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Monday, September 09, 2013

The Truman Show

Everybody seems to have an opinion on reality television. Some people (like myself) are absolutely fascinated by it, while others curse the day that programs like “Survivor”, “Celebrity Apprentice”, and “American Idol” ever graced our screens.

I'll be the first one to admit that I am somewhat easily entertained. If something looks promising enough, I'll watch it. It's undoubtedly how I ended up getting addicted to so many reality television programs in the first place. My love of food got me glued to “Masterchef” and “Hell's Kitchen”. My dreams of touring around the world could be somewhat achieved by watching a season of “The Amazing Race”. And, heck...I suppose that in some aspects watching an episode of “Jersey Shore” can make almost anyone feel like a more intelligent and well-rounded person compared to the likes of people named Snooki, J-Wow, and The Situation.

(I mean, seriously...what the hell kind of name is “The Situation” anyways?)

Of course one of the biggest arguments that I have heard over the whole premise of reality television is that it's not real. Well, of course it's not real. I don't think that people who end up stranded on a deserted island will have a team of cameramen following them around as they play schoolyard games and vote each other off of the tribe. In reality, you'd likely see something more of a “Lord of the Flies” scenario where once civilized men and women turn into savages and kill off each other until the last person is left standing.

(Or, so I've heard, anyway.)

After the shows stop taping, and after the winner receives their prize money, and the confetti and balloons are swept up, life goes on as normal. For the contestants of “The Biggest Loser”, they have to go back home with their newer, leaner, muscular bodies and face the very temptations that they had to endure their whole lives which lead to them being on the show in the first place. In “Survivor”, the winners invest their million dollar prizes or spend it (or in the case of Richard Hatch, they don't pay the taxes and spent several years behind bars), and when the money runs out, they go on “Survivor” again to repeat their success. And, I'm really interested in being a fly on the wall when “Big Brother 15” contestants Spencer Clawson, Aaryn Gries, GinaMarie Zimmerman, and Amanda Zuckerman leave the house and face the fact that their professional lives will never quite be the same again following their racist commentary while on the show.

But ultimately, as is the case with every reality television show, they all wrap up, and most everyone who appears on one will inevitably return to their old lives and are never heard from again.

Well, unless your name happens to be Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Bethenny Frankel, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, or Ryan Seacrest, that is.

But here's an interesting thing about today's Monday Matinee feature. The movie that we're going to be featuring in this space for today happens to be centered around a fictional reality television series. And, what is interesting about the film is that it was released just before the reality television explosion of the early 2000s took place.

Remember when I said that in the case of all reality shows, they last a total of around thirteen weeks, and then production wraps up? Well, what happens if you happen to be the subject of a reality television program that has aired your entire life and you've never known it?



That's the premise behind “The Truman Show”, which was released on June 5, 1998. The movie boasted a who's who of Hollywood A-list stars including Jim Carrey, Ed Harris, Laura Linney, Natascha McElhone, and Noah Emmerich, and it made a total of over $264 million at the box office. It remains one of the best movies of 1998, and I actually have a personal story in regards to this movie.



When I was in the twelfth grade, one of our assignments was to write a film review for our English class. The film had to be a fairly recent film that had just been released on video (DVD's were kind of a luxury item back in those days), and I had heard some good reviews on “The Truman Show”, so I decided to throw caution to the wind and decided to choose that film to do my review on.

Looking back on it, there's a part of me that still wishes that I had that essay that I wrote fifteen years ago. I could have referenced it throughout this whole blog entry. But one thing that I pride myself on is the ability to recall things that happened to me years (or decades ago), so I'm hoping that I can remember what I wrote about the movie.

As I explained before, “The Truman Show” is all about a fictional reality series that has followed the life of one man as he grows into adulthood. The only catch is that the star of the show has absolutely no idea that he is even in a show in the first place.



The television show was created by a man named Christof (Harris), and for thirty years, he has documented the life of a young man named Truman Burbank (Carrey), who by many aspects has been living the perfect life. He has a loving, caring wife whom he adores in Meryl (Linney), he has neighbours who are friendly, and every day seems to be perfect in every single way.

With good reason too. You see, Truman's entire hometown of Seahaven is an elaborate soundstage where every building is a set and where every single person (including Truman's friends and family members) is an actor, paid to keep up the charade for the show.

The whole world of Seahaven is completely controlled by Christof and his production team. They control the weather. They control the situations that Truman faces. Truman's whole life story was a complete fabrication. Although he was always brought up to believe that he was raised in a loving home with people who adored him, in reality he was given up for adoption thirty years earlier, and Christof adopted him as the star of the show.

And certainly for the world outside of Seahaven, “The Truman Show” quickly became one of the most watched television shows all over the world. At the time that this movie was set in, the show was celebrating its thirtieth season on the air (which is longer than every sitcom and some daytime dramas), and millions of people tuned in loyally for thirty years to watch Truman live his life.

Only...he wasn't exactly living his life. He was actually kind of similar to being a hamster on one of those spinning wheels in a cage, where he was only there for other people to watch his amusement. In Truman's eyes, his life was quite idyllic, but the reality was that he was a prisoner of a production company and his life only solely existed for other people's pleasure. It's not exactly the greatest way to live, and poor Truman was kept in the dark for thirty years.

And naturally, the producers would do everything in their power to keep Truman enclosed inside their little bubble. They even went so far as to killing off his father (which they didn't really do, they staged it with an actor) in a shipwreck which fueled Truman's fear of water, as well as purposely infusing Truman's television set with commercials and television shows that convinced Truman that venturing out into the world was dangerous and that he should stay in Seahaven where he could be safe.

Wow...there's a special place in hell for people like Christof...

