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Tuesday, December 11, 2012

December 11, 1944


It's Day #11 on “The Pop Culture Addict's Advent Calendar”, and since it's Tuesday, we're going to be featuring a Tuesday Timeline piece...holiday style!

After all, it wouldn't be a very good advent calendar if every entry within had nothing to do with the holiday season, would it?

Fortunately, for December 11, the topic selection was one of the easiest decisions that I have ever made, as there was one subject that stood out...mainly because it was the only Christmas themed topic that I could find.

As always, we'll talk about today's subject in great detail a little later on within this entry. But first, we have other things to cover.

Why don't we take a look at some famous faces celebrating their birthday two weeks before Christmas, shall we? Happy birthday to Liz Smith, Rita Moreno, Anne Heywood, Jim Harrison, Reg Livermore, David Gates (Bread), Donna Mills, Teri Garr, Lynda Day George, Bess Armstrong, Jermaine Jackson, Brad Bryant, Lani Brockman, Peter Bagge, Nikki Sixx (Motley Crue), Isabella Hofmann, Rachel Portman, Marco Pierre White, Dave King (Flogging Molly), Jon Brion, Michel Courtemanche, Justin Currie, Carolyn Waldo, Jay Bell, Gary Dourdan, Mo'Nique, DJ Yella, Sean Grande, Willie McGenest, Daniel Alfredsson, Mos Def, Lisa Ortiz, Ben Shephard, Sharif Abdul-Rahim, Roy Wood Jr, Rider Strong, Hamish Blake, Clifton Geathers, and Hailee Steinfeld.

And here are some of the big events that have happened on this date throughout history.

361 – Julian the Apostate enters Constantinople as sole Emperor of the Roman Empire

1282 – Near Builth Wells, South Wales, Llwelyn the Last, the last native Prince of Wales is killed

1789 – The University of North Carolina is chartered by the North Carolina General Assembly

1792 – King Louis XVI of France is put on trial for treason by the National Convention during the French Revolution

1816 – Indiana joins the United States as the nineteenth state

1868 – Brazilians defeat an army of Paraguayans during the Paraguayan War at the Battle of Avay

1905 – The Shuliavka Republic is established following a worker uprising in Kiev, Ukraine

1907 – A fire destroys the New Zealand Parliamentary Buildings

1917 – British General Edmund Allenby declares martial law in Jerusalem

1920 – British forces burn and loot homes and businesses in Cork City during the Irish War of Independence

1925 – Roman Catholic papal encyclical Quas Primus introduces the Feast of Christ the King

1934 – The co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, Bill Wilson, takes his last drink and enters treatment for the last time

1937 – Italy leaves the League of Nations during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War

1941 – Germany and Italy officially declare war on the United States four days after the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Americans declared war on Japan. The United States later declares war on the two nations shortly after their announcement

1946 – UNICEF is founded

1962 – Arthur Lucas becomes the last prisoner to be executed in Canada

1964 – Musician Sam Cooke is shot and killed by a motel manager in Los Angeles, at the age of 33 on the same day that actor Percy Kilbride (famous for playing Pa Kettle) passes away at the age of 76, ironically enough in the same city

1972 – Apollo 17 becomes the sixth and last Apollo mission to land on the surface of the moon

1980 – The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) is enacted by U.S. Congress

1981 – 900 civilians are killed in an anti-guerrilla campaign during the Salvadorian Civil War

1993 – A block of the Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia building, “The Highland Towers” collapses, killing 48 people

1994 – One one person is killed when a bomb explodes on Philippine Airlines Flight 434 – the captain is able to save everyone else on board by making an emergency landing

1997 – The Kyoto Protocol is opened for signature

2001 – China joins the World Trade Organization

2008 – Bernie Madoff is arrested and charged with fraud in connection with the Ponzi scheme he masterminded

And, in 2012, the Tuesday Timeline flashed back to the following date...



December 11, 1944.

Now, as it turns out, December 11, 1944 happens to be the birthdate of at least three famous faces. I already mentioned Teri Garr and Lynda Day George, who are both turning 68 today...but there's one other lady who is also turning 68 years old today. And this is a lady who started in the music business quite young. Younger than Justin Bieber...younger than Selena Gomez...younger than Britney Spears...

...though, not quite as young as the Olsen Twins.

The ironic thing about this lady is that one of her most famous songs is often played during the holiday season...and that it actually took a couple of years for the song to gain in popularity. I'll have more on that story as we proceed.



But first things first, why don't we wish a happy 68th birthday to singer Brenda Lee, the subject of today's Tuesday Timeline!

Born Brenda Mae Tarpley on December 11, 1944 in Atlanta, Georgia, her childhood was filled with its hardships. The family moved around a lot because of her father constantly going where the jobs were, and she grew up poor. She ended up sharing a bed with her two siblings, and lived in small, cramped houses without any running water or bathroom facilities. In order for her to forget about her domestic hardships, Brenda found solace in the Baptist Church, where she would sing at every Sunday service.

TRIVIA: Brenda's father, Ruben Tarpley, was a skilled Southpaw baseball pitcher, who spent eleven years in the U.S. Army playing baseball. This was despite a height of 5'7”, which was relatively short for a baseball player...apparently.

Brenda loved singing, but then again, she was sort of a musical prodigy. When Brenda was just toddler aged, she was completely drawn to the little battery-powered radio that her parents had in the kitchen, and when she was just two, she could already whistle some of the tunes that had played on air. Brenda also recalled instances in which she was three years old and her mother and sister would often have her performing inside a candy store, earning pieces of candy, or actual money from the customers of the store!

So, there you have it. I suppose you could say that she started performing at the ripe old age of three. Take that, Honey Boo Boo!

