Childhood's End

When I was a wee lad, barely five or six years old, it felt like every little thing in my life was monumental. Like everything was cool and fun.... the Native American man on the TV test pattern that I'd see early on Saturday mornings, before the day's programming began; those 60's cartoons that I so anticipated (Underdog, Mighty Mouse); my Billy Blast-Off toy action figure; my far-out toy space ray gun with wild sound effects and flashing lights. These were the things that made life reasonably complete at that tender age.

Another fond memory was when my mother handed down to me her old View-Master and a bunch of reels. The viewer itself dates back to the 1940's, I believe, or maybe the 50's at the latest. That makes it an antique! It's not in perfect condition but it still works just fine. My little brother and I gave that thing a thorough workout when we took possession of it. The kid brother got his own, more modern, View-Master one Christmas, so this vintage model became all mine. As an adult, I let my daughter enjoy that same stereoscopic viewer, though I kept it safely stored in between uses. And it has survived to this day. 

When my mom gave me the View-Master, I also received a handful of similarly vintage reels, stuff like The Lone Ranger, Cisco Kid, Tom Sawyer, and Tarzan. Each reel or set of reels told a story, usually adapted from an old TV show or movie. Since I hadn't seen such things on TV yet, the 3-D reels were my introduction to these colourful characters and adventures.

Other fun reels I had, aimed more at my youthful age group, included Casper the Friendly Ghost, Woody Woodpecker, Bugs Bunny, and Tom and Jerry. These, too, seemed to be older-looking releases. Even as I neared age ten to twelve, I collected a smattering of new titles, things like the James Bond movie Live and Let Die, Star Trek and Batman and Archie (all adapted from the 60's TV series), Shazam and Superman (from the comics), and even some 70's TV adaptations like Happy Days, Space: 1999, The Six Million Dollar Man, and Kung Fu (starring David Carradine). I'd picked up some of these after noticing and loving the television shows upon which they were based. 

These are great souvenirs today, relics of older technology that are still fun to revisit - for a few of us oldsters, anyway. Every once in a long, long time, I'll dig out the View-Master and check out a few reels... transported back to a simpler time. A time without streaming Youtube videos and everything ever created at our fingertips, when small pleasures were enough to fill our lazy childhood days. 

U2... You Too?

I remember back in the early 80's, hanging out at a friend's house, I noticed an unusual album or two in his milk crates of records. I'm certain there was a copy of War by Irish band U2, and less certainly, I think I saw the album Boy, as well. My pal was a guitar guy and his music collection was a fairly comprehensive overview of the six-string in rock. He and I shared many favourite bands, but his U2 record(s) never came out of the crate. Maybe U2 just wasn't one of his faves. 

That was the first time I was even aware of the band. Months passed, we both graduated from high school, and we went our separate ways for post-secondary education. As it turned out, we ended up not all that far apart: he settled in downtown Toronto and I moved to Brampton, a suburb of Toronto. Anyway, in the fall of '83, the album Under a Blood Red Sky made a big splash in the record stores. This live U2 recording was huge. Living near the vibrant music scene of the big city, I heard a lot of the latest hits on the many local radio stations. The first alternative station in the area, CFNY, gave U2 regular airplay, so I occasionally caught one of their tunes when I strayed from my hard rock on Q107 or CHUM-FM.

Did that young lad even have an inkling he'd become

world famous, and stinking bloody rich?

The U2 songs off the airwaves that immediately caught my ear were I Will Follow, New Year's Day, and Sunday Bloody Sunday. The biggest hits... so far. U2 had already released three studio albums, but since I wasn't sure if these tunes would be a passing interest, I wasn't willing to shell out for those albums. But the new live LP, a compilation of sorts, was a safer bet. 

So I bought Under a Blood Red Sky on cassette tape and was pretty impressed. This was a very different sort of rock album for me, not thick power chords and wailing solos... or even pounding, complex drums, which had been my thing thus far. U2's sound was more textured, featuring a lot of jangling arpeggiated guitar by that Edge guy. Bono's vocals were often powerful but also delicate at times. The songs were short, lean, tight compositions. The energy was definitely there, the melodic and often driving guitar supported by competent bass and percussion. The live vibe was almost too much, though. I found that the sound suffered here and there, maybe due to recording the very vocal audience, but there was no denying the passion in U2's music and their concert-goers. The songs were anthems, full of intensity and emotion, and usually political in nature. 

