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Thursday, March 15, 2012

To Tell The Truth...I Cannot Lie

Have you ever heard of the Ace Attorney video game series, produced by Capcom?



Upon hearing the phrase “Ace Attorney”, you might assume that the main protagonists of the games are defense attorneys and prosecutors, and that the majority of the game takes place inside a courtroom.

Well, that assumption happens to be true. It is a game where you play as one of four lawyers, and your main goal is to produce evidence during trials that will help you get your client proven not guilty.

So, based on that description you might have the idea that the idea of having a game where you defend clients in a courtroom is one of the dullest, most boring ideas for a video game in the whole world, right?

Well, I say...or rather, Phoenix Wright says...



...ahem...thank you, Mr. Wright.

After playing a couple of these games (there's six total, five of which have been released in North America between 2001 and 2009), I've become a huge fan of the series. It's so much more than proving that your client is innocent. You get to see exactly what makes criminals tick. Why they act the way they do. Some of the people on the stand actually go through hilarious breakdowns as their little web of deception comes crashing down all around them. Knowing that it was you who caused the criminals to crack under pressure is incredibly satisfying.

I mean, let's face it. Some of these criminals were downright disturbing and were outed as cold-blooded killers. Why wouldn't you feel some pride in locking them behind bars? It may be a fictional setting, but the way the games are set up are incredibly real.

As I said, there are four main playable characters that you can control, based on the games that you play, although there are a couple of minor characters that make an appearance as well.



Probably the main character of the whole series is defense attorney Phoenix Wright, who really seems to grow with each case. He's featured as the main character in three of the six games, as well as a supporting character in a fourth. One thing that I noticed about Phoenix was just how much he grew as a person and as a lawyer. From his first case where he stumbled his way to a victory, to his penultimate case where he dominated the courtroom, he definitely proved himself to be a powerful attorney. Sure, there was one incident in which he was set up by another prosecutor, and he ended up losing his badge, but Phoenix never really lost his touch. His unique ability was that he could unlock secrets locked away in people's testimonies (the secrets being in the form of Psyche Locks). The more locks he unlocked, the closer he got to exposing the truth.



There's Apollo Justice, who is also a defense attorney, and much like Phoenix, he was a bit of a basketcase during his first trial, but managed to find a way to get through and develop his skills accordingly. He also had a unique ability to point out exactly when a person was lying on the stand. By using his bracelet, he could focus on little habits that witnesses did which outed them. It could be something simple like tugging on an ear, or fiddling with a page in a book (and yes, witnesses in this game can take everything from books to bowls of borscht with them on the stand), but if Apollo noticed it, he could really run with it. As of now, he only has one game where he is the star.



We also have Miles Edgeworth. Unlike Justice and Wright, Edgeworth became a prosecutor. Initially having the opinion that one had to have a perfect case to win, he changed his ways, and his stoic and defensive nature softened over time. Miles Edgeworth has two games in the series (one released in North America, one in Japan), and in both games, he actually takes on the role of investigator, investigating crime scenes to solve murders, robberies, arson attacks, and smuggling operations. His special power involves something called “Logic”. He can take two pieces of completely different evidence, and join them together to form a new conclusion. Once he has these new conclusions, he can use them to poke holes in the alibis of witnesses everywhere.



Finally, we have to give special attention to the late Mia Fey. She was a lawyer in the game, and although she never had a game of her own, she did take on the role of lawyer in a couple of Ace Attorney games. Tragically, her life was cut short when she was murdered in her own office...but just because her body might be dead didn't mean that her SPIRIT was.

Perhaps one of the biggest selling points for the games is that all six of them are connected to each other in some format, and all the main characters were connected to each other in some way. For instance, Mia Fey's second client was Phoenix Wright. Mia was also Phoenix Wright's mentor during his first trial. Coincidentally, Phoenix Wright eventually became a mentor to Apollo Justice when he began his law career. And, the reason why Phoenix Wright became a lawyer was to track down his childhood friend, Miles Edgeworth.

So, between all the Ace Attorney games, there's a really rich character background present in addition to the number of cases filled with background humour and double entendres...some being a bit sexual in nature, might I add.

(Don't worry...there's no nudity, and there's barely any swearing in the games...but they aren't exactly innocent either.)

So, now that you know a bit about the Ace Attorney series of video games, I bet you're wondering what this has to do with the confession that I am supposed to make on this and every Thursday. Well, I'm getting to that.



You see, part of the whole idea of the game series is to point out contradictions and lies in witnesses. When you spot the point in the game where you know that the witness is lying, you are supposed to press them at certain statements to reveal more testimony, and then present appropriate evidence that confirms that they are in fact, lying. It's a skill that requires a lot of work. Certainly during my first playthrough of Ace Attorney Investigations, I didn't have a perfect game. Far from it, actually. But, that was fine, because I knew that it was a game, and I could always restart the game and start again at the last save point to correct myself. In real life, it isn't quite so cut and dry. If I were a real lawyer, I can't very well walk out of the courtroom, lock the door behind me, and then come back in to start again. It would be pretty ridiculous, right?

But again, there's a reason why I never pursued a career in law.

THURSDAY CONFESSION #11-A: Unlike Phoenix Wright, Apollo Justice, Miles Edgeworth, and Mia Fey, I find it difficult to separate the truth from a barrage of lies. Though I've gotten less gullible over the years, I still find it hard tell the difference between fact and fiction.

