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Friday, November 11, 2011

TGIF Episode Spotlight: "Abyssinia, Henry" from M*A*S*H

Today happens to be the eleventh day of the eleventh month in the year 2011. Written numerically, the date would read 11/11/11. Neat, isn't it?

Today also happens to be a day of remembrance in the world. November 11 is a day reserved for all of us to remember those soldiers and veterans of various wars fought all over the world who died trying to protect our rights and our freedom. All over the world, people will be holding ceremonies and memorial services dedicated to those brave soldiers and war heroes who fought with all their might, and certainly, I'm going to try and make this blog entry do exactly that.

Whether you refer to today as Armistice Day, Veterans Day, or Remembrance Day, the meaning is the same. So, in today's blog entry question of the day, I ask all of you, what does the eleventh of November mean to all of you?

Growing up, November 11 was always regarded as an important day. In history class, we learned that on November 11, 1918, at eleven o'clock in the morning, World War I was officially declared over. Since 1918, we have set aside November 11 as a date in which we remember all the sacrifices that those who fought in that war, and all other wars since. Over the past ninety-three years, thousands upon thousands of soldiers risked their lives to fight for our freedom in both World Wars, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War, and the current war going on against terrorism that commenced just a year and a half after 9/11.

And, in my hometown, we did this a number of ways.



The most common way that all of us could remember those who sacrificed everything for us is by wearing a red poppy pin, similar to the one posted up above. The poppy is a symbol linked to November 11 ceremonies, influenced by the poem 'In Flanders Fields' written by John McCrae, a lieutenant colonel who died of pneumonia during World War I, less than a year before the war officially ended. Below is the poem that he wrote in memory of a friend who died during the Second Battle of Ypres, in 1915.



At school, Remembrance Day was a day that was a really big deal. As far back as I can remember, our classes would always leave the school during the morning, and walk down to the cenotaph which was located in the middle of our town square (which was named Court House Square, as most of the law offices in town were set up in the surrounding areas at the time). There, we would watch the Remembrance Day ceremonies, and watch as various wreaths were laid down at the foot of the cenotaph. From there, we would stand quietly as we all observed the moment of silence, to remember those who we lost.

Sometimes, our school would even have assemblies during the week of Remembrance Day, and in fifth grade, I ended up having a role in the Remembrance Day assembly. It was November 1991. Myself and six other kids from my fifth grade class were asked to hold up a letter in the word BRAVERY, and recite what each of the letters in bravery stood for, and then we would all have a line to say simultaneously. Again, nothing really major, as all of our parts lasted a grand total of thirty seconds at the most.

But the fact that I played the B in Bravery did make me somewhat happy, as I was the one who went first!

The point is that Remembrance/Veterans/Armistice Day is a very big deal, as it really should be. So, it is here that I am going to post a video, and from here, I ask that you watch it, and reflect on those who fought and lost their lives for all of us out there before continuing on with this entry.



Now we can continue.

All right, so seeing as how today is November 11th, I really wanted to find an example that linked today to a television show. Initially, I found it quite difficult to do, because on a somber occasion as today, the last thing that I thought would be appropriate would be a funny sitcom. So, it took a while for me to think it through, and come up with a show that would fit for today's topic.

And then it hit me.



The television show M*A*S*H had an episode that illustrates this brilliantly. And although the subject of this blog note was a fictional character, it still was considered to be one of the most shocking moments in television history, and coincidentally one of the saddest endings of a television show.

Now, you all know how much of a ratings powerhouse M*A*S*H was. The show started off as a 1970 movie, (which stemmed from a 1968 novel written by Richard Hooker), that became a television series two years later. From 1972-1983, M*A*S*H aired on CBS, and became an instant success, ranking in the Top 10 viewed shows in the Nielsen ratings for nine of its eleven seasons on air. In fact, when the show aired its final episode on February 28, 1983, the show managed to attract 125 MILLION viewers, the most watched television broadcast of all time! A record that as of right now has not yet been broken.

The television show was an ensemble piece was was considered to be a 'dramedy'. The subject matter was often dramatic in nature, but was presented in a humourous manner. The show was about a United States Army Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (where the name M*A*S*H came from). The show focused on the various staff of the unit which was set up as a surgical unit during the Korean War (1950-1953). The stories were both plot and character driven, and the show used the laugh track function sparingly (notably being absent during the scenes which were shot as the staff performed an operation on someone).



The original cast of the series when it debuted in September 1972 included the following;

Alan Alda played Captain Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce, the chief surgeon of the 4077th MASH.
Loretta Swit played Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan, the head nurse.
Jamie Farr played Corporal Maxwell Q. Klinger, a corpsman (recurring role until 1975).
William Christopher played First Lieutenant John Patrick Francis Mulcahy, a chaplain. He is also referred to as Father Mulcahy in the show.
Wayne Rogers played Captain John Francis Xavier “Trapper” McIntyre, a surgeon.
Larry Linville played Major Franklin Marion Burns, a surgeon.
Gary Burghoff played Corporal Walter Eugene “Radar” O'Reilly, company clerk and bugler of the 4077th.

Now, most of these people changed their ranks over the course of the show. Klinger, for instance went from the rank of Corporal to Sergeant, and some people even changed job titles. Some even left the show after a few seasons.