Brenda, with her voice and stage presence quickly got her noticed by the time she was six years old. At that age, she won an elementary school contest where the prize was an appearance on the Atlanta radio program Starmakers Revue.



When Brenda was eight years old, her father passed away, which inevitably made her the family's main breadwinner by the time she was ten. Talk about pressure! It didn't matter much to Brenda though, as she had a lot of fun singing at radio and television gigs. She also was a regular guest on the country music show “TV Ranch”, where she had to stand on a wooden crate in order to perform, due to her short stature. The family briefly moved to Cincinnati, Ohio when Brenda's mother remarried, but eventually moved back to Augusta, Georgia, where she performed on The Peach Blossom Special.

And then in 1955, Brenda Lee ended up getting her big break. It began with her turning down $30 to appear on a Swainsboro radio station in order for her to see Red Foley and a touring promotional unit for his show Ozark Jubilee. A DJ from Augusta had persuaded Foley to listen to the then 10-year-old Brenda sing before the show began. Foley agreed, and allowed her to perform the song “Jambalaya” on stage, unrehearsed. And as soon as Brenda started singing, he had the following to say about it.

I still get cold chills thinking about the first time I heard that voice. One foot started patting rhythm as though she was stomping out a prairie fire but not another muscle in that little body even as much as twitched. And when she did that trick of breaking her voice, it jarred me out of my trance enough to realize I'd forgotten to get off the stage. There I stood, after 26 years of supposedly learning how to conduct myself in front of an audience, with my mouth open two miles wide and a glassy stare in my eyes.”



The end result was that the audience gave her a standing ovation, and she ended up performing three more songs as an encore! Some time later, Brenda landed a recording contract, and the song that she sang for Foley that fateful day, “Jambalaya”, became her first single.

Now, it did take some time for Brenda Lee to make it big in the world of music. It wasn't really until she released 1960's “I'm Sorry”. That song was the first #1 hit for Brenda, and it even won her a Grammy nomination. It was also the first of nine consecutive Top 10 songs for Lee between 1960 and 1962...a record that remained intact until Madonna broke it in 1986. Lee's ability to adapt to several genres of music (including country, rockabilly, and pop) and her demeanor and charm helped her have thirty-seven singles charting on various charts, and helped her become inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, and the Country Music Hall of Fame! A triple threat, that Brenda Lee.



And one of Brenda Lee's biggest hits is a holiday standard that has delighted audiences every December for five decades, and has been covered by a multitude of artists including Bill Haley & His Comets, The Partridge Family, Amy Grant, Cyndi Lauper, Hanson, Alabama, Miley Cyrus, Jessica Simpson, Toby Keith, and LeAnn Rimes.



ARTIST: Brenda Lee
SONG: Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree
ALBUM: N/A (was a single release)
DATE RELEASED: November 1958
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #14

If you can believe it, Brenda Lee was just thirteen years old when she recorded “Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree”. Thirteen! Certainly doesn't sound like the voice of a teenager, does it?

This is a song that had a couple of guest musicians jamming alongside Lee, most notably Hank Garland's guitar playing, and Boots Randolph contributing the saxophone solo.

Although the single was initially released twice (once in 1958 and once in 1959), both times it was pressed, the general public was sort of lukewarm to it. It really wasn't until Brenda Lee scored her first #1 hit with “I'm Sorry” that the song began to take off. By Christmas 1960, the song was already climbing the charts, eventually peaking at #14 on Billboard. The song continued to chart on Billboard's Christmas Singles Charts for years after its release, peaking at the #3 spot in December 1965...a little over seven years after its initial release!

It is estimated that as of December 25, 2011, the song has been downloaded almost 700,000 times, making it the fourth most downloaded Christmas single in SoundScan history. The song also appears in several films, including a rather memorable scene in the 1990 film, “Home Alone”.



And isn't it a great song? It's a song all about family traditions like singing songs (or rocking) around a gigantic tree, enjoying pumpkin pie, and dancing merrily. It's one of those feel good songs that seems to put everyone in the holiday spirit, and to be honest with you, I have to say that her version is the best interpretation of this song.



These days, Brenda Lee doesn't really perform much. She still records the occasional album, but hasn't had a huge hit on the charts since the early 1980s. These days, she enjoys residing in the city of Nashville, Tennessee with her husband, Ronnie Shacklett. She released an autobiography in 2002 with the title Brenda Lee: Little Miss Dynamite, and she won a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 2009.

But then, what else is to be expected? She has been inducted as a legend in several genres of music, had one of the most successful Christmas singles ever released, and she is probably one of the only people who can claim to have The Beatles as one of her opening acts!



And she was born 68 years ago today, on December 11, 1944.



That wraps up another day of the advent calendar. It's triple twelve day tomorrow, and to celebrate it, we're going to take a look at a board game that up until 2004 had twelve items to remove from a very sick patient...

Monday, December 10, 2012

The Santa Clause


I have decided to begin today's edition of “The Pop Culture Addict's Advent Calendar” (day 10 in a series of 25) by talking about the thing that inspired today's selected topic...and I must admit that it came from a rather unusual source.

In my apartment building, we have what is known as an “unofficial magazine and newspaper trading club”, where it is entirely possible for the same newspaper to make an appearance in at least six different apartments. I don't know whether people were doing it to be nice to other neighbours, or whether my neighbours are simply too cheap to be able to purchase their own magazines, but either way, I ended up getting my hands on a bunch of those trashy gossip magazines like “Star”, “OK!”, “Hello”, and “In Touch”.

(Hey, if it keeps me boned up on my pop culture knowledge so I can have a wider selection of topics for this blog, I'll read anything. I think I may have even stumbled across TMZ on a couple of occasions while I was searching for information on a couple of subjects.)

