Have some self-respect, American Pie franchise

So the first American Pie movie was fine. It had some funny moments. Since then the franchise has made an embarrassment of itself. The only "star" who is even willing to participate anymore is Eugene Levy, which shocks me. He's so hilarious in the Christopher Guest films. What possible motivation could he have other than an easy pay check?

Comedy Central has been running commercials for "American Pie: The Naked Mile." I think it went straight to video when it came out. The latest commercial has a frat boy telling a midget (because, by the way, every frat boy thinks midgets are hilarious) to, "Go back to Oz, Toto." The midget corrects the frat boy with, "Toto was the dog, you idiot."

Yeah, this movie can't miss. (...At least I got an Oz reference, I guess.)

Bill Maher regains my respect in many ways

Did anyone catch Bill Maher on Larry King Live tonight?

I don't know at what point in the last decade that my brain decided it didn't like Bill Maher, but my brain was wrong. He was hilarious, insightful, and intelligent on King tonight. So, Bill, my apologies. I'm back on board.

He was talking about the economic stimulus package as "like giving $5 to bum and saying ease on down the road and talk to somebody else." That being a reference to The Wiz, it counts as an Oz reference.

p.s. Did anyone see the video of Bill Clinton falling asleep in a church on MLK day? Maher talked about it tonight. I have to share, since it's downright hilarious.

AD 4 eva

Arrested Development is riddled with Wizard of Oz references. The other night I caught the episode where Tobias "checks himself into jail" to research the role of Frightened Inmate #3. When he accidentally drives "White Power Bill" to commit suicide, Tobias is celebrated in classic Oz style: "You killed him. Like Dorothy. The Wicked Witch is dead. All hail Dorothy."

In the next scene, Tobias's legion of loyal inmates now refer to themselves as "Friends of Dorothy."

God bless Arrested Development.

i'm very upset with myself

I'm upset because I haven't been tending to my blog. There was a fantastic Oz reference on the Colbert Report the other night, but I waited way too long to add it. Sorry for the neglect.

Now, I can't find the damn reference on my DVR. This is the second time I've done this! Unacceptable.

The Dark Side of Oz

Several people have asked me recently about Pink Floyd's masterpiece "The Dark Side of the Moon" and "The Wizard of Oz" and whether they sync up (also known as "The Sync" or "The Dark Side of Oz"). I wrote an article about this a while back that describes some synced up points and posted the link here, but since it is buried at the bottom of my blog, and I haven't gotten an Oz reference yet today, I figured I'd repost it.

Does it work? I'd certainly say so. Is it intentional? Pink Floyd has long denied it, and I don't know if we'll ever know for sure. Try it some time. It's fun.

Click here for details on The Dark Side of Oz

goodbye yellow brick road, hello Oz reference

This morning on the way to work I heard Elton John's classic "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road." Did you know that album sold over 20 million copies? What a song. I thought about posting a photo of the album cover, but who could pass up the opportunity to add a ridiculous Elton John pic to their blog?

p.s. Elton John hates the internet.

at long last

The dry spell is finally over. Both The Daily Show (or "A Daily Show," as they've been calling themselves since the writer's strike began) and The Colbert Report made "Wizard of Oz" references last night (1/24). They were as follows:

A Daily Show: while playing clips of some national news anchors discussing Hilary Clinton, some dude on CNN said: "...she would have melted like the Wicked Witch of the West."

The Colbert Report: referring to a photo of an old man who was a human blockhead (see photo for example of a "human blockhead," though I was unable to locate the photo of the exact old man), Colbert said, "Oh human blockhead, I think I'll miss you most of all."

We're back on track. Let's keep the streak alive.

sorry, Erica

Due to the slowness of my blog due to the slowness of Oz references, I'm forced to post a picture of my friend Erica who went to see Wicked last week. She is surely going to hate me for this.

on the complete absence of Oz references of late…

As is often the case with a sprinter, 2008 came out of the gate like gangbusters. Then over the last few days she completely lost steam. The Wizard of Oz has been nowhere to be found lately. Last night David Foster Wallace made another reference to the film in his David Lynch essay, but I’ve already used that one (see post from 1/5/08).

