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R.I.P. Les Paul

Sad news:

Acclaimed guitar player Les Paul died on Wednesday from complications of severe pneumonia at White Plains Hospital in New York. He was 94.

Born Lester William Polsfuss in Waukesha, Wisconsin on June 9, 1915, Paul was already performing publicly as a honky-tonk guitarist by the age of 13. He dropped out of high school at 17 to play in Sunny Joe Wolverton’s Radio Band in St. Louis. His first recordings were done in 1936, and in 1938, he moved to New York to begin his tenure on national radio with Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians.

Paul began constructing his own electric guitar in the late 1930s, and eventually created his own guitar in the 1940s, which would become the template for Gibson’s best-selling electric, the Les Paul model, which was introduced in 1952.

via Guitartist Les Paul Dies at 94.

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The Boat That Rocked

I don’t write much about movies on this blog these days, mainly because I just don’t watch a lot of movies any more. The Internet has made geographic location irrelevant, and it’s now possible to watch TV shows from Canada, Australia and the UK minutes after they air in their home countries (not days or months like it used to be). And there’s just too much good TV out there to waste time on movies.

I did see one good movie the other day though – The Boat That Rocked. It’s the story of a pirate radio station broadcasting rock and roll into Britain from a boat in the North Sea in 1966. Although completely fictitious, much of the core of the story is based on (or influenced by) Radio Caroline, a real pirate station that played rock and roll all night and all day at a time when the BBC continued to stick to classical and jazz. Such pirate radio stations became immensely popular, with 20+ million Britons tuning in every week.

What makes this film is the cast: legendary British actor Bill Nighy plays Quentin, the owner of the station. Kenneth Branagh plays an uptight government official determined to get that “pornographic filth” off the airwaves. Jack Davenport (of Coupling and Swingtown) plays Branagh’s eager assistant. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays “The Count”, a bombastic American DJ. Nick Frost (of Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead), Rhys Darby (of Flight of the Conchords), Tom Wisdom (of Mile High), Ralph Brown (of Life On Mars), and Chris O’Dowd (of The IT Crowd and FM) round out the cast of misfit DJs (many of whom are loosely based on real DJs). There are also cameos by Emma Thompson and, most importantly, Mad Men’s January Jones:

January Jones - The Boat That RockedRawr!

It’s a good, but not great movie. It’s at least entertaining and something different. I didn’t care for the ending which, although somewhat based on actual events, is filled with enough triumphant orchestral music and fist pumping by the characters that you expect them to scream “O Captain, My Captain” at any moment.

As for availability, you can order the R2 DVD from Amazon UK here, or order the Blu-Ray disc from Amazon US (for $75.49!) here. It’s also “out there”, if you know where to look.

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More Boot Stamping

Britain continues her march towards INGSOC! The Liverpool City Council is planning to reclassify thousands of classic movies that feature smoking. Any film deemed to offend the sensibilities of Big Brother the council will be given an “18 certificate”, the equivalent of an NC-17 rating in the US (and previously reserved for explicitly violent or sexual films).

Although the rule is supposedly for new films only, there is nothing in the measure to prevent the Liverpool Council from banning older films as well. This could mean that no Liverpudlian under the age of 18 would be able to go to a cinema or rent or purchase almost any movie made before 1970, including such classics as Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, Citizen Kane, On The Waterfront and even modern classics such as Titanic and Lord of the Rings. What’s more, several classic childrens films – such as 101 Dalmatians and Disney’s Peter Pan, The Little Mermaid and Pinocchio would become 18+ only.

The nannies on the council have graciously exempted any film in which a historical character was known to smoke (Winston Churchill, for example), and they have also exempted any film which “educates” the public on the “dangers” of smoking (“I love you, Big Brother!”)

Ingsoc

This is all made possible by a 2003 law with allows local governments to override the British Board of Film Classification, which normally handles such things.

Read more about it here.

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Random Wednesday Stuff

– If ever there was any doubt about the supremacy of the NFL in America’s hearts, look no further than last week’s Neilsen ratings, where a lowly pre-season game between two middling teams – the Tennessee Titans and the Buffalo Bills – trounced the competition from MLB, NASCAR and the PGA. The “Hall of Fame Game” (so-called because it takes place at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio) averaged 7.9 million viewers, compared to 6.3 million viewers for the final round of the Bridgestone Invitational, 4.7 million for the Yankees-Red Sox game, and 2.5 million for NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series. Let me emphasize – this was a pre-season game between two teams with small fan bases… and it beat out Tiger Woods, one of MLB’s classic rivalries, and a bunch of rednecks driving in circles! Read more here.

– Some nutty British scienticians have decided that Britain’s ideal pet would have the “ears of a rabbit, face of a cat, body of a golden retriever and tail of a horse”. Read more about it here.

– Like I lot of people, I occasionally walk past a dirty car and feel an overwhelming urge to write “Wash Me” on it. Texas artist Scott Wade is the same way, only he uses brushes and his fingers to create masterpieces on the windshields of cars:

Car Art

Read about his work and see more pictures here.

– And lastly, a bit of free advice for Apple: stop censoring so many iPhone apps! As you probably know, Apple’s iconic iPhone has an online store (called, imaginatively enough, the App Store) where users can download programs for their iPhones. The only problem is that Apple has complete control over what apps make it to the App Store, and sometimes the company likes to use a heavy hand when dealing with developers.

