The Contemporary Night Owl

Was visiting the CNN website this morning and stumbled across an article about the top 10 nightlife cities from across the world. These cities were rated on a scale from 1-10 on the quality of the clubs and pubs, their hours, the music, the price of drinks, and other criteria.

Some might say the list was a little on the predictable side, with well-known and established nightlife hotspots such as London, Bangkok, and Vegas making the list. Others find it a little hard to disagree with this list since these cities have decades-old reputations as being the "party central" of their country.

What do you guys think? Are you as fond of these cities as the author is for partying hard all night? Or are there other cities you think are better choices (i.e. Seoul, New Orleans, Shanghai, etc.) that should've made the list?

The article can be found here:

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/09/22/travel/best-nightlife-cities/index.html?iid=article_sidebar

A "Space Invader" mosaic created by the French artist Invader in Shoreditch, London, UK circa July 2007. (Edward Betts/Wikimedia Commons)

Of all the video games that premiered to the world during the 1970s, none became as iconic as Space Invaders. The game became an instant worldwide hit after it premiered in Japan in 1978 and over the past 36 years, the little pixellated Space Invaders alien has seeped out of the arcade machine and into the real world, where it has cemented its place in pop culture.

Outside mainstream media and merchandise, there has been one part of pop culture the Space Invaders alien has invaded in particular and that is the world of urban art. Its minimalistic yet iconic appearance have made it a somewhat common catch in street graffiti or in urban artwork over the past several decades. Since it's also one of the great video game icons, its place in "geekdom" and "geek art" is also cemented.

Here's a look at some of the artists who have brought the alien from the acrade game screen to the streets:

1.) Invader's Mosaics. In cities across the world, mosaics of Space Invaders (and characters from other 1970s-1980s 8-bit arcade/video games) have popped up on the sides of buildings. These mosaics have been created by the mysterious French urban artist Invader.

Like his fellow urban artist Banksy, Invader's true identity is unknown, but he has built up a fan following worldwide. His mosaics of Space Invaders, Pacman ghosts, Mario and Luigi, and other video game characters - as well as reinterpretations of notorious historical figures and famous works of art - have become highly-acclaimed works of art.

Invader's SI alien mosaics have popped up in cities such as London (see above) and Manchester, UK, Paris, Monaco, Rome, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, and many other cities around the world. As a matter of fact, his first ever mosaic was an alien mosaic which turned up in a Parisian alley in 1998 when he "activated" his first "Space Invaders program"!

Since then, he has made over 1,000 other mosaics, with his largest "invasion" being in Hong Kong, where he has created over 70 mosaics since 2000. In July 2011, he organized a show of his works in Paris titled "Invader 1000"  which featured hundreds of his works. Many of these were Space Invader-themed. In fact, one wall was completely filled with SI alien tiles!

To many, these mosaics - and most other forms of street art for that matter - are an eyesore. To others, they are cute and liven up an otherwise dull street corner or apartment building. And to hardcore fans of the game, waking up one morning and finding one of these mosaics hanging on the side of their building would be a Godsend!

2.) P183's Moscow Mosaic. One day in April 2012, police in Moscow, Russia were alarmed when a mysterious Space Invader mosaic turned up under a bridge at an industrial park in the city. The sculpture shot lasers at cars passing by, which gave the police even more cause for concern given the past history of terrorist attacks in the city. The area was cordoned off and the bomb squad was called in.

As it turned out, the mosaic was placed there by the anonymous street artist P183, who is Russia's equivalent of Invader or Banksy. The mosaic was placed there as part of his "Traffic Jam Blaster" project. The lasers being emitted from the mosaic were bouncing off cars just like the laser cannons in the game and no harm whatsoever was intended.

3.) 3D Street Art Project. This year, an amazing street project by famed chalk artist Leon Keer was launched in Lausanne, Switzerland. This project was devoted to none other than Space Invaders!

The exhibit featured a girl in a pit playing the game while being hoisted by a crane. The aliens seems to be descending through the air onto the sidewalk below.

It's worth mentioning that this exhibit came several years after Invader came to town and peppered Lausanne with Space Invader mosaics!

4.) Statues and Sculptures. Some residents of a neighborhood in Los Angeles will never forget the morning they woke up and found an army of Space Invaders in their street! Actually this alien army was a series of wooden sculptures created by artist Jason Torchinsky for the IndieCade festival for independent games held in LA in October of 2011.

