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Sunday, April 12, 2015

Somewhere In My Memory

April 12, 2015

French class was always a fun time for me. The vast majority of classmates I attended French class with hated the subject. I get the distinct feeling that everytime my teacher would wheel in her little black cart with the green Dimoitou puppet, some kids groaned. I loved it though, and I would often get good grades in the subject.





I remember one year, we were doing a unit study on foods. We had to learn what several of the French words were for fruits and vegetables at the time. Some of them were really easy. Orange was orange. Banana was banane. Easy-peasy, right?

Not all of them were all that easy though. When it came down to the french word for pineapple, most of the class was stumped. When the teacher asked us what the French word for pineapple was, nobody knew.

But, I knew. I knew it very well. I shot up my hand and proudly declared that it was "un ananas"!

And, the teacher was impressed. Very impressed.

She flashed other fruits to me, and I named them all. Cherry=cerise. Grape=raisin. Pomme=apple. Pomme de Terre=Potato.

We then had to do a colouring page afterwards, and at this time, another teacher had come into the classroom. I don't think I was supposed to hear the conversation that the two teachers were having, but I distinctly remember hearing my French teacher talking about how I had a really good photographic memory.

I wondered to myself...what did that mean? I didn't understand the concept of that statement. I certainly didn't take Polaroid pictures with my mind.

As I grew older, though, I began to understand what she meant.

Part of the reason why I knew what the French word for pineapple was? TVOntario.





I remember watching TVO non-stop, and one of the programs was some silly little French show where the star was a talking pineapple. I didn't understand what the heck the people were saying, as my mother tongue was English, but the pineapple's name stuck out in my mind.




The pineapple was named "Ananas".

It seems silly, right? How watching a show that I had no hope of understanding as a five year old helped me enrich my vocabulary in another language. But, maybe my teacher had a point. If I hadn't have watched the show, would I have remembered the term? Probably not.





I was also a huge fan of Kool-Aid as a kid, and remember helping my mom mix it up many times. I would often read the label of the package while I poured the water into the pitcher, just to see how many cups of water I had to pour in. Keep in mind that I'm Canadian, so all our packaging was written in both English and French. That's probably how I learned the French words of the other fruits.

Apparently, the French language wasn't the only thing I remembered from way back when.





Does anyone remember those Laurentian pencil crayons? The 24 packs of coloured pencils with each one individually numbered. Well, if you told me a number, I could tell you the corresponding colour. In anyone's interested, give it a try! Ask me a number, I'll tell you the colour!

People have told me that I have a diabolical memory, and I think that my long-term memory is really good.

My short-term memory is not the best. In fact, I'd say that it completely sucks.

Try as I might, I always seem to misplace the remote-control, my wallet, my schedule...in one day, I misplaced all three.

I would try to take a course in improving my short-term memory...but I keep forgetting.

What's the point of this little note? Well, in my last note, I talked about my biggest weaknesses, and I figure that I should lighten the mood by talking about my strengths.

A good memory just happens to be one of my strengths.

I'm sure that I will come up with more strengths...if I remember to do so.

Saturday, April 11, 2015

Raising Money For Good - And Not For Bigotry

Does anybody remember participating in school fundraising drives when they were children?  How many of you did fundraising for your school?  What did you sell?  And did you like doing it?

I think I did school fundraising every single year that I was in elementary school (except kindergarten as we were exempt that year, and first grade where my evil teacher excluded me from taking part).  And each year, I think I sold quite a lot of stuff.  I think I was the second highest seller for 1991, 1992, 1993, and quite possibly 1994 as well.  If not, I was definitely Top 10 of the whole school.

What can I say?  I had a lot of family members back then who took the booklet to their workplaces.  I made a killing that way!



Of course, one thing I always wondered was where the money that we raised went to.  Sure, we managed to sell boxes of chocolates, Christmas ornaments, and gift bags at prices that could be considered ridiculously priced, but I never really knew how all that money we raised was spent.

Well, I would wager a guess that money was spent on a variety of things.  Upgrading playground equipment.  Paying for field trips.  Renovating classrooms.  Replacing gym equipment.  Things like that.  At least, I would hope it was that.

See, I love doing fundraising for worthy causes, and if I know that the money is doing a lot of good for a lot of people, then it is all worth it in the end.  It's why I've done several charity walks for children's hospitals and cancer research.  It's fun to take part in, and the money raised definitely goes to a wonderful cause.

But what happens when the cause that a fundraiser is raising money for is less than noble?



