Archives for November 2010

So, I’m all about spending time with the fam on Thanksgiving, but there comes a point where enough is just enough. I reached that point about a day into this years Thanksgiving madness.

I come from a pretty tight-knit family, so spending holidays together has always been something we do– and until now, I’ve really enjoyed it! Now that my cousins, aunts & uncles have kids of their own, I’m finding the holidays much more grating. Am I turning into that crotchety family member that hates kids?! Eek!

It’s not that I hate kids… I guess I just dislike this generations’ obsession with their cellphones, laptops, game consoles, farmville– well, the list goes on. Call me old school, but I like breaking out Pictionary and playing REAL games with the family.

I sadly discovered that my little cousins prefer texting their friends instead of spending quality time with everyone. Is it so wrong of me to expect a little interaction from the younger generation? “When I was their age”……we always played board games at the holidays– and shared so many laughs and made great memories doing it.

I guess there’s nothing I can do to change the inevitable, but I don’t have to like it!! As for me, I’ll still try to talk the family into playing a board game or two over the holidays :).

Every now and then you read about people who find something in an attic or closet that turns out to be very valuable. The hope that it can happen to you is the sole reason for the existence of Antiques Road Show. People long to hear one of their experts say something like “Why, yes, to the untrained eye, it does look like a ball of lint. But, in reality, it’s the remnants of Cleopatra’s first haircut. My guess is that it’s worth millions.”

And what’s not to cheer about something like that? Someone gets an honest windfall and no one’s suffered any harm.

Other times, someone famous gives you something that holds only sentimental value for you. Only later do you find out that they’ve given you a gold mine. Such was the case for Pablo Picasso’s barber, Eugenio Arias. Picasso used to doodle while he was getting his hair cut and then turn over the drawings to his barber.

While popular myth, and the linked obituary, have Sr. Arias donating the drawings to a museum, he was in fact compensated. Not for their true worth, but enough to put several grandchildren through college.

Again, no harm, no foul.

But every now and then that whole “gift story” doesn’t hold up very well. Pauline Mevel from Yahoo News reports about a guy who claims that Picasso, or Picasso’s wife, or some dude in an alley, gave him over 200 original paintings.

Pablo Picasso was both hugely prolific and famously generous with his work, but was he enough of a free spirit to give hundreds of his early works — an invaluable collection — to his electrician?

That question lies at the heart of a court case over the origin of 271 Picasso works — a treasure trove of original sketches, paintings and collages that was unknown to the art world a few months ago and unveiled for the public on Monday.

Experts have yet to appraise the full collection, which has been placed under lock and key after a judicial appeal by Picasso’s heirs. But there is little dispute so far over its authenticity. The works, many of which belong to the artist’s Blue and Cubist periods, could fetch more than 60 million euros ($79 million) at auction.

More mysterious is how such an extensive collection could have wound up in the hands of a retired electrician in the south of France who once worked for the Picasso family, or why he chose to hold onto it for so many decades.

“We have questions, legitimate questions about where the paintings came from,” Claudia Andrieu, legal counsel for the Picasso Foundation, told Reuters Television. “We are discovering new pieces, completely unknown pieces that had never been printed in any book.”

The mystery began when Claude Picasso — son of the artist and head of the foundation named after him — received a letter from a man who said he owned original Picasso pieces and wanted to have them verified for authenticity.

Picasso convinced the man to bring the collection to Paris, saying he would be unable to verify it from photographs. The man arrived by car with the paintings in a suitcase and laid them out on a table.

“I felt a great surprise, naturally, lots of emotion at the discovery of pieces with which we were not familiar. But also a deep disturbance,” he told French daily Liberation. “Many of these pieces were not dated, which means they never should have left the studio.”

The man in question was Pierre Le Guennec, an electrician in his seventies who worked on Picasso’s property in the south of France during the 1970s. He told Reuters Television that Picasso’s wife gave him the artworks.

“It’s Madame (Picasso) who gave them. But if Madame gave them, Monsieur was aware of it. She wasn’t going to do it just like that, was she?” he said, speaking through a gate in front of his property. “What did you want me to do with them? … They stayed in a box with other boxes that I have, from my job.”

Yet Picasso’s heirs were not convinced.

While the artist was known to dash out sketches on napkins at restaurants and make spontaneous gifts to friends, he would not have separated with such a large store of work, his son told Liberation. “It doesn’t hold up, frankly,” Picasso said.