(And, yes...this confession is in two parts!)



I don't have a fancy bracelet to hone in on people's habits. I don't have the ability to see Psyche Locks floating around people when they speak. I can't even say that my logic skills are as sharp as Miles Edgeworth's.

I have a horrible time determining whether people are telling the truth or lying through their teeth.

Well, all right, maybe my skills aren't THAT bad. I mean, if someone came up to me and told me that the sky was green, I'd be hard pressed to take them seriously. Or, if someone tried to tell me that they were eighteen when they clearly looked like they were seventy, they'd be pretty hard-pressed to convince me that they were telling the truth.

I'm talking about lies that are more...subtle.

If we just go back to the Ace Attorney games for a minute, would you like to know how long it took me to complete the first case (of which the first case of each game is a tutorial level)? It took me eight hours! Now, to some of you, that might not sound like a lot of time, but when you consider that hard-core gamers have completed the entire GAME in eight hours, that's not a great start.

Specifically, do you know which part of the game really threw me for a loop?



It was the cross-examination period. The one part in the game where you listen to the testimony of the witnesses, and your job is to go in and poke holes in their otherwise flawless alibis.

I admit that I completely sucked at that part. Half the time, I couldn't even figure out where the lie was. When I did spot the contradiction, I was at a loss as to what piece of evidence to present that best proved that they were lying. I ended up getting more “Game Over” screens than I really wanted to admit to.

I hate to say this, but to get through some of the harder cases, I actually used a cheat sheet in order to get through the cross-examination part of the game. That's how terrible I am at picking out lies.

And, that's just a video game! Could you imagine how bad I am at picking out lies in the real world with real people? When I was younger, it was absolutely difficult for me.

In fact, I'm sorry to say that when I was in my school years, I was quite gullible as a kid.

Take the example where kids promise to be your best friend at recess so that they can get their hands on your Oreo cookies, and then once they got what they wanted, went right back to teasing you. You'd think that after the first time, I'd get the point and see through the lies, and never trust them again. But no, this continued on for the whole school year, with me thinking that they would warm up to me. But it was the same. They loved me until the cookies were gone and then they ditched me. But, it was a lesson in trust that I had to learn the hard way.

I also remember a moment in which a couple of kids tried to convince me that I hadn't done my homework that was due in class that day. If I remember correctly, it was a project on snow and ice. It was an activity booklet that I knew that we worked on only during class time. There was no need for us to bring the project home because we only worked on it in class. But yet these two rotten boys had told me that on the day that I was sick the week before, the teacher had told us that the last two pages had to be done for homework. Naturally, the snow and ice project was to be turned in to be marked the very day they told me, and here I was with two blank pages at the end of the book that had nothing on them. I think I grabbed a blue crayon in my haste and started drawing random pictures of igloos to make it look complete before I handed it in.

It wasn't until the teacher handed back our projects that the truth came out. I was the only one who completed the last two pages in the booklet. We hadn't even covered that section in class. And, yet, here I was...the only one in the class who did the last two pages. I felt like an idiot, and I imagine those two boys in the class really thought they were smart for pulling the wool over my eyes. But, then when it came time to complete the booklet, I watched with glee as everyone else in the class did the work that I had done two days earlier. It was almost the perfect karmic retribution.

Even as an adult, I still get tripped up by telling the difference between truth and lies. You know those television shows that sometimes air on the History Channel, or the Syfy Network that have the programs on urban legends? They have three stories that air, each one more unbelievable than the next, and your job is to determine whether the stories are real, or fake. The shows are entertaining, and I admit that I have fun guessing...but unfortunately, watching those shows, I can't seem to tell the difference. Every story that they prove as being false I actually believed happened!

Though admittedly, as I grow older, I grow wiser as well. I'm definitely not as bad as I used to be when it comes to acting in a gullible fashion. I find that I'm much less apt to trust people at their word, especially when it comes to meeting them for the first time. I guess like the characters on the video games that I brought up earlier in this post, I find it a bit easier to tell when certain people are telling me fibs. One way that I can tell when certain people are trying to pull one over on me is through facial expressions. I've noticed that if someone is telling me a lie, they never look at me directly in the eye. Their gaze is almost always to the side, or towards the ceiling or floor. But, it's never direct eye contact. And unless they have a really bad case of lazy eye, chances are that the story they are telling me is not true.

But when the shoe is on the other foot, I find that my poker face is quite terrible.



Um...thank you Lady Gaga, but that's not quite the poker face that I was talking about. I'm talking about the second part of my confession.



THURSDAY CONFESSION #11-B: I make a terrible liar.

I'm absolutely serious about this too. I find it incredibly difficult to tell lies...at least in face to face interactions.

As someone who wants to be a published writer, I imagine the ability to stretch the truth can come in handy when it comes to plotting out character traits and plot devices. And, I most certainly have had people telling various fibs in any pieces that I have written that are not blog related. But when it comes to trying to tell a lie in front of someone face to face, I just can't do it. I don't know what signals I myself give off, but somehow, I always manage to get caught. I make a horrible liar.

