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Sunday, May 13, 2012

A Song For Mama


Hello, everyone!

Today is the second Sunday in May, and if you happen to live in North America, you already know what day it is today.



It's Mother's Day!

Today is a day in which we are to celebrate mothers all over the world. It's a day to do something very special for our mothers, so I have decided that I will dedicate this blog entry to my own mother. Regardless of whether she sees this or not, I'm sure that either way, she would be happy to know that I did that.



And certainly, Mother's Day is a day in which millions of phone calls are made, millions of flowers are sent, and dozens of kitchen appliances are sold in retail establishments all across the country.

But, do any of you know how Mother's Day came to be?

It all began in the year 1870. A woman by the name of Julia Ward Howe issued the “Mother's Day Proclamation”, which was a pacifist reaction to the carnage of the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War. Below this paragraph, you can read the proclamation in full.

Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts, Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies, Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."
From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice." Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war, Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means Whereby the great human family can live in peace, Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, But of God.
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask That a general congress of women without limit of nationality May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient And at the earliest period consistent with its objects, To promote the alliance of the different nationalities, The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

The proclamation was linked to the beliefs that Howe had. She strongly believed that women had a responsibility to shape society at a political level.

It wouldn't be until years later that the first modern day celebration of Mother's Day was first celebrated. On May 12, 1907, Anna Jarvis held a small memorial for her mother, who had died two years previously. Anna's mother, Ann, had founded an organization called “Mothers' Day Work Clubs” in five cities to improve sanitary conditions at workplaces, and provided necessities to both Union and Confederate soldiers, maintaining its neutral stance.



Shortly after her memorial, Jarvis lobbied to make “Mother's Day” a recognized holiday in the United States, and in 1914, her wish was granted, as Mother's Day was officially recognized on May 10 of that year.

However, it's interesting to note that by the 1920s, Jarvis had already grown tired of the very holiday she helped create!

Well, the commercialism aspect of it.

Reportedly, she and her sister spent their entire fortune campaigning against what the holiday had become. In fact, Jarvis issued this statement regarding the popular activity of giving out greeting cards on the holiday.

“A printed card means nothing except that you are too lazy to write the woman who has done more for you than anything in this world. And candy! You take a box to Mother – and then eat most of it yourself. A pretty sentiment.”

Her bitterness certainly made evident.

But you know, she did have a point.



Mother's Day, much like any other holiday these days, is way too commercialized. It's almost as if you have to buy your mother a new loveseat, a 42-inch television, a Tassimo coffee maker, and a florist's entire selection of daffodils and chrysanthemums in order to make this the best Mother's Day ever.

And it really shouldn't have to be that way.

You don't have to select the most expensive cards or gifts to show your mother just how much you love her. You just have to be creative. You can make her breakfast in bed. You can take her out for a picnic if it's warm enough. Even just spending the entire day with her would be a perfect present.

Material things don't mean anything these days. It's the thoughts behind them that count, as well as the precious time that you spend together. For those of you reading this who have had to say goodbye to their mothers, I'm sure that you would give almost anything just to have more time together.

Wow, I've spent so much time talking about Mother's Day that I completely forgot that I have to post a Sunday Jukebox song today.

But, which song to pick?

There's not really a whole lot of selection when it comes to finding songs about Mother's Day. Very few songs even have the word mother in the title.

There's Tracy Bonham's “Mother Mother” from 1996, but that song's a little bit too loud, and the tone isn't exactly appropriate for the theme of the day.

Then there was the lesser-known Spice Girls hit “Mama” from 1997...but I already did a blog entry on the Spice Girls a while ago (though the song itself is not bad).

As it so happens, the song that I eventually settled on was also released in 1997. It's a song that marks the final Top 10 smash a particular R&B group had on the charts. And, I can't think of a better song to showcase on the blog for Mother's Day.