I don’t know if I’m doing something wrong or what. We were red hot, and now we’re colder than a Chicago day in January (I can attest to this).

hmm

Oz has come up a few times, but mostly in repeats and conversations about this blog.

Friday feels right for a good reference.

full disclosure

In the interest of full disclosure, yes, I watch American Idol. Is it acceptable to watch it out of cynicism? To watch because of a sadistic pleasure derived from Simon Cowell laying into some delusional performer?

No? Still not acceptable? Fine.

Well, since the cat is out of the bag, tonight when they were montaging through the various dressed up "singers" waiting to audition, I spied the Wicked Witch of the West.

myspace stalking

I was myspace stalking this evening and came across two Oz references. One was a girl I used to know who had her location set to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow, IL." Then I moved on to high school graduating classmates stalking. I found a picture of a girl that I apparently graduated with but have no recollection of whatsoever. She was dressed up as Dorothy and her friend was the scarecrow.

The Smithsonian endorses this blog (...in a way)

If you saw the Colbert Report on Thursday you caught a great Wizard of Oz reference. And even beyond the reference, was the comment from Brent Glass confirming my thoughts on The Wizard of Oz.

Glass is the Director of the Smithsonian's Treasures of American History exhibit. Colbert was meeting with him to try to get his studio portrait added to the exhibit. Glass was giving Colbert a tour of the exhibit when they stopped at a glass case featuring the original Scarecrow suit and Dorothy's ruby slippers. First, Colbert asked Glass if he was a "friend of Dorothy."

Then Glass said:

"The popularity of the Wizard of Oz transcends almost anything in entertainment."

I couldn't agree more, Mr. Glass.

Colbert responded to this, "Other than my portrait." The two debated which was more important to American History: the ruby slippers or Colbert's portrait. A $50 bet ensued, and the segment will carry over into Monday's show.

it's like totally Wicked, man

Wicked seems to be coming up everywhere. First, I was out to lunch with work friends today and one of them -- Erica -- mentioned she was going to see Wicked that night. I will have to go to the employee database on Monday and get her picture to post. She won't care if I post it here, right?

Then, while having dinner with my wife, a cab stopped outside the window with a Wicked billboard on top.

Oh, there was one other thing -- after dinner we came home and watched last night's (Thursday) 30 Rock. At one point Kenneth is leaving town to go back to Georgia. He's saying goodbye to Tracy Jordan and his posse, and says to Grizz, wide-eyed, "Grizz, I'm going to miss you most of all." (Clearly mimicking Dorothy saying goodbye to the Scarecrow.)

So far, the ubiquity of The Wizard of Oz in '08 has been remarkable. I just thought about renaming my blog "The Ubiquitous Oz." ...Nah, that sounds pretty pompous.

this guy...

His name is Karim. He is by far one of the most beloved characters in the building I work in. He works in the warehouse and delivers everyone's mail. He is probably about 70 years old and is the happiest, most energetic guy you could imagine. He is always smiling and has a nickname for almost everyone. If he doesn't know your name he'll probably call you something like "Easy Money."

"Hey, Easy Money! How's it going?"

As Karim weaves through the cubicles and past the offices, he whistles and sings. Loud. Disruptively loud. If anyone else in the world did this, they would be reprimanded, if not worse. But Karim's whistling and singing is not only acceptable, it's a ray of light in what could be an otherwise dull day.

Today Karim was whistling Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

It was wonderful.

Oz is everywhere, I tells ya

Arrested Development is up there with Seinfeld as one of the funniest sitcoms ever produced. It was downright tragic when Fox canceled it. And just as painful when it didn't get picked up by some other network. Last night I was revisiting Season 3. I watched three episodes, and one of them contained two Oz references.

I just spent 30 minutes trying to find the references and I can't. Damnit. I should have written them down last night. Anyway, I searched the internets for help, and it turns out AD has tons of Oz references. Yet another reason Arrested Development ruled.

