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Tuesday, July 29, 2014

July 29, 1981

I hereby proclaim this to be the final Tuesday Timeline for the month of July 2014.  And I hereby proclaim that this Tuesday Timeline will be an event that will be unlike any other.

(Or, at the very least, it will cover an event that was unlike any other.)

Of course, before we bring out the bubbly in celebration of the event and frolic in the jubilee of another jolly good Timeline entry, we must also take a look at the brilliant events that took place on this date.

So, let's proceed.

1567 - James VI is crowned King of Scotland at Stirling

1793 - John Graves Simcoe builds a fort and settlement at Toronto

1836 - Inauguration of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France

1858 - The Harris Treaty is signed by Japan and the United States

1864 - Confederate spy Belle Boyd is arrested by Union troops and is detained at Washington D.C.

1883 - Benito Mussolini (d. 1945), the 27th Prime Minister of Italy, is born

1900 - Italy's King Umberto I is assassinated by anarchist Gaetano Bresci

1905 - American actress Clara Bow (d. 1965) is born in Brooklyn, New York

1932 - Troops disperse the last of the "Bonus Army" of World War I veterans during the Great Depression

1933 - Wrestler Lou Albano (d. 2009) is born in Rome, Italy

1938 - Veteran journalist Peter Jennings (d. 2005) is born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

1948 - The 1948 Summer Olympic Games opens in London following a twelve year hiatus due to conflict caused by World War II

1967 - 134 people die when the USS Forrestal catches on fire

1973 - Race car driver Roger Williamson is killed in a car accident at the Dutch Grand Prix

1976 - The "Son of Sam" murders commence in New York City as one person is left dead and other critically injured in an attack

1987 - Plans for the construction of the Eurotunnel are given the go-ahead following the signing of the agreement by Margaret Thatcher and Francois Mitterrand

2005 - Astronomers announce the discover of dwarf planet Eris

2007 - British actor Mike Reid dies at the age of 67

2013 - Two passenger trains crash into each other near Lausanne, injuring 25

And I do want to wish the following celebrities a very happy birthday; Irwin Corey, Robert Horton, Robert Fuller, David Warner, Tony Sirico, Leslie Easterbrook, Mike Starr, Tim Gunn, Geddy Lee, Patti Scialfa, Cynthia Rowley, Alexandra Paul, Richard Steven Horvitz, Martina McBride, Timothy Omundsen, Monica Calhoun, Bryan Dattilo, Wil Wheaton, Stephen Dorff, Wanya Morris, Josh Radnor, Rachel Miner, Dominic Burgess, Allison Mack, and Todd Bosley.

All right.  Now it's time to take our time machine back to the event of a lifetime. 



The date of this event?  July 29, 1981.

Sadly, I do not remember July 29, 1981.  I was only two months old then and in all likelihood, I slept through the whole thing.  This was the point in my life where I slept sixteen hours a day and nobody looked at me strange for doing so.

However, this event did attract a lot of attention from other people.  Reportedly some 700 million people watched this event all over the world on their television sets.  Just to put it into perspective, this event was one of two huge weddings that were broadcast on television that year.  



The other wedding was the one between fictional characters Luke and Laura on "General Hospital" in November 1981.  That wedding only attracted 31 million people to their television sets.

But this wedding in July 1981 was no ordinary wedding.  This was an event that would be celebrated all over the world, especially in the United Kingdom - where the wedding was held. 

To be specific, the wedding was held that Wednesday morning at St. Paul's Cathedral, London, England, at exactly twenty minutes past eleven London time.

So, to put it into perspective, people in my area had to get up early to see the wedding - there is a five hour time difference between Ontario, Canada and London, meaning that the wedding began at 6:20am here. 

(Yep.  I was probably sleeping through it all.)



But the rest of my family were old enough to gather around the television set that hot summer morning and watch as Prince Charles of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer entered into holy matrimony in front of the British Royal Family, their guests, and oh...seven hundred million people around the world!

