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Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Lite-Brite Art


When I was growing up, I remember always being an artistic kind of kid.  I very rarely played sports, and I wasn’t really into building castles made of sand in the playground sandbox (though I did attempt to bury a nasty little kid who was mean to me in the said sandbox...and I would have gotten away with it too had the teacher kept her back turned).

Honestly, if you had just given me a package of coloured pencils, a 64 count of Crayola crayons, washable or scented markers, or even an assortment of finger paints, I was the happiest child you could ever see.

I suppose part of the reason why I was such a creative child (and for that matter, a creative adult) was because it was really the only way that I had to express myself.  I didn’t really have a powerful voice when I was a kid.  Oh sure, my parents always exclaimed that as far as tone went, I didn’t have a problem, as people in the back row of an auditorium could hear me.  But when it came down to using my voice to engage in conversations with other kids, teachers, or even guests who came around to visit classrooms, I kept mostly silent.  I didn’t think anyone really had any interest in what I had to say, so I just kept quiet.

But when art class rolled around, I was able to channel all of that stored-up energy into some of the craftiest and most daring art projects ever.  I wasn’t a very good artist when I started school, but by the eighth grade, my creativity had matured, and I ended up getting some of the higher art marks in my class.

Of course, one thing that I refused to do in art class was conform to all the other kids.  Yeah, I suppose that most frogs are green and brown, but as far as I was concerned, one could have a frog that was purple with blue and pink polka dots all over them.  I mean, if the Care Bears could come in every possible colour of the rainbow, surely a frog could be any colour I saw fit, right?

I think that’s what my ultimate goal was in life...using my artwork and my creativity to stand out in a crowd.  Let’s face it...it was painfully obvious that when I was a kid, I certainly wasn’t going to do it with my talents of congeniality and outspokenness.  Art class was all I had.

So, it wasn’t out of the ordinary for me to draw a sailboat sailing on a sea of orange and red.  All that I had to say was that it was a fireproof boat cascading down a sea of lava.  And, I thought that it was fantastic to grind my lemon yellow, sky magenta, and emerald green pencil crayons down to nubs in order to create the brightest coloured construction paper based Easter egg for my reading buddy while I was in the sixth grade.  My egg was so bright and shiny that when the student teacher held it up to the class, some of my classmates needed shades! 

(Well, okay, it wasn’t that bad...but it was nice to get positive attention in class, at least.)

Though, I had a bit of a hard time convincing my first grade teacher that I had purposely coloured my fish bright red because it was actually a Jell-O fish (not to be confused with jellyfish).  But, I didn’t care for the woman anyway, so who cared what she thought?  I LOVED my red fish!

And, when it came to a particular toy that I played with, I totally broke the rules as well when it came to colour selection.

I purposely coloured the snowman pictures in red and green to make them more Christmas like, even though the colour scheme called for mostly white and pink.  I used double the amount of purple that I was supposed to on my train picture because purple was my favourite colour.  Oh, and the reason for Mr. Potato Head being yellow instead of orange?  Well, I didn’t have a reason.  I just did it to rebel!

Now, you may be thinking that I am talking about one of those Paint-by-Numbers books where 1=red, 2=orange, and 3=chartreuse with crimson stripes.  I am not.


Instead, I’m talking about this fun creation.


How many of you had a Lite-Brite growing up?  I certainly did.  And, it was with this Lite-Brite that I ended up rebelling against what the guide told me to use and did my own thing anyway!  And, I LOVED IT!


Lite-Brite was a creation by Milton Bradley (now manufactured by Hasbro), first introduced in 1967.  And, it was a toy that was quite ahead of its time in many ways.

Lite-Brite worked like this.  You had a little metal box that sort of resembled a cross between a space heater and an Easy-Bake Oven.  At the front of the box was a little grid that was filled with tiny holes, and at the back of the box was a small light bulb (well, the earlier versions were anyway...current versions now use LED technology run on battery power).  By using sheets of black construction paper as well as the large assortment of coloured pegs that came with the Lite-Brite, you could make a wide variety of pictures by sticking the pegs into the holes through the black paper.  Then when the light was flicked on inside the box, the lights would glow brightly and your wonderful picture would be bathed in light, making the coloured pegs even more beautiful. 


The pegs came in eight different colours...Blue, Green, Orange, Pink, Red, Violet, White (Clear), and Yellow And, in case any of your pegs were lost, accidentally thrown away, or ended up being embedded into somebody’s bare foot (a common occurrence at my house, given that I almost always forgot to pick up my Lite-Brite pegs when I was finished using them), there were replacement packages of Lite-Brite pegs that could be purchased at most toy and department stores.

The Lite-Brite would come with several sheets of black construction paper to make an array of pictures and designs.  On most of the pieces of black paper were pre-drawn pictures of clown faces, lemonade signs, and boats.  Each one was designed in such a way that each of the drawings was made with letters.  The letters corresponded with the colour of peg that was supposed to go in each slot.  And, how did you tell which peg went where?  Easy.  Just look at the first letter of the colour, and go from there (B for Blue, V for Violet, P for Pink, etc).

