Thanks For Being A Friend, Bea Arthur

Legendary actress Bea Arthur died yesterday, but has left behind a legacy of her work that will live on forever. A stage performer for many years before being "discovered" after appearing on "All In The Family" as a cousin to the Archie Bunker family, Bea Arthur went on to star in her own series "Maude" and of course, later the incredible TV series "The Golden Girls".
Here are a few clips of her, displaying her comedic talents, and a brief interview segment.
The program "Maude" was very controversial for its time, touching on topics not previously talked about on television, such as this clip, in which Maude is considering whether to get an abortion.

Here the ladies from the Golden Girls are trying to make a discreet purchase at a drug store.

The following is a segment of a longer 2-hour interview, conducted by Karen Herman on March 15, 2001. On December 9, 2008, Beatrice Arthur was inducted into the Television Academy's Hall of Fame.

Vintage Cigarette TV Ads

Before they were banned, there were lots of cigarette ads on television. I remember seeing many of them when I was a kid, but now they just seem comical. The ads tried to make you believe you'd be healthier, sexier and more popular by smoking a certain brand of cigarettes. Despite viewing all those ads, I never once smoked a cigarette. Hmmm....maybe that explains why I'm not sexy or popular!


I particularly like the line in this ad which says:
"Pall Mall is longer,yes, but greater length is only half the story"
And the look on the woman's face as she puffs on the cigarette is priceless!
One thing I never understood is that the name of this cigarette is spelled "PALL MALL" (with an 'a'), but pronounced "PELL MELL".


Well, if doctors smoke Camels, they must be good for you! My Mother always smoked Camels (unfiltered, of course), although I don't know if her doctor recommended that brand. She preferred the unfiltered cigarettes as she said you didn't get enough smoke through the newer, filtered cigarettes.


I most definitely remember this ad, and probably even went around the house singing "the taste of Kent" as a kid. It was a catchy little tune, after all! But my Mother wouldn't have liked this brand--those stupid filters blocked too much of the smoke!

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And Now, A Brief Musical Interlude....

If you are not impressed by someone doing 32 songs in 8 minutes, watch this video anyway, because the guy is really cute.

Here's the link to his YouTube page.

Bartender, One For The Road !

This is not an April Fool's Day joke, despite the date on this post. Just a funny news story I ran across earlier this evening in my web wanderings. You have to give this guy credit for cleverness--he can ride his barstool right to his favorite watering-hole, and always be sure he'll get a seat once there. I'd love to hear the 911 call he made after crashing his "vehicle".

Ohio man arrested for drunk driving on a homemade vehicle

MARCH 31--In a law enforcement first, Ohio cops this month arrested a man for drunk driving on a motorized bar stool. That's right, a motorized bar stool, which can be seen below in a police evidence photo. According to cops, Kile Wygle, 28, crashed his bar stool near his Newark home earlier this month and called 911 due to his injuries. When an officer arrived and asked Wygle what happened, he answered, "I wrecked my bar stool." According to a Newark Police Division report, a copy of which you'll find here, Wygle's homemade ride is powered by a Briggs & Stratton lawnmower engine. Wygle noted that the bar stool could hit nearly 40 miles per hour, but that he was only going 20 when he wiped out late in the afternoon on March 4 (a witness told police that he spotted someone driving a "strange motorized machine" before the crash). A plastered Wygle, who failed a series of field sobriety tests, was charged with DUI and driving with a suspended license, both misdemeanors. His bar stool was not impounded.

Amazing Panoramas !

Ile Aux Canards Coral Reef Noumea in Noumea

This site {360cities.net} has some stunningly beautiful panoramic images--you have to see them!
Its almost as good as being there...as least for me, as I'll probably never have the chance to actually visit any of these places.
Bring this image up full-screen and use your mouse to move around. You can even zoom in and out with the mouse scroll wheel. Right-click to bring up a menu with other viewing options.
Another site with panoramas is panoramas.dk.
Now if I could just have a holographic image of places like this projected right into my apartment, that would be perfect!

The First Superman Cartoon

It's a bird...it's a plane...NO...it's Superman !!!



There have been many SuperHeroes over the years, from Atom to Zatanna, but Superman is still the greatest of them all !


(And I'm not just saying that 'cause I've had a crush on him since I was a little boy.)

100 days, 100 songs, 100 locations, 100 dances

BOOMBOX from Ely Kim on Vimeo.


