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Monday, November 03, 2014

Price is Right Games I Never Want To Play

Hello everybody, and welcome to Tube Talk...Monday!

Yeah, the "YOU NEVER NOVEMBER WHAT YOU'RE GONNA GET" month continues as I rearrange the order of all the theme days all month long.  And the best part is that every day will be a surprise as you will not know what the theme of the day will be.

(Well, except on Tuesdays, which will remain the same for the month.)

So, yes.  Today in the blog, we're going to be talking about television shows.  And, in this edition, we're going to be focusing on a particular game show that has aired for over 40 years.

I have made it no secret that one of my ambitions in my life is to appear as a contestant on a game show.  I hope to make that happen one day.  I wouldn't even care if I won or lost.  Just the experience of being on a game show would be enough to cross that moment off of my bucket list once and for all. 

Of course, if I were to lose, I would not want to be a situation where everyone completely mopped the floor with me, and the host was forced to give me cash just so I wouldn't feel so bad being the victim of a crushing and embarrassing defeat.



Anyway, one game show that I think that I would do very well in would be "The Price is Right".  Certainly it is a show that I have loved since I was a little boy watching it with my grandmother many years ago.  And, yes, I admit that I have talked about this show a couple of times in this blog before.  But the one good thing about "The Price is Right" is that the show is so versatile that I could absolutely do a different article on the show for all seven days in the week.

Don't worry though.  I wouldn't do that to you.

No, I only plan on talking about this show once this week.  And, this is a topic that I have given a lot of thought to.

I thought about what could happen if I were ever chosen to be a contestant on "The Price is Right".  I probably would have a fair chance of getting chosen as a contestant (well, provided that I was actually in the California area).  And my years in retail would likely give me enough of an advantage to probably bid correctly to get out of contestants row.

My main concern becomes the pricing game that I would be playing. 

Did you know that as of November 2014, there are 75 current games that are played on the program?  Given that each episode of the game show features six of the seventy-five games, it is likely that each game will be played at least once a month.  Others would be played once a week.  I suppose the choices of the games depends on the popularity of the game, the percentage of contestants who win the game, the amount of time it takes to play the game, and the cash value of each of the prizes available to be won in each game.  For instance, a game like "Golden Road" would only be played once (the grand prize usually is around the hundred thousand mark), while a game like "One Wrong Price" could be played as many as six times a month (the game takes thirty seconds to play and offers el cheapo prizes).

Now, there are some games that I would absolutely love to play.  I know the odds of playing "Plinko" and winning are slim, but I would love the chance to drop the chips down that board.  I would totally kick butt on "The Clock Game".  And statistically speaking, "Shell Game" is one of the easiest games to win - therefore it would be one of the games that I would want to play.

My biggest nightmare would be playing a game that I would NOT want to play at all...and I guarantee you that if I were faced with the following six games to play, I would more than likely suffer a humiliating loss and be forced to settle for my consolation prizes of V8 Juice, Starburst Fruit Chews, and underwear from Fruit of the Loom.

(Not that I would mind stuff like that.  I like and use all three of those things.  But why go on a game show to win stuff I could buy at Walmart when I could win something unbelievable?)

Okay, so this is my own personal list of six pricing games that I would NOT want to play if I were to become a contestant on "The Price is Right".



1.  RACE GAME

This is one of those games that is more fun to watch than I assume it is to play.

The object of the game is that you have four different prizes that are up for grabs.  And you have four different price tags that correspond to each item.  You have 45 seconds to match the price tags to the items.  When you have them in position, you pull a lever to see how many you have right.  At the end of 45 seconds, the contestant wins whatever prizes are correct - or if they match all four correctly before time runs out.  Whichever comes first.

Now, as a kid watching this game, I loved it.  It was fun to see people speeding around the stage and the background music was always fun to listen to (though I miss the old days when the show used the William Tell Overture instead of that 1880s era saloon music they now play).  But as someone who admittedly gets winded running at any speed, this game is one big epic fail.

Also see "Bonkers" as another runner-up game similar to "Race Game".



2.  TEMPTATION

This game is designed to do one thing.  Play mind games with you. 

You are presented a wonderful prize of a car.  Then you are presented with four gifts.  The digits of the gifts can be used to guess the price of the car.  After all the digits are chosen, you have to make a huge choice.  Would the small gifts tempt you enough to take those instead of the car?  Or do you turn your back on a sure thing and go for the car (which depends on how well you have chosen the digits in the price of the car)?

Honestly, I hate watching this game as a television viewer.  I find it extremely stressful to watch contestants go for the car only to lose it by one wrong number.  Could you imagine the stress I would feel if I actually played this game on stage?  My only hope would be if two of the gifts were a bed and a toilet because after I throw up, I would pass out from stress.  Temptation is one game I would rather not play.



3.  MASTER KEY

You know that game where you have five Disneyland sized keys, with one unlocking all three prize locks, three of them unlocking one individual lock, and one unlocking nothing because the key cutter fell asleep at the key cutting station?  Yeah.  I despise this game.

For one, the way you earn keys is simple...or so you think.  You are given a prize like a microwave, and you have two digits, like say, a one and a seven.  You have to decide whether the price is $17 or $71.  And obviously, the choice would be $71, because whoever heard of a seventeen dollar microwave?

The problem with Master Key is the fact that the method to earning keys is not as obvious as the example I have provided.  The price tags are so close to each other in number that it really could be either value.  I have seen people play the game and not earn a single key.  It is also one of the games that has a higher percentage of losing contestants than winning contestants...at least that is how it seems watching it on television.  I think I would lock myself in a room if I had to be faced with playing Master Key.



