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Monday, April 07, 2014

Field Of Dreams

By all accounts, every single person in the world has their own idea of what year had the best films.  And, certainly, I have mine.

And certainly there have been some years that have been better than others.

I mean, just throwing out the year 1939 for example, that year brought us "Gone With The Wind" and "The Wizard of Oz", and it was the year in which colour began being added to motion pictures.  Certainly a wonderful year, and I loved both movies...but it's not my favourite.

Or, how about 1954?  That was a year in which we dreamed of a "White Christmas", spent some time "On The Waterfront", and cheered Judy Garland on in "A Star is Born".  Certainly another great year of film...but again, not my favourite.

I have a bit of a soft spot for 1985.  Admittedly, it was the year in which the first movie that I ever watched at a movie theatre (which was "The Care Bears Movie") was made.  But it also had some really classic films made, like "The Breakfast Club", "St. Elmo's Fire", "Back to the Future", and "The Goonies".  And, '85 is probably right up there in my Top 10 years. 

But you know what my favourite year for film was?

It happens to be
1989.  And, 1989 was a year in which almost all of my all-time favourite films were made.  Even sequels that were made in 1989 seemed quite good. 

(Of course, back in '89, only a select few sequels were made.  It wasn't like...oh...2013 in which practically EVERY film was a sequel.)

So, what were the top twenty films of 1989?  Let's have a look and see...

1.  INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE
2.  BATMAN
3.  BACK TO THE FUTURE II
4.  LOOK WHO'S TALKING
5.  DEAD POETS SOCIETY
6.  LETHAL WEAPON 2
7.  HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS
8.  GHOSTBUSTERS II
9.  THE LITTLE MERMAID
10.  BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY
11.  THE WAR OF THE ROSES
12.  LICENCE TO KILL
13.  DRIVING MISS DAISY
14.  BLACK RAIN
15.  PARENTHOOD
16.  SEA OF LOVE
17.  STEEL MAGNOLIAS
18.  THE ABYSS
19.  FIELD OF DREAMS
20.  UNCLE BUCK

Certainly all wonderful films...well, at least the eighteen that I have seen.  As of this writing, I still have not yet seen "Black Rain" or "The Abyss".  And, I'm kind of shocked that "All Dogs Go To Heaven" didn't even make the Top 20.  I loved that movie!

Of course, you might be wondering why I have highlighted number nineteen on the list.  There's a reason for that.



It happens to be the film that I've decided to talk about for this edition of the Monday Matinee.  After all, spring is here, and baseball season is just starting up for another year.  What better time to talk about a baseball movie, right?



Certainly, this isn't the first time that Kevin Costner has filmed a baseball movie.  This one was filmed in between 1988's "Bull Durham" and 1999's "For The Love of the Game".  But I think "Field of Dreams" is probably the best of the three.  It's got a great story, a great cast (which we'll talk about a little bit later in this blog), and a great catchphrase.

"...if you build it, he will come..."

Sends chills down your spine, doesn't it?



The movie was released in the spring of 1989, directed by Phil Alden Robinson, and its screenplay was also written by Robinson, which itself was inspired by W.P. Kinsella's novel "Shoeless Joe", which was first printed in 1982.

The film itself made $84 million on a budget of $15 million, and was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Picture.  Unfortunately, it lost to "Driving Miss Daisy".  In the long run though, it's still a really decent film.

The film begins at the Kinsella family farm in the Midwestern United States.  The farm's primary source of income is the corn field that is located nearby.  And, for the time being, the patriarch of the Kinsella family, Ray (Costner) is content with living this way, along with his wife Annie (Amy Madigan), and daughter Karin (Gaby Hoffmann).  



But one fateful day, Ray hears a strange voice calling out to him while walking through the corn field.  The voice keeps saying "if you build it, they will come".  And, at first, Ray is confused over what the message means, but when he sees an image of a baseball diamond, he now knows what he must do. 

He comes up with the seemingly impulsive solution to bulldoze a section of his corn field to build a baseball diamond in the middle of it.  Seems like a plan that was well thought out, doesn't it?  Taking your main source of income and destroying half of it to build something that you were told by an unknown source.

Naturally, Ray's wife is not impressed by his plan, and shows much skepticism as he is digging up his corn field.  Unfortunately, when the crops are all dug up, nothing happens, and predictably, the Kinsella family face losing everything they own.  Boy, did Ray screw up good.



But wait!  Did he?  The littlest member of the Kinsella family sees something in the distance where the field now sits.  Karin mentions to her parents that she saw a man standing in the middle of the field, and it turns out that the man was the ghost of disgraced baseball player "Shoeless" Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta).  As luck would have it, Shoeless Joe was the favourite baseball player of Ray's deceased father, and the reason why Shoeless Joe was disgraced was because he was one of eight players who was banned from playing baseball following the Black Sox scandal of the 1919 World Series (which you can read about HERE as I did a blog entry on that subject earlier in this blog's history).

And, the ghost of baseball past is so thrilled to be back on a baseball field that he goes back into the field to bring back the other seven baseball players who were banned from the game back in 1919.

Interestingly enough, Ray is one of the only people who can see Shoeless Joe and his team.  Nobody else can, especially Ray's brother-in-law Mark (Timothy Busfield), who urges Ray to replant his crops before his entire family goes bankrupt.  I guess it goes without saying that Ray and Mark don't exactly get along with each other very well.

Still, Ray refuses to listen to Mark, and goes ahead with completing the baseball diamond, while hearing another voice calling out to him, saying that he needs to "ease his pain".