But as the program airs episode number 10,909, Truman starts to discover that things are not as they seem. He notices theatrical lights mixed in with the stars from the constellations in the sky. He notices that the rain only falls on him and not anywhere else. His car radio happens to pick up conversations that the crew members were having behind the scenes. And, he is ever so confused by the fact that his wife seems to be the living embodiment of the home shopping network, with the way she talks about all of her purchases ad nauseum.



(Yes, even Truman's wife is part of the payroll, earning a hefty sum of money every time she hosts a built in commercial for one of the show's sponsors. She even gets a bonus every time she sleeps with Truman – which kind of makes her somewhat of a Hollywood hooker. Just saying.)



Of course, one extra who grew disgusted with her role on the show is Sylvia (McElhone), who plays the part of Lauren Garland, a friend of Truman's from college. She grows concerned about Truman, and the feelings between her and Truman seem to be genuine. She falls in love with Truman, and knowing that his whole life has been a lie, she feels she owes it to him to reveal the whole truth. So naturally, when she poses a threat to the show, Christof fires her from the show, and she is removed from the set so as not to pose a threat towards the perfect union between Meryl (the woman chosen by producers to be Truman's wife) and Truman. But don't think for a minute that Sylvia is going to back down without a fight. Still caring deeply for Truman, she launches a protest group aiming to shut down “The Truman Show” once and for all so that Truman can finally have a shot at life on his own terms.

Truman starts to question everything in his entire life, wondering if there's more out there for him to see. His “family” and his best friend Louis Coltrane (Emmerich) – all of whom are actors – try to convince Truman that everything is fine just the way it is. But Truman's constant worrying about how the world seems to revolve around him cause him to seek answers wherever he can.

The stress of Truman finally discovering the truth about himself proved to be too much for Meryl, and when Truman starts treating her horribly and questions everything she ever told him, Meryl quits the show. To fill in the void left by Meryl's departure, the producers make the decision to bring back Truman's father from the dead, which causes Truman to question everything even more. He isolates himself from the community, and begins to live the next few days hiding in the basement, depressed about how his life has turned out, unable to trust anyone.

But then he discovers a hidden exit out of the basement, which takes him to places that he could only ever dream of going. And when the production team realizes that he has potentially found a way out, they go all out to try and stop him from venturing out into the world...even if they use his fear of water against him, and even if it means killing off their character!

So what happens? Does “The Truman Show” end with a burial at sea, or does it end with Truman finally getting a taste of the real world?

Well, I'm certainly not going to spoil it all. You'll just have to watch it for yourselves. My personal ending would have Truman escaping, marrying Sylvia, and launching a humongous lawsuit against the producers and network that aired “The Truman Show” for essentially controlling his first thirty years of life. I would think that Truman would have had quite a case, wouldn't you?

Anyway, I'm almost out of time here, so I'll conclude this blog entry off with some Truman trivia!



01 – In preparation for her role, Laura Linney studied old Sears catalogues from the 1950s to get into the “Stepford Wife” frame of mind. It worked. She was easily my least favourite character in the whole movie. Not as hated as Christof, mind you, but she wasn't someone I enjoyed watching.

02 – Dennis Hopper was initially cast as Christof – but when he quit the movie on the very first day, Ed Harris was drafted in instead.

03 – The actors on the set were absolutely forbidden to utter past lines from Carrey's past movies while on the set, as “The Truman Show” was really one of Jim Carrey's first forays into a dramatic film. So, no “Alright then”'s to be heard!

04 – The motto of Seahaven's town center is written in Latin, but translated, it means “one for all, all for one”. Kind of befits “The Truman Show”, doesn't it?

05 – David Cronenberg turned down the opportunity to direct the film. The honour instead went to Peter Weir.

06 – Screenwriter Andrew Niccol reportedly had the first draft for the movie typed up in 1991, and it was initially meant to be a science-fiction movie.



07 – Jim Carrey's “Trumania” scene where he draws on the mirror with soap was completely improvised.

08 – Apparently Truman could have figured out that his life was just a show, as the street signs were named after famous Hollywood stars and starlets.

09 – The town of Seaside, Florida served as the location shot for Seahaven.


10 – Annabella Sciorra was once considered for the part of Meryl Burbank.

Sunday, September 08, 2013

Scritti Politti's Perfect Way

How many of you love a classic one-hit-wonder song? I know I enjoy them. In fact, I enjoy them so much that I'm going to use the remaining blog entries in September to feature a group or a singer that could be loosely defined as a one-hit-wonder artist. Oh, sure, they may have released several singles over a period of ten years, and there may have been a couple of chart-toppers in Paraguay, Bolivia, or Botswana that nobody in North America has ever heard of. But for the sake of argument, let's just say that these one-hit-wonders will be artists who have only had one Top 40 hit on the Billboard Charts.

One-hit-wonders are often funny things. One day, you'll hear a song that propels itself all the way to number one on the charts, and it stays there for what appears to be weeks on end, but then after several years, you come to realize that it was their only hit, and you can't help but wonder whatever happened to them along the way.

Some of them became successful in other careers, while others just faded away. I think that could be one of the reasons why I am a fan of one-hit-wonders. Finding out whatever happened to the artists who sang the song and seeing how well they've done since.

One decade that seemed to have a slew of one-hit-wonders was the decade in which I was born. The 1980s seemed to bring us a lot of one-hit-wonders. Right off the top of my head, I can name off Michael Sembello, Nu Shooz, Information Society, Sly Fox, Baltimora, Kajagoogoo, and Mary Jane Girls as having some of the most memorable one-hit-wonders of that decade.

But for today's entry, I'll be featuring a group that came out of the UK which actually couldn't be considered a one-hit-wonder group in their native land. Several of their singles charted, and charted somewhat decently. In fact, it might even be considered a stretch to call them a one-hit-wonder band here in North America, as they had a Top 10 hit on the Dance Charts with a song that had a rather unusual name. Then again, I suppose you can't miss a song entitled “Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin)” on the charts, can you? And that's not even the song we're going to spotlight today!