4.  FIVE PRICE TAGS

Okay, maybe some of you who are of an older generation might know this...but didn't this game used to be called "FOUR CHOICES" at one time?  I somehow seem to remember it being called that when Bob Barker still hosted the show. 

Either way, this game should be an easy one to win.  You guess the prices of four items to win a choice of one of the five price tags attached to a car.  Only one price is right, but with a potential 4 out of 5 shots to guess the right price, you have an 80% chance to win the car. 

But here is where the sadistic twist comes into play.  Sure it's easy to guess whether a price is higher or lower than $80.  But trying to guess whether $80 is a true price or a false price?  How evil.



5.  1/2 OFF

You know, it is never easy to win a pricing game when money is the top prize.  Why do you think that Plinko, Punch-A-Bunch, and Check Game are some of the harder games to get a perfect score in?  But at the very least they are fun to watch...and honestly, I would be fine playing any of the games listed up above.

But 1/2 Off?  It is one confusing game.  The idea is that you have sixteen different coloured boxes numbered 1-16.  One box contains ten thousand dollars.  To increase your odds of winning, you have three chances to eliminate half the boxes by guessing which one out of a pair of items is exactly half the price that it is originally.  If you win all three chances, you can decrease the number of boxes from sixteen all the way to two.

The sad thing is that in this game, you can do everything right and STILL LOSE by picking the wrong box.  I don't like games of chance, and 1/2 Off is the ultimate middle finger of sorts for people who happen to choose incorrectly. 



6.  HOLE IN ONE (OR TWO)

Yeah.  I don't golf.  In order to make this game fair for me, it would have to be renamed Hole in Eighty-Four.

Enough said.

Sunday, November 02, 2014

Fall Leaves

Welcome to the second day of the month long event that I like to call "YOU NEVER NOVEMBER WHAT YOU'RE GONNA GET"!

You're probably expecting a blog entry about music being that today is Sunday, and it would normally be all about the Sunday Jukebox, right?

Well...not today.

Yes, you'll likely see a music post a little later this week, but in the meantime, I have decided to switch things up this month.  All month long (excluding Tuesdays), all the theme days are being switched and shuffled around.  And unlike previous times in which I have done this, I am not telling you what theme days you can expect.

A real expect the unexpected month, if you will.

For more information about this month long feature, please consult yesterday's entry for more information - or you can just click HERE if you like.

So, first question.  Have you turned back time yet?



(Note that although I have posted a video by Cher up above, this is not the subject of the blog.)

If you live in North America (excluding Arizona, of course), then you had better have turned back time.  Time shifted back one hour today at two o'clock this morning.  If you haven't done so already, do it now.  Oh, and now would be a great time to check your smoke detectors.  The batteries should be replaced every six months or so, and daylight savings time is a good time to do it.

I know some people absolutely hate daylight savings time, and I admit that it can be quite hard on a lot of people to get readjusted to the time change.  But it is one of the things that we have to deal with when it comes to the seasons of spring and fall.

But come on now, there are a lot of things that are awesome about fall.  In fact, I've decided to talk about one of these perks of fall right here in this very blog.

Yeah, this would be considered a throwback to those Saturday Smorgasbord entries that I did a few months ago where we talked about toys and games.  And in this blog, you can't find a toy that is more natural.  More biodegradable.  More fun!



I'm talking about LEAVES!  Those wonderful fall leaves that fall ever so delicately upon the earth, blowing down the street with a gentle breeze...

...or, if you happen to live in a place that has a lot of storms, leaves blowing violently off of trees and zooming past you with the force of a Boeing 747.

Either way, I am sure that all of you have some fond memories of playing with leaves - well before you grew up and realized that they were a pain to rake from your yard. 

I know I certainly have lots of fun memories of leaves.

I think it all started when I was a little kid.  I was a lot more outgoing as a small child than I was when I was a teenager, so I was always going to the park, or playing outside in my backyard.  And depending on the season, I would have good experiences and bad experiences.

For instance, while most people loved spring and summer, I could take it or leave it.  Spring had annoying allergies and summer was filled with hornets, wasps, and other creepy crawlies that stung.

Winter was okay, but I hated getting dressed up like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man to go outside.

No, fall was definitely my season.



And let's face it.  There is just something about a gigantic pile of leaves in glorious shades of red, gold, orange, and yellow that makes them absolutely impossible to resist diving right into it.

You can just hear it now...the soft crunching of the leaves as they crackle under your feet.  That was the sound of happiness during the month of November.  And hey, can you imagine a game of hide and go seek without having a pile of leaves to hide in?



And hey...this dog loves leaves too!  I mean, he REALLY loves leaves!


Of course, that wasn't all that we did with leaves.  Some of my favourite arts and crafts projects also involved using leaves as well.  I remember that we had to go into our schoolyard, find three different leaves that had fallen, and try to draw pictures using leaves as the bulk of the picture (like making oak leaf bugs, or drawing a Canadian flag with a real maple leaf).

Oh, and we also used to grab leaves from outside, and colour over them with a crayon to see all of the lines show up through the crayon.  That was also fun.

So, what sorts of things did you love about leaves?

Saturday, November 01, 2014

You Never "November" What You're Gonna Get

Hello, everyone!  Welcome to the first day of November 2014!

I can't believe that it is already November.  2014 has really gone by quickly.  And as the weather continues to grow colder, it comes to mind that before you know it, the holiday season will be fast upon us.  After all, it is only fifty-three days until Christmas.

Wow...that really gave me the chills.  I still have a lot of things to do to prepare for this year's Christmas season.  Yikes.