I would do absolutely terrible in the game of poker. My bluff face simply isn't that good no matter how hard I try. I understand the mechanics behind poker. I know the difference between a royal flush and a full house. I can tell the difference between a club and a spade, and I do know that a King is a more valuable card than a Jack. What I lack is the ability to hide my disgust over a bad hand, or glee over a good hand. People can read me like a book. I can pretend to act like I have a hand that is totally contradictory to the one I really have, but it is to no avail. I somehow always manage to have people see right through my bluff, and I always lose the hand. Because I'm incapable of lying during a poker game.

Note to all of you. If you are playing poker, please don't invite me...unless you actually want all my money.

That's not a joke, by the way.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

The Berenstain Bears

It’s always hard to hear the news of somebody passing away, especially when they were someone who has such a positive influence on your childhood.  I recently experienced a moment like this a couple of weeks ago.

Although I never got to physically meet this woman or her husband, their contributions to the world of children’s literature definitely had a strong impact on my childhood.  It kind of leaves me with a bit of a hole in my heart, knowing that both of them are gone, knowing that they will never be able to create any new stories with the family of characters that made them stars in the world of literature.  Their stories and books were so influential in my childhood, and I will never forget the fond memories I had reading their books.


On February 24, 2012, we said goodbye to author Janice Berenstain.  She was 88 years old.  Her husband, Stanley, had passed away seven years earlier in 2005. 

Of course, most of you would probably know them best as Stan and Jan Berenstain, the creators of the Berenstain Bear book series.


Let me tell you how huge the Berenstain Bear book franchise became.  The first Berenstain Bears book was printed fifty years ago, in 1962.  It was a little book known as “The Big Honey Hunt”.  Over the course of the next fifty years, the Berenstain Bears library would contain upwards of 300 titles!  And, I imagine that of all those titles, I probably have read at least half of them.

The story behind how the partnership between Stan and Jan came to be is quite touching and inspiring.  Back when Janice Berenstain was known as Janice Grant, she met Stanley Berenstain in 1941.  They were both classmates at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art, and the two of them became fast friends.  They were temporarily separated when Stan went to work as a medical illustrator for the Army while Janice worked as a riveter during World War II.  They were reunited as soon as the war ended in 1945, and just months later, in April 1946, they got married.

The couple would end up having two children, Michael and Leo, and the couple initially started their careers as art teachers.  But, both Stan and Jan really wanted to break out into the world of cartooning and getting published.  They eventually got their first big break selling illustrations to various publications, including Good Housekeeping, McCall’s, The Saturday Evening Post, and Collier’s.  In 1951, shortly after the birth of Leo, but before the birth of Michael, the Berenstains wrote and published their first book, “Berenstain’s Baby Book”.  More books would follow, and many of them were geared towards parents, and offered tips, advice, and guidance for parents on how to raise children. 

That was fine and dandy for the adult population.  But it wasn’t until the 1960s that the Berenstains would venture into their most successful venture. 

Writing for children.

They immediately agreed upon deciding to write a children’s book that the main character would be bears.  According to Stan’s reasoning, the reason why bears were chosen was because they were fairly easy to draw.  But Stan also admitted that when it came to fleshing out the details of the main characters, he noted that the female bears were very good at mothering, while the male bears were terrible fathers.  I suppose this explains why Mama Bear was always depicted as the main disciplinarian, while Papa Bear was kind of a bumbling dolt upon hearing Stan’s explanation.  There was also a small bear cub that was originally named Small Bear.  He would eventually get a name change as the popularity of the Berenstain Bear series increased, but we’ll talk more about that a little later.

Would you believe that the first story idea that the Berenstains came up with starring the Berenstain Bears was a 1957 tale with the title “Freddy Bear’s Spanking”?  Try selling that title to a book publisher these days!


They had sent the manuscript of the story to another well known author, Theodor Geisel (a.k.a. Dr. Seuss), who himself had gotten a job as an editor for Random House’s Beginner Books, after having success of his own with “The Cat In The Hat”.  While Geisel took the manuscript, he also challenged the Berenstains to make improvements on their writing and to connect with their readers on a deeper level.

It would take five years before the manuscript was edited enough for Geisel’s liking (which if I read the information about it correctly meant that the entire subject and plot changed), but eventually, the project turned into the 1962 book “The Big Honey Hunt”. 


Would you believe that “The Big Honey Hunt” was originally intended to be a one-off tale?  Geisel believed that because there were too many bear references in popular media (The Three Bears, Yogi Bear, etc) for the Berenstain Bears to make much of an impact.  He even told the Berenstain Bears to come up with a story involving a different set of animals altogether!  Sure enough, the Berenstains went to work on creating a story involving penguins!  Those plans were soon abandoned when Geisel realized that “The Big Honey Hunt” was selling extremely well.  He told the Berenstains to continue using the bears as characters, which was a good thing, because I really don’t think the Berenstain Penguins would have worked quite as well.

Thus, the Berenstain Bears were born.


Each story was set in the fictional Bear Country.  The bears lived in a giant treehouse (literally, it was a house built inside a huge tree), and originally, the earliest books would revolve around Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Small Bear.  But over the course of the series, two more bears would join the family.  In 1974, the Berenstain Bears wrote the story “The Berenstain Bears’ New Baby”, after getting dozens of letters from young girls begging them to put in a girl bear.  In the book, we see the arrival of a new female bear cub, named Sister Bear.  With the arrival of Sister Bear, the character of Small Bear became “Brother Bear”.  In the year 2000, a third bear cub would join the family named “Honey Bear”, who was born in the book “The Berenstain Bears and Baby Make Five”.


