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Wednesday, October 09, 2013

Remembering "55dodger" (also known as Woody)

It's Whatever Wednesday, and for today's entry, I have selected the Professor Plum card. If you're just tuning in to the Whatever Wednesday for the first time, I've taken six cards from the classic board game “Clue” and assigned a topic to each character. In this case, the Professor Plum card corresponds to the Thursday Diary entry. So for today, I'm going to do a diary entry celebrating the life of a friend who I've never met, yet touched my life in some manner.

Confused? You won't be.


October 9, 2013

First things first, I want to pay my respects to a man who I never met, but who had an impact in not only my life, but the lives of several other people.

On message boards, he was known solely by his screenname.  "55dodger".  But in reality, his name was William.  Though, everyone called him by his nickname, which was "Woody".  And, let me tell you something about Woody.  He was quite the guy.

This man - who served his country via the United States Air Force for many years - knew so much more about music than I could ever hope to know.  He was a fan of sports - especially basketball, football, and anything to do with his L.A. Dodgers.  But the one thing that stands out about Woody the most was his absolute love and devotion to his family.  Every day, he would talk about how proud he was of his wife, children, and grandchildren.  He would post photos, stories, videos, and all sorts of things showing him enjoying and loving his family on social media sites, and it was really refreshing to see.  To witness a devoted family man like Woody beam about his loved ones was touching.

That's why I think I'm more saddened for his loved ones after the news that I heard yesterday.

You see...Woody was diagnosed with terminal cancer a few months ago.  And per his wishes, only his closest relatives knew until the very end...which just happened yesterday.  Woody passed away from cancer last night, leaving behind all of those loved ones that he was so proud of.  My heart breaks for them, and I can't even imagine what they are going through right now at this difficult time.

So, how did I end up crossing paths with the man who called himself "55dodger"?  Well, it all begins roughly a decade ago on a website that is now defunct.

As someone who has been doing a blog on pop culture for several years now, one of the common questions that I get from some of my readers is...why pop culture?  What influenced you to choose pop culture as the main source of your blog content?

To be honest, I've always had a soft spot for pop culture.  I've mentioned this countlessly, but I was a very lonely child growing up.  I didn't have very many close friends who I went to school with or who even lived in my neighbourhood, so I spent a lot of time by myself playing outside in the backyard, or inside watching some of my favourite television shows and movies.  It was not the most ideal situation, but I got through it the best way I knew how to.




And I think that's what attracted me to the former Yesterdayland website.  It was a spot on the Internet that ran for approximately six or seven years (I joined up during the peak of its popularity in the summer of 2001), and it was a pop culture addict's island of paradise.  There were sections devoted towards retro toys, black and white television shows, timeless movies, and classic music.  And, there was an extensive message board community present where members could interact with other members and discuss a variety of topics, share jokes and stories, and other things.

Now, keep in mind that I was only twenty years old when I joined YL (as we members often referred to the site by).  And the twenty year old me was a lot less emotionally stable or mature than the thirty-two year old me that I currently am now.  And, there were some instances in which my tactics towards handling mean people on that website were anything but mature.

But one place where I could always be myself and not have to face getting attacked by some of the meaner members, or worry about being targeted by troublemakers was the site's music section.  The music board of YL was dominated by people who never got involved with the drama of the site at all.  They didn't concern themselves with the trolls of the site, nor did they venture very far from the music board.  Why would they, when all they really wanted to discuss was music.  It was a board where members would answer questions about where to find albums and singles.  Where people would do online trades when it came to exchanging music.  Where people would post links to videos (which back in 2001 were extremely rare to find online).

It was on the Music board on YL that I became acquainted with 55dodger (a.k.a. Woody).

I honestly wish I remembered how Woody and I first met.  The experience draws a blank.  But I do remember that at one point, Woody and I became a part of a small faction of members who bonded together thanks to our mutual love of music.  All of us had our different tastes in music, but that didn't matter.  We were all bonded by our love of music in general.  There was a guy who went by the name of H2IZCOOL who was basically a walking encyclopedia of music trivia and who came up with some rather ingenious games.  We had a woman named Dawn who was sweet and kind to everyone she met and who knew a lot about music herself.  Railyn was a few years older than I was, but we ended up having the same tastes in music, and we bonded over our similar experiences through our childhoods.  Ken and I had the Canadian connection going on.  A man who went by the name of "satmorning" bonded with me through our love of pop music and Archie Comics.  It was really amazing to see all of these people bond over a mutual love of music.  Even though I was one of the youngest of the group (the only one younger was a gal named Viki who was four years younger than I), it was such a unique bonding experience.

Eventually all good things had to come to an end.  In 2003, YL was mercy-killed after some turbulent months where the trolls took over, and where the owners pulled the plug without any warning from them whatsoever...a decision that to this day brings much bitterness to some of the former members of the site.  But surprisingly enough, our little music group didn't let that bother us.  We just started up our own discussion group.

The group was known as "The Music Click", and as far as I knew, everyone who was a former member of Yesterdayland was welcome to join - provided that you weren't one of the trolls that were causing trouble.  So, I was very happy to see some familiar names join the group.  There was satmorning and Dawn (who started up the group), myself, Viki, Ken, H2IZCOOL, Railyn, a man who went by the handle "Gremashlo", a man who went by the name Pete70s...

...and of course, 55dodger.

I think it wasn't until I got to join the Music Click that I became closer to Woody.  I was always drawn in by his stories and tales of his life, as well as the wonderful music posts that he used to do on that site.  I remember him always wishing everyone on the site a happy birthday (and us with him every June 26th), and the one thing that I just remember about him the most was that he was always the kind of person who you could always be yourself to and he would never judge you harshly in any way.  He just listened.  I always said that Woody made a great listener.  So many people would talk to him about anything and everything.  He might not have known the answer to the question...but he always listened.

I just hope that he's listening now when his friends and family talk about how much of an impact he had on everyone's life.  He certainly was one of a kind, and he will never be replaced.

But one thing that I think Woody would not want us to feel is any sadness for him.  He lived one hell of a life, and I think that it should be celebrated and not mourned.  And that's why I will end this piece off with a song that I think he would appreciate.  At least I hope so.