But some of you M*A*S*H fans might notice that I purposely left out one name from the original cast list. The reason is because this name is the subject of today's blog.



That name is Lieutenant Colonel Henry Braymore Blake, commanding officer and surgeon of the 4077th MASH unit, played by the late McLean Stevenson.

And, the way that Henry Blake left the show was one that was talked about for years. McLean Stevenson's departure from the show changed the course of the show for years to come.



The episode in which we said goodbye to Henry Blake aired on March 18, 1975. The title of the show was “Abyssinia, Henry”, and it aired as the finale of the show's third season.

Henry Blake wasn't exactly the most forceful, or even most competent commanding officer, but he made up for that by being a great surgeon. His laid-back manner and personality made him very well-liked by his colleagues, and he always managed to exhibit a happy-go-lucky attitude around the 4077th. This earned him great accolades from Hawkeye and Trapper John, but scorn from the more serious minded staffers, such as Frank and Hot Lips. His subordinate, Radar, had probably the closest direct relationship with Henry, as Radar could almost anticipate Blake's wishes and turn them into military orders.

But by 1975, McLean Stevenson had decided that he wanted to be written out of M*A*S*H, as he was feeling disenchanted with the way things were going. It was rumoured that he was growing tired of his character playing second fiddle to Alan Alda's character of Hawkeye. He asked to be released from his contract after the third season, and the writers, and producers Larry Gelbart and Gene Reynolds had to scramble to write out the character.

The episode “Abyssinia, Henry” began just like any other episode of the series. The staff of the 4077th were having lighthearted fun, playing a rousing game of Name That Tune while in the operating room, when Radar comes in to inform Blake that his discharge from duty has been approved, having received all of the needed Army service points needed to go home. Blake is overjoyed at hearing the news, and excitedly plans his trip back home to Bloomington, Illinois, where he looks forward to seeing his wife and family again.

The changes to the 4077th are almost immediate following the news. Frank prepares to take over in his new role as commanding officer, as Radar helps Henry clear out his office. The two share a moment of bonding, and even exchange gifts. Radar gives Blake an inscribed Winchester cartridge, and surprised by Radar's kind gesture, he spontaneously gives Radar a rectal thermometer that belonged to his father.

The night before Henry's departure, Radar, Hawkeye, and Trapper John take him out to Rosie's Bar and Grill for a going-away party. Under the influence of many, many drinks, the four reminisce about the good times they shared. When Henry excuses himself to go to the bathroom, the other three men plot out a ceremony designed to 'drum Henry out of the army', but one of the gifts the men give him is a brand new suit for Henry to wear on his flight home to the United States.

The next morning, with Frank in charge, it becomes clear that the rest of the unit don't seem to have as much respect for him as they did with Blake, with Klinger (known for dressing in some rather unusual outfits) going out of his way to dress to unimpress. But the moment Blake surfaces, wearing the brand new suit that was given to him the night before, everyone gives him a round of applause and a rousing chorus of “For He's A Jolly Good Fellow” as he approaches the helicopter that will take him home.



A poignant scene occurs just before Henry leaves, as Radar emotionally salutes the departing Blake. Blake runs over to Radar, salutes him right back, hugs him, and leaves him with these final words.

You behave yourself, or I'm gonna come back and kick your butt!”

And, that's the last that we see of Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake.

But if you think that he had a happy ending, you would be tragically wrong. This was the final scene of the episode, with Radar having the very last line. (And, I apologize for the silliness that appears at the end, spoiling the clip, but it's the only one I can find...just stop the video at the 1:03 mark.)



There you have it. Henry Blake, on his way home from Korea never made it home. His plane being shot down over the sea of Japan. One of the first instances of a main character being killed off of a television show.

To make the reaction of the cast as believable as possible, the last page of the script was purposely kept from them until the day of shooting, so that the producers could get the maximum impact of shock and sadness from the members of the cast. Reportedly, only cast member Alan Alda had seen the last page of the script prior to it being distributed, and because of this, McLean Stevenson was on set to watch the scene play out. The scene was so emotional that the cast felt drained afterwards, and as a result, a planned farewell party for Stevenson was cancelled. A few months later, Wayne Rogers would also leave the show, and both Rogers and Stevenson were replaced with Mike Farrell and Harry Morgan for the 1975/76 season.

Still, though, the episode garnered a lot of public reaction, and not all of it was good. It was reported by Larry Gelbart and Gene Reynolds that after the initial airing of Abyssinia, Henry, they received more than one thousand letters from angry viewers who were upset that Henry Blake was killed off. Some said that Blake's death was a cheap move, and didn't belong in a show like M*A*S*H, while others said that his death was just unnecessary. Some threatened never to watch the show again (which reflected in the following season's ratings, which only peaked at #15 from the #5 spot it held the year before).

It wasn't just home viewers that didn't like the way the show ended. CBS was also unhappy with the ending, as were 20th Century Fox, the company that produced M*A*S*H. CBS was reportedly so unhappy with the ending that when it was rebroadcast in reruns later that year, the final operating room scene was cut out entirely! It has since been restored in syndication airings and the season three DVD set for the show. Even McLean Stevenson himself reflected on the exit, saying that it was disappointing that the show chose to kill his character off, effectively nixing any chance of him coming back to the show in the future. He later admitted in an interview that leaving M*A*S*H the way he did was a mistake.