Well, I'm sure that you've heard about what has been happening in the state of Indiana right now.  Indiana is one of two states (the other one being Arkansas) that is entertaining the possibility of enforcing a "religious freedom" bill, which if passed would give individuals and businesses the right to assert that their exercise of religion has been  - or is likely to be - burdened as a defense in legal proceedings.



But one pizzeria in Indiana has taken the law to mean something else.  Something really discriminatory, unfair, and childish as far as I'm concerned.

You see, some people see this religious freedom bill as the very thing they need to refuse service to anybody who does not share the same belief system that they do.  And sadly for many people who identify themselves as a part of the LGBTQ community (that would be lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning people), they find themselves as unfair targets of this potential law.

Such is the case of said pizzeria (who I will for the sake of argument not list the name of, as I feel that they have gotten enough publicity), who declared that they would no longer cater any gay or lesbian wedding ceremonies, as they feel that doing so would go against their beliefs that marriage is between one man and woman only.

Now, let's get a few things straight.

I don't agree with the pizza place's stance at all.  I believe that a person is meant to fall in love with a person that they feel is their best fit.  If it happens to be a person of the opposite gender, fantastic.  If it happens to be a person of the same gender, fantastic.  Love is love.  And I believe that everyone has the right to have a wedding and a marriage with someone who they have fallen head over heels in love with no matter who they are.  It's just that simple.

Secondly, who the hell would cater a wedding reception with pepperoni pizza in the first place?!?  No wedding that I have ever been to has ever served pizza.  I suppose they may get a pass if some of the pizza toppings were lobster, caviar, or tomato sauce flown in from the middle of Italy.  But really, catering a wedding with pizza?  Why not just have the wedding reception at Pizza Hut?

And even if I did get married and my spouse and I had some love affair with pizza and wanted to have a "make-your-own-pizza" bar to add a kitsch factor to the reception - that pizza place would be the last place I would want to cater my wedding.  I don't support businesses who willingly single out and exclude people just because of something that they can't and shouldn't change about themselves.

Bottom line, the pizzeria was wrong, as are the people who believe that this law grants them the right to be completely homophobic. 

Well, apparently millions of other people thought the same way, and after leaving behind reviews on Yelp attacking them, taunting them on social media, and hurling unpleasant comments at the owners of the pizzeria, they were forced to close up shop.

I mean, I don't see how anyone can alienate a significant part of the global population and have it be a good thing.  Excluding customers is NEVER good business practice.

Oh, but the owners themselves state that they had every right to do so because they are a Christian business and they have the right to turn away anyone who goes against that belief.  I wonder if they served seafood pizzas on Sundays, or turned away customers who were dressed in a cotton shirt and polyester jacket?

Perhaps the most damning statement that sealed the deal of this pizzeria was the statement made by one of the owners of the pizzeria, which read as follows. 

"That lifestyle is something they choose.  I choose to be heterosexual.  They choose to be homosexual.  Why should I be beat over the head to go along with something they choose?"

Well, how about because most of us know that being gay or straight is something that none of us "choose" to be.  We are who we are because we are born this way.  Just ask Lady Gaga.



Or better still, just ask the LGBTQ community themselves.  With the bullying and abuse that they have sustained for decades just for identifying as LGBTQ, how can anybody say that they chose a life of being denied rights and being constantly abused and ridiculed for it? 

Well, here's the continuation of this story, and it goes back to the first paragraph that I wrote about it.  Apparently with the closure of the pizzeria, a group of people decided to start up a fundraising group on the popular fundraising website "GoFundMe.com".  They actually started up a fundraising group to raise money for the pizzeria owners who took a bigoted stand and had to close their business as a result of it.  At last count, this fundraising effort has raised - get this - $840,000!

That's right.  People donated almost a million dollars to the pizzeria that basically told people who were LGBTQ that they were not welcome.

That's disgusting.

And what's really frustrating about the whole thing is reading some of the comments that people have left behind when they made those donations.  I was expecting to see some comments about how the pizza was the best in Indiana, and certainly some people did donate because of the quality of the product and not necessarily commenting on the public relations nightmare that the scandal initially kicked off.  That I can respect.

Comments from people who have never eaten one slice of pizza from the establishment and who are only donating to "preserve Christian values" or "stick it to the liberal media".  Yeah, just shut up.  Seriously, just shut up.

As far as I am concerned, none of the people who are responsible for the pizza fundraiser have any idea what it is like to be true Christians.  They're the type of people who get dressed up in their grey suits and pastel coloured Easter Sunday dresses to listen to some guy read a Bible for three hours, thinking that is enough to make them feel Christian - when the other six days of the week, they snub anybody who thinks differently from them.  They preach a good game about being true Christians, but they never seem to do any practicing about it.