In addition to Arrested D, I got another reference today when NPR was discussing Bush's visit to the Middle East. I wasn't paying close attention, as my dinner was burning, but some choir of Israeli kids were singing a song for his arrival. Can you guess what song? That's right, Somewhere Over the Rainbow. NPR appears to be in love with this song.

Family Guy

It's 10:15 and I had just changed the channel from CNN's over-dramatic coverage of the New Hampshire primary. I needed something mindless. Family Guy was on Adult Swim. It's the episode where Peter (or Meg...I missed a few minutes) knocks out Quahog's cable. Peter is having problems adjusting to no television. He's having a nightmare and guess what happens...

...the show turns to black and white, and Peter finds himself twisting around in an Oz-inspired tornado, waving out the window to a bunch of 70s and 80s TV characters like Alf and Gilligan.

I was worried I wouldn't get a reference today. But no worries.

on tornadoes

It's midnight and unfortunately I didn't notice any Oz references today. But there were tornado warnings all over the Chicago area. Tornadoes always make me think of Oz.

NPR gets in the act

2008 has been fantastic so far for Wizard of Oz references. I think I'm 5 for 6.

Anyway, today while washing dishes, I had NPR on the radio. Some hip old dude was playing Dizzy Gillespie and some other old jazz. I was half-listening. Then at one point a few notes of a tune caught my ear. I missed the name of the orchestra that was performing, but sure enough they were playing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."

It sounded great and made me smile. Keep 'em coming, '08.

compliments of David Foster Wallace

I've been reading David Foster Wallace's "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again." This is a must read for any cynic who's taken or going to take a cruise. I don't think anyone could have described the oddity of a cruising experience more perfectly.

After I finished that essay, I moved on to an essay that DFW wrote about spending time on the set of David Lynch's Lost Highway. I found my reference about halfway through the essay when DFW writes:

Wild at Heart itself, for all its heavy references to The Wizard of Oz, is actually a pomo-ish remake of Sidney Lumet's 1959 The Fugitive Kind."

I don't know what "pomo-ish" means, but I was happy to get my reference.

p.s. DFW looks exactly like my wife's ex-boss. Every time I talk to him I imagine I'm talking to David Foster Wallace.

p.p.s. The pic is a Mii someone created of DFW. Hilarious.

how wicked is Wicked?

It seems lately, the only Oz references I'm finding are references to the musical Wicked. This is partially due to the fact that here in Chicago, Wicked is pretty popular.

So I'm continually asking myself if I should be officially counting these references to Wicked as references to The Wizard of Oz. Finally I decided there was no reason not to. I mean, obviously one spawns from the other. So from here on out, I will no longer question the Wicked references. I won't count the same one (i.e., the same billboard or the same commercial, etc.).

All that said, this morning on the radio the DJ was talking about how Wicked is the longest running musical in Chicago (or something like that).

Reference accomplished. Conscience clear. Done and done.

Happy New Year (of Oz)

Yesterday, new years day, wearily driving home from a New Years Eve party, the wife and I spied a Wicked billboard on the side of the road. We'll have to count it as an Oz reference. I mean, it was the Wicked Witch at forty feet tall.

Today I wore my Dark Side of the Moon t-shirt. I'm not counting it as a reference, it's just a cool shirt.

Fingers crossed for an '08 riddled with Wizard of Oz references...

thanks, Darlene

I was at the computer, half-writing/half-listening to a History Channel show called Shockwave. They began a segment on tornadoes, and started to show twisters turning over cars and ripping through houses. I knew a Wizard of Oz reference was coming...

They were talking to a woman named Darlene who was inside a house that was lifted 120 feet in air (and caught on camera). Her exact quote was:

When I looked out my back window, it reminded you (sic) of the Wizard of Oz when the house went flying through the air.