Their relationship began in the summer of 1980 (though Charles had known Diana years beforehand).  At the time of their first date, Charles was thirty-one years old.  Diana had just turned nineteen.  They had a courtship which lasted approximately six months before Charles proposed marriage in February 1981 at Windsor Castle.  Diana accepted Charles' proposal, though the two had kept their engagement a secret from the public for at least a few weeks.  In hindsight, it was probably a grand move for both people, as neither one of them were aware just how much attention the paparazzi would shower them both with.  Of course, more on that a little later.

For now, rather than get into a full-blown story about how the wedding went and what really happened, I thought I would summarize the event by the numbers.  For a very big day, there certainly seems to be a lot of numbers associated with it.



So here was Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer's wedding - by the numbers.

14 - The number of solitaire diamonds that could be found in Diana's engagement ring.

30,000 - The amount of money in British pounds that Diana's engagement ring cost.

3,500 - The number of people in the congregation at St. Paul's Cathedral the morning of the wedding

2,000,000 - The number of spectators lining the route of Diana's procession.

2,201 - The number of military officers hired to manage the crowds outside of the wedding venue.

6 - The number of Metropolitan Police Officers who accompanied Diana and her father John Spencer during her procession to the wedding.

25 - The length, in feet, of the train on Diana's wedding dress.

9,000 - The amount of money in British pounds that Diana's wedding dress cost.

10,000 - The number of pearls estimated to be sewn onto Diana's wedding dress.

1 - The number of bottles of perfume that Diana reportedly spilled on her dress accidentally.

7 - The number of bridal attendants that Diana had for her wedding.

120 - The number of dinner guests invited to join Charles and Diana after the wedding was over.

27 - The number of wedding cakes baked for the wedding reception.

11 - The number of days that their honeymoon cruise lasted.

15 - The number of years that Charles and Diana stayed legally married (they had separated in 1992, and the divorce was finalized in 1996).

So, as you can see, the marriage did not last.  Of course, there were dozens of factors behind why this was the case.  The obvious reason, of course, being that Charles and Diana had simply fallen out of love with each other.  But there was constant scrutiny of both parties in the British tabloids (which I've found to be much harsher than American tabloids), and the accusations that both Charles and Diana had extramarital affairs with each other probably didn't help much.  And of course, Diana's admission that she had suffered from bulimia during her marriage probably had an effect on the marriage as well, not to mention the fact that she fought the paparazzi every chance she got to protect her two sons, William and Harry from being subjected to the uncontrollable behaviour of some of the people who were getting paid a lot of money for a photo.

The aftermath of the wedding is such.  Charles remarried Camilla Parker Bowles, and is still known as the Prince of Wales.

As for Diana...well, she lost her title of Her Royal Highness, and she embarked on a new career as a humanitarian.  She had finally found happiness again with businessman Dodi Fayed.  But sadly her life came to an end at just thirty-six years of age following a deadly car accident in a Parisian tunnel after being pursued by the paparazzi.



But everyone will always remember the summer of 1981...a summer in which most of us watched the wedding of Charles and Diana - a time in which both were head over heels in love with each other.

Monday, July 28, 2014

Album Covers That Were Frightening

It's time for another edition of FUNNY MONDAY - which is a tentative name until I can come up with something better.  It's something that I came up with at the spur of the moment when I realized that MOTIVATION MONDAY was a done deal. 

But I think that this will be a positive change.  This is the day of the week where we will take a look at some of the funniest signs, pop culture tidbits, bloopers, and mistakes that people have made.  After all, there is nobody in this world that is immune to making mistakes.  Lord knows I've had my share over the years.

But in this blog entry, we're going to be taking a musical trip back in time to look at some of the most...ahem...interesting album covers ever printed.

And the inspiration behind this blog comes courtesy of a little bit of music trivia that I remember reading from a book that I checked out of the library a few years ago.

Have any of you ever heard of a band known as Mom's Apple Pie?  I imagine some of you probably had no idea.  It's okay if you haven't.  They're considered a zero-hit-wonder.  None of their singles really made an impression on the charts, and they only spent four years playing together before they went their separate ways in 1974.

Their album cover for their 1972 debut, on the other hand, was considered to be one of the most talked about album covers of the day.