Fortunately, we still have almost two months to worry about Christmas.  We have the whole month of November to get through yet.

And for this November, I've got a lot of fun events planned.

Now, I realize that in order to talk about the fun stuff that I have plotted for November, I'm going to have to skip the Saturday movie discussion for this week.  Though, given that I talked about Stephen King's "It" earlier this week (which is kind of a movie/miniseries), I thought that I could skip it for this week.  After all, this November has five Saturdays, so skipping one week isn't that bad.  And besides...with what I have planned for this month, it won't really matter how many Saturdays there are in the month.

(We'll get to that a little later.)

No, I wanted to talk to you about my plans for November in "A POP CULTURE ADDICT'S GUIDE TO LIFE".  But I wanted to give it a really nifty name.  Something like "Nifty November", but not quite as lame.

How about...Knockout November?  Nah.  I like the sound of it, but it's not really considered a knockout selection of topics.

Wait.  I have it.  Granted, this name may sound more lamer than Nifty November, but go with it.



Let's call this month - YOU NEVER NOVEMBER WHAT YOU'RE GONNA GET.

Yeah, that's perfect.  And, I'll explain what that means in a bit.

Now, over the last few years that I've done this blog, you've come to expect a fixed schedule of entries.  You know that Sundays are music themed.  Thursdays lately have been all about television entries.  And Saturdays are typically for movie entries.

Well, for November...I'm completely abandoning the schedule, and I'm going to mix things up a LOT.  And the best part is that I am not going to tell you what you will expect on six of the seven days because this month, I am going to be switching everything up.

Now you might have noticed that I have said that I will be doing this with six of the seven days.  I will keep the Tuesday Timeline entries on Tuesdays.  The reason being that Tuesday entries are the ones that take the most time to write, and the way my schedule is this month, it makes no sense to switch that theme day to one in which I have significantly less time to write it.



As far as the others go...it's anything goes.  And it will leave you guessing all month long!

Now, just to remind you, here was the current schedule as of October 2014.

SUNDAY - Sunday Jukebox
MONDAY - Funny Monday
TUESDAY - Tuesday Timeline
WEDNESDAY - Who Am I Wednesday
THURSDAY - Tube Talk Thursday
FRIDAY - Foodie Friday
SATURDAY - Saturday Night At The Movies

Yeah.  Don't get used to that.  These days (except Tuesdays) will be switching places.

In fact...just to make you feel even more confused, I'm temporarily going to re-introduce past theme days that I have used in this blog that have since been retired.  They will be replacing at least one (possibly two or three) of the current theme days each week...and the best part is...you will never "November" when this will take place.

Hence the name - You Never November What You're Gonna Get!

Now, what are the defunct theme days?  Well, they were...

SUNDAY FUNNIES - discussions on comic book characters
ACROSS THE POND AND BEYOND - discussions on pop culture from overseas
SATURDAY MORNING - discussions on cartoons
THURSDAY ARCADE - discussions on video games
SATURDAY SMORGASBORD - discussions on books, toys, and games

Now the question remains...why do this?  Why switch everything around?

Well, I wanted to test the waters.  I wanted to see if any of these topics could possibly be resurrected for 2015 entries.  And, I also wanted to see if there were any theme days that I wanted to retire. 

But also...when you tend to get stuck in a rut, you want to try something new.  And, well...I guess I'm kind of in a rut with this blog.  Don't get me wrong, I still love writing it...I'm just kind of bored with the current format, and wanted to try different things.

Anyway, that's what I have planned for November.  Stay tuned for the rest of the year.  The third annual "A POP CULTURE ADDICT'S ADVENT CALENDAR" begins December 1, and will last until Christmas Day.

And then come January 2015, I'll usher in the new year with the results from this little November experiment.

It's a month guaranteed to keep you guessing!

Friday, October 31, 2014

Halloween Hodge Podge


Hey, everyone!  And, might I add...



HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!



Yes, Halloween is finally here, and I hope that all of you have gotten your last minute preparations completed.  Whether that involves buying more bags of candy, or whether you are finishing up the last minute details of your Halloween costumes, I certainly hope that you have a fantastic time.

Remember kids, always make sure that you wear costumes that can be seen in the dark.  After all, you have to make sure that you are trick-or-treating safely.

You should also check your children's candy as well before they eat it.  After all, you have to make sure that with food allergies and going door-to-door around the neighbourhoods, you make sure that they are eating candy that is considered safe.

But most importantly, try to have fun tonight!  Oh, and when I say fun, I mean that you should do so safely and responsibly.  This means no taking part in tricks that can be considered dangerous.

Now, I did have a post that I intended to write tonight, but due to some technical issues, I am unable to follow through with it.  But luckily, I can think on the spur of the moment, and in this case, I'm going to make this post all about sharing some Halloween memories via photos that I've randomly come across on the Internet.

So, that's likely why I've called this post the Halloween Hodge-Podge.  It's kind of a mishmash of Halloween memories of the past. 

Now, before I share my list, I want to mention two things.  First, I encourage every single one of you reading this to comment or chime in with your own Halloween memories.  After all, this blog is an interactive one, and I do appreciate and welcome all comments.  Go ahead and share your stories.  I love hearing them.

Secondly, I'm not putting this list in any particular order...just listing them as I come across them as I think about my own experiences.  Keep in mind that I have only lived through thirty-three (well, okay, technically it would be thirty-four) Halloweens, so you might have some memories from the 1970s, 1960s, or even earlier than that to share.  Please post those stories too if you like.  It will be interesting to see how much Halloween has changed over the years.