But there were also some blank canvases included with the Lite-Brite.  And, these blank pieces of black construction paper were my favourites because you could really let your creativity shine.  Sure, putting together the pre-drawn pictures was a lot of fun, but being able to create your own designs was most excellent.

Mind you, my idea of creativity was drawing my name in all eight different colours...though I also used Lite-Brite as a really unique way to play tic-tac-toe and connect the dots.

TIP:  If you are going to play connect the dots with Lite-Brite, use one colour for the dots, and another colour for the lines...and make sure that you plan out your drawing first so it doesn’t look like a multicoloured blob.

Still, some of the designs that I have seen online have been extraordinary.  There’s a lot of creativity that people have exhibited with Lite-Brite technology.  Why, you could make a beach scene...


...a volcano...


...and THE LAST SUPPER?!?


(Now, that last Lite-Brite design is incredibly impressive.  I wonder how long it took to make?)

My Lite-Brite is long gone now.  I think the bulb finally exploded in it when I left it on for too long.  Luckily, it didn’t cause a fire, but my parents decided to get rid of it shortly after that.  But, what is interesting about Lite-Brite is that it still lives on today in sleeker, more modern forms.  Lite-Brite now comes in a flat screen version, as well as a three-dimensional cube, where kids can now create four different designs at the same time on each face!  As well, there was also a Lite-Brite that spun around and played music, but that model is sadly discontinued.


And, the best part is that a Lite-Brite is still fairly affordable.  Depending on what type you buy, it costs as little as $10, but no higher than $25.  Not a bad price.

In fact, I’m even enclosing a link to an online version of Lite-Brite so that you guys and gals can remember the fun that it brought.  It’s not quite the same as actually having a Lite-Brite in front of you, but give it a whirl anyway.  Just make sure your Java is updated, or else it will not work.


(Apparently, you can also get a Lite-Brite App for your iPhone, if you have one.)

That’s about all that I have to say on the Lite-Brite...but to close this blog entry off, I have one more thing I have to say.

I loved art class as a kid.  As I said before, not only did I excel in it, but it was really one of the few things in my entire school experience that allowed me to showcase who I really was without fear of repercussions.  It was a carefree experience for me, and I got a lot out of it.  So, when I hear schools threatening to cut art funds to balance school budgets, it drives me insane. 

I am one of those people who will fight tooth and nail to keep the arts in our schools.  And, if I ever am lucky enough to have children of my own, I will make sure that they at least have the option to pursue art at their school if they so choose it.  Art helps people express themselves and I don’t want to see it taken away from anyone.


*stepping down from his soapbox that is bedazzled with green, orange, and purple Lite-Brite pegs*

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

January 15, 1967


Hard to believe, but we are already halfway through the month of January 2013! Boy, oh boy, time flows fast, doesn't it?

This is the third Tuesday Timeline of the month (and the year), and as always, we'll be taking a trip back through time to a specific event that happened throughout history.

Of course, if you have been a regular reader of this blog, you know that we start off every Tuesday Timeline feature with celebrity birthdays and a list of events that took place throughout history.

So, why change the tradition now?

So, here are some of the events that took place on January 15...

1493 – Christopher Columbus sets sail for Spain from Hispaniola, ending his first voyage to the New World

1541 – King Francis I of France gives Jean-Francois Roberval a commission to settle the province of New France (a.k.a. Canada), and provide for the spread of the Holy Catholic faith

1559 – Elizabeth I is crowned Queen of England in London at Westminster Abbey

1582 – Russia cedes Estonia and Livonia to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

1759 – The British museum opens

1777 – New Connecticut (later to be renamed Vermont) declares its independence during the American Revolutionary War

1782 – Robert Morris, Superintendent of Finance, recommends the establishment of a national mint and decimal coinage to U.S. Congress

1815 – American frigate USS President is captured by a squadron of four British frigates during the War of 1812

1844 – The University of Notre Dame receives its charter from the state of Indiana

1865 – North Carolina's Fort Fisher falls to the Union during the American Civil War

1870 – The donkey becomes the official symbol for the Democratic party after it appears in a political cartoon drawn by Thomas Nast

1889 – The Pemberton Medicine Company (which will later change its name to the Coca-Cola company) is incorporated in Atlanta, Georgia

1892 – Canadian-American James Naismith publishes the rules for a new sport he invented...basketball

1908 – The first sorority founded by African-American women, Alpha Kappa Alpha, is established

1919 – A giant molasses tank bursts open and kills 21 people on the streets of Boston, Massachusetts in the event known as the “Boston Molasses Disaster”

1929 – American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. is born in Atlanta, Georgia

