A Giddy Gallop

August 31, 1897, Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope, an early motion picture exhibition device and introduced the basic approach that would become the standard for all cinematic projection. First described in conceptual terms by him in 1888, it was largely developed by his employee William Kennedy Laurie Dickson between 1889 and 1892. Brilliant as Edison was, he very often relied on the skills of others, like Laurie Dickson and his team at the Edison lab, or was even tampering with ideas from others. A meeting with photographic pioneer Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) and his work appears to have spurred Edison to pursue the development of a motion picture system. Muybridge later described how he proposed a collaboration to join his device with the Edison phonograph, a combination system that would play sound and images concurrently. No such collaboration was undertaken, but in October 1888, Edison filed a claim with the U.S. Patent Office announcing his plans to create a device that would do "for the Eye what the phonograph does for the Ear". Reading this kind of behavior make me sense a genius, but like many of them, affected with a ruthless ego. Like the images of Muybridge showed a horse does lift all four hoofs from the ground, we better check and have a second look at whose steps were making cinema what it is today. Image by Photobucket/franklin68

Russian Roulette, Ravishing Reds

August 30, 1963, the hotline between Washington and Moscow got into operation. It was the Bay of Pigs incident that got it in the air. Or, more precise, through telephone lines running at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Till then the communication line was a thin one and that slow, it came close to a game of dice: one could expect a fatal error like in Russian Roulette. Regularly updated with state-of-the-art satellites it has become (at least) much faster and (hopefully) saver. It’s also the day, 1938, that Max Factor died. Born in the Russian Empire, running his business in Moscow as the official cosmetic expert, he emigrated to the USA in 1904 and started his own empire that still seals our lips today. Also the day, the year 1991, that Swiss/French sculptor Jean Tinguely died. His work was made of the cast off material of his days. I wonder what he would have made of those redundant satellites of the 60s? Image by Photobucket/avinabbas

Chop Sticks On Steinways

August 29, 1885, the two German inventors Daimler and Maybach got a precursor of the modern petrol engine running, and fitted a smaller version of it onto a wooden bicycle in November the same year, considered to be the first motorcycle. The test drive lasted 3 kilometers along the river Neckar, and both were unknown to the fact that a just about 55 kilometers longer drive would have taken them to the first automobile made by Benz in Mannheim! Therefor the fantasy of a first collision of both isn’t that a long shot, but nothing got broken, it didn’t happen. But there was a merge of Daimler and Benz in 1928, and their babies we all know today. Also today, the year 1896, ‘mixed broken pieces’ aka Chop Suey got invented by the Chinese ambassador Lu Hung-Chang’s cooks, a man responsible to have chopped many enemies into tiny pieces. Although not authentic Chinese, it’s one of the most well known ‘Asian’ dishes. But it is the topic of a song in the 1958 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical ‘Flower Drum Song’. Can I bend this story one more time in a surprising way? Yes, I can (thank you Mr. Obama). Both composers have been very familiar with Steinway piano’s, and Steinway was one of the companies which Daimler agreed licenses to build engines for in 1895. Image by Photobucket/elfinka_veterok

Audrey’s Aurora

August 28, 1859, one of the most spectacular displays ever of the polar Northern Lights, called the ‘Dance of the Spirits’ by the Cree people, and ‘Aurora’ by scientists, named after the Roman godess of Dawn, was seen in large parts of the USA, Europe and Japan. In such a way, that print could be read at night without the regular sources. Aurora being an interaction of Earth’s magnetic field and solar winds, there was another dawn and interaction on this day, the year 1953: Audrey Hepburn’s official debut in the film ‘Roman Holiday’. From the vespa driving princess, to the haircutting angel in her last 1989 film ‘Always’, she’ll be one of the always returning bright lights of the cinema. Image by Photobucket/3listyle

A Ferry’s And Fairy’s Fudge

The irregular posting of lately might have been unnoticed? Maybe it’s just my impression? Anyway, since a few days I’m surviving between cardboard boxes that make me wonder if they’re all mine, or have been mixed up with other people’s moves and slipped into my new apartment! New view, new numbers, new start. It’s situated just a walking distance from the main shopping malls. I’m inclined to see that as positive. To trust the cat to keep the cream? Hopefully the internet signal in this new area will be much stronger. That’s for me to find out soon, because, ofcourse, the connection isn’t already there (deep sigh). Hopefully I can share the costs with one of my new neighbors, can surf, blog and kick out the slow turtle with the speed of a tidal wave, that will take my breath away! The lack of sheets did that for the first couple of nights; I had to wait till a ferry, and alas, not a fairy, brought them! It’s a kind of hop-scotch so far, but I’ve done it before, I’ll get the hang of it. Image by Photobucket/ Angie_97147