And in regards to the comments about sticking it to the liberal media?  Hell, I find both extremely left wing and extremely right wing news to be equally idiotic.  I'm a fence sitter on the political spectrum, and happy to be that way.

And for those of you who donated to this pizzeria, ask yourself this question.  If you really wanted to display true Christianity and be kind and giving to each other, why not take that money and donate it to local food banks or local children's charities, or some other organization that would actually use the money to help people?  Do we even have any guarantee that the pizza shop owners would use the money to reopen their business or would they just keep it all for themselves?  Who needs to go on "Survivor" to win a million bucks when you can just make an offensive comment and have a bunch of ill-informed people just give you a million dollars for speaking your mind?

When did online fundraising become another weapon to humiliate an entire group of people?



Fortunately, some people are fighting back against this.  One Chicago based sausage shop, Big Guys Sausage Stand, is taking a stand against bigotry by posting their own fundraising effort (which you can click on HERE to donate to - provided you have a major credit card).  They're up front about all the money going to charity, and unlike the unnamed pizza shop, they want to have this fundraiser make everybody feel welcome at his shop.  As owner Brendan O'Connor states;

"At Big Guys Sausage Stand, we use a lot of ingredients to make great homemade sandwiches, but one ingredient we never use is hate. You might get served by a Haitian, or Mexican or even a Rastafarian guy, but no matter who serves you they will do so without condemnation or scorn."

And for those of you who want to make the claim that I am taking a stand...well, you're right.  I don't believe in bullying anyone for being who they are.  That's why I'm happy to post the link to this fundraising effort rather than the other one.

And besides.  I've made no secret about my stance on religious beliefs.  It's awesome if you have them, but don't use them as justification to attack somebody else.  I can't stand people who hide behind a cloak of pseudo-Christianity as an excuse to be a complete jerk when the church doors close behind them.

Friday, April 10, 2015

Friday Thoughts

April 10, 2015

You know, I have to admit that lately I have been feeling a little bit down.  And, unlike other circumstances in which I've been trying to figure out why that is the case, this time I think I'm starting to understand why.

I guess there's no easy way to say this, so I'm just going to come out with it.  Everyone close to me seems to be ditching me.

Wait.  That sounds a might bit melodramatic.  Let's try rewording that last phrase.

Everyone close to me is embarking on new adventures.  Yeah, that sounds much better and less whiny.

Over the last six months or so, I reckon that I have seen close to fifteen co-workers leaving the workplace that I am currently at - fifteen co-workers that I have really grown close to over the last few years.  Some have moved on to other stores in the district.  Some have gotten new jobs that have nothing to do with retail in general.  And some have completely turned their lives upside down and have fled the city altogether to start a new life in a new city.

Now, before I go on with this blog entry, I want to state that I am one hundred per cent happy for each one of these people.  All of them have worked hard and thought hard about the decisions that have seen them leave our workplace, and I am definitely pulling for them.

At the same time, there's a part of me that is always going to miss them because of the fact that these people truly became really good friends, and they became people that I absolutely trusted.  And I don't care who you are in this world.  It is extremely hard to find that special bond or a connection with a person, let alone an entire sector of a workplace, school, church, or other public gathering place.



I know.  I've had trust issues my whole life.

What many people probably don't know about me is that I tend to be a really closed book when I first meet people.  I know it seems incredibly hard to believe, considering that over the last four years, I've pretty much wrote my whole biography in cyberspace for anybody to read. 

(Though granted, the pop culture references sort of mask some of the secrets I've shared that - well - aren't secrets anymore.)

But if one were to sit down with me and have a chat at a coffee house or restaurant booth - especially if we're just meeting up for the first time - it is more difficult for me to open up to people.

Because I'm still trying to feel you out.

In my youth, I made the mistake of trusting people too quickly.  Oh, I was so sociable and friendly, and told people anything and everything on my mind - and unfortunately those people took everything I said and used it to make me feel bad about myself.  And I admit that after putting my trust in people only to get burned, there was a time in my life where I just decided that it wasn't worth getting to know anybody.

Here's a bit of a confession to all of you - especially those of you who have been reading this blog and who might have only known me for a year or two.  For the first six months that I was working at my current job, I never really interacted with ANYONE.  In our employee lounge, I was more or less an observer than I was a participant.  I would sit in a corner watching everyone else interacting with each other, wondering how they did it so easily, while I was having trouble.

