Willy Wonka

When we first paid for cable in upstate, New York (circa 1983), our channel changer was a brown box with a row of buttons and a lever that allowed viewers to switch from level one, two and three. The box had a long caramel chord that attached to the t.v. viewer and one could change channels without getting out of his/her seat (he or she could also get the paid channels of Cinemax and Showtime if you pushed several buttons at once and fooled around with the focus dial on the right hand side). The cable box belonged to my father in his smoker's lounge, however, and we little ones seldom got to use it. We resorted to using the muscles in our legs to walk to the old television set upstairs and would turn the dial (old-fashioned like...with our hands), and then walked back to our chair. We had to compete, though, with our mother who was either watching DAYS OF OUR LIVES or Phil Donohue.

This ancient period of time was known as the nineteen eighties and because we lacked instant access to mediated, digital reality, we didn't know that Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory existed. In fact, I had to wait until TBS or another cable station would show it annually, once a year, and then I would coax my father into going outside to mow the lawn.

As a chocoholic I was mesmerized by this movie. As a horny toad for biotches with attitude problems (Varooka) I was enthralled and learned about desire. As a lover of Roald Dahl's writing, too, I was shocked, THEY MAKE MOVIES FROM BOOKS. I didn't know that.

Now, I can watch Willy Wonka - the King of Quirky - any day of the week on DVD or VHS. It seems to always be on some channel or other. I can even browse YouTube to see images of oompa loompas if my passion arrives. I can also compare the 1971 version (spermazoan me was swimming towards an egg at the same time this version was being filmed) to the disappointing 2005 version with Johnny Depp (Michael Jackson meets Emo Phillips).

Regardless, Wonka remains the Zeus of whimsical minds: A little nonsense now and then, relished by the wisest men, and
because of this, I salute him on day two of focusing on everything quirky.