Now, I know that this album cover seems quite innocent, and I know that you probably wouldn't think anything of it.  But take a closer look at the piece of pie that is missing.  Let's just say that if you look close enough...you might find that it resembles a certain female body part.  That's all I'm going to say.  Apparently it was so controversial that the first album cover was pulled from record stores and replaced with an updated, safer cover.  Still, anyone who has the original cover in their possession might very well be holding onto a gold mine.

But this piece of trivia had me wondering...what other album covers could be considered funny, tasteless, or just plain weird?  Well, I scourged the Internet to come up with some examples, and I think I've found some fantastic ones. 

I'd like to give credit to Pinterest, boredpanda.com, lolriot.com, bizarrerecords.com, and Huffington Post for the examples that I will be providing in this piece.

So, we're about to begin.  Are you nervous?

Well, let's begin with the group known as Orleans.  They had a couple of big hits in the 1970s with "Dance With Me" and "Still the One".



And, why in the hell are they not wearing any clothes on the album cover?  Well, okay, the bottom of the album is cut off.  They could be wearing jeans, or shorts, or cut offs.  At least they're having a bonding experience on the cover.  I guess I can't fault them for that.



Wowzers!  I knew shoulder pads were quite the fashion accessory for the modern gal of the 1980s...but those things could poke an eye out!!!



Okay, forget the fact that he goes by the name of Pooh-Man.  I mean, it could be because he had an obsession with the A.A. Milne literary character.  Why the heck is his head down there?  On second thought, maybe I don't want to know.



And you thought Leonard Cohen songs were depressing...



"Let Me Touch Him"?  Seriously?  In this day and age?  Um, next.



It's really bad enough that William "She Bangs" Hung received more than fifteen minutes of fame for his train wreck audition on American Idol.  It's incredibly bad that he used those fifteen minutes to record a Christmas album.  But to name the album "Hung for the Holidays"?!?  Can we really have a holiday album cheesier than that?



Okay.  I stand corrected.  At least they aren't dressed like the characters they portrayed in Grease three and a half decades ago.  I'll give them that much.



God Isn't Dead!  So this...I'm assuming she's a preacher of some form.  At least I can be reassured that she's telling me that God isn't dead...even if she happens to be standing in front of gigantic wine bottles while she's preaching.  I wonder if this album is trying to tell us something...



I remember my sixteenth birthday.  It was nothing like Julie's.  Thankfully.  They could have at least put up a couple of balloons, or decorated a Hostess cupcake or something.  At least make me believe that she's celebrating her sixteenth birthday with a man who is old enough to be her father.



Wow...I really am amazed by his guitar playing.  His fingers are so perfectly aligned that I've completely disregarded the fact that he ISN'T WEARING ANY PANTS.  Please let this guy be wearing underwear...



Oh...so this is where Pennywise the Clown was born...



You know...this album was remade in the year 2012.  It was retitled as "Believe" by Justin Bieber.



What do you get when you combine leisure suits, a cool looking mustache, and a Sears Portrait Studio session circa 1976?  Why, you get Ken.  By request only!  I wonder if he's still accepting requests?  I'd love for him to try a rousing chorus of Madonna's "Lucky Star".



Here's the latest scoop on ABC's newest Bachelorette.  Her name is Joyce.  She has astigmatism, but that doesn't stop her from dressing up in her favourite shades of red and purple and singing to her heart's content.  Will you accept Joyce's rose?



I am so thrilled to see someone love their life.  It makes me very happy to see someone who loves their life so much that he has to record an entire album all about it.  But please get out of that waterfall and put on some clothes.  You're scaring me.



After seeing this album cover, I can see why some people are genuinely fearful of Ted Nugent.



You know...when *NSync did the whole puppet on a string theme for one of their music videos circa 2000, it was interesting and very creative.  This is just creepy.



Yes.  Swing that gospel axe indeed.  And the guy who is holding that gospel axe seems to be looking to use it on the woman in front of him so that he can get top billing.  I wonder if there's an Alfred Hitchcock album playing in the background...



