Search This Blog

Sunday, July 15, 2012

That's What Remixing Can Do - The Boy Krazy Story


I'll admit that when it comes to a lot of songs, I tend to like remixed versions slightly better than the original release.

You know what I mean by a remix, don't you? You take a song that was released a number of years ago, and you add things, or change the melody around to make it seemingly sound like a completely different song.

There have been thousands of examples of this in the history of music, and while there are some remixes that can be considered terrible (I'm looking at any of the remixes that have been done on any song by Moby in particular), there are a lot that I find to be fantastic.

The original version of Madonna's “Express Yourself”, which was produced by Stephen Bray was excellent, filled with brass horns, and was a throwback to 1970s soul music. But, I also found Shep Pettibone's remix to be just as unique, and just as powerful as the original. Remember when The Four Seasons scored a hit in 1975 with the song “December 1963 (Oh What A Night)”? The remixed version that was released almost 20 years later managed to stay on the Billboard charts for over a year! To me, there wasn't that much difference between the original version and the remix, but both versions were very good. And Kylie Minogue's 2002 smash “Love At First Sight” was made much more special when Ruff & Jam added their own spice to the song.

For today's Sunday Jukebox, in keeping with the theme of the remixes being better than the original song, we're going to talk about a song that was released twice, in two different formats. The first time around, the song barely made an impression in the charts at all (it peaked at #86 on the UK charts). But two years later, the song was remixed, and it ended up being a Top 20 hit for a group based out of New York City. Mind you, it ended up being their ONLY Top 20 hit, but nevertheless, it was a great feat. It was just another example of how a remix can make a song sound better, and more modern.

The story behind the band that released the song is quite an interesting one too. It stars a five-member girl group which later became a quartet, and their brief rise to stardom before breaking up.



This is the story of the short-lived girl group known as Boy Krazy.

The story begins back in 1991. Hundreds of young women auditioned at a management company in New York City to become one of five members of a brand new all-girl group. In the photograph above, you can see the five original members of the band that called themselves Boy Krazy. From left to right, the members of the band were Josselyne Jones, Kimberly Blake, Renee Veneziale, Johnna Lee Cummings, and Ruth Ann Roberts.

TRIVIA: Before joining Boy Krazy, Ruth Ann Roberts was a former Miss Junior America...and she was the youngest member of the band when it formed...her age at the time? A mere 15 years old. I'll have more trivia about her and the other members of the band a little later in the blog.



The band was signed to Next Plateau Records in New York City, and began recording songs with the successful British producers Mike Stock, Matt Aitken, and Pete Waterman. Their debut single was this one, released in the summer of 1991, and as some of you may discover upon hearing it, it may sound a bit familiar. Let's just watch the video and you'll get what I mean.




ARTIST: Boy Krazy
SONG: That's What Love Can Do
DATE RELEASED: July 15, 1991
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: N/A

I bet some of you have just listened to this song, and are thinking to yourselves “wait a minute, that's not the version I remember!”. Well, this is true. The song you heard was the original mix of the song, and as I explained earlier, it bombed. The thing is that it wasn't a bad song. If you really listen to the lyrics, it's actually quite catchy. I just think that for this particular song, the background music didn't quite fit the tone of the song. The song is basically about a woman who is breaking up with the man she is dating because he is seeing another woman on the side...and somehow, I don't think those lyrics quite work with backing music that sounds as if it should appear in a Disney princess film.

Nevertheless, Boy Krazy refused to give up, and they were determined to keep pressing on in their dream. But just before the band was to release their second single, “All You Have To Do”, Renee Veneziale announced her departure from the band. The band was now a quartet, and it was yet another blow to the already struggling girl group.

But then, a break happened in the most unusual way.

It was shortly before Christmas 1992, and somehow, “That's What Love Can Do” began to gain popularity in American discotheques and nightclubs. Around the same time, the song was subjected to a remix, and was first heard on KQKS, a radio station based out of Denver, Colorado. One of the staff members somehow got a copy of the song, started playing it, and it immediately took on a new life of its own. Some might even say that the remix saved the song from becoming a forgotten hit. And a month later, when the song's remix was officially released as a single in the United States, nobody knew just how big the song would get.



ARTIST: Boy Krazy
SONG: That's What Love Can Do (House Remix)
ALBUM: Boy Krazy
DATE RELEASED: January 19, 1993
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #18

All right, so #18 isn't exactly the best position to peak at. But, it still ended up being a huge hit during the spring of '93. That's way better than the position that it reached a year and a half earlier, which was...well...uncharted. Surprisingly enough, the remixed version still failed to make an impression in the UK, peaking at #80...but that's still six spots higher than it charted when it was originally released in 1991.

