret letting time pass before making a crack in this ever-changing market.  Yes, like everything else, production staffs have streamlined and cutbacks implemented.  All the more reason for a freelancer to strike hard.  Though the staffs get smaller, the outsourcing often stretches wider.  

Now that I'm stepping both feet into the animation game, I'm surveying the land, and a little perplexed at what I see.  Yes, there is still great animation being produced, but the style of animation has somewhat changed in the children's television market.  

Okay, I'll stop beating around the bush.  I miss "Scared of Everything" Tommy, one of the unforgettable Rugrats.   Kim Possible, who could leap tall buildings in a single bout and still have time to shop for rad jeans.  Hey Arnold! the prince of the misfits, who lived in a boarding house of adult misfits and somehow he made them all seem cool.  

 Angela Anaconda

Those adorable Powder Puff Girls (most likely Kim Possible's inspiration) showed us you can defend the world and still enjoy Passion Pink lip gloss and hair glitter.  I miss The Wild Thornberrys who traveled the globe and took us with them in their high-tech Winnebago.  Angela Anaconda, an Average Joan kid, we rooted for her to live out her super-hero fantasy and show that Nanette Manoir, once and for all.  You can still find them on the re-runs, but new stories are not being produced and that makes me sad.  

 (Powderpuff Girls)


Sure, slap stick humor is the basis of animation, but somehow when we weren't looking, story editors/producers made the characters more like us.  Children and adults connected with their stories and saw their own lives conveyed in animation.  I miss the animated human stories.  There, I said it.  However, lately there have been more human characters featured on the animated movie screen:  Tangled and Despicable Me just popped into my head.

Yes, Sponge Bob Square Pants has a message in his story lines, but the connection with sea life takes a bigger imagination.  Tell me, what is a squirrel doing underwater.  Oh right, she does wear an old-time scuba diving suit.  Really, what is she doing there?  That's right, she's one of Sponge Bob's partner in crimes.   Nevertheless, The Fairy Odd Parents stars an ignored-by-his-parents Billy and his doting-to-his-every-need fairy parents who zap into fish, a ball, a book, or anything else when humans other than Billy are around.   I'm looking at this show from adult eyes, if I put on my eight-year-old glasses, I could probably relate.  But if I put it in this New Millennium perspective where two-home families have become our children's reality, I can see the connection. 

Granted, back in the sixties and seventies, you had your Yogi Bear, Tom & Jerry, Top Cat ... and many others.  But let's face it, The Flintstones, The Jetsons and Scooby are still big marketing draws generations later because they connected with our lifestyles whether as kids or adults.  

Despite what I say, Sponge Bob Square pants connects to children and adults, evidenced in their ratings.  It too, may be marketed for decades to come.  


To get an upclose and personal look into this crazy world of animation, I'm putting on my old reporter's hat and launching a blog called "Got Scribe?" -- within the next few months -- where I'll interview writers, producers and directors of today's animation, both children and prime-time adult.  

But I'm not stopping there.  Nope.  I'll also jump on the game side and talk to the creative minds behind today's hottest games.  Still not stopping there ... I'll check out debut authors and seasoned pros of new book releases ... also playwrights, television writers, copywriters and web writers ... those using their gifts to create amazing fruit for the masses to enjoy.


These are exciting times for the animation and game worlds and you better believe my fingers will be pounding that keyboard creating funny scripts that visit children and adults where they live.


Happy Watching!  Stay Tuned.

Harriet's Law and Fine Shoes

Grant Writing Success

Manolo Blahniks and Kathy Bates?

Go together like David E. Kelley and his prime-time television hits.

Series Creator and Executive Producer, David E. Kelley has done it again!   I’d love to sit at his Gucci feet and watch him spin his million dollar web of prime-time entertainment for our viewing pleasure.  

 

 I just watched the first episode of David E. Kelley's new legal series, Harry's Law on NBC, and I have to say ... this shines like another winner.  I’d change the name to Harriet’s Law and Fine Shoes, it has a nice ring.

Harry's Law steps out of the law/criminal forensics television box, introducing something unexpected.  Really unexpected ... a welcomed surprise.  A gray-haired Kathy Bates as a gun-toting lawyer with a storefront practice that happens to also sell shoes.   Not just your run-of-the mill, Average Joan shoes ... but your designer shoes for fussy fashionistas.