Instead, we're going to feature the song below...the only song this band had to reach the Top 20 on the Billboard Charts in mid-1985.



ARTIST: Scritti Politti
SONG: Perfect Way
ALBUM: Cupid & Psyche 85
DATE RELEASED: June 10, 1985
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #11

And here's a funny bit of trivia in regards to this Scritti Politti hit. Believe it or not, it was one of the few releases they had which did better in the United States than the United Kingdom (it only peaked at #48 there).

So, Scritti Politti wasn't “truly” a one-hit-wonder...but shortly after releasing “Perfect Way” in 1985, the band seemed to do a vanishing act, never to be heard from again here in North America.



Whatever happened to Scritti Politti?

(And, for that matter, what does Scritti Politti even mean?)

For the answers to both, I do believe we should have a look at the band's history, as well as the number of releases they had as a band (which was surprisingly a lot more than I believed). We'll also take a look at what has happened to Scritti Politti since, as well as what they've been up to as of September 2013.

The band “Scritti Politti” was founded in the mid-1970s, and the only consistent member of the band to stay through all of its various incarnations is that of lead singer Paul Julian Strohmeyer. But you might recognize him better by his stage name of Green Gartside.



You might be wondering what inspired the colourful name change. Well, the Gartside part came from his mother remarrying a man who had the last name of Gartside, so naturally, Gartside kind of rolled off the tongue a little bit easier than Strohmeyer. But the Green part was inspired by a train trip that Gartside was on to the country of Wales. Whenever he looked out the windows of the train on the journey, all he could see was the green landscape of the open meadows and fields. And somehow he was inspired to name himself after the colour he saw so much of on his way to Wales.

Of course, naming yourself after a colour is nothing new. It did work for Simply Red, P!nk, and The Blue Man Group.

Anyway. Our story begins sometime circa 1976. At that time, Green Gartside had just entered his twenties and was studying fine art at Leeds College of Art and Design when he caught a performance by the Sex Pistols on the night of December 6, 1976. The performance awakened something in Gartside, and he felt inspired to start up his own band with a couple of his childhood friends.

Teaming up with Nial Jinks, Matthew Kay, and Tom Morley, Gartside began the first incarnation of the band which would come to be known as Scritti Politti. The original name of the band was “The Against”, and originally they started off as a punk band. By 1977, the band had relocated to London's Camden Town after graduation and they also made the name change to Scritti Politti, which in actuality was a misspelling of an Italian phrase meaning “Political Writings”. The actual translation is supposed to be “Scritti Politici”, but Gartside elected to drop the “C” and add another “T” to make the name stand out more as a rock and roll name. The name was also chosen to pay homage to Italian Marxist writer Antonio Gramsci.

And to call Scritti Politti a band who did things by the book when it came to releasing a record, well, you'd be wrong. In London's punk scene circa the late 1970s, the trend of DIY records (or “do it yourself” records) were all the rage. Especially for punk musicians who were tired of getting turned down by big named record companies. So, in 1978, Scritti Politti's first single was released as a DIY record under the title “Skank Bloc Bologna”.

(Okay, seriously...where the heck did Scritti Politti get their song titles from?)



Skank Bloc Bologna” was never really considered a worldwide success. I couldn't even tell you if it even made it into North America because I've never even heard the song. But over in the UK, the song did receive some airplay on John Peel's BBC One Radio show, which actually helped Scritti Politti sign a record deal with Rough Trade Records. The band also secured a gig touring around with the bands Gang of Four and Joy Division (the latter would come to be renamed New Order following the May 18, 1980 suicide of founding member Ian Curtis).

However, it was during this tour in which Greer Gartside realized that he had a problem...a big problem that likely thwarted their success in North America. While he was on stage performing at a gig in 1979, Gartside experienced trouble breathing and had chest pains. He thought that he was having a heart attack, but what really happened was that he had a panic attack brought upon by stage fright. Gartside's stage fright prevented him from touring and promoting the band's records and in hindsight, it was a double edged sword. Because Gartside was extremely nervous on stage, it became increasingly difficult for the band to put themselves out there.

And yet at the same time, while Gartside was in recovery from the incident, he was inspired to change the sound of the band. While he was in recovery, he listened to a lot of music that was coming out of R&B sound in New York City circa the early 1980s, and as it so happened, the decision to incorporate some of those elements into Scritti Politti's new songs turned out to be a good one.

In January of 1981, Scritti Politti recorded a demo of the song “The Sweetest Girl”, and when it was officially released as a single later that year, the song earned rave reviews. Even “The New York Times” ranked the single as one of the ten best singles of the year. Funny thing is that for a song to be ranked as one of the best, it certainly didn't chart very well. It peaked at #64 on the UK charts, and didn't place on the Billboard Charts at all. But I suppose that not everything that is critically acclaimed is considered to be popular. Though, in defense of Scritti Politti, it took almost an entire year for the song to be released globally, in which case, the song never really had much of a chance to make a real imprint on the charts. Here, I'll post a link to the song below...let you have a chance to hear it.



Luckily in the United Kingdom, the band managed to have some success with their debut album, 1982's “Songs to Remember”. The album sold very well in the United Kingdom, and Scritti Politti soon found themselves in high demand in their native land. Greer Gartside even had the opportunity to record a duet with Annie Lennox, which would later appear on the Eurythmics' “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” album.

But in the United States...their claim to fame wouldn't come until the year 1985. The same year that “Perfect Way” was released.



And, you know what? I think if I were to compile a list of my favourite Top 25 songs of the 1980s, “Perfect Way” would easily make the Top 10...maybe even Top 5! From the very beginning of the song to the end, its use of synthesizers combined with a funky beat and Gartside's whimsical vocals made it stand out against all of the other similar sounding bands.