But, that was the Billboard Charts. What if I told you that the song ended up being a #1 hit in Pop airplay on the Radio & Records CHR/Pop Chart? I'd call that an impressive feat.



Sadly, this would end up being Boy Krazy's only song to reach a position so high. The band's third single, “Good Times With Bad Boys” barely cracked the Top 60 in 1993. And later on in the year, the band said goodbye to Johnna Lee Cummings, who performed most of the leading vocals for the songs off of their debut album, including “That's What Love Can Do”.

Now a trio, Josselyne, Kimberly, and Ruth Ann attempted to make a go of it, and attempted to record a follow-up album, but before any tracks could be recorded, the band finally split up in early 1994.

So, whatever happened to each of the members of the band Boy Krazy?

Well, Renee Veneziale, the first member of the band to leave, reportedly joined a few other bands after Boy Krazy before descending into the world of theatre. In addition to acting, she also reportedly works as a yoga teacher.



Ruth Ann Roberts ended up in a rather unusual position in her career. Deciding to go by the name of Rue DeBona professionally, she ended up as the co-host of After Burn, a television program produced by the WWE! She ended up marrying former wrestler and current WWE commentator Josh “Uncle Vernon” Mathews. How's that for a career shift?



Josselyne Jones got married, and has a daughter, and now goes under the name of Josselyne Herman-Saccio. She works as an agent and producer in New York City, and has since started up her own company, Josselyne Herman and Associates.

The story of Johnna Lee Cummings is one filled with the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. After leaving Boy Krazy in 1993, she embarked on a solo career. She signed a record deal with Pete Waterman's company PWL in the mid-1990s, and started going by just Johnna for her professional name. In 1996, Johnna's debut album was released in the UK, “Pride”.



The songs themselves were a blend of techno and dance-pop, which back in 1996 had a following as similar artists such as the Quad City DJ's, La Bouche, and Gina G had hits on the charts. But Johnna struggled to make an impact. In the United States, her music was more or less unheard. In the UK, her music was slightly better received, but her highest charting solo single there only peaked at #43 on the charts there. Sadly, it appears as though Johnna's life, at least back in 2007, had gotten tough, as displayed in this short documentary filmed around that time. I don't know what's happened to Johnna since then, but hopefully she's doing better.

I was unable to find much information on Kimberly Blake...since Boy Krazy broke up, she has virtually disappeared from the public eye and the entertainment industry. If anyone has any information on where Kimberly ended up, do share. I really tried to find something to say about her, but I came up empty.


And that's the story of the band Boy Krazy. Although the band broke up almost 20 years ago, their biggest hit still remains a favourite of many...and to think that a remix helped transform the song into a Top 20 hit. I mean, it had to be a hit if a little known band named “Toutes Les Filles” covered the song back in 1999 (see above).

(Though I prefer the Boy Krazy version better.)

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Yogi Bear


A few days ago, the Tuesday Timeline flashed back to 1989, where we took a look back on the life and times of legendary voice actor, Mel Blanc, who passed away that year.  As it happens, today’s blog entry is loosely tied to that Tuesday Timeline entry. 

Do you remember how I talked about how Mel Blanc was involved in a car accident in 1961 which almost killed him?  He was comatose for an extended period of time and only came out of the coma when a doctor asked “Bugs Bunny” how he was feeling.  Although Mel survived the crash, his road to full recovery was a long one.  At the time, Blanc was voicing the role of Barney Rubble on “The Flintstones”, and in some cases, he actually recorded his lines straight from his hospital bed.

But right around the time the accident occurred, another voice actor took over the role in place of Blanc for a few episodes.


That voice belonged to Charles Dawson “Daws” Butler. 

Now, Daws Butler ended up doing hundreds of voices during his career.  Before his death in 1988, Butler managed to voice several iconic characters.  He was the original voice of cereal mascots Cap’n Crunch and Quisp.  He voiced the character of Scooby-Dum.  He gave Elroy Jetson a voice.  He assumed the role of Aesop’s Son in the popular segments from Rocky & Bullwinkle.  And if you’ve ever seen the show “Quick Draw McGraw”, Daws gave Baba Looey his voice.

However, if I could choose one role that made Daws Butler a real star, it would probably be this classic cartoon.


Well, actually, I suppose I should say a trio of roles, as Daws Butler managed to voice three major characters in this show.  Two of these voices were that of Huckleberry Hound and Snagglepuss.  And, both of these characters had appeared alongside Butler’s most famous voice.