These giant aliens were 12 feet (3.6 meters) tall and 8 feet (2.43 meters) wide. As you can probably guess by looking at pics of them, the original alien pixels from the game were used as a template.

Oh, and since the game's release in 1978, many other artistic game fans have tried making their own alien statues and sculptures. Some of these aliens have been spotted in living rooms, gardens, and in art exhibits all around the world!

5.) The Space Invaders of Varanasi. In the city of Varanasi in India's Uttar Pradesh province, graffiti art - as well as a mosaic or two - of the Space Invaders alien can be found on buildings across the city. Who the mystery artist is behind these drawings noone knows for sure, but s/he is widely speculated to be Invader. He has mentioned visiting Varanasi in the past. However, according to themissadventures.com, as of late 2009 he had made no mention of leaving his "calling cards" there. So could it be a local artist who sprayed these aliens onto the wall? Or a foreign artist or tourist who wanted to be the next Invader or Banksy? Who knows.

6.) Snow Sculptures. While it's not exactly street art, this does qualify as "geek art"! In 2008, a large snow sculpture of a Space Invader turned up at that year's Sapporo Snow Festival in Hokkaido, Japan on the eve of the game's 30th anniversary. This snow sculpture was a powerful testament to how much SI has infiltrated not only pop culture, but mainstream art culture as well.

And finally......

7.) Anonymous artists. As mentioned above, the Space Invader has been depicted in all kinds of art forms over the past several decades by artists around the world. Many of these works of art have only gotten marginal attention. Others, such as the "Obey" mosaic based on Shepard Fairey's famous Andre the Giant Has a Posse painting, have become Internet hits. And others graffiti paintings are nowhere near as famous as the works of street artists such as Invader, but are without a doubt seen by hundreds of passers-by everyday on the sides of buildings, walls, and other public buildings. There's no telling how many countless Space Invaders have been painted over by the building owners or have just faded away to the elements over the decades.....


The Space Invader has become a pop icon and a symbol of urban art over the nearly four decades since the first Space Invaders arcade machine was unveiled to the world. In what other art forms will this invader from another world manifest itself? And will a Space Invader come to a neighborhood near you? We'll just have to wait and see!

If you want to read more about these "alien sightings", here are some more links for you:
-http://makezine.com/2011/10/07/how-to-build-giant-space-invaders-as-public-art/ (Interview with Jason Torchinsky about his Space Invaders statues.)
-http://www.blastr.com/2012/04/russians_mistake_street_a.php (Article about P183's Moscow mosaic.)
-http://www.tentimesone.com/space-invaders-found-in-varanasi/ (A blog entry about the Space Invaders of Varanasi. Includes plenty of pics!)
-https://www.facebook.com/spaceinvadersintheworld (A FB group dedicated to sightings of Space Invaders mosaics around the world.)

(LEGAL DISCLAIMER: The Space Invaders game is a copyright of the Taito Corporation and Square Enix Holdings Co, Ltd. Neither this blog or the blog post are in any way associated with or endorsed by either of these two entities.) 

Another new feature I'd like to introduce to this blog is the "Late Night TV Report". Every once in a while, I'll write a little about what's new on late-night TV around the world. I'll discuss new shows, interesting bits of info from around the globe, and much more. So without further adieu, here's my first Late Night TV Report:

Well, it's official. At the time of this writing, Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers are dominating the late night prime-time TV here in the US. According to some articles published last week, both Late Night with Seth Meyers and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon are now the #1 late night variety shows airing on prime-time US television. And furthermore, Fallon is earning more than two of the previous TV hosts, David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel, combined! Will they keep up the momentum during this season? We shall see!

While it's not necessarily late-night TV, one highly popular TV show is being moved to a time slot that could be considered late for a show of its caliber. In the UK, the classic sci-fi TV show Dr. Who was moved to a fairly late Saturday night time slot for the first time in its 51 year history. This move was made by the BBC in order to accomodate the hit show Strictly Come Dancing on Wednesday evenings.  Those in the UK who want to see the latest adventures of the Doctor will now have to tune in at 8:30 pm on Saturday evenings. This new time slot could be problematic for young people, who are either out partying on Sat. nights or who will have to hit the bed by the time the show wraps up at 9:15 pm! Once upon a time back in the 1970s-1990s, we Dr. Who fans here in the US had no choice but to watch old reruns of the show on Saturday nights via our local PBS affiliates. Maybe UK fans can now find out why so many diehard American Dr.Who fans spent so many Saturday nights sitting at home???:-D

In India, TV viewers have defintiely been complaining about the 11 pm time slot for the hit Star TV soap opera Yeh Hai Mohabbatein. As a result, the execs are also airing it at 7:30 in place of the former hit soap Saraswatichandra, which has fallen in ratings in recent months. Now prime time TV viewers as well as night owls can enjoy this soap that's becoming a hit show in India!