Certainly the music video got a lot of airtime on MTV. The song was played on many Top 40 stations straight through 1985 and 1986. It remains a top requested song on many 1980s themed radio stations, and for a brief moment in the sun, Scritti Politti had notoriety and fame in America.

Unfortunately, in America, fame could sometimes be fleeting for musical artists who aren't American born. And certainly that was the case for Scritti Politti.

But, darn it if they didn't try. If you've ever seen the Madonna movie “Who's That Girl” (which I'm guessing isn't many of you), Scritti Politti contributed the song “Best Thing Ever” on the soundtrack. It's hard to miss, given that Madonna occupies half the album, but give it a listen. It's not a bad little tune.

And, Scritti Politti still had some steam left inside of them circa 1988, when they released the album “Provision”. In the United Kingdom, the album did extremely well, peaking at #4 on the UK album charts. In the United States, it peaked at #113. Ouch. But after downloading a few of the songs from “Provision” onto my iPod, I have to say that the album should have done a lot better. And it's not as if the songs didn't chart in the United States. The one below did...even though it only peaked at #53.



Scritti Politti would continue to release albums well into the 1990s and 2000s, and although the albums themselves were creative and critically well-received, fans weren't as interested in the albums as they once had been, and seemingly, Scritti Politti faded into obscurity.



But as long as Green Gartside is alive, the Scritti Politti name will live on. And when he's not recording music for himself, he's helping other artists by writing songs and dueting with them on their own projects. He co-wrote a couple of songs for Kylie Minogue, produced songs for Chaka Khan, and has even worked with Elvis Costello.


And perhaps the best part about Green Gartside's contributions to music is that he is no longer interested in having a #1 hit, or making albums just because a record company tells him to. He would rather make music at his own leisure because he genuinely enjoys it.

Now isn't that a “Perfect Way” to live?

Saturday, September 07, 2013

Jenga

I always love it when I do a blog entry on a toy from my childhood. Whenever I reminisce about a toy from my past, I am instantly taken back to a time period in which the only worry I ever had was deciding on whether I wanted Cocoa Puffs, Lucky Charms, or Frosted Flakes for breakfast.

Sigh. If only we could go back in time to the days in which life was so much simpler.

Now, I've told you all before, but a lot of my toys growing up were secondhand toys. Part of the reason for this was because of the fact that my family didn't have a whole lot of disposable income to spend on luxuries, and they became the masters of stretching a dollar. Believe me, I appreciated it in the long run, because it has made me appreciate what I do have in this world, and it certainly didn't make me a very materialistic person. I know how to shop on a budget and don't need to have luxury things to make me happy.

(Of course, if the opportunity did come around where I did have the chance to enjoy the life of luxury, I would take it. I'd probably be very uncomfortable with it all, but I would take the opportunity. After all, we all deserve to treat ourselves once in a while, right?)

Okay, what was I talking about? Oh yeah. Secondhand toys.

I grew up playing with toys that were older than I was, which was okay. A lot of those classic Fisher-Price playsets kept me entertained for hours, and I think that I played with my sister's Weeble treehouse millions of times as I was growing up. Why wouldn't I? They were still fantastic toys.

Of course, as a child I couldn't help but get mesmerized by the television ads that used to air during Saturday Morning Cartoons. You know the ones I mean, don't you? The ones that advertised the latest toys and games that kids had to have! I gotta say, those toys were tempting, and I know that I have to admit that I was somewhat disappointed – and a slight bit jealous – to see some of my classmates bringing in some of these toys in for show and tell, when I didn't have the toys myself.

You know something though? I always found ways around all that. If I couldn't afford the toys myself, I would find ways to enjoy them on a budget. For video games, I would rent them from the local video store. The elementary school classrooms always had toys on hand in case we were stuck inside on a rainy day for recess. And, you know those kids who wander through the toy department in stores pushing the buttons on every toy to listen to them talk or play music? Yep. I used to be one of those kids.

It almost seems like some sort of karmic retribution that I now work inches away from a toy department and get incredibly annoyed by kids who wander through the department to play with all of the toys there. But, you know what? I would be a hypocrite if I said anything to them because I used to do the same thing.

And of course there was always Christmas, in which Santa would always bring all of us kids one big gift. I often wondered how Santa Claus managed to be able to always surprise all of us with presents. I didn't exactly consider myself to be the most behaved child in the world, and was always surprised at how generous he was. And as I grew older, I still have to admit how Christmas was always executed so well, considering how things really were like. But you know, all of those memories were generated by love and warmth. Nothing could be better than that.

So, I present to you one of these special memories, courtesy of Christmas 1987.

That was the year that I seem to recall getting dozens of presents from a variety of relatives, and even a couple of family friends. Mostly I received new clothes, but there were a few books, toys, and games to unwrap underneath the tree that year.

And today's blog subject happens to be all about the gift that I loved the most that year.

When I was younger, I was always big on toys which allowed me to be able to build things. I certainly was a little mini-architect back in those days. It's a wonder that I didn't pursue architecture as a career choice with the number of Lego buildings and wood block sculptures that I created as a child.

Or, perhaps maybe I should have taken on a career in demolitions, as I often would be the best at knocking down the buildings that I just spent hours creating.



So, needless to say, when I grabbed a present under the tree and beneath the red and green paper was the game “Jenga”, I was so excited!

Yes, we are going to be talking about the board game Jenga in the blog today. It was the one present that I wanted more than anything in the world that Christmas, and it was the one gift that I practically begged my parents to buy for me that Christmas. I think I must have written Santa Claus two dozen letters asking him for various toys – Jenga being top priority.