Andrieu of the Picasso Foundation said that Le Guennec had changed his story many times, first telling them he had received the paintings from Picasso himself, then Picasso’s wife, and alternately in a box or a trash can.

Questioned by the police, he said the paintings were given to him by Picasso’s wife, who died in 1986. Le Guennec denied stealing the paintings and told RTL radio he decided to ask about their value as a possible inheritance for his children.

Unwilling to risk losing the works, Picasso’s heirs successfully appealed to a judge to have the works placed under lock and key, where experts can study and care for them.

Among the works are nine extremely rare Cubist collages, a watercolor from Picasso’s Blue period, several painted hand studies, some 30 lithographs and over 200 drawings, as well as portraits of the artist’s first wife, Olga Khokhlova.

“Mr. Picasso is only interested in the history of art,” Andrieu said. “We got the pieces secured, and now it is for the judge to determine how the pieces were obtained.”

If I’m the cops, the first thing I do is go and take a look and see what’s in the other boxes he claims he got “from work.” For all we know he could have everything from the Templar’s lost treasure to the Arc of the Covenant.

I’m not sure how all of this will play out. For all the legitimate suspicions the family has, it may be impossible to prove the works were stolen. In that case, Msr. Le Guennec would seem to be entitled to sell them.

One thing’s for certain, this electrician has clearly learned how to channel his inner Jon Lovitz.

In keeping with my, inadvertent, Christmas theme, I thought I’d take a minute to talk about some of the time honored traditions that make people feel good this time of year. While many folks are stunned when they find out that baby Jesus wasn’t born under a glowing pine tree and there’s not one single mention of the little drummer boy anywhere in the Gospels (neither synoptic nor gnostic), the stories still live on.

One tradition has become a staple of the holiday season; caroling. Or, to be more historically accurate, wassailing. Now, speaking as an Irish cliché, this is one tradition I understand. Like all well conceived ideas, this one was spawned by drunks with rocks. Nothing says “Happy Holidays!” to me more than the thought of staggering by people’s homes and demanding booze. Let the kids keep the watered down version of candy and costumes for Halloween, I’m sticking with the grown ups and threatening anyone who doesn’t fill my cup.

Monica Garske from AOL News takes a joyous look at the history of caroling.

Christmas caroling has long been a favorite tradition of church groups, elderly choirs and children, but did you know that the first groups of carolers were nothing but a bunch of rowdy drunks?

That’s the tune from David McKillop, senior vice president of programming for the History Channel, who recently talked to AOL News about the network’s upcoming holiday special, “The Real Story of Christmas,” premiering Nov. 29 at 9 p.m. ET.

The TV special examines the surprising historical origins of our most bizarre Christmas customs, including why some of us go door to door singing holiday songs to any strangers who will listen.

McKillop said the origin of caroling dates back to the pagan celebration of the winter solstice, when Christmas was regarded as a festival of pure joy and drunken revelry. Oh, and prayer was involved somewhere in there too.

According to McKillop, groups of poor medieval carolers would go around to houses singing and begging for food and drinks, threatening to throw rocks through the windows of anyone who refused to give them a handout.

They literally “went medieval” on people.

“They would get very, very rowdy. Eventually, the drunken revelry got too out of hand, and Christmas was banned for years in America in the 16th and 17th centuries,” explained McKillop.

Sheesh. Sounds like an episode of “Carolers Gone Wild.” If you don’t open your door to singing strangers this year, no one will blame you.

McKillop said those same ancient winter-solstice celebrations — which usually lasted 12 days — gave rise to the tradition of burning a yule log, often mentioned in classic Christmas songs.

“People would try to find the biggest log possible to burn in a fireplace, to keep the light and warmth going during the 12 days of the feast,” he said.

Another fun fact: Santa Claus wasn’t always so chummy and cheery. In fact, he was kind of a downer who ran with a bad crowd.

McKillop said the St. Nick of old European legend was said to be accompanied not by elves but by an impish little devil creature named “Krampus” who beat up and kidnapped naughty children.

“If kids were bad, Krampus would leave them bad gifts. I think that’s where the idea of giving people coal for Christmas first sprouted. That Krampus was mean,” said McKillop.

Garske and McKillop take a look at quite a few other traditions, so make sure to read the whole article.

