“Every positive value has its price in negative terms. And you never see anything very great which is not, at the same time, horrible in some respect. The genius of Einstein leads to Hiroshima.”
Monday, January 25, 2010
Quote: Katherine Whitehorn (1926- )
“It is a pity, as my husband says, that more politicians are not bastards by birth instead of vocation.”
Movie Speech: Life Stinks
I like some of Mel Brooks stuff and yet find other material by him tedious. However, the movie Life Stinks, in my view, is brilliant. If you haven't yet seen it, go out and rent it and don't read any further, there are spoilers ahead.
In the movie Brooks plays Goddard Bolt, the world's richest man, who wagers that he can survive in the ghetto for a month without his resources, wealth and identity.
Whilst there he meets and falls in love with Molly, a bag lady, played by Lesley Anne Warren. The street people call him Pepto, the name left on his forehead from the ink when he sleeps on a piece of Pepto Bismol cardboard on his first night in the slums.
The following scene is where he is in a coma in hospital and close to death:
Molly:
Pepto, I know you want to give up, but you're wrong. Even without money, life is good. No? What about when you didn't eat for two days and then you had your first big meal at the mission? Wasn't that good? Remember the other night when we drank champagne and danced and rolled around in rags? I know they’re only moments but that’s all life is, just a bunch of moments. Most of them are lousy but once in a while you steal a good one. Come on, come on back to me. Don’t be such a selfish bastard. You’re the only person I can stand. Don’t leave me. I love you. Please, don’t leave me.
Pepto:
(Coming out of his coma):
Molly, you’re crying. What happened? Somebody die?
Molly:
Somebody lived.
Music: Saturday Night Fever / CPR
Back when my daughter lived with me, I was invited to a 21st birthday party by one of her friends. My daughter, however, uninvited me on the basis that it was for young people. I remonstrated that if I dug out the white flares, brightly patterned shirt, the platform shoes and did a comb over, I would blend right in. As I said this I spun my index fingers around on each other and went into an angled pose with one hand pointing upwards and one pointing to the ground. She remained unmoved.
I mention this because recently the Bee Gees hit Stayin’ Alive was back in the news.
This is the song which opens the movie Saturday Night Fever, as Tony Manero (John Travolta) struts the streets of Brooklyn with paint can in hand. http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=KOXa8mkPpeY
Quote: Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
”If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Speech: The Hindenburg Disaster / Herbert Morrison
Today’s speech is a departure from movie speeches. It is a speech with which many will be familiar, the commentary by Herbert Morrison of the destruction of the airship Hindenburg.
Music: Ode to Billie Joe / What was Thrown Off the Tallahatchie Bridge?
Each generation has its own name and description:
Lost Generation (1883–1900)
Greatest Generation (1901–1924)
Silent Generation (1925–1942)
Baby Boomers (1943–1960)
Generation X (1961–1981)
Generation Y (1982–2001)
Generation Z (2001–)
For us Baby Boomers (who are now getting a bit long in the tooth), as for Generations X, Y Z etc, a song can transport you back to a particular time in history or a time in your life. So it is that lately I have had Ode to Billie Joe going round in my head after I came across it on You Tube whilst looking up something else.
So set the Wayback Machine to 1967 Sherman, visit
and have a listen to Bobbie Gentry from Chickasaw County, Mississippi sing that Worldwide No 1, Ode to Billie Joe. Then let's consider what actually was thrown off the Tallahatchie Bridge.
Quote: James Callaghan (1912-2005),
“A lie can be half way around the world before the truth has got its boots on.”
Said in 1975, before the internet.
Said in 1975, before the internet.
Quote: Walt Whitman (1819-1891)
“Have you learned lessons only from those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you? Have you not learned great lessons from those who braced themselves against you, and disputed the passage with you?”
Quote: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)
“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”
Quote: Sir Jack Cohen (1898-1979)
“Pile it high, sell it cheap."