ARTIST: Boyz II Men
SONG: A Song For Mama
ALBUM: Evolution
DATE RELEASED: November 11, 1997
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #7



Boyz II Men was made up of Michael McCary, Nathan Morris, Wanya Morris, and Shawn Stockman. McCary left the band in 2003 due to health problems, but the band continues touring as a trio. The above song was also featured in the 1997 film, “Soul Food”, which starred Vanessa L. Williams, Nia Long, Vivica A. Fox, and Mekhi Pfifer. The film is basically about an extended African-American family that is held together by long standing family traditions. But when the matriarch of the family suffers health problems, the family is at risk of falling apart.

I have actually never seen the movie myself, so I can't say for sure what it is really about...but judging by descriptions and plot summaries that I've read, it does illustrate the importance of the mother of a family. In most families, the mother really is the glue that holds the family together. She deserves to feel special on Mother's Day, and every other day of the year.

I know that I feel that way about my own mother. Sure, we may have our fights and quarrels, and sure she may drive me absolutely crazy. But she loves me...and I love her too.



Happy Mother's Day to my mother and all mothers everywhere!

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Just Like Mom


I’m going to begin today’s blog entry by asking all of you a couple of questions.  Don’t worry, they won’t take too long to answer, and you will not be graded on your answers.

Here’s the first question.  How many of you remember being in the kitchen with your mother helping her make something edible?  Did you help her prepare breakfast?  Did you help stir the soup while your mother prepared the pork chops?  Did you help frost freshly-baked cupcakes with your mother and end up eating half of the frosting yourself?

In my case, I remember “helping” my mom out a lot when it came to her making various baked goods.  To this day, my mother remains one of the best bakers I have ever known (and even though she’s in her mid-60s now, I still encourage her to open up a bakery, as she’d have a little gold mine on her hands).  She can make chocolate chip cookies, brownies, apple pies, chocolate cakes, banana bread...all from scratch!  She is absolutely amazing.


Of course, when I say that I “helped” her, I ended up doing tasks that didn’t really seem like helping.  Usually my contribution was licking out the bowl used to mix the cake or brownie batter.  But you know, it was a fun experience, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

And this leads to my next question.  Would you believe that there was a children’s game show that aired in Canada in which one of the challenges of the show was to bake something? 

Have a look for yourself.


That was a clip from the Canadian television series “Just Like Mom”, which aired on CTV from 1980-1985.  A total of 595 episodes were taped, and reruns aired as recently as 2010 on Canadian cable channels.  The show was created by Catherine Swing, a former Miss Canada winner, and actress who co-hosted the show the entire run.  I have absolutely no idea if the show aired in the United States or not, but in case it didn’t, consider this your introduction to the program.


I’ll get to the reason behind the bake-off in a few minutes, but for now, I thought that I would describe the format of the show, while watching some clips from an episode at the same time.

But before I go on, I would like to state something.  With the exception of one clip posted, I purposely chose clips that featured the first host, Steven Young.  Although Steven Young only hosted the program from 1980-1981, I am NOT a fan of the second host, Fergie Olver.  At the time, Olver and Swing were married to each other, but they have since got divorced.  And the reason why I decided not to post any clips of him in action is because I found him to be a bit on the...creepy side.  Since I want this blog to be mostly positive in nature, that’s all I’m at liberty to say, but I’m sure that if you type in the words “Fergie Olver” on YouTube, you’ll see what I mean. 


Then again, it was the early 1980s.  Who knows what was acceptable then?  I’ll let you make your own judgment.

At any rate, the host was the only change in 1981.  The game format stayed the same the show’s entire run.


The game was played almost like the “Newlywed Game”, only instead of a bride and groom you had a boy or girl who went on the show with their mother.  The moms were sent into seclusion while the children were asked a series of questions by the host.  In earlier seasons, the kids could select a question from one of five choices, but in later seasons, a question was assigned to each of the three teams.


When the moms returned back to the soundstage, the host asked them the very same questions that were asked to their children.  If the mother’s answer matched their child’s, they would win points for their team.  Two question rounds were played in each episode, and depending on the round, questions would range in value from ten to twenty-five points.

