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Monday, September 12, 2011

Monday Matinee: Dominick and Eugene

How many of you reading this blog entry have a twin brother or sister? Or, how many of you have wanted a twin brother or sister? Maybe you have family members that are twins, or maybe you went to school with a set of twins.

I have to say that I always thought that it would have been cool to have a twin, at least in some cases. You'd have someone who looked just like you (well, unless you were fraternal twins, or twins of the opposite gender like the Walsh twins from Beverly Hills 90210), and you'd always have someone your own age close by. You would get to experience things both apart or together. If you were lucky enough to be identical twins, imagine the fun that you could have switching places with each other.

There are some downsides that I would imagine that would be present in being a twin. You'd never get your own birthday cake...in all likelihood, you would have to share with your twin. In fact, I would imagine that in a lot of cases, twins would have to share a lot of things, which could end up being a good thing or a bad thing.

Still, with approximately 32 out of every 1,000 births being twins, it's a fair bet to say that we've encountered at least one set of twins in our lives. In elementary school, there was a set of twin girls in the grade above me, and I knew a couple of sets of twins during my college years. In the media, there are lots of other famous twins that one might have seen. These include Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Tia and Tamera Mowry, Cole and Dylan Sprouse, and Robin and Maurice Gibb.

This blog entry features a set of twins that are in a movie. Twins that while they are completely different in all aspects of life still hold a very special bond. A bond that strengthens over time, and a bond that will never break.



The movie Dominick and Eugene was released on December 23, 1988. The film starred Tom Hulce as Dominick and Ray Liotta as Eugene. I can remember seeing this movie for the very first time on TVOntario's Saturday Night At The Movies, and the movie was so good, and so powerful that it became the inspiration behind this particular piece.

Dominick and Eugene are twin brothers who live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They are the same age, they have the same last name, and they both live in the same apartment. And that is where the similarities between these twins seemingly end.



Eugene is on the fast track to a rich, fulfilling life. He's studying to become a doctor, and he is sailing through medical school. There is one problem though. In order to continue his education so that he can become a full-fledged doctor, he will have to leave Pittsburgh to complete his studies. The reason why this is a problem is because he will have to leave Dominick behind, and he's not entirely sure that he's able to take care of himself.

This is where we see the main difference between Dominick and Eugene. Something happened to Dominick in his younger years, and as a result of this, Dominick's development has been much different than Eugene's. Whereas Eugene has gotten through life without much difficulty, Dominick's mind seems to be more childlike in nature. He sees things the same way as that of a young boy, and has difficulty grasping adult concepts. Regardless of this, Dominick had managed to secure himself a job working as a garbage collector. His co-worker Larry (Todd Graff) becomes a really good friend to Dominick, although he sometimes plants wild thoughts into Dominick's head, which sometimes leads to trouble later on.



The relationship between Dominick and Eugene is well-established within the first 30 minutes of the movie. Dominick's job helps him earn the money needed for Eugene to complete his educational needs, while in turn, Eugene takes care of Dominick's basic needs. Still, with Eugene being forced to leave Pittsburgh to secure the future that he ultimately wants for himself, he isn't sure of what will happen to Dominick.

So this becomes our major conflict in the film. How can Eugene have peace of mind knowing that he'll be leaving behind the brother that he has looked after practically their whole lives?

This major conflict is eventually resolved one way or another, but in order to get to that point, we have to watch the minor conflicts get ironed out first. As it so happens in this movie, all of the minor conflicts end up merging together into one neat and tidy conclusion at the end, which basically sets the stage for the resolution of the major conflict...but I'll get to that a little later.



We have minor conflict number one. Eugene developing feelings for a nurse who works at the same hospital that he does. Jennifer (played by Jamie Lee Curtis), and Eugene start hanging out more as Eugene helps her study for exams. Although what happens between Eugene and Jennifer is innocent, Eugene finds himself falling for the young nurse. Unfortunately for Eugene, Dominick's friend Larry is telling him that Eugene and Jennifer are sleeping together, which makes Dominick upset. After a night out with Larry, Dominick drunkenly confronts Eugene and Jennifer, and accuses Eugene of sleeping with her. The accusation causes Eugene to violently shove Dominick, and he angrily tells Dominick to go to bed. Jennifer is insulted at first, but gradually begins to resume her friendship with Eugene, as well as starting up a friendship with Dominick as well.

Then we have minor conflict number two. This one involves Dominick's route as a garbage collector. Though, it didn't exactly start there.

On the night of Dominick and Eugene's birthday, Dominick is looking forward to celebrating with his brother, but unfortunately Eugene is held up at the hospital and cannot make it home in time. Dominick is very disappointed, but Larry promises to take him to the Wrestlemania event that he and Eugene had originally planned to see. Of course, Larry was never known for being one to stick to the plan, and instead of seeing the Wrestlemania event, they end up at the home of Mrs. Vincent, who Larry occasionally has intimate relations with. While Larry and Mrs. Vincent have fun inside, Dominick decides to wait outside until Larry is finished. This turns out to be a decision that pushes the plot forward, for Dominick meets a new friend. It turns out to be a young boy named Mikey, whose family lives next door to Mrs. Vincent. Mikey ends up being a lot like Dominick in that they both think the same, they both love comic books, and they both have similar interests.



Dominick notices that Mikey has bruises over his face, and he asks Mikey where he got them from. Mikey lies and says that he just fell, and that's how he ended up getting bruised. In reality, Mikey is the victim of child abuse caused by a parent, as Mikey's father frequently abuses him. But because Dominick sometimes has difficulty distinguishing fact from fiction, he believes Mikey when Mikey tells him that he fell.

So we have our two minor conflicts here, and while one of them has more or less a happy ending (the one featuring Eugene and Jennifer), the one involving Mikey ends up to be not so happy. In fact, it's probably one of two defining moments in the whole movie.

