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Friday, September 13, 2013

MasterChef America

I was having a bit of a hard time coming up with a topic for today's blog. Today's Friday, and I really wanted to do a topic that featured some aspect of teaching. As we're in the month of September and schools are now back in session, I struggled to come up with a suitable topic.

That, plus the fact that I'm on a bit of a time crunch today and only have a total of three and a half hours to type out this entire entry. So, I suppose in a way, I'm challenging myself and teaching myself to become a better writer by working under pressure.

Hmmm...working under pressure. That sounds like an interesting idea to go on.

But which show features everyday, ordinary people working under pressure to create extraordinary things?

Oh, wait. I know of just a show. In fact, the season finale of the fourth season of this program aired just a couple of days ago on September 11, 2013.



Come to think of it, this past season of MasterChef was quite entertaining to watch, and very unpredictable. Well, at least it was to me anyway. You know how some people believe that reality television is scripted.

But for some reason, I've always loved watching MasterChef. The concept of the show is absolute genius. The end goal of each season of the series is the same. You have hundreds of amateur chefs coming on the show to compete for a spot on the show by cooking a signature dish for three judges in the food industry in hopes of impressing them.

You wouldn't think that a cooking competition would get people watching, but from the very first season of the American series (the show originated in the United Kingdom as far back as 1990), I was hooked. As someone who appreciates good food (but admittedly have zero skills in the kitchen), I have to say that anybody who even makes it onto the show at all has my absolute respect.



The three judges who taste every single dish are also highly respected people in the culinary world. I would say that Gordon Ramsay, Graham Elliot, and Joe Bastianich have decades of experience between the three of them. Heck, Joe Bastianich is the son of Lidia Bastianich, a real master chef herself! If anyone knows good food, it's the BRE-Team (Bastianich/Ramsay/Elliot).

So, anyway, the finale of the show pitted Natasha Crnjac against Luca Manfe in an epic battle to see who would become the true MasterChef. The competition was fierce with Luca and Natasha having to battle against seventeen other people for the title. They cooked a variety of dishes using langoustine, king crab, pork, turkey, beef, pigeon (yes, pigeon), and a plethora of vegetarian dishes and desserts in hopes of impressing the judges. They made some mistakes along the way, and at some point in the competition, both faced the chopping block at least twice.

But in the end, the victor reigned supreme.



Congratulations, Luca! A well earned victory indeed.



So, to celebrate Luca's win, I thought that I would do a feature on MasterChef. (Well, the American version at least. I have heard from many fans of the show that the British version is much better than the American one, but I've never seen the British version.)

Now, as mentioned before, MasterChef originated in the United Kingdom in 1990, but over the last twenty-three years, it has exploded in popularity and is now broadcast in several different countries including Australia, China, Croatia, Greece, India, Italy, Spain, and Vietnam. And beginning in 2014, Canada will join the list of countries that will have their very own MasterChef competition. Very excited to hear of that news!

Now, most people know of the version of the show that has aired on FOX since July 2010. Many don't realize that MasterChef first aired in the United States on PBS between 2000 and 2001! I know I certainly didn't!

Anyway, with the FOX version of the show, we have now had four people that have been granted the title of MasterChef. They are...

2010 – Whitney Miller
2011 – Jennifer Behm
2012 – Christine Ha
2013 – Luka Manfe

And what do the winners of the competition win? Plenty. They win the title of MasterChef for the year, which comes with a beautiful trophy. They get the opportunity to publish their own cookbook, which for most amateur chefs is a dream come true! Just have a look at last year's winner's book below.



Nice, huh?

Oh, yeah. There's also a quarter of a million dollar cash prize at the end of the journey. Why, that's enough to keep your pantry, fridge and freezers stocked up for several years!

Now, one thing that I find interesting about MasterChef is that the show really puts contestants through every possible challenge in order for the judges to determine who has what it takes to become the next MasterChef. And the way they do this is through team challenges, mystery box challenges, and pressure tests.



Team challenges are always fun to watch. They take the contestants and divide them up into teams where they will be put into some rather unusual situations. Sometimes they will have to be placed in a kitchen of a high-end restaurant in an exercise in quality control. Sometimes they'll have to plan a lunch menu for junior high school students. Sometimes, they'll even have to open up a food truck in the middle of the beach and cook fish tacos and hamburgers for a large group of people. The teams that end up doing the best will win and be safe for the pressure test.



Similarly, the show features mystery box challenges, in which contestants won't know what ingredients they have to work with until they remove the lid of the box. Usually, each of the boxes will have some sort of theme to it. Some boxes will have ingredients that seemingly don't blend well together but they will have to find a way to make it work. Some mystery box challenges will have ingredients that are a delicacy in foreign countries, but are virtually unheard of in America. And, in one memorable mystery box challenge, the children of the judges actually chose the mystery box ingredients! And to add to the pressure, the chefs would only have between 45 and 90 minutes to make their dish stand out. On mystery box challenges, the judges will choose their favourite three dishes, and the winner of the challenge will have a hand in planning the pressure test, which if the player is smart will use the opportunity to take out their biggest competition.

Now, what is this pressure test that I keep talking about?



