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Friday, August 21, 2015

New Archies Reviewed: Episode 3B - Sir Jughead Jones

You know, I'm kind of in a down mood today, and I will warn you ahead of time that I am probably going to be a little more snarky than what all of you reading this might be used to.  I'm kind of going through a lot of stress right now, and I need to find a way to get it out.

So, if you hear me raking The New Archies over the coals in this edition of New Archies Reviewed, believe me when I say that it is fueled by the release of all the stress that is in my body at this time.  Who knows?  It could be the best thing I've ever written.

Or, it could be a hodge-podge of madness.



I'll let you be the judge as we take a look at Episode 3B - Sir Jughead Jones.



So, we open the episode at some sort of art museum where the students of Riverdale Junior High are taking part in a field trip.  And, well...it looks like Miss Grundy's class is the only one there.  Man, Riverdale High is a small school!



The class is looking at an ancient vase, and Betty is absolutely mesmerized by the work of art.  Veronica, who might I add is incredibly obnoxious in this episode, brags about how her daddy - the richest man in the world apparently - has dozens of expensive vases.  And while she's showing everyone just how big her dad's vases are, she accidentally hits the vase at the museum which causes the thing to nearly tip over! 

The good thing is that a security guard who happens to be nearby sees Veronica's klutziness in action and rushes to try and save the vase, which he does.



But then he comes up with the idea to dust the vase while he's there, which causes his allergies to act up.  He sneezes, nearly takes out three-quarters of Miss Grundy's class before careening into the pillar where the vase is, smashing it to smithereens!  Oh, Veronica...I hope your daddy has enough money to pay for that.



Another man - I'm assuming he's the curator of the art museum - starts breaking down and having a full on ugly cry over the smashed vase.  And all Veronica can say is that he doesn't need to worry.  She's not hurt.  And somewhere else in the museum, the security guard is probably giving Veronica the stare of death. 



A few minutes later, the rest of the class - who surprisingly was not escorted out of the museum - are eyeing the portraits and paintings on the wall.  And while Veronica is about ready to fall asleep and dream about smashing another vase, Betty can't stop salivating over the paintings saying that she would love to own just one.  Something tells me that Betty would have to deliver newspapers to the entire continent of North America to be able to afford one, but you have to admire her optimism.

It's a far sight better than Veronica once again bragging about her wealth and saying that her dad could use those paintings for wallpaper.  At this point, Betty is so furious with Veronica and punches her in the nose while shoving pieces of broken vase into her mouth to shut her up and tells her that she is sick of her bragging because money doesn't grow on trees.  Jughead comes up with the joke "Money grows on trees - why do you think banks have branches?"  Very lame, but again...this is a G-rated cartoon.



Whatever the case, Veronica is disgusted that people can't sympathize with her, and she leaves.  Reggie, who in this episode is just as much of a jerk as Veronica is, tells the class that they have no social graces, which causes Jughead to talk about his aunt Grace who throws a lot of parties, which sends Reggie storming off in a rage with everyone else laughing with Jughead.

Anyway, Reggie finds Veronica and tells her just how uncouth Jughead is and how he is peanut butter and jelly in their caviar world.  But wait.  Veronica has found a secret!



Apparently in the museum is an old portrait of Viscount Forsythe P. Jones, a distant relative of Jughead (and who I am guessing Jughead is named after, as his real name is Forsythe Pendleton Jones).  And apparently there is a secret treasure that Forsythe has hidden away.  And Reggie and Veronica want that treasure simply because they don't have enough money to brag about.



The frustrating this is that we have absolutely no idea how Reggie and Veronica even know that Viscount Jones has a treasure.  And for that matter, you would have thought that Jughead would know if there was a portrait of a relative hanging up in a museum!  But it's a cartoon, and we're supposed to suspend reality.  Besides, we wouldn't have a plot otherwise.  At least we have a dream sequence!



Now, here is where the tide starts to turn.  Reggie and Veronica soon begin sucking up to Jughead by spending their whole allowances on platters of hamburgers that some unknown butler from Lodge Mansion is delivering to him.  Given how many burgers are on that plate, I'm guessing that Reggie and Veronica get at least five hundred bucks - which totally trumps the five bucks I used to get at their age.