Setting the stage up for this moment is when Dominick, Eugene, Jennifer, and a neighbour go on a picnic and Dominick brings his dog along with them. When the dog is hit by a car during the picnic, it greatly disturbs Dominick. Why this is the case, we aren't made clear of...at least not yet.

A few days after this, Dominick is working, and he is at Mikey's house throwing the garbage from outside into the truck when he happens to come across a rather disturbing sight. Through one of the front windows of Mikey's house, Dominick sees Mikey being beat up by his father, and is absolutely horrified when Mikey's father throws him down a flight of stairs, knocking him unconscious. As Mikey's father runs down the stairs to call 911, Dominick is frozen in terror and fear. When Larry tries to ask Dominick what the matter is, Dominick is too shaken up to say a word, especially after Mikey's father spies Dominick staring at him through the window. When Mikey's father is questioned over what happened, he lies, saying that Mikey fell accidentally.

But Dominick knew the truth. And Mikey's father knew it.

Despite the quick reaction time from the 911 call, Mikey ends up dying from the injuries sustained by the fall down the stairs. Dominick, still inconsolable from what he witnessed, goes to the hospital to find out what happened, but he is intercepted by Mikey's father, who drags him into a closet. He cruelly tells Dominick that Mikey is dead, and threatens to kill him if he ever tells anyone about what really happened to Mikey.

This prompts Dominick to flee the hospital in fear. However, in a moment of clarity for Dominick, he realizes that it is too late for him to save Mikey. It is however not too late for him to save Joey (Mikey's younger brother) from his father's rage. Stealing a gun that Larry kept on him for killing junkyard rats, he sneaks into the the home of Mikey's parents and takes Joey by gunpoint, believing that he is protecting Joey from getting abused like Mikey.

This leads to Eugene and Jennifer racing to get to Dominick to talk him into returning Joey before Mikey's father ends up reaching him.



I will not reveal the conclusion to this storyline, because as you know, I never spoil endings to movies featured on the Monday Matinee. After all, these films are sometimes personal recommendations from me for you to see. And I do recommend this film because it really is one of those underrated movies that has a great plot and great acting.

I will say this though. The ending reveals why Dominick is so affected by violence...and it also reveals how Dominick ended up the way that he did, and why Eugene felt tremendous guilt by it all.

In fact, here's a confession for all of you. It takes a great deal for me to become so emotionally involved in a movie that I end up shedding tears at the end. And this movie's ending had me literally reaching for a box of Kleenex. It's filled with so much emotion that you can't help but feel moved by this film.

A film about two twin brothers who sacrificed a lot in their own lives to help the other one live.


Sunday, September 11, 2011

9/11/2001 - Where Were You When The World Stopped Turning?

Musically, I can't say that I've ever really been a fan of the genre known as country music.

To me, country music was always that twangy stuff that my parents and grandparents listened to. The songs where the artists who sang them kept moaning about how their wife left them and how their dog left them, and how they lost their truck, house, horse, etc. I can imagine that classic country music did have its place, and I admit that the genre is strong enough to have its fans (like every member of my family that happens to be over the age of fifty), but I'm sorry, I just cannot get into a lot of the earliest versions of it. It makes me cringe.

That being said, I'll also make a bit of a confession, especially with us being in what I consider to be one of the weakest creative periods of the music industry in recent years (at least according to my opinion). Some of the current country songs are quite powerful, emotional, and tell a story far better than anything that is being released by some of the artists considered to be Top 40.

I mean it too. If you take any country music song that was released over the past ten years, a lot of them really grab you, and make you feel all sorts of emotions. From feel good songs, to break-up songs, to empowerment songs, there really is a song for everyone out there. I actually shudder to admit this, but a lot of the stuff that they currently play on country radio, I'm actually beginning to enjoy.

This coming from the man who used to drown out his parents country radio by blasting Garbage, Barenaked Ladies, and R.E.M. from his stereo in high school.

My parents listened to it constantly. I almost think that my parents may have cried real tears when I was born because my birthday just happened to be on the same day as George Strait's. My parents would constantly be listening to Alabama, Randy Travis, Trisha Yearwood, Reba McEntire, and Dolly Parton all the time.

(Though admittedly, I find Reba and Dolly to be AWESOME! There. I said it.)



One artist who used to really annoy me in the country world that my parents absolutely adored was Alan Jackson. I don't know if it was the fact that his songs were annoyingly catchy, or whether they had terrible song titles (I mean, seriously, what kind of song title is 'Don't Rock The Jukebox'?), or whether they played his albums in the car 76,291 times in my lifetime. For years and years, Alan Jackson was a bit of a thorn in my side, because for years, it seemed like I could not get away from him or his music. Ever.

That all changed in the year 2001.

In fact, quite a LOT of things changed for millions of people in 2001. Specifically on one particular September morning.



It seems unfathomable to me that it has been ten years since the devastating terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington DC on the eleventh of September, 2001. Of course, back on that day, the idea of airplanes crashing into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon seemed unfathomable as well.



Three thousand people ended up losing their lives in the attacks, which saw four airplanes being hijacked by terrorists, and using the airplanes as deadly weapons against well-known landmarks in the United States. Two of the planes smashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, both of them collapsing as a result. A third plane crashed into the Pentagon. The fourth plane, Flight 93, was hijacked as well, but ended up crashing in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania when the passengers on that flight attempted to take control back from the hijackers.

Ten years later, on the site where the World Trade Center once stood, a new complex is being built, with one building called the Freedom Tower currently under construction. Many of the survivors of those who lost their lives on that day have moved on with their lives as best as they possibly can, but like anyone who witnessed the day's events unfold as it happened, it's a day that nobody will ever forget.

As it so happened, this links to my opening paragraph about country music, and how I brought up Alan Jackson in particular. Alan Jackson ended up being moved and affected by the 9/11 attacks enough to want to write a song about the tragedy. He was conflicted about how to go about it. He knew that he wanted the song to have a powerful, yet positive message, and really wanted to honestly express how he and other people felt about the attacks, but didn't want to make it too patriotic or too vengeful. Considering the raw emotions and heartbreak that followed the devastation of that day, this would prove to be a real challenge for Jackson, who prior to the 9/11 attacks had written and performed mostly feel-good songs.

