The big film style from the 40’s, 50’s and even into the early 60’s was the Musical. Just did some background checks on Musicals in Film history.

In the 2000’s only one musical won best picture (Chicago 2002)
In the 1990’s there were no musicals winning best picture, If you count Disney’s Beauty and the Beast only 1 musical was nominated.
In the 1980’s none and I didn’t see any nominated
In the 1970’s none, I counted 3 nominations.
In the 1960’s there was West Side Story (1961), My Fair Lady (1964), The Sound of Music (1965), and Oliver! (1968) with many others nominated
In the 1950’s there was An American in Paris (1951), Gigi (1958) and again many others nominated
In the 1940’s Going my Way (1944) again there were many more nominated.

Now I realize that Academy awards are not a good indication of all the films made, it makes some logical sense to me that if more musicals are being made more will end up in the nomination process. That is just everyday statistics. So, I’m wondering, What happened to the musical? I may have to explore this when I have more time. The other question is, why do local community theaters always have to put on a musical? Never mind on that last question, there isn’t a budget for big special effects and action movies, I mean plays.

Post Script…
Fascinating sidebar for me. I started thinking of musicals was when I was discussing Fred Astaire with one of my daughters. I made the comment on how he made all of his dance partners look good, even the inanimate ones.

AH…… HALLOWEEN HAS COME (and gone for another year by the time this post is complete).  I love this time of year.  Some of my cousins (on my Dad’s side) actually operate a small family-friendly attraction.  They charge absolutely no admission and get lots of visitors every year.  At the end of the haunt, Ed and Barb have goodies as well as plates of cookies to take home.  It is really neat, but they always insist upon having no money given.  I believe taylhis has posted about the site on her blog.  Unfortunately, I cannot find the exact post, but you can read her posts as well.  I’m sure she would enjoy the traffic.

Tonight, the gang made its third and final trek to ScreamAcres.  I just had to go in costume.  Justj also came dressed in the very authentic attire of the world’s most reknowned archaeologist. If I could not be a scary clown for the theatre’s PLANNED haunted attraction, then I would at least dress the part for the evening.  I think I scared my own nieces more than I scared the other children I encountered.  However, the makeup must have created a nice effect under the black light of the haunted maze.  Some of the employees at the farm were especially nice as they recognized us each time we arrived.  Wouldn’t it be fun if some of them remember us when we return NEXT season?

Following the final foray into the darkness, we returned to watch a suspenseful movie.  Phone Booth stars Colin Farrell as Stu, a troubled Manhattan publicist who just happens to pick up the wrong ringing telephone in one of the last remaining booths on the isle.  The rather sadistic caller makes the young man play his game or if not places  the lives of Stu and others in jeopardy.  I actually enjoyed the picture-in-picture motif shown throughout the film letting the audience know what was going on surrounding the main action.  Very entertaining movie, but not one I would recommend to everyone.  The language is a problem.  But let it be noted, ifr you ever come across a ringing phone booth, be mindful or you may get someone you might not wish to speak to.  There was a two-year-old lying on the floor who we thought was sleeping becoming engrossed in it.  Uh,oh.

Blockbuster.com

Considering the topic of this blog one could assume that I am about to write a post about a Bart Simpson-esque student deciding to pull the fire alarm or set a trash can on fire for a gag, then get caught by police and dragged before a judge to learn that the story dad or grandpa told him about the things he did in his school days are not just considered not funny these days but actually a crime worthy of a hefty fine and/or community service.

Well, I’m not going to tell that story.  Instead this is about the trick-or-treaters who missed out on our house for the hour we took out of this evening to check up on my grandmother.  Things started out normal enough.  She called and the one she wanted to talk to was in the bathroom, so she said to have her call her back.  No problem, and thank– {click}.  Sigh.  My grandmother always hangs up immediately following her last word.  When she’s done, she’s done.  So, when the call is attempted to be returned- no answer.  Okay, maybe she’s in the bathroom this time.  Try again- nope.  And again.  Nada.  Keeps trying, and panic arises.  You see, my grandmother is 86 and I’m told was having some chest pains earlier today.  Okay, time to go over to her apartment to see if she’s all right, still attempting to make contact on the way.  We get over there and she is happily in discussion with a pastor who also sells household goods, I guess for extra income.  She loves the products he sells, or rather sold, as apparently he is quitting that line of business.

