The Shows Time Forgot: Clone High

Where I live in Ontario, Clone High was a show that was talked about in High School all the time. The show seemed to be an endless supply of hilarious quotes and wacky ideas that could never fail; but it did. I often ask why shows that are so well written, uniquely animated and packed with uproarious comedy can get completely overlooked. I guess this is why I wanted to include this amazing cartoon in my series of The Shows Time Forgot.

Clone High was the story of a High School populated by teenage clones of famous historic figures; an experiment by the schools principal Dr. Cinnamon Scudworth (voiced by the shows co writer Phil Lord). The show focus' around a group of friends consisting of Abe Lincoln voiced by Will Forte (SNL, MacGruber), Mahatma Gandhi voiced by Micheal McDonald (MAD TV), Cleopatra voiced by Crista Miller (The Drew Carey Show, Scrubs), JFK voiced by co writer Chris miller an Joan of Ark voiced by the Nicole Sullivan (MAD TV, King of Queens, Family Guy). The show ran with a continuing story line through each episode but each episode still carried an independent plot making it a easy show to just jump into. Much of the comedy that came out of Clone High was through the juxtaposition between the clones and the historical figures they're based on. For example the real Abe Lincoln was a confident leader, while his Clone is an extremely insecure follower. There are a lot of historical jokes thrown in through out the show like their after school hang out being called the Grassy Knoll (part of a JFK assassination conspiracy) and how Joan believes shes hearing God's voice in her head (which turns out to be radio signals picked up by her retainer).

A big part of what makes this show so good is how its a parody of old after school specials and shows like Degrassi (the 80's series). Each episode was a melodrama based on a particular subject. In one episode they parody a common AIDs story line where in Gandhi is diagnosed with ADD and is ostracized by the school due to their lack of understanding. In the stereotypical drug episode a dealer shows up in town (voiced by Jack Black) who introduces the teens to the wonders of smoking raisins. In the very funny episode dealing with the death of a friend JFK's best friend (who is never seen in any other episode) Ponce De Leon is killed by litter in the school yard.

The style of the show was another interesting aspect of the show is the use of very minimal animation. The blocky animation style is extremely simple and was often times lacking in detail, detailed colour paterns and movements. This was all done intentionally though, and worked. The decision of the animation style was meant to draw the focus away from the look of the character, to the almost constantly running gags. Personally I really loved the style of the show, but I could see how someone used to more modern animation techniques could be turned off at first glace.

Clone High was created by the very funny Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who have gone on to gain a lot of notoriety from their work on How I Met Your Mother, the Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs films and the hit comedy 21 Jump Street. The show was also co created by Bill Lawrence whos worked on shows like Spin City, Cougar Town and the very popular Scrubs (many of the stars of Scrubs lend voices to Clone
High).

When on, this show seemed like a perfect storm, but unfortunately never survived after a first season. I remember in the early 2000's there was a petition circulating the internet trying to bring the show back, but at the time something along those lines just didn't happen. Just remember this was probably a few years before the famous cancellation and resurrection of Family Guy which was a television landmark.

I really wish I could have seen more of these great characters, but I guess all good things must come to an end. Thankfully, the last episode could work as the final episode as is brings together many of the events of the show in one nicely wrapped package.      

Album Review: The Flatliners - Dead Language

Growing up in my towns local punk rock scene I saw a lot of bands come and go. Many of them I don't remember, mostly because there was nothing memorable about them. Every once and a while though a band was get on stage that would strike a chord with me and leave me wanting more. Thankfully The Flatliners just never seemed to go away, and unlike the other bands that rolled through town, they got bigger and better. I lost touch with my towns scene for a few years, and the show that brought me back was The Flatliners who had come back to town to play songs from their record The Great Awake, and my mind was blown. Since that record dropped in 2007 on Fat Wreck Chords they've had two more releases, 2010's Cavalcade and their new album that dropped last month Dead Language.

This record definitely builds on the new sound that The Flatliners have been working to develop since their first major release Destroy to Create (2005). On Destroy vocalist Chris Cresswell had an enormous amount of speed and power behind his voice which gave a great youthful sound to their blistering punk/ska sound. Though now, they have really established themselves as a much more matured band. Their songs now are more driven by a developed musicianship and th unique vocal style of Cresswell. Their songs seems to speak from the years spent on roads in vans and on planes going around the world.

