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Friday, March 30, 2012

The Trouble With Two and a Half Men

While it would be nice to think that a show can run for several years keeping the same exact cast of characters from start to finish, it usually doesn’t end up that way.

The truth is that the average television show (particularly over the last 20 years or so) has one or more high-profile cast changes during the course of the show’s run.

In many cases, actors and actresses leave on their own accord.  Charlotte Rae left “The Facts Of Life” in 1986, and the show ran until 1988.  Marg Helgenberger recently left “CSI” after nearly eleven seasons.  And Thomas Calabro was the only original cast member of “Melrose Place” to stay on the show’s entire seven season run.

Sometimes, a cast member will pass away during filming.  Jim Davis’ death in 1981 was a sad occurance, but “Dallas” ran without Jock Ewing for ten more seasons.  David Strickland died under unusual circumstances in 1999, which lead to the show “Suddenly Susan” becoming suddenly revamped.  And, the bailiff in “Night Court” was replaced three times, due to the deaths of the two original actresses (Selma Diamond and Florence Halop).

But what happens when an actor gets fired from a show?  What happens then?

In quite a few cases, the show does have to reinvent itself, but manages to continue on for years.  It happened on “The Hogan Family” when Valerie Harper was fired.  She was replaced by Sandy Duncan, and the show ran for four additional years.  I did a blog entry on that situation back in the summer of 2011, if you’re interested in reading that story, but that isn’t what the blog is about.

No, today’s blog topic will be about a television show that is a little more recent.  So recent that it is still currently airing.

The show suffered a major setback between season eight and season nine, where one of the main stars was fired after a series of bizarre events in the media.  Because the main character was such a key element in the show, a lot of people wondered if the show would go on without him there. 

But, the producers came up with the solution to bring in a new character, and the show went on.  But, is it really any good?  I’ll answer that a little later.


This is the story of “Two and a Half Men”, and the aftermath of the Charlie Sheen scandal of 2011.


As most of you know, “Two and a Half Men” debuted on CBS in September 2003, and when it debuted, it starred Jon Cryer, Angus T. Jones, and Charlie Sheen.

Remember that final name.  It’s an important one in this entry.


Anyway, the main plot of the show revolved around Charlie Sheen’s character (appropriately enough also named Charlie.)  Charlie Harper was a jingle writer for commercials and television programs, and apparently he made a decent living at it.  He lived in a beautiful beach house on the Malibu coast, and he was well-off enough to be able to afford to hire a housekeeper, Berta (Conchata Ferrell).  On the surface, Charlie had it all.

The only problem was that he was a self-centered horndog who treated women as if they were golden trophies.


If we tallied up the number of women Charlie had slept with both before, and on the show, it would likely be in the hundreds, if not thousands.  During his entire run, Charlie would have his fill with whatever his flavour of the week was, and then cast them out in the cold when a new one came along.  It certainly didn’t make Charlie look like an angelic saint of a character, but he wasn’t supposed to be either.  But somehow, Chuck Lorre, and the rest of the production and writing crew made up for it by giving Charlie likeable personality traits.  On some level, Charlie could be pathetic, but he could also be quite sharp and sarcastic as well.


And, besides, Charlie lived the bachelor life on the coast of a beautiful beach.  Sure, he had a stalker named Rose (Melanie Lynskey), but most times, he could outsmart her.  Life was good for Charlie.

That is until his brother and nephew became homeless and needed a place to live.


Enter Charlie’s wet, cold fish of a brother, chiropractor Alan Harper (Cryer) and his pre-teen son, Jake (Jones), a boy whose personality seems more like his uncle Charlie than his father.  Alan’s ex-wife, Judith (Marin Hinkle) kicked Alan out, and Alan decides to ask Charlie if they could stay.  Charlie reluctantly agreed, thinking that at most, they would be staying for a day...eight at the most.

As of March 2012, Alan and Jake are STILL there.


Certainly, the family unit between Charlie, Alan, and Jake was a rather original one.  Many of the plotlines in the show dealt with a lot of the relationships in the series.  We saw Jake grow from boy to man over the course of the show’s run.  Unfortunately for Alan, this meant that we saw Jake grow into a man that was more like Charlie.  Of course, we also saw moments in which Jake and Alan got along as well.  Charlie and Alan’s relationship mirrored the relationship that a lot of brothers have.  Deep down, you know they care about each other, and would do anything for the other one, but they still find time to poke fun at each other.  Charlie would frequently make fun of Alan from his dress style, to his lack of romance, to his gullibility...well, just about everything, really.  But Alan often gave it as good as he took it, constantly lecturing Charlie on his promiscuous nature, and his careless attitude.


Oh, and whenever their mother (Holland Taylor) came for a visit, you could always count on Alan and Charlie to team up to try and survive her biting tongue and scathing criticism.

For eight seasons, this was the formula of almost every episode, and it worked really well.  The show often won the ratings war in its Monday night time slot, and The New York Times called “Two and a Half Men” the biggest hit comedy of the past decade.  And, considering that creator Chuck Lorre also created “Dharma & Greg”, “The Big Bang Theory”, and “Mike & Molly”, that’s one idea of a crowning achievement.