Rest in peace, Woody.  You'll never be forgotten.  And, hey...keep a few clouds reserved for all of us up there.  I wish I could have gotten to meet you in person...but just having the opportunity to know you through an online setting is something that I'll always treasure.

Tuesday, October 08, 2013

October 8, 1949

Are you ready for another look back through time with today's edition of the Tuesday Timeline?

I am definitely trying to make the month of October a spooky one, so I've done some extra research when it comes to choosing appropriate topics for the Tuesday Timeline.  Sometimes, it was darn near impossible to find a scary topic (see last week's Tuesday Timeline).  But this week's edition is certainly tied to a lot of Halloween traditions.  After all, the subject of our blog for today happens to be connected with some of the most frightening movies ever made.  Or...at the very least, is connected to several movies that have inspired some of the most elaborate and popular Halloween costumes over the last three and a half decades.

Of course, before we continue with the Tuesday Timeline, there's a lot of other things that we have to talk about first.  After all, October 8 was a busy day throughout history with a lot of significant events and a lot of famous people being born.

What do you want to talk about first?  Historical events?  Why not?

1645 - Jeanne Mance opened the first lay hospital in North America - The Hotel-Dieu de Montreal

1806 - Forces of the British Empire lay siege to the port of Boulogne in France using Congreve rockets during the Napoleonic Wars

1871 - Four major fires break out along the shores of Lake Michigan, causing significant damage to Chicago, Illinois, Peshtigo, Wisconsin, Holland, Michigan, and Manistee, Michigan

1904 - Two Canadian communities - Edmonton, Alberta and Prince Albert, Saskatchewan - are incorporated as cities

1918 - American Corporal Alvin C. York kills twenty-eight German soldiers and captures another 132 in France's Argonne Forest

1921 - KDKA in Pittsburgh's Forbes Field conducts the first live broadcast of a football game

1932 - The Indian Air Force is established

1939 - Germany annexes West Poland during World War II

1944 - The Battle of Crucifix Hill takes place

1948 - Johnny Ramone of the Ramones (d. 2004) is born in Long Island, New York

1956 - Don Larsen of the New York Yankees pitched the only perfect game in a World Series and only one of twenty-one perfect games in the history of Major League Baseball

1967 - Che Guevara and his men are captured in Bolivia

1973 - Over 150 Israeli tanks are destroyed in an attack orchestrated by Gabi Amir during the Yom Kippur War

1974 - Franklin National Bank collapses, and at the time is the largest bank failure in American history

1978 - Ken Warby of Australia sets the current world water speed record at nearly 318 miles per hour

1982 - The musical "Cats" opens on Broadway and enjoys an eighteen year run

2001 - George W. Bush announces the establishment of The Office of Homeland Security

2005 - An earthquake measuring 7.6 strikes in parts of India, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, killing thousands of people

So, again, as with most days that we feature in the Tuesday Timeline, there is a mixture of good and bad.  And, just as with every Tuesday Timeline, the number of famous people celebrating a birthday range from actors and directors to singers to politicians, to athletes, to fashion models.  Not suggesting that all of these people have an October 8 birthday, but for the following people listed here, they are going to be one year older today!  So, a happy birthday to Bill Maynard, Rona Barrett, Walter Gretzky, Paul Hogan, Jesse Jackson, Chevy Chase, R.L. Stine, Stephen Shore, Sarah Purcell, Robert Bell (Kool & The Gang), Michael Dudikoff, Bill Elliott, Darrell Hammond, Stephanie Zimbalist, Nick Bakay, Simon Burke, CeCe Winans, Matt Biondi, Peter Greene, Karyn Parsons, Emily Procter, Jeremy Davies, Dylan Neal, Matt Damon, Kristanna Loken, Nick Cannon, Bruno Mars, Angus T. Jones, and Bella Thorne.

I told you that there were a lot of people celebrating a birthday today!  And, that's not even the full list.

I've saved the best for last.  Because today's blog subject happens to be celebrating a birthday today too.  I believe it's number sixty-four in the series.



Which makes her birthday fall on October 8, 1949.

What some may find amazing is that even though her theme song for today may very well be Paul McCartney warbling "When I'm 64", she does not even look it.  For a sixty-four year old woman, she has aged extremely well.  It's only when I watch her performing in the dozens of movies that I've seen her in that I realize that yes, she really is sixty-four.

I mean, this actress has done it all in every single one of her films.  She's tangled with a working girl.  She's been haunted by ghosts.  She's been confronted by aliens.  She's even played with gorillas!



But then again, nobody can ever accuse actress Sigourney Weaver of being absolutely boring.  On the contrary, she's one of the most talented actresses that has emerged from Hollywood over the course of the last forty years.  I've wanted to do a blog on her for quite some time, and what better way to do that than by using the Tuesday Timeline to wish her a happy birthday!

Now, some of you probably already knew this about her, but as catchy and elegant a name as Sigourney Weaver is, it wasn't exactly the name that she was given at birth.  In fact, it may disappoint you to know that her real first name is Susan.  Susan Alexandra Weaver, to be exact.

Though, most of us know her by her stage name of Sigourney, adopted by Sigourney herself when she was in her teens.  The origin of the name?  A character that appeared in F. Scott Fitzgerald's book, "The Great Gatsby".

Sigourney Weaver was born in Manhattan, New York, the daughter of British actress Elizabeth Ingles and television pioneer Sylvester "Pat" Weaver.

And, here's something that you might not have known about Ms. Weaver.  By the time Sigourney was in the ninth grade, she was already at a height of five feet, ten inches tall!  She would eventually stop growing just before she reached six feet tall!  It's a wonder she didn't go into modelling when she was younger.  Of course, as we all well know, she found more success in acting anyway.  All the better anyway.

Sigourney Weaver graduated from high school in 1967, and over the next seven years attended college at some very impressive colleges, including Sarah Lawrence College, Stanford University, and Yale University.  And when Weaver was just eighteen, she visited Israel and volunteered at a kibbutz for several months!

Wow...Sigourney certainly had some huge life experiences, didn't she?