All right.  Here's memory #1.



Oh, how I have such a fond memory of the movie "Beetlejuice".  I have to watch this film at least once every Halloween.  I think the first time that I saw this movie was the year after it was released, which would be 1989.  My sister wanted to throw a Halloween party in our attic (at the time, we lived in a three story home), and she had rented "Beetlejuice" and "Pet Sematary".  Now, as an eight year old, I was not allowed to watch the latter.  However, I fell in love with the "Beetlejuice" movie - which I admit to swiping from the attic to watch in secret.  I honestly don't even know if the party went on, but I always remember watching "Beetlejuice" for the first time on Halloween, 1989.

Next memory.



Ah, a paint set.  You probably may not understand what a paint set would have to do with Halloween, but when we were kids and we used to live in a house that had two front entrances (it was laid out extremely weird), in order to help kids know what entrance to go to, we painted a mural on one of the glass windows of the entrance to direct kids to that entrance.  All of us were really artistic kids, but my sister always did most of the painting.  I only wish that I had some photos of these murals, but we never took pictures of them.  Such a disappointment that we never snapped any shots of them...but then again, this was the late 1980s/early 1990s.  There were no smartphones back then, and cameras were really expensive back then.

Okay.  Next Halloween memory.



I know what you're thinking.  Haven't I confused Halloween with Christmas?  There's absolutely no way that one can link a blizzard to Halloween - well, unless you're one of the ten thousand girls that is planning to dress up like one of the characters from the Disney movie "Frozen".

Well, keep in mind that my trick-or-treating days were long before "Frozen" came out.  My final year of trick-or-treating was 1993, and on October 31 of that year the temperature in Ontario was so cold that we ended up having a really huge snowfall right in the middle of trick-or-treating time.  But you know something?  I didn't care.  I loved it!  No snow was going to stop me from getting my yearly supply of peanut butter cups, Chiclets gum, and Cheetos.  Besides, I wore a really, REALLY warm costume that year.



Yeah, that's where the Coke can comes into play.  The last year I went out trick-or-treating, I dressed up as a can of Coke, fully insulated with warm foam material. 



Or, was it Jughead Jones?  I can't remember now.  But I do distinctly remember dressing up as both.  Come to think of it, I remember dressing up as a lot of pop culture figures of the past.



I was Pepe LePew.



I was Super Mario.



I was Kermit the Frog.



I was the stupid little green sprout from those Green Giant commercials.



I even dressed up as Michaelangelo the Ninja Turtle for two years in a row.

(Man, I seemed to like dressing up as green things when I was a kid.  It's a wonder I didn't dress up as Luigi instead of Mario.)

Let's see.  I have a memory of the year I dressed up as Mario.  It was a rather bittersweet memory at that.



Okay, you have a scavenger hunt list.  This story goes into detail.  The year I went as Super Mario was 1991.  Two days before Halloween that year, I lost my grandmother to a heart attack.  What was really creepy was that my grandmother's wake was on Halloween night.  So, while my family was at the wake, I went trick-or-treating with a friend of the family (my parents insisted that I have fun trick-or-treating before my grandmother's funeral on November 1).  And when my parents picked me up that night and we drove home, two college kids were trying to steal the tackling dummy that we threw in our tree for decoration!

Yeah...that was an interesting Halloween.  I mean, here we were about to bury our relative, and these people were stealing fake corpses from our tree.  What kind of a world do we live in?

So, after they explained the situation and apologized, we let them have the dummy anyway.  All they had to do was ask us!  No need for them to have resorted to body snatching!

Okay, so that's all of the Halloween memories I have.  Any you want to add?

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Stephen King's "It"

It's the day before Halloween, and believe me...I've saved my scariest post for last.

You see...I'm not going to be online much this coming Halloween, so I have a post that is largely going to be illustration based for tomorrow.  Don't fret though.  This post will give you some last minute ideas for Halloween treats that you can serve at parties or what have you.

No, for today, I thought that I would use this edition of TUBE TALK THURSDAY to discuss not a sitcom, not a drama, not even an episode of America's Funniest Home Videos.

No, this week, we're going to be talking about a miniseries.  A miniseries that admittedly scared me so much as a kid that I couldn't watch the whole thing until well into my twenties.

And it's such a strange thing to me that I would be afraid of watching this miniseries because I have never, ever suffered from coulrophobia in my entire life.

Which I suppose leads you to wonder - what the heck is coulrophobia?  Is it a fear of being cold?  A fear of colouring books?  A fear of turning into a different colour?



Nope.  Coulrophobia is a fear of clowns.

Now, I'll readily admit that the only time I have ever been afraid of clowns is when they make those stupid balloon animals - and in that case, I hated the balloon animals more than the clowns.  Truth be told, I've had no reason to really fear clowns.  I watched Bozo the Clown.  I liked the McDonald's commercials with Ronald McDonald.  I didn't even mind seeing Binky the Clown on Garfield, or Krusty the Clown on The Simpsons.  Clowns didn't bother me.

And yet, I know so many people who are terrified by the very sight of clowns.  I don't know if it's the make-up on their faces, or their high pitched laughter, or the loud and garish clothing that clowns are known to wear, but it just freaks them out to the point where they can't even go near them.

Now, I imagine that everyone's fear of clowns likely originated somewhere.  And for people who are my age, their fear may likely be linked to one clown in particular.



Say hello to Pennywise, the Dancing Clown! 

Now, you might think that this clown is as harmless as a feather...but Pennywise holds a really dark secret.  A secret that will be revealed in the television miniseries "It", a miniseries that aired in two parts in November 1990 on ABC.