Archie and Betty ask Jughead if he wants to go to Pop's after school, Veronica coolly informs them that "Juggiekins" has other plans.  And right away, whenever Veronica adds the word "kins" at the end of a name, you know she's like a cobra waiting to strike.



Sure enough at Lodge Mansion, Veronica and Reggie reveal their evil plan.  Their plan is to suck up to Jughead by buying him fancy clothes and hamburgers so that they can get a share of Viscount Jones' treasure.  After all, Jughead is the only heir - another plot point that they fail to explain.  But when you only have twelve minutes to tell a story, it gets a little lost in translation.

Of course, Reggie and Veronica, as snobbish and cruel as they can be, aren't stupid.  They know that if Archie, Betty, Eugene, and all of their other poor friends found out that Jughead had money coming to him, that Jughead would share with them first, so they come up with a plan to teach Jughead to be an insufferable snob like them so that they won't have anything to do with Jughead.

You know, in this series, Reggie and Veronica are real beasts.  I mean, even in the comic book series, Reggie and Veronica were left humbled and were even nice in a few stories.  It's like they have absolutely no redeeming qualities in this series at all - especially in this episode.  Though kudos to Alyson Court and Sunny Besen Thrasher for making the characters so easy to dislike.  They must have had fun acting those roles out!

That's why this next scene makes me smile like the Grinch just before he steals Christmas in Whoville.



We're at a little league game, where it is Jughead's turn at bat.  And Jughead, dressed in his fancy garb, demands that Veronica brings him a bat.



In walks Veronica who is carrying enough bats to provide everyone in the Major League with one.  And, Jughead snubs her, grabs a bat lying against the fence and steps up to the plate which causes Veronica to throw the bats on the ground and fume in anger.  I must say.  Crimson is a good colour for the brat!



Next, Jughead seems to notice that his shoes have gotten dirty on the baseball diamond, as baseball diamonds are not made with linoleum or wooden floorboard.  So he actually summons Reggie to sweep his shoes right there on the diamond, causing Archie to shake his head in disgust.  Honestly, if I were Archie, I'd be laughing at Reggie...but Archie's just too nice.



Betty throws the pitch out and Jughead manages to hit the ball.  And...Smithers is running the bases for him!!  Unbelievable!  In most games, that would be an automatic out unless the player batting is injured or something, but not here!  And, for that matter, why the heck is Smithers wearing white pants as his uniform?  Did he learn nothing from Shoegate 45 seconds earlier?

Anyway, Smithers' trousers must be made of some super rich material because he slides into home without ripping them or even getting them dirty.  But unfortunately, Archie tags Smithers with the ball before he slides into home, so he's out.  To which Jughead - adopting a faux-Madonna British accent exclaims that he was safe by a wide margin.



By this point, Archie has had it up to here with Jughead's bad attitude and ties a bow in his nose calls him a jerk and wonders what his deal is.  But Jughead decides he's had enough of playing Archie's lame game, and takes off with Veronica, Reggie, and Jughead towards Lodge Mansion.



At Lodge Mansion, Veronica, Reggie, and some unnamed rich kid (who for the sake of argument we'll call Jason Blossom, as he is even more of a snob than Veronica is in the comic books) are playing a game of croquet.  And of course, Jughead is letting the power of being an heir to a viscount get to his head.  Aside from forcing Reggie and Veronica to get him everything that he wants, he uses Reggie as a transportation system to get him around the place.



And for some reason, Archie, Betty, and Eugene are there.  Wait a minute.  If Reggie and Veronica are snobs, why were they invited?  Or, maybe they weren't...they just came along for the free caviar and lemonade. 

And speaking of lemonade, Reggie and Veronica are now complaining that they did TOO good a job of turning Jughead into Mr. Snobbery himself, but they still go ahead and degrade themselves because A) they want Jughead's fortune, and B) it's extremely satisfying to the audience!