Today, we’re going to visit the fictional world of Jellystone Park, where the famous Yogi Bear resides.


Um...no...that’s Yogi Berra.


Ah, yes.  This is Yogi Bear, smarter than the average bear, and the subject for this blog entry.

Yogi Bear was just one of the many cartoon characters that were created by the team of Joseph Hanna and William Barbera.  And Yogi Bear was designed in such a way that the animation process was made less difficult.  Because Yogi Bear was drawn with a collar, animators could keep Yogi’s body static, only having to animate his head and facial features.  This cut down the amount of frames needed to complete a seven-minute episode by almost 70%!

But there’s a lot more to this bear than just a lime green hat and tie.  Yogi Bear was actually designed after another pop culture icon. 


If you ever wondered why Yogi Bear seemed to sound like Ed Norton from “The Honeymooners”, it was absolutely intentional, as Daws Butler voiced the character as an impersonation of Art Carney, who played Ed Norton.  After all, Yogi Bear was sort of designed the same as Ed Norton.  It did make sense. 

And would you believe that Yogi Bear was originally intended as a SECONDARY character?  It’s true!  Yogi Bear made his first appearance way back in 1958, when he appeared as a character on “The Huckleberry Hound Show”.  A supporting character.

However, while most supporting characters are often pushed to the background for most of the season, only brought out for an occasional line or two, it became clear that the bear with a fondness for pic-a-nic baskets soon overshadowed the very character whose show he appeared on.  Yogi was popular, and the kids loved him.  They loved him so much that just three years later, he was given his own television show.

Debuting in syndication on January 30, 1961, the stories of Yogi Bear were all surprisingly the same plot retold in thirty-three different ways.  Seriously, the show only filmed 33 episodes, and each episode featured Yogi Bear roaming around Jellystone Park, swiping picnic baskets filled with yummy goodies from unsuspecting people.  But, despite the show’s repetitive nature, it had a rather lengthy run on television.  It ran a total of twenty-seven years in syndication, finally ending its run on December 29, 1988...seven months after Daws Butler passed away.


There were others who lived in the park besides Yogi.  Obviously, Yogi had to have some sort of antagonist to stop him in his quest to steal enough picnic baskets to hibernate for a decade and a half.  In this show, it was Ranger Smith (voiced by future Scooby-Doo voice artist Don Messick).  Ranger Smith is constantly annoyed by Yogi’s kleptomania, and he tries everything he can to stop him.  Of course, he would never really admit it, but he does have a bit of a soft spot for the bear.  In fact, one could actually call them “frenemies”.  Certainly when Yogi is causing mischief, Ranger Smith is none too pleased.  But if either one ends up in danger or trouble, the other one will do everything he can to save the other one from harm’s way.


Then there’s Yogi’s best friend, a little bear named Boo-Boo (also voiced by Don Messick).  Now, Boo-Boo seems to play the role of Yogi’s conscience.  He is often the one who tries to talk Yogi out of stealing the baskets and causing grief to Ranger Smith (which in turn forges an unlikely friendship between Boo-Boo and Ranger Smith).  Of course, Yogi never really learned the lesson of “let your conscience be your guide”, and usually ignored the warnings of his friend.  But, you have to give the little guy some credit for trying!


And then there’s Yogi’s girlfriend Cindy Bear, a girl who carries a parasol and speaks with a distinct Southern accent.  She cares for Yogi very much, but like Boo-Boo is also annoyed by Yogi’s tricks and schemes.

That’s about all that I have to say about Yogi Bear the cartoon.  However, there have been several Yogi Bear spinoffs that have stemmed from the original program.  These are;

-      The 1964 feature film “Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear!”, released by Columbia Pictures.

-      The 1972 television special “Yogi’s Ark Lark”.



-      The 1973-1974 series “Yogi’s Gang”.

-      “Yogi’s Space Race” from 1978.

-      The made for television movie “Yogi’s First Christmas”, released in 1980.

-      “Yogi’s Treasure Hunt”, which aired between 1985 and 1988.



-      “Yo, Yogi!”, a juniorization re-telling of the classic cartoon which ran from 1991-1992.

-      A live-action/CGI film “Yogi Bear” starring Dan Aykroyd, Justin Timberlake, Anna Faris, and Tom Cavanagh, released in theatres on December 17, 2010.

With all of these television series and movies, I think it’s a safe bet to say that Yogi Bear will be around for some time.  And although Daws Butler is no longer with us, Yogi has since been voiced by Greg Burson (who died in 2008), and Jeff Bergman in various commercials.

But Daws Butler was the best Yogi...and I’m sure he would be proud to know that his voice still lives on forever.

