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Friday, August 26, 2011

TGIF: That '70s Show

Who here remembers the 1970s?  I'm sure that I have quite a few regular readers of this blog who were either born in the 1970s or grew up during the 1970s. 

It was a decade where disco was king, and everyone tried to mimic the same moves John Travolta did on that multicoloured floor of lights.

It was a decade where gas shortages were in the news, and long lines of cars could be seen at gas stations and convenience stores for miles.

It was a decade where women embraced feminism, and you could see hundreds of women burning their bras as a form of protest.

Yes, the 1970s were a decade of great change.  People showed off their mood rings and pet rocks, embraced the 8-track-tape and Betamax, and wore bell bottoms and feathered hair.

It was a decade that I completely missed out on.

Having been born in 1981, I was unable to experience the 1970s.  I had older sisters and cousins who were born in that time period, who managed to experience some of the decade, but I could only read about it in books, or watch television shows made in the 1970s to fully understand what they were like.

It really wasn't until 1998 came around that a television show came along that showed all of us who missed the 1970s a general idea of what living in that decade really was like.


That '70s Show premiered on the FOX television network on August 23, 1998, and ran until May 18, 2006.  The show was centered around six high school aged students in Point Place, Wisconsin, and was set in the time period between May 1976 and January 1980. 


From left to right, the kids of That '70s Show are Michael Kelso, Eric Forman, Steven Hyde, Donna Pinciotti, Fez, and Jackie Burkhart.  Other characters include Eric's parents, Red and Kitty (Kurtwood Smith and Debra Jo Rupp), Eric's sister (Lisa Robin Kelly), Donna's parents Bob and Midge (Don Stark and Tanya Roberts), Leo (Tommy Chong), and Randy (Josh Meyers).

Just for this blog entry, I'm going to focus on the kids of the show, since they were the real stars of the show.

Like any high school group shown on various television sitcoms over the years, each person in the group had their own distinctive personality.  Some members of the group got into trouble and the others had to bail them out.  Some members dated each other within the group, or slept with others in the group, which had the tendency to make things a bit awkward, especially if the relationship fizzled.  Sometimes, the events of the 1970s would have profound effects on one member of the group, and those effects could spill over into the rest of the circle.

Speaking of circles...


...one of the recurring gags of the series involved some members of the group in the basement of Eric's house (one of the main hangouts for the young cast of the series) in a circle formation.  The scenes were one of the main ways that the group would update each other on various problems or issues that they were experiencing.  Usually, the groups would include the males of the group, but on rare instances, Donna and Jackie would take part in the discussion as well.  The camera would be present in the center of the circle, and would focus on the character currently speaking.  When it came time for the next person to speak, the camera would turn towards the next person. 



Oh, yeah...there's one minor detail that I should add.  You may have noticed a distinct haze in the background of these circle scenes.  Although you never saw any of the characters in the show visually smoking up, the haze was meant to simulate the effect one might notice if they walked in on a group of people smoking up.  I mean, if you watched the clip of the circle that I posted, you may note that the smoke seemed the thickest around Kelso, and well...if you saw the way that Kelso acted in the circle, it makes a lot of sense!

Another gimmick that the show used quite often was the split-screen technology.  Split-screen technology is used when you have two or more characters talking to each other via telephone, or in recent shows, online.  It had been previously used in shows like Three's Company (when characters talked with Suzanne Somers during her publicized conflict dispute with showrunners and producers), and on The View (the argument between Rosie O'Donnell and Elisabeth Hasselbeck, which prompted Rosie to leave the program two months early).

On That '70s Show, the split-screen gimmick was used quite often, to move the storyline of each episode along.


At any rate, the show managed to be a huge hit on FOX.  Here's a little bit of trivia for you.  Of all the programs that debuted in 1998 on the FOX network, That '70s Show was the ONLY one to last longer than one season, airing exactly 200 episodes during its whole run.  Although the show went through some cast changes (including Topher Grace and Ashton Kutcher leaving the series at the beginning of the show's final season), it still kept the humour and the jokes going at full force, which I certainly appreciated.

So, I guess this is the point in the blog where we talk about the main cast of the program.  As always, I'll describe the cast briefly, and see if I can relate to any of these characters (despite them living in a time period that I completely missed).  We'll begin with...

Eric Forman
played by Topher Grace (1998-2005; 2006)

Of all the characters that appear in That '70s Show, I think I am the most like Eric.  Overprotective mother?  We both have them.  Easily agitated father?  Yep, we both have them.  Strained and prickly relationships with an older sibling?  Well...okay, we differ on that one, as I actually have a somewhat decent relationship with mine.  I imagine that had we been born without the age difference, we probably wouldn't get along. 
That being said, Eric had a rather central role in the series for the first seven seasons, and even made a memorable appearance at the series finale.

Eric's personality was quite a bit like mine as well.  Aside from the whole experimentation with marijuana with my closest circle of friends, Eric and I are quite a lot alike.  Eric's basically a good kid with a sense of humour that is peppered with sarcasm and acerbic wit.  This is probably a good thing for him to have, as his physical attributes leave little to be desired.  He has been described as geeky, scrawny, and physically weak, and has been given the nicknames of Zitty Stardust, Foreplay, and Dumbass by his friends and family.  Compare that with me.  I'm probably the biggest geek that most people could ever know (which I proudly own up to, by the way).  When I was younger, I ran away from physical fights, and did a crappy job of trying to defend myself against people who used to beat me up. 

That said, Eric could find the strength to stand up to bullies and family members if provoked enough.  He threatened Casey Kelso with violence if he ever hurt Donna, he stood up to his parents when they tried to interfere in his plans to marry Donna, and has even punched out a couple of people during the show's run. 

Within the main group, Eric's best friend was Hyde, and it was Eric who convinced his parents to let Hyde move in with them when his mother abandoned him.  The person in the group who Eric seems to dislike the most is Jackie, although they manage to put their differences aside in later season.  And then there's his on-off romance with Donna, which seemingly ends in season seven as Eric decides to go to Africa for a year (kicking off Topher Grace leaving the series).  But he returns to the show on the series finale where he sees Donna one final time.


Jackie Burkhart
played by Mila Kunis (1998-2006)

Jackie is the youngest member of the group (as well as the show, as Mila Kunis was barely fifteen when she was cast on the program), and has probably one of the most prickly personalities of the core six.  When you consider that one of her nicknames on the show was 'Little Red Riding Bitch', it's a clear indicator of what kind of personality she had.

You know those people who you may encounter that would give you unsolicited advice on something that ends up being thoughtless or superficial in nature, but ends up being correct?  That was Jackie in a nutshell.  She was portrayed as spoiled and stuck-up, with a hint of narcissism mixed in for bad measure.  That said, at least you could say that any intention that she had was good. 

Still, there's a lot more to Jackie than her conceit and her constant drive to be voted Most Popular or have the best legs.  It ends up that the reason why she acted so conceited was a defense mechanism of sorts to prevent herself from getting hurt.  Her home life was a bit tumultuous as well, with her father in prison and her mother abandoning her.  She also has issues with insecurity, as the only reason she feels like she is a part of Eric's group is because of her relationship with Michael Kelso.  What Jackie didn't initially realize was that her defense mechanism of conceit ended up sabotaging prospective friendships.  All I'll say to that is that I can probably say the same thing about myself (at least during those awkward middle school years anyways).

By the end of the series, Jackie managed to prove herself to the others, and really began to be accepted by the group as more than just the girlfriend of one of the gang.  Though, it's interesting to note that she had relationships with three of the four men in the group (first Kelso, then Hyde, and finally Fez).  She also looked up to Donna as a big sister, and had a rather unique bond with Eric's father, Red.

Michael Kelso
played by Ashton Kutcher (1998-2005; 2006)

Oh, Kelso, Kelso, Kelso...what a man-bimbo you were.

As if he was a combination of Reggie Mantle and Big Moose from Archie comics, Reggie was vapid, shallow, and according to a lot of people, a little bit stupid.  Probably why he ended up dating Jackie at the beginning of the series, as back in those days, Jackie was a traditionalist who mistakenly believed that she needed a man to make her happy, and, well...Kelso was it. 