Well, the pressure test really puts contestants under pressure. If they fail the test, they get eliminated from the competition! And believe me when I say that the pressure tests are nowhere near easy. It's bad enough that the chefs have to prepare such complicated dishes such as souffle, meringue pie, and lobster bisque, but to do it in what seems like an impossible time limit on top of that? No wonder they call it a pressure test!

Some handle the pressure really well. Others buckle under pressure. But the pressure tests definitely do what they were meant to do. They weed out the competition and they leave the strongest chefs standing.

So, now that you know how the game is played, let's take a look at some of the more memorable moments of the whole series, shall we?

On Season 2, there were lots of people on the show who shall we say...had some rather boastful attitudes. Suzy and Max in particular knew that both of them were the best in the competition and they were not afraid to let anyone know it either.

(Too bad neither one won the competition to back up their claims.)

But then there was Christian, a stay-at-home dad. And his ego was something special. So special that he didn't hesitate to go head to head with the very judges who had the power to keep him in the competition! Not the smartest move. Have a look at some of Christian's “greatest hits”.



For what it's worth, I thought that Christian was going to go far in the competition, and for what it's worth, I initially went into MasterChef season two rooting for Christian to win. Unfortunately, his attitude kind of turned me off to him, and when he was eliminated, I was kind of relieved. That said, I do hope Christian is doing well.

If anything, after seeing the way that Krissi acted on the last season of MasterChef with her bullying tactics and immaturity, next to her Christian was quite tame!

On the flipside, on the same season Christian was on, you had Ben Starr, who didn't quite make it to the finals, but who had the depth, the passion, and most of all the humility to become a true MasterChef. Just have a look at the pumpkin carrot cake he prepared for a pressure test challenge.


Okay, I don't even like pumpkin and I want to try that cake! It just looked phenomenal!

Another success story is that of Season 3 winner Christine Ha. She dominated the competition throughout her whole season, very rarely making it in the bottom two. She lead her team to victory on a couple of occasions, and she prepared some of the most brilliant dishes in the history of the competition.

And she did it all with very little sight.

Yes, Christine is legally blind, which at the beginning of the competition had her other competitors believing that because of this she was not a major threat. But boy did Christine prove them wrong. But one of the most beautiful things about Christine's story was the self-growth she did herself. She entered the competition doubting her abilities and thinking that she couldn't compete with the others.

That is, until she made the apple pie that changed her entire outlook. Have a look.



I STILL get goosebumps watching that moment. In that moment, I believe that a true MasterChef was born, and it was in the moment that Christine really began to show everyone that she did have what it took to become a MasterChef. Good show, Christine!

One of my favourite parts of the show is the audition process. The auditions are some of the most entertaining parts of the whole show. Just have a look at this montage of contestants who didn't quite make it onto the show.




But just because a person doesn't make it onto the show the first time around, it doesn't mean that they are out of the running down the road. After all, Luca was turned down for season three, and he won season four!  And, to conclude this entry off, let's watch some of the more successful auditions!


Thursday, September 12, 2013

Twenty-Five Secrets

I have to admit that of all things, a tabloid magazine inspired this Thursday Diary entry...but not in the way that you all might think. Confused? Read on.

September 12, 2013

Did you know that while I don't consider myself to be one of those “hoarders” that you see on television, I do consider myself to be somewhat of a pack rat?

It's absolutely true.

As of right now, my living space is such that it looks presentable, but it also looks lived in. And, I'm okay with that. I always felt really uncomfortable in places that were obscenely clean. You know what I mean, right? The ones where the floor is so shiny you could eat off of it, and the ones where you didn't dare eat on the furniture because you would get scolded for even leaving behind one crumb.

At my place, if you want to eat on my sofa, you go right ahead. If you want to read a magazine on my floor, I have no problem with that. And if you want to smear spaghetti sauce all over my walls and floors, you're more than welcome to.

Just remember. YOU'RE cleaning the sauce up. Not me.

I guess the point that I'm making is that I don't mind if people wear their shoes inside my living space because I'm far from being a perfect housekeeper. To prove it, I was just going through my closet the other day and I came across a pile of things from my hospital stay in February 2011 still locked away inside!

(For those of you who weren't aware, or for those of you who have just discovered this blog, I had to have emergency surgery two and a half years ago to remove a seriously infected gall bladder.)

But seriously, I found a lot of things in my closet that kept me entertained while I was recovering from surgery. There were a few books that people brought me to read. I have a half-completed word search and puzzle book that I worked on while I was healing from my surgery. And, for some unknown reason, I still have the hospital bracelet that I wore during my entire stay there.

As I said before, I am considered to be a slight pack rat.



One other thing that I found mixed in with the goodies that entertained me during my recovery was a whole bundle of magazines. And when I say magazines, I mean those really trashy ones like the National Enquirer, Star, and The Examiner which feature celebrities that seemingly cause one scandal after another. I'm not one to normally go out and buy these kinds of magazines, but since I had family members and friends who wanted my stay to be as comfortable as possible, I read them...and re-read them...and re-read them some more.

Yeah...if you spend sixteen days in a hospital, you really do get that bored.

But you know what? Whether the stories in those tabloids are absolutely true or completely false...that's not for me to say. But I have to admit that reading the various articles in these magazines sometimes make me feel much better about my own life!

And besides, it's not as though celebrity gossip is the only thing of interest inside these magazines. They also have puzzles, horoscopes, and other fun puzzles and games mixed in amongst the gossip, the scandals, and the advertisements for Hydroxycut.

