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Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Across The Pond And Beyond: Neighbours

Neighbours.



Some people can't live with them. Others can't live without them.

Some neighbours become best friends, and they often host pool parties, barbecues, and parties as an excuse to socialize. While other neighbours become such a problem that they have the people around them dialing up their nearest real estate agents desperate to move away.

This is the topic of the day for the blog, and as I talk about some of my experiences with my own neighbours, I'll be talking about a show that has been running in Australia since 1985, that ironically has to do with the same subject that I am talking about.



Neighbours is a soap opera in Australia that debuted on March 18, 1985, and over the last 26 years has continued to air story after story, keeping viewers all over the world entertained by either cheering for their favourite couples, or screaming at the television at their favourite baddies. It's a show that has kickstarted the careers of several relevant stars. Kylie Minogue, Natalie Imbruglia, Delta Goodrem, Jesse Spencer, Russell Crowe, and Guy Pearce all had roles on the soap opera, and in many cases, it was their breakout performance.



What made Neighbours different from a lot of soap operas that have aired over the years is the fact that all of the characters lived on the same street. They all lived on a cul-de-sac type neighbourhood called 'Ramsay Street', kind of similar to that of Knots Landing's Seaview Circle. If my research serves me well, it was very unusual for most of the action of a soap opera to take place on the same street. Certainly EastEnders takes place in the neighbourhood of Albert Square, but there are at least four or five different streets in that area. And American soap opera 'The City' (which was a reworking of the soap opera 'Loving') took place largely in a building on Greene Street in New York City, but that serial lasted a little less than a year and a half.

Therefore, Neighbours success is rather unique in that aspect.



Of course, over the years, more and more locations have shown up in the show's setting, the fictional Erinsborough (which is ALMOST an anagram of Neighbours), but the heart of the show is with the neighbours of Ramsay Street. There are six houses in total on the street (22, 24, 26, 28, 30, and 32), and dozens of families have moved into the six houses where they are faced with temptation, lust, envy, and even murder. Some of the houses have stayed the same, while others have burned to the ground and were rebuilt. Whatever the case, there's been a lot of friends and foes on Ramsay Street over the years.

Just like in my case. Sometimes, my neighbours and I were like the theme song for Neighbours...good neighbours becoming good friends. In other cases, my neighbours and I steered clear of each other. In some rare cases, I hated who happened to live near me, and wished I could hop in some hot-air balloon and fly away. But I suppose life would get pretty boring if we all got along with our neighbours.

But, as I said, sometimes, neighbours can become good friends. My experiences with my neighbours at the school residence when I went off to school were mostly positive (aside from a couple of people who were so narcissistic that they couldn't so much as say a simple 'hello' to you as you walked by). It was pretty cool to be able to walk down the hall, and just visit people in their rooms at whatever time of day you wished. Of course, they were student dormitories and not a full-fledged apartment building, but the fact that I had people my age who accepted me for who I was certainly helped me out. I'm sure that some of the teenagers who have lived on Ramsay Street over the years have felt the same way about new teenagers who have moved onto the street. They do the neighbourly thing, and welcome them to the street, and show them around the fun places.

Well, until one of the teens steals another guy's girl, and fights break out. But that's a soap opera world. I never ended up having that happen with me...yet.

Going back to the college experience, I was thrilled to finally have a chance to have neighbours that were fairly close to my age, because in my childhood, I never really managed to have that.

Most of the homes in my earliest childhood years were ones where we only managed to live in a few months at a time. I think a huge part of that was the fact that my parents never had the money to actually buy their own home, so we ended up moving a lot during the first three years of my life. So, I never really had much of an opportunity to know neighbours long enough to actually form any sort of bond with them...good or bad.

The childhood home that I ended up living in from age three to age five was a decent house. And there were a couple of kids who lived two doors down from me that used to play with me all the time. Actually, come to think of it, the neighbourhood that I used to live in at the time was a really nice one. It was by the waterfront, close to the downtown area (which at the time was worth going down to), and the house was a lovely one.

Which is why when the whole neighbourhood was torn down by a greedy developer and all of us were left homeless as a result of this, it broke my heart. I hated to say goodbye to that house, and all the great people who lived near that neighbourhood. All in the name of progress. All in the name of a state-of-the-art shopping plaza that would be built. A state-of-the-art shopping plaza that we've been waiting for now for...oh...about twenty-five years now.

Needless to say, the person who authorized the neighbourhood purge all those years ago owned a furniture shop downtown. A furniture shop my family and I have boycotted ever since. I doubt he misses the business though.

Going back to the television show, Neighbours, a similar fate almost occurred on Ramsay Street.

Keep in mind that I am not Australian, and I've only managed to see a grand total of maybe six episodes of Neighbours total, so a lot of this information about the show is from research that I have done prior to writing this blog entry.



Anyways, one of the main characters on the show (who also happens to be the only original character left from the show's beginning) is Paul Robinson, and at first, he was a fairly decent character, working as a steward for an airline. But then Paul discovered his business side, and started becoming more ruthless and arrogant. He actually was spearheading a plan to bulldoze Ramsay Street to build a supermarket in its place. Fortunately, the plan fell through, and Ramsay Street was spared, although the neighbours never really trusted Paul after that. Over the years, Paul's behaviour grew even more twisted, including embezzlement, womanizing, and he even set fire to a commercial plaza so that he could then buy it back to have more control.