Apple pulled a Bittorrent app from the App Store because “it could be used for piracy” (which is pretty rich from a company that made billions selling iPods!). Apple then banned a Bittorrent viewing program because again “it could be used for piracy” (it’s crucial to note that this program simply connected to a desktop computer and checked the status of the BT app running on that computer; the rejected iPhone app couldn’t download anything by itself). Apple has also taken a caviler attitude with apps that complete with the iPhone’s existing apps (the recent Google Voice drama) or the bread and butter of its main iPhone partner, AT&T (the SlingPlayer drama). But last week might have been the last straw: Apple banned a dictionary app from the App Store… because the program contained “offensive words” (the app was later approved when all the “offensive” words were removed and a “17+” label was added to the app. I just wanted to say this: “Hey, Apple: the Justice Department can investigate companies other than Microsoft and Intel, ya know?”

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More on the Affidavit

In this post I talked about Angela Antonetti’s affidavit in the Ben Roethlisberger suit. I’d like to take a couple of minutes to follow-up on this.

First of all, you can download a PDF of the affidavit here.

Once you’ve downloaded it, check out paragraph 18:

In August 2008, Andrea asked me to travel with her to Pittsburg [sic] that fall to see a Pittsburg Steelers game and to try to “run into” Ben Roethlisberger. I told Andrea that she shouldn’t try to chase Mr. Roethlisberger. I believed that Andrea’s plan to travel to Pittsburg – uninvited – to attempt to see Mr Roethlisberger when he had not tried to contact her was not realistic. Based upon this discussion, I understood that Mr Roethlisberger had not tried to contact Andrea, although he could have easily reached her at Harrah’s.

And there’s the money shot right there. If this paragraph in particular is true, then I don’t believe a word of McNulty’s story.

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The Sacred Rules of Jersey Purchase

Behind the Steel Curtain has a great post about buying team jerseys. Although many casual fans (and wives and girlfriends) might think buying a jersey is as simple as picking a player then picking a jersey size, the fact is that it’s a complex process full of pitfalls:

I’ve gotta buy a new Steelers jersey. This has kept me up nights, and any die-hard fan in the same situation should treat this monumentous decision the same way.

See, there’s far more that goes into a fan’s jersey selection than most think. It’s a commentary of that fan’s ownership of the team. It’s a proud statement that shows the devotion and loyalty to America’s greatest team.

Is it your favorite player? Is it a tribute to the olden days of the team? Is it commemorating one of our two recent Super Bowls? These are all factors, but the “coolness” of that player or the uniqueness and rarity of that jersey is also very important. Longevity and likelihood of that player’s continued employment by the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Even if you’re not a Steelers fan, you should still read the article, as it has a lot of good “rules” for picking just the right jersey. After all, every fan should know about “The Oversaturation Rule” (Roethlisberger, Polamalu), “The Bandwagon Rule” (James Harrison, Santonio Holmes), “The Commitment Rule” (Alan Faneca), “The Throwback Rule” and more, and how they might apply to your team.

Although amusing, the post has good information that every fan should know.

via The Sacred Rules of Jersey Purchase.

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Hotel Babylon: Season 4, Episode 7

Hotel Babylon
Season 4, episode 7
Aired: August 7, 2009 on BBC1

hotel_babylon_s04_e07

SYNOPSIS

Famous Sicilian artist (and frequent Babylon guest) Christiano Cucci has died, and he so loved the hotel that he wants his funeral service held there. James, smelling a chance to become the manager of all food and drink at Babylon, begs Juliet for the chance to show her what he can do. She agrees – if he pulls off the event, he will get his promotion. However, at Juliet’s insistence, James must partner with Geno to do so.

Meanwhile, famous comedian Jim Doody (played by real-life comedian Hugh Dennis) has checked into the hotel. One of Juliet’s old flames, she starts swooning whenever he’s around… which sets Sam off on a jealous rage. He ends up going to the room of Sophie (Poppy Elliot), a flirty guest, to have a one-night stand. But Juliet is in for disappointment: despite his being all flirty with her, Jim is married. Sam, too, feels awful, because he only slept with Sophie to “get back” at Juliet… until Sophie says that they didn’t actually sleep together, as Sam passed out from tequilla before anything happened. So Sam feels better, and he and Juliet try getting back together again.

Continue reading “Hotel Babylon: Season 4, Episode 7”

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It was consensual?

I haven’t said much about the civil suit against Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger because a) I’m not a lawyer; and b) so far, we’ve only had the alleged victim’s 36-page original complaint to comment on.

However, in an affidavit filed on Friday, Angela Antonetti, a former co-worker of the alleged victim, stated that Andrea McNulty “did not appear to be upset, stressed-out or nervous” about the incident… in fact, she appeared to be “happy and boastful”, and even wondered if she might “have a little Roethlisberger” inside her (i.e. be pregnant).

Antonetti further states that McNulty’s series of psychological treatments and long absences from work after the alleged incident were actually related to the affair she was having with a married man, and another “relationship” she was having with a soldier in Iraq (who was actually an imaginary person made up by the wife of the man she was having an affair with).

Look folks, this is just the opinion of one of Andrea McNulty’s co-workers. I’m sure that if you asked most of your co-workers about you, you’d get several “he’s a great guy” comments and a few “he’s a complete jerk” comments. The point is, just because one woman says that McNulty is lying doesn’t mean that the suit is a slam-dunk for Roethlisberger’s attorneys. It’s not, however, a good sign for McNulty. Her case has always seemed shaky, and a few more affidavits like these and the suit will collapse.

Read more about it here.

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-08-09

  • "Surely the problem must be with everyone else, not you, oh precious snowflake!" #
  • "Windows 7 sucks because it won't run [program written in 1992]!!" #
  • I've never seen an Asian woman on a bicycle… #
  • My inbox has 1509 unread items. *sigh* #
  • R.I.P. John Hughes 🙁 #
  • Chumbawumba is now in your head! #

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