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Wednesday, February 22, 2012

The Charlie Brown 'Cyclopedia

When I was a child, I hated doing homework.
This isn’t much of a surprising admission, though.  I reckon that if you asked any random kid currently in school, most of them would have the same opinion as I.

Let’s face it.  Homework assignments were a drag.  It was as if you just sat through seven and a half hours of lesson plans, projects, and lectures, and yet the teacher expected you to do more on top of that.  It just wasn’t fair.
Doing homework took away time from watching television shows.  Doing homework prevented you from hanging out at the shopping mall, sipping on a root beer while window shopping.  Doing homework prevented you from having any sort of fun whatsoever! 

But, here’s a little mini confession for each of you reading this.  Despite my dislike of homework, I very rarely had any to bring home.  At least that was the case during elementary school.
I was one of those kids who would blow through assignments meant for homework really quickly.  I did my assignments so quickly that more often than not, I was finishing up the last question as the dismissal bell for the bus students sounded.

Ah, but before you accuse me of bragging, consider this.  Just because I had the assignments completed didn’t necessarily mean that I had done them correctly.  And, yes, in some cases, that ended up exactly what happened.  But, that was how much I hated homework.  I was so determined to finish it before the day was done that I didn’t care if the answers were right or wrong.  In most cases, I got through it just fine, but I did have my moments of epic failure.
That was during elementary school though.  The minute I entered high school was the minute that my homework load tripled.  Suddenly, I had homework in every single class that had to be done before the end of the week.  If I failed to complete one assignment, my grades would plummet.

So, out came the set of encyclopedias and checking out library books (because when I started high school, our technology was limited to Windows 95), and my free time was spent researching dozens of sources to put together the perfect essay, book report, or independent study.
I still remember one project that I had to do when I was in school.  If I remember correctly, it was a project that I had to do on holiday celebrations all over the world.  There was just one problem.  I had very limited resources to use for the project at the time.  By the time I had gotten to my school library, all the decent reference books had already been checked out.  I also couldn’t go and use the photo copier to copy articles from library exclusive periodicals because the copier was out of order at the time.

Just my luck, huh?
And, a trip to the town public library also turned up empty, as most of the books that were present were out of date, and had contradictory information.  And being that this was during a time in which the Internet wasn’t as huge as it is now, I was left without many options.

That was until I remembered that I had a set of books from my childhood that I could use for my project.  I knew that by citing the book as a reference for a high school project was a bit of a risk, given that the book was presented by a bunch of comic strip characters, but by this time, I was desperate for sources to footnote, and desperate times called for desperate measures.
So, I searched through my collection of childhood books and found the book that I needed.




Above is the picture of the book that I used for the project.  It was the eleventh book of the fifteen volume Charlie Brown’s ‘Cyclopedia series.  The above picture comes from the 1990 edition.  This particular volume dealt with holiday celebrations all over the world, which was what my project was based on.  The book detailed how celebrations began, when they were celebrated all over the world, and some of the customs that were associated with the holidays. 
Oh, I guess I should mention that the book was written in a style that was suitable for grade school children and that many of the facts were presented through illustrations created by Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz.  Hardly the most conventional research tool for a tenth grade student to be using.

But, when one was having trouble finding sources to use for a project that was due in less than 48 hours, one has to take the steps to succeed.  And, like it or not, Charlie Brown and Snoopy were the only ones who could help me type up a decent project.


So, using the information presented in that Charlie Brown ‘Cyclopedia, it allowed me to fill up some of the holes that I had in my project, and before long, I had a completed paper, suitable for grading.
One thing that I noticed though while I was flipping through the Charlie Brown ‘Cyclopedia set (and yes, I did own the entire 1990 set) of books were how informative they were.  I mean, yes, they were written for children.  However, if one sifted through the Peanuts references and the simplistic way in which the information was presented, they may find that the Charlie Brown ‘Cyclopedia was chock full of relevant information that might have helped thousands of children with their own homework assignments.

Mind you, those books were published over twenty years ago.  I imagine that depending on the subject, some of that information is grossly outdated by now.  But, at least I had the newer version of the Charlie Brown ‘Cyclopedia set. 



The original version of the series was published way back in 1980, and were based off of the popular Charlie Brown Super Book Of Questions and Answers series of books.  The order of the subjects of each volume swapped around between the 1980 version and the 1990 version, but the subjects remained the same in both versions.

Here is a photo of the original 1980 version of the Charlie Brown ‘Cyclopedia down below.



