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Wednesday, December 21, 2011

In Loving Memory Of A Beloved Friend...



There are some things that are more important than talking about pop culture tidbits. And today just happens to be one of those times in which I'll be putting the pop culture books and trivia knowledge on the backburner. Truth be told, I'm not exactly in the right frame of mind to be talking about lighthearted subjects today.

I know that we're supposed to be right smack dab in the middle of the 7 Days of Box Office Christmas, but truth be told, today I'm just not in the mood to say much about any sort of holiday movie today. I may just end up making it a six day event instead. It's probably for the best anyway, as my planned Thursday entry was sort of lame from the beginning.

So, what my new plan is for the next week is to take the entry that I was going to talk about today, push it to Thursday...cancel Thursday's entry altogether, and instead use today's entry to talk about somebody who really meant a lot to me over the last few years.

Keep in mind that this is probably a rarity at this time, as I usually try to aim to make this blog as fun and retrospective as possible. And those of you who are regular readers of this blog know that I try my best to make this site a fun place to be. So, I hope I can get back to that beginning tomorrow.  

This needs to be said today.

Growing up, I struggled with the whole process known as finding and keeping long-lasting friendships. It wasn't absolutely impossible to make friends with people, but I found it difficult to keep friendships going.

And, yes...I'll fully be the first one to admit that I am to blame for that in a lot of cases. I tended to build walls around myself, especially during those tumultuous teenage years. Which was fine in theory. My problem was that I made those walls a little too hard to break through. Whenever people would come up to me and try to initiate conversation with me, I'd look at them through guarded eyes.

Having been burned by quite a few people who I had deemed close, but later turned on me, I admit to being a little standoffish when it came to meeting new people. I always assumed that they would end up hurting me like everyone else.

And, we all know what happens when we assume things, right?

The point is that as a result of my putting up a wall around me, I ended up being a bit of a loner growing up. By the time I had entered my twenties, I was somewhat a bit on the lonely side. I didn't really have any close friends around me at the time to discuss things with, and I suppose that back in those days, my low self-esteem kept telling me that this was going to be the way that things were going to be, and I should just suck it up.

Yeah, remind me to put a sock in that one.

Back in those days, I had discovered the seemingly outdated method of communication known as the discussion board. Yes, before the days of Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and MySpace, we used to do our web communication on web-based discussion forums. There was no like button, no tweeting, no Farmville...just us and our words.

It was sort of cool back in those days. We could choose a random screenname, log onto the boards, and post threads and topics about certain topics (provided they fit the criteria and guidelines of the discussion board). It was surprisingly addictive once you got into it.

(My screenname, for the record, was named after a character from Archie Comics, in case you were wondering.)

I joined a discussion group in the summer of 2001. Some of you may have already heard me bring this group up in a couple of other blog postings over the last few months, but this group was quite special to me, and it is where our story begins.



The place was called Yesterdayland. It was a board that much like this blog, focused on retro pop culture. I was immediately in heaven. Imagine a place where all of your childhood favourites were within a click of a mouse.

It took me a while to get into the swing of things, but once I did, I found that I could fit into most conversations quite easily. I found it easy to speak my piece and have opinions of my own. I also managed to develop quite a few close bonds with some of the people there.

I know what some of you must be saying. It's great to have online friends, but you're telling me that I'd probably get more out of friendships that are face-to-face. In some ways, yes. But in this case, no.

Sometimes having a friendship online is one of the best types of friendships one can possibly have. For online, you don't have to worry about people judging you for what you look like (unless you post a picture of yourself online), nor do you have to worry about what you're wearing, or how loud your voice is, or If you have bad breath, or anything trivial of that nature.

You see, when you present yourself in an online setting, unless you're one of those Internet trolls who just move from site to site creating havoc and unnecessary drama, you're basically showing people your own true self. People don't judge you by what you look like, or what labels you wear, or what kind of car you drive.

It was actually kind of nice to let go of that.

And during my time on Yesterdayland, I managed to make several friends...each of whom were special in their own way.

This blog entry is celebrating just one of these many friends.

Because I like to add a little bit of anonymity to this blog, I'll just refer to her by the screenname that she used on the board, as well as several others on the Internet.

Pierette.

You know, to this day, I'm not exactly sure what the meaning behind her screenname was. Nor did I ask, as I didn't think it was much business of mine. But Pierette was one of those special, special people. She always had a kind word for almost everyone who crossed her path. She was intelligent, she was strong-willed, she didn't let people walk all over her. She was one hundred per cent real as real could be.