So, how did Sigourney get her big break in show business?  Well, depending on the source you hear it from, you might be mistaken.  Many people believe that Sigourney's first film was in 1977's "Annie Hall", where she acted in a small part opposite Woody Allen.  And yes, certainly it was the film that helped get her noticed by casting directors in future projects.  But the real story is that Weaver's first role was reportedly in 1974's "Serpico" where she had a tiny role as a party guest.  I haven't seen that film myself to verify this however.

Of course, we all know that Sigourney played a slew of roles throughout her near forty years in the movie business.  Here are just five of the most memorable characters that she has ever played.



ELLEN RIPLEY

I would say that of all the parts that Sigourney Weaver ever played in her lifetime, the part that almost everyone remembers her for is in the role of Ellen Ripley in the four-part installment of the “Alien” series. Of course, those four films are Alien (1979), Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), and Alien Resurrection (1997). In all four movies, Ripley has to find a way to survive hostile alien attacks. The “Alien” film was Sigourney Weaver's first lead role in a motion picture, and what a film role it was! She broke down gender barriers forever by showing women everywhere that they too could be action heroes who could kick butt. And, certainly, Weaver's performances in all four films certainly improved her star power. She won a Saturn Award for her performance in 1986's “Aliens”, and received a slew of nominations for her work in all four films. And, of course, who could forget the infamous chestbusting scene? 



Not that the alien exploded out of Weaver's chest, but it's still quite cool – though not really recommended for small kids.



DANA BARRETT

How many of you have seen the two Ghostbusters films (the 1984 original and the 1989 sequel)? I have. In fact, “Ghostbusters” was one of the very first films I remember seeing on television. Though, it took me a couple of years to watch the whole thing, as I fell asleep midway through.

(In my defense, I was only four or five at the time, and the movie aired at eleven o'clock at night.)

Anyway, Dana Barrett was Peter Venkman's on-again, off-again relationship for the two part movie series. In the first movie, Dana is a musician living in an apartment building which unbeknownst to her happens to be the gateway to a Sumerian god. She is freaked out by the hauntings within her apartment and calls the Ghostbusters to help her get rid of them. Of course, when one of the ghosts happens to be a gigantic skyscraper sized marshmallow man, the battle definitely proves difficult. In the second film, Dana is a single mother working at a museum, helping with the restoration of portraits. But when a spirit possesses one of the paintings and seems to have a keen interest in Dana's young son, Oscar, the Ghostbusters and Dana cross paths again in hopes of saving Dana's child from doom.

I just included this role in because it was my first introduction to Sigourney Weaver. And, she did a great job.



DIAN FOSSEY

This role was probably one of the toughest roles that Weaver had to play because it was based on a real-life person. I don't know how many of you remember Dian Fossey, but she was a zoologist who studied the behaviours and psyches of Rwandan gorillas for almost two decades. While she was in Rwanda, she took a huge stand when it came to protecting the natural habitat, being personally responsible for the arrest of several poachers. She also was against taking gorillas out of their natural habitat to be placed in zoos as exhibits, and tried to lobby against the export of two infant gorillas to a zoo in Germany. And she also created the Digit Fund (known in the United States as the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International) to raise money for anti-poaching patrols, following the 1977 death of Digit, one of Fossey's favourite gorillas.



Sadly, Dian Fossey was murdered in 1985, and nearly thirty years after her death, the case still remains unsolved.

The 1988 film “Gorillas In The Mist” detailed Dian Fossey's entire journey, with Weaver playing the lead role. And certainly it was one of Weaver's most critically acclaimed roles, with her earning an Golden Globe Award and a nomination for an Academy Award. But would you believe that another film released that same year would also earn Weaver another Golden Globe Award and Academy Award nomination?



KATHARINE PARKER

That role was of the tough-as-nails Katharine Parker in the 1988 film “Working Girl”. She plays a financial executive who takes on a new secretary (played by Melanie Griffith), but she is not nearly as nice and supportive as she initially appears at the beginning of the film. In fact, she plans on stealing an idea that her secretary came up with herself! Of course, as fate would have it, Katharine breaks her leg, setting the stage for her secretary to put the pieces together and show Katharine that she is not to be messed with! I wish I could find clips of Sigourney in this movie because her performance was absolutely fantastic. She really gave meaning to the phrase “the character you love to hate”. That takes a lot of talent.



DR. GRACE AUGUSTINE

2009's “Avatar” was a movie that was incredibly huge. As of 2013, it remains the highest-grossing film ever released in the world, earning a record breaking $2.7 BILLION dollars over the last four years. Ironically enough, the film dethroned another James Cameron directed film, “Titanic” as the biggest moneymaker in the history of motion pictures.

And, of course, Sigourney Weaver had a significant role in the film masterpiece as Dr. Grace Augustine, the head of the Avatar program and advocate of peaceful relations between the human population and the blue-skinned Na'vi. And, what is interesting about this particular performance is the fact that Weaver has reportedly signed on to star in the 2014 sequel to “Avatar”, but people who have seen the film might consider this an impossibility given her character's ultimate fate in the first movie.

But, it is the world of science-fiction. They could find ways to make it happen.

And, those are just FIVE of her movie roles. But, you could also argue that all five of those roles helped Weaver become one of the most respected actresses in film.

That's why I really wanted to do a blog entry on Sigourney Weaver. She is the very definition of Hollywood class, and what better way to honour her than by wishing her a happy birthday!

Happy 64th, Sigourney!

Monday, October 07, 2013

ParaNorman

I bet you're wondering why this entire blog entry has been tinted in green today. I'm going to get to that in a moment.

Remember how I told you all that I decided to come up with an ingenious way to choose topics for the Monday Matinee?  It all started off with rooting through the bin of movies that were worth five dollars, and deciding to randomly choose one movie to write a blog about.  This way, I expand my knowledge on movies, and enjoy a relatively inexpensive night in with a movie.  

Now, this was the initial PLAN, that was.  Of course, as you all well know from experience, the best laid plans can sometimes change at the drop of a hat.

In my case, the colour green was a huge factor behind my change in plans.

You see, I guess I should explain before I continue.  In our electronics department, our methods of displaying and featuring movies.  Contrary to what many believe, our entire movie section is NOT done in alphabetical order.

