Search This Blog

Friday, July 19, 2013

Character Spotlight - "Glee"'s Finn Hudson

As I eluded to in yesterday's Thursday Diary, I will be spending today's entry talking about Cory Monteith and his death at the age of 31.



Many people that I have regular contact with have expressed their shock and sadness over Cory's death. I will admit to being shocked myself. Cory Monteith was exactly one year less a week younger than I am. To see me outlive someone who supposedly had everything in life anybody could ever want is a huge shock. And while I lwjhknow that his death could have been prevented and that he shouldn't have indulged in heroin just months after he checked out of rehab, who knows what was going through his mind at the time?

I guess what I am trying to say is that I won't judge him because I don't know the guy personally. I don't know what was going on when he made the decision to do drugs in that Vancouver hotel room which inevitably ended up costing him everything. So, I won't further comment on any other speculations that may arise.

Instead, I'm going to devote this article to the joy that he brought to fans all over the world in the role that made him the most famous. I imagine that a lot of fans of “Glee” are in mourning right now, and some are probably still trying to figure out how to talk to their kids about what happened. And, as of right now, we have absolutely no idea how “Glee” plans on addressing the death of Cory Monteith. Right now, it appears as though the show is planning on killing off the character he played, but this could always change.

For now though, let's take a look at the life and times of the character that Cory played on “Glee”. Finn Hudson.

Now, I'll be the first one to admit. Aside from the odd episode, as well as the humourous parody video that the cast of “Glee” did for Madonna's “Vogue” video, I can't exactly call myself a “gleek”. By all accounts, “Glee” is a very popular show. It helped spawn interest in a high school social club long made fun of by “jocks” and “cheerleaders” through the ages. It grouped together different people from different high school social cliques for one common goal...to win the championships.

Unfortunately, it also showed us that a Slurpee from 7-Eleven could be used as a lethal weapon in the high school class wars.

And, well...it gave us the rivalry between passionate Will Schuester and snarky Sue Sylvester.

Glee” has also made a huge impact on pop culture as well. There was a reality show that premiered on Bravo that had wannabe gleeks competing against each other to land a small role in the series. It has breathed new life to songs that were once considered forgotten. And, Archie Comics had a crossover with “Glee” beginning with Archie #641 earlier this year.

Nobody knew what sort of an impact the show would have when it debuted on FOX on May 19, 2009. But the show has continued to dominate in the ratings and has made household names out of Jane Lynch, Matthew Morrison, Jayma Mays, Lea Michele, Chris Colfer, Chord Overstreet, and Darren Criss.

And, of course, the late Cory Monteith, who played the role of Finn Hudson.

Now, how Cory ended up getting the role was an interesting one because he was one of the few people to have to submit two different audition tapes. The first audition showed Monteith using pencils as drumsticks against a makeshift drum set comprised of old Tupperware containers. The video caught the attention of show creator Ryan Murphy, but he wasn't entirely satisfied because Cory wasn't singing. Given that the show was about a glee club at an American high school, Monteith had to prove that he could walk the walk, talk the talk...or in this case, sing the song.

The song he chose to sing for his second audition video was a classic R.E.O. Speedwagon song, “Can't Fight This Feeling”. That second video was enough to secure Monteith an audition in Los Angeles for the show itself. While his vocal stylings at the time were not as strong as some of the other people at the audition, producers were in awe of Monteith's portrayal of the character that would come to be known as Finn Hudson – a high school jock who appears to be incredibly dumb, but who is actually just naïve and very sweet.

Of course, the casting was considered to be a little bit controversial, as when the pilot of “Glee” finally aired, Monteith had just turned 27...just four years younger than Matthew Morrison who played Will Schuester, director of William McKinley High's “New Directions”. But luckily for many people, Cory had the looks and the personality to play young quite convincingly.

Anyway, when the show first began, Finn Hudson was the star quarterback of the football team, and he is initially one who thinks very low of the “New Directions”. But Finn also had a rather interesting secret.



Ironically enough, Finn was singing the very song that Cory Monteith sang in his audition video.

Anyway, one thing you need to know is that if you're ever singing in a school locker room, the last thing you want is to have Will Schuester present. Otherwise, he will wrangle you into joining the “New Directions” faster than you can blink your eyes. And needless to say that when Finn Hudson joined the glee club, he got a lot of ribbing from his football teammates, especially from his best friend Puck (Mark Sailing). But the longer he stayed in the club...the more he began to like it. Sure, the crowd that made up the “New Directions” were people whom he would not normally associate with, but he grew to like and respect them all...especially Rachel Berry (Lea Michele), the lead female vocalist of the “New Directions”.

Of course, the growing friendship between Finn and Rachel caused Finn's girlfriend Quinn (Dianna Agron) to grow extremely jealous. She became so jealous that she herself joined the glee club in order to spy on both Finn and Rachel. But what Finn didn't know was that Quinn had cheated on him with Puck, and gotten pregnant with Puck's child. Panicked, she told Finn the baby was his (which confused the naïve Finn as he didn't even remember making love to Quinn at all). Eventually, Rachel discovers the truth which leads to fallout between Finn, Quinn, and Puck, and Finn almost quits the glee club as a result of it. Luckily, when Finn discovers that Sue Sylvester has planned to sabotage the glee club's first performance, he comes in at the last moment and saves the performance.

Other season one highlights involve Finn finally entering into a relationship with Rachel, as well as dealing with the fact that his mother has fallen in love with the father of another “New Directions” member, Kurt Hummer (Chris Colfer). And while this ultimately leads to tension between Finn and Kurt (which escalates into Kurt being bullied), by the end of the season, Finn has apologized to Kurt, and their bond begins to grow.

But by the beginning of season two, the love story between Finn and Rachel derailed off the tracks when Rachel discovered that Finn had slept with Santana Lopez (Naya Rivera), and to get revenge, Rachel starts to chase after Puck. This leads to the first break-up between Glee's “supercouple”.