One of my favourite features in these types of magazines is when celebrities get interviewed by a representative of the magazine and they reveal all kinds of personal info and secrets. I think most of them come in a list of twenty-five mini-confessions and admissions. I have to admit, the pop culture addict in me loves reading all about the secrets and little known facts about celebrities. Some facts didn't seem surprising at all, but others were kind of an eye-opener.

So you know what I thought I would do? If celebrities can be interviewed and asked about the twenty-five things that nobody else knows, why can't I do the same?

So, in this Thursday Diary entry...whether you want to know them or not...I thought that I would reveal twenty-five things about myself that you may or may not know about me. I think it would be a cool way for all of you reading this to get to know me a bit better. And if some of you are brave enough, I thought that maybe some of you could do the same.

(Only I think that 25 facts would be too much. I'll happily accept only one or two!)

Okay, so on with the list.



01 – I have a slight allergy to strawberries. I can handle artificially flavoured strawberry things (which are disgusting, by the way), but real strawberries cause me to break out in hives. It isn't a fatal allergy by any means, but it's uncomfortable enough for me not to ever want to eat a strawberry.

02 – I use a different coloured pen at work each and every day. If one were to look through the safety sweep log books any given time that I am on duty, you would see a rainbow of colours. The reason why I do this is to stand out and be different. And besides...black ink is so...monotonous.

03 – I played the baritone for my school band between sixth and ninth grades. But admittedly I was forced to give it up because my class schedule in tenth grade prevented me from sticking with it. Looking back on it, I wish I had stuck with it just a little bit longer.



04 – I once spent an entire day off watching old reruns of “Three's Company” on YouTube. Not exactly the most efficient way to spend a day off, but it was entertaining. Besides, it rained all day that day. What else was there to do?

05 – My first date was in the eighth grade. I took a girl to the eighth grade graduation dance. Never saw her again after that.

06 – Hmmm...maybe number five explains the absolute hate I have for Valentine's Day. Though the fact that I had my gall bladder removed two days before that day could account for it (though in defense, I did get a blood transfusion that Valentine's Day, so at least I got something red!)



07 – I have a comic book collection that totals well over 3,000 books.



08 – The most embarrassing song I have downloaded on my iPod is the song “Under the Sea” from “The Little Mermaid”. The reason I have it downloaded is because it takes me back to the time in which some friends and I were driving down Bank Street in Ottawa with this song blasting from the car radio! Sigh...you had to be there.



09 – My very first celebrity crush was on Alyssa Milano. And to be honest with you, I still find her unbelievably attractive.



10 – The first time I ever used a computer, I was four years old. I seem to recall going to some sort of computer camp where I designed my own banner. They even took my picture which appeared in the newspaper...but my grandmother was the only one who had a copy, and since she died twenty-two years ago, I have no idea where she would have kept it.

11 – I still save all of the Christmas cards I have ever received (pack-rat, I know).



12 – My dream vacation is to go to Australia. I hope that one day I will be able to make it happen.

13 – I learned how to read before I learned how to talk. I didn't learn how to talk until just before my third birthday. My parents were concerned that I was hard of hearing, or that I had some sort of developmental disorder, but in reality, I was just stubborn. On that note...

14 – My horoscope sign is Taurus. But had I been born three days later, I would have become a Gemini.



15 – I was born on the one year anniversary of the day that Mount St. Helen's blew its top.



16 – My current drink obsession is surprisingly non-alcoholic. I'm really into water that is flavoured with “Dasani Drops”. I personally recommend the Cherry-Pomegranate and Pink Lemonade flavours.

17 – I was once hypnotized on stage and it was broadcast in a television special that aired later the same year.



18 – My current guilty pleasure artist? Admittedly, it's Selena Gomez. At least I didn't say Justin Bieber!



19 – I play in the Survivor pool at work regularly. Out of five attempts, I've only won once. Still, that is a 20% rating.



20 – My all-time favourite candy in the world are M&M's. Plain or peanut butter will do. I also have a small collection of M&M's memorabilia including a beach towel, a T-shirt, a wristwatch, a candy bowl, and a candy dispenser.

21 – Least favourite candy? Almond Joy, Mounds, Bounty, or any other candy with coconut inside of it. Blecch.

22 – I nearly failed grade eleven mathematics. Had it not been for a freak ice storm which grinded everything to a halt, I most definitely would have flunked.

23 – I hold the distinct achievement of actually setting a container of Jiffy Pop popcorn on fire!

24 – I did not learn how to swim until I was twenty-one due to a fear of drowning brought upon by nearly drowning in a swimming pool when I was a youngster. And even then, I am not comfortable in really deep water.



25 – I've never been on an airplane in my life. However, I've rode on more trains than I could count, in part because of the fact that when my dad worked for a railway, our family always got free train tickets. It was one of the perks of my father's job!

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Whatever Wednesday - The Rise and Fall of Badfinger

First things first, I wanted to take the opportunity to reflect on the events of September 11, 2001. If you are interested, I wrote a blog entry about that day on the tenth anniversary of the attacks, which you can read about by CLICKING HERE. I can't believe that it has been twelve years since that devastating day. So many people lost their lives, and thousands of families were never the same. But as the Freedom Tower at the new World Trade Center nears completion, it is a symbol that life does go on, and I think those who lived through that day are more stronger and resilient than ever before. We'll never be able to forget what happened, but we can become stronger people as a result of it.

