In an attempt to get in shape before spring, The Yankee Chicken is taking his new fitness regimen very seriously and not even thinking of attempting steroids... even though he can't lift his barbells. At least the pros are coming back so he doesn't have to put up a macho front much longer.
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Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Rave On
The Yankee Chicken takes a break from pondering his first rave (no, really, what was that all about?) to cheer us with something far better than crappy techno music and glow sticks.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
The Major Effect of The Miniseries. A Very Serious And Thought-Provoking Post By Karen A Bischer
So I've come to realize recently how much certain miniseries shaped my formative years. I know - it's supposed to be literature that had this profound effect on me right? Well, maybe it helps that they were all based on books. Anyway, I was this little sponge for made-for-TV drama and three series in particular, all airing around the same time, were beyond fascinating to me. Which, go on with your bad self 1980s. You may have had your issues (Why is dayglow coming back? WHY?), but you could be counted on for just wanting to entertain the hell out of everyone. Hence why it felt like a new miniseries would air every week back then. My goodness, did the networks have money to burn back then or what?
Anyway. While I've loved many a mini (The Stand, A&E's Pride and Prejudice, I, Claudius, Clarissa... I could go on all night, for real), these three had the most impact. Thank you, mid-1980s TV producers. Thank you.:
North and South (Books I and II):
This s*** was the very definition of EPIC, man. Six nights for each part: I ask you, when was the last time network TV had the balls to do that? My parents watched it in its first run when I was 8. I vaguely remember them watching Shogun and The Thorn Birds before that, but this was the first miniseries I was old enough to be totally captivated by. I think a trip to Williamsburg the year before (in which I was totally bored except for the fried chicken) might've given me an appreciation or at least a slight understanding of "olden times" because in the third grade you're only just starting to learn about that stuff. Clearly, I was not the target audience for such a thing. But something about all the characters and costumes and the (somewhat terrible) accents sucked. me. in. And it was also educational - really! I mean, I walked away learning about the lead-up to the Civil War and the horrors of slavery and how it divided the entire country. Where else was I going to get that at that age? Because Silver Spoons and Punky Brewster sure as hell weren't tackling those issues, you know?
And on a more shallow front, it's probably the first time I remember being invested in TV romance: I wanted Orry and Madeline together because, really, it's no contest between young Patrick Swayze and menacing, "celery tonic"-and-horse-whip wielding David Carradine. I wanted Billy (the first Billy, anyway. Second Billy...not a Parker Stevenson fan at the age of 8) to like nice Brett better than Ashton and her scheme-heaving bosom. I even understood Orry and George's bromance (because really, that's what this is all about. Watching the first part recently, I couldn't get over how much manlove those two had for each other, as much as the unhinged Virgillia always tried to ruin it). The whole thing was just so involving.
Even if it still does leave me with a lot of questions. Like why did everyone say "aboat" and "hoose" like they were Canadian? And why did the Hazard family look alike while the Main siblings all looked nowhere near related? And did my parents let me stay up past my bedtime to watch each part? (I could've been riding the "I split my chin open and had to get stitches" sympathy wave during the first part. It's entirely possible.)
After all these years, I STILL remember this promo and this guy's voice, especially the way he said "Lesley Anne Down." Also, it should be noted Part 2 started airing the day after my first communion. Big weekend, man.
But the craziest part? Is when Part 2 aired the following spring, a big group of us re-created it on the playground. I'm not kidding. I was far from the only third grader swept up in this thing. I distinctly remember playing out a scene where my classmate was Ashton and she got to pretend-slap me, her sister Brett (like ten times - we thought it was high comedy). We acted out people falling down enormous staircases and getting thrown through windows dramatically (we only needed a big tree and a chainlink fence for all this). And when we got older? I remember watching it with my friends in high school (we'll ignore Part III, which I watched about fifteen minutes of when it aired and turned off my TV in disgust) and us going around quoting it for days (Bent's "You ho-ah" still lives on amongst a few of us). When Time Life finally issued it on VHS? My friend sneakily used her brand-new checking account to buy both Part I and II. I don't think her parents were too thrilled with the idea, but it was a proud day when that first tape was delivered to her and we got to watch it again.