Of course I would play Jenga the way that Jenga was meant to be played. You build up a tower, and then you try to take pieces out from the bottom and stick them on top, building the tower higher and higher without making the tower collapse. The person who made the tower collapse lost the game. It was a game that required far more skill than people realized. You really had to have a steady hand and a calm demeanor to make sure that your piece did not knock down the leaning tower of Jenga. It was a game that sounded easy, but was actually quite challenging. And anyone who knows me knows that I enjoy a challenge when it comes to playing games.

Of course, there were other uses for Jenga that I came up with when building a simple skyscraper got to be boring. Jenga blocks could be built into a pyramid if you were creative enough. I was really into the Ewoks and Droids cartoons when I was a kid, and I used Jenga blocks to build Ewok huts! I even had a Fisher-Price school house play set in which I had lost the furniture that went with it, and I used Jenga blocks to build tables and chairs! Believe me, Jenga blocks were that versatile – if you had a vivid imagination as I did as a child.

Now here's a question for you. Do you know how Jenga was created, or even where the name Jenga came from?



Well, apparently in Swahili, Jenga is loosely translated as meaning “to build”. Makes sense, given that the whole idea of Jenga was all about building. Jenga was created by a woman named Leslie Scott, who co-founded Oxford Games. Scott was born and raised in East Africa, where she learned to speak both English and Swahili. And, the inspiration behind Jenga was based on a game that she grew up playing with her family in the early 1970s using children's wooden building blocks that were purchased from a sawmill located in Ghana.

It was a game that provided Scott's family so much joy that Leslie Scott believed that she had a game idea that other children would enjoy as much as she did. It took her a few years to get everything together, but Jenga was first exhibited at the 1983 London Toy Fair, selling the game through her own production company – Leslie Scott Associates.

TRIVIA: Did you know that the first sets of Jenga were manufactured by the Campbell Village Trust in Botton, Yorkshire? And that the V&A Museum of Childhood exhibited one of the original Jenga sets from thirty years ago?

So, the toy garnered some interest at the 1983 London Toy Fair, but it wouldn't be until the following year when Jenga really exploded in popularity. In 1984, a California entrepreneur talked to Scott about importing and distributing the game throughout Canada and the United States, and by 1985, Jenga began appearing on toy shelves all over North America.

It is estimated that since Jenga's introduction to the world in 1983, Jenga has sold upwards of fifty million sets! That's an equivalent to more than 2.7 billion Jenga blocks!

TRIVIA: Now did you know what the unofficial record was for tallest Jenga tower ever built before the whole thing collapsed? According to the packaging copy of one edition of Jenga, the tallest tower was built by Robert Grebler, reaching a height of forty and one-half levels. The tallest I think I ever built one was twenty-six. So, that's pretty impressive.



And, did you also know that there have been several different versions of Jenga made? There's “Throw N' Go Jenga”, in which players would throw a coloured die and have to remove blocks based on what colour the die showed. There's “Truth or Dare Jenga”, in which you'd have to share a juicy secret or perform a silly stunt based on the colour of brick you remove. And, there's even a Jenga XXL version, which had life-size pieces for players to build a life-size tower!

Come to think of it, I kind of want one of those life-size Jenga sets!

And to conclude this story off...a lot of my board games that I owned as a child are now long gone...but I still have my original Jenga set from 1987. Anytime you want a Jenga challenge...come find me.

Friday, September 06, 2013

Good Morning, Miss Bliss

I've decided to keep the school theme going on for this week. I guess part of the reason why I'm happy to talk about school is because there's a part of me that actually misses the idea of going back to school. In fact, I miss being out of school so much that I want to make plans to go back to college to improve myself. It's too late to apply for school this year, but there's always the February semester. It's something I should have done a long time ago, and now that I have some funds saved up, I could potentially make the jump back into campus life sometime in 2014.

Why am I telling all of you this? Well, now that I have it written in print, there is no excuse now for me to make the decision. The last thing I want is for all of the readers of this blog to log on next year to call me a liar!

I guess it's true what someone said to me. I have been procrastinating for far too long now, and if I don't do something about it, I face a future in which I work retail the rest of my life. And that is something that I really don't want to do.

Obviously, I will have more to say about this in the near future. My ultimate goal after going through school is A) to pass all my courses, and B) have the best possible chance to get a job within my field. So, needless to say, I will not be wasting my money on classes that will not help me achieve my goals. I need to make some positive changes in my professional life, which will hopefully allow me to make some positive changes in my personal life as well. And, I'm thinking that I have to do this for myself. I always lived my life for other people. I need to start living it for myself.

Okay, so anyway. Today's blog topic is all about school! And today, we're going to be taking a look at a program in which the main setting was a school.

And here's the funny part about this particular show. The pilot of the show debuted a little over a year before the rest of the series aired. And this particular series only lated one season, but was the inspiration behind another series which lasted twelve years!



The television serial was meant to be a starring vehicle for former Disney sweetheart Hayley Mills. I'm sure that most of you who were old enough to remember watching her as a budding young child actress will recall that she could have been considered one of Disney's real-life princesses. No, she didn't appear at Disneyland greeting people at the entrance dressed as Cinderella, Snow White, or Sleeping Beauty. But she did appear in a series of films, which included 1960s “Pollyanna”, 1961's “The Parent Trap”, and 1965's “That Darn Cat”. Hayley Mills stayed with Disney for a six-year-contract, and also dabbled in a little bit of a music career when she recorded the single below, which peaked at #8 on the Billboard charts.
Hayley Mills' popularity at the peak of her career was so great that she was once voted Britain's Most Popular Film Actress in 1962 – when Mills was just sixteen years old.

TRIVIA: Did you know that Hayley Mills was actually considered to play the title role in Stanley Kubrick's 1962 film “Lolita”. Needless to say, Disney put their foot down and made their opinion clear. They did not want Mills to take the role as they felt that it would not be up to their wholesome image.

(Because we've all seen how well Lindsay Lohan and Miley Cyrus have done since leaving Disney, haven't we?)

