War of Worlds Musical

Watching the episode of "Fargo"  I recorded last night, I found a bit of THIS music in it. Sadly, this album appears out iof print; Amazon.com listed ONE new CD at $265.00. If you're interested, you may have no alternative to downloading the music. ...

JEFF WAYNE'S MUSICAL VERSION OF THE WAR OF THE WORLDS - PART 1 - THE EVE OF THE WAR - HQ

Narrated by Richard Burton, this is truly an amazing album, well worth the trouble of finding a download of the full album, if that's the ONLY way you can check it out.
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Riders on the Storm ...

... by Jim Morrison and The Doors.

The things you come across when you're looking for something else. While searching for a good video of "Riders on the storm", by Jim Morrison and The Doors, I found THIS piece by Ray Manzarek, keyboardist of The Doors, about how "Riders" came to be ...

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If you remember THIS song, ...

... then, BOY, are you OLD.  :-)

While the video is obviously of fairly recent vintage, the song by The Four Lads was a #1 hit in 1953)
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2 cellos ...

... and now for something COMPLETELY different  ...

The absolutely incredible  2CELLOS - Thunderstruck [OFFICIAL VIDEO]  

Be patient with whatever ad that may (or may not) show up at the beginning. There might be a little one popping up in the middle, but it will have an "x" allowing you to dispose ot it. The video is worth it. :-)

(PS the image is small here, but at the lower right corner is a selection for "FULL SCREEN" - next to the youtube symbol. )

Update - 11 SEP 2015 - I edited the html to enlarge the image a bit, but the "FULL SCREEN" is still a good choice.

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And that's all she wrote ...

Ever wonder how that phrase came to mean "It's over!" ?
No? Never?!!!   Well, tough.  I'm gonna tell you anyway.

It's from a Hank Williams song of late 1950 or early 1951 (Dear John), and each verse ended with that phrase and a chorus of  'Dear John (I've sent your saddle home)'.

To me, that's the big mystery of the song. 'I've sent your saddle home' is perfectly clear English.  At 71, I just haven't been around long enough to understand its use here. I have searched and searched (and searched). In this matter, google is not your friend.  All I've ever been able to accomplish is to verify that those are the actual lyrics.  If any of you can answer, I'd love to hear from you.

As for "That's all she wrote" becoming synonymous with "It's over!", I think the verses make it pretty clear how.  Especially the last one. :-)

Dear John (I've sent your saddle home)
 Written by Aubrey Gass and Tex Ritter
 Recorded by Hank Williams  12/21/1950

Well when I woke up this mornin'
There was a note upon my door
Said, 'Don't make me no coffee, babe
 'Cause I won't be back no more'
And that's all she wrote
'Dear John (I've sent your saddle home)'

Now Jonah got along in the belly of the whale
Daniel in the lions' den
But I know a guy that didn't try to get along
 And he won't get a chance again
And that's all she wrote
'Dear John (I've fetched your saddle home)'

Now she didn't forward no address
Nor she didn't say goodbye
All she said was if you get blue
 Just hang your little head and cry
An' that's all she wrote
'Dear John (I've sent your saddle home)'

Now my gal's short and stubby
She's strong as she can be
But if that little old gal of mine
 Ever gets a hold of me
That's all she wrote
'Dear John (I've sent your saddle home)'

Now Jonah got along in the belly of the whale
Daniel in the lions den
But I know a man that didn't try to get along
 And he won't get a chance again
And that's all she wrote
'Dear John (I've fetched your saddle home)'

Now I went down to the bank this morning
The cashier said with a grin
"I feel so sorry for you Hank
 But your wife has done been in"
And that's all she wrote
'Dear John (I've sent your saddle home)'

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They're rioting in Africa.

They're rioting in Africa.
They're starving in Spain.
There's hurricanes in Florida
   and Texas needs rain.

The whole world is festering with unhappy souls.
The French hate the Germans. The Germans hate the Poles.
Italians hate Yugoslavs. South Africans hate the Dutch
   and I don't like anybody very much!

But we can be tranquil and thankful and proud
for man's been endowed with a mushroom shaped cloud.
And we know for certain that some lovely day
   someone will set the spark off and we will all be blown away.