I've always enjoyed some U2 music, and some of that a lot, but I was never entirely won over by the band's style and songwriting. Today, as back in the day, I really enjoy the early U2 hits. The Blood Red Sky album covered my faves from the early era. The Unforgettable Fire, released in '84, wasn't my cup of tea at all. I was more into heavy bands like Scorpions, Maiden, and Rush and had little time for anything lighter. This new U2 studio LP was a super-success, but it wasn't for me... though over the years, I've come to love the song Pride (In the Name of Love) off that disc. 

A few years later, after I'd moved to another city, I heard a lot of songs off U2's latest, The Joshua Tree. I was drawn to the three massive radio hits With Or Without You, Where the Streets Have No Name, and I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. And again, over time, these have grown on me immensely. I think I'd even cite these among my top songs of all time - not too high on the list, but within the top 40, perhaps. Late in the 80's, I bought the CD, but for whatever reason (I was more obsessed with Metallica and Megadeth), I rarely played it, and even when I did, I only listened to the first half of the disc. Yep, a very front heavy album. 

I actually got rid of my Joshua Tree CD sometime in the 90's , when I decided to purge my collection to make way for new music (I was adding jazz, classical, electronic, and progressive rock to my shelves). After many years passed, I regretted ditching that album, so I re-bought it. Joshua Tree doesn't often visit my player, but I want to hang onto it this time. It's my only U2 album, and I feel like it's all I need... for now, anyway. 

In 1988, Rattle and Hum was hard to miss. The film and the album were advertised everywhere, almost overkill in my mind. I gave it a pass, largely ignoring the songs, switching stations whenever Desire or When Loves Comes to Town came on the radio. More recently, having heard Desire a lot on satellite radio at my workplace, I realize I now like it. 

Achtung Baby, in '91, was a blast of weirdness, at least at first. I was curious about this new funky, electronic sound, and since my wife at the time left her tape of the album in our car, I found myself listening to, and liking, it more and more. At least some of it. Great songwriting and a fresh, edgy sound revived my interest in the band. Favourite tracks include: Mysterious Ways, Even Better Than the Real Thing and Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses. 

I haven't heard a U2 album since then, just the odd tune on the radio or elsewhere. Nothing since has really grabbed me. But looking at their body of work, their mass appeal, their critical and commercial success, I can't deny that U2 is among the biggest rock acts of all time. Their album sales numbers and monumental concert tours have made history. And doesn't every household in the world know the face of Bono?

I often think I'd like a good compilation of U2's music, something that spans most of, or all of, their career. But I hedge at the thought because so many of the CD hits packages out there are either too short, missing valuable tracks, or too long, meaning spending more moola for more music than I really want. The packaging of these comps is frustrating, too: I'd like a career overview in one album, even if it's two CDs, but a person is expected to buy at least two different albums to get a full, or nearly full, career retrospective. And even if I buy a hits CD, I might not even listen to it that much. So the less spent, and the shorter the disc, the better. Bettering my chance of listening to it more often.

Anyway, I'm sure U2 songs were blasting in pubs and bars the world over on St. Patrick's Day. Since I'm of Scottish and English descent, I did not partake in the festivities. Hey, I can drink a tasty Guinness any time I want.... I don't need a special occasion to do it. 

The Last Great Wave of Animation

When I landed a job in an animation studio in the mid-80's, I realized that watching TV cartoons was now homework. Never before had homework been so much fun. I didn't have much access to TV during my college years, so I didn't see much of what was on the tube at the time. But upon graduation, and then grabbing that job a few months later, owning a television became a necessity. So I suddenly reverted to my cereal and 'toons on Saturday mornings. A kid again!

I can't say that 80's TV animation was all that great. The ideas were often half-baked rehashes of already established franchises. Like the two Star Wars spin-offs Droids and Ewoks; Alf and Alf Tales; Alvin and the Chipmunks; whatever incarnation of Scooby-Doo; Beetlejuice; Carebears; Chip & Dale's Rescue Rangers; Curious George; Dennis the Menace and Teddy Ruxpin (both of which I worked on at my job); Donkey Kong; Duck Tales (a fun Disney production); Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids (a carry-over from the 70's); many Flintstones spin-offs; Fraggle Rock; a new Jetsons; a couple of Laverne and Shirley shows (gag!); various Little Rascals programs; a new Mighty Mouse; Mr. T; two Mork and Mindy series; Muppet Babies; Winnie the Pooh; many Popeye shows; The Real Ghostbusters; Richie Rich; Smurfs; a new Super Friends program; a couple of Super Mario shows; and last but not least, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

A little collectible Ren head.... but where's my

beloved Stimpy? Must tear my place apart to find it.