I'm very glad Darlene survived to tell her tale, and grant me a WoO reference.

p.s. That amazing picture is from a website called The Astronomy Picture of the Day. Every day NASA posts a new, oft-breathtaking picture. I guess the government is good for something.

x-mas in Oz

After several busy x-mas preparation days without any noticeable Oz references (granted, our heads are in different places during the lead up to x-mas, so I wouldn't be surprised if I missed something), x-mas Eve's reference came when my 8-year-old niece was listing all the movies she'd watched at "Nonnie and Poppie's" the night before. Wedged between a gang of Disney Princess movies and a few nature-related shows was Oz, which I was really happy to hear.

Santa brought two Oz references on x-mas day. First, when my wife and I arrived at her mom's house, on the coffee table was a new copy of "Son of a Witch," Gregory Maguire's long-anticipated sequel to "Wicked."

Then, as we watched "A Christmas Story" for the umpteenth time, I noticed that during the parade scene (right before Ralphie sees Santa), Oz characters and the witch's monkeys are featured in the parade. Also, right after Ralphie gets sent down the slide, Dorothy and the other Oz characters reappear skipping down the mall's center aisle as Ralphie's parents approach.

It was nice to see -- Film directors pay attention to details like that, so it would seem that "A Christmas Story" was paying homage to Oz.

Rock on, A Christmas Story.

ask, and ye shall receive

Yesterday I posted that there was a shortage of Oz references going on, and today I had two.

First, I was doing some casual research for a Disney book I'm working on, and I came across this in the wiki entry for Pinocchio's friend Jiminy Crickets:

Another example occurs in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. When the group first enters the Wizard's chamber, they are startled by the Wizard's sudden thunder-and-lightning display, and Dorothy (Judy Garland) cries, "Oh! Oh! Jiminy Crickets!"

Second, while watching the news today they mentioned ticket prices for Wicked going down, or something. I was half listening, as I've heard Wicked is terrible and I'd already encountered a solid reference for the day.

Back in the saddle. Come on, Thursday, let's make it two in a row.

the cause of my neglect

I've been neglecting the blog because a) I've never been so busy at work and it's the holiday season at home which means lame tasks need a-doin, and b) Oz has been nowhere to be found.

The other morning I was drifting in and out of sleep as I was snoozing Talk Radio, and I could have sworn I heard someone mention Oz, but I think I was just having a dream. Jeez, that's sad.

Come Oz references, where are you??

so close...

I thought I had an awesome reference today, but alas, I got some facts crossed. I will spare me the embarrassing details.

I'll have to go with a weaker reference, but a reference none-the-less: someone brought Dunkin' Donuts Munchkins in to work this morning.

(I just discovered that each time I type "munchkins", my fingers instinctively put a "d" on the end of the word. So I keep typing "munchkinds". Weird.)

Imperial Life in the Emerald City

I got a great Oz reference today while listening to NPR. They had on author Rajiv Chandrasekaran talking about his book Imperial Life in the Emerald City. With a title like that, I'm sure the book is riddled with Oz references.

This has nothing to do with my usual reason for keeping this blog, but apparently the book is about some of the terrible mistakes and bad decisions made inside Iraq's Green Zone during the war. Chandrasekaran discussed certain events, for example: when the Iraqi infrastructure was destroyed by the war, instead of American bureaucrats focusing on rebuilding it, getting electricity back on, or water and food to hungry people, or getting Iraqis back to work, they spent their time re-writing the Iraqi TAX CODE line-by-line. Umm, I don't think the people of Iraq are all that concerned about their tax rate when they're starving, thirsty, and huddled in the dark. It sounds like many opportunities to win some support of the Iraqi people were severely mismanaged and lost. Sad.

But this isn't a political blog, because I know next to nothing about politics. The book sounds very interesting, so check it out.

On a lighter note, I got my Oz reference for the day.

nearing the end of the yellow brick road

alas, the weekend was light for Oz references, but i'm about an hour from completing Tin Man. i'll give a full report then.

is it just me, or do Zooey Deschanel's legs look totally whack in this promo poster?

oz kismet

i was sitting in traffic this morning on my way to work and something to my left drew my attention. i looked over and was staring right at the wicked witch and the good witch.

unfortunately it was an ad on the top of a cab for the musical Wicked, but it was an Oz reference none the less.