So, as I type this out, I'm looking at the December 3, 2012 edition of “Life&Style” magazine...which admittedly is a title that I would not normally purchase for myself, but after I'm finished reading it, I'll be letting someone else read it in the building. On page 31 of this particular issue is an advertisement for ABC Family's 25 Days of Christmas.

I don't have ABC Family on my current television package (mainly because I can't afford any more than 100 channels on my budget), but judging by the schedule that is listed on that page, it seems as though they devote their entire channel towards holiday programming and movies during the entire month of December.

Of course, a lot of the shows are repetitive. At last count, the movie “Home Alone” seems to be scheduled for five of the 25 Days of Christmas. But there are tons of Christmas themed specials which include old holiday favourites and brand new selections, as well as world television premieres of big blockbuster hits from the last twelve months.

DISCLAIMER: This is not meant to be an advertisement for ABC Family. ABC Family unfortunately is not paying me any money to promote the network. And besides, it's a nice transition piece from one subject to another.

The Saturday after this coming Saturday (December 22, in case you were wondering) is featuring a Holiday Classics marathon, which features a 1994 film, as well as its two sequels, which deals with a particular clause...



...a Santa Clause.

It seems hard to believe that there are three different movies that have the title “The Santa Clause”. There's the 1994 original film, the 2002 sequel, and the 2006 film “The Escape Clause”.

For the same of time constraints, we're going to be taking a look at the original 1994 movie.



I must admit that I have quite a lot of fond memories of this film. I watched this film in the movie theater with my sister when it was first released on November 11, 1994 (where I snacked on a larger than life Kit Kat bar during the whole showing), I watched this film on VHS...I even watched the movie in a different language when our French teacher showed it to us on a snow day!

The film has some rather decent star power backing it as well. The cast for the film includes Tim Allen (Home Improvement), Wendy Crewson (Air Force One), Judge Reinhold (Beverly Hills Cop), David Krumholtz (Numb3rs/Partners), and the late Peter Boyle (Everybody Loves Raymond/Young Frankenstein).



The movie depicts the life of a man named Scott Calvin, who is at a bit of a crossroads in his life. At the age of thirty-eight, Scott has a successful job as an advertising executive for a Chicago toy company, but his personal life is a bit of a mess. His ex-wife Laura (Crewson) has recently remarried a man named Neal Miller (Reinhold), a psychiatrist, and he is left to be nothing more than a part-time father to his young son, Charlie (Eric Lloyd).

As the movie begins, it's Christmas Eve, and Charlie is scheduled to spend Christmas Eve night with his father before heading out in the morning to spend Christmas Day with Laura and Neal. Although Scott is rather cynical of the holiday spirit and doesn't actually believe in Santa Claus, he tries his best to make Charlie believe that there really is a Santa Claus.

That night, Charlie is woken up by a sound on the roof. Thinking that it is Santa Claus, he runs to his father's bedroom and wakes him up, telling him that Santa has arrived. But Scott seems to believe that what Charlie actually heard was someone trying to break into the house, so he runs outside to see what the fuss is about. He calls out to the man who is on the roof, and the man is so startled that he ends up sliding off the roof and onto the ground two stories below!

Yes...you heard right. Scott Calvin was indirectly responsible for the death of Santa Claus.



When Scott and Charlie run to the scene of the...um...”accidental death”...all they find is the man's red suit, as well as a sleigh on the roof with eight reindeer attached to the front. Searching the red suit, they find a card that tells them to put on the suit and get on the sleigh should anything happen to Santa, and Charlie comes up with the idea for Scott to put on the suit. Given that Scott was wearing little more than his underwear at the time, it seemed like it was a good idea. And once Scott was dressed in the red suit, the two of them ended up going to all the children's houses in the area before returning to the North Pole.



The elves at Santa's workshop welcome Scott and Charlie with open arms, and Charlie is amazed at the images and sights of the place. However, when both of them end up meeting Head Elf Bernard (Krumholtz), Scott is shocked to discover that the card that was found in the suit had some fine print on it which neither Scott or Charlie read. According to the “Santa Clause”, whoever put on the suit after the previous occupant disappeared would bear the identity of Santa Claus and all the responsibilities associated with it.

A pretty big commitment, no?

Bernard even gives Scott until Thanksgiving to get all of his affairs in order back home in Chicago before he returns to the North Pole to assume the role of Santa Claus full time. Charlie is absolutely over the moon over the possibility of his father becoming the new Santa Claus, but Scott is less than enthusiastic about the whole thing, eventually believing the whole thing to be nothing but a weird dream...



...but when he gains 45 pounds in a week, cannot keep a clean-shaven face, and his hair becomes snow white, this is where Scott realizes that maybe there is something to the “Santa Clause” that Bernard spoke of. Scott's behaviour also becomes more erratic, craving Christmas themed foods, wearing green and red clothing exclusively, and even staging a tantrum at a board meeting where he has a high opposition to featuring an ad where Santa is riding in a tank. This behaviour also does not go unnoticed by Laura and Neal, who believe that Scott is suffering from delusional episodes, and they fear that Charlie backing Scott's claims that he is Santa is harming the boy, and they make plans to take Charlie away from him.

So, with Scott Calvin having to deal with transforming into Santa Claus as well as trying to keep a hold on his relationship with Charlie, it definitely becomes a holiday mess.

Now, I won't be giving away the ending to this one...but let's just say that with two sequels to the movie, I suppose that you know that a happy ending is inevitable.

To close off this look back on “The Santa Clause”, here's a few facts.