And, each volume focused on a specific subject.  Here’s the list of the subjects talked about in each of the 15 volumes, according to the 1980 version.
1 – Featuring Your Body
2 – Featuring All Kinds Of Animals From Fish To Frogs
3 – Featuring All Kinds Of Animals From Dinosaurs To Elephants
4 – Featuring Cars And Trains And Other Things That Move
5 – Featuring Boats And Other Things That Float
6 – Featuring Planes And Other Things That Fly
7 – Featuring Space Travel
8 – Featuring Stars And Planets
9 – Featuring The Earth, Weather And Climate
10 – Featuring People Around The World
11 – Featuring What We Wear
12 – Featuring Holidays
13 – Featuring Machines And How They Work
14 – Featuring Sound, Light And Air
15 – Featuring Electricity And Magnetism
Again, as stated, the 1980 version and 1990 version were a bit different.  The book that I used for my project was the edition on holidays and celebrations, which in the 1980 version was book number 12.  But in the version I owned, it was book number 11.  For the most part though, that was the only difference.  In both the 1980 version and 1990 version, the format for how the information was displayed was exactly the same.



For most of the book, the information was presented in Question/Answer format.  A question would be asked, such as “Why is the sky blue?” or “Why is blood red?”.  In each case, the answer would be featured directly underneath the question asked, and it would often be an answer that was brief and to the point, yet still provided enough information to adequately answer the question properly.  The entire book was like this from start to finish.
Occasionally, you would see coloured boxes on certain pages that had exclamation points inside of them.  These were bonus trivia sections that were included in the book, usually as a supplement to a question that was already asked in the book.  It could be a translation of a word, a random fact about a flower, or even a world record or two.



And, of course, there would be comic strips and drawings of the Peanuts gang included all throughout the book.  Many of the drawings were actual comic strips that appeared in newspapers and Peanuts collections.  By including the Peanuts gang in the information, it made the book a lot more fun to read, and I certainly remember being more eager to learn from the book when the Peanuts characters were involved than just leafing through a standard encyclopedia.


That’s about all that I have to say about the Charlie Brown ‘Cyclopedia.  They were books that kept me informed about various subjects, and probably helped me through school more times than I could probably count on.
Oh, yeah.  One more thing.  You know that high school project that I used the Charlie Brown ‘Cyclopedia on?


I got an A+.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

February 21, 1990

I believe it was Andy Warhol who said that everyone in the world is deserving of their own ‘fifteen minutes of fame’, or something to that extent.  And, I believe that statement to be the absolute truth.
I believe that everybody gets their one moment to shine in their lives, and I believe that everyone has their crowning achievement at least once during their lifetime, whether it comes at age seven, or age 77.

For some people in show business or the entertainment industry, it could be the day they win an Academy Award, or star in their first movie, or have their first number one hit on the Billboard Charts.  But, for most of us, it could be something as simple as buying your first home, or having your first child, or getting a really nice promotion at work.  Even getting an A+ in science class could be considered a shining moment.
(Well, at least it was for this non-science geek, anyways.)

Today’s trip back through the Tuesday Timeline takes a look back at one duo’s crowning achievement, and the steps they took to get there.  Sadly, this story is one that does not have a happy ending, and it only showed that crowning achievements could be taken away as fast as they were earned.
But, what year are we going to go back in time to?

Well, first, let’s do what we usually do for the Tuesday Timeline.  Find out all the other important events that took place on February 21 in history.
If your name happens to be David Geffen, Tyne Daly, Alan Rickman, Christine Ebersol, William Petersen, Kelsey Grammer, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Jack Coleman, Christopher Atkins, William Baldwin, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Charlotte Church, or Ellen Page, a very happy birthday to you all, and anyone else celebrating a February 21 birthday today.


And, some events that took place on February 21 include the following;

1842 – The first American patent for the sewing machine is granted to John Greenough.

1878 – The first telephone book is issued in the city of New Haven, Connecticut.

1885 – The Washington Monument is officially dedicated.

1918 – The last Carolina Parakeet dies in captivity in the Cincinnati Zoo.

1925 – The New Yorker publishes its first issue.

1948 – NASCAR is founded.

1958 – The Peace symbol is created.

1965 – Malcolm X is assassinated in New York City by members of the Nation of Islam.

1995 – Steve Fossett lands in Saskatchewan, Canada after successfully being the first person to cross the Pacific Ocean in a hot-air balloon.

So, we have quite a few firsts that happened on this date...as well as the death of Malcolm X and extinction of a species. 
Today though, we’re going to go back in time to February 21, 1990.

And the significance of this date happens to be linked to my opening spiel.
On February 21, 1990, the 32nd Annual Grammy Awards aired, and among the big winners of the night were Bette Midler, Bonnie Raitt, Michael Bolton, Linda Ronstadt, and Aaron Neville.

I specifically want to highlight one award in particular.  There were five nominees for the Best New Artist award, all of whom had huge hits during 1989 and 1990.  At the time, all five were worthy of the honour, but as we all know, unless there was a rare tie, there could only be one winner.  You can watch the clip here.