Of course I don't mean to compare Paul Robinson to the person who ripped apart the street that I used to call home. Paul was an over-the-top character. But there were similarities as in both cases, a respected member of the community had an idea that was filled with greed and the idea would end up wreaking havoc in certain areas of the community all for big business. In one case, they were successful in getting what they wanted, but in the end, it was all smoke and mirrors, and nothing came out of the deal.

So from there, I moved to my next home, which is where I spent the most time out of my life. The home itself was huge, but as far as the condition goes, the place was a wreck. Still though, the place was fixed up as best as it could be, and for fourteen years, it was home.

One thing that bugged me about living there though was the lack of children in the area. There wasn't anyone remotely close to my age who lived on my street. Most of the neighbours were elderly (which made sense, since the hospital was a block away), and it was hard for me to find my place there.

Though to their credit, most of the neighbours on that street were kind. There was one lady in particular that I would like to single out. Her name was Sarah, and she lived in house number 30 (my family was in number 11). She was an elderly lady who kept to herself. This was evident every Halloween night, as she would often close her door to trick-or-treaters, so I would often bypass her house on my trick-or-treating route.

The following November 1 (or if Halloween was on a weekend, the following Monday), I would be off to school and Sarah (as if she knew that I was coming) would often be outside to greet me (keeping in mind that in my younger days, my mom would walk me to school). It was there that she would hand me a plastic bag, and inside the bag was a package filled with Halloween candy! She later explained to my mom that she didn't really like the fact that high school kids would come to her door, asking for treats. And actually, I could see what she meant because often if the nearby high school had football practice, they would go trick-or-treating in their football uniforms. Because I was one of the few kids on the street, and because she liked me and my family, she wanted me to have some Halloween treat from her. I thought it was a nice gesture, and I thought she was a one of a kind lady.

There were other neighbours on the street that I mostly liked. The man who lived next door to us at number 15 was a nice guy. The man who lived across the street from us at 12 was an okay guy too, though his wife was kind of nasty with me. Long story there. And don't even get me started on the freaks who lived at 14 and their evil demon dog they called Sparky. I actually threw myself a celebratory party the day they got rid of that nasty, nasty furball.



But, really, the gang on the soap opera Neighbours had all sorts of backgrounds and personalities like the street I lived on. Some of them were really nice, down-to-earth people like the Kennedy family. Some like the Scully family were loud and brash, but deep down inside meant well and had a good heart. And some like the Robinson family had one bad seed right after the other. It was just part and parcel of any neighbourhood that you would have some good and some bad neighbours.

Oh, and like every neighbourhood, there always has to be some gossipy person who cannot leave well enough alone. On Neighbours, the person in question happens to be one Mrs. Mangel. Mrs. Mangel was gossipy and she loved to spread around the secrets of the residents of Ramsay Street and sit back to watch the fallout from the bombshells she dropped. One person she seemed to really get under her skin was Madge Ramsay, and here's a clip of the two of them in a heated argument.



And the only reason why I bring Mrs. Mangel up in this blog is because the conflict she had with Madge greatly resembles some of the conflicts that my current neighbour across the hall seems to have with a lot of the people in my building. She would knowingly cause a lot of problems with her huge mouth, running around the building, spreading half-truths and gossip around. And when the gossip was spread, it got people angry, and while people fought with each other, she sat back and played dumb as to how the gossip had spread in the first place.

Like I said, every neighbourhood has one person like this. Mine is no exception. In my old neighbourhood, the wife of the nice guy at house 12 was that nasty gossip...but of course, I just ignored her. And I ignore the current one, because really, I wouldn't resort to the silly argument between the two of them. Although, looking back on that clip, Mrs. Mangel was all bark and no bite.

Of course, I would like to think that most of us will remember the times in which the neighbours would come together to help someone in need. I can remember during a terrible ice storm that we had back in the winter of 1998 here that the neighbours around my grandfather's place came together to see if he was getting through the storm just fine. I can also remember instances in which our neighbours at 15 and my family would have food exchanges (where he would give us some apples, and we'd give him apple pie...although it dawned on me that maybe he was just doing that TO get the apple pie, but whatever, it was still a nice gesture).

And on Neighbours, people came together on that show through weddings...



...funerals...



...disasters...



...and celebrations.



And really, isn't that what a good neighbour does?

Well...within reason, such as this screenshot from Damn You Autocorrect displays...


Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Outwitting, Outplaying, Outlasting Survivor



Whether you love it or loathe it, many people have likely seen at least one episode of the reality television juggernaut Survivor. The show, which premiered in May 2000 has now visited several different countries, and will be airing the first episode of season twenty-three tomorrow night.



I know what you're thinking, those of you who hate everything to do with reality television are probably baffled that the show has lasted ONE season, let alone 23. I'm honestly a bit surprised that the show has gone on as long as it has myself. But I suppose as long as people watch the show, it will probably continue on as long as host Jeff Probst has a pulse.

I will say that for all the years of repeated challenges, volatile contestants, and luxury and reward challenges that the initial concept of Survivor was a decent one.

Certainly, almost everyone has thought about what they might do if they were ever stranded on a deserted island with nothing but the clothing on their backs. I know I have at times. And yes, there are times and occasions where I wonder if I would be able to survive as long as thirty-nine days on a deserted island (the average length of a full season of Survivor if a contestant makes it to the final round).



Survivor basically takes that 'what if' question and puts it to the test (well, as much as they can take it considering that at the heart of it all, it's still a game show with a million dollar prize at the end). They take no less than sixteen people from all over America in all walks of life and throw them on a deserted, desolate stretch of land. Sometimes, the show takes place on an island nation (like the Marquesas Islands or the Cook Islands), while in other cases, the area is landlocked (such as in the two seasons the show shot in Africa). Regardless, the castaways are left with very little aside from what they are wearing, though in the earliest seasons they were allowed one luxury item.