But then came the winter of 2010/11, where Charlie Sheen’s “winning” attitude came back to bite him.

Unless you were living in a cave during that time (well, actually, during that time, I was in a hospital bed recovering from surgery, so I didn’t know about it until after I was discharged), you know the story.  In January 2011, Charlie Sheen entered a rehabilitation center for the third time in less than a year.  As a result of that, the filming of the show was put on what was meant to be a temporary hiatus.  But, just a few weeks later, things really snowballed out of control.

During a radio interview on the Alex Jones show in February 2011, Charlie Sheen made several derogatory comments directed towards Chuck Lorre.  I won’t repeat them here, because after reading them on various sites that detailed the fight, I have difficulty making any sense out of it.  But, trust me.  His words were quite vicious in nature.  It almost seemed as though Charlie Sheen almost wanted the show to get cancelled! 

According to past reports, it wouldn’t have been much of a shock if that was what Charlie was doing.  Reports stated that Charlie wanted off the show at the conclusion of season seven in 2010.  When he signed on for two more years on May 18, 2010, we all believed that Sheen had a change of heart.  But, on February 24, 2011, Lorre, Warner Brothers, and CBS had enough.  That day, it was decided that the last four episodes of the eighth season would not be filmed, and the season would end prematurely.  Just a few days later on March 7, 2011, Sheen was officially fired from “Two and a Half Men”, leading to dozens of rants about tiger blood, how he was “winning”, and how much he disliked Jon Cryer (though he would later half-apologize for his remarks).  He also launched a stand-up tour which got mixed reviews.

There was much speculation about what the future of the show was around the time Sheen was shown the door.  Many viewers (including myself, come to think of it) expected the show to be cancelled.  You just couldn’t have “Two and a Half Men without Charlie Sheen!  I mean, Jon Cryer is a fantastic actor, and I’ve been a fan of his since he appeared in “Pretty in Pink”...but he and Sheen made such a fantastic double act.  With one of them gone, I couldn’t see Cryer carrying the show by himself, as talented as he was. 


But then the decision was made to bring in a new character named Walden Schmidt, played by “That 70s Show” star, Ashton Kutcher.  The show would go on with a new character joining the current cast. 

But, how would they bring him in?


Simple.  Since Charlie Sheen was fired, his character Charlie Harper obviously wasn’t coming back.  So, they kill him off in one of the most bizarre ways possible, leaving Alan and Jake with the house.  Naturally, Alan can’t afford to keep the house, because I guess chiropractors don’t have the salary to keep a home in Malibu.

Enter billionaire Walden Schmidt, who becomes Alan’s best friend.  Walden, broken-hearted over a failed marriage, decides to buy Charlie’s house, and moves in with Alan, Jake, and Berta, and thus, season nine was born.


But, here’s the thing.  I’m not enjoying the new “Two and a Half Men”.  It’s not the same without Charlie.  I believe Ashton Kutcher is trying his best, and with his marriage to Demi Moore ending right around the time he joined the show, I imagine that it probably wasn’t the best time for him in his personal life.  But, as a new character, I think Walden falls flat.  At least with “The Hogan Family”, Sandy Duncan’s character was just as enjoyable to watch as Valerie Harper.  But, I fail to see much chemistry between Kutcher and Cryer, as I did between Sheen and Cryer.

At this point in time, it’s hard to say whether “Two and a Half Men” will make it to ten years.  The first few years were fantastic, but I have barely been able to watch much of season nine.  I know that only one cast change was made, but I’m finding that it isn’t working.  And, you know what they say when something isn’t working...

Even the news that they’re bringing Charlie Harper back in a future episode of “Two and a Half Men” was disappointing, because instead of bringing back Sheen (though I doubt Sheen would participate anyway), they cast Kathy Bates to play the ghost of Charlie.  If it sounds absolutely ridiculous, it probably is.  If interested, the show is slated to air at the end of April, but I doubt that I’ll be tuning in.

Oh well...at least the reruns of the show are still on television.  Maybe I’ll just watch those instead.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

The Thirteenth Confession





Today is Thursday, and as it so happens, it is my 13th Thursday Confessional.

Now, I imagine to some of you, the number thirteen strikes fear into your heart, and will have you running for the hills. The reason being that the number thirteen is widely considered to be a very unlucky number for various reasons.

One of the most common reasons behind why the number thirteen is considered unlucky is in regards to the Hangman's Noose. Apparently, it takes exactly thirteen turns to make one, as anything less would not snap a neck. There's also a theory that it is very unlucky to have thirteen people seated at a table, citing the Last Supper as an example.



And, of course, there's the idea of Friday the 13th being the most unluckiest day ever. And we just happen to be in a year that has THREE Friday the Thirteenths (We had one in January, but April and July 2012 also have a Friday the Thirteenth).

Some people really take the idea of thirteen being a very unlucky number quite seriously. Some hotels and office buildings were built with a non-existant thirteenth floor, and some people have developed a real fear of the number thirteen. There's even a name for the phobia of thirteen. Triskaidekaphobia.

Try saying that thirteen times fast.

