Year-end reflections

It’s been a while since I wrote anything new for the Soup, so I thought I’d just check in to say hello and share a few thoughts during these final days of the year.

It’s been a busy few months here in my neck of the woods. In early November I spent a week on vacation in Napa Valley indulging in my newest interest, wine, and soon after was consumed with planning a Thanksgiving dinner for 10 at my house. Then it was all about planning for Christmas and doing some spring cleaning around the house that didn’t get done back in the spring. My workshop is a mess at the moment, serving as a staging area for clutter that I’m moving from one room to another.

While these things have distracted me from working on a model, I’ve remained engaged in the hobby thanks to the interwebz. Every day I read my favorite forums, check the 65,451 model-related groups in my Facebook feed, and contribute a comment or two here and there when I have something substantive to say.

Beyond my home a lot has been going on these last couple of months.

Scale Model World has come and gone in Telford, and based on the photographs I saw of the competition and display tables (iModeler had particularly good coverage) it’s clear to me that I really need to prioritize a trip to England in the next year or two, even if it means skipping the IPMS Nats to do so. The vendors room looked amazing, and the quality of the models was exceptional. The models coming from the hands of our European friends are truly something special; I'll have more to say about that next year.

With Telford and the nearing of year-end, many of the manufacturers have announced their 2016 releases. The good times continue with a huge variety of models in the pipeline, so I recommend each of you ask your boss for a raise. Everyone is raving about AMK’s MiG-31, and I’m sure that if I were to nominate one model as the model of the year it would probably be that one. In addition, a friend tells me that Flyhawk’s new HMS Naiad is “amazing,” high praise for a tiny 1/700 kit; one reviewer on Model Warships says the light cruiser, "sets new standards for injection molded kits in terms of quality and value.” The most ironic announcement for me was Tamiya’s Su-76. Literally the day before I told a friend that it was about time we saw a new-tool kit of the SPG.

Some of you took advantage of Squadron’s Black Friday Sale, and many of you once again complained about their prices. If you made your selections carefully or collaborated with friends and shared an order it was easy to find value in the sale. Personally I saved $80 on my purchases, not to mention the shipping. No complaints here!

Out in the real world, beyond the comfort of our workshops, we've been intrigued by Russia’s involvement in the Syrian conflict. Nobody in their right mind wants war, but it’s been interesting to see the Su-34 in particular used in conflict for the first time. And with the typical Russian star insignia painted over on most of the aircraft, that’s one less decal to apply to our model and one less opportunity to screw up the finish! The Aviationist has provided good coverage of the operations, particularly here and here.

Finally, and most recently, we all cringed at Steve Harvey’s mistake naming Ariadna Gutierrez as Miss Universe and her short, four-minute reign as the most beautiful woman in the galaxy (with the possible exception of Rey from The Force Awakens). To put a scale modeling spin on the event, we can learn something from Ariadna’s response to the mistake. She handled it with class and grace, posting a very kind statement to Facebook, which we should remember the next time we feel slighted at a model contest.

With that I shall sign off for the moment. For those who share my passion for music, I’m going to post my list of my favorite musical albums and songs of 2015 in the next few days. In the meantime, I wish you again a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

P.S. A sincere “welcome” to all of my new readers now following me on Facebook. I’m surprised at how many new Likes I’ve received despite not having posted much over the last two months. Thank you for your support!

Cuchi cuchi!

When I started this blog I had intentions of occasionally writing about topics unrelated to scale modeling yet still of interest to my readers. I haven’t done that, until now, and this is going to be a doozie! Let me know if you enjoy this and future brief diversions.

Like many of you, I grew up in the late 70s and early 80s. I was an only child, so I spent a good deal of time watching television with my mother and grandparents, and their tastes weren’t quite what a 10 year old would typically enjoy. Instead of listening to The Rolling Stones or The Beatles on a Friday night, I was watching The Love Boat and Fantasy Island. One of the most memorable, recurring characters on the former was Charo, who appeared on the show eight times. She is what you might call, a “bombshell.”

She was one of the more outlandish personalities of the 1970s, known for her guitar playing, comedy, and dancing. And if you thought Sofia Vergara’s accent is thick, Charo trumps her by a continent! I can only imagine the wow factor that Charo’s performances must have generated the first time someone saw her!
If you don’t know her, take a moment to watch this video.

As a young boy, Charo was an oddity. She seemed completely ridiculous to me. I didn’t understand her fame, and I’m not quite sure I do today. An older friend of mine tells me that even back then she was a curiosity, like a “less revolting Kardashian,” he said. He pointed out that during the 60s and early 70s, a time of great social and cultural shift, television didn't always keep up. Charo probably appealed to slightly older Americans who weren't ready to settle down with Lawrence Welk but weren’t prepared for Led Zeppelin’s sound either.

In addition, my friend reminded me that anything Latin was big, beginning as early as the 1950s when Latin dance music became popular with the mambo, chachacha, and rumba. Its distinctive sounds eventually found their way into the music of José Feliciano and Santana. "Girl from Ipanema" a bossa nova song written by Antônio Carlos Jobim, won the Grammy for best record of the year in 1965. Later, in 1974, Chico and the Man hit American television and had a four-year run. Charo was appealing because she was tied to an earlier, familiar scene, and because she was sexy, playful, and funny.

What you probably don’t know is that Charo starred in an ABC sitcom that presumably never aired in the US but was broadcast on the American Armed Forces Network. She played the wife of a Marine who danced at an off-limits club. Sounds like a winner, right?

If you want to see Charo perform live, I think she has a show in Branson, Missouri as well as Las Vegas. If you go, I’d really like to hear about it!