The beginning of this new quest takes place at a PTA meeting at Karin's school, where the subject of book banning is in full swing.  Turns out that the school wants to ban the books that were written by town recluse Terence Mann (James Earl Jones), and Ray puts two and two together and realizes that the pain that Ray is supposed to ease is that of Terence's.  Turns out that after a bit of research, he discovers that Terence had the dream of one day playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team.  However, with the team relocating to Los Angeles, that dream never came true.  And Ray believes that this dream is the reason why he has become such a recluse.

As Ray progresses with his quest - in which he has absolutely no idea who or why he is doing this in the first place - he finds out the answers to a lot of questions.  Why does he go to see a baseball game in Fenway Park?  Who exactly is Archibald "Moonlight" Graham (Burt Lancaster)?  How does Ray end up doing a time warp all the way back to the 1970s?  And, just who is behind Ray's decision to turn his corn field into a baseball park?

Well, of course, I never reveal movie endings.  You just have to watch it for yourselves.  And, please.  Do watch this film.  I think it's one of Kevin Costner's best films.

(Of course, given that he was responsible for "Waterworld"...that could be a stretch.)

So, what else would you like to know about "Field of Dreams"?  Well, here's some behind the scenes facts for you.

1 - Kevin Costner really wanted to do this film, but because of his commitment to the film "Revenge", there was only a three month window in which Costner was available for filming.  Despite a few weather related delays in filming, Costner left the film site in just enough time to honour his other film commitment.

2 - The original title of the film was "Shoeless Joe".  It was changed after test audiences reacted negatively to the title.

3 - This was the film debut of Gaby Hoffmann.  She was just six years old when the movie was filming.

4 - That scene in which Ray Liotta knocks over the bag of baseballs with a line drive?  Completely improvised and was a lucky shot!

5 - Burt Lancaster actually had Timothy Busfield fetch him water and chairs not realizing that Busfield was part of the cast until after they filmed a scene together!

6 - Look closely at the crowd in the scenes filmed in Fenway Park.  If you look closely, you might be able to recognize two of them as Ben Affleck and Matt Damon!

7 - Tom Hanks was originally offered the role of Ray Kinsella, but turned it down.  Just as well...he was already committed to both "The Burbs" and "Turner and Hooch" in 1989.

8 - The grass for the baseball field was kept green by artificial means.  It was hand painted by the crew.

9 - The baseball diamond was built on a real farmer's field in Dyersville, Iowa, and the family who owned the farm liked it so much that they decided to keep it!

10 - Believe it or not, W.P. Kinsella wrote a review of this movie for a Canadian periodical!  He gave it a great review, but only rated it four out of five stars, citing mostly casting blunders.  He claimed that Gaby Hoffmann didn't look like the child of Kevin Costner and Amy Madigan, and he also felt that Timothy Busfield's character of Mark should have been a lot more evil!

11 - Would you like to know who provided the voice that Ray kept hearing throughout the movie?  Well, it was Ray Liotta himself...perhaps foreshadowing the major role he would play in the film.

12 - Interesting fact about the corn field scenes.  When filming began in May 1988, the entire state of Iowa was in a drought, and extra water had to be given to the corn crops in order for them to grow tall enough to reach Kevin Costner's height (which is just over six feet tall).  Problem was that the crew added a little too much water, and the corn quickly surpassed Costner's height to the point where Costner had to walk on an elevated platform to get a couple of key shots!

13 - Did you know that Reba McEntire actually auditioned for the role of Annie Kinsella?  That might have been quite interesting to see.  If she was cast, perhaps she could have even contributed a song to the soundtrack!

14 - While director Phil Alden Robinson lamented the fact that he never used any African-American actors to play any of the baseball players, it turned out that his decision not to do so was historically accurate.  After all, there were no African-American ball players playing in the Major Leagues until Jackie Robinson broke the colour barriers in 1947.

Sunday, April 06, 2014

Rock Me Amadeus

You know, I've been having a lot of fun with the Sunday Jukebox for this year so far.  Since I made it a personal mission to feature a #1 hit for every week in 2014 (well, at least until December comes), I've had a lot of fun trying to choose songs, and have since learned a lot more about the world of music, and what makes a #1 single.

And I've also learned along the way that even one-hit-wonders can still hit the #1 spot on the charts.

Today's featured song happens to be one of those one-hit-wonders.

For today's chart, we're going back in time to the year 1986 - a year in which a total of thirty songs topped the chart!  Now you might actually think that broke a major record, as nowadays it's not uncommon for songs to stay at #1 for six or more weeks.   But actually, both 1988 and 1989 surpassed 1986 as having the #1 songs with 31 chart-toppers in each year.

I guess the late 1980s really were a decade of change.

But just going back to the year 1986, the artists who all hit the top of the charts that year were all at different stages in their lives. 

For instance, take the band Starship.  You may remember them by their old names of "Jefferson Airplane" and "Jefferson Starship", but the band scored a #1 hit with "Sara" in 1986 - nearly two decades after they first hit the scene.  Rock band Boston also scored a hit with "Amanda" in 1986 - ten years after they busted out with "More Than A Feeling".

Other artists had gotten their careers started earlier in the decade and were continuing their streak of #1 hits.  Just ask Prince, who arrived on top with "Kiss", or Madonna, whose hit "Papa Don't Preach" also topped the charts in '86.

And some artists had their very first #1 single in 1986.  The Pet Shop Boys, Simply Red, and The Bangles all scored their very first chart-toppers within that year.