That being said, considering that this is the thirteenth Thursday of the year, those of you who suffer from triskaidekaphobia may not be comfortable with reading this blog entry. And, that's fine. I know what it's like to have a fear that many would see as uncommon (though in my case, it's balloons popping, not the number 13).

At the same time, this is the thirteenth confession.

THURSDAY CONFESSION #13: For the most part, I am NOT a superstitious person.

I don't really see what the big deal about the number thirteen is. To me, it's just a number that happens to be sandwiched in between twelve and fourteen. That's it. It has no other effect on me.

Sure, it's hard to deny that the number thirteen has been involved in some very unlucky situations (for one more, just Google Apollo 13), but the number thirteen is seen as a very lucky number to others.

Take Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. Founded in 1819, the university boasts that it was founded by thirteen men with thirteen dollars, thirteen prayers, and thirteen articles. Almost two hundred years later, the school still holds the number thirteen in high regard. The campus address is 13 Oak Drive, and the male a cappella group is known as the “Colgate 13”.

We could examine the small Brazilian religion known as the “Coperos”, which believes that the number 13 is a sacred number. To them, thirteen represents salvation.

A number of sports figures throughout history have proudly worn the number thirteen. These include Dan Marino, Alex Rodriguez, Wilt Chamberlain, Steve Nash, Mats Sundin, Pavel Datsyuk, Bill Guerin, and Michael Cammalleri.



And, country music singer Taylor Swift (born December 13, 1989), considers the number thirteen to be her own personal lucky number, explaining that the number is synonymous with good luck. She even writes the number on her hand whenever she performs in concert (so the next time you're at a Taylor Swift concert, see if you can spot it).

And, that's precisely the point that I wanted to make in regards to the whole superstition of thirteen being bad. In some cases, yes, thirteen has gotten a bad rap. But, I've also proven that good things do happen to those who believe in the power of thirteen.

But, again, I'm pretty indifferent to the number thirteen. It doesn't give me good luck or bad luck because I don't believe in the superstitious nature of that particular number. There is another number though that pops up quite often in my own personal life, but I'll share that story with you in a future Thursday Confession.

It does boggle my mind that so many people do take the power of superstition very seriously.

A superstition is defined as an irrational belief arising from ignorance or fear. Over the last few centuries, hundreds of superstitions were born in various parts of the world at different times. But, I've dismissed most of them as being old wives tales, or being an impossibility.



I will admit to one superstition that I do believe in though. I don't walk underneath ladders of any sort. For one, I'm over six feet tall, and I would probably bop my head on the top rung of many standard ladders, causing me much pain. But, I also realize that the dangers of walking under a ladder are real. You could cause the person standing on the ladder at the time to fall, or you could get beaned from above with another object.

Hence the reason why my confession included the words, “for the most part”.

But, researching some of the classic superstitions over the years, I shake my head, and wonder why people would believe such tripe.



I'm sure that most of us have heard the classic rhyme “Step on a crack, break your momma's back”. We used to say that rhyme in the school playground, and Devo somehow managed to weave that statement into their 1980 hit single “Whip It”. But, I can state that in my years, I have stepped on a couple of hundred thousand cracks in the sidewalk, and my mother has never sustained a back injury. Superstition denied.



I also don't believe in the sentiment that if a black cat crosses your path, you're somehow doomed. I personally think black cats are some of the coolest looking cats out there. My sister once owned a jet black cat named Vernon for several years, and he pretty much kept to himself. My sister's house never burned down, nobody got hit by a car, and everyone lived happily ever after until Vernon died in 2004.



And, there's also the superstition that if you break a mirror, the tradeoff is horrible luck for the next seven years of your life. If that's the case, my other sister should be serving the fourth phase of her 49-year-sentence for the seven mirrors she broke in her lifetime (though I will say that only one or two were deliberate).

Of course, by publicly posting this online, I may have sealed my OWN fate, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

It's really fascinating to read some of the lists of superstitions that I have found online. Many of them were ones that I didn't even know existed. For instance, did you know that...



...a bird in the house is a sign of death? (I couldn't believe it myself. I mean, I remember the one time in which we had a bird flying inside our front porch in the spring of 2000, but that was just a freak accident. Although, the fact that my grandfather passed away on July 14 that year does kind of freak me out. I'm sure it was purely coincidental. It had to be.)

...a loaf of bread should never be turned upside down after a slice has been cut from it? (I never saw this as a superstition. Common sense should tell you that you should never turn bread upside down under any circumstances, as the top would get all flattened out. Even so, I'm not exactly sure why this would be considered superstitious. Anyone have any ideas?)

...if the first butterfly that you see in the year is white, it is a sign of good luck all that year? (Well, the first one I saw was yellow. I'm screwed.)



...a horseshoe hung in the bedroom will keep nightmares away? (And, if the horseshoe happens to get loose and falls on your head, you may never have another dream again. Just saying.)

...if you catch a falling leaf on the first day of autumn, you will not catch a cold all winter? (Lies. All lies. Trust me on this one.)

...dropping an umbrella on the floor means that there will be a murder in the house? (Okay, I knew the one about not opening up an umbrella indoors, but this one seems crazy to me. If that was the case, there should have been a massacre at my house circa 1992.)



