Skinner Bachs

Healthy lunchbox options might be the last thing on your mind right now. As a parent, you’re either on the cusp of that first day back from summer break or still in recovery mode from seeing the supplies lists, forms, and requests for volunteer time. Feeding your kids right was a given all summer when […]

Rio Olympic swag may set a new standard for the gift bags given out to contestants in this year’s edition of the Summer Games. Like any other event where sponsors hope consumers will want to emulate the members of various teams, swag bags are a part of the material landscape. https://twitter.com/ultragranditems/status/760922011245969408 One of the most […]

Which women should you watch at the Olympics? Women’s events at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro offer a bit of everything: drama, star power, and some of the fiercest competition this side of the World Cup. Better known athletes such as Serena Williams are already receiving a lioness’ share of media […]

New family video releases and late summer are two things you don’t hear mentioned together very often. August and September are all about getting ready to go back to school and last hurrahs that take the form of vacations and outdoor recreation while the weather permits it. This is why the latest crop of new […]

Election talk is everywhere right now, even in places not known for having much to do with politics. Whether or not you intend for your kids to be exposed to the current contest for the keys to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, it’s all around them, too. If the discourse is getting heated between grownups, it is […]

New family video releases have been hitting the shelves and websites this summer. While everyone is flocking to see the latest and biggest family blockbusters, there is still much to recommend an evening at home and out of the heat. The latest DVD and Blu-rays to drop include more than a few favorites that will […]

Summer camp friendships are just one of the developmental boosts that can give the children who are lucky enough to go a leg up on peers who opt to spend the long school break at home. Kids Health, a website devoted to helping parents navigate milestones in childhood development, referred to sleep away camp as […]

How do you talk to your kids about terrorism? In our current media environment. access to images, raw footage, and up to the minute news talking points can make it difficult to filter what little eyes and ears take in. Fred Rogers, better known as television’s “Mr. Rogers,” had been a gentle, reassuring media presence […]

Fan-made MLP movies are not new. The relaunch of the animated franchise in 2010 – My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic – garnered a fandom that astonished culture observers with the breadth and depth of their devotion to the show. Even though much of the focus has been on “Bronies” – the adult male fans […]

This week’s new video releases for kids includes two well-loved franchises and a new favorite that families making return trips to the multiplex. While “Finding Dory” is swimming circles around the competition for biggest screen thrill of the summer, these classics will offer families screen therapy that’s as close as the nearest TV. https://twitter.com/__brysonnn/status/742791651278487552 The […]

VBS, also known as Vacation Bible School has been a traditional summer activity for kids in the southeastern and mid-western regions of the U.S. Structured days spent making macaroni art, plaques with Bible verses, and all of those prizes earned by memorizing and reciting passages from the New Testament are happy memories for many parents […]

Gordie Howe was 88 years old when he died earlier this week. By most standards, that could be seen as a good long run, but by professional hockey standards, any more is darned near miraculous. His entire career could be seen that way. Howe had reached a point where his stats bumped his life story […]

Writing for kids in the summer months used to mean one of two things: letters home from camp or homework assignments for summer school. Thanks to the people who brought you NaNoWriMo and Camp NaNoWriMo, their Young Writers Program includes the juvenile authors in the Summer program. Do you have an aspiring novelist itching for […]

Summer activities for kids can seem like a miracle cure for everything that ails a parent dealing with onslaughts of “I’m bored!” Two weeks after the initial rush of not going to school wears off, everything in the fridge becomes inedible, none of the games in the living room are cool, it’s too hot to […]

The Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky is more than a celebrity museum. It is the manifestation of a vision held by the man who would electrify the world with his athletic prowess, his dedication to his deeply held beliefs, and his determination to achieve greatness on his own terms as a Black man, as […]

The Walking Dead franchise might be a high rotation rerun for fans this summer, but a series of Atlanta-area tours are giving TWD followers new zombie tracking adventures of their own. Want to hunt down the places where Walkers have shambled for the camera? The biggest catch is you have to make your way to […]

It is just past eight on a Friday night. I enter the local Five Below flanked by two friends, one of whom sometimes uses “adulting” as a verb to make a point, the other is just south of 60-years-old and still delights in her own odd mix Sanrio cuteness and stygian goth that includes graphic […]