So there you have it.  Milli Vanilli managed to triumph over The Indigo Girls, Soul II Soul, Tone Loc, and Neneh Cherry to win the Best New Artist award at the 32nd Annual Grammy Awards, and when you saw them run up on stage to collect their award, you could see the excitement on their faces.  They had arrived.  They made it big.  Nothing would stop their train to success.
That is until it all came crashing down all around them. 

Before we get to that, let’s take a look at how they got to this moment.


Milli Vanilli was formed in 1988 by record producer Frank Farian (also responsible for Boney M) in Munich, Germany.  The duo consisted of Rob Pilatus and Fabrice “Fab” Morvan, models that were discovered by Farian himself.  Farian had thought that Rob and Fab had the perfect look for a new band project that he had named ‘Milli Vanilli’.  Problem was that neither Rob nor Fab had any singing experience whatsoever.
This is where the ruse begins.



As it so happened, Rob and Fab didn’t NEED to sing.  Farian had that angle covered.  By using the vocal tracks of Charles Shaw, John Davis, Brad Howell, Jodie Rocco, and Linda Rocco (whom Farian had dismissed as not having the right look for Milli Vanilli), all Rob and Fab had to do was lip-synch the concert performances, and not let on that they weren’t really singing the records, and all would be fine, according to Farian.
So, Rob and Fab did exactly that.  Sure, in photos, promo shots, and interviews, they WERE Milli Vanilli.  But, they weren’t the REAL Milli Vanilli.

You’d think that the public would have gotten wise from the start, but consider this.  Milli Vanilli released their debut album in 1988 in Europe (an album with the rather prophetic title of ‘All Or Nothing’).  When it was released, there was no evidence in the album’s liner notes that Rob and Fab actually sang the songs on the album.  There was no evidence of anybody being credited for singing on the album at all.  So, when the album was released, and the pictures of Rob and Fab were prominently displayed front and center on the cover, nobody seemed to take any notice.



During the last part of 1988, the album ‘All Or Nothing’ sold extremely well in Europe, and the success was noticed by American record label, Arista Records.  Arista immediately signed Milli Vanilli to a recording contract, and plans were in the works to re-release the album ‘All or Nothing’ to an American audience.  There were some major changes to the album though.  First, the album was retitled to the rather ironic ‘Girl You Know It’s True’.  Secondly, many of the tracks were remixed to fit the American music scene.  Lastly, some of the tracks from ‘All Or Nothing’ were ditched entirely, and replaced with some brand new songs.  The song below just happened to be one of the songs that was written specifically for the American market (and admittedly is one of this blogger’s guilty pleasures).



ARTIST: Milli Vanilli
SONG:  Blame It On The Rain
ALBUM:  Girl You Know It’s True
DATE RELEASED:  July 13, 1989
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS:  #1 for 1 week
‘Girl You Know Its True’ was released in North America on March 7, 1989, and immediately the song’s title track peaked at #2 on the Billboard Charts.  ‘Blame It On The Rain’, hit #1, as did ‘Baby Don’t Forget My Number’ and ‘Girl I’m Gonna Miss You’.  As 1989 turned into 1990, a fifth single ‘All Or Nothing’ also did very well on the charts.

And in February 1990, the duo seemed to be on top, winning the Best New Artist Grammy Award.
So, what went terribly wrong?

Signs that all was not what it was claimed to be in the world of Milli Vanilli were shown during a performance in 1989.  The duo was performing in Connecticut at the Lake Compounce theme park as part of a live remote that aired on MTV that night.  All was going according to plan until they began to sing lip-synch the song ‘Girl You Know It’s True’.  At some point during their performance, the recording that was playing had become jammed, and within seconds, the singing was stuck on a continuous loop.  Embarrassed, Rob and Fab did some impromptu dancing before running off the stage. 


Girl you know it’s true?
However, it didn’t seem as though the crowd in the concert seemed to pick up on anything wrong.  According to then MTV personality Downtown Julie Brown (in the Behind The Music special on the band), the concert continued on as if nothing strange had happened.  The fans in the concert were too busy enjoying the moment to put two and two together, which is what Farian and Milli Vanilli were counting on.

But then the scheme began to unravel.  Part of it had to do with the fact that Rob Pilatus was seemingly buying into his own hype.  He proudly proclaimed in an interview with TIME Magazine in 1990 that he believed Milli Vanilli was more talented than Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, and Mick Jagger.  Quite the boastful statement, especially since, well...you know.
There was also the fact that when Milli Vanilli’s album was released in America, all the songs were credited to Rob and Fab.  This revelation was enough for Charles Shaw to come forward to the media to let them know that he was one of the three male singers who DID sing on the Milli Vanilli record.  Frank Farian, worried that his house of cards would come crumbling down around him reportedly tried to get Shaw to recant his statements by paying him off to the tune of $150,000.  But, by this point, the public backlash had begun.