And then there's our one and only one-hit-wonder of '86.  The only person to have a number one hit in 1986 and never have another one again in the United States.  The only person on the entire 1986 chart who never even had so much as more than one Top 40 hit. 

The only person to ever have a number one hit that was recorded with a mixture of English and German lyrics.

(Yep, not even Nena's "99 Luftballons" was a number one Billboard hit.  It stalled at #2.)

I suppose you want to know what the song is, huh?  Okay, I've kept you waiting long enough.  Here it is.



Oh...no, wait.  That's Troy McClure singing "Dr. Zaius" from that Planet of the Apes musical featured in that Simpsons episode "A Fish Called Selma".  Silly me.

(We still miss you Phil Hartman!)

Ahem...here's the real song.



ARTIST:  Falco
SONG:  Rock Me Amadeus
ALBUM:  Falco 3
DATE RELEASED:  June 16, 1985
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS:  #1 for 3 weeks



Ah yes..."Rock Me Amadeus" by Austrian born crooner Falco (b. Johann Holzel on February 19, 1957).  And, while he was a huge star in his native Austria and Germany, he only had one #1 hit in the United States.

Though it's not as though Falco didn't try.  Since emerging onto the music scene in 1981, Falco released a total of seven studio albums, and had much success in Europe.  And, there's an interesting story to tell in regards to Falco's first hit.



In 1981, he released "Der Kommissar", which did extremely well in the European scene but failed to chart in the United States (although in Canada, it surprisingly peaked at #11 in 1983).  In all likelihood, the reason why the song failed was because "Der Kommissar" was recorded entirely in German, and nobody could understand it.  Interestingly enough, one year later, the group After The Fire" released an English version of "Der Kommissar", and the song became a Top 5 hit - as well as a one-hit-wonder for the band because they split up just as the song was climbing the charts!  Imagine that, a one-hit-wonder band getting a hit by a singer who would also become a one-hit-wonder in America.

So, let's talk about "Rock Me Amadeus".

The song itself was written by Falco himself, with assistance from Dutch music producers Bolland & Bolland.  And, the inspiration for this song came to Falco after watching this film.



The film was the 1984 classic "Amadeus", which starred Tom Hulce in the title role of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  And, remind me one day to actually cover the film "Amadeus" in one of the future Monday Matinee pieces, because it truly was a great movie.

Because the song was based off of that movie, it was only natural for the song's music video to feature people dressed in period pieces and suitable costumes for the period in which Mozart lived (which would have been the 18th century as Mozart died in 1791). 

Well, everyone except Falco that is.



Sure, Falco does have some close-up shots of him in a Mozart wig looking slightly deranged singing "Rock Me Amadeus", but the rest of the time, he's sort of dressed up like an Austrian James Bond with his hair slicked back and clad in a tuxedo.  He seems to be the only modern thing that happens to be in the video at times - although that brief scene in which "Amadeus" Falco is posing with that biker dude is quite funny.

In the United States, the song first hit the top of the charts the week of March 29, 1986, but the song was recorded nine months earlier in June 1985, where prior to being released in North America had topped the charts in Austria, Germany, New Zealand, Sweden, and South Africa.  The song even hit #1 in the United Kingdom - the only time that an Austrian singer achieved that feat.

By the way, I know that some of you are listening to the song right now wondering what the heck he is singing.  I know when I first listened to the song, I was wondering what the song was all about.  Apparently, the song happens to be all about the life and times of Mozart from his birth right up to his death.  Of course, if you don't have at least a working knowledge of the German language, you would never have known that.

Actually, even if you did know German, you might still have difficulty as the song was essentially a mixture of English and German...and no version exists where the song is written completely in English.  But if you click HERE, you can access the lyrics to "Rock Me Amadeus".  See if you can decipher them.  If you can.



Certainly 1986 was the year of the Falco.  But after the success of "Rock Me Amadeus", he seemed to disappear from the music scene. 

What happened to Falco?

Sadly, the story's end is not a happy one.

Although his career in North America essentially tanked after "Rock Me Amadeus" set fire to the 1986 Billboard Hot 100 charts, Falco still managed to have success in Europe.  In fact, his follow up album to "Falco 3", 1986's "Emotional", was a huge hit for him, and it even spawned a world tour which took him to places all over the continent and even Japan.  Not surprisingly, North America was not listed as one of the concert destinations.



And, here's some random trivia for you.  During the 1980s, Falco recorded a duet with a woman who also had her peak of popularity in the 1980s - actress Brigitte Nielsen.  Who even knew that Brigitte Nielsen could sing?  To some people, she'll only ever be known as Flavor Flav's...um...flavour of the month!  As I said, random trivia.

However, by 1992, Falco was beginning to have trouble getting an audience.  1992 was when he recorded his final studio album, and by that time many people had switched from generic pop music to the depressing grunge era.  Certainly Falco was down, but not out.  It took him five years, but he made the decision to attempt a comeback, both for his European fans, but also attempting to try and break out in America once more.  He already had several tracks recorded by the time 1998 arrived, and he had already planned for 1998 to be the year in which he would make his long awaited comeback.

Who ever thought that 1998 would end up being the last year he would be alive?