So, long story short (everybody now: TOO LATE! 😛 ) what happened is she unplugged the phone she had in her living room because it had too many cords and one of the buttons sticks.  That left her with her bedroom phone, which wouldn’t be a problem since her apartment is pretty small except she had the ringer turned off so she wouldn’t be woken up when asleep.  Doh!  We hooked back up her phone, explaining to her that she could still take calls even if she couldn’t dial any number with a 3 in it, and that I would be happy to get her a new phone ASAP.  No more troubles with not being able to call her I hope.

Okay, we return and only get maybe two more trick-or-treating groups for the rest of the night.  Where have they all gone these last few years, seriously?  Maybe scares like the latest one of tainted chocolate candy from China [don’t worry unless you’re in Canada, says the company]?

If you really want to hear about my jobs these last couple of days, I think I’m going to have to make you wait until tomorrow.  It’s 11 now and I’m tired.  Good night.

Turn out the lights, sit in the dark and watch these movies. By today’s standards, they are not scary. By the standards of the time, people screamed in the theaters.

Number 1 on my list, I’ve written about before. Dracula with Bela Lugosi, the first well know Dracula, and one imitated more often than any of the others. Lugosi’s vampire became the standard.

Number 2, The Wolfman with Lon Chaney Jr. State of the art special effects of the day when he changed into the Wolfman.

Number 3, Frankenstein with Boris Karloff. Created life goes out of control to destroy its creator and all the things the creator loves.

Number 4, The Mummy with Boris Karloff. Karloff gets to act in this movie and it is worth seeing. His voice and facial expressions are wonderful

Find them, watch them and enjoy.

Happy Halloween

I made an entry on another site yesterday and noticed a spike in my readers. There really was nothing new to this, the other site seems to be a curious bunch and when I post, my blog readership does spike for a day or two

I did something a little out of the ordinary for me, I begged for readers outside of my blog. Spike city, and I also got additional responses!!!

One of the reasons I started this blog, was a chance to communicate with more people. If nobody responds, I’m not communicating, just writing. So I welcome all newcomers.

For anyone new, most of the time I write about things that interest me. My interests vary widely and can be influenced by responses…. I’ve been into computer communication since the time of 300 baud acoustic modems. I started sharing Dungeons and Dragons hints and stuff like that in the late 70’s early 80’s. Then I got into it for work related functions and finally with this blog back to fun again.

Pick an interest, and I may write about it.

1) new/old movies tv shows (Things I’ve seen, or things I won’t and why)
2) Books (I like books, do you have any suggestions? I don’t read romance, just a quirk of mine)
3) Science News, mostly space related, but that is just a starting point
4) Odd News the odder the better in my book
5) cooking, I like to find new recipes. All sorts
6) Family – I have one and I like them
7) Friends – They are the family you pick
8 ) Hobbies and other pastimes
9) The trials, tears and other feelings about being a Widower and only parent
10) Life – thinking about it and living it

Notice I didn’t put up anything about religion or politics. I was always taught that it is almost impossible to have polite conversation in those areas, unless everyone agrees with my Father. Since he is no longer around to moderate those conversations, and I’m not in the mood to moderate them, I guess they won’t happen here.

Enjoy, and be welcome.

This afternoon at the high school, the entire student body and members of the community (too few in my opinion) were treated to a concert by America’s Finest Singing Machine, The Bowling Green State University Men’s Chorus.  Although its size has dwindled and it is now under a new master from when I was a member, I am pleased to say that the tradition is alive and well.  Starting off with the ever traditional “Sing Dem Herrn,” I got goosebumbs as the men marched double file to the risers filling the air with music.  The repetoire has not changed a bit: some classical (even a Gregorian chant), contemporary, gospel, and novelty bits.  There were also appearances by the chamber choir (something new to me) as well as the two varsity quartets.  I am sure that the long standing lists of quartets who have traveled on to contests is still alive and well.  The chamber ensemble performed a Halloween themed medley (“The Addams Family, and “Ghostbusters”… I wonder how many of the men actually remember the movie).  I actually was seated beside a woman whose son is a member.

