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Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Video Hodge Podge


I knew it was only going to be a matter of time before I had a situation in which I was pressed for time to come up with a decent blog entry for a day, and as it so happens, today was the day.

The good news is that today happens to be Whatever Wednesday.  And, Whatever Wednesday is one of those anything goes kind of days.

Now, technically, I drew the Colonel Mustard card today, which meant that I was supposed to talk about movies, and I kind of do...even though I completely lose track of my train of thought a couple of times.

So, basically what I am trying to say is that the video you see below is who I would be in real life as if I were naked (though take it from me, I AM wearing clothes in the vid.  Nobody needs to see THAT.)

What I mean is that it's not edited.  It's not polished.  I have bad hair.  And, I don't even turn the video equipment off correctly at the end.  It's a true video hodge podge project.

And, hey...I guess if you can't laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at?



Tuesday, March 25, 2014

March 25, 1947

Hey, guys and gals!  I hope you're prepared for the final Tuesday Timeline of March.  And, boy has March been a cruel month, hasn't it?  Colder than normal temperatures, snow still on the ground.  Makes you wonder if Spring will EVER get here.

Fortunately, I've got a topic selected that will hopefully provide you with a little bit of warmth.  Or at the very least, I hope it will get you moving on your feet enough that you can generate some body heat.

It's the twenty-fifth of March.  Let's see what happened on this date, shall we?

421 - According to legend, the city of Venice, Italy was founded on this date at exactly twelve o'clock

1584 - Sir Walter Raleigh is granted a patent to colonize Virginia

1634 - The first settlers arrive in the area that will later be called the state of Maryland

1655 - Christiaan Huygens discovers Saturn's largest moon - Titan

1807 - The Slave Trade Act abolishes the slave trade in the British Empire

1811 - Percy Bysshe Shelley is expelled from the University of Oxford after he publishes a pamphlet entitled "The Necessity of Atheism"

1911 - The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City kills 146 garment workers

1918 - Sportscaster Howard Cosell (d. 1995) is born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

1931 - The Scottsboro Boys are arrested and charged with rape in Alabama

1938 - Singer/actor Hoyt Axton (d. 1999) is born in Duncan, Oklahoma

1947 - One hundred and eleven people lose their lives following an explosion in an Illinois coal mine, near Centralia

1957 - Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl" is confiscated by United States Customs on grounds of obscenity

1958 - Canada's Avro Arrow makes its first flight

1965 - Civil rights activists lead by Martin Luther King Jr. complete a four-day, fifty mile march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama

1966 - Singer-songwriter Jeff Healey (d. 2008) is born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

1969 - John Lennon and Yoko Ono begin their first "Bed-In for Peace"

1990 - Eighty-seven are killed in the "Happy Land fire" in which an arsonist torches an illegal nightclub in The Bronx, New York

1992 - After spending ten months aboard the Mir space station, cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev returns to Earth

1996 - The export of British beef is banned by the European Union's Veterinarian Committee following several cases of "mad cow disease"

1999 - Famous baseball player Cal Ripken Sr. passes away at the age of 63

2006 - A gunman storms Seattle's Capitol Hill neighbourhood, killing six people before taking his own life

And celebrating a birthday today...we have some famous faces!  Happy birthday to Gloria Steinem, Tom Monaghan, Aretha Franklin, Paul Michael Glaser, Bonnie Bedelia, Maizie Williams (Boney M), Thom Loverro, Susie Bright, James McDaniel, Haywood Nelson, Steve Norman, Brenda Strong, Fred Goss, Marcia Cross, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Sarah Jessica Parker, Cathy Dennis, Kari Matchett, Sheryl Swoopes, Lark Voorhies, Melanie Blatt, Natasha Yi, Sean Faris, Danica Patrick, Katharine McPhee, Jason Castro, and Ryan Lewis.

And today's Tuesday Timeline entry is also celebrating a birthday today.  Birthday number 67 to be exact.



Making his date of birth March 25, 1947.

Now, today's Tuesday Timeline subject has been just as influential with the music scene as he is with the fashion scene...particularly in the accessory department.  For four and a half decades, this man has brought forth dozens of albums, and countless singles on the radio, and has delighted fans at his epic concert tours over the years.

He recorded singles for Disney movies, he came out to Barbara Walters nearly twenty years ago, and since then has become a father of two children with his partner of almost a decade, David Furnish.

Sure, in recent years, he has focused less on recording music and apparently brought more attention towards his views on Madonna.  But I suppose that we can give him a pass.  After all, Madonna had just turned ten when this man was recording his first singles!



And today, we wish Reginald Kenneth Dwight a very happy 67th birthday!  Though, most of you probably know him best as Sir Elton John!

