Fairy Tale Spotlight: Weird Things I Remember

I thought of three things about myself that you might find weird. Let's go over them one by one.

1. I grew up in a tree-house.

The house in question was a stilted house in the middle of a forested area. These sort of houses are better known for being found at beach-side properties. Our basement was above-ground, and our main floor was above it. There was a 3rd floor (or loft) above that. When I would wake up in the morning, I could look out of my window and see the tops of the trees. This was my childhood. I grew up in a tree-house and I dearly miss it.

2: The automatic toaster.

One half of my childhood was spent at my grandparent's water-side property. I spent so much time there, I feel like I was half raised there. My grandparents often bought experimental items. One of them was a top-loading toaster that was automatic. By automatic, I mean that the bread would slowly lower down into the toaster itself, and once the bread was toasted, it would slowly raise the bread back up. No button ever needed to be pressed. The bread was automatically detected by an internal pressure sensor.

I considered this toaster to be superior to all other toasters. Everywhere else I went, people had to press down a bar to get the toast to lower down. I have always wondered why this trend never took off. I suppose people must just like the sound of the toast popping up, but the automatic toaster had its own sound. It was the soft crackling of toasted bread slowly rising up alongside of the grinding gears. There was something very satisfying about that. Just the thought of it makes me hungry.

3: The television phone.

My grandparents also had a TV that doubled as a telephone. It was a Zenith brand, and I never saw any other TV like it. One must merely press the telephone button on the remote (called the SPACE PHONE button), and the broadcast would mute to make way for a dial tone. You could then dial a phone number in using the remote. The phone call would then take place right there at the TV set while the silent TV broadcast would continue to show. Why this did not take off, I have no idea. It was innovative.

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These three things all felt like normal things to me while I was growing up. I only found out later that everyone was different. Maybe they were not so much different as they were just like one another. I suppose these are some of the reasons I often feel secluded from everyone.

Also don't knock the slow moving toast so easily. You'd be surprised how lovely that rising sound was. It's really too bad it never took off.

Thank you for reading my blog! Did you enjoy it? Either way, you can comment below, or you can email me at tkwadeauthor@gmail.com. You can also visit my website at www.tkwade.com. Check out my books! Thanks!

Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Loony Tunes Show

I just recently finished watching the complete series for The Loony Tunes Show, and I am extremely impressed by the genius writing and presentation put into it. There was not one episode I disliked, and the whole thing pretty much centered around the theme of "What horrible thing will Daffy Duck do today?"

And Daffy Duck really is the reason to watch this show. That is not to say that the other classic characters are not well represented. They are all there and very awesome. But the thing that really makes The Loony Tunes Show work is the well-written synergy between all the characters. It's all about flow and balance.

Bugs Bunny is a calm, collected, and relaxed individual that likes to read books. He does his best to lead a simple life without any stress. He is balance.

Bugs voluntarily lives with Daffy Duck who is a narcissistic sociopathic psychopath with an ego that shines brighter than the sun itself. He represents flow.

Daffy is friends with Porky Pig who constantly plays it safe. He is OCD about everything and constantly tries to give his careful living wisdom to others, sometimes to their annoyance. He lives a perfectly safe life and is pleased with the mediocrity more than upset by it. He is also bald. Porky is balance.

Daffy is constantly says and does horrible things to Porky because he doesn't respect him. Bugs defends the pig... to a point. But ultimately it is Porky to blame for his failures in life which is made clear as the show progresses.

Adult relationships shine in this show. Lola Bunny is a ridiculous bimbo of a female, yet she has a very adorable free spirit. Bugs, who could not stand her at first, ultimately falls in love with her... hard. I mean really hard. She represents flow. Balance and flow tend to attract each other.

Daffy's girlfriend Tina Russo is the very definition of balance, yet there is an aggression in her that comes out a lot. The difference is that she is always collected when the aggression comes out. She just doesn't give a shit, and that is why Daffy will always be attracted to her. She just doesn't care what he does or says to her.