A Personal Pieta

August 26, 1498, the day that Michelangelo was commisioned to carve the Pieta. Within two years he finished this unusual piece of a genre that never had been seen before in Italy of the time. Out of boyish bravura, he was just 23, he left his signature engraved, the only time he ever really signed his work. Wouldn’t it be great to touch that marble, those delicate fingers that are reaching out to help and to be helped at the same time?

Look again...they move! The Pieta, to me, stands for compassion and strength. She crossed the ocean to the 1964 New York World Fair once, but since then she’s hidden behind bullet proof glass. Imagine we can touch her, walk out of the Vatican, and as bees swarm off all over this globe, pollinate our homes or gardens with that marked finger. Isn’t it a pity, that she and so many thousands of other statues are not to be allowed to be touched? Like so many statues gathering dust in forsaken places, so many people are reaching out for that one touch? Images by Photobucket/intothesea13/bleumarieorange

Twisted Taxi Tales

August 25, 1910, the Yellow Cab was founded, originally from Chicago, it got established in New York City in 1912. Cabs mean public transport, so it’s obvious many have been sitting in one, including the well known faces. Here are some birthday-broadway-birds of today to get accommodated in a cab: actress Ruby Keeler (1910), might have been one of the first with her 1933 musical movie ‘42nd Street’ also starring people like Ginger Rogers and Dick Powell, being such a successfull performance it saved Warner Brothers from bankruptcy. Next to her, actor Sean Connery (1930) had a drive to the Yankee Stadium in ‘Finding Forrester’, part of the soundtrack was ‘Lonely Fire’ by Miles Davis and Wayne Shorter (this latter bird blows candles and his horn from this day on, the year 1933). Next is actress Anne Archer (1947) the betrayed housewife in the 1987 film ‘Fatal Attraction’, and singer songwriter Elvis Costello (1954), who formed his band the ‘Attractions’ in 1977, and recorded the song ‘People’s Limousine’, having been under contract with Warner Brothers for some time. Riding the cab with us, but just in the boot: Joni Mitchell’s ‘Yellow Taxi’, referring to the old Toronto Police Service patrol cars. We also got an uninvited guest, because he wasn’t driving a yellow cab: Al Pacino, playing the suffering from insomnia cabdriver Travis in the 1976 ‘Taxi Driver’. Hanging on the half closed taxi’s door, he yells ‘you’re talking to me?’, and I slam the door, hearing Mitchell’s voice singing ‘…late last night-I heard my screen door slam-and a big yellow taxi-took away my old man…’ Image by Photobucket/darcus214

Pressing A Potato

August 24, 1853, out of frustration, being fed up with one of his customers who continued to send his fried potatoes back because they were too thick, George Crum a chef at the Moon Lake Lodge Saratoga Springs New York decided to slice the potatoes so thin that they couldn't be eaten with a fork. He stir-fried them! They became a popular and regular item on the lodge's menu, and eventually, a century later, the international crave for millions: the chips or crisps (depending on where you live). But it’s no longer the potato alone that can be found in the bag: sweet potato, parsnip, beetroot, carrot and rice have been introduced dashed with all kinds of local flavors of the tongue. They all got one thing in common though: it still takes a lot of control, not to have another finger on the button to twist them around once more! Image by Photobucket/Lordcrepe

A Bi-Millennium Blogger

August 23, the year 79, Mount Vesuvius that crowns over what’s today’s Naples, begins to stir on the feastday of Vulcan, the Roman god of Fire. There had been plenty of warning signs to all, rather well to do citizens, of what one could call the St. Tropez dwellings of those days. Signs like earth quakes for instance, but that wasn’t seen to be alarming, more the nitty gritty of everyday. Maybe it was the sudden disappearance of water, that got most out of Pompeii and Herculaneum, except the old, sick and stubborn non-believers? More than 1,900 years later it still gives us surprises, like this image above, of what I like to see as the Lady Blogger. What was she thinking? Did she leave her home this day, August 23, packed her scribbles, ordered her personal slave to be swift, jumped on board of one of the waiting ships? Or did she waste time, had to find shelter the next two folllowing days of eruption and toxic gasses, and finally perished together with the tens of thousands of others, whose remains, or shall I say, gestures, are perhaps even more ‘modern’ impressive equivalents of the half finished statues of Michelangelo? Image by Photobucket/vidabo

