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Wednesday, January 18, 2012

A Bunch Of Munsch

I grew up in a small town. I still live in a small town. Some are perfectly okay with small-town living, and find a way to live a rewarding and meaningful life in a small town.

As for me...I'm not going to sugarcoat things. Living in a small town wasn't exactly the most pleasant experience for me. Even now, with the town slightly bigger than it was a child, I'm still not one hundred per cent in love with small town life. I think mostly because of the fact that it seems that in smaller towns, everyone knows your business, and if they don't, they try to get the information that they want through the various gossips who seem to be there for everything.

Then again, I have a blog, and I use it to open up my world, so maybe I shouldn't really complain too much. At least on here, I have control over what I wish to say, so that could be the difference.

Still, the idea of growing up in a small town does have its perks as well as its flaws.  

Allow me to share with you one of those perks.  

There's a building located at the end of our downtown core in town. Our town's arts center. At that building, there were concerts, stand-up comics, operas, plays...it even doubled as a movie theater during the period in which our town was left without one between 2001 and 2006.

That arts center happens to be the place where some of my fondest childhood memories took place.

When a stage company put on a performance of 'Charlotte's Web' (which I talked about one week ago today), I was there, and I loved it. A year later, we went to see a performance of the classic novel 'Winnie The Pooh'. We also had a couple of instances where during our French class, we went to the arts center to see a performance by a children's entertainer where the whole performance was done in French. So, not only did we get to see concerts, but we ended up seeing them in two different languages!

I even ended up on the stage of the arts center...though to be fair, I was with the elementary school concert band at a music festival as part of a school entry. I still made it to the stage.

So, why would I bring up our little town arts center in this blog entry?

Simple. The subject of this blog entry is someone who I actually saw at our arts center way back in early 1990. I was just barely nine years old at the time, and yet I remember it as if it were yesterday. I even got to meet the person who I got to see at our arts center...my first brush with celebrity, if you will.

The person in question is a beloved children's author who is hugely popular in Canada and the United States. He came to the arts center to tell stories that he had written to a large crowd of children and their parents (as well as making up impromptu stories on the fly).  He was an author who was well-liked by everyone I went to school with, and his books were almost always hard to find in our school library since they kept getting checked out as fast as they were returned.

An author who not only delighted us with stories, but also stayed behind to meet with every single child who took the time to come and see him on stage.

I was one of those lucky kids who managed to meet him.  Although it was over twenty years ago, it was definitely one of the highlights of my whole life thus far. He was polite, friendly, and even called me by name. You could tell that he was really interested in getting to know every single one of his fans, and I'll never forget that day as long as I live. 

That author is Robert Munsch.



Robert Munsch is an author whom I wanted to do a blog entry on for a long time. I don't know why I even waited until 2012 to do it. The man is a creative genius as far as I'm concerned.  Robert Munsch has been one of the main influences in my choice to try and pursue a career in writing myself (though admittedly he has had far more success in the craft than I have had).

Of course, Robert Munsch has been writing stories longer than I've been alive. There's plenty of time, right?

Robert Munsch is widely considered to be one of the most well-known and successful children's authors of all time, and millions of children have probably read at least one of his books. There was even a television series that aired on CTV called 'Bunch of Munsch' (which is where the title of this entry came from). You can see the intro below this paragraph.



While Robert Munsch was at his creative peak with his books, he was also battling a few personal problems in his own life...but we'll get to that a little later.

First the basics, and as it turns out, his official website provides us with a lot of information. Born in 1945 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he was one of nine children. It seemed as though Munsch had a rather typical upbringing, and had some decent relations with his siblings. Sure, one of them kicked Robert in the mouth one day after he got his braces removed, but such was life for someone with nine siblings.  It does however make me feel happy that I only had two, I have to say.

One thing that really shocked me though was just how much my life sort of paralleled with Robert Munsch's. Robert Munsch had stated that he almost flunked first grade. In my case, I too was almost held back in first grade. Though to be fair, in Robert's case, he openly admits to not being a great academic success. In my case, it was because my first grade teacher openly made my life a living hell on earth.

Another comparison between us? Well, Robert stated that he had always felt like the 'weird' kid. I often felt like I was the weird and misunderstood kid no matter what class (or school) I was in.

On top of all that, Robert Munsch had said that when he was in high school, he didn't exactly get along with most people there. He was more content reading books. And you really don't want me to get into how much I despised going to high school, mostly because I had a very low opinion of quite a few of my high school classmates.

But the way I handled it differs from the way that Robert Munsch initially handled it. In my case, I threw myself into the world of writing, figuring that if I couldn't live the life I wanted to live at the time, I could write myself a better one, so to speak. Initially, Robert Munsch wanted to become a Jesuit priest!

So, how did Munsch end up switching his career path from the priesthood to the writer's studio?

It all began when he did some volunteer work at an orphanage while he was studying to become a priest. After just a short time working at the orphanage, he had a sort of epiphany that he was somehow supposed to find a way to find a career where he made children happy, as he adored children. So, he got a job working in daycare, and during this time took some additional classes in child studies at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. At that school, he had gotten a job placement at a preschool classroom where he made up a story for the circle time period about a boy who would rather sing all day and all night instead of going to bed.



That story later became the basis for one of Munsch's earliest books, 'Mortimer'.

It soon became clear that Robert Munsch had some sort of talent in entertaining children through his stories, and over the course of a decade, he had gotten married, moved to Canada, and continued to come up with more and more hilarious tales which children enjoyed.

And Munsch's stories seemed to get a lot of attention from his colleagues that he worked with, one of which happened to be the wife of his boss who happened to be the librarian of a children's library. She insisted that Munsch record his stories and send them off to get them published. He didn't listen at first, but after constant prodding (plus a forced sabbatical by his boss at the time), he submitted ten stories, suitable for publishing purposes. Nine were rejected.