Yes, I thought that for today, I would dedicate this blog towards the man who said farewell to the yellow brick road, lit candles in the wind to both Marilyn Monroe and Princess Diana, and when it comes to duking it out with other people, prefers to do it on a Saturday night.

But which songs were considered his BEST songs ever?

Granted, the opinions are all subjective.  After all, my favourite Elton John song might be the one that other people hated.  But, in celebration of Elton John's sixty-seven years on this Earth (at least two-thirds of which was spent making music), I've hand-picked ten that I feel tell a great story, be it through my personal experiences with the song, or some random trivia about each song.

I'll start with number ten and progress to my favourite Elton John song.  Did any of my picks make your list?



10.  I DON'T WANNA GO ON WITH YOU LIKE THAT
Date Released:  June 1988

Funny story.  For years, I thought the title of this single was "I Don't Want To Go With A Girl Like That"!  Given that his sexual preference was officially broadcast six years after this single was released, I suppose that title might have fit.  But the reason why I picked this song was because I have memories of listening to this song in some of the weirdest places when I was a child.  Whether it be getting my teeth cleaned at the dentist, or shopping for Oreo cookies at the supermarket, or blaring from someone's car radio as I walked to school, this song was a big part of my childhood...and a big hit for Elton John too.  It reached #1 on the Adult Contemporary Charts in the summer of 1988.



9.  CANDLE IN THE WIND
Date Released:  January 1974/September 1997

This was one of the only songs that Elton John released twice, both with different lyrics.  And as it turns out, both versions were recorded for deceased pop culture legends.  The version I posted above is the original one that was released in the early 1970s, and it was written for Marilyn Monroe.  But when Diana, Princess of Wales, died from injuries sustained in a Parisian car crash on the last day of August, 1997, Elton John reworked the song to pay tribute to the woman who he had been friends with for years.  Elton's tribute to "England's Rose" peaked at #1 in several countries, and was declared the biggest-selling single since records began in the Guinness Book of World Records in 2007.



8.  I WANT LOVE
Date Released:  September 2001

Okay, I have another confession to make.  I actually thought Robert Downey Jr. was singing this song before Muchmusic put on the graphic stating that Elton John was the real chanteuse.  Very sneaky work on both of their parts!  At any rate, I love this particular single a lot, and it's definitely earned a spot on my iPod rotation.  And to Robert Downey Jr.'s credit, he lip-synched this song like a pro.  In fact, one could say that this video was the beginning of the absolutely amazing comeback he made in the 2000s as he cleaned up his act and landed the roles of "Sherlock Holmes" and "Iron Man".  The video was brilliant, and the lyrics were such that almost everyone could relate to them.  Might not have been the biggest hit of Elton's career, but it certainly is one of my favourites.



7.  PHILADELPHIA FREEDOM
Date Released:  February 1975

It's too bad this single wasn't released just one year later.  It would have made the perfect soundtrack for America's bicentennial on July 4, 1976.  But in actuality, the song pays tribute to tennis ace Billie Jean King and her tennis team...which is kind of weird, since there's really no reference to love scoring, racket smashing, and fluorescent yellow tennis balls in the song at all.  Even Elton John's long-standing songwriting partner Bernie Taupin admitted that he couldn't write a song about tennis!  Still, the song did give Elton John a number one hit on the Billboard charts that April, and was heavily played throughout the next year.



6.  BENNIE AND THE JETS
Date Released:  February 1974

If Elton John had his way, this single would never have been released at all!  He didn't think it was powerful enough a single from "Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road" to make an impression on the charts.  Who knew that it would grow to become one of Elton's most requested songs to do in concert?  It all began when a radio station based out of Windsor, Ontario, Canada started playing the single on a constant rotation.  This made nearby Detroit radio stations take note, and it soon became the most requested song in that city.  It prompted other radio stations in America and Canada to add the song to their playlists, and the rest is history.  The song, about a fictional rock band during the glitzy 1970s, eventually peaked at #1 in April 1974.



5.  I'M STILL STANDING
Date Released:  July 1983

Can I just state right now that this song may as well be my theme song?  The song (which topped the charts in Canada and Switzerland) is all about self-esteem and rising above all of the stuff that one might go through during life.  Believe me when I say that I went through a lot when I was younger.  Heck, life isn't a cakewalk now!  What is interesting is the trivia that surrounds this song.  Apparently one full day of footage was lost after director Russell Mulcahy accidentally fell into the sea holding a very expensive video camera!  A guest who stumbled upon the video shoot was Duran Duran's Simon LeBon who shared martinis with Elton.  And you see that one dancer in that black Speedo like outfit with the studs on it?  You might recognize him as "Dancing With The Stars" judge, Bruno Tonioli!



