“Hey, why are you making me freak out!”
— a grumpy kid

Unfortunately, there are a great number of things that flit into and out of my soggy brain without leaving nary a trace. Because of this, I find it especially interesting when seemingly innocuous things I viewed or experienced years ago carve out a permanent residence in my mushy cerebrum and bind themselves to my psyche.

One case in point: The Last of the Curlews, an animated Afterschool special I viewed a single time as an eight year old. Truthfully, I don’t really remember the specifics of the cartoon. However, I do remember how incredibly sad and depressed it left me for days afterward. Sheesh, even thinking about it now gives me a sad dull ache!

How can a forty year old cartoon have this kind of impact? I thought I was alone in how it still affected me all these years later. However, after some googling, I soon found this wasn’t the case. IMDB was a wealth of info. It was there I found a handful of reviews from those who were affected much like myself.

Actually, here are two reviews taken verbatim from IMDB:

Like others who commented this animated film made such a huge impact on me that i was compelled to search (36 years later) for information on it online. I remember watching it with may sister and the both of us crying all night about it. My mother came home from work, and we were crying so hard she thought someone had died. In school the next day, all the kids were talking about it. One kid actually stayed home sick because she was so upset.

Ouch.

Up to two days ago, I did not know that what I had come across as a child was this. I had caught it maybe halfway thru and the memory of the last 5 minutes of it has been with me forever, yanking at the heart strings with each time I remember…..though I remembered them more like sparrows and not like snipes.

It’s powerful, powerful in memory and powerful in that now I have located a source, I’m not sure I could bear to watch it, knowing what is to come, even though it has been 20-30 years since I’ve seen it. Of course, as an adult, I can use all the compensating techniques that comes with being adult……..but I wouldn’t want to.

Unlike the others who have commented here, I never talked about it the decades before. I suppose being able to do so “now” changes the impact for in the 5 minutes it has taken me to write these 2 paragraphs, being able to see it again becomes an easier thought to approach.

Which is probably part of its impact; it is about being alone and being alone is such a terrible thing. One needs to share something at least.

I found some video clips on YouTube, but I haven’t viewed them. I’m sure the adult me would see them as dated and less impactful. However, at the moment I’m not interested in finding out. I guess I still need a little more time!

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

A few Lucy quotes from February:

“I’m trying to scare the bug with my giant hand!”
— Lucy while at a picnic near the Pu’uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park

“See my nakedness! Jill, see my nakedness! Mike, see my nakedness!”
— Lucy, running around at home minus clothes. What freaked us out: her referring to us by our first names!

And some Daddyspeak:

Mike (awoken from sleep by a pointy Wubie): “Zzzzzz…OWW!..Wubie! I was filling out a form!”
— The first thing I said on a Sunday morning when Wubie poked me w/ a claw and mercifully stirred me from a dreary dream in which I was filling out an endless form

Mike (turning to Jill): “Is today Sunday or Monday?”
Jill: “Sunday.”
Mike: “Good.” (goes back to sleep)
— the second thing I said after being awoken by Wubie

February was great but all too fleeting. The two weeks in Hawaii were a lot of fun, with much time spent outdoors and in the water. So now what’s next? Lucy wants to see some snow in March, so that’s probably next on the agenda. Fun stuff.

Stuff that happened in February, 2011:

• We went to Hawaii

• Movies, etc. seen in February:
  • Freakonomics
  • Lemmy
  • Rewatched Ramones – End of Century
  • Salt
  • Waiting for Superman
  • Wanted
• The main TV show I keep up with is Community. There are other good comedies that are more consistent quality-wise from week to week (Modern Family, Parks and Recreation). However, when it’s on, I absolutely love Community.

“Hey, stop calling me Lucan! Call yourself Lucan!”
— Lucy’s rebuttal upon being compared to a 70s TV character

Occasionally the kid lets her freak flag fly and expresses her general disagreement with the concept of clothing by running around in her underwear shouting, “I’m half-naked! Can’t catch me!”

Picture a 3′ 3″ blur of hair, undies, and attitude. She basically looks like a miniature caveman with a Pampers sponsorship running amuck. Invariably, I’ll start calling her Lucan, no doubt because the most accessible (and least cluttered) filing cabinet in my brain is labeled:

“Old TV Show/Comic Book/Movie/Music (60s-80s) Trivia—VERY IMPORTANT!”

