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Thursday, August 23, 2012

I'm No Phyllis Diller


Before I kick off this edition of the Thursday Confession, I wanted to take the time out to pay a small tribute to one of the funniest comediennes of all time.


As many of you know, legendary comic Phyllis Diller passed away on August 20, 2012 at the age of 95 years old. 

During her career (which lasted an astounding sixty years), Diller wore many hats.  She started off working at an Oakland, California radio station in 1952, and shortly after that began hosting a 15-minute long television program entitled “Phyllis Diller, the Homely Friendmaker”.  Three years later, she ended up performing her first stand-up gig at a club known as “The Purple Onion”.  Her first gig was so successful that she was asked back again the following week, and the week after that.  She appeared for a total of eighty-seven consecutive weeks!  Eighty-seven weeks!  That’s roughly a year and a half!  Quite impressive.

But really, it wasn’t that much of a surprise.  Phyllis Diller had such quick wit, and her style of humour was such that almost everyone in the world could relate to it at some point.  And, who could forget that laugh?


From the various appearances on Bob Hope television specials, to guest appearances on such television shows as “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In”, “Full House” and “The Bold and the Beautiful”, to appearing in movies such as “Splendor in the Grass” and “The Aristocrats”, Diller showed no signs of slowing down even as she approached her nineties! 

And, Phyllis Diller had even more talents than stand-up comedy and acting in various sketch comedy shows.  Did you know that before she embarked on a career in comedy, she had ambitions to become a musician?  Not only was Phyllis Diller skilled in tickling the ivories on a piano, but she reportedly also owned a custom-made harpsichord! 

And, here’s some more trivia for you all.  Despite the fact that Phyllis Diller often smoked from long cigarette holders during her stand-up performances, it was later revealed that the cigarette holders were harmless props, and that Diller had never touched a cigarette in her life! 

(Maybe that’s how she ended up living to the age of 95?  Just speculation though.  Then again, my grandfather smoked since he was in his teens and he passed away in 2000 at the age of 84, so what do I know, right?)

At any rate, Phyllis Diller was a force to be reckoned with in the world of stand-up comedy, and she paved the way for other female comediennes to make their mark on the medium such as Rosie O’Donnell, Elayne Boosler, and Ellen DeGeneres.  Her talent, wit, and personality will never truly be duplicated, and she will be forever missed.


Phyllis Diller
1917-2012

Now, there’s a reason why I decided to talk about Phyllis Diller besides honouring her memory in this blog.  It’s because my Thursday Confession is loosely tied to the style of humour that she was most famous for.

Though I’ll just come right out with it first...she did it much better than I did for one obvious reason.


You see, Phyllis Diller was known for her self-depreciating humour in each and every one of her stand-up performances.  In many of them, she often performed under the persona of a crazy-haired frazzled housewife who often poked fun at herself about her age, her appearance, the fact that she could not cook, and her husband who was affectionately named “Fang”.  I imagine that you would like to see some visual evidence of this, so I took the liberty of scouring YouTube for video references of Diller in action.  Here’s what I came up with.


Even Phyllis Diller could take self-deprecating humour and make it seem like the funniest thing in the world!  She saw her flaws and she not only embraced them, but actually turned them into funny jokes that made generations of people laugh and laugh!

And this is where I insert my confession for this week.

THURSDAY CONFESSION #34:  Phyllis Diller wasn’t the only person who used self-deprecating humour during her lifetime.  I used it too.  The only difference was that I was never any good at it myself.

And yes, I will explain that in a minute.

You see, Phyllis Diller did end up poking a lot of fun at her own expense...but she ended up doing it for a reason.  She did it to make a living as a stand-up comic, and she succeeded in spades with that goal.  She made a wonderful living for herself with the formula that she perfected over the years.  But more importantly, she was performing as a caricature of herself, which could explain why she had such a healthy, self-confident attitude whenever she was on stage.

Myself on the other hand...it was nothing like that at all  It most certainly wasn't funny.

For me, using self-deprecating humour was my defense mechanism for many years.  I turned it on and off the way that most people would flick the switch on a ceiling fan because I had mistakenly believed that it was the only way that I could deal with people.

The reason why I felt as if I needed to do this?  I suppose it was because I was in a situation where I constantly being mistreated in school.  I was called names, and I was pushed around, and it was just a miserable experience all around.  Can you imagine having to go somewhere where everyone else around you treated you horribly?  It wouldn’t be very nice, would it?

Part of the frustration that I had to endure was that with some people, I never really knew exactly what to expect.  You know those days where a certain person might be incredibly nice to you one minute, and then the next minute they’re basically making your life a living misery?  Yeah...almost all those particular days were centered within my teen years.

It seemed as though no matter what I did to try and get people to understand me, or even talk to me, they would find new, creative ways to make me feel as though I did not belong there.  I could almost predict when and where the next insult would be coming from, and who it would be that would say it.

Somewhere along the way, I ended up getting a really stupid idea in my head to deal with the situation (and the reason I say that is it stupid now is because of the realization that I wasn’t ‘dealing’ with it at all).  I don’t know where I got the idea from, but I honestly believed that I could diffuse the situation by making fun of myself before other people had the chance to.