Telegram Traffic

Yesterday, August 20, the year 1911, a dispatcher in the New York Times office sends the first telegram around the world via commercial services, to determine how fast a commercial message could be sent by telegraph cable. The message, reading simply "This message sent around the world," left the dispatch room and the reply was received by the same operator 16.5 minutes later. It traveled more than 28,000 miles, being relayed by 16 different operators, through San Francisco, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Saigon, Singapore, Bombay, Malta, Lisbon and the Azores (among other locations). I’m sorry for the delayed posting, but maybe you could say it’s a homage to all the delayed telegrams since that day, 98 years ago? There’s a reason that I fear this loss of telegrams, letters and postmen; films might not have the wow factor that many times anymore? This 1946 ‘The Postman Always Rings Twice’ I’ve never seen, but I can remember the 1981 version with Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange, flour and kitchen tables will never be the same to me anymore! Image by Photobucket/ByteCollectors2

Noah’s Nappy

August 19, 1960, the launch of the Russian Sputnik 5 with on board the dogs Belka and Strelka, 40 mice, 2 rats and a bunch of plants (sounds like Noah’s Arc to me). The next day after 18 orbits they all returned safely to earth. Lucky dogs, compared with their more famous but also more unlucky predecessor Laika, the dog that was launched November 3, 1957, never to return. Probably Laika, strapped all the time, died after a few hours after the launch from stress and overheating. They even were thinking of poisoning her (to avoid her suffering?) with the liquid space food they gave her... now, that’s more like it, now I recognize the KGB Intelligence again! After 5 months, 2570 orbits the Sputnik with Laika’s remains disintegrated falling into the atmosphere. Russians who sent dogs, Americans who sent monkeys, only god knows what the Chinese launched! Call me a softie, but there’s a little voice asking me, why on earth, they didn’t have the guts to send people, acting so superior? Or couldn’t they make such big sized pampers? Okee, Chewie, it’s your turn for a Wookiee roar!! For those who aren’t familiar with Star Wars: Chewie is played by Peter Mayhew, and his voice a work of sound designer Ben Burtt who mixed the sound of walruses, camels, bears, tigers and badgers. Image by Photobucket/nsd88

Times And Tunes (Are Changing)

August 17, 1982, something got on the market that would be a revolution, the end of the vinyl long play record era: the first cd got released publicly in Germany. A spin-off of the laserdisc (1979). The first manufactured cd was ‘the Visitors’ by Abba and the first cd released was ‘52nd Street’ by Billy Joel. Only 6 years later 50 pressing plants all over the world had produced 400 million cd’s. A funny (flip) side effect of this revolution just happened this past week: singer songwriter Bob Dylan, icon of the sixties and seventies vinyl, got arrested (for suspected behaviour) and not recognized by a very young police woman in Long Branch, New Jersey. Even the usual check of the passport didn’t ring a tune to her. He had to join her to his hotel to verify his story, where she asked some of her older colleagues who knew this ‘Bob-what’s-His-name? They covered her with the cloak of charity; that she even didn’t know what a vinyl lp was! ‘Times they’re a changing’ good ol’ Bob must have whistled! It makes me laugh, but also ‘Kind of Blue’... a jazz milestone by Miles Davis, released today in the year 1959! On vinyl, but, cross fingers, perhaps also available on cd in New Jersey? Image by Photobucket/moldovanka

An Abdomen’s Ace

Sweating like a working horse, running a cruel merciless treadmill, I wondered where I was going. Ofcourse, I was going nowhere, that’s the big advantage of such a machine, as we all know. But, where did this machine saw its first daylight? I wondered. Fully recovered and with the hope my tummy would show strength soon again, I found out this fitness phenomenon could be traced back to the treadwheels of 1817, being a method of reforming prisoners! That the first operating treadmill was built in 1875, not for healthminded people, but to run devices such as butter churns and spinning wheels. Basically a conveyor belt, it made Henri Ford decide to apply this invention in the production of the T-ford. It took the 1950s and Robert Bruce who used it as a stress-test to diagnose heart problems to become the vital machines in the 1960s gyms. The Jetson Family, including Astro the dog, showed the futuristic steps to a healthy domestic life. And in 2000 Nasa got a treadmill installed on the Space Station. This old machine still has a strong solid future. Let’s hope my abdomen will have too! Image by Photobucket/mattroe