1943 – The world's largest office building, “The Pentagon”, is dedicated in Arlington, Virginia

1947 – The body of Elizabeth Short (also known as “The Black Dahlia”) is found in Los Angeles, California in Leimert Park

1951 – Ilse Koch is sentenced to life behind bars by a court in West Germany

1969 – The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 5

1973 – Richard Nixon announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam during the Vietnam War

1974 – The BTK serial murders begin with the deaths of the Otero family in their home (the killer would not be apprehended until 2005)

1976 – Sara Jane Moore is sentenced to life in prison after an attempt to assassinate Gerald Ford

1987 – The last surviving main character of “The Wizard of Oz”, Ray “Scarecrow” Bolger, dies at the age of 93

1991 – The United Nations' deadline for the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from occupied Kuwait expires, which leads to the event known as Operation Desert Storm

1994 – Singer/Songwriter Harry Nilsson passes away at the age of 52 in California

2001 – Wikipedia is launched

2008 – Actor Brad Renfro dies of a heroin overdose at the age of 25

2009 – Captain Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger successfully steers U.S. Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport; all passengers and crew members survive

And, celebrating a birthday this January 15 are...Frank Thornton, Phyllis Coates, Margaret O'Brien, Barbara Tarbuck, Andrea Martin, Ta-Tanisha, Nigel Benson, Mario Van Peebles, Marty Lyons, Kelly Asbury, Jeremy Beck, Bernard Hopkins, Adam Jones (Tool), Lisa Lisa, Chad Lowe, Shane McMahon, Regina King, Ernie Reyes Jr, Claudia Winkleman, Edith Bowman, Ray King, Tim Shaw, Corey Chavous, Doug Gottlieb, Eddie Cahill, Drew Brees, Matt Holliday, Howie Day, Pitbull, Benjamin Agosto, Megan Jendrick, Victor Rasuk, Fred Davis, Jessy Schram, Michael Seater, Kelly Kelly, Sophie Sumner, and Catherine Thomas.

So, what date will we be going back in time to this week?



Well, let's take a trip back to January 15, 1967.

Before I continue, I just want to state one thing. I am not very knowledgeable in sports. I never played them, I rarely watch them, and they aren't a big part of my life. But then again, you probably already know this.

I just wanted to make that clear because today's trip through time deals with a sports subject. This piece is more or less research based, and as a result of my lack of knowledge about it, I don't really talk about the mechanics of the sport.

That sport is football.



And, forty-six years ago today, the world tuned in for the inaugural Super Bowl!

The first Super Bowl was played on January 15, 1967 in Los Angeles, California between the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs. And, the very first Super Bowl has a couple of distinct traits to it that wasn't present in any other Super Bowl.

Firstly, the inaugural Super Bowl remains the only one in history to have unsold tickets! Surely anyone who has ever watched the Super Bowl has seen how crowded the stadiums are. In some areas, it's literally standing room only! But when the Super Bowl was first played, people didn't think it would be such a big deal. Of the 94,000 tickets that were available, only 61,946 were sold!



TRIVIA: The cost of a Super Bowl ticket in 1967? Twelve dollars.

Super Bowl I was also the only Super Bowl to be simulcast on two different networks. Because NBC held the rights to the AFL games, and CBS held the rights to the NFL games, the decision was made to have both networks cover the game.

TRIVIA: The announcers for each network were Ray Scott, Jack Whitaker, and Frank Gifford (CBS) and Curt Gowdy and Paul Christman (NBC).

The halftime show was also a bit subdued compared to future Super Bowls. Instead of a big-named superstar like Justin Timberlake, Madonna, or this year's performer, Beyonce Knowles, the first halftime performer for the Super Bowl was...a trumpet player?



Yes, American trumpeter Al Hirt entertained the crowd at the first ever Super Bowl, along with the marching bands for both the University of Arizona and Grambling State University.



Now, onto the game itself.

During the entire game, both official balls were used. Whenever the Chiefs were on offense, the AFL ball was used, and vice versa. The officiating team was made up of a combination of AFL and NFL referees (The NFL's Norm Schacther was the head referee).

First Quarter: Green Bay scores the first touchdown in the game, making the score 7-0. The last play of the first quarter involved quarterback Bart Starr of the Packers throwing a pass to reserve receiver Max McGee, filling in for an injured Boyd Dowler. McGee slipped past Chiefs comeback Willie Mitchell, making a one-handed catch at the 23 line, taking off for a 37-yard touchdown reception. On the opposing side, the Chiefs succeeded in moving the ball to Green Bay's 33-yard-line on their ensuing drive, yet a 40-yard field goal was missed by kicker Mike Mercer.