4.  DON'T GO BREAKING MY HEART - duet with Kiki Dee
Date Released:  June 1976

Now, I will state that while it was very rare for Elton John to do duets (he sang with both George Michael and Eminem in his past), this duet with Kiki Dee remains one of his best.  It certainly symbolizes the carefree love songs that dominated the charts in the mid-1970s, and it did become a huge hit.  But Kiki Dee wasn't the only one who sang this song with Elton.  I seem to remember watching a Disney special in which Elton sang the song with Minnie Mouse.  Funny how memories are evoked, huh?  And, of course, Elton John sang an updated version of the single in the 1990s with RuPaul.



3.  YOUR SONG
Date Released:  October 1970

Many consider this classic to be the song that kicked off Elton John's brilliant career, and in many ways it was.  It certainly wasn't Elton's first single release, but it certainly was his very first Top 10 hit (it peaked at #8 on the charts in early 1971).  And it remains universally loved by many artists and songwriters.  Of course, the reason I have this song at #3 is because there are two songs that have more meaning to me.  But interestingly enough, this single was actually a B-side, and it was only played because disc jockeys liked the song a lot better than the A-side (Take Me To The Pilot)!



2.  CROCODILE ROCK
Date Released:  October 1972

Okay, so "Crocodile Rock" might not be the most memorable song to all of you reading this...but to me, it was the song that first introduced me to Elton John's musical talents.  For some reason, I recall this song being played a lot on the AM Radio station my mom liked to listen to, and the child in me loved the fact that there was a song about a crocodile (an animal that I was sort of obsessed with back then).  I suppose in some ways, this song could very well be a true testament to Elton John's own childhood, as a lot of the references to the song deal with some of the things that he enjoyed when he was a child.  And, certainly children could enjoy this song as well.  It was re-recorded by Elton and Nelly Furtado for the film "Gnomeo and Juliet".



1.  CAN YOU FEEL THE LOVE TONIGHT
Date Released:  May 1994

Maybe it's because I loved Disney's "The Lion King".  Maybe it's because it won an Academy Award for Best Original Song.  Maybe it's because I cried when I first heard this song (and for someone who had just turned thirteen when this single was climbing up the charts, that's a big admission).  Whatever the case, this song is my all-time favourite Elton John song.  I absolutely love it very much.  Actually, the whole soundtrack from the film was wonderful (I would have put "Circle of Life" in my Top 15).  Interestingly, the backing vocals were done by other established musical acts/celebrities such as his former duet partner, Kiki Dee, Gary "Take That" Barlow, Rick "Never Gonna Give You Up" Astley, and even Robert "Freddy Krueger" Englund!!!

Yeah, just picture that for a moment.  Freddy Krueger singing "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" with Elton John!  Yeah.

So, that's my list of personal Elton John favourite songs.  What are yours?

Oh, and happy birthday, Elton!

Monday, March 24, 2014

Frozen - A Film For People Who Love Warm Hugs

I'm very excited to be bringing you a follow-up edition of the Monday Matinee.  And, what I mean by follow-up edition is the fact that a couple of weeks ago, I talked about a movie that I had not yet seen, but was intrigued about.  It was a movie that was getting a lot of buzz from media outlets, and just judging by the number of people who asked me about this movie prior to its release on DVD and Blu-Ray.

So, two weeks ago, I posed the question...is it worth it to seek out the 2013 movie "Frozen" and watch it, so that I can give a proper review of it later on in this blog.

Well, as far as comments on this blog went...I received nary.  Just to let you all know, you CAN post comments on this blog.  I usually read almost every single one, and while I might not respond to all of them, I do read them.

(That said, don't hock your wares on my blog.  If I see anything in the comments section that even resembles an ad, it will be deleted.)

However, when it came to asking people on the street whether I should go and see "Frozen", the response was almost unanimous. 

"You have to go and see this movie!  It is so good!"
"The music is so awesome!  I love it!"
"Olaf's adorable!"
"One of Disney's best films over the last 15-20 years!"
"It should have been released during March Break!"



Well, hell...with comments like that, I suppose that I should give it a whirl.  



The movie was released on DVD and Blu-Ray on March 18.  I bought my copy March 19.  And, I usually don't buy movies without seeing them first (especially ones that cost $20.00 and up), but in this case, I would make an exception.  After all, I was letting the power of the people make my decision for me that day.  I figured that by buying the movie, I owed them that at least.  And besides, I haven't really seen too many Disney films that I hated, so I thought I would be making a calculated risk in purchasing it.

Turns out that it was a good decision to go with the DVD copy.  My store completely sold out of Blu-Ray copies after two days.  In fact, I think I read somewhere (I think it was the UK based entertainment site Digital Spy) that in the first two days of release that "Frozen" sold 3,200,000 copies!  That is absolutely impressive!

So, now that I've watched the movie, I'm going to give a review.  I'll fill in the plot details a little bit better (without revealing how it ends), and I'll flesh out the character details more, and I'll give my final thoughts along with some interesting trivia bits about the movie that you might not have known!