But you know something, to the credit of Hayley Mills, she never descended down that same path. Sure, she took a bit of a break from acting in the mid-1970s, but experienced a bit of a renaissance period in the early 1980s when she took on a starring role in the 1981 UK mini-series “The Flame Trees of Thika”, and that spawned a renewed interest in Mills, who by this time was in her mid-thirties. She relocated to America and subsequently landed some guest spots on the television series “The Love Boat”, as well as renewing her contract with Disney and filming three more sequels to “The Parent Trap”.

And, then there was the one time in which she was offered a starring role in her very own sitcom, which would see Hayley Mills take on the role of a school teacher as well as the struggles that come with trying to balance her home life from her professional life. Often at times, she found herself trying to maintain her sanity because her co-workers could be flaky and her students would challenge her in more ways than one. Still, she was great at her job, and when I was watching the series, I always wanted to have a teacher just like her.

I wanted to be one of those kids in the classroom saying “Good Morning, Miss Bliss”.



Wow. What a coincidence. That happens to be the name of today's show that we're putting in today's spotlight.

Here's the thing about “Good Morning, Miss Bliss”. The show didn't last too long on the airwaves. In fact, many people will claim that only thirteen episodes of the show exist.

But did you know that there was actually a secret fourteenth episode? And that this fourteenth episode served as the official pilot of the show which aired over a full year before the rest of the series started to air?

I guess I should explain this a little further. Hayley Mills was offered the series by NBC as then head of programming Brandon Tartikoff had the idea to create a television series about a teacher who inspired her students to not only learn about math and history, but a little bit about themselves as well. The pilot aired on July 11, 1987 in the time slot normally occupied by “The Facts of Life”. And if you watch the video below, you can watch a portion of it as it aired the summer of 1987.



Now, there's some interesting things to note about this pilot. For one, you could tell that a lot of effort was put into the show. The sets were quite elaborately done, and it appeared as though a lot of effort was put into filming the pilot show. If you look at Miss Bliss' class, you might recognize some familiar faces. Jaleel White from “Family Matters”, Brian Austin Green from “Beverly Hills 90210”, and Jonathan Brandis from “seaQuest DSV” all had roles in the pilot. And did you happen to catch the name of the school principal? Gerald Belding? Hmmm...Belding. I KNOW I've heard that name before.

Anyway, despite a heartwarming story about the newlywed Miss Bliss helping a student cope with the fact that his older brother was dying (as well as proving to us all that there once was a time in which teachers could hug their students and not face charges), the pilot was not picked up for the 1987/1988 season on NBC, and the project sat idle for almost an entire year.



That is until The Disney Channel feigned interest in the show. After contacting series producer and creator Sam Bobrick and convincing Hayley Mills to stick with the project, “Good Morning, Miss Bliss” was brought back from the television pilot graveyard, with thirteen new episodes being filmed – the first of which aired on November 30, 1988.

As far as similarities went, there weren't many. The show still took place at an Indiana school, and Miss Bliss was still a very good teacher. However, there were several differences.

The show changed the setting from an elementary school to a junior high school. Miss Bliss taught eighth grade instead of sixth grade. Miss Bliss had one of the shortest marriages in history as the new show had her new husband killed off, making her a widow! The role of Miss Paladrino, which was originally played by Maria O'Brien was now played by Joan Ryan. T.K. Carter, who was best known for his role as Punky Brewster's teacher was added to the cast as Mylo. And while Mr. Belding did make the transition to the new version, he was recast by Dennis Haskins and renamed Principal Richard Belding.

(I know you see where this is going here, but just bear with me.)

And, of course, with the show sitting idle for so long, it was nearly impossible to recreate the original class that was featured in the pilot as many of those child actors moved on to other projects. As a result, five child actors were added to the cast as part of Miss Bliss' class. The five students were, in alphabetical order...



Nikki Coleman (Heather Hopper) – A tomboyish character who never backed down on any stance...even if it meant freeing all of the frogs in the biology lab to take a stand against animal dissection.

Mikey Gonzalez (Max Battimo) – An all-around good student who usually performs well under pressure. However, he has a tendency to get into trouble when he gets caught up in the schemes of his friends.

Zack Morris (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) – The class clown of Miss Bliss' class, he is notorious for putting forth the least amount of effort in his class assignments, and putting forth the most effort on money-making schemes which usually end up failing miserably.

Samuel “Screech” Powers (Dustin Diamond) – The biggest nerd in Miss Bliss' class, and perhaps the entire school. He is also perhaps the most honest student, and is considered to be the best student academically in Miss Bliss' class.

Lisa Turtle (Lark Voorhies) – Obsessed with fashion and cosmetics, Lisa is the dream girl of any boy in the school. Just a shame that the one who has the most affection towards her happens to be Screech.

Hmmm...Zack, Screech, and Lisa. Interesting.

As the show's thirteen episode run progressed, the message of the show became very clear. Miss Bliss is the only sane adult in the entire school. She is the closest confidante to her peers – even letting Miss Paladrino move into her home after her boyfriend kicks her out. And as far as her students go, she probably taught them more lessons outside of the classroom than within.

Would you like some examples? I'm sure you do.

When Zack alienated the rest of his friends by joining a ninth grade club, Miss Bliss ended up showing him the value of true friendship. And although Zack had to swallow a huge slice of humble pie when the club duped him, he took Miss Bliss' words to heart and got his friends back.

Miss Bliss is also there to support Nikki when she objects to the idea of dissecting frogs in biology class. But when Nikki goes too far and sets the frogs free, Miss Bliss is forced to show her a little tough love.

And when Miss Bliss learns that the man that she is dating happens to be the father of one of her students, she is especially conflicted – especially when that students acts out more than usual in silent protest. She is forced to make a decision and worries that the wrong one could cause some irreparable damage.