There is a trait that Kelso and I both share though.  Two actually.  He and I were both sensitive people, and we both had nicknames that we both despised in high school.  First, let's talk about the sensitivity issue.  Before I found my inner strength and started standing up to people, I used to take abuse and jeers and cheers from classmates, and it affected me in a negative manner.  Kelso was basically the same way.  He took the negative comments that the gang made personally when he wore a Fonzie style leather jacket.  He's also surprisingly mature when it comes to how he handled relationships.  Despite cheating on Jackie once, in all subsequent relationships he had, he never cheated on his partner at all after that one time.  When Kelso became a father during season seven, he accepted his responsibility and moved away from Point Place to fulfill his responsibilities (effectively setting the stage for Ashton Kutcher's exit in season eight).

Oh, and the nickname?  The one I was saddled with was 'Turkey', which was taken from the first part of my real last name.  I hated the nickname with a passion, and it seemed the more I voiced my disapproval, the more kids called me it, even going so far as carving it into my locker with a compass from a mathematics kit.  Real mature.  As it turned out, Kelso's embarrassing nickname also originated in high school.  Offscreen, he was in the cafeteria when he slipped on some mashed potatoes and slid right into a pole, earning him the less than affectionate nickname of 'Tater Nuts'.

Kelso's intelligence is also downplayed.  Of course, he gives off the impression that he is a bumbling idiot, but when given the right incentive (money, beer, sex, etc), he displays intelligence beyond belief.  He earned a respectable 1030 on his SAT's, and has a great deal of practical knowledge (yet lacks the ambition to show it off in most cases).  Kelso has also dated a lot of people on the show, but the two that are most notable are Jackie and Eric's sister, Laurie.


Steven Hyde
played by Danny Masterson (1998-2006)

Introduced as Eric Forman's best friend, Hyde's background is probably one of the most dysfunctional.  With an absentee father, and a mother who abandoned him, Hyde is taken in by the Forman family, effectively making Hyde a foster brother to Eric.  The friendship between Eric and Hyde is probably the friendship that is the strongest of all the friendships within the show.

Hyde worked at a Foto Hut where he befriended his boss Leo.  Although the friendship was tested over the years (including one instance in which Hyde told off Leo for not doing his job, despite being his supervisor), the friendship seemed to have survived.

What's interesting about Hyde is that Eric's father, Red, seemed to be more accepting of Hyde as a son, rather than Eric, because Hyde had all of the qualities that Eric lacked, which was more masculinity, and less showing of his emotions, a contrast of the 'New-Age' phonomenon of the 1970s.  Later in the series, we meet Hyde's real father, who surprisingly enough happens to be African-American (making Hyde biracial).  At the end of the series, Hyde becomes the manager of a record store within a chain that his father once owned.

I actually think that Hyde was probably one of my favourite characters in the whole show because he also had a lot in common with me.  He shunned organized religion, as I have a tendency to do myself (which doesn't mean that I don't believe in God, but that's another topic altogether).  He doesn't rush into relationships at all (his only serious one on the show was with Jackie).  While at first he was rebellious and had a 'me against the world' attitude towards life, when he moved into the Forman residence, he lost his rebellious streak, and actually pitched in with chores and the like.  He had high respect for the Formans, probably because they refused to give up on him, unlike his own family.

Perhaps the one thing I liked best about Hyde was the fact that he always put his friendships first above material possessions and needs.  It takes a real mature and secure person to be able to do that, and I think that's why Hyde became my favourite person on the whole show.



Donna Pinciotti
played by Laura Prepon (1998-2006)

Donna is a tomboyish type girl, who spent most of the series being Eric's love interest.  Unlike Jackie, she embraced the idea of feminism, and was extremely confident and strong in her opinions.  Sometimes though, she could take it to the extreme, misleading people into thinking she was arrogant or self-righteous.

She rejects almost all articles that showcase extreme femininity, such as lipstick, skirts, jewelry, and dresses, although on special occasions she will glam it up.  After her wedding with Eric was called off, she even dyed her hair blonde (actress Laura Prepon had dyed it for a movie role that she filmed in between seasons seven and eight).

Although Hyde had expressed feelings for Donna early in the series, Donna's main love interest was Eric, and they had an on-again, off-again romance for most of the series run.  Her best friend (some might say frenemy) is Jackie, and although Jackie can be abrasive with Donna, Donna can give it right back to her.

Despite Donna's confidence, she does have some insecurities, largely stemming from her parents rocky relationship, and subsequent split from each other (which is how the show explained the departure of Tanya Roberts).  Donna believed that she had the hardest life out of the whole group, but Hyde reminded her that his life was the same way, and yet he never complained about it, reassessing Donna's own feelings about herself.  She also had trust issues with Eric, and in one episode, she thinks he is cheating on her when she finds a mysterious pair of panties in his car (which turned out to belong to her mother, when she and Bob had...relations in the car).



Fez
played by Wilmer Valderrama

Finally (and I'll wrap this up here, as this blog entry is getting incredibly long), we have foreign exchange student Fez, from...well, actually, we have no idea what country he's from.  In a recurring gag, everytime Fez tries to tell where he's from, he keeps getting interrupted.  It worked kind of the same way as the gag on The Simpsons, when people try to explain where Springfield is located.

Fez isn't exactly Fez's real name.  It's a nickname that is derived from the term 'foreign exchange student'.  The gang do know his real name, but we never hear it, as they claim that they don't have any idea how it is pronounced.

Fez develops friendships with Hyde and Eric on the show, but his best friend is Kelso.  He had deep admiration for Donna, and has a lot of affection towards her, but nothing romantic developed between them.  His relationship with Jackie was one that was slow-going at first.  He had been enamored with Jackie since the beginning of the show, but since she was already committed to Kelso at the time, nothing ever came out of it...at least initially.  In the last season, after Kelso left, Jackie and Fez moved in together, where Jackie soon started developing feelings for Fez.  Fex, rebuffed her affections, telling Jackie that he didn't want to be her last resort.  This prompted Jackie to seek out revenge on Fez, and Fez retaliated by dying Jackie's hair green, telling her that she now looked as ugly on the outside as she was inside.  Jackie was deeply hurt by this and moved out.  Fez realized that he was hard on her, and that he really did want to be with her, but when he tried to apologize, Jackie refused to hear it.  It wasn't until the end of the series before Jackie and Fez began to reciprocate their feelings for one another.

Fez was a bit awkward in the early years with women, and had very little success in his romantic life.  In fact, he was the last of his friends to lose his virginity (gee, this sounds very strangely on par with my own experience with love and romance, I have to say, but again, that's another blog entry for another day).  By the end of the series, he almost becomes a regular womanizer, often experiencing situations that the other three male leads never really did.

Still, Fez's friends were there for him when he needed them.  In one case, when Fez was threatened with deportation after being arrested for vandalism, Eric's sister, Laurie decided to marry Fez to keep him in the country!  The marriage was obviously one of convenience, and once the ceremony happened, the two went on their separate ways, and the marriage was presumably annulled.  Still, you have to hand it to Fez for having such a personality that people would want to keep him around...even if he doesn't quite grasp American culture quite the way the others did.


Thursday, August 25, 2011

Unplugging The Game Console For This Week...

Today is Thursday, and this is supposed to be the day where I bring up a video or arcade game to discuss, and bring up a memory or a discussion surrounding said video or arcade game.

This week, I've decided to turn off the game console.  Spent my last quarter.  Used my last token at Chuck E. Cheese. 

Why?

Because some things are just more important than playing video games.  Sometimes an event will inspire one to write a commentary on something that comes to the mind, and it bugs you until you get it out.  Or sometimes, something will happen in current events that causes you to speak out about it, regardless of the circumstances behind it.

Today just happens to be one of those times, and fair warning to all of you, this could happen sporadically as events of the world take place. 


Above is the image of Canadian politician Jack Layton.  Earlier this week, he passed away from cancer at the age of 61.  With his death came an outpouring of affection and grief from Canadians everywhere.  Memorial sites were set up where people could leave behind messages of condolences in books, and where people left behind messages on the pavement with sidewalk chalk.  His funeral is scheduled for August 27, and it is expected that millions of people will pay their respects to the man by either attending memorial services, or watching the state funeral on television.

But to anyone who may be reading this and living outside of Canada, who was Jack Layton, and what impact did he make on Canada to cause so much outpouring of emotions from Canadians?

I can't and won't speak for other Canadians, but my honest assessment of  Jack Layton was that unlike a lot of politicians who shouted and screeched demands and promises that may or may not have been fulfilled, he at least tried to back them up.  In fact, I think he was one of the few Canadian politicians to have the cojones to stand up to fellow politicians to speak for the average Joe Canadian.  That I found to be very refreshing, considering the toxicity and vitriol that have plagued election campaigns in the past.