Less than two weeks before his 41st birthday, on February 6, 1998, Falco was killed in an automobile accident in the Dominican Republic, near the town of Puerto Plata.  His Mitsubishi Pajero had collided with a bus and he died of his injuries sustained in that crash.  As the investigation into Falco's death progressed, it was determined that the crash was not Falco's fault, but the fault of the bus driver, who admitted that he had been speeding when he hit Falco's car.  The bus driver served three years in prison for his role in the crash.  Now, to me that seems as though he got off lightly, but given that the crash happened in the Dominican Republic, I suppose they might have different rules.  At the very least, I hope he wasn't allowed to drive a bus again!



Since Falco's death in 1998, the album that he was working on prior to the crash was released just a few days after he was laid to rest in Vienna, Austria.  That album - "Out of the Dark (Into the Light)" did extremely well in Falco's native Austria, and several surrounding European nations, and many commented that it was a perfect final album for the singer.  It was such a success that it actually re-entered the Austrian album charts in 2008 - a full decade after the album's initial release!

It just goes to show you that even though an artist may be considered a one-hit-wonder in one nation...it doesn't mean that they are worldwide.  And although America barely knew who he was, in his native Austria he was considered a star...

...a star whose light dimmed way too soon.

Saturday, April 05, 2014

Luck Of The Draw

This is going to be a blog post that is going to be based on a foundation of luck.  And in this world, some of us are luckier than others.

Some of us are luckier in love than others.  Some of us are luckier in the world of business than other.  Some of us are even lucky enough to have been able to buy the real Lucky Charms cereal, and not the cheap imitation brand put out by the discount supermarket.

But when it comes to games, how lucky are you?

Well, I'd have to say that in my experience, I've been hit and miss.  Sometimes I get extremely lucky, and sometimes I don't.  Looking back through the years, I have had some extremely good luck.

When I was seven or eight years old, I attended a summer family picnic at the beach and there was an organized bingo game for all of the people who were in attendance.  And, well, let's just say that I was the only one in the whole group who won two games!  The prizes weren't a whole lot...just ten dollars or so.  But keep in mind that for a seven or eight year old boy, ten bucks just may as well have been a million!

I also seemed to do very well at contest draws.  I won a gift pack from a new restaurant that opened up in town at the time called O'Toole's (which closed up shop years ago), and I think it was a really big prize too...worth something like fifty bucks.  I also remember winning a toboggan, a skateboard, and a basketball just for doing something ridiculously simple such as collecting every player card of the local hockey team, or inserting a ballot in the ballot box.  And, I think there was even one moment in which I was given a scratch off ticket in a birthday card and ended up winning something like twenty dollars.  But, since I was too young to technically cash in the ticket (you have to be 18 in Canada to legally play the lottery, I think), I had to get my parents to cash it in for me.

I even won our workplace "Survivor" pool one year, which amounted to extra cash in my pocket for the Christmas holidays. 

But then again, there are times in which I am not lucky at all.  I haven't won any contests lately, and since I won the "Survivor" pool, I have not even made the jury phase on any subsequent seasons.  Oh well.  You win some, you lose some.



So just based on this admission alone, you might think that I love to get involved in all sorts of activities and games that are mostly luck-based.  You may even get the impression that I love gambling and am plotting a trip to Las Vegas or Atlantic City as I type this out right now.



Well, you'd actually be wrong.  I don't have any desire to go out and buy eighteen gazillion Powerball tickets at all - which is probably a good thing, since Powerball doesn't exist in Canada.  I may buy one and only one lottery ticket when the jackpot gets quite high (like say, maybe over thirty million dollars), but I won't go too crazy. 

The way I see it, I grew up in a situation in which money was really hard to hold on to.  That's probably why I don't really like using my disposable income on little scraps of paper with numbers on them hoping that I would finally get the scrap of paper that would shower me with riches.  At least, not unless they were enough riches that I could afford to help my family out and still have lots left for myself. 

Pursuing the ultimate dream for just three bucks a week.  Or, at least in my case, three bucks a year.  Seriously, that's about how frequently I buy lottery tickets nowadays.

So, here's the ironic thing about this.  When I was younger - and when I say younger, I mean too young to legally win on a lottery ticket - I was practically obsessed with all things that had to do with the lottery.

But just how obsessed was I?  Have a look at this.



Would you believe that the photo up above has remained in the family photo album for almost THIRTY YEARS?!?  Somehow, I look back on this photo and laugh because while most kids were writing fan letters to celebrities and singing stars, I was writing fan letters to lottery mascots.  What a strange child I was.

(I should also note that the photo also came with a set of fridge magnets, but all of those disintegrated over time.)

So, I suppose that since I posted this photo, I may as well explain who these mascots are and what games they represent.



The gigantic bird on the left is Lottario's "Early Bird" mascot.  And, the reason why he is called the Early Bird is because there's a section of the lottery game known as "Lottario" (one of Ontario's many lottery games).  The game of Lottario works like this.  You have to select six numbers from a pool of 45.  Each ticket costs one dollar.  If you match all six numbers exactly as they are shown, you can win a quarter of a million dollar prize.  Even better, if you purchase your ticket before a specific time, you can qualify for the "Early Bird" draw, where if your numbers match the four numbers drawn specifically for the Early Bird draw, you can win up to $50,000.  The only reason I know this game so well is because Lottario happens to be my mom's game of choice...even though the most she's ever won was a free ticket with the optional "Encore" game.  Still, she likes to try every once in a while.

Now, the guy on the right of the photo is Winnie the Wintario Bear, and I have to say that of all of the childhood lottery memories I have, "Wintario" is probably the one I enjoyed the most.  Sadly, Wintario was cancelled sometime in the early 1990s, but for fifteen years, Wintario was unique in that they printed off lottery tickets and hosted a half hour long show every Thursday night on Global Television where they would film in a different city in Ontario each week.  The tickets all had six digit numbers on them, and they would do draws for 3, 4, 5, and all 6 number matches.  The three dollar draw was worth $10, the four was worth $100, and so on and so forth.  