...to dream of a lizard is a sign that you have a secret enemy? (Seriously? I mean, I appreciate the imagery to use a lizard to symbolize an enemy – slimy, cold-blooded – but really? Dreaming a lizard creates an instant enemy? If that were the case, my dreams during high school should have taken place at the reptile section of the zoo!)

...if the groom drops the wedding band during the ceremony, the marriage is doomed? (I want to hear from any divorced followers here...is there any truth to that? I'm curious to know.)

...if a friend gives you a knife, you should give him a coin, or the friendship will be broken? (Clearly, the weirdest one I've read yet. When the heck is a friend going to give me a knife? Unless, the friend were to stab me, in which case, they wouldn't be a friend. And, if that did go down, I'm sure tossing a handful of pennies at them would be the furthest thought from my mind!)

Let's keep this list going. What are some of the superstitions and old wives tales that you have heard over your lifetime? Do you take them at their word, or dismiss it as paranoia? You tell me.

And, now, some Stevie Wonder.




(This post was originally written with size 13 pt font...somehow, it shrank.  How...superstitious...)

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Scrabble = A Fourteen Point Word

Have you ever played the online game “Words with Friends?”


The game, which was developed by Zynga in July of 2009, became an instant success all over the world.  The game is played by millions of people on cell phones, applications, and even on Facebook.  The game itself is played by many famous faces.  Alec Baldwin was so into the game that he was actually kicked off of a flight because of his refusal to turn off his iPad which displayed the game!

I know that I’ve played a few games of “Words with Friends” recently with some people that I know.  Some games, I have won.  Some games, I have lost.  It all depends on how great your vocabulary is, as well as the particular letter tiles you are dealt during the course of the game that determine a sweet victory, or the agony of defeat.

But when you look at it, “Words with Friends” isn’t all that different from the board game that it was based off of.  Sure, in the board game, you can’t message people all over the world in chat rooms, or have a computer conveniently adding up your score for you, but despite all that, the game has been a favourite in living rooms all over the world for many years.


Of course, I am talking about the board game “Scrabble”, which was created in 1938 and was first sold in stores a decade later. 

The game was created by American architect Alfred Mosher Butts.  The game was a variation on a similar word game also invented by him called “Lexiko”.  The method in which he used to create the game was quite meticulous and calculated.  By examining the frequency in which letters appeared in various articles in “The New York Times”, he was able to determine a point scoring system.  The more frequently a letter appeared, the lesser the value.


He also came up with the idea to create the 15 x 15 crossword grid-like board under the name “Criss-Crosswords”.  He even managed to manufacture and sell a few sets, but it wouldn’t be until 1948 that the game started to get noticed.

1948 was the year that James Brunot (who had bought Butts’ “Criss-Crosswords”) purchased the rights to the game from Butts (which came with the stipulation that Butts would receive a royalty payment for each unit sold).  The game was mostly kept the same, but a couple of changes were made.  The first change was that he rearranged the premium squares (which doubled the value of letters and words) into a different configuration.  And, the second change was the name of the game.  Instead of being known as “Criss-Crosswords”, the game was renamed “Scrabble”, a word meaning “to scratch frantically”.

I guess the name fits...I know whenever I do a crossword puzzle, I’m scratching my head frantically trying to find the right word.

Anyway, the Brunot family began making “Scrabble” games in 1949, but it wasn’t until 1952 that the board game exploded in popularity.  There was a legend that went around at this time that stated that after playing the game during a family vacation, the president of Macy’s was stunned to find that the store didn’t sell the game, and commissioned a huge order that year.  But, again, this was a legend.  It’s hard to say whether there was any truth to it.

But in 1952, Brunot found that he was unable to meet the demand, so he opted to sell the manufacturing rights to Selchow and Richter.  The company eventually bought the rights to the entire game in 1972, and in 1986, the game was sold to Coleco.  After Coleco went bankrupt, the game patent was sold to Hasbro, who currently holds all rights to the game.


“Scrabble” is a widely popular game all over the world.  There are international Scrabble tournaments held annually, and in 2004, the board game was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame.

The board game was even developed into a television game show in 1984, running for several seasons.  The game was hosted by Chuck Woolery, and you can see a clip of it down below.



I have always been a fan of “Scrabble” as long as I can remember.  I can even remember playing the game in eighth grade during English class.  I really feel as though “Scrabble” was instrumental in developing my word power and making me become a better writer as a result. 

But, do you know what some of the best scoring words are that have ever been played in the game?  I have a few examples to share.

The key to having a successful word that has a really high score has to do with position as well as the double and triple letter/word squares.  The letter value has a lot to do with it as well.


As you know, each letter has a specific value to it.  You can count on all the vowels, as well as the classic “Wheel of Fortune” letters (R, S, T, L, N, E) to have a value of one point.  J’s and X’s have eight points, and Q’s and Z’s have the highest value with ten points each.  So, ideally what you want to have is to have a Q or a Z on a “Triple Letter Score” tile, and then have the word pass over a “Double” or “Triple Word Score” space.  It sounds like a lofty goal, but it can be done.


