Heavy Metal

The movie Heavy Metal came out when I was fairly young, maybe around ten-years-old. I have some very specific memories from that movie, even though I was too young to see it as it was Rated R movie.  It was a Rated R cartoon which is why we were all so interested in it as children.  This movie was getting lots of press and we knew all about it as sixth-graders even though none of us had seen it.

Then, when I visited my cousin who had HBO, I noticed it was on one night after my aunt and uncle had gone to bed.  As I sneaked out and watched some of it, I understood why it was rated R.  There were naked upper lady bits and there were sexual situations and there was some violence, although I remember it being more of a "pure evil" thing than true cruelty or violence. 

I didn't see the whole movie, but the bit I did see was memorable.  Later that year I was at the grocery store with my father and there was a Heavy Metal magazine.  This movie had enough excitement around it that the grocery store checkout line had comic books from the Heavy Metal world.

I didn't know what was in the magazine, but it was colorful and looked exciting and I asked dad if I could have it and he bought it for me.  I got home and it was beautifully drawn.  Most of the comics I don't think I really understood, and as comics go, there was a lot of busty lady characters with exaggerated features and skimpy clothing.

I took the comic book to school and I decided to try and learn how to draw a cartoon.  I was showing the comic book to a friend on the playground when my teacher came over and saw the magazine and snatched it away saying it was inappropriate.  I was really upset.  I told her it was mine and she didn't have any right to take it away and besides, I was working on a drawing from one of the pages.  Then, I was surprised at what she did, she tore out the page of the magazine and said the rest of the pages were going to the principal's office.

My teacher tore up my book!  I think I would have been okay with her taking the book away, well, I  would have been angry, but I would have gotten it back.  But she defaced it and treated it like trash.  I was so upset.  My father or mother was given the magazine back later so I eventually got the magazine back, but I think i had lost my interest in becoming a cartoonist by then.

I had forgotten all about Heavy Metal until two things happened within two days of each other to remind me.  First, we were all in the car downtown considering going to a museum with the children and we went via a different road than we normally do.  I realized we were by the school I went to for just one year in sixth grade, due to one of those school rezoning situations that sound good until the school district realizes their idea was, in fact, a big busing mess.

As we drove by the school there was the big old brick building I remembered.  There was the playground we played far too much dodge ball on and there were the stairs where the teacher tore up my magazine.

Then, only a day or so later, we were eating lunch out with the children and I heard a song I hadn't heard in a long time.  It started to haunt me.  I had great memories of loving that song from a very long time ago but where was it from?  It wasn't a pop song.  Then the chorus came around and I could place it as the theme song from the Heavy Metal movie.

I think I'm going to go find the song on iTunes so I can continue recollecting on the influential and memorable movie I shouldn't have seen when I was a child.

The Big Boy Update:  The National Geographic Monkeys.  It was time to go to sleep and I had something non-child friendly and boring on the television while my son drank his milk so he would go quietly and calmly to bed.  He did get interested in the show though, so I told him it was the National Geographic channel and did he see the yellow rectangle in the bottom corner?  Then, as we were going to bed, I picked up the National Geographic magazine and showed him the yellow border and how it matched the one on the television.  He asked me, "Monkeys?" and then I realized there were monkeys on the cover.  I sad, "Yes, those are monkeys" and then he started saying, "eep eep, oop oop" and it was so cute I tried not to laugh.  I don't know where he learned monkey sounds. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Those construction workers are loud.  Construction is all around our house.  While I was getting ready the other day I heard hammering and I thought the workers had gotten started before seven.  Then, I realized it was not construction workers, but my daughter testing out one hard surface on another one upstairs in their playroom.

Fitness Update:  Blue. I did a blue steep. I did more than one blue steep and I survived. There were unexpected moguls and there was a high level of fear at multiple points, but I survived five days of skiing with only a bruised thumb. Also, I "sat down" a lot. Some people might call them falls, but, you know, I just sat down to rest. At unexpected points. Unexpectedly.

Someone Once Said:  Lack of data never justifies a conclusion.