So why did they kill off Henry Blake?

Basically, it was to send out a message.

Keep in mind that during the first three seasons of M*A*S*H, the Vietnam War was in full swing, and you don't need me to tell you just how that war affected American citizens at the time. With news outlets broadcasting more and more footage of people dying each day during the war, the producers felt that they had to bring up the subject in the television show.

By having Henry Blake's plane shot down in the Korean War, it really struck an emotional chord, given the time period. I think Gene Reynolds described it best in this excerpt of an interview he gave around the time of the show first airing;

...if we turned on the television, we would see fifteen people [killed in Vietnam every night]. They don't complain about that because it is unfelt violence, it is unfelt trauma. And that's not good. I think that if there is such a thing as the loss of life there should be some connection. And we did make a connection. It was a surprise, it was somebody they loved. They didn't expect it, but it made the point. People like Henry Blake are lost in the war.”

In a rather ironic sense, the Abyssinia, Henry episode was broadcast the same year that the Vietnam War officially ended.

Nevertheless, I can get the grasp of what Reynolds was trying to say. When people were seeing the images of war on television (even now during the war on terrorism currently going on), they didn't necessarily feel emotion for what was going on. But when M*A*S*H killed off Henry Blake, although he was a fictional representation of a soldier, it still resonated with viewers, as he was someone that they knew. Millions of viewers tuned in to watch M*A*S*H, and they all grew to know and love the characters in the show, and many were saddened to know that Blake never got his happy ending.

And that was a fictional program. Imagine all of the families out there whose loved ones never came home from the war that they fought in. I imagine that for those families, those wounds will never heal, and they won't ever forget what these men and women who died fighting for their countries did for them.

Which is why we remember them every November 11th.


Thursday, November 10, 2011

Thursday Night At The Arcade: Worst. Games. EVER.

I wouldn't exactly classify myself as a gamer in the strictest sense of the word.
Quite possibly, I was when I was growing up, as video games were a huge part of my childhood. I mean, I probably rented every Nintendo game from the local video store at least once during the days that I had gotten a Nintendo, had a couple of dozen games for the Intellivision, played several games for the Sony PlayStation and PlayStation 2, own a Nintendo DS, and have the Sega Genesis Collection.

I was a hardcore gamer back in those days.

Now that I am in my thirties, I still play the odd video game, but I don't nearly have as much time to play them these days. I guess one could say that I relinquished my gamer membership the day I entered my thirties in some form.

But that could be because I don't find a whole lot of current games being the sort that I would actively play. In fact, the older I get, the more out of touch I feel that I am with video games.

Take the newest game in the Call Of Duty series, which I believe was only released a couple of days ago. Reports were that the game's release was quite huge, and I have heard that several people waited in line outside of retailers that sold video games to get their hands on the game.

Personally, I find the idea of anyone waiting in line (in some cases making their wait an overnight affair) for a video game to be something that I would never do. Aside from the fact that some of the first copies of games and software can be filled with gaming bugs and the like, I wouldn't do it just because the Call Of Duty video game series is not my cup of tea.

That's not to say that it's necessarily a bad game...just not my taste.

But then again, video games, like any other form of media out there, are subjective to a whole slew of personal opinions. Some games might be critically acclaimed, but completely rejected by the public, while other games are such that the public loves it, but parent groups may want it banned for excessive gore. It's all a matter of personal taste, really.

So, before I go on with this blog entry, I would just like to state that the opinions expressed in this blog entry DO reflect my own beliefs, but may not necessarily be the same beliefs as other peoples.

Because for this blog entry, I figure I would take a trip back through the various consoles over the years, and pick and choose some of the video games that I deem to be some of the worst waste of microchips and pixels that I have ever had the displeasure of playing.

The list of games spans a period of thirty years, and several consoles are represented in this list from the Atari 2600 all the way to the Nintendo DS.

This list is in no particular order here, and while there are technically twelve games in this list, as you'll see, some of them are compilations that really should never have been made. So, let's see what my version of the dirty dozen in video gaming is made up of. Will you agree, or have your own opinions?



E.T. THE EXTRA TERRESTRIAL (1982, Atari 2600)

I myself have never played this game, as I never owned an Atari 2600. But reports are that it is easily considered to be one of the worst video games ever made, and was one of the key games blamed for the great video game crash of 1983. The game initially did very well in sales, with it being the third most sold video game cartridge of 1982. Based on the very popular movie which had come out that summer, it was expected to do quite well.

It's just a shame the game was so terrible that it ended up being one of the most returned games to retail stores just months after appearing on the market.

Check out this video of the game that I found on YouTube.



To be honest with you, the green blob that is supposed to look like E.T...looks like, well, I don't know exactly. I don't even understand how you're supposed to play the video game. And the ending of the game? I mean, Paperboy had a better ending, and everyone who has ever beaten Paperboy knows that the ending is very anti-climactic.

It's rumoured that Atari was so embarrassed by the game that they buried thousands of copies of the game in a desert in New Mexico. It's unlikely that this is the truth, but you never know. I know I'm certainly in no rush to unearth a copy.