Even Rob and Fab were starting to get a change of heart about success.  They were beginning to feel that taking credit for someone else’s talent was not the way to live life.  And when they approached Farian and demanded that they be able to sing on their next album, the pressure proved too much for Farian.  In November 1990, Farian revealed that Rob and Fab did NOT sing one note on the Milli Vanilli album.  The secret was finally out, and Rob and Fab paid the price in a big way.
On November 16, 1990, their Best New Artist Grammy Award was taken away, the first and only time in the fifty-four year history of the awards ceremony that this has happened.  Shortly thereafter, Arista Records deleted the entire Milli Vanilli catalog from their records, essentially putting ‘Girl You Know Its True’ out of print.

As many as twenty-seven different lawsuits were filed against Rob, Fab, and Arista Records.  In 1991, Arista Records agreed to refund people who purchased albums and concert tickets featuring Milli Vanilli.  The refund offer was good until March 1992.


As for Milli Vanilli’s recording career, it essentially ended in 1990.  At the time that the scandal was revealed, radio stations were playing the single ‘Keep On Running’, which was supposed to be the debut single for the band’s second album.  After the scandal broke, the album was repackaged to include the photos of the artists who sang for Milli Vanilli, removing all traces of Rob and Fab from the finished cover art, and the album was given the title of ‘The Real Milli Vanilli’ (‘Moment Of Truth’ in Europe).


By then, Rob and Fab were essentially outcasts.  Even Frank Farian had seemingly abandoned them.  Despite the scandal that plagued them, Rob and Fab never gave up on their music career.  The two moved to Los Angeles where in 1993, they recorded the album ‘Rob & Fab’.  However, due to poor promotion and the inability to shake their scandalous past, the album failed to make an impression.
In 1997, Frank Farian was brought back into the lives of Milli Vanilli when he agreed to produce a comeback album for the duo...this time with Rob and Fab on vocals.  Personally speaking, the last thing that I would do is make another deal with the devil who screwed things up for me the first time, but Rob and Fab agreed.  The album was going to be titled “Back And In Attack”, and was set to be released during the spring of 1998.  Sadly, the comeback album would be overshadowed by a shocking end to one of the key players.

On April 2, 1998, Rob Pilatus was found dead in a Frankfurt hotel room at the age of 32.  Though his death was ruled accidental, it was widely documented that Pilatus had a slew of problems in the months leading up to his death, including stints in jail for robbery, and reported abuse with drugs and alcohol.  Fabrice Morvan, on the other hand, is still active in the music industry, releasing singles as late as 2011.


Now that you know the story about the rise and fall of Milli Vanilli, the question that now comes is...who’s the most to blame?
I would personally point the finger of blame mostly on Frank Farian, just because he was the one who got the lie started.  Then when the lie grew bigger and bigger, he was unable to keep the truth from being exposed.  Then when the truth came out, it seemed as though he stepped away from the background while Rob, Fab, and the record company that signed on Milli Vanilli got the brunt of the anger.  It seemed to me to be incredibly cowardly on Farian’s part.

However, there isn’t anybody who can be considered completely blameless either.  Rob and Fab had lots of opportunity to come clean about what was really happening on multiple occasions.  Who knows?  Had they been the ones to out themselves as frauds instead of Farian, they might have ended up being treated like heroes, or at the very least wouldn’t have had to endure such poison from the general public.  The fact that they didn’t makes their fall from grace sadly deserving.  It’s commendable that Rob and Fab eventually saw that the way that they were getting success wasn’t the right way to go, but unfortunately it was a little late.
If there is any sympathy out there to be had, it probably should go to the people who called themselves the ‘Real Milli Vanilli’.  Despite the ruse that Farian put on, the vocalists who did sing for Rob and Fab were quite talented.  I have no doubt in my mind that had they not gotten entangled in the scheme that Farian had orchestrated from the beginning, they might have been discovered by some other record label who would have gladly given them a contract.  They might not have been commercially marketable, but talent they had by the ton.  It’s just a shame that their talent was overshadowed by a needless scandal.

Perhaps the saddest thing about Milli Vanilli is the fact that Rob and Fab got so used to living a lie that they ended up believing their own hype.  And when the rug got pulled out from underneath them, they were left completely exposed to the world, without any means to defend themselves.
It makes me wonder what might have happened had the lies not come undone.  Would Milli Vanilli have made their career last for years, or would they have simply become a flash in the pan?  Sadly, because of the lies and the scandal, we’ll never know.