The people were often divided up into tribes of two (though sometimes they had divided them into four), and each tribe were given a tribal name. On every episode, these two tribes would compete in two separate challenges. The first challenge was usually a reward challenge where the winning tribes would get supplies to help them catch food, build shelter, make fire, or sometimes they were special outings where the tribe members would take part in once-in-a-lifetime outings, like swimming with jellyfish or having a picnic near a volcano.

The second challenge was an immunity challenge. If the tribe won, they were safe from being booted from the game. If not, the whole tribe would go to a ceremony known as 'Tribal Council', where Jeff would poke and prod the castaways into telling him what the dynamic was, and where they were feeling in terms of who they wanted out.

Each of the tribe members would vote on who they wanted out of the game, and the person with the most votes would have their torches snuffed out. Over the years, there have been some twists to the way people are voted out (tie-breaker challenges, the Redemption Island twist) but for the most part, once your torch is out, the tribe has spoken, and you are out.

Halfway through the game, the tribes merge into one larger tribe, and the competition becomes an individual game. The rewards and immunity are still in play, but only one person can win each. The people who make up the merged tribe choose their own tribe name, and go to Tribal Council as a group to vote an individual out. In most cases, these tribe members go on to form the jury that will decide which of the final two (or three) is more deserving of the million dollar prize. Depending on how the jury was voted off, their reactions can range from mild irritation to total disgust, so endgame players would really have to mind their P's and Q's in order to sway the jury in their favour.

The votes were tallied and the winner announced live in front of a studio audience, and the sole survivor would get the million dollar prize.

Over the last 22 seasons (they air two seasons a year, one in February, one in September), there has been hundreds of contestants that have played in the game, and hundreds of moments in the show that range from the brilliant to the bizarre. Some moves were incredible, while others were incredibly stupid. Some rose to the challenge, while others fizzled out. Some tried to play an honourable game, while others told so many lies that they couldn't keep them straight.

So for this blog, I thought I'd reminisce about some of the biggest game-changing moves, the dumbest players ever, and some of the most shocking moments that have aired on this program the last eleven years. After all, I'm sure that there must be some fans of the program who read this blog, right?

Why don't we begin with...

FAMOUS FACES



I'm not just talking about contestants who have appeared on more than one season of Survivor here. I'm talking about contestants who actually kicked off their careers by being on Survivor. There aren't a lot of them who have made it big, but the one that most people would probably recognize is Elisabeth Hasselbeck. She was on season two of the show, which took place in the Australian Outback, and she made it to the final four, despite being so plagued with malnutrition that her hair started falling out. She has since made a name for herself by becoming one of the panelists on the ABC talk show The View. Unfortunately, she has been linked to controversy on the show, and it's hard to forget the argument that she had on the show with Rosie O'Donnell. Still, on Elisabeth's original season, she was nice and sweet, and I was actually wanting her to win that year.  And sometimes, famous faces come onto the show to play as contestants (examples being Gary Hogeboom and Jimmy Johnson).

WHO NEEDS THE BACHELOR?



It seems a bit odd that more couples would find love on Survivor than most of the people who appeared on the Bachelor/Bachelorette show. I mean, after spending 39 days on a deserted island, the last thing I would probably be to someone would be attractive. But yet, the show has spurned a couple of love connections over the years. 'Boston' Rob Mariano and Amber Brkich fell in love during the All-Stars season, and both of them made it to the final two where Rob proposed to Amber. They've been together ever since. Another couple that fell in love that had Survivor ties were Ethan Zohn from Survivor Africa, and Jenna Morasca from Survivor The Amazon (who will be competing on the Amazing Race soon). Even Jeff Probst ended up falling in love with a former contestant (Julie Berry from Vanuatu), but that relationship did not last.

SUE'S 'SNAKES AND RATS' SPEECH

On the very first season of Survivor, we saw Richard Hatch go against Kelly Wiglesworth in the battle for the first million dollar prize, and Sue Hawk was still bitter at Kelly because Kelly betrayed her, which inspired one of the most venomous, hate-filled speeches by a juror. There have been many angry jurors over the years, but Sue set the precedent for the template of angry jurors. You can see her famous speech below.



DON'T TELL JON, HIS GRANDMOTHER'S DEAD...OR IS SHE?

Love him or hate him, Johnny Fairplay (born Jon Dalton) was quite the character on Survivor Pearl Islands. He was sneaky, smarmy, overconfident, and arrogant. He also told a few lies during the course of the game, but none could compare to the lie that he told midway through the season.

It was at a reward challenge. Specifically the reward challenge where the castaways were reunited with each other. The plan was for Jon's grandmother to come onto the show, but instead his friend came on to deliver some tragic news.



So you saw that, right? Where Jon told everyone his grandmother died while they were on the island, and how everyone basically let Jon win the challenge so that his friend could share her final moments with him. It would have been a really sweet moment.

If it were true.

The whole thing was a lie that Jon had arranged prior to the filming of the show as a sort of strategy. It seemed to work, as the remaining castaways felt bad for him, and for leverage, he would tell them that he would swear on his dead grandmother that he was telling the truth.



For the record, the lie was exposed, and Johnny Fairplay did come back to play on the Fans vs. Favorites season, but didn't last long.

QUITTERS NEVER WIN...WINNERS NEVER QUIT

Sometimes on Survivor, the conditions can be treacherous, rough, difficult, and torturous. At some point, I would think that almost every contestant had thought about quitting the game at some point, even if for a microsecond. Most of them seem to manage to get through okay.