A Tinned Tally-ho

August 15, 1877, the day of Thomas Edison’s first ever recording ‘Mary had a Little Lamb’. Made on tinfoil, it just could be played a few times, but it beats Al Jolson’s 1927 voice recording on wax (in time).

Mary had a little lamb, his fleece was white as snow. Ev'rywhere that Mary went, that lamb was sure to go. And you could hear them singing: la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la. He followed her to school one day, it was against the rules

Made the children laugh and play to see a lamb at school. You could hear them singing: la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la. Soon the teacher turned it out, still it lingered near, waited patiently about till Mary did appear

I know that’s not Mary in the picture, and not very likely Thomas Edison either, but maybe it works as a lullaby to think it’s that teacher? Better than counting sheep? Image by Photobucket/LENORE619-VOID

A Pond’s Prodigy

A born and raised City Dweller, I hardly find myself in gardens and whatever there might be in those green biotopes. A public park comes closest to the idea. All those trees, shrubs and water down there I take for granted, never think of what keeps them growing, running and floating. There’s a family that I recently visited, walking into their garden, the Lord of the Manor showed me his Masterpiece: a perfect mirrored surface of water! Being a Beach Bull, water fascinates me, I suddenly felt the urge to ask him the secret of keeping water that nicely clean and floating, and his answer was rather prosaic: pond pumps! I spare you the technical details of submersibles, externals, gph, filters, skimmers and liners that was poured over me like an unstoppable fountain. Still a bit knocked out, I sensed there were no fish in the Masterpiece, asking the reason, he said he wanted to wait till next year or so. He hadn’t decided yet what kind of fish he liked to have. That sounded a good reason to me, even God took a day off. Let’s hope a snake in the grass won’t be included. Image by Photobucket/bitemeimyours666

Full Chisels Of Chivalry

August 14, birthday of Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), historical novelist at the cradle of the medieval revival and spiritual father of ‘Ivanhoe’ (1819), a dashing heroic knight played by Sir Roger ‘Bond’ Moore in his first major appearance on the screen in the 1958 tv series. After 39 episodes of ‘riding around in all that armour and damned stupid plumed helmet, feeling like a medieval fireman’ Moore found himself playing ‘Silky Harris’ half of a couple of traveling swindlers in the 1959 tv series ‘the Alaskans’ bound for the Yukon Territories during the Goldrush. This is also the day, in the year 1896, another historical event saw the light of day: the same Goldrush at Klondike got started! Image by Photobucket/johnpcrush

Habits Of Hands

August 13 is the International Left Handers Day. It’s estimated that there are around 100-200 million lefties among us these days. That might not seem to be a lot. Maybe they’re waving goodbye to us (left handedly?) and vanish? According to the discovery that tools after 4000BC show a dramatic increase of right-handedness and for instance, that there was a time that 30% of the indigenous North American Indians was left-handed? What the Bible, Koran and Torah tell about the left hand wasn’t really helping either? Or take the word ‘sinister’ that’s derived from the Latin word for left-handed. What about the prosecutions of so-called (left-handed?) witches during the Dark Ages? The Inca’s thought being left-handed was lucky. Probably the Aztecs didn’t, especially not on August 13, 1521, when their island city Tenochtitlan (today’s Mexico City) with 200,000 inhabitants and the equal grandeur of Paris and Venice of those days, got captured and totally destroyed by Hernan Cortes. The rather contemporary correctional slap with the ruler might bring back, next to reality, some vivid memory of what’s ‘sinister’ and ‘righteous’ to many of us? Image by Photobucket/xavbrav