However, one thing you couldn't deny was the fact that Miss Bliss was a wonderful teacher. Her students loved and respected her. In fact, in one episode, they respected her so much that when they discovered that Miss Bliss was nominated for the “Teacher of the Year” award, they arranged for the judging panel to come in to witness Miss Bliss teach in action in hopes that it will improve her chances. And, you know, I thought that was great. For an entire class of students to pull together to help their teacher get the recognition she deserved...that was wonderful to see. I think too often, the really great teachers in the world get overlooked because the teachers who are not quite as good have louder voices and make outlandish demands, so it was a really good episode to watch.

You know what? I like this episode so much, I'm posting a link to the show right HERE. Seriously, of all the episodes of “Good Morning, Miss Bliss”, this was my favourite.

Unfortunately, the last episode of “Good Morning, Miss Bliss” aired in March 1989, and it appeared as though the project had failed.



But then Brandon Tartikoff had a change of heart about the project after seeing the episodes airing on The Disney Channel, and he arranged to buy the rights to the show through NBC. Collaborating with executive producer Peter Engel, the show was revamped and retooled to create the new series “Saved by the Bell”, which debuted on August 20, 1989, and ultimately ran until January 8, 2000 (taking into account the College Years and New Class spinoffs).

Unfortunately, not all of the characters from “Good Morning, Miss Bliss” made it to “Saved by the Bell”. Yes, Zack, Screech, Lisa, and Mr. Belding were a part of the new show. But Hayley Mills was let go, and Miss Bliss disappeared from the canvas, as Peter Engel wanted the action to focus more on the students, rather than the faculty.

Now, to me, this was a mistake. I mean, yeah...Mr. Belding became an institution at Bayside High, but there was no reason why Miss Bliss couldn't have been. Miss Bliss could have had as much a place at Bayside High as Miss Simpson, Ms. Wentworth, Mr. Dewey, or Mr. Tuttle. It was a missed opportunity that the show never took. But then again, it's not as if Hayley Mills struggled for work after “Good Morning, Miss Bliss”. She recently wrapped up a five-year-role as Caroline in the British television series “Wild at Heart”, which she played from 2007-2012.


Still, it would have been nice for Miss Bliss to give Slater advice on how to balance his skills in baking with his wrestling moves. It would have been cool to have Miss Bliss inform Jessie that getting a “B” was not the end of the world. And, wouldn't you have just died of laughter if Miss Bliss asked Tori where her two identical-looking sisters were?

Well, okay...I suppose you'd have to watch Parent Trap III to get the hidden humour behind that last statement.

Thursday, September 05, 2013

Lessons Learned - and Lessons I'd Like To Forget

I don't know what it is about September now that I am an adult, but there's a part of me that kind of feels strange not getting ready to head off to school. I know it's been several years since I've set foot inside of an educational institution, but there's a part of me that misses it.

Well...the learning aspect of it, that is. Not the social aspect. That part I could do without.

And, well...since I'm talking about learning, I thought that I would use this Thursday Diary to talk about learning. Talking about the lessons that I wished that schools taught us, as well as lessons that upon retrospect were absolutely useless to me.

And, well...for today's entry, I'll be using multiple font colours. Just think of me using one of those four-colour pens that you frequently see. You know, the ones with red, blue, green, and black ink? You'll see what I mean as you read on.

September 5, 2013

This is the very first diary entry that I am doing for the month of September, and I am very pleased with the subject that I am writing about.

I'm still trying to decide on what the future of this blog is going to be over the next few months. I'm still wondering if I should keep the pop culture element in place permanently or whether I'm going to switch it up and make this blog a more personal project. But I'm sure that one day, I'll have my answer and that I will make the transition seamlessly.

Anyway, since we're in the month of September, I wanted to do a blog entry on my learning experiences with school and school work. Specifically on the lessons that I learned that ended up being meaningless in my own life, as well as the lessons that I do wish that they taught in school.

Don't get me wrong. For the most part when it came to school work, I absolutely enjoyed most aspects of it all. I was always someone who loved learning (hence the reason why I spend so much time doing research on this blog). For the most part, my teachers did a great job educating us on the basics from reading, writing, and arithmetic to the more expert lessons, which included history, the arts, and sciences.

Well, okay...I'm embellishing my learning capabilities in science class. I would imagine that the only way I was ever going to learn anything in science class was if Bill Nye was my teacher. And, unfortunately for me, he's signed up to be on “Dancing With The Stars” this upcoming season for me to get private tutoring from him.

Opportunity missed, I suppose.

Ah well. The truth is that I'll never become an emergency room doctor, find a cure for a potentially fatal disease or discover a brand new chemical alloy which will make home building projects more affordable. For someone like me, all of those science lessons I sat through weren't very helpful. Not that I am badmouthing science by any means. I'm actually jealous of people who understand science because there's a part of me that wishes I could.

At the same time though, that learning experience helped me realize that I make a much better writer anyway. I'm still trying to find out a way that I can profit from this craft, but I'm still on the optimistic side that it will eventually happen for me.

But you know something? Sometimes we're taught things in school that for whatever reason are absolutely useless. And, sometimes there are things that we are never taught in school that I wish we were.

So, I'm going to highlight lessons that I was taught but never use in red lettering, while the green lettering will be assigned to lessons that I never learned in high school, but wish they taught us.

Ready? Okay. Class in session.



LESSON FAIL: The Pythagorean Theorem

Okay, so the only jobs that I can see this theory on triangles being even remotely useful is either A) jobs in construction which require building a lot of triangles, or B) a deli counter where you're slicing egg salad sandwiches into perfect triangles. And I'll be really honest with you, even “B” seems a little ridiculous at that. To be perfectly honest, I've been out of high school for thirteen years, and I've completely forgotten how to even explain the Pythagorean Theorem. I guess it just goes to show you just exactly how much I use it in every day life, doesn't it? But I'm sure I'm not alone. Let's take a look at a mathematics lesson that I actually could have used a lesson in.



