A kinder, gentler version of the old blog. This will take a fun look at pop culture, because nothing upsets Ozarkers more than fun and pop culture. Mwu-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Friday, May 31, 2013
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Thursday, May 23, 2013
'S.W.A.T.' and 'The Barron' star Steve Forrest dies at 87
'S.W.A.T.' star Steve Forrest dies at 87
Forrest was also in one of my favorite movies of the 80s, Amazon Women on the Moon.
Forrest was also in one of my favorite movies of the 80s, Amazon Women on the Moon.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
DESDINOVA'S FAVORITE SONGS BY THE DOORS
As promised, a list of my favorite songs by the Doors. I'm part of that second wave of Doors fans that discovered them in the early 80s. NOTE: While the Doors rank as one of my all time favorite bands, I'm not one of those annoying fans that pick their most obscure songs as my favorite songs.
1. "Light My Fire"
2. "Love Her Madly"
3. "Touch Me"
4. "Hello I Love You"
5. "Riders On the Storm"
6. "Love Me Two Times"
7. "Moonlight Drive"
8. "Five To One"
9. "Peace Frog"
10. "Break On Through (To The Other Side)"
11. "Strange Days"
12. "Soul Kitchen"
13. "The End"
14. "Wild Child"
15. "Unhappy Girl"
16. "My Eyes Have Seen You"
17. "L.A. Woman"
18. "When The Music's Over"
19. "Crystal Ship"
20. "Roadhouse Blues"
1. "Light My Fire"
2. "Love Her Madly"
3. "Touch Me"
4. "Hello I Love You"
5. "Riders On the Storm"
6. "Love Me Two Times"
7. "Moonlight Drive"
8. "Five To One"
9. "Peace Frog"
10. "Break On Through (To The Other Side)"
11. "Strange Days"
12. "Soul Kitchen"
13. "The End"
14. "Wild Child"
15. "Unhappy Girl"
16. "My Eyes Have Seen You"
17. "L.A. Woman"
18. "When The Music's Over"
19. "Crystal Ship"
20. "Roadhouse Blues"
Monday, May 20, 2013
Doors' Keyboardist and Founder Ray Manzarek Dies
http://www.mercurynews.com/music/ci_23284917/publicist-ray-manzarek-founding-member-doors-dies-at
The Doors are one of my all time favorite bands. I will follow this up with an Ipod playlist of my favorite Doors songs.
The Doors are one of my all time favorite bands. I will follow this up with an Ipod playlist of my favorite Doors songs.
Sunday, May 12, 2013
MOTHER'S DAY WITH MOTHER FEAR
I was busy this week and missed the death of longtime The Young & the Restless star Jeanne Cooper. Before Y&R, she was a guest star in several popular TV shows. One of my favorite characters she played was a villain on The Man from UNCLE called Mother Fear. She and Captain Jenks (Warren Stevens) ran a private boys school, where they trained the boys to be assassins.
This is about the only clip I could find from that episode, that featured Ms. Cooper.
BTW: Jeanne Cooper in real life was the mother of L.A. Law actor Corbin Bernsen.This is about the only clip I could find from that episode, that featured Ms. Cooper.
Saturday, May 11, 2013
TV MOMS
I made one of these post last year at Fathers Day and I just a bought went insane trying to load the photos in a certain order. Thing were not quite as bad with the post of advertising characters, but I became frustrated several time. Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers reading this.
THE 50s:
THE 60s:
THE 70s:
THE 80s:
THE 90s:
NOTE: I'm sure I left out someone. If it is your favorite, I'm sorry.