The tenth one was a story called 'Mud Puddle', which would eventually become Munsch's first published work. It sold roughly three thousand copies during its first year. By the tenth year it was on the market, it had its best sales yet.

I guess in one way, this is another connection that I share with Robert Munsch. We're both kind of stubborn and we tend to tune people out whenever they give advice. In Robert's case, it worked out to his favour that he took a chance on the advice. Maybe I should look at him by example in reference to my own life. What do you think?

At any rate, Robert Munsch has written a total of fifty-four books in his writing career so far, and is wildly popular in his own right. And, this is despite a 2010 admission that for years, he battled OCD and manic-depression, and Robert has openly admitted that he has endured a battle with drugs and alcohol as a sort of coping mechanism to deal with it. Of course, watching him on stage twenty-two years ago, you'd never know it. He was in a great mood, he was happy, he treated the kids in the audience like gold...there was no sign that anything was even wrong with him.

If anything, Robert Munsch being so candid and honest about the struggles that he had to go through in his own life only makes him MORE of a role model to look up to. It shows that anybody can have struggles in life...even a famous children's author like Robert Munsch. For him to rise above those struggles and take his life back, even if it did take years, is nothing short of inspirational. I just hope that by him coming forward with what he had to go through, it will help others who might be suffering in silence seek out treatment to help themselves.

Besides, all of the work he has done promoting his name and his brand far outweighs any dark aspects to his past. 


Did you know that he would often get letters from children all over the world asking him to visit their schools to read them stories? And more often than not, he would respond by going to these schools for an unannounced visit? To see the delight on all of the kids faces when they saw that their letters not only got answered, but their wishes granted on top of that? That had to have been an awesome sight to behold!

Robert Munsch would also travel around the country of Canada to do tours (one reason why he came to my little arts center in my small town), and while he was on tour, he would forego the hotel rooms to stay with a family that lived in the town he was currently in. He loved interacting with families in their homes because not only did it save him some money, but he actually got a lot of inspiration from the people who lived in the homes. 'Moira's Birthday', for instance, was written after he stayed with a family in the Northwest Territories.

He'd even take it one step further when Scholastic Book Clubs issued a contest for schools to enter where the winner would have Munsch visit their classroom. The teachers had assumed that he'd drop by the school for an hour and tell them stories. Instead, he told the teacher to pick two random names out of a hat, and those two lucky students would have Robert Munsch as a houseguest for at least one day. Who knows how many stories Robert was inspired to write as a result of this?

Even some of Munsch's stories had some awesome themes to them. Granted, some of them were silly fun, as in the case with 'Thomas' Snowsuit', where at some point every character in the book ends up in their underwear. Still, there were some stories that had fantastic morals and life lessons.



Take his 1980 book 'The Paper Bag Princess', one of my all-time favourites. You have Princess Elizabeth, a beautiful, yet spoiled, princess with a lavish wardrobe, more shoes than Imelda Marcos, and hair that Fabio would be jealous of. She was engaged to be married to the practically perfect Prince Ronald. Along came a fire-breathing dragon to spoil their plans. Not only does he kidnap Prince Ronald, but he burns down Elizabeth's castle, turning all her possessions into ashes, and covering our pretty princess with disgusting black soot. By the end of the carnage, all Elizabeth can find to wear is a brown paper bag. Still, when your truest love is in danger, one can't afford to be choosy, so she set off with the paper bag dress to rescue her love.

And after tricking the very dragon that destroyed her home and possessions, and purposely draining his energy so that he'd be too tired to retaliate, Elizabeth rescues Ronald...only to find that her prince is really a frog. He actually has the audacity to make fun of her paper bag dress, despite knowing that she had gone through heck to try and save him. Oh, I'd be pissed. And, Elizabeth promptly kicked him to the curb and went on her merry way...a free woman.



Another story that I touched upon earlier was 'Moira's Birthday', in which a little girl named Moira wanted a birthday party. And she wanted to invite all the kids in grade one, grade two, grade three, grade four, grade five, grade six, annnnnnnnnnnnnnd kindergarten. Moira's parents said no. Somehow, all the grades incluuuuuuuuuuuding kindergarten showed up anyway, and the whole party was a giant disaster from the get-go. There were too many pizzas, too many birthday cakes, too many presents, and too many KIDS!

Moral of the story? Nothing in excess is EVER good.

And then there's Robert Munsch's most famous work. It was a book that was released in 1986 that was more serious in tone than all the others, yet is ranked number four on the top selling children's books of all time. It was the book that helped make Munsch a household name in the United States, and it was a book that Maria Shriver told Oprah Winfrey that made her cry every time she read it.



That book was 'Love You Forever', a touching story about a mother who had a son. As the son grew up and caused more mischief, she never stopped loving him. And each night, whether he was four, or fourteen, or twenty-four, she would pick him up, cradle him, and sing...

“I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living, my baby you'll be.”

The story was a heartwarming one, as we saw that a mother's love for her son never really does die. The older a child gets, the more she loves him/her. It was a very sad moment when towards the end of the book, the mother is so elderly and frail that she can't get through the song...so her son instead picks her up and sings...

'I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living, my MOMMY you'll be.”

Have you dabbed your eyes yet?

The point is that, yes, Robert Munsch was mostly a silly story guy...but he also showed that he could write serious stuff as well. In the case of 'Love You Forever', Munsch openly admits on his own website that the story was inspired by a personal tragedy, as it was written after Munsch and his wife had two children that were stillborn in 1979 and 1980. Who knew that such a tragedy could turn into a heartwarming and beautiful story? Of course, this could be one of the ways Munsch hid his pain too...by transforming it into words and stories.

Kind of like I'm kind of doing with this blogging project.