One more that I would like to mention is Foghorn Leghorn, who ends up having a "bro-mance" with Daffy throughout the show. Foghorn is actually a character of flow. But he respects people like himself, which is what drew him towards Daffy. Because flow and flow often causes clashes, the two were not always getting along. In fact, they even had a big violent fight early on in the series. But the love and respect was always there. Beautiful really.

The Loony Tunes Show has so much more to give than what I was able to write here. It is brilliant from beginning to end. All characters meant something. It does not patronize adults. The continuity between episodes remained constantly strong which held it all together, making it feel like one long episode. A brilliant and relevant work of art. Bravo.

Thank you for reading my blog! Did you enjoy it? Either way, you can comment below, or you can email me at tkwadeauthor@gmail.com. You can also visit my website at www.tkwade.com. Check out my books! Thanks!

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Looking at 2020

Numbers are a funny thing. Most of the time I try and ignore them. The problem with numbers is that, no matter how high you go, you can always go higher. To some worldly people, more equals better. To people who look towards higher things, the only number you should be associated with is infinity, and as one of my friends once added to this, "you then go a little farther."

But even so, numbers still catch my interest from time to time. Not usually out of calculation but more in line with puns or references to other numbers that I considered notable. I considered this new decade and the number that is produced is: 2020. It brought a couple of things to mind.

First of all, I realized that the number 2020 is often used as a euphemism for seeing clearly. Naturally I was once debunked on this by someone who told me that 2015 is considered clearer than 2020. But 2015 passed and was woefully unclear. And besides, 2020 is more supported by common usage anyways. We use 2020 to describe clarity, and so it is my hope that the year 2020 provides such clarity as the euphemism proclaims.

Secondly: this is the first year in a long time that had a good sounding decade to it. Nobody likes saying the Oh's or the Tens. It's rubbish. But here we are back in the Roaring 20's! Roaring like a lion. And I wonder if we'll find that lion somewhere in this world. Maybe he'll be the one to give us that 2020 clarity, eh?

But whatever the case, the number 2020 is simply a date. There will be more of them. I suppose somewhere along the line, the numbers will stop and we'll find that beautiful Infinity, and with that Infinity, there's no telling how much farther we'll try to go.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Thank you for reading my blog! Did you enjoy it? Either way, you can comment below, or you can email me at tkwadeauthor@gmail.com. You can also visit my website at www.tkwade.com. Check out my books! Thanks!

Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Problems with Disney

I grew up loving Disney. At an early age, I was privileged to have the Disney Channel. They showed the old cartoons often, saw many of their classic movies, and got a general idea about how Imagineering worked. Disney was all about the creation of new ideas. It also became one of our primary delivery outlets for fairy tales in both live action and animation.

Disney... sadly... is not worth anything anymore. They have become a sequel and remake machine. Even though they have plenty of other great fairy tales they could be working on, they are ignoring them. They are only fiddling around with their old stories. Everything at Disney has pretty much come to a halt.

The sad thing is that most people have gotten used to this culture of sequels and remakes. They aren't really looking for anything new but wondering what else can get a redo. They've embraced this because nobody has really bothered trying to do any better. Disney is making everybody cynical. And maybe that was the plan all along.

Disney gets such a massive flow of money from the zombie-like masses. People are actually loyal to them as a company. It isn't even about the stories anymore. It's just Disney. The brand is what people follow. They see "Disney" and flock to it because they think they have to. It's almost like watching a cult in motion.

Yes, the movies can still be judged on their own merits, but I'm not doing that right now. I'm just pointing out the overarching problem. Disney does not care anything about Imagineering (a wonderful word, by the way) anymore. They are only interested in siphoning as much money from its loyal followers as they can before they die. We've officially lost one of the great story-making companies we've ever had in this world, and what we got in place of it is, by the same ratio, absolutely terrifying.

Thank you for reading my blog! Did you enjoy it? Either way, you can comment below, or you can email me at tkwadeauthor@gmail.com. You can also visit my website at www.tkwade.com. Check out my books! Thanks!

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Rainbow Connection (Lyric Analysis)

One of my favorite songs ever is "Rainbow Connection" written by Paul Williams and Kenneth Ascher. It was written for 1979's The Muppet Movie. Since then it has been covered by a number of artists. My favorite group to sing this song was the Carpenters. But despite who you may find singing it, it is the amazing lyrics which really sell it for me. I want to take a moment to examine them. Let's have a look.