TRIVIA:  Honey Bear was given her name by a fan who won a contest that was held to name the baby in 2000.

I think it’s a safe bet to say that children who have been born over the last five decades have read at least one book featuring the Berenstain Bears.  The books sold almost three hundred million copies all over the world, and have been translated into 23 different languages.  And, believe it or not, two Berenstain Bears television series were created as a result of the incredible popularity of the book series.  Aside from the five prime time specials that aired between 1979 and 1983, the first television series was a part of CBS’ Saturday Morning line-up between 1985 and 1987, and it was the series that I remember best.  Here’s the intro for the 1985 series below.


And, below this paragraph, you can watch the 2003 revamp of the series, which aired exclusively on most PBS stations.


I should note that while there were some original stories that were created specifically for the television shows, in both the 1985 and 2003 versions, the cartoons sometimes were animated adaptations of past books.  If you want to you can click on the titles in this paragraph to watch an episode of each version.  You can watch “The Berenstain Bears and the Messy Room” from 1985, as well as “The Berenstain Bears Get The Gimmies” from 2003.

TRIVIA:  Ruth Buzzi voiced Mama Bear in the 1985 version, while actor Michael Cera voiced Brother Bear in the 2003 version.

But while the Berenstain Bears series was well-loved by children, it was subject to a lot of criticism as well.  Critics lambasted the series, and amongst some of the most negative adjectives that were used for the series were “syrupy”, “formulaic”, “hokey”, “abominable”, and “unsatisfying”.

Well, you know what I have to say about that?  Screw the naysayers.  I happen to love the Berenstain Bears.  I still do at the age of 30.  They were awesome books, and I can’t remember a time in which I didn’t like a Berenstain Bears book.  Those bears helped me learn so much about myself.  I’d like to think that they also taught me a lot of life lessons and morals along the way that made me who I am today.  Over the years, the Berenstain Bears have evolved with the times.  In the earliest bear stories, the bears dealt with issues such as going to the dentist or going to school for the first time, but over the years, they would also face the topics of peer pressure, cheating, poor sportsmanship, and even online bullying.  And, yet, every book had Brother and Sister (and sometimes Papa and Mama too) learning something about themselves.  And, the more they learned, the more we readers learned.

So, to try and come up with a list of my five favourite Berenstain Bear books is almost impossible for me to do.  There were so many to choose from, and I loved every single one I read.  But, in the end, I came up with these five.  Maybe you’ll agree, and maybe you won’t.  But, somehow, these five books always stuck with me. 


1 – THE BERENSTAIN BEARS GO TO THE DOCTOR (1981)

I think that this book was the one book that allowed me to get over my fear of doctors and hospitals.  I used to hate sitting in the waiting room of the doctors office, or the wait area of the emergency room at the hospital.  They just always seemed like creepy places to be in.  Ironically enough, the first time I ever read this book was in the waiting room for a doctor’s appointment.  When I read about Brother and Sister Bear going through a doctor’s visit with a check-up, it certainly eased my fears.  Seeing Brother and Sister undergoing reflex tests, and having the doctor listen to their heartbeats, and checking their ears eased my fears.  And, I still state that watching Sister getting a shot without the slightest pain helped me overcome my fear of needles.  After all, if Sister could get a shot without flinching, I could too.   There’s also a surprise ending involving Papa Bear that made me laugh.


2 – THE BIKE LESSON (1964)

This book was actually the second book that featured the Berenstain Bears, and it happens to also be one of my all-time favourites, if for no reason being that you really felt terrible for Papa Bear.  In the story, Papa Bear tries to teach Small Bear how to ride a bicycle, but all of his efforts usually lead to Papa Bear getting into one mishap after another.  One mishap actually involves him getting stuck in a chimney!  I’m still trying to figure out how that happened!


3 – THE BERENSTAIN BEARS AND THE TRUTH (1983)

I include this one because if memory serves me, it was the very first Berenstain Bears book that I ever read.  In the book, Brother and Sister are playing ball inside the house (which is against the rules), and somehow, they end up breaking Mama’s ugly green and blue lamp into a hundred pieces.  Knowing that their mother would be very upset if she knew that they had broken it, they decide to fabricate a story where a bird flies through the window and breaks the lamp.  But when Brother and Sister can’t seem to get their stories straight, the lie is exposed, and the cubs learn a very valuable lesson about trust.


4 – THE BERENSTAIN BEARS AND THE IN-CROWD (1989)

I love this book because it deals with a subject that I faced several times in my youth.  When a new girl named Queenie arrives at Sister’s school, Queenie makes fun of her, and tells her that she just isn’t cool.  And when Sister’s friends ditch her to be just like Queenie, Sister faces the dilemma of peer pressure.  Will she change herself to be just like Queenie too, or will she decide that being Sister is enough?  Definitely check this book out.


5 – THE BERENSTAIN BEARS LEARN ABOUT STRANGERS (1985)

This book is just as important for parents to read along with their children, as it deals with a potentially scary subject, but is worded in a way that young children can understand.  Sister Bear has always been a friendly sort, but Brother Bear worries that Sister shouldn’t talk to everybody she meets on the street.  But after Sister sees a headline about missing cubs in the newspaper, Sister soon sees the world as a very scary place.  It takes Mama to try and calm Sister down by informing her about strangers (using apples as a visual aid).  Mama’s lesson proves to be effective for Sister and when Sister spots Brother getting into a precarious situation involving a stranger, it’s up to Sister to act.  Again, I highly recommend this book to parents as a tool to educate their children on this very serious subject.