At long last, a limousine arrives and out comes a man with a treasure chest in his hands.  Viscount Jones' treasure has finally arrived!  Reggie and Veronica are immediately perked up and run towards the man with Jughead in tow wondering what jewels, gold, and money is left in the chest.



But here's where the twist comes into play.  You see, all of the money that Viscount Jones had was spent long ago!  He spent his entire fortune on a product called "Beanie-Weanies" for the peasants of the kingdom.  And as a result of this, the upper crust turned up their noses at him for behaving like a peasant instead of a royal.  All that's left is a crown and a bag of marbles.

To which I say to Reggie and Veronica...



Oh, and Reggie and Veronica are FURIOUS!  They strip Jughead of the fancy clothes they bought him, exclaim how THEY'VE been taken advantage of, and storm away into the night...where hopefully they get hit by a truck.

Of course, they don't.  They come back in the next episode.  But you know, wishful thinking.



Jughead, meanwhile, is feeding himself a nice slice of humble pie, knowing how badly he treated Archie and Betty, who come over to see how he's doing.  For you see, Jughead, much like his ancestor, also finds it hard to live like the upper crust and treat people badly because they happen to have less money than they do, and he sincerely apologizes to Archie and Betty for everything he did. 



Naturally, because Betty and Archie aren't horrible people like Reggie and Veronica, they accept his apology, and they spend the rest of the day making fun of Reggie and Veronica.

So, what have we learned from this episode?  Well, Reggie and Veronica are evil.  Archie and Betty are good.  And for a brief moment, Jughead walked the tightrope between the two sides.  And we also learned that having money and power isn't nearly as much fun as having friends.  All in all, a good episode, though Reggie and Veronica didn't nearly do enough suffering in this one.  Don't worry though...in an upcoming episode, Jughead will eventually get his revenge on both of them!

But that will have to wait.  There may be a new installment of New Archies Reviewed next week, and there may not be.  It all depends on whether I'll have Internet or not, with the house thing.  So, let's just say that by September 4, you'll see a new entry!

Thursday, August 20, 2015

My Very First #TBT

How many of you know what #TBT stands for?

No, it doesn't stand for Today Be Thursday.

It doesn't stand for Today Be Thoughtful.

It doesn't even stand for Today Bring Tequila.  Though I'm sure that some of you would gladly celebrate that day if there really was such a day.

No, it stands for "Throwback Thursday", and it's all the rage on social media.  On Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest, almost everybody that I know has shared at least one photo or memory for "Throwback Thursday".

Well, everyone except me.

As a blogger, pretty much every single day is a throwback day, so I never really saw fit to share anything specifically on Thursdays.  Because I share so much here already.

But you know...there's always a first time for everything.  And, well...in my case, this could be the first and only time I do one of these posts - well, unless you want to see more, that is.

This is my very first #TBT post.  Hope you enjoy it.

I'll admit, I was inspired to do this after finding some old photos while I was packing up things for the big move.  And, this photo is definitely an old one.  It's torn in the middle, but still mostly intact. 

Ladies and gentlemen, I take you back to May 1991.



I'm sure you can pick me out right off the bat.  I'm the guy who is at the back of the pack looking like the Pillsbury Dough Boy.  I mean, seriously.  I was 10 years old.  What the hell was I thinking wearing all white outdoors?  And yes, you can say it.  I was the chunky kid all throughout school.

Though I will say that I believe that I am wearing a Bart Simpson T-shirt.  This was before my school decided that the Simpsons were a bad influence on our school and banned them from the school dress code.  So, yeah, I was bucking the system before the system was created.  What a rebel I was!

Oh, and check out the cool sneakers I was wearing.  Those would be my L.A. Gear sneakers complete with fluorescent yellow shoelaces!  Though, given that this was towards the end of the school year, the shoelaces were more of a dingy green colour.  But still, I loved those shoes.  The blue and white tube socks I could have done without, but I loved the sneakers!

So, what the heck are my pals and I doing in this photo?  It looks like we're all pretending that we're going into labour and running around to force the kid to come out with everyone else standing around in shock.

Well, the back of the photograph has an inscription on it written in blue ball-point pen. 

