Christmas Drawing

There's a good solid chance that you won't believe this story.

Every year for years now sometime in December we've trucked up into the mountains of Pennsylvania for the Ritchey family Christmas party. My wife's parents, aunts, uncles, cousins and all that kind of thing.

I don't exactly relish it. But it's not terrible. The setting is usually very pleasant and the food is very good and her aunt's all make their Christmas cookies. The kids have a great time and usually end up getting gifts.

There's just really not much for me to do there.

Her uncles and cousins gather around the television set, tune it in to whatever football game is blah blah blah I just got bored even typing that out. And if they're not all deadly-quiet watching football, then they're talking about hunting.

I have a wide range of interests. Sorry... that's a little inaccurate. I have a narrow range of interests that happens to spread across a wide range of decades. At any rate, the point is that football and hunting aren't in my wheelhouse.

So I slink off to one of the comfy chairs in the corner, pull out the trusty iPad, and read.

Problem is, it's warm and toasty and we've been in the car for awhile and I get sleepy. Also, the sounds of football illicit childhood memories and headaches. Mostly headaches. Whether you love football or don't, you have to admit that the background noise it gives off is not... pleasant. The situation isn't always reading-ideal.

So last year I decided I would broaden my spectrum. Instead of reading so much, I'll try drawing! I used to draw all the time as a kid and studied art in high school, so why not use the iPad (amazing tool) and try my hand at drawing again?

I can even make it a Christmasy/comic booky theme and try to bolster my ailing holiday spirit!

I drew this:


It was after we got home, after I had excitedly emailed my pic out to all my friends and family, that I suddenly remembered why I was having this deja vu feeling so incredibly strong.

I had done exactly the same thing last year.

No no... exactly the same.

This is the pic I drew the year previous:


Same situation. Same party. Same rational. Same isolationist tactics. Same character. Same bag of presents. Same damn Santa hat. Probably the same staggeringly-boring football game!

Really? Am I THAT small minded?

I was in the midst of beating myself up for being a one trick pony when my father replied to my email.

"Last year he was carrying the bag over his right shoulder."

...

Heavy sigh.

Thanks,
DCD

Broadcast Television

I would hate to start off any blog post with the phrase “when I was a kid”. But using this historical perspective as I’ve been doing I’ve ended up with two different viewpoints. The first one and the one I dwell on most is how something I’ve learned from history seems so foreign and different from me today. The second viewpoint is how much things are different today from when I was a kid.

When I was a kid, we were subject to the whims of the TV stations as far as when stuff would come on, how often we could watch the same programs, and how many commercials we had to sit through. Things are so drastically different today that the very thought must seem alien to our younger counterparts.

Recently Lorie and I hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our house. My parents came over, as did hers. One of the things we wanted to do the night before Thanksgiving was watch a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving together. So we waited, and when 8 o’clock came around we tuned in CBS and sat around watching it, commercials and all, as if it were 1977 without the giant furniture-TV and it’s grainy, flickery picture.

I HAVE the cartoon. It’s right there… on the Apple TV. Without commercials and available any time we please. There’s no need to wait for a special time, and certainly no need to sit through all those needless commercials.

My kids have a wealth of viewing options available to them, as we’ve discussed before. And the methods in which they can view shows are many and varied. They are not constrained by day, time, programming and commercials. And if their show gets cancelled, they can always re-watch the older episodes at any time. Calling them “re-runs” is a misnomer.

In the fall of 1977, we had just moved to Platsburgh, New York, where my father had been stationed at the Air Force Base. While we were growing up, every time we moved one of our tasks in the new house was to re-familiarize with the TV. What channels tuned in what stations? And what did the local television stations have to offer that hadn’t been available at our last post. Our first day in Platsburgh I found an old sixties cartoon about Archie that I never knew existed! Stuff like that.

I found that the local station in Platsburgh, New York, offered a block of televisions shows right after school that was themed around super-heroes. They had a special commercial for it. It started off with Popeye, went to the Adventures of Superman with George Reeves, and ended with the Adam West Batman TV show.








I felt that it was my duty to start watching this block of TV. Even at age eight, when we ALL read comics, I was known as “THE” comic book guy. My obsessions started early and ran deep. And since that’s the way things were, it was my devout responsibility to watch these shows. Even if some of them were in black and white.