Finally, outspoken Irish TV personality Kate Hopkins is making a comeback to the Late Late Show, which airs late Friday night on Irish national broadcaster RTE. Only this time around, she's coming back with a little extra weight deliberately gained for the show.

Ok, so that's it for this edition of the Late Night TV Report! This first edition is not the best, but it's my hope that future Late Night TV Reports will get better and better over time!

Well gang, as of today I'm going to start something new on this blog. I want to start reviewing movies that are perfect for watching on a sleepless night, and I want to focus on some of the more obscure movies in particular. There are plenty of articles and blog posts out there that list quintessential midnight classics such as Night of the Living Dead, Rocky Horror Picture Show, etc. While those lists are good to check out for a good movie to watch and I may blog a little about the more well-known movies from time to time, I'll stick with the obscure and (mostly) B-rated movies for my Midnight Movie Reviews.

The first movie I'm going to review is the 1972 movie Embassy starring Richard Roundtree (of Shaft fame), Max von Sydow, Ray Milland, Broderick Crawford, and The Rifleman himself, Chuck Connors. Von Sydow plays Gorenko, a diplomat working in the Soviet Ministry of Defence who possesses some highly-classified knowledge of Soviet defenses along the Chinese border. His son has just been arrested by the KGB and shipped off to the gulag. As a result, Gorenko decides to defect to the US vis a vis the US Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. Connors plays "Col. Kesten", a psycopathic KGB killer who infiltrates the embassy disguised as a US Air Force colonel to take out Gorenko. Roundtree is Dick Shannon, the young peacenik US diplomat working on Gorenko's case who is disillusioned with the state of US foreign policy in South Vietnam and elsewhere in the world. Milland is the steely US ambassador who is highly skeptical of Gorenko's claims and would rather wash his hands of the whole affair. All are working overtime in the midst of anti-US protests in Beirut and protesters have surrounded the embassy.

When word comes back from Washington that Gorenko is the real-deal, the Ambassdor, Shannon, and Dunniger (Crawford) must work together to protect Gorenko from the KGB and do whatever it takes to ship him out of Lebanon and straight to the US. But getting him past the cordon of anti-American protesters and back to the airport safely plus protecting him from the wrath of Kesten is going to be a major challenge.

Ok, I'll admit it. As far as espionage or political thrillers go, Embassy is a little on the talkative side. However, it has a lot of elements that other thrillers in these two genres just don't have. For one, Embassy was filmed in a real-life global hotspot that would become of importance to US foreign policy in another few years up the road. Also, it has a storyline that is a lot more realistic than what you'll find in a James Bond movie or maybe even in an episode of 24. Finally, it has a funky theme song performed by Carl Douglas, the man who gave us the hit song Kung-Fu Fighting several years later! Also in this movie, Richard Roundtree - who had just had a big hit in the US with the first Shaft movie - gets to transfer some of Shaft's finesse and coolness to this one. Von Sydow is highly convincing in the role of Gorenko and plays the role of the scared diplomat very well.

Ultimately, the most memorable performance in this movie has to be Chuck Connors'. He is brilliant as the psycopathic KGB assassin who goes bezerk on the embassy personnel and has his mind on one objective: killing Gorenko!

All in all, if you don't mind the talking and like a spy or political thriller that's more realistic than most, Embassy might be a movie you'll want to watch sometime!

Also known as: Target: Embassy (alternate English title), El caso Gorenko (Spain), Baraka à Beyrouth (France), Shannon - armoton agentti (Finland), Shannon (Italy), Der Killer in der Botschaft (West Germany) 

The Lipton's Tea sign that adorned Stockholm's Stureplan square for decades. This pic was taken when it was built in 1960. (Ruben Morne/Wikimedia Commons)

As those of you who have read this blog and my others are no doubt aware, one of my favorite subjects to blog about is neon signs. In fact, no blog about the nighttime world would be complete without at least a few posts about the neon signs that light up the sky of many a city at night!

