Saturday, August 6, 2011
YOU'RE NOT A KID ANYMORE WHEN...
- You no longer think of speed limits as a challenge.
- You consider coffee one of the most important things in life.
- 8 AM is your idea of "sleeping in".
- You don't remember when you got that mole or the one next to it.
- You write thank you notes without being told.
- Neighbours borrow your tools.
ANNETTE CHARLES PASSES
Annette Charles or better known as Cha Cha DiGregorio in Paramount's 1978 hit film "Grease" has died at the age of 63. Her rep confirmed that the actress died on Wednesday, August 3 in her Los Angeles home due to complication from cancer.
"Annette had recently started having difficulty breathing ... and when she went to the doctor she learned that she had a cancerous tumour in her one of her lungs," a family member told TMZ.
Annette's character in "Grease" is the girlfriend of Dennis Stewart's Leo. Although a villain, Cha Cha dances with good guys lead character Danny Zucko and his pal Kenickie at the big, televised school dance competition.
Annette's last act on TV was in 1987 when she guest starred on "Magnum, P.I.".
TRIVIA BITS
- each time you see a full moon you always see the same side
- each year there is one ton of cement poured for each man, woman, and child
- Earth is the only planet not named after a god
- Einstein slept 10 hours a night
- elephants are the only mammal that can't jump
- elephants can run up to 40kmh (25mph)
- elephants communicate in sound waves below the frequency that humans can hear
- elephants sleep between 4 - 5 hours in 24 period
Friday, August 5, 2011
WORLDS UNUSUAL HOTELS … CALIFORNIA
WIGWAM MOTEL, SAN BERNARDINO, CALIF.
The Wigwam Motel is located on Route 66 in San Bernardino, California. This strange throw-back of 1950′s kitsch has some modern amenities. Each room has a TV, free wi-fi and a bathroom. How different to stay in a teepee when having gone west!
EASY WAYS TO SAY NO
I'd love to, but...
- I have to floss my cat.
- I've dedicated my life to linguini.
- I want to spend more time with my blender.
- the President said he might drop in.
- the man on television told me to say tuned.
- I've been scheduled for a karma transplant.
- I'm staying home to work on my cottage cheese sculpture.
- it's my parakeet's bowling night.
- it wouldn't be fair to the other Beautiful People.
- I'm building a pig from a kit.
SOLOMON AND SHEBA - 1959
Solomon and Sheba - 1959
Director: King Vidor
Stars: Yul Brynner, Gina Lollobrigida and George Sanders
SYNOPSIS
Shortly before his death in ancient Israel King David has a vision from God telling him that his younger son Solomon should succeed him as king. His other son Adonijah is unhappy and vows to attain the throne. Meanwhile the Egyptian Pharaoh agrees to cede a Red Sea port to the Queen of Sheba is she can find a way to destroy Solomon, whose wisdom and benevolent rule is seen as a threat to more tyrannical monarchs in the region. Sheba, Pharaoh, Adonijah, the leaders of the Twelve Tribes and his own God make life difficult for Solomon who is tempted by Sheba to stray.
TAGLINES
Behold! The love story of the ages!
Only once in 3000 years...anything like...
RELEASE DATES:
USA 24 December 1959 (premiere)
USA 25 December 1959
Australia 10 December 1959
TECHNICAL
Runtime: 139 min | 141 min (TCM print)
Sound Mix: Mono (35 mm prints) | 70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints)
Colour: Colour (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio: 2.20 : 1
Co-producer/star Tyrone Power had completed shooting more than half of the film when he collapsed during a duelling scene with George Sanders and died a few minutes later. Power was replaced in the role of Solomon by Yul Brynner, who refilmed all of Power's scenes. Power, however, is still visible in the film in long shots.
TRIVIA BITS
- draughts (checkers) is older than chess
- dreamt is the only word that ends in mt
- dry ice transforms directly from being a solid to a gas
- duck eggs are the largest eggs in the world
- due to gravitational effects you weigh is slightly less when the moon is directly overhead
- during a total solar eclipse the temperature can drop by 6°C (20°F)
- DVDs are physically the same size as a CDs but can store 13 times more data
- each red blood cell lives an average of 4 months and travels between the lungs and other tissue 75,000 times before returning to bone marrow to die
MUSIC BITS ... VENUS
Although with entirely different songs, both Frankie Avalon (Chancellor 1031) in 1959 and Shocking Blue in 1969 (Colossus 108) have reached number-one with a tune titled Venus.
Frankie Avalon's Venus made the charts in two different years: first in1959, when it went to number-one (Chancellor 1031); a different version (De-Luxe 1578) reached number 46 in 1976.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
BUBBA SMITH PASSES
Former NFL defensive star Bubba Smith, who launched a successful acting career after his playing days, has died at the age of 66.
Charles "Bubba" Smith was found dead Wednesday at his home in suburban Baldwin Hills, police and the Los Angeles County coroner's office said.
Los Angeles police officer Gregory Baek said Smith was thought to have died of natural causes, but the coroner's office had not yet made a final determination of the cause of death.
As an actor, he was best known for playing the physically imposing but soft-spoken police recruit Moses Hightower in all but one of the "Police Academy" films.
He starred in several minor movie and television roles.
HARRISON FORD’S 40TH MAJOR MOVIE
To celebrate Harrison Ford’s fortieth major movie, a tribute was made by the National Post:
To see this larger or print out click here.
It is worth following the link back to National Post,
via National Post
HITCHCOCK’S “THE WHITE SHADOW” DISCOVERED
Three reels of 1924’s "The White Shadow" have been discovered in New Zealand.
Just in time for the filmmaker’s 112th birthday, archivists and preservationists in New Zealand have announced the discovery of the first half of a 1924 film thought to be Alfred Hitchcock’s earliest surviving feature.
For The White Shadow, an atmospheric British melodrama picked up for international distribution by Hollywood’s Lewis J. Selznick Enterprises, Hitchcock is credited as assistant director, art director, editor and writer. He was 24 when he worked on the film; his feature directorial debut would come soon afterward on The Pleasure Garden (1925).
The film, which stars Betty Compson in a dual role as twin sisters — one angelic and the other “without a soul” — turned up among the cache of unidentified American nitrate prints safeguarded at the New Zealand Film Archive in Wellington. The first three reels of the six-reel feature were found; no other copy is known to exist.
“These first three reels of The White Shadow — more than half the film — offer a priceless opportunity to study [Hitchcock’s] visual and narrative ideas when they were first taking shape,” said David Sterritt, chairman of the National Society of Film Critics and author of The Films of Alfred Hitchcock.
The title will be preserved at Park Road Post Production in New Zealand, and a new preservation master and exhibition print will be sent to the U.S. Plans for a “re-premiere” screening will be announced this week.
The Hitchcock film was among the many silent-era movies salvaged by New Zealand projectionist and collector Jack Murtagh. After his death in 1989, the highly flammable nitrate prints were sent to the NZFA for safekeeping by Tony Osborne, the collector’s grandson.
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