(Well, actually, it is.  But it's a little bit more complex than that.)

You see, our movies are arranged by price point - and then they go in alphabetical order.  You always have your new releases in their own individual section.  Then you have your movies that are in the fifteen dollar price range.  Then you have your ten dollar movies.  Then you have the Disney movie section, which while almost all of them are quite good, they are also pretty pricey.  As much as I love classic Disney films like "Finding Nemo", "Oliver & Company" and "Peter Pan", there is no way that I could justify spending over thirty dollars on a single DVD...especially when the films themselves are over ten years old.

Well, since I work in electronics now, I do a lot of stocking movies and zoning movies (zoning meaning that you put the movies back in their proper places which ensures that you don't accidentally sell the newest box set of "Downton Abbey" for $9.83), and I'll admit that one DVD immediately caught my eye.  And it had absolutely nothing to do with what the movie was about, or who acted in it, or even what the title of it was.

I ended up choosing the DVD based on its cover.  And, as much as I have preached to the choir that you shouldn't judge a book (or DVD in this case) by its cover, there was just something unusual about a certain movie that was displayed in our $15.00 section.

The whole case was a bright emerald green colour.  No other film on that shelf was that same colour.  It just stood out to me.  It grabbed my attention.  It was almost like it was saying "Pick me!  Pick me!"



That's how I ended up with the movie "ParaNorman" in my hands.  And that was how "ParaNorman" became the subject of discussion for this week.

The way I look at it, choosing that vivid green DVD case with the ParaNorman DVD inside ended up being a very good thing.  For one, I actually got the DVD on sale, and saved five dollars off the sticker price.  And, who doesn't love a good deal, right?  Secondly, the movie is Halloween themed, and since we're less than a month away from the big trick-or-treating day, I thought that it would be an appropriate film to talk about in this space.  And lastly, the movie itself is quite good.  I loved the stop-motion animation (the animation team behind this film also worked on the 2009 film "Coraline"), and the message of the film is one that I strongly believe in.  But, I will get to that a little later.



The film was released on August 17, 2012, and the names linked to the project are big ones.  "ParaNorman" was co-directed by Sam Fell and Chris Butler, its screenplay and story was a collaboration between Butler, Arianne Sutner, and Stephen Stone, and some of the voice actors who lent their talents to the film were Kodi Smit-McPhee, Tucker Albrizzi, Anna Kendrick, Casey Affleck, Jeff Garlin, Leslie Mann, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Elaine Stritch, Bernard Hill, Tempestt Bledsoe, Alex Borstein, John Goodman, and Jodelle Ferland.  Some of those names are obviously more recognizable than others, but in my opinion, this voice cast was well assembled and boasted a lot of talent.

As far as the film's critical reception goes, it maintains a high ranking on the film review site "Rotten Tomatoes", with a Fresh rating within the 80% range (this is quite good), and the film was nominated for an Academy Award in 2013 (losing to the film "Brave").  And on a budget of sixty million dollars, the film made at least $107 million.  I'd call that a financial success as well as a critical success.



Now, let's get on with the plot of the film.  And, let's just say that I understand what the main protagonist of this film went through.  Mind you, I wasn't exactly like him...but I do know what it was like to feel like an outcast because of something that you couldn't change about yourself.

In my case - and I believe that I have talked about this before - I wasn't exactly the best walker in my school.  It wasn't for a lack of trying.  I had foot problems that forced me to walk on my toes instead of flat footed like everybody else.  It caused me physical pain to try and walk flat on my feet for years, so naturally, I reverted back to walking on the toes.  It was the way that I felt comfortable with, and I didn't think that it was hurting anybody.  But when one of my teachers took it upon herself to try and force me to change my walking style by embarrassing me in front of the whole class, it made me stand out in one of the worst ways possible.  It really hurt my feelings and it kept me from really getting close to people...something that unfortunately hurt the way that I approach social relationships and friendships even today.

Well, in the case of Blithe Hollow, Massachusetts resident Norman Babcock (Smit-McPhee), he too suffered from having a quirk that nobody else had.  And, honestly I think he had it worse off than I did, as he had classmates, teachers, and even members of his own family trying to tell him that he was crazy for the quirk that he possessed.



But little Norman couldn't help it.  He couldn't help that he was born with the ability to see and communicate with those who were deceased.  And, that's part of the reason why green was such a dominant colour on the DVD cover...all of the spirits that Norman sees are bathed in a green glow.  



It's not really explained in the film how Norman ended up with the ability to talk to ghosts, but it is presumed that he was born with the ability.  Or, maybe his ability was strengthened upon the death of his grandmother (Stritch), whom Norman was especially close to.  Norman's mother (Mann) tries to be as understanding as she can be, but his father (Garlin), and older sister Courtney (Kendrick) do not believe that he can talk to the deceased at all.  Nor do the other kids who attend Norman's school.  In fact, many times, he had to go to school to face people writing graffiti on his locker, tripping him so that he would fall on the floor and calling him a lot of horrible names.  The ringleader of this smear campaign is Alvin (Mintz-Plasse), and chances were that if Alvin and Norman were in the same room together, it would not end well for Norman at all.

Of course, this isn't to say that Norman was a complete outcast.  He did have a best friend in Neil Downe (Albrizzi), who understood the pain of being bullied as Alvin picked on him as well.

Anyway, part of the charm of the movie is where the film takes place.  The film takes place in the state of Massachusetts, which happens to be the setting of the infamous "Salem Witch Trials", in which several women who were accused of practicing witchcraft were sentenced to death, and needless to say, the town ironically has some of their traditions based around witches and witchcraft.  Their fast-food outlets and even a casino have a witch theme!  Seems a bit odd that a town would celebrate an event in which people actually DIED because they were classified as "different", but maybe that's just me.

Anyway, the school hosted a play that was about the history of the town, and it is during this play that Norman ends up having another vision...and this one is so scary that Norman ends up causing a scene right on stage, leading to his father grounding him.  On top of all that, Norman's estranged and touched uncle, Mr. Prenderghast (Goodman) has a confrontation with Norman who tells him that he has to be prepared to protect the town from evil...and shortly after that encounter, he passes away and his spirit enters the spirit world...which leads to an interesting conversation between Prenderghast and Norman in the bathroom at school.