About Flips And Flops

August 12, 1981, the day of introduction of the IBM personal computer. Although the first use of the term personal computer was mentioned in the 1964 publication "The Banishment of Paper Work," by Arthur L. Samuel, in which he stated "…while it will be entirely feasible to obtain an education at home, via one's own personal computer, human nature will not have changed." More than 30 years later, we might argue this point of view, or at least raise our eyebrows. Then again, where the 1980s were the years that home computers were using the flimsy unreliable classic compact audio cassettes for storage and later the floppy discs, they got some kind of excuse for errors. But to witness that, in the first decade of the 21st century, with state-of-the-art microchips abundantly present in whatever we do, wherever we go, people find themselves not in Sydney Australia but in Sydney Canada (this is your captain speaking), and using a navigation computer that gets the car not on the southern Italian island of Capri, but in a village somewhere in the north-east of Italy… maybe A.L. Samuel was right after all? Have a nice Wednesday, may the Protective Eye be with you! Image by Photobucket/Ankhsunamun

Supplements Stumble

Not all the benefits of today are a matter of course. Take a thing such as a Medicare supplement for instance. From where I stand, it’s not even an option to consider to cover the gap between expenses for healthcare reinbursed and the total amount charged by some private health insurance. If it’s not the asked rates for such insurance to give me an acute rash, then for sure things like conditions and various policies of the insurance companies will do! To me it’s like having passed the dense reeds of jargon, then walking on water lilies, some people might do it with ease and grace, I would go under within a step or two! Image by Photobucket/hidden-through-the-looking-glass

Jail Birds Of Different Feather

August 11, 1934, the first federal prisoners arrived at the island prison of Alcatraz, San Fransisco Bay. The island, discovered and named by Juan de Ayala ‘La Isla de los Alcatraces’ (pelicans, and Arab for sea eagles) in 1775 had seen prisoners before; confederates from the American Civil War. One of the most well known prisoners ever was the Birdman of Alcatraz, Robert Stroud, who got there in 1942. In the fictionalized version of the 1962 film ’Birdman of Alcatraz’ with Burt Lancaster he kept canaries there, wrote two books about them, but that was in reality in Leavensworth. So, you might say that Burt was not Bird! The same year 1962, three inmates chiseled their way to freedom, being the most successful escape from the Rock, but likely drowned trying to reach the mainland. In 1963 the prison was officially closed. The 1969 occupation by a group of Native Americans who claimed that Alcatraz being ‘retired, abandoned and out of use federal land’ according the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, had to be given back to them, is assumed to have played a huge role for the Native Americans and is defined as a key movement. The keys of the cells have become redundant, Alcatraz is open to the public these days. Image by Photobucket/DamnJaymee

Orbs And Ops

If you ever liked the idea, and were saving dimes to become the first person to marry in space, you’re too late already. On August 10, 2003, the Russian astronaut Malenchenko married his Ekaterina Dmitrieva, who was in Texas, while he was 240 miles over New Zealand, on the International Space Station. New Zealand… isn’t that the place where all those ‘Lord of the Ring’ films were shot? Their witness might have been someone who’s birthday it is today as well: the Roman goddess of fertility Ops (meaning plenty), wife of the Roman deity Saturn, god of harvest. The planet Saturn has many rings, a symbol that has to be around a wedding, as we all know (with the exception of some absent minded best man). This marriage also might have been approved by Our Lady of Good Success of Paranaque, Philippines. It’s her day as well. Oh, by the looks of it: going walkies with dog Pluto in space… duh, done already! Image by Photobucket/bloodlemons

Business Mania

In the world of convenient shopping, one more online store has been born. It’s created, like others, for all of us to stay away from long tiring queues and the hustle and bustle of shopping centres. But by far, eBay stands for the most convenient and reliable shopping online. eBay’s reputation is worldwide acknowledged. There’s an enormous variety of tempting items from the daily basics to the most luxurious you want, can afford or even imagine. It has widely developed a marketing strategy in detail to serve the costumer. The most captivating is to Make Money online with eBay, it’s very interesting to learn how to benefit with eBay. Many have been successful in business thanks to eBay already. And with no doubt many more will follow. This could start getting into business for many in an unexpected way. There's no risk because you will be given the eBay Auction Success Kit, the key guide of your success in handling your business. eBay can be the ladder to become more financially free in the future than you can imagine right at this minute. Image by Photobucket/Mzbabigotbckx88

Outrage Of Originality

August 9, the international day of the World’s Indigenous People. There’s something typical going on with that word ‘indigenous’. Commonly it means "from" or "of the original origin". Therefore, in that sense any given people, ethnic group or community can be described as being indigenous in reference to some particular region or location. Politically speaking, it’s about “an underprivileged group, who share a similar ethnic identity different to the nation in power, and who have been an ethnic entity in a particular region before the present ruling nation took over power". Specifically, the term is used to denote particular peoples and groups around the world who, as well as being native to, or associated with, some given territory, meet certain other criteria, such as having reached a social and technological level thousands of years ago.

