It's Opening Night for Cubby the Bear!

Opening Night (1933)
Starring: Anonymous Singers and Voice Actors
Director: Mannie Davis
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Cubby the Bear tries to sneak into the hottest new show in town and ends up conducting the orchestra.

The title of this 1933 entry into Van Beuren's anthology series Aesop's Fables, "Opening Night", can be taken in at least two different ways. The first, and most obvious, the setting is the opening of a new show at the Roxy theatre. Secondly, this cartoon was the first appearance of Cubby the Bear, an attempt on the part of the Van Beuren Corporation to come up with a recurring character for Aesop's Fables. (They were possibly taking this step because the unofficial recurring characters--Milton Mouse and Rita Mouse--were coming increasingly under threat from the Walt Disney Corporation which was annoyed by the way the pair had increasingly come to be off-color copies of their successful Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse characters.)

This first outing for Cubby is a little uneven quality-wise. After a mystifying opening scene involving Santa Claus (probably an artifact of the film's original release date), viewers are treated to a series of repetitive and barely amusing gags as Cubby tries to sneak into the theatre. Once our pint-sized hero gets inside and ends up in front of the orchestra, things start getting better and a lot funnier. 

As is almost always the case with a Van Beuren cartoon, the best part is the music. the cartoon opera (which I think is a hybrid of "Carmen" and "Faust") is hilarious and the action is perfectly matched with the music and the singing. They didn't quite go as far as I think they could have gone with the diminutive romantic lead and the big-breasted diva during the operas climax; if they had gone even more risqué, I think the bit would have been even funnier.

In fact, this might be problem with "Opening Night" in general. The best Van Beuren cartoons are usually so wild that they enter the realm of the surreal. Here, although there are several impossibly bizarre moments, none rise to the level of crazy that one can find in the best "Tom & Jerry" entries. As a result, we've got something here that's a bit slow at the start and eventually gets into the silly and cute territory, and which ultimately feels like it never reaches its full potential.

"Opening Night" was the first of somewhere between 17 and 20 short features starring Cubby. I'll eventually get around to watching and reviewing all of them in this space. In the process, I will also discover which source is correct on the number of Cubby cartoons that were produced. 

For now, I invite you to check out the subject of this post by clicking below. I hope you enjoy it. If you do (or if you don't!), feel free to leave a comment.

Bones Coffee's Paradise Pie

Does coffee taste better when you're not wearing pants? We here at Shades of Gray have been conducting a study, and we reveal our findings at the end of this post. But before that, here's another review of a flavored blend from Bones Coffee Company--one that is marketed to drink while not wearing pants!

BONES COFFEE COMPANY: PARADISE PIE

The Paradise Pie blend is one of the many flavors that come and go from the line-up offered by Bones Coffee either through their website or at Amazon.com. The fun with this one begins before you open the bag, because it's among the many of their offerings that features a drawing of the Bones Coffee mascot in a funny situation. In this case, our skeletal friend is relaxing in a hammock while eating pie and not wearing pants. 

When opening the bag, there's a sweet smell of sugary key lime that is definitely reminds one of key lime pie flavor that this blend is supposed to reflect. That aroma is also faintly present in the air as the coffee brews: It's not as strong as what can be experienced with other Bones flavored blends, but it mirrors the aroma of the coffee as its poured.

When I tried to coffee black, the key lime flavor was present as a slight sweetener blended in with the mellow medium-roast flavor. It wasn't quite enough to make me want to drink this blend without adding milk or creamer, but I think people who like their coffee with just a touch of sweetener (be it sugar, honey, or some variety of fruit juice) will like this just as it is. Further, as the coffee cools, the key lime flavor grows more evident.

I put this blend through the usual taste tests that I do with coffees I drink for these posts. As mentioned above, I start with trying it black. I then move onto Unsweetened Almond Milk and then sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer. All three versions are consumed hot, as they cool to room temperature, and iced.

I found that I liked the Paradise Pie blend best when it was mixed with the Unsweetened Almond, and I really liked the way the key lime flavor seemed to grow stronger as the coffee cooled. The key lime flavor mixed less well with the sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer; it was okay when the coffee was hot, but as it cooled, the flavors mixed poorly and caused the drink to taste as if I'd made it wiht sour milk. To make sure this wasn't a fluke, or that somehow my creamer had actually spoiled, I tried a second cup with the same mix... and the result was the same.  

Interestingly, the flavors were almost the same when I drank this blend iced, whether I had mixed it with almond milk or the creamer. Naturally, the blend with the creamer was a sweeter than the one with the unsweetened almond milk, but something reminiscent of the graham cracker crust that would be on a key lime pie had crept into the mix. Whether it was this additional flavor--which was little more dominant in the cup of iced Paradise Pie with Unsweetened Almond Milk--or just that the drink was chilled further, the sour milk taste that was present at room temperature was no longer in evidence. I am also happy to report that this is not one of those Bones blends that have a strong saltiness when iced. I should also note that this blend is also quite pleasant straight black when iced.