TRIVIA:  Depending on the language of the game that you play, some letter values can vary between versions.  For example, while the W in English versions is worth four points, the W is worth TEN points in French versions, as the letter W is a letter very uncommon to the French language.

The right combination of letters and where they are placed can add up to huge points. 

One of my best words was nothing special.  It was just a five-letter word.  The word was QUIRK, and as it so happened, the Q was on “Triple Letter Score”, and the K was on “Double Word Score”.  Total points scored?  Seventy-six points!  Not bad, eh?  It’s too bad I didn’t have a Y, as I could have made QUIRKY for a solid 80-point word.  Oh well.

But, I’m just a “Scrabble” novice.  Many others have made words that were much more valuable than I.  Here are a few examples.

If you have the tiles and you want to make a great first impression, you could play the words JUKEBOX, MEZQUIT, or CAZIQUE.  All three words are 27 points without the use of the special squares.  And, for all of you people who have Webster’s Dictionary permanently in your grasp, fear not.  All three words can be found there.

Another word that brought a huge point value was the word QUIXOTRY (meaning visionary schemes).  The word was played by a man named Michael Cresta in 2006, and it currently holds a lot of records.  Just check out the diagram of his game winning move below.


As you can see, the word happens to cross several special squares, which made the point value skyrocket.  In addition, the word happened to intercept several other words in the process, creating new words, and getting a lot of additional points as a result. 

By itself, without the use of bonus tiles, the word is a respectable 25 points.  But with the way that he played the word, it netted him a score of 365 points!  That’s insane.  And, that wasn’t the only record that he broke either.  He ended up with the highest final score for a single player with 830 points.  As well, he and his opponent broke the record for the highest combined total with 1,320 points total. 

Those numbers are mighty impressive.  Puts my little 76-point word to shame, doesn’t it?

So, there you have it.  That’s my piece on the board game known as “Scrabble”.  The record to beat is 365 points for a single word.  Can you do it?


BONUS QUESTION:  I shared my highest scoring word in “Scrabble”.  What’s yours?

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

March 27, 1970

I think that the Tuesday Timeline feature has quickly become one of my favourite theme days for this blog.  Not only do I have fun covering a whole array of topics that I had never considered before, but it’s also fun to look back on what happened in history on any given day.


I’ll just come out with it.  Today we’re going back in time to March 27, 1970.  I haven’t done a Tuesday Timeline feature that took place in the 1970s before, so I figured that it was better late than never.

But, first of all, like every other edition of the Tuesday Timeline, we’re going to take a look back on other events and happenings that took place on this date.

1871 – The first international rugby match between England and Scotland is played in Edinburgh

1886 – Geronimo surrenders to the U.S. Army, ending the main phase of the Apache Wars

1890 – A tornado strikes Louisville, Kentucky, killing 76, and injuring 200

1915 – Typhoid Mary is quarantined after being discovered as the first healthy carrier of disease in the United States

1958 – Nikita Khrushchev becomes Premier of the Soviet Union

1964 – “The Good Friday Earthquake” occurs near Anchorage, Alaska, killing 125 people.  With a magnitude of 9.2, it was the most powerful earthquake in American history

1975 – Construction of the Trans-Alaska pipeline system begins

1981 – Twelve million walk off their jobs for four hours in Poland after a warning strike is issued by the Solidarity movement

1993 – Jiang Zemin is appointed President of the People’s Republic of China

1998 – The FDA approves Viagra as a treatment for male impotence

2002 – Hollywood loses two legends, as both Milton Berle and Dudley Moore pass away on this date ten years ago

2009 – A suicide bomber kills 48 people at a mosque in Pakistan

Wow...who knew that March 27th was such a depressing and gloomy day in history?  Well, aside from the creation of Viagra, that is?

Don’t worry.  This blog will be focusing on a happy subject.  For this blog entry will focus on the birth of someone famous.

First things first, I should note that today happens to be my sister’s birthday, and Dawn, I doubt you’re reading this, but happy birthday!  But, no, she isn’t the subject of the blog.  She was born in 1966.

And, the subject doesn’t involve these famous faces either, but a happy birthday to...

...Michael York, Andrew Farriss (INXS), Jann Arden, Dave Koz, Quentin Tarentino, Xuxa, Talisa Soto, Kevin Corrigan, Pauley Perrette, Elizabeth Mitchell, Nathan Fillion, Stacy “Fergie” Ferguson, Brenda Song, and Jessie J.

For today’s blog topic though, we’re going to examine the career of a songbird that was born 42 years ago today.  Her road to stardom may have been filled with hardships, a troubled marriage, and a breakdown, but she seems to be happy and back on top with a new marriage, twin children, and a singing career that boasts five Grammy Awards, eighteen number one singles on the Billboard Charts, and holding the record for most time spent at the top of the charts of all time.

Oh, look.  Here’s one of her songs right now.


ARTIST:  Mariah Carey
SONG:  Vision of Love
ALBUM:  Mariah Carey
DATE RELEASED:  May 15, 1990
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS:  #1 for 4 weeks


Would you believe that Mariah Carey was just two months into her twenties when this song was released?  Would you believe that this was Mariah Carey’s first song release?  Would you believe that this song was the first in a chain of #1 hits that included one #1 song for almost every year of the 1990s?