I used these official meanings, because to some level I got a problem with what’s considered indigenous. So, maybe it all comes down to the way we look upon the phenomenon of ‘being indigenous’, that who we are, determines our image and the according behavior? Speaking of image, today August 9, in the year 1483, the Sistine Chapel in Rome got opened, and Michelangelo’s frescos were shown to the world for the very first time. Within a decade many ‘indigenous’ peoples all over the world got under thread, some survived, some did not. In 1994, a 10 years restoration had removed all the blackening soot of centuries of wax and animal fat candles and burning essence, next to some poorly done earlier ‘restorations’, revealing what Michelangelo himself had seen. Many people were shocked by the brilliant colors, cried 'destruction'. But how can showing an original, and cherish it, ever be destructive? If the same amount of attention and effort would had been spent on all original peoples of this world since the day Columbus hit the ‘new world’, many a color would be still bright and among us! Image by Photobucket/JohnnyMac05

Halfway Today

Wherever you are on this Blue Planet, today, August 7, you’re Halfway! Halfway your winter (Southern Hemisphere) or halfway your summer (Northern Hemisphere). Whatever it is: have a nice day! Image by Photobucket/lindsay31_photo

A Hint Of The Hidden

There was a time that at the end of the last reel, a film showed a couple of love birds kissing each other after having shared much ordeal, preferably with a sunset and violins in the background. There was even a time the violins weren’t there. Or that red sunset. Sound and color started not before the late 1920’s. But no-one complained, that kiss was making up for it and people went home satisfied anyway, having had a wonderful evening out. What those people were doing at home after having seen such a romantic film, is up to the imagination of you and me. Regarding the fact that the world’s population has grown rapidly, it’s a pretty easy guess. Somewhere in the 1950’s a kind of cross-pollination was getting more visible on the screen. Naughty remarks, gestures, even insinuations, a ‘hint of the hidden’ were giving way to more liberty. One can wonder who was first: the filmmakers, or the audience? Your guess is as good as mine. Today’s cinema is more and more happening at home. The current liberties in most western countries are reflected on the digital HD ‘Silver Screens’, with local or national variations of that liberty. Maybe this is the age that the last bastion of prudery is about to fall. That Adult TV like Apple TV will become not the offered and forbidden fruit, but something very natural? Maybe it’s more a technical problem that will keep things what they are for some time more, but many Adam’s and Eve’s of this world might have a bite soon, without the remorse! Image by Photobucket/anakathizo 

No Rivel Of Resilience

August 6, 1945, 8.15 am local time, the awful dilemma with the innocent name of Fat Boy, enlightens the sky above Hiroshima: the first ever atomic bomb has been released from the Enola Grey, accompanied by two other aircrafts, detected by the Japanese, but being such a small formation, regarded by them of not much danger. It’s estimated that at the time the city of Hiroshima had around 255,000 inhabitants. 80,000 of them were killed instantly, another 80,000 were so severly injured that 60,000 of them died as well. The survivors had to face a city that no longer existed with a medical staff merely evaporised having been in the centre of the impact. And if that wasn’t enough destruction; on September 17 the typhoon Ida hit nearly everything that was still standing up, killing another 3,000 people. One should think not a single soul was left after that much violence. But there’s life, even of someone who survived not just the first atomic bomb, being in Hiroshima for business, being deafened and burned, arriving in his home town of Nagasaki 3 days later, got hit with the second atomic bomb in history, and survived that one as well. In fact, this man is still alive in 2009. Having become a so-called ‘hibakusha’ (a double survivor). I wish him who showed that much resilience, many more days of cherry blossoms and peace. Image by Photobucket/Debbiecakes0423

Tuned Into Temptation

With the growing number of affordable full high definition TV-screens, it’s a matter of time or this not-that-long-ago-jaw-dropper, will become the standard in our homes. To get the matching images, may it be sports, entertainment, films or the international and local news, a dealer such as Direct TV is a logical next step.