Either way, Robert Munsch's work continues to live on. He had a mild health scare in 2008 when he suffered a stroke which impacted his speech, but he has recovered enough to go back to performing in schools. And in September 2009, he was given a star on Canada's Walk Of Fame...ten years after he was made a member of the Order of Canada.



Not bad for a man whose first book was about a mud puddle, huh?

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

January 17, 1969

Welcome to the third installment of the Tuesday Timeline on the blog, the weekly instance in which we flash back to a time in history to discuss some subject that occurred on this date some time ago.

As it turns out, January 17 is one of those dates in which a LOT happened. In various years, there seemed to be some major event that happened in history in both the world of entertainment, and the world of news. I really didn't have too much shortage of topics to choose from for today.

I happened to click on Wikipedia, just to look over some of the historical events of January 17 over the years, and here's what I came up with.

On this date in...

1991 – Operation Desert Storm begins.

1994 – A magnitude 6.7 earthquake strikes near Northridge, California early in the morning, causing twenty billion dollars in damage, and killing 57 people, with thousands more sustaining injuries.

1995 – Just one year after the Northridge quake, a powerful 7.3 quake hits the country of Japan, near the city of Kobe. Over six thousand people lose their lives in the quake, and was considered to be one of Japan's biggest earthquakes before the series of quakes the country endured in 2011.

1998 – The first reports of the affair between American president Bill Clinton and White House intern Monica Lewinsky were published by Matt Drudge.

There were also a number of events that happened on this date in the entertainment industry as well. For instance, if you are living in Australia right now, you might be interested in knowing that back on this day in 1988, the drama serial “Home And Away” premiered on Australia's Seven Network. We mourned the loss of American actor Richard Crenna, who died on this day in 2003.

And many celebrities happen to celebrate a January 17 birthdate. Jim Carrey, Betty White, Zooey Deschanel, Maksim Chmerkovskiy from 'Dancing With The Stars', Kid Rock, Bangles' lead singer Susanna Hoffs, Muhammad Ali, James Earl Jones, and current First Lady, Michelle Obama are all celebrating a birthday today.

So, as you can see, there was quite a variety of topics that I could have chosen from.

The one I ended up settling on...we'll have to take a trip back in time 43 years to the year of the first man on the moon, the first Woodstock festival, and the year that a family named Brady debuted on the small screen.



Today's Tuesday Timeline date is January 17, 1969.

It was on this date that one English artist would release his very first single in the United States. His second single overall. And it was a single that didn't exactly go over very well. It never charted on the Billboard charts at all. You'd think that this lack of success would make our British singer give up on the chance to become an internationally known music star, but it certainly did not. For while his first hit may not have had a lot of impact on the charts back in 1969, his subsequent releases would eventually garner him a lot of success. He had gold records, platinum records, diamond records. Every kind of record you could imagine, he had it.

By 2008, he was widely regarded as the most successful male solo artist on the Billboard Hot 100 Top All-Time Artists, and third overall behind The Beatles and Madonna (which is funny since he and Madonna are sort of in a little feud right now as I type this). He was an artist that had at least one hit single in North America in almost every single year of the 1970s (the only year he didn't was 1977), nine number one singles in the United States, twice that many in Canada and the United Kingdom, and was part of one of 1994's most successful movie soundtracks.

So, what was the first American single that he released that didn't do so hot? More importantly, who is this artist that I am speaking of?

Well, you can find out below!



ARTIST: Elton John
SONG: Lady Samantha
DATE RELEASED: January 17, 1969

Yes, the artist in question for today's Tuesday Timeline is none other than Reginald Kenneth Dwight...better known to most people as Sir Elton Hercules John CBE.



Given that Elton John was born on March 21, 1947, this would mean that he was just a couple of months shy of his twenty-second birthday when this song was first released.

And, yet, I bet you that the vast majority of you have probably never even heard of a song called 'Lady Samantha', have you? It's okay if you haven't. I admit that I didn't even know that until I started researching this blog topic.

To be fair, 'Lady Samantha' wasn't technically Elton John's first single release. It was actually his second in the United Kingdom...it was just the first song that he released in America. But 'Lady Samantha' was just the beginning of what would become one of the most enduring musical partnerships in recent history.

We'll have to go back a little bit further than January 1969 to learn more about this one though.

When Elton was growing up as a young boy, he had always been fascinated by music, and left school early in order to pursue a career in it full-time...a decision that his father wasn't too keen on, despite the fact that both of Elton's parents were both musically inclined themselves and often bought dozens of rock and roll records when Elton was small. His father had tried to convince Elton to take up a more conventional career goal, such as that of a banker or accountant. Could you imagine Elton John doing YOUR taxes?



Needless to say, part of the reason why Elton adopted the elaborate stage costumes and glasses he wore throughout the 1970s was due to the restrictive childhood he lived through.

But Elton proved that he was musically gifted at a young age, learning how to play the piano starting at age three, and winning a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in London at just eleven. But Elton's childhood was far from being idyllic, having to bear witness to some rather explosive arguments between his parents before they divorced in 1961. When Elton's mother remarried to a man named Fred Farebrother, they were incredibly supportive of Elton's musical desires, and by the time Elton was fifteen, he was already playing piano at a local pub for some cash, plus tips. In Elton's teenage years, he had also tried his hand at forming a couple of bands, including the Corvettes, and Bluesology. He had also attempted to become the lead singer for other bands like Gentle Giant and King Crimson, but didn't get the job in either band.

But in 1967, Elton John had a chance encounter with the man who would change his professional life for the better.

It all began when he answered an ad in the New Musical Express placed by then A&R managed for Liberty Records, Ray Williams, and at their first meeting, Williams handed him a stack of papers...lyrics written by then unknown Bernie Taupin, who himself had answered the same ad that Elton did. Elton composed the music to go with the lyrics, mailed the composition back to Taupin, and that kicked off a partnership that has lasted almost five decades!



