Harold Ramis Comic Genius

The first movie I ever saw in the theatre when I was a kid was the movie Stripes, starring Bill Murray and Harold Ramis.

Sadly Ramis passed away this week.

As a tribute I wanted to talk a little bit about how much of a fan I have been of his work.

I saw Stripes at the drive in out in Headingley when the movie first came out. It was playing with some other movie, I think it was called The Empire Strikes Back, but I can't really say because I don't really remember too much of it.

I was only 5 when it happened and the ending to that movie had already been spoiled in kindergarten.

Stripes might not have been the best movie for a kid my age. There was nudity in it.

But hey, a kid is bound to be curious and it's only sooner or later...

There were other parts of the movie I also enjoyed. (did I mention there was nudity in it?)

It was the first time I got to see John Candy on the big screen. Dave Thomas and Joe Flaherty were also in the movie.

By this time I was already a fan of SCTV.

My blog is named after my all time favourite character from the show, Johnny La Rue.

Another favourite character of mine was Moe Green.

I saw an interview with Harold Ramis where he was talking about the character. In particular he was talking about his book keeping sketch and how the character was a socialist and resented giving tax advice to rich people whom he thought did not do enough to pay their fare share.

The character is a classic. The way he would cheat and phone his wife so they would win the prize on Dialling for Dollars, or to how he called out a terrorist group who threatened action against SCTV.

In the end Moe Green was kidnapped by this terrorist group and held for ransom. The ransom was never paid.

In a later episode the group calls back and offers to give Moe Green back but Guy Cabilero, the station owner and President, refuses to pay the bus fare home.

I enjoyed so many of the movies he wrote and directed during the 80s.

Too many to mention by name.

I remember seeing an interview where Ramis said he was never the class clown, but more like the kid who told the jokes quietly to the class clown who then would tell everyone else.

It seemed as if he felt more comfortable behind the camera than in front of it, but part of why characters like Moe Green worked were because he let himself show this feeling to the audience.

Moe Green was awkward and uncomfortable on camera. This is what made Harold Ramis so funny.

Thank you so much for all of the laughs.

rymr

Thank you, Holden

There were lots of small things that bothered me about Korea.

Lack of personal space was a big one.

It bothered me when my co-teacher would hit the students with a stick.

But what bothered me the most was the way students with learning disabilities were treated.

Recently I worked on a story for the Selkirk Journal about a student who has a rare form of autism. Because of this he has low muscle tone.

Despite this, he signed up for the school basketball team. The principal at the school has gone out of his way to make sure it has happened.

Most of the time he sits on the bench and when members of his team are fouled he gets to step up and take foul shots.

To see him jump off the bench and get excited about getting into the game would warm the coldest of hearts.

At Lockport School they practice inclusive education. Holden Whall, a student with autism has benefitted greatly from it, and so have all of the teachers, students and staff.

Holden feels accepted as a member of the basketball team, and his father always describes him as a great kid with a smile from ear to ear.

Most of the times at school Holden is in the classroom with the rest of the students just like any other kid.

When I was a teacher in Korea, their idea of inclusive education was to have students like Holden in the classroom with the rest of the kids, but they were ignored.

Nobody ever spoke to them. It was almost as if they were invisible.

This bothered me a lot.

It’s the kind of thing that sticks with a person.

As part of the story I wrote I found out that representatives of the Korean government had sent a delegation to Manitoba to learn about better ways to include all students.

I really hope they do something about it.

Seeing the smile on Holden’s face is enough proof for anyone to show the benefits of inclusive education.

I’m just glad I got to see it. Writing a story about him also seemed to help a lot.

It felt nice that I was finally able to do something.

Thank you Holden.

Cheers

rymr

Go Canada Go!

5 am! 5 am! 5 am!

This was what the crowd was chanting at Rocky Mountain Tavern in Itaewon as the clock finally counted down during the semi final match between Canada and Slovakia at the 2010 olympics.

The cheers would get even louder after Sidney Crosby scored the game winning goal in over time during the gold medal game.

It was the most exciting hockey game I ever watched.