Return to Oz

also, my reference for the day came when i was talking to a co-worker about Fairuza Balk.

she asked me if i remembered the film Return to Oz. i wasn't sure, so i headed to you tube where i found this clip featuring the Wheelers.



good god, those things were terrifying. they jogged my foggy memory. i added Return to Oz to my Nextflix right away.

does sci-fi's "Tin Man" have heart?

i'm about two-thirds of the way through Part One (of Three) of Sci-Fi's Wizard of Oz update -- Tin Man. so far it's had it's decent moments and it's disappointments.

the acting is up-and-down. i love Zooey Deschanel, but i think she's better suited for slightly less dramatic roles. when she's really supposed to be giving us serious emotion, she falls a bit flat.

i flat-out don't care for Neal McDonough. he's hack-y. sorry.

everyone else is holding their own.

the special effects are also a bit on the weak side. we've seen it all before in Lord of the Rings, and it was executed right. they raised the bar too high. now anything else, made-for-tv film or no, just doesn't cut it.

instead of trying to do something grand on the small screen, i wish the producers would have concentrated more on the creative aspects of the retelling. they've come up with some original ideas, but they seem to be glossing over them. it's as if "Tin Man" is trying to do too much. they'd have done well to tone down some of the grand attempts at special effects.

i've still got a ways to go, so i'll reserve further judgment for now.

the mini-series

i'm about to settle in with Part One of Sci Fi Channel's "Tin Man." excited to see what it's all about.

synchronicity while researching synchronicity

I was reading the Wikipedia entry about "synchronicity" and came across this following quote:

"During production of The Wizard of Oz, a coat bought from a second-hand store for the costume of Professor Marvel was later found to have belonged to L. Frank Baum, author of the children's book upon which the film is based."

Total synchronicity.

right on target

today at Target i saw a greeting card with the four Oz characters on the front. it was blank on the inside.

also, regarding the Oprah reference, O was giving one of the guests shit for smoking back in the day, and they had a picture of the woman with a cigarette in her mouth, and the woman said, "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain."

Tin Man

i've been so busy i haven't had time to update. just saw a commercial for "Tin Man", a sci original mini-series. it's a remake of Oz.

yesterday Oprah made an Oz reference. (i have it recorded in the DVR, i'll have to get the exact quote tomorrow)

well, "Beyond the Yellow Brick Road: The Making of 'Tin Man'" just came on. i better see what this thing is all about

ahhhh

crap. been so busy i've neglected the blog.

just got back from Target where i saw about 15 Oz-related items. i'll count that.

muchkin star

MSN's homepage features a video story about a munchkin who is getting a star in Hollywood. Here's a link to the story:

Munchkin gets a Hollywood star

where are you, Wiz?

Dorothy? ... Toto? ... Tin Man? ... Flying monkeys? ... Wicked Witch? ... Man behind the curtain? ... Horse of a Different Color? (an effect WAAAAY ahead of its time) ... Tornado? ... Lollipop Guild? ... Hot air balloon? ... Scary witch socks? ... Scarecrow slipping around Oz? ... Somewhere over the rainbow? ... Oh wee oh? ... Dude allegedly hanging himself in the background even though it's clearly the silhouette of a bird? ... Where are all my WoO references?!?

I did see a commercial for Wicked today. Does that count? I hear that thing is an abomination.

do kids hate tornadoes?

Today was day two of the photo shoot for the dance book, and again the Oz came up. I was talking to a co-worker about how I was specifically told, by decree of my boss's boss, not to include anything "tornado-related" in any children's books I work on.

"I guess the higher-ups think kids don't want to read about tornadoes..." I postulated.

"But what about Wizard of Oz?" my coworker asked.

I smiled. Then I got my little notebook and wrote that down.

p.s. I didn't come across anything overtly Oz yesterday, but we'll turn a blind eye this once.

a good day to be the Wiz

This morning I had a photo shoot for a children's dance book I'm editing. It basically involved three little girls dressing up like three different Disney Princesses.