"Catch-a-Star, 1991"

Now I'm remembering!  Catch-a-Star was a program put on by Vanier Public School where students in grades 4-6 from all over the city gathered together to partake in a two-day activity extravaganza where we learned about how to save the environment by doing lots of different activities and crafts.

Now, my school was kind of small, so only two students from each grade were selected to go.

Guess who was one of the Grade 4 students to be chosen?  Well, obviously it was me, as I wouldn't have the picture otherwise!

For what it was worth, these two days were absolutely fantastic, and I was absolutely honoured to have been chosen. 

And what made the Catch-a-Star seminar even more fun was the fact that we all had complete control over what activities we got to participate in.  We did four activities - on each day we had one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  And I remember all of the activities that I took part in!

Day #1, I made a T-shirt and watched Dr. Zed from OWL Magazine give scientific demonstrations. 

And, Day #2 was when my #TBT photo was taken.   I had chosen to take part in a whole bunch of different games and activities to play outside.  And I think we were playing a game in which half of us played animals, and the other half played resources that were available.  And each resource had a sign.

For food, we had to make a fist and hold it around our midsection showing we were hungry.
For water, we had to cover our mouths with our hands.
For shelter, we had to use our hands to make a roof over our heads.

It was an elimination type game.  You had to find a person who had the same resource that you had.  If you did, you were safe.  If you didn't, you were out.  And in this photo, given that most of the people chose water as their resource, that meant that you have photographic evidence of me getting a GAME OVER.

But man, that was a fun day!

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Learning From Your "Failures"

August 19, 2015

You know, morning television isn't what it used to be.  I remember when I was a kid, it used to be a treat to watch it.  For starters, you were at school during most weekdays, so you always felt as though you were missing something special by not being home.  On the rare occasions in which I was off sick with a flu, or if there was a P.A. or P.E. Day on the schedule, it was always a treat to be able to watch game shows, trashy talk shows, cartoons, and yes, even the occasional workout program.  Though, admittedly I never did do any stretches or bends to the cheesy 1980s synthesizer music.  I was either playing with toys or puking my guts out in a bucket - well, depending on whether or not I was sick that day.

Of course, now that I am an adult, and I am usually working evening shifts, morning television seems to be not as exciting as it once was.  I mean, don't get me wrong, there are still game shows, trashy talk shows, and the occasional fitness program...but it just seems so boring now.



For instance, I woke up around 8:00 this morning, and the only thing on television that even seemed remotely interesting was "Degrassi: The Next Generation".  I know, I know.  Shoot me now, right.

Well, this particular episode (obviously a rerun as it was filmed in 2007), was one that actually grabbed my interest, and it all had to do with the star of this particular episode.



Unfortunately, I missed the first part of the episode "Free Fallin'", but luckily most of the episodes of this show are available to watch online, so after watching both parts of this episode, I can sort of understand what kind of pressure the character of Paige Michalchuk (played by Lauren Collins) was going through.

So, here's a little bit of background on the character of Paige, just based on what I've researched.  Paige started off on the show as the "Queen Bee" of Degrassi Community School.  Or, in other words, she's a complete bitch to everybody who doesn't fit inside of her circle.  And sure enough, during the first season of the show, she walks that fine line between being popular and being despised.  But Paige also goes through a lot of turmoil while she is a student at Degrassi.  She is raped by a student from a rival high school.  She falls in love with a student-teacher and causes a scandal within the school.  And later on in the series, she comes to terms with the fact that she is bisexual as she starts having feelings for her friend Alexandra "Alex" Nunez.

By the time she graduates high school, she is more than ready to leave Degrassi behind.  She moves three hours away to a fictional university called "Banting University", and she has the dream that she will graduate from the school with honours, land a dream career, and live happily ever after.



The reality?  She finds the highly competitive nature of Banting University to be a real challenge.  She can't keep up with the rest of the class, her grades have nosedived from her high school days, and she finds herself stressing out because of it.  In fact, she is so stressed out by Banting life that she begins to suffer full-blown panic attacks because of it. 