The power of Orry and George can drive one to subterfuge, you see.
All the Rivers Run:
I can't even tell you how much I loved this one back in the day. It originally aired on HBO in 1983, but I didn't see it till my dad recorded it in 1985 for my mom off what would soon become our local Fox affiliate. It came on once a week, really late on Saturday night and had some REALLY AWESOME 80s commercials (Delta Gold potato chips with Jason Alexander, anyone?) to go along with it, but that's not what made it so great. Basically, it's a girl-power story dressed up in historical romance. A British teen girl named Philadelphia gets shipwrecked in the early 1900s off the coast of Australia, loses her entire immediate family and has to go live on a farm with her incredibly bitchy aunt, sweet but horndog-y uncle (he has several mistresses. Which you can kind of understand because when I say the aunt is bitchy, woman is bitchy) and intense and increasingly creepy cousin (like, seriously, dude, your cousin doesn't want to make out with you. Gross).
Anyway, the farm is on a river and Philadelphia grows to love all the paddleboats that go by, one in particular where the only other survivor of the shipwreck is a deckhand. This all leads to Philly having an adversarial/turned flirty/turned you-know-where-this-is-going relationship with the captain of the boat. She eventually travels on the boat and befriends the salty crew, and then becomes a first mate, and then a captain. Along the way, there are many adventures, both on the water and on land, and a lot of soapy things happen and a potential romance with a pretentious, pale art critic threatens everything, but lo, Philadelphia sticks with the river and her hot, temporarily disabled captain husband, because she's a bad ass who can be a wife, mother, paint portraits AND captain a boat. Sisters are doing it for themselves, y'all. Looking back on it, this was pretty awesome for a little girl to see, so thanks HBO for helping make that happen, even if you were probably courting the romance-novel-reading set and not so much the Ramona Quimby-reading set.
Anne of Green Gables/Anne of Avonlea
You guyyyyys. I don't think I'll ever be able to say enough about this series (well, the less said about that ridiculous third part the better, but Part I and II are flawless). I was too young to have read the books, so when this came on the air in like 1986 or so, I had no background info on it. Here was this character, Anne, who was whip smart but she was so melodramatic and getting herself into jams - she was by no means a goody-goody, which is how smart kids were almost always portrayed. A cute guy teases her because of her hair, she smashes his slate over his head (because she has a bad temper - it was so refreshing!), and he apologizes to her. And he likes her because she's smart! Later, she doesn't want to marry him just because everyone expects it and she's not going to get married just to get married (Bravo, Lucy Maud Montgomery, for being so ahead of your time, even if it played out a bit differently in the books). She goes off and lives her life. And then she comes to her senses because, hi, Gilbert's a fox and is into her for her brains, and he almost dies not knowing she loves him or that he inspired her to write a book that got published. Le sigh.
AMAZING.But what I appreciate most about it is that when I first came upon it on PBS when I was like 9 or 10, I was like, "Is this real? Is this something for someone my age?" and being so in awe of that. No, really, what other miniseries were they gearing towards kids back then? Or now? Oh, sure, there were the After School Specials, but those always had a force-fed "message" and were only an hour long. This was meant to engage you for at least a few days and not just serve as a cautionary tale. This was something for you to relate to. Anne and her big words are half the reason alone why my own vocabulary improved. I have no doubt that in some way, my wanting to become a writer was influenced by Anne Shirley (and probably Kathleen Turner's romance-novel-writing character in Romancing the Stone. But that's another post for another day). I dare say it was one of the most influential things from my childhood. Yes, all from a little old made-for-TV miniseries.
Man, recess must be a very dull place these days since kids don't have these things to emulate anymore. Tsk, tsk. (Unless they're acting out Downton Abbey, which would be FANTASTIC.)
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Nesting
The Yankee Chicken takes a break from mentally redecorating and organizing the apartment for spring (what else are we going to do with twelve feet of rain and snow outside?) to take some good news off the shelf.