Oh, yeah...one more thing.  Since the movie is called "Frozen", let's freeze this font colour a little bit.

Ah.  That's better.  On with the show.

The tale of "Frozen" begins in the kingdom of Arendelle, a picturesque area with a gigantic castle and a beautifully developed shipyard, ideal for trading.  The King and Queen of Arendelle rule the land openly, and allow the residents in and out of the castle courtyard whenever they liked...

...that is until one fateful day.

You see, the King and Queen of Arendelle had two daughters, Elsa (Idina Menzel) and Anna (Kristen Bell).  Elsa is the eldest of the two, and is expected to take over the kingdom of Arendelle when she comes of age.  But Elsa also has something unique about her.

She has the power to freeze things and create snowy weather with just a simple touch.



Of course, at first, Elsa is thrilled to have the power, and she amuses Anna with all the fun things that they can do with it.  Elsa transforms the castle floor into an indoor skating rink, she builds mountains that she and Anna slide down, and she even builds Anna a snowman pal named Olaf. 

But during one particular day of fun, Elsa accidentally zaps Anna with a bolt of frozen magic, and it knocks her out cold.  A strand of her red hair turns platinum blonde, and Elsa is heartbroken that she has hurt her sister.  While Elsa tends to Anna, she is unaware that the entire room transforms into a gigantic walk-in cooler, and by the time her parents enter the room, they come to the conclusion that Elsa's powers are uncontrollable.  The King and Queen rush Anna to a gully where a group of trolls help heal Anna.  As the leader of the trolls, Grand Pabbie (Ciaran Hinds) states, the power hit her head, so it could be treated.  Had it struck her in the heart, it would have been much more difficult to heal.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves.

The well-meaning King and Queen of Arendelle decide to keep the gates to the castle permanently closed, and separate Elsa and Anna from each other as a way to protect both of them, but both are unaware that they are causing harm instead, as the one unbreakable bond between the two sisters becomes fragmented as a result.  Of course, it also doesn't help much that when Grand Pabbie healed Anna, he removed all of her memories of Elsa even having powers.  



So, here's the situation.  We have Anna who is upset that her older sister seems to be shutting her out, not realizing that the only reason Elsa is doing this is because she is afraid of harming her with her magic freeze touch.  You can bet that something will happen that will blow everything apart.

Sure enough, it does one summery day.  After the King and Queen of Arendelle lose their lives in a shipwreck, Elsa is set to be crowned the new Queen upon her twenty-first birthday.  And the coronation ceremony makes Anna very excited as it will be the first time in forever that the gates are opened up to the public.

Wow, I feel like a song, don't you?



Naturally, the coronation scene goes very well despite Elsa feeling a little apprehensive about grabbing the royal scepter.  It almost instantly freezes when Elsa grabs it, which causes her to wear bright blue gloves at all times in an effort to control the power and hide it from others.

Meanwhile, the coronation ceremony brings forth people from all areas surrounding Arendelle including neighbouring communities.  In particular, the Duke of Weselton (Alan Tudyk) arrives solely for the purpose of instigating a trading contract with Arendelle to line his own pockets with gold.  As well, we have the arrival of Prince Hans of the Southern Isles (Santino Fontana), who quite literally bumps into Princess Anna.  The two of them hit it off at the coronation ceremony and Anna believes that she has found true love after just all of twelve hours!  After all, according to Anna, love is an open door!



And while I'm trying not to spoil the film too much, this song just might very well be the most ironic song in the whole film!  You'll understand what I mean.

So, how does Elsa react to the fact that Anna has decided to get married rather impulsively?  She doesn't like the idea at all, and essentially evicts Anna from the castle right there and then!  This prompts Anna to deliver a few home truths to Elsa, which in turn causes Elsa to respond by creating a barricade of icicles which shocks everybody in the room...including Anna!  Needless to say, Elsa's display causes the people of Arendelle to turn against her, and she flees from the site, transforming Arendelle into a permanent winter wonderland in the process.  Anna, concerned for her sister, leaves her new fiance in charge of Arendelle while she sets out to search for her sister, unaware that the Duke of Weselton is making plans to bring back Elsa - dead or alive - so that the winter madness will stop.



Of course, that could be difficult since Elsa is absolutely unaware of how to control her powers, and that she's too busy building an ice palace while singing about how the cold doesn't bother her anyway.

Meanwhile, Anna befriends a few people along the way on her journey to bring Elsa back to Arendelle to put things right.  She meets mountain man Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) at a trading post, and after gaining his trust by buying carrots for his beloved pet reindeer Sven, the duo join Anna in the trek to the North Mountain - where Elsa's ice castle sits.

And of course, they run into an old friend.