Prenderghast warns Norman that several centuries ago, seven former citizens of Blithe Hollow condemned a young girl to death believing that she was a witch.  Ever since that day, the spirits of those seven people were cursed by the person that they essentially had killed.  Prenderghast also tells Norman that he has to perform a ritual before sundown that day to prevent the entire town from being destroyed by the curse by grabbing a certain book and reciting its contents so that the curse can be broken.



And it would have worked out just fine...had Alvin not followed Norman and prevented him from finishing the reading.  And, when a witch shaped cloud appears in the sky, it's pretty much a given that things were about to change forever.  Cracks soon begin appearing in the ground near the gravesites of the seven people who had long since passed away, and one by one, all seven come back to life as zombies.  It now becomes a race against time for Norman to set things right.  He teams up with Courtney, Neil, Neil's brother Mitch (Affleck), and a reluctant Alvin to try and locate the unmarked witch grave so that he can perform the ritual the right way before the zombies end up destroying the town (or, rather, before the townsfolk of Blithe Hollow destroy the town and themselves by attacking the seven newest zombie residents).

And while I won't spoil the ending of this film, I can tell you this.  The identity of the "witch" is incredibly significant in tying up all the film's loose ends.  After all, the "witch" shares a last name with one of the characters in the film, and Norman discovers that there really isn't a lot that is different between him and the "witch".  In fact, it is made incredibly clear why Norman was the one chosen to perform the ritual.




All in all, I will state that yes, I did choose a DVD by its cover.  But in this case, I am so happy that I did.  It's one of the most spectacular films that I have ever seen, and the three-dimensional stop motion animation was absolutely flawless.  It truly is a visual spectacle that combines 1960s-era horror films with the technology that 2010s-era animation provides.  But all in all, as someone who had to deal with childhood bullying and having to try to make excuses for why I was who I was in order to lessen the sting of the pain of being bullied...this film has a really great message.  It shows all of us that we no longer have to be afraid of being true to ourselves as long as we have a select few people who believe in us and love us.

Seriously, this film comes highly recommended.  And, it's a fairly recent release on DVD and Blu-Ray.

(Or...is it...Green-Ray?  Seriously, the jewel case for the Blu-Ray version is green as well!)

Sunday, October 06, 2013

Total Eclipse of the Heart

Have I got a treat for you this month in the Sunday Jukebox section. And it all has to do with the spooky vibe in the air that October tends to bring. After all, the month of October concludes with Halloween, which is one of the scariest days of the year!

(Well...aside from April 15 in America, that is.)

So, for this and every Sunday in October, I thought that I would make the Sunday Jukebox a Halloween soundtrack edition...though, not in the way that you might think.

Let's put it like this. You automatically know the songs that make up a classic Halloween soundtrack. Songs like Michael Jackson's “Thriller”, Oingo Boingo's “Dead Man's Party”, and Rockwell's “Somebody's Watching Me”. They are songs that essentially scream Halloween with every single note.

But what about songs that are innocent by sound, but have some of the scariest looking music videos?

That's what this Sunday Jukebox and every other Sunday Jukebox in October will focus on. We're going to be looking at some of the most gothic, disturbing, and scary music videos ever made. Some of them will be blatantly obvious...others, not so much. But they all have some of the most frightening moments ever seen on MTV and MuchMusic.

Well, at least according to me, anyway. Fear is all in perspective. What I might find scary, others might see as silly. But, that's the way of the world, I suppose.

So, what will be the first song that we will be focusing on this week? Well, how about the sixth most requested song of 1983?

Yes, we're going back in time thirty years for this Sunday Jukebox entry. Now, by all accounts, it is a powerful love ballad. It's a song that is a favourite at most karaoke bars. It's a song that topped the charts in several countries, and in a 2013 poll in the United Kingdom, it was voted as the song that most people sang in the shower, beating out singles recorded by Robbie Williams, Justin Bieber, and One Direction!

Well, shall we go ahead with today's entry? I say we do!



ARTIST: Bonnie Tyler
SONG: Total Eclipse of the Heart
ALBUM: Faster Than the Speed of Light
DATE RELEASED: February 11, 1983
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #1 for 3 weeks



Now, a huge part of how the song became one of the most requested singles of 1983 comes from the fact that it was released at two different time periods, depending on what part of the world you lived in. If you lived in the United Kingdom, where Welsh-born singer Bonnie Tyler came from, then you would have heard it in the winter of 1983, mid-February. For those of us in the United States and Canada, we had to wait until May 1983. Regardless, it became a huge hit, topping the charts in all three places as well as the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, France, and Australia.

And when the song was covered by British chanteuse Nicki French in 1995, the cover version also ranked highly on the dance and club charts all over the world. I'll post Nicki's version below as well, though admittedly I'm not as much of a fan of that version as I am the original.



This song was also the biggest selling single for Bonnie Tyler, who first began appearing on the charts in 1977 following the release of her debut album “The World Starts Tonight”. Bonnie Tyler certainly has had a lot of success on various charts, and she was quite the versatile artist as well. Would you believe that her first single success was on the country charts with the 1978 single “It's a Heartache”? It's true! Sometime in the late 1970s, she made the decision to cross over to the pop and rock charts, which lead to the creation of hits like “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and “Holding Out For A Hero”, and in the mid-1990s, she changed musical styles again by recording soft rock music. Though her career isn't as red hot here in North America as it once was, it certainly has remained strong in her native UK, and she is still recording and writing music even today.

TRIVIA: Of course everyone knows that Bonnie Tyler's voice is quite distinctive as it has a natural rasp to it, similar to that of Bryan Adams or Kim Carnes. But is it REALLY that natural? In actuality, her raspy voice was a side effect of a surgery she had in her youth to remove vocal nodules. Not that it really affected her that much. Her husky tones did earn her the title of “International First Lady of Rock”, after all!

So, let's talk about “Total Eclipse of the Heart”, shall we?