This comes about after a college student tries to commit suicide by jumping off a roof and instead, ricochets off an awning and lands on Harriet (Harry) Korn aka Kathy Bates who just quit her corporate law firm, knocking her unconscious.  He survives to become her first client on her own.

You see, he has a drug problem and was charged with possession, but his rehab center closed and he slipped back into using and the cops are using him to go after the big bad dealer ring … blah, blah, blah.   But the story pulls at the heart, because he’s a good college kid, who made a mistake and got caught up in the downfalls of life.  He doesn’t deserve hard time, he just needs a little help.

 

He admits to Harriet that he was trying to kill himself, but she broke his fall and there’s a reason he landed on her.  He needs a lawyer.  She’s supposed to be his lawyer.  This miracle will give him another chance at life.  One problem, she’s a patent lawyer not a criminal lawyer.  That fact changes nothing for him.  

I call this a Holy Set-up.  She saves his life, and he in turn, gives her life a purpose.

Yes, everything happens for a reason.  That’s the underlying theme of this fascinating show.  So here we go again.  After she’s patched up at the hospital, (the same day the kid falls on her) she stumbles across an abandoned store for sale or rent.  Right then and there, she decides to start over with a new practice, and she wants her new life to begin at this storefront.

 
 JIMMY CHOO Drake Black Glitter Sandals 41

Just as she steps off the curb heading for the abandoned store, a speeding sports car plows into her.  I kid you not.  No, it’s not a cartoon.  This is supposed to be real life.  Just stay with me.  Behind the wheel is a lawyer she worked on a case with and not-so-lovingly referred to as, well … I don’t remember, but it was like, “little weasel.”  Once again, she survives to the doctor’s amazement.  Her sidekick assistant responds, “She just has a lot of cushion.”

When Harriet and her sidekick assistant, Jenna, move into the store, they discover piles of shoe boxes filled with designer shoes left from a previous tenant.  Now that's even more farfetch, but fun to watch.  There’s Prada, Jimmy Choo,  Manoloe Blahniks, Kate Spade etc.

For me, those sharp designer shoes give the show an extra appeal. I'm like a kid's face pressed against a candy store window, as Jenna pulls out these fabulous shoes.    

 
JIMMY CHOO Ronit Black Embossed Zip Sandals 41 

Of course, Kelley has to pull the heart strings tighter with the college kid’s mother showing up at Harriet's law office.  Stunned by her surroundings, she says:  “You really are  practicing shoe store law,” or something to that effect.   

 

By the end of the show, that’s exactly what it looks like.  The shoes are arranged on shelves and tables, there are chairs where you can try on the shoes and bookshelves full of law books and shoe displays, and desks for the lawyers (Harriet and the Weasel) to work on their cases.  Oh yeah, he weasels his way into a job at her new practice.  

She also hires the exonerated college kid as her paralegal, who was sentenced to probation and community service.  In the last scene, three thugs come in and show her a contraption they use to steal cars.  They’re tired of getting arrested, and now want to go legit by getting a patent, so it can be used by law enforcement agencies.

 

Shoes, law and a funny, gun-toting, graying, lady lawyer with a blonde sidekick assistant, who knows her designer shoes … are the makings of a shoe-tapping hit!  

 

The Loretta Young Show

(The Loretta Young Show)

Yesterday morning, I woke up in a start when I heard someone making a ruckus in my bedroom after 8 a.m.  "Honey, go back to bed ... the schools are closed.  We've got a snow day," my teacher husband said, grinning from ear-to-ear.  He's already been up for a few hours taking care of our household. 

  

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My work day starts after I open my laptop at my home office in the corner of my living room.  But since I had company today, things would go a little differently.  I took advantage of the few extra winks and started my day a little later than usual.

Later, I jumped on my rebounder (mini trampoline) and grabbed the television remote for an hour of exercise.  I tipped in on the Barefoot Contessa just as she was pulling a Baba au Rhum from the oven.  

 (Baba au Rhum)

I increased the speed of my bounce and jumped to the higher numbers on the remote landing on a black and white television show on Channel 243.  

A Caucasian woman, who reminded me of a Japanese Geisha girl, was catering to an authentic Japanese man she called Mr. Kiyoshi.  He was her husband, but she only referred to him as Mr. Kiyoshi and waited on his every need.  I had stumbled on a classic, "The Loretta Young Show," circa:  1953-1960.