Perhaps the best part of the whole show was the fact that the hosts (Faye Dance and Greg Beresford) would do incredible audience participation during the course of the show.  Would you like to know what I mean?  Well, take a look at this episode that was originally broadcast on July 9, 1987 from Niagara Falls, Ontario.


You see...every episode, Greg would be in the audience interviewing people and those people would press the magic button that would start and stop the lottery machines.  And, I swore to myself as a child that I would not rest until I got a chance to push that button.

So when the word got out that Wintario was set to film an episode in my hometown, I was absolutely excited and begged my mom to go.

(Yeah...most kids my age wanted to go see a baseball game or a rock concert.  Me, I just wanted to push a silly button for a lottery show.  Again, I was a strange child.)

Sadly, I never did get to press the button.  We arrived just before the show taped at our local arts centre, and we were stuck in the back of the row, where Greg nor Faye could see us.  But it wasn't completely disasterous.  I did get to see a taping of Wintario.  I think I might have actually appeared on camera.  And, my ticket did win ten dollars!  But again, my mom had to cash it in for me...which made no sense to me.  I was old enough to watch a lottery show, and old enough to hold a ticket, but not old enough to cash the winning ticket. 

Ontario's a strange province sometimes.



Of course, these days, the main lottery game that most people around here play is Lotto 6/49.  The game play is almost exactly similar to that of Lottario, only there are 49 numbers to pick from - making your odds of winning the big jackpot even greater.

Now, I will say one thing.  This is the lottery game that I occasionally play once in a blue moon.  I even have my own set of personal numbers that I choose every single time.  And, while I won't reveal the numbers themselves, I will offer you the reasons why I chose the numbers.  Maybe you can figure them out if you're really savvy. 

NUMBER #1 - The month of my birth
NUMBER #2 - The house number of the house I lived in the longest during childhood
NUMBER #3 - The day of my birth
NUMBER #4 - The number of the very first comic book I ever read
NUMBER #5 - The number of the locker I had my senior year of high school
NUMBER #6 - The year in which Archie Comics released it's very first book

(And yes, all my numbers are in numerical order.  And no, there is no prize for guessing all six numbers correctly.  Not that it matters.  Those numbers have never won.  The closest they ever came to winning was way back in October 2003, in which four out of the six came up!)

But still...it's much better choosing the same numbers over and over rather than relying on the hands of fate and the cashier who activates the "Quick Pick" feature.

So, those are my lottery memories from childhood.  Funny how something you were obsessed with as a child barely registers into adulthood, huh?

Friday, April 04, 2014

Letterman, Madonna, and F-Bombs, Oh My!

As I continue with this blogging project, it comes to my attention that the more I do this blog, the tougher it is to come up with original topics.  Particularly with the subject of television.

You see, these days, I don't really watch a whole lot of network television.  I either purchase DVD box sets or I download them from the Internet.  I certainly don't have much interest in any of the current television programs that are on the air, although I have seen an episode or two of both "Breaking Bad" and "The Walking Dead", and liked what I saw.

Of course, doing a whole blog topic on either program at this time would be considered a bit of a challenge, given that I haven't nearly seen enough shows to craft a decent blog entry.

(Though maybe one day, I'll get the motivation to begin a Netflix account and have a Walking Dead or Breaking Bad marathon.  And, then maybe I can come up with a decent blog topic for those two shows.)

But then we all heard some news coming right out of New York City that stunned some people, surprised others, and made some people actually wonder why the announcement wasn't made years earlier.  But then, I suppose your opinion might differ based on whether you were a fan of his or not.



Earlier yesterday evening, the news came out that longtime late night talk show host David Letterman would be hanging up his suits and microphone for good and end his show sometime in the year 2015.  And, this was quite a big announcement as Letterman has been more or less in the public eye since he began his career as a radio talk show host in the early 1970s.  Since 1982, he has hosted late night programs on two different networks (NBC from 1982-1993 and CBS from 1993 to presumably 2015), and it is estimated that he has interviewed thousands of guests over his tenure at both "Late Night With David Letterman", and "The Late Show With David Letterman". 



TRIVIA:  Believe it or not, Letterman was inspired to go into the world of late night talk shows after appearing as a guest on "The Tonight Show" back when Johnny Carson still hosted it.  And, Letterman used to make frequent appearances on the show during the late 1970s and early 1980s, and for a decade, Letterman's show always followed "The Tonight Show" right up to Carson's retirement in 1992.  In fact, many believed that Letterman would actually take over "The Tonight Show" after Carson departed.  Therefore, I find it interesting that a little over a year to the day that Jay Leno took over the program that Letterman defected to CBS.  Things that make you go hmmm...



It's really unclear as to what is going to happen once Letterman retires from his job.  Never mind the fates of Paul Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra!

My actual hope is that Craig Ferguson ends up taking his old time slot, as he currently hosts the Late Late Show (and because I'm a huge Craig Ferguson fan and if Letterman has to leave, he would be a great fit).  After all, when Jay Leno left for the second and final time earlier this year, Jimmy Fallon took over his old show, and Seth Meyers took over Jimmy's old show, and etc, etc, etc.  But one thing is for sure...David Letterman certainly had some interesting guests over the years. 



