Thirteen Random Facts About Whatever: 2023 Version

[claws]

13 things you should know about The Time and Morris Day.



1. R&B band created by Prince. The concept was a 'street wise' band in fancy suits and flashing cash, stepping away from typical R&B bands from the early 1980s wearing fantasy costumes still influenced by the 1970s like Earth, Wind & Fire.

2. Prince wanted a charismatic lead singer for the band. R&B singer Alexander O'Neal was up for the part, but he demanded more money and wanted to write his own songs, something Prince didn't want. Instead, Prince choose Morris Day, who was a drummer in a local band and running errands on Prince's concert tours. During the meeting to discuss The Time at a diner, everyone ordered the usual, normal stuff except Prince. He ordered soup, a cheeseburger, eggs and apple pie. He only took one bite from each.

3. Prince recorded The Time's first album on his own, just like all The Time albums. Morris Day was then brought in to replace Prince's vocals.

4. The Time's first album was released July 29, 1981. From wiki:

The album peaked at number 50 on the Billboard 200 and number seven on the Top Soul LPs charts. The album spent a total of 32 weeks on the Billboard 200 and 45 weeks on the R&B Albums chart. The album was eventually certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of over 500,000 copies in the United States.

5. The Time's second album, 'What Time Is It?' was released August 25, 1982.

The album peaked at number 26 on the Billboard 200 and number two on the Top Soul LPs. It spent a total of 33 weeks on the Billboard 200 and 38 weeks on the R&B Albums chart. The album's peaking was more successful than the group's previous release. The album was eventually certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales over 500,000 copies in the United States.

When the album was finished, Prince gave every The Time member cassettes of 'What Time Is It?' Prince threw a tape at bassist Jesse Johnson to catch, and said "You play the bass really good on the album". Jesse Johnson was an excellent bassist, but Prince played all instruments on the album. It was Prince's way of saying 'Good job, puppets'.

6. Prince's firm grip over the band started to cause friction during Prince's '1999' concert tour, with The Time as the opening act. The Time became an audience favorite at concerts with a huge fan base in New York, Detroit and L.A..The Time were basically kicking Prince's ass during the tour. A bizarre situation since The Time was his creation playing his music.

7. Things started to escalade in 1983. Morris Day was sick and tired of being bossed around by Prince. They had a falling out before filming Purple Rain. Morris would intentionally show up late for filming his scenes, with the delays costing Prince lots of money.

8. Morris had signed a contract with Prince's management in 1981, which expired in June 1984. Morris didn't have enough money to buy himself out of the contract, and had to complete a third The Time album, which he did reluctantly.

9. Morris rented a limousine on his own for the premiere party of the movie Purple Rain, since Prince wasn't supporting him anymore. Nobody expected Morris to show up.

10. The Time's third album 'Ice Cream Castles' was released July 2, 1984.

The album peaked at number 24 on the Billboard 200 and number three on the Top Soul LPs charts. The album spent a total of 57 weeks on the US Billboard album charts and had reached its peak position in early March 1985. The album was eventually certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of over a million copies in the United States. This remains the group's best selling album to date.

Even though it was the group's best selling album so far, it was also the only album that got mostly negative reviews.

11. Morris parted ways with the Prince camp after the release of their third album. Morris did promise he would return for a few concert gigs, but never did. Prince wanted The Time member Jesse Johnson to be the new lead singer of the band, but he declined. The Time officially disbanded in early 1985.

12. Before signing a record deal with Warners, Morris would call up former band members, telling them that Prince was trying to destroy him. During concerts in 1986, Prince would mock Morris' first solo single released in 1985, The Oak Tree, by dancing and singing in a silly manner, repeating the "Oh Wee Oh" line from the Oak Tree song.

13. Prince and Morris settled their differences in 1990, and The Time released their final album Pandemonium.

The album was certified Gold by the RIAA and "Jerk Out" became one of the band's biggest singles. The second single, "Chocolate" did not fare as well.

[retrorussell]

More horror film trivia:
1. PHANTASM (1979)
Enough footage was shot for a 3 hour film, but obviously was cut down to 1 1/2 hours.  Some of the extra scenes were used in PHANTASM IV: OBLIVION (1998).  The rest are presumed lost.  Also, Angus Scrimm is just a stage name (real name: Lawrence Rory Guy).

2. FRIDAY THE 13TH PART II (1981)
When Jason makes his first appearance outside Alice's apartment (BTW, Adrienne King herself had been stalked by an obsessive fan after the release of the first film, making her brief appearance in this film likely very uncomfortable for her), you only see his legs.  This part is played by costume designer Ellen Lutter (the only time to date Jason was played by a woman).

