You're Special

but your name may not be.

HowManyOfMe.com

There is 1 person with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Obama Leads

Obama has more superdelegates than Clinton now.

CNN
MSNBC
DailyKos

Here's moveon.org's winning video:


Here's the MoveOn.org People's Choice Award "They Said He was Unprepared":


"It Could Happen to You" won for Funniest (watch through to the end):

Douglas Adams

Today is the anniversary of the death in 2001 at 49 years of age of author Douglas Adams, whose book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has become an industry in itself. There is a film based on it that we have on DVD, but I must have seen it before I started keeping this blog.

Here's an interview with him done for the Big Thinkers tv series:

Pentecost

Pentecost is 50 days after Easter, 10 days after the Ascension, and celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Church.

Acts 2 (KJV)

1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

5 And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. 6 Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. 7 And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? 8 And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? 9 Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, 10 Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. 12 And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? 13 Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.

14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: 15 For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. 16 But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; 17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: 18 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: 19 And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: 20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord come: 21 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

The picture above is by Cosmas Damian Assam.

Sunday Psalm

Psalm 104

1 Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty.

2 Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain:

3 Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind:

4 Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:

5 Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.

6 Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains.

7 At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away.

8 They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them.

9 Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth.

10 He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills.

11 They give drink to every beast of the field: the wild asses quench their thirst.

12 By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their habitation, which sing among the branches.

13 He watereth the hills from his chambers: the earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works.

14 He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth;

15 And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart.

16 The trees of the LORD are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted;

17 Where the birds make their nests: as for the stork, the fir trees are her house.

18 The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats; and the rocks for the conies.

19 He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down.

20 Thou makest darkness, and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth.

21 The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God.

22 The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, and lay them down in their dens.

23 Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening.

24 O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.

25 So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts.

26 There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein.

27 These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season.

28 That thou givest them they gather: thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good.

29 Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.

30 Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.

31 The glory of the LORD shall endure for ever: the LORD shall rejoice in his works.

32 He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth: he toucheth the hills, and they smoke.

33 I will sing unto the LORD as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.

34 My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the LORD.

35 Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless thou the LORD, O my soul. Praise ye the LORD.

KJV

The Great Train Robbery

The Great Train Robbery is a groundbreaking 1903 silent film. WildWestWeb.net has still shots from the movie.

The Internet Archive has it online:



1001Flicks has a review.

A Chorus Line

I found a great find at Spin Street while I was there paying a small fortune for The Red Shoes and was able to pick up A Chorus Line for $4.99. I love bargain prices on DVDs, so I bought it to make 2 films to watch for the Invitation to the Dance movie blogathon.

I had never seen this film before, but I had seen the stage production and knew the story and the music. I hadn't remembered the line about the film The Red Shoes but thought it was a fun coincidence considering The Red Shoes was the last movie I saw and that was just last night. Actually, there was a lot of the movie I didn't remember from the theater production I saw, but I saw it on stage a long time ago.

The New York Times didn't like it. Roger Ebert says,

The result may not please purists who want a film record of what they saw on stage, but this is one of the most intelligent and compelling movie musicals in a long time - and the most grown up, since it isn't limited, as so many contemporary musicals are, to the celebration of the survival qualities of geriatric actresses.

The closing scene:


TheatreMemphis did A Chorus Line in 1999, but I didn't see it there. You can't link to individual pages at their site (what a pain), but if you click on "Photos" at the top, then click on "1990" on the left, then click through to the 5th picture there's one shot of "A Chorus Line". I told you it was a pain.

Stagecoach

When I came downstairs this morning The Husband was watching Stagecoach, so I watched it with him. We've both seen it several times, but a good movie deserves revisiting. This is a 1939 western directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne back when he didn't get top billing, Andy Devine, John Carradine, Thomas Mitchell in an Academy Award winning supporting role and Claire Trevor as Wayne's love interest.

trailer:


1001 Flicks has a review. Only the Cinema has a review. Images Journal includes it on their list of 30 best Westerns.

The picture at the top of the post is from wikipedia.

5/13/2010: Criterion Confessions has an article. DVDTalk has a thorough review.

Shel Silverstein

Today is the anniversary of the death (well, according to wikipedia it's actually the anniversary of the Monday his body was found after his death of a heart attack sometime over the preceding weekend) in 1999 of Shel Silverstein. I discovered his book The Giving Tree in about 1977 and found A Light in the Attic and Where the Sidewalk Ends when the kids were little.

Rain
by Shel Silverstein

I opened my eyes
And looked up at the rain,
And it dripped in my head
And flowed into my brain,
And all that I hear as I lie in my bed
Is the slishity-slosh of the rain in my head.