I think that it took me a total of six months to try and feel people out.  I began with befriending people who were around my age first, and from there I started befriending people who were older than I was.  Once I started to get to know them, I began to open up more.  Granted it took a lot of time for me to do so, but the end result was worth it.

And now, here it is, ten years later, and many of them have now gone off on their own directions, and once again, I kind of feel the same way that I did ten years ago.  I feel as though I'm starting all over again, and I am once more hiding in a corner in the lunch room observing, rather than participating.

I know that my friendships with those who have left are going to continue for years after the fact...but somehow, it's just not the same.

Have any of you ever felt that way?

Thursday, April 09, 2015

Mega Man I

Back in the days in which I was a hardcore gamer - as opposed to being "Gamer Light" that I currently am - I used to play a lot of video games. 

And one thing that I have learned over the years is that some video game manufacturing companies are better than others.

For instance, take Nintendo.  They're the guys who brought us Super Mario Brothers, Donkey Kong, Kirby, and Starfox.  I can't recall the company coming out with a terrible game, and they are always consistently great.

On the flipside, the company known as LJN, known for releasing the video game adaptations of "Back To The Future", "Jaws", "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", and "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure", produced some of the worst video games ever made.  Not that any of them were as bad as say, "E.T." for the Atari...but trust me, they were bad.

Some video game companies started off fantastic, but ended up falling apart after a shift in the company dynamics.  Look at the Square company that came up with "Final Fantasy".  When they were known as "SquareSoft", they were at their prime.  Since they became Square-Enix, they haven't been as good.  At least, that's my opinion.

Or sometimes, the quality of the games themselves decline due to the production company that manufactures them.  The first three Spyro the Dragon games were produced by Insomniac Games and were awesome.  The next game was done by Check Six Studios and Equinox Digital Entertainment, and was so filled with bugs that it made the game quite unenjoyable.  Now that Spyro is under the Skylanders umbrella, it seems to be doing much better.



And then there's Capcom.

Now, Capcom is a company that elicits a lot of mixed opinions within the gaming community.  Some really don't like the company because they feel that the games that they release are way too difficult.  To an extent, I agree.  Have you ever played "Ghosts 'N Goblins" straight through without losing a life?  Very few can make that claim.  I can't.

But Capcom has made a killing on releasing one successful franchise right after another from "Street Fighter" to "Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney".  And while the games are challenging, they are also fun to play.

And in today's blog, we're going to be talking about what I think is one of Capcom's biggest success stories - and it's a video game that I can't believe that I haven't done a blog about. 

I even remember the first time I played this game.  Back in the days in which I was a kid, video games were extremely expensive to purchase (and let's face it, $70 for a copy of "Bioshock" is still ridiculous), so if you were like me, you went down to the local video store and rented a game for $2.50 per day.  Believe me, that was the only way that I managed to be a huge gamer back in my childhood.

That's where I saw this game.



Behold.  The game that kicked off one of Capcom's biggest success stories.  The original "Mega Man", released in North America on December 17, 1987 by Nintendo.

Of course, I bet you're wondering what the heck is up with the cover art.  You're thinking "That does NOT look like Mega Man!"



I agree.  I'm more accustomed to this classic look.

But keep in mind that "Mega Man" was brand new, so the company was probably still testing the waters in character design.



I mean, this was what Mario looked like in 1981 when "Donkey Kong" came out.  He's evolved a lot in 34 years.

Anyway, back to "Mega Man".

The story of Mega Man goes like this.  Mega Man is created by Dr. Light and his assistant Dr. Wily.  He was one of seven created by the duo to perform industrial tasks to better the world. 

And if that's where the story ended, it would make for a really lame video game.

I suppose it's a very good thing that Dr. Wily has decided that he wanted to be top dog, even if it meant stabbing his partner in the back.  He manages to get access to six of the seven robots and reprograms them to do his bidding, and these six robots end up being Dr. Wily's tools for world domination.

However, Dr. Light still has an ace up his sleeve.  Mega Man.



The game's mission is to go through each of the game's six stages, where at the end of each stage is one of the six robots that Dr. Wily has taken control of.  And each level is designed to match the characteristics of each boss robot.  They are...



Bomb Man - Created for clearing large sections of land through the power of detonation.  Is a bit of a daredevil.

Cut Man - A robot designed to chop down trees and create lumber.  Always in a terrible mood.

Elec Man - He was designed to use the power of electricity to control nuclear power plants.  Instead, he uses his power to shock anyone who crosses his path.  He is competant, but egotistical.

Fire Man - What was once designed as a method to incinerate garbage, Fire Man is now set to burn down entire cities, thanks to Dr. Wily's reprogramming.  Hates the cold.