It seems almost mind-boggling to me that the Berenstain Bears have been around for fifty years!  Although Stan and Jan are no longer with us, their sons have carried on the tradition, with Mike consulting on Berenstain Bears books after Stan’s death.  Although there has not been a new Berenstain Bears book since 2011, I wouldn’t count out the possibility of the Berenstain children carrying on the tradition.

At least, I only hope so.  The Berenstain Bears are too good to let go of.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

March 13, 1939

I think that the Tuesday Timeline is becoming one of my favourite days to write this blog, mostly because depending on the day, I can find out some interesting information about a lot of different topics that I may not have known before.

We’ll get to the main subject of today’s flashback through time in just a minute, but since today is the thirteenth of March, I thought that I would take a look back on significant events that happened on this date years, decades, even centuries ago.

So, on this date during each of the following years...

1639 – Harvard College is named after clergyman John Howard

1781 – Astronomer William Herschel discovers the planet Uranus

1881 – Alexander II of Russia is killed when a bomb launched near his palace detonates

1897 – San Diego State University is founded

1921 – Mongolia declares independence from China

1925 – Tennessee law prohibits teaching of evolution in wake of Scopes trial

1938 – World News Roundup is presented for the first time on CBS Radio

1964 – Kitty Genovese is murdered in New York City in front of neighbours who reportedly did nothing to stop it, prompting research into the bystander effect

1988 – The Seiken Tunnel, the largest undersea tunnel in the world, is opened in Japan

1996 – A school shooting in Dunblane, Scotland leaves a teacher and sixteen children dead

2008 – The price of gold on the New York Mercantile Exchange reaches a value of $1,000 an ounce, the first time in its history

So, those are the events that happened on March 13th.  Some were happy memories, while others were quite tragic.  But, none of those entries are the subject for today.

We’re also not going to feature anybody who has died on this date, although we have had a few famous faces who took their final breath on the thirteenth of March.  Amongst some are American president Benjamin Harrison (1901), Clarence Darrow (1938), Maureen Stapleton and Peter Tomarken (both 2006).

So, by process of elimination, it’s become apparent that the subject of today’s blog happens to have a March 13th birthdate.  And, this is very much true.

Unfortunately, I only have time to talk about one famous face.  So if your name happens to be William H. Macy, Dana Delany, Kathy Hilton, Adam Clayton, Annabeth Gish, Common, Danny Masterson, Toccara Jones, or Emile Hirsch, I am sorry to say that you are not the subject of this blog entry.  I would however like to wish all of you a happy birthday, as well as everyone else in the world celebrating a birthday today.

So, what’s the date that we’ll be looking back on?


March 13, 1939.

It was on this date seventy-three years ago today that a singer was born in Brooklyn, New York.  And, the accomplishments of this singer are nothing short of extraordinary.  His singing career has spanned SEVEN decades now, and at the age of 73, he shows absolutely no sign of slowing down.  He formed his first band when he was a teenager, had his first song published at the age of sixteen, recorded many of his hits in no less than six different languages, wrote songs for several artists, and has had a total of eight Top 10 hits, three of which hit #1.  In fact, if you watch the video below, you can hear one of his #1 songs below.



ARTIST:  Neil Sedaka
SONG:  Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
ALBUM:  Neil Sedaka Sings His Greatest Hits
DATE RELEASED:  June 30, 1962
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS:  #1 for 2 weeks

The song above is the 1962 classic “Breaking Up Is Hard To Do”, the first #1 hit for singer/songwriter Neil Sedaka.


Neil Sedaka also happens to be the subject for the Tuesday Timeline this week.

Born in Brooklyn on March 13, 1939, Neil Sedaka knew at an early age that he wanted to have a life that was surrounded with music.  When Neil was in the second grade, his performance in his choral class impressed his teacher so much, she recommended to his parents that Neil take up piano lessons.  Neil’s mother took a part-time job at a department store for six months to be able to buy Neil a second-hand piano for him to play on.  In 1947, when Neil was just eight years old, he successfully auditioned for a piano scholarship to the Julliard School of Music’s Prepatory Division for Children, of which Neil attended on weekends.  Though his parents were proud of Neil’s accomplishments and talents with the piano, their interests greatly differed.  His mother would have loved nothing more than to see her son make a living as a classical pianist, but unfortunately for her, Neil was more interested in the pop music scene, and opted to follow that path.


In 1952, when Neil was thirteen, he befriended a young man three years older than him named Howard Greenfield, who aspired to make a career in either poetry or writing song lyrics.  With Neil’s natural talent in playing music, and Greenfield’s natural ability to create song lyrics, it wasn’t long before their friendship turned into a business partnership.

When Sedaka graduated from high school, he formed a band with some of his classmates, a group known as “The Tokens”.  The band had some minor hits, but ironically enough, it wasn’t until Sedaka ventured out on a solo career in the late 1950s that the band would have their first mainstream success with a #1 hit titled “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”.  But that was fine, as Sedaka would have his own success in music.