I'm not going to go into rich detail about his political history, because in all honesty, I am not the type who gets quite into heated political debates.  If anything, I'm the type of person who tries to avoid such debates.  How ironic that in this blog entry, I could potentially be starting up such debates by having my own thoughts here.

But what the hell, I like a challenge.


The summarization of Jack Layton's political career is this.  In 2003, after serving years on various positions within the Toronto City Council, he was elected as the leader of the New Democrats Party (NDP).  But before we get into this, let's go back a few years to the year 1982, when his political career effectively began.

Back in 1982, Jack was 32 years old, and when he won the election for the Toronto City Council that year, it was a massive upset against opposing candidate Gordon Chong.  Right off the bat, his outspoken nature was quite noticeable, and he immediately became one of the most vocal and loudest serving council members.  He tackled issues such as the building of the SkyDome (which he opposed), and was a firm advocate for rights for patients who were diagnosed with AIDS.  There were some blips along the way but he did his job well enough and served the city of Toronto for many years.  In 2003, he was elected as the leader of the NDP, and stayed in that position until his death.  On May 2, 2011, Jack Layton became the official leader of the opposition, and he lived long enough to see a huge surge in NDP seats gained in the House of Commons.  I'd like to believe that a part of the reason for the gain was because of his leadership qualities and his larger-than-life personality, but I am well aware that there are other factors that were likely behind the gain (dislike and distrust of the other party leaders influencing their decision, Layton's strong performance in the 2011 debates pre-election, and the sudden switchover in Quebec, for example).

And certainly, Layton's political record isn't exactly flawless.  It's hard to overlook the fact that he was involved in that ridiculous Liberal/NDP/Bloc-Quebecois coalition idea.  And certainly, he has had his name linked to some political scandal over the years.  But, I'm not gonna talk about those here.  If you're really interested, you can Google it, but this blog has never been one to humiliate public figures, especially after their death, and it never will be used for that purpose.

No, this blog entry I've decided won't be about politics.  Aside from the brief bio I posted, that's all I plan to discuss.

Instead, I'd rather talk about the man himself, and why Canadians seemed to look up to him, and why so many are saddened by his loss.


Doing some research on Jack Layton, it's interesting to note that he wasn't always the polished leader that most of us saw him as.  During the late 1980s, it wasn't all that uncommon to see Jack Layton report to council meetings in blue jeans and messy hair.  Which would have been a great look for a high school sophomore reporting for chemistry class, but not for an elected official.  He changed his image in 1991 when he attempted to run for mayor of Toronto, ditching the jeans for suits and looking more polished in appearance.  Still, this should have been an indicator that he was not just any ordinary politician.

Rather, we all got to see the more human side of him on more than one occasion, and often we laughed with him when he got into embarrassing situations.  When he first began dating his future wife, Olivia Chow (who also happens to be in the political arena herself), her mother was a bit wary of the union, partially because she disapproved of his race, as well as his occupation.  Nevertheless, Jack wanted to convince her that he was good for her daughter, so when he was invited to dinner, he accepted.  During the dinner date, the group played Mahjongg, and while they were playing, Jack really wanted to impress his future mother-in-law by thanking her for the meal in Cantonese.



What Jack didn't realize was that unlike our own English language, in Cantonese, depending on the tone in which you say it, the meaning could be completely messed up.  What Jack thought he was saying was 'thank you for the good meal.'

Instead, it came out as 'thanks for the good sex.'

Yeah, that's not awkward at all.

But it was a humourous moment that broke the ice, and ultimately welcomed Jack into the Chow family.  Jack and Olivia would later get married in 1988.

That's probably what I remember most about Jack Layton.  He was human, and he made mistakes.  And made no excuses for it. 

I think part of his appeal was his laid-back type personality away from the House of Commons.  In parliament, he was mouthy, opinionated, and outspoken.  Outside of the office, he was quite the opposite.  He was known for playing music and singing songs at party gatherings, and had no shame in proclaiming his love for everything Star Trek.  He even has his picture taken in a Star Trek costume at a convention in 1991!  He even got up at the 2005 Parliamentary Press Gallery dinner to parody popular songs by creating his own humourous lyrics to the melody.

(Considering that I have a habit of bastardizing Christmas carols, this was a man after my own heart.)

Ultimately, his main goal as a politician was to fight for Canadian rights, and I feel that out of all the leaders out there, that he really tried to listen to all the prospective voters.  He may not have had the solution to a problem, or even had the right answer to fix it, but at least he tried to listen to the voters (which may explain his party's gain of popularity in the 2011 Canadian elections).

So, it's only fitting that some of his final words were expressed in a letter to the Canadian public just two days before he passed away.  Now, I won't post the letter within the body of this blog, but I will post the link to it.  Regardless of what you thought of him or his politics, it is worth the read, especially for the last paragraph.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Across The Pond And Beyond: Shakespears Sister

Previously in the Sunday Jukebox for August 21, I talked about the British girl group known as Bananarama, in hopes of making a key point about rumours and how dangerous they can be to someone else.


The above image you see is a screenshot of a Bananarama video featuring former Bananarama member Siobhan Fahey.  Siobhan was one of the three founding members of Bananarama along with Keren Woodward and Sara Dallin.  They put the group together in 1979, and for the next eight years, they scored hit after hit in the United Kingdom, and even had a number one hit stateside with a remake of the 1970 song 'Venus'.  Their success in North America was limited, as their last hit to land on the charts there was 1987's 'I Heard A Rumour'.  However, in the United Kingdom and Australia, they continued to be popular and fans expected Bananarama to be huge on the charts for several more years.

That is until 1988 when Siobhan Fahey quit the band.

As I talked about earlier, there were several theories as to why Siobhan left.  Conflicts with her bandmates, her needing a change, fighting with her record company, wanting time with her family.  The supposed theories were endless.

Regardless, Bananarama kept on going without Siobhan.  After replacing Siobhan with singer Jacquie O'Sullivan, Bananarama continued to release songs and albums in their native UK.


But, while Bananarama had seemingly moved on, so did Siobhan Fahey.

One of the main reasons why Siobhan truly left Bananarama was because she had felt that the band was going into a direction that she didn't agree with.  With Stock/Aitken/Waterman taking over the production duties for their albums, Siobhan felt that Pete Waterman especially wanted to encourage the band to go the sex-kitten route, and that was something she disagreed with.  This caused a bit of tension between her and the other members of Bananarama, and eventually, she left the group.

With her leaving the group, she was free to go in her own direction, and one of the first things she did was plot out a new musical venture.  The first thing she had done upon leaving Bananarama was change her look to become less like a pop-tart and more like a rocker with a darker edge.


The second was to come up with a name for her new venture.  I suppose that she could have just branched out using her own name, but she wanted it to be a perfect name.

She eventually settled on the name Shakespears Sister.  The name was taken from the title of an essay written by Virginia Woolf.  The title was also used for a song recorded by The Smiths.  The difference (with my assumption that it was changed to avoid copyright infringement) was that Siobhan had left off the last 'E' in Shakespeare.

During the planning periods of the Shakespears Sister project, Siobhan and her husband Dave Stewart had moved to the United States.  When they settled, fate introduced Siobhan to record producer Richard Feldman (who coincidentally happened to live across the street), and they started coming up with plans for a new album.  During this collaboration, Feldman introduced Siobhan to an ex-girlfriend of his, named Marcella Levy (who would later adopt the stage name of Marcella Detroit), and the two instantly began to collaborate together on the debut album of Shakespears Sister.  Marcella had loads of experience in the music industry.  She performed with Bob Seger and Eric Clapton during the 1970s, and throughout the 1980s had written songs for such artists as Belinda Carlisle, Philip Bailey, and Chaka Khan, just to name a few.  So, needless to say, Marcella proved to be a big asset to the creation of Shakespears Sister.


Now that the duo was firmly in place, it was time to start releasing the music.  Shakespears Sister's first single was one called 'Break My Heart', which showed the darker side to Siobhan Fahey.  It did okay on the charts, but it wasn't exactly a huge hit.

But when Marcella Detroit became a part of the group, she added her own flavour with her multi-octave voice and her ability to play several musical instruments.  In 1989, the duo released this single, which showed Marcella for the first time in front of the camera (originally, Shakespears Sister was solely meant to be a solo project for Siobhan Fahey).