In between the two question rounds was the part of the show that this particular blogger liked watching the most.  And, you’ve seen a clip of it in action above.

The bake-off.


The bake-off was hosted by Catherine Swing, and took place inside a kitchen set.  The three children, decked out in aprons and chef hats, were given a recipe from a cookbook.  The recipe was read aloud by Swing, and for reference, a copy of the recipe was kept on hand for each of the children.  The recipes were more often than not baked goods, which included bread, cookies, and pastries. 

Here was the catch.  The children only had a minute (some episodes had a 90-second time limit) to prepare the recipe.  I don’t even know a whole lot of moms who would only take sixty seconds for preparation time.  My mom needed at least fifteen minutes alone.  So, you can just imagine how hectic the bake-off was.

Oh, and there was also one more thing.  Producers made sure that all of the ingredients and cooking utensils were present so the child could follow the recipe exactly.  But, they also included some bonus ingredients that did not belong in the recipe, such as orange soda, pickles, spaghetti sauce, and marshmallows.  And contestants were told that they could use whatever was in front of them.

So, as you might expect, some of the concoctions that were created were kind of...well...unique.  Here’s an example below of what I mean, and fair warning...you’ll need to crank the volume to full blast to hear it.


It’s true what they say...Gatorade goes with anything.


Once the mixture was done, they were placed in the oven to cook while the second question round went on.  After the completion of the second round, the “delicious” treats that the children baked were offered to the mothers, who looked at them with a mixture of pride and terror.  Each mother got a sample of each dish, numbered from 1-3.  Each mother had thirty seconds to sample each dish, and make their choice as to which dish they believed was made by their own child.  I tell you, some of the reactions of the mothers were priceless, and I get the feeling that some were upset that they were only given one glass of water to wash everything down!

The mothers had to hold up a numbered paddle to announce which dish they thought their child had made.  If the mother guessed correctly, the team was awarded fifty points.

At the end of the game, the team that had the highest total would be brought to the bonus round.  In that round, the child would be asked by the host to spin a gigantic prize wheel.  The wheel had sixteen spaces on it, with each space corresponding to a prize.  In most cases, the prizes were related to the sponsors of the show, so you’d have prizes from Robin Hood flour, Chuck E. Cheese pizzeria, or Playmobil Toys.  But there were four spaces that had Walt Disney characters on it, and if the child was lucky enough to land on one of these spaces, they would win a family vacation to Walt Disney World.  Later seasons would give all contestants a trip to Camp Onondoga regardless of whether the team won the game or not.

And, that’s your look at one of the quirkiest, funniest (and some might say creepiest) game shows that ever came out of the Great White North.  I hope you all enjoyed it. 

If anything, watching the clips of that old show takes me back to those days when I was a child, licking the sides of the mixing bowl while my mom baked brownies and chocolate layer cakes.  Those were the carefree days that I think I miss the most.

Actually, you know what, even though I’m almost 31, I bet my mom would STILL let me lick the mixing bowl! J

Friday, May 11, 2012

Laverne & Shirley - Making Their Dreams Come True


Hello, everyone!  Happy Friday to everyone here!

I certainly hope you’re enjoying the end of your week, and that you have a fantastic weekend.  I’ve got some special themed weekend entries coming up this week for Mother’s Day, and I hope that you all get a chance to read them.

Before we get into that however, I thought I’d take this opportunity to talk about a popular show that started off as a spin-off, and ended up lasting for eight seasons.

It all began on November 11, 1975. 

That was the day that the forty-ninth episode of “Happy Days” aired for the first time.  It was an episode that was titled “A Date With Fonzie” (if you click on the episode title, you can actually watch the episode for however long it stays up on YouTube).  The episode synopsis was that Richie Cunningham was having a lot of trouble finding a girl to date.  Fonzie tries to help out by setting Richie up with a woman fails, Fonzie decides to set himself and Richie up on a double date with a couple of women.