Also as many of you already know, many of these neon signs have stood in their location for decades and have become famous historical landmarks in their own right. One famous neon sign I never heard of until this morning is the famous Lipton (or as it was called in the sign, 'Lipton's') Tea sign that once illuminated the night sky in Stockholm, Sweden.

From 1960 until sometime in the late 1980s, the Lipton's Tea sign stood in Stockholm's Stureplan square, which is its equivalent of New York City's Times Square. Passers-by who went past Kungsgatan and, later on after a relocation of the sign, Norrslandgatan, could see this brilliant sign beckoning them to have a cup of Lipton Tea. The clock was an actual moving clock that told the time and the slogan "alltid tid för Lipton's té", which translates to "Always Time For Lipton's Tea" in English, said it all!

This sign was designed and constructed by Graham Neon, which was a subsidiary of the Graham Bros. elevator firm.

Sadly enough, most of the neon signs that adorned Stureplan were torn down during the late 1980s when the square underwent renovation. The Lipton's Tea sign was one of them. And thus the giant multi-colored tea kettle that became a city icon was no more.....

Just like its cousins the Bond Clothing Co. sign that once hung over Times Square and the Glico Man that still hangs in Osaka, Japan, the Lipton's Tea neon sign was a Stockholm icon and was literally a sign of its time. Even though it hangs in Stureplan no more, it gave a lot of people some very warm memories and still keeps on pouring cups of tea in the hearts of those lucky people.


References:
-http://www.avblixten.info/e/esnas31sap751uzx.html (Swedish language article about the signs of Stockholm.)
-http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipton%27s_t%C3%A9 (Swedish Wikipedia entry about the Lipton Tea sign.)

Graffiti painting of an alien on a wall in Vittoria, Spain.

A scene from the March 25th, 1948 tornado which devastated Tinker AFB in Oklahoma, USA. The first tornado warning ever issued warned of this particular tornado. (USAF/Wikimedia Commons)

-http://www.retrometrookc.org/wky-tv-collection (History of WKY in the 1950s and 60s.)
-http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/about/history/ (The history of the National Severe Storms Laboratory [NSSL] from NOAA.)
-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkWmNamVS2Q (A rare clip of WHIO's coverage of the massive tornado which struck Xenia, OH on April 3rd, 1974. Features the late, renowned WHIO meteorologist Gil Whitney. This seems to be one of the few clips available of live tornado warnings or radar coverage from that day. The studio part of this clip is apparently a remake made for a documentary about the Super Outbreak of '74 some four years later.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/science/31tornado.html?pagewanted=all (A very interesting article from the New York Times about the history of severe weather prediction from the 1950s up to the Joplin super-tornado of 2011....and how much progress has yet to be made in the area of predicting severe weather.)
http://www.ustornadoes.com/2013/04/03/looking-back-at-the-april-3-4-1974-super-outbreak/ (An interesting discussion about the Super Outbreak of 1974 on the United States Tornadoes website. Includes comments from people who worked in the broadcast and weather forecasting industry at the time.)

(All images are public domain images used courtesy of NOAA and the NOAA Photo Library via Wikimedia Commons unless otherwise specified.)

Two '80s era Kstoon erasers

One of the most memorable gifts I received as a little boy was a green refillable eraser marketed under the brand name 'Kstoon'. This eraser was a gift to me from my mom, who bought it - along with two pink and yellow Kstoon erasers - at a mall school supply shop here in the US back in 1984 or 85. On the eraser casing were some pictures of baby kawaii chicks just like on the yellow eraser above. Sadly enough, my green eraser fell victim to a school bully in the third grade, but the other two erasers have survived to this very day.

Recently I found these two erasers while rummaging around in a desk drawer that has been crammed with all kinds of junk for years. Ever since I found them, I've been curious about their origins. They were obviously manufactured during the time when kawaii culture was on the rise in Japan. However, there isn't any mention of a country of manufacture or any other identifying marks on the erasers other than the obscure brand name and a product number. And there is virtually no info available about them at all on the Internet.

The only scraps of info about Kstoon erasers I could find was a picture of identical erasers posted by a person on Flickr (who is apparently an eraser collector). And this is where the mystery deepens. The erasers owned by this person weren't marketed as Kstoon, but as Soundy erasers with the product number 9002 rather than Kstoon's 6002! Otherwise, there is no difference whatsoever between these erasers and the ones my mom bought nearly 30 years ago.