LESSON PLAN: How to understand basic banking

And, by basic banking, I'm not talking about those worksheets you used to do in second grade math class where you had to figure out how many pennies you needed to buy a popsicle from the ice cream man. For starters, those worksheets were printed off from a textbook written in 1969 and I'm pretty sure that popsicles no longer cost twenty-seven cents.

No, I mean lessons on which savings plans to invest your money in. How to decipher interest rates. How to find the best mortgage on a home. How long it will take to pay back a student loan depending on the amount of interest that is tacked on. I know that life would have been made so much easier had we been taught these things in high school. I mean, it was fairly sad that I was in the supposed advanced class in high school for mathematics for my first two years of school, and yet we learned none of those things. Yet, we had the Pythagorean Theorem shoved down our throats. Go figure.



LESSON FAIL: Any gym class I ever took

You know what? I earned every single C-minus grade in gym class. I know it sounds like a really bizarre thing to admit to, but I was always the kid who always put out the most effort in gym class, but was never rewarded for it. It didn't matter that I worked out so hard in every gym class to the point where the shirt I was wearing actually changed colour because of the fact that I was sweating so much. The majority of my gym class teachers only chose to mark us on how well we could throw a ball, or how athletic we were. I'll be the first one to admit that I am not athletically gifted, but I would have appreciated the fact that they at least noticed how hard I was trying to hone my athleticism – or lack thereof. If anything, those gym classes made me hate physical activity even more because it seemed as though unless you had the skills to become the next Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson, or Wayne Gretzky, you were not worth their time.



LESSON PLAN: Incorporating health lessons into gym class plans

Would you like to know the one year in which I did NOT get a C-minus in gym class? Well, it happened to be in grade nine, where we took classes in health related topics for three periods in three week blocks. We learned all about nutrition, we learned about the circulatory system...and if memory serves me, we also did sex education (something that the schools started teaching in the fourth grade). And, you know what? I took those lessons seriously...a lot more seriously than my classmates. And it was because of that, I ended up getting a grade that was higher than some of the super-jocks who bragged about their athletic contributions in high school. That was very cool. Mind you, it was the ONLY time I scored a B+ in gym class, as the following year I had a teacher who only graded on athletic ability, which lead to me giving up gym class altogether.

But you know something? I think I got more out of the health lessons than I did from actually playing sports. I just wish that back when I was in school, they cared more about that stuff than trying to find the star player of the basketball team so that they could finally defeat the championship team after a seven-year-drought.



LESSON FAIL: Sitting in class while the teacher read us a book

I mean, don't get me wrong. In elementary school, whenever we had spare time before we would leave to go to the French classroom, or to the music room, I really loved story time. Sitting on the carpeted area of the classroom listening to the teacher read us the latest Robert Munsch story was a real bonding experience. Although it only lasted a few minutes, at that point in time, we all got along.

That all changed when we were in the upper grades. You see, right around this time, we all had ample time to be able to pick up a novel and read them ourselves. Some kids struggled, while others excelled. But one thing that I didn't really agree with was the fact that the teachers would often assign us a book to study (be it Winnie-The-Pooh, or Superfudge), and then proceed to read us the book instead of letting us read it ourselves. I mean, granted, I realize that budget cuts made it impossible for every child to have a book, but I always felt it was a missed opportunity for us to improve our reading skills. If you've ever questioned why standardized literacy tests are on the lower end, I wouldn't be surprised if that was the reason why.

Though, one thing I will say about my elementary school was the fact that we had a program called “Reading Buddies”, in which older kids would go downstairs to the primary school classes and read them stories. It worked out really well. I read them a story of my choosing, and then they would read me a book of their choice. It was an ingenious way for us older kids to give back to the school by helping the younger kids improve their reading skills. I often wonder if the program still exists. I hope it does. Otherwise, it may just as well be added to the list of missed opportunities.



LESSON PLAN: Grammar

Okay, so everyone has endured a spelling test before. I know I went through several myself. Not to brag, but when I was in the sixth grade, I received a perfect score on nearly every single test. In fact, I actually challenged the teacher once in sixth grade for giving me a score of 99/100 because while she claimed I spelled a word wrong, I really didn't. I just chose the wrong homonym, and wrote something like further instead of farther. I argued that I still spelled it correctly, but she wasn't budging.

Whatever. I still had 99%.

Now, here's the million dollar question. How many of you ever had a “grammar dictation”. Not many of you, I bet. I'm the kind of guy who believes that the ability to read and write is so important and I am definitely an advocate in making sure that everybody has the ability to read and write. And, as far as I am concerned that includes grammar.

I get that spelling is important (unless you have the distinction of being born in the Twitter generation where brevity is the soul of meaningful conversation – apparently). But grammar is just as important as far as I am concerned. I actually have to admit that I chuckle at those people who post those your/you're posts.  Not that I'm a Grammar Nazi or anything like that.

What isn't a laughing matter is the fact that schools simply never taught the importance of grammar. I know this because my school didn't begin teaching us grammar until...get this...EIGHTH GRADE. All the kids in my class thought it was the most boring subject to learn about. I, on the other hand, was grateful for the experience. Mind you, a lot of the concepts of grammar I learned on my own, but there were some instances in which I would often find myself questioning whether or not what I wanted to say was written correctly. Those lessons on grammar were absolutely beneficial to me. I feel that they helped me become a better writer and a better communicator. It saddens me that so little emphasis is spent on teaching grammar.

As for punctuation...well, I won't boast. Punctuation still trips me up.


So, that's just a partial list. What are some lessons that you wish you were taught in school? And which lessons would you like to forget?