Their first ever work together was on a 1967 song called "Scarecrow", which kicked off their amazing partnership. Six months later, Elton John would permanently drop his original moniker of Reginald Kenneth Dwight, to go by his more well-known name.

Of course, success was fleeting for Elton John at first, and he had to pay his dues just like every other artist had to at the time. In the case of John/Taupin, they started off becoming songwriters for other popular artists at the time, writing hits for Lulu and Roger Cook, and composing an entry for the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest. That same year, Elton John put in a guest appearance as the pianist for the Hollies Top 10 smash posted below.



And also that same year, Elton John recorded the single which was featured up above in this entry...'Lady Samantha', which became his first American release.



Despite the fact that the song was virtually ignored on radio airplay (and by John himself as he hasn't performed the song in concert performances), the song itself was actually critically praised, and became what was known as a 'turntable hit' (a song that was widely requested at dance clubs and jukebox playlists). The song was also covered by American rock band Three Dog Night, and would eventually resurface on the re-release of Elton John's album 'Empty Sky' in 1995.

But while this particular song didn't put Elton John's name on the charts, it did provide an opening. For a year and a half later, towards the end of 1970, Elton John struck gold with a little song known as 'Your Song', which rose to number eight on the charts, and became Elton's very first American Top 10 song.

Over the decades, Elton's had dozens of hits, each one having a distinct meaning and feel, each one having the Bernie Taupin touch.

With hits from the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, Elton John has earned his spot as one of the most well-known, well-respected, and well-loved artists of the last century.

And it all began this day in history, 1969.


And, he's...still standing!

Monday, January 16, 2012

Bambi

It’s almost seeming like in the world of movies, everything old can be considered new again.


Seriously.  Think about this statement for one quick nanosecond.  It's no secret that as far as the movie industry goes, there's a distinct lack of, shall we say, originality these days.


Looking back over the last decade, one wonders how many movies have been filmed that were essentially remakes, revamps, re-anything really of popular television shows and other movies.


Let's take a look.  Hmmm, we've had remakes of 'Miami Vice', 'Arthur', 'Alfie', 'Footloose', 'The Amityville Horror', 'King Kong', 'True Grit', 'Bewitched', 'The Karate Kid', 'Freaky Friday', 'Black Christmas', 'Dawn Of The Dead', 'Hairspray'...shall I go on?


Now, granted, there are a few of these remakes that have stayed true to the original, and are great ways to kill a couple of hours.  But it has been my experience that the majority of these movies just plain suck.  


It's not just remakes that are guilty when it comes to horrible movie trends as of late.  Seems like another recurring trend is taking a movie that was popular some twenty years ago, and filming a sequel years after the first one went big.  Yes, Toy Story 3 is one of those movies that was released fifteen years after the original, but it was one of the rare success stories.  We've also had Dirty Dancing sequels (though to be fair, they weren't exactly true to the original) and a sequel to Wall Street years after the original, and in my honest opinion, both were kind of forgettable.


And, don't even get me started on the latest trend to incorporate 3D into every movie possible.  We've seen it in recent original films 'Avatar' and 'Despicable Me', but we're also seeing it incorporated into classic films, to make them...well...3D.  Expect to see 'Beauty And The Beast', 'The Lion King', 'Titanic', and 'Finding Nemo' back on the big-screen in 3D in the near future if they aren't in theatres already.


But, doesn't this seem a bit too much to anyone?  I mean, when almost every single picture that is displayed on the theatre marquees show either a remake, a sequel, or a movie being magically updated with three-dimensional technology, doesn't it make one long for a really good original idea?


If there's any sort of apocalyptic threat to anything this year, it's the movie industry.  It's not on death's door yet, but something needs to be done before it erodes to a point of no return.


You know, I remember back in my childhood, it was a really, really big deal for a movie to be brought back to movie theatres after many years.  Of course, I was born at a time before video rental stores on the corner became in vogue, and when all we had to choose from to rent movies was video cassettes.  Back in those days, VCR's cost upwards of $400 or more (kind of shocking considering that one can get a DVD player for as little as $39 these days.  Maybe even cheaper).  So it was a good business move for theatres to occasionally bring back old movies on the big screen so that new generations could see them play out...WITHOUT the promise of 3D.  Because let's face it...the movies were decent enough without the bells and whistles.


The way a good movie should.


Today's Monday Matinee posting will take us back to the 1940s originally.  But my personal story takes place in the summer of 1988.  I had just turned seven years old, and I was really into Disney movies back then.  I grew up watching the classics such as 'Dumbo', 'The Aristocats', and '101 Dalmatians' on network television.  Before my parents ended up getting a VCR, it was all that we really had to rely on, as my family didn't have the money to take us all to the movies every single week.  If anything, we only went to the movies about once a year.  But that was okay with me, because whenever we did go, we'd go all out.  I'm talking buckets of buttered popcorn, the gigantic sized Kit Kat bars that were bigger than my head, and of course a huge drink (which inevitably made me have to go to the bathroom every twenty-five minutes like clockwork). But it was all worth it.


And in 1988, the movie that my mother took me to see was this one.






The movie was 'Bambi', and when I went to see it in theatres, I had thought that it was a Disney film that was brand new.  I had no idea of knowing that the film at the time had been made close to 45 years earlier.






Yes, 'Bambi' was a rarity in the movie world for a number of reasons.  Because 'Bambi' was re-released in movie theaters no less than SEVEN different times before finally being released on home video for the first time in 1989.  






Originally, the film was released August 13, 1942, which admittedly was a bad time for movie releases.  As World War II was being fought at the time, needless to say that going to an animated film about a cartoon deer was probably one of the last things that people were thinking about.  It still managed to make three million dollars at the box office, but it was still considered a disappointment.