And now, on with today's entry.

Wednesdays have always been a bane in the existence of this blog. I've changed the theme day for Wednesday a total of...oh...four times over the last two years. I don't know what it is about Wednesdays, but I can never keep the same topic up and running for long.

The most recent attempt at the Wednesday topic was All-Request Wednesdays, where I would ask you all to submit requests on topics that you would like to see. And for a few months, it went over very well. But as the request well dried up in recent weeks, I came to the conclusion that the feature was inevitably going to be short-lived.

So, I thought that I would use this space and leave it up to fate instead. Though, that's not to say that I won't accept any more requests. I will. I'll just incorporate it into one of the other theme days, is all.

What do I mean when I say that I'll leave it to fate? Well, I'm going to let the cards fall and decide what topic I choose.

It's a little something I like to call “Whatever Wednesday”. I've even designed a special logo for the event!



Colourful, no?

Okay, so what I'm going to do is simple. I'm going to grab six different coloured cards, and assign each one a different theme day. Every Tuesday night, I will select a coloured card from a bag, and whatever colour card I choose will represent the theme of the Whatever Wednesday entry that I work on this week.

Now, here's the kicker. Where am I going to find six different coloured cards on such short notice?



Oh, look...I happen to have a copy of the board game Clue by my side with six different coloured character cards! How's that for lucky?

Okay. Now that we have our six cards, let's assign a theme day to each of the characters.

MISS SCARLET – Sunday Jukebox
COLONEL MUSTARD – Monday Matinee
MRS. WHITE – Saturday Smorgasbord Wks. 3-5 (Cartoons, Comics, Books)
MR. GREEN – Saturday Smorgasbord Wks. 1-2 (Toys, Games, Video Games)
MRS. PEACOCK – Friday Night On Television
PROFESSOR PLUM – Thursday Diary

So, for instance, if I selected Professor Plum from the bag, I'd be doing a diary entry. If I choose Mr. Green, I would do a blog on cartoons or comic books, etc, etc.

Makes sense?

Okay, so let's kick off the inaugural edition of Whatever Wednesday by drawing a card at random out of the bag.



And, we have Miss Scarlet, meaning that we're going to be rummaging through our vinyl collections and music trivia books for today.

And, in some ways, I almost think that it was kismet because I really did want to do a music spotlight today after hearing a particular song playing on the radio just the other day. It was a song that I had heard time and time again, and one that I absolutely loved...but for whatever reason, I could not figure out who sang it. At first I thought that it was The Beatles during their “Let It Be” period, but I couldn't quite make out any of the Beatles' singing voices, so I suspected that I was incorrect.

And I was...partly.

Sure, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr had nothing to do with the composition of this song. George Harrison on the other hand? He produced the song...well, at least partially. See, he already had a prior engagement to produce the Concert for Bangladesh, so Todd Rundgren took over the unfinished product.

And this was the end result.



ARTIST: Badfinger
SONG: Day After Day
ALBUM: Straight Up
DATE RELEASED: November 10, 1971
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #4

I'll admit that this song always manages to make me smile. Granted, it's a song about a lonely man longing to see his true love again...but there's just a timeless quality about it that is sorely lacking in today's pop music. I would much rather listen to Badfinger non-stop than any Justin Bieber album. Of course, that's just my own personal preference.

Now here's the double edged sword. This Badfinger song was light, fluffy, and serene...which contrasted with the ultimate fate of the band. Truth of the matter is that the history of Badfinger is a tale filled with betrayal, hardships, and in the case of a couple of members, death at their own hands.



This is the story of the rise...and fall of Badfinger.

When the band first got together in 1961 in Swansea, Wales, they went through several band names (including “The Wild Ones” and “The Black Velvets” before settling on “The Iveys”. The group's original members were Peter William Ham, Ronald Llewellyn Griffiths, David Owen Jenkins, and Roy Anderson.

(Or, as they liked to be called, “Ham”, “Griffiths”, “Dai”, and...um...Roy.)

In 1965, the group added member Michael George Gibbins to the lineup, and soon after began to perform as the opening acts for several up and coming British groups which included “The Spencer Davis Group”, “The Yardbirds”, “The Moody Blues”, and “The Who”!

The group began touring around the London club circuits playing cover versions of a variety of musical genres. Top 40, psychadelic pop, R&B, Motown...nothing was off limits. I suppose that their versatility as a band worked to their advantage, as several record companies were interested in signing the band as a result. Ray Davies of The Kinks even helped the band produce some demo tracks to ship around to various record companies. Bill Collins signed on to be the band's manager in 1966, and throughout 1967, the band would perform occasional concerts. There was a minor shake-up in the band's line-up when Jenkins was asked to leave the group, but the split seemed amicable. Jenkins would be replaced by Thomas Evans Jr, completing the group line-up.

And then in 1968, the group received their big break, courtesy of Beatles' roadie and assistant Mal Young. Bill Collins invited him as well as Apple Records A&R rep Peter Asher to view one of their concerts, and almost immediately after the show, Young persistently asked all four members of the Beatles to listen to the band's demo tapes. It took some time, but all four Beatles eventually heard the demos and put their stamp of approval on signing the band.