  • The movie made almost $190 million at the box office.
  • The film was set in Chicago, but many of the exterior shots were filmed in or around Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The zoo scene was shot at the Toronto Zoo in Scarborough.
  • When Scott takes his son out to eat at Denny's, the Denny's actually wasn't a Denny's. It was really a Swiss Chalet chicken restaurant that was redesigned to look like a Denny's!
  • The elves that are featured in the North Pole are also featured in cameo roles in the scenes set in Chicago.
  • Tim Allen was not the intended choice for the role of Scott Calvin. The movie was written with Bill Murray in mind for the main role.
  • Scott and Charlie climb onto a roof using a ladder manufactured by the “Rose Suchak Ladder Company”. Try saying that company name three times fast and it might sound familiar. Think of a popular Christmas rhyme...
  • Take a close look at the list that Santa holds...Andre Agassi and Armand Assante are both listed.
  • There's a line that Scott says in the film in which he sarcastically tells someone to call the number 1-800-SPANK-ME. Problem was that the number was a real number, connecting to a phone sex line. After a child racked up a costly phone bill after dialing the number which spawned an official complaint from her mother, the scene was deleted from the DVD version.
  • Although Disney has a strict no ex-con policy when it comes to hiring actors, they made an exception for Tim Allen, who was busted in 1978 for drug trafficking. He served 28 months in jail before being paroled in 1981.

And, that's our look back on “The Santa Clause.”




Day #11 will feature the birth of a woman who was just in her early teens when she managed to get everyone rocking around a certain kind of tree...

Sunday, December 09, 2012

Double Fantasy - A Double Sunday Jukebox


Day #9 of “The Pop Culture Addict’s Advent Calendar” is going to begin on a sombre note.


Yesterday marked the thirty-second anniversary of the date that John Lennon was shot to death in New York City by Mark David Chapman.

December 8, 1980 had started off a typical day for John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono.  At the time, John Lennon was enjoying a bit of renaissance since going on hiatus from performing in 1975, following the birth of his son, Sean Lennon.  He spent that summer recording the album “Double Fantasy” (release date November 17, 1980), a joint effort with Yoko.  I would have guessed that part of the reason why the album was named “Double Fantasy” was because the album contained songs by both John and Yoko, but in truth, it was named after a species of freesia, which John had described as a perfect description of the marriage he had shared with Yoko.  It had been the first time that the two worked together on the same album in eight years.


I suppose just as the first release from “Double Fantasy” stated, it was “just like starting over” for John Lennon...a second chance at a solo career ever since the Beatles disbanded in 1970.

Anyway, December 8, 1980 started off like any other day...well, provided that you were a former member of one of the biggest rock and roll groups of the 1960s, that is.


Do you see the above picture?  That was taken by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz on the afternoon of December 8, 1980.  The photograph, as you can see, showed a nude John Lennon embracing his wife.  Leibovitz was there to do a photo shoot for “Rolling Stone” magazine, and initially wanted to do a shot with just John.  At John’s insistence, he demanded that Yoko join him on the cover...a risky move, considering that many people still allegedly pointed the fingers of blame on her for breaking up the Beatles.  But, that’s another topic for another day.  At any rate, Leibovitz snapped the happy couple, and believed that the image could make the cover of “Rolling Stone” magazine.

Little did she know that the image would prove to be one of the last professional photos that would be taken of John Lennon...and little did she know that her prophecy about the picture would come true...and not in the way that anybody expected.

After the photo shoot, Lennon ended up doing a promotional interview for “Double Fantasy” with DJ Dave Sholin, and once the interview was completed, John and Yoko headed over to Record Plant Studio to do some more work on Yoko’s single “Walking On Thin Ice”.

After departing the record studio, they went back to “The Dakota” (the apartment building where both John and Yoko lived, and were not too surprised to see a group of fans waiting outside the building, eager to get an autograph from John Lennon.  One of the people standing outside the building was Mark David Chapman, a security guard from Hawaii.  Unbeknownst to Lennon, this was not the first time that Chapman had tried to see him...he reportedly was in New York in October 1980 just before the release of “Double Fantasy” making plans to kill him, but changed his mind and went back home.

This time, Chapman meant business.

When Lennon approached the entrance of the Dakota, Chapman silently handed Lennon a copy of the album “Double Fantasy”, and Lennon ended up signing it for him.  Believe it or not, there was even a photograph taken of this event with Chapman standing beside him with a rather disturbing grin on his face.


It would just be a few hours later that all hell would break loose, as Chapman would shoot John Lennon four times in the back in the archway of The Dakota in front of several shocked spectators.  After the doorman of The Dakota wrestled away the gun from Chapman and angrily asked him what he had just done, Chapman eerily replied in a calm manner that he had just shot John Lennon before sitting on the sidewalk clutching a copy of J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye”.

There was a valiant effort by paramedics and staff at The Dakota to save John Lennon’s life, but it was too late.  At 11:15pm, John Lennon was declared dead at the age of 40 years old.  The cause of death was hypovolemic shock, caused by Lennon losing eighty per cent of his blood supply from the bullet wounds he sustained.

Yoko especially took the news of John’s death hard, reportedly only calming down after a nurse at the hospital handed her John’s wedding ring.  She told the hospital not to report the news of John’s death until she had the chance to inform her son first.  However, the news spread fast (partly due to the untimely check-in of a news producer who had sustained injuries in a motorcycle accident at the same hospital Lennon was at), and the first report of John Lennon’s death was broadcast during a Monday Night Football game by announcer Howard Cosell.

John Lennon’s death at the hands of a madman was tragic and ironic at the same time.  Here was a man who lived and breathed the values of making love instead of war, and trying to convince everyone to give peace a chance being taken from the world in such a violent and gory manner.

And, I think that in order to celebrate his passion for trying to make the world a more peaceful place, I want to feature a song that was released nine years before his death...a song that one typically hears during the festive season.