So during my teens and twenties, I would often insult myself.  I think I would mostly joke about my weight because I was (and I kind of still am to some extent) a chubby person.  I joked about my clothes and how someone from the 1800s wouldn’t be caught dead in some of the stuff I wore back then.  I even think that I called myself names in an effort to try and keep other people from harming me.

I know.  You don’t have to say it.  I can read it in your face as you skim over this blog topic. 

I’m sure you know where this is going.  Whereas Phyllis Diller’s brand of humour helped her grab a firm hold on the ladder of success, I was stuck on the slippery slope downward.

Everyone knows that one must have a positive attitude to try and get anywhere in life.  Even Phyllis Diller had a grand attitude towards life herself (which could explain how she ended up living nine and a half decades).  I was nowhere near that stage back then.

I was making fun of myself in an effort to deflect the criticism and cruelty of others...and all it ended up doing was leaving me with a rather depressing view of the world.  I thought that I was being clever by making fun of myself because I was taking away their ammo...but instead what was happening was that I took their ammo and inflicted self-inflicted gunshot wounds to my soul.  Wounds that I’m not afraid to admit are still healing.

Fortunately, I readily admit that I have gotten a lot better at trying to avoid self-deprecating humour.  I have my moments where I still catch myself poking fun at myself and being needlessly cruel to myself, but I’ve been better at recognizing the fact that it is a pointless exercise to do.

My hope is that one day, I will be able to only be able to tell myself nothing but good things about myself.  Fortunately, with the help of some very good friends, I believe that I am well on my way to recovery.

It hasn’t been an easy go of it...but then again, in life, what is easy?  Life is about challenges, and you have to take them...no matter what the risk is.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Everyone Knows It's Slinky!


I am going to make a statement, and you can choose to agree with me, or not.

Sometimes, some of the best toys were objects that were never meant to be toys in the first place. Can I get a “hell yeah” on that one?

No? Not even a little bit of a whimper? Oh, well.

I'm sure that all parents who are reading this blog entry can sort of understand what I am saying. Imagine buying your child one of the biggest-selling, very expensive toys that is currently available for sale at retailers all over the world...only to discover that your child would rather play with the box that the toy came in. I imagine some of you out there have found yourselves in that very situation and have been incredibly frustrated over wasting so much money when you could have just bought a box.

But, admit it...boxes were fun to play with. You could do almost anything you wanted with a box. If the box was big enough, you could turn it into a fort, or a secret hideout. Or, at the very least, you could make something out of the box. You could make a car, you could make a hat, you could make almost anything out of a box.

(Well, maybe not an electric generator that could power half of Toronto...or maybe you can, I don't know...I've never made one myself.)

Boxes were great to have around, but there were other ordinary household items that could make great toys as well. Feather dusters made great magic wands. Popsicle sticks could be used to build houses and fences. Even bathroom tissue could be used to make fancy arts and crafts, especially back in the 1980s when it used to come in a variety of different colours.



And then there are metal springs.

I bet that none of you would have ever expected that something as simple as a metal spring could be used to make one of the most popular toys ever created, but that's exactly what happened back in the early 1940's.



Richard James was a naval engineer back in 1943 stationed at the William Cramp and Sons shipyard in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At that time, he was in the process of developing a spring that had the ability to support and stabilize sensitive instruments aboard ships that could tip over if the water below was choppy. While he was working on it, James accidentally knocked one of the springs over, and to his amazement, the spring ended up descending downward in a series of steps until it re-coiled itself and stood in an upright position.

It was then that James believed that he could make the metal spring “walk” just by switching the material of the spring. He experimented with different types, sizes, and thicknesses of various steel wires until he found one that would walk. His wife (Betty James) was skeptical at first, believing that her husband was just wasting his time, but once James fine-tuned the toy, and wowed neighbourhood kids with his new design, she changed her mind.

In fact, it was Betty James who came up with the name of the creation, using the word found in Webster's Dictionary that meant “sleek and graceful”, and deciding that the word could also be used to describe the sound of a metal spring contracting and expanding.



The Slinky.

With the process perfected, James decided to go for the next logical step...the manufacturing of Slinkys to sell. With a $500 loan, the James' started up their business, “James Spring & Wire Company”. They produced 400 units of product, wrapped them up individually and set a price of one dollar for each one. The original Slinky was two and a half inches tall, and included 98 coils of high-grade Swedish steel. But when the James' tried to pitch their new product to individual toy stores, they were turned down. It wasn't until department store chain Gimbels granted the James' permission to set up an inclined plane inside their Philadelphia location to demonstrate the Slinky.



In November 1945, the demonstration was held inside Gimbels toy department, and immediately the spectators were very impressed. Within an hour and a half, all 400 units were sold. The following year, the Slinky was introduced at the American Toy Fair.



By 1952, James had perfected the design of the Slinky enough to manufacture a machine that could produce hundreds of units in just hours, and he would often make appearances on television programs to promote the Slinky. In 1952, the first “Slinky Dog” was manufactured and sold, and throughout the 1950s, other Slinky creations would be invented including Loco the Slinky Train, Suzie the Slinky Worm, and the Slinky Crazy Eyes.

TRIVIA: During the first two years of making and selling the Slinky, it was reported that James Industries had sold 100 million Slinkys at a dollar a piece. Adjusting for inflation, that would mean that James Industries became a billion dollar company within two years!



