Free the Air Waves

Today we ran across a site called freetheairwaves.com, sponsored by google, that was trying to do something that will perhaps be impossible, but hey - it is worth a shot anyway. Why impossible? Well in case you grew up in the dark - the corporate powers that be... control the world. Yes - money does make the world go round, and it goes around with a little cha-ching as it crosses zero. Big Dog will be fed, and we will pay our little monthly stipend to keep big dog happy. In this case, the big dog is all the big ISPs, telcos and cable companies selling you internet service. And Google of course has a self interest in all this, but oh my - they are up front about it. A nice change. Thank you. The air waves in question are known as white space - which are the broadcast bands between stations on an analog TV. You know - imagine you have no cable and are using an antennae (been there, done that). In Charlotte NC, there's a channel 3, and a channel 9 for instance. And no channel between 3 and 9... just the fuzz. Google is trying to have the US Gov't free up the white space so people can get free broadband, which is especially needed in the rural places not served by big dog. Also, you get a cool video with a girl named Minnie who does her best to explain it all to us non propeller heads. So if we end up getting broadband for free - can we thank Minnie the Moocher?

The whole situation reminded me of the great Nicola Tesla, who created the little convenience that brings electricity into our homes and businesses, called alternating current, or AC if you like. Edison, which all kids think is the big cheese was a slacker compared to Tesla, who was seen as pretty whacko in his day, but over time his work has had profound effects on modern society. Anyway - Tesla sold his AC idea to Westinghouse, which beat out Edison's DC (direct current) and the modern electrical grid soon became a reality. But too bad for Tesla, the market crash decimated Westinghouse, who told Tesla they couldn't pay his royalties. And what did Nicola do? He gave us AC anyway and died nearly penniless. So next time you turn on and power up... give Mr. Tesla a nod of thanks.

Max Kolby - August 14

Max Kolbe died on August 14, 1941. Max lived a very good life, but he is remembered mostly for the heroic nature of how he died. He was a Catholic priest sent to Auschwitz by the Nazis for trying to secretly hide several thousand Jews. Being a Catholic priest was reason enough to get sent to the camps - so Max's "crime" was even more severe. A Catholic priest trying to harbor Jews made him a huge target. A double whammy as far as the Nazis were concerned.

A prisoner had escaped from his cell block and so, someone had to be punished. A prisoner was randomly chosen to die by starvation for this transgression. Max said - take me instead. Unlike the man who was selected, Max had no family. His story is quite remarkable and by all means, learn more about Maximilian Kolbe.

In honor of Max Kolbe, we recommend two movies. First - Escape from Sobibor starring Alan Arkin and Rutger Hauer. Sobibor was a concentration camp in Poland and unfortunately, not enough people have ever heard of what transpired there. It is an amazing movie about one of the greatest prisoner escapes in WWII. Just watch it. It's an A+ film of a heroic story, just like Max Kolbe's life. Second - we suggest Roberto Rossellini's Open City, which is another powerful World War II story, this time set in Rome. In this movie, Aldo Fabrizi plays a heroic Catholic priest. It also stars Anna Magnani.

Bedazzled, Part Two

A while back, we provided a short commentary on the film Bedazzled, starring Dudley Moore, Peter Cook, and Raquel Welch but felt it was worth providing a little information on this movie because it is quite entertaining, and also a film most folks have never seen. In 1966, Raquel Welch became very famous from the success in the cult classic, One Million Years BC, and she was also terrific in Fantastic Voyage, (where they shrink some people to inject them into a body to perform a delicate operation on an important diplomat. That films also stars Stephen Boyd, Donald Pleasance, and Edmond O'Brien, but i digress). Anyway in 1967, she played one of the seven deadly sins, (yep, Lust :~), and well, she was built for this role.

I have always been a HUGE fan of British humor, and Bedazzled is just dripping irony and biting sarcastic social commentary. While it is very funny and light, it is also very thought provoking, especially the part where Peter Cook, as Satan explains that he is doing God's will, by being Satan, since God needs a devil to tempt people so they can have the tests in life that build character.