Dead Language picks up where Cavalcade finish and ramps up with the opening track "Resuscitation of the Year" which is an intense anthem hitting you hard in the face to tell you "Sit the fuck down and listen". This song almost sounds like it could have been on 2010's Cavalcade and feels like a bridge between the two records. The blistering punk rock drive, with blistering quick chords and a destructive rhythm section automatically put this song into my good books. The albums continues with a great pace through "Bury Me", and ramps down to a slower and deeper pace for the very noteworthy "Birds of England." not before stabbing you in the ears with "Drown in Blood".

Track after track on Dead Language put a smile on my face as it's always a surprise that a band that has been consistently pumping out amazing material for years has yet to jump the shark.

While this album is great, it still didn't seem to reach the heights of their last two albums. Many of the tracks on The Great Awake and Cavalcade would get stuck in my head for days and I've yet to experience that in the week or so I've been listening to Dead Language. That could be in part that those last 2 albums were very chorus driven and simpler than their new tracks. It could also be that the years on the road are taking a tole because an amount of settling down can herd in comparison to Cavalcade. Either way Dead Language does not disappoint a fan of The Flatliners and I could see it being easily accessible to someone who is into punk, pop punk or even just general hard rock.
   


   

The Shows Time Forgot: Mission Hill

               

                Mission Hill is a largely forgotten animated series that was originally aired on the old WB network; and fell well in line with the popularity of young-adult oriented TV shows at the time. The show was created by former executive producers of The Simpsons, Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein. Mission Hill focused on 24 year-old slacker Andy French (voiced by Wallace Langham) dealing with his big city life in the fictional city of Cosmopolis’ Mission Hill neighborhood. Mission Hill would be be described as a hipsters paradise, filled with indie musicians, artists, loft apartments and unique personalities. Andy can’t seem to make a break in life; he has a dead-end job working at a waterbed store, no girlfriend, no money, is failing at his dream of being a cartoonist and on top of it all is left to take care of his nerdy younger brother Kevin (voiced by Scott Menville). Though his slacker life isn’t amazing, he is comfortable with his small world of drinking malt liquor and going to local ska shows.

                When Kevin shows back up in his life suddenly everything is turned upside down and Andy now has to struggle to be a guardian as well as dealing with his brothers annoying habits. For example: his continuous chanting of “bling blong” over and over again to drown out distractions. As much as this show focus’ on Andy’s annoyance with his brother, there is another side of the coin. Kevin has lived a sheltered life with his parents and being thrown into the big city is sometimes more than he can handle. Many of the themes involve Kevin experiencing new things and letting down his guard to become more accustomed to his new world.

Andy with his often present bottle of Maestro Malt Liquor

                The show also focus’ on Andy’s many friends and neighbors which help to add great banter and unique comic relief to the mix. Andy is often accompanied by his best friend and roommate Jim Kuback (comedian Brian Posehn) who is a quintessential stoner working at and advertising agency, his other roommate Posey Tyler (Vicki Lewis) who is a wispy new ager interested in organic vegetables and deep meditation, their elderly gay neighbors; the very flamboyant Gus (Nick Jameson) and Wally (Tom Kennedy) who is a giant angry-looking bald man who owns the local diner as well as a plethora of other very unique personalities.
In the late 90’s and early 2000’s most of the major networks in the united states were jumping on the band wagon to create adult oriented animated shows that they hoped will help compete with shows like The Simpsons, Futurama and South Park. The animated shows on the major networks like Fox were getting a lot of attention and the smaller cable networks figured they could mimic this popularity by getting their own shows, unfortunately this wasn't the case. Many of the animated shows bought by the larger cable networks crashed and burned and often times only made it to 1 season, or less. Some definitely note worthy examples are The Oblongs, Clone High, Undergrads and Mission Hill.

                

From left to right: Posey, Jim, Kevin, Andy and their dog Stogie

               Unfortunately Mission Hill did not last long as a series, after 2 episodes the show was pulled from The WB’s line-up due to a lack of ratings. Originally there were plans to make a full 18 episode series but due to it not being as popular as anticipated, only 13 were produced. After a little while some cable networks started airing the 13 episodes. I originally saw the show on the Teletoon cable network in Canada as part of their prime time line up of cartoons. I was instantly drawn to the show and became a really big fan of the style and overall presentation of the series. I was of course pretty upset when I learned that the 13 episodes I saw would be the only ones ever released.