Well, unless your name happens to be Osten, Kathy, NaOnka, or Purple Kelly. Those four quit the game for a number of reasons...they couldn't deal with the rain, they didn't like the people, they got chased by pelicans. With so many people wanting the Survivor experience for whatever reason, to have these people walk away from their experience knowing that someone else could have made the most out of their spot is somewhat shameful.



I must note that there are exceptions. Both Jenna Morasca and Sue Hawk had reasonable grounds for walking away from the game during the All-Star season. And that isn't counting all the people who were forced to quit because their bodies quit on them or because of an injury, which brings us to our next moment.

THE FIRST SURVIVOR MEDICAL EMERGENCY

The first Survivor contestant to be evacuated from the game for a medical emergency was Survivor The Australian Outback contestant Michael Skupin. You can see what happened below.



For the record, he had no long-term damage from the accidental burn.

WORST. TRIBE. EVER.



Poor Ulong. Prior to their existance, the tribe with the worst losing streak was the Pagong tribe way back in season one, with all the members getting picked off by the Tagi tribe members after the two tribes merged. At the very least though, Pagong and Tagi were dead even with five members a piece before they became the merged Ruttana tribe.

At least until the Ulong tribe came along in Survivor Palau.

Initially, there were nine members on each tribe after Jonathan and Wanda the singing Survivor were sent home after not getting chosen for either tribe. The Ulong tribe was in blue, Koror in brown.

Before the merge happened, there were eight Tribal Councils. One of them was a double-elimination. Willard from Koror was one of the eliminated contestants.

The other eight were from the Ulong tribe.

One by one, each of the Ulong tribe members were voted out because the tribe lost EVERY FREAKIN' IMMUNITY CHALLENGE. Every single one. The tribe was unable to form a coherent bond like Koror did, and as a result, each member was voted off. The only survivor of Ulong by the time the merge happened was Stephenie LaGrossa. By then, Stephenie's fate was more or less sealed, although she did manage to outlast Janu and Coby before being voted out.

Stephenie and her tribemate Bobby Jon Drinkard were invited back for the following season to compete (where Stephenie placed second), but neither one of them will forget their time on the tribe that lost the most challenges in a row.

GOODBYE ROTU, HELLO FINAL TWO!



By the time the merge occurred on Survivor Marquesas, the self-dubbed Rotu 4 (Tammy, Robert, John, Zoe) were well on their way to becoming the final four players. With Paschal and Neleh firmly on their side, and Kathy, Sean, and Vecepia clearly on the outs, the Rotu 4 thought that they were invincible, and acted quite cocky about it.

So cocky that they made no attempts to hide their desired pecking order. During a reward challenge, where the player had to answer questions and cut the ropes of opponents eliminating them from the competition, they made their move. They eliminated Sean first, followed by Vecepia, Kathy, Neleh, and Paschal. And when Tammy won the challenge, the Rotu 4 made such a big show of celebrating their victory that Neleh seemed to think that there was more to their celebration.

In fact, Neleh cleverly deduced that the Rotu 4 were telling them the order in which they planned to vote everyone out so that they could win the game...and Neleh was NOT settling for sixth place.

Convincing Paschal and Kathy of this theory was simple enough, but Neleh knew that she needed Sean and Vecepia to join up with them to have the numbers to go after the Rotu 4. Once they had their numbers, they teamed up against their first victim, John, and voted him out with the Rotu 4 in complete shock. Zoe, Tammy, and Robert were quickly snuffed out after that.

This was a pretty powerful move by Neleh, but it helped bring both her and Vecepia to the final two. For the record, Zoe understood Neleh's plan, and held no grudges, but the other three jurors...wow...they certainly played the Sue Hawk angry juror card against Neleh.

ROGUES GALLERY

There are some Survivors that just end up irritating a person for whatever reason. Whether it's because they aggravate their fellow castaways or viewers themselves, they somehow end up making the show. You already know about Johnny Fairplay, but here's a few more examples of these rogues.



RICHARD HATCH

Richard was the first winner of Survivor, but how he got there wasn't without controversy. He walked around nude and made no apology about it (his nudity triggered Sue Hawk's exit from the All-Stars season, matter of fact), and he was very arrogant and hard to stomach. But if there is one lesson we can learn from Richard Hatch it's this...if you win the million dollars, PAY THE TAXES! He's been in and out of prison as a result of this missed step.



JERRI MANTHEY

Probably one of the first female villains of the whole series, Jerri managed to manipulate her tribe into getting rid of Kel when she fabricated a lie that he smuggled beef jerky into the game.  She also played mind games with Colby and she tried to scheme her way further into the game with her wicked ways.  Although she has softened in return appearances, she is still worth mentioning because she was the first in a long line of people who flirted their way to endgame (Parvati Shallow, for instance).



RUSSELL HANTZ

In the last five seasons of Survivor, Russell Hantz has played on three of those five seasons, and has lost every single time. In two of those seasons, he ended up making it to the finals, but it was hard to feel sorry for him since he was already a millionaire, and since he had the idea that people would respect him for his bold moves and not his personality. Which is why Natalie and Sandra ended up beating him in the finals of the two seasons he did make it to the final three. I'm not saying that Russell was a terrible player who made terrible moves. As a game player, he was brilliant. But one needs a great social game to have a shot as well, and while Richard Hatch managed to balance these factors out, Russell couldn't do this. We'll see if his nephew can do much better, as Brandon Hantz is one of the contestants in the newest season.

