Two Words, One Answer.
Daisy Fuentes
 Winsor Pilates 5 VHS Set: Bun & Thigh Sculpting, Ab Sculpting, Accelerated Body Sculpting, Basics Step-By-Step, 20 Minute Workout $69.99 VHS 1: In the first part of the program, A.M. Pilates Mat Workout with Pilates master Jillian Hessel (running time: 25 MIN), you wake up and start your day with the gifts of energy and balance. This 25-minute, low-impact mat workout, designed to be performed first thing in the morning, is divided into three separate sections: Breathing: Start with seated warm-up exercises on a chair to align your body rhythm with your breath. Conditioning: Follow through with a series of mat routines to strengthen abs, buttocks, legs, and the "powerhouse" the back and abdominal muscles forming the vital core of the body's strength and its center of gravity. Centering: Conclude with standing exercises to integrate the floorwork into good vertical alignment and healthy posture; VH2: P.M. Pilates (running time: 29:11), an evening workout taught by certified instructor Ana Cabn. This program, which is designed to unwind tense muscles and soothe the nervous system, is divided into Warm-up, Mat Work, and Calm-and-Relax sections. If you have a hectic lifestyle (and who doesn't?), yet want to make sure you get a daily dose of healthy, invigorating exercise, then this two-part fitness video is perfect for you.  America's Funniest Home Videos: The Best Of Kids & Animals $29.99 This three-disk compilation includes as many home videos of kids and animals as you could ask for, including baboons breaking into a car, a frog climbing on a baby's head, a dog peeing on a bride's gown, several videos of kangaroos and wallabies kicking people in the groin (there's a whole subgenre of people being hit or bitten in the groin by balls, goats, geese, etc.), an orangutan trying to tongue-kiss a giggling girl, a bicyclist being pursued by a giraffe, and so much more. And let's face it, lowbrow though it may be, a lot of these videos are funny; when a cat leaps out of the bushes like an attack commando and lands smack on a toddler's face, it's just funny. It's also worth noting that America's Funniest Home Videos is the most racially integrated show on television, thanks to the democracy of home-video technology. Aside from the sheer volume of video clips, The Best of Kids & Animals contrasts the styles of former host Bob Saget and current host Tom Bergeron. Saget was a deeply conflicted man: In his eyes lurks a mixture of self-loathing that he'd stooped so low and glee that he was being paid to do something so completely effortless. Bergeron, on the other hand, is at one with his job; it's as if he can't imagine a more worthy task than introducing a video in which his head has been superimposed over that of a man bitten on the hindparts by a camel. On the Battle of the Best, in which the best videos of the past 12 years (though there are some excellent ones from the 2004 finale, included on the All Animal Extravaganza disk, that somehow didn't make the cut--oh, the injustice of the world), Bergeron moderates a panel of D-list celebrities with Buddha-like serenity, introducing a dog with a barking butt as if it were a presidential address. Inner peace or amoral cynicism? Decide for yourself. --Bret Fetzer |
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