Friday, July 13, 2012

Charlie's Angels


When I was a lot younger, I often spent a lot of time at the home of my maternal grandparents.  I still have memories of being at their house constantly.  They had this big backyard that had a swing set overlooking the creek that flowed below (which due to the fact that it was not fenced off, I had to stay away from).  And whenever I came to visit, I could always count on the fact that they would usually have some sort of treat for me to chew on while I watched television.  Nothing much...just a plate of Oreo cookies and a drink (usually Cherry 7UP or a glass of milk with Brown Cow brand chocolate syrup...remember that brand name, Canadians?).

My grandparents also seemed to have the coolest stuff possible...well, as cool as they appear in the eyes of a four year old, anyway.  They used to have a cabinet which contained a whole bunch of figurines, souvenirs, and other knick-knacks, which to me looked like neat toys.  And, I’m proud to say that despite the fact that many of the things in that cabinet were very fragile, I never broke one object.  Still, it was probably of little comfort to my grandmother, who was probably freaking out over the possibility of a four year old boy smashing up her favourite cabinet.

But aside from the cabinet of trinkets, there was something else that I enjoyed playing with and looking at.  You see, my aunts and uncles on my mother’s side were a lot younger than my mother, and a lot of their old belongings had been left behind at the home of my grandparents.  These included some old toys, books, games, and trading cards.

In particular, these trading cards.


To anyone who grew up during the 1970s, you probably know exactly what show these cards came from.  To me, I had no idea who the people in the cards were, or what the show was that they came from.  The reason being that the show aired its final episode on June 24, 1981...just one month after I was born.  It wasn’t until I grew a little older until I saw my first episode of the series, and I admit that it was definitely a show that made a huge impact in the world of pop culture for a variety of reasons.  But, we’ll get to that a little bit later.

For now, why not talk about the show that was so popular, it inspired its own set of trading cards back in 1977?


That show, of course is the ABC series “Charlie’s Angels”.  Debuting on September 22, 1976, the program survived several cast changes, as well as time slot changes, and managed to run for five years total.  And the show itself was a rather interesting concept.  The show (created by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts, and produced by Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg) took place in the city of Los Angeles, California, and depicted the lives of three young women who had just graduated from the police academy.  But despite the fact that feminism and women’s rights were starting to become fully established in 1976, the three women found that their service to the LAPD included preparing paperwork, handing out traffic tickets, and helping groups of fourth graders cross the street.  In short, they were working the most unfulfilling jobs in the station, and they wanted out.


Fortunately, their way out came in the form of a man named Charles Townsend (affectionately known as Charlie).  They joined his detective agency after quitting their jobs at the LAPD, and ended up becoming private investigators.  Throughout the course of the entire series, the viewers never saw Charlie’s face...the girls only spoke to him via speakerphone, and we only ever really saw Charlie with his back to the camera (although we now know that Dynasty star John Forsythe provided the voice of Charlie).  The girls liaison was a man named Bosley (David Doyle).

Over the course of the show’s run, there would be several angels who would appear on the series, due to various cast changes along the way.  In total, six women would end up becoming one of Charlie’s Angels throughout the years.  They were;


Kelly Garrett (Jaclyn Smith) – The only one of “Charlie’s Angels” to appear in all 110 episodes of the series.


Sabrina Duncan (Kate Jackson) – 1976-1979


Jill Munroe (Farrah Fawcett) 1976-1977 (credited as Farrah Fawcett-Majors)


Kris Munroe (Cheryl Ladd) – 1977-1981 (second longest running character, played the role of Jill’s sister after Farrah departed from the series)


Tiffany Welles (Shelley Hack) – 1979-1980 (replaced Kate Jackson)


Julie Rogers (Tanya Roberts) – 1980-1981 (replaced Shelley Hack)

The show became a huge hit when it debuted on ABC for the 1976-1977 season.  At the end of the show’s first season, the show finished strong at #5 in the Nielsen ratings, a feat that was considered fantastic at the time.  Immediately, Jackson, Fawcett, and Smith were propelled into super-stardom, and they immediately became some of Hollywood’s most beloved stars.  Farrah Fawcett proved especially popular, with her fame likely being helped by a rather iconic poster that found its way into the bedrooms of many teenage boys.  I’m sure most of you have seen it before.  Have a look.