Okay.  I ask you.  Can there possibly be any album cover more disturbing than serving a human head as the main course at your Hawaiian luau?



On second though...maybe the luau head doesn't sound quite so disturbing...

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Satisfied?

Have you ever heard of something called kismet?  It's a word used to describe fate.  And in doing research for today's Sunday Jukebox entry, I have come to discover that kismet has kind of played a role in my song selection.

It's almost as if the song was chosen for me right from the very beginning!

This entry is also very interesting because this song just happens to be from a man who holds the distinction of having my highest read and most commented Sunday Jukebox post since this blog began! 

I had no idea that a song about a murder in a small Nebraska town would generate such discussion and such popularity, but Richard Marx's "Hazard" is definitely a post that has gotten a lot of page views.  As of right now, it has the most comments of any piece that I've written.  And, I can definitely see why this has been the case.  It's a great song by a fantastic artist - and it's got a story that is purposely left ambiguous so that it encourages discussion.



So, discovering that Richard Marx had the #1 song on the Billboard charts exactly twenty-five years ago this week - and the fact that it's one of my favourite songs by Richard Marx happens to be part of the reason why I picked this song.

But listening closely to the lyrics, I realize that there is another reason why I picked today's song.  And before I get to that reason, I want to make a few things clear.

In this blog, I've set some goals for myself.  Goals that have ranged from easy to lofty.  And, some of these goals I've reached, and others I still have yet to achieve.  Most people in my life have been supportive of this, but still there are some who feel the need to call me out on some of the things that I've said on here, claiming that I do these blogs to get attention. 

First of all...of course I do this blog to get attention!  Right now, it's the closest thing I have to doing what I really want to do with my life, and a blog is meant to present my thoughts about what I am thinking about at this moment.  I suppose I could have made those thoughts private, but why should I?  I've been hiding who I am from people for such a long time that I'm sick and tired of it.  And at this stage in the game, if people are going to be responding to my thoughts with negativity and not very supportive comments...well, that's really on them, isn't it?

Sure, I've made goals on this blog.  Have I reached all of them in the time frame that I set for myself?  Not all of them.  But does that mean that I will never achieve them?  Not on this lifetime.

(Mind you, I think from now on, I'll keep those goals on the down low here on this blog until they actually happen...after all...a guy has to have a few surprises!)

Okay, so now that I've gotten that off of my chest, I feel quite empowered, and I feel like I can walk on water.  But since I can't do the second part without floatation devices, I'm going to have to just stick with the empowerment part.

And what better song to depict empowerment than this one?



ARTIST:  Richard Marx
SONG:  Satisfied
ALBUM:  Repeat Offender
DATE RELEASED:  April 27, 1989
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS:  #1 for 1 week

Yep, this is a song about satisfaction...and trying so hard to find it sometimes.

I mean, if you listen to the lyrics really closely, Richard Marx sings about how there must be more to living than working nine to five, and how there must be something better than working our bodies weary in trying to stay alive.



I say, preach it brother!

These days, almost all of us have to have some form of job in order to keep up a standard of living.  Some of us have to even work two or more just to keep things afloat.  And when you're working all of these hours to try and keep up a standard of living that you're either too tired or too busy to enjoy, it can be the ultimate frustration.  Who has time for hobbies, or making plans, or pursuing real goals when we're too busy with other obligations?

Believe me, I've been there before.  Whenever my schedule gets a little bit strange, it's definitely had a negative effect on this blog because I've had to cut entries short, or not put as much time into it as I would like.  Of course, the job that actually pays the bills takes precedence over the non-paying blog that I write each day.  I'm sure you can guess which job I would rather be doing.

I guess lately, I've been coming to a lot of conclusions about my life thus far.  Those conclusions scare the bejeezus out of me because I know what the solution is, but at the same time, I'm paralyzed with fear when it comes to making those choices.  I suppose that could be the reason why some of the goals that I've made for myself still haven't come true yet.  Fear.

And, let me tell all of you something.  Fear sucks.