Second Quarter: Kansas City marched 66 yards in 6 plays, which featured a 31-yard reception by receiver Otis Taylor. He made a 7-yard pass to Curtis McClinton from quarterback Len Dawson, tying the game 7-7. The Packers came back from that by orchestrating the team's “Power Sweep” play, advancing 73 yards down the field, scoring on Jim Taylor's 14-yard drive. Though Dawson was sacked for an 8-yard loss on the first play of the Chiefs next drive, he made up for it with four consecutive completions for 58 yards. By the end of the second half, thanks to a field goal performed by Mercer, the score leading into halftime was 14-10 in favour of the Packers. With a game being that close at halftime, it was believed that the Chiefs could easily come back and win it all.

Third Quarter: After halftime, the Chiefs advanced to their own 49-yard line. But on the third down pass play, linebackers Dave Robinson and Lee Roy Caffey rushed Dawson's throw, and the ball was intercepted by Willie Wood, who returned it 50 yards to Kansas City's 5-yard line. It ended up being, as described by Green Bay quarterback Bart Starr, “the biggest play of the game”.

Sure enough, the Chiefs were not able to recover from this move. In the third quarter, Green Bay players Elijah Pitts and Max McGee scored touchdowns, bringing the score up to 28-10. In the final quarter of the game, Elijah Pitts scored yet another touchdown for Green Bay, with the final score being...

GREEN BAY - 35
KANSAS CITY – 10



The Packers were each paid a salary of $15,000 for winning the first Super Bowl. But the Chiefs didn't do so badly either, taking home a salary of $7,500. The postgame trophy presentation ceremony after the game was over was presented by Pat Summerall for CBS and George Ratterman for NBC...with Summerall and Ratterman forced to share the same microphone!



The MVP of the first Super Bowl was Green Bay's Bart Starr.

So, as you can see, the Super Bowl was a simple affair back in 1967. It was broadcast at a time before multi-million dollar commercials, before the elaborate stage performances at halftime, before the time when people flocked the supermarkets stocking up on chicken wings and potato chips. It was just simple and honest football. And, yet, for the people who watched the first Super Bowl, they still managed to have fun!

Now, here's the tragedy of it all. While most of the Super Bowl games are now preserved on videotape and kept in archives for future reference, the same treatment was not given to Super Bowl I. It is widely believed that almost all known broadcast tapes of the Super Bowl were wiped clean, and lost forever. Apparently, network executives believed that the Super Bowl was going to be a one-trick pony, so to speak, and both CBS and NBC agreed to delete the tapes so that they could be used in other projects. After all, the process known as videotaping was quite expensive back in 1967.

Despite this setback, sports historians have searched the world high and low for any sort of surviving footage from the very first Super Bowl. Footage of Max McGee's opening touchdown and Jim Taylor's first touchdown was located and broadcast in the 1991 HBO special “Play by Play: A History of Sports Television”.

And, it was reported in January 2011 that a recording of the CBS broadcast of the game was located in a Pennsylvania attic, and that the quality of the broadcast was restored by the Paley Center for Media in New York. The tape didn't contain the whole game – the halftime show and the majority of the third quarter was missing – but it is believed to be the most complete broadcast of the game ever found.



It seems hard to believe that the Super Bowl will now be celebrating its 47th edition. This year, the game is being played at the Mercedez-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, and will be broadcast February 3, 2013. As far as the teams playing go, we're still not sure. But it will be two of the following four for certain;

NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS (AFC)
BALTIMORE RAVENS (AFC)
SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS (NFC)
ATLANTA FALCONS (NFC)

Good luck to all four teams!

And, that was our look at January 15, 1967!

Monday, January 14, 2013

The Money Pit


With a new year comes a time of change. Getting rid of the old and bringing in the new. Some people may decide to change their looks for the new year, dying their hair several shades lighter, and splurging on a brand new wardrobe. Some people may decide to “pimp their rides”, and spruce up their cars with fancy hubcaps, or a new set of fuzzy dice.



And, some people decide to tackle home improvement projects.

A few days ago, I opened up a bit about my childhood growing up in houses that were...well...kind of beat up, run down, fixer uppers. If you missed that entry, no problem. Just click HERE if you like. Anyway, as part of living in a series of homes that required a lot of maintenance, my father got the chance to flex his skills. Mind you, no matter how hard he tried, he wasn't able to repair the leaky roof in any of the houses we lived in during my childhood. But if you needed a fuse changed, a hole repaired in the drywall, installing a ceiling fan or wall sconce, building a bookshelf, and finding a way to keep a real Christmas tree upright for two weeks without killing it, my father was the man to call on.

Seriously, he built me my very first bookshelf to store all of my books. What a father, huh?

Of course, with every home improvement project success story comes a whole slew of failures and missteps that can drive even the most sanest of men to launch a slew of curse words that would have made even George Carlin blush!

Needless to say, my father knew a lot more swear words than that when things didn't go the way that he wanted them to.



(Sigh...I love the "Ugly House Photos" website...)

I remember one time, he tried to put up wallpaper in the living room, and he never could quite get the consistency of the paste quite right. He did get the job done...after four attempts and about eighteen thousand cuss words.