Those are just a handful of the ones I was aware of at the time, a few good, some okay, and most dreadful. But the world demanded animation... the industry was booming. Studios were popping up everywhere, and many international partnerships made it more affordable to pump out assembly line cartoons. The glut of average - or worse - animation was fed by all of the big companies and studios who owned the rights to movies, toys, and videogames, all of which (and more) inspired so many of these shows.

The more original concept shows included Captain Caveman, Inspector Gadget (a fun re-imagining of the 60's TV comedy Get Smart!); The Raccoons; My Pet Monster (a personal favourite); and The Simpsons (of course... and it's still on the air, as of this posting). 

Then along came a 1990's modern animation renaissance of sorts. The "safe" franchise cartoons did not dominate the airwaves so much. Daring writers and artists pushed boundaries and drummed up some amazing works of art. Very little from the previous decade impressed me, but the 90's was a glorious time for creative, funny TV animation. 

Sure, there were the "safe", often uninspired franchise adver-toons (as I like to call them), like Pokemon, Sailor Moon, Digimon (these first three were based on already successful Japanese icons); more TMNT (which I never ever watched, simply out of ignorance and lack of interest); and then a whole wack of very cool shows. By this time, I no longer worked in animation (though still in the art field), but I'd become a father. Soooo, there was reason number two to keep at the Saturday morning 'toons. Here are a bunch I watched fairly regularly (and the little kiddie shows are only there 'cos I had my own little kiddie to entertain):

Johnny Bravo (quite silly and comical)
Tiny Toon Adventures
Pinky and the Brain (fun and wacky)
Animaniacs (like a bowl full of pure sugar - buzzzzzz)
Winnie the Pooh (Disney's quality made this a favourite in our household)
Talespin
Cow & Chicken, Rocko's Modern Life, Rugrats (these three were among my faves)
Beavis and Butt-head (not a fave, but a piece of 'toon history, in its own stupid way)
Babar, Franklin, Rupert, Doug, Arthur (kiddie stuff my daughter loved, and it didn't bug me)
Magic School Bus
Hey, Arnold!
Dexter's Lab
Disney's Recess
various Spiderman shows
SpongeBob SquarePants (ridiculous, infantile, and hilarious... I can still watch this)
Reboot (clever, imaginative and pioneering computer animated show - a fave at the time)
Futurama (which I didn't check out until many years later, but ended up loving it even more than Simpsons)
King of the Hill (another that I missed in its early days, but learned to love it)
The Ren & Stimpy Show (one of my fave 'toons of all time, right up there with Bugs & Daffy)

I dug this Spidey out of my "grown-up toy-box"

I must admit that my TV cartoon-watching has taken a serious nosedive since the late 2000's. My daughter wasn't hanging around as much, and she didn't watch as much of that stuff anymore. We'd occasionally tune in to Arthur, SpongeBob or Magic School Bus for old times' sake. 

And since I've been living without cable TV for the past few years, I haven't been in the loop at all. From what I have seen and heard, television cartoons are a dying breed, especially the good ones. Some of the shows on my 90's list above still carry on, but man, the last few times I did channel surf the major networks on a Saturday morning, I was astounded to see there was precious little kids programming, let alone animated shows, on that most sacred of mornings (Shaun the Sheep was the only thing that caught my eye). Whatever happened to the ritual of a bowl (or two) of Sugar Smacks cereal along with about four hours of cartoon heaven? And the very few animated shows I did see were of horrendous quality. Seems the kids nowadays would rather tweet and post and online game. Maybe they dial up cartoons on Youtube?

So what has changed so drastically? The internet may be the guilty party. It seems to fit. I mean, look at the timing of it. There were good cartoons right up through the 90's and into the early 2000's, just about when cell phones and laptops became so common for youngsters. Public TV stations still ran the wholesome edu-tainment programs like Magic School Bus and Arthur, but outside that realm, it looked like slim pickings. A real shame. I sure loved my Saturday morning routine as a kid. This was in the 60's and 70's, mind you, so you may be shocked when I mention stuff like Underdog, Magilla Gorilla, Mighty Mouse (the original), Popeye, Mr. Magoo, Yogi Bear, Deputy Dawg, Aquaman (and loads of DC comic superhero shows), the original Spiderman cartoon, and The Archie Show and its spin-offs. 

I may be ignorant of the situation now, but from what I gather, the U.S. does not dominate the market anymore. A quick online scan revealed that Japan produces dozens more cartoon shows than the States. Those shows, or at least not many of them, ever make it to regular network TV in North America. So there is a drought, domestically. Maybe that's a good thing, if the quality of modern shows isn't going to measure up anymore. 