PHILLIP SHEPPARD

Every time I think of him, I have the song 'Secret Agent Man' playing through my head. Though, with a question mark after that occupation every time you saw the typeface under an interview session. Phillip from Survivor Redemption Island was one of the craziest Survivors ever. Phillip would tell you that his crazy behaviour was all an act, and maybe it was. At least I hope so, because his allegations of racism against his tribemates and his volatility towards the females of the tribe certainly didn't win him any favours.



Did I mention that he wears tighty-pinkies? Nothing wrong with that, I suppose, as you can buy men's underwear in almost every colour under the sun. But, I doubt that I myself would be caught wearing pink briefs (unless there was some mishap involving a red sock in the wash), and I'm sure his tribemates didn't appreciate his choice in undergarments either...especially after 38 straight days without laundering them. Yuck!

ON THE FLIP SIDE...



I was such a fan of Rupert Boneham. I even had him in the Heroes vs. Villains Survivor pool at work. I think part of the charm of Rupert was that he was clearly at his element. He loved fishing, collecting wood, building things. That, plus he had such a childlike way of looking at the world. Very refreshing to watch. Especially on his original season. How could you forget him stealing the shoes of the other tribe and using them to get more supplies for their own tribe during their shopping excursion at a remote village before the game began?

Whether you love it or you hate it, Survivor has been on the air a long time, and while some feel it has passed its best before date, others can't get enough of it.

Because ultimately, the show provides a valuable lesson in self-preservation, as well as a life lesson against those who stand in your way of getting your dreams.

Outplay. Outwit. Outlast.

And now, one final moment.


Monday, September 12, 2011

Monday Matinee: Dominick and Eugene

How many of you reading this blog entry have a twin brother or sister? Or, how many of you have wanted a twin brother or sister? Maybe you have family members that are twins, or maybe you went to school with a set of twins.

I have to say that I always thought that it would have been cool to have a twin, at least in some cases. You'd have someone who looked just like you (well, unless you were fraternal twins, or twins of the opposite gender like the Walsh twins from Beverly Hills 90210), and you'd always have someone your own age close by. You would get to experience things both apart or together. If you were lucky enough to be identical twins, imagine the fun that you could have switching places with each other.

There are some downsides that I would imagine that would be present in being a twin. You'd never get your own birthday cake...in all likelihood, you would have to share with your twin. In fact, I would imagine that in a lot of cases, twins would have to share a lot of things, which could end up being a good thing or a bad thing.

Still, with approximately 32 out of every 1,000 births being twins, it's a fair bet to say that we've encountered at least one set of twins in our lives. In elementary school, there was a set of twin girls in the grade above me, and I knew a couple of sets of twins during my college years. In the media, there are lots of other famous twins that one might have seen. These include Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Tia and Tamera Mowry, Cole and Dylan Sprouse, and Robin and Maurice Gibb.

This blog entry features a set of twins that are in a movie. Twins that while they are completely different in all aspects of life still hold a very special bond. A bond that strengthens over time, and a bond that will never break.



The movie Dominick and Eugene was released on December 23, 1988. The film starred Tom Hulce as Dominick and Ray Liotta as Eugene. I can remember seeing this movie for the very first time on TVOntario's Saturday Night At The Movies, and the movie was so good, and so powerful that it became the inspiration behind this particular piece.

Dominick and Eugene are twin brothers who live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They are the same age, they have the same last name, and they both live in the same apartment. And that is where the similarities between these twins seemingly end.



Eugene is on the fast track to a rich, fulfilling life. He's studying to become a doctor, and he is sailing through medical school. There is one problem though. In order to continue his education so that he can become a full-fledged doctor, he will have to leave Pittsburgh to complete his studies. The reason why this is a problem is because he will have to leave Dominick behind, and he's not entirely sure that he's able to take care of himself.

This is where we see the main difference between Dominick and Eugene. Something happened to Dominick in his younger years, and as a result of this, Dominick's development has been much different than Eugene's. Whereas Eugene has gotten through life without much difficulty, Dominick's mind seems to be more childlike in nature. He sees things the same way as that of a young boy, and has difficulty grasping adult concepts. Regardless of this, Dominick had managed to secure himself a job working as a garbage collector. His co-worker Larry (Todd Graff) becomes a really good friend to Dominick, although he sometimes plants wild thoughts into Dominick's head, which sometimes leads to trouble later on.



The relationship between Dominick and Eugene is well-established within the first 30 minutes of the movie. Dominick's job helps him earn the money needed for Eugene to complete his educational needs, while in turn, Eugene takes care of Dominick's basic needs. Still, with Eugene being forced to leave Pittsburgh to secure the future that he ultimately wants for himself, he isn't sure of what will happen to Dominick.

So this becomes our major conflict in the film. How can Eugene have peace of mind knowing that he'll be leaving behind the brother that he has looked after practically their whole lives?

This major conflict is eventually resolved one way or another, but in order to get to that point, we have to watch the minor conflicts get ironed out first. As it so happens in this movie, all of the minor conflicts end up merging together into one neat and tidy conclusion at the end, which basically sets the stage for the resolution of the major conflict...but I'll get to that a little later.



We have minor conflict number one. Eugene developing feelings for a nurse who works at the same hospital that he does. Jennifer (played by Jamie Lee Curtis), and Eugene start hanging out more as Eugene helps her study for exams. Although what happens between Eugene and Jennifer is innocent, Eugene finds himself falling for the young nurse. Unfortunately for Eugene, Dominick's friend Larry is telling him that Eugene and Jennifer are sleeping together, which makes Dominick upset. After a night out with Larry, Dominick drunkenly confronts Eugene and Jennifer, and accuses Eugene of sleeping with her. The accusation causes Eugene to violently shove Dominick, and he angrily tells Dominick to go to bed. Jennifer is insulted at first, but gradually begins to resume her friendship with Eugene, as well as starting up a friendship with Dominick as well.