Well, believe it.  All these statements are in fact true.  Mariah Carey being the featured Tuesday Timeline subject is also true.


Mariah Carey was born in Huntington, New York on March 27, 1970.  Her name came from the song “They Call the Wind Mariah” from the 1951 Broadway musical “Paint Your Wagon”.  Her mother was Irish American, and her father was of African American and Venezuelan descent.  Mariah often spoke of the hardships that stemmed from being a child of mixed race, stating that her mother’s side of the family disowned her for marrying a man of colour.  Mariah’s parents tried to make the marriage work, but due to the hardships caused by their community, as well as personal struggles in the marriage, they divorced when Mariah was just three.

Mariah ended up staying with her mother, and as a result of this, her relationship with her father eventually ceased to exist.  To cope with the stress of it all, Mariah would sneak a radio underneath the covers of her bed, listen to the music and try to find some inner peace by singing.

When Mariah was growing up, she did very well in music, art, and literature, and by the time she was in high school, she had already started to write and sing her own songs.  But, nobody really knew of her aspirations, as Carey had opted to keep it a secret through school.  Her mother, of course, encouraged her to pursue a musical career, and once suggested that Mariah study to become an opera singer.  But while Mariah enjoyed opera, she wanted to go in a different direction.

It wouldn’t be until the late 1980s that Mariah’s career would take off.  After completing a four song demo tape with friends Ben Margulies and Gavin Christopher, Mariah Carey would send copies to various record labels in between waitressing gigs, but she didn’t have much success at first.  She was introduced to rising pop star Brenda K. Starr during this time though, and this meeting would end up changing Carey’s life forever.


In November 1987, Carey ended up attending a record executive gala with Starr.  Carey met dozens of executives, but it was Tommy Mottola, head of Columbia Records, who took home her demo tape that night.  After listening to just two songs while driving home from the party, he was so enamored by her voice that he turned right around and headed back to the party, only to find that Carey had already left.

It took a couple of weeks for Mottola to track down Carey, but once he had, he signed her on the spot, and plans to record her debut, self-titled album immediately began.  Throughout 1989, Tommy helped Mariah produce her album by bringing in top musical producers such as Ric Wake, Narada Michael Walden, and Rhett Lawrence...though Mariah also brought aboard her longtime friend Ben Margulies on the project as well, as Margulies had written several of the songs that appeared on Mariah Carey’s debut (including “Vision of Love”).

Mariah’s first album was released on June 12, 1990, and it started off slow in sales.  But after Mariah appeared on the Grammy Awards, sales skyrocketed, and the album spawned four consecutive #1 singles.  And, that was only the beginning.  Mariah would end up having a total of eighteen #1 singles through her career, a feat tied only by Elvis Presley.  The eighteen #1 hits that Mariah had included the following;

Vision of Love (1990), Love Takes Time (1990), Someday (1991), I Don’t Wanna Cry (1991), Emotions (1991), I’ll Be There (1992), Dreamlover (1993), Hero (1993), Fantasy (1995), One Sweet Day (1995), Always Be My Baby (1996), Honey (1997), My All (1998), Heartbreaker (1999), Thank God I Found You (2000), We Belong Together (2005), Don’t Forget About Us (2005), and Touch My Body (2007).

And, here’s a little bit of trivia about some of these songs.


“I’ll Be There” was a song that was exclusive to Mariah’s “MTV Unplugged” album.  The album came about after Mariah appeared on the program to dispel rumours that she was only a ‘studio artist’ who wasn’t capable of hitting the high notes in live performances.  Needless to say, she proved her critics wrong.


1993’s “Hero” was meant to be included in the film “Hero” starring Geena Davis and Dustin Hoffman, but Tommy Mottola insisted that the song shouldn’t be given away for someone else to sing.  He wanted it to be a Mariah Carey song.  It paid off.  It topped the charts in late 1993 for four weeks.


1995’s “One Sweet Day” holds the record for being at the top of the charts the most consecutive weeks.  The single, which Mariah recorded with Boyz II Men was a number one hit for a record-breaking SIXTEEN weeks!


And, 1999’s Heartbreaker really showed us that Mariah could poke fun at herself as well.  With Mariah playing two different characters, and the video using a stunt double, a contribution by Jay-Z, and a cameo by Jerry O’Connell, the video helped the song become Mariah’s fourteenth number one hit.

These were some of Mariah’s finest moments, but she also had a lot of hardships along the way.  Aside from her early childhood which was filled with a single mother trying to make ends meet, and her early struggles with getting her name out there (the inspiration for the song “Make It Happen”), Mariah’s had some very public struggles as well. 


Eventually, Tommy Mottola became more than Mariah’s record producer.  He would also become Mariah’s husband.  The two tied the knot in 1993, despite the couple’s 21 year age difference.  However, just five years later, Mariah and Tommy divorced, with Mariah claiming that creative differences and Mottola’s controlling nature were the reasons behind the split.  The split reflected in her music, with her 1997 album “Butterfly” taking on a new style of singing, and her music videos portrayed Mariah more sexually than before.