After all, it was David Letterman who orchestrated the Sonny Bono and Cher reunion for the first time since they got divorced back in the 1970s.  Turned out that the reunion was one of the most watched shows in Letterman's whole tenure as a late night talk show host.



It was David Letterman who coined the phrase "Stupid Pet Tricks" and showcased hundreds of pets over the years doing stunts and party tricks that amused nearly everybody who watched them.



It was David Letterman who sprayed Richard Simmons with a fire extinguisher - which lead to Simmons boycotting the show after that incident.  Actually, does anyone know if Richard Simmons was ever invited back to the show since?  The only guests that I seem to recall David Letterman banning are Harmony Korine, Harvey Pekar, and quite possibly Crispin Glover...and yet somehow, Courtney Love can flash Letterman while standing on his desk and somehow that's okay.  Who knows what the real story was anyway?

But through the thousands of celebrity interviews that David Letterman performed over his thirty plus years as one of late night's most talked about hosts, which interview was the most talked about?

Well, I can tell you exactly what my opinion is.  And most of you may agree with my thought.

Here's another interesting piece of trivia.  At the time this interview was airing, I was actually up to watch it.  See, back then I was in the seventh grade, and my parents did allow me to stay up to watch David Letterman - provided that I got all of my homework done before.  So, I was definitely up late on the thirty-first day of March, 1994 to watch an episode of "The Late Show With David Letterman".

And, what an episode it was at that!

The big guest of the hour?  Well, I'll give you a hint.  At the time of the interview, she was in between albums.  Her most recent album at the time of her interview was the sexually-charged "Erotica" (released in 1992), and she was set to release another album within the year (which would become 1994's "Bedtime Stories"). 



TRIVIA:  I'd consider "Bedtime Stories" to be one of the better Madonna albums out there, but that is solely my opinion and really has nothing to do with the David Letterman episode.

But while "Bedtime Stories" may have been one of Madonna's better albums...her 1994 sit down with David Letterman was probably one of her worst interviews that she ever did, and right from the very beginning, it was a complete train derailment that people talked about and joked about for weeks.

Now, you have to understand where Madonna was in her life in 1994.  Throughout the 1980s, Madonna was arguably the biggest female act around.  With hit singles such as "Like A Virgin", "Material Girl", "Papa Don't Preach", and "Express Yourself", Madonna dominated the charts with a few number one singles.  Her first four studio albums sold millions of copies each, and as the 1980s closed, Madonna was entering the 1990s on top with a role in Dick Tracy, and a #1 hit dance track with "Vogue".

But right around 1991 was when things began to take a completely different direction with Madonna.  That was the year in which her "Justify My Love" video was banned from MTV for being too sexy and controversial.  A year later, another Madonna video "Erotica", was banned from the channel as well.  And, who could forget that infamous "Sex" book?

(Not that I actually ever looked at that book myself...but I'm sure that some copies still exist somewhere if you really wanted to seek one out.)



The point is that the early 1990s were a rather weird time for Madonna.  She was in her early-to-mid thirties, and she found herself competing against the likes of Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, and Kylie Minogue.  I guess the way that Madonna decided to stay relevant during that time was to sell herself without actually...well...selling herself. 



So, when she agreed to appear as a guest on David Letterman's show that fateful March evening, nobody knew - least of all Letterman - how bizarre that evening would be.  Had the interview occurred one day later, one might consider it to have been an elaborate April Fools Day joke. 

Now, below is that infamous interview as taken from "The Late Show With David Letterman" as broadcast that March 1994 day.  I figure that it would be the most proper way to end this blog off.  After all, if a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a thousand thoughts.  And, when those thoughts include an awful lot of censoring, you know it's got to be a major train wreck!




Man...how the heck did Letterman get through that interview with a straight face?

Interestingly enough, although Madonna's actions on the show were "bizarre" to say the least, Letterman has since given Madonna a second chance, and her subsequent appearances on his show have been more normal...well, as normal as Madonna's life can be at this moment, I suppose.  After all, if the feud between Letterman and Oprah Winfrey can be healed, then sweeping what Madonna did the night of March 31, 1994 under the rug was an easy decision.

And we still have a little over a year left of David Letterman to enjoy still.  Who knows?  Maybe some other celebrity will have an interview that even trumps the Madonna one and will earn a permanent spot in the hall of infamy.

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West...I'm lookin' at you two.

Thursday, April 03, 2014

Quebec - Rock The Vote...s'il vous-plait

April 3, 2014

I want to tell you about a memory from high school that I have which is linked to today's diary entry. In fact, it's probably one of the better memories I have of eleventh grade, which out of my entire school career was easily my worst year ever.

If memory serves me - and it usually does - we're going back approximately sixteen years to May 1998 for this one.  The only reasons I remember the exact month was because my nephew had just been born, and I bought him a little stuffed turtle doll.  I honestly don't even know if he still has it, to be honest with you, just setting up the date.  And, I also remember the date because my birthday is in May, and I had just turned 17 days earlier.

Anyway, on with the story.



As part of the curriculum for my eleventh grade French class, we were all allowed to participate in a field trip which meant that we spent the whole day in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.  And, I will say that there were some highs and some lows when it came to visiting Montreal.

The highs included touring the area known as old Montreal, with all of the intricate churches (including the one where Celine Dion ended up getting married to her husband all those years ago), the fancy looking storefronts...and the biker couple on the bench who were essentially making out with each other right in front of our bus.

(Like I said, it's the most random moments you seem to hold onto the most.)