Of course, the series did have its downside.  Certainly, the series helped bring popularity to the main stars, but it also brought a lot of headaches.  The girls found the long working hours, and the pressure to stay grounded amongst all of the photo shoots, wardrobe fittings, and talk show interviews to be very demanding.  Fawcett’s departure from the series after one season turned out to be a huge blow to the series.  Although the show remained in the Top 5, the show ended up losing almost 800,000 viewers between the first season finale and the second season premiere, although the character of Kris Munroe was positively received by the viewing public.  But after the departure of Kate Jackson, the show plummeted to 20th place in the ratings, and following the premiere of the show’s fifth season, the show didn’t even make the Top 40, leading ABC to cancel the series at the end of the fifth season.

I have some more trivia about Charlie’s Angels as well, and I think that I would like to share some of that trivia with all of you here.  This trivia comes courtesy of the Internet Movie Database.

1 – Did you know that Kate Jackson was the first actress cast in “Charlie’s Angels”?  And did you also know that Jackson didn’t even have to audition for the show at all?  She was selected for a role during the pre-production stages of the show, mainly because producers noted how popular she was on another television series, “The Rookies”.

2 – Kate Jackson was originally cast as Kelly Garrett before Jaclyn Smith was hired for the part.  This suited Jackson just fine, as she really wanted the part of Sabrina Duncan anyway.

3 – Kate Jackson ended up having a lot of influence in how the show was created, including partially coming up with the title of the show.  Initially, the show was to be called “The Alley Cats”, but Jackson didn’t like the name, and suggested to producers that she thought the girls should be named “angels” instead.  They agreed.  And, Jackson also came up with the idea of having Charlie be unseen to the audience.  With all the ideas she came up with, its a wonder her name wasn’t added right next to Spelling’s and Goldberg’s!

4 – The show was almost called “Harry’s Angels”, but changed it to Charlie to avoid confusion with another television program, “Harry O”.

5 – The Charlie’s Angels telephone number was 555-0267.


6 – John Forsythe was never seen on the soundstage of Charlie’s Angels at all...his voice was pre-recorded and dubbed in during production.

7 – Five of the six “Angels” had started off their careers in law enforcement.  The only one who didn’t have such a background was Julie, who previously worked as a model.

8 – Sabrina Duncan was the only “Angel” who had been previously married.

9 – Although Farrah left the series after season one, she made a few guest appearances during seasons three and four.  Whenever she appeared, the ratings would temporarily spike upward.

10 – There were lots of famous faces who auditioned for roles on Charlie’s Angels, but did not get cast.  Could you imagine Kathie Lee Gifford, Shari Belafonte, Priscilla Presley, Michelle Pfeiffer, or Kim Basinger as one of “Charlie’s Angels”?


11 – The idea of how Bosley was named was based on an inside joke.  At the time, the actor playing Bosley – David Doyle – was often misidentified as Tom Bosley.

12 – Many of the actresses (Kate Jackson in particular) were complaining about the quality of the scripts diminishing as the show continued, leading to a revolving door of writers being hired and fired at a fast pace.

13 – Kate Jackson was the only “Angel” to be nominated for an Emmy Award, but did not win.

14 – When Cheryl Ladd was hired to replace Farrah Fawcett, she reportedly wore a T-shirt on her first day that read “Farrah Fawcett Minor."


15 - Farrah Fawcett's departure from the series was quite controversial.  It caused a lawsuit to be filed by the producers of the series after they accused her of contract breach.  Part of the reason why Farrah agreed to do extra episodes in later season was because it was part of the settlement she reached with the producers in exchange for the lawsuits being dropped.


16 - Drew Barrymore has a couple of connections to the Charlie's Angels brand.  First, she starred in two Charlie's Angels feature films in 2000 and 2003 with Lucy Liu and Cameron Diaz...and secondly, she actually holds the screen rights to the series itself.


17 - The last time that the three original Charlie's Angels would appear together on stage was back in 2006, when they appeared on stage at the Emmy Awards to pay a tribute to Aaron Spelling.


18 - Jackson and Smith also appeared in the 2009 documentary "Farrah's Story", where they both visited her while she was battling cancer.  Just a few months later, Farrah Fawcett would pass away on June 25, 2009.


19 - A reboot of the series was attempted in the fall of 2011 on ABC, but it was cancelled after just four episodes.


20 - In 2004, a TV movie aired entitled "Behind The Scenes: The Unauthorized Story of Charlie's Angels" aired on NBC.


So, that is our tale of the television series "Charlie's Angels".  I hope you all enjoyed this look back on this classic television series, and hopefully, you've learned some facts about the show that you might not have known before.



