Royal Wedding

If I were to believe every thing I read at the checkout aisle of the grocery store, I would guess we are in for another Royal Wedding. And I thought to myself, hey - it sure has been a while since we had a really good set of regal nuptials, so I guess it might just be a big deal. When I was younger, I was amazed at all the "big deal" status when Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer tied the knot. Honestly, in the USA the affair was as big as the World Cup and the Super Bowl combined. If you were too young to remember, or so old that you forgot - here's a little newsreel video of the Royals wedding ceremony. Whether or not Prince William does get married or not, who knows? But I suspect the wedding will be a huge deal, if only because he might one day be King William, but mostly, because he is the son of Lady Di.

Well - thirty years before that marriage, there was a very popular movie called Royal Wedding. It was an old school movie musical, which still had about 10 or 15 years left of gas before the genre pretty much died out altogether. It offered the movie tagline - that it was MGM's gayest technicolor musical, which you can see in the tweaked movie poster below. And as I look at current times, obviously a lot has changed. MGM, the movie side, not the casino and hotel business, filed for bankruptcy last week and back then, being the gayest was not at all what that means today. The movie was directed by the legendary Stanley Donen and starred Fred Astaire, Jane Powell, Peter Lawford, Keenan Wynn, and Sarah Churchill. Yes inquiring minds - she was related to Sir Winston Churchill. She was his daughter, and probably still is. HA!

In any event, it seemed like a wonderful time to encourage you to revisit this film. Besides being a really solid example of the Hollywood musical genre, it features some really terrific scenes. My favorite is later in the film (a few minutes into Part six. click the playlist icon in the lower right corner, and jump to part six if you want to see this amazing scene) when Fred Astaire does a jaw dropping dance around the room, on the walls and even on the ceiling. A special room that all the furniture glued down and could rotate was used to create this amazing effect.

If you have a strong broadband connection - check out the movie in the player offered below. (MP4 files, encoded at much higher data rates than the flash version offered here). Hope you enjoy the show, and we will look for you at the upcoming Royal Wedding. What? you were not invited? Oh well, too bad. I imagine it will be a little stuffy anyway.

Quentin Tarantino

After watching a bunch of Quentin Tarantino movies, it was easy to see what a huge fan he was of the rich history of film. I also guessed that he has a lot of fans who missed all the cool references and hat tips he gave to directors of days gone by. 

In Kill Bill, both one and two - he honors so many of the great Japanese film makers of the 1950s and 1960s. Yes, of course there are short segments in most of his films which recall the work of Akira Kurosawa, and Kill Bill is no exception. Go and watch Yojimbo, Seven Samurai and Throne of Blood and you will see what I mean. But, did you notice in the final scene of Kill Bill 1, how the fight scene recalled Hiroshi Inagaki's final fight scene in Samurai III, Duel at Ganyru Island. And also, for good measure - a nod to Masaki Kobayashi's Kwaidan, Women of the Snow. Trust me, if you are familiar with some of these Japanese film classics, the Kill Bill series will be much more fun to watch. 


Or take another Tarantino film, Inglorious Bastards. Do you remember the part about how film used to be made of nitrate and was highly combustible? And then there was a shot of a little boy carrying some films, and a policeman not allowing him on the bus? Well - guess what. That scene came from a terrific and very suspenseful movie from the great Sir Alfred Hitchcock called Sabotage. And that scene with little Stevie carrying the film, which was rigged to be a bomb was so good. Awesome good. In the Tarantino movie, the shot lasted about 10 seconds, but if you had the benefit of having already seen Sabotage, that whole episode added immensely to the beauty of the Tarantino film. And if you have never seen a Leni Riefenstahl film, you would not appreciate the ambiguity of what a great director she was, and also - how creepy to be doing this high art for the Nazis of World War II Germany. 


The bottom line with any Quentin Tarantino movie - the more you know and appreciate film history, the more enjoyable it will be to experience a Tarantino film.

Johnny Carson Great Gift

Johnny Carson died in January 2005, but even after he died, he continues to be one of the nicest most generous fellows in all of Hollywood. In case you missed the news - he contributed over 150 million dollars to his foundation, the John W. Carson Foundation, which is known for its annual gifts to a wide variety of charities - including the education of children. Lots of people do not understand how foundations work - basically it is a huge chunk of invested assets that are required by law to give away at least 5% of their assets every year. So, if the directors of the foundation do a good job of investing, and say for example they are able to earn 10% on the foundation's assets - the foundation can give more and more money to charity every year - in perpetuity if they continue to invest it well. Oddly enough, Albert Einstein once said man's greatest invention was the power of compounding interest - and indeed, if you follow this example of making 10% compounded on the assets, and giving away 5% - it does not take that long to double the money of the foundations assets, and in turn, double the amount of annual giving. How long? well - about 15 years. 

Okay - enough of the math games.... Johnny Carson of the Tonight Show - TV Comedy at the highest levels of humor. here's Johnny.

A few of my favorites - if time is short. Clip 1 - Clip 2 - Clip 3

To Kill a Mockingbird turns 50!