And there were some lows as well.  It rained off and on all that day, so there were times in which we had to hide out inside of a French cafe until the cloudburst passed over.  My group and I were also handed a little scavenger hunt sheet that we had to fill out while we toured old Montreal, and we not only got lost in the streets of old Montreal, but we got so off course that we held up our bus ride home for an hour or so while the rest of our class were looking for us. 

Needless to say, it wasn't a very fun bus ride back home.  What the hell, though.  We had fun!  And, in addition to the turtle doll that I brought home for my nephew, I bought a wood puzzle for my niece, and a whole bunch of pencils from a gift shop in old Montreal, as well as some dill pickle flavoured popcorn from a Kernels kiosk at a Montreal based shopping mall.




(This was before Kernels started selling the flavouring salt in containers in the microwave popcorn section of the grocery store.)

But while I did have fun in Montreal that day, there was one thing that was a little bit disconcerting that day that I want to touch upon...because it's kind of related to the main point that I want to touch upon in this blog.




As many of you know, this blog is written in English.  And, this makes sense.  I grew up in an English speaking province in Canada.  Although Canada is a bilingual nation (our official languages are English and French), most people in my town speak English.  Of course, I do know enough French to get by if ever I was stranded on the streets of Montreal, Quebec City, Rimouski, Trois-Rivieres, Chicoutimi, Hull, and any other community in "la belle provence".  At the very least, I could fake my way through without much difficulty.

But the one thing I noticed in the gift shop that I bought my family presents from was that whenever the shopkeeper heard me speak English, they initially ignored me.  But the minute I switched over to French, then and only then were they helpful.  Of course, at the time, I didn't really think much of it.  I kind of figured that because we were in Montreal on a French class field trip, it would be a perfect opportunity to practice my French skills.  And, once we left old Montreal to go to the more modern part, people spoke English to us perfectly fine and without any hassle.

But that was back in 1998.  Flash forward to the year 2014, and things have gotten much worse.

I mean, you hear some of the horror stories coming out of Quebec compared to what it is like in the rest of the country.  I mean, you have English speaking patients getting verbally abused by French speaking staff because they can't speak French.  You have people actually getting refused service at different stores in Quebec because they don't speak French.  And, you even have Quebec's "language police" sending letters to businesses because their English signs are too large, or because their Facebook page for their businesses are not written in French.

Heck, I can list off a few examples of customers who I have had from Quebec who have copped major attitude with me because my level of conversational French was not up to their standards! 

Now, granted, I will state that I know some people from Quebec who do NOT feel the same way.  Many of the people who I am friends with on Quebec want us to all get on the same page and accept each other regardless of who we are and what language we speak.  And to those Quebecers, I salute you!

But with all this talk about Quebec wanting to establish themselves as its own independent nation with their own independent thoughts, and where French and French only is the only language that they will even consider, well, it makes me feel really bad for my Anglophone friends who likely face a lot of scrutiny and unfair abuse because of it.

It certainly doesn't help matters much that the current Premier of Quebec, Pauline Marois, has made a lot of interesting comments about Quebec as if it were its own independent nation instead of being a part of Canada.  I still remember the tongue-lashing (and rightfully so) that she received when she thanked only the French-speaking players of Canada's gold medal winning performance in the men's hockey final at the 2014 Winter Olympics.  I mean, to leave out a good fraction of the athletes on a team to single out a select few when the whole team worked together to win that medal?  Pathetic.

And, I mean, this is not the first time in Canadian history that Quebec has had thoughts of separating from Canada.  There were two referendums in which the residents of Quebec voted on whether they wanted to stick with Canada, or separate from the country.  One referendum was held in 1980, the other in 1995.  Both times, the majority voted "NO" on separation.

And, recent polls seem to indicate that most of the Quebecois populace still have no desire to separate from Canada.  But you'd never know that based on some of the stuff that is going on in the province right now.

The way I see it, the Parti-Quebecois seems hell bent on creating their own country with their own government and their own rules - yet still allegedly planning on using Canadian currency.  Not quite sure how that will work out, but whatever.  Other political parties in Quebec seem to oppose that idea, saying that Quebec should remain a part of Canada.

On April 7, a major election is set to take place in Quebec, where people can choose their fate, so to speak.  And, while I am only living in Ontario and have absolutely no say in how Quebec votes, I do have a message for the Quebec voters out there.

Get out to the polls and make your voice heard.  Whether you side with the Parti-Quebecois, the Liberals, the Conservatives, the NDP, or even the Green Party, get out to the polls and make your voice heard!

Now, you might wonder...why would I care?  Because I believe that we all have the power to make change happen.  And, for whatever reason, I believe that this election will ultimately decide what happens to Canada in the next few years.  I've visited Quebec lots of times, and it is a beautiful province.  I'd hate to see it leave Canada.  Unfortunately, it's out of my hands and not my call.  It's up to the people of Quebec now.  Here's hoping that the voters there can make the decision that is best for them, and also be able to live with the consequences and/or changes that will come.  

Wednesday, April 02, 2014

Motive2Change - My Secret Life as an Internet Talk Show Host



All right, so the first thing that I would like to begin with in today's entry is an explanation for yesterday's April Fools' Day blog.

As I explained in the blog yesterday, the legend of Pesco d'Aprile was simply that.  A legend.  Loosely translated from Italian to English, the name literally means "April Fool"!  I will tell you this much though.  Coming up with a Tuesday Timeline entry that was a gigantic fabrication was a lot harder than I thought it would be.  At the very least, I hope I had some of you readers going for a little while before I let you in on the real truth.