These erasers are obscure little pieces of both early kawaii culture and '80s culture, but they pose some interesting questions.Were they made by a subsidiary of some bigger-name company? Were they intended for the Japanese market or the international market as kawaii culture started to gain worldwide attention? Were they intended to cash in on the growing trend and export "Kawaiidom" abroad? Unfortunately we may never know the origins behind these erasers, but for at least some of us who grew up in the '80s, these erasers brought smiles to our faces and gave us a lot of happy memories as we used these erasers to erase scribblings off the kitchen table or struggled to learn cursive handwriting!

If any of you out there have any background info about Kstoon erasers or have your own happy memories you'd like to share with us, please do so in the Comments below!

	New York City's Times Square circa 2005, with the Panasonic Jumbotron in view.

Have you ever been in a major international city (especially a metropolis such as NYC or Tokyo) and caught a glimpse of a video billboard projecting a hi-tech ad or some other kind of programming? Or some other kind of enormous image being projected on the side of a building? Ever wondered about the history of the technology behind these amazing images? Let's have a look at the earliest and most groundbreaking giant screens...

Giant screens in unconventional outdoor settings as a medium of advertising, broadcasting, and relaying information gradually caught on throughout the mid-20th century. These screens enable advertisers to catch the public eye with dazzling, eye-catching ads or commercials (or TV shows and news broadcasts for that matter) and reach a wider audience than with traditional media such as television.

In 1933, the most famous and at one time, most common example of a giant outdoor screen was debuted to the world when the first drive-in movie theater opened in Camden, NJ, USA. This theater, which closed its doors after a mere three years, set the stage for thousands more like it to open across the US. Drive-in theaters would become a pop icon and an important part of the American landscape in the 1950s-60s.

In 1936, the British movie Things To Come (adapted by producer Alexander Korda and H.G. Wells from Wells's novel The Shape of Things To Come) featured a giant outdoor screen over which the public could gather and watch politicians give speeches from a broadcast studio. Ironically enough, this vision of the future was already becoming a reality with the historical developments in television technology made during that time as well the debut of the first drive-in theaters! Things To Come was an early preview of things to come in the world of broadcasting.

On America's Election Day in 1947, a giant screen popped up in an unlikely place: Starkville, Mississippi. This screen was erected on a drug store in town by the owners of the local newspaper to announce the local, statewide and national election results to people attending a large election party in town. As the results were announced (including the election of Miss. judge John C. Stennis to the US Senate - a seat he would hold for 42 years.), townspeople watched them live on the screen. This was a forerunner to Election Day TV coverage, which was just a few years away.

The "ancestor" of the video billboard or video screen as we know them today was created by one of the companies who has made good use of and pioneered it over the past few decades: Sony. In 1961, Sony debuted the Sony Scope, which was a huge movie projector that projected images such as public service ads, manga shorts, and Sony product commercials on buildings owned by the company in Tokyo. The Sony Scope, which was discontinued in 1964, was fired up several times a week at night and was extremely hi-tech when it first came out.

In the 1960s-70s, a new technology was developed which would revolutionize the world of advertising and broadcasting: LED technology. With their bright colors and long life, LEDs have enabled a whole generation of video screens, billboards, and more to be created, ranging from small video displays on store shelves to the gargantuans mentioned in this post! In 2004, what was then the largest LED display in the world was unveiled in Las Vegas, NV at the Fremont Street Experience. Since then, gargantuan LED displays in Suzhou, China and at an Absa bank location in Johannesburg, South Africa have successively taken the title as the world's largest LED screens.

One of the first Jumbotron models at Expo '85.

Sony would create another milestone in both large-screen televisions and giant screens when it unveiled the Jumbotron to the world in 1985 at the Expo '85 World's Fair, which was held in Tsukuba, Japan. This giant TV and video screen is based on LED technology. At the time it premiered, this TV was one of the most state of the art and largest ever manufactured. Five years later, the first Jumbotron was installed at One Times Square in New York City. Throughout the early and mid-1990s, this Jumbotron showed programming such as news, weather, music videos, "infotainment" programs, and The Late Night Show with David Letterman to the masses of people passing through Times Square at any given time. In 1996, Sony shut their Jumbotron down and that was soon replaced with one from their rival, Panasonic. That Jumbotron was in turn replaced in 2010 by one from Daktronics.

Other Sony Jumbotrons were installed elsewhere in the world, including what was, until 2005, the largest in the world at the former SkyDome (now named Rogers Centre) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

The Galleria in Seoul, South Korea.