A few weeks after the attacks, while he slept, he kept hearing a melody, with the opening lines and chorus running through his head. Waking up at four o'clock in the morning with the lyrics, he jumped out of bed to find a handheld tape recorder and sang them into the recorder so that he wouldn't forget them. Later that same day, with the chorus and opening lines in place, he sat down and started composing the lyrics to the song.

Alan Jackson managed to finish the song that day, but felt uneasy about recording the track. He didn't want to be seen as someone who wanted to capitalize on a devastating tragedy. But with the blessing of his wife and his record producer, he ended up doing just that, and the song ended up on his 2002 album 'Drive'.

On November 7, 2001, the CMA Awards were to be broadcast on CBS, and Alan Jackson was a scheduled performer at the show. He was originally intending on performing the song 'Where I Come From', but at the last minute, the decision was made for him to sing the new song he had written in tribute of the 9/11 attacks. And so, on that night, Alan Jackson debuted this powerful and moving single.



ARTIST: Alan Jackson
SONG: Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning)
ALBUM: Drive
DATE RELEASED: November 26, 2001
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #28
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD COUNTRY CHARTS: #1

The song ended up getting Alan Jackson a standing ovation at the awards ceremony, and when the song was officially released on November 26, it immediately shot to the top of the country music charts. Even ten years after the fact, it remains one of Alan Jackson's most remembered and loved songs in his whole career.



So, let's take the main question in his song, and ask it here.

Where were you when the world stopped turning that September day?

I can tell you exactly where I was. And I can tell you that my story is filled with a lot of tragic irony in a sense.

On September 11, 2001, I had woken up early that day. I think it must have been around 8:00am. I was a young man of twenty back on that day, attending classes at a university campus in Ottawa, Ontario. That particular day, I had a film studies class at approximately 10:30 that morning, so I had some time to kill. My film studies class luckily enough was in the same building as the journalism department, and that building happened to have a student computer laboratory there. Since I didn't own a computer at that time, and since the Internet was free for university students to use at any time, I figured that I would spend some time at the lab while I waited for class to start.

So, I happened to come across a forum for a website I used to visit called Yesterdayland, which was a site that celebrated retro fads from various eras. Kind of almost like what this blog is trying to do in a way. Only this blog is a lot more personal.

Anyways, the one thing that I couldn't get over was how unseasonably warm it was in Ontario, Canada that morning. It was September 11, and it was already in the upper 20s in Celsius for temperature (and yes, in Canada we measure our temperatures in Celsius, and don't even ask me to convert that to Fahrenheit, as I don't do well with scientific math). I was in shorts and a T-shirt.

The weather was absolutely beautiful. Warm temperatures. Sunny day. Just beautiful.

It was so beautiful that I decided to talk about it. So, that particular day, I posted the forum question 'Isn't today a beautiful day?'

It seemed like such an innocent question at the time. Nothing too out of the ordinary. I even got a couple of responses to the topic, saying that they wished they had a window to see the beauty of the day, or how they needed coffee, and how other posters had told the coffee drinkers to stop being drama queens. You know, silly things like that. It all seemed so innocent...

...but here is where the tragic irony takes place.

That message that I posted about it being a beautiful day had the time stamp of 8:45 am Eastern Standard Time.

Less than one minute later, another poster had popped up with a thread of her own. This thread was more direct, to the point, and much different in tone than the one that I had posted just seconds earlier.

The post read 'World Trade Center Attacked'.

That's when I figured out that the day that was once beautiful would not end that way.

So after reading that post, I attempted to find out some more news on the attack, but almost all of the news sites at the time were so heavily bogged down with traffic that some sites actually crashed. I managed to get on Yahoo's main news page briefly to see the pictures of the World Trade Center on fire, but when I tried to click on the links, the site continued to crash.



I then realized that if I was going to follow this news story, the best place to be was Yesterdayland's web forum.  It was on that forum that we learned about the additional attacks on the Pentagon, as well as the fate of Flight 93.

Immediately, the one thing that I did notice was the absolute panic and fear that a lot of the members had. Keep in mind that the forum was comprised of hundreds of people from various areas all over the world. In fact, there were quite a few people from both the New York City area as well as the Washington DC area that a lot of us were incredibly worried about. I can even remember one person who visited the forum quite frequently who actually worked on the 95th floor of one of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, and we had absolutely no idea if he was there or not. Luckily, he was nowhere near the building at the time of the attacks, but it was of great comfort knowing that people from all over the world came together to see if everyone was all right, and seeing if there was anything that they could do.

Despite the sadness of the day in general, it was really great to see so many people come together in the wake of a huge tragedy such as 9/11. It really made one realize that we could all put aside our differences with each other and really bond with each other in hopes that we could somehow make sense of what happened.

I actually got so caught up in what was unfolding on the Yesterdayland forum that I almost ended up missing the class that I was supposed to take at 10:30. By then, the journalism students were gathered around the television on the second floor lounge watching the whole thing unfold, and watching in horror as the towers of the World Trade Center broke apart before their frightened and horror-filled eyes.

It's an image that I will never forget.

As it turned out, our film studies class was cut short because of the attacks, so after the class ended, the first thing I did was log back onto Yesterdayland, to keep updated on what was happening. The residents of New York City and Washington DC really were up to the minute on the news, and through them, we learned that all of our members in those areas were accounted for, and we got up-to-date information on what was happening minute by minute a lot quicker than MSNBC, CNN, or any of the major networks. It was absolutely fascinating to see in such a bittersweet way.