3. FRIDAY THE 13TH PART V: A NEW BEGINNING (1985)
Corey Feldman was only available at the very beginning during the Jason resurrection nightmare because he was busy filming THE GOONIES.

4. HALLOWEEN (2018)
When Michael kills a woman in her home and walks by a baby's crib, the baby's cries are actually the voice of Jamie Lee Curtis.

5. DEADLY BLESSING (1981)
When John and Martha meet in town near the theater, the marquee displays the movie SUMMER OF FEAR.  This was actually a made-for-TV movie that director Wes Craven also helmed.   John is played by Jeff East, who was also in SUMMER OF FEAR.

6. THE GRIM REAPER/ANTHROPOPHAGUS (1980)
The "fetus" the Grim Reaper (George Eastman) removes from a victim and bites into is actually a skinned rabbit.  Also, the Italian title ANTHROPOPHAGUS refers to Anthropophagy (cannibalism).  Tisa Farrow effectively retired from acting after this film.

7. PHENOMENA/CREEPERS (1985)
The chimpanzee that lead actress Jennifer Connelly had to work with was hostile towards her, and at one point bit part of her finger off.  She had to go to a hospital and have it re-attached!  She would go on to win an Academy Award for the film A BEAUTIFUL MIND.

8. SUSPIRIA (1977)
The original story involved children, not young women, at the ballerina school.  Though the age of the girls was changed to late teens/20, the dialogue stayed the same and made the girls sometimes seem childlike or naive.  Director Dario Argento not only liked this angle, but moved the doorknobs on doors higher to make the girls further childlike.

9. I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE/DAY OF THE WOMAN (1978)
Lead actress Camille Keaton was director Meir Zarchi's wife.  The four actors portraying the rapists felt bad about Keaton's frequent nude scenes and asked to be nude themselves to assuage her embarrassment.  The film was re-named I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE in 1980 after its initial release of DAY OF THE WOMAN received little attention.  One of Siskel and (especially) Ebert's most despised reviewed films.

10. BLOOD FEAST (1963)
Author Stephen King cites this as the worst horror film he's ever seen.  It was shot in Miami in only 9 days and cost $60,000 or less.  It was very profitable as the first gory slasher film, which director Herschell Gordon Lewis tried his hand at after making a bunch of "nudie cutie" films, and seeing the novelty of them wearing off in theaters.

11. TWO THOUSAND MANIACS! (1964)
The 2nd gore film by Herschell Gordon Lewis (which was inspired by the play BRIGADOON (!)) also features him singing on the film's theme song.  The band 10,000 Maniacs based their name off this film.  Actors Connie Mason and William Kerwin were married.  Though Mason had been a model (Playmate of the Month in June 1963), her footwork appeared clumsy and her acting awful.

12. DEADLY FRIEND (1986)
The fake Anne Ramsay head that actress Kristy Swanson splatters with a basketball contained cow brains.  The B.B. robot, voiced by Charles Fleischer (Roger Rabbit), cost $20,000 and could actually lift 750 lbs.  Director Wes Craven originally wanted this to be a PG sci-fi thriller movie, but poor test screenings prompted Warner Bros. to demand the film be made much more violent.

13. NIGHT OF THE DEMONS (1988)
Actress Linnea Quigley and SFX artist Steve Johnson would marry.  He made the mold cast of her breasts for the scene where she puts a cigarette out in one.

[claws]

13 US Foods That Are Banned in Other Countries

1. Mountain Dew

Countries like Japan have decided to ban Mountain Dew because it’s made with an ingredient called BVO, or brominated vegetable oil. BVO contains bromine, which is a natural element that can nonetheless be hazardous to humans in large quantities.

2. Skittles

Norway and Sweden have banned the product because it contains dyes like yellow 5 and yellow 6.

3. Maraschino Cherries

They contain red 40, a dye that’s banned in places like the UK and Switzerland. Some people suffer from allergic reactions when they eat the dye, which is why some countries have decided that it’s just not worth the risk.

4. Frosted Flakes

They contain a chemical called BHT, which is short for butylated hydroxytoluene. There’s some evidence that the chemical may be a carcinogen, so other countries have decided it’s best not to allow it in their food products. Banned in Europe and Japan.

5. Twinkies and Little Debbie Swiss Rolls

Banned in Norway and Austria because they contain certain dyes that are prohibited in the European Union.

6. Ritz Crackers

Banned in some European countries because of their high levels of trans fats, considering there’s evidence that eating too much trans fat can lead to health conditions like heart disease.