They're rioting in Africa.
There's strife in Iran.
What nature doesn't do to us
   will be done by our fellow man.

~"The Merry Minuet" - Performed by The Kingston Trio (1959)
    Copyright 1959, by Sheldon Harnick,.

"The more things change ..."
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Yet ANOTHER "He Who Must NOT Be Named" (Updated)

For author F. Paul Wilson, that would probably be director Michael Mann.

In 1981, Wilson published his first novel, "The Keep", set in the Carpathians during WWII, at first glance apparently about vampires but ultimately about much older evil ("Forget every religion you ever knew") instead.

In 1983, Mann released his movie version, horribly mangling the story.

How in Hell can one screw up with a cast populated by Scott Glenn, Gabriel Byrne, Jürgen Prochnow (the skipper in "Das Boot") and IAN MCKELLAN (Gandalf and Magneto)?!!!  Suffice it to say he managed.

He even managed to take one of the things I liked best about it (the film score by Tangerine Dream) and get it tied up in a copyrights battle that continues to this day, making it impossible to find a complete edition. I had such a copy for awhile, on a DVD put together by a Brit fan years ago, but like many home-brewed DVDs, it soon ceased to play. You can probably still find bootleg editions on the internet (I have some of those) but they are NOT complete, missing (naturally) some of the passages I liked best.

Such is the perversity of the Universe.

Mr. Wilson had some revenge on Mann in his short story "Cuts".  As my blog doesn't have as big an audience as Wilson does, I'll probably be better off just moving on.

All that above is a digression, as the post title actually refers to not speaking aloud the name of someone whose attention you could really do without.

In one recent popular novel series, it was just a superstition until followers of the evil one (reasoning that only his opponents would dare to speak the name) put the equivalent of a LoJack on it so such utterance would bring them down upon you.

In the tradition of "speak of the Devil and he'll appear", Mr. Wilson's Adversary is apparently cursed with having to take notice when his True Name is spoken and probably cannot just tune it out. I now understand why he whom I'll refer to as "R" plays around with anagrams of his name so much;  he has to deal with others now and then. If he's busy with something that interests him (as you almost certainly do not), and you somehow manage to speak his True Name, you distract him and he might visit you while very pissed.

To paraphrase the description of another character of legend, "You wont like him when he's pissed."

Wilson's second novel, "The Tomb" (1984) introduced us to Jack (Repairman Jack), who fixes situations that other people cannot.  A court of last resort (a bit like John D. McDonald's Travis McGee, but this is no copy of him), Jack mostly relies on cunning and tries to con the ones he's taking on. But, as with McGee, sometimes the one he's taking on is very bad news indeed and stronger measures become necessary.

The series evolves into a universe of opposing light and dark forces (not necessarily good vs evil; while the force of darkness (the Otherness) is inimical to all forms of life as we know it, the force of light (ironically called the Ally) only cares about our world because it lies within its domain. The best one can hope from Him/It/Whatever would be benign neglect. Indeed, neglect best describes the Ally's attitude to R's machinations here to bring the Otherness upon us.)

So, poor old all-too-human Jack gets more and more involved in this struggle;  apparently fated to do so ("No more coincidences in your life").

Repairman Jack has been opted as a movie series, since about 1995 as far as I can work out from the Official Repairman Jack Website (an entry for May, 2010 mentions, "We're up to 15 years of sound and fury ultimately signifying bupkis."), but has (so far) been unable to survive attempts to create a usable script that successfully depicts some of the creatures involved.

If Mr. Wilson ever gets at a loss for something to write, he could probably create a "Development Hell" series about the attempt to bring a novel (or series) to the screen.

As this is only daydreaming now, I'm going to give a shot at casting the most important character of this series (next to Jack).

The first time R turned up in Jack's series ("Conspiracies"), using the anagram Sal Roma, I saw him as ...

(From oxfordinklings.blogspot.com)

... Polish actor Vladek Sheybal, who played chess-master/planner Kronsteen in "From Russia With Love" (24 SEP 2019 - Was friends with Sean Connery, who convinced him to take the part.), and many, many other villains in the 60's though the 80's.

But, as he passed away in 1992, another candidate was needed.  My choice was (and still remains) ...

(From battlestar.helios.com)

... James Callis, aka Gaius Baltar on the rebooted "Battlestar Galactica".

