State License Plates Part 7: Maryland

April 28, 1788. Breathe it in. That was the date Maryland became a state and gave a ceremonious middle finger to the Brits as it shoved a crab down their pants. Charming.

I’ve been to Maryland once, just once, and it was to see the Orioles play. On that night Mike Mussina was pitching and I had by far the worst hot dog I have ever had at a baseball game. It wasn’t until later that I learned that the best places to eat are at the restaurants just beyond left field on the concourse. You live and you learn.

Maryland is known as ‘The Old Line State’ which was bestowed upon it by George Washington as he associated the state with its regular line troops, the Maryland Line, who served in the Revolutionary War. It’s motto: ‘Manly deeds, womanly words’. Uh, OK. So they all speak niceties to each other but they act out aggressively toward others? Or do they open doors for ladies and speak softly to their companions? Strange motto for a strange state.

When I think of Maryland I think of crabs (the crustacean), the Baltimore Ravens, and subsequently Edgar Allan Poe, ‘The Wire’, the aforementioned Orioles, and of course their wacky flag. What’s up with their license plate?

In short, I like it. They use a simple white background with black text/numbers that are a bit blocky but it gives them a clear definition.

I really like the font used for ‘Maryland’ and ‘www.maryland.gov’. It’s elegant, simple, and easily legible. Speaking of that wacky flag, it’s on prominent display in the centre of the plate in the form of a shield which – maybe I’m reading too much into this – looks to reference their state nickname and the Maryland Line that fought in the Revolutionary War.

*Upon further reading it harkens back to the George Calvert and his coat of arms (hence the shield form) and being that he was the first Lord Baltimore, why not infuse it with the state because the flag is unique to the state, and now the University of Maryland has wrapped its arms around their heritage and adopted it as a part of their uniforms.

Overall, this plate is simple, clean, neat and elegant. There are no distractions and the plate serves its purpose. I give it a an A.

(I’m not here to discuss the flag but there’s an interesting history behind it here that I think you should check out because it provides some perspective on the state history and the struggle within the state during the Civil War.)

The Best Pop Album of 2011?

The other day I talked about the best dance album of 2011. Today I am here to discuss the best pop album of 2011. Now, it’s a bit of a mishmash of an album I have chosen because it’s not a definitive ‘pop’ album. It’s a bit electropop and dance.

Now you might be saying: “Skillet, you already chose a Best Dance Album. If this one has dance infused with it doesn’t that make it a dance album?”

No. It’s my opinion, GTFO.



The album comes from Sneaky Sound System, who I fell in love with during my time in Australia in 2007. During that time they had released their self-titled debut album and it was blowing up all over the country and songs were playing at nearly every club I went into. Scratch that, I heard at least one Sneaky song every night I went out. Their tunes are just that catchy and danceable.

They followed up with their sophomore effort “2” and while I wasn’t in Australia to experience it I made sure I got enough Sneaky Sound System here so that I could fill the void. It’s a great album with memorable tracks and is something I listen to from beginning to end frequently.

Here they are, minus one member, in 2011 with “From Here to Anywhere” and it’s my pick for pop album of the year. It starts out strong with ‘Friends’ and singer Connie Mitchell belting out an important question ‘Why can’t we be friends?’. From there the next five songs deliver and continue with an electropop vibe with danceable beats and some great hooks.

If there is a fault with the album it lies with three out of the last four songs. The closing track ‘Lovetown’ is cheesy and goofy but is different in tone flavour than the rest of the album. ‘I Need You So’ and ‘1984’ are fine but just not as strong as the beginning of the album. It’s with ‘I’m Not Leaving’ that my faith in the group is restored. It’s an awesome track with Connie at her best.

All in all, a nice follow-up album and I just hope that the 2nd half of the album isn’t the direction that the group is headed because their strength lies with Mitchell’s vocals and their synths and beats. ‘Lovetown’ is, in all honesty, a crappy song that really diminishes the value of the album and I essentially skip over it every single time but the best parts of the album help overshadow that one tiny snag and make it my pop album of 2011.

Other tracks of note: ‘We Love’, ‘Big’, ‘Really Want To See You Again’

The Best Dance Album of 2011?

I am a sucker for pop music. Especially female-led pop music. There is just something about female vocals and catchy, vibrant tunes that really gets me going.

I first heard of September while I was listening to a Pandora station with mainly Kylie influences on their. I was hooked from the moment I heard ‘Cry For You’ and from then on I was looking for all things September. I created a Pandora station with her style of music and really just fell in love with her pop style.

I have never heard her songs on any US radio station and I probably won’t because she’s not Gaga or Beyonce. She doesn’t reinvent the wheel with pop but she does it well. That’s why I have proclaimed her 2011 album ‘Love CPR’ to be my dance album of the year.