One of most spectacular giant LED screens in the world is that of The Galleria in Seoul, South Korea. This massive screen, which was created in the 1990s, is powered by LED lights and engulfs the entire main building of the mall! It displays LED people, flowers, messages (which seem to be mostly in Hangeul), and more.

At the time of this writing, the world's largest video screen is located at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in Charlotte, NC, USA. This screen, which is 61 meters long by 24 meters wide (200x800 ft.), is a Panasonic HD set that went into operation in 2011. This screen gives a spectacular view of the race to the audience...and anyone who happens to be within viewing distance of the speedway! However, that screen will soon lose its title this year when the Texas Motor Speedway in Dallas, TX, USA unveils its new "Big Hoss TV"! That screen is a massive HD screen measuring 66 meters wide by 28 meters wide (218 feet wide and 94.6 feet) tall!

Other noteworthy giant video screens include the screens at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai, the Dallas Cowboys screen at the AT&T Stadium in Dallas, TX, USA (which was the largest in the world until the Charlotte video screen came along), the Houston Texans' screen at the Reliant Stadium in Houston, TX (currently the largest in the American NFL), and the Tokyo Racecourse in Tokyo, Japan. All four of these screens are Mitsubishi Diamond Vision screens.

Over the decades, giant video screens, video/LED billboards, and more have been used to display movies and other entertainment programs, advertise products, broadcast news and information to large numbers of people, and magnify live events such as sporting events and concerts. Political leaders have reached massive number of supporters (and opponents) with these video screens. The screen in Things To Come has definitely become an everyday reality in our modern world.

Links:
http://www.oobject.com/category/giant-screens/
http://www.urbanscreens.org/ (A website dedicated to giant screens in urban society.)
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/31/business/media-business-advertising-sony-s-times-square-jumbotron-has-begun-attract.html (A New York Times article from 1993 about the Sony Jumbotron.)
http://www.ledsmagazine.com/articles/2005/01/leds-transform-department-store-in-seoul.html (An interesting article from LEDs Magazine about the LED lights of Seoul's Galleria Mall.)
http://www.digitalsignagetoday.com/article/210081/Jo-burg-digital-signage-install-billed-as-world-s-largest-LED-display (Article from Digital Signage Today about the LED display in Johannesburg, South Africa that became the world's largest in March 2013.)

(Image Credits: Times Square: Jorge Royan.  Expo '85 Jumbotron: ころぞう/Ubcle. The Galleria: Christian Richters. All images used courtesy of Wikimedia Commons) 

This morning I was sitting in my chair thinking about a snack food that many of us GenXers/Yers here in the US have craved and yearned for for almost 23 years now. A pastry item that was pulled off store shelves and cast into '90s oblivion just when its popularity was starting to grow. That item was Hostess Cakes' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Pies.

When they debuted to the world in 1990, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Pies caused a bit of excitement among us kids who were huge fans of the show....and who were lucky enough to have a convenience or grocery store around that carried Turtle Pies in stock! Turtle Pies debuted to the public at the time when the show was the most popular cartoon on TV and the two feature films were out at the theaters. They were cakes/pastries with a fairly hard green sugar shell and glazing and had a vanilla pudding (aka "Vanilla Puddin' Power") filling. Later on some Turtle Pies were issued with a regular yellow shell, but with a green "ooze" filling that resembled the mutagen ooze from the show. You could take a big chomp out of these pies and the vanilla goodness would come gushing out! The commercial that aired during weekday and Saturday morning cartoons showed the Turtle Pie being constructed layer by layer and made us want to go out, buy one, eat it, and get filled with Turtle Power! As the Turtles would say, "Gnarly, dude!"

What made us GenX/Yers want to rush out and buy these pies were not only the pies themselves, but the speical little gift within. At first each Turtle Pie contained a sticker depicting the turtles, but when the second TMNT movie debuted at the theaters in March of 1991, each pie came with a free glossy collector's card that depicted a scene from the movie. There were four issued in total and our friends on the school playground would be happy to trade us some other trading cards, such as a special edition Yo! MTV Raps Vanilla Ice or Marky Mark card, for our extras. If we saved up enough "Turtle Points" from the pie wrappers, we could send them off to Hostess and get a free toy.