One other thing that I can remember about that day was the vast variety of emotion that people felt as it was happening. There was anger from a lot of people, wanting to seek justice against those who caused the tragedy, and who wanted some form of revenge against it. There were similarly other people who thought that revenge was not a valid solution, and that they wouldn't want anything like that to happen to anyone else. Sometimes these conflicting opinions could cause some of the people on the forum to clash with one another, but as more news came out from the locations of the attacks, and more and more people logged on from the areas to let everyone know that they were okay, the conflicts were squashed fairly quickly.

Mostly though, there was a lot of sadness. Sadness for the family members of those who lost their lives. Sadness for the children who would grow up without their parents. Sadness for the whole world.

September 11, 2001 was a day that anyone who lived through it couldn't possibly forget. It will forever be a date that will be in history textbooks for years, decades, and even centuries to come. Whether you were in the heart of the disaster, or thousands of miles away watching the coverage on television, it really did affect all of us in the world in many different ways.

I know that it opened up something inside me. And I knew that people would be inspired by a whole Internet forum coming together to support each other, check in to see if all members were accounted for, and to just be there for each other during that day.

As I had expressed a desire to write for my school newspaper, I figured that this would be a great piece for the newspaper. I wanted it to be an article that talked about the tragedy of the attacks, but also provided some positivity in the fact that this event could bond so many people together. As terrible as that day was to so many people, it was a really beautiful thing to see.

I knew that I wanted to capture that in an article.



So, three weeks after the attacks, on October 2, 2001, my article for the school newspaper on how the Internet came together to support each other on that day was published. I have the article up above this paragraph, but I regret that it is hard to read because the pictures automatically shrink to fit the parameters of the text boxes. Basically how I went about the creation of the article was simple copying and pasting quotes typed in by various members and using them to illustrate points that I wanted to bring forth. One quotation really stood out for me was the one that I concluded the article with.

Everyone has different ways of dealing with their pain...we just need to stay positive.”

And that is exactly what we need to do. In the first few weeks after the 9/11 attacks, I think for the most part, we all were lost and left wondered what anyone had done to justify the destruction that the attacks left behind. But on a brighter note, I think that people in general (especially in the United States, where all of the attacks took place) started being kinder, and more respectful towards each other. I think that the tragedy had every potential to rip everything apart, but it is to everybody's credit that it ended up making people stronger. It made people stand together to make sure that they were not going to let this tragedy stop them from living.

It's hard to say what this tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks will bring. There are some who vowed to never forget what happened, and others who don't want to be forced to have to relive what happened.   But I am the type of person who wants to make this a positive blog with mostly positive feelings. I don't want to make this an anger piece or a piece where I point fingers of blame towards anybody. There's too many news sources and personal blogs that do enough of that as it is.

Instead, I wanted to do with this blog entry the same thing that I attempted to do ten years ago with that article I wrote for my school newspaper. I wanted to try and make sense of this tragedy just like everyone else in the world, and I wanted to do it in a way that brought even a glimmer of hope to people that they would come out of this tragedy a little stronger than before.

I just hope that in both cases, the message came through.


Saturday, September 10, 2011

Saturday Morning - Care Bears

How many of you out there reading today's entry remember your first movie?

I'm not talking about any random movie that you might have seen on television. I mean, actually going to a movie theater where you snack on overpriced popcorn and candy bars, go inside a theater filled with people and watch a movie on a jumbo sized screen.

And, how does this tie in with today's theme of Saturday morning cartoons?

Because as it so happens, my very first experience at a movie theater was at the screening of an animated film.

The year was 1985. Movies like The Goonies, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, and Back To The Future were among some of the movies that people could watch on the big screen that year, but none of those movies were my first ones.

Back in 1985, we only had one movie house in town at the time. A movie house that had been in our downtown area for many, many years.

The Capitol theater in my hometown was one of those majestic movie houses that was filled with history and years of movie memories for everyone in town. Sadly, the Capitol no longer exists, as it closed down in 1986, and was transformed into a Canada Trust bank. Yet, I'll always have a soft spot for that movie theater as it was the site of my very first movie experience.

So I got my popcorn, my drink, and my oversized Kit-Kat bar, and sat down, waiting for my first movie to start.

By now, I'm sure that you are salivating with anticipation over what my very first movie was, so here it is.



Yes. You are reading this correctly. My very first movie was The Care Bears movie. Hardly the type of movie that one would actively brag about seeing as their very first movie experience ever.

Yet looking back on it now, I'm okay with this.

Better than okay, actually.



As I said before, the film was first released in 1985, March 29, 1985 to be exact. What made this movie even more special was that the production of the movie was based entirely out of Canada. The Nelvana animation studio in Toronto was responsible for animating the whole movie, and almost all of the voice actors in the movie were born in Canada. The film itself was a tale of a couple who ran an orphanage, telling the orphans about the story of the Care Bears who lived in Care-A-Lot, a magical place where homes were built on clouds, and where the bear citizens slid down rainbows. In the movie, the multi-coloured bears helped two orphaned children named Kim and Jason try to find new parents. At the same time, they encountered a young magician's apprentice named Nicholas who is being influenced by an evil spirit. I could go into more detail about this movie, but I'll save it for a future Monday matinee feature, as I really want to go into more details on the cartoon show, as well as the history behind the creation of the Care Bears.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the creation of the Care Bears, and it might surprise some of you to know that they were a creation for a greeting card company.



It was in the year 1981 that the Care Bears first began appearing on greeting cards for the American Greetings company. The original artwork for the Care Bears was done by artist Elena Kucharik. Two years later, the images from the greeting cards were turned into plush animals, courtesy of Kenner toys. In fact, the same year that I saw the Care Bears Movie was the same Christmas that I ended up getting a plush Care Bear as a gift.



The one that I ended up getting was Good Luck Bear, the mint green coloured bear with a clover on his chest. You could tell that it was an authentic Care Bear by the red Care Bear logo that was sewn into each of the Care Bear's backsides.