(In real life, Cory Monteith and Lea Michele also shared a romantic relationship, which up to Cory's death was still going on.)

Of course, Finn was involved in a lot of other storylines outside of his relationship with Rachel. He convinced members of the Cheerios to leave the group to join the football players and “New Directions” to perform in a halftime show at a football game, and he briefly reunites with Quinn – with terrible results.

By the end of the second season, Finn decides that he wants to be with Rachel ultimately, and he tells her that he wants her back. But with Rachel set on leaving Ohio forever to study music in New York City, Rachel is torn over what to do. It isn't until the “New Directions” go on stage for Nationals that Finn declares his love for Rachel during a duet that Finn wrote himself.



Although “Pretending” wasn't enough for the team to win Nationals, for Finn and Rachel, it was enough to reaffirm their commitment towards each other.

Throughout the next two seasons, Finn and Rachel's relationship grows, and Finn actually proposes marriage to Rachel. The couple decide to get married after the Regionals competition, but after Quinn gets involved in a car accident, the wedding is postponed indefinitely. The couple decide to get married at graduation instead, but another snag takes place when Finn (who has applied to a New York acting school) discovers his application has been rejected. Rachel, on the other hand, is accepted into her school, and she is willing to put her dream on hold just so she can be with Finn. But Finn (who was one to look out for himself and only himself at the beginning of the series) proved that he had grown up a lot over the last two years, and told Rachel that she should follow her dream, and not wait for him. So, Rachel headed off to New York to become Broadway's newest superstar, while Finn stayed behind and enlisted in the army.

That commitment to the armed forces doesn't last long as Finn is discharged after injuring himself, and he heads off to New York to surprise Rachel. But after a while, Finn discovers that New York is not the place for him, and he heads back to Ohio without informing Rachel, which leads to their second break-up in the series.

But what is interesting about Finn's return to Ohio is that he was almost instantly given a position at William McKinley High...albeit a temporary one. And what is really interesting is that the position ended up being within the same club that Finn himself was a huge part of during his high school years.

You see, Mr. Schuester was going to be out of town for a few weeks, and Finn was brought in to become the interim club director in Will's absence. And, granted, Finn's leadership wasn't exactly well-received at first. But the more comfortable he got, the more respect the glee club members showed him. And, by the end of the fourth season, Finn was contemplating going back to school to become a teacher and his relationship with Rachel was beginning to blossom once more after he saved her from engaging in a relationship with a guy in New York who was nothing but bad news.

So, as of the last season, it appeared as though everything was starting to fall into place for Finn, and that nothing would stop him.

However, the sudden death of Cory Monteith this past Saturday has thrown a little bit of a monkey wrench into the plans for season five.

It seems really unlikely now that Finn will go through to become a teacher. We'll never really know if Finn and Rachel would have found a way to finally be together forever. It's a very sad thing to think about when you consider that “Glee” will likely have no choice but to kill Cory Monteith's character off. And, it really shouldn't have ended this way at all.

Finn went from being a jock who really didn't care about anything other than playing sports, and who had very little regard for most people to being one of the stars of the “New Directions”, forging bonds of friendship with Mr. Schuester and Kurt, and finding the love of his life in Rachel Berry. He went from drifting aimlessly through life to finding a purpose. It seems almost like a cruel joke that his story has to end now.

Just as it seems almost like a cruel joke that Cory Monteith lost his life at a time when things were going so well for him.


To end this blog entry, rather than mourn his passing, and curse the effects of overdosing on drugs...I thought I would end this blog off by remembering him for what he did best.


Thursday, July 18, 2013

Why I Didn't Choose Journalism

This is a blog entry that I consider to be one of my most personal ones, because it addresses a question that many people have asked me. For the longest time, I couldn't really come up with an answer that made a lot of sense. But the more I thought about it, the more I began to realize that I had the answer all along, but couldn't quite figure out how to word it until now. And, I guess in some way, my answer was found after reports of a celebrity death began to surface from the West Coast of Canada.

July 18, 2013

As many people well know, I love to write. I try to do a little bit of writing every day so I can learn a little bit more about myself. After all, the more blogging I do, the more I learn about who I really am. It's been a great method of self-help for me because it's helped me come to terms with the painful memories of my past and it's helped me discover exactly what I need to say in order to replace that negativity with positivity. It hasn't always worked out that way, but in the instances in which it has, I'm a better person for having worked through those demons and slaying them once and for all.

And if I don't feel too dorky, I do a little Final Fantasy style victory fanfare!



Okay, enough of that.

Now, because I'm beginning to feel more comfortable with myself and my own skin, it allows me to be a little bit more open with people. And, this allows me to share more of myself than I ever thought possible...

...well, in the VERBAL sense, that is.

So, I'm going to answer a question that people keep asking me.

You see, at my workplace, a lot of people read this very blog, and they tell me that they are kind of surprised that I haven't pursued a career in the field of journalism. Some have even encouraged me to try and follow that career path because they feel as though I could excel in it.



And you know what? If I put all my cards on the table and really put forth the time and the effort to get that degree, I probably could have gone on to be the next Tom Brokaw, or Dan Rather, or a masculine version of Connie Chung, if you like.

It's not as though I haven't pondered with the idea to become a journalist before. It was the program that I initially wanted to get a post secondary degree in. I even volunteered to write and edit one of the two student-run newspapers on campus. It was something that I really felt passionate about, and although the experience didn't have the happy ending that I had envisioned, it was still a mostly positive experience, and I am glad that I did it.

So, why have I decided to not pursue the career of a journalist?

Well, I'll be honest with you. There are several reasons. And, to begin with reason number one...well, it happens to be linked to a recent event that took place this past Saturday.



