music: Isn't it time for a little Hardrock, Coco and Joe?

Yes it is!  At once nostalgic and freaky, a staple of Chicagoland holiday TV since dinosaur times, this 1951 stop-motion animated short takes me back to pre-verbal days.  Great chorus.  Enjoy.

Hardrock, Coco and Joe:  The Three Little Dwarfs

3 fun things: texting it old school, impersonating the Town Blob, and talking like James Mason…but not simultaneously.

Thing 1:  I have a habit of writing things I must remember on the back of my left hand.  If I write them on a Post-it, I'll lose the note.  Today I got caught looking down at a green light by an angry driver behind me.  It was funny/embarrassing to imagine what I would have said to a police officer for "texting" in this way.

Thing 2:  Kid1 was in rare form yesterday, impersonating her maternal unit in a screechy rendition of the Town Blob's voice from the old BJ & Dirty Dragon show.  (Bill Jackson, the show's creator, was the subject of my first-ever blog post and I am pleased and proud to call him a correspondent).  So Kid1 is killing them in the aisles with her impersonation of me in this voice, talking on my phone to Kid2, croaking loudly, "What do you mean, who is this?  This is your MOTHER!"  

Thing 3:  The hilarity continued as Kid1 launched into a James Mason impression, and announced after a few minutes of really quality stuff that James Mason must have been physically incapable of pronouncing the word "mushroom."  She's right:  try it and see.  At least one other blogger besides our entire family finds James Mason's accent amusing.

Aldi, part 2 of 3: the bad...

Happy Friday!  Today's post follows my recent chronicling of the good to be found at Aldi, with a mercifully much shorter sampling of the bad below.

In fairness, a huge swath of fair-to-middling foods are omitted because they are perfectly fine, but not worth special mention.  All the dry cereals, for example, or the 100% whole wheat "L'oven Fresh" bread (which gets extra points because it sounds like McLovin from Superbad.) [caution, funny-but-sweary link]

Anyhow, here are some of the more dubious-looking items unearthed on a recent trip.

Previous ALDI goodness/badness/ugliness found here.

When Aldi's food stylists can render the Macaroni & Beef no more appetizing than this, just remain calm and look across the aisle at the nice cheerful pineapple chunks.

The hummus makes both the good and bad lists, because although it's cheap, it's basically mashed chickpeas.  Unobjectionable on its own, but come on!  Tahini, please?

"A pork and soy protein product."  Check out the exploding Oink-ometer!  Mainly it provides an excuse to say this.* 

I bear canned potatoes no ill will, but I fail to grasp their point.  Looking at them makes me feel desperately sad and poor.  I mean, a potato costs about a nickel.   Heaven help you if you can't afford a damn potato.

* 1) Years ago, Sean and I lived below the two nice young Jewish heirs to the great Moo & Oink fortune.  We gave them a bunch of our furniture when we moved out, and they gave us a Moo & Oink clock.  Fair exchange, I think.
2) Sean was featured on the back page of the Chicago Tribune wearing a Moo & Oink T-shirt, for a story on the birth of our oldest son, which I should tell sometime.
3) Moo & Oink's classic commercials during Soul Train vie for first place with the equally jaw-dropping Scottie Pippen Mr. Submarine ad (yes, he really does dunk a sub) as a high/low point of Chicago commercial history.

Chicago TV: Svengoolie Signed My Arm at the Portage Theater

What could it mean?  Read to the bottom of the post and find out.*

Part two of my amazingly fun weekend:  Svengoolie headlining this past Saturday at the Portage Theater on Milwaukee Ave.

Friday's rapturous Thomas Dolby concert at Martyrs' Pub was followed by a cooking class at Whole Foods on Saturday with my good pal Jeanine.  Saturday evening, dear husband and I moseyed over to the Portage Theater Halloween movie fest.  The Portage is one of those great old theaters saved from the wrecking ball that shows old monster movies, silent films, and is occasionally used as a shooting location for films like Public Enemies.  It's also available for private parties.

The bill featured a back-to-back Mummyfest:  the original 1932 film The Mummy, followed by the 1999 remake - but the real treat was the pre-show appearance of Svengoolie - a Saturday-afternoon TV staple for kids in Chicagoland for generations.  As he has done for many years, Sven showed up with his hearse, ghoul makeup, and rubber chickens, to sign autographs and shake hands with the long line of fans, including me.  The shiny-red Wurlitzer organ belted out spooky tunes as he signed autographs on cards, chickens, and human body parts while we waited for the movie to begin.

Svengoolie figured prominently in my kid TV life, along with the wonderful Bill Jackson of Cartoon Town/Dirty Dragon fame, who was the subject of my very first blog post.  Though I haven't watched Svengoolie in a while, I was tickled to hear things are going better than ever:  his show is syndicated nationally on both MeTV and The U.