When I say ‘dance’ I mean a song that you can hear at a party and just start dancing to because the beat and hooks are infectious. Needless to say September delivers on that with a massive 20 song album.

September kicks the album off with, one of my songs of the year, ‘Party In My Head’. A song that really brings out the dance vibe as she sings ‘I don’t care if the whole club is dead/because the party’s in my head’. It’s a song that illustrates that you can have a great time even if it’s just in your head and you don’t care how others view your joyous/dancing nature.

A real highlight on the album is that she includes 5 songs in her native Swedish. The standalone track being ‘Baksmälla’, which translates to ‘Hangover’. She sings about waking up late and f***ing up again and getting drunk and it’s mixed awesomely with rhyming vocals by Petter to give the track more of an edge. She also includes the Swedish version of ‘Me & My Microphone’ – which appears earlier on the album – and if you like the English version you’ll enjoy the Swedish one too.

Other tracks of note: Ricochet, Hands Up, Heat Rising, and Music.

‘Breaking Dawn’ nearly total yawn

I am no stranger to the ‘Twilight’ saga film series. I saw the first on a whim, enjoyed it for what it was but thought nothing more. I saw the second to see where the story would go, and wound up being angry at Bella for not choosing Jacob because he is clearly the better option because sure immortality is great right up until you know you have to leave your friends and family behind because they die and you don’t. I digress. I saw the third because I figure I’d already seen the first two that I might as well see the next one. You know what? The third was actually quite good. More action, back story, and the acting improved across the board. Now here we are with the penultimate film in the series, ‘Breaking Dawn: Part 1’.

**Beware Spoilers ahead**


No way I’m giving up now having already invested three separate movie-going sessions on the first films. Thus, I ventured out after the film had been out a few weeks (so to avoid the tweens and Twi-hards) and decided to formulate my own opinion on the film.

Meh.



I realise that the splitting up of the film is to make sure that as many details from the book can be in the film but I felt cheated. There were numerous montages of playing chess, vampire-human relations, and playful teasing in the form of lingerie (which I approve). And there was only ONE Taylor Lautner shirtless scene! C’mon! I thought this was a ‘Twilight’ movie! The film felt longer than it was and any drama was negated by its seeming never-ending length.

For me, the best portions of the film are when Esme and Carlisle are on screen. Elizabeth Reaser and Peter Facinelli are both capable actors who do well to make their characters more than just the leaders of the Cullen coven. The are there to guide them along their journey as they try to blend in with their community.
Billy Burke as Charlie Swan, has the dad nailed down and delivers some of the best intentionally funny lines of the film. Nikki Reed as Rosalie is another character I wish we’d see more of because she is there to negate Bella’s choice of becoming a vampire because she sees it as a lack of respect for mortality. An interesting parallel that is not fully explored, but then again this film series is about the romance.

The romance is not for me and I think she made the wrong choice with Edward so I move on.

So Bella gets herself knocked up and starts dying because the fetus is killing her. I had no idea there’d be a Roe v. Wade debate in the middle of this film and I was surprised so I sat up in my seat wondering how it would all play out. Sadly, that scene lasts a few minutes and then we move on. I guess we can’t get too heavy here can we?

The film is drawn out too long and when everything came to a head it ended soon after. There was this whole beef with the vampires and wolves fighting and Jacob leaving the pack (oh and we could hear the wolves talking – in wolf form) and then they were coming after the Cullens if Bella died and then it ended because Jacob decided he wanted some wolf-on-wolf action for himself by imprinting on Sam’s ex-girlfriend. Crazy.

The most intense part of the film comes at the end when Bella has delivered and Edward has given up trying to revive her. We see Edward’s venom surge through her body and attach itself to her heart, blood vessels, and reattach her broken spine. This is a very cool piece of digital camerawork as we see Bella being reborn as a vampire. Then they tease us with Bella waking up as a vampire. Gah! They’ve got me hooked. Looks like I’ll be seeing Part 2 next year when it’s released.

The End of an Era

How did it come to this?

At what point did people become upset with the established order and decide that quick wasn’t quick enough?

Technology happened.

With the advent of digital media and the internet becoming even more of a behemoth than it was, I guess it was only a matter of time before it started to crumble. No, I’m not talking about newspapers, I’m talking about home video.

I’m the kind of guy who likes to peruse the video store and see what there is to see. I go in there with maybe one or two movies in mind and then I wander. I’ve been known to take upwards to an hour to find a movie. That’s how picky I am.

I used to visit the local Blockbuster pretty much every week when I was in high school. I would rent multiple movies and that would most likely be my Friday and/or Saturday nights. I exposed myself to ‘The Killing Fields’, ‘Tootsie’, ‘West Side Story’, ‘The Apartment’, ‘Malena’, ‘Taxi Driver’, Yojimbo’ and many many more all because I walked around the store and came across those films. I had heard of them before but I just never got around to watching them. The way people find movies is all changing now.