THE GREAT WALDO SEARCH (1992, Super Nintendo Entertainment System)

I have a confession for you. I hated those stupid Where's Waldo books. I found them not challenging at all. If I were to grab a book that had hidden objects games in it, I could come up with some better, more challenging options. Nevertheless, one day when I was at the video store, renting a video game, I decided to try renting The Great Waldo Search for the SNES, as the other games that I really wanted to play were already rented out.

Biggest waste of four dollars I had ever spent in my life.

You want to know how long it took me to beat the game in total? Eight minutes. On the EXPERT level. The only pluses I can give for this game is that I managed to complete it a whopping eighty times during the time I had the game rented out, but more importantly, it only served to confirm my hatred of Waldo even more.



BACK TO THE FUTURE (1989, Nintendo Entertainment System)



Seriously, Nintendo, why did you let LJN Toys (a company synonymous with some of the worst video games of the late eighties) go near this game? I also rented this game and immediately returned it to the store just a few hours later. Why? Because of the fact that the poorly remixed 8-bit music tune (which I believe was supposed to be Huey Lewis and the News' Power Of Love) was terrible, the game itself made it almost impossible to make it through the game in one piece, and the minigames were so awkwardly done. In short, it really wasn't worth playing. But then again, most video games based on movies didn't seem to do well, as evidenced by the first game in the list, and the one directly below.



HOME ALONE (1991, Nintendo Entertainment System)

Okay, here's the deal. The Nintendo version was absolutely horrible. The entire game lasted only twenty minutes. Maybe even less than that if you ended up getting caught by the poorly drawn Wet Bandits. You basically ran around a house, setting traps, and avoiding getting caught by the crooks for twenty minutes, because that's how long that it would take for the police to arrive. If this sounds boring, it's because it was, and by the seven minute mark, I was like, 'I don't care, catch me if you like, put me out of my misery'. I WILL say that the Super Nintendo version of the game is slightly better, and has more of a plot than the NES version.



STRETCH PANIC (2001, PlayStation 2)

I feel bad for putting this game on this list, as it was a Christmas present from a relative. And, I really, really did try to like the game, which had a little girl trying to rescue her vain sisters from the demons who have possessed them. The music was pretty decent, and the game had very colourful graphics. The problem is that the controls were wonky, the enemies were quite hard to defeat, and after a while, it got incredibly dull. The guys may enjoy the women walking around the level as fodder enemies though, as they have some rather...ample bosoms.



ARMOR BATTLE (1979, Intellivision)

Last week, I talked about how the Intellivision was my very first console, and how despite the fact that Nintendo was the top dog during that time period, I enjoyed most of the games that came with the console.

Well, all except Armor Battle, which was so dull it bored me to tears. The object of the game was to try and place land mines and shoot at your opponents tanks to destroy them, but the courses were so barren and open that there really wasn't any challenge whatsoever. But, hey, it was one of the first games made for the system, so I guess we can MAYBE forgive them...



THE MAGIC SCHOOL BUS SPACE EXPLORATION GAME (1995, Sega Genesis)

Maybe it's because I was 14 at the time this game came out and already knew what the planets were in the solar system, or maybe it's because I was too old for the Magic School Bus that influenced my opinion somewhat, but this game just didn't measure up. The controls were awkward, and honestly, I have to say it...Ms. Frizzle just doesn't translate well as a video game character. At all.



WALL $TREET KID (1990, Nintendo Entertainment System)

Whoever came up with the bright idea to have a video game about the stock market? I mean, I suppose maybe now that I'm older and actually know how the stock market works, I may find this game more interesting if I were to replay it.  I highly doubt it though. Or, maybe I just wanted to get rid of the whiny spoiled rotten girlfriend that the character was forced to take to the carnival or the mall every few days. Believe me, if you ever play this game, this girl will drive you nuts!



ACTION 52 (1991, Nintendo Entertainment System; 1993, Sega Genesis)



It seemed like a good idea at the time. Put 52 different games inside one cartridge, and that would lead to hours of fun. If it had been successful, that is. Almost each game had severe glitches...some of which were so bad, you were forced to turn off the game console and start all over again. The music was plagiarized from other video games, and there was actually a contest held where if you reached a certain level in the game, you could win a cash prize. Problem was, the contest couldn't be won due to a glitch that prevented the player from even getting to that level. A game with great intentions that ended up being one gigantic mess.



VIDEO GAMES THAT ARE BASED OFF OF REALITY SHOWS



Video games based on television shows are usually not terrible. Some of The Simpsons games are hit and miss, but I do have my favourites. And video games based on game shows like Jeopardy and Wheel Of Fortune are generally well done. But video games based on reality shows like America's Next Top Model, Hell's Kitchen, and even The Bachelor, I just have one thing to say. WHY?



MUPPET ADVENTURE: CHAOS AT THE CARNIVAL (1989, Apple II, Commodore 64)

I never played the computer game version, but I did play the one for Nintendo, and all I have to say is that if the two games are the same, then I am greatly disappointed in Jim Henson for allowing such a game to be produced just months before his death. It's just not that great of a game. The plus is that the levels are brightly coloured. The minus? It's got faulty controls, badly drawn muppet characters, and some of the worst music I've heard on a game. Just terrible.



KING GAMES (2006, XBOX 360)

Okay, the first thing wrong here is that the games could only be purchased at Burger King restaurants. That should have been the first clue that something was wrong. The second thing wrong is that the star of the games was this creepy dude.



