On May 4. 1929 - Audrey Kathleen Ruston, a.k.a. Audrey Hepburn, was born in Ixelles, Belgium. She spent her childhood growing up in Nazi occupied Arnhem, Netherlands during World War II where she learned to be a little ballerina (and you thought her graceful movements just came naturally). When she was 21, she moved to London to continue her ballet training and also got some work as a model. In a few short years, she moved to New York and got the lead role in the Broadway show Gigi in 1951.And two years later in 1953, she was starring with Gregory Peck in one of her best films, Roman Holiday. During her film career, she worked with many other stars including Humphrey Bogart, Rex Harrison, Cary Grant, Gary Cooper, William Holden, Fred Astaire, Peter O'Toole, George Peppard, and Albert Finney.
One of my favorite Audrey Hepburn movies is Charade, where she plays a woman who gets tangled in a crazy web of international intrigue and falls in love with a man (Cary Grant) who loves her, but is also not very truthful to her because of his job as a secret agent of sorts. The film also stars Walter Matthau, James Coburn, and George Kennedy, The film is directed by the great Stanley Donen, with a killer musical score by Henry Mancini.
Time to repeat an olde post - that is always new each year at this time.
You asked for it, here we go again with some higher taxes! To mitigate the horror, we've provided some TV comedy classics about the tax man. First place goes to Granny, who is ready to shoot the revenue man since he might also wanna mess with her still by the cement pond that makes her Spring Tonic. The episode is called Jed Pays His Taxes. Now imagine the I.R.S. has a worst nightmare, what would that person be like. Well look no further - I think Grace Allen would win this prize. Check out 2 hilarious episodes where Gracie's spacey intellect get the best of The Tax Man and the Property Tax Assessor.
You might also want to check out the Frank Random preview of My Man Godfrey, where Eugene Pallette laments that his family spends 50% of his income while the federal government wants 60% for taxes. One final tax video concerns Al Capone, who went to jail for tax evasion.
Ooops, we forgot to mention this yesterday - but April 14th is the day the Titanic sunk after it hit an iceberg. Make sure you check out the One Step Beyond episode about the Titanic called the Night of April 14th. We offer that episode with 2 other episodes as a DVD iso download to subscribers or a la carte. But no worries TV fans, the Flash and Real streams are free to watch.
Yipee - it's Baseball season again! Time for some beer, brats and baseball - but wait! - oh no, the Brewers lost the opener. I think it will be okay, there are many many games left to enjoy. So, to celebrate the Baseball season, we thought we'd offer our top picks in the search for baseball videos.
We wish all our Jewish friends a Happy Passover, and hoping all Catholics have a productive and prayer filled Holy Week as the season of Lent comes to an end. And Happy Easter to all. Basically - We wish everyone a wonderful and joyous holiday, and for those in the northern hemisphere, may you delight in the sights and smells of spring. For our southern hemisphere friends, I hope your leaves changing colors are especially beautiful.
In case I forgot anybody, ummmm, like some of those living on the equator, - we wish you the very best too.
Woo woo - break out the bubbly because it's President's Day. OK - so President's Day is a total non-holiday where typically - whoa, cool - no work today but in all honesty, we would do well to remember the two guys today's holiday honors - Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. George W. (no, no, no, not Dubya), the first US Prez, was a great president and we should be thankful he devoted a great part of his life to giving his talents to found this great country. But, unlike most politicians today - I am just thrilled he set a great precedent, and did not wish to become King George. By the time the war was over, all he wanted to do was to retire and chill at Mt. Vernon. So far, we have yet to have a president who was hard to kick the heck out, though FDR did his best to push the envelope of term limits - he actually did the USA a favor, because soon there was a new law - just two terms and buh bye.
And how can you not like Abraham Lincoln? OK - I am sure there are a bunch of you knuckleheads out there, but at least concede he kept the country together. Yes, we have all heard recently that he suspended Habeas Corpus, and that was bad.... very bad, probably worse than when Seinfeld told Babu to change the theme of his restaurant to specialize in Pakistani food. But give old Honest Abe some props - slavery did indeed put a huge wound on the words in our US Constitution and Bill of Rights. Can you say - hypocrisy?