Alas, by late 1991 or early 1992, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Pies had completely vanished from the store shelves, never to be seen again. Granted, Turtle Pies were essentially Hostess's Pudding Pies stripped of the chocolate coating and dyed green. But pudding pies just aren't (weren't?) the same as Turtle Pies. That green dye and the sugar shell makes a world of difference. There have been attempts to recreate the Turtle Pie, but the authenticity of these recipes has varied. Some recipes have tasted very close to the original; others not so close.

For those of us who were lucky enough to experience the splendidness that were the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Pies during their relatively brief existence, they may be long gone, but they will live on forever in the hearts and souls of us whose parents bought them for us every time we went to the store. We will never, ever forget eating those pies while watching the show and communicating in Morse Code with our friends or siblings via our toy TMNT communicators! Nor will we forget the taste of the pudding in our mouths as we bit into the pies. Or the excitment of finding a little envelope in the mail (after a 1-2 month wait!) with our special toy inside. Those pies were special little snacks indeed.
   
If you have any special memories of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Pies, please share them with us in the Comments section below!

P.S.
For those of you out there who are curious, I saved up my 100 or so Turtle Points and got a set of clicking TMNT "signalling devices"! One of those is still at my mom's house, probably sitting in some forgotten nook or cranny somewhere gathering dust......  

The iconic "Jesus Saves" neon cross in New York City.

Today's blog topic is one many night owls - particularly those who spend any significant amount of time on the road - are probably familiar with: Neon church crosses.

Neon church crosses that light up the night sky are one of the most famous symbols of nighttime America. They can be found along many major American highways and interstates and in some inner city neighborhoods. Neon crosses can be found on top of church steeples and on the sides of various other buildings across the country, inviting the public to come to church or acting as beacons of comfort at night for anyone with troubles on their mind. During the Christmas season, they spread a bit of Christmas cheer along dark stretches of interstate highway where Christmas decorations might be sparse. Most importantly of all, neon crosses have become messengers in the night which help spread the message of Christ during the nighttime hours when most people are asleep.

For many centuries, crosses on top of churches have pointed us in the direction of Heaven, lifted the cross of Christ to the world, and much more. Neon crosses have served all of these purposes for many decades now. It's unclear when and where the first neon cross was created in the USA, but neon signs in general became highly popular in the United States during the 1920s-1930s. It can only be assumed the first neon crosses appeared on churches during this period.

For the next five decades onwards, neon crosses would pop up all over America. Many of these crosses have become historical landmarks. One such cross is the famous Route 66/I-55 neon cross over St. Paul's Lutheran Church (also known as the Church of the Neon Sign) in Hamel, IL. This cross was erected in 1946 in tribute to Oscar Brunnworth, a local soldier who was killed in Italy during World War II. This cross has been a source of inspiration and comfort to many late-night drivers driving along I-55 ever since it was erected. Another famous American neon cross is  the foreboding cross hanging over St. Paul's House in Manhattan, NYC which has warned passers-by that "Sin will find you out" for six decades now since it was erected in the 1950s. Also in Manhattan's Alphabet City neighborhood is the iconic "Jesus Saves" cross, which has made appearances in TV shows, movies, websites, and more.

In the 1970s, the number of neon crosses (and neon signs in general) began to drop in the US due to complaints about light pollution and rising electricity and maintenance costs. There are not nearly as many neon crosses now as there once were, but they are still very much a part of the American nightscape.

The Suwon Jeil Church in Suwon, S. Korea.

In addition to the US, there are other countries where neon crosses have become a familiar part of the nighttime landscape. One such country is South Korea. In the ROK, red crosses can be found all over the country. They are on top of virtually all Protestant churches across the country, including in the capital Seoul, which has earned it the informal nickname of "the city of the neon crosses"! These crosses serve very much the same purposes as the neon crosses in America do. And on top of Aegibong Hill near the DMZ separating North and South Korea, a huge electric Christmas tree tower is lit every year for 15 days which broadcasts a visual message of peace to the North through the Christmas season. This tower can be seen as far away as the North Korean city of Kaesong. However, some of the red neon crosses that have popped up in Korea may not exactly be a symbol of traditional Western Christianity......

According to a July 2008 article from the Asia Times Online, some of these red crosses have a meaning that goes beyond traditional Christian symbolism. In Korea, red crosses are also symbolic of the Donghak, or the "Eastern Learning" movement indigenous to Korea. These crosses reflect the "Poguk anmin" ("Protect the nation and secure peace for the people" in English) mantra, which is the call for a return to Confucian ideals and a Korean identity not shaped by foreign influence. In this case, these crosses are a call for Korean Christians to practice a more Korean-specific form of Christianity.    