Then we have minor conflict number two. This one involves Dominick's route as a garbage collector. Though, it didn't exactly start there.

On the night of Dominick and Eugene's birthday, Dominick is looking forward to celebrating with his brother, but unfortunately Eugene is held up at the hospital and cannot make it home in time. Dominick is very disappointed, but Larry promises to take him to the Wrestlemania event that he and Eugene had originally planned to see. Of course, Larry was never known for being one to stick to the plan, and instead of seeing the Wrestlemania event, they end up at the home of Mrs. Vincent, who Larry occasionally has intimate relations with. While Larry and Mrs. Vincent have fun inside, Dominick decides to wait outside until Larry is finished. This turns out to be a decision that pushes the plot forward, for Dominick meets a new friend. It turns out to be a young boy named Mikey, whose family lives next door to Mrs. Vincent. Mikey ends up being a lot like Dominick in that they both think the same, they both love comic books, and they both have similar interests.



Dominick notices that Mikey has bruises over his face, and he asks Mikey where he got them from. Mikey lies and says that he just fell, and that's how he ended up getting bruised. In reality, Mikey is the victim of child abuse caused by a parent, as Mikey's father frequently abuses him. But because Dominick sometimes has difficulty distinguishing fact from fiction, he believes Mikey when Mikey tells him that he fell.

So we have our two minor conflicts here, and while one of them has more or less a happy ending (the one featuring Eugene and Jennifer), the one involving Mikey ends up to be not so happy. In fact, it's probably one of two defining moments in the whole movie.

Setting the stage up for this moment is when Dominick, Eugene, Jennifer, and a neighbour go on a picnic and Dominick brings his dog along with them. When the dog is hit by a car during the picnic, it greatly disturbs Dominick. Why this is the case, we aren't made clear of...at least not yet.

A few days after this, Dominick is working, and he is at Mikey's house throwing the garbage from outside into the truck when he happens to come across a rather disturbing sight. Through one of the front windows of Mikey's house, Dominick sees Mikey being beat up by his father, and is absolutely horrified when Mikey's father throws him down a flight of stairs, knocking him unconscious. As Mikey's father runs down the stairs to call 911, Dominick is frozen in terror and fear. When Larry tries to ask Dominick what the matter is, Dominick is too shaken up to say a word, especially after Mikey's father spies Dominick staring at him through the window. When Mikey's father is questioned over what happened, he lies, saying that Mikey fell accidentally.

But Dominick knew the truth. And Mikey's father knew it.

Despite the quick reaction time from the 911 call, Mikey ends up dying from the injuries sustained by the fall down the stairs. Dominick, still inconsolable from what he witnessed, goes to the hospital to find out what happened, but he is intercepted by Mikey's father, who drags him into a closet. He cruelly tells Dominick that Mikey is dead, and threatens to kill him if he ever tells anyone about what really happened to Mikey.

This prompts Dominick to flee the hospital in fear. However, in a moment of clarity for Dominick, he realizes that it is too late for him to save Mikey. It is however not too late for him to save Joey (Mikey's younger brother) from his father's rage. Stealing a gun that Larry kept on him for killing junkyard rats, he sneaks into the the home of Mikey's parents and takes Joey by gunpoint, believing that he is protecting Joey from getting abused like Mikey.

This leads to Eugene and Jennifer racing to get to Dominick to talk him into returning Joey before Mikey's father ends up reaching him.



I will not reveal the conclusion to this storyline, because as you know, I never spoil endings to movies featured on the Monday Matinee. After all, these films are sometimes personal recommendations from me for you to see. And I do recommend this film because it really is one of those underrated movies that has a great plot and great acting.

I will say this though. The ending reveals why Dominick is so affected by violence...and it also reveals how Dominick ended up the way that he did, and why Eugene felt tremendous guilt by it all.

In fact, here's a confession for all of you. It takes a great deal for me to become so emotionally involved in a movie that I end up shedding tears at the end. And this movie's ending had me literally reaching for a box of Kleenex. It's filled with so much emotion that you can't help but feel moved by this film.

A film about two twin brothers who sacrificed a lot in their own lives to help the other one live.


Sunday, September 11, 2011

9/11/2001 - Where Were You When The World Stopped Turning?

Musically, I can't say that I've ever really been a fan of the genre known as country music.

To me, country music was always that twangy stuff that my parents and grandparents listened to. The songs where the artists who sang them kept moaning about how their wife left them and how their dog left them, and how they lost their truck, house, horse, etc. I can imagine that classic country music did have its place, and I admit that the genre is strong enough to have its fans (like every member of my family that happens to be over the age of fifty), but I'm sorry, I just cannot get into a lot of the earliest versions of it. It makes me cringe.

That being said, I'll also make a bit of a confession, especially with us being in what I consider to be one of the weakest creative periods of the music industry in recent years (at least according to my opinion). Some of the current country songs are quite powerful, emotional, and tell a story far better than anything that is being released by some of the artists considered to be Top 40.

I mean it too. If you take any country music song that was released over the past ten years, a lot of them really grab you, and make you feel all sorts of emotions. From feel good songs, to break-up songs, to empowerment songs, there really is a song for everyone out there. I actually shudder to admit this, but a lot of the stuff that they currently play on country radio, I'm actually beginning to enjoy.