And, that is the story of a band in which February 21, 1990 should have been the best time of their lives, but ended up being the beginning of a nightmare.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Pretty Woman, The Kind I'd Like To Meet

Sometimes I find it hard to get invested in certain genres of movies.
Certainly everybody in the world has their own tastes as to what they prefer to watch when it comes to movies.  There are some who like the action movies where as many as a hundred objects explode into pieces.  There are some people who enjoy watching a scary horror film, which gets better as the body count rises in gruesome fashion.  And, there’s some people who really enjoy foreign films from France, or Japanese anime, or Bollywood musicals.


However, one genre of film that I haven’t had too much love for is the genre known as romantic comedy. 


Or, perhaps if you are of the male species, you might refer to them as “chick flicks”.

I have nothing personal against romantic comedies in general.  A lot of romantic comedies have modest budgets and can attract some of the biggest Hollywood stars.  There certainly is an audience for these types of films, and depending on who stars in the film, and how well the movie is written, they almost always perform well at the box office.
For the most part, however, romantic comedies bore me to tears.

I don’t know whether it has to do with the fact that I was born male, or whether I’m still single, or whether I just dislike most films that Katherine Heigl is the main star (which happens to be true, but that’s a whole different story).  For the most part, romantic comedies do nothing for me.  I’m almost positive that I slept through the iconic “I’ll have what she’s having” scene in the film ‘When Harry Met Sally’.  That’s how much romantic comedies bore me.
Well, most of the time anyway.

Today I’ll be featuring a movie that could be classified as a romantic comedy.  And it’s a movie that I don’t actually mind all that much. 
The first time I think I watched this movie was probably when I was in the television lounge of my residence hall.  It was a Saturday night, and most of the people who lived on my floor were either at the on-campus bars or at the off-campus dance clubs.  But, I stayed behind at rez, because I wasn’t into the partying scene back in those days.  I’m STILL not a fan of partying and binge drinking, but that’s irrelevant to the current story.


Anyway, I happened to wander into the television lounge where a group of girls were popping some popcorn in the microwave, and they announced that they were watching a movie, and asked if I wanted to watch it with them.  When they first told me the title of the movie, I initially cringed, because I knew it was a romantic comedy.  It was a huge movie when my sister was in her senior year of high school, so I knew about it.  But, since there wasn’t a whole lot else to do, I bit my tongue, and sat on one of the chairs in the lounge to watch the movie.

The movie was the 1990 romantic comedy “Pretty Woman”, a movie starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts.
And, you know, I’ll be completely honest.  Within the first twenty minutes or so, I was just as glued to the television as all the ladies that were in the lounge at the time.  By the end of the movie, I was telling myself “you know, for a romantic comedy, that movie wasn’t half bad.”

Of course, part of the reason why my interest was piqued was due to the successful soundtrack that accompanied the movie.  With songs such as this one...


...and this one...


...appearing on the movie’s soundtrack, it certainly got my attention.  Both of these songs that I posted are songs that I consider to be favourites of mine, and yet, I had no idea that either one appeared in “Pretty Woman” until I heard them in the movie.
Of course, the music was only part of the fun of “Pretty Woman”.  I think part of the reason why I found some merit in this movie was because of the message that it displayed throughout the film.  I’ll get to that a little later.



“Pretty Woman” was released in theatres on March 23, 1990, and was directed by Garry Marshall.  Initially, the movie was to have premiered in 1989, and was originally a lot darker in tone.  The original vision of “Pretty Woman” was to portray a gritty, dark portrayal of the prostitution industry in the heart of New York City.  Initially, the characters of Vivian (Roberts) and Edward (Gere) was to be a lot more controversial, and Vivian was supposed to be highly addicted to drugs.  But when the original idea was pitched to Jeffrey Katzenberg (then the head of Disney Studios, he wanted the project to lose some of its grittiness and hardness.  It was his suggestion to have the movie rewritten as a romantic comedy, where instead of the movie being a dark drama, it took on the appearance of a modern day fairy tale.


TRIVIA:  Other actresses that were considered for the role of Vivian included Nancy Allen, Winona Ryder, Molly Ringwald, Jennifer Connelly, Meg Ryan, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Mary Steenbergen, Daryl Hannah, Valeria Golino, and Michelle Pfeiffer.
As it turned out, Katzenberg’s suggestion probably made the final product more successful than the original idea might have been, as the movie was one of the Top 10 movies of 1990.  The setting was changed from New York City to Los Angeles, California.  And, while the character of Vivian was cleaned up a little, many of Vivian’s old characteristics were used to form the personality of Vivian’s friend Kit (played by Laura San Giacomo).

TRIVIA:  The original title of the script was $3,000.  It was rejected as a title by executives at Touchstone Pictures (the company that produced the film), as they believed it to be more suitable for a science-fiction movie.  Though, the original title is linked to an event that happens in the movie.