I had moved that day. Before I had been in a job where the boss tried to blackmail me.
She said if I didn't work for her for free she was going to phone my new employer and tell them a bunch of things to get me fired.

To get out of my contract I agreed to pay for my flight. On that final day they extorted another three hundred thousand won because they said I owed them for some of the apartment costs. When I asked to see a bill he showed me something hand written.

After that day I never saw him or the boss lady again.

I met my new coteacher at my apartment in Pyeongchon. Two days later I had my first day as a public high school teacher.

For the first time I took a bus from Beomgye station to Bundang. It was a Sunday night and I used to see a lot of my friends at trivia night at the Dublin.

After my team won, four of us took a cab to Itaewon to wach the game. I was with my friends Alex Felman, Sean McConnehy and Karl Walsh. (sorry guys if I spelled your name wrong).

My friend Karl was from Ireland and had never seen a hockey game before. He called it 'ice' hockey. By the end of the evening I think he was very impressed. It wasn't just the game but the experience.

The Canadian Ball Hockey in Korea recreation league had held the draft for its spring season earlier in the day. Many of them were still in the bar at game time.

We got there around 3:30 in the morning. They stopped letting people in around 4. I've never seen the place so full.

I remember seeing the owner up on the bar with his camera phone taking a video of the crowd.

There were some Americans in the building that night

Every now and then they'd start chanting "USA, USA, USA", but then the Canadians would drown them out.

The only time we were all silenced was when Parise scored the tying goal with less than a minute left. Many of us held our heads to the ground. We couldn't believe it. The smell of doom was in the air.

But like every great story a hero emerged to save the day for the good guys. That hero was Sidney Crosby, and when he scored I nearly fell over.

The Canadians began to scream, and the Americans began to sink down.

Two of my friends, both from the U.S.A., quietly payed me the ten thousand won we had bet.

And then, as we walked to McDonalds for some breakfast, it was already early morning the next day.

I fell asleep on the subway on the way home and missed my stop. I felt lucky to not have gotten lost trying to find my new apartment for the first time.

You've got to love days off.

Go Canada Go!

(thanks Dan for the public school job)

rymr

David Alexander Robertson

I probably picked the right time in my life to read the graphic novel 7 Generations by David Alexander Robertson.

Like the main character Edwin I also feel very much lost and haunted by despair.

I think the graphic novel takes this to a melodramatic level by having the main character try to commit suicide. I guess just being really bummed out isn't as dramatic.

The author seems to use this as a plot device to get into the retelling of the character's ancestors. This is a part of Edwin's culture and the search for his identity.

This is something I can also identify with.

I'm a Mennonite. We were kicked off our land in Europe in the 19th century and forced to move because we wouldn't fight in any wars.

I have also lost my language and much of my culture. When I was a child my father used to speak in German with his dad, but sadly none of this got passed on to me.

Before Canada decided to become multicultural it used to be a melting pot. Much of my culture was wiped out by it.

The biggest thing I took out of our class discussion with the author was that I agree with his claim that the graphic novel could be an excellent tool for teaching children.

As he stated during his presentation, if you presented a child with a textbook and a comic book and asked them to say which one they would rather learn from, that most children would say the comic book.

This book is able to tell the story a lot faster than other formats. I'm not a big reader. Having been an English major in university and having had to have read some really long dry material (but not Milton, I liked Milton) has turned me against reading.

When my friends say they prefer the book I tell them I'd rather see the movie. Having pictures just adds more detail to flesh out the story. I like that I can finish the whole thing in one sitting as opposed to drawing out the process over a couple of weeks when I usually have to read a book.

I do not think it's journalism. If journalism on TV is a news broadcast, than I think this book would be one of those after school specials that try too hard to teach a lesson. Don't get me wrong, I like what it's trying to do but some of the elements, like the suicide, just seem a little bit too melodramatic.

Compared with the earlier work by Jim Blanchard about Winnipeg during the Great War, I would say that Blanchard sticks to the facts while Robertson uses them to create fiction.

Robertson is more of a storyteller, but Blanchard is more of a journalist.

In terms of storytelling and being a journalist, Nahlah Ayed has Robertson beat hands down.