I think it was those qualities that inspired me to form a friendship with her. At the time I joined Yesterdayland, I didn't really have many close friends in my own real world life. Not so online. In fact, in memory serves me, Pierette was one of my first friends that I made.

Also one of the longest that I had ever corresponded with online.

She was from the state of Texas. She was older than I was by approximately two and a half decades, but yet she and I clicked almost instantly. She had this wicked sense of humour that would become infectious. So many times, she would post something on Yesterdayland, and within moments, there would be dozens of responses to the thread, ranging from mild amusement to absolute hysterical laughter. I'm not afraid to admit that more often than not, I was reduced to tears over some of the things she posted online. You truly had to be there to experience it.

And during our time on Yesterdayland, we went through a lot as the world began to change around us. I joined the site in the summer of 2001, and two months later, 9/11 happened. I'll never forget how our little website soon became the source for the latest information regarding that day. How our little group of members were genuinely concerned for those living in New York and Washington D.C., hoping that they had gotten through safely. Then there was the uncertainty of 2002, where we weren't sure whether a war was going to break out or not. That whole year, everyone seemed to be on edge, and it seemed as though there was a lot of in-fighting between members. Most of us weathered the storm though, thinking that it would pass.

But then at the beginning of March, 2003, Yesterdayland was no more. The plug pulled. And all of us who were members of that community soon found ourselves without a home within the web. 


A couple of members of Yesterdayland soon got together to form one of the many spin-off groups of the board. One of which was called Memory Lane, and it was this group that Pierette and I really started to develop our close friendship.

On Memory Lane, as well as a couple of other board side projects that splintered from the ruins of Yesterdayland, Pierette and I would talk about everything and anything under the sun. I can remember more often than not coming to her with some of my problems. At the time, I was experiencing some hardships with finding a job, and I can remember her being so supportive while I was looking for work.

However, she also gave me a swift kick in the keester whenever I needed it as well. Back when I was in my early twenties, I have to say that I sort of needed an attitude check. I thought that I was the type of person who knew it all, and that I would get through it on my own. Thank goodness that attitude didn't last too long.

You want to know why? It was because of Pierette.

Pierette was the type of person who always listened to you speak without prejudice or judgment. She would let you have your say, really listen to what you were saying, and then help you with your problem as best she could. Sometimes she would be blunt (which was especially needed), while other times she would feel the same pain you felt. It didn't matter. Pierette was always there whenever you needed her.

I also have to credit Pierette as well for being a key influence in my life for helping me break out of my comfort zone. To tear down the walls that I had built around myself for years. She was so supportive and gave me so much encouragement that in a way, I believe it rubbed off on me.

That's how much of a positive influence she was in my life.

And Pierette and I went through a lot together. We both mourned the loss of a long standing member who passed away four years ago, and remembered her fondly. In fact, this sort of goes along with my earlier point about Pierette finding humour and joy in almost anything. I still remember the time when our friend who had passed on posted something about someone drinking floor wax, and for some reason Pierette just found that to be the funniest thing that she had ever heard. It was really cool to see someone who had so much laughter inside of her. While she did have her serious side at times, it was more fun to crack jokes with each other.



I mean, she was a huge fan of the LOLcats website.  I think that says it all right there just what kind of a sense of humour she had...a sense of humour that proved to be the perfect antidote to a bad day.

When the idea of a Christmas card exchange came about a few years ago, Pierette took it upon herself to organize all of the details behind it. We'd send her our addresses to her account (and believe me, for any of us to think of doing that on an online forum, you knew that she was awful trustworthy), and she'd send us all the master list, and within the Christmas season, we would all receive dozens of cards. Some cards were close to home. Others as far away as England. It really became a fun tradition for several years, and I really got joy out of getting cards from all over the world.

For the record, I have every single Christmas card that I ever received in these card exchanges. I even have about three or four cards from Pierette herself, thanking me for her friendship and love over the years.

Those are treasured memories that I will always keep inside of me.

I guess in some way, Pierette also inspired me to start up this blogging project.  Knowing that she had her own blog up and running for years, and meeting and befriending lots of people through that project, I knew that I wanted to at least attempt to start one on my own. And for the last seven months, I've managed to do exactly that. And, might I add that when I kicked off this blog, guess who was one of the biggest supporters?

You guessed it. Pierette.

So, let me say this. Anyone who tells you that an online friendship isn't real, and cannot be real is one hundred per cent dead wrong. You can have a deep and meaningful friendship with someone online, and have it last for many, many years. I know because I was lucky enough to have that true, genuine friendship with Pierette.