Having done that, one can only be overwhelmed by the tidal wave of superb images, sound and possibillities like interactive features. There’s no ejector seat, but the standard off/on button is included if you got yourself and your family hooked to Directv, don’t worry! Pay Per View, and, my personal favorit as the clumsy one, the one-touch-record, will give opportunities to absorb it in wholesome portions, and get away from all that temptation as well. (I think!) 

Even to me, a film fanatic who still loves the sound of reeled film, knows, that era has been surpassed by the digitals! And ofcourse, no matter in what state you are, Direct TV in NY for instance, will cover and deliver at the moment that you want to indulge yourself again! Image by Photobucket/ashley29_012

A Miraculous Muddle Of Misfits

August 5, the birthday of film producer and screenwriter John Huston (1906-1987). With an impressive list of famous films, among others: the Maltese Falcon (1941), Key Largo (1948), the African Queen (1951), Moby Dick (1956), Under the Volcano (1984) and Prizzi’s Honor (1985). This day is also the day that Hollywood Icon Marilyn Monroe died at the age of 36 in 1962. She got her debut in the 1950 film ‘Asphalt Jungle’, and had her last role in the 1960 film ‘the Misfits’, both produced by... John Huston. It’s the twists of this last film that intrigues me. To start with the title, a very fitting one regarding the actors in it! With film shootings in the heat of the Nevada desert, the director drinking and gambling, the growing personal tensions between scriptwriter Arthur Miller and his wife and leading lady Marilyn Monroe, who was more and more relying on alcohol and drugs, and once said ‘the only person I know who’s in worse shape than I am’, referring to... co-actor Montgomery Clift who never fully recovered from a 1956 car accident, being halfway, what was called by then, the ‘longest suicide of Hollywood’, and actor Clark Gable insisting on doing his own stunts, one might call it a Miracle that this film ever got finished and in the cinema! Within a decade after the release, 4 of the 5 of its top-billing actors died. Monroe’s is the most known one, but it’s Clift’s death that’s most remarkable. On the night before he died, the Misfits was on TV, asked if he wanted to watch, he said: ‘absolutely not!’, being his last known words. Image by Photobucket/suzylux

Bombs And Bubbles

On August 4, 1693, the day that Dom Perignon (1638-1715) supposed to have invented bubbly champagne. But he hasn’t. What he did achieve, as a cellar master, was a major improvement to harvest the grapes, doubled the abbey’s vineyard, and, reduced the pressure inside the bottles that were like timebombs ready to explode in his days. Not very surprising, because the French bottles were not that strong. Much stronger were the English bottles, and it’s scientist Christopher Merret (1614-1695) who was the first one to produce intentionally champagne, adding sugar. It’s also the birthday of Louis Armstrong (1901-1971), perhaps the most bubbly influential musician/entertainer ever. He’s the one who knocked the Beatles off the Billboard Top 100 being the oldest artist becoming number 1 with ‘Hello Dolly’. His ‘Stardust’ made Woody Allen remember a wonderful spring morning spent with his lover, in the film of the same name. And he’s the one who the FBI got a file on, because he called the president of the time Eisenhower a ‘gutless two-faced’. This brings me to another birthday boy: today president Obama celibrates his 47th birthday. Perhaps with a bottle of Dom Perignon 1947 and in the background Armstrong’s ‘What a Wonderful World’? Image by Photobucket/Satchmo_photo

Get Sweated Get Slim

Thanks to the advices given by friends, I know it takes sweat to get slim. Literally ‘sweat’ is my personal tough cookie to conquer; I’m willing and by moments I’m trying, but let’s be straight; I’m too lazy. ‘Sweat’ in the sense to take time and attention to food, the choice and way to prepare it, is getting a bit easier for me lately. You still might catch me red-handed in a fast food chain, but at least the proportions on the plate are modest. These things are pretty easy to check: they’re right in front of your nose and recognizable. But what if one starts an appetite for convenient diet pills? They look pretty much the same: colorful but blend at the same time. Then the matter of proportions, take a diet pill like Solo Slim for instance: some of its ingredients are used in cuisines of reputation... does that mean you’ll get the same quantity of active substance inside of you? How are you going to check that? The ingredient of Konjac, a plant used in Japanese and Chinese cuisine, that expands and gives you a ‘full feeling’... how much of that stuff one has to eat, before brushing aside the plate? How much can be put in a single pill? A claim to be 100% natural... it doesn’t convince me: there are more ‘natural’ poisons than we got hairs on our head (most of us, at least)! In short: the best and safest way remains the Sweat Slim. Image by Photobucket/VagaryVenture