7. Instant mashed potatoes

Some instant products like Hungry Jack's Mashed Potatoes contain a preservative that may be linked to carcinogenic effects. Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) is an additive that keeps the fat in certain food products from going bad on the shelf.

8. Boxed Mac N’ Cheese

Banned in Norway, Finland, and a handful of other countries, because of yellow #5 and #6. These two dyes are known to cause hyperactivity in children.

9. Sugar Cane

American sugar cane is treated with the weedkiller Atrazine. Linked to birth defects, reproductive tumors, skin sensitization, and muscle degeneration, it is banned in the European Union. It also easily leaks into waterways where it harms wildlife and the environment.

10. American Cheese

Many US dairy products, including cheese, contain the hormone Recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH). This hormone is a synthetic version of the natural one used to increase milk production. In cows, it can cause inflamed udders and infertility. Not only is it inhumane, but in humans, it can cause various types of cancer. It is banned in 30 countries.

11. Pork

American pork is banned in 160 of the 196 countries in the world because much of it contains the growth hormone ractopamine.

12. Chlorine Treated Chicken

According to the US, chlorinated chicken is safe for consumption. The chickens are treated with chlorine in order to remove harmful bacteria. The EU and UK, however, aren’t too sure. It’s been banned since 1997.

13. American M&Ms

The food dyes used in American M&Ms are banned in Europe.

[ER]

Life:

1. Time moves more slowly when you are a child.
2. In a way that means you spend most of your life in childhood.
3. The older you get the faster time seems to go.
4. This means life has much in common with those funnels you used to be able to drop pennies into at malls, and watch them spin faster and faster til they fell into unseen nothingness.
5. You have never been this old before.
6. You have never been this close to your own death.
7. You cried to enter this life, you will probably cry to leave it.
8. Most people probably don't spend as much time thinking about you as you spend thinking about you.
9. You don't own your children.
10. There is not one second to waste in your relationship with your dog. Your dog will be leaving you far too quickly.
11. The more you cry, the less you have to pee.
12. Enemies are too expensive.
13. Happiness is not the most important thing in life, but it sure matters.

[RCMerchant]

^ Well, that made me feel so much better! 

[ER]

Weird s**t About My City:

1. Abe Lincoln 's funeral train passed near where we live, and people have claimed to see a ghostly version of it going by, ever since.

2. Over the hill from the same train tracks for the last sixty or so years people have been claiming to see a man-size frog walking on two legs, living in the river. He now has his own convention every spring.

3. Charles Manson lived in town before he went west, and kicked a dog to death in front of a bar, and for fifty years now someone has left flowers on the spot for that dog.

4. My boyfriend used to go to high school down the street from where Rod Serling lived before he made it in Hollywood, writing some of his best work there. He took me to see it and the house was vacant, so we sat on the front steps and wrote a Twilight Zone style story together before we left.

5. The home of the local symphony orchestra dates from the 1870s, is big enough to hold the Met inside it, and is built atop an 1820s potter's field. Paranormal experiences are so common there they're not even remarkable anymore. There's also a "storm groove" in the ceiling, where a bowling ball can be rolled to simulate thunder for Wagner operas.

6. The prototype for the Brooklyn Bridge was built here, a lovely quarter-mile long suspension bridge, but there are several workers who were left inside the stone foundations, under the river itself, because they were killed in a construction accident and it was deemed to unsafe to get them out. Thousands of cars a day drive past their entombed remains.

7. The prototype for the Empire State Building was also built here and has been struck by lightning over a hundred times since it was put up.

8. Steven Spielberg was born in the city, in what was then a nice Jewish suburb, but which now is a good place to go if you want to get mugged.

9. Jerry Springer used to be our mayor. Really.

10. Mark Twain said if the world ended, he'd want to be in our city, because it always was ten years behind the times.

11. It was voted most livable city in North America for three years in the 1990s. I forget by whom, but it wasn't locals.

12. Larry Flynt and an art museum both got put on trial for obscenity here. Only one was acquitted.

13. The largest collection of intact, preserved 19th century houses is here, and below them are miles of subterranean tunnels  fifty feet tall and lined in stone, built by German-American beer barons in the 1800s, when this city was the beer capital of the western hemisphere. You can tour those tunnels most weekends.

[retrorussell]

13 more scary movie trivia bits:

1. SHAWN OF THE DEAD (2004)
In the scene where Shawn punches Ed's shoulder through the car seat in anger, Simon Pegg actually hurt Nick Frost to the point where he needed a cortisone shot to continue.

