Today’s Movie of the day is Grease 2 (1982) directed by Patricia Birch and starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Maxwell Caulfield and Lorna Luft.

What you never knew that Grease had a sequel?!?  Well not a lot of people know there was a sequel. The trailer is below:

I found out about this movie thanks to Netflix’s instant stream in 2014! I was off of work one day and wanted to watch a movie. So I was flipping through my options and this came up. My first thought was “Grease 2?!? I never heard of it!” Knowing my deep admiration of the first Grease since childhood I decided to give it a try. And man I was NOT disappointed in the least!

So this movie is set in 1961 which is two years after all of the original Greasers graduated in the same school, and there are still some recurring actors in the same roles like Didi Conn, Sid Cesar and Dody Goodman.

The plot of the movie is that the Stephanie Zinone (played by Michelle Pfeiffer) who is the leader of the Pink Ladies broke up with Johnny Nogerelli who is  the leader of the T-Birds (played by Adrian Zmed) over the summer and in order for Stephanie to continue to be part of the pink ladies she has to continue and date a member of the T-Birds. But she is tired of being part of a group and wants to life a new life with some who is a cool rider….

Cue new dreamy British exchange student Michael Carrington (played by Maxwell Caulfield) who become infatuated with Stephanie and the whole movie is based on how far he will go to become her dream “cool rider.”

The reason why I enjoy this movie more than the original Grease is because it has some of the movie overly sexual songs done in a cookie cutter kind of way. Such songs as “Reproduction”

And “let’s do it for our Country”:

The script was only halfway done when they went into production so they used a loose draft and the director did the best she could with the material so some of the sequence or characters do really make sense or disappearance and reappear without explanation.

If you are in need of a movie of a good laugh or want to sing along to some interesting songs then Grease 2 is for you!!!

Fun Fact: In the movie there are two teachers who were real life teen heartthrobs. They were Tab Hunter and Connie Stevens 

Until Next time!

When I was little  my favorite place to go on vacation is DisneyWorld. Mostly because you get to hang out with all of the cool cartoon characters you seen in the movies or on tv in real life. However there was one random character that I would see at the park that I never really knew the origins of.

Florida’s Orange Bird:

So I did some research on this super cute orange bird! In 1970 Disneyworld was in need of more investors to expand there park so it came to no surprise that the Florida Citrus Commission wanted to invest in one of the world’s most famous theme park. They invested nearly three million dollars into the park however they weren’t really sure what kind of ride or area they could sponsor in the park.   Disney however came up with the idea of putting the Florida Citrus Commission’s sponsorship to use in the Enchanted Tiki Room Attraction. They had a ten year agreement where they changed the name of the attraction to this: 

Also on the other end of the attraction there was a bar area that served orange juice and citrus sweets to people. The Florida Citrus Commission also wanted to have some kind of mascot for the product. Disney did not want to use any of there regular characters like Mickey Mouse, Goofy etc. so they made a brand new character: THE ORANGE BIRD!

He was feature in two commericals in the early 1970’s

And also was featured in two animated shorts. The one below is called Foods and Fun: A Nutritional Adventure

However since Disney’s created the actual cartoon of the Orange Bird the Florida Citrus Commission had to pay a fee every time they wanted to use that character in public use. And knowing Disney that meant it was a very pricey fee to pay. Every time a contract had to be renew or if they Florida Citrus Commission wanted to add another Citrus bar inside the park the most expensive it was becoming. It was becoming a point where the  Florida Citrus Commission was not selling enough products in the bars and making enough money with the Orange Bird to justify the cost.

Then with the frustration of  a lot of back and forth negotiating and money fees being hiked every couple of years the Florida Citrus Commission and Disney World decided to cute ties with each other in 1987. Ending any and all presence of this cute Orange bird! 

However in 2004 Tokyo Disney decided to make products of the Citrus Bird  and it was such a massive good response that it came back to Disney World by 2012! So now you can see him more visibly in Disney products, comic books and more!

Until Next time!

I recently thought of a “what if ” situation of what if I was able to pick what movies should be part of the Criterion Collection library. I thought  I would share some of my picks on here:

And of course in NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

FREAKS (1932) directed by  Tod Browning

I used to watch this movie as much I would be watch Disney’s The Little Mermaid when I was little. Such an interesting cast of actors and actresses in this film and it taught me an early lesson in life to not take everyone at face value.

Heavy Metal (1981) directed by Gerald Potterton 

Fritz the Cat (1972) directed by Ralph Bakshi

I would love to see more adult cartoons in the Criterion Collection library. There is hardly any in their collection and any of these would be awesome!

The Elephant Man (1980) directed by David Lynch 

When I was little  I would go visit my family in Guatemala. There was not a lot of channels to watch. From what I can remember there was about 15 channels in total. From the few movies channels there was they would always show the same movie almost every other day  for about a month during the late evening time. The Elephant Man was one of those movies. I remember that the first time I watched it I cried I was beyond emphatic for the elephant man because no one understood the pain and frustration he went through.