Why are there so many
Songs about rainbows
And what's on the other side
Rainbows are visions
They're only illusions
And rainbows have nothing to hide
So we've been told and some chose to
Believe it
But I know they're wrong wait and see

Someday we'll find it
The Rainbow Connection
The lovers, the dreamers and me

I am pretty sure there is an Oz reference happening here. Although rainbows have been used in fairy lore since... forever basically. And even though I do not know a whole lot of rainbow songs, I am sure there are plenty.

The song poignantly asks the question of why rainbows are even interesting at all. After all, they are just illusions. They are not actually there. Why would humans even care about something that isn't there. People have always noticed illusions and seen more than is really there. Fata Morgana is a good example of this.

Fata Morgana is an illusion that tricks the mind into thinking an island is forming off the coast. There is not really any land out there, but the mind says otherwise. In ancient times, people thought this to be a forbidden fairy land they were seeing. With rainbows, we have thought similar things. Where does it end? What exists at the end of it? Is it another land or some sort of treasure. The human imagination is a crazy thing sometimes.

This part of the song out rightly points out that the rainbow is an illusion, but then suggests that there may be more to is based on what the imagination of humans have concocted. There's nothing wrong with this. It's just how we work.

The short chorus of the first selection, which is repeated a couple more times, shows that the singer wants to prove that there is a truth to all this, and that the truth is profound in its effect on the world around us. Let's have a look at the next stanza:

Who said that every wish
Would be heard and answered
When wished on the morning star
Somebody thought of that
And someone believed it
And look what it's done so far
What's so amazing
That keeps us star gazing
What so we think we might see

Someday we'll find it
That Rainbow Connection
The lovers the dreamers and me

Once again, the writing of this song is questioning everything the song is about. Who came up with all this? Who started this whole thing called "imagination"? Somebody thought of it and another believed it. And what has it done so far? It's called progress!

I often bring up the Star Trek phenomenon. The old "flip-style" communicators inspired our flip phones. And later on, our smart phones greatly resembled the LCARS touch screens from The Next Generation. Popular fiction breeds new ideas and ultimately advances the world around us in a forward motion.

Also, the very object of looking up at the stars causes us to wonder what is out there. That leads to actual space programs. But before we have a space program, we make movies about alien worlds and the aliens that live there. The aliens may not even be true, but we are so driven to find out that progress occurs anyways. Imagination breeds fiction, and fiction breeds reality. It all comes true eventually.

Last stanza:

Have you been fast asleep
And have you heard voices,
I've heard them calling my name,
Is this the sweet sound that calls
The young sailors,
The voice might be one and the same.
I've heard it too many times to ignore it
It's something that i'm supposed to be,

Someday we'll find it
The rainbow connection...
The lovers, the dreamers and me

This part always strikes me as a little spooky, but it isn't really as spooky as it feels. It seems like there is a voice out there that is calling us sometimes, but it isn't so much a spirit as it is a drive within all of us to be more than we started off as. Imagination is a driving force for us to explore, create, and add to this world. We can either accept it or ignore it. We are here to do stuff. That's all there is to it.

The Carpenters version of this song had two extra lines which take place right before the last stanza. Here they are:

All of us under its spell
We know that it's probably magic

Well, yes. It is magic. It is the magic of imagination. The idea that unworldly concepts can lead to new creations is magic in motion. We are not supposed to ignore this. It's who we are. If you throw that away, then you are a pointless person. Imagine, use your talents, and add to this world. Never take away from it. That is the meaning of life.

While you are here have a listen to the Carpenter's version of "Rainbow Connection."

Thank you for reading my blog! Did you enjoy it? Either way, you can comment below, or you can email me at tkwadeauthor@gmail.com. You can also visit my website at www.tkwade.com. Check out my books! Thanks!

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Imagine a Pagan Christmas

Imagine a world that has just barely survived extinction. The world was nearly drowned in a Great Flood, and only a handful of people survived it.