So, this holiday season, when you’re hanging with a sexy, little, elf, drinking yourself into oblivion and trying to convince all who are unfortunate enough to listen that you’re really a tenor, just remember that you’re honoring a centuries old custom.

And if anyone doesn’t like it, throw a rock at them.

In this edition of Classic Nude Hippo, we go way back to the year 2002.  Nick Rosario & a few of the guys on NUDE HIPPO were all on the wrong path of gaining too much weight.  So they went to the NBC 5/Telemundo Healthy Living Expo to learn what they could do about this.   

Larry Wert, the top dog at NBC, help explain what he hoped to help with this epidemic.  However, everyone knows, the best solution to any problem is to just include television child star, Danny Bonaduce.

Nick also had his blood sugar level checked.   To explain what a normal level should be seems too complicated to get into here, but this diagram should help if you are really interested.

If you’re interested in finding out more about high blood sugar levels, click here!  Also be sure to check out NBCchicago.com and Jewel-Osco for more healthy living ideas!

Tis’ the season for Christmas wish list’s, sleigh rides and Santa’s little helpers.  With that said…Why not elf yourself? (Wow, I really feel like we are blowing thru the holidays here!)  It’s easy, it’s fun and somehow year after year it’s still amusing! Who doesn’t like seeing  themselves as a crazy, whacked out dancing elf?  Better yet, add grandma and some of your buds to the mix for a knee slapping jolly ol’ laugh.  In case you’ve been living under a rock, you just log onto elfyourself.com or the Office Max website.  Whichever you prefer.  However, I must add if you visit the Office Max website you can see yours truly!  Yes, that’s correct I am officially the Office Max Elf for 2 years in a row.

You can check me out on the website or in the Office Max stores nationwide.  It’s hard work, but someone had to do it.  You think I’m joking?  I almost ran out of the auditions because I thought I clearly showed up at the wrong place.  After two days of Office Max auditioning break dancers they decided to throw a few dancing models into the mix.  Granted,  I could not spin on my head, but I could bust out some pretty elf-like leaps, jumps and moves.  After feeling like a complete lunatic, I was beyond excited to make the cut and shoot with Chicago’s top photographer; Brian Kulhmann.  I was one of one of 5 elves to be in Office Max’s biggest holiday ad campaigns.  (And the only model mixed with professional break dancers!)  After two elf costume fittings, an entire day spent jumping and dancing in a velvet elf suit, it didn’t turn out too shabby.

The best part is that the Office Max creative directors told me they couldn’t have imagined a better elf than I.  It was my “elf personality” that won them over.  Wow, I’m totally an elf…who knew?  I guess I will just take that as a compliment and run with it.  Happy Elf Yourself Day!  Now, get out to Office Max for a good laugh at my photos.  (At least my grandma likes them!)

Yesterday I wrote about how you could take a six hour car ride to Cleveland and be at the home which was featured in A Christmas Story. As it turns out, I was only half right. While you could certainly make the trip to visit movie props, the actual house is much closer. In fact it’s just down the road in Hammond, Indiana. This all came to light when my long time friend, social provocateur and documentarian, Shane Bugbee, fired off on me for the inaccuracy and, worse yet, the slight to the memory of Jean Shepherd.

Astute readers of my Hippo blogs will remember that I’m not a huge fan of the movie. Saw it, liked it, moved on. However, for others it was a profound, life changing, moment in their lives. My guess is that these are the same people who shop at WalMart, but I could be wrong.

Whoever these people are, the movie’s important to them. They know every line, can recite the complete history of each event and each and every one lauds the works and life of Jean Shepherd (this is a much more complete link).

On September 18, 2004, Shane was finally able to get an official Jean Shepherd Day in Hammond. But only after signing a release that made him promise that the event would not “… represent satan, horror movies, goth culture, and religious debate ….”

I may not be hopelessly devoted to the film, but I’m pretty sure there aren’t any scenes of human sacrifice or inverted crosses covered in blood. I probably would have noticed stuff like that.

It seems that the people of Hammond are mad at Mr. Shepherd for ending up in New York after serving in the Army in World War II. They seem to believe that he would have been just as famous, and just as beloved, if he’d stayed put and not gotten all uppity.

How deep is their rancor? At the Hammond Visitor’s Center there is a tribute to John Dillinger but not one mention of Mr. Shepherd or his works.

That’s pretty freaking deep.