But when it was re-released in theaters five years later, in 1947, the was was over, and people seemed to give the movie a second chance.  According to Box Office Mojo, subsequent re-releases of the film occurred in 1957, 1966, 1975, 1982, and the year I saw it, 1988.  Each time it was re-released, it raised more and more money.  In the year I saw the movie, 1988, it made almost $40 million...almost twenty times the amount it made during its first run.


And, yes...in keeping up with the Thursday Confession that I posted last Thursday, I'll admit that there was one scene that made me very, very sad.  I'll get to that in a minute.






Anyone who's seen 'Bambi' probably knows anyway what the moment is, so let's just get right into the plot.  We have a baby deer named Bambi. Born to an unnamed mother, and a father who is known to the other creatures of the forest as 'The Great Prince Of The Forest', Bambi had a rather normal upbringing in his earliest years.  He learned to walk on his own at an early age, and once he had that mastered, he ended up befriending a couple of forest creatures...a small rabbit with huge feet named 'Thumper', and a skunk with the unusual name of 'Flower'.  In many aspects, Bambi's infancy wasn't all that different from the toddler years that we grew up with.  One day, Bambi's mother decides to take him to the meadow within the forest, a place known for its beauty as well as its danger.  It is here that he meets a young doe named Faline.  Unfortunately, he also comes across his first glimpse of the enemy.


Man.


Fortunately, Bambi and his family manage to escape without harm, and all seems well.


That was until one very tragic event happened very early in young Bambi's life.


It was one very harsh, cold, snowy winter, and during the winter months, food was quite scarce.  On one trip to the meadow during the tail-end of the winter months, Bambi's mother discovers a sole patch of grass, which is a sure sign that spring is around the corner.  The two celebrate their good fortune by dining out for lunch over the patch of grass.






But when a hunter comes by to spoil their lunch plans, Bambi's mother, sensing danger, orders Bambi to flee the scene.  The two make a valiant effort to get away, but shots ring out, with Bambi unsure of what is going on behind him.  Eventually, Bambi makes it back home safely, but realizes that his mother still hasn't come home.  Bambi wanders around the forest calling for his mother, but couldn't hear her respond.  He gets a sickening feeling in his stomach, all but confirmed when Bambi's father tells him that his mother "can't be with him anymore".  And the sobering reality soon hits Bambi.  His mother was no longer alive, and all that his father can do is lead him away.






Spring arrives, and a grown Bambi is reunited with his childhood pals Thumper and Flower during a time in which the other forest creatures engage in a ritual known as 'twitterpating'.  And no, it has nothing to do with the social networking site Twitter.  No, it's kind of similar to a singles bar or a speed dating event, as crudely as it may sound.  It's a ritual where animals meet and greet each other to find their special soulmate.  It's a ritual that Bambi, Thumper, and Flower seem to dismiss, and Bambi especially doesn't want to be 'twitterpated'.  But when Cupid's arrows strike both Thumper and Flower, and they both end up becoming victims of the curse known as love at first sight, Bambi is left frustrated and alone.




That is until another old face from his past arrives in the form of Faline.  And, Bambi soon opens up his heart to let Faline's love come in.  Sure, he ends up getting into a fight with some jealous buck named Ronno which ended up with Bambi pushing Rollo over the side of a cliff (which I'm pretty sure would net us jail time if we had tried the same), but Bambi and Faline soon declare their love for one another.


Of course, that's all I can say about the plot of the film, as I don't reveal endings.  All I will tell you is that man comes back with a vengeance, and when a forest fire threatens to destroy the very home that Bambi had lived in his whole life, it quickly became a fight for survival, not just from humans...but from the elements as well.


But you know something?  The idea of man becoming the enemy of the film was one reason why the film received mixed reviews when it was released initially.  Although it is widely considered a classic film by today's standards, 'Bambi' was actually attacked by hunters, who claimed that the film was an "insult to American sportsmen", and some critics panned the film, stating that it was unpleasant to watch.  Of course, that was then, and now it's a Disney classic.


So, what can Bambi teach us?  Well, ultimately, the one thing I can take from it is the sheer amount of strength  that one might have in order to overcome tragedy.  Mind you, some of us have a more difficult time than others, but if a deer can find the strength to go on after a traumatic event, I think human beings can too.  


And, what did it teach me?  Well, it taught me that in some cases, the idea of everything old being new again can be a novelty...but that's all it should be.  A novelty.


And, sometimes watching a movie as it was meant to be watched...without 3D or 3D glasses, or smell-o-vision, or whatever new fangled movie watching technology exists these days...sometimes that's all one needs to have an enjoyable experience.


Bambi just happens to be a film that doesn't need any of that.  It was good enough on its own.














Sunday, January 15, 2012

Paperback Writer = My Own Personal Theme Song

Song lyrics are funny things, aren't they? In most cases, they have the potential to make a person feel good about themselves, shed a few tears, and dance the night away.

I'd like to think that most songs have the potential to really be masterpieces. Grammy award winning, even. Although, given how the quality of the Grammy awards has decreased consistently since 1997 (at least in this blogger's opinion anyway), that might not be such a good thing.

I think that in order to have a good song, you really have to have song lyrics that can strike a chord in someone. With really meaningful lyrics and a message.

And what do some singer/songwriters do to bring forth such feelings? They write songs about what they know. Sometimes songs are inspired by a romance. Other times, they can be influenced by a break-up. Some songs are written in response to a national tragedy. Some are written in memory of famous people who have passed on. Some are even written as a social commentary, or as a response to the times of the era. I think that for the most part, the more personal a song is, the better chance it has to evoke emotion.