It just took Neil some time for his name to get out there.

His first three singles were released between 1958 and 1959, and all three singles didn’t make much of an impression on the charts, although his single “Ring-A-Rockin’” did make enough of an impression for Dick Clark to invite him onto his show, “American Bandstand”.  His early singles also attracted the attention of record label RCA Victor, who immediately signed Sedaka to a recording contract.


It was also around this time that Sedaka, along with Howard Greenfield, began writing songs for other artists at the time.  One of these artists was singer Connie Francis (whose song “Where The Boys Are” was written by Sedaka and Greenfield).  One day, Neil Sedaka spotted Connie’s diary lying out in the open during a session of brainstorming for a new song.  He asked Connie if he could look at it (whether it was for ideas or whether he just wanted to be nosy though was not made clear).  Connie refused to let Neil anywhere near the diary.  I can see her point.  Would YOU want some strange young man reading your private thoughts?  And, no, your Facebook status updates don’t count!

However, this incident inspired Neil to write a song entitled “The Diary”, which would eventually become his first single for RCA.  And, to Neil’s surprise, the song did modestly well on the charts, peaking at #14.  But after his next two singles barely made an impact on the charts, Sedaka decided to buy a whole bunch of records containing the top hits on the charts and figured out that each of the songs followed a specific formula.  So for his next release, he decided to try and emulate the formula as best he could, and it ended up being successful.  The next release from Sedaka, “Oh, Carol!” became Sedaka’s first American Top 10 hit, peaking at #9.  In Italy, the song did even better, landing on the top of the charts.


TRIVIA:  The song “Oh, Carol!” was written for Neil’s girlfriend at the time.  Singer/songwriter Carole King.

By the early 1960s, Neil Sedaka was on a roll.  He released several singles between 1960 and 1963.  “Breaking Up Is Hard To Do”, as mentioned before, was Sedaka’s first #1 hit.  But other songs did quite well.  “Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen” peaked at #6 on the charts.  “Next Door To An Angel” made it to #5 in 1962.  And, “Calendar Girl” also became a Top 5 smash, peaking at #4 in 1961.  “Calendar Girl” was also a notable song because it was one of the earliest songs with an accompanying music video (though back in those days, they were known as ‘Scopitones’ or ‘Cinebox’).  Below is the Scopitone of “Calendar Girl”.


I know what you’re thinking...quite scary upon retrospect, no?  But, again, it was the early 1960s.


But by 1964, Sedaka’s popularity seemed to waver, at least in the United States.  In other parts of the world, Sedaka was still considered to be an icon of sorts.  In particular, Sedaka really had a number of fans in Italy.  Sedaka was so impressed by the loyalty of his Italian fans that he re-recorded some of his biggest hits in Italian.  And, that wasn’t the only language he recorded songs in.  Aside from English and Italian, Sedaka also managed to record songs in Spanish, Japanese, German, and Hebrew (Sedaka was born with a Jewish background). 

However, with the arrival of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones onto the music scene, Sedaka found it quite difficult to compete.  He still recorded albums and singles throughout the 1960s, but he failed to make as huge of an impact as he once had just a few years earlier.  And, Sedaka’s record company also seemed to lose faith in him, actually refusing to release his single “It Hurts To Be In Love” because he didn’t record it in their studios.  The song was offered to singer Gene Pitney.

So, throughout the late 1960s and into the 1970s, Sedaka was more or less ignored on the pop charts...at least as a singer.  He did, however, make an impact as a songwriter.  The Monkees ended up recording a couple of songs he had wrote, and Sedaka also wrote hits for The Cyrkle, Patti Drew, and The 5th Dimension.  I should also note that while his success in America was at an all-time low, Sedaka was still widely popular in the United Kingdom, and Australia.

But then a funny thing happened.  At some point during the 1970s, Neil Sedaka’s popularity got a second wind.


It all began around 1972 when Sedaka began touring with a band (who would come to be known as 10cc), and during this time, recorded the album “Solitaire”.  Solitaire was a modest hit, and the album spawned the modest hit “Beautiful You”, which charted in America, the first time in ten years that Neil had a song chart on the Billboard Charts.  It should also be noted that while Sedaka's version of the title track from “Solitaire” did not chart, it was covered by Andy Williams who did have a hit with the song.


Two years later, Sedaka would sign a contract with Rocket Records, a record label started up by Elton John in 1972.  Immediately upon signing the contract, Sedaka released an album in the United States under the title “Sedaka’s Back”.  The album was actually a compilation of the various albums he had released in the United Kingdom.  And, the first single release from the album helped Sedaka get his second #1 hit thirteen years after his first.


“Laughter In The Rain” peaked at #1 in early 1975, and the single was highly regarded as a comeback single for Sedaka.  During the mid-1970s, Sedaka would have a creative renaissance of sorts.  His 1975 single “The Immigrant” was critically praised.  A 1975 remake of his classic song “Breaking Up Is Hard To Do” was also a chart-topper (making Sedaka one of the few artists to have the same song hit #1 twice), and in 1976, he had another #1 single with “Bad Blood” (which had Elton John providing background vocals).  And, many artists also found success with Sedaka’s songs, as both Elvis Presley and The Carpenters found success with their own versions of Sedaka’s “Solitaire”.