I won't say that the last ten years of working in retail have been all that terrible.  There have been some really awesome moments.  And there have also been some not-so-awesome moments.  It's all a rich tapestry of memories, both good and bad, as is the case with most jobs out there I'm sure.

However, my job prospects within the company I work at are essentially non-existent.  There is absolutely no way I can work my way into a higher, more esteemed position - at least not at the store I currently work at.  And, honestly, I really don't think I even want a higher position. 

In fact...I honestly don't know if I even want to continue on with the retail industry at all.  It was a nice job for a while, and I've established a lot of connections with a lot of great people.  But is it something that I want to keep doing because I genuinely enjoy it? 

Not lately, it hasn't.

Sure, the job is full-time.  Sure, I get benefits for the job.  But am I satisfied with the way that the job is going?  No.  I'm tired of feeling tired when I come home after a shift because I am doing way too much work for one person to handle.  If I were working towards a bigger goal, I might feel differently, but I'm not doing that. 

(I'd make a terrible capitalist, by the way.)

Truth be told...I've been working so hard at my job that I'm finding that I have less opportunity to do the one job that I love doing.  I don't want to be a manager of a store.  I don't know if I even want to manage a department these days.  I want to be a writer.

No, wait.  What's this thing about "WANTING" to be a writer?  I AM A WRITER, DAMMIT!

Seriously, I may not like the situation that I'm in right now, but that's not to say that I can't get creative with it.  I've incorporated writing into some workplace things.  I do my blog seven days a week, 365 days a year (well, for now anyway), and in the days before I worked full-time, I had pages and pages of handwritten stories written in three-ring-binders which were written when I was eighteen, nineteen.

(Stories which are not fit for publication, mind you.  I wasn't as great with words back then as I am now.  I guess you could say that when I was a teenager, I committed a lot of "word crimes".)



And, yes...I did come up with an excuse to post a Weird Al song in this space as well. 

Truth is, I have no excuse for not making my goal of being a professional writer happen.  Even though I'm working a job that isn't giving me much satisfaction right now, writing kind of fills the void.  And, hey...if that means I buy a notebook, keep it in my locker at work, and do some writing on my lunch hour while listening to my iPod, so be it. 

(By the way, if you do see me writing in a notebook in an employee lounge, I'm probably tuning you out.  Nothing personal, I just get into the moment.)

I guess if Richard Marx took the steps necessary to make his goal of being a singer/songwriter a dream come true, I can do the same.

Even if I have to sell just a few more televisions to make it come true.

Saturday, July 26, 2014

The Wizard

I'm really excited to bring you another edition of Saturday Night at the Movies, because for the next ten...count 'em...ten weeks, I'll be selecting films that I located from a really awesome discovery that I found at my workplace the other day.  It's definitely one of the coolest discoveries that I found in my department for quite some time, and I just want to tell you all about it before I go ahead with today's choice.

So, I don't know if I mentioned this in the blog, but over the last few days, the electronics department at my store (also known as the department where I've been based for the last year) underwent a massive transformation.  Everything in the department moved around in an effort to accommodate new products.  As well, due to the increased popularity of mp3 players and iPods, our music section shrank considerably.  The renovation kicked off on July 9, and since that day, I've heard lots of comments from customers about it.  Below are just a few...

"
YOU CHANGED EVERYTHING AROUND!"
"
I CAN'T FIND A SINGLE THING!"
"
YOUR MUSIC SECTION SUCKS!"
"
YOU NEED A DATABASE TO FIND MOVIES NOW!"
"I REALLY LIKE THE WAY THIS DEPARTMENT IS SO OPEN NOW!"
"
WHY DON'T YOU HAVE MORE PEOPLE TO PUT THIS PLACE BACK TOGETHER AGAIN?!?"
"
@#$%!!  $#%&!!!"

(Notice that there is only one positive comment listed?)

I'd just like to explain that the renovation of the department is not something that we have any control over.  We set it up the way that we are told.  I wish we had more input over how things are presented, but we don't get the chance to let those feelings know. 

That said, I want to look at the bright side of things.  There's a lot more new products available for purchasing.  The way the department is designed makes the department a lot easier for us to manage, and I think that in the long run, it will be more accepted.  At least, I can only hope that this is the case.