As it happened, I ended up getting one of the ten original Care Bear creations when the line was officially launched. The ten original bears (as well as their corresponding colours) were;

Bedtime Bear: Blue
Birthday Bear: Gold
Cheer Bear:  Pink
Friend Bear:  Orange
Funshine Bear: Yellow
Good Luck Bear:  Green
Grumpy Bear: Dark Blue
Love-A-Lot Bear: Pink
Tenderheart Bear: Burgundy
Wish Bear:  Aqua

Over the years, the Care Bear family grew in size to include other bears such as Champ Bear, Share Bear, Hugs and Tugs, and Grams Bear. Shortly after that came the debut of the Care Bear Cousins. Although they weren't bears, they did have the same symbols on their chests as their bear counterparts. Some of these cousins included Playfulheart Monkey, Braveheart Lion, Treatfulheart Pig, Lotsaheart Elephant, and Brightheart Raccoon.



The Care Bears and Care Bear Cousins were some of the most in demand toys throughout the 1980s, and in 2002, the whole line was brought back for a new generation of kids to enjoy, and while I appreciate the sentiment, I tried watching an episode of the new version but it sort of lacked the charm that the original one had.



I think part of it as well could have been the fact that I grew up watching the original cartoon series that aired in Canada between 1985 and 1988. The cartoon series was loosely based on the Care Bears Movie, and what made the cartoon great was the fact that many of the voice actors who were in the movie were part of the television cartoon.

The Care Bears and Care Bear Cousins were featured in the cartoon as well as some new antagonists. Some of them were one shot characters like Sour Sam the Pie-Man, while others lasted the whole run. Beastly and No Heart were probably the main enemies of the Care Bears, and they frequently sent evil spirits to earth in an effort to get people to stop caring about others and engage in self-destructive behaviour. In the 1987 season, No Heart's niece, Shrieky was introduced, and her screech was enough to smash every window in the Empire State Building, it was so loud.

Most of these episodes involved one of No Heart's evil schemes, and his attempts to get the world to stop caring, and it was up to the Care Bears to stand up to No Heart and his minions.

This is where the symbols on their chest come into play.

On any normal day, they're just cute little pictures of hearts, flowers, and stars. The kind you'd see your second grade teacher giving students for good homework. But if they are provoked in any way, their tummy symbols become a lethal weapon.

(Well, as lethal as they can be considering they're shaped like happy things).

With their Care Bear stare, they can melt the coldest of hearts, and warm the most frigid of receptions. These Care Bears mean business, and they will make people start caring about others no matter what.

I figure that you want an example of this cartoon show in action, so here's a few clips from a few episodes for you to see what I mean.  In particular, with the 1986 season, Share Bear would appear in the last segment of the show to teach viewers how they can show others that they care about others.  Here's a couple of these PSA's down below.




You know, I used to get a lot of flack for watching Care Bears as a kid. It's a program that's too sugary-sweet. It's not the show that boys should be watching. It's a show that sucks.

I say wrong. On all three counts.

The show may seem like it's too sweet, but I mean, think about it. It's called CARE Bears. What, did you expect them to karate chop each other through rainbows and heart shaped doors? Common sense, people.

Secondly, who is anyone to say what shows are appropriate enough for boys or girls to watch. I liked the Care Bears, and I'm sure that a lot of boys liked them too. Just like some girls liked the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which was basically dismissed as a boys cartoon.

And, thirdly, the show didn't 'suck'. If anything, it was a great way to teach kids how to show respect and love towards one another. I would think that would be a great lesson to teach kids, wouldn't you?

Friday, September 09, 2011

TGIF: Welcome Back, Kotter

As teacher's week comes to its conclusion, I hope that everyone who has read this blog this past week has enjoyed this look back at some of the most beloved examples of people in the field of education (as well as a couple of duds). It's been a pleasure to talk about this subject, and I'm hoping to have more of these theme weeks in the future. In fact, I have another one planned in about a couple of weeks from now...but I'll let you know when it happens, as all I can tell you is that I'll be...switching it up for a week.

For now though, we have one final entry for this week, and since today is Friday, you know that we'll be visiting the world of television.

But before I head into a discussion of the television show, I really want to tell you a story about a song. Don't worry, it's related.

Have any of you ever heard of a singer known by the name of John Sebastian? I see some of you nodding your head as the memories flow, while some others are giving me a confused stare as if you have absolutely no idea who or what I am talking about.

John Sebastian is a singer. He also happens to have a Hollywood link, as 'I Love Lucy' actress Vivian Vance was his godmother. He was a part of the 1960s band 'The Lovin' Spoonful', of which you may recognize as the band that sang hits like 'Do You Believe In Magic' and 'Summer In The City'. In 1968, he left the band and embarked on a solo career, played harmonica on various albums (including on one song by The Doors) and wrote music for the Broadway musical 'Jimmy Shine'.

But it wasn't until 1976 that John Sebastian would score his one and only number one hit.





ARTIST: John Sebastian
SONG: Welcome Back
ALBUM: Welcome Back
DATE RELEASED: March 1976
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHART: #1 for 1 week

And do you know why the song became such a success on the pop charts just two months after its release date? It all had to do with a television show. A show that used this very song as its theme.



Welcome Back, Kotter. A show that aired on ABC from September 9, 1975 to August 10, 1979. A show that made a star out of John Travolta.

A show that was a gem in the world of sitcoms set mainly at a school.

What made Welcome Back, Kotter stand out from the rest of the shows was the fact that the main character was brought in to teach the remedial high school class at James Buchanan High in the city of Brooklyn, New York.



Gabriel Kotter (played by comedian Gabe Kaplan) was assigned to teach the remedial class at the school which happened to have the gang that dubbed themselves the 'Sweathogs'. And whenever you dealt with four guys who went by the names of Horshack, Barbarino, Epstein, and Washington, you knew that somehow the phrase 'up your nose with a rubber hose' would be uttered in some fashion.



