Jack Flacco

My Favorite Things

Posted on February 22, 2013May 8, 2017 by Jack Flacco

For a long time, photography has inspired me to travel great distances, survive sour weather and mangle my body into weird positions all in the expectation of capturing that perfect shot. Today, I hope you enjoy this edition of Freedom Friday because today, I’d like to give you a tour of my favorite subjects.

Canada's Wonderland Water Fountains — Canada’s Wonderland Water Fountains

As I’d mentioned, I enjoy taking photos of, well, almost everything. If it’s something I’ve wondered about and wanted to capture, I’m the first one there.

One of my favorite subjects is by far Canada’s Wonderland. Nestled in Vaughan, Ontario, just north of Toronto, this 330-acre (130 ha) theme park features some of the most awesome roller coasters in the world. What makes this site special for amateur photographers (that’s me), is the simple areas that reflect a moodiness sought after elsewhere in the world but achieved here with simple landscaping and music. Its fountains, mountain, and fireworks makes for a wonderful experience for travelers wanting excellence in a vacation. My family purchases a yearly pass to take advantage of the park’s beauty and relaxed atmosphere (yeah, and the rides are pretty cool, too). The hand-in-hand strolls I take there with my wife at night are worth every penny spent.

Canada's Wonderland Mountain — Canada’s Wonderland Mountain

Canada's Wonderland Fountains — Canada’s Wonderland Fountains

Canada's Wonderland Fireworks — Canada’s Wonderland Fireworks

Next up, Toronto. How can I ignore the place I call my second home? From its CN Tower to its beautiful lake shore, Toronto provides me with many opportunities to take shots centered around color and culture. More specific, the downtown core where I frequent the most, hosts a myriad of activities for the family. It’s difficult to say what impresses me the most. Is it the buildings or events? I think the multicultural aspect of the city gives me pause. Whenever I walk the streets, I have to admire all those who roam from faraway places and call Toronto their home. It is something of beauty.

Another favorite place I enjoy taking pictures is the Ontario Science Centre. Located in the heart of Toronto, the complex houses hundreds of interactive and passive exhibits. My family and I will head over during spring break when the rates are lower and the place is bustling with crowds. We have fun with the various activities and I’m always on the lookout for something interesting to shoot.

What else? Food, of course! As you may have gathered from my sushi and eleven-spice chicken recipes, I love food! And being Italian doesn’t help. There’s always something in the culinary arts to keep my interest as an obsessed shutterbug. My mom makes these phenomenal meals like Rigatoni with cheese and meatballs, veal cutlets with potatoes and green beans, broiled lamb with peppers and pickled vegetables—she’s a crazy momma. Whenever I visit my parents, I loosen my belt two notches. Yet, sometimes a simple plate of fries captures my attention. Call me squirrel-minded!

Autumn is my favorite season. What would a post about favorite things to shoot be without a fall photo? During this time, the colors here in Canada burst. Maple trees line the roads in orange coats. Forests erupt in a kaleidoscope of gold and reds. And me? I’m out in the woods taking shot after shot of the amber carpeting. Fall is my season. If I had it my way, I’d sleep out there every night, listening to the leaves drift to the ground.

These are a few of my favorite things.

Do you have a favorite photography subject? What is it that makes the subject interesting to shoot?

Women Who Wow Wednesday

Ana

Posted on February 20, 2013February 21, 2013 by Jack Flacco

One morning Ana wakes up noticing a little girl at the bedroom door. Her nightgown covered in blood. The attack begins. My Women Who Wow Wednesday series continues with this week’s spotlight on Dawn of the Dead’s Ana.

I remember watching fellow Canadian Sarah Polley on CBC’s family program Road to Avonlea back in the early Nineties. For those unfamiliar with the show, it featured an ensemble cast of kids growing up in Canada’s turn-of-the-century Prince Edward Island.

I found it hard to imagine that sweet little girl transforming herself into one of the most lethal zombie hunters ever captured on the big screen. Yet, that’s exactly what she turned into for her portrayal of Ana in the 2004 version of Dawn of the Dead.

From the moment she woke up that morning, Ana had to battle a zombie child, her once-loving husband, neighbors, friends, strangers—all changed into the undead from an unknown cause—take refuge in a mall, escape in an armored bus, and fight off hoards of maggot bags all the way to the coast for an escape.

The whole movie is a crazy ride through a Milwaukee zombie apocalypse.