Cinderella was wearing sparkly silver shoes and kept clicking her heels together and saying, "There's no place like home." Then she'd giggle.

A few hours later I asked Belle (Beauty and the Beast) what she dressed up as for Halloween she proudly exclaimed, "Dorothy!" I asked, "From Wizard of Oz?" and she shot me a no duh look. I smiled to Belle's mom, who added, "She's obsessed with that movie."

It's only 6:10pm and the Oz has already come up twice.

Oh, and I didn't get a chance to update yesterday, but when reviewing my work for the dance book we shot today, someone referred to one of the dance moves, which involved the child clicking their heels together. The individual sarcastically commented, "Gee, wonder where you got that move from..."

AMAZING - the power of Oz

As you'll see from my post 20 minutes ago, I'd all but given up on a Wizard of Oz reference today. Well, the Good Witch must have heard my plea because no sooner did I post that than I pulled up the San Fran - Seahawks game on the DVR.

I was watching Chris Berman's "Fastest 3 Minutes", in which he quickly recaps the key games of the week. I usually skip this three minutes, as those overly-zealous ESPN guys can be annoying, but for some reason tonight I watched. Half way through the segment Berman was making fun of a stupid play by humming the following melody: dat da-da da-da da-da-duh, da-da da-da da-da-duh. ... If I Only Had a Brain.

The Gods of Oz are smiling on my little experiment.

a slow day

It's 9:30 on Monday and I'm just sitting at my computer writing and half-assedly watching a boring Monday Night Football game. The odds of an Oz reference at this point are slim. So much for our theory. Twos to be disproved. Great.

I'm not giving up yet, though. Maybe I missed something today because my Oz radar isn't sharp enough.

Oh, my wife did mention earlier that if our future kid is not cool we'll make him watch the WoO synced with the Dark Side. ... Like that'll make him cool. That'll just turn him into a stoner.

... No, I'm not counting that one.

Does Dark Side of the Moon count?

This morning I was in the shower and I thought to myself, "I need to keep my eyes open for 'Oz references." Just then I looked up at the t-shirt I was going to wear under my sweater. It was a Paul Frank tee I got at the Village Discount Outlet -- a Salvation Army-like resale shop. It has a decal on the front. I only bought it to wear a black shirt to wear under long sleeve shirts so you'd never see the decal.

The decal has two beams of light on it. One is a white beam and it's passing through a glass house, which is having a prism effect on the light. When the light passes through the house/prism, primary colors are emerging on the other side. The shirt is paying homage to the cover of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.

You've probably heard about the old rumor/myth/urban legend that you can sync up Dark Side with the 'Oz with some interesting, if not stoner-friendly results. Not the least of which is the cover of the album -- white light transforming into color, just like the blank and white film transforms into color.

My friends and I have done "the sync" a number of times. In fact, I wrote a short article about it here:

Syncing Wizard of Oz with Dark Side of the Moon

So Paul Frank is referring to Dark Side, which could arguably refer to the 'Oz.

One Year of Wizard of Oz references

For some time now, my friend and I have shared a theory that every single day we encounter at least one reference to Victor Fleming's masterpiece The Wizard of Oz. This film has become so woven into popular culture that if you pay attention you will be astounded at the frequency of 'Oz references. Songs, TV shows, conversations, ads, other films, colloquial saying ... the list goes on and on.

I will not seek out these references. They have to occur naturally and unforced.

It's not in my interest to overly stretch an occurrence to count it as a reference. I will try to be a fair and unbiased as possible. I'm merely a scientist testing a theory. Also, I'll try not to reuse references -- if there's a commercial with a yellow brick road in it, I'll only cite it once.

I will be updating this blog daily (unless impossible, in which case I'll record past references and update back dates when I'm in front of the computer.) Check back often to see if the theory holds water, or melts in it.

As I write this, TBS is airing the 'Oz. I'd say that counts as today's reference. (There was another one early this morning but I forgot what it was -- which won't happen again now that I'm officially doing this.)