The band signed to Apple Records on July 23, 1968 – making them the only non-Beatles act to be signed to the record label. But while their first few releases (under the name of The Iveys) did quite well in Japan and several European countries, the singles stalled in the United States and did even worse in their native UK. This was a common occurrence for the band, and soon the band began to get frustrated with executives at Apple Records, who kept rejecting the new songs that the band wrote. They gave interviews to the press explaining their disappointment, which Paul McCartney happened to read! But instead of getting angry about it, he offered the band a song. The song was called “Come and Get It”, meant for the soundtrack of “The Magic Christian”. The only stipulation was that the band had to perform the song exactly as McCartney had intended for it to be performed.

But shortly after the band recorded that song, as well as a couple of others, Griffiths would depart the band ten months after the birth of his first child, and reportedly his departure caused tension within the band as Griffiths later revealed in an interview that his decision to leave the band to spend more time with his family was met with hostility by Evans, who he claimed made Griffiths feel as if he was no longer a member of the band.



With the release of “Come and Get It”, there were two final changes. The band changed its name to “Badfinger”, which stemmed from an early working title (Bad-Finger Boogie) of the Beatles single “With A Little Help From My Friends”. And with the departure of Griffiths, the band hired Joseph Charles Molland to replace him.

Long story short, “Come and Get It” was released in late 1969, and it instantly reached #7 in the United States and #4 in the United Kingdom, and the single sold one million copies. Over the next few years, Badfinger would enjoy three more chart successes; “No Matter What”, “Baby Blue”, and the song which you heard earlier in the blog entry, “Day After Day”.

And in the case of Ham and Evans, they were even awarded a prestigious songwriting award in 1972 following the success of this song that Harry Nilsson (and later Mariah Carey) had on the charts.



So, how did the band unravel so quickly, with many of its members suffering tragic fates?



Well, many people have pointed the finger of blame at the gentleman up above...one Stan Polley. In 1970, Polley – then a New York City based businessman – signed Badfinger to a business management contract. Each member of the band signed a contract which dictated that all receipts of touring, recording, publishing, and songwriter performance royalties that automatically went into holding companies controlled by Polley himself.

I know what you're thinking. Giving control of everything you earn to one man and his business skills? Instant red flag. But the members of Badfinger trusted him, as Badfinger wasn't the only musical act he was dealing with at the time (Polley also managed Al Kooper of Blood, Sweat & Tears, and Lou Christie).

By 1972, the band's opinion of Stan Polley began to change, and they were getting somewhat suspicious of how he really was handling their money that was earned from album and single sales and concert tours (which given that the band's heyday was in 1972, should have amounted to a small fortune). Badfinger was doing very well, but Apple Records were sustaining hard times (brought upon by the fact that their biggest moneymaker, The Beatles, had broken up two years earlier), and Apple Records flat out told the band that when it came to signing a new contract, they wouldn't be as generous as they would be the first time around.



Nevertheless, the band's final album with Apple Records, 1972's “Ass” (yes, that was the name of the album) was released, despite the fact that there were problems in the production of the album (original producer Todd Rundgren quit the project after just one week due to a financial dispute). Unfortunately, the album did not do as well on the charts as their previous work.

Still, according to Polley, that didn't matter. While Badfinger was putting the finishing touches on their final album, Polley was working out a contract with Warner Brothers Records, which wanted the band to release a new album every six months over the next three years. Once the band's commitment to Apple Records ended, Polley presented the band with a new contract with Warner Brothers Records, detailing the two-album a year condition. The band was however warned by then vice president of Badfinger Enterprises Inc., (a company started by Polley) not to sign the contract. But the contract seemed too good to pass up. It was worth three million dollars, and the deal would provide the band with twelve per cent of all retail sales in the United States, and 8.5% of sales everywhere else in the world. In addition, the band would be presented with an advance of $225,000 for each album they delivered under the new contract. It was too irresistible to pass up.

But, like the iconic image of the jackass chasing after the dangling carrot on the cover of their 1972 “Ass” album, this contract would have the band chasing after a golden opportunity that never presented itself.



After touring the United States throughout late 1973 and early 1974, Badfinger returned to the studios to record the album “Wish You Were Here”, and it was released in October of 1974, which Rolling Stone magazine gave glowing reviews. The album could very well have been Badfinger's best effort yet.

But then it all fell apart.

It all began with tensions erupting within the band, as Molland's wife, Kathie, was becoming increasingly frustrated with the politics within the band, and her assertiveness rubbed Ham the wrong way. In fact, Ham became so annoyed with Kathie Molland that he up and quit the band during an executive meeting! He stayed away for three weeks before being convinced by Warner Brothers to return to the band, as they would have no further interest in promoting Badfinger without him. Ham returned to the band three weeks after he quit, but Molland himself would be out of the band by the end of the year.

But if the tensions within the band weren't bad enough, the behind the scenes action that went on between Polley and Warner Brothers Records.

In 1973, Warner Brothers began to get suspicious of Stan Polley due to the fact that Polley was not communicating with them at all in regards to an escrow account of advance funds. As it was written in the contract, Polley was to deposit a quarter of a million dollars into a mutually accessible account for safekeeping, which Polley did. But Polley neglected to let Warner Brothers know where the account could be accessed. The company sent him letters asking him to divulge the location of the account, but Polley refused to acknowledge them.