Of course, the brainchild behind the book that this miniseries is based off it is horror master Stephen King, so naturally it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that Pennywise would be revealed to be absolutely evil.  But man, oh, man does Tim Curry play the role of the demented clown well.  In fact, all of the actors in the miniseries did extremely well in their portrayals of the main characters.

In addition to Curry, this film boasts the talents of John Ritter, Richard Thomas, Tim Reid, Annette O'Toole, Harry Anderson, Dennis Christopher, Richard Masur, Michael Cole, Olivia Hussey, and Seth Green.

Okay, so what exactly is it about Pennywise that makes him so frightening?  Maybe it's his creepy laugh?  Maybe it's his disturbing clown make-up.

Or maybe it's because Pennywise has been killing small children in the town of Derry, Maine for three decades!  And perhaps the catalyst of all this begins in the year 1960 when a six year old boy named Georgie Denbrough is playing with a paper boat that drifts into the sewer grate.  Pennywise appears in the grate and convinces Georgie to climb down inside the grate with him because there are lots of fun things down below.  And, well, as you can see in the clip below, it doesn't quite have a happy ending.



Georgie's death has a significant impact on his brother Bill.  Bill was the one who sent Georgie outside to play which lead to his death, and he is later immobilized in fear when a picture that he drew begins to bleed.



Fortunately, Bill finds support in a group of friends who all have had something traumatic happen to them.  Eddie Kaspbrak is an asthmatic, hypochondriac whose mother refuses to let go of her little boy.  Ben Hanscom is a chubby boy who lives to build things, who is still dealing with the fact that his father died.  Beverly Marsh has to deal with having an abusive, alcoholic father while practicing the perfect way to use a slingshot.  Richie Kozer is the one person in the group who isn't afraid to stand up to the school bully Henry Bowers.  Mike Hanlon is the new kid in town, trying to find his way into a new community.  And Stan Uris is a kid from a Jewish family who loves birdwatching.

Now, friendship does bring all seven kids together, but ultimately it is fear and anger that cements the bond between the seven children. 

Fear of and anger towards Pennywise the Clown.

You see, Pennywise isn't just a clown.  He's actually a shape shifting being that can morph into whatever form he chooses, all for the purpose of scaring people to death.  That's why in later scenes, Pennywise is referred to as being just "It".  And "It" invades the lives of all seven children by teasing them and torturing them, hitting them where it hurts.

For instance, in the case of aspiring actor Richie Tozier, "It" appears in the form of a werewolf.  "It" causes Beverly's bathroom to become engulfed in a geyser of blood.  "It" taunts Ben with gruesome images of his deceased father who orders him to go near the sewer.  And it nearly traps poor Stan in a haunted house which is being guarded by a mummy.

And on top of all that, Henry Bowers and his crew of bullies are popping out at every opportunity to scare and tease the seven children.  As if battling "It" wasn't bad enough already.

Eventually this leads to a huge confrontation with Pennywise the Clown, and all seven children find a way to defeat him by exploiting his weakness - because "It" transforms into anything he wants through the imaginations of children, the kids come up with the theory that if they attack "It" with the weakness of the item or person that he is portraying.  For instance, if "It" transforms into a snowman, they reason that they could defeat him by making him stand in front of a space heater.

And after a frightening encounter by Stan - which sees "It" murder Henry Bowers' pals - Stan deduces that the "deadlights" are the real target.  The kids reason that by destroying the deadlights, they will kill "It" once and for all.  But before Beverly can line up the perfect shot, "It" disappears into the night.  All seven kids make a pact that should "It" reappear in Derry, they'll be ready.



Well, flash forward thirty years, and Mike is the only one who is still in Derry, the others having left long ago.  And Mike is concerned when the news reports on the death of a little girl in her own backyard.  The circumstances behind the death are mysterious, and nobody knows what is going on.  But Mike suspects that "It" is back, and he makes six phone calls to his six friends, warning them that it was time to take care of business once and for all.

But who, if any, of the seven children who are now adults make it out alive?

Well, that would be revealing too much, wouldn't it?  After all, this is kind of similar to a movie entry, and I don't like spoiling movies.  But it's very interesting to note that all seven children had some sort of trauma in their lives, and how all seven became friends because of that.  And, I wonder if maybe "It" gained power through other people's misery.  It certainly makes sense if you look at it from that perspective.

Anyway, I have a little bit of trivia and stuff about the actors, behind the scenes action, and other miscellaneous info about "It".  For instance, did you know...

...that two of the actors from "It" died the same year?  John Ritter died on September 11, 2003 from aortic dissection.  Two months later on November 12, 2003, Jonathan Brandis (who played the role of 12-year-old Bill) took his own life.

Did you know that the actor who played the young Henry Bowers (Jarred Blancard) was extremely uncomfortable with using the N-word towards Marlon Taylor (young Mike Hanlon)?   He would always apologize profusely to Taylor before shooting the scenes in which he had to say the word.

Did you know that Tim Curry doesn't really like talking about his role as Pennywise the Dancing Clown that much in interviews?  He also reportedly hated wearing all that clown make-up.

Did you know that Alice Cooper was once considered to play the role of Pennywise?  Now THAT would have been epic.



Did you know that in the library scene, some of the actors were actually injured?  The amount of falling objects in the scene caused some people to get slightly hurt.

Did you know that the library scene only took one take?

Did you know that John Ritter took a memento of the set from
"It" after filming wrapped?  He took home a playing card with Pennywise's face stamped on it.

Did you know that some of the actors who played the "Lucky Seven" worked together on previous projects?  John Ritter and Richard Thomas, for example, worked together on "The Waltons".