The one thing that I particularly like is the fact that our newly revamped movie section seems to have a lot more choices available - or at least it will when the modulars are finalized and the stock starts coming into the building.  And, I'll admit that some of the titles that we're getting have piqued my interest.  Have a look at this one, for instance.



Normally whenever we have multi-feature movies in which we have more than five films in one case, it means one of two things.  It means that the movies are ones that nobody has ever heard of, much less seen, or the entire package is available for a low, low price of $119.97.

Plus tax.

Not this one though!  You see all the movies listed on there?  Nine out of ten of them I know right off the bat.  They might not be considered Oscar worthy pictures, but as someone who was a kid when the vast majority of these were released, this collection was like a piece of my childhood all wrapped up in a brilliant light blue DVD case.

And the price?  Five bucks!  Fifty cents a movie.  You can't beat that price!

So, as I said, for the next ten weeks of this blog, I'm going to watch one of these films per week, and I'll be talking about it right here in this blog.  Let's see...it's July 26th right now, so this will wrap up...on September 27th if I did my math correctly.

So, what movie will I be looking at first.  There's so many to choose from.  I know!  I'll choose the movie that I remember seeing first of all the ones listed here.



And that movie would be "The Wizard", which starred Fred Savage, Luke Edwards, Jenny Lewis, Christian Slater, and Beau Bridges.

Oh, and it was a movie that also contained the sneak peak of what would be considered one of the biggest-selling video games of all time.  But more on that later.

Though the movie was considered a critical flop when it was released ten days before Christmas 1989 - critics felt that the hour and a half long movie was nothing more than an exercise in product placement courtesy of Nintendo - this film will always have a very special place in my heart.  Admittedly, I thought Fred Savage did a great job in this movie (though admittedly I also liked him in "The Wonder Years", so he had that going for him).  And as someone who was just getting into video games right around the time that this movie was released, this movie was like locking me inside of a candy and chocolate store overnight without any supervision.  It was just that awesome.

And, hey...even at thirty-three years of age, I still love it.  So sue me.

Anyway, the reason behind all of the video game references is due to the climax of the film.  The film depicts the adventures of three kids who decide to enter a video game playing competition where the top prize is fifty thousand dollars (still a nice chunk of change by 2014 standards), and the final game that the players played was a then unknown in the U.S.A. title called "Super Mario Brothers 3".



Considering that Super Mario Brothers 3 didn't hit store shelves until February 12, 1990, the movie was the only way that people could get a glimpse of what the game would look like.  Henceforth, the reason why the movie made double its six million dollar budget was partly because of curious gamers scoping out the game footage.  Because as we all well know, there was no YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or even GameFAQs in 1989.

Of course, that's the end of the movie.  And, that's all I will be sharing about the movie's ending.  But I don't mind talking about the beginning of the movie - which details how the three kids met each other, as well as the tumultuous back stories of all of the characters in the film.



The first kid we meet is Jimmy Woods (Edwards).  He is a little boy with a very tough life.  His sister Jennifer drowned in the Green River a couple of years prior to the beginning of the film, and Jimmy was so traumatized by the event that he developed a mental disorder.  He doesn't interact with anybody else or will hardly even speak a word to anyone around.  He is also obsessed with carrying around a lunchbox.  What's inside the lunchbox?  I think I'll hold off on that for a little while.

There's something else that Jimmy keeps doing.  Once in a while, he'll say the word California.  This becomes quite significant.

In the meantime, the death of Jimmy's sister caused a whole lot of turmoil for Jimmy's family.  The marriage between Jimmy's parents fell apart, and the whole family spilt up.  Jimmy lives with his mother and stepfather, and his two brothers Corey (Savage) and Nick (Slater) live with their father (Bridges).

Jimmy's mother and step-father make the decision to put Jimmy in an institution without any thought over what the rest of the family would think, and this makes Corey very angry.  Corey isn't sure what will bring Jimmy around, but he knew that locking him up wasn't the way to go.  So, Corey decides to bust Jimmy out of the institution and find a way to bring him to California, thinking that it would be the one thing that would bring Jimmy back.