It was a tight squeeze with the bus schedule, but the first day that this new understanding about my TV watching destiny was in place, I got home around halfway through the Popeye cartoon. My mother was watching soaps or news or whatever on the main TV while puttering around doing her chores. So I shot upstairs to her bedroom, turned on the tiny black and white set that served as our second TV, and found my shows.

It worked for about forty-five minutes before my Mom noticed I was missing. All was quiet in the house, too quiet for me to actually be home and not be in trouble. My mother’s understanding was NOT that I would get home and lay around on my butt watching TV for hours. There were chores, homework, and active playing to consider. When she finally found me, if memory serves, I do believe voices were raised.

I was devastated at the thought that I couldn’t watch this block of programming. But for me, it was never about laying around on my butt watching TV. It was solidly about fulfilling my responsibility as a fan by becoming familiar with these shows! These shows that weren’t available to watch IN ANY OTHER WAY, AT ANY OTHER TIME, ON ANY OTHER STATION.

The idea is so foreign today that I feel the need to stress it. It’s not like I could watch my show during my allotted time for watching TV. It’s not like I could save the DVD for later. In 1977, being told that you can’t watch TV from 3 P.M. to 4 P.M. meant that you would NEVER see the George Reeves Superman show and the Adam West Batman show.

I got over it. My eight year old, 1977-formed concept of how TV works has been turned on its ear now that it’s 2012 and I’m twenty-four.

Today, when I call for a kid to do a chore and they’re watching TV, they hit pause. Even if what they’re watching is live TV. In fact, it pretty much doesn’t matter what method they’re using to watch any show. They hit pause. They run to me, get their instructions, do their chore, and head back to their show.

In the seventies, I don’t really remember being interrupted a lot when we actually sat down in front of the TV. Maybe I’m mis-remembering, but there could’ve been an unspoken understanding in our culture that you can’t hit pause on a TV show, so please just wait for a commercial.

I’m probably mis-remembering.

I DO remember calling a girl I liked in the eighties while she was watching the annual broadcast of Wizard of Oz. Remember that? Annual broadcast TV showings of Wizard of Oz, Ten Commandments, and Gone with the Wind? It was the only way to keep these classics in the public consciousness. Anyway, she explained to me calmly and clearly several times that this was her favorite movie ever and she looks forward to the broadcast all year. I never got the hint. Not until the next day. She was trying to politely get me off the phone so she could watch her show. She was completely unable to pause it, because that’s not how things worked back then. I STILL beat myself up over that.

I do remember our first beta recorder! Where we could record TV shows and play them back later. It was a miracle technology, and I filled up my first blank beta tape with re-runs of Super Friends. But what killed me about the whole process is when my mother taped all the Christmas specials. And my idiot sisters watched those specials well into February. That’s not how it’s supposed to work! You’re breaking the system! We’re not allowed to watch Christmas specials until the television networks decide it’s time!

I was thinking about benefits and drawbacks to these differing modes of viewing TV. And I don’t think there are any benefits to the way it used to be. You may have some strong nostalgic feelings for it, or miss the idea of the ‘annual’ broadcast of some old movie, and that’s all well and good and your right as a human being. But there’s no benefit in being at the mercy of antiquated tech for your entertainments and amusements.

Oh… unless sports. There’s sports. But who cares about that?

Thanks,
DCD

Christmas Ornaments

The ongoing debate about Christmas ornaments in our house is what constitutes ‘Christmasy’. As I’m sure you’ve no doubt guessed, I have a rather large collection of super-hero Christmas ornaments. The idea is that a character attached to a hook does not a Christmas ornament make. Rather… it’s just a toy. There’s nothing inherently Christmassy about Batman hanging from your tree.

This year we’ve subverted the argument in a graceful manner for the first time in our fifteen year marriage. We have two trees. Not only that, but with our house addition finally nearing completion, we have the space for two trees. Lorie has her tree in the living room with tasteful, boring decorations. The kids and I have our tree in the glorious sun room with all the fun stuff.