Now, I'll be doing a special tribute to the character this man played on the hit television show “Glee” tomorrow, but I wanted to talk a little bit about Cory Monteith. Unless one has been living in a cave in the middle of nowhere, by now everyone has heard that the 31-year-old Canadian actor was found dead in a hotel room on the afternoon of July 13, 2013. The cause of death was a reported lethal combination of alcohol and heroin. It was revealed that Cory Monteith had a history of drug and alcohol abuse. Monteith himself admitted in an interview that he started doing drugs at the age of twelve.

I suppose the worst thing about this whole thing was that Cory Monteith died at a time in which his professional career was really beginning to take off. He was starring in a couple of movies, and “Glee” had been renewed for a fifth season. His relationship with his “Glee” co-star, Lea Michele was beginning to blossom very well, and I think that he was well on his way to having a bright future in the entertainment industry. I think that's why many people were so shocked by the news of his death. Certainly he had drug problems in the past, but it seemed as though he had it all under control. While there was a stint in rehab earlier in 2013, everyone had believed that Cory had finally kicked the habit.

While we may never know how Cory ended up dying of a drug overdose...we do know that it was a very unfortunate end to a promising career.

Of course, Cory Monteith died five days ago, yet hearing all of the media coverage that is still being reported on, you would have thought that it was still a breaking news story. The media coverage has been absolutely relentless. They want to know EVERYTHING from what Cory was doing before his death, to how Lea Michele is coping, to harassing other “Glee” stars as they arrive at airports...and you know what, enough is enough.

Cory Monteith is dead. Leave him be. Leave his family, friends, and fans to grieve his loss in their own way.



That's just one of the many reasons why I opted not to pursue a career in journalism. I understand that it is important to cover a breaking news story, and certainly the sudden death of one of the biggest stars of the television series “Glee” is one of those news stories. At the same time, I believe in letting those closest to him mourn his death in private. I would never climb over bushes to get closer to the hotel room where he died. I would be very uncomfortable getting up close and personal to his co-stars asking him if they were okay, and whether they believed that Cory had relapsed.



Truth be told, I have been a little bit disgusted with paparazzi and overly eager journalists who would do anything to get their story. Even if it means breaking laws and shattering the privacy of actors, actresses, singers, and politicians. True, many of them are in the public spotlight because they want the attention. But I think there are ways to get that attention without being a complete jerk about it. And, I'm sorry to say it but I wouldn't survive in the world of investigative journalism because I tend to get too emotionally involved in stories...which is a bit no-no given that the journalism industry tends to reward monotony and robotic movements – neither being things that I have.

I have to say that I admire those journalists who go out into the world to cover the news. At the same time, I don't see myself going out into the middle of a hurricane to cover the damage it is doing to a community. I would be scared out of my mind. Nor could I cover the aftermath of a brutal storm that has wiped entire villages off the map. I would probably find myself crying alongside those people who have lost everything. And, I would be a nervous wreck if I had to go over to a war-torn country and witness people getting shot in the middle of the streets. I guarantee you that I would be suffering the after-effects of that visual for years afterwards.

I applaud those people who have the courage to face danger in order to bring the truth to viewers...I just know that I couldn't be one of them.

I would also have a really hard time keeping my composure when it came down to interviewing someone who I could not stand. Let's just say that hypothetically speaking, I was a journalist and one of my assignments was to go to a state prison and interview somebody who has admitted to abducting and killing a dozen children. I would find it incredibly hard to keep calm, knowing what this person has done. I would not necessarily be able to hold my tongue while interviewing this person. I would more than likely tell this disgusting piece of filth what I thought of them. And, that would not be very professional from a journalistic perspective.

I honestly don't know how some journalists do it, you know? Interviewing some of the people in the world who have admitted to corruption, greed, violence, theft, and murder. I would have a really hard time even being in the same room as people like that, let alone asking them questions over why they did what they did while keeping my best poker face on. I would find it damn near impossible!

Of course, those reasons are miniscule compared to the real reason why I didn't become a journalist.

If you want to know the real reason...well, it's simple.



When I was growing up, I didn't know it at the time, but I had suffered from social anxiety. In some ways, I still have feelings of social anxiety buried deep within myself. Granted, working a current job in retail has helped me get over the social anxiety on a professional level. But socially? I still struggle.

I mean, occasionally I'll watch an episode of Entertainment Tonight Canada (and yes, Canada does have its own version, and yes, it is far superior than the American version in my own humble opinion), and I see the hosts interviewing celebrities and media figures without any problems whatsoever, and I think to myself...I would love to be able to do that myself but for whatever reason, I find myself being a complete amateur. Some people find it easy to go up to a person and just start talking to them, but I have always struggled to even say the word “hello” to them. Dealing with social anxiety is something that I would not wish on anybody. Social anxiety is one of the worst things to cope with. It certainly is a rather lonely way to live, and I have done everything in me to try and rectify that.

I think social anxiety is something that not a whole lot of people understand. I didn't quite understand it myself. I always saw it as being this freaky disorder that nobody really talked about. It's like that embarrassing uncle who gets drunk every Christmas and you find him passed out with the turkey on top of his head. You acknowledge the fact that he exists, and that his DNA is forever connected with yours, but you don't really want to admit publicly that he is a part of your family out of fear that people will judge you based on his actions, and not yours.

Well, social anxiety for me is like that drunken uncle that nobody talks about. I know that I was afraid to talk about it for the longest time because I thought that it was something to be ashamed of. I was ashamed of the fact that I had symptoms of what is known as social anxiety disorder. Why would I go and blab it out to the world? I was too afraid to approach a stranger on the street!

The thing is...I want people to know about it. I want people to understand the struggles that I endured. I want people to know that while I am getting better at coping and dealing with it, it still remains the little skeleton in my closet. One that I hope I can disassemble and donate to a high school chemistry class before it becomes too late.