This coming from the man who used to drown out his parents country radio by blasting Garbage, Barenaked Ladies, and R.E.M. from his stereo in high school.

My parents listened to it constantly. I almost think that my parents may have cried real tears when I was born because my birthday just happened to be on the same day as George Strait's. My parents would constantly be listening to Alabama, Randy Travis, Trisha Yearwood, Reba McEntire, and Dolly Parton all the time.

(Though admittedly, I find Reba and Dolly to be AWESOME! There. I said it.)



One artist who used to really annoy me in the country world that my parents absolutely adored was Alan Jackson. I don't know if it was the fact that his songs were annoyingly catchy, or whether they had terrible song titles (I mean, seriously, what kind of song title is 'Don't Rock The Jukebox'?), or whether they played his albums in the car 76,291 times in my lifetime. For years and years, Alan Jackson was a bit of a thorn in my side, because for years, it seemed like I could not get away from him or his music. Ever.

That all changed in the year 2001.

In fact, quite a LOT of things changed for millions of people in 2001. Specifically on one particular September morning.



It seems unfathomable to me that it has been ten years since the devastating terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington DC on the eleventh of September, 2001. Of course, back on that day, the idea of airplanes crashing into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon seemed unfathomable as well.



Three thousand people ended up losing their lives in the attacks, which saw four airplanes being hijacked by terrorists, and using the airplanes as deadly weapons against well-known landmarks in the United States. Two of the planes smashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, both of them collapsing as a result. A third plane crashed into the Pentagon. The fourth plane, Flight 93, was hijacked as well, but ended up crashing in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania when the passengers on that flight attempted to take control back from the hijackers.

Ten years later, on the site where the World Trade Center once stood, a new complex is being built, with one building called the Freedom Tower currently under construction. Many of the survivors of those who lost their lives on that day have moved on with their lives as best as they possibly can, but like anyone who witnessed the day's events unfold as it happened, it's a day that nobody will ever forget.

As it so happened, this links to my opening paragraph about country music, and how I brought up Alan Jackson in particular. Alan Jackson ended up being moved and affected by the 9/11 attacks enough to want to write a song about the tragedy. He was conflicted about how to go about it. He knew that he wanted the song to have a powerful, yet positive message, and really wanted to honestly express how he and other people felt about the attacks, but didn't want to make it too patriotic or too vengeful. Considering the raw emotions and heartbreak that followed the devastation of that day, this would prove to be a real challenge for Jackson, who prior to the 9/11 attacks had written and performed mostly feel-good songs.

A few weeks after the attacks, while he slept, he kept hearing a melody, with the opening lines and chorus running through his head. Waking up at four o'clock in the morning with the lyrics, he jumped out of bed to find a handheld tape recorder and sang them into the recorder so that he wouldn't forget them. Later that same day, with the chorus and opening lines in place, he sat down and started composing the lyrics to the song.

Alan Jackson managed to finish the song that day, but felt uneasy about recording the track. He didn't want to be seen as someone who wanted to capitalize on a devastating tragedy. But with the blessing of his wife and his record producer, he ended up doing just that, and the song ended up on his 2002 album 'Drive'.

On November 7, 2001, the CMA Awards were to be broadcast on CBS, and Alan Jackson was a scheduled performer at the show. He was originally intending on performing the song 'Where I Come From', but at the last minute, the decision was made for him to sing the new song he had written in tribute of the 9/11 attacks. And so, on that night, Alan Jackson debuted this powerful and moving single.



ARTIST: Alan Jackson
SONG: Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning)
ALBUM: Drive
DATE RELEASED: November 26, 2001
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #28
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD COUNTRY CHARTS: #1

The song ended up getting Alan Jackson a standing ovation at the awards ceremony, and when the song was officially released on November 26, it immediately shot to the top of the country music charts. Even ten years after the fact, it remains one of Alan Jackson's most remembered and loved songs in his whole career.



So, let's take the main question in his song, and ask it here.

Where were you when the world stopped turning that September day?

I can tell you exactly where I was. And I can tell you that my story is filled with a lot of tragic irony in a sense.

On September 11, 2001, I had woken up early that day. I think it must have been around 8:00am. I was a young man of twenty back on that day, attending classes at a university campus in Ottawa, Ontario. That particular day, I had a film studies class at approximately 10:30 that morning, so I had some time to kill. My film studies class luckily enough was in the same building as the journalism department, and that building happened to have a student computer laboratory there. Since I didn't own a computer at that time, and since the Internet was free for university students to use at any time, I figured that I would spend some time at the lab while I waited for class to start.

So, I happened to come across a forum for a website I used to visit called Yesterdayland, which was a site that celebrated retro fads from various eras. Kind of almost like what this blog is trying to do in a way. Only this blog is a lot more personal.

Anyways, the one thing that I couldn't get over was how unseasonably warm it was in Ontario, Canada that morning. It was September 11, and it was already in the upper 20s in Celsius for temperature (and yes, in Canada we measure our temperatures in Celsius, and don't even ask me to convert that to Fahrenheit, as I don't do well with scientific math). I was in shorts and a T-shirt.

The weather was absolutely beautiful. Warm temperatures. Sunny day. Just beautiful.

It was so beautiful that I decided to talk about it. So, that particular day, I posted the forum question 'Isn't today a beautiful day?'

It seemed like such an innocent question at the time. Nothing too out of the ordinary. I even got a couple of responses to the topic, saying that they wished they had a window to see the beauty of the day, or how they needed coffee, and how other posters had told the coffee drinkers to stop being drama queens. You know, silly things like that. It all seemed so innocent...