So, when you have a song that is deemed a so-called novelty song, it's a bit hard to get much emotion from it. Examples being 'Conga', 'Barbie Girl', 'Thong Song', 'Who Let The Dogs Out?', 'The Ketchup Song'...although, I suppose laughter can be an emotion.

But you know the songs I mean. Songs that are written without much purpose, or have lyrics that sound as if a first grader wrote them. Songs that you listen to on the radio and they make you go...'this was a single'?

There have been many popular artists that have released songs that seem to stand out from the body of work that they have done over the course of their career, simply because the lyrics are wildly different from songs that they have written before. A perfect example would be Madonna. Everyone who has heard one of her songs knows that she likes to push the envelope and release songs that appear polished and sophisticated while simultaneously seeing just how far she can go. But in 1989, she included a song on the 'Like A Prayer' album called 'Dear Jessie', which sounded more like a children's lullaby. The reason? It was a children's lullaby, written for one of the children of the man who helped produce the album.

But this entry isn't about Madonna...just one example I wanted to provide to illustrate my point.

This question is going to come across as being one that may be classified as a stupid question, but I'll come right out and say it.



Have you ever heard of a group known as the Beatles?

Yeah, I know...stupid question, right?

Of course everybody has heard of the Beatles! They were one of the most dominant groups that came out of the 1960s, and have had well over twenty-five number one hit singles in both their native England, as well as North America. Even after the band broke up in 1970, the individual members all released solo albums, their popularity still ranks high. Some people even have referred to them as one of the greatest bands of all time.



Yes, George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr were four of the most well-known and popular men to ever grace the music industry. While I wasn't old enough to witness the whole phenomenon known as 'BeatleMania', those who were around during that time know exactly what it was like. Screaming teenage girls shouting so loud, it almost made it hard to appreciate the music that the Beatles were performing. The Beatles having their photos plastered all over magazines, newspapers, and books. Appearing on dozens of television programs. Performing thousands of concerts all over the world. And of course, the hundreds of singles that the band released over their career.

Today, it seems hard to believe that half of the Beatles are no longer with us. George Harrison passed away in November 2001. And anybody who lived through December 8, 1980 knows all about the tragic fate that befell John Lennon. But both Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr have released lots of solo projects over the years, and are still highly looked up to in the world of music (though these days McCartney seems to get as much press on his relationships as he does his music).

But one thing I'll say about the Beatles, looking back through their huge catalog, their songs can range from absolutely brilliant to just plain silly!

Of course, everyone knows that the Beatles have had some really awesome songs. 'Hey Jude' is always a classic. 'Can't Buy Me Love' is a song that I have sort of adopted as a little personal motto. And, of course 'Let It Be' is a song that evokes a lot of emotion.

But for every classic Beatles song, there are songs that range from unique, to just plain bizarre. For every 'Hey Jude', there was a 'I Am The Walrus'. For every 'Can't Buy Me Love', there was a 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds'. And, for every 'Let It Be', there was a 'Yellow Submarine'.

And, then there's today's song...released in 1966.



ARTIST: The Beatles
SONG: Paperback Writer
DATE RELEASED: May 30, 1966 (UK release June 10, 1966)
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #1 for 2 weeks

Now, 'Paperback Writer' was one of those rare singles that managed a two week run on the top of the charts, but not consecutively. It first hit the #1 spot on June 25, 1966, was dethroned one week later by Frank Sinatra's 'Strangers In The Night', and returned to the #1 spot for an additional week on July 9.



And the way that 'Paperback Writer' came about being written was an unusual tale in itself.

According to legendary disc jockey and original 'Top Of The Pops' host Jimmy Savile (in an excerpt from the book 'A Hard Day's Write: The Story Behind Every Beatles Song'), the song was written at a time in which the Beatles were experiencing a bit of a broken record in their recording career. Certainly by 1966, the band were just as popular as ever, but their prior song releases all had to do with the same subject. They were all considered to be love songs. And one of McCartney's aunts had asked him if he was capable of writing a single that was not about 'love'.

So, McCartney thought about the strange request, and thought, and thought. And then one day, it hit him.

When he gazed upon his bandmate Ringo Starr sitting on a chair reading a book, the answer came to McCartney.

He would write a song about a book.

Sounds like a real crazy idea, doesn't it?

In a 2007 interview that was done with McCartney, he confirmed that he wrote the song 'Paperback Writer' with an aspiring author in mind, after reading a story in the 'Daily Mail' about one.

The song's lyrics in itself are in the form of a letter to a publishing company about a book an author is looking to get published. Now, I know what you're thinking...how can the song become a hit with lyrics in the form of a letter. It'd be like someone trying to record a pop hit singing off a resume, or trying to put the works of Shakespeare to a disco beat, or recording a pop hit about how everyone has the freedom to wear sunscreen.

Oh...wait...that last one was done already, wasn't it?

But you know...as weird and as unique as the song lyrics to 'Paperback Writer' are, I reckon that the song is one of my favourites. Of course, being one who wants to make a name for himself in the writing world, and who wants to actually get paid for his services one day, I guess the lyrics of 'Paperback Writer' are kind of like my unofficial theme song, so to speak.

But what made 'Paperback Writer' so popular was the fact that the track represented a number of firsts for the band.

Did you know that it was the first time that the band used a 'boosted bass guitar'? How it was achieved was by having Paul McCartney change the bass he usually played to a Rickenbacker, and used a loudspeaker as a microphone, to give it the amplified sound.

The song was also cut louder than any other Beatles release at the time using a brand new piece of equipment known as 'Automatic Transient Overload Control', developed by the maintenance department at EMI Studios

The song also has a bit of sampling incorporated into it as well...but it's not exactly sampling, since John Lennon and George Harrison sang just the song title...but if you listen really closely to the melody at the beginning of the third chorus, you can hear Lennon and Harrison singing the song title of the French classic Frère Jacques in several slow incantations.