Yeah...can you see why I have these games listed as some of the worst ever. I won't even play them because the Burger King mascot scares the hell out of me.

The general opinion of the games though varies. The game Big Bumpin', which is a bumper car type game, was generally well-received, and got the best reviews of the trio. PocketBike Racer, on the other hand, didn't do so well. Sneak King, a game that is based on the commercials where the King tries to sneak sandwiches on unsuspecting people is just plain creepy.

So, there you have it. My own personal list of what I consider to be the worst video games ever made. Got any more to add? I'd love to hear from you!

Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Across The Pond and Beyond - Rick Allen from Def Leppard

Some of the most inspirational stories that I have ever read or heard seem to have one common theme to them.

That common theme is rising up from a hardship or a tragedy or some other event filled with raw emotion to become a better person.

Kind of like the phoenix rising up from the ashes, if you will.

I find stories in which people can find inner strength during the most trying of times to be remarkable. The own personal struggles that one has to go through to become better people really inspires me to become a better person.

And those challenges can vary, depending on the person and the circumstance.

Sometimes, it takes a natural disaster for people to come together and support one another as they struggle to rebuild their debris-scattered lives. We certainly saw that after the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004. There were charity drives, rebuilding missions, and more importantly a lot of support and hope for the people who lost almost everything in the disaster.

Years ago, I survived a natural disaster that struck my area. In January of 1998, a severe ice storm struck the area, which destroyed train tracks, blocked off many roads, shut down public transportation, and plunged most of the area in darkness for several days (in some places, several weeks). And yet the one thing that I can remember the most about that event was how everyone came together and did everything possible to try and make the experience as painless as possible from staying on the radio airwaves to update people on the situation, as well as using generators to keep some stores open during the disaster. On one hand, it was a rather terrible experience to go through, but on the other hand, it made us stronger. Well, that, plus the fact that we had our exams cancelled that semester.

Sometimes the struggles can be more personal. I've already talked about my own experiences with being bullied in school shaping my current personality. I wish it didn't happen, but I'm glad it did because it made me a stronger person who doesn't allow other people to treat him horribly anymore. Sometimes, the event could be someone walking away from an abusive relationship finding their own inner strength and realizing that they don't need anyone to make them happy. Sometimes they're diagnosed with a potentially fatal disease such as cancer, and they find a way to beat it, or overcome it, and it really changes their perspective.

I find stories like this to be inspirational. If they can get through events that have every potential to destroy them, and they find inner peace and strength out of it to come out of the other side better than ever...that's awesome.

So for today's blog entry, I want to discuss a percussionist of a British band that sustained an accident that really could have ended his career before it began. However, through the support of his bandmates, as well as a lot of hard work and trial and error, he not only managed to survive the aftermath of the accident, but ended up gaining even more confidence than ever before. This confidence would lead to the band releasing one of its biggest albums of all-time, scoring the band their first number one hit, and having continued success years after the fact.



This is the story of Rick Allen. Long-time drummer of the band Def Leppard.

The subject of today's edition of Across The Pond And Beyond.



Rick Allen was only fifteen years old when he joined the line-up for Def Leppard in November of 1978. His mother spotted a personal ad in the newspaper put out by the band. The ad had the title “Leppard Loses Skins”. The band was looking for a new drummer after their original drummer quit. Allen auditioned, the band liked him, and he left school to join the band as its full-time drummer.  Allen became the fifth member of the band to join at the time, joining lead singer Joe Elliott, bassist Rick Savage, and guitarists Steve Clark and Pete Willis.

In September of 1979, the band opened for Sammy Hagar at London's Hammersmith Odeon, and would also perform as a supporting act for AC/DC just a couple of months later, developing a following among British hard rock and heavy metal fans.

However, by 1980, when the band released their debut album, some fans were turned off by the perception that Def Leppard was trying too hard to attract an American audience. By recording songs like 'Hello America', and touring in the United States more often, fans were initially appalled, and took their displeasure out against the band. At a performance at the Reading Festival (a rock festival in England), the band was pelted with beer cans during their entire set!

During 1981, their fortune would turn around. A second album was released on July 11, 1981 entitled 'High 'n' Dry'. Produced by Robert “Mutt” Lange, the album helped the band define their sound, and by 1982, their videos began to be featured on MTV as some of the first heavy metal videos played on the network.  Despite a shake-up within the band when Pete Willis was fired one year to the day Def Leppard released 'High 'n' Dry' to be replaced by Phil Collen, the band continued to be highly successful in their native England, and the band went on a European tour during 1981 and 1982.

By the beginning of 1983, the band's third album, 'Pyromania' had been pressed and released, and catapulted the band into stardom with the lead-off single Photograph, released in early 1983.



The band's third album ended up selling six million copies, to hold down the number two spot on the American album charts (Michael Jackson's Thriller album kept the album from the top spot). By 1984, Def Leppard was considered to be one of the best rock bands at the time, and all the members of the band were riding high off of the massive success.

It seemed as though nothing could derail the success of the band, and for then 21-year-old Rick Allen, the future seemed bright, and nothing could stop him.

Then came the night of December 31, 1984.