You see, prior to enrolling at Banting, Paige had always lived a life of...shall we say...perfection.  She always had to have the perfect hair, the perfect clothes, the perfect friends...the perfect life.  And here she was at Banting and nothing was perfect.  Now some who watched the show from the very beginning might have thought that karma had bitch slapped Paige and that it was more than deserved.  But truth is, I sort of understood what Paige was going through because I was feeling the same way when I went off to university.

The only difference between Paige and I (well, other than gender) was that Paige had extremely high self-esteem, and I had too little of it.  You see, my whole goal of going to university was to get as far away from my hometown as humanly possible because at that time I was thinking that there was nothing good about it.  I had no friends, and no community presence, and I felt as though I was doing anybody any favours by continuing to live there.  When the opportunity came to go to school in Ottawa, I jumped at the chance thinking that I could reinvent myself, get my degree, and prove to everyone in town that I made it even though they never believed in me.

Well, as you all know, I found that I had jumped in too hastily when it came to university life.  Had I stayed back a couple of years and figured out what I wanted to do instead of leapt in blindly just to get away from my hometown, I think I'd have been better off.  Instead I got there, managed to stay a couple of years, decided that I made a huge mistake, and returned home with my tail between my legs.  Thirteen years later, I'm still here.  But hey, at least my loans are paid off and I've got a place to live.  Career prospects could be better, but I'm working on that.  I mean, sure, it would have been nice to have gotten that degree, but you know what?  I don't need it to prove that I have made it.  I'm doing it a lot slower than most people, mind you, but I'll get there.

Of course, in my case, I left school because I found it a lot harder than I expected and I wasn't prepared for it emotionally.  But I did so quietly.  In Paige's case, she left school by having panic attacks in class, setting her dorm room on fire, and plagiarizing class assignments.  She too fled Banting with her tail between her legs, and when she came back to Toronto, she continued to have panic attacks and couldn't understand why.



Well, let's see.  Paige wanted to make something of herself, so she chose the most competitive school in the province of Ontario even though she was warned ahead of time that the course was going to be tough.  But she went anyway because she wanted to prove to everybody that she could handle it.  After all, she was Paige Michalchuk, captain of the cheerleaders, social butterfly, and one of the most beautiful people to grace the halls of Degrassi.  There are a lot of adjectives that her friends like Spinner, Jimmy, Alex, Ellie, Marco, and Ashley could have used to describe her, but not one of the was "failure". 

Of course, it didn't help matters much that the weekend in which she set her dorm room on fire was Thanksgiving weekend, and she had to prepare Thanksgiving dinner for her family and friends as well which featured an exploding turkey as the grand finale.  That would make anybody have a huge panic attack right there, and I think that turkey was the catalyst that caused Paige to realize that she too had made a mistake by enrolling at Banting.  Though, it's a wonder that she left on her own accord and that she wasn't thrown out for causing property damage.  And, last time I checked, we weren't allowed to have candles in our dorm rooms.  Then again, Banting is a fictional university, so I suppose they have the right to make up their own rules.

Look, the point is that I completely understand what Paige was going through...and to tell you the truth, I actually respect her for it.  Okay, so the fire was a bit much.  But it takes a lot of guts to admit to people that something isn't working in your life, and I respect people to can bounce back after the fact.  I'm doing it.  And, as far as I know, Paige did exactly that, as she settled back into life in Toronto with ease - with help from her friends.



I don't consider myself a failure (anymore) for not getting a university degree.  For some people, university just isn't for them.  I think that had I enrolled in a community college or trade school, I would have liked it much better.  But there's still time.  And though it was a rough go for Paige at first, she ended her time on Degrassi by becoming an assistant to a Hollywood producer.

I guess the lesson learned is this.  If you don't succeed in one thing, keep trying.  And don't be afraid to expand your options.  If something isn't working, try something else.  

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

August 18, 1952

Okay, so you may have noticed that I've changed the look of this blog again.  I can be quite indecisive that way.  But I think that this golden look will be staying around for the remainder of the year.  I really like how it turned out, and besides...there's a reason why I decided to make gold the predominant colour for the foreseeable future.  If I still have Internet access on the 28th of August, I'll reveal the reason then.  If not, it will be shortly after that.