But if you'd rather have someone a bit more recent, let me suggest ...

(From nun-gun.tumblir.com)

... Tom Hiddleston (Loki, from "Thor" and "The Avengers".)

Any of them would be formidable, and still qualify for Jack's description (in "Harbingers") when, after disclosing that he had met R, was asked, "What's he like?" ...

"Just a guy. He doesn't wear a cape or have a vulture sitting on his shoulder. Pass him on the street and you'd never give him a second thought. Just an ordinary, everyday guy ... until you look in his eyes and he lets you see what's going on in---"

From that second line, I can't help wondering if Mr. Wilson is a "Cowboy Bebop" fan and familiar with Spike's former compatriot and now arch-enemy Vicious ...

(From cowboybebop.wikia.com)

If you've never read any of F. Paul Wilson's books, I highly recommend that you correct that deficiency as soon as possible, starting with "The Keep".

The titles below are the books of the Adversary (A) and Repairman Jack (RJ) series. There are other books that connect, and scattered short stories, but these are the main ones. The list below is not in published order, but in the story's chronological order...

 THE KEEP (A)
 REBORN (A)
 THE TOMB (RJ)
 LEGACIES (RJ)
 CONSPIRACIES (RJ)
 ALL THE RAGE (RJ)
 HOSTS (RJ)
 THE HAUNTED AIR (RJ)
 GATEWAYS (RJ)
 CRISSCROSS (RJ)
 INFERNAL (RJ)
 HARBINGERS (RJ)
 BLOODLINE (RJ)
 BY THE SWORD (RJ)
 GROUND ZERO (RJ)
 REPRISAL (A)
 FATAL ERROR (RJ)
 THE DARK AT THE END (RJ)
 NIGHTWORLD (A and RJ)

That list is gleaned from THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE WORLD  (from F. Paul Wilson's official site).

Enjoy :-)
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Update 1130 AM CDT, Tuesday, 31 Jul 2012 - More than a few commentors (to F. Paul Wilson's gracious linking to my post) have expressed liking for my casting of "R", but have also asked, "Ok, Paul. But, who would you pick for Jack?"

In my search, I stumbled across another possibility for R ...

(From bestof.provocateuse.com)

... Danish Actor Mads Mikkelsen, whom I first saw in the Daniel Craig James Bond movie "Casino Royale", as the guy who wept blood and gave our hero a very rough time. He's now scheduled to be Hannibal Lecter in a new TV series about Hannibal's earlier days.

With that out of the way, some thoughts on Jack ...

Casting him is more difficult than it might appear, because of the Jekyll and Hyde aspects of him.

I don't see him as a pretty boy. He works at being average in appearance and manner, much like Brian Freemantle's Brit spy Charlie Muffin, blending into a crowd so completely that you could take your eyes off of him for a second, look back, and never find him again.

Jack and Charlie have quite a few similarities; both just love to be underestimated and work hard at that. Wrong them and you will truly regret it.

Charlie once described himself as capable of being "one vindictive son of a bitch".  Jack is not so cold-blooded and calculating about it; he's more mercurial, and can shrug off a slight and get over it.

BUT, if you do anything (by design or stupidity) to become a danger to anyone he cares about, that's a whole 'nother story. You are making a milkshake with nitroglycerin and you may not like the result.

So, who to pick?

For a long time, on this project, Ryan Reynolds ...

(From filmequals.com)

... was under consideration (and negotiation). Mr. Wilson liked him (still does as far as I know) and I certainly have no problem there.

One of those commentors I mentioned above suggested Edward Norton ...

 (From adventuresintranscendentalmeditation.blogspot)

... another extremely fine actor, very capable of pulling this off, but Mr. Wilson feels that he is a control freak and would try to make it his movie.

I did see commentor Rebecca's suggestion of Christopher Gorham (currently in TV's "Covert Affairs" and whom I remember as Henry in "Ugly Betty") but I just don't see the Hyde part of Jack's nature there.

The eyes should have it ...
I considered Brad Pitt and Chris Pine (the new Captain Kirk in the "Star Trek" movie of a few years ago) but finally decided I wanted someone a bit droopier.