Anyway - for me, these are two of my favorite presidents. I regret we do not have any decent video on Abe Lincoln... but we do have a really cool George Washington tale from sci-fi bizarro land. Yep, no kidding. Check out this classic One Step Beyond episode - Night in Decision. Another interesting George Washington short video clip worth watching comes from a super trailer made by LikeTelevision's resident maestro, Frank Random.
It was 60 years ago today, on January 26, 1950 that Indian finally gained its independence from Great Britain. Two Indian heroes were mostly responsible for the country's freedom - Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. Their weapon of choice - passive resistance. Though they were promised independence by British Prime Minister Atlee in 1945, those stubborn Brits were downright slow to let go... I mean 5 years is a long time mates. Here's a video with some historic footage of the landmark event in India's history.
So - to honor this historic day - I decided to bottle a batch of some home brew, an India Pale Ale to be exact - which had been fermenting in a lovely state of what is called wort. Zymergy (the art of fermentation), Moshing - or making home brew is my new hobby. One of these days I will make a video about it as it is loads of fun and downright delicious if you know what you like in brewskis and are patient. Since this I.P.A. was a strong batch - meaning a bunch of alcohol content by volume, it is best to let it ferment in this wort state for at least 2 weeks. After that - it is time to bottle it - which entails adding 3/4 teaspoon of sugar into each 12 oz. bottle, pouring in the wort and capping it. Give it a good shake, and let it sit for about 10 days to get the beer nice and carbonated. The yeast is still active and it will ferment the sugar, letting off gas which has no place to go except into the beer to give it that nice fizz and a solid head when you pour it. After this - it is two months of lagering - which just means you put it into the fridge and try not to drink it because it is still immature. Well, I am immature too - and as of yet - I cannot wait the whole time and try a few before they are totally ready - but waiting does make the beer a ton smoother, so you really want to. Knowing my weakness - I have brewed several batches so far - with fun names to boot. Fat Man in a Bathtub Stout, St Arnold's Schwartz a Negre, Squirrelly's Nut Brown Ale, Fat Ass Bass, and most recently - Jenny's Juicy Juice, which is my favorite to date, already half gone and less than a month of lagering. Yikes! So - in an effort to stay ahead of the game, I also began a new keg of wort - I am calling Crazy Mixed Up Kid - because I am using a Pilsner Hopped Malt Extract combined with an Amber Unhopped Malt Extract and Gr Spalt Grand Hops and some Galcier Hops, with a cup and a 1/4 of brown sugar. This batch will be ready around planting time in the garden.
If you are interested in a how to make beer video, just drop me a line at info-at-liketelevision-dot-com. Cheers! And especially to all my friends from India - Cheers!
Many years ago - newspapers were the primary source of information for most Americans. The industry grew for decades - and believe it or not, there was a time when most big cities had 2 thriving newspapers, usually broken down political lines. Which is why a bunch were named the Democrat or the Republican, with a prefix of the city in question. First radio, and then TV began to eat away at their monopoly for supplying information. And today - with the onset of the internet, you can pretty much get the news just the way you like and have only the narrowest point of view, a blog where only you are the reader for instance. ahaha. All kidding aside - there still are a lot of good newspapers out there, but it is no secret they are struggling with all the competition for providing information.
But back in the day - say the 1930s and 1940s - newspapers were the only game in town. They owned the information and were paid very well to tell the information in a way that was honest and fair, and struggle to keep clean amidst a world that had many rich people wanting to present in a way favorable to their business or power related projects. A few of my favorites are His Girl Friday, starring Cary Grant and Rosiland Russell and Meet John Doe starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. You can also check out a lot of newspaper related stories, whether it is Clark Kent, alias Superman working at The Daily Planet or Frederic March and Janet Gaynor in A Star is Born. But don't stop checking out the history there - just do a search for Newspaper - and you will find a ton of newspaper related content. Oh - here's one more favorite - from an old TV show called One Step Beyond. The episode is called Where Are They? and it begins in an old newspaper office in Chico California with reporters covering a very odd story - of rocks falling out of the sky. Cool episode indeed.