The movie begins with Vivian Ward working on Hollywood Boulevard, looking for her next big score.  What Vivian wasn’t expecting was that she would come face to face with a gold mine.
Wealthy and ambitious businessman Edward Lewis ends up taking a wrong turn, and comes face to face with Vivian.  Having gotten lost, he tries to get directions from Vivian to get to his destination.  Vivian agrees to help him out.  The following morning, Edward decides to put Vivian to work...though, not in the way that you might think.  He decides to hire her for the week as his own personal escort for social events and functions.  Of course, the tough as nails Vivian is no amateur.  She definitely had her price, and she fully expected Edward to come through.

So, Edward hands Vivian $3,000 (now you see where the original script title came from), and grants her access to all of his credit cards.  The main reason was likely for Vivian to come across as a presentable escort for Edward (because let’s face it, halter tops and fishnet stockings probably wouldn’t work for a black-tie event), but at least this way, Edward made good on his promise to compensate Vivian handsomely for going along with the plan.
The course of trying to change from prostitute to fairy tale princess certainly wasn’t easy for Vivian.  It was already a precarious position for Vivian to take the only world she’d ever known and reject it for a week to live the high life.  Imagine having to go through that when everyone else on the outside is judging you negatively.  Poor Vivian had to endure such judgmental behaviour, courtesy of some snotty Rodeo Drive salesladies who immediately pooh-poohed poor Vivian.  They judged her on her looks right from the start, and Vivian was left humiliated as a result. 

Luckily, there was one person who managed to see through Vivian’s hard exterior to notice the soft, warm heart beating inside, although at first he was just as disdainful as the stuck-up retail clerks on Rodeo Drive.


But, somehow, hotel manager Barnard Thompson (Hector Elizondo) begins to feel sorry for her, and he takes it upon himself to teach Vivian some lessons in proper etiquette.  He even helps Vivian buy a brand new dress, which immediately gets nothing but positive comments on the part of Edward, when Vivian becomes his date for a business dinner with James Morse (Ralph Bellamy).  






Unfortunately, the warm fuzzies end there.  When Edward announces his plans to dismantle Morse’s entire corporation after purchasing it - effectively closing up the shipyard that Morse spent four decades building – it angers Morse and his grandson, and the dinner busts up with hurt feelings all around.


The following morning, Edward begins to prove that he actually sees Vivian as more than just an escort.  When Vivian tells Edward of how nasty the Rodeo Drive salespeople snubbed her, he takes Vivian on a shopping spree where she puts her ‘haters’ in their place.  The following day, Edward and Vivian attend a polo match, where Edward plans on doing some networking for his business deal.  Vivian meets up with James Morse’s grandson, David, and the two seem to strike up a friendship.  Meanwhile, Edward is telling his attorney, Phillip Stuckey (Jason Alexander) how he ended up meeting Vivian, and sleazy Stuckey actually has the gall to approach Vivian to tell her that he would hire her once Edward was done with her.


Classy guy, that Stuckey.
And, naturally, Vivian is very hurt and angry at Edward for even telling Stuckey about her.  She threatens to leave him, but Edward coaxes her into seeing out the week.  Sure enough, as part of his apology, he skips out of work early to take Vivian on his private jet to San Francisco, for a performance of ‘La traviata’.  It is a performance that visibly moves Vivian emotionally.  And, when you consider that the main plot of ‘La traviata’ deals with a rich man falling in love with a courtesan, well, you can see why she’d like it so much.



But, here’s where the story gets complicated.  Vivian is so moved by Edward’s kindness and generosity towards her that she starts to develop feelings for him.  She wants nothing more than to be with him for the rest of her life.  But, when Edward suggests putting her in her own apartment so he can continue seeing her, she realizes that she doesn’t want her fairy tale to end this way.  She wanted more.  And, you know something?  She deserved it.
And, then there’s the business deal that Edward agonized over.  The only choice that was being presented to him by Stuckey was to purchase Morse’s business and sell it off for real estate purposes.  But was there a way that Edward could still make a killing financially while saving Morse’s business?  And, how will Stuckey react to the decision that Edward makes, and will Edward see Stuckey’s true colours before it is too late?

The most important question to be answered...will Vivian and Edward find a way to be together?
You’ll just have to watch the movie yourself to find out. 

But you know, the reason that I wanted to talk about this movie was to illustrate a couple of points.
Firstly, a movie that is referred to as a “chick flick” doesn’t necessarily have to be solely a film that only women can enjoy.  I think I’ve proven that the right “chick flick” can appeal to all audiences. 