Guts Man - Possesses great physical strength, which could cause a lot of problems for Mega Man.  Don't let this guy's tough personality fool you though.  He sees the other robots as his family and will do anything to protect them.

Ice Man - The polar opposite of Fire Man, Ice Man can leave Mega Man feeling really cold.  But all it takes it a little bit of heat to tame this frosty beast.

If Mega Man can defeat all six robots, then he can go up against Dr. Wily and save the world from complete destruction.

That being said, do you have any idea how hard it was to do just that?  I reckon it took me 47 tries just to even get to Elec Man, let alone defeat him!  The game is tough, and just about anyone who has played "Mega Man" can appreciate how tough it is.

But finally being able to finish the game?  So rewarding.

And, luckily for you, there are at least nine other Mega Man games in the series for you to play.  I admit that my favourite of the bunch is Mega Man III, but you feel free to choose your favourite.

Wednesday, April 08, 2015

Too Shy Shy Hush Hush Eye To Eye Too Shy Shy Hush Hush

April 8, 2015

I'm a big fan of 1980's music.  If a song comes on the radio and was released between 1979 and 1990, chances are I'm probably going to love it.

I mean, I may be one of the only ones who may feel this way, but some of the music of the eighties was fun, original (in most cases) and creative.  And, with MTV actually showing music videos during this time period, we ended up seeing a lot of fun music videos. 

Like this 1980 hit from the Pointer Sisters:



Or, this 1983 song from Bananarama:



Also from 1983, we have this Kajagoogoo ditty:



You may also notice that all three of these music clips have some sort of connection with each other.  And, no, it's not one of those 6 Degrees Of Separation thingies where Ruth Pointer and Siobhan Fahey shared a hairdresser and Keren Woodward once had an affair with Limahl.  It's much simpler than that.

Heck, I even quoted Kajagoogoo lyrics in the blog title.

The theme is...shy guys.



No...Not quite.



It is true that I'm a shy guy.  But, not in the way you might think.

Granted, considering that I have kept up a blog for nearly four years now, some of you may be surprised by that face.  But online, I'm a bit more open than I am in the real world.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not THAT open.  I don't hand out my social insurance number, my debit card PIN number, my cell phone number, my address, or what my underwear preference is, because frankly, it's none of your business.  But, I have talked a lot about things that have been on my chest that needed to get out.  The abuse I suffered in school.  The constant struggles with self-worth.  Things like that.

But, that's in the world according to A POP CULTURE ADDICT'S GUIDE TO LIFE.  In the real world...you know, the one filled with actual people and places and things and anything else that can possibly appear on a Wheel of Fortune puzzle board?  I'm someone completely different.

Here I can pretty much engage in conversation with just about anybody and not have the fear of getting rejected or laughed at or ridiculed by others (and if I do, I can just block 'em).  I'm not that confident elsewhere.  I'm getting better at it though, but it's always been a struggle.

But, not in the way you might think.

I've always had a problem with face to face meetings.  Trying to find the right words to say to carry on conversations in face-to-face settings has always been a challenge.  Writing a blog has always been easier for me because I have a bit of time to accurately choose my words, and think about what I'm saying.  As a result, I am able to function as a literate adult provided the world I am in is one that favours writing as opposed to speaking.

Putting that into practice talking with people...is hard.  Especially if it's someone that I don't know.

If I'm, say, chatting with a family member, close friend, or co-worker, I find it quite easy, because they know how I roll most days.  But, you get me in a situation where I'm meeting someone I've never met before, I clam up.

Well, okay, maybe I don't clam up, but I tend to stutter.  I repeat words.  For all I know, what comes out of my mouth is pure gibberish because I'm thinking so hard about trying not to say the wrong thing that I end up exactly saying the wrong thing.  I can pretty much guarantee you that I lost out on a couple of job opportunities because I completely flubbed the job interview to the point of no return.  It certainly made me wish that all job interviews were conducted through e-mail, discussion forums or passenger pigeon notes, but realistically, that's not meant to be.

Ideally, I know what the problem is.  It's my overall reluctance to involve myself in social situations because of a fear of well...rejection, or getting laughed at, or being totally ignored.  I've been in many situations where I've been invited to parties or dances, and I've been the guy who basically leaves two hours before everyone else, because it's really awkward being there.  I'm sure all of you can relate to being the wallflower of a party...well...years ago, I was exactly that.  And, because of my tendency to be shy, I pretty much shunned social events to the point that I was likely about two or three stages away from becoming a total hermit crab (a.k.a. an isolated grouchy person).