                 What made Mission Hill such a great show was in part due to the unique style of animation. It used an old style where every animation cell was individually hand painted, instead of adopting the use of Flash which almost every animated series is done on today. Flash is okay for animation, but it definitely does not have the same warm look and feel as the older animation methods. The animators also used blocky colour splashes that sometimes fell outside the drawn line which made for a very interesting artistic style.   

A good example of the shows unique style

                I believe if more people knew about this show at the time that it could have been at par with the popularity of shows like Family Guy. I think the main reasons people didn't grab onto the show was in-part due to the style of animation and art direction which was really very unique to Mission Hill. This show is definitely worth checking out, and I know some episodes and clips are available on YouTube. You can also purchase a DVD set of all 13 episodes which is definitely worth picking up. The DVD’s has really great

commentary tracks by Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein as well as many of the voice over actors.

The Blacklist - Pilot Review

Well it’s that time of year again, where the major networks open the gates and release a mix of terrible garbage and fantastic shows. One of the most advertised in the recent month, and most anticipated, is the serial national security drama “The Blacklist” starring all around crazy fucked up Hannibal Lecteresq James Spader (Stargate, Boston Legal). I was intrigued by the 1,000 promos shoved down my throat by NBC and Global TV in Canada so I figured last night I’d sit down and check out the pilot.

So this program is about Raymond Reddington (Spader) who is a long time fugitive and former armed forces member who disappeared on Christmas eve many years ago. He magically appears at the FBI headquarters and turns himself into the FBI. And tah dah he refuses to talk to anyone but this cheeseball oversimplified FBI newb named Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boon). What bothered me right off the bat is that she was really nice and kind of naïve and ditzy. This isn’t a problem until she’s pulled into meet with Reddington and the first thing she says is that her former coworkers thought she was a Bitch. What the fuck is that all about? I didn’t know a kind woman dedicated to her man and was trying to adopt a kid was a bitch.

So after the awkward and cheesy character intros are done with, the story actually picks up and makes the Reddington character actually seem pretty cool. He has some daring escapes and there’s some inventive archs as the story goes on and you’re introduced to one of the people on the blacklist.

So Reddingtons blacklist is list of crazy mercenaries, terrorists, hackers, criminals etc. that the FBI isn’t even aware of but for some reason Reddington is willing to help agent Keen capture these baddies.

So the first guy on the list is this crazy Scandinavian guy who is terminally ill and wants to detonate a chemical weapon in Washington as some kind of revenge. As you’d expect his plot is foiled, but I don’t want to go into too much detail in case you’re actually interested in seeing the pilot.  

In my opinion this pilot suffered from what I’d like to refer to as “Pilot Syndrome” where a really good show has a shitty first episode which turns picky assholes like me off. For this reason, when binge watching shows, I usually start at the second episode to know if I like it. This way you’re not watching the intro show that they are putting out for the purpose of the network picking it up, but rather starting on the episodes where the real artistic intention of the show is realized. Overall this pilot was cheesy, but also showed a strong premise, the promise of good twists and turns and some decent actor (mostly from James Spader). I’m definitely interested in seeing more of this show in the coming weeks. I don’t see a reason to rate a pilot but I’ll just give it a comme ci, comme ça and the hand flipping back and forth that goes with it. 

Bye Bye Cigarettes

Screw you cancer!

So this summer I was finally able to give up my addiction to cigarettes. I can’t even imagine how much money I inhaled and the disappointment I caused my family. But now I feel like I've set things right in my life. About 2 years ago I started reading about electronic cigarettes and their popularity in the US, but in Canada they were basically impossible to get. After a little while they started to release certain brands into the Canadian market, but alas they had to contain no nicotine. It is not legal yet for vendors to sell pre-loaded electronic cigarettes with nicotine in Canada. I tried the no-nicotine e-cigs and yes they produce vapor and taste nice, but without the nicotine it was more of a novelty than anything.
In May of this year I was at my local sketchy convenience store, probably to buy cigarettes, when I saw something I had only seen online, a refillable vaporizer. Upon asking the clerk it turned out he was also selling nicotine e-liquid so I tried it out and fell in love. On that day in late May I threw away the last of my cigarettes and I have not smoked one since. 

