Category: Entertainment

Historical Bucket List

Bucket List, Entertainment, History

Triggered by this article (“Brits wish they’d seen these top 25 historical events”), I thought I’d put together my own list of historical events I’d like to have witnessed firsthand.  (I know, I wrote a similar post a while back, but times have changed.)  They are in no specific order of preference.

  1. Gunfight at the OK Corral
  2. Sinking of the Bismarck
  3. Wright Brothers’ first flight
  4. Battle at Little Big Horn
  5. Eruption of Krakatoa, 1883
  6. 24-hour Le Mans race, 1934 (from several vantage points)
  7. The Beatles playing at the Cavern club in Liverpool
  8. Battle of Hastings, 1066
  9. Any Blaze Starr performance at the Two O’ Clock Club
  10. Bombing of the Eder Dam by RAF 617 (“Dambusters”) Squadron
  11. Constitutional Convention, 1787
  12. Great Fire of London, 1666
  13. Any Led Zeppelin concert, 1970–71
  14. London Blitz, September 1940–May 1941
  15. First performance of Stravinsky’s Rite Of Spring, 1913
  16. Battle of Rorke’s Drift, 1879
  17. Borg–McEnroe Wimbledon final, 1980
  18. Liberation of Paris, 1944
  19. Trial of Galileo, 1633 (assuming I could speak medieval Italian)
  20. Battle of Marathon, 490 BC
  21. 1906 San Francisco earthquake
  22. Assassination of Julius Caesar
  23. Alvin York’s heroic action in France, 1918
  24. The deaths of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
  25. Queen Victoria’s wedding night

Your choices (any number up to 25) in Comments.

And That’s Why

Entertainment, Wokism

How about this one:

“It’s a Wonderful Life” fans have expressed outrage that Amazon Prime cut a crucial scene from the beloved Christmas classic.

An abridged version of the 1946 film has been edited to leave out a scene that many consider the most important in the movie, which follows the character of businessman George Bailey as he considers taking his own life.

The scene in question, known as the ‘Pottersville scene,’ sees George wish that he had never been born before his guardian angel reminds him that he needs to earn ‘his angel wings.’

In the original version of the movie, George tells the angel that he believes he is worth more dead than alive. The angel then tells George that he does not know all he has done in his life, before showing him a version of a grim world where he never existed.

That’s when George realizes he has a wonderful life and has positively impacted his loved ones, who he is desperate to get back to as the film comes to a resolution.

But in the abridged version of the film on Prime, the moment where the angel tells George he has to earn his wings abruptly cuts to George happily running through the streets after he’s reconciled with his own life — without including what led him to his newfound acceptance.

…and harking back to the title of this post:  this is why I have bought and continue to acquire the DVDs of all my favorite movies (Casablanca, 1984, It Happened One Night, all the Fred/Ginger movies, etc.) and I have a backup multi-format DVD player in case my new one ever breaks.

That way, nobody (e.g. Amazon) can ever take them away from me or “abridge” them.  Just who the fucking hell do they think they are?  The Pope who had all Michelangelo’s nude works defaced by painting over the women’s pudenda?

Fuck ’em all, and the nanny horse they rode in on.

Bastards.

Out Of Control

Education, Entertainment

Why did I never have school trips like this one?

Head teacher struck off for school ski trip to Switzerland where one girl pupil slept with three boys, another had sex with a boy for £30

…and unbelievably, it gets even better from there.

Sheeesh… and all the school trips I ever experienced were to museums and other such boring nonsense.

As to how all this happened, this sentence may provide a clue:

A Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) misconduct panel heard Mrs Drury was principal of the CP Riverside school in Nottingham, a school which provides alternative education for children aged 13-18 with behavior or social issues.

Wow… who could have predicted this outcome?  (“Only about 99% of all sentient adults, Kim.”)

Well, I guess that all falls under the umbrella of “alternative education” now, dunnit?

Addendum

Entertainment

Here’s something from Insty:

I haven’t seen any of them, of course, and am unlikely to do so — unless they’re on Netflix already, and even then…

…which brings me to a new movie — okay, series — that I have seen, watched over the past weekend, in fact.

My one-word review:  Don’t.

My longer review:  total and utter bullshit, with a paper-thin plot, an unbelievable “heroine”, and more holes in the plot (and action sequences) than in the average piece of Swiss cheese — and I apologize in advance for any slight against Swiss cheese.

Suffice it to say that the good guys all shoot like Jerry Miculek, while the bad guys (predictably) all shoot like guys who flunked out of Imperial Stormtrooper Beginners Marksmanship Qualification.  And watching the 82-pound Keira Knightley fighting a Special Forces sniper hand-to-hand — and winning — is enough to make you reach for the barf bag.

There’s even a sub-plot where the good-guy assassin is (surprise, surprise) a homo with (of course) a Black lover.  That this relationship is actually one of the more interesting and entertaining parts of the show should say it all.

I would go into greater detail, but that would require making an effort which this stupid series really does not deserve.

And to prove how totally crap this show is, Netflix has committed to Season 2 already.

Don’t say you haven’t been warned.

Eyes And Ears

Entertainment

Longtime Reader valine76 writes:

“Lately I’ve left the romantic era and have been browsing music from the baroque period, especially Vivaldi and Handel. While there, I stumbled across a composition by Ricardo Broschi  (1698-1756), brother of Carlo Broschi, aka “Farinelli,” the foremost castrato of the era.

“It’s obvious Riccardo wrote the piece to showcase his brother’s voice, and here, the vocal is sung exquisitely by soprano Simone Kermes.

“What made this special for me is that this dreamy piece is accompanied by a series of stunning still lifes by Roman Reisinger, an artist still working. Looking at his images while listening to the music, I can smell the onions, feel the brittle leaves of the drying herbs and seed pods of the money plant, I can smell the algae in a bottle of water rooting a plant – the whole series is a feast of textures that pull me into the works.

“Go full screen, sit back, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.”

I did, and I did.

Now the rest of you can do the same.  And Val:  thankee for the email and the kind words that preceded the above recommendation.  It is absolutely no exaggeration to say that having Readers like you is what makes this all so rewarding.

Faking It

Entertainment

Back when Madonna was still a thing — i.e. in the early 1980s — she was accused of miming her concerts, with one critic memorably entitling his review: “Like A Concert”.

So I saw this listing at one of the execrable ticketing websites:

For a free box of .22 boolets, name the two acts which will almost certainly feature at least one mimed song.