Alas, by 1960, Richard James had left the company following his divorce from his wife, Betty. Oddly enough, he left the toy business entirely to become a missionary in Bolivia. He died in 1974. Betty took over the company and relocated the business from Philadelphia to Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania in an effort to save money. She served as president of the company until 1998, when James Industries was sold to Plymouth, Michigan based company Poof Products, Inc. Five years later, the company would merge to form Poof-Slinky, Inc. while remaining in Hollidaysburg. Betty James passed away in 2008 from congestive heart failure at the age of 90.

I have to tell you, I loved playing with the Slinky when I was younger. You couldn't possibly imagine the joy I felt the first time I held one in my hands. The feeling of the metal contracting and expanding was quite stress-relieving (not that I had that much stress when I was five years old, mind you). Plus, it was literally the only toy that I could throw down a flight of stairs and not get in trouble for it. I was blown away by the fact that a Slinky could walk down a flight of stairs better (and more gracefully) than I ever could!

And, of course, who can forget the classic jingle for the Slinky, which you can hear below.



Now, when I was younger, I mostly played with the classic metal Slinky. But there were also plastic, multicoloured Slinkys that were made as well. I only ever owned one plastic Slinky...I believe that it was one of those neon coloured tie-dyed ones. 



It was okay, and it looked cool...but I just didn't like the plastic ones as well as the metal ones. The main reason being that the plastic Slinkys were more prone to getting bent and damaged.

And everyone knows that once a Slinky got a dent or a kink inside of it, it was basically useless, and you needed to buy another one.

The good news was that Betty James insisted on making the Slinky affordable enough that every child could play with it. And, certainly you can find Slinkys that can be as little as a buck or two at certain dollar stores.

But Slinkys were more than just toys. Would you believe that the Slinky is a common tool that a lot of high school teachers and college professors use to demonstrate scientific properties? And would you believe that at one point, soldiers that fought in the Vietnam War used Slinkys as makeshift radio antennas? And would you believe that NASA has used the Slinky in experiments that have involved zero-gravity simulations in preparation for space shuttle missions?

So, not only was the Slinky cool to play with, but it was extremely versatile as well. It's as if the Slinky was a wonder toy!



Almost 70 years since the Slinky was born, it continues to be one of the best-selling toys of all time. In 1999, the Slinky was forever immortalized in a postage stamp design, put out by the U.S. Postal Service. One year later, the Slinky was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame. And in 2003, which was the 60th anniversary of the Slinky, the toy was named to the Toy Industry Association's “Century of Toys List”, which was a list of the 100 most memorable toys of the 20th century.

And, here's one more piece of trivia. Between 1945 and 2005, an estimated 300 MILLION Slinky toys have been manufactured and sold.

Not bad for starting out life as a metal spring, huh?

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

August 21, 1961


Welcome to the twenty-first of August! Today happens to be Tuesday, and today is the day that we look back through time to a particular event in history that is linked to this date. The topic that I have chosen for today is one that I think could be a lot of fun, and I'll give you a bit of a hint to chew on as we look back on other happenings of August 21. Today's Tuesday Timeline feature has to do with music.

Ponder that for a moment while we take a look back on other events that have happened on August 21. We'll start with celebrity birthdates.

As it turns out, quite a few celebrities are celebrating a birthday today. These celebrities include Melvin Van Peebles, Janet Baker, Robert Stone, Kenny Rogers, Clarence Williams III, Jackie DeShannon, Peter Weir, Patty McCormack, Loretta Devine, Harry Smith, Margo Kane, Keith Hart, Kim Cattrall, Steve Smith (Journey), Jim McMahon, Jeff Stryker, Carrie-Anne Moss, Dina Carroll, Alicia Witt, Brody Jenner, Melissa Schuman, B.J. Upton, Hayden Panettiere, and Jamia Simone Nash.

And here are some of the major historical events that have taken place on August 21.

1770 – James Cook formally claims Australia for Great Britain, and bestows upon it the name of New South Wales

1778 – British forces begin besieging French outpost at Pondicherry during American Revolutionary War

1810 – Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte is elected Crown Prince of Sweden

1821 – Jarvis Island discovered by crew of the Eliza Francis

1831 – Nat Turner leads black slaves and free blacks in a rebellion

1863 – The town of Lawrence, Kansas is destroyed by Confederate guerillas “Quantrill's Raiders in the Lawrence Massacre

1888 – The adding machine is invented and patented by William Seward Burroughs

1906 – Famed animator Friz Freleng is born in Kansas City, Missouri

1911 – Leonardo da Vinci's “Mona Lisa” is stolen by a Louvre employee

1940 – Russian revolutionary figure Leon Trotsky dies from his injuries following an attack from an undercover NKVD agent the day before

1959 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs executive order admitting Hawaii as the fiftieth American state

1968 – James Anderson Jr. is awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor, the first to be awarded to an African-American U.S. Marine

1969 – Australian Denis Michael Rohan torches Al-Aqsa Mosque, which was a major catalyst behind the formation of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation

1976 – Operation Paul Bunyan at Panmujom, South Korea

1979 – Soviet dancer Alexander Godunov defects to the United States

1981 – Michael Devine, a volunteer of the Irish Liberation Army dies after fasting for 62 days during Ireland's 1981 hunger strike

1983 – Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr. is assassinated at the Manila International Airport

1986 – An eruption of carbon dioxide gas from Lake Nyos in Cameroon kills 1,800 people within a 20 kilometer range

1991 – Coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev collapses

1992 – Ruby Ridge standoff in Idaho begins

2007 – Hurricane Dean makes landfall in Mexico as a Category 5 storm, the first Category 5 storm to make landfall since Hurricane Andrew struck Florida in August 1992

That's quite a lot of stuff that happened on this date, isn't it?