That night, Allen and his girlfriend were on their way to a New Years Eve party at his family's home in Sheffield, England. On the way there, they were passed by a driver in an Alfa Romeo. According to Allen, the driver had been egging him on the whole time, and refused to let him pass. A street race soon progressed, and Allen, sped up in a rage, hoping to finally overtake the driver. But during this street race, Allen got careless. He ended up losing control of the Chevrolet Corvette he was driving, sailed over a stone wall and crashed into a field. He and his girlfriend survived the crash, but Allen was thrown from the wreckage into the field. Because of a faulty seatbelt, during the crash, Allen's left arm was competely severed from his body.

Miraculously, a passerby who happened to work as a nurse arrived on the scene, and Rick Allen was taken immediately to a hospital so he could be treated for his injuries. However, doctors were unable to successfully reattach his left arm.

Rick spent three weeks in the hospital, and spent about another six months recuperating from the accident. However, with the loss of his left arm, he became incredibly depressed. He didn't think that he could continue as the drummer for Def Leppard with only one arm, and he had resigned himself to be replaced as the drummer at any moment.



It wasn't until a visit from Joe Elliott that Rick's frame of mind began to change.  Instead of feeling sorry for himself, he would try to use what happened to him as a way to re-examine his drumming style. Allen and Elliott sat down with a group of engineers to design a custom made drum set to help Allen feel at ease behind a set of drums again. After some experimentation, Allen discovered that he could play some drum rhythms with only one hand using his left foot to play the snare drum. Another supporting figure in Allen's life at the time was Jeff Rich, who was the former drummer for the band Status Quo, and together with Allen, they designed an electronic drum kit Allen could play using one arm. After electronic drum manufacturer Simmons designed the kit for Allen, he made his return to the stage in 1986 during a performance at the 'Monsters Of Rock' festival. The set was well-received, and it helped Rick see that he could stay with the band despite what happened.



In 1987, the band released their fourth album 'Hysteria', which would eventually become one of Def Leppard's biggest selling albums, with twenty million copies sold worldwide. It was also the first album released since Allen's accident.

And it ended up being one of Rick Allen's finest moments. To be part of the band, and not only rising above his life-changing accident to thrive. I mean, isn't that inspirational? I know it is for me.

I mean, just take a look at one of the videos made for one of the biggest songs off the 'Hysteria' album to see what I mean.



ARTIST: Def Leppard
SONG: Pour Some Sugar On Me
ALBUM: Hysteria
DATE RELEASED: September 8, 1987
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #2

Check out any of the clips of the video that focus solely on Rick Allen and his drumming. He seems really at ease, he kept with the beat. I mean, just comparing this video with the one for Photograph in which Rick still had both of his arms, there wasn't a whole lot different. Rick seemed like he was really into the performance during the Photograph video, and was comfortable with the beat. In the Sugar video, Rick was still very much the same way, but yet it was somewhat different.

Whereas pre-accident Allen was drumming along, having a good time because of the beat of the music and energy of the crowd, post-accident Allen was at ease for a slightly different reason. I think it was because of the fact that not even losing his arm could stop Rick from doing what he loved best.

And what he did best was being the drummer of a successful band. A band that actually managed to score their one and only number one hit on the Billboard charts in 1988 with 'Love Bites'.

The band Def Leppard still performs and records today, and despite the death of Steve Clark in 1991, the band managed to regroup and release another album in 1992, which spawned their successful single 'Let's Get Rocked'.

Over the years, Def Leppard's success in North America has dried up, but they still perform at concerts and rock festivals today. And although artificial drum beats have dwindled in popularity since the early 1990s, Rick Allen has changed the way he plays the drums as well, favouring a more acoustic sound, achieved by using electronic pads to trigger samples made from recordings of his acoustic drums.

Perhaps one of Rick Allen's greatest moments came on June 14, 2009, when Allen headed the Download Festival with the other members of Def Leppard. Towards the end of their set, lead singer Joe Elliott dedicated the set to Rick, mimicking Rick's comeback performance back in 1986. Following that dedication, the crowd erupted in an ovation that lasted well over five whole minutes. Rick Allen was so moved by this that he had tears in his eyes. This was probably a moment that he would never forget.

For it not only celebrated the work of a drummer that was ranked number seven on a list of the 100 Greatest Drummers of All Time in a list published by the UK website Gigwise.

It celebrated the achievements of a man who made the most out of an accident that changed his life twenty-seven years ago.

Someone who didn't let losing a limb define who he was...instead using the incident to become a better drummer, and a better bandmate to Def Leppard.

The phoenix rising out of the ashes.


Tuesday, November 08, 2011

Sideways Stories From Wayside School

It has just dawned on me that it's been almost six months since I started the Pop Culture Addict's Guide To Life blog. I'm not quite there yet (the official six-month mark will take place on November 24th), but it's fast approaching.

I guess part of the reason why I've managed to keep this project going for almost six months now is partly due to you guys. All of you readers who have clicked on the links that I've posted in some areas of the Internet, and who have followed this blogging venture have inspired me to keep writing about the things that influenced my childhood and my life, and for that, I want to extend a little gratitude to you. If it wasn't for your support, and your reading my blog posts, and leaving comments, and even suggesting topics for me to discuss, well, there would be no blog! So, once again, thank you!