ARTIST:  John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band
SONG:  Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
ALBUM:  N/A (was a single release)
DATE RELEASED:  December 1, 1971
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #3**

** = That’s #3 on the Billboard CHRISTMAS Singles chart.


Now, this particular single has a very interesting history behind it.  The title of the song was actually influenced by an anti-war campaign that John Lennon and Yoko Ono began in 1969, at the height of the Vietnam War. 

You don’t need me to tell you how horrible of a time that was.  The soldiers who were lucky enough to come back home from combat during the Vietnam War were physically and/or emotionally scarred, and the levels of destruction on Vietnamese communities was incredibly tough to visualize. 

The argument as to whether or not the United States should have even gotten involved in the conflict to begin with is still being debated nearly 40 years after the war officially ended, but the stance that John and Yoko held on the matter was crystal clear.  They opposed every bit of it.


And to show their opposition, they rented out billboard space in eleven major cities all over the globe, each sign boasting the message “WAR IS OVER (if you want it) – Happy Christmas from John & Yoko.”

Listen very closely to the end of the song...does it not sound familiar?

TRIVIA:  The background vocals of the song were provided by the Harlem Community Choir.

The single was recorded over a two day period in October 1971 (at the same record studio where Lennon spent part of the last day of his life), with assistance from Phil Spector, and the voices of the Harlem Community Choir were added it with an echo effect.

TRIVIA:  If you listen to the recording at the very beginning, you might be able to hear Yoko and John sending out whispered greetings to their children.  Yoko’s greeting was for her daughter Kyoko (from her previous marriage to jazz musician Anthony Cox), and John’s was to his son, Julian (from his previous marriage to Cynthia Powell).

I think that this song is one that really makes one think about how lucky they really are, depending on where you are in the world.  For most of us, Christmas is a day of joy, a day of love, a day of showing kindness for your fellow man, and a day of being grateful for every single minute of every single day.  It’s easy to forget sometimes that somewhere in the world, people are struggling to even stay alive in third world countries, and there are people who are risking their lives to escape countries torn apart by war and conflict.

The song is also rare in that it charted twice...and in the second time it charted, it actually scored higher than it did upon its original release in the United Kingdom.  The song initially peaked at #4 in the early 1970s, but when it was re-released following John Lennon’s death in 1980, it made it all the way to #2!

I think John Lennon’s greatest wish was to ensure that everyone in the world could live in a peaceful manner.  In the days following his death, the outpouring of grief from his fans was unprecedented.  Lennon was cremated two days after he was shot, on December 10, 1980, and four days later, fans around the world paused for ten minutes to remember John Lennon in a silent vigil lead by Yoko Ono.


The photograph that Annie Leibovitz took on the day that John Lennon was shot became the cover image for the January 22, 1981 edition of “Rolling Stone” magazine, which was almost entirely dedicated to the life and times of John Lennon, featuring articles, interviews, photographs, and letters.  That same year, John's former Beatle bandmate George Harrison reunited with the two other surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr to assist him in the tribute single “All Those Years Ago”.  McCartney would release his own tribute in 1982.  Lennon was posthumously awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991, and every year on December 8, a memorial ceremony is held outside of the Capitol Records building in Hollywood, California, with vigils continuing to be held today.

As for Chapman, he is currently serving a “20 years to life” sentence in prison.  He has applied for parole seven times, and all seven times his requests were denied.

Despite what happened to him, John Lennon was, and will continue to be a legend in the world of music, and his talent has influenced hundreds of current artists today.  And, to end off this blog entry, I’m going to take influence from the title of Lennon’s last recorded album, and make this a double song entry.  And, I can’t think of a song in which John Lennon displays his love to the one that mattered most than this posthumous hit, released one month after his death.


ARTIST:  John Lennon
SONG:  Woman
ALBUM:  Double Fantasy
DATE RELEASED:  January 12, 1981
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #2


Rest in peace, John Lennon.


Tomorrow we’re going to be approaching the double digits with Day #10.  And the Monday Matinee stars a guy from “Home Improvement”, the guy from “Numb3rs”, and the guy who starred with Eddie Murphy on “Beverly Hills Cop”...and a certain clause...

Saturday, December 08, 2012

Will Vinton's A Claymation Christmas Celebration


I am not sure exactly if you remember the blog entries that I did way back in February 2012, but on February 18 of that month, I had a bit of a discussion on the California Raisins, a group of Claymation raisins that ended up becoming the mascot for the food of the same name. The designs for the raisins were created by animator Will Vinton.

Well, did you know that the California Raisins were one of the main fixtures in a Christmas special that originally aired twenty-five years ago? It's true! Have a look and see for yourselves.




Now this clip brings me great happiness in being able to see it again, mainly because I remember being a kid and not being able to take my eyes off of the television screen whenever it came on. The whole television special was pure magic, and as far as I'm concerned, Will Vinton created a holiday masterpiece with this special.

At the same time, it makes me quite sad because I honestly can't remember the last time I actually watched the special in its entirety. It used to air on CBS when I was a child all the time for about five years after it debuted, but around the mid-1990s, it just seemed to stop airing. And for the life of me, I can't understand why that was.

At any rate, I really wanted to make sure that I brought up this television special for “The Pop Culture Addict's Advent Calendar” for today because for one, a lot of the younger readers of this blog may not know what this show is...and two, readers who are my age or older might have some holiday flashbacks coming back to them.




It's the least I can do for Will Vinton, the man behind “A Claymation Christmas Celebration”.

It seems almost hard for me to believe that this television special first aired twenty-five years ago, on December 21, 1987! I was in first grade then! My goodness how time flies.

But you know, even if someone was tuning into the television special for the first time, I don't think they would have ever guessed that the show was 25 years old upon first glance. To me, that's how timeless “A Claymation Christmas Celebration” was.

Critics also praised the holiday special, and in 1988, the show even won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program...a well-deserved honour as far as I am concerned.