Did you know that Eddie's medications that were used in the film were actual bottles that belonged to Dennis Christopher?

Did you know that Tim Reid's gray hair in the miniseries was not real?  The effect was made by having Reid comb his hair with a comb dipped in baby powder.


Did you know that while Richie was terrorized by a werewolf in the movie, Seth Green - who played Richie as a child - actually played a werewolf on the television series "Buffy: The Vampire Slayer"?

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

No Class Division on Halloween!

Hello, everyone!  It's only a couple of days left until Halloween, and I have a special Halloween themed WHO AM I WEDNESDAY entry to share with all of you this week.

Now, this entry is going to be a little bit different.  Usually what I do with these kind of entries is write it in the form of a diary entry, and regurgitate whatever thoughts I have going through my mind. 

Well, in this one, I'm still going to regurgitate whatever is going through my mind...I'm just going to present it in a different way.

Okay, so I'm sure that most of you have read a newspaper at some point in your lives.  If you haven't...where the heck have you been the last century and a half?

Anyway, there are some sections of the newspaper that I tend to read more than others.  I'm not one for the sports section, I have no interest in the financial pages, and as far as I'm concerned, the society pages only exist so that unimportant bigwigs can feel important by having their names in print on the second page of the third section of the newspaper.

But some of the sections I absolutely love.  The entertainment section...well, given the theme of this blog, that's a given.  The comics section?  Well, it really depends on the comics that are printed inside, but I will say that in most cases I'm perfectly fine with newspaper comics.  And of course I am one who cannot resist doing the word searches, crossword puzzles, and Sudoku puzzles inside of the newspaper.

(Even though in most cases I screw up the Sudoku so badly I have to buy another newspaper in order to finish it.)

Oh, yeah.  There was one other section in the newspaper that I enjoyed reading as well, and until now I was sort of ashamed to admit that I did enjoy it so much.  But I figure that now that I am old enough to not care what other people think, I will admit that I did read advice columns in newspapers.



You know the ones I mean?  The ones by Dear Abby, or Ann Landers, or other columnists who answer questions on medical issues, domestic disputes, repairing broken friendships, and saving marriages.  Yes, I did read those when I was a teenager. 

Then again, I also watched Ricki Lake.  Again, something I wouldn't have admitted as a teenager, but would admit to now.  After all.  I don't care anymore.

I guess part of the reason why I liked reading advice columns was because I wanted to see if the experts actually could answer any questions that were going through my head.  But, I'll also admit to wanting to see people ask such idiotic questions that it was worth seeing Abby and Ann Landers deliver some verbal smackdown to the dimwitted.

Well, recently someone posted a link to one of these advice columns.  I'm not sure if this column is printed in newspaper format, but it is definitely found in online format.  It's a column that is entitled "Dear Prudence", and just looking at her website on slate.com, it appears as though she writes the column once a week.



Anyway, a couple of days ago, I read the following question asked by a regular reader.  It has to do with Halloween, specifically the trick-or-treating portion of the event.  This letter writer questioned trick-or-treating etiquette and as you can see, she is frank and honest about her opinion.  But that doesn't mean that's a good thing.  Here's the letter, as written.

Dear Prudence,
I live in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the country, but on one of the more "modern" streets - mostly doctors and lawyers and family business owners.  (A few blocks away are billionaires, families with famous last names, media moguls, etc.)  I have noticed on Halloween, what seems like 75 per cent of the trick-or-treaters are clearly not from this neighborhood.  Kids arrive in overflowing cars from less fortunate areas.  I feel this is inappropriate.  Halloween isn't a social service or a charity in which I have to buy candy for less fortunate children.  Obviously this makes me feel like a terrible person, but what's the big deal about making less fortunate kids happy on a holiday?  But it just bugs me because we already pay more than enough taxes towards social services.  Should Halloween be a neighborhood activity, or is it legitimately a free-for-all in which people hunt down the best candy grounds for their kids?
                                   - Halloween for the 99 Per Cent

Wow...where do I begin with this one? 

First of all, I had to actually wonder if this was a real legitimate letter, or if it was some sort of parody.  I mean, sites like The Onion report false news all the time.  But let's just go with the assumption that this letter is in fact the real McCoy.  Did anyone else find this letter to be a tad bit, oh, I don't know...condescending?!?

Let me tell you a little bit about myself.  I consider myself to be within the 99 per cent of the population.  Heck, I'm probably considered a bottom feeder of the 99 per cent at that.  I went to school with a lot of kids who came from families who were the 1 per cent of my town (or at the very least, acted like it).  I knew where the rich people lived, and I knew where the poor people lived.  Do you really think that I cared about status quo when it came to trick-or-treating?

Hell no.

Really, there were only two major rules when it came to trick-or-treating when it came to my family.  Rule number one - never go trick-or-treating by yourself.  Always have a parent or guardian with you at all times, or barring that, use the safety in numbers method and go trick-or-treating with a group of half a dozen kids.  And rule number two - always trick-or-treat in well lit areas.  After all, on Halloween night, it's dark by six o'clock in the evening.

Nowhere in the Halloween rules of safe trick-or-treating did it say "only go trick-or-treating in the area where your economical status best fits".

I'll be honest with you.  I was the kid who stayed out all night long on Halloween.  I would stay out until at least nine o'clock.  In that time, I reckon I hit up a good two dozen blocks.  Of course I trick-or-treated in my own neighbourhood, but I eventually ended up in the north end of town - a place where all the middle to upper class folk lived.  And not one of them told me to get off of their property because I was poor.  Really, when you're wearing a Halloween costume, who the heck is going to know anyway?  Most people I know love to see the wonderful costumes that they would see. 