At 5′ 2″ (1.57 m), Ana’s the unsuspecting hero. Her job before this mess consisted of helping people. She’s a nurse. No way could she ever hurt anyone. It’s not in her nature. But when she faces the prospect of loosing the cop that’d helped her from a car wreck, she retaliates with a shotgun. She blows away one of the infected, making it a Twitcher in a pool of its own blood. Someone else steps in later on to put the beast out of its misery.

Ana gets stronger as the movie gets fiercer. In one instance, she aids a woman twice her size, attempting to keep her from dying. The woman doesn’t make it. A moment passes and the woman rises from her death, attacking Ana. Again, Ana uses her cunning and without a gun dispatches the woman in a most brutal fashion. In another instance, when confronted by one of her peers wagging a gun around, she simply states, “Get the gun out of my face.”

Dawn of the Dead's Ana — Dawn of the Dead’s Ana

As time passes, although hardened by the killings, Ana retains her humor. One day, she walks in on a group of survivors playing Hollywood Squares on the mall’s rooftop. The squares are the zombie collective below and the chalk is a sniper perched on the other side of the street. The dialog went something like this:

Steve: Oh, oh. Rosie O’Donnell. Tell him to get Rosie.
Kenneth: Oh, yeah. Rosie.
Tucker: No, too easy. Give him something hard.
Ana: You guys had really rough childhoods, didn’t you? Little bit rocky?
Steve: Hey, sweetheart. Let me tell you something. You, uh, you have my permission. I ever turn into one of those things? Do me a favor, blow my head off.
Ana: [nods] Oh, yeah, you can count on that.

I won’t reveal if Ana ever follows up with her promise to Steve, but I will say this: Ana makes a formidable opponent to anything getting in the way of humanity’s will to survive.

Have you ever seen Dawn of the Dead? What do you think of Ana? Do you see similarities between the movie and the TV show The Walking Dead?

Monday Mayhem

Rising from the Dead

Posted on February 18, 2013February 17, 2013 by Jack Flacco

Zombies are everywhere nowadays. You can’t turn around without bumping into one. They’re all over. What would my Monday Mayhem series be without them?

Last week, hackers in Great Falls, Montana infiltrated KRTV’s Emergency Alert System (EAS) and broadcasted a dire warning to viewers—the zombie apocalypse had begun. A pulsating noise followed by a voice drowned the audio to the regularly scheduled program. “Dead bodies are rising from their graves.” A blue bar at the top of TV screens ran the names of counties and areas affected by the event.

The announcement continued: “Follow the messages onscreen that will be updated as information becomes available. Do not attempt to approach or apprehend these bodies as they are considered extremely dangerous.”

Local police reported viewers had called the station requesting information. What type of firearm can the citizens use against the roamers? Of course, the police took every call seriously even though folks had placed them in jest.

But has anyone ever asked if this scenario is actually possible? It’s all very well and fine that we know this whole thing was a hoax. Who in their right mind would take something like this and act on it is beyond me. However, several things stand out.

How did the hackers gain access to the EAS? Aren’t there security checks in place to prevent this kind of thing from happening? Who performs the yearly audit of the system? Shouldn’t someone have caught this vulnerability in deployment testing? If I were the affiliate station, I would certainly place a very concerned call to the FCC demanding a revamp of the system. Then again, I am Canadian, so my ramblings really don’t count.

More importantly, I’ll ask again, has anyone yet asked if a scenario such as this is possible?

My answer? No. A resounding no! Dead bodies rising from their graves makes for a cool horror flick but looking at it from the perspective of science can prove informative.

There’s this thing called Primary Flaccidity that occurs soon after death whereby every muscle in the body relaxes. Following this condition is Rigor Mortis, which takes place about three hours after death causing muscles in the body to stiffen. During this stiffening process, blood pools into larger veins discoloring the body giving it a pale look. This is called Livor Mortis or what embalmers call Postmortem Stain, for the bruise-like appearance of where the blood settles. The sequence by which the body stiffens tends to differ due to the variance with lactic acid levels in the muscles and glycogen levels in the different types of muscle fibers. Suffice it to say the process may begin with eyelids, neck and jaw. During the course of Rigor Mortis, the body cools in another process called Algor Mortis.

Within twenty-four to forty-eight hours, the body’s muscles relax again in Secondary Flaccidity. Within a week, the abdomen swells with gas produced by bacteria in the body. Skin blisters appear. Within two weeks, abdomen tightens and swells further. Within three weeks, organs and cavities burst. Nails fall off. Within a month, skin liquefies making the body unrecognizable.