Not exactly the cream of the crop of 80's cartoons

Then again, specialty channels in the U.S., like Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, and Nickelodeon, carry a set of home-grown cartoons. Most of the major networks have discontinued their weekend cartoon shows and kids-dedicated networks, yet a few brave and hardy networks carry on. The many internationally-produced programs are probably lost on anyone without the high-end cable packages that include the weird and wonderful animation that may exist today. But I don't know. Anyone?

Pretty much the only animation I've continued to watch is in the form of animated feature films and the odd TV cartoon on Netflix. And I have been collecting the Samurai Jack series, which debuted in 2001, on DVD. This show stands head and shoulders above everything else... well, sort of alongside Ren and Stimpy and Bugs and Daffy. Jack is so cinematic in its storytelling, visuals, music, and sound design. Each episode is like watching a mini-movie. It is often funny, but is just as often dramatic, thrilling, and even touching. 

And then there are the brilliant stop-motion animated Wallace and Gromit short films and one theatrical feature. Not really billed as little kids shows, they are perfectly suited to older kids and up. Aardman Animations, the studio responsible for Wallace and Gromit, has also been producing the funny and creative Shaun the Sheep television series. I've only seen a handful of episodes but I did find them highly entertaining. Its brand of humour works on both a kid's level and an adult's level, so it's perfect for the little ones as well as the "grown-up kids" (like me). 

Rewind the VHS to the 80's, Dude

Yesterday I watched the 2015 movie Turbo Kid, a dystopian action-adventure in the style of genre films of the 1980's. What a blast! Not only were the story, sense of humour, style, pop culture references, and technology totally rad, but the newly scored music soundtrack (by Le Matos) was so totally 80's awesome that it blew me away. And I do not exaggerate. That early electro-synth-techno sound was perfect within the flick, but it also held up incredibly well out of context. I dialed up the soundtrack on YouTube right after the movie, put on my headphones, and spent another hour or so chilling to those cool (or should I say "tubular"?) electro-beats. And then I bought the soundtrack online. Yup, it's a winner.

The 2011 movie Drive did the same thing for me musically.... simply righteous, and worthy of a CD purchase. Newly composed music (by Cliff Martinez, among others) that's moody, occasionally poppy, and heavily synthy - in that same 80's vein. The movie isn't necessarily set in that time period, but it does evoke the tone of films of the era through cinematography, lighting and colour palette... and the clothing styles, especially Ryan Gosling's flashy "scorpion jacket". There's no way you'd get away with that today, but back then....

Big Trouble in Little China...

Movies never look this wacky nowadays

The innovative and distinctive music that grew out of the 80's played a large role in iconic and cult action-adventure movies of the time. Sort of stranger and/or darker fare like The Terminator, Repo Man, The Road Warrior, The Warriors, Big Trouble in Little China, Escape from New York, They Live, First Blood, Robocop... stuff like that. Not exactly the "feel-good fun" films like Karate Kid, Beverly Hills Cop, Back to the Future, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Those ones sported soundtracks loaded with radio pop and rock. I'm thinking of moodier musical scores, incidental music, often electronic - not tunes you'd hear on your sister's Walkman. 

Modern film-makers often look to the 80's for inspiration as they craft their cinematic (hopefully) masterpieces. We've had comedy gems like Hot Tub Time Machine, The Wedding Singer, and Rock Star... and for all of them, we've got to thank those crazy 80's. The Last Days of Disco is another one, and even Let the Right One In is strangely yet appropriately set during that decade of decadence. And I must admit, I love the music, both pop/rock and incidental score, in those more mainstream flicks. 

Hey, that guy looks familiar! Nope, that's Snake Plissken.

Escape From New York.

And we mustn't forget the recent (2015) short film Kung Fury, which was produced nearly in parallel with its similarly-ridiculous feature length counterpart Turbo Kid. The two films exude 80's to the hilt, yet the latter is more restrained and respectful of the era... more of a coherent homage than the completely over-the-top Kung Fury. KF is definitely a fun ride, but it's extreme to the extreme, a kitchen sink approach to appeal to the widest possible audience within its short running time. Turbo Kid has time to grow, to gel, to build, to simmer and boil. We learn about, understand, and sympathize with its protagonists.

After talking so much about films and music of that era of the extreme, I feel like I should go watch some episodes of Freaks and Geeks... an example of 80's homage in modern TV shows. 

Gnarly, dude!