Fifty years ago, on July 11, 1960 Harper Lee published the most acclaimed American novel - To Kill a Mockingbird (move over Melville, though Mobie Dick is probably a better book. Personally - I would vote for something by Samuel Clemmons, aka Mark Twain... but I digress). While perhaps not the greatest book ever written in America, it is required reading in most high schools across the USA. And indeed, it is a great book. And a few years later in 1962, a great movie was made about the novel, featuring Gregory Peck as Atticus Fitch, Robert Duvall as Boo Radley and William Windam as the very creepy attorney who tried to railroad the innocent black man, Tom Robinson, played by Brock Peters.

So - it is a great time to check out a wonderful movie you probably haven't watched in a long time. One of my favorite parts of the film is the amazing soundtrack by Elmer Bernstein. You can watch right here at LikeTelevision - free. No need to pony up anything more than your time. Enjoy the show. To Kill a Mockingbird.

Skydiving - version 5.0

Yee Haw - For those who have never experienced it, skydiving is a great way to spend a slow day in early days of June. This was my fifth tandem skyjumping try - perhaps the last tandem jump before I venture out and go for it on my own. The process to go for it on your own is different from location to location - where I skydive @ Skydive Carolina - you can read all the details at their web site. It involves a series of jumps, on the first solo, you have two instructors with you the whole time to make sure you pull the ripcord at the proper altitude, and you pretty much have to make a decent landing after getting a bunch of instructions on how one should go about doing this. Anyway - for my fifth tandem jump, I wanted to simulate as much of that as possible with an instructor attached to me the whole time, ummmm - just in case. The steering to the landing zone was no problem, but I still came in a little hard and fast and need to be more cognizant of the flare at the end. If you are looking for a soft and mellow landing, you have to fully extend and pull down hard to de-power the parachute before landing. 

In any event - it was a great time. I included the video below in case you're interested. Skydive Carolina is in the middle of a cool festival that lasts all week - with jumpers from all over the place, and tents with vendors selling techno gear, parachutes, vitamin water was free - and the best part - the people. Truth is - people who jump out of airplanes - are really interesting people as you might imagine. I hope to get out there again sometime over the weekend just to take it all in. What a great time !!!

Igor Sikorsky was one Cool Cat

Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky was born on May 25, 1889 in Kiev Russia. He was one major cool man and was a huge innovator in the world of aviation - in both helicopter technology and fixed-wing aircraft, in some ways maybe even more important than the Wright Brothers. He emigrated to the USA on March 11, 1919. You can catch a short video with Sikorsky here. 

Wikipedia has a very good article to learn more about his life. Another very cool aviation film to watch if you like airplanes and aviation history is called Conquest of the Air, with Lawrence Olivier.

Also of note - Sikorsky was a man of great faith. Hey, you'd have to be to invent a working helicopter. Let me close my brief tribute to Sikorsky with a quote:

Our concerns sink into insignificance when compared with the eternal value of human personality - a potential child of God which is destined to triumph over lie, pain, and death. No one can take this sublime meaning of life away from us, and this is the one thing that matters.

Lena Horne Sang like an Angel

This morning I was greeted by the sad news that the great Lena Horne died yesterday, May 9, 2010 at the age of 92 in New York City. She was born in Brooklyn on June 30, 1917 and was aclaimed not only for her talent, but also for her role as an active member of the civil rights movement.

In reading over her obituaries, so much ink is given to her role in breaking barriers in the olden days of entertainment - and she certainly did a great deal. I recalled Halle Berry giving Lena Horne credit when she won the Oscar in 2001. And I am happy to give Lena Horne HUGE credit for all the hardships she endured in those days. Part of what made Lena Horne amazing was her tireless work for justice and equal rights. But I grew up as a child in the 1960s and anyone with an education was pretty aware that racism was just stupid. Yes, I know pockets of racism remain, but it is far removed from my universe. My problem is with racists, not people with a different skin color or culture than me.

What I will always remember about Lena was how she could sing a song. I will never ever forgot - WOW, Lena Horne could sing like an angel. So, allow me to write about how great a singer she was. About how her heart just overflowed and burst on every note. She was THAT good.

I heard her perform as a young boy at a place called Melody Top in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Melody Top was a giant tent at a place called the Schlitz Pavillion. The sound system was very good for its day and because it was a huge tent, and a singer could sing without all the room reflections creating a gargle of echos that made it difficult to hear. And as a young kid of maybe 9 or 10 - I was able to just listen to her sing without all the back story of racial tensions, breaking barriers, and civil rights. As I think back about it - how lucky I was to have this opportunity. And even though four decades have passed, I still get goosebumps remembering that day. This little boy was convinced she was an angel, and that this is what angels must sound like when they sing. No doubt about it - Lena Horne sang like an angel.

Anyway - give yourself that same blessing. Just close your eyes, and listen to Lena Horne sing.You can wring your hands about all the troubles in the world in just a few short minutes. Go into a world of childlike wonder - and ask yourself, I wonder if this is what angels sound like? Rest in peace Lena Horne. And may God bless you and keep you safe.