At least I recognize the problem and I do want to take steps to try and not be so shy around people.  I'm at the point now where I am just as deserving of a rich, fulfilling social life as anybody else in this world, and I'm at the point where I want people in the real world to experience the person that I know I am. 

Then maybe I won't be so much the shy boy.

Anything's possible if you believe in yourself enough, right?  Maybe it's time I try believing in myself more.


Tuesday, April 07, 2015

April 7, 1951

As you probably have already guessed, I decided to change the layout of this blog ever so slightly.  Since Spring is in the air, I decided to make the decor fit with a nice clear blue sky and white fluffy clouds.  I think I will be keeping this look until at least next month - after all, the 4th anniversary of this blog is coming up soon!

Remember, there's still time to vote on what you want to see all month long for the May celebration month.  You can choose between a month of music, a month of food, a month of personal stories, and a month of birthday biographies.  I have added a poll on this blog so that you can have your say.  Just look at the right hand sidebar.  The poll closes on April 30, 2015 at 11:59pm, so please make your voice heard.

Until then, we still have the month of April to get through, so let's have a look at the very first Tuesday Timeline of the month.

Of course, before that...we have some unfinished business to take care of - mainly the celebrity birthdays and other events that took place on April 7.

1141 - Empress Matilda becomes the first female ruler of England

1521 - Explorer Ferdinand Magellan arrives at Cebu

1770 - English poet William Wordsworth (d. 1850) is born in Cockermouth, Cumberland, England

1798 - The Mississippi Territory is organized from disputed territory claimed by both Spain and the United States

1827 - English chemist John Walker sells the first friction match - created by him just one year earlier

1862 - The Battle of Shiloh ends during the American Civil War

1868 - Canadian politician and Father of Confederation Thomas D'Arcy McGee is assassinated by Irish Republicans

1906 - Naples, Italy is seriously damaged following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius

1915 - American jazz singer Billie Holliday (d. 1959) is born in Philadelphia

1927 - The first long-distance public television broadcast takes place - between New York City and Washington D.C.

1928 - Actor James Garner (d. 2014) is born in Norman, Oklahoma

1940 - Booker T. Washington becomes the first African-American to have his image placed on a postage stamp

1948 - The World Health Organization is established

1955 - Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of England

1964 - IBM announces the System/360

1967 - Roger Ebert publishes his very first film review in the Chicago Sun-Times

1969 - The unofficial, symbolic birthdate of the Internet

1978 - Development of the neutron bomb is halted by President Jimmy Carter

2001 - Mars Odyssey is launched

2012 - American journalist Mike Wallace passes away at the age of 93

2014 - British presenter Peaches Geldof dies of a drug overdose at just 25

And for celebrity birthdays, we have the following famous faces turning another year older - Andrew Sachs, Wayne Rogers, Bobby Bare, Iris Johansen, Francis Ford Coppola, Cornelia Frances, Patricia Bennett, John Oates, Gilles Valiquette, Jackie Chan, Brian Haner, Russell Crowe, Bill Bellamy, Jennifer Lynch, Ronde Barber, Tiki Barber, John Cooper, Jeremy Taggart, Kevin Alejandro, Anika Knudsen, David Otunga, Alex Lanipekun, Kyle Lebine, and Alexis Jordan.

As luck would have it, today's Tuesday Timeline subject is also celebrating a birthday.  Birthday number sixty-four, to be exact.



That would make her birthdate April 7, 1951.

But you know what?  I often wonder what kind of a person she was like back in the days of the late 1960s.  Particularly the year 1968 - when she was seventeen.

I wonder if she really did learn the truth at seventeen.  That love was meant for beauty queens? 

Say...that reminds me of a song.  Mind you, the song is written from the perspective of a seventeen year old GIRL...but I have to admit, seventeen was a rough year for me as well, and I can relate to almost everything in this song.  Let's have a listen.



ARTIST:  Janis Ian
SONG:  At Seventeen
ALBUM:  Between The Lines
RELEASED:  August 1975
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS:  #3

Maybe it wasn't a number one hit.  But it did serve as the soundtrack for many teenage girls who were questioning their self-esteem and self-worth, and serving as social commentary against fleeting popularity and teenage angst.



And the writer and performer of this song - Janis Ian - just happens to be today's Tuesday Timeline spotlight!  Happy birthday, Janis!

She was born Janis Eddy Fink on April 7, 1951 in New York City, the daughter of a music teacher and summer camp operator.  She had an early interest in music, writing her very first song at the age of twelve, and in 1966, she released her very first single, "Society's Child (Baby I've Been Thinking) under the stage name of Janis Ian (Ian being the middle name of her brother).