This was all done WITHOUT Badfinger's knowledge, by the way.

With Molland's departure from the band in December 1974, Polley pressed the band to give up touring the United States in support of the “Wish You Were Here” album to record the band's follow-up album, “Head First” at the Apple Recording Studios – while under contract with Warner Brothers! But when the band recorded tracks for the album and submitted them to Warner Brothers American offices, they were denied. Their publishing arm had already filed a lawsuit against Polley and Badfinger in the Los Angeles Superior Court in December 1974.

Polley's plan was to submit the tapes in hopes that they would secure one final cash advance before the litigation, but Warner Brothers refusal to accept the tapes meant no cash bonus. On top of all that, the lawsuit that was filed forced the record company to stop production on the “Wish You Were Here” album after just seven weeks, which ultimately became the final nail in Badfinger's coffin.

By 1975, times became tough for the band, as all of the income they were receiving had suddenly stopped. Every band member left in Badfinger was worried and panicked, but none more so than Peter Ham, who had just bought a house and whose girlfriend was pregnant with their child. Out of desperation, Ham tried contacting Polley on numerous occasions, but he was unable to reach him. The band tried to go on without Polley, but the search for new booking agents lead to dead ends, based on the restrictive contract that Polley had the band sign.

Seems like they should have taken that man's advice in not signing the contract.

It all came to a tragic head on the morning of April 24, 1975. The night before, Ham received a call from the United States, and in that phone call, it was revealed that all of his savings were now gone. He and Tom Evans met up at a pub later on where Ham reportedly drowned his sorrows in whiskey.

Hours later, Peter Ham hung himself in his studio garage. In his suicide note, he openly blamed Stan Polley for pushing him into the suicide, proclaiming that he would find a way to bring him down with him.

With Ham's death, Badfinger had no choice but to go their separate ways. Gibbins would join “The Flying Aces” while Evans and Bob Jackson (who was hired with the band after Peter Ham temporarily left Badfinger) joined “The Dodgers”.

The band attempted a reunion of sorts in 1977 (which reunited Evans and Molland after three years), and had a bit of a comeback with their 1979 album “Airwaves”. But tragedy would strike again in November 1983 when following an argument with Molland over past events, Evans would commit suicide in his own garden – using the same method that Ham had used eight years earlier. It was widely reported that Evans – who had seen Ham's dead body – never got over his death, and that months before his death, Evans was heard to make comments about wanting to be where Peter was.

It was a very sad ending to a band who ended up becoming the innocent victims of a lawsuit filed without their knowledge, as well as the victims of a man whose poor choices lead to the band's ruination in the mid-1970s.

So, what has happened to the people since?

Tragically we know the stories of Ham and Evans. May they both finally rest in peace.

Since the 1990s, Molland still tours under the Badfinger name. Come to think of it, I think that he's supposed to be playing at a nearby fair later this month. I did see an advertisement for it on television recently. It is good to see that at least one of the members is trying to keep the name alive.

Bob Jackson also performs some Badfinger staples along with his band, The Fortunes, which Jackson rejoined in 1995.

Sadly, Gibbins would die in his sleep on October 4, 2005 at the age of 56 from a brain aneurysm.

As for the man who caused the Badfinger bad blood? Well, Stan Polley pleaded no contest in 1991 to charges of misappropriating funds and money laundering in California. In an unrelated case to the Badfinger story, aeronautics engineer Peter Brock accused Polley of swindling him for a quarter of a million dollars after the two set up a corporation to manufacture airplane engines. Polley's sentence for that case was a five year probationary period, as well as being ordered by the court to return all missing funds to Brock. But according to Brock, he never did honour that restitution.

Stan Polley passed away in July 2009 at the age of 87, never really paying the price for everything that he did to the members of Badfinger.


A real shame.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

September 10, 2001

It's the tenth of September, and it's a Tuesday. Are you ready for another Tuesday Timeline? I'll just bet you are! For this edition, we're actually going to be going outside of North America to talk about an event that took place in Jolly Old England. Now, given the timing of the event, it's easy to see how many of us in North America may not have been aware of this event...but in the United Kingdom, it was quite the delicious little scandal. To keep you hanging on, let's just say this about today's Tuesday Timeline feature. If you're a firm believer in karma...this is a prime example as to why.

Before we go ahead with the chosen subject for today, I thought that we'd talk about the other happenings of September 10 throughout history. Let's start with...

1509 – An earthquake known as “The Lesser Judgment Day” hits Constantinople

1776 – Nathan Hale volunteers to spy for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War

1813 – The United States defeats the British Fleet at the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812

1846 – Elias Howe obtains a patent for the sewing machine

1858 – George Mary Searle discovers the asteroid 55 Pandora

1898 – Luigi Lucheni assassinates Empress Elizabeth of Austria

1934 – Legendary American journalist Charles Kuralt is born in Wilmington, North Carolina – on the same date that baseball legend Roger Maris is born in Hibbing, Minnesota

1936 – First World Individual Motor Speedway Championship is held at London's Wembley Stadium

1939 – Canada declares war on Nazi Germany – joining the Allied forces of World War II

1943 – German forces begin their occupation of Rome, Italy, during the Second World War

1960 – Abebe Bikila becomes the first sub-Saharan African to win a gold medal in the marathon event – running the whole thing barefoot!