How did that board meeting go? “Which display do we put up for the kids? Notorious gangster & killer or beloved family icon? It’s a NO-BRAINER! Bust out the lady in red and have at it!”

Actually it was an orange dress, but that’s a quibble for another day.

Of course Indiana is the state where you can buy Ku Klux Klan memorabilia and where they are building a museum to honor the world’s most famous (alleged) pedophile.

Maybe, for the sake of Mr. Shepherd’s heirs, fans and friends, it’s best that things just stay the way they are. After all, in comparison, Cleveland’s not so bad.

In many respects I’m just like normal people. I have the usual number of arms, legs and organs. More importantly, at least for me, they all work reasonably well. Nevertheless, there are some things that seem to keep me from the mainstream. I’ve never laughed at a Seinfeld joke, at least not the intentional ones, and you’d have to beat me with a claw hammer to get me to watch ice dancing. The allure of certain segments of pop culture eludes me as readily as the hot babe in the bar who suddenly professes her lesbianism to avoid speaking with me.

Just FYI, according to Ellen Degeneres I am personally responsible for the distribution of over 1,000 toaster ovens.

So it is with me and A Christmas Story. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the movie when I saw it. I thought it was cute and funny. I was glad I’d seen it but it didn’t exactly resonate with me at some deeply pseudo-religious level. As it turns out, this is yet another thing that culls me from the herd.

However, if you are among the many who worship this film, you’re in luck. You can now tour the house where the film was set, meet the cast and spend nutty money on stuff your friends will make fun of.

And, yes, you can ride in the firetruck. Can’t forget that.

Chris Epting from AOL News spreads the Gospel of Ralphie to an even larger audience.

It’s become one of the most beloved holiday exclamations, a gleeful cry of warmth and tenderness that evokes so many cups of hot chocolate around a cozy, stocking-draped fireplace: “You’ll shoot yer eye out!”

In 1983, the movie “A Christmas Story” roughly elbowed its way into our Christmas consciousness. A nostalgic tale of longing, sentimentality and the harsh realities of Midwestern life in the 1940s, the comedy, based on the work of author Jean Shepherd, has become a must-watch-TV marathon classic.

Old-time radio, Ovaltine, school bullies and the want of an “Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle” are just some of the memorable touchstones of the film. But this holiday, you can do more than just watch it from your couch — you can live it.

This Friday and Saturday will mark the fifth annual “A Christmas Story” Celebration and Convention, which takes place right where the story was based, in Cleveland. The event is being run by the “Christmas Story” House and Museum — the actual home used in the film.

Opened over Thanksgiving weekend in 2006, the popular pop-culture landmark is a labor of love for Brian Jones, a devoted fan of the film who purchased the home in 2003 after it went up for auction on eBay. (At the time, he ran a business that sold re-creations of the infamous “Major Award” from the film — a scandalous, sexy, black-stockinged “leg lamp” won by Ralphie Parker’s dad.)

To date, more than 60,000 people have toured the house. Directly across the street from the house is the official “Christmas Story” House Museum, which features original props, costumes and memorabilia from the film, as well as hundreds of rare behind-the-scenes photos.

Among the props and costumes are the toys from the Higbee’s department store window, Randy’s snowsuit and toy zeppelin that he received Christmas morning, the chalkboard from Miss Shields’ classroom and the Parker family car.

Steve Siedlecki, the house and museum’s executive director, said he expects about 3,000 people over the holiday weekend for the convention.

“We have dozens of incredible events planned for fans of this holiday classic,” Siedlecki told AOL News. “It will be our biggest convention yet, including rides on the firetruck that came to the rescue in Flick’s famous tongue-on-the-flagpole scene, meet-and-greets with many of the stars from the film and lots of other ‘Christmas Story’ surprises.”

Specifically, convention attendees can expect appearances by seven original-cast members (Flick, Scut Farkus, Randy, Grover Dill, Miss Shields and the two evil elves), a BB gun range in the backyard of the house, a downtown tree-lighting ceremony and much more.

The convention will take place at the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel and coincide with Cleveland’s Winterfest, with frequent shuttles to the museum for special tours and activities.

Also, for anyone visiting the “Christmas Story” House and Museum during the end of November and through December, a special guest will be in attendance.

“Ian Petrella, who played younger son Randy in the film, will actually be living here at the house through the holidays, so anyone who shows up for a tour will be able to chat with him and get autographs,” Siedlecki said.