Hallmark’s position on the great Christmas ornament debate is a clear matter of record. They’ll sell whatever they want to whoever they want as long as the money keeps rolling in. And it seems for the last twenty years or so, geeks have been voting heavily with their wallet. What started as a small section on the Hallmark ornament display for super heroes and Star Trek has turned into a massive pop culture display of all things geeky, all attached to little hooks for your tree.

Between the kids and me, we’ve been able to get at least two or three of these ornaments every year. And since I’ve been hard-wired from a very early age to think that Christmas equals super-heroes, I have absolutely no problem with Superman and Wonder Woman dangling from hooks on my tree.

So, for your enjoyment, here are some of the ornaments that will be adorning our tree this year. The fun one.

Thanks,
DCD




















































































































P.S. Lorie has yet to decorate her Christmas tree. And I just noticed that my six-year-old Alex has been sneaking some of his action figures into the branches.

100 Years

Last time out, I talked about Edgar Rice Burroughs and my love of his creations, Tarzan and the Warlord of Mars. both of those characters were first published in 1912. A quick pass by the calculator verifies my math... both characters turn 100 years old this year.


There aren't that many characters that have such lengthy pedigrees. I think there are a couple of factors for that. One is the medium. Getting new generations to read a book that you loved in your childhood is much more difficult than getting them to watch a TV show that you're nostalgic about. The medium of our entertainment has changed so drastically in the last 100 years, I have to think that we'll see more and more characters outlasting normal lifespans. And the cycles starting. Properties that were popular in the eighties like GI Joe, Transformers, and Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles are seeing new life now that the kids that enjoyed them so much twenty-five years ago are parents themselves with money to spend and memories to share.

Another factor that can help a character last through the generations is change. I've talked about this before with the saga of Buck Rogers (http://www.doabarneyoldfield.blogspot.com/2012/09/buck-rogers-man-of-future.html) and how change is difficult for that particular character. I've briefly touched on that with Superman.


The change in Superman has been well and thoroughly documented before. But in case you're unaware, let me explain. During his debut in the 1930's, Superman was very anti-establishment and a hero of the poor and suppressed. In the 1940's Superman fought Nazis and war saboteurs. In the 1950's he was very much an establishment figure and a duly deputized member of law enforcement. The 1960's saw slow change for Superman and he suffered for it, quickly gaining a reputation as a tired old hero of former generations. In the 1970's his popularity surged again with the Superman movie. In the 1980's he and his alter-ego Clark Kent were completely rebooted, all their history jettisoned, and they were re-imagined for a 1980's older teen audience. In the 1990's, Superman died, came back, grew a mullet, changed powers, and did absolutely everything to stay relevant.


The point is that the most enduring characters, especially those backed by money making corporations, are always changing. Superman, Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, Spider-Man, and more.

I read a line recently (I apologize, but I can't find the original material) that suggested the story of Tarzan only works in 1912. The thought is that in today's day and age with how much our jungles have been explored and with our current technology that the story of Tarzan is just not believable.

Come to think of it, I haven't seen many versions of Dracula that cast him in a modern-day environment. There have been plenty of updated retellings of the story, but most of them cast the character in the era in which he was originally imagined. Nevertheless, the character proves to be too popular to fade away.

I remember seeing Roy Rogers old television show for the first time with my father-in-law. There was a jeep! The famous western cowboy was set in the modern day 1950's! This really surprised me, as I thought of all western characters being from the old west era. Seeing Roy ride Trigger next to his sidekick in a jeep was a little unsettling for me.


In the 1940's, there was a series of Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone and set in the modern day. The first time I saw Sherlock Holmes fighting to stop Nazi plots, I was a little unsettled. It seemed odd and out of place, but ultimately worked. And it was obviously very natural for the audiences of the time.


Part of the reason Superman sees change so much is that he has seen continuous, unbroken publication every month since his first appearance in 1938. Few characters have this advantage and even fewer mediums offer that kind of opportunity. So to comics fans, change in characters is nothing new.

But could you picture Tarzan with an GPS? Dracula being discovered because his image doesn't appear on an iPhone screen? Sherlock Holmes fighting modern day killers and criminals?


Thanks,
DCD

P.S. And yes, I know all those things have happened. That's part of the point.