Then there was the time that he tried to hang up a set of venetian blinds in a bedroom, and he ended up cursing even more when he got himself tangled up in them. Needless to say, my parents have never used blinds since.

And, then there was the plumbing mishap that ended up with my father almost slicing one of his fingers completely off his hand! Thankfully, my eldest sister is trained as a registered nurse, and was able to help save the finger. But, my father was cursing up a blue streak that day!

But, I suppose that's part and parcel of home improvement projects. No pain, no gain.

In our family's case, we never owned the homes that I lived in, so if any damage took place that was cosmetic in nature, it was like “big deal, it's not our house”.

(Well, okay, it wasn't quite like that...but we didn't stress out about it either.)

Now, if my parents had inherited a real fixer-upper and had everything signed in their name, I think that their attitude would have been different. Had it been their own home, I bet they would have worked twice as hard to make their house shine, as I'm sure most homeowners can attest to.



I mean, let's face it. Buying a home is a HUGE investment. I currently do not have my own home yet, but when the time comes that I do, I want to make sure that my investment is a good one. I don't want to pay $200,000 for a house that appears to look lovely on the outside, only to end up forking out half a million dollars to fix up the inside. That wouldn't be a very good investment.

(In fact, I'll be honest. If the time comes that I ever get the opportunity to buy my own home, I will be bringing people along with me to help me decide, because I tend to get quite indecisive when it comes to huge purchases.)

Today's movie happens to be one which stars a young couple looking at purchasing their own home, unaware of the work that needed to be done inside. As if the appalling conditions inside the home aren't bad enough, a sub-plot that takes place within the movie may threaten the unity of the couple forever!

All because they ended up with a money pit nightmare instead of a dream home.

Well, what a coincidence! The title of the movie we're discussing today also happens to be called “The Money Pit”!



Directed by Richard Benjamin, the movie was released on March 26, 1986, and starred Tom Hanks and Shelley Long as Walter Fielding Jr. and Anna Crowley, the couple who end up with the “money pit”.

The first time I saw this movie was on one of those Saturday night midnight movies. You know the movies I mean, right? The ones that usually don't do very well at the box office and are often shown as filler. Well, admittedly, looking at the records for the movie, it only made about $55 million on a budget of $10 million. So, yes, it did make a profit, and it was a decent movie...but it wasn't exactly embraced lovingly by movie critics...it was more along the lines of one of those blind dates that you have great expectations for only to find out that the date is hardly your type.

Still, anyone who has ever struggled with the idea of putting on a tool belt and sprucing up things that need improving in a home can probably relate to the main plot. It's just a shame that the events leading up to the main plot are very contrived and unbelievable.



The movie begins with Walter and Anna discovering that their apartment is being taken over by someone else. Turns out that they don't actually own their New York City based apartment at all...it actually belongs to a man named Max Beissart (the late Alexander Godunov), a conductor who has just returned from a tour on Europe, and wishes to move back into his apartment again...the one he used to share with Anna when they were married!

Needless to say, this awkward situation has forced Walter and Anna to find a new home, and quickly. As it happens, fate (and a real estate agent friend) drops both of them in the company of Estelle (Maureen Stapleton), who has a mansion that she has to sell quickly. Seems her husband Carlos is in a lot of trouble. He's been arrested by the Israelis, having been accused of being Hitler's pool boy (like I said, contrived plot opening), and she must sell the house in order to bring him back home to America.

Now, the average person probably wouldn't believe this absolute farce of a story. Luckily, our two main characters are two of the dumbest people on the entire planet, with Anna believing that the story of them buying their dream home in order to help two other people is romantic.

Of course, the home is listed at a million dollars, so Anna and Walter agree to split the cost. Walter manages to pony up his share of the money from his wealthiest client, a kid rock star named Benny. Anna ends up getting her half from her ex-husband, Max, when she sells him back everything that she got in their divorce settlement.

So, with the house bought, and Walter and Anna happier than they have ever been, it's going to be smooth sailing, right?

Well...not exactly. Part of the reason why the sale was so quick was because the mansion was sold as is. And, unknown to Walter and Anna, the house has its share of problems, such as this...



...and this...



...and, of course, this memorable scene.



Now, I've heard of fixer-uppers before, but when you have brown sludge coming out of the water pipes, wildlife living in your dumbwaiter, an unintentionally collapsing staircase, and an oven that sends your dinner flying at the speed of sound, it doesn't exactly provide a nice, warm, cozy feeling.

And, that's just the tip of the iceberg.



When contractors Art and Brad Shirk (Joe Mantegna and Carmine Caridi) are called in to fix the house, the couple is told that it would take approximately two weeks. Instead, it takes almost four months to get the work done. With moments like this one, can you see why this is?