I step very softly,
I walk very slow,
I can't do a handstand--
I might overflow,
So pardon the wild crazy thing I just said--
I'm just not the same since there's rain in my head.

The photo came from the wikipedia article linked above.

The Red Shoes

I almost bought The Red Shoes for the Powell/Pressburger blogathon but ended up not participating in that one. When I saw the Invitation to the Dance movie blogathon I knew I had to watch this film. It's hard to work up enthusiasm for paying Criterion edition prices, but I did it!

I had seen some some parts of it, but The Husband and The Younger Son had never heard of it. I loved it, The Husband liked it and The Younger Son thought the ballet sequence was too slow. We got into a discussion afterwards about the difference between a slow movie and a boring one and argued a bit over which category Barry Lyndon fits into, but that's another subject....

The ballet within the story is based on the Hans Christian Andersen tale.

There are reviews and interviews at the Powell/Pressburger site. Senses of Cinema discusses the film in the context of Powell's and Pressburger's work and has a page devoted specifically to The Red Shoes here. Criterion Contraption's review is here. The British Film Institute has a page here.

FilmReference.com has a list of references and a commentary which includes this on the film's enduring popularity:

The Red Shoes went on to critical acclaim and, less predictably, to sustained popularity with the public. The lushness of its colour-drenched images and its passion-drenched depiction of the characters were not, in themselves, the factors that determined the initial appeal. It was the dancing, the very thing that had made those executives so leery of the film's viability with something approaching mass audience.

Roger Ebert begins his review saying,

There is tension between two kinds of stories in "The Red Shoes," and that tension helps make it the most popular movie ever made about the ballet and one of the most enigmatic movies about anything.

Films de France ends their review with this statement:

Since its initial release, the film’s reputation has steadily increased and today it is recognised as one of the true great masterpieces of British cinema.

trailer:


the ballet sequence from the movie:


The picture at the top of the post is from wikipedia.

5/30/2010: Criterion Confessions has an article.

Invitation to the Dance Blogathon

5/10:
A Chorus Line

update:
later on 5/9:
The Red Shoes

The Dance Blogathon is hosted at Ferdy on Films. Tomorrow is the last day, so I'm coming to the dance late, but I've been looking forward to watching a couple of films and reading the archived posts.

As I look back I haven't seen too many movies that feature dance since I started this blog, but I do remember these:

Royal Wedding

Maya Deren included dance in some of her work.

The Skeleton Dance, a 1929 cartoon short, is the 2nd film embedded in this post.

The Blue-Footed Booby Dance

Matt dancing around the world. Twice.

Annabelle Serpentine Dance (1895 short) is 1st on this page.

A Buffalo Dance, Imperial Japanese Dance, Sioux Ghost Dance... are embedded here.

Scrooge Ballet

It seems like the big musicals I've seen that had lots of dance numbers in them are ones I watched before keeping the blog. I do have a couple of new ones in mind to watch for this blogathon.

Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War

Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War is just as good as the first book in this Clive Barker series, and I do really like these books. I may actually have to buy the next one in hardback as soon as it hits the shelves. I was entranced by the illustrations and enjoyed the story. Although aimed at a "young adult" audience (what does that mean?), this book is perfectly suitable for anyone (adults included) over the age of 10 or so.

from the back of the book:

Candy Quackenbush's adventures in the Abarat are getting stranger by the hour. Why has the Lord of Midnight sent his henchman after her? Why can she suddenly speak words of magic? Why is this world familiar?

Candy and her companions must solve the mystery of her past before the forces of Night and Day clash and Absolute Midnight descends upon the islands.

A final war is about to begin....

Theatre Memphis' Room Service

Theatre Memphis' Room Service got a lot of laughs from their large audience tonight and spontaneous applause at several points during the play. I'm only familiar with the play as the inspiration for the Marx Brothers movie by the same name, but I enjoyed seeing the play itself. I think Theatre Memphis did a great job with this one. My only beef with them right now is that the promise of a Shakespeare play each season has been broken after, what... 2 seasons? Oh, and too many big honkin' musicals. But I'm weird.

ArtsMemphis.org has a couple of photos. MemphisDailyNews.com has an interview with director Kell Christie. Christopher Blank has a video review of this play and a play at another theater here. His video presentation includes an excerpt from the play.

The Kansas City Repertory Theatre has a guide to the play online.

Calculate Your Greendex Score

Take the test to find your National Geographic Greendex score. My score was 63. Decent enough, I guess, but I was surprised it was this high.

HT: DailyKos

I think I hear the fat lady singing....

When will Hillary hear it and let this process move forward?

----
George McGovern has swirched to Obama.