Turns out that Olaf (Josh Gad) - the snowman who loves warm hugs - has been brought to life when Elsa created her own personal ice shrine, and Olaf quickly endears himself to Anna and joins the crew - despite the fact that Sven keeps trying to eat his nose.

But when the group arrive at the ice castle and Anna tries to convince Elsa to come back to Arendelle, it causes Elsa to snap and unaware of what she's doing, Elsa shoots a ray of frozen energy directly into Anna's heart!  Of course, the effects of this aren't automatically shown at first, but when Kristoff notices that Anna's hair is slowly turning white, he and Olaf come to the conclusion that something is definitely wrong.  Fortunately, Kristoff remembered that when he was a little boy, he witnessed the trolls healing a little Anna years ago, and he thought that by bringing Anna back there, Grand Pabbie could do something.  But when he tells the group that only an act of true love could remove the ice from Anna's heart, they come to the conclusion that makes sense.

But, what happens when Kristoff has conflicting feelings about it all?
What happens when Hans and Anna are reunited?
Will Olaf ever discover what it's like to experience summer?
And, will Elsa finally find a way to control her frozen Midas touch?

Well, I can't really say much more than that.  All I can say is that the ending is unlike most Disney movies you've seen, the animation is spectacular, and sometimes people are worth melting for.

And, sometimes you have to listen to the people.  I bought the movie because people were telling me that I had to see it.  Looking back, I'm happy I listened to them.  The film is a cinematic masterpiece, and I think it absolutely deserved the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.  The songs are all catchy and memorable, the voice acting is just perfect, and I don't even want to know just how much work the animation team put in to make the scenes pop.  It is a fantastic movie with a fantastic message, and I recommend that you go out and see it if you haven't already.  Bravo to Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad, Santino Fontana, Alan Tudyk, and everybody else for making this film such a huge success!

Now for some interesting trivia about the film.  Some of which surprised even me!

1 - This movie is based on the fairy tale "The Snow Queen", by Hans Christian Anderson.  And, four of the characters in the film sound out his name somewhat if you put them together.  Just say it with me.  Hans, Kristoff, Anna, Sven.

2 - This film marked the directorial debut of Jennifer Lee, who teamed up with Chris Buck to bring "Frozen" to the big screen.



3 - Both Anna and Elsa have been made into characters for the Disney video game "INFINITY".

4 - The idea to make "The Snow Queen" into a Disney feature was not a new idea.  Walt Disney reportedly wanted to make it a feature back in the 1940s, but the project was shelved.

5 - Initially, Santino Fontana auditioned for the role of Kristoff, but when the script was changed around, Fontana was given the role of Hans instead.

6 - Josh Gad won an Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production in 2014 for his work in "Frozen".

7 - Both Josh Gad and Kristen Bell have stated that one of their goals was to voice an animated character in a Disney film.  Both got their wish with "Frozen".  In fact, Kristen secured the role of Anna after producers listened to a demo tape she made of herself singing "Part of Your World" from the 1989 film "The Little Mermaid"!

8 - Had the original screenplay been approved, Elsa would have been the primary antagonist of the movie.

9 - Both Idina Menzel and Kristen Bell auditioned for parts in the movie "Tangled".



10 - In order to better animate Sven, a live reindeer was actually brought into animation studio!  

11 - Look very closely at the shelves inside the Wandering Oaken's Trading Post.  Notice the Mickey Mouse sitting there?  It's a common trend in Disney movies that there has to be at least one Mickey Mouse hidden somewhere.

12 - The film has a crazy credit during the credit scroll.  It states the following:  "The views and opinions expressed by Kristoff in the film that all men eat their boogers is solely his own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Walt Disney Company or its filmmakers."

13 - The movie "Frozen" has several references to the number thirteen.  The movie was released in 2013, Hans is the thirteenth of thirteen siblings, and if you were to take all of the Disney Princesses and line them up, Elsa would be Princess #13 (Anna is #12)!  And, as of today, the film is currently the 13th highest grossing film overall!  Of course, that could very well change, but it's quite interesting, nonetheless.

14 - This film marks back-to-back Disney films for actor Alan Tudyk, whose previous Disney role was King Candy in 2012's "Wreck-It-Ralph".

15 - Elsa creates two snowmen in the film.  Olaf represents the childhood innocence between Elsa and Anna, and also symbolizes a time in which Elsa was warm and open, hence Olaf's friendliness.  Marshmallow, on the other hand, was created when Elsa just wanted to be left alone, which explains why Marshmallow is so much angrier and intimidating than Olaf.

Sunday, March 23, 2014

I Saw The Sign

Hey, everybody!  I hope you don't mind me going a little bit international for this edition of the Sunday Jukebox, but this edition is going to be featuring a band from a country that is famous for its meatballs, Ingrid Bergman, and IKEA furniture.