With the repair work taking much longer than Anna and Walter thought, and the funds dwindling down, Anna gets desperate and tries to sell some artwork to Max, who refuses to take it. He will give her the money if she allows him to take her out, and when she accepts, she finds herself in a precarious position that Max has orchestrated...a position that not only threatens the future of the house, but the future of her relationship with Walter.

So, will the holes in the walls be patched over? Will the repairs to the house finally make it worth the money spent on it? And, will there be a happily ever after at the end of the movie?

Hey, you expect me to tell you? Watch it for yourself!

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Foo Fighters - The Freshmaker


In this day and age, there are many different methods that one can use to freshen their breath.

Trust me, there's a reason why I'm bringing this up. Just bear with me.

I think that one of the first breath fresheners that I sampled in my lifetime was orange flavoured Tic Tacs. They were incredibly tasty. In fact, they were so tasty that I ended up downing half a package in one sitting (which I really don't recommend, by the way). From there, here were a list of some of the other things I tried to make my breath smell minty fresh (well, aside from brushing my teeth with toothpaste every day, that is).

Certs
Wint-O-Green Life Savers
Trident Spearmint Gum
Dentyne Ice
Binaca (not really a fan)
Listerine Strips
Those pastel coloured mints that people get at pizza places

(I'm sure that last one has an official name, but for the life of me, I don't know what it is.)

And, then there's these little guys.



Mentos. The Freshmaker.

Mentos is an awesome breath freshener, and one that I love. Unlike a lot of mints which are rock solid and you run the risk of breaking a tooth trying to bite on it, Mentos are nice and soft. It may look like a Scotch mint, but they're kind of like a piece of gum in that you can chew it.



And Mentos also happens to be Diet Coke's kryptonite.

The best part about Mentos is that depending on what area of the world you live in, you can get it in almost every flavour imaginable. In Canada, we have the standard mint flavour, as well as a roll of fruit flavoured ones (which contain flavours like orange, lemon, and strawberry). In the United Kingdom, they also come in raspberry, apple, watermelon, pineapple, black grape, spearmint, and bubblegum. And, Australia takes the cake for having some of the most unique flavours, including cola, sourmint, and Mocktail!

But, would you believe that when Mentos was first manufactured in The Netherlands in 1948, that the first flavour made was licorice? (In the Netherlands, the licorice flavour is still available, only it is known as “Drop Mentos”.)

It took some time for Mentos' popularity to spread from Europe to the United States. It really wasn't until the early 1990s when a series of clever commercials were filmed. The commercials, which were filmed entirely in South Africa, depicted a series of situations in which they are facing a problem that they don't know how to solve...



...until they pull out a trusty roll of Mentos, which allows them to fix the problem in a variety of...well...unusual ways. Just have a look at a couple of examples below.



Yes, the commercials are silly, and no, it's not likely that Mentos can be used as an aid to fall in love, get your dream job, or creating world peace. But, you have to admit that they were creative. I remember wanting to get a package of Mentos after seeing a commercial, so it had to have some effectiveness, right?

In fact, these commercials helped inspire a music video that was performed by a band in the mid-1990s!



ARTIST: Foo Fighters
SONG: Big Me
ALBUM: Foo Fighters
DATE RELEASED: February 25, 1996
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: N/A

Not sure if I'd actually want to try a mint called “Footos”...mainly because I would be worried that it would taste like sweaty socks.

At any rate, let's talk about the band that released this single.



The story begins roughly around 1990. At that time, Dave Grohl had just become the drummer for an up-and-coming band known as “Nirvana”, the grunge band fronted by the late Kurt Cobain. Although Grohl did a little bit of songwriting while on tour with the band, he didn't show his work to anyone else in the band...especially not Cobain, who Grohl was in complete awe of. It wasn't that he wanted to keep his songs to himself...more like he was a bit intimidated of Cobain, and he felt that it was probably better to keep his compositions to himself.

Though, while Grohl was still in Nirvana, he did release a few songs on a demo tape entitled “Pocketwatch” in 1992 under the pseudonym “Late!”.

Throughout the next four years, Grohl enjoyed life as a member of Nirvana, drumming along to hits such as “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, “All Apologies”, and “Heart Shaped Box”. But on one fateful day in April 1994, Nirvana came to an abrupt end.

The body of Kurt Cobain was discovered on April 8, 1994 in his Seattle home, the cause of death being suicide. He was just 27 years old, and left behind wife Courtney Love, and his young daughter Frances Bean Cobain (now 20).

With the death of Cobain, Nirvana was disbanded, and for Grohl, this meant starting all over again. He was recruited to join Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers as their drummer in late 1994, but he passed on the opportunity to start up his own project.



That project was the beginning of the “Foo Fighters”.

TRIVIA: The origin of the band “Foo Fighters” is from the World War II term used to describe unidentified flying objects.

And here's another bit of trivia for you. Foo Fighters originally only had one member in the group. Grohl.