But while it was fun to look back on the show, I admit that the show sort of reminds me of my grandmother, and how she brought out those cards for me to play with and admire.  I now have most of those cards in my possession, and I plan on keeping them as long as possible.  I know it sounds strange, but keeping those cards sort of keeps my grandmother close to me too, since having them reminds me of all those afternoons spent at her house.  If she were still alive, she would be 87 years old today...and part of me wonders if she's up there hanging out with Farrah Fawcett right now.  I think she'd probably get a hoot out of it, and I'm sure that Farrah would offer my aunt her forgiveness for crossing out her face on each card she appeared in with a blue ball-point pen.



I'm guessing that my aunts didn't care for the blonde one.  



Thursday, July 12, 2012

Inventory? You Can Count On It!


Here’s a question for all of you who are currently in the profession of retail, or who have worked a position in the world of retail at some point.  Have you ever had to go through a store-wide inventory?


Well, I can tell you that I have.  As a matter of fact, today happens to be inventory at my store.  It’s basically a day in which we have to count every single piece of merchandise within the store, from animal crackers to stuffed zebras.  And, I’m sure that most of you will agree with me when I say that if you have ever been a part of a store inventory before, it can be a rather stressful experience.

I mean, just think about it for a second.  Imagine having to count every single item in the store, knowing that one mistake could have a huge impact on how the store is run for the following year.  That can put a lot of pressure on you, as well as all of your co-workers.  I’m not afraid to admit that the idea of a store inventory still makes me feel a bit uncomfortable and nervous, and this is my seventh one!  You can only imagine how nerve-wracking it can be for someone who is diving right into the craziness and the fast pace that inventory can bring.


Although I work at a store that brings in an outside team to do our store inventory for us, I can honestly say that the preparations for inventory are probably harder than the actual inventory itself.  You have to count every box in the back room, and label it, and then you have to fix up your department so that every possible item is where it is supposed to be, and that each item is under the appropriate price point.  I know I was practically a nervous wreck the first time I was a part of an inventory team.

I have since gotten better at handling it, and now I can face the challenges that a store inventory can bring forth.  Mind you, it can still be a chore to go through, but not if you have the right attitude for it.

Because, here is my confession that is related to inventory and inventory related preparations.

THURSDAY CONFESSION #28:  When I do preparations for inventory, I do it by having a lot of fun in the process!

Yes, I know what you’re saying.  Yes, it seemingly contradicts what I just said about inventory being a many stress-filled thing.  But, I tend to look at it as being a great opportunity to showcase my silliness, and to really have fun with it.  I’m not denying that getting a store inventory ready (particularly with a store as huge as the one that I work at for my day job) can be a tough job, but if you have the right attitude towards it, you might be surprised at how fast time can fly!

I didn’t always have that attitude though.  I can remember the first time that I ever did a store inventory.  If I remember correctly, it was in 2002, before I began working at my current job.  There was a discount store downtown that used to close the store early one Saturday night in the middle of the summer.  Rather than have their staff count everything in the store, they would post an ad for outside staff to come in and count everything in the store for a little extra cash.  It wasn’t a lot of money, but given that I was unemployed at the time, I needed whatever money that I could get.

I was thinking that it was going to be a quick way to get my hands on some dough.  All I needed to do was know how to count.  With there being so many large objects within the store, I figured that I could be finished in no time.

What I didn’t count on was that I would be assigned the most frustrating department in the whole store.


Greeting cards.

That is one section that I hope to NEVER work in again.  Just imagine having to count 10,000 cards for birthdays, anniversaries, bar mitzvahs, and condolences over the death of a goldfish.  It was made even worse by trying to keep all the price points together.  Some cards were as low as ninety-nine cents, while others were over ten dollars.

(And, just going off on a tangent here, ten dollars for a card?!?  Do people actually pay that much for a card these days?)

Naturally, all the cards were mixed up, so it took hours to get everything straightened out.  By the time we managed to get all the cards counted, we had been there for three hours!  I was very cranky by the end of the day, and although I did get paid for the day, I thought that I should have gotten triple the amount for going through everything that I had gone through.

Boy, did I have the wrong attitude about it all.  Of course, it was my first experience with a store inventory.  I went into it with higher than normal expectations, and I was disappointed as a result.  It was an experience, and I learned from it.

Perhaps if I had treated the experience differently, it wouldn’t have been nearly the chore that it ended up being.  Sure, I would have done the same amount of work, but time would have gone by so much faster if my aura were more positive.

Over the years, I’ve come up with some ways to deal with the stress that can come from inventory, and I’ll share some of my coping mechanisms with all of you here.  They might not work for everyone, and I imagine that some of you will likely think that I have lost my ever-loving mind.  But, I’m going to share them anyway.