Reasons to like Svengoolie:
1.  Consistently and unabashedly cheesy, from day one.
2.  Was into Berwyn before Berwyn was cool  (fans will know what I mean).  Berwyn?!?
3.  Prefigured the snarky/cheesy comments about B-movies before either Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, or Mystery Science Theater 3000 (though I like those too).  And did it the honorable way, by working with the original Svengoolie until he came into his own.
4.  He's a hometown boy:  Maine East High School and then Northwestern.  Started here, stayed here.
5.  Mr. Koz knows his movies!  I always learn something interesting when he talks about films, no matter how awful they are.
6.  The pun-filled song parodies he occasionally does are truly awful in the best sense.  Real groaners.
7.  He has a lot of background in radio.  I have a soft spot for people who have a soft spot for radio.


Reasons to like the Portage Theater:
1. It's a genuine old movie palace that didn't get knocked down.
2. It's a bit down-at-heel, not perfect, a bit shabby.  I like that.  Like a grande dame wearing her best clothes even if they are a bit tatty.
3.  They serve wine and beer in addition to overpriced snacks.  You can watch your monster movie with a $5.25 glass of pinot grigio or a beer in hand.
4.  It strongly reminds me of the pre-multiplex movie experiences that were vanishing even in the '70s, as places like the Norridge Theatre sprung up and showed us the future of moviegoing.  I'm talking about theaters like the Des Plaines and the Logan, unashamedly old-school.  It's places like this we need to frequent, and bring our kids to, because someday they won't be here anymore.
5.  It's a local business, and it's NOT a multiplex.
6.  They show a variety of interesting films, not just at Halloween, but throughout the year. For instance, they're showing Raiders of the Lost Ark this Saturday night, for free.  Can you beat a free old-school-style movie in an old-school place? No. You cannot.
7.  Svengoolie shows up every year!

* Per the Svengoolie Wiki:  A running gag throughout the series is the repeated utterance of the word "Berwyn", the name of a Chicago suburb. (This was a parody of the way "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" and Johnny Carson would jokingly refer to "Beautiful Downtown Burbank.") Another recurring gag involves rubber chickens being thrown at Svengoolie after a particularly corny joke, usually at the end of the closing sketch of each episode. Koz and the show have won numerous regional Emmy awards, and Koz was admitted to the Emmy "Silver Circle" in 2004 for "outstanding contributions to Chicago television."

Chicago TV: Bill Jackson & Dirty Dragon = love, part 2

"Fie - NO MAIL!"

So excited!  I dropped Bill Jackson (of Dirty Dragon fame!) a note early today, letting him know he and his show were the subjects of my maiden blog post, and he wrote back in a trice.  Breathless with excitement, I read on:
Dear Susan,
I am honored to be the subject of your new blog--and what kind words you wrote.  As you mention, the show was different, and intentionally so, the competition being so solidly entrenched.  The "Date with Dirty Dragon" perhaps was the oddest contest I ever created, but it proved a ton of fun, and Errol Garner, who was performing piano magic at the Hyatt Regency at the time, proved to be a real gentleman and added to the fun.
All the best,
Bill

No, Bill.  All the best to YOU. <3

Chicago TV: Bill Jackson & Dirty Dragon = love

What better choice for my first post?  Oh, how I loved BJ & the Dirty Dragon.

If you didn't grow up in Chicago in the late '60s/early '70s, this might be completely lost on you, but you need to understand the kind of love people have for this thing.  

Kind of hard to describe what made Bill Jackson's work so special, but I'll try:

#1:  It was fiercely creative and genuinely strange, in a way not every kid would enjoy, and I liked that.


#2:  I had a mini-crush on Bill.  Also Dirty Dragon.  This interview features some photos of him back in the day and you can see why I lost my heart a little bit.

#3:  They ran a Valentine's Day contest where you could win a date with Dirty Dragon to the then-brand-new Hyatt Regency O'Hare, and I wanted more than anything to win that contest.  To this day, every time we go by the four mirrored copper cylinders of that hotel, I think wistfully of my missed date with Dirty.  Looking back that all sounds fairly perverted, but it was strictly above board at the time.


#4:  Bill Jackson is still around, has his own site, and answers his own mail!! <3 <3  So now it's a major crush.

#5:  Gotta love the Blob.  The Blob was the town's monument:  a big, voiceless, emphatically emoting hunk of gray clay on a pedestal that Bill would sculpt and interact with, and he'd add cardboard eyes or other props.  The Blob had a distinct and sympathetic personality. Photos don't quite do him justice.  Here's some video of Bill getting him ready for a date on a later show, Gigglesnort Hotel, so you get an idea of the voice.