Yes, the song that we're featuring is by a band that hails from the Scandinavian country of Sweden.

No, the group is not ABBA.

However, this song was a huge hit twenty years ago this week.  In fact, if you took a look at the Billboard Music Charts for the year of 1994, you'll find that this particular single was the number one single of the entire year!  And the song itself spent quite a lot of time on the pole position of the Billboard charts that year.  The length of time it spent at #1 lasted from March 12, 1994 until April 2, 1994.  And a month later, it spent an additional two weeks at the top of the charts the week beginning May 7! 

As far as personal memories of this song go, I have to admit that I heard this single played a LOT on the radio during my seventh grade year.  The song hit number one just before I turned thirteen, and admittedly, that year was not exactly the happiest time of my life.  I hated seventh grade with a passion, and don't even get me started on my classmates that year.  With a couple of exceptions, all of the kids who I could not stand just happened to be in that very class.  Oh, what fun.

Yet for whatever reason, this song was the one constant of that tumultuous time.  Every time I heard the song playing, it provided me some comfort.  Although the song quickly became way overplayed that year, I still liked it enough to listen to it on the radio while I was doing my homework.

(Because that year I actually did better learning outside of school than in class.)

Okay, so what is this song in question?  Your clues are that the band is from Sweden, and it was the #1 song of 1994.  Is that enough to go on?  Or, would you like me to show you a "sign"?

Ah, hell, let's just go ahead with the video.



ARTIST:  Ace of Base
SONG:  The Sign
ALBUM:  The Sign
DATE RELEASED:  December 21, 1993
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS:  #1 for 6 weeks



Okay, so how many of you have heard of the Swedish pop/dance group "Ace of Base"?  Well, if you were like me and happened to be in your middle school years during the 1993/94 school year, you probably heard this group a lot.  The group dominated the charts for nearly a five-year-period in North America with singles such as "All That She Wants", "Beautiful Life", "Lucky Love", and a cover of Bananarama's 1984 hit, "Cruel Summer".  But when the new millennium came around, Ace of Base simply disappeared in North America.  Sure, the band is still recording music as of 2014, but a couple of band members have departed the group since, and of the Ace of Base line-up of 1994, only half remain.



The members, by the way were Ulf Ekberg and the sibling trio of Linn, Jenny, and Jonas Berggren.

(Just in case you were wondering, Jenny's the brunette, Linn's the blonde.  And, it really makes no difference now as both Jenny and Linn have gone their separate ways.)

The band was actually founded seven years prior to "The Sign" becoming a #1 hit.  In 1987, Jonas Berggren and a couple of his friends (Johnny Linden and Niklas Trank) formed a band as part of a school project.  Jonas' sisters, Linn and Jenny would join the group as well as the band's main vocalists.  The band went through several names (including Tech-Noir and Kalinin Prospect) before settling on the name "Ace of Base", as the band felt that they were the masters of their studio.

(That studio at the time being a basement of an auto repair shop.)

The original line-up took a hit when Johnny parted ways with the group in 1989.  As for Niklas Trank, I am just speculating that he was fired from the group for skipping out on a booked gig to see a Rolling Stones concert.  Ulf was brought in shortly after Niklas left the band, and the quartet remained for years to come.



The group released their first album, "Happy Nation" in December 1992 in Europe and Australia, and their first single, "Wheel of Fortune", showed some promise but wasn't the breakout hit that they envisioned it to be.  



It wasn't until "All That She Wants" was released as the second single within the last month of 1992 that the world began to take notice.

As 1993 was welcomed in, "Ace of Base" began a whirlwind rise to the top.  By April, the song "All That She Wants" was beginning to make headway on the North American charts, and American record labels began to take notice.  One record label in particular was Clive Davis' Arista Records, and Davis took a chance on the band when all other record companies turned them down, stating that the band's music would NEVER work in the United States.

(Keep in mind that 1993 was the height of the Grunge movement in which Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Smashing Pumpkins reigned supreme.)

Of course, there were some changes that had to be made to the band's album if it was to get any attention in America.  Some songs were kept on the album ("All That She Wants", "Wheel of Fortune", "Waiting for Magic", etc.), but some of the songs that were recorded entirely in Swedish were pitched.  In addition, the band composed some new tracks that would be added onto the disc - three of which would make an impression on the Billboard charts.  Two of them were "Don't Turn Around" and "Living In Danger".

And, the third was "The Sign".  And in America, "Happy Nation" was renamed as "The Sign" to bring more attention to the album.

Whatever the case, whatever Clive Davis did to the album worked.  The album went nine times platinum, selling over nine million copies in the United States alone.  An additional million copies were sold in Canada.  And throughout 1994 and 1995, "Ace of Base" were easily considered one of the top acts in the world, and the third most successful Swedish band in the world directly behind ABBA and Roxette.