THE 50s:
MOLLY GOLDBERG |
MAMA HANSON |
HARRIET NELSON |
MARGARET ANDERSON (She was also Mr. Spock's mom) |
KATHY WILLIAMS |
JUNE CLEAVER (She also speaks jive) |
DOROTHY BAXTER |
WILMA FLINTSTONE |
JANE (His Wife) JETSON |
REBEKAH BOONE |
MORTICIA ADDAMS |
LILY MUNSTER |
SAMANTHA STEVENS |
MAUREEN ROBINSON |
JULIA BAKER |
CAROL BRADY |
SHIRLEY PARTRIDGE |
MARION CUNNINGHAM |
FLORIDA EVANS |
ANN ROMANO |
THE 80s:
ELYSE KEATON |
CLAIR HUXTABLE |
MARSHA OWENS |
MAGGIE SEAVER |
ROSEANNE CONNER |
KATE TANNER (She is the one on the right) |
ELIZABETH LUBBOCK |
MARGE SIMPSON |
PEG BUNDY |
JILL TAYLOR |
ANNIE CAMDEN |
LOIS GRIFFIN |
KITTY FOREMAN |
Labels:
Cartoons,
Leave It To Beaver,
Lost In Space,
Mother's Day,
Pop Culture,
Sitcoms,
The 50s,
The 60s,
The 70s,
the 80s,
the 90s,
The Brady Bunch,
The Flintstones,
The Simpsons,
TV Moms
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
THE CREATIONS OF RAY HARRYHAUSEN
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Sunday, May 5, 2013
THE MYTH OF PERFECT SMALL TOWNS
I admit that I'm a small town boy, but, unlike John Cougar Mellencamp, I'm don't think it was a great experience for me. As matter of fact, the best way I could describe my formative years in Lebanon, Missouri is a hellish nightmare world. It was not Mayberry, more of a cross between Twin Peaks and Peyton Place.
I should note that I was not the first person to be critical of Lebanon, Missouri. Harold Bell Wright, who had been a minster in Lebanon, wrote a novel about Lebanon called The Calling of Dan Mathews. In the story, a young minister becomes so disgusted with the hypocrisy in the town that he resigns from the church.
Country music likes to portray small town life as being without problems and a model for all the other cities and nations of the world. The truth is most small towns have a "dark side." This is why there have been so many successful novels, plays, movies and TV shows revolving around the "idyllic small town" that is later exposed to be filled with sex, murder, drug abuse, alcoholism and a thousand lies. Besides The Calling of Dan Mathews, there is also Main Street and Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis, Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson, Our Town by Thorton Wilder, the aforementioned Peyton Place by Grace Metalious and David Lynch's Twin Peaks.
All of these artistic creations all address the problems of class status and conformity to an expected place in the community. The poor kids should never date the rich kids and visa versa, nor should a poor person try to surpass a rich person's success. There are traditions in small towns that need to be adhered to. "That is the way things have always been and don't try to change it."
I think the contributing factor to this "dark side" is the claustrophobic feel that is compounded by the fact that "everybody knows everybody in town." There is no such thing as anonymity. If you do something or say something out of line, everyone knows about it. Trust me, there are people who are still holding things I did in seventh grade against me.
Which leads to one of the worst problems with a small town: GOSSIP. People is small towns would rather say bad things about each other than positive things and if someone can find some juicy secret, that is even better. Sadly, the Internet has made this worse. Lebanon has a message board, connected to the newspaper's website. I used to like to read it, but it has went to the dogs. When it isn't filled with right-wing propaganda and the most racist, homophobic, violent, hate-speak, it is vicious gossip about people I have known for years. Many of these people are personal friends and even some of my family members. They never think that they hurting their neighbors and community with these asinine rumors. We don't care that you think the fire department wrecks its truck to get the city to buy them a new one. We don't care that a boat company was defrauded. It is a big company...they will get over it.
If that wasn't bad enough, every city and town has a Topix forum, which is even more disgusting. This board usually has discussions about which woman in town "sleeps around" and which women "turn tricks."There also are threads started by parents about "weird kids" or kids that "I-told-my-kid-not-to-friends-with-that- kid." These types of threads are why I have suggested that parents be held accountable for bullying just as much as their kids. I'm sure if Topix had been around when I was in school, there would have been a "That thar weird Desdinova kid" thread about me.
Trust me, small town's have a bad side and we shouldn't try to ignore it. Great pop culture hasn't. Of course, an opinion, like this one, is why I'm considered the Super Villain of the Ozarks!!! Mwu-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
I should note that I was not the first person to be critical of Lebanon, Missouri. Harold Bell Wright, who had been a minster in Lebanon, wrote a novel about Lebanon called The Calling of Dan Mathews. In the story, a young minister becomes so disgusted with the hypocrisy in the town that he resigns from the church.