1961 – Tragedy at the Italian Grand Prix as German Formula One racer Wolfgang von Trips is killed in a crash, taking out thirteen spectators who are hit by his Ferrari as well

1963 – Segregation of public schools in Alabama becomes a reality as twenty African-American students are allowed into white only schools for the first time

1974 – Guinea-Bissau gains independence from Portugal

1977 – Hamida Djandoubi becomes the last person to be guillotined in France

2002 – Switzerland joins the United Nations

2003 – Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh is stabbed while shopping, and dies the following day, on September 11

2008 – The Large Hadron Collider at CERN is powered up in Geneva, Switzerland

September 10 happens to be a day in which a few famous faces were born. Blowing out candles today are Arnold Palmer, Karl Lagerfeld, Jim Oberstar, Jared Diamond, David Stratton, Roy Ayers, Margaret Trudeau, Joe Perry (Aerosmith), Harry Groener, Amy Irving, Clark Johnson, Johnnie Fingers (The Boomtown Rats), Carol Decker (T'Pau), Chris Columbus, Siobhan Fahey (Bananarama/Shakespear's Sister), Peter Nelson, Colin Firth, Tim Hunter, Big Daddy Kane, Guy Ritchie, Johnathon Schaech, Ryan Philippe, Jacob Young, Peter Goldschmidt, Coco Rocha, and Chandler Massey.

Okay, so let's take a trip back to our time machine to see what day in history we'll be visiting.



Okay, looks like we're going back in time a dozen years to September 10, 2001.

Now, I know what some of you are thinking. It's a date that is dangerously close to what is known to be one of the saddest and most tragic events in recent history. And, yes, I am well aware of the fact that the Tuesday Timeline date happens to be one day before the 9/11 attacks, which killed over three thousand people in New York, Washington D.C., and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Believe me, when I chose the topic to talk about for today, I had no idea that it actually happened in 2001 until I did a little more research on it.

Because prior to the day in which everything would change, on September 10, 2001, one of the biggest scandals in British game show history would unfold. And when the dust settled, the people in the center of it all would never be quite the same again.

Now, quiz show scandals are nothing new. As long as people have been watching television, there have been several examples of game shows being rigged in order to help people win. It happened in the 1950s with the quiz show “Twenty-One”, in which that scandal almost killed the quiz show industry. It happened on the television game show “Press Your Luck”, where Michael Larson memorized the light pattern of the board and walked away with a humongous pay day (which I wrote about in my May 18, 2012 entry, if you're interested)...



...and it happened on the British version of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”

Now I'm sure that most of you know that the show was brought over to the United States in 1999 with Regis Philbin as host (a daytime version was also created and was hosted by Meredith Vieira and most recently by Cedric the Entertainer). But the show originated in England on September 4, 1998. It was created by David Briggs, Mike Whitehill, and Steven Knight, and is currently owned and licensed by Sony Pictures Television. The British version has been hosted by Chris Tarrant since its inception in September 1998, and the show itself has aired in over one hundred countries.

MINI-CONFESSION: When “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” started airing in the United States, I had a bit of an obsession with it. I never missed an episode of it, and even tried unsuccessfully to be a contestant on the Canadian version (I had just turned nineteen when they did the contestant search, so I was just of age to apply). Never did get the opportunity to be a contestant which was a shame because I think I could have done really well on the show.

Of course you know how the show works. In most incarnations, the players who are lucky enough to reach the hot seat get the opportunity to earn a million dollars by answering a series of fifteen questions. The value for each question increases from one hundred dollars at question number one all the way to the final question being worth one million dollars.

(Or, one million pounds if you're watching the British version.)



Of course, it's not easy to make it to the million dollar question. Most contestants never see it. Granted, there are two plateaus (at the $1,000 and $32,000 levels) where players have a safety net, and in the earliest days, players had three lifelines that they could use to help them answer a question (50:50, Ask The Audience, Phone-A-Friend). But if you give just one wrong answer, you stand to lose a lot of money!

I guess the best strategy to have when playing the Millionaire game is to keep a cool head, take calculated risks, and if you're not sure of an answer, ask for help and know which lifeline to use.

Or, you could always...cheat.



Such is the case of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” 'winner', former British Army major Charles Ingram.

The show was taped at Elstree Studios over a two day period, beginning on September 9, 2001 and concluding on September 10 with the show set to air eight days later, on September 18, 2001. But his entire appearance on the show raised a lot of red flags.



Perhaps one of those red flags could have come from the fact that Ingram's wife, Diana, was a previous contestant. She tried to win the million pounds, but choked on the 64,000 pound question. To make things even more interesting, Ingram's brother-in-law, Adrian Pollock also got knocked out of the game on the very same level!

And to think that when Ingram began playing his own game in September 2001, that it started off innocently enough. Ingram had answered seven questions correctly, and had earned a total of four thousand pounds. Unfortunately, the questions proved to be harder than he initially thought, and he blew threw two of his three lifelines. Still, it was enough for him to come back to try for the million. The odds were against him, but he appeared to be optimistic about things.

It was on the second tape day on September 10, 2001 which brought concern.