It’s pretty morbid but fascinating nonetheless.

Anyway, getting back to the scenario of dead bodies rising from their graves in a maelstrom invasion of sorts—impossible. That is, impossible if the bodies hadn’t gone through decomposition. It would mean every body rising in every grave had to have died within minutes of each other and rise just before Rigor Mortis stiffened the muscles, Livor Mortis pooled the blood, Algor Mortis cooled the flesh, and Secondary Flaccidity prepped the abdomen for exploding organs.

Doesn’t make sense to me. If the reports from Montana were true, they’d of had skeletons roaming the streets and not bodies.

What does make sense, though, is an invasion born of the living, much like the post Zombie Apocalypse: Ground Zero I’d written regarding the origins of such an event.

What do you think? Is a Zombie Apocalypse possible from bodies rising from the graves? Where does science fit in all this?

Freedom Friday

Games I Loved Playing

Posted on February 15, 2013May 10, 2017 by Jack Flacco

I’m an avid game player. I thought for Freedom Friday I’d treat you all to some of my favorite games of all time.

Monopoly - The Canadian Edition — Monopoly – The Canadian Edition

When I talk about games, I’m talking about video games. I enjoy playing the good board game with my kids and others, like The Game of Life, Monopoly and chess. But I get personal satisfaction when I vanquish invading Martians attempting to colonize earth in a no holds barred slugfest for my PSP.

Not that there’s anything wrong with loving our family game nights when we play a good round of Risk with ample snacks and drinks to carry us through the night!

Nonetheless, here are my über-favorite video games I’ve played over the course of my life. Maybe you might recognize some, maybe not.

Super Mario 64: Doesn’t Mario ever die? You know it’s rather awesome walking into my local Best Buy store and talking with the employees who grew up with Mario. “I love the part where I hit the block over the head and all the coins come out, one after another.” Yeah, it’s those scintillating conversations that make my trip to my nearest retailer something to look forward to. I mean, really. Hasn’t anyone not heard of Mario? I remember playing this game thinking, wow, I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of this. The game features bright, primary colors. The reds, greens and blues flood the screen, giving the gamer a wonderful and immersive experience. Boy, I wish I had kept the old Nintendo 64 console.

Donkey Kong 64: This is another one of those Nintendo 64 games that kept me entertained for hours. It belonged to my older son, but I played tons of it late night, into the weekend. I enjoyed racing through the quests and grabbing keys along the way. My favorite part was to change into the various apes to perform feats of wonder and magic (actually, a player couldn’t get to a particular part of the map without transforming into one of the apes with special abilities). This game truly caused me insomnia.

Duke Nukem 3D: How can I describe this game as anything short of “action game crack”? It was the first game that featured a rich 3D environment in a cartoon-like setting. The storyline was over-the-top, the characters—lovable, and Duke’s quotes—hilarious. Here’s one of my favorite lines in any game, ever…

“Time to kick ass and chew bubble gum. And I’m all outta gum.”

Duke’s a gun-toting, muscle man is reminiscent of Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator characters. I’ll never forget playing multi-player for the very first time with this game. One of my friends had his place wired with networked computers and we wailed on each other, flying through the levels in hysterics after killing off one of our opponents. Fun times!

SimCity 2000: Well, included in this, is any SimCity game, really. But I can’t tell you how much time I’d wasted building the absolute perfect city. Balancing residential, commercial and industrial zones to achieve that all-so-glorious-and-mighty, top mayor score. I still have screenshots of my cities I’ll peruse occasionally, admiring my handiwork. And of course, being the responsible player I was, I never let hurricanes, floods, tornadoes or alien invasion harm my cities. Or did I?

FIFA 10: I have almost all the FIFA Soccer games. I began playing them on the PC then moved to my PSP. I think FIFA 10 had the right balance between game play, music, aesthetics and sheer fun. I burned through all the tournaments, creating my own player and training him to score at will. I’d gotten so good on the hardest level that I think even the goalies were afraid of my Frankenstein monsters I’d created!

LEGO Batman, Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Harry Potter: I’ve played them all. Completed each level. Collected all the bonuses. And found all the secrets. These games are awesome. I have yet to play some of the newer titles, but I’m sure I’ll get to them soon. The wonderful part about these games are the puzzles. I loved working through a level a few times to see if I could find every item. Most of all, I adored, yes, adored having the ability to play the various levels as different characters. This is what makes these LEGO games so addictive (not to mention blasting away anything into a big pile of collectable bricks).