By the time the 1980s rolled around, Sedaka’s second chance was winding down, and his chart success soon faded once more.  His last Top 20 hit was in 1980, a duet he recorded with his daughter titled “Should’ve Never Let You Go”.  By 1985, Sedaka was once again without a recording contract.  In 1986, his longtime friend and collaborator, Howard Greenfield, passed away, just days before his 50th birthday. 


But Neil Sedaka is still a huge force in the world of music.  With Sedaka turning 73 today, he shows no sign of slowing down.  He was inducted into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame in 1983, was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2006.  As of this writing, the only honour Sedaka has yet to achieve is being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, though thousands of fans have reportedly launched a campaign to see that he gets recognized with the honour before long.

And, I think ultimately that is what keeps Sedaka in the spotlight.  The fans.

And, Sedaka seems to still be with it when it comes to making appearances to keep his name fresh on people’s minds.  In 2003, he made an appearance on “American Idol” as the guest judge and mentor to the final five contestants of Season 2.  Sedaka was particularly impressed by contestants Kimberley Locke (who sang the Connie Francis song “Where The Boys Are”), and Clay Aiken’s performance of “Solitaire”.  Aiken’s performance reportedly was so well done that a visibly moved Sedaka passed ownership of the song to Aiken, even offering to record the single should Clay not win the competition!


So, Clay recorded the song “Solitaire”, and it became the top-selling single of 2004!  So, not only was Clay Aiken getting huge success, but so was Neil Sedaka.

And Neil Sedaka’s latest recordings were a couple of duets with singer Jim Van Slyke in August 2011, which means that Neil Sedaka’s career has spanned the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s.  That’s SEVEN decades!

Really, when looking back on March 13th, Neil Sedaka was the perfect choice for a subject.  He really shows all of us that we can all have success...at any age, and we can also have a second chance, a third chance, even a fourth chance, to become relevant and respected.


That’s our look back on March 13, 1939.  I hope you enjoyed the trip!

Monday, March 12, 2012

Despicable Me

It has been in my experience that for the most part, there is absolutely nobody on this Earth who is one hundred per cent good, or one hundred per cent evil. 

Well, okay, I suppose there are notable exceptions.  Adolf Hitler, Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein...I really am struggling to find an ounce of goodness in any of those men whatsoever.

For the most part, I believe this to be the truth.  I can’t say that I myself am one hundred per cent good, because I know that would be an absolute lie.  I definitely try to be kind to others, and treat others with respect, but sometimes, it’s not easy to do...particularly if there is somebody constantly pushing your buttons.  Mind you, I’m not likely going to push somebody down a flight of stairs, or tamper with the brakes on their car.  I don’t have it in me to be that evil.  But, at the same time, if there is someone who I don’t particularly like for whatever reason, I don’t hold my feelings back.  And, you know, I think most of us who are generally law-abiding citizens who are kind and respectful are capable of having a mean streak.  It’s really all about self-control as far as I’m concerned.

It also works the other way.  Just as mostly good people can possess some unsavoury qualities that could be frowned upon, I also believe that people who are judged as bad can have some good in them.  Why, today’s edition of the Monday Matinee features a man who is exactly that.  By all accounts, he is a self-confessed super-villain who causes all sorts of evil and mayhem in the world, all for the purpose of getting people to fear him.  But, when you peel back the layers of rottenness, you might be surprised to find that he not only has a soft side, but he seems to show it a lot more often than you’d think he would.


I’d like to introduce you to a man named Gru.  He’s got a huge nose, an even larger ego, and a desire to steal things.  His ambition is to be respected as the super-villain he desperately wants to be (even though villainous behaviour and respect aren’t usually synonymous with each other). 

The only problem is that Gru isn’t very good at it.


We learn this by watching the first few minutes of the animated movie “Despicable Me”, the subject of today’s blog.

Released in theatres nationwide in 2D and 3D on July 9, 2010 and directed by Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud, “Despicable Me” features the voice talents of Steve Carell, Russell Brand, Jason Segel, Will Arnett, and Miranda Cosgrove (who younger readers of this blog might know from the sitcom “iCarly” as well as the song release below).  






The film made over five hundred million dollars worldwide, making it one of the biggest movies of 2010.  Miranda's single did not.  But that's another topic altogether.

Anyway, Gru (Carell) tries his best to be as bad as he could.  With his secret laboratory hidden away in suburbia, Gru plots to steal all of the landmarks of the world.  But, as I stated before, he just isn’t that good at it.  His idea of stealing landmarks like the Eiffel Tower is taking the model version from the famous casino in Las Vegas.  Sure, he has his team of “minions” (little yellow creatures with glasses and blue jumpsuits with limited vocabulary) cheering him on, as well as the technical support of his friend, Dr. Nefario (Brand), even though Nefario is hard of hearing and not really at his prime.

But, when Gru’s plot to steal the Great Pyramid of Giza is foiled after a new villain who goes by the name of Vector (Segel), ends up getting there first, Gru’s pride is shattered. 


But however down Gru was about losing the chance to own an ancient pyramid, he was not defeated yet.  He had a childhood desire to build a spaceship and board it.  Then, armed with a ray gun that had the power to shrink things, he would use the ray on the moon, shrink it to the size of a pebble, and steal the moon.  It was a great plan, and Gru believed in himself enough to know that if given the opportunity.