But Mariah’s lowest point would come during the summer of 2001.  During that period, Mariah had switched record labels (from Columbia to Virgin Records), and she had signed on to work on the film project “Glitter” as well as recording the soundtrack for the same movie.  At this time, her relationship with Luis Miguel had just ended.  As a result of Mariah’s heavy workload as well as pressure from the media, Mariah started acting in an erratic fashion.  After a bizarre appearance on Total Request Live on July 19, 2001, Mariah was hospitalized for exhaustion following a physical and emotional breakdown just one week later.


The hospital stay forced the movie and soundtrack release to be delayed while Carey recovered.  The soundtrack was eventually released on September 11, 2001, but due to the 9/11 attacks, the release was obviously overshadowed.  And when the film was released just ten days later, it bombed at the box office, and Mariah Carey was nominated for a Golden Raspberry and won for Worst Actress in 2002.

Between the failure of the film, and the fact that the “Glitter” soundtrack was the worst-selling album of Mariah Carey’s career, people wondered if Mariah Carey would ever find her way back on top again.

The answer, of course, is yes.


With the release of the album “The Emancipation of Mimi”, it served as a renaissance period for Carey, and she earned her first #1 hit in five years as a result.  And, in 2008, Carey found love once again.  This time, she married Nick Cannon, ten years her junior, and current host of America’s Got Talent.  And, in 2011, Mariah Carey became a mother, giving birth to twins Morocco and Monroe on April 30 (the same day as their wedding anniversary).


I think that there’re a couple of lessons that we can learn from Mariah Carey.  First, you can’t give up on your dreams.  Even if your dreams seem impossible, you might end up being in the right place at the right time one day, and they’ll come true when you least expect it.  This happened for Mariah Carey, and it can happen to all of us if we really take the bull by the horns.

Secondly, it is possible to come back from the depths of rock bottom.  Certainly, 2001 was not a great year for Mariah Carey, as she hit a professional and personal low.  But, it’s amazing that just ten years later, Carey would become a wife and mother, who has had a second chance to make it in the music business.

I think no matter what, Mariah Carey will always be a force to be reckoned with in the world of music.  Certainly, her voice will always be one of a kind.

That’s our look back on March 27, 1970.

Monday, March 26, 2012

Twister

Have you ever experienced a natural disaster close up?

I know that living in Canada, my experiences with natural disasters have been mostly limited to torrential downpours and blizzards. I think the worst disaster that I ever lived through was the great Ice Storm of 1998 which knocked out power to various parts of Ontario, Quebec, and Upstate New York. My home was without power for five days, and many surrounding areas didn't get electricity back for almost a month after the initial storm. But, in the end, we survived it. It was tough going at times, but that experience made all of us who lived through it a little stronger, and helped us appreciate the simpler, little things in life.

I guess I can count myself lucky that a severe ice storm is the worst natural disaster that I have personally experienced. Yes, my area has had a couple of minor earthquakes over the last thirty years or so, but nothing near as catastrophic as what happened in Haiti, Japan, and New Zealand over the past two years. We sometimes get the tail-end of weakened hurricanes or tropical storms, but we have been spared the damage caused by past storms named Andrew, Iniki, Katrina, and Wilma.



I honestly don't even remember experiencing a tornado. I've experienced days in which the winds were so strong, I felt as though I would blow away, but I've never seen a tornado up close.

And, I really don't want to either. Tornadoes are very scary things to live through. Last year, the small community of Goderich, Ontario was devastated by a powerful tornado, in which they are still trying to recover from. And, by now, everyone has heard about the devastating series of tornadoes that struck the United States earlier this month, leaving residents homeless, and killing several.

Tornadoes can be quite dangerous and deadly if one is not prepared. It doesn't matter whether the storm is an F1 or an F5. Tornadoes are not something that can be taken lightly.

That said, there are lots of people who find tornadoes (or twisters as some people call them) to be a fascinating case study. Some people find storm chasing to be a thrilling hobby. They chase storms as they happen, with many of them snapping photographs and recording them with hand-held video cameras. In some cases, the footage and efforts brought forth by storm chasers have resulted in better warning systems, so maybe there is some good to be found in storm chasing, even though it is one of the more dangerous and risky hobbies that one can partake in.

Today's Monday Matinee takes a look at the activity known as storm chasing, as well as the destructive power of tornadoes, and the impact that they can have on communities.



We're going back sixteen years in time to talk about the movie “Twister”.

Twister” was a movie that boasted quite a bit of star power. With stars like Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Jami Gertz, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Cary Elwes appearing in the film, it's so surprise that the film did well at the box-office. It was the second highest grossing film of 1996 right behind “Independence Day”, and made almost $500 million dollars on a budget of $92 million.

It's just too bad that the making of the film itself was plagued with so many production problems.