The two women were Laverne DeFazio and Shirley Feeney, played by Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams.  And their guest appearance on “Happy Days” was received so warmly that Happy Days creator Garry Marshall made the decision to create a brand new series for the guest characters who made such an impression in their short appearance in that episode.

(Though, considering that Penny Marshall and Garry Marshall were siblings, I suppose that was one main reason behind the spin-off.)

Anyway, just two months after that episode aired, in January 1976, a new series debuted on ABC.


“Laverne & Shirley” took place in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where Laverne and Shirley lived together in an apartment and worked at the fictional Shotz Brewery.


Laverne was the blond-haired, tough-talking, wise-cracking tomboy of the duo.  She always wore poodle skirts and a sweater with the letter “L” stitched onto them (an idea that Penny Marshall herself came up with).  She was quite cynical and sarcastic most of the time, but she was also the type of woman whose feelings were easily hurt.


Contrast that with Shirley.  She may have dark hair, but her personality is anything but dark.  She’s almost always perky, and tries to look at things in a positive manner.  She also happens to be quite timid and quiet, which are all adjectives that Laverne is not.  She’s fully capable of standing up for herself when the need arises, but she’s not as ‘in-your-face’ about it.  Her prized possession is her beloved “Boo Boo Kitty”

But when you put Laverne and Shirley together, hilarity and slapstick comedy usually ensues.  Have a look at this clip from an early episode, and you’ll see what I mean.


Throughout the course of the series, other cast members would come and go as the need arose.  Most often than not, you would see appearances by the girls’ upstairs roommates, Lenny (Michael Keen), and Squiggy (David Lander), two obnoxious goofballs who often drop in on Laverne and Shirley unannounced.  There were also appearances by Carmine Ragusa (Eddie Mekka), Laverne’s father Frank DeFazio (Phil Foster), and landlady Edna Babish (Betty Garrett).

The first four years of the series took place in Milwaukee (which made sense, given that the show it spun off from was also set in Milwaukee).  But at the beginning of the show’s fifth season in September 1980, the show changed locations from Milwaukee to Burbank, California.  The way the show handled this was by having Laverne and Shirley lose their jobs at the Shotz Brewery, and the two of them deciding to start all over in California.  Weirdly enough, almost everyone else in the cast decided to move along with Laverne and Shirley to Burbank, so there were very little cast disruptions during the initial first season.

As a result of the move, two new cast members were added.  Ed Marinaro played the role of Sonny St. Jacques, a stuntman who acted as the girls’ new landlord, and Leslie Easterbrook played Rhonda Lee, a neighbour of Laverne and Shirley’s who wanted to make it big in Hollywood.

The show ended up running for four more seasons, ending its run on May 10, 1983.


Now, I suppose you’re interested in hearing some never before seen trivia about “Laverne & Shirley”, and well, as it so happens, I have found quite a bit of information about this program that may surprise you.  Some of it you probably know already, but other facts may blow you away.  It’s been a while since I did one of these “behind the scenes trivia” blogs, so I hope you enjoy this deeper look at “Laverne & Shirley” almost as much as I did.

So, without further hesitation, let us begin.

01  - I suppose you want to know what Laverne and Shirley are actually singing in the opening credits just before the song kicks off.  The rhyme goes “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, Schlemiel, Schlemazel, Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!”  The rhyme is a combination of English and Yiddish.

02   - In case your Yiddish is rusty, “Schlemiel” is a clumsy person, and “Schlemazel” is a chronically unlucky person.  I wonder if Laverne and Shirley were singing about themselves or someone else?

03   - When the show started airing, the original title sequence read “Laverne DeFazio and Shirley Feeney”.  It was shortened at the beginning of season two.



04   - Laverne’s favourite drink is milk and Pepsi, which coincidentally also happens to be a favourite of Penny Marshall.  Can’t say I’ve ever tried it myself.

05   - Much like “Happy Days”, “Laverne & Shirley was set in the 1950s and 1960s.  More specifically, between 1959 and 1967.