At first it was at home DVD delivery, now it’s streaming that has become the norm among the cinephiles. The video store cannot/is not able to survive. I had seen Blockbuster’s and Hollywood Video’s closing all over town but I still had one near me and that was all that mattered. I had nothing to worry about.

Then they came for me.

I was all ready to pull into the parking lot of Blockbuster when I saw a giant dumpster parked behind their building filled with debris and trash. The storefront was bare. Gone was the iconic blue background and yellow ticket stub. In it’s place, a pale concrete slab that hadn’t seen the sun since the store was built. I am at a loss.

Sure, it’s a video store, there’s another one a few miles the other direction that I can go to but it’s that store that gave me the love of film. My cinematic mind was expanded because of that store – it has a meaning in my life. The video store in general has been a huge part of my life.

Where do I turn to now? Do I go the online route and have DVD’s mailed to me? Or do I go to that other store and continue about my business? I do not consider my self a part of the ‘Generation Now’ mainly because I have had the same phone for six, yes six, years and it still works great. I do not need my DVD’s to arrive the next business day. I’d like to be able to walk out of a store with it knowing that I have something I want to watch that day or night. I cannot do that online.

It’s a funny thing when something you’ve known your whole life just suddenly vanishes. Like a teardrop in the rain. You know it’s there, you felt it, and now that it’s gone it's impossible to get back. I tend to wax nostalgic when it comes to things from my adolescence and this is no different, but it’s happening all over the place. These stores are disappearing from neighbourhoods all over the country and it signals a change. Whether that change is good is something we will only know in the future.

State License Plates Part 6: Massachusetts

What’s the first thing that pops into your head when you hear Massachusetts? I think America. Red. White. Blue. Revolution. Patriot. The Shot heard ‘round the world. Bam, that’s the beginning of how our nation came to be.

The two times that I have been to Massachusetts, I have enjoyed it. Having said that, it was the Summer/late Spring and the weather was kind enough to oblige to my sight seeing. I don’t do Winter with feet of snow and hail the size of kumquats. Nor do I do Summer with 80% humidity.

Massachusetts was accepted as a state on February 6, 1788, although some might not consider Massachusetts a state being that it’s the “Commonwealth of Massachusetts” but I bet those are the same people who think Greedo shot first.

Simple design here using the red, white, and blue effectively but the blue is lighter with a hint of gray. The red, too, isn’t too brazen and is a more subdued/softened red. I think it works. Then there’s the slogan “The Spirit of America” – which according to some research is from a 1980’s tourism jingle. Now, I have it on good authority from an inside source that if your license plate holder covers up “The Spirit of America” during a vehicle inspection then your vehicle will not pass inspection. “Spirit of America” huh? Sounds more CCCP than USA.

Not much else to report here, it’s simple but dull at the same time with no image to liven things up. I’m not an advocate for images on plates but something a little something can improve a plate. Here, I think it could work, maybe the original 13 Colonies American Flag somewhere to tie in that colonial America/Revolutionary War era that was crucial to Massachusetts and our nation. I give it a B.

State License Plates: Part 5 - Connecticut

What’s in Connecticut? I mean besides the UCONN Huskies, the Connecticut Sun, and Stars Hollow. The Hartford Whalers left town and moved to Carolina, of all places, and won the Stanley Cup less than 10 years later. That’s got to sting a bit. But what’s in Connecticut? I’ve never been nor have I had in inkling to travel there – if only to cross it off my list of states to visit. Nevertheless it is a part of the USA and it was the 5th state admitted to the Union on January 9, 1788.

Connecticut is known as ‘The Constitution State’ due to the claim by John Fiske that the Fundamental Orders of 1638/39 were the first written constitution in history. This is disputed by some historians, but not by me, because I’m not a historian and I’m just going to roll with it and examine this plate.

The blue used on the plate is consistent with the blue used on the state flag, so that’s nice that they have some continuity, but that’s all the plate has going for it. The state appears in the top left corner but that is the only thing that keeps it from being boring. Because let’s face it, if I wanted to look at blue and white colors all day I’d look up at the sky or out to the ocean or at a pool.

There isn’t a whole lot here for me to recommend other than the dark blue numbers and lettering really pop off the plate. Other than that this plate is very pedestrian, yet I admire it’s simplistic nature because it doesn’t try to do too much other than be a license plate. It gives the sense that it is by the water, which it is, (e.g. Atlantic Ocean and Connecticut River) and it does a simple job of doing so. Connecticut isn’t the next state I am going to go visit but the license plate does a good job of selling me whatever it is they happen to be selling. I give this state a B.