As you can see, for a song that is more or less a power love ballad, it sure has a rather dark theme. Most love songs seem to take place on a nice, warm, sunny beach, or at a wedding venue, or in the middle of a South American carnival. Not this one. This video is in a shadowy building with lots of gothic architecture. It also features Bonnie dressed entirely in white (clashing with the dark theme), as well as a whole bunch of teenage boys participating in a whole bunch of athletics and sports.

I'll admit that when I was a kid and I was first watching this video, I had absolutely no idea what the heck was going on. I mean, I've seen lots of weird music videos in my lifetime, but this was just bizarre. It was like I was going to a museum and seeing all of these modern art pieces hanging on the wall. If I was talking to some of the artists who created these works of art, they could probably talk for hours about how the artwork represents the chaos and pain of the world, and about how the colours used would represent the laziness and apathy of people who boast about making change, but do absolutely nothing about it.

When in all actuality, you're looking at a picture of a red square and blue circle. How one would get laziness and apathy from a red square and blue circle, I have no idea...unless the laziness and apathy comes from the fact that the artist was really trying to draw a red house with blue clouds in the sky but gave up midway through.

Anyway, back to “Total Eclipse of the Heart”!

As I was saying, the video initially made no sense to me at first, but that's because I was not yet mature enough to understand what the real meaning of the video was at that time.

It wasn't until I entered my late teen years that I began to piece the video together and realized that it was actually more disturbing that I ever thought possible.

And in order to make sense of this video, we have to start...at the end.

The last scene of the music video depicts Bonnie Tyler dressed in what I originally thought was a stewardess uniform. I mean, seriously! I almost wondered why she didn't come armed with a basket filled with peanuts (both salted AND unsalted). But I later come to find out that she is really the headmistress of the boarding school where the video largely takes place.

(In actuality, the video was largely filmed on location at Holloway Sanitorium – a former mental asylum known for its dark, shadowy architecture.)

Yeah...a mental asylum doubling as a school. And, yet, that's not the most disturbing thing about this video.

We also see at the end of the video that Bonnie Tyler is walking down the line of her students (who happen to be all male) who are standing at attention as if they are on the combat lines of some major war awaiting their orders when in all likelihood, they are there in hopes of passing inspection. You know, making sure shirts are tucked in, and neckties are straight, etc.

Of course, this scene at the very end of the video still gives me goosebumps today. I'm sure you know what one I mean.



Turn around, bright eyes!”

As creepy as that last scene is, even that's not the most disturbing thing about this particular music video...even though there was a time in which I had to look away whenever I saw that boy and his bright eyes.

No, the most disturbing thing about this video is the fact that the whole thing seems to be a fantasy dreamt up by Bonnie Tyler's character in the video. And it seems to be a rather erotic fantasy at that. I mean, you notice that the only other characters in the music video are all boys and men who appear to be between the ages of say, fourteen and twenty-one? And, you notice how in a vast majority of scenes, these boys and men are posing in quite the provocative manner wearing little more than a Speedo?

Now, back in 1983, Speedos were quite the popular choice for swimwear. In 2013, it's considered a little bit over-the-top. Some might even consider the Speedo extremely disturbing, and I would tend to agree. But not even THAT is the most disturbing thing about this video.

No, what's truly disturbing is that the boys that Bonnie Tyler is fantasizing about in her total eclipse of an erotic dream are the same boys who are enrolled at the same school where she is an instructor!

No wonder she has that really strange look when she walks down to greet the students at the end of the video. No wonder she seems to recoil in slight horror over the bright-eyed student at the video's conclusion. I'm sure you would too if you were suddenly brought face to face with the very boys who you fantasized over...boys that could be deemed forbidden fruit. Boys who could likely get their teacher fired and put in jail for several years if those thoughts ever became public knowledge.

It certainly is a rather scary thought...knowing that you have those feelings and worried that somehow they might be exposed and that you could lose everything if those feelings were ever acted upon. What is very interesting is that the imagery seems to suggest that at least in Bonnie Tyler's eyes (the Bonnie Tyler featured in the video and not THE Bonnie Tyler...if that even makes sense), that she sees nothing wrong with her fantasy. After all, she is dressed in white – which symbolizes purity and chaste. Amusingly enough, the boys are all dressed in shades of black, which contrast with white.

Though admittedly, I am a fan of colour theory and meanings, so I could be overshooting the mark here.

Whatever the case, the video certainly offers up some bizarre, scary imagery...and it appears as though the video's concept ranks right up there in the bizarre department.


But whatever the case, it's still a fantastic song. And it's the perfect start to a month of Sunday Jukebox entries which feature some rather chilling, yet whimsical music videos. This is only the beginning, so stay tuned for another song next week at this time!

Saturday, October 05, 2013

Jack-O-Lanterns for Dummies

I'll be the first to warn you ahead of time. Today's blog topic is going to be a little bit on the brief side. I suppose for some of you who don't like reading a lot of words, this news might be welcomed.

A part of this is because of the fact that my Saturday is (for once) jam-packed with activity, and I will have very little time for writing. That's why I'm typing up this blog entry on the Friday morning before my shift begins at work. I'm more than determined to keep this blog going by continuing my one entry per day rule, and I also want to challenge myself. Can I do a blog in a deadline?

No, seriously. I'm really considering a lot of options in my life (first and foremost going back to take some higher education of some form), and in order to make those options a reality, I need to bone up on some skills.

Most notably, the skill of time management.

And another reason why I am coming up with a shorter than normal topic is largely because I am having a bit of a difficult time with choosing a topic for today. You see, the first Saturday in October is usually reserved for discussions on toys and games...but the only toy and game that I know of that is Halloween themed is the Ouija Board...and I already did a blog on the Ouija Board last year.

So, I decided that instead of a Halloween themed board game or toy (of which there aren't very many), I thought about this...what if I decided to do a blog on a Halloween activity that so many of us took part in as children?

And, I'm not talking about trick-or-treating either.

I briefly talked about it yesterday when I discussed Garfield's Halloween Adventure, and how the opening scene of the special had Jon carving a jack-o-lantern happily...well, until Garfield scared him so badly that the jack-o-lantern ended up on his head!