Of course, with Corey and Jimmy let loose in the middle of the country, both Sam and Nick, and a child bounty hunter that Jimmy's mother hired to bring back only Jimmy.  Yeah, no wonder Jimmy is so screwed up.  Having your entire family not on the same page would make anyone fall apart.



On the way to California, the two boys meet up with a girl named Haley (Lewis), and it is here that Haley discovers Jimmy's talent with video games.  She's the one who gives him the nickname of "The Wizard", and she also informs them of the "Video Armageddon" tournament which is held in Los Angeles at Universal Studios.  The three decide to team up to win the competition and split the prize money three ways - Haley, so she can use the money to help pay for a new house for her family, and the two boys, who want to prove that Jimmy doesn't need to be institutionalized.

And, that's all I'll tell you about the movie plot.  I don't want to give too much away.

But I can share with you some behind the scenes trivia about this film.  Have a look!

1 - Super Mario Brothers 3 wasn't the only video game featured in this movie.  As many as sixteen different video games were shown, including "Contra", "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", "Zelda II:  The Adventures of Link", "Mega Man II", "Ninja Gaiden", and "Double Dragon".

2 - The movie also utilized the Nintendo PlayChoice-10 - a special arcade game that would let you play NES games on an arcade cabinet - for a limited time depending on how many quarters you inserted inside of the game.

3 - This movie features one of the first appearances that Tobey Maguire made in a film.  Look for a kid with a mullet at the Video Armageddon scenes after the finalists are announced.

4 - Some of the translations for the movie's title in other languages are quite interesting.  Have a look;

Germany - Joy Stick Heroes
Finland - Game Over (what a depressing title!)
Spain - The Little Wizard
Japan - Sweet Road
French Canada - The Child Genius
France - Videokid

5 - Although this isn't really a piece of trivia related to the movie, I have to share the story anyway.  There is a scene in which the three kids hustle a group of teenagers in which they challenge them to a dual.  That actually happened to me when I was nine years old.  The corner store which was a block from my house had a Bubble Bobble game, which was the most popular game in the place.  I really wanted to play it, but a group of high school kids tried to boot me off of the game so they could play.  So, I challenged them to beat my score.  If they did, they could play.  If not, I remained in control.

Needless to say, there were some sad looking teenagers at the Michael Jackson's Moonwalker game that day.  

Friday, July 25, 2014

Dairy Queen Memories

It's time for another edition of FOODIE FRIDAY, and to kick off this entry, I want to tell you a story.  Don't worry.  It's not a long one, and this story doesn't involve any talk show hosts blowing up our electronics.

But one question that I've been asked deals with a lot of the personal photos and videos that I have presented in this blog.  You might have noticed that whenever I film something in my bedroom, or post a picture taken in my room, that there's something hanging on the wall next to the window.  It's only visible whenever I aim my camera facing the window wall, like in this photo below.



Yeah, that DQ sign is very visible.  And, yes...I did take it.  But in fairness, that sign was going to be thrown out anyway as our DQ location had gotten brand new signs at the time.  The way I see it, I was doing them a great service by claiming that sign for my room.

(Am I seriously justifying pinching a Dairy Queen sign here?  Yes.  Yes I am.  Oh well, I suppose there's worse things that one can do.)



Anyway, I'm going off on a tangent here.  That DQ sign might seem like an insignificant thing for most of you, but I have to tell you that some of my all-time favourite childhood memories were based around Dairy Queen and Dairy Queen related products.

You see, back in the days in which I was only three feet tall and still had a "Lizzie McGuire" voice, Dairy Queen was a rare treat.  And believe me when I say that it was a rare treat.

In those days, our Dairy Queen restaurant was located on the outskirts of town.  It was about a ten to fifteen minute drive to the location.  And because of its location, the Dairy Queen couldn't sustain being open all year long, so the restaurant only opened during the summer months.  If my memory serves me, the old Dairy Queen location stayed open between the first week of May and the first week of September.  That's only a few months of the year.  No wonder whenever my family made the trek out to Dairy Queen during the summer that it was always insanely busy.