Do you have any games you like playing to pass the time? What platform do you use to play your games (ie. phone, tablet, laptop)?

Women Who Wow Wednesday

Hancock’s Mary

Posted on February 13, 2013February 14, 2013 by Jack Flacco

Her name is Mary Embrey. She’s married to an ad executive who goes by the name of Ray. They have a son, Aaron, a healthy marriage, and a great place to live. If you haven’t seen Hancock, read no further, for spoilers lie therein as my series Women Who Wow Wednesday continues.

Hancock's Mary played by Charlize Therone — Hancock’s Mary played by Charlize Therone

In 2008’s Hancock, Will Smith plays a superhero who’s lost his memory. He spends most of his days in a drunken stupor. When he flies to the rescue, he does more damage to the buildings he runs into than he does doing good. The citizens of Los Angeles hate him. The media hates him. And no one can get rid of him. How do you get rid of a superhero impervious to all weapons?

That is until one day, Hancock saves Ray. Flying between a screaming train and Ray’s stuck car over the railroad track, Hancock body-checks the locomotive into a mangled pile of iron scrap. To show appreciation, Ray offers his services to clean up Hancock’s image.

It is during this time Hancock meets Ray’s lovely wife Mary. Unbeknownst to Hancock, Mary’s known him all her life.

One evening, while Ray is away, attraction pulls Hancock and Mary together. They succumb to temptation and kiss. This frightens Mary into grabbing the superhero by the lapels and hurling him through the kitchen wall, decimating the family fridge and three parked cars in the process. She’s superhuman, too!

In order to protect her family, she withholds vital information from Hancock. When he threatens to tell her husband of her superpowers unless she reveals their origins, she loses it. They get into an all out brawl on the city street while dark storm clouds churn in anger. I guess the universe doesn’t approve of their little spat. Well, if you consider Mary’s penchant for smashing a massive concrete mixer truck upside Hancock’s head a little spat.

Mary explains mortals knew them as angels and gods. They were created as a pair 3,000 years ago. No matter where they are in the world, they will always find each other. They will always draw near to remain as one. She goes on to say they are the last of their kind. If they remain together, they will lose their power. Just as it happened 80 years ago when an attack in an alleyway left Hancock with a fractured skull, causing his amnesia. Although she didn’t mention it at the time, Mary deserted him so he could regain his strength and live, in spite of him never remembering who she was. With that selfless act of kindness, she saved him.

Reminiscent of a Shakespearean tragedy, Mary is shot. Hancock remembers how she saved him. He repays Mary’s act of kindness by leaving her for dead in the hospital. Once she recovers, she lives without ever having to worry again of Hancock’s interference in her life or with the life of her husband and family. Hancock saves Mary by letting her go.

Have you had anyone in your life show you an act of kindness that led you to a changed life? Has anyone ever saved you?

Monday Mayhem

The Walking Dead

Posted on February 11, 2013February 10, 2013 by Jack Flacco

My Monday Mayhem series provides me with the opportunity to ramble on about zombies, the zombie apocalypse and the undead. Today’s no different. Because today, I want to ramble on about The Walking Dead.

I’ve wanted to write about The Walking Dead for a while now, but never really had any idea of how to approach it. I could talk about all the gnarly special effects with the guns blowing away the zombies or I can go into the incredible makeup each zombie actor in the show wears. However, I didn’t feel I’d provide anything new a reader couldn’t get anywhere else. And that’s what made me start this post, put it away and start it again. A few times in fact.

I decided to try something different instead.

For those who haven’t watched the show, AMC’s The Walking Dead is about a group of apocalypse survivors who search for a safe haven from evil. The evil being zombies. Although no one ever utters the word zombie in first season, labels such as Roamers, Walkers, Lamebrains, and Geeks make for good replacements.

Also to the credit of the show, the cast varies. Sheriff Rick Grimes, who’s smart, has moral integrity, a father, husband and a good friend, leads the group. He walks around flawed though, seeing things black and white causing him to make decisions that although ethically correct, causes more problems in the end. He is a protector and will do anything to keep the others safe.

Close to him is Deputy Shane Walsh, Rick’s best friend since high school. Living under Rick’s shadow, bitter resentment causes hatred, which ultimately results in Shane’s breakdown of conscience. This leads Shane to becoming a threat to the other survivors, including Rick’s son, Carl.