There is nothing that would make me happier than being able to post the television special in its entirety for everybody to see...but unfortunately, I am unable to, because I simply cannot find a copy of it online (and I am really, really regretting taping over the copy that I had recorded on VHS).

Luckily, there are some stand-alone clips on video sharing sites from the special, so I'll just have to make do with those. Some will be embedded onto the blog itself...others I'll post a link. I think I can make it work regardless.

It's hard to describe the way that the special is presented, but the best way that I can explain it is that it's kind of like a cross between television coverage of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and a Siskel & Ebert movie review.




Actually, come to think of it, the two hosts of the program do sort of resemble Roger Ebert and the late Gene Siskel.




You know how on those Thanksgiving parades, you see clips of the two hosts describing various floats before cutting to a scene of the float itself? Well, that's similar to how “A Claymation Christmas Celebration” runs. You see our two emcees hosting from an exact replica of London's Christmas Square...the two hosts being Rex (Tim Connor), a tyrannosaurus who is far gentler than his prehistoric counterparts, and proves to be one smart cookie, and Herb (Johnny Counterfit), a styracosaurus whose huge appetite overcompensates for his lack of brain power.

Together, they are the people who introduce the viewing audience to the clips of the Christmas songs that are prominently featured in “A Claymation Christmas Celebration”. I suppose that you could also say that this Christmas special could be slightly inspired by MTV...but it's kind of a stretch.

I suppose that you want to know what some of these songs are. Fear not. I'll hook you up.




Have you heard of the song, “We Three Kings of Orient Are” (usually just shortened to “We Three Kings”)? At first it seems like a classic Christmas moment with the Three Kings singing as their camels wait patiently beside them. But as you will see HERE, there's a bit of a twist, and yes it involves those camels.




Sometimes the Christmas carols don't even need to have lyrics presented with them, provided that the soundtrack enhances a comical scene. When you combine pair of walrus figure skaters and a half-dozen of the unluckiest penguins that ever lived, with the song “Angels We Have Heard On High”, you get a scene like THIS one.

I think the most beautiful scene of the whole Christmas special is this one below, set to the classic Christmas carol “O Christmas Tree”. Come and sit down, and watch it with me, will you?




I think that this clip alone is probably the one that cements the special as a holiday classic. I think that it is the one clip that best displays the magic of the holiday season through the eyes of children. Images that can only come from the imagination of children who still believe in the magic of the season. I must say that Will Vinton's interpretation of this clip wasn't too far off from the image that I always pictured as a child (and I admit that as an adult, I still carry that magic with me today).

And Vinton's interpretation of the classic carol “Joy To The World” is equally visually appealing to the audience. Have a look for yourselves below.




I think that's part of the reason why I love this special so much. For a person like myself who is easily stimulated by bright colours and energetic, happy images, this television special was the perfect one to watch. That's why I am so bummed that the show is very difficult to find now. I'd do anything to get my hands on a copy of the entire special again...

...well, within limitations anyway. I don't do public nudity.

And would you believe that if it wasn't for “A Claymation Christmas Celebration”, I would never have learned what the meaning of the word “wassailing” was? In between the videos of the Christmas carols, Rex was trying to clarify to Herb the true meaning (and pronunciation) of the term “wassailing” (as in the Christmas carol “Here We Come a Wassailing”). Unfortunately, the running gag is that a group of characters would come down the street completely butchering the main chorus of the song.

When you have a kennel of dogs singing about “waffling”, a gaggle of geese singing about “waddling”, and a herd of pigs singing about “wallowing”, Rex gets slightly annoyed and is aggravated by Herb caring more about the treats that the dogs, geese, and pigs feed him than the actual meaning of the word. But just as Rex begins to lose hope, a miracle occurs.




And there you have it...our look back on “A Claymation Christmas Celebration”. But before we end this blog off, there's one song that I have left off the discussion on purpose. It's because the song happens to be my all-time favourite on the whole special, and you know what they say about saving the best for last...




I think that about wraps things up.




Coming up on DAY #9...we pay tribute to a man who died a tragic death thirty-two years ago, and play a Christmas song that is still wildly popular today.

Friday, December 07, 2012

Have Yourself a "Merry" EastEnders Christmas


It’s Day #7 in “The Pop Culture Addict’s Advent Calendar”, which means that we’ve been going at it with the holiday spirit for a whole week!  And there’s still quite a few days left to go yet!

You know, one thing that I always liked about the holidays is the idea of holiday traditions.  I’m a very traditional person when it comes to celebrating Christmas, and I doubt that this will ever change.  As much as some people like change and doing different things during the holidays, there’s something comforting about knowing what to expect every year.  To me, if there wasn’t a turkey and ham dinner on the table, a Christmas tree set up with hundreds of ornaments, and watching countless holiday specials on television, it just wouldn’t seem like Christmas.

Of course, no matter how much effort one puts into having a one hundred per cent perfect holiday, there are always little things that can make or break a holiday that people simply cannot control.  Hams can get overcooked, or even burned.  A single bulb blowing out on a string of lights can make the whole holiday display pitch black, and the satellite dish can malfunction with just the right amount of freshly fallen snow.

And depending on the situation, your holiday could end up anywhere from a mild inconvenience, or complete chaos.  

Mind you, in many cases, these imperfections in a person’s holiday plans are minor, and although it might take a few months, people can look back on those mishaps and laugh them off, wondering why they got so upset in the first place.

After all, there’s always somebody else out there who has it a lot worse than you do.

And that’s essentially what the theme of today’s blog is all about.  It talks about an annual Christmastime tradition in the wonderful place known as the UK, in which millions of people gather around the “telly” on Christmas night to watch other people celebrating Christmas.