If I can find a way to get rid of, or at the very least control my social anxiety...then maybe I can find the courage to try new things.


But not journalism. Maybe a talk show, but not journalism.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

So Close, and Yet So Far - The Montreal Expos

When I agreed to do this all-request Wednesday feature, I knew that some of the topics that I would get, I wouldn't be necessarily familiar with. In the case of today's selected request, this is certainly the case.

I'll be the first one to admit that I don't really get into the whole idea of anything athletic. That's not to say that I don't go outside and get exercise every now and then. I do. Plus, I work in a job where I frequently do a lot of walking and lifting.

But when it comes to sports, I am absolutely useless. Half the sports that are out there in this world I have absolutely no idea how to play because the rules are sometimes so complex. I do know the difference between a field goal and a touchdown, but am sometimes confused as to how many points they are worth. I always thought it was six, but maybe it's seven. I have no clue. I can't throw a football to save my life, and I only tune in to the Super Bowl to watch the commercials (and maybe the halftime show if the main performer is decent).

Same deal with basketball. I know some of the major players associated with basketball are Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain, and Kareem-Abdul Jabbar. Can I tell you what teams each of them belong to? With the exception of Johnson, Jordan, and Bryant, that would be a big fat no.

Hockey is a sport that I have more or less an indifference to. I certainly don't hate it (I would be giving up my Canadian citizenship if I admitted otherwise), but I wouldn't go out of the way to see one.

Unless it's to watch my nephew play. Then I will make an exception.

Actually, the only time I ever really watch sporting events on television is when the Olympics come. And, I only ever get interested in the Winter Olympics at that. Lucky for me, 2014 is the next Winter Olympic year, so not much longer to wait.

I will say this though. One sport that I kind of liked, and sort of got into in my youth was baseball. I liked playing it (even after my gym teacher almost broke my nose with a baseball in ninth grade), I have a small collection of baseball cards kicking around somewhere, and I didn't mind going to the occasional local game. Baseball was a game that a lot of people enjoyed, and whenever the World Series came around every autumn, fans all over the United States and Canada tuned in to watch their favourite teams play. Whether you were a fan of the Boston Red Sox, the Detroit Tigers, or the New York Yankees, every team had their fans...and some could be more vocal than others.

And certainly in the United States, Americans take their baseball very, VERY seriously.

In Canada...well, that's a different story.

As of 2013, the United States has at least twenty-nine teams representing the country from San Francisco, California to Miami, Florida.

In Canada...we have one. The Toronto Blue Jays.

However, this was not always the case. When I was a child, there was a time in which Canada had two teams.

Now, Toronto hasn't had much luck lately in the World Series department. They haven't won the title in exactly twenty years, their last victory being in 1993. But the early 1990s were a great time for the Jays, as they also won the World Series in 1992, making it one of the few teams to win the title two consecutive years running.

And if things had gone their way, the second Canadian team could have made sure that 1994 would also have been a year in which a Canadian baseball team would win the World Series. But a twist of fate would not only take that dream away, but it would tear a wound right into the heart of the team that would never recover.

And, that's where today's request comes in. I received a message from longtime reader Gregg M. of Nebraska, who asked me to do a blog entry on the life and demise of this Canadian team. And, never one to back away from a challenge, I decided to take Gregg up on his suggestion.



Just be warned...I had to do a TON of research for this one, as my knowledge of the Montreal Expos was limited. But reading everything that happened to this team, it almost seemed like an act of cruelty for a team to get so close to earning recognition, but always falling short of the goal due to circumstances that were not their fault.

First things first, let's take a look at how the team was founded.

We're going to have to go back in time to the year 1960, when Montreal ended up losing its only International League team, the Montreal Royals (a Dodgers affiliate) to Los Angeles. It would take a little over seven years before the consideration of possibly creating a new baseball team for Montreal would happen, courtesy of Gerry Snowden, a high-profile figure in Montreal. At the 1967 December meeting of Major League Baseball team owners which took place in Mexico City, Mexico, Snyder presented a bid to bring a baseball franchise back to Montreal. Five months later, in May 1968, Walter O'Malley announced that the cities of Montreal and San Diego would be awarded a new baseball team – both of whom would begin playing ball at the start of the 1969 season.

Now, initially, Montreal wanted to call the team the Montreal Royals (as a homage to the former International League team). Problem was that in the eight-year period that passed between 1960 and 1968, Kansas City had already called dibs on the name. Montreal residents were asked to submit names for their team, and although “Voyageurs” and “Nationals” were briefly considered, the name “Expos” was the clear winner, having been inspired by the event known as Expo 67. And, it also worked well on a language perspective, as Expo has the same meaning and pronunciation in both English and French.

TRIVIA: The Montreal Expos were actually the very first Canadian team to be added onto the roster of Major League Baseball teams, as Toronto didn't get their team until 1977.

The newly named Montreal Expos now had to find a place to hold their home games, as the Delorimier Stadium (which was used for Montreal Royals games) was too small to support a Major League Baseball team. The Autostade was originally considered, but when the costs to add a dome and 12,000 seats to the facility proved to be too much, the league threatened to pull the franchise altogether.

This would merely be the first of many frustrations the team would face over the next few years.



Eventually, the area known as Jarry Park was transformed into a makeshift temporary facility, capable of hosting over 28,000 fans, which saved the franchise in the nick of time. And, as a result of Montreal becoming the first Canadian city to host a Major League baseball team, the city began to get all sorts of notoriety, even winning the chance to host the 1976 Olympic Games...

...which ended up becoming a major financial disaster for the city, but I digress.