Shanghai's Muen, or Moore Memorial Church in 2007.

One other neon cross that deserves special mention is the neon cross on top of the Muen Church in Shanghai, China. Erected in 1936 when the church was known as Moore Memorial Church and inspired by the neon crosses in the US, this red cross stood out in the city's nightscape when all around it were neon signs advertising nightclubs, dance halls, and all the other "party hard" establishments that are part of any major city at night. After the Communist victory in mainland China in 1949, all the neon lights - including the Moore Memorial Church cross - were turned off by the authorities. The cross would not be turned on again until 1988. Today the Muen Church is surrounded by office buildings and billboards advertising the latest iPhone, but it still stands out in the midst of the urban hustle and bustle, just as it did in the 1930s and 40s.

Other countries which have their own neon cross traditions include the Philippines, where blue neon crosses can be seen in cities across the country at night; Vietnam, where the neon lights of the Nha Trang Cathedral can only be described as stunning, and the UK, where a blue neon cross adorns the top of the Round Chapel in the Lower Clapton district of London's Hackney borough.

Since they started making their first appearances in the night skies all those decades ago, neon church crosses have been a source of inspiration for many, have become historical landmarks, and have carried Christ's message throughout the night. They have also become a means of guidance (both spiritually and navigationally) and have soothed many a soul, Christian and non-Christian alike.

Links:
-http://route66news.com/2011/01/01/the-old-neon-cross/ (Article about the Hamel, IL neon cross.)
-http://www.religiousproductnews.com/articles/2007-February/Feature-Articles/The-History-of-Church-Steeples.htm (The History of Church Steeples)
-A Protestant Church in Communist China: Moore Memorial Church, Shanghai 1949-1989 by John Craig and William Keating. Excerpt from Google Books about the church's neon cross.
-http://www.idealshanghai.com/venues/3756/ Website about Muen (Moore Memorial) Church.

(Image Credits: "Jesus Saves" pic: David Shankbone. Suwon Jeil Church pic: Zubro. Muen Church pic: Kwz. All images used via Wikimedia Commons.)

An authentic 1933 issue of the "Kangaroo Boxer" poster hanging on Joey and Chandler's wall on "Friends".

For those of you who are fans of the '90s-early '00s hit sitcom Friends, you've no doubt noticed that on the wall of Joey and Chandler's apartment hangs a poster of a boxing kangaroo. At the top of the poster are the words "Кенгуру -Боксер"and at the bottom "Владимир Дуров младший". If, like many Friends fans out there, you've spent the past two decades wondering what this poster means, you're about to find out!

In Russian, "Кенгуру -Боксер" means "Kangaroo Boxer" and at the bottom of the poster is the name Vladimir Durov, Jr. (Владимир Дуров младший), with "Junior" in parentheses. Vladimir Durov, Sr. (1863-1934) was part of the Durov family, who are Russia's leading "circus family". The Durovs became a huge sensation in the Russian circus during the Tsarist times and their reputation as the nation's most legendary and pioneering "circus family" has continued up to the present day. Vladimir was a very famous clown and animal trainer who zealously supported the Bolshevik Revolution. Many of his performances mocked Tsar Nicholas II and his government and praised the Bolsheviks. Both Vladimir and his brother Anatoly referred to themselves as the "kings of jesters, not the jesters of kings".

At least three members of the next generation of Durovs bore Vladimir, Sr's name, and which one - if any - is depicted in this poster is uncertain. First was Vladimir's own son, Vladimir, who died in 1912. Two other members of the Durov family, Vladimir Griegorievich (1909-1972) and Vladimir Leonidovich, followed in their uncle's footsteps and became circus performers and animal trainers in the Soviet circus. Vladimir Griegorievich eventually became a People's Artist of the USSR. According to author Miriam Neirick's 2012 book When Pigs Could Fly and Bears Could Dance: A History of the Soviet Circus, a Vladimir Durov (possibly Vladimir Griegorievich?) performed at circuses at home and abroad and became a proponent of world peace, often releasing white doves over the audience as a sign of peace and goodwill. This Vladimir deeply loved his motherland and wanted to do his part to help foster friendship between the Soviet peoples and the peoples of the world. He used his performances to overcome international paranoia about the USSR and promote it in a good light, going well above and beyond the propaganda promoted by officials at the state-sponsored circuses to show the good sides of the peoples of the Soviet republics and how beautiful their cultures are.