Not too pretty, having a goofy charm around Gia and Vicky, but whose eyes, if aroused by you becoming a threat to either of them, could give you a look that would loosen your bowels and make you want to run for your life.

To meet that last criteria, I hereby submit ...

(From thefancarpet.com)

(From porhomme.com)

... Jeremy Renner, whom I first saw in a very short-lived TV series, "The Unusuals", and who subsequently went on to bigger things in "The Hurt Locker", "The Town", "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol" and became Clint Barton/Hawkeye in "The Avengers" (he cameoed the same role in "Thor" before).

Although, at 41 he's maybe six or seven years older than Jack should be, I'd think what Jack's been through has probably aged him a bit; wouldn't you? :-)

My not-so-humble opinion is that Renner would be perfect for it. Biggest problem I see is that he's on the verge of super-stardom and may simply be unaffordable if this project ever happens.

(But, HEY! We're still dreaming here. Right? :-)
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Treasure Island

On Saturday night, 05 May 2012, the SYFY Channel made a foray there.

To their credit, and true to their apparent resolution that their new name is just a meaningless bit of noise giving them license to show whatever they wish without the necessity of it having anything to do with "science-fiction", they did not introduce a device or being from another world into the story (as they actually have done in some of their previous efforts with classics).

Unless you count the casting of ...

Eddie Izzard as Long John Silver  in Treasure Island (2012) - from theartsdesk.com

... comedian Eddie Izzard as Long John Silver.

But, this is not a diss on Eddie Izzard. Indeed, he is easily the best thing in an otherwise forgettable savaging of the story, and is the only reason to check it out when it is inevitably repeated, becomes available on Netflix, or is issued on DVD (probably within a few months).

His take on Long John is one of the best in ages, deserving to be in a far worthier movie. He adds a tremendous amount of depth and presence to a cunning and almost completely amoral character.

His problem is that, except for an appearance by Donald Sutherland as Captain Flint (this should make most of you who know the story react with, "WHAT?!!!"), he is mostly a one man band here. The rest of the cast is competent, but that's all I can really say about them. That translates pretty well as forgettable.

I have argued before and, after this, still consider the absolutely finest version of the story to be ...

(All images below are screencaps from this DVD)

Charlton Heston created perhaps the finest version ever of Treasure Island (1990) as a made-for-TV movie, and populated it with a wonderful cast (he did pretty well with his part as well, considering that Long John Silver is not an easy role, having to be tough enough to control a pirate crew and still manage to be sympathetic to a young boy).

Long available only on VHS tape, late last year if finally became available on DVD (and about damn time too.)

Considering that I described Charlton Heston as "did pretty well with his part as well, ...", you might be wondering, "In that case, what's so special about this version?"

My answer would be, "Just about everything else."

From the music soundtrack by Paddy Maloney and The Chieftains augmenting their traditional pipes and whistles with native drums and the unmistakable bass-note stuttering Whonk-wong-wonnnggg of an Australian aboriginal didgeridoo (those additions are not gimmicks, but fit perfectly with the mood the movie is trying to set at times), to the casting of major A-List players for various parts.

Such as ...

Oliver Reed as Billy Bones

and ...

Isla Blair as Mrs. Hawkins and an impossibly young Christian Bale as Jim Hawkins

along with ...

Christopher Lee as Blind Pew -  "SIT, right where you are!", as he confronts Billy Bones

and also ...

Pete Postlethwaite as George Merry

Those are A-List actors, some for parts that would normally be filled by lesser players. And this pays off in the result.

Of course, for Long John ...

Charlton Heston as Long John Silver

Although I praised Eddie Izzard for his interpretation of Long John, I still maintain that Charlton  was just fine in that role, just a bit less obviously so because he surrounded himself with exceptional talent. As he produced the movie, making the whole thing possible, here's another picture with him ...

Robert Putt as Job Anderson, Michael Halsey as Israel Hands,

and Chuck as, well you know.

Note that dude in the center. Israel Hands is one of the most interesting characters in the story, and Michael Halsey (I'd never heard of him before, but he's done quite a lot of work in television) absolutely owns the character.

Early in the voyage, before disappearing overboard one night, First Mate Mr. Arrow ...

... had this as his last sight.

Israel Hands was Captain Flint's chief gunner, so if you are not a friend of Israel,...