Now, "Society's Child" was a social commentary about interracial romance, and the subject was considered extremely taboo for the time that it was released.  Ian received her share of hate mail, some radio stations refused to play the song, and it was reported that one station that did was deliberately set ablaze.  But Janis Ian always considered herself to be a woman ahead of the times, and her social commentary songs certainly resonated with a lot of people.

Especially her signature hit "At Seventeen".

By the time Janis wrote "At Seventeen" in 1973, she had been there and done that.  She was 22 at the time.  The inspiration for the song came to Ian via a newspaper article about the debutante culture - you know, the events in which high society girls make their "debut" at the age of eighteen to the most elite of a community?  Well, I, of course, am only speculating this to be the case as I've never been an eighteen year old girl, nor have I ever been a member of the town elite.  Not as if I WANTED to be either.

Anyway, the newspaper article had an interview with an eighteen year old girl who had made her debut at one of these ceremonies, and how she soon discovered that being popular did not solve all of her problems.  If anything, her problems became much worse.

Oh, and that article?  It had a quote by the girl being interviewed that stated "I learned the truth at eighteen".

Janis decided that she would change that quote and make her opening line "I learned the truth at seventeen".  It just flowed better. 

Interestingly enough, Janis Ian almost considered not releasing the song at all, claiming that the lyrics she was writing were a little too personal.  But once she added the final verse of the song, she felt better about it, and it was released for airplay in the summer of 1975.

Then came her next problem.  Promoting the single.  It clocked in at four minutes and forty-four seconds - longer than most pop songs out there.  The decision was made to target women for the song's dominant audience, but with most radio stations being controlled by men, sexism in the seventies was still very much a real thing.  It wasn't until she appeared on "The Tonight Show" - not to mention singing this song on the very first episode of "Saturday Night Live" - that the song really began to take off, peaking at #3.

And to cap off the success, she won the Grammy Award for "Best Pop Vocal Performance" that year. 

(It also wouldn't be the first time she was nominated for a Grammy award though - she was also nominated in 1979 for the Giorgio Moroder produced disco hit "Fly Too High").

It was after that when Ian's singing career slowed down.  She still continued to write songs and record them, but she never really had another hit single after the 1970s.  She also writes science-fiction stories, is a contributor to the LGBTQ magazine "The Advocate", and married Patricia Snyder in 2003 (ten years after she came out as a lesbian and twenty years after her first marriage ended).

I guess if one were to write a song about Ian today, it might go like this.

She learned the truth at sixty-four
That life would give her so much more
And that there's so much more in store
At sixty-four...

Monday, April 06, 2015

Let's Talk About Sex, Baby...



Got your attention yet?

Don't think that this is a belated April Fools Day joke or that I am joking around. This note is all about the subject of sex.

Controversial enough for you yet?



You know, there's some people who get totally creeped out at the mere mention of the word. Not me. I'm open to discussing it. Mind you, I won't go into great detail about my own sex life, because, well, frankly it's none of your business what I do behind closed doors. I'm talking more of a general sense.

But, just going back to what I said...it's definitely a subject that people seem to have polarizing opinions of. There's some people who are so prudish that the mere mention of the word just makes them turn as red as a beet and want to crawl under a rock, claiming that they didn't just hear what they THOUGHT they heard. There's also some people who would babble on about it at all hours of the day, and have absolutely no shame in it. I'm kind of in the middle ground on that. I don't get offended by sex talk, but wouldn't talk about it all that much. I mean, you know the saying...the more you talk about it, the more deprived you supposedly are of it.

Of course, here I am writing a whole note ON sex, so I suppose I'm subject to having a lot of opinions from others flying my way...but, hey. That's fine. If I didn't want commentary about it, I'd just disable the comment feature.

Sex is something that all of us are going to be faced with sooner or later. Some people have healthy opinions about it, and have a very mature way of dealing with it. On the flipside, some people are horndogs. Believe me, I went to high school with a few of them. Whatever your stance is, it's something that we all have to deal with.



Take the George Michael song "I Want Your Sex", where the lyrics state that "sex is natural, sex is good, not everybody does it, but everybody should. Sex is natural, sex is fun, sex is best when it's one on one". Yep...good ol' monogamy. The most common and acceptable form of it.



Of course, counteracting that point are shows like "Sister Wives" or "Big Love". Granted, one is a reality show and the other one a scripted (but entertaining) drama series, but they both deal with polygamous relationships and marriages. Where one man has two or more wives, or where one woman has two or more husbands.