At any rate, by April 1969, the team was set to play their first game. It took place on April 8, 1969 at Shea Stadium against the New York Mets. It was a close game, but the Expos won their first game with a score of 11-10. Six days later, on April 14, the first home game was played at Jarry Park – again winning the game against the St. Louis Cardinals 8-7. It was a promising start for the new team, and almost thirty thousand people crammed into the Jarry Park facility to watch the first MLB game played outside of the United States. Early stars of the new team were Rusty Staub, Mack Jones, and Bill Stoneman (the latter of which pitched a no-hitter game just ten days into the team's first season!)

But the team was plagued with a whole bunch of problems almost early on in its run.

It was always intended for Jarry Park to be a temporary facility for the team. Because Jarry Park did not have adequate protection against the wind and cold, games could not be played at the facility at the very beginning and the very end of the baseball season. The facility was only supposed to remain open until 1972, which was supposed to be the year that the Olympic Stadium was set to be completed.



Well, 1972 came and went, and the Olympic Stadium still wasn't ready to open. The franchise was threatened yet again, but fortunately the Expos managed to get reprieves at all winter meetings for the next five years. Finally, in 1977, the Olympic Stadium was ready for the team to play in...which lead to more problems. Because Olympic Stadium was designed as a multi-purpose stadium in which the city's football team, the Montreal Allouettes played games there as well, it didn't make for the best location to host baseball games. In addition, there was supposed to be a retractable roof installed on top of the Olympic Stadium (to protect fans from rain and bad weather). It wasn't installed until 1987. And, the roof itself didn't become retractable until 1988. And, it was a moot point anyway because the roof was deemed useless in situations where the winds were greater than twenty-five miles per hour. The decision was made in the early 1990s to keep the roof permanently closed.

Another strike against the team.

The initial records of the Montreal Expos team were quite...shall we say...lousy. Their first ten seasons resulted in more losses than wins. By 1979, the tide began to turn. Under the leadership of Dick Williams, the team ended the 1979 baseball season with a 95-65 record – the team's best season yet. And, as the 1970s ended and the 1980s began, the team was a force to be reckoned with, having winning records between 1979 and 1983. And the team actually came close to a World Series win in the 1981 season, but a couple of factors lead to them not winning. First, the team had the misfortune of having one of their better seasons during a year in which a baseball strike split the season in two. And, secondly, in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series (a game which was postponed one day due to inclement weather), the team suffered a devastating loss when Los Angeles Dodger Rick Monday (aptly named since the game was held on Monday, October 19, 1981) scored a home run in the ninth inning of the game, leading to a heartbreaking 3-2 loss.



That day – October 19, 1981 – would come to be known as “Blue Monday”.

And, it wasn't the only time that the team would come so close to a victory...and have it slip away.



Remember the 1994 World Series? I don't either. It's because there wasn't one held that year. The baseball players walked off the diamond and went on strike on August 12, 1994, and the strike went on so long that it was impossible to continue the season. As a result, the 1994 season ended without a World Series.

Which was horrible for the Montreal Expos, as they had their best record yet going into the 1994 season.

The team was at its best shape ever. With star players like Larry Walker, Moises Alou, Wil Cordero, Pedro Martinez, John Wetteland, Tim Scott, Jeff Shaw, Gil Heredia, Jeff Fassero, Ken Hill, Marquis Grissom, and Rondell White, the team boasted an impressive 74-40 win/loss record prior to August 1994. At the time, the team was six games ahead of the second place Atlanta Braves, and if the season had continued as normal, they could have easily stayed on pace to win over one hundred games that season. But because of the players strike, the Expos were never given the chance to see if they could have won the World Series.

The player's strike proved to be very costly for the team as well. In 1994, the team was actively making the case for a brand new baseball stadium, and had they won the World Series that year, it likely would have made their case a lot stronger. But no Series meant no stadium. What was worse, the local ownership group at the time chose not to invest any more money to secure the team's best players for the upcoming 1995 season.

This lead to the team (under the orders of Claude Brochu) to conduct a “fire sale” to cut loose the team's major stars prior to the 1995 season opener, and several of the team's 1994 stars were either traded to other teams or left the team as free agents. The fire sale caused game attendance to plummet, never to recover. Several more players would leave the team between 1995 and 1997, including general manager Kevin Malone, who was heard to comment that he was in the “building business, not the dismantling business”. And with the exception of the 1996 season, the team continued to have straight losses since the 1994 fire sale...leading some to question whether Montreal should continue to have a baseball team at all. In fact, beginning with the 2002 season, some of the Montreal Expos games were played in San Juan, Puerto Rico in an effort to save the team.

However, by 2004, the decision was made to remove the Expos from Montreal and relocate them to Washington D.C., where beginning with the 2005 season, the team would be renamed the “Washington Nationals”. This news came after the devastating 2003 season, in which the Montreal Expos were part of a spirited seven-team Wild Card Hunt, in which the team found themselves in a five-way-tie with four other teams. But ultimately, MLB chairman Bud Selig made the decision that it could not pay the fifty thousand dollars to call up players from its minor leagues to take advantage of MLB's expanded roster during September. The teams had to make do with what they had.

This was the beginning of the end for the Montreal Expos.

The team played their final game in Montreal on September 29, 2004, in which a whopping 31,395 fans came to see the team off. The result of that final game was not very good. The Florida Marlins clobbered the Expos 9-1. Still, that final turnout must have made the team very proud.

Ironically enough, the team's last game ever was held in the same place where the team played their very first game way back in 1969. Shea Stadium. But whereas the Expos won their first game against the Mets some 35 years ago, this time around, the Mets would have the upper hand, with a final score of 8-1...a bitter ending to a once promising baseball team.





Tuesday, July 16, 2013

July 16, 1999

I can't believe that we are halfway through the middle of July already!

Oh, no, wait. The temperature for today is slated to be thirty-three Celsius. And, with the humidity, it will feel more like 42 Celsius!

Actually, yeah. I do believe it's the middle of July.