The Paradise Pie blend is a drink of extremes that works best when it's hot or iced, whether you drink it black or mixed with milk or creamer. Overall, I think it counts as another win for the Bones Coffee Company, even if it's not quite as versatile as some of their other blends. (Although, speaking of versatile, I did try a cup of it iced with vodka. That was also an excellent combination.)

As for the question that an answer was promised to at the top--does coffee taste better if you drink while wearing pants or if you drink it when not wearing pants? Everyone at the Shades of Gray offices were drafted for a very scientific study. See the bottom of the post for the results.

 

The Science Is Settled: Coffee Tastes Better When You're Not Wearing Pants!

The Love Quarterly: Happy Birthday, Steve!

It's my birthday today, so feel free to take the day off and do whatever you want to observe it. I encourage you to start the tradition of buying yourself something special, or treating yourself to a fancy dinner in observation of the day that I was put on this Earth!

Bessie Love has baked a cake, but she only put on a fraction of the candles that should be on it. And even with that amount, she is concerned that it might catch the Shades of Gray offices on fire...

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

 Anita Page invites you to celebrate with music and more!

Just don't party too hard... or you'll end up like Anita does every year!

Wonder Woman Wednesday

The legendary, trailblazing artist Neal Adams, who influenced an entire generation of comic book artists and who was a tireless advocate for creator rights, passed away at the age of 80 on April 28, 2022. In his memory and honor, we are featuring Wonder Woman sketches and portraits that Adams drew.

Adams is remembered mostly for his work for DC Comics, on Batman and Deadman stories in various titles, on the "Green Lantern & Green Arrow" series, as well as dozens of amazing covers for titles such as "House of Mystery" and "The Phantom Stranger". He was also responsible for interesting characters such as Toyboy and Valaria for his own company, Continuity Comics. We'll be presenting a gallery or two of Adams' more iconic work at some point in the future.

'To Save Her Soul' turns terrible at the end

To Save Her Soul (1909)
Starring: Mary Pickford, Arthur V. Johnson, George Nichols, and William Beaudine

Director: D.W. Griffith

Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

A beautiful young woman with an equally beautiful voice (Pickford) is put onto the path of a successful showbusiness career after a chance encounter with a theatrical producer (Nichols). A young pastor in her hometown (Johnson) is in love (or maybe just in lust) with her, and he follows her to the big city, in hopes of convincing her to return with him.

I generally don't have the patience for silent dramas, because the pacing combined with the overwrought performance styles and melodramatic pantomiming used by the actors to communicate emotions either bore me or make me laugh. 

A notable exception are short films from D.W. Griffith. Every one of them I've seen so far has moved along at a breakneck pace and has been augmented by staging and framing of scenes that are at the same time reminiscent of renaissance paintings and modern-feeling. Griffith was one of the early masters of the cinematic medium, and that's what makes his short films entertaining to this day.

"To Save Her Soul" is no exception. It clips along at a quick pace. While there's plenty of overly dramatic emoting and even some overacting, the two leads--Pickford and Johnson--have enough presence and charisma that their screen presence shines through that. Pickford is, as always, excellent in her part. 

With that said, I'm going to break format and present "To Save Her Soul" for your viewing pleasure here in the middle of this post instead of at the end. This is because the rest of this review reveals the film's ending and thus may spoil it for you.

The story of "To Save Her Soul" is fairly engaging... and it becomes even more so when the handsome lead makes a transition from a concerned would-be suitor to the young singer to a crazed stalker and religious fanatic who is going to murder her, ostensibly to save her soul (as the title implies) but more basically because if he can't possess her completely and wholly, she cannot be allowed to live.

But, ultimately, that character transition is what undoes this movie. Instead of treating the pastor like the vicious monster that he is, the film sets him up as a literal savior: After he literally points a gun at Pickford's character's face and threatens to murder her if she doesn't surrender to his whims and desires (and his whims and desires alone), the young woman surrenders to him completely, leaving behind the life of sinful showbusiness to be his sex slave before the Lord Jesus Christ.

Okay, I probably put a far darker spin on the film's final moments than Griffith intended, but the ending of "To Save Her Soul" is seriously messed up. Even when allowing for more than a century of shifting social standards, the "hero" of this film should have been a villain that one of the show biz folk wrestled with, and ultimately shot with his own gun. That is how this film should have ended, and I would have given it Eight or Nine Stars.

Musical Monday with DeKade

Today's video features an artist who is a bit of a mystery, because the half-assed research that we here at Shades of Gray undertook to find some background on him. He put up music on Soundcloud for a few months 3-4 years ago, and then moved onto Spotify where his albums, EPs, and singles have been appearing since 2018. None of this pages on those sites, nor on his TikTok channel, YouTube channel, nor his website offer any information about who DeKade is.

In mid-April of 2022, DeKade released a new single. Both the song and video produced to promote it are fabulously spooky and befitting of a performer who seems to be a music-making, rapping shadow in a hooded sweater.