As far as polygamy goes, I'm not going to make judgment calls. Clearly, the polygamist lifestyle works for them in some manner, and I certainly am not going to judge whatever people do behind closed doors, because what happens behind those doors should stay there. I will say that as far as I'm concerned, there's only one team I would want to be on. I prefer the idea of monogamy. One man and one woman (or if you're LGBTQ, one man and one man, or one woman and one woman, etc). I mean, for one, would it not get confusing if you had more than one spouse? I mean, how awkward could it potentially be if you're a guy in bed with wife number one, and you accidentally call out the name of wife number three? How mortifying! And, I mean...how can someone tell someone that they love them with everything in them, and yet be married to two or more other people at the same time. Baffling, I know!

Like I said, nothing against people who practice polygamy, but it ain't my scene.



There's also the topic of promiscuity and general assumptions based on it. A guy has sex with a girl in high school, the guy is declared a hero, and macho. A girl has sex with a guy in high school, and she's labeled a slut, or a whore. It's a double standard, and frankly, it sickens me that in 2015, that double standard still exists. I think it totally needs to change, because it's not fair. It's insulting, is what it is.

There's another topic that's related to the main subject that this note is about, and in some ways, it could be considered a taboo type subject to discuss. It's something that all of us are born with. Most of us will likely lose it at some point in our lives, and those who still have it are sometimes ridiculed because of it.

The something that I'm talking about is virginity.

I just want to note that before I go on, I must make a couple of things clear. I'm not religious by any means. I know some people have used their faith to lead them through how they interact in relationships, and that's cool. I'm just not one of them. These are my own ideas and thoughts that I've had for a long time, without any influence from a church, people, or anything else. It may prove to be controversial to some of you, but I always wanted to talk about this subject with rational, calm, cool people. I'd think that the people in my life certainly qualify...so fair warning if I come across as a little bit preachy, because really, I don't care what people do between closed doors...just offering up my own food for thought based on what I've seen.



The subject of virginity is one that is often joked about, but rarely taken seriously. Especially in these current times, where movies like "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" have become box office successes. A lot of people really enjoyed the film, and I'll admit to laughing at it (particularly the waxing scene). But, that was a fictional movie with fictional characters. In the real world, is that an excuse to belittle and make fun of someone for being a virgin?

I don't think so. At least not so it becomes hurtful.

Not that I want to delve into my own experiences (because as I said before, it's really none of your business), but personally, I'm a little ticked off at the constant pressure the people are given to basically lose their virginities. It's actually kind of disgusting. I'm sure you've seen it first hand. Some people I know of who I attended school with lost theirs before they reached the age to drive, and really, that's their choice. But, for some of them to turn around and tell others in their peer group that they're pathetic if they don't lose theirs by a specific age, or that they're doing something wrong if they can't give it up...to me, that's absolutely appalling.

First of all, who dictates what the proper age is to lose their virginity? Is it 14? For some, yes. Is it 25? For some yes. Is it 67? Yes, I'm sure someone out there in this world has waited sixty-seven years. And, you know what? More power to 'em!

You want to know who the pathetic ones are? The ones who make the ludicrous claims that if they don't lose it by the time they reach a certain age, they're pretty much never going to lose it. Like, seriously, how ballsy can some people be?

You want my honest opinion? I applaud people who can hold on to it. I don't find them weak, or pathetic, or incapable of human emotions (and yeah, sadly enough, I have heard virgins described as that by somebody who clearly had one too many at the bar). Quite the opposite, actually.

There's a lot of pressure for teens out there. Peer pressure. Media. Music. All of these make the temptation all that much stronger, and as a result so many people end up doing it a lot sooner than they may be emotionally mature enough to handle. Now, I'm not suggesting that everyone just rushes right out to the nearest jewelry store and get fitted for purity rings. I'm just saying that people should really (and I mean REALLY) be able to look inside themselves, and decide for themselves what they really want before they do something (or someone) they may regret later.

Whether you're fifteen, twenty-five, thirty, fifty, ninety-nine, who cares? Why should you let ANYONE dictate what's best for you, and what is socially acceptable? It's your life, you decide what you want to do.

I certainly won't make fun of someone just because they haven't done it yet. S/he may have their reasons, and really, they should be respected. Anyone who doesn't respect them? They aren't worth your time.

I don't think anyone should engage in anything that they aren't ready for. This includes love, relationships, sex. And, certainly people should never be subjected to abuse or jeers because they have their own beliefs in the subject.

I just know that we all develop at different paces and we all have different lives to live. Who is anyone else to judge how we live ours?