- Business motto of Sir Jack Cohen, founder of the UK supermarket chain Tesco.
Movie Speech: The American President
Made in 1995, The American President is a romantic comedy with Michael Douglas portraying US President Andrew Shepherd and Annette Benning playing Sydney Ellen Wade, a lobbyist. Shepherd, a widower, falls in love with Sydney Wade when she lobbies to have a crime control bill passed.
With an election in the offing, Presidential hopeful Bob Rumson (Richard Dreyfus) uses the relationship to attack Shepherd, including releasing to the press photos of Sydney Wade at a demonstration years ago where an American flag was burnt. She was an activist and is a member of the ACLU. Rumson also publicly criticises the relationship, intimating that Sydney Wade has loose morals. Each public utterance by Rumson is concluded by the words “I’m Bob Rumson and I’m running for President.”
Shepherd refuses to respond to the personal attacks, maintaining that he does not want to get in the gutter with Rumson arguing such matters. He prefers dignified silence. His popularity declines and, to secure votes for passage of a bill that he wants, he breaks his agreement with Sydney Wade relative to passage of her crime bill. She is fired by the people who had engaged her as a lobbyist and she breaks it off with Shepherd.
In the following scene, President Shepherd, having lost Sydney, having supported a bill he does not believe in whilst having dumped a bill that had merit, delivers a speech in the Press Room different to the speech he has prepared:
Music: Lyrics as Poetry / Tom Waits
There is many a time that I have commented that the lyrics of Bob Dylan or Billy Joel should be taught in schools as poetry. No doubt many would agree. This however raises an issue of whether song lyrics can be, or should be, considered to be poetry.
There are those who argue that lyrics are lyrics and poetry is poetry eg “Music lyrics are not poetry” at
This raises the issue of what is poetry? Two quotations immediately come to mind. The first is that a poem is like a hippopotamus: hard to describe but you know one when you see one. The other is a quote from one of my favourite books, 'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone,' it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.' (Through the Looking Glass).
Quote: Lin Yutang (1895-1976)
“Where there are too many policemen, there is no liberty. Where there are too many soldiers, there is no peace. Where there are too many lawyers, there is no justice.”
Quote: Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896)
“The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.”
Quote: Paul Keating (1944 - )
To John Browne, Minister of Sport, who was proposing a 110 per cent tax deduction for contributions to a Sports Foundation:\
"Now listen mate, you're not getting 110 per cent. You can forget it. This is a fucking Boulevard Hotel special, this is. The trouble is we are dealing with a sports junkie here [gesturing towards Bob Hawke]. I go out for a piss and they pull this one on me. Well that's the last time I leave you two alone. From now on, I'm sticking to you two like shit to a blanket.”
"Now listen mate, you're not getting 110 per cent. You can forget it. This is a fucking Boulevard Hotel special, this is. The trouble is we are dealing with a sports junkie here [gesturing towards Bob Hawke]. I go out for a piss and they pull this one on me. Well that's the last time I leave you two alone. From now on, I'm sticking to you two like shit to a blanket.”
Quote: Frank Sinatra (1915-1998)
“Rock ‘n’ roll is the most brutal, ugly, vicious form of expression - sly, lewd, in plain fact dirty … rancid smelling aphrodisiac … the martial music of every delinquent on the face of the earth.” (1957)
Quote: Max Bygraves (1922 - )
“I’ve always wanted to see a ghost town. You couldn’t even get a parachute to open here after 10.00pm.”
Max Bygraves endearing himself to the citizens of Melbourne in 1965.
(Similar to Neil Jillet’s remark, wrongly attributed to Ava Gardner: “On the Beach is a story about the end of the world, and Melbourne sure is the right place to film it.”)
Music: Leonard Cohen / The Old Revolution
In response to a request for some lyrics from Leonard Cohen, I present for your enjoyment the lyrics of Leonard Cohen's The Old Revolution. For those who are not acquainted with the musical style and depth of Mr Cohen, it would be best described as "music to slash your wrists by".