06   - The theme song from “Laverne & Shirley was recorded by Cyndi Grecco.  It actually made the Billboard Top 100 charts in 1976, peaking within the top 30!

07   - Shirley’s father was played by actor Scott Brady.  Brady was offered a part in a show before guest starring on “Laverne & Shirley”, but he turned it down.  The part?  Archie Bunker on “All In The Family”.

08   - Ed Begley Jr played the role of Shirley’s alcoholic brother.

09   - Ted Danson had a guest role on the series, playing Laverne’s firefighter boyfriend in the memorable episode “Why Did The Fireman...?”  You can watch the episode by clicking on the show title (it's in two parts, so the link is split), but be warned.  It is a tearjerker.

10   - The set of Laverne & Shirley’s first apartment in Milwaukee was previously used in a different sitcom...”The Odd Couple”.

11   - “Happy Days” and “Laverne & Shirley “ taped one soundstage apart from each other, making it easy for actors from both shows to cross over.



12   - Squiggy’s real name was Andrew.

13   - Despite the show’s popularity and critical acclaim, the show failed to win a single Emmy award.

14   - Cindy Williams once walked off the set in 1976 as a protest against Penny Marshall getting all the better lines.  She ended up returning two days later.

15   - In 1982, Cindy Williams ended up leaving the series for good.  In August of that year, Cindy was expecting a baby, and she felt that producers were using her pregnancy as an excuse to get her off the series.  She stormed off the set, and filed a twenty million dollar lawsuit against Paramount Pictures.  The case was settled out of court.

16   - Despite Cindy Williams leaving the program, the show managed to continue on for one more season, with Laverne going solo.  Weirdly enough, the show was STILL called “Laverne & Shirley”, even though Shirley had left the series.

17   - The reason given for Shirley’s sudden departure from the series was explained in a letter she left for Laverne, stating that she had moved away to join her Army medic husband overseas.



18   - David Lander and Michael McKean were originally hired as writers for the program, but ended up writing Lenny and Squiggy in. 

19   - Lander and McKean created Lenny and Squiggy during their college years.



20   - An animated series based off the show debuted in October 1981, which was called “Laverne & Shirley in the Army”.  Both Marshall and Williams voiced their respective characters.

21   - Products that were made to promote the series included dolls of the four main characters, a Hot Wheels version of the Shotz Brewery delivery van, Halloween costumes, board games, and colouring books.

22   - Vicki Lawrence guest starred on the program as a drill sergeant named Alvinia T. Plout.

23   - The show ran for 178 episodes.



24   - Shirley’s middle name was Wilhelmina, the name of her deceased grandmother.

That’s about all that I have to say about Laverne and Shirley.  To end this blog off, I always loved watching bloopers of television stars screwing up their lines...and well, Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams did a lot of that.



Thursday, May 10, 2012

Losing My Religion


Hello, everyone!  Before I begin this blog entry, I'd like all of you to take a look at the "Additional Links" section of the blog on the sidebar.  There, you'll see a link that says "Interview - May 9, 2012".  If you click on that, I did an interview for a blogging website.  So, definitely check it out, because you'll learn a lot more about the person who keeps bringing you these blogs to read.


Now that we have that out of the way, we can begin with this week's installment of the Thursday Confession.  And unlike last week, where I waited until the very end to confess, I'll come right out with it and post my confession now.






THURSDAY CONFESSION #19:  I consider myself more spiritual than religious and probably haven't set foot in a church pew in over 15 years.


And I'm perfectly okay with that.


Because this post is the story of how I ended up "losing my religion", so to speak.




Now, the above song was recorded by R.E.M.  It was a huge hit for the band in 1991.  But it also happens to be a song that best describes what my own religious stance is.  I know that it seems a bit odd for me to bring up the subject of religion in a blog about pop culture, but these days, it seems as though religion is talked about a lot in the entertainment industry, in the media, and even in political firestorms (all you need to do is look at the recent news coming out of North Carolina for more information on that one).