The film was a joint effort between Universal Studios and Warner Brothers, and almost immediately after director Jan De Bont took the helm as director of “Twister”, problems began. The screenplay was written by Michael Crichton and Anne-Marie Martin to the tune of two and a half million dollars, and initially, Joss Whedon (the man behind such television adaptations as “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel”) was brought on to rewrite parts of the script. When Whedon developed bronchitis, Steve Zaillian was brought onto the project to fill in until Whedon recovered. Whedon returned to the project once more, but left again after he had gotten married, and was replaced by Jeff Nathanson.

Things did not improve much in the stability of the shoot, for just weeks into the production schedule, a group of people who worked on the film walked off production, citing clashes with the director. The final straw came when De Bont knocked over a camera assistant that missed his cue. This prompted Don Burgess and his camera crew to leave the project. To add to the bad luck, Burgess' replacement, Jack N. Green was injured in a freak accident, and De Bont was forced to become the director of photography himself just to get the movie finished.



And, don't think that the stars of the movie got out unscathed either. Both Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton were left with temporary blindness caused by bright electronic lamps. The lamps were used to simulate a dark and stormy sky on days in which it was too bright to film, but they were so bright that it caused production to shut down for a few days while Hunt and Paxton recuperated. In addition, Paxton and Hunt were forced to get a shot for hepatitis after filming in a ditch that contained bacteria, and Hunt almost suffered a concussion while shooting a scene.

After that much bad luck, it's a miracle that the movie was even released at all!

I suppose that the behind-the-scenes delays and injuries probably didn't help the script at all. Sure, the movie was visually pleasing to the eye, and the special effects were quite well done...but in my opinion, the story kind of suffered, and lost something along the way. Of course, that's just my opinion.

Anyway, “Twister” starts off with a flashback. We see images of a five year old girl and her family trying to take cover from a tornado that is fast approaching. It is an F5, the strongest tornado that could be measured. The tornado kills Jo's father.



Years later, Dr. Jo Harding (Hunt) is unexpectedly reunited with her estranged husband, Bill Harding (Paxton). Bill used to be a weather researcher who did storm chasing on the side, and now holds a job as a weather reporter. The only reason Bill wanted to meet with Jo was to get their divorce finalized so he could go ahead and marry his new girlfriend, Dr. Melissa Reeves (Gertz). But, Bill discovers that Jo has been a busy beaver. She has created four tornado research devices, appropriately named “DOROTHY”...a design that was based off of a similar one he had invented. The purpose of “DOROTHY” was simple. When activated, the device would send hundreds of tiny sensors straight into the core of the tornado to study its structure. Jo hopes that her invention will serve as a breakthrough, because if she could figure out more about how tornadoes were formed, she could also devise a better warning system to be put in place to hopefully save more lives.

There's just one problem. Jo's rival, the smug and up himself Dr. Jonas Miller (Elwes) has been doing some inventing of his own, and has come up with an almost identical to Jo's own creation. This causes Bill to team up with Jo to deploy “DOROTHY” before Dr. Miller can take all the credit. Bill ends up dragging Melissa along for the ride when he joins Jo and her team of storm chasers on their quest to find a suitable tornado to test “DOROTHY” out.



As you might have already guessed, there would automatically be a lot of tension in the air when you have two exes together in a crammed truck. Certainly, this was the case between Jo and Bill, as it became clear that both of them had issues with each other that remained unresolved since their split. The tension is further increased when they end up having lots of close calls with some dangerous tornadoes, and on the team's first attempt to deploy one of Jo's “DOROTHY” devices, Jo and Bill are forced to jump out of her truck into a ditch, which is subsequently destroyed.

One “DOROTHY” gone...but there was still three more chances to get it right.



Bill offers up the use of his own truck, and with Melissa in the back, the team sets off to locate another tornado. The second one is an F2, stronger than the first one, but in the attempt to chase it, the tornado changes paths, and they end up losing it (but get an amazing view of a cow flying through the air at the same time).

The team decides that they need to take a break, and after having lunch with Jo's Aunt Meg, they're back on the road. It doesn't take long for the team to come across yet another tornado, this one being classified as F3, their strongest one yet. But before Jo and Bill can act, the tornado takes down a power pole and it smashes right onto the back of Bill's truck, smashing open the second of Jo's “DOROTHY” devices, scattering the sensors all over the ground. The tornado fast approaches, and Bill knows that if they stick around, it's certain death. But, Jo is in a different frame of mind, and as you'll see by viewing this clip, it becomes clear as to why she acted in such a manner.



So, Jo feels somewhat guilty that her father ended up dead because of a tornado, and her work with studying tornadoes was a way that she could make his death make sense. It's also clear that Bill understands this, knowing exactly what loss she had to endure back when she was just five, which could explain why he was so eager to assist her.



It's not until the team stops off at a drive-in movie theater which is literally blown away by yet another tornado (seriously, how many tornadoes can occur during this movie?) that Bill comes up with a theory to make Jo's “DOROTHY” device have a 100% success rate. But with a strong tornado threatening to tear apart the home of Jo's Aunt Meg, as well as Bill's conflicting feelings for both Jo and Melissa, as well as the constant threat of Dr. Miller upstaging Jo with his own tornado measuring devices, it doesn't give much time for Bill to test that theory out.

But, that's just something that you'll have to see for yourself.

Not even the threat of a tornado will make me reveal this movie ending.