So, let's talk about "The Sign", shall we?

As far as what the song is about, the song deals with the subject of breaking up with somebody and one of the people in the relationship (presumably the girl as Jenny and Linn provide the lead vocals in this single) talks about how the signs were there that the relationship just couldn't survive. 

As if the lyrics weren't telling the story enough, the music video seems to do a good job of it as well, with a few clips of a man and a woman sitting side by side until the man takes off and leaves her there.  Of course, the man comes back to the woman holding a rose and he almost expects her to go with him.  And she almost agrees...

...until she happens to see a bright light shining down towards her.  A sign.  A sign that maybe rose-boy should go back on "The Bachelor" to give the other twenty-four desperate women a chance to form a connection with him so that he can break her heart the same way Juan Pablo did on this recent season.

Ahem...where was I?  Oh, yes, "The Sign", that's quite right.

Anyway, "The Sign" was a very unique video because there are not one, not two, but FIVE different edits of the video!  And, depending on what country you were from, you would see one of these five edits.  The one I described is the United States version.  But some versions are solely black and white.  Others mix a little bit of colour in.  Some versions show more close-ups of Linn (the video in the United States focus more on Jenny), and others show the group singing with their backs in a circle.

It's very confusing, but I think it was a good idea to release different edits of videos for different nations.  After all, what might work in the USA may not work in the UK, and what clips might be seen as innovative in South America might be considered cheesy in Australia.

What is interesting though is the impact that this song has had on other aspects of pop culture.  At the peak of this song's popularity, it was featured in a final season episode of "Full House" in which Stephanie Tanner forms a girl group with best friend Gia, arch-nemesis Kimmy Gibbler, and some random extra and performs this song.  Rather badly.  But since the lesson learned is that practice makes perfect, that explains why it was.  Though, given that Jodie Sweetin was thirteen years old at the time, it also explains why the performance wasn't really up to par anyway.



It was also featured in the "South Park" episode where a prehistoric man from "1996" is unearthed, and to make him feel at home again, he is locked in a chamber which plays "Ace of Base" music constantly.  It was a very contrived episode, and yet it's one of my favourites.  Go figure.

And, that's our look back on "The Sign".  Did it open up your eyes?

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Mister Rogers Neighborhood

Okay, so this entry is a little bit late, but the reason why is because I was really trying to come up with a suitable topic for today.  It has come to my attention that I have done so many entries on cartoons that I was trying to figure out which cartoons I haven't done blogs on yet.

So, I decided that I would flip the script a little bit.  Instead of doing a topic on a cartoon, why not take a look at a show that provided educational value?

And, certainly I had no shortage of topics in that regard.  After all, I did grow up on a steady diet of PBS and TVOntario during my formative years.

But what show would I choose? 

Oh, I know.  Why don't I do a blog on a particular neighbourhood?  A neighbourhood that I longed to be a part of when I was a kid (and quite frankly still long to be a part of as an adult).

I suppose that I should explain.  You know all of those scenes that you see on television or in film about those perfect little suburban neighbourhoods filled with the happiest middle class people you've ever seen and filled with tons of children playing in the streets?  Well...I never really had that growing up. 

I've mentioned this before in the blog, but my family was considered working class (and I suppose in some manner, they still are), and as a result, I recall moving around a lot when I was a child.  I think I lived in five different houses during the first five years of my life, because just as soon as we settled in, something happened, and we had to be forced to move.  Then when we finally did find a stable home, it was in a neighbourhood that had zero children, and a whole bunch of elderly people.  I mean, I suppose it was somewhat okay, as the elderly people were quite kind (well, MOST of them anyway), but the lack of children certainly was a struggle.  I suppose in one way, it was a huge factor towards my being unable to relate to people my own age.  I just never really had much experience with kids outside of school.

I guess there was just a part of me that wishes that I could be in a part of a neighbourhood where I could be liked and respected just for who I was, instead of being judged and critiqued by the neighbourhood watch, or being the subject of gossip by people who know no other way of life.

It was nice to know that for many years, there was one show in which I could feel like I belonged.  And, whether it be in the real neighbourhood or in some place called Make-Believe Land, I knew I was loved.



Okay, so let's hop on the friendly neighbourhood trolley and take a trip down memory lane to visit "Mister Rogers Neighborhood".



(NOTE:  I am adopting the American spelling for the title only, as that is how it is written.  Any other instances, the Canadian in me will take over.)

Now, the show itself enjoyed a really long run on television.  Believe it or not, the show debuted on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) fifty-one years ago in 1963!  At that time, Fredrick McFeely Rogers - who had just moved to Toronto, Canada from Pennsylvania earlier that year - was involved in a program known as "The Children's Corner", and when that series ended in 1963, a new series was set to debut later that year with Fred Rogers as the star.  The original name of the program was called "Misterogers", and it was scheduled as part of CBC's morning television block for three years before Fred decided to relocate the show to the United States.