I was really lucky to have known Pierette. And for a while, it seemed as though that friendship would last for years to come.

So when she suddenly stopped posting one day in the fall of 2011, naturally we were all concerned. It wasn't like her to be so involved in the blogging and messageboard world, and then just cease all communications.

Sadly, we all learned that our Pierette was terminally ill, and that her prognosis wasn't good. That news hit all of us like a ton of bricks, and even a couple of days after the news broke, many of us were still trying to process what we had just heard. I know that I was one of those who tried to make sense of what had happened, and yet I just couldn't. I just couldn't.

And just two days ago, on December 19, 2011...our Pierette entered into rest. She was only fifty-three years old.

I had to say goodbye to one of my best friends that I had ever known.

And it hurt. More than anyone could ever know.

You know something? I never got the chance to meet Pierette face to face. I really wish I had gotten the opportunity to do so. I imagine that we probably would have gotten along great. We even talked about how much she loved Tim Horton's coffee when she went up North for a trip, and how we promised each other we'd meet up at a Tim Horton's one day. I even thought of the idea to send her a canister of Tim Horton's coffee to her through the mail one day. I really wish I had gone through with that plan...I think she would have gotten a kick out of it.

You know, people deal with grief their own ways...and I can't even imagine what Pierette's loved ones must be going through right now. My heart really goes out to them during this rough time. I hope that they are doing okay.

As for me, what I thought would be so difficult to put into words...ended up being a six-page tribute to a person that I called (and will always call) a friend.

Rest in peace, Pierette. I'll always miss you. I can only hope that you knew just how much of a positive influence you were to a lot of people that you never even got a chance to meet. You didn't just become a friend to me...you were beloved by an entire group of people who knew you from a variety of online communities.

For anybody who had the pleasure of knowing you...we are all better people for knowing you. And while it's too late for me to have gotten the chance to tell you this in person, I figure that the next best thing would be to dedicate today's blog post to you.



Until we meet again, Pierette...


Tuesday, December 20, 2011

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

The 7 Days of Box Office Christmas continues with a movie that was suggested to me by a reader of this blog, and as it turns out, there's quite a lot that I can do with this film.

In fact, it was probably this idea that inspired me to go ahead with the idea to come up with the '7 Days of Box Office Christmas' theme week.

For those of you who are regular readers of this blog, you may remember the entry I did last week on the 1983 movie 'A Christmas Story'. In that blog entry, I talked about how some people want to do everything to come up with the perfect Christmas, but sometimes don't realize that they have had all the ingredients for a perfect Christmas all along.

It's absolutely true, you know. I don't really understand the obsessive-compulsive need that some people seem to bring out of their usually dormant personalities during the holidays. From getting the biggest turkey possible, to getting the best decorations possible for the huge tree, and basically doing everything to make sure that their home is decorated like a Christmas card picture.

But, when you look at it from a sane viewpoint, who exactly are you doing all this for?

If it's for your immediate family and you want to give them a memorable Christmas to remember for their own personal memory banks, that's fine and dandy. But if it's to show off to relatives and acquaintances that you really have no relationship with whatsoever, just for the sole purpose of proving a point to them, then that's kind of tacky.

So, sometimes when you watch the whole thing unravel at the seams, where every meticulous detail that went into planning the most perfect Christmas celebration all falls apart...if you were one of the ones who were only invited to the celebration just so the hosts can rub it in your face as to how much nicer their Christmas looked than yours, you'd probably see it as a sort of karmic retribution.

I shouldn't really admit this, but there's been some instances in which I've gone to holiday parties, and felt as if the hosts were trying way too hard to impress people. Sometimes, it's almost as if you WANT to find something that is imperfect, just so you can drive the party hosts right out of their gourds by pointing attention to it all night long.

Hmmm...maybe that's why I don't get invited to many Christmas parties. 
At any rate, this whole idea of trying way too hard to show everyone in the world what a perfect Christmas is ties in nicely with the movie I'm featuring in this spot for today.



National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

The film was released on time for the 1989 holiday season, and had quite a few heavyweights in the cast. Of course, you have Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo, reprising their roles as Clark and Ellen Griswold, with this film being the third in the National Lampoon's Vacation series. But there's so many more actors that have made appearances in the movie that were either big stars or became big stars. Juliette Lewis and Johnny Galecki played the children of the Griswold family this time around (the kids were always recast in each installment). Doris Roberts, Diane Ladd, Randy Quaid, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus also had roles in the comedy.