The first thing I do when I am getting ready for inventory is by singing silly songs as I work.  I usually do this anyway when I work.  After all, I do have a walk-in cooler that is mostly soundproof.  But during inventory, I tend to have fun with it by using appropriate songs.  Songs that have to do with counting...like this one.


...or this one.


My favourite has to be this one, a classic from Sesame Street.


I guess it is my good fortune that the majority of the cases in my department come in 12-packs, huh?

So, yeah...the day before inventory, you might hear some crazy 30-something warbling the lyrics to the Sesame Street pinball machine skit.  Trust me, as strange as it sounds, it helps preserve my sanity.

Another thing that I do to help cope with the pressures of inventory is through teamwork.  I find that if one has a great resource of co-workers who all have the same goal in mind, then it makes the job so much easier.

In fact, I think the main reason why this year’s inventory preparation went as smoothly as it did was because of the fact that everyone worked together to get the job done.  We all worked together, and we all did whatever was possible from organizing the cooler, to printing off labels, to having to borrow a store inventory pricing gun from another department because the one that we normally use was sent away for repairs.  There could have been a number of things that could have gone wrong, but yet nothing major happened.  And the reason why this was the case was because of the fact that everyone had the right frame of mind.  We all worked together to ensure that the job was not only finished, but finished the correct way.  I know that my job was made that much easier because of the teamwork, and because of them, inventory preparations were less of a chore than they had been in previous years.

I guess that’s a wonderful life lesson that we can take out of this blog posting.  And it doesn’t just involve preparing a store for inventory...it can be applied to almost any situation.  All you need to do is...

A)   Maintain a positive attitude whenever possible

B)   Don’t be afraid to let your silly side out to combat stressful situations

C)   Appreciate the value of teamwork, and be gracious of any help that one provides

As long as I keep these three things in check whenever I am asked to do something that may appear to be an exercise in frustration, it somehow becomes less frustrating, and at the end of the day, I can leave with a smile on my face, proud of a job well done.

With that, I’m off to work to witness another inventory day pass by...ever so slowly...time goes by so slowly...

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

The Yo-Yo Effect


One of the most frustrating things that can possibly happen when you are a child is getting a toy and having it not work properly, or get broken after a certain amount of time.

I'm sure we've all been in situations like that. I'm sure that we've all had a wheel fall off of our roller skates or skateboards. I'm sure that those of us who owned a Nintendo remember blowing into the cartridges when they refused to play in the machine. And, I'm sure that many of you were upset when the light bulbs burned out in your Lite-Brite toys or Easy Bake Ovens.

Of course, those were all things that couldn't be helped...well, unless you were incredibly rough with your toys and caused the damage yourself.

Now, what happens when you get a toy that you're dying to play with, but have absolutely no idea how to get it working, or how to set it up properly to guarantee yourself hours of fun? In these cases, the toy may very well be manufactured with the greatest of care and ease, and there isn't a single thing wrong with it. It's the owners of the toys themselves who can't figure it out.

I can think of a couple of examples to try and illustrate what I mean. You know those Rubik's Cubes where the goal of the puzzle was to arrange it so that each face of the cube was a solid colour? It's been 30 years since they've been released, and I still can't seem to figure them out. Or, those model train sets. Some people have a huge hobby of collecting train sets, and designing model train tracks...but the one and only train set I ever owned was a nightmare to complete. I don't even know if I ever managed to get the whole thing set up one hundred per cent correctly.

And then there's the subject of today's blog topic. It is a toy that I probably owned at least three or four of at any given time...and it is a toy that for whatever reason, I could not figure out how it worked.



We're going to be talking about the small, but mighty yo-yo.

I know what some of you must be saying. The yo-yo is a classic toy. How could anyone have a hard time with a yo-yo?



Well, I did. I was a...well, um...a yo-yo with a yo-yo...and no, that's not me.  It's a good representation of how horrible I was with a yo-yo though.

I mean, certainly most kids learn how to master the most simplest of moves that a yo-yo was capable of performing. The classic up and down motion. Well, do you want to know how old I was when I mastered the up/down technique? EIGHTEEN. It took me eighteen years to learn how to use a yo-yo the correct way. Looking back on it, I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that, but I just wanted to prove the point that in this case, it wasn't the yo-yo's fault.

Needless to say, learning the various tricks that can be associated with yo-yos were an impossibility for me. Instead of walking the dog, I was killing the dog. And, don't even get me started on the yo-yo trick “around the world”. I even think that Blair Warner from “The Facts of Life” did a better job with that trick than I did...and if you've ever seen the episode where she performs that trick, that should give you an indication of how hopeless I was with a yo-yo.