The song is also one of the first songs ever that was recorded with a promotional video made specifically for the single. Fifteen years before the popularity of music videos were made possible with MTV. But then they always did seem to be a revolutionary band, didn't they?

So, yes, you had a song that by all accounts shouldn't have been a hit. Writing a letter to a publishing company, and setting it to music might not be the smartest move for a hit single, yet somehow the Beatles managed to turn it into musical gold. And, why wouldn't it have done so well? It's a great song, with a great beat, and a lot of new techniques. And, I think one lesson we can learn from the band is that they weren't afraid to try new things, and take risks with their career. I think we should probably do the same with our own lives, wouldn't you say?

I guess in closing, I'll actually admit that 'Paperback Writer' is my favourite Beatles song for a number of reasons, many of which I've stated up above.

In many ways though, the song kind of describes my dream. One day, I'd love to be able to have something, anything ready for publication...to show it off to an editor of a publishing company, ask them to read it, and then let them decide if it is worth printing.



And maybe this goal that I have of being a published author who makes a lot of money doing what I love doing will someday become a reality. For now...well, at least I have the perfect soundtrack to listen to while my dreams remain dreams.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

The Fraggles Of Fraggle Rock

When you see a hole in the wall, have you ever wondered what might be on the other side?  


This is a question that I'm sure many people have wondered.  Especially when they're children.


Let's face it.  Children are curious creatures.  They're always exploring new things, wanting to know everything about everything under the sun.  That's just the way they are.


I'll admit that I was one of those 'curious kids'.


Whenever we moved into a new home (which in my earliest childhood, we ended up doing quite a bit), I would always run up and down the staircases in between floors, exploring every nook, every cranny.  The one house where I spent most of my childhood was one cool place.  Sure, the roof leaked, and the wallpaper when we moved in looked like it was manufactured in the 1880s instead of the 1980s, but the place was huge.  Fourteen rooms, three floors...it was like the best house for hide and seek if ever I saw one.


Of course, not every discovery was one that was grand.  Some of them even caused me bodily harm.


For instance, I thought that it would be a fantastic idea to explore the basement area of our new house, not realizing that the stairs were fashioned out of wood, and weren't exactly the most stable.  The first step I took, I immediately rolled down that flight of stairs, cracking my head against the rock wall.  I think I hit the wall so hard that a piece of the wall actually was knocked out in the impact!  It's a wonder that I didn't end up with a concussion, to be perfectly honest.  I think the only injury that I did sustain was a huge goose egg on the back of my noggin.  As far as I know, I had no permanent after-effects from the fall, but needless to say that my dad's first project in that basement was reinforcing the staircase in the basement!


Then there was the time that I wanted to explore our third floor attic (which at the time we moved in doubled as my eldest sister's bedroom prior to her moving out), and what none of us knew was that the attic was home to a hornet's nest that was STILL ACTIVE.  I nearly got stung...my sister got stung twice...yeah, it wasn't a fun situation.  Within a couple of weeks, the nest was removed, but it took me a good two years before I headed upstairs to the attic again.


(Yeah, that home was big, but it was also a major fixer-upper.)


Of course, there were lots of positive finds too.  There were tons of treasures in the basement, and I would spend hours in there going through them (well, after the stairs were fixed).  And once I overcame my fear of the attic, I realized that the third floor window had a PERFECT view of the Canada Day fireworks.  Bonus!


So, as you can see, my curiosity netted some rewards in addition to pain...funny how life works.  It was all about calculated risk.  Mind you, when I was a kid, I had trouble calculating long division problems let alone risks.  But it's something we get better with as we age, I think.


I guess in one way, I kind of lived up to the name of a character in a television program that I used to enjoy watching right around the time we first moved into the house I talked about.






The little guy above is a guy who they call 'Uncle Traveling Matt'.  Okay, so maybe the traveling part doesn't quite fit.  I am an uncle, and my name is Matt, so that's two out of three!  But, I always liked him.  And, not just because he had the same name as me.


Well, okay, maybe that was a part of it.


Anyway, Traveling Matt (named after the camera technique 'traveling matte', which inserts a foreground object into a prerecorded background image) would often head out into the world of 'Outer Space', where he would send his nephew a series of postcards, detailing his experiences observing the race known as the 'Silly Creatures'.  His resourcefulness and bravery sometimes gets overshadowed by his klutziness, but other than that, he manages to captivate his nephew and his friends with tales of the outside world, and was responsible for bringing in the delicious treat of radishes for everyone in the colony to munch on.


And, Uncle Traveling Matt's adventures written in postcards to his beloved nephew Gobo were just one of the many features in this Jim Henson brainchild that entertained millions of children all over the world.






Down at Fraggle Rock, it was a never ending party.  Well, never-ending until the show stopped making new episodes.






Can you believe that it's been twenty-nine years since Fraggle Rock debuted on television?  With the first episode airing on January 10, 1983, and with new episodes being filmed well into 1987, Fraggle Rock aired on several channels all over the world.  If you were in the United States, you could watch the show on HBO. In Canada, CBC held the broadcasting rights.  If you grew up in New Zealand, you could watch the show on TV1, while ITV was where the British children could find the program.  The reason being that the show was a joint production between the United States, Canada, and Britain.


A spin-off animated series was commissioned after the original show ceased production, and aired on NBC during the 1987/88 season.


Anyone who has ever watched Fraggle Rock knows what the show is about.  It's about a group of creatures known as 'Fraggles' who live in a system of caves deep under the surface of the ground.  A home that they have dubbed 'Fraggle Rock'.