So, how far back in time are we going to go this week?

Well, how about we take a trip back in time to a little over five decades ago? Does August 21, 1961 sound like a great date to discuss? I think it is.



So, the year is 1961. That year, newly elected American president John F. Kennedy delivers his first State of the Union address, the Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba begins, and The Dick Van Dyke show debuted on CBS.

And, on August 21, 1961, an established record company was set to release a brand new hit by an all-girl group.



Have you ever heard of a group known as “The Marvelettes”? No? Well, fear not. I'll introduce you to them now.

The origin of The Marvelettes dates back to 1960, when each of the members were members of a high school glee club. At Inkster High School in the Detroit suburb of Inkster, Michigan, one member of the glee club, fifteen-year-old Gladys Horton formed the Marvelettes along with Katherine Anderson, Georgeanna Tillman, Juanita Cowart, and Georgia Dobbins. Dobbins was already a high school graduate, but Anderson, Tillman, and Cowart were also a part of Inkster High's glee club.

Now, I suppose you're wondering how the band ended up getting their name. I'll get to that a little bit later in this entry. But one of the first names that the band came up with stemmed from an off the cuff remark that one of the members uttered while they were brainstorming name ideas. When the member remarked that they “can't sing yet”, Horton altered the saying just enough to come up with their first band name, “The Casinyets”.

By early 1961, the band decided that name just wasn't working out, and soon began calling themselves “The Marvels”. When a teacher suggested that the band try out for a talent show contest, the band decided to take the suggestion, and as a result ended up winning fourth place in the contest. Unfortunately, only the top three acts won the prizes...a chance to audition for a recording contract with Motown Records.



Luckily the girls had a couple of teachers who really sung their praises, and because of this, “The Marvels” were also given a chance to sing for the Motown executives. After passing the first auditions with Robert Bateman and Brian Holland, “The Marvels” ended up auditioning in front of Smokey Robinson and Motown founder Berry Gordy. Gordy was impressed by the vocal talents of the group, but he still wasn't convinced that they were good enough to be signed to Motown. He issued the band a challenge...come up with an original song composition and perform it for them. If he liked it, they would get a contract.

So, the band returned to Inkster, where Georgia Dobbins took it upon herself to write the song for the band. She ended up making contact with a local musician named William Garrett who had been working on a song at the time. It was an unfinished blues composition, and Dobbins believed that she could take his composition and turn it into an original song. Garrett agreed to hand his work over to Dobbins and The Marvels on one condition...in case the song became a hit, he wanted his name kept on his work. Dobbins agreed, took the song home, and re-worked it into a teenage doo-wop song, suitable for performing in front of Berry Gordy.

The stage was set for The Marvels to return to Motown to wow Berry Gordy with their song. However, before the trip to Motown was set to happen, Georgia Dobbins unexpectedly left the group. Apparently Georgia's father was concerned about her role in the band, and advised her not to continue in a career in show business, so Dobbins left The Marvels. But while Dobbins' time with the band was over, she was determined not to prevent the other girls from trying to make it big with Motown. She handed Gladys Horton the new song that she had worked on, as well as leaving her with full control of the group before departing the group for good. With the band down a member, the decision was made by the whole band to replace her. Dobbins' replacement was another graduate of Inkster High, Wanda Young.



With Young firmly in place in the group, The Marvels performed once again in front of Berry Gordy, and once again, Berry Gordy was impressed. A recording contract was drafted up and they were signed to Motown's Tamla division in the summer of 1961. But before the band could begin recording, Berry Gordy decided that the band needed to have their name tweaked just a smidgen. Instead of The Marvels, Gordy decided to bestow upon them the name of “The Marvelettes”.

By the way...did you want to know what song ended up getting The Marvelettes that recording contract? The one that William Garrett handed over to Georgia Dobbins to rework into a hit? Here it is.



ARTIST: The Marvelettes
SONG: Please Mr. Postman
ALBUM: Please Mr. Postman
DATE RELEASED: August 21, 1961
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #1 for 1 week

Please Mr. Postman” was the debut release of The Marvelettes. The song is all about a woman who is waiting for the postman to bring her a letter from her boyfriend who is away fighting in a war.

Gladys Horton provides the lead vocals for the song, and here's a little bit of trivia for you...the band playing in the song was provided by The Funk Brothers, with Marvin Gaye playing the drums!



The song “Please Mr. Postman” helped bring much fame and acclaim to The Marvelettes, who ended up recording several other hit singles following this one. But the song was also notable for a couple of other reasons.

First, the song was one that ended up having five different writers credited to the song, due to the fact that the song was reworked at least three times before being released. Georgia Dobbins, William Garrett, Freddie Gorman, Brian Holland, and Robert Bateman have all been issued songwriting credits for the song.

But even more impressive? The song ended up being Motown Records first #1 hit!