You see, Grohl had always intended to release his solo efforts under a pseudonym because he wanted to preserve his anonymity. As a result, he only recorded a few copies of the demos he performed, and sent it to some of his friends for feedback. Somehow, some of these demo tapes happened to make their way to various record labels, and with several of these labels expressing interest, Grohl had decided to form a band. He briefly considered the idea of having his former Nirvana bandmate Krist Novoselic about joining the Foo Fighters, but both of them decided not to, for fear of alienating the other band members who had no prior connection to Nirvana.

As luck would have it, another Seattle based band, “Sunny Day Real Estate” had recently disbanded, and two of its members (Nate Mendel and William Goldsmith) joined the line-up. Completing the group was Pat Smear, who had toured with Nirvana during their 1993 tour.



With the band now complete, the Foo Fighters played their first public gig in February 1995, and five months later, on July 4, 1995, the band released their debut self-titled album. Four singles were released from the album; “This Is A Call”, “I'll Stick Around”, “For All The Cows”, and the single that we'll be discussing, “Big Me”.



Now, “Big Me” didn't do so hot on the Billboard Charts. It actually didn't chart. However, it did quite well on the American Hot Modern Rock Tracks Chart, peaking at #3.

One of the main reasons I loved this song was mainly due to the video that spoofed those wonderfully cheesy Mentos ads. Apparently, MTV loved it too...the video ended up being nominated for five MTV Video Music Awards in 1996, winning one for Best Group Video. Director Jesse Peretz came up with the concept, which the Foo Fighters loved. The band had stated that the song was a “tongue-in-cheek, ridiculously candy-coated pop tune”, and that their main purpose for the video was to make fun of themselves while performing it.

The video was shot entirely in Sydney, Australia, and was released on Valentine's Day, 1996, with the single following suit eleven days later.

Now, the video ended up putting the Foo Fighters on the map, and they went on to huge success, despite losing member William Goldsmith amidst a sea of controversy as the band was recording their sophomore album, and Pat Smear departing shortly after that (though Smear would rejoin the band in 2006). But it wasn't all positive.

One side effect of the popularity that “Big Me” brought the band was whenever they played the song live. Apparently, fans of the band would sneak in Mentos mints into the concert venue and when the song was played live, the Mentos hit the stage...something that Grohl hated. When the Mentos hit the stage, Grohl described the sensation as being similar to getting stoned.

(That's stoned as in rocks, not stoned as in drugs.)

In fact, the band actually quit playing the song live for a couple of years because of the Mentos wielding fans. But, when the band toured with Weezer during the “Foozer” tour, and Weezer started performing “Big Me” as part of their set, the band embraced the song once more.



Just promise me you won't pelt them with Mentos next time you hear Dave Grohl sing the song...he doesn't like that!

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling


I have never really been a fan of watching sports on television, except for the Winter Olympics, as some of the events there are cool. And, just think, they're only a year away!

I try to stay awake for basketball games, but I end up falling asleep during the first five minutes. I don't like hockey, which may force me to turn in my Canadian citizenship right there...but given the recent events including the recently ended lockout, there may be others left with a bad taste in their mouths. And baseball...I actually don't mind baseball that much, but I wouldn't exactly go out of my way to purchase a ticket and sit in a ball park chomping down on Cracker Jacks in hopes of catching a ball.

(Besides, I hate Cracker Jacks.)

And, then there's the “sport” that millions of people tune into each week. The “sport” that is almost as much of a soap opera as “General Hospital”.

I'm talking about the WWF...or, is it called the WWE now? I honestly don't know.

You'll probably have noticed that I have put the word “sport” in quotation marks up above. There is a reason for it. The reason behind it is the fact that if you ask any random person on the streets about what they think about wrestling as a sport, some will likely tell you that wrestling isn't a real sport.

To be honest with you, I'm not entirely sure that I can agree with that statement. There are thousands of high schools all across North America that have wrestling teams, and some people are lucky enough to get college scholarships through wrestling. Just ask A.C. Slater from Saved By The Bell!

Oh, wait...we can't. He's not real. Well, take it from me, I'm sure that a lot of people can claim that they had their college tuition paid for through a wrestling scholarship.

(Of course, just to be on the safe side, I did Google it, and found links HERE, HERE, and HERE to back up my claims.)

So, as far as I am concerned, if a college is willing to honour a scholarship for people who wrestle, then as far as I am concerned, it is a real sport.

Of course, this leads to my next debate.



A lot of people seem to have the belief that the “Wrestlemania” events that are featured on Pay-Per-View television is...well...as fake as a three-dollar bill. They claim that the storylines that play out within the ring are completely fabricated, they claim that the moves are choreographed so that the wrestlers themselves aren't hurt...and I've even heard of the theory that body doubles are used in the ring instead of the actual wrestlers themselves!