Lori Grimes is Rick’s wife and the center of the survivors’ emotional stability. She is loyal to Rick. This leads Shane to covet that which is Rick’s.

The Walking Dead is more than a typical zombie show. I wouldn’t consider it a zombie show at all if it weren’t for all the zombies popping up occasionally.

No, the show is about friendship. Every episode tries each friendship further and further in a refining fire. The audience watches this in awe, wondering how much can the characters take. No way can they survive this. Impossible! Yet, the friendships do survive. Through the yelling, screaming, betrayals and hatred, the survivors carry on, stronger, more determined to accomplish their goal of finding safety away from the Walkers.

The Walking Dead is a testament to what Hollywood can accomplish when the right people come together in an effort to create something exceptional. The show’s grounding comes from producers who know how the human condition works.

Have you seen The Walking Dead? What do you like about the show? Is there something in the show you’d like to see?

Food Favorites, Freedom Friday

Eleven-Spice Chicken

Posted on February 8, 2013May 8, 2017 by Jack Flacco

Saturdays is a big thing here at our house. While everyone in our neighborhood shovels the snow from their driveway, goes shopping or runs errands, my family unplugs and relaxes with good food, great conversation and awesome friends. This is my Freedom Friday post, and this is my Eleven-Spice Chicken recipe.

My family lives a hectic lifestyle. I can’t tell you how busy my wife gets hauling the kids back and forth to their activities or how I manage to stay sane doing the same thing in the evenings. But the day we look forward to the most is Saturday. Saturday is our day. Actually, it’s my wife’s day, since I get to treat her with one of my most delicious recipes. She enjoys the food. I enjoy the cooking. And when we have company over, it makes for a delightful evening of giddiness and good time.

Born from my many Saturday food experiments comes my Eleven-Spice Chicken recipe. Yep, this is a true-blue, Jack Flacco original just like the sushi recipe I wrote about a few weeks ago. How this recipe came about was from watching nothing but the Food Network for a whole year and trying various BBQ recipes from multiple hosts. I tried a myriad of spices to get the right mix of what I liked. Some meals come out from the oven smelling incredible. Some—not so much. I would tweak the ingredients slightly and try again until I got the combination right. I did this until one day, my son said, “Boy, is this ever good!” That’s when I knew I had something. When I finally tasted it, he was right, “Boy, is this ever good!”

Now, if anyone ever asked, I used to hold on to my recipes like gold. Never quite revealing everything I’d put in them. Then I thought, that’s kind of selfish. The whole point of cooking is to share a great experience with people and have them try something unique. Something they never tried before. What better way to do that than to share it with you all!

Here we go, then…

Ingredients:

Black pepper

Brown sugar

Cayenne pepper

Coriander

Cumin

Curry powder

Garlic powder

Ginger powder

Onion powder

Paprika

Salt

Skinless chicken thighs and/or chicken legs

What prep looks like:

Directions:

Buy quality, skinless chicken. I tend to purchase my chicken thighs and legs from Costco. They have them packaged nicely and the thighs are already skinless, so you’ll save some time with prep. Also, you get a lot in the package, which will allow you to save money in the long run.

Get yourself a deep skillet and set your chicken in there. Some have argued chicken tastes better in a metal skillet as opposed to glass. I’ve tried both and I can’t really tell which tastes better. It’s going in the oven, not the BBQ. I’ll leave that up to you. Live on the wild side!

Spice the chicken. You’ll notice all the ingredients are powders. There’s a reason for this. With powders, you can control how much of a spice you’d like to taste in the meal. My rule of thumb is to put in what you like. Here is how I do it: Salt the meat. Nothing worse than tasting bland meat. Then sprinkle liberally all the other ingredients except for the brown sugar. Do it for both sides. Once you’re done, take a teaspoon of brown sugar and sprinkle it on one side as your last ingredient. When the dish comes out of the oven, you’ll find the sugar will have melted and caramelized over the chicken, helping to seal in the juices. I also use brown sugar because it contains molasses, which gives the dish an extra edge of rustic flavor over white, flavorless sugar.

Finally, preheat the oven to 375°F/190°C, cover the dish with tin foil and slip it into the oven for an hour. Once complete, take it out and enjoy!

If you like this recipe, pass it along.

Do you have any chicken recipes you’d like to share? If you’ve cooked this, how did it turn out?

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