Lucan was a short-lived TV show in the ’70s that my little sister and I watched semi-regularly. It told the story of a dude who spends his childhood out in the forest and is raised by a bunch of wolves. He eventually gets reclaimed by society as a dirty, snarling, crazy-haired wild-child (the Bundle connection). He then grows up as a guinea pig in some government-sponsored research lab until his inevitable escape. Action and stuff ensue (at least for the season it was on). I’m actually startled by how much of this I’m remembering.

Lucan Attacks!

Anyway, like a lot of useless info, the tale of Lucan is permanently embedded in my brain, probably hunkered down in my hippocampus, shooing away frivolous thoughts regarding the placement of car keys, wallets, and PIN codes.

So this is why I call the kid Lucan. And the funny thing is: this kid, all of 42 months old, takes much umbrage with this label. “Stop calling me Lucan. YOU’RE LUCAN!” she’ll yell as she dashes away from the 30+ year TV show aspersion. I get a kick out of that.

Well, all good things come to an end. The last episode of Lost airs tonight. The series started way back in 2004, amazing considering it’s survived on a major network TV station all this time. In six years it’s had its share of klunker episodes, but in that time it also reached stages of flat-out genius. In fact, I can’t recall any TV show that’s left me stunned or marveling at the storytelling on such a continual basis. Just a few great things that stick out:

1) ‘Through the Looking Glass‘ – Season 3

February hasn’t been the best of months. A good friend had a bit of a rough month health-wise. Fortunately, though things were looking a little hairy for a while, he’s doing a lot better now.

Stuff I’ve watched/read this month:

movies & books

• The Invention of Lying
• The Family Man
• The Hunger Games
• Catching Fire

tv

• Pawn Stars
• Sons of Anarchy

Misc. February Events

• 2010 Winter Olympics
• Valentine’s Day
• Family Get-Together
• UFC 110: Big Nog losing (bummer); Wandy winning (cool!)

This is a geeky TV-centric post similar to something I wrote about Battlestar Galactica back in 2008. Season 6, the last season of Lost starts on Feb 2. (Sheesh, season 5 ended in May, 2009. That’s a long time to wait!)

Anyway, Wubert and I are totally psyched for this last Lost hurrah (Jill’s a 24 fan—whatever!) Like most cats, I think Wubert’s fave character is Ben. I kind of bounce around but Faraday is my favorite character at the moment.

If anyone needs to get caught up on the series, Netflix has just about all of the seasons available to watch instantly. This is gonna be fun.

More Lost info:

• Lostpedia

Lucy’s Wii Fit from Mike C on Vimeo.

Here’s a video of Lucy playing with her Nintendo Wii Fit. As you can see, she doesn’t really follow the game rules, but she still has fun. Click here to see how little the kid was when she first started playing w/ the Wii.

Camera Used: Canon Powershot SD750. Soundtrack:

• “Sugar Water” from Viva! La Woman by Cibo Matto.

Here’s a clip of the opening and closing credits to an Australian tv show from 1970 called Phoenix Five. And I thought Star Trek was cool! (Actually, all kidding aside that theme song is pretty sweet.)

I think I’m gonna call Wubert “Platonus” whenever he does something villainous (like hop on the dinner table or “forget” he has a litterbox). Yeah, and from now forward, we’ll refer to John, Laura, Omie, Izzy, and Luna as the Phoenix Five! Omie and Izzy will look so cool in their miniature star trek knockoff uniforms! Or, maybe not.

Even more info can be found here.

When it comes to the TV, Lucy’s favorite activities usually involve haphazardly pressing and pulling the various buttons that control the TV set. Of course, she examines the television closely as she does this, finding great humor in how her actions affect the TV’s behavior.

However, there’s one television show that actually causes the kid to forget about her TV experiments, and that show is The Flight Of The Conchords, A quick description from Wikipedia:

“FOTC is an American television sitcom that follows the adventures of the Flight of the Conchords, a (real) folk duo from New Zealand, as its members seek fame and success in New York City.”

Lucy loves the show, and becomes transfixed whenever the duo perform her favorite songs. Here’s a list of a few of her favorites, w/ links to videos on YouTube:

• “Foux De Fa Fa” (as close to a theme song as our family has—even Wubert likes this catchy tune!)
  
• “A Kiss Is Not A Contract”
• “Mermaid”
• “If You’re Into It”
• “Ladies Of The World”

Yep, these kids today and their loud New Zealand folk music.