This guy is funny...he kind of reminds me of "Gene, Gene, The Dancing Machine", from the original Gong Show, hosted by Chuck Barris. Speaking of which, The Gong Show was one of the funniest shows ever on TV. And Chuck Barris was just plain nuts! I loved him, 'cause you never knew what he would do next.

Here's a video from "The Gong Show", featuring "Gene, Gene, The Dancing Machine".

Oh, and if you're curious about the songs in the video, here's a list Ely Kim provided:
100 Dances / 100 Songs

001. Heart of Glass / Blondie
002. Jimmy / M.I.A.
003. Deceptacon / Le Tigre
004. Im on Fire / 5000 Volts
005. Je Veux Te Voir / YELLE
006. The Way I Are / Timbaland
007. Too Young / Phoenix
008. Over And Over / Hot Chip
009. Stick It To The Pimp / Peaches
010. Say My Name / Destiny's Child
011. Pin / Yeah Yeah Yeahs
012. Geremia / Bonde Do Role
013. Let Me Clear My Throat / DJ Kool
014. Point Of No Return / Expose
015. Bubble Sex / The Seebach Band
016. Pump Up the Jam / Technotronic
017. Let's Make Love And Listen To Death From Above / CSS
018. Hella Nervous / Gravy Train
019. Me Plus One / Annie
020. Don't Go / Yaz
021. Bootylicious / Destiny's Child
022. Electric Feel / MGMT
023. Boys Don't Cry / The Cure
024. Lose Control / Missy Elliott
025. Ride The Lightning / Evans And Eagles
026. Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough / Michael Jackson
027. Hearts On Fire / Cut Copy
028. Tainted Love / Soft Cell
029. Between Us & Them / Moving Units
030. It Feels Good / Tony Toni Tone
031. Polaris (Club Mix) / Cyber People
032. You Never Can Tell / Chuck Berry
033. Huddle Formation / The Go! Team
034. Pump That / FannyPack
035. My Love / Justin Timberlake
036. Hung Up / Madonna
037. Justice - D.A.N.C.E (MSTRKRFT Remix) / Justice
038. Cybernetic Love / Casco
039. Creep / TLC
040. When I Hear Music / Debbie Deb
041. B.O.B. / Outkast
042. Bubble Pop Electric / Gwen Stefani
043. Miss You Much / Janet Jackson
044. You Spin Me Round / Dead Or Alive
045. Slide In / Goldfrapp
046. Kelly / Van She
047. Mine Fore Life / The Sounds
048. Disco Heat / Calvin Harris
049. Nighttiming / Coconut Records
050. Club Action / Yo Majesty
051. Pogo / Digitalism
052. Lip Gloss / Lil Mama
053. Heartbeats / The Knife
054. Enola Gay / OMD
055. Goodbye Girls / Broadcast
056. Kids In America / Kim Wilde
057. Kiss / Prince
058. Tenderness / General Public
059. Push It / Salt N Pepa
060. Circle, Square, Triangle / Test Icicles
061. Day 'N' Nite (Crookers Remix) / Kid Cudi
062. Shadows / Midnight Juggernauts
063. Paris (Aeroplane Remix) / Friendly Fires
064. Out At The Pictures / Hot Chip
065. Me Myself and I / De La Soul
066. AudioTrack 10 / Diplo
067. Girls & Boys / Blur
068. Heater / Samim
069. I Wanna Dance With Somebody / Whitney Houston
070. Hands In The Air / Girl Talk
071. Limited Edition OJ Slammer / Cadence Weapon
072. Meeting In The Ladys Room / Mary Jane Girls
073. NY Lipps / Soulwax
074. Lex / Ratatat
075. Gravity's Rainbow (Soulwax Remix) / Steve Aoki
076. Once In A Lifetime / Talking Heads
077. Leave It Alone / Operator Please
078. Half Mast / Empire Of The Sun
079. Hardcore Girls / Count and Sinden feat. Rye Rye
080. Dance, Dance, Dance / Lykke Li
081. Never Gonna Get It / En Vogue
082. Blue Monday / New Order
083. Crazy In Love (Featuring Jay-Z) / Beyoncé
084. 10 Dollar / M.I.A.
085. Love To Love You Baby / Donna Summer
086. Steppin' Out / Lo-Fi-Fnk
087. Karle Pyar Karle / Asha Bhosle
088. Love Will Tear Us Apart / Joy Division
089. Straight Up / Paula Abdul
090. My Drive Thru / Santogold, Casablancas, NERD
091. Like A Prayer / Madonna
092. Freedom 90 / George Michael
093. Black & Gold / Sam Sparro
094. B-O-O-T-A-Y / Spank Rock and Benny Blanco
095. Great Dj / The Ting Tings
096. In A Dream / Rockell
097. Don't Stop the Music / Rihanna
098. Hong Kong Garden / Siouxsie & The Banshees
099. It's Tricky / D.M.C.
100. Bizarre Love Triangle / New Order