Speaking of which, I do have a little bit of unfinished business to take care of in relation to yesterday's blog entry.  Because the story of Pesco d'Aprile wasn't the only joke I pulled.

I actually inserted two more gags into the April 1 entry.  Did you find them?  If not, here's where I placed them.

For one, you know how one of the things that I do in each Tuesday Timeline is give out a list of important events that happened throughout history.  And all of the April 1 events that I posted were one hundred per cent truthful...

...all except THIS one.



Yeah, the story about the Koosh Ball scandal of 2000 on "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" was a total lie.  Sure, Rosie O'Donnell used to shoot Koosh balls into her audience at the peak of her talk show career, but nobody was ever injured by one of them, nor were they ever banned in the United States.

Kinder Surprise eggs surprisingly ARE banned in the United States.  And that's no joke!

Now for the other gag, let's have a look at the celebrity birthday section, in which I list a group of celebrities who turned one year older.  But was I really truthful in all of the celebrities, or did I throw in one fake name?



Ah, yes, Reggie Mantle.  Sadly, he is not a real, living breathing person.  He is a comic book character from the world of Archie comics.  But I was right in one thing.  He did celebrate his birthday on April Fools Day in one story, and he is known for playing practical jokes on Archie and Jughead.  Still, he isn't real, so he cannot be placed on the celebrity birthday list.

So, there you have it.  Those were all the gags that I put up in yesterday's blog.  If you got all of the gags, good work!  Unfortunately, I don't have the budget to offer you a prize, but take comfort in knowing that you're too smart to fall for April Fools Day jokes!

But one thing that isn't a joke is the confession that I have to make for today.

You see...I've been keeping a bit of a secret the past few days, and I didn't want to reveal anything until I knew for sure that it was going to become a reality. 

Don't you worry though.  This blog is not going anywhere.  As long as I am alive, this project will continue.  But I do have an exciting announcement to make that will supplement this blog quite nicely.

Now, I have to admit.  I only just started doing video blog entries a few months ago, and the reason why I did this was to save time in posting certain entries, but also because I wanted to improve on my public speaking skills and add a little bit more charisma to my speaking voice in the process.  I think that I've done better than I thought I would, but I will never win any acting prizes. 

But the more I thought about it, the more I realize just how difficult it is to do a video by myself.  As someone who has had issues dealing with speaking in public and having a distinct lack of self-confidence with...well...everything, I find it difficult to be myself in front of a camera when it's just me, you know?

So, when a co-worker friend of mine suggested that we team up to do an online talk show, at first I thought that he was off his rocker.  But he talked me into it, and together, along with a friend of his from his college classes, we have formed the following talk show.



I introduce you all to my secret project.  The "Motive2Change" talk show, exclusive to YouTube listeners!  As we get rolling along, we may consider trying out podcasts, but we've only filmed one episode so far.  We're all still trying to get everything ironed out before we even think of expanding our viewer base.

So, I want to talk about what the show is all about.  These days, it's really tough to be a youth.  With so many temptations and choices out there, it's really easy for people to impulsively make the wrong ones.  It's also hard for people of all ages to really find their way in the world, and so many people seem to have so many concerns and worries that go unheard because they can't find the right person to talk to, or they can't figure out how to solve the problem, or they're simply afraid to make the wrong choice.

Well, that's what the show is all about.  We open up the floor to a specific topic that people might be having a difficult time with and we talk about it.  We brainstorm solutions, talk about our own experiences, and have a lot of laughs along the way.

So, just who are the people involved in the project?

Well, you have myself.  My name is
MATTHEW of course, and I am the oldest one of the group, being a full decade older than my other two co-hosts.  But that's fine, because I can offer a much older perspective on anything we talk about.  I also tend to flavour my opinions with pop culture references (much like I do with this blog here), and I am the guy who will be coming up with one fun fact of the day...which is quite easy for me, I must admit.

We also have my two co-hosts.  The one who came up with the idea is
JOSHUA, and as it so happens, he and I are the ones who work together - well, at least until recently.  He has since defected to the food side of the operation, but before that we worked in the electronics/mobile phones section of the store, and we got along quite well.  He was the one who came up with the idea for a show, and I suppose that you could say that he's sort of our moderator as he kicks off the conversations.  Though, as we get more familiar and comfortable with the idea of hosting a talk show, we'll all take our turn at bat.

The final name to mention in the Motive2Change project is
CARINE, and she and Joshua are both enrolled in the same program at their college.  But here's a fun fact.  Carine and I have actually never met face to face yet.  Keep that in mind for later.  Now, Carine is the only female in our talk show panel, so her point of view might sometimes differ from that of Joshua and I, as she's a girl and we're guys.  But she's also got a unique way of looking at things, and she is really a great girl.  Her job on the show is to keep all of us laughing and to come up with an inspirational quote each and every show to keep the listeners motivated.

So, to end off this blog...why not listen to our first show.  If you have half an hour to kill and you want to have a listen, by all means, do so below!  Click HERE to access our YouTube page.  And, in the logo, you'll find a link to this blog, as well as the Twitter accounts for Joshua and Carine.  So follow them, keep reading this blog, and enjoy the show!  Just click below!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hv9gkrhoNwg

We're going to be doing this on a bi-weekly basis, as we have very limited time to get together...but in the future, we may film more episodes.  And, hey, if you have any topic suggestions for our show, leave them here, or tweet Joshua or Carine.  We'll make sure we talk about them!