But I'll also admit that this change was not exactly planned.  I kind of thought of it in the time frame of all of twelve seconds.  You see, when I was writing up today's edition of the TUESDAY TIMELINE entry, I realized that I did something by accident.

Every month or so, I delete all of the pictures that I used for the blog from my computer's hard drive to free up space for the next month's post...and I accidentally deleted the background that I used for the Tuesday Timeline postings!  So, I had to choose a different background, and the one I liked the best was gold, and well...here we are in a golden bloggers paradise.

And on this golden day of August 18, I have found a subject whose heart was made of gold.  And even though he's been gone for a few years now, I think that he's still fondly remembered even today.

For now though, let's have a look at what else took place on August 18th...

1587 - Virginia Dare becomes the first English child born in the Americas

1783 - A fireball meteor is seen across Great Britain as it passes over the east coast

1834 - American businessman and founder of Marshall Field's, Marshall Field (d. 1906) is born

1868 - The element of helium is discovered by Pierre Janssen

1877 - Asaph Hall discovers the Martian moon, Phobos

1891 - Seven hundred people lose their lives when a hurricane slams into Martinique

1920 - Actress Shelley Winters (d. 2006) is born in St. Louis, Missouri

1934 - Baseball player Roberto Clemente (d. 1972) is born in Puerto Rico

1938 - President Roosevelt dedicates the Thousand Islands Bridge which is suspended over the St. Lawrence River, connecting Southeastern Ontario with Upstate New York

1958 - The controversial novel "Lolita" is first published in the United States

1963 - James Meredith becomes the first African American person to graduate from the University of Mississippi

1971 - Australia and New Zealand withdraw troops from Vietnam

1983 - Hurricane Alicia slams the Texas coast, killing 22, and causing a billion dollars in damages

1999 - American blogger Talia Castellano (d. 2013) is born

2005 - A massive blackout knocks out power to over 100 million people on the Indonesian island of Java

2014 - Saturday Night Live announcer Don Pardo passes away at the age of 96

And I also want to wish the following famous faces a very happy birthday today - Amelia Boynton Robinson, Rosalynn Carter, Roman Polanski, Robert Redford, Martin Mull, Joseph Marcell, Nigel Griggs, Dennis Elliott, Elayne Boosler, Denis Leary, Diana Castle, Madeleine Stowe, Glenn Plummer, Bob Woodruff, Adam Storke, Craig Bierko, Jim Florentine, Sarita Choudhury, Erik "Everlast" Schrody, Edward Norton, Christian Slater, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Jacob Vargas, Victoria Coren Mitchell, Carmen Serano, Kaitlin Olson, Mizuo Peck, Andy Samberg, Mika, Mika Boorem, Maia Mitchell, and Max Charles.

Okay, so let's debut the new Tuesday Timeline logo while seeing what date we'll be looking at this week.



Ah, August 18, 1952.  That's a great date.  And, check out the new logo.  I used Souvenir Black font in black, and placed it against a gold star background.  I think it stands out.  Plus, the numbers are easier to read.

Anyway, today we're going to celebrate the life of a man who did a lot of things in his acting career.  He tried to save the United States when it was invaded in "Red Dawn".  He dirty danced his way to stardom.  He played with a pottery wheel as a ghost. 



But that's just a few of the things that Patrick Swayze did in his career.  He would have been 63 years old today if he were still here, which completely boggles my mind.  If anything, Swayze was a man who held his age quite well, as least until the end when he was battling pancreatic cancer - which eventually took his life on September 14, 2009 when he was 57.

So, in celebration of Swayze's birthday, I thought I would provide 57 facts about the late actor - one for every year he lived.

1.  Patrick Wayne Swayze was born in Houston, Texas.

2.  His brother Don is also an actor.

3.  He was the second of five children born to Patsy and Jesse Swayze.

4.  He initially wanted to go to college on a football scholarship, but a knee injury prevented him from doing so.

5.  He moved to New York City in the early 1970s to complete training in ballet dancing.

6.  His first "role" was as a dancer for Disney On Parade.  He played Prince Charming.



7.  His film debut was in a terrible roller-disco film called "Skatetown U.S.A." which also starred Scott Baio, Maureen McCormick, and Ruth Buzzi.