The below story is one that I ended up writing a few years ago (I think in 2007 or 2008), but surprisingly it still holds up in 2012.  And, I wanted to share this with everyone just so everybody could see where I'm coming from.  It's not intended to attack certain groups, but it is designed to make people think.  No matter what kind of reception this entry gets, I am happy that I wrote it.


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


There are some big mysteries out there in the world. Mysteries that have remained unsolved for billions of years.

Do ships really disappear in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle? Whatever became of Amelia Earhart? 






Why do birds suddenly appear every time you are near?

These are questions that have plagued mankind for years.

Another biggie? Is there a God?

Of course, I don't know for sure if there is or not. I don't think it's ever been proven. Or, if it has, I must have dozed off during that news report.

I would like to think that there is some sort of spirit or guiding force steering us throughout this life. I would also like to believe that when our bodies die, our souls go on living. Of course, I can't really say that it will ever happen. I am not dead. I haven't even had one of those near-death experiences that you hear about. You know, the ones where you are out of your body and trying to process whether or not to stay living or have Jennifer Love Hewitt guide you towards the light (on the now defunct series Ghost Whisperer). But, I still like to believe that we have guardians looking out for us while we live our lives.

So, I guess in answer to the above question, I believe in the concept of there being some sort of God out there.

But, does this mean that I feel as though I have to show my faith by waking up at the crack of dawn every Sunday morning, putting on a double breasted suit and tie, head down to the church and syng hymns and pray for a couple of hours?

Not on your life.

I get that some people are church goers, and I respect that. For some, going to church can be a calming, and peaceful thing. Some really get into the sermons, and the hymns, and the general feeling that they are in the house of God.


 

And, don't get me wrong...I did attempt to give the church a good try. As a child, I liked going to Sunday school, and we did a lot of fun things there. And, I have to say that I did seem to get some of my current belief system from the short time I was there.

But, as I grew older, I developed my own belief system, and along the way, going to church on Sundays became less and less a part of my belief system to the point where I stopped going altogether.

I do not mean to offend anyone by writing what I am about to write next. These are my beliefs and my beliefs alone. I don't expect all of you to believe the same way that I do...all I ask is that you respect my beliefs, and I will do the same for all of you.

The truth of the matter is that I don't really need to sit in a church pew to have strong feelings of faith. If there really is a God out there (and I do believe in the concept of God), wouldn't he want you to show your faith and love towards your fellow man (or woman, as the case may be) anytime and everywhere?

At my job, I often work most Sunday mornings or afternoons (which according to the Bible is a sin...GAWSP!!!), and during the hours that church is in service, the store is completely devoid of all customer activity. Then sometime around noon, we get a mad rush. I often joke about the sudden rush of customers that seem to crowd the stores around that time. It's almost as if they were told at the sermon that they must shop or they will be subjected to eternal damnation or something of that nature.

So, it kind of makes one scratch their heads when you see people coming into retail establishments after going to church, and just being absolutely rude to everyone around them.  Did they learn absolutely nothing?


It's one thing to sit in a church and promise to be respectful and courteous to your fellow man, your community, and God himself (or herself). It's quite another to do it outside of a church setting. It's absolutely astonishing how some people seem to have one personality inside church, and have a totally different one somewhere else. How can one can pretend to be kind and good while singing hymns, and the next day be evil and selfish in a different venue?

It's fine to be religious, and it's fine to practice whatever religion you want to pursue. I admire people who have such a strong belief system, and am friends with quite a few people who do.  But, it really annoys me when people act religious when it suits them, and when it doesn't, they seem to feel that it doesn't matter.

I feel that if you are to practice a religion, whether it be Christianity, Judaism, Protestant, or whatever other religions there are out there, then be proud of whatever it is you follow.

At the same time though, I never could stand people who had this superiority complex that their beliefs were the best and that nobody else mattered. As far as I'm concerned, this is where the respect comes in. I may not believe in the same things you do, but that doesn't mean that I think mine are any better than yours.  Be proud of who you are, but also be respectful of who others are.