The movie was based off of a short story written by the late John Hughes for National Lampoon magazine (a humour publication that was actually a spin-off of the Harvard Lampoon). The story was entitled “Christmas '59”.

The film did quite well at the box office, making over seventy million dollars worldwide, and is widely considered to be a Christmas classic.

And this movie depicts the Griswold family during the Christmas holidays, as Clark has gotten bitten by the Christmas bug this particular year. Clark has dreamed of having a good old-fashioned Christmas, and despite his family being a little less open to the idea as he is, Clark is determined to make this Christmas the best one ever.



But of course, everything seems to go wrong from the get-go...such as finding the Griswold Christmas Tree.



And, don't worry, the laughs just keep coming...

Really, this is one blog entry that could write itself just based on the assortment of movie clips that I found (courtesy of the Movie Clips account on YouTube, might I add) to supplement today's entry.

So, now that the Griswolds...uprooted their tree and trimmed it, then comes the next step. Getting everyone together to enjoy the festivities.



Clark has invited a ton of people to enjoy the holiday. Clark's parents, Ellen's parents, Clark's Aunt Bethany and Uncle Lewis...it was supposed to have been a wonderful Christmas celebration with loved ones at the Griswold family home in Chicago.

But things have a way of crashing down when things get a little too perfect.

For instance, how often have you planned a party for your closest friends and family, where all the guests are accounted for...only to find that there are some unexpected or uninvited guests who show up and wreak havoc.



Enter Cousin Catherine and her husband Eddie, and two of their children, pulling up with their RV.

Here's just one example of the...ahem...joy, they bring to the festivities.



That event right there is the beginning of the end for the Griswold family Christmas.

Certainly everyone has struggles with putting up and decorating the Christmas tree. Bulbs on light strings burn out and you have to replace them. Ornaments that have been in the family for decades can get broken.

Or, you can accidentally electrocute the family pet.



(DISCLAIMER: No real animals were harmed in the making of this film).

Or, in some cases, when you bring home the tree that you worked so hard to chop down uproot, you may find a surprise guest.



(On a lighter note, it's good to see the snobby lady neighbour get her comeuppance.)

Another sore spot to the holiday season can come from the dinner. Certainly one of the biggest disasters can can make or break a holiday season can come from the Christmas dinner. Burning the pumpkin pie. Giving people food poisoning accidentally.

Having the turkey be a little...dry.



Mmmmm...I can just taste that delicious turkey now.

There's lots of other Christmas traditions that can cause your holiday party to crash and burn if executed incorrectly. Like, for instance...going sliding down a hill on a toboggan...or a silly saucer.



Or, maybe doing something simple like putting up lights on the exterior of your home?



And, then there's the possibility of getting your hopes up for a big, fat Christmas bonus from your workplace as a reward for all the hard work you put in all year long...only to find that the Christmas bonus isn't exactly all that it is cracked up to be.

This situation has happened in my family a couple of times that I can recall, and for Clark Griswold, his Christmas bonus being a big disappointment leads to one of the most epic rants that has come out of a Christmas movie. 



Ever.



But somehow, everything does work out in the end. Eddie is grateful that Clark, despite all the mishaps and the stress that resulted in everything going wrong for Clark Griswold's perfect Christmas celebration, ended up giving his family a better Christmas than they would have had. He decides to give Clark a Christmas gift that only he could have thought of. Driving over to Clark's boss' house, literally kidnapping him, and bringing him to the Griswold home so that he could convince his boss that withholding the Christmas bonuses was the wrong thing to do.

Does it work? Well, I'm not going to tell.

But, I do have to post the epic last scene of the movie, just because you just have to see it.



Wasn't that a sweet moment? And, you know, I think that's what it's all about.

It doesn't matter if you have a Christmas that is perfect. It doesn't even matter if everything that goes into planning the Christmas party goes horribly wrong even. All that matters is that you're with your loved ones.

It may have been a long, frustrating lesson for Clark to learn, but I think in the end, he did end up having his perfect Griswold family Christmas after all.


Monday, December 19, 2011

Monday Matinee - It's A Wonderful Life

Christmas is one of those holidays that could be one filled with the highest highs and lowest lows.

Think about it for a second. Christmas (and for that matter, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa if you celebrate those holidays) is supposed to be a holiday that is filled with happiness, joy, and euphoria. Or, at least that's what we're told we should feel.

And yes, for most of us, Christmas really is the most wonderful time of the year.  It's a time of year where we can be at our best, and treat others with kindness, warmness, and joy...

...well, provided you don't work in retail, as I do.