But you know, that's part and parcel of having the season known as summer. Granted, summer isn't exactly my most favourite season (I'm more of a spring/fall kind of guy), but I do admit that there are some nice things about it. It gives you an excuse to eat as much ice cream as possible, you can go swimming, or you can even sit in your apartment in air conditioned comfort if you are too hot to go outside.

And, believe me...when it feels like 42 Celsius outside, I wouldn't want to stay outside that long either.

So, why not spend part of your day reading the latest edition of the Tuesday Timeline? July 16 was a rather interesting date throughout history...and as you'll see in today's entry, the day isn't always linked to a happy moment.

For now, let's take a look at today's celebrity birthdays.

Happy birthday to Bess Myerson, Irwin Rose, Jimmy Johnson, Pierre Koffmann, Stewart Copeland, Jerry Doyle, Michael Flatley, Doug Herzog, Phoebe Cates, Claude Lemieux, Will Ferrell, Larry Sanger, Corey Feldman, Ed Kowalczyk (Live), Graham Robertson, Jamie Oliver, Jayma Mays, Nathan Rogers, and AnnaLynne McCord.

And, here are some of the incidents that happened on July 16 throughout history...

1661 – The first banknotes in Europe are issued by Stockholms Banco, a Swedish bank

1790 – The District of Columbia is established as the capital of the United States after signature of the Residence Act

1887 – Famed (and shamed) baseball legend Shoeless Joe Jackson is born in South Carolina

1907 – Popcorn king Orville Redenbacher is born in Brazil, Indiana, and actress Barbara Stanwyck is born in Brooklyn, New York

1935 – The world's first parking meter is installed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

1941 – Joe DiMaggio hits safely for 56 consecutive games, setting a record in Major League Baseball that as of 2013 remains

1942 – The mass arrest of over thirteen thousand people of Jewish descent is ordered by the government of Vichy, France

1945 – The United States successfully detonates a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon in New Mexico

1950 – American POW's were massacred by North Korean soldiers in the Chaplain-Medic massacre

1951 – J.D. Salinger's “The Catcher in the Rye” is first published

1965 – The Mont Blanc tunnel connecting France with Italy is opened

1969 – Apollo 11 is launched from Kennedy Space Center – will land on moon's surface just four days later

1979 – Saddam Hussein becomes President of Iraq

1981 - “Cat's In The Cradle” singer Harry Chapin is killed in a car accident at just 38 years old

1994 – Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collides with Jupiter

2003 – Cuban singer Celia Cruz passes away at the age of 77

2004 – Chicago's Millennium Park is opened to the public

2012 – Country singer Kitty Wells dies in Madison, Tennessee at the age of 92

That's quite a lot of history to digest, I know. A lot happened on July 16, didn't it?

Well, there was one incident that I remember very well that happened on July 16...and it was one incident that made quite a lot of people very sad. Especially those who knew of a supposed curse that struck a particular family that was heavily involved in American politics.



Perhaps the biggest tragedy of the events of July 16, 1999 wasn't the fact that the world lost three people in a plane crash. I don't even think that the biggest tragedy was the fact that one of the people who died was one of the most talked-about people in the world of politics and pop culture. I think the tragedy is that this person's death at just thirty-eight years of age prevented us from knowing just how much life he still had left to live.



This is the story of John F. Kennedy Jr. A man who was born into one of the most influential American families of the 20th century, and a man who along with his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette died on July 16, 1999 after their plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the shores of Martha's Vineyard.

It was just one of those events where you knew exactly where you were when it happened, like when the Challenger exploded, or when the Berlin Wall was torn down, or when Princess Diana was killed, or when 9/11 happened. In my case, I remember John F. Kennedy Jr.'s plane crash very well. I had just turned eighteen two months earlier, and it was the transition year between grade twelve and OAC. It was all over the news and entertainment channels. We had heard all the details.



We knew all about how John F. Kennedy Jr. was set to fly down to Martha's Vineyard to witness the wedding of Kennedy's cousin Rory, and rather than take a commercial jet, John would charter a Piper Saratoga light aircraft himself. John had just received his pilot's license a little more than a year earlier in April 1998.



What John, Carolyn, and Lauren did not know at the time was that very decision would be the one that would cost them their lives. And, the truth of the matter is that there were several factors in play that lead up to the July 16, 1999 crash.

For one, the weather conditions on that night were reported to not be the greatest. Hazy skies reduced visibility, making it difficult to see anything within a certain distance.

For another, John F. Kennedy Jr. only had accumulated a little over three hundred hours of flight time (of which only about a quarter of which was done during the night). And, seventy-two hours of that flight time were done without a certified flight instructor present.

And there were also minor factors as well that could have contributed to the crash. Six weeks prior to the crash, John had fractured his left ankle in a paragliding accident, and had to walk with a cane until the day before the accident, which could have affected his ability to use the controls fully. The flight departed later than what was scheduled. The plane was supposed to depart from the airport at six o'clock, but it left two and a half hours late, when the sun had already set. Even the radio frequencies that John F. Kennedy Jr. had set were programmed incorrectly, although it still isn't known if that was a factor in the events leading up to the crash.

Whatever the case, it was a tragic end to a man's life. A man who grew up experiencing heartache from his early childhood. A man who spent his youth earning a reputation of being a player in the Hollywood scene. A man who by the end of his life had settled down and was looking forward to a future that would not come to be.

John F. Kennedy Jr. was born on November 25, 1960 – the only surviving son of John F. Kennedy – the 35th President of the United States of America – and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. He was the youngest of their two children (sister Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg was born in 1957). He also had a younger brother, Patrick, who sadly passed away two days after his birth in August 1963.

It wouldn't be the first death that young “John-John” would experience that year. Of course everyone knows of the day when John lost his father, assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. Three days later, on John F. Kennedy's third birthday, John's father was buried, which lead to one of the most iconic photographs ever taken within the 20th century.