... this is not where you would wish to see him.

After Jim has had a confrontation with Hands, ...

"Oh, Jim. You didn't keep your powder dry. Didn't they learn you nothin'?"

A classic painting for a special issue of the book set up these scenes ...

Bottom line: Michael Halsey absolutely owns this role, and he alone would be ample reason to seek out and buy this DVD, but there is so much else as well. You can probably find it in bargain shelves at Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, and others.

I would so love to see this on the big screen, with an audience, perhaps as a midnight movie at the River Oaks Theater. I actually think it would do well and the audience would love it. But, I wont hold my breath waiting for a dream.

(Yes!  I really think it's that good.  Go find it, buy it, and tell me what you think.  Ok?  :-)

To an unknown viewer in Minnesota, who has lately appeared many times on my site meter (seeking "michael halsey actor") ...

I'm delighted at the interest in a post I'm quite fond of.  My email address is linked in the left column on my page. If you feel like it, I would love to hear from you.
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Immortality

While I whine and moan about approaching 70, this guy reached his 80th birthday today (Wed, 08 Feb 2012) and is still doing his thing;  still being creative.

Happy Birthday, John Williams.

His Imdb page (linked above) lists 139 movies and television shows that he has composed the music for, going back to the mid-50s, including Playhouse 90, M Squad  (a detective series starring Lee Marvin), Wagon Train, Gilligan's Island (Ok! Maybe not the greatest thing on his resume), Lost in Space (what I said just before).

He'd been working almost 30 years when he was picked to do the score for Steven Spielberg's Jaws.  I recall an interview with Spielberg (probably on one of the DVD issues of Jaws) in which he mentioned Williams coming over to his house one evening and playing on his piano what he had in mind for Jaws.

Spielberg confessed that his first reaction to hearing what would become one of the most iconic pieces of music since Bernard Hermann's Pyscho and Henry Mancini's Theme from Peter Gunn was "That's IT?!!!"  Not even Spielberg realized just what he had at the moment.

Williams had already worked with Spielberg before, and then went on to score almost everything from him afterwards.  At present, post-production work is being done on Spielberg's latest (Lincoln) and once again, Williams is doing the score.  I've no doubt at all that the result will be worth watching and hearing.

This kind of longevity is not all that unusual in the arts, especially in classical music.  There are composers (Igor Stravinsky, Ralph Vaughn Williams) and conductors (Leopold Stokowski) that were still doing fresh, original work in their 90s.

The secret almost certainly lies in doing something that you truly love.

(Consider this post as a work-in-progress.  I'm thinking of other examples and will probably either expand it, or do a follow-on.)

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Just 50 years ago today ...

... I celebrated my 19th birthday, on 25 May 1961.

It was a Thursday, and I was an A3C (Airman 3rd Class - E2 grade in 1961 ) in the USAF, stationed in New Haven, Connecticut, at Yale University's Institute of Far Eastern Languages (having just arrived there the previous month).

I don't recall if I treated myself at Sid's Diner; where a lot of the Airmen stationed there ate (because it was close and relatively cheap; as we weren't on a base and had no access to mess halls, in addition to our normal pay (pitiful) we were given a per-dium allowance of $2.58/day -- real money in 1961 -- and they were happy to cash our paychecks. Most of us had tabs there.), or more likely, went over to Tony's Pizza for beer and pizza (where I was first introduced to pizza).

If I went to Tony's, it would have been a quiet celebration, just for me. The minimum drinking age in Connecticut at that time was 21, and while I've sometimes been guilty of appalling stupidity (see The Anvil of Life ), I'd like to think my instincts for self-preservation would have kept me from jeopardizing the license of my favorite watering hole by openly celebrating being two years underage.

So, what was 1961 like?

Well, I got my first airplane ride.

A few years prior, our family left San Antonio and moved in with relatives in rural Arkansas to make a new start.  My feelings towards Arkansas cannot be expressed here unless I put an "Adult Content" warning on my blog.

Occasionally I would walk about a mile down the road to state highway 22 and flag down a Trailways bus for a twenty-mile trip into Fort Smith, to catch a movie or just to see what sights the town had to offer, returning by bus in the evening.