And really, candy is candy no matter what the size of the house is.  To me, it didn't make much of a difference what houses I went to.  All candy tasted the same.

(Though I have to admit that the house that gave out full size chocolate bars...I would purposely hit that house each time I went out...and it was a good eight blocks away!)

Really, the only message that I have for the "outraged 1% person who doesn't believe in giving candy to poor people" is this.  I hope that the money you save on doling out candy to the ghosties and goblins from a different snack bracket is a lot.  You're going to need every last dime to buy enough cleaning products to scrape off the residue of broken eggs that are smashed up against your immaculately expensive front porch.

I mean, seriously, I have known a lot of elitist snobs in my lifetime, but this letter writer sure takes the cake.  If this person really feels that strongly about this, maybe they should just shut off all their lights and pretend that nobody is home.

Besides.  I bet they handed out raisins instead of candy.

That's my thought anyway.  But I suppose you're wondering how Prudence responded to this person.  Have a look at this brilliant response as we close the book on another WHO AM I WEDNESDAY!

Dear 99,
In the urban neighborhood where I used to live, families who were not from the immediate area would come in fairly large groups to trick-or-treat on our streets, which were safe, well-lit, and full of people overstocked with candy.  It was delightful to see the little mermaids, spider-men, ghosts, and the occasional axe murderer excitedly run up and down our front steps, having the time of our lives.  So we'd spend an extra $20 to make sure we had enough candy for kids who weren't as fortunate as ours.  There you are, 99, on the impoverished side of Greenwich, or Beverly Hills, with the other struggling lawyers, doctors, and business owners.  Your whine makes me kind of wish that people from the actual poor side of town come this year not with scary costumes but with real pitchforks.  Stop being callous and miserly and go to Costco, you cheapskate, and get enough candy to fill the bags of kids who come one day a year to marvel at how the 1 per cent live.
                                                    - Prudie

Daaaaaaaaaaaamn!!!

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

October 28, 2009

This week's edition of Halloween themed blog entries continues with the weekly edition of the TUESDAY TIMELINE.  And while I'll readily admit that this entry technically is not really Halloween themed, the subject has some links to Halloween pop culture.  And besides, with the date being three days before Halloween, I think most of you will understand.

So, let's not waste any more time, shall we?  Let's check out some of the other events that was taking place on this date throughout history, shall we?

1492 - Explorer Christopher Columbus discovers the island nation of Cuba on his first voyage of the New World

1538 - The Universidad Santo Tomas de Aquino - the very first university established in the New World - is established

1707 - At least five thousand people in Japan are killed in the 1707 Hoei earthquake

1776 - British forces arrive at White Plains, attack, and capture Charleston Hill from America

1848 - Spain's first railroad opens, with service operating between Barcelona and Mataro

1886 - The Statue of Liberty is dedicated in New York Harbor by President Grover Cleveland

1893 - Tchaikovsky's "Symphony No. 6" debuts in St. Petersburg, only nine days before the composer's death

1918 - Czechoslovakia is granted independence from Austria-Hungary

1919 - U.S. Congress passes the Volstead Act, setting the stage for Prohibition to begin with the arrival of the new decade

1929 - Black Monday at the New York Stock Exchange - the market would crash just one day later

1940 - Greece officially joins combat in World War II following Italy's invasion of the country through Albania

1942 - The Alaska Highway construction is completed

1958 - Buddy Holly makes his last television appearance on "American Bandstand" - he would die in a plane crash three months later

1962 - The Cuban Missile Crisis officially ends following Nikita Khrushchev's orders to remove all Soviet Missiles from Cuba

1965 - The construction of the St. Louis Arch is completed

1980 - Five of the original Mouseketeers from "The Mickey Mouse Club" gather in Burbank, California for a 25th anniversary reunion

1995 - The Baku Metro fire in Azerbaijan kills 289 people, making it the deadliest subway disaster in the world

2007 - Country singer Porter Wagoner dies in Nashville, Tennessee at the age of 80

Now, I hope you're ready for celebrity birthdays, because October 28 is filled with them!  Warm birthday wishes go out to Joan Plowright, Charlie Daniels, Carl Davis, Lenny Wilkens, Jane Alexander, Curtis Lee, Dennis Franz, Wayne Fontana, Telma Hopkins, Bruce Jenner, Annie Potts, Desmond Child, Bill Gates, Mark Derwin, Daphne Zuniga, Lauren Holly, Sheryl Underwood, Jami Gertz, Andy Richter, Julia Roberts, Ben Harper, Greg Eagles, Brad Paisley, Joaquin Phoenix, Dayanara Torres, Lauren Woodland, Justin Guarini, Matt Smith, Frank Ocean, Lexi Ainsworth, Jasmine Jessica Anthony, and Sierra McCormick.

I told you there was a lot of them today!

Well, in this edition of the Tuesday Timeline, we're not going to focus on a birthdate.  Instead, we're going to consider this...a swan song of sorts.



We're only going to go back five years in the past to October 28, 2009.  And, we'll get to that date in a little while. 

But first things first, I want to ask all of you reading this entry a question.  Don't worry.  It's not a difficult one...well, unless you were born after 2009, that is.



Where were you when you heard about the death of Michael Jackson?