The Shining (1980) directed by Stanley Kubrick  

This was the other movie they would show when  weren’t showing The Elephant Man. I remember always trying to have my evenings free from my family so I can watched this movie even though it was probably the tenth or twentieth time I have seen it at the point.

A lot of the movies I picked for this  Criterion Collection wish list round  stemmed from my childhood. For me the better I associate personally with a movie the better it is. It may have now won any awards or critical acclaim but in my book they rate pretty high. I hope in the future the Criterion Collection expands it’s library to include these movies!

Until next time!!!

Today artist’s spotlight is on @Bad_buzz

1. What is your art aesthetic?                                                                                                ” I’ve heard my art called Trash style. I like to think that you can recognize my work as it has a particular style no matter what the media. People always tag me on Instagram asking if the work is mine. “
2. What are you five top cartoons and why?
   “The Simpsons – To create something funny, that looks amazing and appeals to a Worldwide audience is an impossible task. And they managed it. I preferred how it used to look in The Shorts and the first few seasons.
   
   He-Man – Amazing characters, morals 🙂 stories, it had everything. My Bros, friends and me all collected the figures and played for hours with them. Sticker books etc The look of the cartoon and the books still look amazing now. Still obsessed with He-Man.
   
   Thundercats – Same comments as He-Man.
   Dungeons & Dragons – Was a D&D Geek as a kid, watched the cartoons recently and still holds up today. Cartoons were so much better back then as they had more time and less technology. You got to know the characters and they all had different strengths, clever.
   Apollo Gauntlet – Its very rare to find something decent that is new, but If you haven’t seen this you need to check it out, taken from the original you tube series. It still has that homemade feel even though they have used loads of new tech to speed up the process. Funny, stupid, great characters, Inspires me to create something like this. maybe in 2019? You can watch over and over again, still makes me cry. Hard to beat.”
   3. What is your favorite piece you made and why?                                                            “I liked the artwork I did recently of Orko in The Simpsons Living Room. Coloured in Pencils. Most of my drawings have meanings behind them, some people get it and others maybe just like the art.

   Im trying to say that its hard to fit in, anywhere in life, Work, School, New cities. Some of us arn’t as confident as others, or have stuff going on you dont know about. So its just to be aware of that.

   Bring people into the group no matter what they look like or are into, you may be surprised. “

   4.Can you talk  a bit about the online store: Why you start it and what is the most popular item on it?

   “Ive been working on my own Bad Buzz clothing brand for a few years now, as it just something that I always wanted to do. Sometimes its hard to find simple clothes to ware, so decided to make my own.

   The most popular items were the Wu-tang Bart Cap, Bart Bumbag and the Smoking Bart Cap. Can you see theres a theme going here ? Nearly all sold out so take a look:

    My shop:

   BadBuzz 

   5. Do you have any exciting news, shows, events coming up in terms of your art? ”

   “It’s the last few days of my Buzztallica `Master of Knock-offs’ exhibition at the Staalplaat Store in Berlin (Germany). The opening was 21st May 2018 and ran for a month.

   

   The subjects I drew were mostly from my past memories of TV shows, cartoons, Computer games, D&D, Action figures, Films, and tried and incorporate them into whats happening in the world right now.

   I’m in the process of organising another Exhibition for the end of this year but this time in Barcelona (Spain)

   I have loads of new stuff coming out this year, Toy Figures, Skateboards, magazines, pins, patches, and more Apparel. Follow my instagram to keep up to date.

   If you like to learn more about @bad_buzz his contact information is:

Link to buy framed orginals from the Berlin Exhibit:

Staalplaat  (search for Bad Buzz)

With summer upon us I am excited about some of my favorite shows returning! Some have already premiere while I am still patiently waiting for others to return. Here are my top four awaiting shows:

In no order:

Netflix’s Glow Season 2 (June 29th): 

Starring Alison Brie, Betty Gilpin and Sydelle Noel. The show is based off of a 1980’s all female wrestling show and it is a comedy drama. What I like about the show is that it is a full force 1980’s flashback!

CLAWS (June 10th):

Starring Niecy Nash, Carrie Preston and Karrueche Tran. It is about a nail salon that centers around the five women that work there by day and there mob lifestyle at night.  There two worlds collide when there secret of money laundering is found out and causes a total avalanche of misfortune to the women. This show is a fantastic mix of Florida, crime drama, comedy and fabulous fashion and nails!

The toys that made Us (May 25th):

This is an eight part documentary on some favorite toys and season two talks about Star Wars, Tranformers, Legos and Hello Kitty! I love history and I love toys so when these two themes come together it is a definite must watch for me!!

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (May 30th) 

Starring Ellie Kemper. Titus Burgess and Jane Krakowski. Kimmy (Ellie Kemper) was part of a doomsday like cult and had spent fifteenth years of her life in an underground bunker and starts to live her life as a free woman in New York City.  This is the show’s final season and I am excited to see if Kimmy is finally able to adjust and function to life outside the bunker.

Until Next time!!!