Andrew Sullivan begins his commentary with this:

There is no calculation that currently gives the Clintons a majority of the popular vote. There is now no mathematical possibility of them getting more delegates. Obama has won by far the most states. He has raised far more money; he has 1.5 million donors, mainly small sums. He has crushed her among new voters and young voters; and as a black politician, his support spans all races and classes. And recall: he is a freshman senator with a very funny name against the biggest brand name in American politics and a worldwide celebrity whose chief campaigner was a former two-term president of the United States.

When you take a couple of steps back, you realize the astonishing success of this movement.

L. Frank Baum

Today is the anniversary of the death in 1919 of author L. Frank Baum. He wrote The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, but he's best known for the Wizard of Oz series. Baum's works are available online. The books have been adapted for film several times, and 2 early ones are available online.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1910 short):


Wizard of Oz (1925) is really a completely different story using some of the same characters. Oliver Hardy plays a farmhand who disguises himself as the Tin Woodman.:


There's a 1982 animated Toho production of the story starring Lorne Greene as the voice of the wizard, but as far as I can tell this was never made available on DVD and the VHS is out of print. It's at youtube in 12 parts. part 1:


The wikipedia artcle says that Baum was originally a Methodist. Baum has a Facebook page. Fantasy Magazine (via SFSignal) has a profile.

Tennessee Iditarod Sledder Update

WBIR has an update on Rodney Whaley, the only Tennessean ever to qualify for the Iditarod. There's a video at the site and a link to the sledder's home page. The Iditarod site has a "learn more" section that tells about the history of the race. That site can be hard to navigate, as so much of it requires registration and it seems I always get shunted to a page with no links that requires my email addy before I can move forward, but the home page is http://www.iditarod.com/.

Iron Man

What a fun film! We don't see many movies in the theater any more -it's just too expensive- but The Husband wanted to see this one on the big screen. We all went and liked it. Granted some liked it better than others, but we all liked it. Iron Man stars Robert Downey, Jr. in the title role and co-stars Gwyneth Paltrow as his personal assistant, Terrence Howard as a fighter pilot and friend of Tony Stark, Jeff Bridges as Stark's business partner with cameos by Stan Lee and Samuel Jackson. It's making good money and getting good press, and I've read there's a trilogy planned.

trailer:


the 1966 Iron Man cartoon here:


and here:


HT for the TV series videos: The Husband

5/6/2008:
SFSignal has a review saying, "All told, it was exactly what I wanted out of a summer film - action, excellent CGI, and a hero you can root for.".
SFScope has a review.

5/7/2008:
John Wright's review.

5/8/2008:
PositiveLiberty didn't like it:

Look, casting Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark was a stroke of genius and it was wonderful that Downey could work the film into his schedule between rehabs. Gwyneth Paltrow’s quasi-romantic interest works well, giving Paltrow’s much publicized stiletto heel fetish an opportunity to be put on display on the talk show circuit.
...
In fact, everything about Iron Man works except Iron Man. Taken as a whole, it is simply too predictable to engender the slightest bit of dramatic tension from the point where Stark escapes from the cave.

The fact is that Iron Man is splashy and big-screen worthy and just about everything a summer blockbuster should be except a good movie.

Yikes! I thought the rehab crack was a bit tacky in a review, but maybe I'm prejudiced since I thought the film was "everything a summer blockbuster should be": lots of fun.

5/9/2008:
RogerEbert.com:

Not only is it a good comic book movie (smart and stupid, stirring and silly, intimate and spectacular), it's winning enough to engage even those who've never cared much for comic books or the movies they spawn. Like me.

ID is Creationism

A basic overview in 4 minutes.

HT: BadAstronomy

We did too land on the moon.

But don't take my word for it. Check out any of the actual real-live scientists who explain it in detail. Of course, if you choose to fall for every wacky conspiracy theory that comes along....

Bad Astronomy has links to bunches of reputable scientists who know the difference between fact and fancy, thank you very much.

RedZero offers evidence.

NASA, as you might expect, has stepped up to defend the truth in the face of ignorance.

Wikipedia (I know, I know, but they offer good overviews with helpful links as long as you are a critical reader) has a history of the nutcase objections and includes videos debunking all that flag-waving nonsense. It even gives links to sites of the proponents of the hoax idea with their various rants.

But if you really want to jump on the conspiracy theory bandwagon with the flat-earthers, I guess this one's better than the conspiracy theory that says the Jews (or was it the US government) were responsible for the 9/11 attacks.

My favorite, though is the whole 2012 thing. How can you doubt the Mayans?

Logic, people! Whatever happened to critical thinking skills and logic?

5/20/2008:

LiveScience has a list of the top 10 conspiracy theories, and guess what: that the moon landing was a hoax is one of them.