TRIVIA:  One of the people who helped Fred develop 'Misterogers" was a man by the name of Ernie Coombs.  When Fred Rogers would relocate to the United States in the mid-1960s, Coombs stayed behind to create another popular kids' show..."Mr. Dressup".

And, would you believe that "Misterogers" set the tone for how future children's television shows would air?  Whereas most kids' shows in the 1960s relied on puppets or cartoons to get their points across, Mister Rogers felt instead that a better approach would be to appear on camera as himself so that the children could identify him the minute he appeared on screen.

And, it worked for me at least.  With his cardigans of many colours, I could easily recognize him and tell him apart from all of the other people who appeared on the show.



TRIVIA:  Do you know why Mister Rogers always changed his shoes from work shoes to sneakers on every episode?  It was Fred's idea.  He observed that his work shoes were too loud for the soundstage, so he opted to wear sneakers whenever he was filming in the house set so that he wouldn't make as much noise!

MORE TRIVIA:  Did you know that one of Mister Rogers' famous cardigans is on exhibit at the Smithsonian?  If ever you're down there, see if you can find it!

Of course, a neighbourhood wouldn't be a neighbourhood if Mister Rogers didn't interact with the community in some manner.  If Mister Rogers ever left the house to visit a library, or mailed a letter, or decided to learn about how a block of cheese was made, the camera would focus on a model of a small city and the camera would mimic Mister Rogers' foot movements by gliding from street to street.  



CONFESSION:  I always wanted that Mister Rogers Neighbourhood model city to play with. 



And, of course he would interact with all sorts of people in the neighbourhood as well.  Postman Mr. McFeely (David Newell) was always making "speedy deliveries" to the Rogers' household.  And, other people who lived in the neighbourhood were Betty Aberlin, Chuck Aber, Don Brockett, Francois Clemmons, Joe Negri, and others.  

Of course, those neighbours might not seem recognizable to you yet.  But whenever Fred Rogers got the hankering to play with the number of toy playsets that were scattered on shelves inside of his kitchen, you knew that you would be seeing their alter-egos soon enough.



After all, whenever the toy trolley on the track inside of Mister Rogers' house arrived, you knew that it was time to visit Make Believe Land.



Oh, and Make Believe Land was a wonderous place.  In the heart of the land was a gigantic castle belonging to King Friday the Thirteenth, the ruler of the land along with his wife, Queen Sara Saturday.  The heir to the kingdom was Prince Tuesday.  



Other puppet characters who called Make Believe Land home were Anna Platypus, Daniel Striped Tiger (my personal favourite), Henrietta Pussycat, X the Owl, and the hideous, freakishly scary puppet known as Lady Elaine!



AAAAAAHHHH!!!  That puppet still gives me nightmares.

Now, Fred Rogers himself never did appear in any of the Make Believe Land sketches, which makes sense.  After all, Make Believe Land was supposed to be a figment of Mister Rogers' imagination.  But Fred Rogers did provide the voices for many of the puppets of Make Believe Land.  I know he did King Friday XIII, Daniel Striped Tiger, Henrietta, X, and Lady Elaine.  In fact, Fred Rogers voiced as many as fifteen different characters in Make Believe Land.

And, Make Believe Land was a magical place where puppets would interact with humans.  And, naturally, all the humans of Fred's neighbourhood became characters.  Chuck Aber became Neighbor Aber.  Betty Aberlin became Lady Aberlin.  Joe Negri became Handyman Negri, and so on, and so forth.

TRIVIA:  Would you believe that a future Hollywood star got his first big break playing a character from Make Believe Land?  Michael Keaton played the role of an acrobat who performed in a troupe called "The Flying Zookenies" in 1975!  Who knew that fourteen years later, he would play Batman!

Now, the show itself ran a really long time on television.  After airing on a couple of networks throughout the 1960s, the show found a permanent home on PBS in 1970, and would air brand new episodes over the next thirty-one years, ending its original run on August 31, 2001.  Fred Rogers would pass away less than two years later, on February 27, 2003.

But his legacy will forever be known as bringing love and happiness to kids of all ages...and most importantly, stressing the idea that we are who we are, and that we should love being us.  Mister Rogers.  The King of Self-Esteem.

And, although PBS did continue to air the program after Fred Rogers' death, almost all PBS networks ceased airing the program in the summer of 2008, and on many affiliates, it hasn't aired since.  A real shame in my opinion, as kids today could probably still get a lot from watching the show.

So, that's why I'm going to end this entry off by posting a link to the farewell song that Mister Rogers would sing at the end of each episode.