Country music likes to portray small town life as being without problems and a model for all the other cities and nations of the world. The truth is most small towns have a "dark side." This is why there have been so many successful novels, plays, movies and TV shows revolving around the "idyllic small town" that is later exposed to be filled with sex, murder, drug abuse, alcoholism and a thousand lies. Besides The Calling of Dan Mathews, there is also Main Street and Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis, Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson, Our Town by Thorton Wilder, the aforementioned Peyton Place by Grace Metalious and David Lynch's Twin Peaks.
All of these artistic creations all address the problems of class status and conformity to an expected place in the community. The poor kids should never date the rich kids and visa versa, nor should a poor person try to surpass a rich person's success. There are traditions in small towns that need to be adhered to. "That is the way things have always been and don't try to change it."
I think the contributing factor to this "dark side" is the claustrophobic feel that is compounded by the fact that "everybody knows everybody in town." There is no such thing as anonymity. If you do something or say something out of line, everyone knows about it. Trust me, there are people who are still holding things I did in seventh grade against me.
Which leads to one of the worst problems with a small town: GOSSIP. People is small towns would rather say bad things about each other than positive things and if someone can find some juicy secret, that is even better. Sadly, the Internet has made this worse. Lebanon has a message board, connected to the newspaper's website. I used to like to read it, but it has went to the dogs. When it isn't filled with right-wing propaganda and the most racist, homophobic, violent, hate-speak, it is vicious gossip about people I have known for years. Many of these people are personal friends and even some of my family members. They never think that they hurting their neighbors and community with these asinine rumors. We don't care that you think the fire department wrecks its truck to get the city to buy them a new one. We don't care that a boat company was defrauded. It is a big company...they will get over it.
If that wasn't bad enough, every city and town has a Topix forum, which is even more disgusting. This board usually has discussions about which woman in town "sleeps around" and which women "turn tricks."There also are threads started by parents about "weird kids" or kids that "I-told-my-kid-not-to-friends-with-that- kid." These types of threads are why I have suggested that parents be held accountable for bullying just as much as their kids. I'm sure if Topix had been around when I was in school, there would have been a "That thar weird Desdinova kid" thread about me.
Trust me, small town's have a bad side and we shouldn't try to ignore it. Great pop culture hasn't. Of course, an opinion, like this one, is why I'm considered the Super Villain of the Ozarks!!! Mwu-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
LOOSE ENDS FROM PAST POST
I've debated just updating some of my post which I left something out of or create a new post. Since I haven't created many original post lately, I decide on a special "loose ends post."
Earlier this year I gave you a post entitled "People Guilty of Interrupting TV Shows," a look at some of the actors and actresses who portrayed famous advertising characters. I realized early on that I left off a few and the names of the people who created the role. Part of the problem was with Bloggers ability to load multiple photos on a post. I got very frustrated with that post, so once I got it half way decent looking, I gave up, but chose to make a separate post with the actual names of the people who portrayed these iconic characters.
Two people I left off were actors Jesse White (top), who was the first Maytag Repairman, and Michael Vale (bottom), who played the Dunkin Donuts maker.
Then there was "Disco Shock or I Can't Believe They Made a Disco Record." This was a list of artist that nobody thought would make a record that was even close to being disco, but they did. After it was completed, local KTXR radio personality Wayne Glenn ("The Old Record Collector") mentioned Frankie Avalon recorded a "disco" version of his 50s hit "Venus." I also discovered this week that the late Richie Havens recorded a disco song in 1980 called "Going Back To My Roots."
Earlier this year I gave you a post entitled "People Guilty of Interrupting TV Shows," a look at some of the actors and actresses who portrayed famous advertising characters. I realized early on that I left off a few and the names of the people who created the role. Part of the problem was with Bloggers ability to load multiple photos on a post. I got very frustrated with that post, so once I got it half way decent looking, I gave up, but chose to make a separate post with the actual names of the people who portrayed these iconic characters.
"I'm so lonely." |
"Time...to...make...the donuts." |
Two people I left off were actors Jesse White (top), who was the first Maytag Repairman, and Michael Vale (bottom), who played the Dunkin Donuts maker.
Then there was "Disco Shock or I Can't Believe They Made a Disco Record." This was a list of artist that nobody thought would make a record that was even close to being disco, but they did. After it was completed, local KTXR radio personality Wayne Glenn ("The Old Record Collector") mentioned Frankie Avalon recorded a "disco" version of his 50s hit "Venus." I also discovered this week that the late Richie Havens recorded a disco song in 1980 called "Going Back To My Roots."
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