The problem was that the opportunity required a ton of cash to make happen.  And, poor Gru was as broke as a cheap dinner plate.  To further complicate things, the bank manager of the Bank of Evil (Arnett) refused to give Gru a loan large enough for him to build his spaceship. 

However, if Gru managed to obtain the shrink ray that was another key element of Gru’s original plan, the bank manager told Gru that he may reconsider giving him the loan he wanted.  So, Gru’s next move was to get the shrink ray.

The shrink ray is kept inside of a secret base in the middle of Asia, and Gru and his minions manage to get their hands on the ray without any trouble...


...and then one minute later, Vector arrives on the scene and steals the gun from Gru.

Angered that Vector has bested him once again, Gru does his best to try to infiltrate Vector’s hideout, but cannot find a way to thwart his sophisticated traps.  It seems all is lost.

Well, that is until Gru manages to see that a trio of young girls happens to get inside the front door.  Apparently, they had cookies to sell, and Vector happens to have a sweet tooth.


And the appearance of the young girls gives Gru a rather wicked scheme.  Figuring out rather quickly that the three girls are orphans, Gru did some thinking and came up with a solution.  If he went to the orphanage where the three girls came from, and adopted them as his own, then he could use them to get access to the shrink ray needed for Gru to get the loan from the bank.

On the surface, it sounds like a really crummy thing to do, even for someone like Gru.  But, then again, Gru always wanted to be seen as a super-villain, and certainly using three young girls as a manner to get something that he wanted for himself qualifies as being quite villainous. 

So, Gru files the necessary paperwork to bring home the three girls.  There’s Agnes (Elsie Fisher), Edith (Dana Gaier), and Margo (Cosgrove), and at first, Edith and Agnes are excited to finally have a home to call their own.  Margo, though, is sceptical.  She doesn’t really trust Gru at all, and basically sees him as being a rather oafish and self-centered character (which, granted at first that’s exactly what Gru is). 


And Gru quickly realizes that becoming the instant father of three young girls is not as easy as he thought it would be.  As much as Gru wanted to do nothing more than be the #1 super-villain in the whole world, between the ballet classes, and school, and taking care of the basic needs of Margo, Edith, and Agnes are almost an impossibility.  But despite his uneasiness (and general apathy towards becoming a responsible parent), Gru sticks with it.

Why wouldn’t he?  Those girls were the ticket to getting the shrink ray back from Vector.

Needless to say, the girls prove to be a huge help for Gru, as Gru easily manages to steal the shrink ray back from Vector.  The girls are so proud of themselves for being able to help Gru out that they suggest an idea to celebrate.  Since there is an amusement park in town, the girls persuade Gru to take them there for a day of fun.  Gru agrees, thinking that he can now abandon the girls at the park since he had what he wanted.

But then an event takes place at the park that makes Gru rethink his plan.


When Agnes spots a giant unicorn doll available as a prize, she immediately wants it.  And with pleading from Margo and Edith, Gru gives them the money to try to win the prize.  But when it becomes obvious that the scheming game operator has rigged the game to make it impossible to win, it causes Gru to react in a rather uncharacteristic way for him.


I mean, sure, the idea that Gru had a weapon powerful enough to make an entire carnival game blow up can be seen as dangerous and evil.  But the fact that Gru used his power to do something nice for Agnes really was uncharacteristic for Gru.  But, it was in that moment that Gru realized that maybe having the girls made him happier. 

If there was any doubt about Gru’s change of heart regarding his feelings for the girls, it was erased following Gru’s second attempt at getting the loan for his spaceship.  As it turned out, the president of the Bank of Evil wouldn’t have given Gru the money anyways, because we learn a little later on in the film that the president of the bank has a son named Victor Perkins.  But, Gru knows him best under the name of (spoiler alert) Vector!

So, Gru is still without the money necessary to complete his ultimate plan to shrink the moon, and he is very unhappy...

...that is until Margo, Edith, and Agnes do something incredibly nice.  They gather all of the money that they have saved inside their piggy bank to help Gru finance his spaceship project.  This causes Gru to make some sacrifices of his own.  He dismantles part of his lair to help build his spaceship, and newly inspired, he comes up with his foolproof plan to steal the moon.  Gru figures that the best chance he has to make the plan a guaranteed success is to act on the very day that the moon was closest to the Earth. 


The only flaw in his perfect plan was the fact that the girls had a very important ballet recital booked on the SAME EXACT DAY.  Hence the quandary that Gru faced.  Would he continue on with his life-long ambition to steal the moon, with the risk of destroying the trust that he had built with Margo, Edith, and Agnes?  Or would he abandon the very dream that he had since childhood to do the right thing and watch his girls dance on stage?

And when Vector strikes again, hitting Gru where it really hurt, would Gru be able to find a way to stop Vector, while simultaneously being in two places at once?

You’re going to have to watch the movie yourselves to find out the answer.

However, I think I’ve posted enough information in this review of “Despicable Me” to give you a bit of an idea that leads back to my opening paragraph.  Just as it’s impossible for almost everybody to be completely good...in the case of Gru, he showed in many ways that underneath his super-villain exterior beats a heart of pure gold.

Well, okay, maybe not pure gold.  Gold-plated perhaps.

And, I just found out news that a sequel to “Despicable Me” is in the works, slated for a July 2013 release.  So, the story of Gru and his girls continues...