And “Pretty Woman” did that for me.  It really had two characters that you really wanted to root for because both of them were missing something.  For Vivian, she really wanted to be loved and respected for who she was on the inside, and not because she gave it away for the right price.  She had a heart and a brain underneath her rough exterior.  All she needed was for someone to help her find a way to show it off.  To the outside world, she may have been damaged goods, but with a little bit of attention, care, and positive reinforcement, she really found a way to shine.
Edward was also someone you really found a way to empathize with.  Sure, at the beginning of the film, he was portrayed as a ruthless businessman.  But, the closer he got to Vivian, the more he took down the wall he built around himself.  He allowed himself to have fun, take more chances, and show more empathy.  Basically, Vivian helped Edward become a better person. 

“Pretty Woman” has often been referred to as a modern-day Cinderella story.  I don’t necessarily agree with that comparison.  But, it comes close.



Sunday, February 19, 2012

Having It All - The Story Behind "Rolling In The Deep"

I know that it's been a week since they aired, but, did any of you watch the 54th Annual Grammy Awards on February 12, 2012?

I did. And, to my surprise, I managed to sit back and watch the entire ceremony from start to finish. It was the first time I had been able to do so in at least a decade.

Apparently a lot of people felt the same way as I. It's been reported that the 54th Annual Grammy Awards were the highest rated since 1984!

Of course, I imagine a lot of people tuned into the ceremony out of curiosity over how the telecast would handle the news of Whitney Houston's death just the day before. And, of course if you had watched the Grammy Awards, there were lots of references to Whitney, from host LL Cool J's opening monologue to Jennifer Hudson's moving rendition of 'I Will Always Love You'.

But once you got into the real meat of the show, it turned out to be a really great group of performances by some very talented people.

Mind you, there were some blips to the evening, most of which are probably more my personal opinion, rather than from the general public. I've never really been a Chris Brown fan, and my opinion was always the same before and after the Rihanna incident. So, to see him perform did nothing for me (except shake my fist in disgust after reading various Facebook and Twitter comments from teenage girls saying that Chris Brown could beat them up anytime). I also wasn't all that impressed by the electronica-music extravaganza that aired towards the end...but mind you, I'm also in my thirties. Had it aired fifteen years earlier, I probably would have liked it better.

And, even after a week, I am still trying to figure out what the heck Nicki Minaj was doing up on that stage. It certainly wasn't much singing.

Fortunately, there were more highlights than lowlights. I loved the Beach Boys/Maroon 5/Foster The People medley of Beach Boys classics (even though some people commented on how 'dead' the Beach Boys looked). I mean, they're seventy! Not everyone can age like Dick Clark, you know! Still, as a lifelong Beach Boys fan, the fact that the surviving members came together to sing was awesome. I just wished that Dennis and Carl could have been up there with them.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band were an awesome opening act, and it must have been tough for them to perform after the death of Clarence Clemmons last year, but they still put on a great show. I think Clarence would have been proud. Bruno Mars is an artist that I can take or leave, but he did a fantastic job during his performance, while Paul McCartney still showed us all that he still had it at nearly seventy years old.

I'm not the biggest country music fan out there, but I really appreciated Taylor Swift's performance. Especially since it was reported that the last time she sang at the Grammy Awards, she didn't do quite as well as expected. And, I don't care what anyone says. I think the Foo Fighters rocked the house, and were the only part of the electronica-music performance that I really appreciated.

There was no shortage of great performances and great talent at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards, but there can only be one performance that I can deem as my favourite of the show.

And, if you click on THIS LINK, you can watch it!



Today's blog entry is all about Adele. The chanteuse from the UK that took the world by storm with her huge, powerful voice, soulful lyrics, and charming personality. And, she's not even twenty-five!

I think part of Adele's charm comes from the fact that her talent is so raw and natural. She doesn't use gimmicks like flashy clothes, auto-tune, and electronic beats because she doesn't need them. When you watched the clip of Adele's Grammy performance, what did you see? As far as special effects and gaudy costumes, there was nary to be found. It was just a woman with a big voice, maybe five or six background vocalists, and a band. That was all.



And, it turned out that it was all that Adele really needed. After Adele sang that song, she got a standing ovation that lasted well over a minute and a half. And just seeing Adele's expression during the whole ovation, you could tell that she was really moved, and perhaps a bit surprised at the attention. She displayed so much star power and class on that stage that you really couldn't help but love her. She didn't need to have lasers, or light shows, or perform an exorcism on stage. She was one hundred per cent real.



As if performing at the Grammy Awards wasn't enough of a high, it turned out that six was a very lucky number for Adele. She was nominated for six awards in such categories as 'Record of the Year', 'Album of the Year', and 'Song of the Year'. And, Adele won every award that she was nominated for. Well deserved, in my opinion.

The performance was made even more memorable when you consider that it was the first time Adele took to a live stage since undergoing a procedure which could have silenced her voice forever. But, we'll get to that a little later.

For now, let's have a look at the music video of the song that Adele sang at the Grammy Awards last week.



