cartoons of yesteryear

I apologize for the long layoff but with the semester winding down a bit and the weather turning for the better it's becoming difficult to justify sitting in front of a computer if I'm not doing actual work. I'll do my best to improve the frequency. I also apologize because this post will probably seem a little bit like a rant but I promise it will be entertaining. My friends and I have been on an old school movie kick as of late and because of this we've been watching and discussing films that we grew up on and how they are much more traumatic then we remembered. In this day of political correctness where "everyone wins, everyone gets a blue ribbon" it's rare to see kids movies offering anything other than a happy ending and terrible songs. Back in the day this couldn't be further from the truth. Everything from death and disease to drinking and terrifying villains was fair game and no I'm not just talking about Mufasa dying. Let's all take a trip down memory lane.

This has been the most recent movie discussed so I figured I should stare here... The Brave Little Toaster. The movie, as a whole, has very dark tones but this scene might just take the cake. Upon doing some research you'll discover that this scene is literally the Air Conditioner committing suicide... (remember- kids movie) Brave Little Toaster

Tell me as a kid you were ready to deal with that kind of issue... I can't even talk about it now. Yet this remains one of my favorite movies from our childhood and I wouldn't think twice about playing it for my kids some day.

Next up let's take a look at The Land Before Time (THE ORIGINAL ONE....not the 19 sequels that followed) This scene is where Little Foot's mother is about to die. This is where, as basically a toddler, Little Foot finds out he'd be in charge of escaping a giant T-rex, leading a bunch of other dino kids, and attempting to save the future of his family. Pretty tall task for the long neck. Land Before Time.

If you can get through that scene without getting choke up it's not that you're a bad person, just that you have no heart.

Now we move on to Fievel: An American Tale, remembered by most as, "That movie with Somewhere Out There" in it. The story is about a Russian, Jewish mouse family (so far, so good) who make the trip to America to start a better life. Early on Fievel gets lost and is forced to survive on his own. Now the story of basically another toddler trying to survive would be hard enough, (I'm seeing a theme) but the whole movie is just dark and terrifying. This is a short scene featuring The Giant Mouse of Minsk and despite it being a helpful tool for Fievel, it still scares the crap out of me. I can't stress this enough, please remember that this is a KID'S movie. Fievel: An American Tale

The next movie I want to talk about is The Last Unicorn. If you take the time to watch this film pretty much everything is scary in it from the ridiculous harpie to the insane red bull who kills off all the unicorns. The one character, however, that sticks in my mind is the skeleton in the grandfather clock. I remember him acting incredibly odd and laughing at everything when I was a kid and I never understood why until now... He was drunk. Absolutely smashed. If you watch the movie he's crushing a bottle of wine the whole time. Seriously, they put a wino skeleton who offers advice in this movie. How are any of us normal? The Last Unicorn.

Again, this is just a small sampling of the movies that we watched growing up. When you couple this with basically every Disney movie before Aladdin and Henson classics The Labrynth and the Dark Crystal it's amazing to consider what will never be shown to kids again. All of this isn't even mentioning shows like Are you afraid of the Dark which still haunts my dreams.

I hope you enjoyed this little trip down the creepy memory lane that we all experienced. If you have any movies or shows you used to watch along these lines please feel free to post a comment or a clip.

Enjoy the beautiful weather and have a happy Easter.

Na zdravie!

stuck in the middle

I'm sitting here in my "Legal and Ethical Issues in Sport" class trying my best to pay attention and it's just not working (sorry mom and dad...) so I figured I'd try to do something semi-productive. I tried doing research for a project in said law class but that didn't go over so well. Therefore... on to blogging. After reading a couple of pretty good blogs (shout outs to come later) I realized that they were all writing about the same things. How and where would they be content. One moved to Chi-town with her friends and came back home, another is contemplating a move to the bright lights of Vegas, and the 3rd discuses the positives of being home. I've been mulling the big question of, "Where am I supposed to be in life?" and reading these three blogs didn't exactly clear anything up for me but they did provide some perspective.