Prior to the events of September 10, the Ingrams became friendly with one of the “Fastest Finger” contestants who would be competing in that day's episode, a man by the name of Tecwen Whittock. According to the Ingrams, they simply interacted with him to wish him luck.



But what ended up happening was that Whittock would be linked to the Ingrams in what would come to be known as one of the biggest quiz show scandals in British history.

As the September 10 taping went underway, host Chris Tarrant began reading off the questions beginning with the eight thousand pound question. And almost immediately, people started to notice that something was up. Unlike the first day of taping, Ingram would read out every answer, attaching a funny anecdote to each one (which was fine, as the questions had no time limit). But what was interesting was that contestant Tecwen Whittock suddenly came down with a really bad case of the coughs. Throughout every question, Whittock would cough rather loudly – which I imagine might have annoyed members of the studio audience as well as the other contestants who were waiting to play the Fastest Finger Round following the conclusion of Ingram's time in the hot seat.

But it wasn't because they were annoyed by the noise. It was because they noticed that Tecwen Whittock was coughing at the point in which Ingram was reading the correct answer. How strange.

Apparently the crew of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (except for Tarrant who claimed he was too focused on the game to hear any coughing) got wise to the coughing as well, and even considered stopping tape. But the director opted to keep rolling.

By the time Ingram made it to the 32,000 pound mark, he had used up all three lifelines. And even his last lifeline use was mired in controversy as it appeared that his wife who was in the audience helped him choose the right answer by coughing herself!

So when Ingram answered the 32,000 question correctly, he was guaranteed that money. He could have left at that point. But for some reason, Ingram decided to stay on the show and play on. By the time he had reached the half million pound question, the production staff were incredibly suspicious, as were some of the Fastest Finger contestants, who by then had believed that the Ingrams were using Whittock to cheat for them so that they could win the whole shebang!

Don't believe me? Have a look at the final million dollar question.



And, now have a look at the video clip of Charles Ingram attempting to answer the question. Pay close attention to the clip whenever the word “googol” is mentioned.



Now, here's the thing. Googol, as you know, was the correct answer, and that correct answer made Ingram Britain's newest millionaire. But not everyone in the audience was happy for him. At least three of the Fastest Finger contestants were onto the whole thing, knowing full well that Tecwen Whittock had at least coughed at exactly the right moment whenever the right answer was read.

Even more bizarrely was what had happened after the show finished taping. The fact that the Ingrams had just won a life-changing amount of money minutes earlier should have made both of them jump for joy. Instead, it was reported that both of them got into a huge fight backstage. According to the production crew, they speculated that Diana Ingram was the mastermind behind the scheme and that the original plan was for Charles to stop after the 64,000 pound question so that they would not look suspicious. But when Charles found himself at the 125,000 pound level, they suspected that he got greedy, and pressed ahead, even though they had both agreed that they would stop.



In an ironic twist of fate, Tecwen Whittock ended up becoming the next contestant in the hot seat, and was eliminated at the 8,000 pound question, leaving with just 1,000 pounds!

But just days after the taping, the jig was up. The Millionaire crew watched all the tapes and heard Whittock's consistent coughs at every single right answer. They also recalled watching Whittock very closely during the million pound question and caught him coughing right around the time that the word “googol” was said. Confronted with the show's claims that the trio cheated their way to a million pounds, the trio immediately went on the defensive, and claimed that they did not cheat. Diana made the claim that she and Tecwen never even met each other, even though several cameras caught Diana consistently looking in Tecwen's direction the whole time. Charles even made the claim that he had never even so much as heard coughing from Tecwen.

However, their claims were not enough for a jury to believe their story. The evidence was right there in front of them, and the Ingrams were originally sentenced to eighteen months in prison. Tecwen Whittock was no innocent bystander either, sentenced to a year behind bars. However, in a stunning move, the sentences were later suspended, and the trio instead were left paying the sum of the court fees to the tune of 115,000 pounds. Shortly after that, the Ingrams went around to several talk shows, proclaiming their innocence and claiming that their reputations were forever tarnished.

The aftermath of the “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” scandal of September 10, 2001 has not been kind to Charles Ingram – perhaps suggesting that karmic retribution is in play. In 2003, he was forced to resign his commission as a major, with a state-earned pension of seventeen years! He and his wife filed for bankruptcy in October 2004. He was accused of assaulting a thirteen-year-old boy in 2006 after he reportedly goaded Ingram with taunts about his Millionaire scandal. And to top it all off, he had a serious accident in 2010 in which he accidentally chopped off three of his toes with the blades of a lawnmower!
As I said...karmic retribution.



But in some ways, karma can work in good favour too. One of the Fastest Finger contestants who cried foul against Tecwen Whittock was a man by the name of Robert Brydges. As luck would have it, later that month, Brydges would find himself in the hot seat, and he himself would win the million pound prize just twelve days after Ingram! And the best part about it? He did it the legitimate way. Hard work, a little bit of luck, clever usage of his lifelines...and NO CHEATING! Good on you, sir.

Oh, yeah. Before I conclude this Tuesday Timeline entry...I have a confession.




I've known what a googol was since I was in the second grade. I learned what it was by watching Square One Television. I wouldn't have needed to cheat for that question at all. Funny how a googol could turn a millionaire into a zero, huh?