What intrigued me was her narration of the story as if she was reading from a novel.  It sounded like a book on tape re-enacted on the television screen before my eyes.  It was amazing.  I couldn't turn away.  I've never seen anything like this before.  I vaguely remember my Mom talking about watching The Loretta Young Show, and I've seen pictures of her, so her face struck a familiar bell. 

 

The show ran in the usual three acts with the act listed on the screen before the opening scene.  Each scene conveyed her thoughts and back story laced with a strong message that would feel at home in today's drama or reality television show. 

 (Geisha Girls)

It went like this.  I don't remember her name, so I’ll call her Chiyoko.  Chiyoko's narration was different from “The Middle’s” Frankie whining about the antics of her upper blue collar life. 

I tuned into the beginning of Act II where Chiyoko sensed Mr. Kiyoshi was up to no good.  While she was giving him a bath … yes, hands-on scrubbing … he began discussing their need to look toward the future. 
 

Without any children of their own, they wouldn't have anyone to care for them in their old age.  He had a solution.   Adopt a child whom she could train to help with the chores.  Not born yesterday, Chiyoko reminded him that a child would, at first, create more work for her.  

What he really had in mind was adopting a 20-year-old girl, he knew was up for adoption in Tokyo.  Can you imagine?  Of course, it was for the sole purpose of lessening his wife's domestic load.  Of course.  That was his story and he stuck with it.  Ah… the plot thickened. 

 

Chiyoko's calm demeanor and respectful tone never changed.  She suggested adopting a boy instead.  A boy could help him with his fishing business, she reasoned.  She’s a clever one.  He drops the adoption topic like a hot potato.  From the gleam in her eye, she knew he would.  Bowing at intervals, she offers to clean his fishing boat.  An alarmed Mr. Kiyoshi sputters, “no,the boat doesn’t need cleaning," and leaves the room.

Chiyoko narrates:  “Hmm… after three days at sea and the fishing boat does not need cleaning?  Well, it is clear my husband does not want me to see something on the boat and that’s exactly what I intend to do.  So I will wait for him to go to sleep for the night before I steal away to the boat to see what my husband has been up to.”

She watches him smile in his sleep, before taking off for the dilapidated boat.  Her search does not come up empty.  She finds a huge pearl hidden away in a tea kettle.  She tells us that her husband has made his plans, so she will now make hers. 

The next day, an elated Mr. Kiyoshi makes up an excuse about needing to go to Tokyo for the day.  But first, he has to pick up something from his fishing boat before he leaves.  She goes with him to the boat despite his protests.  With her there, he won’t examine the pearl, he’ll just put it in his pocket fast so she doesn’t see it.

Off to Tokyo he goes and meets up with a 20-year-old waitress.  He narrates how he wants to make the 20-year-old smile and she will when she sees what he has for her.  He opens the napkin where he hid the pearl and there’s now a small rock in it.  He can't figure out what happened.

A disheartened Mr. Kiyoshi returns home to his doting wife.  Chiyoko goes about her subservient duties offering him food, which he declines, a bath … he also declines, and Sake, he takes.  She insists that he goes outside with her.  

“Where are you taking me,” he cries out.  She points to his brand new boat and tells him it was paid in full.  He looks into her eyes and then at the beautiful boat.  In that powerful, wordless moment they both face what the other had done and was planning to do.  

He cups her face in his hands and says, “Mrs. Kiyoshi … you are a very wise woman and a very good wife."

(The Loretta Young Show)

Lesson learned.  She stopped him from making a fool of himself and ending the life that was hers to keep.   At the end of the story, Lorretta Young appears as herself in a living room dressed in a flowing gown and speaks to her viewers.  She quotes what sounds like scripture from the Bible to reveal the lesson in the story, and then says goodbye.  "Tune in next week … same time … same place."

This wife played her hand well to keep her marriage intact.  Don't you just love  vintage television.  We think times have changed since we’ve entered the Electronic Age.  Not so much .... life travels in circles with the same stories but different characters and clothes.

Here's what I found out from The Museum of Broadcast Communications about The Loretta Young Show.

(The Loretta Young Show)

The Loretta Young Show, airing on NBC from 1953 to 1961, was the first and longest-running anthology drama series to feature a female star as host and actress. Film star Loretta Young played a variety of characters in well over half of the episodes, but her glamorous, fashion-show entrances as host became one of the most memorable features of this prime-time series.

     

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