At the halfway point the director, Dr. Skoog Got on his soap box (a well needed one) to speak on Arts in the school (or lack thereof).  Today in over 60% of our local schools there is no arts program.  No music, no band, no choir, no drama.  That is a shame.  As Dr. Skoog pointed out, in the next 20 years if the trend continues there will be no need for ipods or mp3 players because our children will not be taught in the arts.  Grant it, literacy is important but there are students who have a natural inborn talent that if the decline in arts education continues that talent will not be cultivated.  Ok… on to the highlight.

The second half of a BGSU Men’s Chorus concert is devoted to the more light-hearted, crowd-pleasing, traditional fare.  This afternoon was no exception.  As Dr. Skoog invited any chorus alums to come to the stage, the lady beside me immediately stood up so I could make my way to the gymnasium floor.  After I shook the director’s hands and pulled out my white gloves, I THOUGHT I knew what was coming.  But no, the announcement was made that we would be performing the traditional initiation piece (true that the new members learn it the night before the first time they perform and it is one of the hardest songs you will ever learn).  EVEN BETTER!!!  I cannot go into detail in case anyone who reads this blog may one day wish to become a member of the chorus.  But if asked, performer that I am, I could be pressed into doing it.

So… a fantastic blast down memory lane…. and as a friend and teacher pointed out to me after the concert… “You never missed a beat.  You never forget do you.”  Nope… just like I never forgot “Oops pardon me, blondie” or “Baloons for sale; Baloons for sale; RED, YELLLOW and GRREEEEN BALOONS!”  I just wish Emily had been there.  She never got to see me perform with the chorus.

Tuesday, Oct 21 – We visited Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, and the Out of Control Magic Show at Wonderworks.  Universal and Islands are right next to each other, but there is a lot of walking between the two.  A lot of walking and not so much for the kids.  But they did have fun, especially Disney who got to see Barney Live.  I missed the Animal Actors show this year, but I was more in the mood for rides, and we got to ride plenty.  The new Simpsons ride is actually better than I expected.  It’s the old Back to the Future ride except you are now riding through Springfield.  The waiting area is themed well, and you get to watch little Simpsons snippets while you wait – talk about making the time go by fast!  The ride is very cool, and you actually feel like you’re riding around Springfield.  The Mummy ride is still my favorite thing in both parks, and it’s as cool as I remember.  I especially like sitting near people who haven’t been on it before – it’s a blast to see the reactions to the haunted house meets roller coaster.  Over at Islands, we got positively soaked to the core riding the Bluto boat ride, but that was expected because I rode it twice – those huge raft rides are my favorite type of water ride.  My 4-year-old Sammie hated it, much to my surprise because she was just playing in the sprinklers at Epcot the night before.  But she felt better after going on one of the kids’ favorites, the Cat in The Hat ride.  Our two-year-old loved that one too.  We were a bit strapped for time and didn’t get to try some of the coasters and other rides I’ve never been on over at Islands, but oh well, we still had fun.  And my husband got chosen again (4th time now) to be an “actor” in the skit they do before the Earthquake ride which is now known as “Disaster”.  They redid it and added a cool hologram of Christopher Walken.  And they chose my husband to be the “hunky” lead actor – but then, I always knew that 🙂

The magic show was a lot of fun and it made me want to produce something like it locally for our community theater.  It’s kind of like stand-up comedy AND magic in one, with lots of audience participation.  My husband, daughter, and our friend were all chosen to go on stage, and I filled up the camera’s memory card trying to record everything.  And a note to Jamiahsh – you really don’t know me well enough by now to not point at me when they’re asking for volunteers?!?  You are so lucky he didn’t pick me – I would have blamed you and had your head!  Just kidding…  well, kind of, but don’t do that again!

Monday, October 20 (Disney’s 2nd birthday!!) – Started off bright and early in Orlando with a time share presentation – yuck.  We’ve been to a few of these, and we try to schedule at least one every time we’re in the Orlando area because they pay well.  This time, we got $100 cash.  It took over 3 hours, but hey, that’s over $30/hour – well worth it in my opinion.  I could go on and on about time share presentations because there are always certain things they do to get you to buy one – there must be a formula to the presentations.  And let’s face it, they’re one of the biggest rip-offs that exist.  The last few we’ve gone to, we’ve played a little game where I think of a random word my husband has to say to the time share people.  This time it was “gondola”.  Unfortunately, we didn’t get the word in because the presentation took much longer than they said it would (big surprise) and we had our friend jamiahsh waiting for us.  This also saw us getting to Epcot later than we would have liked, but we still got to do most of everything we wanted at Epcot.  If you’ve been to a time share presentation (or 2 or 3 or more), then you should check out the South Park episode about it.  I’m not a huge fan of the show, but the time share episode is hilarious.  It was actually recommended to us by a time share salesman once!