Imagine a man dressed in red who has proclaimed himself the moral leader of the world. You know him as Nimrod. Nimrod promises you great things for a price. You must only follow the orders that he gives you.

Imagine Nimrod as a very notable person who rides about the earth on a deer. He smiles a lot and makes great promises that cause you to feel very warm inside.

Imagine going out and cutting down a tree. You put the tree inside your house and set candles upon it. Nimrod has asked that you do this for him. This is the moral and right thing to do, so you do it to please him. Nimrod always rewards those who please him.

Imagine the magic of that beautiful morning. Presents are all about the tree. Things you wanted dearly are there for you to take. You did a good thing making the tree offering to Nimrod.

Imagine the family who did not perform the ceremony correctly. Not enough candles... the wrong tree... Perhaps they did not do it at all. The shame! Did they not wish to give glory to the one who promised them such wonderful things?

Imagine the moment when a large and nasty horned beast makes its way into this family's home. He is the satyr prince. You know him as Baphomet. To his victims, he is the Krampus. The Krampus is here to take what his master Nimrod was rejected.

Imagine this large creature picking up your first born child and putting him into a sack. He may take more than one of your children if he feels like it. He then leaves with them, and you never get to see them again.

Imagine the things that the Krampus will do to your children. Or maybe you shouldn't. It may be better to forget those things. It may be best to only imagine nice and happy things. Go cut down the right tree. Put up the proper amount of candles, and set them right. Sing out songs of joy to the deer-riding Nimrod. Do these things for the sake of your future children, because the children you lost are never coming back.

Imagine if all these things were true today... and be very happy... that they aren't.

Thank you for reading my blog! Did you enjoy it? Either way, you can comment below, or you can email me at tkwadeauthor@gmail.com. You can also visit my website at www.tkwade.com. Check out my books! Thanks!

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Fear the Woodsman

When you sit down and read a Grimm, Andersen, or Perrault fairy tail, you are probably reading something that has been passed down from person to person for many generations until it ultimately took the form of the story you are presently reading. In ancient times, people saw things that they had difficulty explaining. Even if they did understand it, the later generations would not identify with it in the same way. Tales often originated from strange stories of humans encountering otherworldly beings. There is a stroke of truth still hidden in them which is why we find them so endearing.

As these stories continued to persist, they were often filtered through the cultural political correctness of the day and also softened for children. I have many times rejected the Woodsman character from Little Red Riding-Hood for his contrived entry as a means to keep children from getting upset. He was never there in the older versions and does not need to be there now. Little Red dies. She always dies. There was never a chance of rescue after being masticated by the Big Bad Wolf.

Although it may have come earlier, I am more familiar with the Woodsman's entry in the Grimm version. It really doesn't belong there. It defeats the purpose of the tale by adding a random encounter with a hero who isn't even introduced until that point. The original story is more about prevention. The Woodsman turns the story into the act of hoping for blind luck. You can still entertain the Wolf, because there is a chance you'll make it. This is ridiculous.

Fiction is always at its best when it is completely honest with both itself and its audience. When you alter a story to make certain audiences more comfortable, it turns it into something trivial. You can get about the same entertainment by just downing a sedative and going to sleep. These works of fiction ignore the actual dangers of the world and focus on silly things that don't matter.

Fiction was never meant to have an agenda. It was meant to tell entertaining stories. If the stories are honest in their portrayal, it provides insight. People learn about themselves and the world around them from that inspiration. They can even add to it. If the story forces a narrative based on an agenda, it always shows. People know when it's happening and will either out rightly reject it... or just accept it along with a very mediocre and pointless view of the world around them.

The Woodsman's only purpose is to make a very clear evil... unclear. He comes in and blurs reality so that nothing is certain. And once nothing is certain, you may be opening your mind to a forced narrative. In reality, the Woodsman is merely a tool for evil people trying to change reality and make it far more uninteresting. It promotes cynicism. And once the Woodsman has you in his grasp, he will be more than happy to feed you to his pet Wolf.

Thank you for reading my blog! Did you enjoy it? Either way, you can comment below, or you can email me at tkwadeauthor@gmail.com. You can also visit my website at www.tkwade.com. Check out my books! Thanks!

"Got a light?"