I can tell you exactly where I was.  I had just gotten home from work the afternoon of June 25, 2009, and at that time, the news was all about the passing of Farrah Fawcett, who had died earlier in the day.  I was flipping through the channels around 5:30 that day when I happened to stumble across MuchMusic (Canada's version of MTV).  Now, it had been years since I watched that channel, but something in me felt the need to pause and watch.  If I remember correctly they were doing some sort of live request show or something that involved a large crowd of people and a host.  It was right at that moment that the female VJ - obviously in a lot of shock - had announced that Michael Jackson had died at the age of 50 years old.

It was certainly a shock, especially as someone who grew up listening to his music as I certainly had.  This was the guy who moonwalked his way to success.  The man who had several chart toppers in his five decades on this earth.  The man who single-handedly lead the music video revolution with hits such as this one - perfect for every Halloween party.



(I had to try and pin a Halloween reference in this piece somewhere.)

Of course, over the past five years, the investigation into Michael Jackson's death has played out like a synopsis found deep inside the pages of Soap Opera Digest, and I won't really go into details surrounding all of that.  There's been thousands of articles about the subject, and a quick Google search will introduce you to the key players in the trial and investigation.  Besides, this entry isn't about his death anyway.

Instead, this post is about a film that was released four months after his death.  A film that offered heartbroken fans all over the world a little bit of closure.  A final project that Jackson had been working on prior to his death.

There was just one catch.  It wasn't supposed to be a film.  Rather, it was supposed to be a concert tour.

Well, okay.  I suppose "tour" isn't the right word to use, considering that the "This Is It" concert series was set to take place in one and only one venue.

The announcement for the series of concerts came in March 2009 at London's O2 arena.  At least seven thousand people gathered to hear Michael Jackson's big announcement.

The announcement was that he would be setting up residency in London to perform a series of fifty concerts exclusively from the O2 Arena in London.  Furthermore, it would be his final concert performances in London, stating that "when I say this is it, it really means this is it."



Hence the concert series being entitled "This Is It".  It was designed to be Michael Jackson's retirement from performing concerts.  It was unknown at the time whether he would stop recording music at that time, but as far as performing live, he made it perfectly clear that these shows would be some of his last.



Let me say this.  The promotion of this tour was unlike anything ever seen in the world of rock music.  After all, this was to be his first concert event in twelve years.  In fact, there was a commercial that aired on the British television channel ITV (seen above) that lasted an entire block of commercials, and cost roughly one million pounds to create.  The "This Is It" tour was already touted as Michael Jackson's ultimate comeback, and was one of the most anticipated concert events of 2009.  When tickets became available for sale to the public, internet servers crashed due to the influx of people wanting to purchase the tickets online, and almost 200,000 tickets were sold in just a couple of hours!

The "This Is It" tour would begin in July 2009 and conclude in late February/early March of the following year, and if the London concerts were a huge success, then there was also the possibility of expanding the tour to North America, Asia, Europe, and Australia, making it his final world tour.  It certainly looked like 2009 would become the year of Michael Jackson.

And it was...for all the wrong reasons.



As we all well know, Michael Jackson died eighteen days before the tour was to kick off on July 13, 2009, leaving everything in disarray.  All fifty concert dates were obviously cancelled, and fans who had purchased tickets received a full refund (or they could choose to keep their tickets as a very expensive souvenir of what was supposed to happen but never came to be.)

Now, you might think that would be the end of the "This Is It" story.  But alas, it wasn't quite it...at least not just yet.

Even though Michael Jackson had died, there remained a lot of footage that was shot while Jackson was rehearsing for the big tour.  At least one hundred hours of footage filmed during the spring of 2009 existed, courtesy of Kenny Ortega, the choreographer and director of the "This Is It" concert tour. 

Initially, the footage shot by Ortega was only for his own use, and he made it clear that none of the footage shot was to ever be seen by the public.  Of course, this was before Michael Jackson's death.  After he passed, the decision was made to splice together the footage into a nearly two hour concert film showing fans all over the world what they might have expected to see had the "This Is It" concert tour went off as planned.



With Columbia Pictures and AEG Live backing the project, the film "This Is It" was officially released on October 28, 2009 for what was initially supposed to be a two-week engagement.  However, this run was later expanded to accommodate the demands of Jackson's fans.

If the concert series couldn't go on as planned, the movie was the next best thing.

Mind you, not everybody saw it that way.  Many people called out AEG Live for seemingly exploiting Jackson's death for profit.  Some even believed that Jackson wouldn't have wanted this film to be released at all because of the fact that it was all rough footage that wasn't meant to be seen.

However, despite the negative criticism of the film, it still did fantastic at the box office.  Thirty thousand movie tickets were sold in London the first day they became available.  The film had record breaking screenings in Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco.  The first weekend that the film was in theatres, it grossed $101 million alone.  By the time the film ceased airing in theatres, it had made a total of $261,183,588 worldwide.

But all profits aside, the concert video was quite good.  I have watched it myself, and was blown away by the performances that he performed in the film.  In fact, have a look at a couple of clips from the movie that I've posted below.



And to think that this was just from the rehearsal periods.  It's hard to say what the actual concerts would have been like, but if the rehearsal periods were this good, I can only imagine the finished product to be amazing.

So, I suppose in a way, "This Is It" was Michael's final contribution to the world of concert.  Maybe it wasn't the way he wanted it, and I certainly didn't think he expected to die just before he kicked off his final concert performances.  But in a way, it was a brilliant way to remember him and honour him.  In the end, he did set out to do what he had hoped for.



And I suppose Michael Jackson's legacy just keeps on giving.  In May 2014, an album of songs recorded before his 2009 death was released entitled "Xscape".  And, well...I figure that posting a song from that album is a wonderful way to close out this Tuesday Timeline entry.



Enjoy.