Now the apple martini liquid by HD Vape was not very good at all, and I even questioned the actual nicotine content. But after a while I discovered the website http://www.canadaejuice.com. These guys had a great, easy-to-use website with a huge selection of liquids and accessories. They make it really easy to get started with vapeing and have nice staff. Their prices are also much better than other vendors I’ve seen in my area. There’s a guy at my local flea-market who also sells vape equipment and liquid but everything you buy from him is about 5 dollars more expensive and he has no where close to the selection CanadaEJuice has.

nd I can honestly say that after about 3 months I never NEVER want to pick up another cigarette. And how was I able to do this? With a nicotine vaporizer, that’s how, and with the great people at CanadaEJuice.

A typical vape. 

There’s a good chance you have seen a vape or electronic cigarette before but didn't really get what they were all about. Essentially the device is devised of two parts: a battery and an atomizer. The battery is usually activated by a button or by the back pressure from the user pulling on the e-cig. The atomizer is the top section where you suck on and is filled by the e-liquid. The current from the battery heats a coil in the atomizer that vaporizes the e-liquid and produces the “smoking” effect. You then inhale the vapor into your lungs, like you would with a conventional or “analog” cigarette, and then exhale. The main benefit is that you are cutting out all of the thousands of dangerous chemicals that are added to cigarettes and instead are only inhaling 3 very benign chemicals. The three chemical are propylene glycol (often pumped into the air in hospitals to help with sanitization, also used in some dog foods), vegetable glycerin (used in the food industry as a sweetener and is also used in products like toothpaste and cough syrups) and of course the addictive component of cigarettes, nicotine. Now I know that nicotine has a pretty bad reputation because of tobacco and its use as an insecticide. Nicotine can actually increase concentration, relax the body, promotes the growth of new blood vessels (which can really help diabetes patients) and can reduce depression in people with schizophrenia. The medical industry has been looking for a viable delivery system for nicotine for decades, and vaporizers may be that step forward.If you want any more information check out http://www.canadaejuice.com and feel free to search google and find the hundreds of testimonials from long term heavy smokers who were able to drop the habit in a matter of moments. You too can be smoke free! I urge any smoker to try an e-cig or vaporizer and see if its right for you! 

Prometheus - Gave me an Alien RessurErectio...nvm

So around the beginning of May my family and I packed up and moved from our home of over 20 years and settled down about an hour away. Things haven’t been easy but I am finally settling in to being in a new place. The town isn’t horrible (doesn’t feel like home though) but it does get lonely when you’re an hour and a half drive to your friends.

                As an attempt to keep my sanity in strange new surroundings I have made almost weekly trips alone to the movie theatre. Okay I know it sounds really sad, but it’s has actually been amazing. It’s a really different feeling when you know you don’t have to wait for people, line up with friends so that they can get snacks, worry about annoying your girlfriend what you have to piss, or having to converse about what you did and didn’t like. So far I’ve seen The Avengers, MIB 3 and most recently Prometheus; and I’m sure I’ll be seeing many more this summer.

                When I first saw trailers hit the internet for Ridley Scott’s Prometheus I started to get super excited, especially when I heard the story was occurring in the same universe as Scott’s Alien films! Since I was a child I have equally loved and been afraid of the Alien series, with its dark, hopeless atmosphere. I think when I was around 10 I even drew comics and wrote my own Alien stories. So last week I finally picked my ass up from behind my monitor and drove to the local Cineplex.

Left to right: Charlie Halloway, Elizabeth Shaw, and the android David

     Right off the bat I must say I was thrown off but the interesting direction they took the story in, and how the Alien storyline is interwoven. The film starts with two scientists discovering a final piece of a puzzle that seems to point out Aliens visiting different cultures in ancient times and all pointing towards a certain destination. The two paleontologists, Elizabeth Shaw ( Noomi Raprace ) and Charlie Halloway (Logan Marshall-Green) they pitch their discovery and are funded by an infinitely rich, dying old, Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce). Weyland pays for a space ship to take them in stasis sleep to a moon mapped out by corresponding relics on earth. The ship is operated by Mission Director Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron) who assisted by the lifelike android David (Michael Fassbender) as well as a group of contracted engineers and scientists.
   