John F. Kennedy Jr. grew up in the Upper East Side of Manhattan and graduated from Brown University in 1983. From there, he spent some time at the University of Delhi, worked on a few of the Kennedy special interest projects (Reaching Up, The East Harlem School at Exodus House), and worked for the New York City Office of Business Development for two years. He also dabbled in a little bit of acting work, and he had hopes of making it a full-time career. But his mother didn't approve of that profession at all. Still, his presence in the world of pop culture earned him the title of People's Sexiest Man of 1988, and he was linked romantically (in some cases allegedly) to several high-profile women including Daryl Hannah, Madonna, and Cindy Crawford.



Ultimately, John F. Kennedy Jr. chose the career path of lawyer, earning his J.D. from the New York University School of Law in 1989. But, it wouldn't be until the summer of 1990 before he would earn the right to become a lawyer in New York state (he failed the bar exam twice). For the next four years, he would serve as a prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney's office before starting up his own political magazine, “George” in 1995.



Right around that time, John F. Kennedy had met Calvin Klein publicist Carolyn Bessette, and the love connection between the two was almost instantaneous. The couple was one of the most well-known in all of New York, and their September 21, 1996 wedding was the press event of the year (even though the actual ceremony itself was performed in secret to prevent the paparazzi from gaining access to the event).

But reports of trouble in the marriage began to surface right around the time of the fatal plane crash that would take their lives and the life of Carolyn's sister, Lauren. It was reported that John F. Kennedy Jr. had spent the last three days of his life away from his wife prior to the plane crash. Model Michael Bergin (who had dated Bessette prior to her marriage to JFK Jr.) revealed in his 2004 memoir that he and Carolyn were still seeing each other even after she had gotten married. And, with the added stress of “George” beginning to plummet in sales, it must have been a very stressful situation for both. Nobody knew whether the couple would eventually weather the storm, stay together, and start up a family of their own. The question of whether John F. Kennedy Jr. would have followed in his father's footsteps and pursued a career in politics would remain unanswered.



The only thing that we did know was that John F. Kennedy was killed in a plane crash on July 16, 1999. And, it was a loss that the surviving members of the Kennedy family would feel for many years to come. In particular, it must have been tough on Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, who became the lone surviving member of her whole family after the death of her brother (mother Jacqueline died in May 1994). It must have been rough on Rory, who should have been celebrating her wedding day...instead she would be mourning the loss of her cousin. And, for those of us outside of the Kennedy clan, many were shaking their heads in sorrow and remarking that the so-called “Kennedy curse” had struck again. But for people in the New York area, the whole city mourned the loss, leaving flowers and sympathy cards outside his former place of residence...wondering what could have been.




And, that's what happened on July 16, 1999.

Monday, July 15, 2013

An American Tail

I am so very happy to bring you this Monday Matinee, because the topic for today happens to be one of my all-time favourite animated movies. I love this movie so very much, and I will be the first one to sing its praises, and talk about how wonderful a story it was, and how deep the characterizations were, and how catchy the songs were. I refuse to say a bad thing about this movie.

And, if anyone else happens to tell me different, I will fight you to the death. And I will win. Always.

(Well, okay, I'm joking about fighting you to the death. I would never do anything like that. But I am very passionate about this movie, and am actually very surprised that it took me this long to talk about it.)

You see, the film is a movie that some would consider to be very...American. The word “American” even appears as one of the words in the title. There are historic American landmarks featured, the main storyline involves immigration to America, and I'm almost positive that the vast majority of the voice actors in the film were American-born.

So, you would think that I would post this entry on or around the fourth of July, right?

Well, normally that would be the case. But over the three 4th of July's that have passed since I began this blogging venture in May 2011, I always had other topics planned.

July 4, 2011 – Monday Matinee – INDEPENDENCE DAY
July 4, 2012 – Wednesday Gift Shop – FIREWORKS
July 4, 2013 – Thursday Diary – THE RACISM CONTROVERSY IN BIG BROTHER

So, I thought that since I had a Canadian movie planned for Canada Day week, I would give my American readers a Monday Matinee feature as well.

Before I get into discussing today's film, I want to tell you the reason why I fell in love with the movie in the first place.

For some reason, I want to say that I saw this movie when I was in kindergarten, but I could have been in grade one, given the date that the VHS version was released. I never got the chance to see this movie at the movie theatre. The film was released in November 1986, which was part of the period that my town was without a movie theatre (the Capitol had closed earlier in the year, I believe, and the Parkedale Cinemas – now closed as well – weren't built until 1987 or 1988...can't remember when now), so seeing in on the big screen was out of the question.

But when I was in elementary school, I have a vivid memory of watching this movie in one of my classes. Again, I don't know whether it was kindergarten or grade one, but the videocassette was released in 1987, which was the year I transitioned between kindergarten and first grade. At least my timeline is fairly accurate in that regard.

Now, keep in mind that at the time I watched this film, I was just six years old. The reason I loved the movie back then was because of the music, the visuals, the funny looking animated characters, and of course, the brave little mouse who was the star of the whole show.

It wasn't until I was a little older and had studied a little bit of history in my junior high and high school years that this movie began to make a lot of sense. The whole film depicted the struggles and triumphs of European and Asian immigrants arriving at Ellis Island in New York City to become full-fledged American citizens. After all, back in the late 1800s, America was widely considered to be the land of opportunities. Dreams came true in America. And, I suppose that in 2013, this feeling still holds true.

And circa 1885, one of the countries that saw a lot of its citizens desiring a better life in America was Russia.

Many families of Jewish origin fled to the United States due to feelings of growing anti-Jewish pogroms in Russia during the late 19th century. Riots were triggered, people were murdered, and entire settlements were wiped off the map. So, hearing about all of the tales of how America was the land of the free, and the streets were paved with gold, and how everyone was treated better in America, many families of Jewish-Russian origin decided to head over there for better opportunities...only to discover that the same prejudices that they faces in Russia were also present in the United States of America...at least in some areas of the country, they were.