Perfect (2022)
Starring: DeKade
Director: Tyler Michalsen
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

Coffee fit for the Workers of the World

It's May Day... and we're reviewing coffee that comes to us from the Worker's Paradise of Vietnam! Workers of the World, Unite! And go on coffee break!

  

Willkins and Wontkins know coffee, be it Commie or Capitalist sourced.

 

CHESTBREW COFFEE COMPANY: GRIZZLY BEAR

ChestBrew Coffee Company was founded in the mid 2010s when friends of its owners began demanding that coffee brought back for personal use from trips to Vietnam be shared with them. At the time, no one was marketing authentic Vietnamese coffee in the United States, so ChestBrew stepped in to fill the void. A secondary motivation was to provide an affordable and simple alternative to the complicated and expensive pour-over offerings that were on the market at the time. (You can read more about ChestBrew and their coffees on their website.) 

ChestBrew positions themselves as a coffee-drinker's coffee maker; they say there's lots of caffeine AND flavor in their Vietnam-grown, carefully roasted Arabica beans. As I've confessed repeatedly in these coffee reviews, I am heavily in the fru-fru camp when it comes to coffee preferences. So, when choosing one of their offerings to review, I went with the medium roast Grizzly Bear blend, which is available as whole beans that are "dark chocolate dusted".

The moment I opened the bag, I figured I was in for a treat. The coffee smell was strong, and it remained strong as I ground and then brewed the first pot. It's not often that I pick up on the smell of brewing coffee when I'm in my office, but ChestBrew's Grizzly Bear was a great exception to the normal.

The aroma remained strong as I poured my first cup-full. The advertised chocolate dust could not be detected in the air, but it was present as a strong undertone as I took my first sip. The coffee flavor was strong and smooth and delicious and truly a full-flavored coffee. In fact, it was so smooth that I drank that first cup without adding any of my usual unsweetend almond milk or sugar-free cream, but instead just added about half a package of Stevia. That's a break with my usual protocols for this article series, but since I have an entire 20-oz. bag of Grizzly Bear (as opposed to the 4-oz. sample packs most of my Bones Coffee reviews are based on), so I have plenty of opportunities to try this coffee in however many ways that might strike me.

When I tried Grizzly Bear with Unsweetened Almond Milk, the coffee flavor remained intense and what few rough edges that still existed disappeared. The hint of chocolate got washed out, but I didn't miss it all that much. As the coffee cooled to room temperature, the flavor held steady.

Drinking Grizzly Bear with the sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer was okay, but I didn't like it as much as I did with the unsweetened almond milk. Curiously, the drink seemed a little too sweet; the coffee flavor remained strong, but the Italian Sweet Cream creamer mixed with it in an almost sickly-sweet fashion that I'd not experienced before. It didn't exactly ruin my cup of Grizzly Bear, but the two certainly did not mix well. That overwhelming sweetness only got worse as the coffee cooled--to the point where I just dumped the last bit into the sink.

Given that odd interaction, I tried mixing the sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer with some of Unsweetened Almond milk with a cup of Grizzly Bear. It worked a little better, but the creamer flavor still came across stronger than I ever remember experienced before. Why? I have no idea, but it certainly doesn't belong in Grizzly Bear.

When consumed over ice, Grizzly Bear is fabulous whether you drink it straight--although it gets even better with a touch of Stevia added--or if you add Unsweetened Almond Milk. The coffee flavor is very mellow, with the lovely hints of chocolate adding greatly to the experience. I, once again, broke with the standard protocol and tried iced Grizzly Bear with Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk, and it was also quite excellent. My favorite iced variety was the one where I just added the unsweetened almond milk. (For the sake of consistency with other reviews, I tried Grizzly Bear with the creamer as well. It worked a little better over ice, but it still did not mix well with the flavor of the coffee.)

I highly recommend Grizzly Bear to anyone who is interested in a strong-flavored, yet smooth, coffee that features a touch of chocolate. Although it only seems to be available as whole beans, grinding it is worth the extra step. I got this coffee with no expectations--just so I could make a May Day joke--but it turned out to be a great product! When my current bag is empty, I'll probably order another one!

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WILLKINS & WONTKINS: THE CAFFEINATED MUPPETS
The characters of Willkins and Wontkins (seen at the top of the post) were an early creation of Jim Henson. Originally conceived for a television ad campaign for U.S.-based coffee company Wilkins Coffee, these muppets became so popular that toys were made of them in the early 1960s. You can learn more and watch a whole slew of the ads by clicking here. Also, below is the Wilkins Coffee ad from which the image that opens this post was captured. If you find it funny, you'll get a big kick out of the ad compilation in that other post.

Happy birthday to Kirsten Dunst!

Actress Kirsten Dunst turns 40 years old today. Here's a celebration in pictures!

It's Arbor Day...

 ... and Sydney Dolan invites everyone to celebrate!