               Eager to meet the aliens that they believe hold the secret to life on Earth, the crew finally lands the moon many millions of miles away and lands on its surface. Immediately they find large relics from an obviously intelligent civilization, and what started as a hope filled journey becomes a nightmare they could have never imagined. The film takes am extremely dark turn when they begin exploring the alien relics and discover dead bodies in the ship. Suddenly the whole operation is in danger as secret motives are revealed and the great mystery unravels in a unprecedented hopeless way.    

As with many of Ridley Scott’s films the special effect and costume work are very well done. They did a fantastic job of showing off a realistic jump forward in technology (Prometheus takes place in the year 2093) that doesn’t leave you thinking “pfft yeah right buddy!” The makeup and costume work was unprecedented notably on the alien “Engineers” and on the amazing transformation of Guy Pearce to the 93 year old Peter Weyland.

                The one major problem I had with Prometheus was mainly in the choice of actors. While much of the cast, especially Charlize Theron and Michael Fassbender put on great rolls I often found myself off put and annoyed with Rapace and Marshall-Green’s performance. Through several parts from start to finish their acting comes of unfulfilling, dry and unrealistic.

                Despite its short-comings (which it has very few) Prometheus was a fantastic film filled with elements of fear, comedy, suspense and mystery that could easily fulfill a much wider audience compared to its Alien film counter-parts. Despite some annoying acting this film still shines in my book as one of the best films I’ve seen this year. I give this film a very well deserved 8.9/10!

Terri - A very Un-Terri-ble Movie

I deeply apologize for my absence, but I have been one busy boy (I also apologize for the title of this post as well, i couldn't help myself). I just started back at College for the second time to finish a couple of diploma programs (my main one being Television Broadcasting) and it has been absolutely insane! Its hard to find time to write a blog post after long days of shooting and editing videos of my friends acting like retards. I have been just bombarded by assignments and the whole first semester and felt very badly about adding another blog to the internet graveyard. So I figured to break the silence I would talk about what was one of my favorite movies of 2011, Terri.

Terrie was one of the most unique interesting independent comedies I have seen in years. Terri is extremely character driven, with amazing actors like John C Reilly (Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Boogie Nights), Creed Bratton (The Office) and Jacob Wysocki as Terri. The film is about a naive, overweight, socially separated, depressed 15 year old boy who feels as if he is only floating through life and has given up trying to impress anyone, par example he has decided to ditch conventional clothing and only wear what I would refer to as "Old Man Pajamas". One thing that can be said about Terri though is that he does not have a lack of self esteem and reacts without a perception of what other may think of him.  Terri lives in a big old house with his often pharmaceuticaly comatose Uncle James (Creed Bratton), who is an odd curmudgeon who doesn't often accept visitors and lives a very simple life. It is revealed later in the film the sad reason why Terri is not with his mother and father.

Terri and his sexually confused friend

Near the beginning of the film Terri is befriended by his high school Vice Principal Mr. Fitzgerald  (John C. Reilly) after he notices his obvious social awkwardness and lack of friends. Terri and Mr. Fitzgerald attend weekly sessions as a way to reach out to Terri and discover why he is such a social outcast. Many of the best and funniest parts of this movie come from the relationship between Terri and Mr. Fitzgerald and their unique and realistically odd conversations. Throughout the film the relationship between the 2 becomes tighter and eventually expands beyond the guidance councilor-esq vibe. Through his frequent trips to the principals office Terri also begins relationships a sexually confused girl and a messed up (and possibly schizophrenic) boy named Chad. The world of Terri is one that is so real but at the same time off kilter and not precisely real. At some times this movie is comparable to the very popular 2004 indie film Napoleon Dynamite.

This film is engaging and absolutely and had enough going for it to keep me immersed in Terri's world and mind set. You really begin to feel and care about this unique character as you see that he really has the best intentions but is not understood by the world around him. Terri is very much a 21st century coming of age story like no other. I would easily give this film a 9 pairs of blue pajamas out of 10. Okay I know my ratings don't mean anything because i only write about stuff I like but who the hell cares... or even reads this thing?