Certainly, Mr. Kotter had his hands full. Horshack was the class clown who had a rather unique laugh, and was quite comfortable with his oddball personality. Barbarino was cocky, but incredibly slow kid who had a way with the ladies. Epstein was short in height, but incredibly tough who was voted by his peers as 'Most Likely To Take A Life', while Washington, who often acted as the moral compass of the Sweathogs at times followed along with the group's zany schemes over the years.

If that didn't require Mr. Kotter to take ulcer relieving medicine each day, then he must have been a glutton for punishment.

But as the series progressed, the reason why Mr. Kotter took on a keen interest into teaching the Sweathogs became clear.

Years ago, when Mr. Kotter was a student at James Buchanan High, he himself was a part of the remedial class at the school. In fact, he founded the Sweathogs all those years ago!

This development in the plot was based on Gabe Kaplan's own experiences in high school. Like his character on the show, Kaplan himself was in the remedial class in his own school, and a lot of the character traits of the Sweathogs were based on some of his own classmates from the class.

But, anyways, back to the show.



Because Kotter had started up the Sweathogs, he knew exactly what they were going through. He knew because he had been there once before. He knew how hard it was to be going to a school where because he was in the remedial class, he was stereotyped as being slow, or dumb, or unteachable. He knew that simply wasn't true for him, and he worked hard to try and overcome those labels. Becoming a teacher certainly worked in his favour, and since then, he had the desire to help others overcome those same stigmas to become respected in the community.

As a result of his own experiences, Mr. Kotter developed the ability to maximize the potential of any student that came his way. He knew how hard it was to overcome the negative stigma of remedial high school, so he made it his mission to be a rock for his students to lean on.

Because of the support and encouragement that Mr. Kotter gave the Sweathogs, the group befriended Mr. Kotter, and they looked to him as a real role model. Their relationship became so close that it wasn't all that unusual for them to make house calls to Kotter's apartment, talking to him about their problems while simultaneously making fun of his wife Julie's tuna casserole.



Of course, Mr. Kotter certainly had his adversaries. One of them was the vice-principal of James Buchanan High, Michael Woodman, a curmudgeon of a man who openly dislikes the Sweathogs. He actually considered the group to be the bottom-feeders of the whole school. Mr. Woodman served as a mild antagonist in the career of Mr. Kotter, mainly because he didn't quite agree with the unorthodox methods in how Mr, Kotter taught his class. However, he did loosen up a smidgen as the series progressed.

Nevertheless, Mr. Kotter believed in his students and wanted them to succeed. And as far as I'm concerned, that makes a fantastic teacher.

Really, one lesson that one can learn by watching 'Welcome Back, Kotter' is that no child or teenager is incapable of learning. Certainly everyone has their own ways of learning, and their own methods of studying. One person might be a visual learner, while the other might be kinesthetic.

Some people may have additional difficulties that might prevent them from learning the same way as their peers. Learning disabilities such as dyslexia, or dyscalculia. Some people may have attention deficit disorder, or other behavioural challenges. All these things are factors that in the past have limited people's abilities to go where they wanted to go in life.

But if a person has a role model, mentor, or teacher that will be willing to work with them, and focus on developing the strengths they do have to overcome their weaknesses, then that will help steer them on the road to the brightest future they want to have, not a half-dim one that they might mistakenly believe in inevitable.

I believe this clip of the show will illustrate this point beautifully. When the Sweathogs were forced to go into a debate with a prissy, snobbish debate team, all odds seemed against them, until Mr. Kotter helped the Sweathogs triumph in one of the most brilliant scenes. You just have to see it.



I believe that the Sweathogs had everything going against them before Mr. Kotter came into their lives. With a vice-principal who didn't believe in them, and with the overall stereotype that they were too stupid to get anything out of the classes that they went to, it was hard for them to find that positive vibe for them to actively want to better themselves.

Mr. Kotter cared enough about them to give a damn. Remember how a couple of days ago, when I wrote that note on the teacher who made my first grade experience a living nightmare? I mentioned that I ended up becoming a better person because of the teachers who really gave a damn about me. So, for the end of this blog entry, as well as the conclusion of Teacher's Week, I thought I would list some of the teachers who for whatever reason made a huge impact on my well-being, and who inspired me never to settle for anything. You already read about my sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Woodfine at the beginning of the week, but there were so many more who shaped me into being the man I am today.

Such as my fifth grade teacher, Mr. Haskin, who taught me that losing my cool against bullies and people who made fun of me was never the right answer and that I should attempt to find a more calmer and rational way to handle them. It was a lesson that admittely took me years to grasp, but I think looking back on it, he had my back.

I loved French class in elementary and high school, and there were several teachers who I can thank for that. Madame Ruston, for praising my photographic memory. Madame Morgan, who encouraged me to help tutor other students in the class who were having trouble, and Monsieur Lacerte, who came up with some of the most creative French projects that allowed me to showcase other talents in addition to just French, making my learning experiences a little more well-rounded.

My ninth grade history teacher, Ms. Renusz taught me the importance of keeping an organized notebook and making sure that my workstation was tidy...something that none of my elementary school teachers could achieve. And she also made sure that we had thorough reviews on tests and exams before we took them because she wanted us to make sure that we passed. This of course meant that some concepts we spent half the period on, but I admire the fact that she let us learn at our own pace, which was nice. And as an added bonus, she was the only teacher that I can remember who used to give us Starburst fruit chews to snack on during these tests and exams. Brain food, if you will.

My twelfth grade teacher Mr. Wright helped me learn to love math again after a horrible grade eleven year where my previous teacher sped through math lessons like that John Moschitta guy (the one who spoke at ten times the speed on those Micro Machine commercials). I almost failed grade eleven math, and thanks to the teaching methods and easy to understand lessons devised by Mr. Wright, I went from almost failing to almost getting the highest mark in the class.