You're History managed to reach the top ten on British charts in the summer of 1989, and the track was subject to some rather interesting interpretations.  Upon first glance, it seems to be a song that is about culling a friendship or ending a toxic relationship.  With lyrics like 'You're history, no good for me, you're history', it's a pretty clear indication that the end of the song won't result in holding hands with someone and singing a rousing chorus of Kumbaya.

But some fans wondered if the song had a double meaning.  Or at the very least wondered if the song was somewhat autobiographical in the case of Siobhan Fahey.  It was speculated that the song 'You're History' was written about Stock/Aitken/Waterman.  Some even speculated that the song was meant as a message towards her former Bananarama bandmates Sara and Keren.  But while these theories have been suggested (and actually do make a lot of sense given Siobhan's sudden split from Bananarama), Siobhan never really confirmed this as being true.

While You're History put Shakespears Sister on the pop charts in the United Kingdom, it wouldn't be until three years later that the group would make an impact on North American charts as well.  This particular song would end up reaching the top of the charts in the United Kingdom for eight weeks in 1992, and peaked at number four in the United States.  The song would inevitably become Shakespears Sister's biggest hit, and was the biggest selling single for a British act in the UK in 1992.


ARTIST: Shakespears Sister
SONG:  Stay
ALBUM:  Hormonally Yours
DATE RELEASED:  January 25, 1992
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #4 (#1 in UK)

The first thing you might notice is that Siobhan Fahey takes a backseat role in this song, as Marcella Detroit took over the main vocals...one of the very few Shakespears Sister songs that had Marcella in such a prominent role.  But it seemed to work and work well.

Secondly, you may have seen the video and wondered what the heck is going on.  Well, I'll explain it as best I can.  The opening shows Marcella leaned over a hospital bed where her scantily clad boyfriend (who in a subtle twist of irony was played by an ex of Keren Woodward's) lies comatose, clinging to life.  She sings to him and wants him to keep fighting so he can stay with her.


But not so fast!  The angel of death hovers over the situation, determined to claim yet another soul.  Siobhan played the angel of death and as she descended down a flight of stairs, Marcella was determined to keep her man alive, especially when he wakes up unexpectedly.

At this point, Marcella and Siobhan begin fighting over control of the man's soul, effectively simulating a battle between life (Marcella) and death (Siobhan).  In the end, life triumphs, and as Marcella is reunited with her man, a dejected death climbs back up the stairs.

The video was very well done, and the song ended up being nominated for several awards, including the award for Best Song at the 1993 Brit Awards.

Unfortunately, that same year, Marcella Detroit had a falling out with Siobhan Fahey, which lead to the dissolution of the partnership in 1993.  It was triggered after Marcella hired her own manager and demanded half the ownership of Shakespears Sister.  As of now, Marcella reported that she and Siobhan occasionally contact each other through e-mail, but that they haven't seen each other since the split.

In a twist of fate, around the same time Shakespears Sister released 'Stay', Jacquie O'Sullivan quit Bananarama, effectively leaving Sara and Keren as a duo.

Though one great thing about it is that both groups are still performing today.  Bananarama still tours around the UK and has released a few singles as a duo.  And Siobhan Fahey has resurrected Shakespears Sister as a solo act, and still records new music., while Marcella Detroit still records under her original given name.

Time will only tell if they will have another shot at stardom again.  All the members of both Bananarama and Shakespears Sister are in or approaching their fifties (Dallin is 49, Woodward is 50, Fahey is 52, and Marcella Detroit is 59), and Bananarama last major charting hit was back in 2005.  Shakespears Sister has had even less luck, with Stay being the last big hit associated with that name.

But you never know what could happen.  Siobhan Fahey reunited with Bananarama in 2002 for a special benefit concert.  Maybe a Shakespears Sister reunion could be in the works as well? 

Who can say?


Tuesday, August 23, 2011

And Boom Goes The Dynamite...Magazine

Sometimes a memory can be triggered just out of the blue.  Something that you never would have expected to pop into your head, or something that you forgot about for years.  All of a sudden, someone will bring it up in conversation, and the memories come flooding back.

That's what happened to me last week.  Ironically enough, it was a previous blog entry that inspired this memory.

It was last week.  August 16, to be exact.  That was the week that I posted my blog on the advertisements on the back of comic books where I included several examples of such ads.  I posted the link to this blog on my own personal Facebook page, where people on my friends list commented on how those ads brought back so many memories.

The discussion then prompted a few of my friends to post images of their own ads from their own collections, and it turned out to be a really great chat.  I gotta say that it's really great that this little blog is getting more and more interest from all of you.  I only started this venture three months ago, and it is thrilling to me to see so many people continue to check it out, and for that I thank you all!

Somehow along the posting of ads on my Facebook page, we started discussing those Scholastic Book Clubs and Book Fairs, which were a must do in my school years.  I can still remember the excitement that I felt when I got the order forms for the book club.  We'd hand in our orders to the teacher, and within four to six weeks, we would have some brand new books to read.  The Scholastic Book Clubs and Book Fairs were one of the main sources of  my childhood book collection over the years, and I always looked forward to getting even more books.

So, from there, the discussion of the book club spurned into books that we used to get from there, and one person brought up a magazine that they used to order from the club, and it shocked me, because I remember ordering and reading those magazines myself.

In fact, it inspired me to talk about one of these magazines in the comments section.  I had remembered the front cover almost instantly.  It was my sister's magazine back in the days when she attended grade school.  The front cover had a picture of Facts Of Life star Kim Fields holding a bouquet of balloons.  The inside of the magazine had the cover story, featuring an interview with the young star, as well as puzzles, games, stories, and posters.  It really was a magazine devoted to young children who grew up in the 1980s.

And here's the cover below!


Dynamite Magazine.  An institution in Scholastic Book Clubs for several years, the magazine was just one of the many magazines that catered to grade school children.  And it was a magazine that featured a ton of pop culture references, much like this blog.

No wonder I have such fond memories of this magazine!

I only ever had two issues of Dynamite Magazine.  I had the above one, plus one with the Simpsons on the front cover.  But there were a total of 165 issues of the publication released between 1974 and 1992.  Clearly, it was a publication that a lot of people read and enjoyed over the years.  It's a magazine that's even older than I am.  Here's the Dynamite cover from the month I was born in, May 1981, Issue #84.



It was very easy to spot a Dynamite magazine right off the bat.  The covers were brightly coloured and usually had a celebrity on the front cover, be it real or fictional.  And it was pretty hard to mistake the distinctive logo of the magazine.  A brightly coloured script font that looked like a neon sign was definitely enough to attract anyone's attention.



But it was inside the magazine that the real explosive action took place.  There was plenty to see and do inside the pages of Dynamite magazine.

As you have seen, there usually is an article inside Dynamite that corresponds to the cover story subject.  Whether it was Fonzie, Bugs Bunny, or Kim Fields, they usually had an interview or behind the scenes coverage of a television show.  It was a really neat way to get to know what really happened on a Hollywood set, or how actors prepared for their big scenes on camera.

There were also some rather interesting features inside the magazine.



There was a section called 'Bummers'.  It was basically a cartoon page where it talked about all the bad things that could happen, such as having your pants fall down, or getting lost in a mall, or being so boring that your own cat won't listen to you.

Hey, they couldn't all be winners.

There was a magic trick page where Magic Wanda would teach us some tricks to play on our friends.  They also had spoofs of television commercials in a page called 'And Now A Word From Our Sponsors'.  They had a page called 'Hot Stuff', which featured all the newest gadgets, gimmicks, and television shows to keep a watch for.  In a section called 'Good Vibrations', kids could write in with their problems, and if their letters were selected, the Dynamite staff would try to answer them.  They even had puzzle pages starring a count named Morbida, who was present for every one.  In fact, Count Morbida became such a presence in Dynamite magazine that an entire puzzle book was released.



The fun didn't just end at the back cover of the magazine.  A lot of the time, the back cover WAS fun.  Most of the back covers of the magazine featured some fun activity.  Usually a puzzle was present, but sometimes they featured bookmarks, postcards, mobiles...


You could even build your own box of fictional cereal!