The catch?  The people on the television are usually having the Christmas season from hell.

Although this goes back to the earlier point that I was making earlier.  As bad as your Christmas celebrations may have gone, there is always someone else who is having a worse day than you.  In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if that was the main reason why so many people watch this particular BBC show on television every Christmas...to feel better about their own holiday mishaps, knowing that they could never be as bad as the drama surrounding their favourite Albert Square residents.


Yes, we’re going to be looking at the BBC dramatic serial, EastEnders.  In particular, the many Christmas storylines that the show has done over its twenty-seven year history.



Before we get into that though, let’s have a look at a brief history of the program, shall we?

EastEnders was created by the late Julia Smith and the late Tony Holland in late 1984, and aired its first episode on February 19, 1985.  The show itself is set in the East End borough of Walford E20 London (a fictional address since London’s post codes only go up to E18), and depicts the trials and tribulations of the residents of Albert Square.

The best way that I can describe EastEnders is that it is sort of like a daytime soap opera, only the program is much grittier, deals with more controversial subjects, and airs during the prime time schedule. 

At the time that EastEnders debuted, it had to deal with some tough competition.  The two main soap operas that were on at the time were “Coronation Street” and “Brookside”, both of which were wildly popular in 1985.  But by the end of the year, the program was the most-watched program in Britain, and still manages to perform quite well as of 2012.  The show is estimated to attract a 35-45% audience share per episode and currently airs four episodes a week (each weekday except Wednesdays unless otherwise specified).

EastEnders is quite popular in its native country, but the show can currently be seen is quite a few countries all over the world.  Even some PBS stations are airing episodes of EastEnders (albeit ones from 2004).  As a result of me being so far behind, I actually had to do quite a bit of research on storylines that aired after 2004.  But, I do it for all of you because I love writing this blog!

Anyway, I mentioned before that the most viewed episodes of EastEnders were the Christmas episodes, and with good reason.  You see, if you’re watching a soap opera in the United States, you know that the good storylines will usually air during a “sweeps month”.  And in the United States, I would say that May and November are the two months in which you’ll see all the conclusions resolved and all the most explosive storylines and revelations reaching their respective climaxes.

Not so in EastEnders.  In fact, a lot of the British based soap operas often air their best material the week leading up to Christmas, which I suppose makes a lot of sense, since many people will likely be spending the holidays at home together. 

And while some American soap operas don’t even air an episode on Christmas Day (or if they do, it’s some classic episode from 1989), in the UK, they air brand new episodes, sometimes even lasting 45 minutes instead of the average 30 minute program.

In the case of EastEnders, the idea of people having a very merry Christmas is...well...a rarity.


Okay, so those of you who saw the EastEnders 2003 Christmas episode where Kat Slater and Alfie Moon ended up getting married as being a real heartwarming tale.  And it was.  But as I said, that is a rarity.  And, in all honesty, that episode became a bit of a letdown when you realize that nine years later, they’re on the verge of splitsville.

You see, Christmas in Albert Square usually means one of three things will happen. 

-          An affair is exposed destroying a family forever

-          A lie is exposed which sends a person over the edge

-          Somebody loses their life

Yep, those three things can destroy a holiday, don’t you think?

Would you like some examples of what I mean?

Okay, so let’s begin with EastEnders’ first major Christmas storyline.



CHRISTMAS 1986 – “HAPPY CHRISTMAS, ANGE”

Poor Angie Watts.  1986 just wasn’t her year.  With her husband Den Watts having a not-so-secret affair with his mistress, Angie was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.  She even almost commits suicide over the whole mess.  When she learns that Den is planning to leave her to be with his mistress, Angie concocted a rather devious scheme...tell Den that she has been diagnosed with a terminal illness which has left her with only months to live.  Feeling incredible guilt over the whole thing after hearing Angie’s lie, Den ends his affair and stays with Angie.  But when Angie accidentally blabbed her secret out loud and Den overheard everything, he came up with a plan to get revenge...and he did it at the Christmas party at the Queen Vic in 1986.  His plan was so devious that you just have to see it for yourself.  With over thirty million people tuning into the episode, it remains the most watched soap opera episode in British history. 


The epilogue?  Den was “killed off” in 1989, brought back to life fourteen years later, and ended up being one of the few EastEnders characters to be murdered twice!  Angie meanwhile left Walford in 1988 and died off screen in the early 2000s.


(Also in 1986, Arthur Fowler ended up having a nervous breakdown after stealing money from the Christmas Club which saw him smashing up his own living room.  Boy, 1986 was a rather bleak Christmas, wasn’t it?)


CHRISTMAS 1992 – “DRINKING & DRIVING KILLS”

Pat Butcher may have been well known for her no-nonsense attitude, her garish dress sense, and her larger-than-life earrings...but on Christmas Eve 1992, Pat ended up adding another unwanted label to her personality...drunk driver.  That Christmas was supposed to be a happy one for Pat.  She was in love with her then husband Frank Butcher, and she had just started up her own taxicab business after financial hardships forced them to sell the Walford Bed & Breakfast.  Things were turning around for the Butcher family...

...until Pat had one too many drinks and ended up running over a teenage girl in the middle of the street.  Paramedics tried to save the girl’s life, but she ended up dying on New Year’s Eve, causing Pat to have a complete breakdown.  She eventually served a six-month jail sentence in 1993 before returning to the Square later that year.  She died peacefully on the first day of 2012.


CHRISTMAS 2002“ONE WEDDING AND A FUNERAL”

If it wasn’t for Martin Fowler, perhaps this heading could have read “Two Weddings and No Funeral”.

It was a happy day for Billy Mitchell and Little Mo Morgan, as the two tied the knot on Christmas Day, 2002 after a whole year of battling Little Mo’s abusive husband.  But that happiness was overshadowed by the fact that Sonia Jackson was losing the love of her life.