It seems that my feelings of where I want to be vary greatly depending on my emotions and the goings on of the day. Ask me lately where I want to end up and I'll tell you Cleveland. The reasons being I haven't seen my family in forever and I miss them...incredibly. In the last month I've missed three birthdays, my nephew rolling over for the first time, and sadly, a death in the extended family. Missing these things would be hard for anyone but especially someone who talks to their family just about every day. My family truly are my best friends and it's so hard not seeing them on a consistent basic. My apartment basically being a shrine of family pictures doesn't exactly lessen the homesickness. (thank you, Alex) It's hard because lately all I want to do is spend Sunday afternoons at my parents house with the family eating way too much food and pretending to still be little kids... while playing with little kids.

That being said, if you asked me where I think I should live after talking to Goose or coming back from Vegas I'd say a big city. I get the feeling from time to time that I'd prefer not to be a big fish in a small pond but rather try to become an ample fish in a gigantic pond. From time to time I want the challenge to see if I could do more then survive but rather thrive in places where the lights shine the brightest. However, after a few days this will start to fade and I'll realize that maybe the size of the pond doesn't matter much so long as you just keep swimming.

Thus we reach my current situation: Cincinnati. I choose Xavier because it has a great Sports Administration program but, honestly, I also ended up here because IT WAS a little further from home. I needed the challenge. To move some where that I knew absolutely no one and start from scratch. I've created a great circle of friends, obtained a job and an internship, and, thus far, I'm staying afloat in my classes. The weather is decent (still get all four seasons), the area is very interesting, and I've networked enough to possibly obtain a job when I'm finished with the program. All of these positives and yet I hesitate to call this place home past December. Perhaps it's all the Bengals fans and everyone saying, "Y'all" but I digress. I continue to find myself quite literally stuck in the middle. I don't know if I want to be close to home, in a big city, or somewhere in between.

After all this contemplating and reading my close friends thoughts I came up with absolutely nothing. The point, though, is that might not be such a bad thing. The biggest thing to remeber when making a move or a "big change" is that it doesn't have to be permanent. Life is about the journey and all that jazz. In my circumstance my family will always be my family and we'll remain close regardless of if I live 20 minutes or 20 hours away. I have no idea what the future holds after next winter. Here's what I do know... I get to see my family Easter weekend, Baseball and the World Cup start soon, and I'll be here until at least December. The rest if completely up in the air but I'm learning that that too, is ok.

You're on your own, and you know what you know. And you will be the guy who'll decide where you'll go. Oh the places you'll go.

~Dr. Seuss~

Special thanks to Goose, Jay, and Emily for the inspiration.

Check them out at allegedlyfff.blogspot.com (Goose), socksnotfamous.blogspot.com (Jay) and girlinamansworld.blogspot.com (Emily)

Thanks again guys!

adam.

Beat the drum, hold the phone...

The sun came out today!

65 degree days, spring training in full swing, being one of the 1800 people who ran outside around Hyde Park yesterday. All of this can only mean one thing: Spring has arrived. The last few days here in Cincinnati have been absolutely gorgeous and while I'm aware that it's going to rain for the next 8 days and that old man winter will probably hit us with one last jab in the mouth, it is undeniable that spring is in the air.

Here's the thing: In Daniel Tosh's stand up special he says that he, "Loves seasons. That's why he lives in a place that skips the crappy ones." Funny? Yes. I, however, disagree. I used to tell everyone that I flat out loved winter. Truthfully, I am happiest when it's grey and miserable outside. Always have been. I think it's something about other people being unhappy that brings me joy. What I've discovered recently, though, is that I just really love every season. By the time the end of one season rolls around I'm definitely ready for the next and so while this fall I was ready for snow and cold, now I'm definitely ready for some warmth.

I'm aware that for the next week or so we'll probably need an ark to get around but that doesn't bother me because strange weather is what Ohio spring is all about. Don't believe me? Think about the fact that in any particular week in March or April around here you can have a day that's 70 and sunny, one that's 50 and rainy, and one that's 23 and snowing. Back at JCU we had one DAY that was 70 at noon and snowing by midnight. Try being a college baseball player in this climate. We tarped and untarped our field 3 times a day. The Cleveland Indians ground crew should have a feeder system through the Blue Streaks. I don't mind the strange weather though because I know that all it really means is soon enough I'll be golfing, grilling out, and playing sand volleyball...with my shirt off of course.

~It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade~

-Charles Dickens-

best man out.