The top misspelled words by state might come as a surprise, especially as America’s best and brightest grammar school word champs are battling it out in Washington D.C. at the Scripps US National Spelling Bee in a quest to determine whose phonetic skills reign supreme. To celebrate that event, the people who do all the […]

Local farmers markets are a resource for good food choices for more families thanks to the expanded acceptance of relief programs. Participants in programs such as SNAP, WIC, and EBT were formerly limited to what was offered by brick and mortar retailers. Now, they can benefit from the variety of good food offered by local […]

Farmers market etiquette is probably the last thing on many shoppers’ minds as they head for the nearest open air popup to buy locally sourced produce, meat, dairy, and in some places, wares from artisan bakeries and craftspeople. The impersonal nature of big box retail means that most shoppers never encounter the person who actually […]

Fake products for cat lovers are a thing. In case you missed this here’s the scenario: You’re reading your news feed on Facebook or your Twitter and someone posts a video for an item that seems either too good or too weird to be true. The latest is the Catterbox, touted by Temptations lab as […]

Trae Crowder and Darren Knight want you to rethink your assumptions about Southern comedy. Often falling under the umbrella term “Red Neck Comedy,” most audiences associate Crowder’s and Knight’s genre with various configurations of middle aged soccer dads gathered onstage to talk about life, marriage, and where they came from. The prominent voices belonged to […]

The Okee Dokee Brothers want you get outside and take your kids with you. They hope they can lure families to enjoy the great outdoors one folk song at a time. The Minnesota-based folk duo write and perform music that is smart, singable, and friendly to children and the adults who are often captive audiences […]

The 2016 NHL Awards ceremony will take place on June 22, 2016. As in the past, the festivities will happen for the seventh consecutive year in Las Vegas, but this time the setting will be at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, a first for the hospitality franchise. Steve Mayer, who is the NHL Executive […]

Hair color for kids is probably the last thing you thought you would be dealing with this year. One day, your little princess was trotting off to class, the most colorful thing about them being the My Little Pony backpack, then the next thing you know, they want hair in the same hues worn by […]

The people who brought you My Little Pony and Equestria Girls have good news for parents of would-be Disney divas who just can’t seem to let it go. A trio of new releases from Hasbro Studio’s digital media division are making a dent in the lineup of new music for kids just in time for […]

Show caves are one of the survivors of the changing leisure economy. Once considered a side stop on the way to grander destinations on family vacation itineraries, they are now considered by many to be worth the trip in their own right. What Is A Show Cave? True show caves are underground karsts (caves) that […]

The Craft turns 20 this week, and is the subject of a remake — or not. This time, it will be a series rather than a big screen feature, and showrunners claim the 2016 edition is not a remake, but a sequel or reboot with a present-day setting. Douglas Wick, who is producing the series, […]

Absolutely Fabulous is back, complete with a new and returning cast that reads like a guest list of Eddie’s dreams. The big-screen treatment of what might be one of the U.K.’s most enduring Britcom successes is generating buzz on both sides of the Atlantic. A large part of that excitement is the chance to spend […]

Harry Potter had to face more than his share of bullies over the course of seven novels and eight feature films. Throughout all of those adventures, not once did J.K. Rowling dream of setting her protagonist in a cage against an MMA fighter. If an adult Harry were to come face to face with Draco […]

Helen Mirren is often touted as an anomaly. She is the 70-year-old actress who isn’t afraid to speak out about the iniquitous way Hollywood treats women, the septuagenarian who is considered a sex symbol, and an iconoclast who has taken on roles either traditionally played by men or originally written for them. Then there is […]

Tom Hiddleston’s latest round of interviews has offered little in the way of impromptu dancing, the divine campy goodness that BBC chat host Graham Norton enables, and playing up the fact that he is probably the best loved movie villain of the decade. Loki’s beetling brows and moue at the intimation that he’s the less […]

While the biggest controversy surrounding the live-action remake of Ghost in the Shell is the decision to cast Scarlett Johansson as Major Motoko Kusanagi, there might be a bigger disconnect between the source material and the U.S. produced remake. To what degree will the influences and culture that made the now venerable 21-year-old classic a […]

DVDs are often cited as one of the first things to jettison when scaling down a household. Minimalists (including The Minimalists) couch their arguments for losing the DVD collection in terms of the space they occupy, the function or lack thereof as a form of entertainment, and the supposition that they’re quickly becoming obsolete. As […]