Over the last few months, I've had fun choosing topics to talk about in this blog, and I would hope that I have come up with a wide selection of ideas to talk about for people of all ages to relate to. From 1939's The Wizard Of Oz to Selena Gomez's hit song Who Says from 2011, there really is something for everyone.

And with theme days for movies, music, video games, television, cartoons, and even international pop culture references, there isn't a shortage of topics to be found...at least not yet.

Though looking over previous blog postings, I have noticed that I haven't really done a whole lot of discussion on books and literature. Sure, I've done features on Dynamite Magazine and the advertisements on the back of comic books, but other than that, I haven't really done much of a feature on books and reading.



And, I think that I would like to attempt to change that. I've been thinking about making a few theme day changes in the near future. In all likelihood, they'll take place after the new year. I've already featured a change or two that I'm planning for the new year. The feature that I did on the board game Clue is one possible topic change.

I've also been toying with the idea of coming up with a theme day for books, magazines, newspapers, and other things that people can read, and I think that in the new year, I'll make that more of a priority. I mean, it would be kind of silly for someone who wants to make it in the world of writing to not feature some of the authors and books that influenced my own writing style, right?

So, for today, I'll be turning the Tuesday Leftovers day into a feature on one of my favourite novels growing up, and its a novel that some people may not have heard of.

Come to think of it, it was written by an author who not a lot of people may have heard of either. At least not until one of his books was made into a very successful 2003 movie starring Shia LeBeouf.



The author in question is named Louis Sachar. He was born in 1954 in East Meadow, New York, moved to California with his family at the age of nine, and attended college at the University of California, Berkeley to earn a degree in economics. However, along the way, Sachar's career path changed a bit along the way. He would eventually attend law school, graduated with a degree in law in 1980, and ended up doing part-time legal work while working on various personal projects.

Those personal projects ended up being children's books.

It wasn't until Sachar was in high school that he really wanted to become a writer (coincidentally, it wasn't until high school that I actually wanted to become a writer as well). Sachar was inspired to become a writer after being influenced by such authors as Kurt Vonnegut and J.D. Salinger.

Sachar would end up writing quite a few children's books over his lifetime. In his early career, he would balance writing with his other day-to-day jobs that he worked over the years. By 1989, he had managed to have enough success to pursue his writing career full-time. Some of the books he has written over the years include 'Johnny's In The Basement', 'Sixth Grade Secrets', 'There's A Boy In The Girls Bathroom', and his 1998 book, 'Holes', which is probably Sachar's most famous work, and which was turned into the movie with Shia LeBeouf that I eluded to earlier in this blog entry.

But for this installment, I actually want to talk about his first book project. And the inspiration behind the book project is actually one in which I can kind of relate to in my own personal life.

When Sachar was attending college, he, like many other college students out there, managed to get a job working part-time at Hillside Elementary School as part of a work study program to earn college credit. According to Sachar, he felt that it was a great deal. Earning college credit without having to have homework, midterms, or final exams. Just helping out for a few hours in a classroom filled with second and third graders. He even got to supervise the lunch hour recess outside in the schoolyard where the kids of the school gave him a rather interesting nickname.

He was known as Louis The Yard Teacher.

Now, here's a true story. I may not have had a cool nickname like 'Matthew The Milk Monitor' or something similar, but like Mr. Sachar, I too worked at an elementary school on a volunteer basis. In fact, I was a volunteer at the very same school I had attended as a youngster.



The year was 2003 and my nephew was a student in kindergarten at the time.  During that period, he attended Commonwealth Public School (the school that I myself attended between 1987 and 1995).   I was kind of in between jobs, looking for work in a rather dismal economic situation for my hometown at the time. My resume wasn't exactly considered to be all that remarkable at the time, and was probably one of the reasons why I didn't have much success in the job market. However, I had been told by a couple of people that having volunteer work listed on a resume could help improve my chances, so in 2003, I agreed to help out in my nephew's kindergarten class, as well as the class next door. It wasn't much...I just helped the kids with art projects, helped them open up their drinkboxes, helped them build huge towers of blocks. Things like that.

It was definitely an experience to be had, and I ended up doing the volunteer work off and on between 2003 and 2004 at my old elementary school. It's funny how when I was a child, that building was the source of a lot of hurt feelings and being made fun of. But yet going back years after the fact brought forth a whole new feeling. Whereas the thirteen year old me hated going to school for fear of being made fun of and harassed on a day-to-day basis, the twenty-three year old me saw it as a new experience. A renaissance, so to speak.

If anything, those few months that I spent volunteering at my nephew's school kind of put things in perspective, and made me realize that maybe things weren't as dire as I thought. And besides, all the kids that were in two classrooms that I helped out in were awesome. Sure, some of them misbehaved, but it wasn't anything that I couldn't handle. If anything, it kind of made me feel kind of important being there for the kids. I really enjoyed my time there.

And Louis Sachar must have really enjoyed his stint as Louis The Yard Teacher too because he used those experiences as the basis for his very first book.

Although he borrowed the character names from actual students at the school he worked at, and based one of the characters after himself, Sachar claims that the storylines in his first book were completely fabricated. The reason being that Sachar felt his own personal experiences were too dull to put into a book, and that he had no choice but to make it up as he went along.