Fraggles in general are easy-going, carefree creatures.  While they do have a rather easy life, each one has a specific task that they are responsible for to keep the civilization going.  Some of their favourite activities in the depths of 'Fraggle Rock' are exploring their surroundings, sharing dreams by touching their heads together, eating radishes, snacking on the radish-flavoured building blocks that the Doozers build and rebuild, engaging in conversations with a trash heap, and avoiding the dreaded Gorgs as they scurry through their vegetable garden.


But I loved Fraggle Rock.  The show really was a great show for kids to watch, as it taught children a lot of life lessons about spirituality, social conflict, personal growth, and dealing with prejudice, just to name a few.






I for one was a huge fan of the show.  I never missed one episode.  I even had the collectable Fraggle Rock toys that came with the Happy Meals at McDonald's.  I remember even wanting one of the Fraggle puppets, as I had one clear favourite of the bunch.


But really, all five of the main Fraggles I could find something to identify with, and all five Fraggles have given me one personality trait that I can apply to my own identity.


So, let's meet the Fraggles, shall we?






First, there's Gobo, who happens to be the nephew of Uncle Traveling Matt, and who happens to be the gp-between in describing 'Outer Space' to the other Fraggles.  He was voiced by Jerry Nelson.  And the personality trait that I ended up inheriting from him is his reluctance to be controlled by friendships.  I mean, yes, Gobo's friends meant the world to him, but he also had the need to separate himself from what his friends were doing.  He wanted his own identity true to himself.  In a lot of ways, I am the same.  I don't mind hanging out with friends, and doing things with them, but I like to have my own personal space as well.  Maybe this explains why Gobo used to have a whole bunch of solo adventures where he would wander the many caves of 'Fraggle Rock'.






Next, we have Mokey, who was voiced by Kathryn Mullen.  Mokey was probably my second favourite Fraggle in the whole group.  For one, the fact that she was my favourite colour definitely helped...but she also had one of the warmest personalities out of all of the Fraggles.  She was almost like one of those new-age gurus with her robe and her love of creativity.  As someone who enjoys writing and creative stuff, this is something that I can definitely identify with, though not the most important.  No, what Mokey and I have in common is the fact that we both try to see the good in everyone.  Some may accuse me of giving people too many chances to redeem themselves when they goof up.  Heck, I openly admit to it in some cases.  But, I'm not the type of person who just dismisses people at first impression.  I really try to find something good in someone and try to latch on to that quality to make them open up.  Sometimes it backfires, and I end up making an enemy, but that's a rarity.  In a lot of cases, I do try to find at least one positive quality in everyone and everything, and I think Mokey does the same.






One might say that our next Fraggle, Boober, may be the anti-Mokey in a sense.  Voiced by Dave Goelz, the one word I could best describe Boober as is...well...grumpy.  He also talks in a way that he may suffer from some form of Fraggle depression.  Always possessing a negative attitude, and always worrying, Boober seems more happy in the companionship of the socks he washes than other people.  Yet, there's one thing that Boober and I share that might surprise you.  We've both had doubts in what we're capable of.  I know I have probably kicked myself down more times than I care to know, even though in the grand scheme of things, there are some skills that I am proficient in.  Same deal with Boober.  Even though he goes around with a Fraggle Downer attitude, he is the best chef in all of Fraggle Rock, has medical skills, does everyone's laundry, and can sing the blues like nobody else can.  Some may see it as menial labour, but Boober really did have a lot of skills, and he really had no reason to feel down on himself at all.  Unless of course, that's what he wanted to be like...who can say, really?






Next comes Red, voiced by Karen Prell.  I have to admit, while I enjoyed all five Fraggles, Red was easily the one that I would rank at the bottom of my list.  I liked her, don't get me wrong...but when it came to writing this article, I found it so hard to find something that I had in common with her.  She was athletic.  I am not.  She was cynical.  I was more gullible than anything.  She was the best swimmer in the show, and I almost drowned in a swimming pool when I was four.  Yeah, you get it.  Though, it dawned on me that the one trait that Red and I do share is the fact that we both like to be in control.  I know that when I feel that things are out of control, it makes me slightly uncomfortable, but I try my best to work through it.  Red would probably throw Gobo under the proverbial Fraggle bus if she had the chance.


Finally, we're saving the best for last.  Well, at least in my opinion, anyway.






Steve Whitmire provided the voice of my all-time favourite Fraggle.  That Fraggle's name was Wembley, and he was definitely the Fraggle I loved the most.  I mean, his name alone is awesome.  In fact, if I ever have a son, I'd love to have the name Wembley as a middle name for him...because, let's face it...having it as a first name wouldn't work.  That, plus, there's no way I'd ever convince future wife (should she come along) to go along with it.  But, why is Wembley my favourite?  Simple.  I'm practically a 'Silly Creature' version of Wembley.  Mind you, I don't have spiky greenish-yellow hair or wear Hawaiian shirts, but Wembley and I are very much alike in personality.  We both suffer from indecision.  Decision making has never been my strong suit, and whenever I do have a choice, I often flip-flop back and forth hundreds of times before settling on a choice.


I have failed many multiple choice quizzes as a result of this.


Wembley's much worse with the indecision though.  So much so that in the Fraggle dictionary, the word 'wemble' is a verb meaning 'to be indecisive'.  In Wembley's case though, his inability to make a proper choice is very understandable.  Well, at least to me.  He doesn't like making choices because if he says yes to someone, he's saying no to someone else, and he hates hurting people's feelings.  With me, I hate picking the wrong choice.  And, yes, my indecision has lead to several wrong choices in my life.  But, hey, it's a learning experience, right?


And, that's the flashback to Fraggle Rock for all of you.  I hope you enjoyed it, and with that, I leave you with one final question.






Which Fraggle best describes you?  For me, I'm mostly Wembley with a little Mokey and Gobo mixed in.  You?