Well, I can't say that I've ever worn a hollowed-out pumpkin on my head...but I do have lots of memories carving pumpkins throughout my entire childhood.



And, that's the subject for today. Jack-o-lanterns and the people who make them!

Now, I'm sure that most of you out there have carved at least one pumpkin in your lifetime. It's simultaneously one of the easiest and hardest things that go into preparation for your perfect Halloween look.

The whole idea of planning what your pumpkin will look like is the easy part. The only thing you really needed was a black Sharpie (or back in the days when I was a child, a generic black marker as Sharpies did not exist back then).

I know...a world without Sharpies. Seems hard to believe, huh?

Anyway, all you'd have to do is take your marker and draw whatever design you wanted to on the front of the pumpkin. In my case, I only did simple faces. Some faces were smiley faces, and others were sad faces, and others were spooky faces. And some artists really take pumpkin carving to a whole new art form. Just have a look at some of the beautiful examples of jack-o-lanterns that were carved by artists that are certainly a lot more crafty than I.



Aren't some of those pumpkins beautiful?

Of course, the art of carving the actual pumpkin once you have your design all plotted out was the tricky part. And, for kids, it was downright dangerous to leave them unsupervised with a carving knife to let them carve the pumpkin themselves.

Well...unless you really wanted to have the true Halloween experience by having your pumpkin covered in blood that is.

Anyway...whether you carve the pumpkin yourself, or had an adult carving the pumpkin for you, one can agree that the job wasn't exactly the most glamourous or easy-peasy. No, you had to get down and dirty when it came to carving the perfect jack-o-lantern.

First things first, you had to lobotomize the pumpkin by making the pumpkin flip its lid. Literally. The only way you could carve a pumpkin correctly is to take a knife and cut the stem completely off the pumpkin.

And then things get really messy. You see, you can't very well leave all of the seeds and orange gunky stuff inside the pumpkin when you carve it. For one, you would never be able to get a candle or light source inside of the pumpkin. For another, after a few days, that pumpkin would go rotten and stink up the joint. And if you've ever smelled a rotting pumpkin before, you know how disgusting that stench can be.

So you had to reach in with spoons, scoops, or just your bare hands to rip the guts right out of the pumpkin so that you could easily carve a face onto it. And let me tell you...you needed a lot of newspaper and possibly a pair of gloves to get the job done because gutting a pumpkin is easily one of the most grossest experiences that one can have.

I still remember being in school and some of our teachers would bring in a pumpkin to carve inside of our classroom. All of us would take a turn reaching inside of the pumpkin and pulling out its guts – seeds and all. Most of us welcomed the opportunity (even I had fun reaching into the hollowed out pumpkin to rip out its insides).

Yeah, that didn't sound disturbing at all, did it?

And, of course, the question that arises once the pumpkin has been disemboweled is what do you do with the gunk left over? Well, there's a couple of options. I certainly wouldn't recommend eating pumpkin gunk raw. I tried it once, and it is probably one of the grossest things I've ever put in my mouth. But if you took that pumpkin gunk and baked it into a pie, you have a classic Thanksgiving day staple. I imagine that lots of people use pumpkin gunk to bake pies, tarts, and muffins from scratch, and what better way to keep the baked treats coming than by carving a pumpkin!

And, don't discount the oversized pumpkin seeds either. Although I will be the first one to admit that I don't like pumpkin seeds, I will state that pumpkin seeds can be considered a nutritious snack. All you have to do is rinse them off, bake them in an oven, add a little bit of spices, and you have an instant snack. And given that the average pumpkin has at least five hundred to a thousand seeds festering inside of them, I would say that you could have enough pumpkin seed snacks to last you right through the month of October and half of November!

But again, that's only if you like pumpkin seeds. I can't stand them myself.

The end result? A hollowed-out pumpkin – perfect for carving a jack-o-lantern.



So, now I turn the control over to you. I want to hear your jack-o-lantern stories. If I find them interesting enough, I might post them in a future entry!

Friday, October 04, 2013

Garfield's Halloween Adventure

I know that we still have several weeks left before Halloween, but for whatever reason, I feel the need to do a Halloween themed blog today. After all, there have been several television specials that have been dedicated to Halloween. Heck, on the long-running television series “The Simpsons”, they've filmed at least twenty-five Treehouse of Horror specials alone!

And I'll offer up my own personal confession here. Some of my all-time favourite television specials are the Halloween ones. I've always loved Halloween (though granted, I did like it more when I was still young enough to go trick-or-treating), and while there were always a plethora of Christmas, Easter, and New Years specials, I always have had a fondness for Halloween specials.

So, for today's blog, I wanted to talk about one of my favourites.

Now, what are some of the things that you associate with Halloween?

Obviously, I've talked about one already. Dressing up in a spooky, silly, or splendid Halloween costume and going door-to-door to get your hands on all the lollipops, caramel chews, and Fun Size bags of M&M's you can eat. As someone who would always stay out as late as possible, I made sure that I had my fill of candy. But there's other aspects of Halloween that are just as fun.

I imagine that a lot of you love Halloween because of the fact that you can tell a lot of spooky and scary stories about ghosts, monsters, aliens, gigantic spiders, and man-eating globs of gelatin desserts and flan.

(Hey, that last one could make sense. Have you ever seen “The Blob”?)

There's also the fun of carving a fresh pumpkin to make a jack-o-lantern! Seriously, Halloween is not Halloween without the joys of heading out to the local pumpkin patch, selecting the largest pumpkin you can find, covering your floor or kitchen table with what seemed like an entire newspaper, and removing all of the seeds and gunk out of the pumpkin to carve a scary face on the outside. It was an annual tradition that I looked forward to every single Halloween...and I'll go more into detail in that tradition for tomorrow's blog entry, so definitely stay tuned!

Now, what if I told you that today's look back on the television of the past features all of those things and more? What if I told you that the television special features candy, pumpkin carving, and a mystery that includes some very scary ghosts? Would it be something that you would be interested in?

I hope so. Because today's offering features a lasagna-loving cat and his slobber-loving dog frenemy on the Halloween adventure of a lifetime!