Despite this, I still admit that I find yo-yos to be fascinating things. I certainly admire people who can do elaborate yo-yo tricks, and deep down, I wish I could find a way to perform them too. But with my luck, the yo-yo would turn against me and strangle me to death if I tried.

The history of the yo-yo is a fascinating tale though. The earliest surviving yo-yo reportedly dates back thousands of years to the year 500 B.C. The materials that were used for the body of the yo-yo were terra cotta skin disks. If you look at the image below, you can see a painting of a boy playing with a yo-yo that was taken from the outside of an ancient Greek vase. The reason behind using the terra cotta disks were symbolic. They were used to ceremonially offer the toys of youth to certain gods when the child came of age.



And why was the toy named the “yo-yo”? Admittedly, the history behind the name has conflicting theories. The most widely believed one is that the name came from the northern Philippine Ilokano language word. Webster's Collegiate Dictionary seems to confirm this definition, so I'm going to go with this one. But another theory is that the word yo-yo was actually a Tagalong word, which meant “come from” or “return”.

So, that's your history lesson on how yo-yos were created. However, it took thousands of years before the toy became popular in North America. James L. Haven and Charles Hettrick, both of Cincinnati, Ohio, took out a patent in the United States for an improved version of the toy, which was also referred to as a bandelore. This occurred in 1866.

A few decades later, in 1928, Filipino-American Pedro Flores started up the Yo-Yo Manufacturing Company in Santa Barbara, California. The business started up small, with just a dozen handmade toys, including yo-yos, but by the following year, Flores had opened two additional factories in Los Angeles and Hollywood, California, which employed 600 people, and produced over 300,000 toys each day!



Entrepreneur Donald Duncan took notice of the yo-yo fad, and he purchased the Flores Yo-Yo Corporation and all of its assets, including the Flores name. The name “yo-yo” was registered as a trademark in America in 1932, and Duncan's first design of the yo-yo was called the Duncan O-BOY. Duncan reportedly paid more than a quarter of a million dollars to invest in the company (which was almost unheard of, given that it was smack dab in the middle of the Great Depression). Even more unheard of was that the investment that Duncan made ended up being very profitable. By 1946, Duncan's wealth had skyrocketed as a result. That same year, he opened up a factory in Luck, Wisconsin, which prompted the small town to call themselves the “Yo-yo Capital of the World”.

Duncan's yo-yo design was so successful that it ended up being inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in Rochester, New York in 1999.

Of course, Duncan's success didn't come without its controversies, and certainly the biggest one that he faced occurred in 1965. That year, the Royal Tops Company claimed that the word “yo-yo” had become commonly used within the English vocabulary, making Duncan's rights to the name redundant. To everyone's surprise, a judge sided with Royal Tops, and the fallout caused Duncan's fortune to plummet. It caused so much damage that the Duncan family was forced to sell the business to Flambeau Incorporated in the late 1960s, which had manufactured Duncan's plastic yo-yo models for a decade prior. The company is still in operation as of 2012.

In fact, yo-yos are just as popular as ever. It sounds surprising, given that we now live in a world that is filled with iPods, mobile phones, and XBOX 360s to distract teenagers. There is something to be said about the power of the yo-yo, however.

Did you know that there is a massive online following of all things relative to the yo-yo? I didn't know this either until I did some searching around online. And the discussion and obsession over yo-yos aren't just limited to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even Pinterest. There are several online groups devoted to yo-yo news, sharing new tricks, and exchanging yo-yo themed merchandise. Some of these sites include the following;


And those are just FIVE of many sites devoted to the yo-yo.

Then there are the various yo-yo contests that are held all over the world. Perhaps one of the most famous events is the World Yo-Yo Contest, which has been held annually since 1992 (although the first ever contest was held sixty years prior, in 1932). As of July 2012, the current yo-yo champions are;

Marcus Koh – Single Hand String Trick
Shinji Saito – Two Hands Looping Trick
Hank Freeman – Two Hands String Trick
Naoto Okada – Offstring
Takeshi Matsuura – Counterweight
Takahiko Hasegawa – Artistic Performance

TRIVIA: That second name on the list is no stranger to yo-yo championships. Reportedly, he has won TWELVE titles!

So, that is my report on the ups and downs of yo-yos. I certainly didn't have much luck with getting my yo-yo to do much of anything, but the one thing that I can say is that yo-yos are not going away. They never really left. Why, if I live until the year 2100, I bet yo-yos will still have a place in this world.

Although, in 2100, I'll be 119 years old, and will likely not be alive to collect on that bet. Oh well, c'est la vie.