In Geek Paradise

Here I am, blogging at 5 AM in the morning, and why? Because I have been up all night playing with the new tech toy I just bought yesterday afternoon. Yes, the geek in me finally overruled the more sensible part of my brain and went out and got an Apple iPod Touch (16 GB). I just couldn't resist the lure of all that cool gadgetry any longer. Even though I've been telling myself that it was too expensive, some extra holiday pay from my otherwise crappy job was enough to convince me to go for it. So out to the Apple store at a local mall I went, cash in hand, before the more frugal part of my brain had a chance to complain.

Up to now, I've been using my little Creative Zen Nano 1GB MP3 player and it works fine. But it doesn't automatically sync to iTunes , nor can it do video, or any of the other things the iPod Touch is capable of doing. Ever since the iPhone and then the iPod Touch came out, I've been reading and hearing how remarkable they are, and I can now see what people were raving about. I don't listen to a lot of music, but I love podcasts and have been downloading them with iTunes and dragging and dropping the files onto my Zen. Of course, when I plugged in the iPod, it began to sync immediately and transfer them without me doing a thing. Very nice!

There are video podcasts, such as "DiggNation", that I download as well and now I can watch them right on the iPod Touch. And since I spend quite a bit of time waiting for, and riding buses to and from work, this is an especially cool feature. Not to mention the games you can add to it!
Can you tell I'm impressed by this piece of technology? I may have been a bit late in "hopping on the iPod bandwagon", but no doubt will make up for that lost time! I spent most of last evening browsing through the iTunes store looking for some of the free aps that are available and got a few games and other useful or fun little aps. There are many more available for a price, but I figured I'd spent enough for today.

And I have not even used the built-in WiFi on the Touch yet ! I have a wireless router, but don't have it connected at the moment because I only had a single desktop computer, so connected it directly to the cable modem. But now, with the iPod, and my little Acer netbook computer I got a few months ago, I'll have to get that router working. Then when the weather gets warmer, I can go outside to a tiny little park outside my house and still be able to log onto my internet connection. Now I need to start ripping songs off all those CD's I have and never listen to, 'cause I'm too lazy to get them out and put them into a CD player.

Well, its now 6 AM, so no sense in going to bed now. Luckily, I don't have to work today as the university I work at is closed for a 'winter break' this week. YAY....more time to play with my new toy !

Sorry, Jason !

I guess you've lost your touch, Jason....you just don't seem to frighten people like you used to back in the old days.

I went to see the "Friday the 13th" remake movie this Friday the 13th, since it seemed the appropriate time to see it. It was OK, but I wasn't that impressed. It was the typical slasher movie, with a lot of people running around between bouts of being hacked up.
And from the audience's reaction, I guess I wasn't the only one that wasn't too impressed, because there was very little reaction from the crowded theater. There were a few teenage girls sitting behind me who screamed at a couple of scary or brutal scenes, but the rest of the audience was surprisingly silent. It was mainly a younger audience, teenagers/college-aged people; (sadly) I may have been the oldest person in the theater.
Are today's young people so used to such violent scenes, from horror movies, TV, video games and the internet (not to mention the daily news) that they are just not shocked by such things anymore? I'm not making any kind of judgment, I only found it a bit odd that there was such a lack of reaction to scenes that were meant to shock or frighten? But, of course, I didn't react to it, either, but then I'm old and jaded.
I remember going to the original Friday the 13th movie many years ago, and the audience then had a much more vocal reaction. It was kind of why I went to see this movie, because I thought the audience's response would be fun to experience. But it turned out not to be the case.

So "Sorry, Jason", maybe it's time to hang up your hockey mask and machete and retire to the "Old Slashers' Home". Don't feel bad, Jason--I'll brew you up a nice cup of tea and we can talk over "the good ol' days".