I Just Read About That…

 SOUNDTRACK: THURL RAVENSCROFT AND DISNEY FRIENDS-“Grim, Grinning Ghosts” (1960s).

This song is the theme to Disney’s Haunted Mansion.  I’ve been to the Haunted Mansion perhaps a dozen times and I recognized a line from it (when the ghosts appear next to you in the ride), but I can’t say I ever paid attention or even thought about to this song before.

It was brought to my attention by John Congleton during his excellent interview with Bob and Robin on NPR.  The whole interview was outstanding–I learned so much from him–but I wanted to focus on this song because he raves about it (and because it is Halloween).  And because I absolutely wanted to type the name Thurl Ravenscroft.

  He loves the vocals by Thurl (who was also the singer of The Grinch songs) and the bizarre chord progression: Am, B, Am, B♭, Am, F, Am, F7, Am, E7, Am.  And about the song, he says:

When I was a kid, I was so attracted to this song, but I was scared of it. The record would sit with my other records and I would see it in there, and I would be like, ‘Do I have the bravery to listen to it right now?’ And sometimes I would, and I was mesmerized by it. But the then I grew up, and I went back and listened to it, and was like, ‘This is brilliant. This is really, really well done.’ I never in my entire life heard background vocals that sounded as tight as that. Never in my life. The harmonies are the tightest harmonies I have ever heard ever. And it’s like, this is for a silly kid’s record — but they were committed to making something special. Everything about that song is incredible to me.

So yes, it’s a goofy song, and if you don’t pay too much attention to it, it’s just a not very scary ghost song, but there’s a lot going on (hand it to Disney for being really into their production values).  Like this note from Wikipedia: “the organist actually played the song backwards to achieve the discord that the composer intended.”

Not bad for a song you only hear if you go on a ride.

[READ: October 19, 2014] Poop Fountain!

I have enjoyed just about everything that Tom Angleberger has written (interestingly, he is famous for his origami Yoda series, which I actually like less than his other books).  This book was actually his first book published.  But he published it under the name Sam Riddleburger and it was called The Qwikpick Adventure Society.  It has clearly been republished since he is now famous.

I brought the book home for Clark but he said he didn’t really like the way it was written (it is typed with handwritten comments).  I actually found it very easy to read and thought it was a super fast read–two hours at most.

So the book starts with a note from Tom Angleberger in which he says that before he wrote books he was a reporter and one of the stories he wrote was about a sewage plant in Crickenburg, Virginia (which is not a real town).  His original article was about how the local sewage plant was getting over-burdened by all the new residents and so it would need to be enlarged.  He went to interview the manager and man did it stink.

He says that many years later a guy called him up to say that he had found a bunch of papers (including his article) in a Qwikpick gas station.  And that’s how he came across this first person account of an adventure to the same sewage plant.

He then tells readers that this was in 2000, before kids had cell phones or the internet, when kids basically just did stuff outside.  And that is how the Qwikpick Adventures Society’s trip to see the Fountain of Poop came about–thre bored kids looking for something to do.

Our three explorers are Lyle, Dave and Marilla, three friends from school who also hang out at the local Qwikpick.

The book is typed by Lyle who received a typewriter for Christmas (instead of a computer).  The three have been unlikely friends for a year (I enjoyed the way they managed to become friends too).  He says that their club, the Qwikpick Advneture Society, was a lot less adventure and more just kids hanging out in the backroom of the Qwikpick where both his parents worked.  I also really enjoyed the way the story was constructed so that the three kids could go exploring on Christmas Day without parental concern: Marilla is a Jehovah’s Witness, Dave is Jewish and Lyle’s parents both have to work at the Qwikpick on Christmas Day so they celebrate on Christmas Eve.

It made me laugh that Dave is a major rule follower (which causes havoc in their slightly illicit plans) and also enjoys saying weird things that noone understand like “open the door, Richard”

In between the typed sections which are the official account of what happened (and was apparently supervised by the others) are “handwritten notes from Lyle” in which he adds commentary.  These are the funny, insightful sections that may or may not undermine some of what happened.

The Society wants to do something epic (but rule abiding) for Christmas.  They are stumped for ideas until Marilla happens upon the article by Tom Angleberger that mentions the sludge fountain.  Marilla says that it would be awesome to see a poop fountain.  Lyle agrees because he has a crush on Marilla (she says that nothing will ever come from it but he holds out hope), and Dave says no way.  It is a disgusting, bad idea.  But eventually he comes around because what else is he going to do?

Marilla got a new camera recently (and there are Polaroids included in the book).  And Dave decides to make a map of their route.  By Christmas Day they are ready to explore.

They make their way to the poop fountain (with some mild trouble along the way).  When they arrive, the smell is so bad they are inspired to write haiku about it.  And then they see the poop fountain!  It is not active at the moment but it is clearly sitting above a big pool of poop.  You can probably stop reading now if you are revolted at the thought of this.

The kids see a wallet floating in the muck.  And they decide it is worth retrieving.

I won’t say what happens there, but at some point the fountain does turn on and there is much chaos and confusion.  Especially when a guy who looks just like Santa Claus comes over and asks what they are doing there. (He eventually reveals that he found Molly Hatchet tape–which still worked–which was the best day ever.  The kids don’t know who Molly Hatchet is.  The ending is quite surprising.

One other thing that I liked was the name checking that Angleberger does.  Lyle says The Hoboken Chicken Emergency (by Daniel Pinkwater) is the greatest book every written and The Princess Bride is the funniest movie he’s ever seen.

It’s certainly a slight book compared to his other works, but it’s a good start for some young person humor.  And that’s the original cover by the way.