Links To Lifts

August 3, is the birthday of Elisha Otis (1811-1861) the man who’s name is linked for most people with the elevator. Although not the inventor (the concept was already used in the year 300BC, using man, animal or wheel power), it was his invention of a device that kept the elevator ‘in the air’ if the suspending cable would break, demonstrated successfully at the 1853 New York World’s Fair, that gave the final lift to steam (1861), hydralic (1870) and electric elevators (1880). Maybe a bit of a side-kick here, but when elevators are mentioned, ‘Muzak’ can’t be far away! To avoid the fussy equipment of radio technology, inventor George Squier became the technical dad of background music that ‘wouldn’t intrude’ in 1920. Actual delivered in 1936 in New York City, bought the next year by Warner Bros. Over the years, its blendness got a negative sound by many people. Much better was the lofty Miles Davis’ soundtrack of the 1958 film ‘L’ascenseur pour l’echafaud’ (Lift to the Gallows) with Jeanne Moreau and Julien Tavernier. And with one of the best elevator scenes of the cinema! Image by Photobucket/addvi2092

You’ve Got Mail

If you had lived in Boston or New York City, this day of August 2, and the year 1858, then this was the first day you might have got mail! From there this American icon, the mailbox, was to be found along their streets. I don’t know how long it took to get nation wide, but maybe much longer than it took to get connected worldwide ‘webbed’? It’s also the day in the year 1961, that the Beatles started their first performances in Liverpool’s Cavern Club resulting in a fast and successful release of the album ‘With the Beatles’ including the song ‘Please, Mr.Postman’. Image Photobucket/kansasgal1980

To Cast Sheep’s Eyes To Shoes

I’m a shoe fanatic, as most of you might know. I try to keep up with the latest (bare footed most of the time). I know the lay-out of some local shoe shops by heart. I can find my favorits blindfolded there. Every now and then I walk into something unexpected. If not in a real shop, then in cyber space. Flipping through some pictures of Ugg flagship stores made my feet itchy, not because of the basic material that’s used (sheep wool), but because it appealed to my hiking and camping blood! What I saw was Rocky Mountains, Grand Canyon, the Gobi Desert. Just to name a few places I would like to hit with wearing that kind of boots! I’m not sure if those boots are made for walking Fifth Avenue or Champs d’Elysee though. Then again: there’s a shoe for each occasion, right? Image by Photobucket/thinkinglittlethoughts

Christ..Crocs!

If you have been annoyed by safety measurements at airports, had to give in your nail clipper or manicure scissors again, thinking of a holiday to the Egyptian pyramids, think again, and read the following! Yesterday, on a flight from Abu Dhabi to Cairo, a man seem to have taken a 30 cm young crocodile with him in his handbagage. The ever so well equipped daggered animal escaped and caused panic on its stroll through the airplane, very likely on a quest for some bite, if served lunch or a passenger’s ankle? Anyway, the crew got it captured. There’s no mentioning that 9-fingered pilots have been spotted in that area lately! But it makes you think: or people down there have a very different view of what’s sharp and dangerous, or they haven’t plugged in the x-ray machines! Wish you all a crocodile free weekend! Image by Photobucket/madvincem

Summit Of Swing

The days of a simple single swinger hanging in the ol’-ol’-tree in the back yard have become old fading pictures in a forgotten shoe box or memories of a not-that-very-old-brain like mine. But to see what’s available to the kids of today concerning swing sets gives me a spin that throws me back into my ‘innocent’ days! I used to swing that high it almost made me vomit, but I still ‘hung on’, wanted to have more of that thrust into the air. But these solid constructed wooden sets with their swing bays, tire swings, glider swings, rock walls, deck floors, forts and even swimming pools would have made my jaw drop! In fact, they still do, I feel I might be tempted to try to climb one of them. This is not Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers Swing or Grannies Drinking Tea on the Porch Swing! Good to know that a table somewhere in the midst of all that Summit of Swing can be found as well, to sit, relax and get the heart beat back to normal…if I make it to that point! If I’m not spotted within 24 hours, I hope one of the kids has a cell phone and call for help! Image by Photobucket/Clecko