I suppose that it was a good thing that our old Dairy Queen wasn't a sit down restaurant because it wasn't uncommon for all of us to stand in line for close to twenty minutes among a sea of ice cream lovers.  I remember when I was really young, I always had to hold on to either my mom's hand, or my dad's hand because there were so many people inside the building and they were worried that I would get lost (though, given that the building was no bigger than a classroom, I would think that would be impossible).  As I grew older, I wedged my way over to one of the arcade games that were located near the back entrance.  If I was lucky, I could get in to play a round, but even if I didn't it was fun to watch someone else play.

Hey, all that claustrophobia and patience paid off whenever we got our Dairy Queen treats.  And every single person in my family all ordered different things, which made it easier to distribute the cool treats.



Mom would always get the plain vanilla cone.  Dad always got the chocolate dipped cone.  One sister was addicted to the Blizzards, and the other one salivated over the Peanut Buster Parfait.  I can't remember which one was which, though.  Maybe they both liked both desserts.



Interestingly enough, my favourite thing to order at Dairy Queen wasn't even ice cream based.  I liked the frozen Slushie drinks that were known as Mr. Misty drinks.  I think they have since been renamed as Arctic Coolers or Arctic Chill or something like that, but I always had to have them.  I would get a different flavour each visit (usually grape, lime, or raspberry).  And besides, the Mr. Misty cups had Dennis the Menace cartoons on them, which made them even more fun!



(Though on the days in which I did want ice cream, I would have settled for a Dilly Bar or a Blizzard.)

For several summers, that was a semi-annual tradition.  We'd go to Dairy Queen every other weekend, grab some delicious treats, sit in the parking lot and eat (or in my case, drink) them in the car, and then drive home.

Of course, once we had gotten word that they were going to be building a year round Dairy Queen in town towards the end of the 1990s, it was a bittersweet moment.  Was it awesome that I could satisfy my ice cream cravings during the Christmas holidays?  Absolutely!  And don't think I haven't done that either.  Getting a Blizzard during a blizzard is definitely something that is a real thrill (and chill) to experience.  On the flipside, the memories of going out to the Dairy Queen down the highway every summer were simply that.  Memories.  And, sure, I love the fact that Dairy Queen is all year round.  Yet, I still sort of miss the old Dairy Queen location.  The one that only opened four months a year.  The one that made a Dairy Queen treat even more special. 

Does that sound weird?

Anyway, that's my story about how I got the Dairy Queen sign, and how I will always have a special place in my heart for Dairy Queen.

Now, I just talked about the cool treats portion of Dairy Queen restaurants.  But I think it's also important to mention that they also served hot eats as well.  But believe it or not, I didn't really get a chance to sample any of the hot eats that Dairy Queen had to offer until I went to another Dairy Queen location in a different town (during the days in which the location we had was only open in summer).



I can't remember whether the old Dairy Queen restaurant sold burgers, fries, and hot dogs, but that place was so busy all the time that none of us even really considered even asking the staff if they did.  It wasn't until we were out of town (I think my dad and I were on our way to visit my mom who was recovering from surgery in a larger hospital the next town over) and we entered a sit down restaurant that I enjoyed my first Dairy Queen burger and fries.

Now, I have a question for you guys.  Maybe you might think that I've lost my mind here, or what have you, but I have to ask.  Did Dairy Queen have a special kind of sauce on their burgers?  Nowadays they use regular ketchup, but back when I was a kid, I remember that they used some sort of red substance that looked like ketchup, but had its own distinct taste.  It was like they had their own kind of tomato like sauce for their burgers.  Does anyone else remember this, or is it just me? 

Maybe I'm just trying to reassure myself that I'm not crazy.  Am I convincing you yet?  No?  Yes?  Maybe so?

Well, while I ponder that question, why don't I end this blog entry off by posting some Dairy Queen commercials.  Some are cute, and some are annoying...but they are creative.  That much I'll say.



By the way...since I encourage audience participation here...

What's your favourite Dairy Queen treat?