As the magazine pressed on, a few changes were made to the magazine.  The colour pages decreased, and the magazine was reduced to publishing only six months a year, instead of every month, as it had been for the first ten years of the publication.  Some changes included the magazine features.  In the later years, a man by the name of Jovial Bob Stein began to write spooky short stories for the magazine, and if that last name sounds familiar in the child horror genre, it's for good reason.  You may not recognize the name Jovial Bob Stein, but I imagine a lot of you know R.L. Stein.  The Jovial Bob pen name was the name he used while he worked for Dynamite (his wife Jane was the long-serving editor of Dynamite for many years).  R.L. Stein would later go on to create the very successful Goosebumps series.


It's a real shame that the kids of today won't get to experience what we kids of the 1980s did in regards to Dynamite.  The cover above is the issue that featured singer/American Idol judge Paula Abdul.  This would be one of the last issues of Dynamite published (the last one was released in the spring of 1992).  There's a part of me that kind of wishes that they would bring the magazine back, but in a world where we can get all of our articles through the Internet and Iphones, it's hard to predict whether Dynamite magazine could thrive in 2011.

What do you think?  Do you think Dynamite Magazine could survive today?  Let me know your thoughts!

Monday, August 22, 2011

Monday Matinee: Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Combinations. 

In our lifetimes, we'll likely experience millions of different combinations of various items, household gadgets, and nutritional items.  Different combinations that can have different reactions, based on how they are paired together.

There are some combinations that have been paired together for decades.  Peanut butter and jelly, for example.  Peanut butter is delicious on its own (well, unless you have a nut allergy).  Jelly is just as tasty on its own (well, provided it's a fruit you enjoy).  But put them together, and...




Same deal with salt and pepper.  You put them together, and you not only have seasoning for your food, but also a female rap group from the late 1980s.

There's lots of combinations that seem to work.  And, well, there's some combinations that don't.

Peanut butter and mustard for example.  Sure, both are tasty by themselves, but could you imagine chomping down on a peanut butter and mustard sandwich?  I mean, yeah, I love mustard.  When I was a kid, I used to squirt mustard on mashed potatoes (and do not judge, I liked it).  Would I mix mustard up with peanut butter?  Yeah, that I would find gross.  Maybe there are a few of you that like the mustard/peanut butter combo, but rest assured, I am not one.

Same deal with combining water and electricity.  Both of these items by themselves are very essential to day to day living.  We of course need water to live, and electricity makes our lives a little easier (unless you happen to shun electricity, that is).  But you try throwing a live electrical current in a swimming pool filled with people and it can be deadly.  Literally.

Then there are those combinations that on paper look as if they would never work at all, but when put into theory turn out to be a pleasant surprise.

I never would have expected pretzels dipped in chocolate to be all that delicious when I first heard about them.  In fact, they sounded quite disgusting.  But when I sampled one at a grocery store demo a few years ago, I ended up buying a bag of them because they were addictive.  And those Pretzel M&M's that they have now are outstanding.

But, enough talking about food.  For one, I'm beginning to get hungry typing this out.  For another, this blog isn't meant to be about food.  It's meant to be about a movie.

And this movie is one that deals specifically in taking two completely unrelated things and combining them together to form a surprising and entertaining film.

In fact, this film happens to do this twice.

The first instance is combining a children's movie with...a murder mystery?  A very unlikely combo indeed.  Taking the children's movie for instance.  While there are some notable exceptions (Bambi, for instance), most children's films don't usually have people dying in them.  They most certainly don't show people getting murdered.  On the flipside, you never have a murder mystery that has singing, dancing, and people getting cartoon anvils dropped on their heads.

That brings us to our second unlikely combo.  In all the years of movie making, very rarely did we see humans and cartoons interacting with each other.  We may have seen humans being turned into cartoons, or cartoons becoming human, but in motion pictures, such a practice simply wasn't done all that much.

Until June 22, 1988.


Who Framed Roger Rabbit was one of those movies that could have done one of two things.  Either it would be so quirky that moviegoers would check it out to see what all the hoopla was about, and become a success, or it would crash and burn.  Fortunately for Amblin Entertainment and Disney, it turned out to be a worldwide smash.

The movie starred Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, and Joanna Cassidy in live-action roles, and Charles Fleischer, Kathleen Turner, and Mel Blanc in the animated roles.  (This movie is noted for being Mel Blanc's last appearance as a voice artist before his death in July 1989.)

The movie was set in Los Angeles, California, circa 1947.  When the movie first begins, we're introduced to a Baby Herman cartoon.




This is where the story begins.  Roger Rabbit (Fleischer) and Baby Herman (who is really a fifty year old little person), are both stars of the Maroon Cartoon Studios.  Maroon is one of the many workplaces of the people who live in the city of Toontown (an animated city just outside of Hollywood, California).  Roger Rabbit is one of the biggest stars of the studio, and he enjoys a life filled with luxury, fame, and a beautiful wife named Jessica (Turner). 



Jessica's appearance was that of a 1940's sultry film noir type starlet.  Buxom, leggy, dressed in red sequins, nice husky voice.  She was every cartoon character's fantasy woman.  Ironically enough, when the movie was released on laserdisc (side note, does anyone remember laserdiscs at all?) Jessica seemed to attract some male human fans, who swore that they could see Jessica flash a bit of nudity if they froze it at just the right moment.

Silly fans.

Anyway, back to the story.

R.K. Maroon, the owner of Maroon Cartoons, is concerned that Jessica Rabbit might be having an affair with someone else within the company.  He is worried that such news could impact the company negatively.  So he hires Eddie Valiant (Hoskins), a detective, to investigate these rumours to see if they can be proven true.

Valiant takes on the case, but deep down inside has a deep hate for the Toontown community.  Initially, he used to be a friend to the toon community along with his brother, Teddy.  But when Teddy was murdered by a toon a few years back, it soured Eddie on toons forever.  As a result of Teddy's death, Eddie began to drink heavily, and he became but a shadow of his former jovial self.

Regardless, Eddie finds the evidence that he needed to prove that Jessica was playing patty-cake with the owner of Toontown and the Acme company, Marvin Acme.

(Quite literally, they were actually playing patty-cake, patty-cake, baker's man, bake me a cake as fast as you can.  Guess they had to clean it up a bit since the movie was marketed towards the younger demographic.)

The photos drive Roger Rabbit into a deep emotional breakdown and takes off for a while.  But this ends up being the worst thing that Roger could have done.  When Roger went AWOL, someone murders Marvin Acme.  As a result of Roger's disappearance, and given that he knew of the patty-cake scandal between Marvin and Jessica, Roger became prime suspect number one.

Valiant is called to the scene of the crime to investigate the murder, and it is here that he meets the Toon Patrol, lead by the mysterious figure known as Judge Doom.



Judge Doom is a figure cloaked completely in black, and he seems to have a disposition as colourful as his fashion sense.  Valiant doesn't seem to get much information at the crime scene, but does find out about an invention that Doom has come up with called 'Dip'.  Apparently, 'Dip' is a toxic substance to the cartoon people.  While cartoons are invincible to physical abuse (such as punches to the face or kicks to the gut), 'Dip' works as a dissolvent, turning perfectly healthy cartoons into splotches of paint, essentially eradicating them from the world forever.  Why the substance was created isn't known at first, but as the movie progresses, the answer becomes clear.


Somehow, Roger Rabbit finds out that he is a wanted toon, and sneaks into Eddie's office in an attempt to convince Eddie that he did not kill Acme, and that he is absolutely innocent.  Of course, the way he tries to convince Eddie of this fact doesn't exactly go as planned, and he ends up being more of an annoyance to Eddie than a help.  Regardless, Eddie decides to keep Roger hidden from the Toon Patrol until he can find a way to clear his name.  To make matters worse, Baby Herman reveals that Toontown is in danger of being sold now that Marvin Acme is dead.  Reportedly, Acme left behind a last will and testament, which stated that upon his death, that Toontown be bequeathed to the citizens of Toontown.  Unfortunately, the will went missing around the same time as the murder.  If the will isn't found by a certain time, the land where Toontown sits will be sold to Cloverleaf Industries, a company that recently purchased the electric car system within Los Angeles.

With help from Eddie's girlfriend Dolores, Eddie starts to put the pieces together.  By interviewing Jessica, he learns that she was blackmailed into compromising Acme (hence the patty-cake scandal).  Eddie also learns that Cloverleaf Industries is planning on purchasing the Maroon studios, with the deal being orchestrated by R.K. Maroon himself.  Maroon later told Eddie that the only way that Cloverleaf would buy the studios is if they can also buy Acme's gag-making factory.  It's a nice little story filled with lots of juicy bits of information, but before Eddie can wrap up everything in a nice red bow, Maroon is shot dead by an assassin.