And, you know what? Don't force a religion onto a person. Let them make up their own minds. I am a strong believer in the fact that a person should choose what religion is right for them when they are old enough to decide for themselves. I believe in this so much that as of right now, I haven't even been baptized anything yet.  You see, my family always believed in letting all of us children make up our own minds when it came down to making our own choices.  If we decided to follow Christianity, they'd support us.  If we decided to become Buddhists, they'd support us.  If we decided to worship Satan...well, I'm not sure how they'd react.

The point is, I'm glad that I have the power to make my own beliefs and choices.  Over time, I may find a religion that best suits me. Then again, I might not. 

I don't mean to compare choosing a religion to buying a new shirt at the Gap, don't get me wrong. I'm just saying that we all have our own distinct personalities, and that we all have choices to make it our lives. And, if given the choice between having a religion chosen for me, or choosing my own, I'd rather have the choice myself.



I guess you could say that I'm a believer in "individualism". Not exactly a word I'd use to describe a religion, but for now, it's how I live my life. And, frankly, I've never been happier.

Wednesday, May 09, 2012

Sendak's Concoctions of the Night Kitchen


Yesterday was a very sad day in the world of children’s literature.


On May 8, 2012, Maurice Sendak passed away at the age of 83.  He had suffered a stroke a few years earlier.

Hearing about Sendak’s death really got to me.  As someone who has wanted to make an impact in the world of writing, I’ll admit that I had quite a few role models to look up to for inspiration.

Maurice Sendak was one of those role models for me.  I used to read his books back in elementary school, as did all the other children in my school.  His books were unlike any other book by a children’s author, with dark, grotesque imagery and bizarre storylines.  Come to think of it, I think those were the reasons why kids gravitated towards the works of Sendak.

(Well, that...plus the fact that parents were opposed to his works because of content and sought to have them banned, thus making us children want to read them more.)

I initially had another topic planned for today, but I’m going to put it on hold for now.


This blog is going to be a celebration of the life and career of Maurice Sendak.

Sendak was born in Brooklyn, New York, on June 10, 1928 to Polish-Jewish immigrant parents.  Sendak had described his childhood as being particularly unhappy, largely due to the fact that a lot of his extended family ended up dying as a result of the Holocaust.  At an early age, he was forced to face death and mortality...something that would inevitably influence his later works.

What was interesting about Maurice Sendak was that he initially didn’t want to be an author at first.  Although he loved reading as a child (they had kept him entertained while he was bedridden due to a childhood illness), his real passion was animation and illustrations.  After seeing Walt Disney’s “Fantasia” at the age of twelve, Sendak made it a goal to become an illustrator.

TRIVIA:  One of Sendak’s first jobs involved creating window displays for the New York City based toy store, F.A.O. Schwarz.


Beginning in 1947, Sendak’s illustrations began appearing in the textbook “Atomics for the Millions”, written by Dr. Maxwell Leigh Eidinoff.  Shortly thereafter he began illustrating various children’s books for various authors during the 1950s, including the “Little Bear” series written by Else Holmelund Minarik.

It wouldn’t be until the late 1950s that Sendak would begin writing his own stories in addition to providing the illustrations for them.  Some of Sendak’s earliest works included “Kenny’s Window” (1956), “Very Far Away” (1957), and “The Sign On Rosie’s Door” (1960).

And then in 1963, Sendak created his most famous work.


I’m sure most of you have probably heard of the book “Where The Wild Things Are”.  It was later adapted into a motion picture in 2009 featuring Chris Cooper, Forest Whitaker, Catherine O’Hara, and James Gandolfini.  Well, that book ended up becoming such a huge part of my life.

I’ll never forget the first time I read it.  It was second grade, and our teacher read the story to us in class.  I was mesmerized from the very first page and onward.

The story surrounds a nine year old boy named Max, a little boy who is most content wearing a wolf costume and causing mischief all over the house.  When his mother punishes Max by sending him to his room without dinner, Max’s imagination goes into overdrive.  Soon, a magical forest and sea appears, and Max sets sail to a far away island.