The manatees are my favorite thing at Epcot.  My husband makes fun because we have manatees right here at the Columbus Zoo in Ohio, but that’s 3 hours away and I’ve only been there once.  Besides, I’ve been to Epcot a bunch and I’m starting to get to know their manatees.  Last time I was lucky enough to see them hugging!  A peaceful feeling comes over me as I watch them swim.  We did miss the Crush (from Finding Nemo) show, and we meant to go back for it but forget – oh well.  And for those of you who’ve been to Disney World before, you should know that they’ve updated the Spaceship Earth ride – that’s the one in the big huge golfball that is Epcot’s signiture.  I don’t like the new version nearly as much as the old one.  The ride needed updating.  It takes riders through the history of human communication, and ome of the scenes had become outdated as time passed because people don’t communicate in the ways that they visualized we would when the ride was built.  Soarin’ is my favorite ride at Epcot, but it always has HUGE lines.  This time we were able to get a fastpass, but we could only ride once and my husband wasn’t able to ride because our 2 year old was in a Daddy-clingy kind of mood.  We ended the night at Epcot by running all over the park in a desperate search for a soft pretzel.  Our 4-year-old was being so uncharacteristically well-behaved that I was willing to get her anything she wanted, especially since she was asking about it nicely.

Full shows available on the internet.  Who would have thought of that.  I also have enough speed to watch one as long as I don’t make the screen too big or watch anything else.

I really liked that show when it was on.  What I thought was great, is that some of the things he did would actually work.  

I can’t remember how many I tried out.  Yes, even as an adult I did try some of the MacGyverisms.   My wife thought MacGyver was good looking, so she didn’t have a problem watching the show either.  She got mad when I sprayed a lightbulb with water once.   Hot lightbulbs explode when they get wet. Who would ever have thought that would work in real life.  Glass shards all over the place…  I was more careful after that.  I waited until the house was empty to try new things.

Well anyway you can watch whole episodes of Macgyver on an IMDb link here. 

I feel like I can barely keep my head above water these days – I’m so incredibly overwhelmed with things to do!  To top it all off, our dog had a huge swollen lump on her face that just kept getting worse so we had to take her to the vet.  It’s an abscess tooth, and the vet also found a few other problems.  In short, we have to decide how much we can afford to fix.  This dog is like one of our kids; we got her before we were even married, and at the time, we had trouble adopting a dog because we were so young and lived in an apartment, so shelters wouldn’t let us adopt.  But finally, we found Charity, and they let us adopt her, and she was the most terrible puppy you can imagine.  We stuck through her puppy years, and by age 2 she was the best dog ever.  She is now almost 11 yrs old and a major part of our family, to say the least.  So anyway, she needs some treatment at the vet and at home, which will increase our busyness considerably.  Add to that some household stuff I’ve been backed up with for months (still haven’t unpacked all my hospital stuff from when the baby was born in July!), and it just keeps getting worse.  It’s really hard to do all the laundry and meal preparation and cleaning up after a family of 6 when I have two little kids to watch all day!  Thank goodness the other two are in school, but between errands, feedings, diaper changes, cleaning up spills and messes, and playing, I don’t have enough time left over for household duties, much less stuff I’m backed up on…  And forget about hobbies; which is why I might have to let my blog go.  I really don’t want to; I enjoy writing on it; especially cuz it gives me a nice way to preserve memories for our family.  But right now, it’s  a source of stress as it’s just another thing I’m trying to work in.  I wish I could be more passive about housework and laundry and stuff like that, but it just bugs the heck out of me when I let stuff go.  And for good reason – I never have the time to catch up on stuff that’s put off until later!  But enough of that, I’m just venting my stress, and also warning you that my blog posts are going to become even more infrequent.  It’s a shame too…  I have a lot left of our trip to FL to share that I’d also like to record in my diary…  might not be able to write about it until 2009!