I also had a really good teacher for ninth grade math. Mr. Cristello certainly knew how to make learning about math fun, and it was mostly the little things that were not even math-related that helped with that. With his implementation of treat days, and having us make birthday cards for classmates at the beginning of each class, it really got us in a rather jovial mood. And students who are happy students tend to do better in math class than students who just exist in the class. Let's just say that the fact that my highest high school math mark happened to be in ninth grade was no coincidence.

I used to despise gym class, and part of that was due to the fact that I was the token fat kid. Because of my walking deformity during my elementary school years coupled with the diagnosis of childhood asthma in 1988, I very rarely got a grade higher than a C- in physical education. It also didn't help matters much when you consider that the kids made the most fun of me in gym class. That is until Mr. Corney came into my gym class world. I may not have been the best athlete in the class, but I tried my hardest to keep up. Some of the kids in my class were natural athletes and therefore never really broke a sweat...but I was determined to at least attempt to keep up with them. Sadly, it never came to be, but at least Mr. Corney took the effort I put forth into consideration. With the health classes we took, imagine my surprise when I ended up getting a higher mark than some of the jocks in the class. Oh, and the teasing in the locker rooms? Mr. Corney put an end to that right off the bat.

I also want to throw out a shout-out to my eleventh grade chemistry teacher, Mr. Pearson. Though my marks in chemistry were not the greatest, he was also responsible for trying to control the bullying that I was experiencing at the time, and for that I am eternally grateful, as I am to my computer teacher Mr, McDonald. You two have no idea what you ended up doing for me, and I honestly have no idea how I could thank you for it.

Lastly, I'm going to throw a thank you to a music teacher that I had in elementary school named Mr. Tripp. Mr. Tripp instilled in me a love of music that while I don't play it anymore, I do listen to it. A lot. Something that I never really used to do before until I had him for a teacher. And I'll never forget the time that we were playing a concert for the Spring assembly, and the eighth grade baritone player was a no show. We had to perform a piece called 'Ash Lawn Echoes' where there was a solo by a baritone player. A solo that was supposed to be played by the eighth grader.



And, since I was the only seventh grade baritone player, guess who ended up playing it?

And you want to know something even more ironic? I almost skipped out on the Spring assembly myself because of the fact that I was unable to get along with some of my classmates, and I thought that it would be better if I skipped. Well, Mr. Tripp ended up giving me a pep talk, saying that I need not let what the other kids were saying about me affect who I was as a person, and that despite all that, he knew I had it in me to play at the concert.

So, when the concert date arrived, I was the only baritone player, and I ended up doing the solo.

And, I nailed it. And the joy and excitement that I saw in Mr. Tripp's face was priceless. In that brief moment in time, he instilled in me some self-confidence. Self-confidence that had always been there, but never had the motivation to bring out until that concert.

I wish I could have told him how much that moment meant to me, but sadly, he passed away about ten years ago. I'm sure he knew though. I hope he did.

See, there were a lot of teachers that I had who never stopped believing in me or my abilities, and because of that, I feel that I am a better person.

Just like the Sweathogs became better people under the guidance of Mr. Kotter.



Thursday, September 08, 2011

Thursday Night At The Arcade: Professor Layton

The September 7 entry of the Pop Culture blog (a.k.a. Yesterday) was an emotional one for me, because I had such strong feelings about it. But sometimes it's good to talk about those memories, even the ones that were painful.

Why?

Because now that I have gotten it out there in the open, I feel a million times better about myself. It was like this weight was lifted from my shoulders, and almost all of the anger that I had felt towards my first grade teacher melted away. I still have difficulty trying to understand why she acted the way she did, and I may not actually find it within myself to totally forgive her for what happened, but now that I do have it out there in absolute clarity in my blog, I know that none of it was of my own doing, and that there was absolutely no reason to blame myself for the actions of someone else.

Now that I have all that out in the open, I can now go back to my zen-like state, and make this blog more fun again.

And I happen to have a fun topic for this week's edition of Thursday Night at the Arcade.

Though, part of me had a bit of a dilemma this week.

Given this week is a week that I have dubbed 'Teacher's Week', it initially proved problematic to come up with an appropriate subject for today.

There aren't really a whole lot of teachers that appear in the video game world. And any of the ones that I could have thought of right off the bat were one-note characters or made a cameo. Let's see...there was Quistis from Final Fantasy VIII, but I haven't had a chance to play that game yet, so I don't know how great a character she would be. I suppose in Donkey Kong Country 2, I could have chosen Wrinkly Kong, as she had a schoolhouse that doubled as a save point, but really, all she was good for was teaching lessons on game mechanics and hints for finding bonus coins and defeating boss levels. Hardly worthy of a blog entry.

For this one, I needed to do some serious thinking. So, I tried to focus my attentions on other toys and games, hoping that it would inspire me to come up with a subject of some value for today's blog.

It suddenly hit me as I was trying to solve a popular puzzle.



If any of you remember being alive during the early part of the 1980s (and, keep in mind that although I was born in the early 80s, I do remember when these things were popular), you probably remember either playing with, or at least seeing a Rubix Cube. You know, those six sided cubes with six different colours of tiles? The object was to try and arrange the cube by twisting rows and columns around to make each face the same colour. You know you succeeded when you had a cube with one side completely the same colour (red, orange, blue, white, yellow, and green).

For the record, I've never been able to complete a Rubix Cube in its entirety. The most I think I've ever gotten was completion of one whole side. I certainly don't stand a chance against those people who can solve the Rubix Cube puzzle in under two minutes (and I know that they exist because I have a friend who can do exactly that).

But it got me thinking about how much I enjoy doing puzzles and activities that are designed to help a person train their brains, so to speak. Some puzzles I can get right off the bat, while others have me tearing pages out of activity books in frustration. But those activities have always been ones that I have gravitated to, and I always usually got some form of toy, game, or book that allowed me to work my brain muscles.

My sister in particular has always been one to support this. Initially, she would buy me word search activity books, connect-the-dot puzzles, and Archie's Story & Game comic books. Gradually, as I started to develop a love for video and arcade games, I would often get gifts like Wheel Of Fortune electronic games, and Jeopardy video games, and those games were also instrumental in developing my brain power (while at the same time, made me want to appear on a game show...a dream that I still have this very day).