The good news is that Cleveland is about a 6 hour drive from Chicago, so you can easily get there today in time to meet the stars. But, if you miss them you can still go before Christmas and feed Ian Petrella. Because, if memory serves me right, that kitchen wasn’t in the best of shape 27 years ago.

Friday, October 13, 1307 was a “Black Friday” if you were a member of the Knights Templar and living in France. Seeing your heroes arrested, tortured and executed does tend to burn the day into your memory. September 24, 1869 was a “Black Friday” if you had any money in the stock market, thanks to the Fisk/Gould scandal. And, obviously, the destruction of the world’s gold market impacted regular folks as well. November 11, 1887 was a “Black Friday” if you were an anarchist hanging around near Haymarket in Chicago. Of course, being lynched by cops tends to put a damper on any day, not just Fridays.

Simply put, “Black Friday” has historically meant a day of tragedies. So why am I surprised, as I fast forward to our Twitter level knowledge of the world that came before us, that we now honor those mournful memories by setting aside a day dedicated to self indulgent shopping?

After all, we live in a culture where some people celebrate the death of their Lord and Savior by eating chocolate rabbits and wearing pretty bonnets. What’s a few minor tragedies compared to that?

Oh, go ahead and click the link. It has coupons.

Nevertheless, even I was a bit surprised to see a woman camped out in front of a Best Buy (Best Buy?) for the week prior to “Black Friday” just so her family could be first in line.

Best Buy? Really? Why not Quickie-Mart or K-Mart or something? What’s the allure of a Best Buy?

As Scott Wampler from the Examiner finds out, you can’t make this stuff up.

Some view Thanksgiving as a time for enjoying the company of their family, and some just think it’s an excuse to eat a big-ass meal (guilt-free). Others see it as an inconvenience. Then there’s those that ignore the holiday completely and view Thanksgiving as just another day before “Black Friday,” the most notorious shopping day of the year. Make no mistake: There is something very, very wrong with these people, as you’ll soon see. Read on for the crazy, my gentle Examiner readers …

There’s a video going around online today that you’ve probably seen, an interview with some woman who’s camped out in front of a Best Buy (as of last [Tuesday]) in anticipation of “Black Friday.” Anyone that would camp out for days in advance of a sale — even if the prices are pretty damn good, and even assuming that they don’t have anything better to do this week — clearly has some screws loose, but the woman’s explanation reveals that she’s even nuttier than you’d expect.

Here’s what she has to say (and note that we haven’t altered this; you can hear it all for yourself by clicking the video [below]) for herself:

As you can see, we’re first place … We’re just regular people. We’re not here first because we’re, y’know, planning on this, we have to have this, uh, big thing purchased. Of course we are going to shop like we do every year, but to us it’s more about being first, and having the whole experience about what this brings to you.”

What the hell does any of that mean? Did somebody tell this woman that shopping is a competitive sport? What’s with the “first place” talk, and why would it be about “being first”? Does any of this make sense to you? Let’s see what other pearls of wisdom this creature can impart:

We never knew that we were gonna be, we never thought we needed to be first, for any sort of firstness, just for our own firstness. To make ourselves happy, and that we accomplished something, our personal goal. That was never in our mind.

Say what?! What the hell is wrong with this woman, and why is she obsessed with the idea of being “first”? Is she an internet commenter? Anyway, here’s the thrilling conclusion to the interview, where Crazy “Black Friday” Lady takes the crew inside her lair (read: tent):

This is our tent here, that we have. We pretty much have everything that we need … there aren’t many ants in this area, so we’re pretty happy about that … we have our air mattress bed, we have our chair, our pillows and our blankets. I’m looking at one of the Apple notebooks … possibly a TV for our daughter … maybe a Blu-ray player and some movies. Thanksgiving doesn’t mean just that you have to go to somebody’s house and have a traditional turkey and spend eight hours a day enjoying a good meal and a family and going home and falling asleep on the couch watching football.

Well, that’s it, folks: We’ve already located the craziest “Black Friday” story and it’s only Tuesday.

First off, while it’s clear that this particular woman is clearly several bulbs short of a chandelier, she’s not alone. Thousands of people missed having Thanksgiving dinner with their friends or families so they could line up in the cold and throw their money away on crap they’ll never use.

That dancing robot you HAVE to have? Forget about it. Buy socks instead. Then use the money you saved to spend some time with sane people. Hopefully they’ll rub off on you.