But sometimes, the Christmas season can cause feelings of a different sort. There's a whole lot of stress that can come from the holiday. Worrying about finding the perfect gift for your loved ones, worrying about affording said gift, and then there's all the stress that comes from preparing the holiday dinner, and making sure that the turkey is perfectly cooked. Yeah, I can see how some people might not find much joy in all that.

Then there are those in which the holidays might bring sadness rather than happiness for a variety of reasons. They might be missing a loved one, or they might be in financial difficulties, or they might be all alone for Christmas.

And for those people, sometimes the smiling elves, the Santa Claus in the middle of the mall, and the happy Christmas carols playing on the loudspeaker can be a bit overwhelming.

So, this blog entry sort of ties along with the idea that sometimes Christmas can make one reflect on their past lives. And not necessarily in a good way.

And since yesterday was the kickoff to the 7 Days Of Box Office Christmas week, where every day is a Monday Matinee, I figure that I have the best possible movie to best display this.



That movie is the 1946 cinema classic, “It's A Wonderful Life”, starring James Stewart and directed by legendary director Frank Capra.



Now, here's a little bit of trivia in regards to the film. The movie, which was released on December 20, 1946, was initially considered to be a flop at the box office when it was first shown in theaters. Why this was the case? There's a couple of theories. When the movie was released, there were quite a few other choices for people to choose from, and the stiff competition from other motion picture companies sort of hurt it. As well, the cost of filming the movie was quite high, with a production cost of $3.15 million, and when the film was released, it didn't even come close to breaking even at the box office upon the film's initial release.

The response to the movie was reportedly so lackluster that movie studios believed that Frank Capra had churned out a rare bomb in his stellar directing career. They had deemed the film a disappointment.

But that was back in 1946. Sixty-five years later, the film is talked about in a completely different fashion. It's now considered to be one of the most loved Christmas classics ever shown, and the movie is shown at least once during the month of December in the years and decades since its release.

The film managed to get five Academy Award nominations (although no wins), and it is widely considered to be one of the best holiday films ever made. In fact, the American Film Institute placed the film at the top spot on their list of most inspirational movies of all time.

So, I suppose in that sense, there's a lesson to be learned here. Things DO get better with age.

Or, maybe the lesson is that you don't have to necessarily make a lot of money in order to be a success?

Or, maybe the lesson is one that we haven't talked about yet, but will be getting to later on in this blog.



Now, the plot of It's A Wonderful Life is one that has been told and re-told in various spoofs of the movie through television and other film projects. But before we get into that, I have a question to ask of you...and keep in mind, it can be a bit of a tough question to ask and answer, but it goes with the theme.

Have you ever wondered what the world would be like if you didn't exist?

I think at some point in our lives, we all have wondered what it would be life if we weren't born, if only for a microsecond. I know there have been times in which I myself have felt this way. Usually in a moment of frustration when it seems as though nothing ever went right. Those feelings didn't last very long though.



For George Bailey (played by Stewart), it seemed as though his life was a shambles as the holiday season was fast approaching. George had a dream of traveling the world, seeing everything that it had to offer. It has been his dream practically his whole life. His dream, however, remained unfulfilled because he almost always sacrifices his dream so that others can accomplish theirs.

It's been a pattern for George ever since he was a young boy. When George was twelve, he saved the life of his brother, Harry, who had fallen into a frozen pond.  However, in the struggle to save his brother's life, George ended up losing the hearing in one of his ears. He also managed to save the job of Mr. Gower, a pharmacist at the drug store where he worked as an errand boy by refusing to deliver an prescription to a sick child that was accidentally filled with poison.

By the time George reaches adulthood, his dream is nowhere near close to being achieved. His goal is for Harry to assume his position at the Bailey Building and Loan Association, an organization designed to provide affordable housing for the people of Bedford Falls. He even shares his dreams with a young woman named Mary Hatch (Donna Reed), who has harboured a crush on George ever since she was young.

But in the summer of 1928, it seemed as though everything was finally going his way. Harry graduated from high school, and all was set for George to be free to do what he wanted to do.

But then tragedy struck. George's father had passed away after suffering a stroke. Months later, a tyrannical man named Henry F. Potter arrives on the scene. His first order of business? Trying to persuade the board of directors of the Bailey Building and Loan Association to cease the activity of providing home loans for the poorest citizens of Bedford Falls. 



Knowing that Potter was a major stakeholder in the company, George knew that he couldn't let Potter have any more control in the company. George manages to convince the board members to turn down Potter's proposal, but the only way they'll agree to that deal is if George runs the business himself. George takes the money that he had saved up for college to Harry, with the understanding that once Harry returns, he will take over the business.