It took some time for the song to make it to the top of the charts, but on December 11, 1961, “Please Mr. Postman” was the #1 song on Billboard. It only lasted a week on the charts before being unseated by The Tokens' “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” on December 18, but still, it was a significant source of pride for the record company, and it only became the first of many #1 hit singles linked to Motown.

Of course, it was also a source of pride for The Marvelettes as well. Not too many artists see their debut single become a #1 hit, so the fact that “Please Mr. Postman” did so well on the charts was a bonus for the band.

Unfortunately, that song would become the band's only #1 single. Between 1961 and 1971, the band released twenty-eight singles, but only three managed to reach the Top 10...two of which stalled at the number seven position. During this period, Georgeanne Tillman was forced to leave the band in 1964 after being diagnosed with lupus, and just three years later, Gladys Horton departed from The Marvelettes following the birth of her first child, who was born with cerebral palsy. The remaining members of the band continued on before parting ways in 1971.

So, what has become of The Marvelettes since then? Sadly, two of the original members of the band are no longer with us. Georgeanne Tillman succumbed to lupus in 1980 at the age of 36, while Gladys Horton passed away in 2011 at the age of 65. The other members retired from the music industry, and reunited with each other for an episode of the television series “Unsung”.

Please Mr. Postman”. The Marvelettes' only number one hit, and the first of many huge successes for Motown Records.

And, it all happened on August 21, 1961.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Disaster Feature #3 - Deep Impact


Have you ever thought of how you would prepare for your last day on earth? What would you do? Where would you go? Who would you spend it with? I think that these are questions that the vast majority of us have thought about.

I know that the Mayans have insisted that doomsday will fall on December 21, 2012, but I really don't believe that to be the case at all. The reality is that none of us really know how the world is going to end. For all we know, the world could end because the sun explodes. For all we know, the world could end because of a series of natural disasters. For all we know, the world could end because of a zombie infestation.

(Well, okay, that last one seems a bit too farfetched, but it would be kind of cool if it went down like that, I have to admit.)

The point is that regardless of how the world ends, I think that whenever that day happens, the people who will be there to witness it should make their last day count.

Today's Monday Matinee (the third in a series of disaster films this month) takes a look at a situation in which the world is on the verge of being destroyed, as well as the lives of those who happen to be on a collision course with death itself.

Do any of you remember when we used to have dinosaurs running around the planet? Me neither. That was over sixty-five million years ago, after all. But we all know what happened to those poor creatures, right? A meteor from way up in space collided with the Earth, causing an impact so great that all of the dinosaurs were wiped out.

In all likelihood, the chances of a comet or a meteorite smashing into earth during our lifetimes are very, very low. I'm not saying that it is impossible, mind you, but the odds are definitely in our favour.

But suppose we sit down in front of the television to watch “America's Got Talent” when all of a sudden, a breaking news bulletin pops up on the television screen stating that a comet the size of Mississippi is set to destroy the planet in less than a few days. How would you react? And do you have a plan for survival?



These are a few of the questions that many of the people featured in the 1998 science-fiction film “Deep Impact”, directed by Mimi Leder.

Released on May 8, 1998, “Deep Impact” tells the story of what would happen if a comet that was several miles in width was headed towards our world, and the attempts to destroy the comet before the human race suffers the same fate as the dinosaurs of yore.

"Deep Impact” starred Tea Leoni, Leelee Sobieski, Elijah Wood, Robert Duvall, Maximilian Schell, and Morgan Freeman. The film itself received mediocre praise from critics, but still managed to make almost $350 million at the box office.



Oddly enough, “Deep Impact” was not the only film that involved space debris wreaking havoc on the world. Two months after “Deep Impact” was released, another film, “Armageddon” also hit the box office. Despite the fact that “Deep Impact” was released first, “Armageddon” ended up selling more tickets and made more money. However, scientists and the general public noted that “Deep Impact” was much more scientifically credible than that of “Armageddon”.

When “Deep Impact” first begins, the date is May 10, 1998, and a teenage boy named Leo Biederman (Wood) is at a star party in the city of Richmond, Virginia. Leo has always had a fascination with space, and his dream was to work as an astronomer. At the party, he is looking up at the sky through his telescope and notices a strange object darting across the sky. He immediately gets the attention of astronomer Marcus Wolf (Charles Martin Smith), who does his own investigation on the object that Leo discovered. To Wolf's shock, the object turns out to be a comet that is set to make a direct hit on Earth.



Smith tries to warn the global population of this event, but as luck would have it, he gets into a car accident and is killed.

One year passes, and while everyone on Earth parties like it's 1999 (literally, the film is set in 1999), almost everyone on the planet is unaware of the fact that they are living on borrowed time. And they would have continued to remain unaware if not for a journalist from MSNBC.



Jenny Lerner (Leoni) is in hot pursuit, trying to uncover the real story behind the resignation of the Secretary of the Treasury (James Cromwell). All that Jenny knew of the story was that he was connected to a person named “Ellie”, and Jenny initially believed (albeit mistakenly so) that Ellie was the name of the man's mistress. She believed that it would be a scandal if the word got out of the affair and she wanted to be the first to break the story.

She could not have been more wrong.

Jenny soon discovers that Ellie isn't actually a person. It happens to be an acronym...E.L.E (Extinction-Level Event).