Cohen's own comment on himself:
“I don't consider myself a pessimist. I think of a pessimist as someone who is waiting for it to rain. And I feel soaked to the skin.”In many ways - images, language, musical style - Cohen and Dylan are similar.
The following has always been one of my favourites and can be heard at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNN0804olxw
Quote: Henry Ford (1863-1947)
"History is more or less bunk. It's tradition. We don't want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker's damn is the history we make today."
Quote: Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)
In 1835, the Irish Roman Catholic leader Daniel O'Connell attacked Benjamin Disraeli during a by election (which Disraeli lost, he not entering Parliament until 1837). O’Connell referred to Disraeli as the “'worst possible type of Jew” and stated that:
He has just the qualities of that impertinent thief on the cross, and I verily believe, if Mr. Disraeli's family herald were to be examined and his genealogy traced, that same personage would be discovered to be the heir at law of the exalted individual to whom I allude.
Disraeli, in a letter to the Times, replied:
Yes, I am a Jew, and when the ancestors of the right honourable gentleman were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests in the temple of Solomon.
(Commonly it is stated that Disraeli made the above response in the House of Commons but that is incorrect. It should also be noted that Disraeli was a practising Christian, despite his Jewish background, and that Jews were not allowed to enter Parliament until 1858).
Music: Bebe Daniels / You're Getting to be a Habit with Me
I have previously mentioned the ability of country & western songs to both tell a story and deliver a life message in a 3 minute song. Lyrics are an overlooked source of poetry, humour, literature and general interest.
Therefore, for your reading and listening pleasure, I bring you today the lyrics of You’re Getting To Be A Habit With Me, a song featured in the marvelous 1933 movie 42nd Street. The song was inspired by a remark of one of the women working on the Warner Bros set who, when asked why she was still dating a certain man, replied that he had become a habit with her.
The song is illustrative of the differing attitudes towards drug use between 1933 and the present day and its escalation into a major society problem.
Therefore, for your reading and listening pleasure, I bring you today the lyrics of You’re Getting To Be A Habit With Me, a song featured in the marvelous 1933 movie 42nd Street. The song was inspired by a remark of one of the women working on the Warner Bros set who, when asked why she was still dating a certain man, replied that he had become a habit with her.
The song is illustrative of the differing attitudes towards drug use between 1933 and the present day and its escalation into a major society problem.
Quote: Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
Movie Speech: Shawshank Redemption
Morgan Freeman portrays Ellis Boyd “Red” Redding in the 1994 flick Shawshank Redemption, a story set around young Andy Dufresne, sentenced to life imprisonment in 1947 for the murder of his wife and her lover. Notwithstanding the grim life in Shawshank Prison and that he is innocent, Andy maintains hope and his dreams.
Red is a fellow inmate and the prison “fixer”. He is serving a life sentence for murder and at various parole hearings he tries to convince the Parole Board of his rehabilitation, his contrition, that he will not offend again and of his sincerity. Each time his parole form is stamped "Rejected".
In 1967 he comes up for parole again…
In 1967 he comes up for parole again…
Quote: Lewis Carroll / Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
'Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?'
'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.
'I don't much care where --' said Alice.
'Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.
Quote: John Lennon (1940 - 1980)
“I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It's just that the translations have gone wrong."
Music: Billy Joel / We Didn't Start The Fire (Part 2)
Meanings in We Didn't Start The Fire:
1949:
Harry Truman
1884-1972, 33rd President of the US, for the years 1945-1953. Became President on the death of Franklin D Roosevelt, authorised the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan.
Doris Day
Popular US actress and singer, made wholesome and schmaltzy films, prompting Oscar Levant to say that he knew her before she was a virgin. First large successful films in 1950. Real name Doris Mary Ann von Kappelhoff.
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