ARTIST: Adele
SONG: Rolling In The Deep
ALBUM: 21
DATE RELEASED: November 29, 2010
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #1 for 7 weeks

In the United States, the song peaked at #1 for seven weeks in the spring of 2011, but the song hit the top of the charts in other places all over the world. Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Finland, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, South Korea, and Switzerland had “Rolling In The Deep” at the top of their respective charts. Oddly enough, the song failed to hit the top spot in Adele's native UK, where it peaked at #2.

It was the first single off of Adele's second album, 21. The album was named after the age Adele was when she recorded it (Adele's first album had the title 19 for that same reason). It was a song that was written by Adele and Paul Epworth during 2010 after Adele experienced a very bad break-up. The song was written in a single afternoon the day after Adele had her heart broken, and according to an interview that Paul Epworth gave to the New York Times, he stated that the songwriting process for “Rolling In The Deep” was quite inspired. When Adele met with Epworth, he already had a few riffs and themes plotted out, which he felt would be perfect for Adele's voice. But, after a couple of hours, both Adele and Epworth were finding the process to be frustrating, as every riff that Epworth played resulted in Adele suffering from writer's block. She liked the riffs enough, but she just couldn't find one that really inspired her. But then Adele told Epworth that she had a riff of her own going through her head, and for whatever reason could not ignore it. When Epworth pressed on, Adele responded by singing the very first line of the song that would eventually form “Rolling In The Deep”.

Epworth was completely blown away by it, and immediately grabbed a guitar to figure out what the key was that Adele sang. Once that was found, Adele quickly managed to complete the lyrics in their entirety, and Epworth recorded the demo session as one long track. The process of writing the core of the song took an estimated fifteen minutes. The chorus and prechorus was added in later.

Now, here's a bit of trivia in regards to the finished product. Did you know that the vocal track that Paul Epworth recorded of Adele that day ended up being the version used for the final album cut? Epworth explained that when Adele sang the song, you could hear the heartache and anger in her voice. Her heart was truly broken, and her anger was so raw that Epworth felt that it couldn't be recreated.



I'm sure that almost everyone in the world has had their heart broken before, and know very well how much pain one feels when they realize that the relationship they put so much of themselves into is no longer there. It rips at your heart and soul, and it causes you to feel so much raw emotion. After a while, though, the pain does go away, and people move on with their lives, and become happier people as a result.  For the song to capture Adele's feelings and heartache the way that it did just made the song that much memorable.  Anyone who ever knew the pain of a break-up could identify with this song.

And, I think that was a huge part as to why it achieved the success it did.

When the song was released in late November 2010, I don't think anybody could have predicted just how huge the song would eventually become.  Rock magazines and online blogs praised the effort almost immediately, singling out Adele's powerful voice and the bluesy-feel of the track.  The song debuted in the UK at #2, and stayed at the Top Ten for ten whole weeks, the longest for any of Adele's singles.  

In the United States, the song debuted at #68 on the Billboard Charts on December 25, 2010.  Within five months, it hit the top position.  She managed to top both the Billboard Hot 100 Charts and the Billboard 200 Charts the same week, a feat last accomplished by Leona Lewis in 2008.  "Rolling In The Deep" achieved sales of 5x platinum, and as of January 1, 2012, the song has sold upwards of almost six million digital copies, making it the most successful single of 2011.

Adele had finally arrived in America, and she was coming full force.

Her following single, the 2011 single "Someone Like You" also did extremely well, selling three million copies by September 2011.  Her tour, "Adele Live" sold out in every stop of the American leg of the tour, and reviews for her live performances were just as glowing as they were for her album, '21', which had sold upwards of three million copies alone during 2011.  It seemed as there was no stopping Adele.

At least until the fall of 2011.  

In October of that year, Adele was forced to cancel planned tours because of a vocal cord hemorrhage.  She was forced to cancel concerts and issued a statement saying that she needed to rest her voice so that it didn't get any worse.  Later that month, in another statement, she revealled that she had absolutely no choice but to undergo surgery to repair the damage to her vocal cords.  If not, there was a chance that she could never sing again.  Adele underwent surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital in November 2011.

Just three months later, Adele made her stage comeback at the Grammy Awards in February 2012, and well, as you saw up above, she stole the show.

Her performance was so brilliant that people were still talking about it days later.  I imagine that a lot of people now are asking themselves "Nicki WHO?"

And, I think that fact alone shows that Adele is a star.  No ifs, ands or buts about it.

And, you know...as uninspiring and uncreative as the music industry is these days, I think we need more people like Adele to show us exactly what music is supposed to be.  It's supposed to make us feel emotion.  It's supposed to make us feel for the singer.  It's supposed to inspire people to do their best and be their best.



Adele is the poster child for what music is supposed to be.