Soon, the world is in a panic as President Tom Beck (Freeman) announces the terrible news. He tells the global audience that the Wolf-Biederman comet (named after the two people who first discovered it a year earlier) could destroy all life on the planet if it collides. Fortunately, space exploration teams from the United States and Russia have secretly been constructing a spacecraft named the Messiah while in orbit. By using the spacecraft to transport a space crew lead by Captain Spungeon Tanner (Duvall) to the comet, the team hopes to save the planet by using a boatload of nuclear weapons to destroy the comet before doomsday happens.

However, the mission proves to be a failure. The spaceship ends up damaged, and loses all contact with the people tracking it on Earth. Worse, the large comet is split into two different pieces.

The piece that is eventually renamed Biederman is only a small chunk. It would cause a lot of damage, but it wouldn't destroy the whole world. The Wolf half on the other hand was still a risk, due to the fact that if the comet hit the Earth, the dust cloud that would form would block out the whole sun for two years, killing all life on Earth.

With the news of the failure of the Messiah, martial law is declared all over the world, and many nations start their second plan of action...evacuating people to the series of underground bunkers. In the United States, the caves are located in Missouri, and only one million people would be allowed access to the bunkers. People were sorted out by age (under 50), as well as a selected group of professionals (doctors, scientists, teachers, etc) to rebuild society post-impact.



As a result of the lottery, Jenny and Leo's families are spared, and are allowed to live in the bunkers. Sounds wonderful, right? Well, Leo's girlfriend Sarah (Sobieski) and her family have been left off the list. And Leo simply couldn't let his girlfriend and her family die.

So Leo and Sarah get married, the marriage seemingly allowing Sarah's family to evacuate to Missouri as well. But what happens when a clerical error still forbids Sarah's family from entering the caverns, and Sarah refuses to leave her loved ones behind?

Jenny decides to give away her ticket to freedom to a co-worker who has a child, and instead chooses to wait out the impact at her estranged father's beach house, mending their relationship in the process.

But before anyone can think, the Biederman piece of the comet enters the Earth's atmosphere and smashes directly into the Atlantic Ocean, causing this to happen.
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So, considering that a small piece of the comet (well, okay, not THAT small) could cause that much damage, imagine how much more damage would be caused by the larger piece!

But with a damaged spaceship floating through space and a comet locked on target with Earth, is there anything that could be done before more innocent lives are lost?

Well, I won't reveal the ending. You know what I always say...watch the movie yourself!

And, that's our look back on “Deep Impact”.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Diggin' The Dancing Queen


Today’s Sunday Jukebox feature will focus on a band that I admittedly used to poke fun at every opportunity I could get.

Mind you, I would often poke fun at most bands and artists who tackled at least one song during the dreaded “disco era” of the late 1970s.


I was too young to experience life in which disco records flooded music stores and where there seemed to be disco clubs with mirrored balls and flashing lights on every street corner.  I was born two years after disco “died”, but if I had lived during that time period, I suppose that I would have been one of the ones cheering everybody on as they smashed thousands of disco records on the streets.

No, actually, come to think of it, I probably wouldn’t.  But I really didn’t have any love for disco music.  When I was growing up, whenever I heard a disco song, I found it cheesy and laughable.  With songs like “Disco Duck” and “Do The Hustle”, I found it quite hard to take them seriously.

(Then again, I grew up during the 1980s and 1990s, where people likely found it hard to take songs like “Barbie Girl” and “The Macarena” seriously.)

It really wasn’t until I grew a little older that I started to see disco in a whole new light.  Looking back on it, some of the most recognizable disco songs had great melodies and really got you on your feet.  In most cases, the disco era generated songs that were all about love, passion, and having a good time.  Certainly there were some exceptions, but I’d like to think that the disco era provided us with songs that had some of the most positive messages ever heard.  The disco era of the 1970s was certainly a far cry from the grunge era of the early 1990s, where most songs were depressing and dark.

(Though both periods did have one thing in common.  Heavy drug use.)

I guess the point that I am trying to make is that my preconceived notions about disco music began to wane as I grew older, and now I can readily accept the fact that the disco movement of the 1970s was highly influential in the world of music and pop culture.  Even in song releases from 2012, there are still traces of the classic 1970s disco beat.  Just listen to any song by Lady Gaga, and you’ll understand what I mean.

So, for today’s entry, I thought that we’d take a look at one of the biggest disco acts of the late 1970s and early 1980s.  This group enjoyed a lot of success in the music business.  This is a band that has sold over 370 million records worldwide during their entire career, making them one of the most successful music artists of all time.  The band first formed in Sweden in 1972, and 40 years later, they are still making their mark on the music industry despite breaking up thirty years ago.

The stats for this band are mighty impressive.  The band released eight studio albums between 1973 and 1981, one live album, seven compilation albums, three box sets, four video albums, thirty-three music videos, and a massive seventy-three singles!  Not only were they one of the biggest music acts of the 1970s, but they were apparently one of the biggest!

In the United States, this Swedish pop group managed to have four Top 10 hits, but their success was evident in other countries as well.  In the United Kingdom, this band ended up having a total of nine #1 hits.  In Australia, the band had a total of six #1 hits.  And, in the band’s native Sweden, ten of their singles hit the Top 10, several of which peaked at the top of the charts.