Bedazzled was directed by the legendary Stanley Donen, whose credits include Charade, The Pajama Game, Singing in the Rain, and Royal Wedding. Donen also direct Indiscreet (Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant) and Funny Face (Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire). So what are you waiting for? Go check out Bedazzled and see for yourself if it a great movie. I think it is.

We're Talking Baseball

In the unlikely event that tonight's MLB All-Star game is a blowout or just boring, check out some of these highly entertaining baseball video clips in the LikeTelevision library. My personal favorites include the Jackie Robinson Story, Bang the Drum Slowly, starring Paul Newman, and The Clampetts Meet the Dodgers, where Jethro Bodine gets a tryout with Leo Durocher of the Los Angeles Dodgers. And for all of you New York Yankees fans, check out this vintage video clip, The Lou Gehrig Story, which includes the Iron Horse's legendary farewell speech to all the Yankee fans at Yankee Stadium. ("I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth...")

Metropolis, Ready for Download

We took a break last week from our job of preparing the studio for a new musical offering. (We hope to be doing some live video shoots of some promising bands on the "chitlin circuit", which goes from Atlanta to Washington, DC). And for your downloading pleasure, we re-encoded a Fritz Lang classic titled Metropolis. This 1927 silent is listed as one of the best movies of all-time by most movie pundits. On IMDB, it is listed as #74 for instance, and carries a respectable 8.4 rating. The movie is all about the scary new technology of the early 1900s, and how electricity and factory automation were going to ruin the world. It is techno-phobia at its finest, and is an interesting film when looked at from today's current hysteria, global warming. (When i was a kid, it was going to get really cold after a nuclear winter. And now we are slated to burn in hell as we get warmer). In any event, the lesson seems to be that all the gloom and doom dire predictions are rarely all they are cracked up to be. Yes, I understand we all should lower our carbon footprint, and i enjoy riding a motorcycle, so I like to think I am doing my part to save on the precious gas droplets, by getting close to 55 miles per gallon. But I digress - check out Metropolis and if you are a member, or want the movie a la carte, go download it. The new MPEG files look great!

If you need more Metropolis related videos, check out Superman as he finds some bad guys at the Metropolis munitions plant.

July Fourth Videos

We hope everyone has a terrific long weekend for the July 4th holiday and we hope that all your burgers are grilled to perfection. Here's a few videos obtusely related to the July 4th holiday. Let's start with some fireworks - a cool cartoon called Patriotic Popeye. Popeye's nephews Peepeye, Poopeye, Pipeye, and Pupeye get their hands on some fireworks and have a bang up time setting them off. If you some eerie sci-fi drama is more your thing, we'd suggest this episode of One Step Beyond, with George Washington on a cold Night in December. If you prefer comedy, watch this Andy Griffith Show episode, Andy Comes to America.

One final July 4th gem, check out Kate Smith debut a new song titled God Bless America on a national radio broadcast in the 1940s during WWII.

George Carlin Remembered

I regret to say that George Carlin, one of the funniest guys EVER - died of heart problems at the age of 1971. Carlin was an early maverick of comedy, in the same vein as a Lenny Bruce, or a Bill Hicks, George Carlin could be very funny, while at the same time being able to "hit that nerve" that made you feel a bit uncomfortable. We have an early example from the Johnny Carson Show, where he did the role of the Hippy Dippy Weatherman, who was a very mellow hippy character who just happened to be a meteorologist. For you youngsters, during the time this clip was made, everyone was VERY worries about getting blown up by the Atomic Bomb, dropped by the Russians. (The 60's equivalent of global terror, Al Qaeda style). And an ICBM ... was an Inter-continental Ballistic Missile. Here's the clip - Carlin is a very young guy in the clip, no beard, why he almost looks like he voted for Barry Goldwater and Eisenhower.