I kicked off a cloudy, cold morning with this week's American Top 40 re-run. We disco-danced our way into dance-crazy late January 1978, as bubblegum pop, R&B, soul, and hard rock competed with the newest musical fad. Hits that winter included "Stayin' Alive" and "How Deep Is Your Love" by the Bee Gees (from the massively popular soundtrack for Saturday Night Fever), "Come Sail Away" by Styx, "We Are the Champions" by Queen, "Just the Way You Are" by Billy Joel, "Here You Come Again" by Dolly Pardon, "Love Is Thicker Than Water" by Andy Gibb, "Serpentine Fire" by Earth, Wind, and Fire, "Hey Deanie" by Sean Cassidy, "You're In My Heart" by Rod Stewart, and "Short People" by Randy Newman. The ballad "Baby Come Back" by Player was that week's top song.
Ran a couple of episodes of Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness as I made my grocery list and got everything together for my errand run. As you can guess from the title, this offshoot of Kung Fu Panda is the further tales of lovable Po, his noodle chef father, and the warriors the Furious Five. This one kicks off with the title episode, "The Scorpion's Sting." A nasty scorpion holds the only flower that can be made into a potion that'll relieve a sick Tigress...but she's also a deadly sorceress whose bite can put the victim under her control. She nearly manages to turn buddies Po and Monkey against each other. "Love Stings" brings her back, as she romances Po's lonely adopted father. Po doesn't trust her, but she seems to really want to help...until he finds out her real reasons for being in the Valley.
I walked to the Acme to do this week's grocery shopping, pushing the cart again. While Manor and a lot of the roads in Audubon Park are still sheets of ice, most major roads are perfectly clear, including Kendall and the Black Horse Pike. I didn't have any problems until I got to the Black Horse Pike. While the Pike is clear, the sidewalks are still covered in snow and ice chunks cleared from the road. I tried to cut around it in Audubon Park, which wasn't much better.
The Acme was a mess when I got there. We were supposed to get only two or three inches of snow...but after the weather we've had the past few weeks, anything short of sunshine, warm temperatures and no wind would have sent people into a frenzy. Not a good thing, since I had a fairly big order. Inspired by Kung Fu Panda and the Acme's sales on Asian food for Chinese New Year, I bought water chestnuts, stir-fry mix, and small salad shrimp to make Shrimp Stir Fry for dinner. There was also the "buck a bag" produce sale; picked up celery, an avocado, a container of grape tomatoes, and a bag of stir-fry veggies cheap. Needed to restock bananas and apples, along with canned chicken, brown sugar, cereal (went with Wheat Chex on sale), cream of mushroom soup, tuna, and batteries. Had a coupon for the Smart Balance 50/50 butter sticks.
I understood what all the commotion was about when I got outside and discovered a snow shower. I just ignored it and walked home. I did end up dragging my cart across a snow-covered field to avoid the traffic on the Black Horse Pike, but otherwise, the walk was kind of fun. I caught snowflakes on my tongue and kicked up puffs of snow as I made my way down Kendall.
When I got home, I made tomato and avocado salad for lunch with the last of the ground chicken meatballs while finishing out Kung Fu Panda. Recurring villains seem to be common on this show. The scorpion was far from the only bad guy to come back another day to finish the job. My favorite of these was a nasty owl who had once been the most powerful of the Fearsome Five, and went crazy from the strain. Po thought that as the Dragon Warrior, he'd go crazy, too...until he discovered our destinies aren't set in stone. Another fun one had Po and his dad searching for a fabled monster who was said to bite people's heads off. The monster does turn out to exist, but he values his privacy and isn't anything like the legend claims.
I looked up the weather on the computer, since the snow didn't look like it was stopping. All of the weather sites still said 1 to 3 inches. Since it didn't look like it was stopping, I decided to put two of my dolls, Josefina and Molly, into warm coats and boots and take some shots of them "playing" in the snow. After I finished, I did some playing of my own, going for a short walk in the park next-door. The snow had covered everything. You couldn't see the path anymore, and you could barely see the garden besides the fences. Even the wicker couch had been removed. It was me and the brush. The snow revealed the broad strokes of trees and brambles clearly for all of Oaklyn to see.
When I did get back in, I dubbed two cult animated films from the 80s while making that Shrimp Stir Fry for dinner and working on crocheting. Dot and the Kangaroo came out in 1977 and apparently was based after an 1899 novel. Dot, the sweet daughter of a farmer, is lost in the "Bush." A kindly mother kangaroo who has lost her own joey takes Dot in and helps her find her way home, introducing her to a variety of Australian animals, Aborigines, and folklore along the way.
This sweet tale is unique in its mix of animated characters against real-life Australian backgrounds. The relationship between Dot and her friend is very touching, especially when she saves her from the dingoes in the end. I'm not the only one who enjoyed this movie. This ran constantly on cable in the 80s and lead to a long series of Dot and...stories that set animation against live action. I fondly remember Dot and the Bunny, and there may have been a Christmas one as well. Very sweet and well worth looking for if you want to find some unusual animated movies for animal lovers, especially girls.
I wasn't nearly as impressed with The Adventures of the American Rabbit. We leap from Australia back to the US for this tale of Robert Rabbit, who turns into the title superhero to defeat the evil Jackals, a nasty motorcycle group who wants to take over cities across America. When they destroy the nightclub Robert works for, the manager, the band, and the girl singer decide to take their act on the road to raise enough money to rebuild it. The Jackals and their mysterious boss follows them, determined to stop the American Rabbit from proving that fair play, sportsmanship, and standing up for yourself can win over any bullies.
This was just really weird. There were plot holes the size of Dot's native Australia and quite a few questions that went unanswered. (Who was the old guy who kept popping up whenever Robert needed advice? Why did his village disappear after he leaves it? Did they ever raise enough money to rebuild the night club?) Despite the lousy writing and editing, this has a surprising amount of rave reviews on Amazon; I suspect most of that is nostalgia talking, along with some fairly decent animation. Not recommended unless you grew up watching it on cable or video, or your kids get a kick out of superhero tales and are young enough to overlook the script problems.
(Oh, and the snow is long-gone. It ended around 4:30, as I swept the porch for a second time, leaving a lovely sunset and the predicted 2-3 inches.)
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