...but here is where the tragic irony takes place.

That message that I posted about it being a beautiful day had the time stamp of 8:45 am Eastern Standard Time.

Less than one minute later, another poster had popped up with a thread of her own. This thread was more direct, to the point, and much different in tone than the one that I had posted just seconds earlier.

The post read 'World Trade Center Attacked'.

That's when I figured out that the day that was once beautiful would not end that way.

So after reading that post, I attempted to find out some more news on the attack, but almost all of the news sites at the time were so heavily bogged down with traffic that some sites actually crashed. I managed to get on Yahoo's main news page briefly to see the pictures of the World Trade Center on fire, but when I tried to click on the links, the site continued to crash.



I then realized that if I was going to follow this news story, the best place to be was Yesterdayland's web forum.  It was on that forum that we learned about the additional attacks on the Pentagon, as well as the fate of Flight 93.

Immediately, the one thing that I did notice was the absolute panic and fear that a lot of the members had. Keep in mind that the forum was comprised of hundreds of people from various areas all over the world. In fact, there were quite a few people from both the New York City area as well as the Washington DC area that a lot of us were incredibly worried about. I can even remember one person who visited the forum quite frequently who actually worked on the 95th floor of one of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, and we had absolutely no idea if he was there or not. Luckily, he was nowhere near the building at the time of the attacks, but it was of great comfort knowing that people from all over the world came together to see if everyone was all right, and seeing if there was anything that they could do.

Despite the sadness of the day in general, it was really great to see so many people come together in the wake of a huge tragedy such as 9/11. It really made one realize that we could all put aside our differences with each other and really bond with each other in hopes that we could somehow make sense of what happened.

I actually got so caught up in what was unfolding on the Yesterdayland forum that I almost ended up missing the class that I was supposed to take at 10:30. By then, the journalism students were gathered around the television on the second floor lounge watching the whole thing unfold, and watching in horror as the towers of the World Trade Center broke apart before their frightened and horror-filled eyes.

It's an image that I will never forget.

As it turned out, our film studies class was cut short because of the attacks, so after the class ended, the first thing I did was log back onto Yesterdayland, to keep updated on what was happening. The residents of New York City and Washington DC really were up to the minute on the news, and through them, we learned that all of our members in those areas were accounted for, and we got up-to-date information on what was happening minute by minute a lot quicker than MSNBC, CNN, or any of the major networks. It was absolutely fascinating to see in such a bittersweet way.

One other thing that I can remember about that day was the vast variety of emotion that people felt as it was happening. There was anger from a lot of people, wanting to seek justice against those who caused the tragedy, and who wanted some form of revenge against it. There were similarly other people who thought that revenge was not a valid solution, and that they wouldn't want anything like that to happen to anyone else. Sometimes these conflicting opinions could cause some of the people on the forum to clash with one another, but as more news came out from the locations of the attacks, and more and more people logged on from the areas to let everyone know that they were okay, the conflicts were squashed fairly quickly.

Mostly though, there was a lot of sadness. Sadness for the family members of those who lost their lives. Sadness for the children who would grow up without their parents. Sadness for the whole world.

September 11, 2001 was a day that anyone who lived through it couldn't possibly forget. It will forever be a date that will be in history textbooks for years, decades, and even centuries to come. Whether you were in the heart of the disaster, or thousands of miles away watching the coverage on television, it really did affect all of us in the world in many different ways.

I know that it opened up something inside me. And I knew that people would be inspired by a whole Internet forum coming together to support each other, check in to see if all members were accounted for, and to just be there for each other during that day.

As I had expressed a desire to write for my school newspaper, I figured that this would be a great piece for the newspaper. I wanted it to be an article that talked about the tragedy of the attacks, but also provided some positivity in the fact that this event could bond so many people together. As terrible as that day was to so many people, it was a really beautiful thing to see.

I knew that I wanted to capture that in an article.



So, three weeks after the attacks, on October 2, 2001, my article for the school newspaper on how the Internet came together to support each other on that day was published. I have the article up above this paragraph, but I regret that it is hard to read because the pictures automatically shrink to fit the parameters of the text boxes. Basically how I went about the creation of the article was simple copying and pasting quotes typed in by various members and using them to illustrate points that I wanted to bring forth. One quotation really stood out for me was the one that I concluded the article with.

Everyone has different ways of dealing with their pain...we just need to stay positive.”

And that is exactly what we need to do. In the first few weeks after the 9/11 attacks, I think for the most part, we all were lost and left wondered what anyone had done to justify the destruction that the attacks left behind. But on a brighter note, I think that people in general (especially in the United States, where all of the attacks took place) started being kinder, and more respectful towards each other. I think that the tragedy had every potential to rip everything apart, but it is to everybody's credit that it ended up making people stronger. It made people stand together to make sure that they were not going to let this tragedy stop them from living.

It's hard to say what this tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks will bring. There are some who vowed to never forget what happened, and others who don't want to be forced to have to relive what happened.   But I am the type of person who wants to make this a positive blog with mostly positive feelings. I don't want to make this an anger piece or a piece where I point fingers of blame towards anybody. There's too many news sources and personal blogs that do enough of that as it is.

Instead, I wanted to do with this blog entry the same thing that I attempted to do ten years ago with that article I wrote for my school newspaper. I wanted to try and make sense of this tragedy just like everyone else in the world, and I wanted to do it in a way that brought even a glimmer of hope to people that they would come out of this tragedy a little stronger than before.

I just hope that in both cases, the message came through.