As far as I'm concerned, I am kind of on the fence. Do I believe that the feuding and the fussing is 100% fake? Well...maybe not one hundred per cent. But it's not exactly the real thing either. I think that like the best sitcoms and dramas out there, the WWE is guilty of making conflicts more dramatic than they need to be. And, I'll also be the first to admit that watching clips of wrestling matches on television, some of the wrestlers can get a bit...um...hammy?

On the other hand, I do believe that the injuries that the wrestlers receive in the ring are completely real. It's kind of hard to fake a bloodied nose or a broken wrist on the fly.

So, do I find wrestling to be fake? In some ways, yes. In others, no. So, I guess I'm a maybe?

Whatever your stance is, it's cool. But, you won't believe how passionate some wrestling fans get when defending it. Which is fine, because I believe that if you are very passionate about something, you should stand up for it.

I still remember being a member of an Internet forum that had a man who had a major obsession with wrestling (and S Club 7, if you can believe it). He went on the Sports sub-forum and posted everything he could about the subject of wrestling. He got so post crazy that a separate sub-forum for wrestling had to be created to accommodate him.

Oh, and you didn't DARE tell him that wrestling was fake, for he would launch into a rather lengthy diatribe filled with insults delivered with a condescending tone!

Again, it's cool to be passionate about something...but don't lower yourself by bullying other people who don't share your opinion.

So, I'll be the first one to admit that I am NOT a wrestling fan. But I do have something rather ironic to share.

I may have disliked wrestling...but I loved this cartoon...a cartoon that will be the feature for today's blog.



Ever hear of a cartoon known as “Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling”? Believe it or not, the cartoon ran for two seasons between September 1985 and June 1987! And for whatever reason, I loved it. I still have some rather vague memories of sitting on the couch watching it on television while eating English muffins with Cheez Whiz spread on top of them.

(Weirdly enough, I don't eat that much Cheez Whiz now...maybe it's kind of symbolic of the seemingly bad taste that I had as a four year old boy!)



Anyway, the cartoon series (produced by DiC Entertainment) did not really put as much emphasis on actual wrestling moves and maneuvers. Instead, the show became more of a good vs. evil type program, where Hulk Hogan and his “Faces” (otherwise known as the good guys) did everything in their power to try and stop the “Heels” (also known as the bad guys), who were lead by Roddy Piper.

Okay, so why don't we watch an episode of the series to get us all in the mood before we go any further. Just click HERE and HERE. I'll wait for twenty-one minutes or so. Promise.

Okay, you watched it, right? As did I. And, one thing that I'll say is that my tastes have certainly matured over the years, as I really don't like it as much as I used to. On a purely retrospective angle, I do appreciate the WWF (as it was known at the time) trying to branch out to attract an audience that might have been too young for the actual wrestling matches on television.

The show was unique in that it blended animated segments with live-action segments. The live-action segments always featured the real-life wrestlers that were drawn into the television cartoon. And, to be honest, I didn't really care for the live-action segments, as some of the wrestlers looked very, very scary to me as a little boy! I much preferred the cartoon versions better, as they didn't scare me as much.

Here's the catch. The animated characters were NOT voiced by the wrestlers themselves. This made sense, since a lot of the wrestlers were fully booked with wrestling matches and appearances at charity events. So, voice actors were hired to play the wrestlers instead.



Would you believe that Hulk Hogan was voiced by Brad Garrett of “Everybody Loves Raymond” fame? Now that I watch the episode that I posted, I can sort of hear a little “Robert Barone” in the Hulk!

Here are some of the other voice actors in the series, dividing them up into good vs. evil.



TEAM HULK

Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka – LEWIS ARQUETTE
Junkyard Dog – JAMES AVERY
Wendi Richter – JODI CARLISLE
Captain Lou Albano – GEORGE DiCENZO
Andre The Giant – RON FEINBERG
Hillbilly Jim – PAT FRALEY
Tito Santana – JOEY PENTO



TEAM RODDY

Rowdy Roddy Piper – CHARLIE ADLER
The Iron Sheik – ARON KINCAID
Nikolai Volkoff – RON GANS
The Fabulous Moolah – JODI CARLISLE
Big John Studd – CHUCK LICINI
Mr. Fuji – ERNEST HARADA

Yes, Jodi Carlisle played both a good guy and a bad guy! Talk about being conflicted!

The animated show did have its inconsistencies within it. For one, the cartoon depicted Hulk with a full head of hair (in real life, Hogan was beginning to lose his). But because of the lengthy production time to produce a full 13-episode season, sometimes the show fell behind with what was actually happening in the WWF at the time. Some of the “good guys” actually became bad guys in the ring! But, hey, as a four year old boy, I didn't know any better!



In fact, I have to admit that I did find Wendi Richter kind of cute...in both human and cartoon form.

But again, I was four years old at the time. My idea of cute back then was a teddy bear.

At any rate, I'd call the cartoon kind of a fun little distraction. But I don't think it will ever be rebooted any time soon.

At least, we can only hope.