Wednesday, May 21, 2008

More New Downloads



Added a bunch of movie and TV download honey to the pot on Monday, tweaked & logged the info to the database on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, the servers were updated and we can tell you about. Woo Woo. Here's a short list of the new downloads. The Trial starring Anthony Perkins and directed by Orson Welles. A bizarre screen adaptation of the Frank Kafka classic novel, The Trial. It's the story of this guy named Joseph K who is accused of doing something wrong, but he has no understanding what he is guilty of.

Next up, another film based on literature, in this case, a short story by Richard Connell called The Most Dangerous Game. The movie stars Leslie Banks, Joel McCrea, and Fay Wray. A ships is detroyed on a hidden reef and the crew and passengers must go to a tiny island. Once there, they learn the owner is an acclaimed hunter, bored with animals, he now enjoys hunting people.

Finally, we also added Alfred Hitchcock's movie Secret Agent to the video download library. The 1936 B&W espionage film stars Peter Lorre and John Geilgud. Made before World War II, it offers an interesting view of the geo-political world, and the cloak and dagger activities in Europe before the outbreak of global war.

Monday, May 19, 2008

T.E. Lawrence's Motorcycle Accident



On May 19, 1935, T.E. Lawrence, an avid biker who favored Brough Superior bikes, died in a motorcycle accident near his cottage in Dorset. He was just 46 years old, and he died as he swerved to avoid hitting 2 boys on bicycles, lost control and went over the handlebars. Check out this newsreel, with some brief footage of T.E. Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia.

If you'd like to learn more about T.E. Lawrence, check out wikipedia's extensive entry, or better still, read one of his books, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. This book was edited by his friend, George Bernard Shaw. And David Lean's movie, Lawrence of Arabia is a great film, an amazing film, one of the best but not the best source to learn about the man.

Also of note today, May 19 - a young girl named Janet Gaynor cleaned up on the first Oscar night, winning three Academy Awards in one evening, for her role in A Star is Born.