After some time passes, Harry comes back home, but this time around, he brings a surprise. He has gotten married and has brought his wife around. Even more good fortune comes Harry's way when he announces that he has gotten a good job offer at his new father-in-law's company. Harry is reluctant to take on the job, given that he had an arrangement with George, but George, not being one who wanted to see his brother turn down a good opportunity, told Harry to go ahead with what he wanted to do.

This basically is the theme for the whole first part of the movie. Whenever some good fortune seems to pass by George's way, George always seems to be out of reach, realizing that others needs came first.



When George and Mary get married and are about to embark on a honeymoon, George is forced to use the money they set aside for their trip to save the Building and Loan from going under. When George is offered a sweet business deal and a new job complete with business trips courtesy of Potter, he is somewhat tempted as this would make his lifelong dream come true...but knowing that his creation of Bailey Park (a housing project) would help more families overall, he has to turn it down. When World War II erupts, George wants to enlist, but due to his hearing loss sustained in rescuing Harry, he is denied. Yet, George's brother Harry is accepted in the forces, and immediately becomes a war hero, shooting down fifteen planes of the enemy and receiving the Medal of Honor.

This is all fine and good for everyone else, but by Christmas Eve, George Bailey's bitterness seems to grow with each passing day. Despite the fact that he has a wife, four children (one of whom has the ridiculous name of Zuzu), and a meaningful job, it's not enough for Bailey. His dreams of seeing the world were not going to happen. It made it even worse when he realized that his brother was essentially living the life that he wanted.

It all came to a head on Christmas Eve. George's Uncle Billy was to make a deposit of eight thousand dollars for the Building and Loan when he literally bumps into Potter. Billy proudly shows Potter the newspaper with the front page showing Harry receiving the Medal of Honor, but Potter is angry when he sees the paper, and immediately grabs it out of Billy's hands.

But when Potter sees that the newspaper contains an eight thousand dollar insert inside, he changes his tune, and heartlessly keeps the money for himself.  At this point, Billy realizes that the money has disappeared, and with a bank examiner set to inspect the books later that day, a desperate George tries everything in his power to get the money back. This includes trying to get a bank loan from Potter. 



Cruelly, Potter denies George the loan. Worse, he decides to get the police involved, claiming that George has committed bank fraud.

George is at this point incredibly upset, and after causing a scene a home where he vents out his frustrations on his poor family, he takes off, gets drunk at a local bar, and without any regard of any drinking and driving laws that may or may not have existed back then, he drives off in his car which crashes into a tree.

Somehow, George survives the crash, and stumbles over towards a bridge. George believes his life is in such a mess that there's only one way out for him. Suicide. After all, George has a life-insurance policy (which apparently covers suicide) worth thousands, and George had the self-depreciating idea that he was worth more to people dead than alive. So he makes the decision to end things once and for all...

...that is until he happens to see someone in the water, claiming that they're drowning. And George, who has always put other people's needs above his own, dives right in to save the man from certain death.



Of course, George didn't realize at the time that the man was incapable of dying. Turns out the man was Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers), Angel Second Class. He is assigned to the case of George Bailey, in the hopes of earning his wings by saving George's life and soul. But this was no easy task for Clarence, as George had such a low opinion of himself that he wished he had never been born.



Clarence tries to explain to George that he is his guardian angel assigned to watch out for him, but George (who may have still been under the influence of alcohol) doesn't buy his story. Instead, a bitter George moans on about how much of a failure he is, and makes the declaration that he wished he had never been born.

Clarence decides that now would be the time to take George on a little trip to an alternate reality, to show George that maybe things wouldn't be so good after all if he hadn't existed. And just like that, George's eyes are opened in a huge way.

First change? The name of the town. Instead of Bedford Falls, the name of the place now is Potterville, named after the most powerful man in town, Henry Potter.

Second change? The majority of businesses in town are now sleazy nightclubs and pawn shops.

Because George Bailey never existed, a lot of the things that George had accomplished never came to be. The Bailey Park project, for example, was never conceived. George's brother, Harry was now dead as there was nobody around to save his life. As a result, the people who he saved during World War II were also dead. The druggist that George helped back when he was a young man ended up going to jail because nobody was around to prevent the delivery of the poisoned prescription.



Worse were the fates of his loved ones. Uncle Billy ended up in a mental institution. His wife Mary ended up becoming a librarian who would never date. Worse still, none of his four children would exist.