8.  He was also cast as C. Thomas Howell's older brother in "The Outsiders".

9.  And played the role of Jed Eckert in "Red Dawn".

10.  Swayze's biggest role was as Johnny Castle in the 1987 film "Dirty Dancing".  Not only did he act and dance in the movie...



11.  ...but he also contributed a song to the film's soundtrack!  And "She's Like The Wind" did very well on the charts too, peaking at #3.



12.  He was named People Magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1991.



13.  He married his wife, Lisa Niemi, in 1975, and stayed married to her until his death.

14.  He did not have any children.

15.  Swayze was sidelined from acting jobs in 1997 when he fell off of a horse while filming HBO's "Letters From A Killer" and broke his legs.

16.  His ashes are scattered at his New Mexico ranch.

17.  His mother Patsy was a choreographer, which is how Swayze developed his love of dance.

18.  He also developed a love of performing on stage.  He once played Danny Zuko in a stage performance of Grease!

19.  He turned down a contract to appear as Johnny Castle in a Dirty Dancing sequel.  The contract was worth six million dollars.

20.  But he did make a cameo appearance in "Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights".

21.  Patrick's father passed away at 57 - the same age as Patrick when he lost his life.

22.  He is distantly related to actors William Holden and Tom Hulce.

23.  He was initially cast in the 1989 film "Tango & Cash", but dropped out to film "Road House" instead.

24.  He received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1997.



25.  This is the 1982 music video for Toto's "Rosanna".  Look closely, and you can see Swayze in the video.

26.  He was quoted as saying "Good looking people turn me off.  Myself included."

27.  He struggled with alcohol addiction for years.

28.  He was a certified pilot.

29.  He starred in the West End theatre production of "Guys and Dolls" in the summer and fall of 2006.



30.  He appeared on stage at the 2008 Stand Up To Cancer benefit where he received a standing ovation following this speech.

31.  His last role was in the A&E television series "The Beast".  His cancer was diagnosed shortly after he filmed the pilot episode.

32.  One of his most talked about roles was in 1995's "To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar", which had Swayze playing a drag queen.

33.  Swayze earned a Golden Globe nomination for playing Vida Boheme in the film.



34.  The pottery scene in "Ghost" that Swayze filmed with Demi Moore was by his own admission the sexiest scene he had ever filmed.

35.  Years after Swayze completed filming for "Ghost", he had women coming up to him asking him to say the word "Ditto" like he did in the movie.



36.  As much chemistry as Swayze had with Jennifer Grey in the movie "Dirty Dancing", Swayze had to practically beg Grey to take the role in "Dirty Dancing", as when they previously worked together in "Red Dawn", she could not stand him!

37.  Patrick Swayze did his own stunts for "Dirty Dancing" - which lead to him having to get fluid drained from his knee after he clobbered it while filming the log scene.

38.  His star sign is Leo.

39.  His co-star in "Road House" - Ben Gazzara - also died of pancreatic cancer, three years after Swayze.

40.  He voiced the character of Cash in "The Fox and the Hound 2".

41.  He was 5'10".

42.  His nickname was "Buddy".

43.  He was given an "in memory of" screenshot in the "Family Guy" episode "Brian's Got A Brand New Bag".

44.  He had a guest appearance in a 1981 episode of M*A*S*H.

45.  He played Bandit in the television series "The Renegades".

46.  He played the role of Orry Main in the "North and South" miniseries.

47.  Swayze was cast in "To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar" because he improvised a monologue that was inspired by the bullying he endured as a child because he took ballet.

48.  According to John Leguizamo, Swayze was so ticked off by his improvisation on the set of "To Wong Foo..." that he threatened to punch him in the face!

49.  During the scene in "To Wong Foo..." where Christopher Penn's character pulls over Swayze in drag, Swayze actually placed a cob of corn down the front of his underwear to make Penn's reaction more believable.