An island where the wild things were.

In the story, the monsters appear to be wild, scary, ferocious monsters, each with their own distinct look.  But as the story goes on, Max proves that he is the “fiercest monster of all”, as he has the power to conquer them by “staring into all their yellow eyes without blinking once.”

Max is made the “king of all wild things”, and the monsters celebrate with Max by dancing around in a “wild rumpus”.  But when Max starts getting homesick, he returns back to his bedroom, and goes downstairs to eat his dinner.

TRIVIA:  The monsters in “Where The Wild Things Are” were named after actual relatives of Sendak.  These names include Aaron, Bernard, Emile, Moishe, and Tzippy.

I enjoyed the book very much.  As a child, I always loved the way the monsters looked, and found the idea of the boy making friends with the wild things to be a great thing.  Even monsters needed to have friends.  As an adult, I can see that the book’s meaning runs a lot deeper than that.  I think that Max had a lot on his plate, which could explain the reason why Max often acted out.  I even think the 2009 film explained it better than the book.  Max created the “Wild Things” world as a way to escape his anger over getting punished by his mother, but it also his way of escaping the frustration he felt in his life.

It was a great message...and one that I can definitely relate to.  No, I didn’t wear a wolf suit and dream of scary creatures...but I know what it is like to create an imaginary world where things were more “perfect” than they were.  I’ve done it many times.

It’s funny though.  When “Where The Wild Things Are” was first published, it was critically panned.  Parents were concerned about the grotesque appearance of the monsters, and Sendak claimed that some libraries had actually banned the book.  But when children made an extra effort to seek out the book, teachers and librarians soon realized that maybe they were wrong about their feelings about the book, and relaxed their views.  The book eventually became a best seller, and won the Caldecott Award in 1964.


Of course, this wasn’t the first book that netted controversy for Sendak.  His 1970 book, “In The Night Kitchen”, was subject to censorship due to the fact that the story depicted a young boy running around completely nude...and the book showed every angle.  I myself have read the book, and I didn’t find anything wrong with it at all. 

It actually reminds me of the time that I was volunteering at a daycare center when I was in my early 20s, and we took a field trip to the public library.  We ended up seeing the animated movie of “In The Night Kitchen”, and if you could see the looks on the daycare providers faces when the movie aired, it would have stopped one dead in their tracks.  They were not happy with the movie at all, and they actually were worried that these kindergarten aged students would tell their parents everything. 


(Though, secretly I was chuckling to myself, as the most vocal complainer was also the one staff member who I felt had a huge chip on her shoulder...but that’s another story altogether.)

Anyway, “In The Night Kitchen” has been challenged in several American states including Illinois, Texas, Minnesota, and New Jersey, and ranked at #21 on the list of “Most Challenged Books from 1990-1999”.

There’s a part of me that wondered if Sendak was intentionally trying to push the envelope with his illustrations.  At any rate, he seemed to let the criticism slide, as he should have.

And besides, after “In The Night Kitchen” was published, he ended up releasing other widely successful books.  1977’s “Seven Little Monsters”.  1981’s “Outside Over There”.  2011’s “Bumble-Ardy”.  These are just a few of the many accomplishments that Sendak had to his credit. 

In addition to the Caldecott Award he won in 1964, he has also won the Hans Christian Andersen Award for children’s book illustrations in 1970, the National Book Award in 1982, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal in 1983, the National Medal of Arts in 1986, and shared the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2003 with Christine Nostlinger.  He even has an elementary school named after him, which is located in North Hollywood, California.


Maurice Sendak’s contribution to the world of art and literature is nothing short of incredible.  While his road to success may have been filled with criticism and controversy early on, he managed to rise above it, and had quite the rewarding experience.

Fare thee well, Mr. Sendak.  May you rest in peace, and may your soul forever be where the wild things are.


Maurice Sendak
1928-2012