And, to think that this band was first discovered at the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest!  It’s true!  The song that the band played was a little ditty known as “Waterloo”, which ended up being crowned the winning song that year!  The song ended up topping the charts in Germany, Ireland, The Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, and the United Kingdom, and reached #6 on the Billboard Charts. 

And just two years later, our featured band would have their first (and only) American #1 hit single with this release.


ARTIST:  ABBA
SONG:  Dancing Queen
ALBUM:  Arrival
DATE RELEASED:  August 16, 1976
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS:  #1 for 1 week

The song “Dancing Queen” managed to top the charts in twelve other countries aside from the United States, and many would consider the song to be the signature hit for the Swedish band, ABBA!

And, here is a picture of ABBA below.


(Oh, wait...that’s the 1990s Swedish band, Ace of Base, who eerily resembles ABBA...)



No, here’s the real, ABBA.  The band name came from the first initials of the four members of the band.  From left to right, we have Agnetha Faltskog, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid “Frida” Lyngstad. 

Get it?  ABBA?  Neat, huh?

Here’s another piece of trivia for you all.  Did you know that ABBA was made up of two married couples?  It’s true!  At the time, Agnetha and Bjorn were married, as were Benny and Frida.  Sadly, both marriages ended in divorce (which likely caused the band to split up in 1982, as both marriages had dissolved by 1981).

Anyway, “Dancing Queen” was the song that really put ABBA on the map.  As I said before, the song topped the charts in a number of countries, and some people would say that the song ended up being their signature hit.


Although the song was released in the summer of 1976 in Sweden (the song saw a stateside release in November of that year), the early beginnings of the song took place almost a full year prior, in August 1975.  Would you believe that the original title of the demo that would eventually become “Dancing Queen” was “Boogaloo”?  Somehow, I don’t think “Boogaloo” would have had quite the same ring to it.  It sounded too much like “Waterloo”.

The instrumental demo was completed first, and during the recording sessions, Benny brought the demo home to play for Frida.  Immediately upon playing the song, Frida began to cry.  She was deeply moved by the song, stating that she found it “so beautiful”, and that it was a song that went straight to her heart.


It was decided fairly quickly afterwards that the song would be included in the band’s 1976 album “Arrival”.

But did you know that the song that we all recognize as “Dancing Queen” was actually an updated version?  It turns out that the second verse of “Dancing Queen” was not the original verse for the song.  Through lost footage during a recording session, we now know what the original second verse was supposed to be.  Instead of the “You’re a tease...” verse, this was what we could have heard for verse #2.

Baby, baby, you’re out of sight,
Hey, you’re looking alright tonight.
When you come to the party,
Listen to the guys,
They’ve got the look in their eyes...

I wonder if the song would have still been a hit had the second verse been untouched.  I suppose we’ll never know now.

At any rate, “Dancing Queen” became one of the biggest hits of late 1976 and early 1977, and even years after the song was released, it still manages to have a huge impact on pop culture.  In 1993, in celebration of the 50th birthday of Queen Silvia of Sweden, Anni-Frid Lyngstad performed the song a cappella, which received rave reviews and impressed the Swedish royal family.

The song actually re-entered the UK charts in September 1992, peaking at #16, likely spawned by the fact that around that time, a UK based group known as “Erasure” had a hit with a cover version of another ABBA classic “Take A Chance On Me”.


The song ended up making Rolling Stone magazine’s list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time”, ranking at #171.


And just to make it known just how popular the song was, it was covered by several artists over the years.  A Swedish group known as the A*Teens released a cover version of the ABBA classic in March 2000, which had some minor airplay in the United States.  Other artists who have covered “Dancing Queen” include Kylie Minogue, Belinda Carlisle, S Club 7, and Sixpence None The Richer.

And that’s our look back on one of the most influential and popular disco classics of all time...one that I now have a new appreciation for.  J

Saturday, August 18, 2012

One World


Would you like to know one thing that I love most about doing this blog? It's being able to look at television shows that were once forgotten, and opening up a discussion about them.

In all likelihood, whenever I do a featured spotlight on a television show that is obscure, I'll likely be the only one who remembers it. But my hope is that someone out there will take a look at these shows, and realize “hey, I thought I was the only one who remembered this show”, or “oh my goodness, someone else knows this show”, or “I thought I was the only one who knew this show existed!”

For today's look back on Saturday Morning, we're going back to the TNBC era for this one.



TNBC, or “Teen NBC” was the block of live-action teen sitcoms that aired on Saturday mornings between 1992 and 2001. And, I make no apologies in admitting that I did watch TNBC. With Saturday morning cartoons more or less off the air during TNBC's heyday, what else was there to watch on Saturdays? And besides, if you could get past the fact that the shows were low-budget and that all of the programs were basically the same show in different settings, they were really quite interesting. And, besides, there were a few TNBC stars who ended up making a splash in the world of television and film years after the TNBC franchise shut down including Kelly Packard and Brentley Gore (California Dreams), Bianca Lawson, Natalia Cigluti, Lindsey McKeon, and Sarah Lancaster (Saved By The Bell: The New Class), and Anthony Anderson (Hang Time).

Not that today's blog subject has anything to do with the previous paragraph, just stating that I feel that the TNBC block of programming was somewhat underrated.