50.  He had a guest appearance on his former co-star Whoopi Goldberg's short-lived sitcom, "Whoopi" in 2004.

51.  Patrick Swayze did his own skydiving in the 1991 movie "Point Break".

52.  He lost his sister, Vickie, in 1994.  The cause of death was suicide.

53.  He starred in two films that had "U.S.A." in their titles - Skatetown U.S.A. and Grandview, U.S.A.

54.  He had a very memorable role in the 2001 film "Donnie Darko"

55.  And he appeared in the family film "Christmas in Wonderland" in 2007.

56.  He and his brother Don only acted in one film project together - 2008's "Powder Blue".



57.  Six years after his death, he is still greatly missed.

Monday, August 17, 2015

We Know Life Is A Board Game - But What About The Game Of Living?


Sometimes, our fondest memories come from toys that remind us all of a carefree time in our lives. 

Some of my favourite toys were the various board games I used to play. Snakes And Ladders, Life, Monopoly, and several others...and it got me thinking...what board game rules would I like to implement in every day life? 

I'm sure all of have have wished that we could continuously pass GO just so you could reap the $200 reward each and every time. That's just one of the real life rules I think a lot of us want to see in our lives. It'd make life a heck of lot more easier. 

So, I compiled a list of other rules from games that we wish we could incorporate into the game we call living. 



(Monopoly) 
Wouldn't it be great if we really could buy a house for $100? Especially in THIS economy? 

(Monopoly) 
Yellow and orange (or even blue in the version we have at home) cards are valuable commodities...with them, you can win beauty contests, go to Boardwalk...even break out of jail...but the "chances" of getting one are just as slim as digging up a treasure chest on New York Avenue. 



(Mastermind)
Have you ever forgotten your PIN number at the ATM?  That's a real Mastermind moment right there!  They should just automatically tell you what your PIN number is after ten tries.  I think that's how many you get in the original Mastermind game.



(Clue) 
Be wary of professors dressed in purple fixing a sink in the kitchen with a wrench. Just sayin'. 



(Checkers) 
If only you could crown those who trespassed onto your side of the fence. 



(Life) 
Who needs social assistance? If this game of life really was real, you could father twelve children on a salary of $20,000 and STILL afford to live in a Dutch Colonial house with your living as a teacher. 

(Monopoly) 
Paying bills would be a heck of a lot easier if we only had to worry about the Water Works and Electric Company, no? 



(Jenga) 
I'm sure we'd have some interesting looking skyscrapers if architects followed the "you take a block from the bottom and you put it on top" philosophy. 



(Pictionary) 
Imagine what our museums would look like if Pictionary art became as big as Picasso? Why, you'd have thousands of people debating and coming up with their own theories as to what it represents? Is it a toad? A shiitake mushroom? Oprah Winfrey's self-portrait? The possibilities are endless!



(Balderdash) 
It's called the game of lying. Some people are already a living breathing testament of this game as I speak. And, of course, I always tell the truth as sure as my name is Dr. Phil. 



(Risk) 
Imagine how different the world would really be if it takes only 10 minutes to move tanks in between countries... 

(Clue) 
I'd like it if my house had but only ONE secret passageway... 



(Bed Bugs)
Instead of stripping off your bedding and burning it, wouldn't it be easier to pick them up with a plastic chopstick thingy?



(Sorry) 
Knocking down random people onto the ground for the hell of it and only having to say Sorry? Count me in! Especially if the people on the street are just in my way! 



(Hungry Hungry Hippos) 
I've been told this has actually been turned into a real life event called the Coney Island Hot Dog Eating Competition.



(Shark Attack) 
Well...I suppose if you were a stunt double in the Jaws movie, getting swallowed by a battery-powered shark is entirely possible. 



(Bumper Cars)
In real life, you bump a car, you get a ticket or put in jail.  But in the game of Bumper Cars, all the cars are made of plastic, so go nuts.  And yes, I actually owned this game!



(Mystery Date)
If only your dream date really did show up behind your door instead of the dud.




(Yahtzee) 
It's a wonder that this hasn't been made into a hot game to bet your hard earned cash in Vegas yet. 

Have you guys got any other examples you can add to this list?