Are you ready to read all about “Garfield's Halloween Adventure”? I hope you are, because that is the topic for today!

It seems hard to believe, but this television special first aired on October 29, 1985 on CBS. For whatever reason, I thought it was an older program as I remember watching it my whole life. Of course, looking at the date, I would have only been four years old. And since I hardly remember anything from before my fourth birthday, I suppose it makes sense as to why I thought the program was older.

Then again, Garfield was only created in 1978...

Anyway, I'm going off topic here. I do that a lot.

I'll be the first one to admit that I love Garfield. I've loved Garfield ever since I was a young boy. And certainly this is not the first Garfield entry that I have done (and it most certainly won't be the last entry either). But while I certainly respect the fact that some thirty-five years after Garfield was created he is still producing comic strips, cartoons, and anthologies...for me, there's nothing quite like the retro Garfield cartoon specials. My spine tingles every time I see one airing on television.

Of course, a part of that comes from the fact that Garfield used to be voiced by the late, but talented Lorenzo Music. Sadly, Lorenzo passed away in 2001, and while Bill Murray has done a great job taking over as the voice of Garfield...it just isn't the same. Lorenzo Music to me WAS Garfield. He combined the perfect blend of grumpiness, sarcasm, cynicism, and lack of caring all into one voice. He certainly was a talent that I don't feel can be one hundred per cent replaced, just as Gregg Berger could be the only Odie, or Thom Huge could be the only Jon Arbuckle, etc, etc, etc.



As Garfield's Halloween Adventure kicks off, we see Garfield watching television (one of his all-time favourite activities next to eating lasagna, sleeping, squashing spiders, mailing Nermal to Abu Dhabi, and kicking Odie off of the kitchen table). Surprisingly, he's watching the Binky the Clown Show, which I always thought was one of Garfield's least-favourite shows...but then again, it is Halloween, and the whole point of the holiday is to be scared, right?

And certainly once Binky the Clown announces on his show that it is Halloween, it immediately perks Garfield up. After all, Halloween is really the only day of the year where you can go to people's homes and get free food, right?



After putting on a sheet and scaring a pumpkin-carving Jon, Garfield decides that he and Odie have to go trick-or-treating. Rummaging through old costumes in the attic of Jon's house, Garfield and Odie dress up as pirates, with the full intent of grabbing as much loot and booty (candy) as they possibly can. Of course, Garfield's decision to bring Odie along for the trick-or-treating adventure was motivated solely by greed. His idea was that he would get twice as much candy as he normally would on Halloween by bringing a frenemy like Odie. And then once they arrived back home, Garfield would find a way to trick Odie into taking a significantly smaller share of candy so that he would get the lion's share of riches.

Yeah, in case you're just tuning into the world of Garfield...Garfield takes advantage of Odie. A lot.

Of course, Jon is blissfully unaware of Garfield's plot to deprive Odie of candy. He's more impressed with the idea that Garfield and Odie are actually doing something together. He provides both of them with bags that they could use to collect the candy and tells them to have fun – as long as they don't stay out too late.

Yeah, in case you're just tuning into the world of Garfield...Jon treats his pets as if he had given birth to them himself. It was funny when I was a kid, but somewhat creepy looking at it through adult eyes. Whatever though. Jon was always the killjoy of the Garfield comics anyway.



Of course, the night starts off quite well. Garfield and Odie visit every house in town, and they get all sorts of treats. I don't exactly know what kind of candy cats and dogs like, but whatever it was, they enjoyed receiving it. Mind you their experiences walking down the darkened streets of their neighbourhood could be kind of frightening, but Garfield insisted that he was not a scaredy-cat. He insisted it so much that he even sang a song about it.



Well, okay, actually Lou Rawls sang the song. It's the thought that counts.

So after a long night of getting free candy, you'd think that the excitement would tire Garfield and Odie out, right? Well, as it turns out, their fun was only beginning.

Turns out that an especially gluttonous Garfield notices that there are more houses across the river. And even though Garfield and Odie managed to collect enough candy to last them through Christmas, it still wasn't enough for Garfield. He wanted to go to the other houses and he wanted to go now. So, he gets Odie to help him find a boat of some sort and row across the river. Because apparently one cannot have too many peanut butter kisses in the orange and black wrappers.

(Okay, actually I can't stand those Halloween peanut butter taffy candies. But then again, I wouldn't be so crazy as to row across the St. Lawrence River to New York State so I could have the opportunity to get some American Kit Kat bars.)



But as Garfield soon realizes...maybe having Odie as your first mate isn't exactly the smartest decision. As the two approach shore, Garfield orders Odie to put out the oars...but Odie seems to believe that what Garfield meant was to throw the oars overboard! And once Odie throws the oars out of the boat, the boat loses control, and soon Garfield and Odie find themselves lost at...well...river.

As if the current was supposed to lead the way by fate, Garfield and Odie make landfall at an old abandoned dock. Completely lost and afraid, they look around for any signs of life, and they happen to discover a sole house with a light on inside the window. Now, normally, I wouldn't recommend that you enter someone's unattended home by yourself, especially on Halloween night. But you know, Garfield and Odie were together, so they thought...why not.



And it is here that they come face to face with a scary old man. A scary old man who tells them a story about pirates who hid a buried treasure inside the very home that they were all standing in exactly one hundred years ago. The man tells them that the pirates swore an oath in blood that exactly one hundred years after the treasure was buried, that they would come back to claim what was rightfully theirs at the stroke of midnight...even if the only way they could do so was through the spirit world. It was a very haunting tale, and for what it was worth, voice actor C. Lindsay Workman did a fantastic job with the role. I was even believing the story watching it on television (though to be fair, I was somewhat a gullible child.)

Garfield though refused to believe it. After all, it was almost midnight, and there was no way that he ever believed in ghosts. After all, he was no scaredy-cat...and only scaredy-cats believed in ghosts.

So, what do you think happened after the clock struck twelve? Did the ghosts arrive? Did the old man fade into the night? Did Garfield and Odie ever get to enjoy their candy?


As if I'm going to tell you. You really should watch this special for yourselves and get the truth yourself. After all, it is only half an hour. And the ending is quite satisfying.