Eddie notes that seconds after Maroon dies, he spots Jessica Rabbit fleeing the scene.  He decides to follow her, and when he does, he makes his way into Toontown.





So, this scene illustrates my point about weird combinations that may seem very unlikely to work together, and the end result makes something beautiful. 


I mean, did you really expect Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny to actually feature in a scene?  Together?  At the same time?  Not I.  Mickey was all about the Disney vibe, while Bugs Bunny was a Warner Brothers creation.  Yet, the scene that featured both of them was probably one of the more memorable ones present.  If anything, I'd like to say that this is a nice little appendix to what the point of today's blog was all about.

More importantly, did you happen to see the end of that above video where Doom catches Eddie and Jessica and takes them prisoner?  Well, it's there that you see the mighty power of 'Dip' in action, as the 'Dip' melts Benny the cab's wheels on the spot.  Luckily, the rest of the car survives, but nevertheless, in the wrong hands, that green goo could be deadly.

You'll also have heard Jessica say that Doom was responsible for the deaths of both Maroon and Acme.  This is fact.  He was the perpetrator.  But, there's so much more to this story, and true to form of all my Monday entries, the ending will remain unspoiled.  But, just a few points to ponder here just in case you haven't seen this wonderful movie yet.

Notice how as much as Doom is surrounded by 'Dip', he never seems to want to get too close to it?  And notice how he acts as though he is unstoppable?  Very curious indeed.
Remember Eddie's brother who was killed by a toon all those years ago?  That cold case is resolved in the last twenty minutes of the film.
'Dip' isn't the only way that toons can fade away.  Ironically enough, the stodgiest character discovers the second way purely by accident, and goes with it.
That blank page that Jessica talks about?  Well...nah...I'll leave it be for now.

That's about all I have to say about this movie.  The movie was a huge success, and part of it had to do with the number of risky combinations and blendings that turned out to be the perfect mix. 

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is proof that some combos, as peculiar and strange as they initially sound, can work out, and work out well.

One last thing.  They made a NES video game based on this movie (a game that looks simple, but is actually a lot harder than one lets on), and while it wasn't the best, it was fairly decent.  One of the things that made the video game unique was that in the screen where you visit Jessica at the Ink And Paint Club, if you give her a rose, she gives you a phone number.  Back in 1989, when the game hit store shelves, if you dialed that number on your touchtone phone, it played a pre-recorded message from Jessica Rabbit.  On the message, she tells you some information on how to get into Doom's factory, as well as some tips for overcoming obstacles along the way (such as crossing a building with a mad dog or a rabid cat).  The number has long been disconnected, but I thought it was a neat idea.

And another example of a combination that didn't seem likely, but worked.  In this case, combining a box office smash movie with a video game cartridge with a dash of telephone hotline for seasoning.

No wonder this franchise turned out to be a recipe for success!

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Sunday Jukebox - I Heard A Rumour by Bananarama

One of the most annoying things that one can be faced with being the subject of something called a rumour.

Rumours are funny things.  Sometimes they can turn out to be the absolute truth.  Quite a few instances, they can be complete fabrications.  In most cases, the rumours that most of us might have to face are those ones that are filled with half-truths and misinformation.

More often than not, those rumours end up being the ones that can hurt people the most.  Because rumours are not usually based in fact, and details get changed around as they pass from person to person, rumours have the ability to damage a person's reputation forever.

I can recall some really terrible ones about people I knew over the years, and I've even been the subject of some nasty rumours going around about me.  Some of them I won't even bother to repeat, as a couple of them are disgusting in nature, but here are some of the more tamer (and funnier ones).

Apparently, there was a rumour going around my school that I was gay.  For the record, I am not.  Believe me, if I were, I would own it.

Another rumour that I heard about me was that I apparently sucked up to teachers in order to get good marks.  First of all, I never played that card.  I can tell you quite a few people that I know for a fact did just that, but I was not one.  And secondly, I didn't need to suck up to teachers because I was confident (even a bit cocky) about my homework skills and notebook evaluations.  If anything, my school grades were one thing that I seldom worried about.

And then there's the awkwardness of someone else confronting you about a rumour they heard about themselves, and how they themselves heard a rumour that YOU were the one who started the rumour in the first place.

This happened to me in college when a girl who lived on my floor angrily confronted me about how I had said that she was easy, and how I wasn't going to get away with defaming her reputation.

First off, I have been the victim of rumours myself.  The last thing I would do is knowingly spread false information about anyone else.  I know the damage it can cause first hand.

And secondly, I know for a fact that the whole thing blew up because of an off-the-cuff remark that I made to a group of people, and that remark certainly wasn't directed at HER at all.  It was more of a generalized sense in a conversation between us that I had felt was justified because of the ambiguity of my statement.  Apparently, somehow, that statement got twisted into one of those 'he said/she said' tales, and in the end, we both ended up looking really silly.

I still never did get an apology from her.  It's been ten years, so I'm not holding my breath.

And don't even get me started on the various rumours that fly around any workplace that I've ever been at.  As I grow older, I tend to tune most of those rumours out.  Most of them don't have anything to do with me, and even if they did, I'm at the point where they can believe what they want to about me.  If they choose to see me differently because they believe a whole bunch of half-truths and half-lies about me, that's their problem. 

The point that I am trying to make is that rumours are things that should not be taken lightly.  Certainly in 95% of cases, the rumours are about menial things, and don't even deserve a second glance.  But the other 5% are like unexploded grenades, where one false move can end a life's work before you get a chance to blink.

You hear stories like this in the news all the time.  People who end up losing everything because of a rumoured stock tip that turns out to be a dud.  People losing their jobs because vengeful co-workers start a smear campaign against them in order to get fired.  People going to jail because of rumoured crime connections.  Some have even resorted to taking their own lives because they are unable to deal with being bombarded by rumours that they hear on a day-to-day basis.

And that's depressing, sad, and cruel.

I guess the only thing that we as human beings can do to minimize the damage caused by rumours is simply to stop spreading the news.  Most cases, that news tends to hold as much merit as an article in the National Enquirer.  The further a rumour spreads, the more damage it can cause.  Unless you know for a fact that what people are saying is one hundred per cent the truth, it's better that you just don't spread it.

It's funny that I talk about rumours in this entry because the band featured in this blog for today have also had to deal with rumours about them.  Specifically the reason why one of them ended up leaving the band at the peak of their popularity.  It also seems fitting that the song we'll be talking about has to do with rumours.



ARTIST:  Bananarama
SONG:  I Heard A Rumour
ALBUM:  Wow!
DATE RELEASED:  July 11, 1987
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS:  #4


Bananarama was an all-girl group from the UK that formed in 1979, when all three band members were in their late teens/early twenties.  Above are the three original members of the band.  From left to right, you have Sara Dallin, Siobhan Fahey, and Keren Woodward.    Sara and Keren were childhood friends, and Sara and Siobhan met while they were both students of fashion journalism.  In 1981, the band started to record demos, and after a couple of false starts secured a record deal by the first few months of 1982.  Under the production team of Jolley & Swain, Bananarama released three albums - Deep Sea Skiving, Bananarama, and True Confessions - all with huge success in the UK.

A few of Bananarama's songs managed to hit the shores of North America as well.  Cruel Summer became a hit for them after it was used in the soundtrack for 'The Karate Kid', and in 1986, their cover of Shocking Blue's 'Venus' topped the charts globally.

By 1986, the trio began to work less with Jolley & Swain, and signed up to work with the hit making production company of Stock/Aitken/Waterman.  After the success of 'Venus', which was the band's first creation with the famed dance-pop team, the decision was made to have the team entirely produce the band's fourth studio album.



The Wow album was released in the fall of 1987, and the first single to kick off the album's release was 'I Heard A Rumour', which was released two months earlier in July '87.  The song would inevitably be the last single that would reach American charts, peaking at #4 on the Billboard charts (although in Canada it reached its highest chart position at #2).