These visions shake George to the core. He couldn't imagine seeing a world like that, where everyone seems so unhappy and lost in direction...he couldn't bear seeing what would have happened had he not existed at all. But now that he had seen what it was like, could he find it in himself to accept the way things were now?

He finds himself back at the bridge, and begs God to let him live again, and thankfully God hears his prayers.



Now, as I said before...I'm not one to spoil endings of films...I really don't like doing it. But there's one piece that I'll have to reveal in order to bring home the point of this whole blog.

The point is that sometimes we all feel as though we don't seem to accomplish anything in this world. In some cases, people are so blinded by the quest for material possessions and making sure that everything is bigger and better than everyone else that they sometimes lose focus on what's really important.

Sometimes it takes a disaster or something serious happening to someone for someone to realize that maybe they do have it good after all. And maybe, just maybe, they'll realize that while their lives haven't progressed as they like, maybe, just maybe, they'll find that they have a wonderful life after all.

At any rate, George Bailey learned that lesson. He had to learn it the hard way, mind you...but, by George I think George got it.


Sunday, December 18, 2011

Sunday Jukebox - White Christmas by Bing Crosby




I'm dreaming of a white Christmas...

...no, seriously, I am.

As I write today's entry, it is now the 18th of December. There's a light dusting of snow on the ground right now, but hardly anything that I would constitute as being a white Christmas.

Growing up in Canada, I've always been accustomed to having snow-filled Christmases. Some might even say that I've been spoiled by it, as I can't remember the last time that we DIDN'T have snow on Christmas.

Though, I do realize that when the 25th of December rolls around, that not every nation in the world welcomes snow on Christmas. Almost every nation south of the equator will likely never see a white Christmas, due to the fact that it's summer during the month of December.

And even so, depending on the nation, did you know that there are various conditions that have to be met before a Christmas is declared a white one?

For instance, take Canada, my country of birth. In order for a Christmas to be called a white Christmas, there has to be a snowfall of at least two centimeters (less than an inch) on the ground on Christmas Day (or so an article I read posted on CBC News stated).

In the United States, that amount is slightly more, with there having to be at least one inch of snow on the ground on Christmas morning for it to be called a white Christmas. That info courtesy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

In Britain, there doesn't even have to be snow on the ground...as long as there is snow falling on Christmas Day, then it can be called a white Christmas, or so the British Met Office's official definition states.

You know, just to do a little bit of research into the probability of having a white Christmas, I took the liberty of researching some cities all over the world to determine what the probability is for one. Judging by the list that I have comprised, there's about a four in five chance of my location having a white Christmas. But I think it's interesting to compare and contrast, and that's exactly what I have done.

This information comes from a couple of sources. The first is the Meteorological Service of Canada. The second is the National Climactic Data Center of the United States.

So, I chose thirty cities at random, and here are the results.



LOCATION PROBABILITY IN PERCENTAGE
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada 11.00%
Calgary, Alberta, Canada 59.00%
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada 88.00%
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada 98.00%
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada 98.00%
Toronto, Ontario, Canada 37.00%
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada 83.00%
Montreal, Quebec, Canada 80.00%
Quebec City, Quebec, Canada 99.00%
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada 59.00%
St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada 65.00%
Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada 100.00%
Anchorage, Alaska, U.S.A. 90.00%
Fairbanks, Alaska, U.S.A. 100.00%
Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.A. 1.00%
Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. 1.00%
Denver, Colorado, U.S.A. 50.00%
Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A. 13.00%
Washington, D.C., U.S.A. 5.00%
Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.A. 0.00%
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. 40.00%
Topeka, Kansas, U.S.A. 23.00%
Portland, Maine, U.S.A. 83.00%
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. 23.00%
Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A. 50.00%
Duluth, Minnesota, U.S.A. 97.00%
Reno, Nevada, U.S.A. 20.00%
New York City, New York, U.S.A. 22.00%
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. 10.00%
Dallas, Texas, U.S.A. 7.00%

Quite an interesting list to observe, isn't it?

And, look! All this talk about white Christmases leads to today's blog subject!



ARTIST: Bing Crosby
SONG: White Christmas
ALBUM: Merry Christmas
DATE RELEASED: July 30, 1942
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #1 for 11 weeks

Ah yes...the Christmas favourite for which inspired this posting. Bing Crosby's White Christmas. And, I know the release date seems rather...odd for a Christmas song, but I'll get to that one discrepancy farther down.

This song just also happens to be the kickoff to the special theme week of blog posts that I like to refer to as the 7 Days Of Box Office Christmas, where every subject is linked to a feature film in some form.