In mid-January of 1961, on one of those trips, I happened to come by a USAF recruiting office and walked right in and signed up.  My parents were not thrilled at the news I delivered when I got home, but I was old enough to enlist on my own, and there was really nothing they could do about it except to give me a ride back to Fort Smith and the recruiting office the next morning.  It would be my ticket out of that damned state.

From there, I was put on a bus, with some others, for the trip to the induction center in Little Rock.  After almost a solid day of exams (physical and otherwise; I don't recall ever dealing with so much paperwork in my life ), they took our group to the airport and sent us by a commercial flight down to San Antonio.

This was January 1961 and the airline (TTA - Trans Texas Airways, sometimes known as "Tree Top Airways" (they later became Texas International Airways, before eventually being absorbed by Continental - think I've digressed enough now?)) was still using the Douglas DC-3.

Trans Texas DC-3  -  Drawing by Bob Engle

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/trans-texas-airways-dc-3-bob-engle.html

(Check out his site; he has some truly amazing work there.)

From Little Rock to San Antonio is a bit under 600 miles as the crow flies, but that's if the crow flies a lot straighter than that flight did.  The flight swung down into Louisiana, and I'll swear it made about as many stops along the way as a bus would, probably not making much better time.  It seemed like every time it got airborne, it was already making its descent towards another field.

It was already late in the evening when we took off from Little Rock, and about 3 or 4 in the morning when we got off in San Antonio, to be bussed to Lackland AFB (where all USAF Basic training was conducted then (and still is, as far as I know).

In "The Anvil of Life" (linked above) I touched a bit on my time there, so I see no call to repeat it here.

So, for other things about 1961...

The # 1 hit record in America was "Runaway", by Del Shannon (If you ever saw the TV series Crime Story (1986-1988), you heard it as the theme music played over the opening titles -- "As I walk along, I wonder what went wrong...")

Other hit singles...
  "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" - Elvis Presley
  "Crazy" - Patsy Cline
  "Hello Mary Lou" - Ricky Nelson
  "I Fall to Pieces" - Patsy Cline
  "Mother-In-Law" - Ernie K-Doe
  "Spanish Harlem" - Ben E. King
  "Stand By Me" - Ben E. King
  "The Comancheros" - Claude King
  "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" - The Tokens
  "The Wanderer" - Dion
  "Town Without Pity" - Gene Pitney
  "Apache" - Jørgen Ingmann

Popular LP Albums (remember them) were by...
  Harry Belafonte
  Joan Baez
  The Kingston Trio
  Johnny Cash
  Chet Atkins
  Carlos Montoya
  Bob Newhart (what that guy could do with nothing but a telephone as a prop).

Addendum - It's Wednesday, 08 Jun 2011 and on the TCM channel I'm watching a documentary, produced by Clint Eastwood, entitled "Dave Brubeck: In His Own Sweet Way". It's not yet available on DVD, but I sure hope it will be soon. Dave Brubeck should have been among the names I listed above.  His experiments with time signatures (The LP Album "Time Out", featuring "Take Five" & "Blue Rondo à la Turk") were already underway then.

Showing at the movie theaters then, among others...
  "Pocketful of Miracles"
  "Judgment at Nuremburg"
  "The Absent Minded Professor"
  "The Comancheros" (John Wayne, Lee Marvin - worth checking out just for Marvin).
  "The Guns of Navarone"

How about TV shows?

Tons of Westerns...
  "Maverick",
  "Lawman",
  "Gunsmoke",
  "Have Gun, Will Travel",
  "Wagon Train",
  "Rawhide" (with this newcomer named Clint Eastwood),
  "Bonanza",
    many others.

In other genres...
  "Peter Gunn" (the theme music became a hit and put Henry Mancini on the map,
                       although he'd already been around for years. The theme from
                       "Peter Gunn" was almost as iconic as the theme from "Jaws"
                       would become 14 years later.) ,
  "The Twilight Zone",

AND -- for the cherry on top -- "Rocky and Bullwinkle";  the "Simpsons" of its day.  If the Soviets truly wanted to attack us, the best time would have been whenever that show was on, as the cream of our defenders would have all been in the rec rooms ready for the latest round of silliness and rotten puns.  If they only knew...