The premise of the song was simple enough.  Listening to the lyrics of the song, it's about a girl who had heard some rumours about the man that she was seeing playing her for a fool.  When she found out that those rumours were true, she finds it very difficult to give him a second chance.  There also appears to be some sort of self-blame evident in the song's lyrics, with the subject of the song saying that she could have been spared a broken heart had she found out about his unfaithfulness earlier.  To add to the confusion, she is now hearing rumours that the man who broke her heart has changed, and is no longer the cheating cad he once was.  In short, she's not exactly sure what to believe.  So, in the long run, she looks inside her heart, and weighs all the options in her mind.  Though we don't really know what choice she makes, she does state that she has been hurt by him in the past, and is afraid of giving him a second chance in fear that he'll hurt her again.

Classic case of contradictory rumours by two different sources colliding to cause unnecessary drama. 



The Wow album quickly rocketed up various charts in 1987, and part of that success was because of 'I Heard A Rumour'.  The music video, which showed the trio decked out in costumes that were black, white, and red all over, had the group dancing in front of giant movie screens that aired footage from classic films.  The video was clean, fresh, and high-fashion for 1987, some even saying that it was ahead of its time.  Two more singles 'Love In The First Degree' and 'I Can't Help It' also managed to make headway in the United Kingdom.

But then something stunning happened.  As the band prepared to release their fourth single from Wow (a song called 'I Want You Back'), one of the band members quit the band.

By the beginning of 1988, Siobhan Fahey had decided that she no longer wanted to be a member of Bananarama, and decided to leave the band for other ventures.

Now, this didn't mean the end of Bananarama.  When Siobhan left the band, the single 'I Want You Back' was released, but with a different band member.  Jacquie O'Sullivan was brought into Bananarama to replace Siobhan, and managed to stick around the band for four more years before she left, and Bananarama became a duo.

But what exactly happened here? 



Why did Siobhan Fahey decide to leave Bananarama?

Would you believe that true to form in regards to the subject of this blog, a plethora of rumours began swirling around the singer's departure?  Rumours that ranged from whopper sized to a little white lie?

One rumour that popped up was that Siobhan had left the band to focus on being a wife and mother.  At the time, she had just gotten married to Dave Stewart (who was a member of the band Eurythmics), and her commitment to Bananarama was preventing her from being able to spend time with her own husband.  I don't doubt that a musician being married to a musician of a rival band is hard work, and that it's hard to see each other, but it doesn't mean that it can't work out.  Heck, Keren Woodward has been with her current partner (Wham member Andrew Ridgeley) for well over two decades, and they're still going strong.  I tend not to believe this wholly, but I can see how it might be a factor...even if Stewart and Fahey's relationship crashed and burned in the mid-90s.

Then there was the rumour that Siobhan quit Bananarama because she couldn't stand working with her Bananarama bandmates.  It's hard to say whether that was the sole factor behind it, although it has been confirmed by Siobhan that the relationship between Sara, Keren, and Siobhan was frayed around the time she left the band.  Fans of the band sort of stirred up that rumour upon further examination of the band's music video.  They noted that Keren and Sara would often do things together and have fun playing around in the various clips, but Siobhan seemed to be off by herself.  In a lot of cases, Keren and Sara ended up getting more close-up shots than Siobhan.  Even Keren and Sara would be dressed similarly, while Siobhan had her own look going on.  These could just be merely a coincidence, and in all probability, it was just that.  Some fans however seemed to think that what happened in the videos seemed to mimic the real-life relationship between the three members.  They seemed to think that Keren and Sara got along well, while Siobhan was...well...the second banana.

Whether or not this is the truth...well, only Sara, Keren, and Siobhan know the answer.  Although considering that Siobhan eagerly agreed to reunite with Bananarama briefly for a 2002 concert, either time healed all wounds, or there wasn't any wounds that were worth making a big fuss over.

Here's what I believe to have happened.  I believe that while Sara and Keren seemed eager to continue to work with the Stock/Aitken/Waterman production team (as the songs produced by that team became bigger hits than anything else they had done before), Siobhan wasn't as keen to share that opinion.  I honestly believe that the direction that Stock/Aitken/Waterman had envisioned for Bananarama contradicted what Siobhan wanted for her career.  I think Siobhan quit Bananarama because she felt as if it wasn't her original vision for what she wanted, and felt like she had to leave to achieve the musical career that she knew she wanted.  And there are many places and research outlets that seem to suggest that this is the real reason why she decided to call it quits with Bananarama.

But worry not for one Siobhan Fahey.  In 1989, she would find life after Bananarama.  In fact, it would be through this new project that she would finally find her own way and break free from the group once and for all, carving a name out for herself.  It even scored her a number one hit...the first after leaving the group, in 1992.

But, I'm not going to tell you what it is now...you'll have to tune into the next version of 'Across The Pond and Beyond Wednesday' to pick up the story.

For now, it is...



Part 2 of this will be posted Wednesday, August 24, 2011.


Saturday, August 20, 2011

Saturday Morning - California Dreams

There are a few people out there who seem to blame live-action shows for killing off all Saturday morning cartoons.  I have to admit that there is a little truth to that.  In 1993, when the TNBC programming block debuted, it signalled the end of most animated programming on NBC.  The other two channels at the time still aired regular cartoon programming, but this move by NBC was a bit unprecedented.

If I remember correctly from my experiences watching Saturday morning television back in those days, the schedule worked like this back in '93.  The first part of the NBC schedule was devoted to local news programming and informercials.  In short, a real snooze-fest.

It wasn't until ten o'clock in the morning that the shows for kids (or teenagers, as the new programming was designed for them, as the T in TNBC stood for Teen) began to air.  If I remember correctly, Name Your Adventure came on first, at 10:00pm.  Then Saved By The Bell:  The New Class.  There was another forgettable show called Running The Halls shortly after that.

Then at 11:30, a show came on that I'll readily admit to watching and enjoying.  The show had debuted one year earlier, in September 1992.  It was a simple premise of a show.  A group of high school kids start up a garage band in hopes of making it big while cramming through algebra and biology classes.  Think a live-action version of the Archies, or the Brady kids in the early '90's.

Of course, you had to have your basic slapstick comedy and lame jokes, because like every Peter Engel produced show, it had to resemble Saved By The Bell at every nook, cranny, and crack.

What was different about this show was that in the vast majority of songs that the band performed, most of the actors and actresses sang their own songs.  They lipsynched on the program, of course, but those voices you hear were in fact the voices of the real actors who acted in the show.  That's mighty impressive.

So, what exactly was the name of this band?  It also happens to be the name of the show!



The name of the show was 'California Dreams'.  The original run of the program was from September 12, 1992 - December 14, 1996.  Not a bad run, indeed. 


Above, you can see the original line-up of the California Dreams band when it debuted in 1992.  From left to right, you can see drummer Tony Wicks, bass player Tiffani Smith, and the brother/sister duo of Matt and Jenny Garrison, who did vocals/guitars and vocals/keyboards respectively.  Unseen in this photo is the band's teenage manager, Sylvester 'Sly' Winkle.

Over the next four years, there would be some cast changes that changed the look and sound of the band.  Two original members would leave the band, and three more would come in to offer up their own flavours to the band.  As the band grew in popularity by playing at school dances and the teen hangout Sharkey's, they would develop a new set of fans, including one who was so into the band that she never really left.

It's interesting to note that when the sitcom first premiered in 1992 that it originally wasn't designed as a teen sitcom.  It was more like a family sitcom revolving around the Garrison family, with the band storyline being in the background.

As a result, during the first season, you had Matt and Jenny's parents and younger brother popping in throughout the serial, while the band seemed to play sporadically.  Still, they had some moments where they really shined.  Here's a video clip of the first incarnation of the California Dreams with Jenny on vocals.




Now, as the show progressed, the Garrison family began to be shown less and less (save for Matt and Jenny) because the network executives didn't feel that the original format worked.  The second season still showed Matt and Jenny's family sporadically, but the show focused more on the adventures of the band, and less on the family sitcom aspect.  It seemed to work out well for the show, as it lasted an additional three years.

So, who were these band members, and what did they contribute to the band?  Well, I'll tell you right here, as well as telling you some stories about some people I knew who were just like them...heck, there's actually one character who I can personally identify with here.

So, let's start with the original line-up and work our way down.