That book was Sideways Stories From Wayside School. Although completed in 1978, it took a while for the book to become popular. It was only after the book began being promoted in Scholastic book clubs and school book fairs that it started to gain in popularity. The book became so popular that two more Wayside School books were released in 1989 and 1995 respectively, and the book spawned a cartoon series called Wayside in 2005.



The book detailed life at Wayside School, which was supposed to have been a normal elementary school with thirty classrooms in a one story building. Somehow, when the blueprints were read, the builders misread the layout, and as a result, Wayside School ended up being thirty stories tall, with only one classroom on each floor.

The way the book was designed was exactly the same as the school. The book contained thirty stories about thirty characters inside the school. The book had thirty stories, just like Wayside School.



(Well, okay, technically there's only twenty-nine stories, as the builders forgot to build the nineteenth floor during the construction of the school. Chapter 19 was about the teacher who taught the class on the nineteenth floor, Miss Zarves.

Miss Zarves did not exist.

The majority of the stories were based on the classroom at the very top of the building on the thirtieth floor. Each chapter was about a student in the class, as well as the two teachers they had throughout the year as well as Louis The Yard Teacher, who happens to have the last chapter in the book.

Initially, in chapter one, we learn that the classroom on the thirtieth floor was Mrs. Gorf, an evil teacher who would turn her pupils into apples if the children misbehaved in any way. Eventually, she does turn them back into humans, but when the students misbehave again, she attempts to turn them back into apples. But when one of the students holds up a mirror, Mrs. Gorf turns herself into an apple, and is promptly eaten by Louis! This sets the stage for the next chapter, when the class is taken over by Mrs. Jewls, the teacher on the thirtieth floor for the rest of the book.

Mrs. Jewls has a grand total of twenty-eight students in her class, and as you read the book, you'll not only see how weird and backwards the school really is, but you'll also recognize a lot of the students as having the same characteristics as some of the people you went to school with yourself.

For instance, I know that some of the kids I went to school with were kids who took great pleasure in picking on the other kids. There's a few kids that are like this. Chapter 20 for instance introduces us to Kathy, a girl who hates everyone in the class, even Mrs. Jewls. She's more or less the bitter student who doesn't have a nice thing to say about anyone, but it's also revealled that she brings a lot of the hatred on herself too. There's Terrence (Chapter 26), who likes to insult kids with such sayings as 'Drop Dead, Ketchup Head' while kicking all the school's bouncy balls over the fence. He gets his comeuppance in the end of the chapter when Louis kicks Terrence over the fence. And in Chapter 27, we meet Joy, who steals lunches, and purposely gets fellow student Todd into trouble. The so-called mean girl of the group.

Of course, we meet Todd in Chapter 5 of the book, and Todd is the troublemaker of the school, having always gotten into trouble in class. Ironically enough, Todd is more often than not the best behaved kid in Wayside School, but because the school was built a little bit sideways, the way things ran were sideways too. Mrs. Jewls had a discipline board (similar to the broken rules list my second grade teacher used), where if you were bad, your name was added. If you got in trouble two more times, then you actually got sent home early on the kindergarten bus.

Which if this were a normal school would be swell, but apparently going home early was a real punishment. Anyway, in almost every chapter of the book, poor Todd would get sent home each time.

Some of the students would have some rather entertaining quirks. Sharie (Chapter 4) would always fall asleep in class, and one time fell out the window during a power nap. Thankfully, Louis saved her, but Sharie scolded him for waking her up during her nap. John (Chapter 17) could only read books upside down until a whack on the head flipped his brain right side up. Paul (Chapter 10), had a habit of pulling the pigtails of Leslie, who herself tried to sell her toes to Louis in Chapter 18. There was Rondi (Chapter 13), who kept getting complemented on her missing teeth, Bebe Gunn (Chapter 6), who once drew three hundred and seventy pictures in an hour for art class, and Sammy (Chapter 14), a student who wore a bunch of smelly raincoats and was nasty to Mrs. Jewls and was eventually revealled to be a dead rat.

Yes...apparently dead rats can be enrolled as students.

One student in the book ended up changing his name with another student (Nancy, Chapter 28), you met Eric Bacon, Eric Fry, and Eric Ovens (Chapter 22), and Joe (Chapter 3), who can't count in order, but still arrives at the same number each time.

There's many more students featured in the book, but just based on the descriptions, can you imagine what life at Wayside School would end up being like? It would be kind of crazy, and insane, and fun all at the same time.

I think part of the reason why I enjoyed the book so much was that despite all the dead rats, and apples, and sideways arithmetic that appeared at Wayside, there were always people that I could relate to. In fact, what really got me was how none of the students (except for maybe Kathy, Joy, and Terrence) never really harmed each other, or went out of their way to make anyone else feel bad. Sure, there was some good-natured ribbing, but for the most part, the classroom worked well together. In fact, for a perfect example of this, you should check out the chapter on the student known as Maurecia (Chapter 9). It's probably my favourite chapter in the whole book.

Really, I recommend this book, Wayside School Is Falling Down, and Wayside School Gets A Little Stranger. The books are well-written and very creative, and are loosely based on a true story.

And hey, Louis Sachar inspired me in a way. He and I had quite a similar experience in our lives. If he could use that experience as a stepping stone towards having the career he wanted, maybe it's time that I made that happen too.