Tuesday, October 27, 2015
In the news . . .
Stories you may have missed . . .
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Leggo shortfall for Xmas:
Lego has reported that there will likely be a Lego shortfall this Christmas due to heavy demand for its products following the releases of the Lego movie and the Star Wares Lego range.
If there is a Christmas shortage, what will parents step on barefoot over the Christmas holiday period?
Btw, "Lego" was developed a s a name by the company founder, Ole Kirk, by contracting the Danish phrase leg godt, meaning "play well." Later the Lego Group discovered that "Lego" can be loosely interpreted as "I put together" or "I assemble" in Latin.
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House surrounded by flats:
A home hemmed in by supermarkets, towering apartment blocks and an underground carpark has gone on the market 15 years after developers began building around it. Developers first began offering huge sums of cash to couple Janet and Norman Richards, from Brisbane's West End, when they started rebuilding the plot around their three-bedroom home. After Mr Richard's recently passed away and his wife decided to move to a retirement home, the property is to go to auction.
They’re lucky that developers want it. In many cases sites have become “sterilised” by blocks of flats being built either side, with the result that nothing can be done with the remaining isolated dwellings because the sites are too small to develop alone. Most Councils today have controls in place to stop site sterilisation but China has different protocols. Where owners have declined developers’ low offers for their homes, the developers have simply built around them. These sites, where a resident refuses to leave in order to make way for new construction, are known as “nail houses”:
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Transgender transformation:
A former US Marine, who was married with a daughter and served six tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan has come out as transgender and transformed into a beautiful woman, at the same time becoming a spokesperson for the transgender community. The woman, Sona Avedian, says that she knew at age 4 that she was a girl but this was suppressed in her conservative family. Instead she muscled up and overcompensated to fit in. In 2012 Sona came out as transgender and began taking hormone therapy. After undergoing complex surgery and shedding a remarkable 44.5kg she started her new life as a pretty blonde.
Sona Avedian, before as Matthew (left) and after (right)
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Death of Maureen O'Hara:
Legendary actress Maureen O’Hara, the star of such classic films as Miracle on 34th Street, The Quiet Man and How Green was My Valley, has died at age 95. Maureen was one of the last surviving greats from Hollywood’s Golden Years and was known as the Queen of Technicolor because of the camera's love affair with her vivid hair, pale complexion and fiery nature.
With Walter Pidgeon in How Green Was My Valley
With John Wayne in The Quiet Man
If you haven’t seen these movies, do so, not as a tribute to the late Maureen O’Hara but because they are two great classic films and wonderful entertainment.
A Maureen O'Hara moment:
She recounted during an interview that when a visitor to the dying Walt Disney happened to mention Maureen O'Hara's name, the mogul of family entertainment sat up in his hospital bed and snarled: "That bitch."
"I don't mind what he said. He didn't like me because I wouldn't let him get out of a contract. Not many people had the guts to stand up to him. At least he didn't think of me and say, 'That wimp'."
Monday, October 26, 2015
Monday Miscellany: Odds, Ends and Personals
Back when I was a lad, Halloween and trick or treating was something that the seppos did, it was as foreign as peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. These days it is not uncommon for kids to come to the door here in Oz dressed up and seeking candy, and for adults to have Halloween themed parties. It falls on the last day of October, which is this coming Saturday, Here are some pics of interesting costumes . . .
Sunday, October 25, 2015
Top Movie Quotes: 63-61
Continuing the countdown of the American Film Institute’s top 100 movie lines (2005 list).
The next 3 in the countdown appear below.
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63. "Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me. Aren't you?”
Spoken by Dustin Hoffman as Benjamin Braddock,
The Graduate, 1967
Movie trivia:
- Although Mrs. Robinson is supposed to be much older than Benjamin, Anne Bancroft and Dustin Hoffman are just under six years apart in age. He looked naturally boyish, and she was made up to look older. For the same reason, Bancroft was only 8 years older than her "daughter" Katharine Ross, William Daniels (Mr. Braddock) only 10 years older than his "son" Hoffman.
- Mike Nichols said that the use of images to suggest Ben is "underwater" and out of his depth in life --e.g., the fish tank, the pool, the scuba outfit--was deliberate, although he didn't care if anyone noted this or not. He also emphasized the use of glass as barriers with people cut off from each other and the life around them.
- Mike Nichols has stated that the scene of Ben's seduction by Mrs. Robinson "was all about him being stalked....We talked about it being a jungle, and it was a jungle. There were all these plants and the Beverly Hills garden behind the glass that surrounded the sun porch. And we talked about her being the tiger in the jungle and she had a tiger-striped dress on and it was all built to be a trap, a tender trap. We wanted to find a way to express the fact that she was being provocative... And there was her leg and it was up and it seemed logical."
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62. “What a dump."
Spoken by Bette Davis as Rosa Moline,
Beyond the Forest, 1949
Movie trivia:
- Bette Davis was so unhappy about making this movie that she told Jack Warner: "If you want me to finish the film, let me out of my contract". Warner was only too happy to accept, because Davis was his highest-paid star and her last few movies had been unsuccessful.
- Bette Davis thought Joseph Cotten was all wrong for the role of her husband, saying: "He's adorable. What in the world would she leave him for?"
- In "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" Martha repeatedly asks George for the name of the movie where Bette Davis says, "What a dump!"
I confess that my only acquaintance with this line is from "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and that I have never seen the Bette Davis from whence it originates (I know that sentence sounds ponderous but that way I didn't finish on a preposition).
Here's a link to a clip of the Bette Davis original line:
And here to the Liz Taylor version from "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?":
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61. "Say 'hello' to my little friend!"
Spoken by Al Pacino as Al Capone,
Scarface, 1983
Movie trivia:
- When director Brian De Palma submitted the film to the MPAA, they gave it an "X rating". He then made some cuts and resubmitted it a second time; again the film was given an "X rating" (one of the reasons apparently being that Octavio the clown was shot too many times). He yet again made some further cuts and submitted it a third time; yet again it was given an "X". De Palma refused to cut the film any further to qualify it for an R. He and producer Martin Bregman arranged a hearing with the MPAA. They brought in a panel of experts, including real narcotics officers, who stated that the film was an accurate portrayal of real life in the drug underworld and should be widely seen. This convinced the 20 members of the ratings board to give the third submitted cut of the film an "R rating" by a vote of 18-2. However, De Palma surmised that if the third cut of the film was judged an "R" than the very first cut should have been an "R" as well. He asked the studio if he could release the first cut but was told that he couldn't. However since the Studio execs really didn't know the differences between the different cuts that had been submitted, De Palma released the first cut of the film to theaters anyway. It wasn't until the film had been released on videocassette months later that he confessed that he had released his first unedited and intended version of the film.
- Tony's "little friend" is an M16 assault rifle with an M203 40mm grenade launcher attached to the barrel.
- According to the "scorecard" feature on the Platinum Edition DVD, the word "fuck" and its derivatives are used 226 times for an average of 1.32 fucks per minute.
Saturday, October 24, 2015
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