Matthew "Matt" Garrison
played by Brent Gore (1992-1994)

Matt was the lead singer of the California Dreams, and is often credited with coming up with the idea to create the band.  He was more often than not the moral compass of the band's earlier seasons, making sure that the band didn't get taken in by Sly's schemes.  He was a loyal friend to everyone near him, and he made sure that people could count on him.  Sure, he didn't exactly think things through, and more often than not, his good intentions could blow up in his face.  But, there is one moment in which his natural ability to lead worked to his advantage.  For one, he discovered that the new tough guy, Jake Sommers, had a natural gift to write songs, and he was responsible for helping the rest of the band see that he wasn't as tough as people thought he was.  In fact, it was Matt who insisted that Jake join the band in the first place.  Therefore, it only seemed fitting that when the Garrison family moved away in 1994, that Jake would take over the duties as the band leader.  Below is a clip of Matt performing.


Jennifer "Jenny" Garrison
played by Heidi Noelle Lenhart (1992-1993)

As Matt's sister, Jenny also happened to share a love of music.  Whereas Matt chose to perfect his musical talent on guitars, Jenny took piano lessons, and ended up being the keyboardist of the band.  Her best friend was Tiffani Smith, and they were inseparable, aside from one moment where they fought over a boy they both liked.  Although Jenny seemed to share the same moral compass as Matt in most cases, she was a bit more of a schemer than her brother, often playing tricks on band manager Sly.  Early in the second season, she started up a relationship with Jake Sommers, but when she was accepted into a prestigious music school in Italy, she left the show for good.



Tiffani Smith
played by Kelly Packard (1992-1996)

If there was a girl who epitomized the stereotypical sun-kissed blonde California girl, Tiffani Smith would be it.  Blonde, beautiful, athletic, and personable, she was the kind of girl that all men wanted to date, and all women wanted to be like.  She really adored where she lived.  She surfed every day, played beach volleyball, and in between all that, still held down her commitment to the band as bass player and backing vocalist.  Tiffani Smith is probably best linked to Jake Sommers, who she shared an on-again, off-again relationship with after Jenny moved away.  Still, Tiffani's life had its ups and downs.  It's hard to forget the fact that she grew up in a household raised by a single father, as her mother left the family to pursue her career.  And, who could forget the time when Tiffani got hooked on steroids?


While it was a rather down moment for Tiffani, it did educate us on the dangers of steroid use.  More importantly, it showed us that even the people who do seem to have it all can have hardships just like anyone else.  But as Tiffani later discovered, she could overcome those hardships with the help of her friends and bandmates.  I know that I can relate to Tiffani in that regard, because I could count on co-workers and extended friends to help me through my health scares, mini-depressive phases, and other problems that I may have gone through.  They can happen to us all.

 Antoine "Tony" Wicks
played by William James Jones (1992-1996)

I'll state the obvious here.  Tony Wicks is probably the most developed character in the whole series.  Tony has been through more deep storylines than the other members of the band combined.  In season one, he dated a girl whose family was prejudiced against black people, and while he fought to get them to see him for who he was, the relationship didn't pan out.  He eventually did find love with exchange student Samantha Woo.  He was also a part of a storyline that saw an old friend of his nearly die in a bout of gang violence, and it took the other members of the band to get Tony to see that the 'eye for an eye' approach was not the way to solve the problem.  Tony was a deep character, and he had probably more emotional range than anyone else in the band.

Sylvester "Sly" Winkle
played by Michael Cade (1992-1996)

Cunning.  Selfish.  Money-hungry.  Ignorant.  All adjectives used to describe Sylvester 'Sly' Winkle by his bandmates, his classmates, and even the Garrison family.  So, why is it that I can see so much of myself in this character?

Because Sly also has one character that is very seldom seen in this show.  Vulnerability.

On the surface, Sly is boisterous, loud, and will stop at nothing to get what he wants when he wants it.  But at the same time, he is also very aware of people's feelings, and if he discovers that he hurt someone's feelings, or has overstepped his boundaries, he's the first one to try and make it right.

For instance, there was a heavy-set girl in his class who he picked on until he discovered that she was having a birthday party and had a sizeable amount of money to hire a band.  Money signs popped up in Sly's eyes, and he began to pretend to be her secret admirer so that it would make her decision to hire the California Dreams a little easier.  But when she overheard Sly talking about how he really didn't care for her, she was deeply hurt.  While it took some encouragement from the band for him to step up, Sly knew that he really did treat her like a jerk, and went out of his way to throw her a birthday party she'd always remember.

Underneath those tacky blazers and snake charmer exterior lay a heart in there.  It just took special cases for him to show it.  He was hurt when a popular girl who bought him as a slave during slave week at school humiliated him, but with encouragement from Jake, stood up to her.  He joined up at a school teen line to meet girls but really ended up helping a depressed teen when he was the only one there.  And it's hard to forget his love affair with a blind girl named Allison (played by Nikki Cox).  Although Sly had misgivings about dating someone with a disability, Allison really did bring out the best in Sly.

And, that right there is where Sly and I are cut from the same cloth.  We were both vulnerable people who hid behind false personas, and ended up turning people off because of it.  It was only when we found friends who would stand by us and support us that we started to look inside ourselves to realize that we weren't nearly as bad as we let on. 

Of course, I don't think I was ever so self-centered and money hungry as Sly, but meh...


Jake Sommers
played by Jay Anthony Franke (1993-1996)

Jake Sommers was the first of the new characters to join California Dreams.  Initially portrayed as a motorcycle riding, leather jacket clad thug who could get any woman he wants, it initially didn't seem like Jake had a talent.  Jake could not only read and write music, but he could pen lyrics that were deep and soulful...a far cry from the image he portrayed on the show.  With Matt Garrison's help, he joined the band, and when Matt left, Jake took over as the lead singer. 

Jake was also involved in a little bit of a love triangle of sorts, having relationships with both Tiffani and Lorena Costa.  In the end, Jake and Tiffani ended up together until the end of the series.

Jake also had some decent storylines of his own.  He was afraid of riding a motorcycle after crashing his bike through Sharkey's, but managed to overcome it.  We also saw Jake take up smoking to be just like his uncle, and saw his devastation when he learned his uncle had terminal cancer as a result of cigarette smoking.

Jake Sommers was one of those characters who seemed like one thing, but ended up being someone completely different.  The ultimate example of not judging a book by its cover.


Samantha "Sam" Woo
played by Jennie Kwan (1993-1996)

Samantha Woo was initially brought in during season two, after Heidi Noelle Lenhart left the serial.  She was brought in as an exchange student from Hong Kong, who chatted a mile a minute and was fascinated by American culture.  She stayed in Jenny's old room during season two.  When the Garrisons left at the beginning of season three, Samantha moved in with Lorena Costa's family.  Samantha was a good girl, and enjoyed a strong relationship with her boyfriend, Tony Wicks.  Still, Samantha's obsession with American culture often got her into trouble.  From maxing out a credit card to attempting to captialize on a product her grandmother invented, Sam often had to learn the hard way.  There were times though where the band helped her out, particularly with one episode where Sam was unable to fly to Hong Kong for the Chinese New Year ceremonies.  The band not only transformed Sharkey's into a Chinese New Year celebration, but Matt managed to help Sam's parents fly to California so she could spend the New Year with them.


Lorena Costa
played by Diana Uribe (1994-1996)

Lorena Costa couldn't play an instrument.  She certainly couldn't sing to save her life.


But, she did have the money (rather her parents had the money) to build the band a studio where they could rehearse for gigs.  The only tradeoff was that she often appeared as the band's number one groupie at every show.  Given Lorena's fiery personality, this varied from excellent to 'what have we gotten ourselves into'.  Lorena was initially portrayed as a spoiled rich girl, but over the course of her relationship with Jake, and later Sly, she matured quite a bit.

Mark Winkle
played by Aaron Jackson (1994-1996)

Finally, we have Mark Winkle, the last of the new band members, taking over co-lead singer duties with Jake after Matt's departure.  If that last name sounds familiar, it's because Mark happens to be Sly's cousin.  When Mark was brought on the show, the band discovered that he was a music prodigy, learning to play the piano at an early age.  The band wanted him to join them, but Mark initially refused when he discovered that Sly was the manager.  Mark never forgave Sly for ruining a performance he was playing at in New York's Carnegie Hall, and he didn't want to join a band that had Sly as a manager.  It took time, but Mark learned to forgive Sly, and found a spot in the band that lasted until the band split up after graduation.

So there you have it.  Nine people who were part of one of the coolest garage bands in California, all bringing their own personalities and musical talents to create some beautiful music.