 Natasha Fatale, Boris Badenov, Bullwinkle J. Moose and Rocket "Rocky" J. Squirrel

( from  notanothernewenglandsportsblog.blogspot.com )

Ok. How about cars, then?

Absolutely the sexiest car on the planet in 1961, bar-none...

Jaguar E-Type - Photo cropped from image at www.conceptcarz.com

After half a century, I defy anyone to even try to improve on that.

At that time...
   Minimum wage was $1.15/hour.
   Average yearly income was $5315.00 (a bit over $100.00/week).
   Gasoline was around 27 cents/gallon.
   A new Volkswagen Beetle went for somewhere around $1300.00
   Some of the less expensive U.S. cars started at under $2000.00
   As for that Jaguar above, a Wikipedia entry mentioned "The test car cost £2097",
   suggesting a price in the neighborhood of $10000.00 -- very difficult to pin down.
   In some parts of the country, you could rent a house for $50.00/month.

In 1961, the U.S. launched the unsuccessful invasion of Cuba, at the Bay of Pigs.

The Berlin Wall went up later that year.

Vietnam was not that big a deal then, although we already had advisors there.  Laos was the hot spot that had many of us concerned;  a civil war having just erupted then.

On 12 April 1961 Soviet Cosmonaut Major Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space, completing a single orbit and then returning to Earth.

 Yuri-Gagarin and Vostok-1 - from www.newshawker.com

A few weeks later, on 05 May 1961, U.S. Navy Commander Alan B. Shepard became the first American to go into space, but not into orbit; the Redstone rocket he rode (essentially an updated version of the German V2 ) simply didn't have the power for that.  An American orbital mission (John Glenn's) would have to wait for the not-yet-man-rated Atlas rocket to become available.

 Alan Shepard Postage Stamp         -         from www.spacetoday.com

They issued this three weeks ago, on 04 May 2011 (50th anniversary)

To take some of the sting out of always seeming to follow the Soviet's lead into space, on that 19th birthday of mine, 25 May 1961 (although I didn't hear about it until a couple of days later), President John F. Kennedy made a speech to Congress about what we could and should do about our position in space, vis-a-vis the Soviets.

It included this item which would personally affect me eleven years later, making possible Adventure of a Lifetime, which in turn led to The Adventure - Continued, the events in which would eventually lead to a whole new career and a complete change in my life. ...

"First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth."

"No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish."

Democrats were surely a different breed then.
-

DAFT PUNK

-Say WHAT?!  Huh?!!!

I've watched TRON: Legacy twice now.

I saw the original TRON when it first came out in 1982, and in 2002 I added the 20th Anniversary Collectors edition to my DVD collection.  It somehow survived the many purges and sell offs I had gone through over the years.

With the new movie sequel coming up, I was very surprised to not see the original all over the place; Disney has absolutely no peer when it comes to milking something for all it's worth.  It's been out of print for years now, and I've learned that my copy truly is  a collectors item; prices starting at $130.00 on Amazon.com for new copies still in the original factory wrap.

A relook at my copy of the original verified my memory of it; it was fairly good, but not all that fantastic.  I suspect the suits at Disney took a look and decided that it would not compel people to put the sequel on their "must see" list.

Which is a shame, as they did something truly amazing with the sequel, elevating it into one Hell of a fine movie, with a simple (deceptively simple) storyline that has a lot more going on than at first appears.

(Jeff Bridges also has had an amazing year, appearing in this, and  in True Grit ; THE best movie of 2010, so far. He deserves a post of his own, so I'm not going to cover him here.)

The first thing that grabbed me (really grabbed me) was the music; seemingly a marriage of Phillip Glass and Tangerine Dream (with bits of John Carpenter and John Barry thrown in). The music is mostly for motion (and there is a lot of motion here) and it puts the movie into overdrive.

I had to wait until the end credits to learn that DAFT PUNK (an electronic music duo consisting of French musicians Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter) did this score.

I had never heard of them before, and this appears to be their very first film score, but they've been around for awhile.  I can see now that my next bankruptcy may well be engendered by seeking out what else they have done.

Hunt up the CD soundtrack of TRON: Legacy and give it a listen.

If it doesn't move you, and make you want to check out the movie, you might as well pack it in;  you're already dead!.
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