Today, we're going to look back at one of TNBC's final creations. The show first began airing on September 12, 1998, and ran until January 2001. It was also one of the few TNBC sitcoms that showcased an actual family unit, rather than having the stars be a whole bunch of high school students.

(Though, let's be honest here...75% of the main cast were a bunch of high school students.)

The name of the show was “One World”. And, yes, there is a reason why the show is called “One World”. Watch the opening credits below.



Now what if I told you that all eight people on the show were one big happy family? You wouldn't believe me, right?



Here's where the “One World” part comes in. You notice that all six children in the family are all of different races and backgrounds? How people of different cultures could come together to become one big family. It's almost as if it's a show that is dedicating itself to world peace!

But for whatever reason, the formula worked well enough for the program to run three seasons, and the end result was a program that was filled with warmth, as well as providing the strong positive message that everyone belonged somewhere on this crazy planet.



One World” takes place in the city of Miami, Florida. Dave Blake (Michael Toland), a former baseball player and his artist wife, Karen (Elizabeth Morehead) live in a gigantic house with their six children...all adopted!

You see, for whatever reason, neither Dave or Karen had their own biological children at the beginning of the series (though Karen would eventually become pregnant during the show's final season). I don't know what exactly the reason was behind why they chose to adopt rather than conceive naturally, but I'd like to think it was because they started off becoming foster parents, and fell so in love with all of their foster children that they decided to become part of the family permanently.

So, who are the six children in “One World”? Here they are below.



Beginning from left to right are Ben (Bryan Kirkwood), Marci (Alisa Reyes), Cray (Brandon Baker), Sui (Michele Krusiec), Neal (Harvey Silver), and Jane (Arroyn Lloyd).

And, each child had their own distinct personalities and backgrounds. As I talk a little bit about each of these characters, you'll see why they became the way that they did, and who moving in with the Blake family ended up being the best thing that ever happened to them.

Ben, for instance, ended up having the double whammy of being a recovering alcoholic as well as having a gambling problem. Quite heavy subject matter, given that on the program, Ben was portrayed as being just eighteen years of age. Of course, Ben's personal struggles often made him one of the strongest characters in the show. He was the one who convinced Jane to stay with the Blake family when she wasn't sure she fit in, and he took a girlfriend of his to her first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting to help her deal with her drinking problem. When he wasn't helping his friends and family, he was the frontman for a band that would perform at various Miami clubs, hoping to be discovered as a musical star.

Marci wasn't quite as developed as Ben was, but one thing that I noticed about her was her flair for leadership and business. She ended up becoming the assistant manager for a club known as The Warehouse (a club where Ben's band often plays), and while there, she finds herself having to stand up for herself when the club's owner begins making comments about her race. But that was never too difficult for Marci to do, because Marci's fiery personality meant that she more often than not served as the official mouthpiece for the Blake family...especially if someone had the poor sense to talk back to her or anyone else in the Blake family. Although, her big business mindset is questionable at times, even unethical. I mean, she tried selling food at inflated prices to people before a hurricane hit!

The youngest member of the family is Cray. At just thirteen years old, Cray sometimes felt as though he really had to do some crazy things in order to make himself heard. He even resorted to stealing and trying drugs in order to find some way to fit in. Fortunately for Cray, he had older siblings and two parents who loved him to keep him on the right track. Because Cray is the youngest of the family, a lot of his storylines deal with adolescent like problems such as standing up to a bully, or trying to make himself heard in a house filled with eight people.

Sui Blake was the Blake who had all the right moves on the soccer field, but didn't exactly have the brains to do the same on her schoolwork. This shopping addicted Asian beauty wanted nothing more than to play soccer for the American Olympic team. She practiced day and night, hoping to win a gold medal...but late in the show's first season, Sui gets involved in an accident, and injures herself so badly that her Olympic dreams are shattered. But thanks to her family, she manages to move on with her life, and gets involved in a lot of other storylines including taking on a job as a weathergirl for a public access channel and having to deal with sexual harassment.

Neal Blake...erm, Smith actually (Neal was the only one of the Blake kids who chose to keep his original last name) is widely considered to be the most intelligent and sensible of all the Blake children. He is incredibly bright, and even managed to design a computer game while he was in his late teens. That's not to say that Neal hasn't gotten into some trouble himself. He used to be a part of a gang before being taken in by the Blake family, and he and Jane end up cheating on their PSAT's...but for the most part, Neal is the voice of reason in the Blake family.

And, then there's Jane.



Jane was actually taken in by the Blake family in the very first episode of the series, and she had a bad attitude from the very beginning, basically abusing and torturing the other Blake kids. Neal and Ben tried to get her to fit in, but she wasn't having any of it. It wasn't until a hurricane passed through Miami that Jane revealed why she didn't trust them. She had lost her mother on her sixth birthday, and ever since then she was passed around from foster family to foster family, each one more apathetic and abusive than the one before. With help from Ben, Jane realizes that the Blake family could be trusted, and Jane soon began to fit in more. The road wasn't easy though. Jane still had anger issues, and those were made clear when she fought with Marci and Sui over trivial things, and beat up her date because he happened to have the same name as an abusive relative she knew. Jane was probably the most complex of the Blake kids, but she was also the most developed. And even Jane had some tender moments, such as when she helped spring a terminally ill patient from the hospital she did community service work for so he could experience life outside of his hospital room.

And, there you have it. That's our look back on “One World”.