Capt. Mondo's World o' Mondo-ness

Polkaroo and The R.O.M.
About a month ago, Erika had obtained tickets to a kid's day at the R.O.M., as a special benefit for Jacob's Ladder. This was the day for the event, and off we headed for the show.

We arrived at a busy R.O.M. at about 11:30am, when things for the children's event was set to begin. I decided to renew our family membership while I was there, and then we set off for The Eaton Court, where the party was already in progress.

Vanessa settled down to munch potato chips, pizza, donuts and drink some fruit punch while we both sat and watched "Kayla and her infamous dog Ralph" sing some silly kids songs which went down well with the crowd.

Vanessa enjoyed the songs but was most intent on eating her chips. Afterwards, we went over to a bank of clowns who were making balloon creations for the kids. One of them made a purple and yellow balloon flower at Vanessa's request.

Then we headed down to the ROM theatre to see "the show". The last time I was in this theatre was during a showing of surrealist films when I was a teen one Halloween. Seeing the subsequent clown/Polkaroo show seemed a good pseudo-surrealist segue from the last visit to this one. The theatre had been entirely redone (I remember it previously as being very plain), now decked out in a faux ancient Egyptian theme, and seemed smaller than I remembered.

The first act was a female magician/clown called Hidee the Clown. Her deliberately bumbling magic act was ultimately the more entertaining act. All of the kids giggled and laughed at the deliberate pratfalls and silly sight gags that accompanied the magic tricks. Then came on the Polkaroo act, which was primarily a song and dance act. Despite the chipper MC who led the costumed Polkaroo, Marigold and Bear across the stage, it wasn't as directly engaging. Vanessa was enjoying herself, but near the end I caught myself musing about the existential nature of watching people dressed up in giant plush-animal suits talk and dance to a pre-recorded soundtrack...

Still the object was to have fun, and Vanessa clearly had a good time. We ended up sticking around for a couple more hours, filling in the clues on an answer sheet for a "treasure hunt". Tafelmusic was playing in the main foyer, but Vanessa wasn't particularly interested in listening to classical music at that point (and there weren't any available seats by the time we got there). So we saw most of our regular haunts at the ROM instead: the bat cave, the bird exhibit and the Maiasaur exhibit. One new, small exhibit that caught my eye was The Great Storm of 1913, which detailed what must have been a small hurricane that hit the upper Great Lakes that year. Vanessa was interested in the video that accompanied the exhibit, saying that she was “interested in boats”. It was a sad story: several ships were lost, and it was somewhat eerie to have the video mention the diary of a young ship’s captain that was found on his body, and to glance over at an adjacent glass case containing that same diary.

Soon after, we left, and Vanessa came away with a treat bag filled with goodies. The big hit seems to be little doll that she ended up playing with for much of the rest of the day. There was even a treat for me: a Starbucks charge card with a $5 credit on it. We grabbed a ride back home in a taxi, notable insomuch as it was the first time I have seen ad displays in a Toronto cab: two small flat panel TVs broadcasting a loop of still picture ads interspersed with video. The cabbie told me that they’ve only got these in a couple of cabs (so it sounds like a trial project) and that the displays start the moment the meter runs. Undoubtedly the shape of things to come. Thankfully, there was a volume control, so I effectively turned it off once it’s novelty had worn off.

Listening to the Long-Lost Final Episode of “Capt. Mondo”
One of the little projects I’ve been working on piecemeal is digitizing and MP3-ing the episodes of “Mondo Music” I did with Sinister Pete, some of those shows now a decade old. This is where I got my erstwhile nickname from – or at least, it cemented it into place (I think I may have first used it as an email handle back in the late 80s – yes kiddies, I go ‘way back in terms of my experiences with the Internet. ;-)

One thing I’ve always wanted to hear was the final episode of the first season of “Capt. Mondo”, which was a cheesy comedic serial he and I did together, along with anybody else who happened to be in the station at the time that we could rope into helping us. Basic premise was: a radio DJ and his sound tech are bricked up during the 70s, and have been forced to survive by eating old BeeGees records and other disco tunes. The tech turns into a babbling idiot, and the other becomes a super-hero – though he’s just as much an idiot, if not more so, that his technician turned side-kick.

I had been asking Peter for a copy of this episode almost as long as the time it was originally broadcast (which was 1988, as it turned out). I usually taped the show, but forgot to bring tapes to the studio. Pete did, and promised me a copy. Now, over a dozen years later, he delivered. ;-)

I had completely forgotten about what had happened in the episode, even though at some point I must have scripted it. Vogar, the evil man from the future (hilariously over-played by fellow CFRC-er of the time Peter Robinson) who wants to wipe out everything in the world – but in alphabetical order – is defeated of course, but exactly how I had forgotten about. Turns out he gets beaten by a bunch of sound effects, most brazenly stolen from The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy radio series. The series as a whole was “okay”, and ultimately not as funny as the things we did after it, like the “Croecko Ads” and especially “Science Head”, which were largely improvised. But still, it’s nice to have a complete “set” of the shows.

Now that I have the entire series, my plan is to cut a CD for myself and for Pete, and send a copy along to CFRC for interest’s sake (as well as any other cast members who might still be interested after all of these years).