You see...a week before Christmas, Jamie Mitchell was innocently buying flowers for Sonia unaware that Martin and Spencer Moon were speeding down the streets of Albert Square.  Red flag #1 was the fact that Martin had just gotten his learner’s permit, and Red Flag #2 was that Martin was texting and driving at the same time.  And this was in 2002, people!  Let it be known that texting while driving can kill!  Just watch.


This was the end result of Martin’s stupidity.


Even more stupid?  Martin and Sonia became a COUPLE two years later!  I guess she forgave him for running over her man?

CHRISTMAS 2004 – “KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY”


Technically, Sharon Watts and Dennis Watts weren’t REALLY brother and sister by blood.  Sharon was adopted by Den and Angie when she was just a baby.  It certainly didn’t stop them from falling in love with each other.  One problem.  Den was not going to take the news well at all.  One more problem.  Zoe Slater was in love with Dennis as well, and tricked him into staying with her by telling him that she was pregnant with his child (even sleeping with DEN to try and keep the lie going).  But as you’ll see HERE, secrets don’t stay secret for long on EastEnders...

CHRISTMAS 2006 – “THE DEATH OF PAULINE FOWLER”


How do you say farewell to an EastEnders legend after nearly twenty-two years of service?  Well, in the case of Pauline Fowler, you turn her into a bitter shrew of a woman who made everyone turn against her after spreading the lie that she was dying of cancer.  By that Christmas, everyone had seemingly washed her hands of her.  But that suited Pauline just fine, as she really didn’t want to spend Christmas with anyone either.  In fact, she was planning to leave Walford to live with her daughter in the United States and never come back.  Dot Cotton tried to get her to stay, but Pauline refused.  Sonia confronted her with a slap that broke her fruit bowl.  And by the end of the episode, Pauline was found dead underneath Albert Square’s Christmas tree.  And she didn’t exactly die of natural causes either.  She was murdered!


For weeks, everyone suspected Sonia was the perpetrator, but in the end, the culprit was really Pauline’s second husband, Joe Macer, who dealt Pauline a blow to the head which caused a hemorrhage.  Joe met his maker in 2007 after being pushed out of a window by...Dot, of all people?  Oooh, I say!

CHRISTMAS 2007“MAX AND STACEY AND THAT DVD”


Once upon a time there was a boy named Bradley Branning and a girl named Stacey Slater.  At first they hated each other, but over time a friendship grew, and that friendship blossomed into romance.  By 2007, Bradley and Stacey were one of Walford’s happiest couples.  And initially, Bradley’s father Max, and his stepmother Tanya, were supportive of the couple.


But maybe Max was a little bit TOO supportive, as within months he and Stacey embarked on a passionate affair that kept both Bradley and Tanya in the dark.  It didn’t even matter that Tanya had given birth to hers and Max’s third child, Oscar...for whatever reason, Max and Stacey could not stay away from each other, and they thought that their secret affair would remain secret.

Well, that is until Max’s thirteen-year-old daughter, Lauren, accidentally recorded a kiss that took place between Max and Stacey.  Lauren, feeling disgusted by the whole thing, initially took the video, recorded it onto a DVD, and wrapped it up as a Christmas present for Bradley!  She did have second thoughts at the end, and tried to retrieve the gift back...but somehow the package got opened anyway, and well...this is what they saw.


CHRISTMAS 2009 AND 2010 – “WHO KILLED ARCHIE MITCHELL?”


This storyline was so huge that it lasted an entire year!  It began at Christmas, and ended the following Christmas! 

Everyone in Walford wanted Archie Mitchell dead.  Archie after all had raped one character, was indirectly responsible for the death of his own granddaughter, and ended up humiliating Peggy Mitchell, Ian Beale, Phil Mitchell, Janine Butcher, and countless other Walford residents.  Is it any wonder that he met his demise on December 25, 2009?

For the next two months, viewers tried to figure out who the murderer was.  Was it Ronnie Mitchell?  Phil Mitchell?  Peggy Mitchell?  BEN Mitchell?

Turns out, it wasn’t a Mitchell at all.  And when EastEnders aired a live episode on February 19, 2010 to celebrate the show’s 25th anniversary, we watched Bradley’s life come to an end as one character confessed all.


Yes, you heard right.  Stacey Slater-Branning, the woman who became a widow on her wedding day was the person who killed Archie Mitchell.  I mean, if you ended up getting raped by Archie Mitchell, would you not want to get revenge too?

For months, only Max Branning knew the truth about Stacey being the murderer, and life went on as normally as it could.  But by September of that year, things were beginning to fall apart.

Stacey ended up accidentally telling Peggy Mitchell that she had killed Archie, and Peggy was about to go to the police with the information.  But then the Queen Vic burned down, and Peggy left town, keeping Stacey’s secret, but urging her to plead guilty for burning down the pub (in an effort to protect her own son who DID start the fire).  Meanwhile, Lauren ended up discovering the truth about Stacey, told Janine Butcher-Malloy, and Janine, noticing how Stacey was trying to steal her husband Ryan away from her (Ryan actually fathered Stacey’s baby, Lily), revealed the truth about Stacey killing Archie exactly one year after the fact in the very same spot where Archie died.


The story ended when Janine and Stacey got into one last confrontation and Janine stabbed herself in hopes of framing Stacey for attacking her.  But with help from Ryan and Max (and with the blessing of Ronnie Mitchell who felt that everyone had suffered enough from Archie’s evil mind), Stacey and Lily got away.

So, there you have it.  Christmas on EastEnders.  Doesn’t it just make your Christmas celebrations seem a little bit more peaceful?


Coming up on Day 8...we’re going to be celebrating Christmas...claymation style!