2. THE CREEPING TERROR (1964)
The reason for very little spoken dialogue/sound in the film is that most of the audio was either lost, or replaced with cheesy narration as a cost-cutting move (the latter explanation given by co-star William Thourlby, who played Dr. Bradford).  Shot on the (later) infamous Spahn Ranch.

3. RE-ANIMATOR (1985)
Mac Ahlberg, who directed the Swedish I, A WOMAN sex drama trilogy of the 1960s/70s, was a cinematographer on this film.  Friend David Bowie declared RE-ANIMATOR to be his favorite film.

4. A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2: FREDDY'S REVENGE (1985)
Star Robert Englund (Freddy) stated that the gay subtext in the film was intentional, so as to help teens struggling with sexual identity cope.  Lead actor Mark Patton (Jesse) was gay.  Some scenes had to be cut because Patton felt they were too gay, like phallic candles or Freddy putting his blades in Jesse's mouth.

5. MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH (1976)
Similar to LORD OF THE FLIES in that the tormented become the tormentors, and there are almost no adults present in the film.  Director Rene Daalder was a cameraman for Russ Meyer.  4 cast members of MASSACRE would either appear or star on EIGHT IS ENOUGH.

6. MADMAN (1982)
Paul Ehlers, who played the titular killer, drove to the hospital still in his Madman Marz makeup/costume when his wife went into labor with his son Jonathan.  In an opposite scenario of HALLOWEEN, leaves on the trees had to be painted green to indicate a summer setting, while the film was shot in the winter of 1981.  MADMAN was supposed to initially be based on the Cropsy legend, but the film THE BURNING was already filmed with that story in mind.

7. HELL NIGHT (1981)
Shot during the winter of 1980/81, the production was very cold and the work days excruciating-- 6 days a week, 18 hour days.  There were neither a cellar nor a hedge maze on the mansion's property, so sets had to be constructed or camera trickery needed to be applied.  The actor who played Andrew, who got killed by gate spears while on top of Marti's car at the end, actually died in a real car crash before the film's release.

8. FRIDAY THE 13TH PART III: IN 3-D (1982)
The famed first Jason hockey mask was a modified Detroit Red Wings goalie mask.  3D effects supervisor Martin Jay Sadoff owned it and was a big hockey fan.  This was the first Friday The 13th film to actually be released on a Friday the 13th (August 13).  Filmed in California, where the best experts of 3D technology seemed to be.  Steve Dash, who played Jason in most scenes in part II, was asked to return but living on the East coast he declined.

9. FREDDY VS. JASON (2003)
Stuntman Ken Kirzinger at 6'5 was brought in as a taller Jason to tower over Freddy.  Previous Jason actor Kane Hodder, who would have liked to come back, was 6'2.  The film spent a long time in development hell, being considered as far back as 1987-- the producers then settled on a "Jason vs. Carrie" film instead for part VII.  Actress Katharine Isabelle (Gibb) and director Ronny Yu clashed frequently over her refusal to do a nude scene.

10. I DRINK YOUR BLOOD (1970)
Despite the film's title, there is no actual imbibing of blood in the film.  The title was the idea of an ad executive looking for a title to pair with I EAT YOUR SKIN (which is unrelated, far less bloody, and was filmed far earlier than I DRINK YOUR BLOOD) as a double feature.  Shot in a deserted New York village set for demolition, which took place just after filming completed.  The ugly face on many posters/ads for the film are taken from ads for the film IT! (1967).

11. THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2 (1986)
The hitch-hiker from the first film (Chop Top's twin brother) finally has his name revealed: "Nubbins".  The poster is a spoof of THE BREAKFAST CLUB.  SFX legend Tom Savini worked on the film.

12. CREEPSHOW (1982)
An initial ending to the story SOMETHING TO TIDE YOU OVER featured Richard being caught by the police, and eventually being sent to the gas chamber in prison for murder, where he'd utter the famed "I can hold my breath for a long time" line.  Each of the 5 stories feature the marble ashtray in at least one scene, used to kill Nathan Grantham in the first story FATHER'S DAY.  SFX artist Rob Bottin gave Tom Savini advice on how to make the crate monster "Fluffy".  The boy with the Creepshow comic book is Stephen King's son, Joe Hill.

13. BLOOD RAGE (1987)
Actually shot in 1983 but not released in theaters until 1987.  Shortly after, it was re-titled NIGHTMARE AT SHADOW WOODS (heavily cut, and was the cable title).  Actress Louise Lasser was reportedly drunk and difficult to work with.  Ted Raimi's debut.