In fact, if you take a look at my game collection for my Nintendo DS, you'll see lots of puzzle games, like Plants Vs. Zombies, Bejeweled Twist and Sudoku.

There's also another game for that system that I own that fits the whole idea of puzzle and strategy games, and as it so happened, the main character was a professor, which happily is a requirement for Teacher's Week!



The man up above is named Professor Hershel Layton, and he has a series of video games for the Nintendo DS system. Dating back to the year 2007 with his first adventure, and having no less than five games starring the fictional archaeologist, each game has our well-mannered and impeccably dressed hero arriving at various places to solve a mystery that is occurring in the area.

With his trusty sidekick, a young boy by the name of Luke Triton, Professor Layton is left to solve a barrage of mind teasers, sliding puzzles, logic problems and numeric codes in order to get closer to the truth.



The idea for the Professor Layton video game series was inspired by a Japanese puzzle book series entitled 'Mental Gymnastics' by puzzle creator Akira Tago. The developer of the game series, Akihiro Hino, was so inspired by these books that he ended up basing a lot of the puzzles in the series on these puzzle books.

So as a special treat (and to get your brains working into overdrive), I'm going to post some of these brain teasers that are found in the various games. Most of these are from the first game in the series, 'Professor Layton and the Curious Village', but some of them are from later games. If you get stuck, the answers will be hidden somewhere in this blog, but I would hope that you at least try to attempt answering these on your own before cheating you look up the answers yourself.

Are you ready?


(Okay...I'll post the question in a larger font in case you can't read it.)

The village is on a road that leads to no other towns.  I look forward to seeing you there.

Which village is it that the person is talking about?

It is the village that is furthest to the left of the screen...the one with the red rooftops.

Have you figured it out yet?  If yes, go ahead to question number two!



There's an uninvited guest at this event, but the guard has received a few clues as to his whereabouts.

His table is next to one with a red flower.  His tablecloth is a different colour than any next to it.  Oh, and his table isn't decorated with a yellow flower.

"Next to" means tables connected by dotted lines.  Which table should the guard go to?

You need to take the guard to the table with the red tablecloth and red flower.  The third table in row number 2.

You may think that these puzzles are simple, but some of them are a lot harder.  Here's question 3.



Before you is a digital clock.  At certain times of the day, you can sometimes see three of the same digits lined up right next to each other.  An example being 4:44.  In a TWENTY-FOUR hour period, how many times will you see a time that has three digits in a row on a digital clock?

Okay, this one may seem tricky, but remember, you're doing it in a 24 hour period.  The times you should get are 1:11, 2:22, 3:33, 4:44, 5:55, 10:00, 11:10, 11:11, 11:12, 11:13, 11:14, 11:15, 11:16, 11:17, 11:18, 11:19, and 12:22.  If you counted, you should get 17, but if you take into account that a 24-hour day has times in AM and PM, just multiply the answer by 2.  The answer is 34.

Ready for question #4?  This one is also text based.



A father and son are chatting when the son poses this question.  'Dad, I'm 22 now, but just how old are you?'

The father replies 'You wanna know how old your old man is?  Well, I tell you what.  I'm as old as your age, plus half of my age.'

How old is the father?

This problem works best if you work backwards.  Remember, he said that he's as old as his son's age, plus half of his current age.  So, all you need to do is take away half of the father's age, and you have the son's age, which is 22.  So, if that's the case, that would mean that the father is twice his son's age, so therefore, the father must be 44 years old.

Here's another question for you.  Number 5.



This puzzle is super easy!  All you have to do is place each of the seven cards (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, +, =) into the square that each card is pointing to.  Oh, and one more thing.  The equation created by the cards has to be valid.

So, what's the solution?

This is a tricky one, unless you know that you can rotate the cards as you see fit.  In this case, the 1 card can be rotated to form a subtraction sign.  By doing this, you can get to the right answer by arranging the cards like this.  3 + 4 - 2 = 5.

That was a tricky one, wasn't it?  Here's problem number 6.



When asked about her birthday, a young woman gives the following information:  The day after tomorrow, I turn 22, but I was still nineteen on New Years Day last year.

When is her birthday?

This one is a very tricky one, but you can figure it out.  Begin by figuring out the date the conversation takes place.  She says that in two days, she will be twenty-two, so you know that she's already 21 when the conversation takes place.  Now for her to have been 19 on New Year's Day the year before, she would have had to have turned 20 later on that same year.  The only way that could be possible is if the conversation took place on December 31.  Two days after that will be January 2, which is the date our birthday girl was born.  If you work it out, it fits all criteria.

Okay...one last brain teaser for you before I end this blog entry for today.



Get the three wolves and the three chicks to the other side of the river while meeting the following conditions.

- No more than two animals can ride at the same time.
- There must be at least one animal on the raft in order for the raft to move
- If more wolves than chicks stay on either side of the river, the wolves will eat the chicks, and you'll have to start over.

This can be solved in as little as ELEVEN MOVES.  Can you do it?

Yes, we can.  All you have to do is follow these eleven steps.


01. Bring 2 wolves over.
02. Bring 1 wolf back
03. Bring 2 wolves over.
04. Bring 1 wolf back.
05. Bring 2 chicks over.
06. Bring 1 wolf and 1 chick back.
07. Bring 2 chicks over.
08. Bring 1 wolf back.
09. Bring 2 wolves over.
10. Bring 1 wolf back
11. Bring 2 wolves over. 


I think that's all that I have to say about this game for now.

Best of luck to all of you who plan on solving these brain teasers.

Some are easy, while others aren't so much.  But, the answers to all of these questions are hidden in this blog entry somewhere (and, I tried to make it not stand out as much, but didn't do that great a job at it admittedly).  All you have to do is think hard, and the answer should come to you.