Simon Cowell’s first U.S. star-making venture, American Idol, might be gone, but its influence on how the public views the music business is far from forgotten. Over fifteen seasons, the show produced at least three times as many bona fide stars based on their talent and a hand full of personalities who gained notoriety for […]

Andy Cohen has not braved a single globetrotting challenge, walked through the wild naked and afraid, or risked the ire of a presidential hopeful or drug lord, and yet there are viewers who would argue the man deserves hazard pay. Chatting up celebrities week after week might seem like a cushy job. After all, for […]

Is Gwen Stefani a victim of love? Is she powerless when it comes down to the heart wanting what it wants? With troubling chatter already surfacing about Blake Shelton’s wandering eye, maybe it’s time to assess if Ms. Stefani is a modern day Elizabeth Taylor, a woman who was so in love with love that […]

MoMA has always been on the short list of museums and galleries that can be depended upon to reveal glimpses of the future of modern art. This time, the Museum of Modern Art is skipping right to the future with a show devoted to images of a post-apocalyptic China. Multimedia artist Cao Fei’s vision of […]

Netflix fees are set to increase for grandfathered clients starting in May 2016. Customers who were already subscribed to Netflix’s streaming service in May 2014 were given a two-year reprieve from the fee increase. According to Business Insider, this increase will affect 37 percent of Netflix’s client base, meaning that around 17 million households will […]

Libreria sells books. Want to surf the net or send a text on your cell phone while sipping a cup of the trendiest coffee-ish beverage and maybe do a bit of browsing? That’s not the culture at Libreria. Libreria is, after all, a bookshop. They sell books. But, but, coffee! Books. Libreria sells books. You […]

Avant-garde cellist Charlotte Moorman is the subject of a pair of exhibits that chronicle her life and examine the extent of her influence on the modern electronic festival movement. In life, Moorman was a polarizing figure. As a young woman, she left her native Arkansas and a past that included beauty pageants, marriage, and serious […]

NASA is about to send a very welcome BEAM to the International Space Station. This beam is not the latest movie or footage of crew members’ loved ones from home. The BEAM is an inflatable house, properly called a Bigelow Expandable Activity Module. If the prototype sent to the International Space Station is successful, it […]

All thirty Masterton Trophy nominees are in, and now it’s time to see who the Professional Hockey Writers Association thinks “best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey.” Before we meet this year’s crop of hopefuls, let’s get a quick refresher on the history behind the trophy and what it really means […]

For Ian Cheng, art is less about craft as it relates to the manipulation of traditional materials to create tangible items than it is about being in the moment. It is art as sensation, and if Cheng has his way, it will be the next vista for artist. Cheng creates virtual worlds based on narratives […]

Monday Madness at Kettler started off with Washington Capitals team Picture Day. You remember picture day. Your mom sent you to school groomed, clean, and ready for that moment when your visage at that age was set in film for the ages. After a couple of hours of class, crayons, recess, and wrangling the undead […]

Johan Cruyff was one of those athletes who came around at just the right time. He was a proud Dutchman who helped bring his home country to prominence in European football. I know you’re most likely American and you call football “soccer.” At least for this article, I’m going to call it “football” out of […]

Joe Garagiola once said, “Not only was I not the best catcher in the Major Leagues, I wasn’t even the best catcher on my street!” The street in question is Elizabeth Avenue, which is located in The Hill, an Italian-American neighborhood in St. Louis Missouri. The block he lived on is now called “Hall of […]

The Washington Capitals made history by fast-tracking their way to the top of the Eastern Conference and the Metropolitan Conference and securing a playoff berth last night. It looks like Russian enfante terrible turned tribal elder, Alexander Ovechkin, might just get his wish for a day with Lord Stanley’s Cup this year. In a post-game […]

Nudes at an art show are nothing new. However, the figures baring it all are usually hanging on the walls, not hanging out looking at them. On April 9, the Newcastle Art Gallery, an exhibition space in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, will have a special night when the dress code is more of an […]

Got OverDrive? If you have a current library card, it’s a good bet you have access to one of the biggest and most up-to-date electronic libraries and you might not even know it. According to the corporate website at OverDrive, Inc., their app has quite a following. “OverDrive currently hosts more than 2 million premium […]