Still, it was a chance that many immigrants took, and for many of them, it ended up being the right decision.

It was certainly the right decision for one family, whose village was completely destroyed by an army of Russian Cossacks. Their hopes and dreams of living a better life in the promised land known as America were about to come true...but then tragedy happens. When the youngest member of the family goes missing from the ferry and is presumed drowned, how will the family cope with the loss? And when the family member that is lost at sea miraculously survives and comes face to face with the grim reality of what America really has to offer, can he not only avoid danger, but reunite with his long-lost family?



That's the situation that Fievel Mousekewitz will be forced to confront in the movie “An American Tail”, a joint production by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment and Don Bluth's Sullivan Bluth Studios that hit theatres on November 21, 1986.

It was a movie that did extremely well at the box office. It earned over $84 million, making it the highest grossing animated feature film of all time that WASN'T produced by Disney. Mind you, that record was broken in 1988 by another Bluth production, “The Land Before Time”, which in turn was broken one year later by Disney's “The Little Mermaid”.

The movie also helped this song reach the #2 position on the charts.



That would be Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram performing “Somewhere Out There”, which was a huge hit for both of them in early 1987. And, it was a song that was also performed in the film between Fievel and his sister Tanya when both of them end up separated from each other in their journey to America.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself here.

The film is set in 1885, and the film begins as the Mousekewitz family is forced to flee their village after it is destroyed by an army of Cossacks and their cats.

(Oh yeah...that's one thing I forgot to mention. The Jewish-Russian families immigrating to America are represented by mice...which explains the cats being a major representation of evil...which explains songs such as the one below.)



Yes, there are no cats in America and the streets are paved with cheese. That was the dream that the Mousekewitz family held onto in hopes of having a better life. There was Papa (Nehemiah Persoff), Mama (Erica Yohn), Tanya (Amy Green), and little Fievel (Philip Glasser). And, had everything gone according to plan, the Mousekewitz family would have gotten to America without any problem.

TRIVIA:  Fievel is actually named after Steven Spielberg's maternal grandfather.

But then Fievel gets separated from his family, and ends up falling off the boat transporting them from Russia to America. Papa and Mama are devastated, and they think that Fievel is gone forever. Tanya is also upset, but for a different reason. She feels that Fievel is still alive, but whenever she tries to explain to her family her feelings, they brush them off – too grief-stricken to even entertain the possibility.



Hence the inclusion of “Somewhere Out There” in the movie.  And, I dare you to get through this musical number without your eyes tearing up.  I can't.



It turns out that Tanya had reason to still hold onto hope. Fievel not only survived his ordeal, but with help from a friendly French pigeon named Henri (Christopher Plummer) – who ironically enough is helping with the creation of a very important monument – Fievel arrives in America basically unharmed.

(TRIVIA: If you want to know what monument Henri was working on, take this into consideration. The monument was a gift to the United States from France, and it was completed in October 1886. That will give you enough information for you to find out what this monument is. It certainly has become a symbol for immigration, especially in modern times.)

Of course, once Fievel arrives in America, he discovers that the dreams and happy thoughts of there being no cats there was all an old wives tale. There are definitely cats, and lots of them. And, many of them want to do harm to them all.



Well, maybe all of them except the big orange cat who goes by the name of Tiger and is voiced by Dom DeLuise. But wait...I've said too much.



To make matters worse, Fievel crosses paths with Warren T. Rat (John P. Finnegan), a cruel, vicious, unsympathetic character who forces Fievel to work in a sweatshop. Luckily, with help from Tony (Pat Musick), a street-smart Italian born mouse, they manage to escape. On their journey, they team up with an Irish activist mouse named Bridget (Cathianne Blore), who becomes Tony's girlfriend.

As the movie progresses, Fievel, Bridget, and Tony bear witness to cats destroying a marketplace run by mice, and we later learn that the gang of cats go by the “Mott Street Maulers”. Little do the trio of mice know that the leader of the gang is someone that Fievel knows very well...and that the leader is someone who has been keeping a very big secret of their own.

Fievel also meets a mouse politician named Honest John (Neil Ross), a reliable enough man, who happens to have a little addiction to alcohol – not like that would ever stop anyone from getting elected into public office. Nevertheless, Honest John truly does live up to his name, and when Fievel asks him to see if he can help him reunite with his family, he does what he can to find out some information. Unfortunately, due to the Mousekwitz family not registering to vote, Honest John doesn't have that information.

But that meeting allows Fievel and his new friends to cross paths with the wealthy Gussie Mausheimer (Madeleine Kahn), who uses her wealth to gather up all of the mice to launch a protest against the cats in a real, good, old-fashioned mouse wowie!!!



Ahem...actually, I mean mouse RALLY. She just pronounces it like wowie.

But, wowie, what a rally it is. Not only is Gussie planning on standing up to the cats, but she also wants to implicate Warren T. Rat for failing to live up to his promise to protect the mice from the cats, even though they pay him for that very service. It's extortion, and she doesn't like it.

So, what happens when FIEVEL of all mice comes up with a plan to overthrow the cat population using the stories that his Papa told him? It ends up being the whole climax of the film in which danger is faced, secrets are revealed, and one fluffy orange cat named Tiger has a change of heart.

What you have at the very end is a movie with a fantastic story – one that is taken from the pages of history itself. Again, I can't say anything bad about this movie. Not only is it a movie with great heart and warmth...but I still get taken back to watching this movie in school, just staring at the whole thing, my eyes fixated on Fievel's quest to find his entire family and the fight against the army of cats who keep them down.

Seriously, go out and see this film if you haven't already. It's fantastic.