In this case, White Christmas was released as part of the soundtrack to the 1942 feature film musical, Holiday Inn, and its songwriter was Irving Berlin, a man who had penned some of the biggest hits of the late 1920s and 1930s. Although some of the stories behind the song's creation have varied over the years, one of the more common stories that has been told dates back to 1940. The story went that he stayed up all night in the city of Banning, California (a city that rarely, if ever, celebrated a white Christmas), and that the idea just came to him. It's also said that when he thought of the lyrics, he told his secretary “Grab your pen and take down this song. I just wrote the best song I've ever written – heck, I just wrote the best song that anybody's ever written!”



Although most reports state that the song was written sometime during 1940, the first public performance of the song was on December 25, 1941. Bing Crosby sang the song on his NBC radio show The Kraft Music Hall. However, it is believed that the original recording of the song is lost. However, in May 1942, Crosby recorded the song with the John Scott Trotter Orchestra and the Ken Darby Singers for Decca Records. Even more impressive? It took less than twenty minutes for the song to be recorded beginning to end.

The song became a part of the Holiday Inn soundtrack album, which would be released that summer. Although, it should be noted that at first, Crosby didn't seem to be all that enthused over the song 'White Christmas'. He had told Irving Berlin that he didn't see any problems with the recording of the song, but at the same time, didn't think it would become more than a novelty hit.

Boy was HE wrong!

But keep in mind that the Holiday Inn album was released during the summer of 1942. In summer, the furthest thing from our minds is the Christmas season, and I certainly don't think that a song like 'White Christmas' would be an appropriate song to play at a volleyball beach party, or selling lemonade on a corner. I'd think that people would look at you if you were the weirdest person in the world.

Hmmm...maybe I should try that one summer for the hell of it.

Anyway, because of the timing of the album's release, White Christmas performed poorly. In fact, another song off the same album, “Be Careful, It's My Heart”, seemed to overshadow “White Christmas” in popularity at first. It wasn't until 'White Christmas' was released as an official single that fall that its popularity began to kick off.

According to early records of the chart history of 1942, 'White Christmas' hit the top spot on, of all holidays, Halloween! And the song remained at the top of the charts straight through to January 1943, a total of eleven weeks at #1 during the song's first run, a record that stood for many years until Boyz II Men shattered that record in 1992 with a 13-week run with “End Of The Road”.

But that wasn't the ONLY time that the single topped the charts.

The single was re-released by Decca, and the song topped the charts twice more...once in 1945, and again in 1946. This made the single the only one to reach the top spot on three separate occasions. The song even won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1942.



The song is still heard today, and is considered to be one of the perennial Christmas classics ever recorded. Although the Bing Crosby version that is commonly heard today is not the original 1942 recording. In March of 1947, Crosby re-recorded the single, as the original master tape had been played so much, it was starting to wear out!

And here's the kicker! Although “White Christmas” is arguably considered to be Bing Crosby's signature song, Crosby himself was dismissive of the song's success right up to the day he died in 1977. He was quoted as saying that “a jackdaw with a cleft palate could have sung it successfully.”

Wow.

If only Bing knew just how much success his song would end up having after his death, he might have changed his tune. Or, perhaps not.



The fact remains that “White Christmas” holds the record of having the best-selling single in the world. Ever. The Guinness Book Of World Records states that between 1942 and 2011, the single “White Christmas” has sold upwards of over fifty MILLION copies worldwide! It was ranked at the top spot of 'ItsRanked' top 40 Christmas songs of all time. Even more impressive is the song's inclusion on the list of the RIAA's Top 100 Songs of The Century list. It held the number two position on that list, just underneath Judy Garland's “Over The Rainbow” from the 1939 movie “The Wizard Of Oz”. The song also made a reappearance in the 1954 film musical of the same name, also starring Bing Crosby.

Another record the song can boast? It's considered to be the Christmas song with the most cover versions, having over 500 different interpretations of the classic hit. Clearly, Bing Crosby's version is the best known, but other versions that have been recorded over the past seventy years include ones recorded by The Drifters (1954), Elvis Presley (1957), Doris Day (1964), Michael Bolton (1992), Martina McBride (1998), Mannhein Steamroller (2001), Michael Bublé (2003), and Taylor Swift (2007).

So you can see how much power that song had in the world of Christmas music, as well as the world of pop music as we know it. Not bad for a song that the original artist didn't really believe in at first.

So, to end off this note, I just want to say this.

May your days be merry and bright, and may all your Christmases be white.



Well, unless you live in Hawaii, that is...