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Showing results for tags '1963'.
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If you're even casually into chess, this is a delightful video to behold:- 1 reply
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In this post, I justifiably poked fun at the sports media for proclaiming every "next great thing" as "The [X] Jordan" - Harold Miner was "Baby Jordan," Tamir Goodman was "Jewish Jordan," etc. Len Bias could have been the next Michael Jordan, and was quite possibly the only player I've ever seen in my life who was *that good*. Like when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded, I remember exactly where I was, and exactly what I was doing, when I heard the news of Len Bias's tragic death - the two events happened only six-months apart. To young people today: I realize it's premature to even infer such a thing, but Len Bias was one of the greatest college basketball players I've ever seen. When he was drafted by the Boston Celtics, and then died from an overdose of crack cocaine, none other than Red Auerbach (who said he'd been planning for *three years* to draft Bias for the Celtics), said the city of Boston had not been so shocked since the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Larry Bird, who had urged the Celtics to select Bias, and who had uniquely made plans to attend the Celtics' rookie camp to work with him, said, "It's horrible. It's the cruelest thing I ever heard." At 6'8", Bias was bigger and stronger than Jordan, and had everything you could possibly ask for in someone of that height. He had no weaknesses that couldn't have been fixed in short order, and when I'm in my old age, I will be telling this same story. Len Bias had all the tools he needed to be one of the greatest basketball players who ever lived. It isn't so much that he would have been the *next* Jordan; it's that he would have been Jordan's primary competition: Just as we had Bird and Magic, we would have had Jordan and Bias - he *was* *that* *good*. "Remembering Len Bias 30 Years After His Death: 'He Was It.'" by Cindy Boren on washingtonpost.com
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Rogers Hornsby's career batting average of .358 is second only to Ty Cobb's (.367). During the decade of the 1920s, Hornsby hit .317 once, which was the only time he hit lower than .361. Look at this decade of hitting: 1920 - .370 1921 - .397 1922 - .401 1923 - .384 1924 - .424 --> The highest single-season batting average in post-1900 MLB history 1925 - .403 --> The 4th RBI Crown he won in the 1920s 1926 - .317 1927 - .361 1928 - .387 1929 - .380 --> The 7th time he hit over 40 home runs in the 1920s, leading the NL 4 times, and the 9th time he led the league in .OPS percentage
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"Mr. Wilson's Housekeeper" on "Dennis the Menace" - do you recognize the housekeeper?
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This is perhaps the most important hour of television in history. CBS News interrupts "As the World Turns" at about the 10:00 point, and by the 45:00 point, Kennedy's death is essentially confirmed. Walter Cronkite was frantically trying to get a camera activated, and Dan Rather was corresponding from Dallas. The unfolding of events on television is nearly as newsworthy as the story itself. Still, this is up there with the Apollo 11 Moon Landing, and the only thing comparable in the past fifty years was 9/11 - I guess these are the three-biggest news events of my lifetime.
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"Three hundred years ago people in England were putting witches to death ... But surely the reason we do not execute witches is that we do not believe there are such things. If we did—if we really thought that there were people going about who had sold themselves to the devil and received supernatural powers from him in return and were using these powers to kill their neighbours or drive them mad or bring bad weather—surely we would all agree that if anyone deserved the death penalty, then these filthy quislings did? There is no difference of moral principle here: the difference is simply about matter of fact. It may be a great advance in knowledge not to believe in witches: there is no moral advance in not executing them when you do not think they are there. You would not call a man humane for ceasing to set mousetraps if he did so because he believed there were no mice in the house." -- C.S. Lewis, from "Mere Christianity"
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Ralph *whom*? Ralph Dalton College Stats on sports-reference.com "Player Bio: Ralph Dalton (1982-1986)" on hoyabasketball.com Nov 14, 2003 - "Twenty Years Removed" by Erin Brown on thehoya.com Apr 13, 2014 - "Ralph Who? The Basketball Great You've Never Heard Of" on koehlerlaw.net Ralph Dalton at Barclay: Also, Ralph, if you ever see this, please email me at donrockwell@donrocks.com, or sign up here to engage our readership - we have many people who'd love to hear from you, about basketball, about investments, about your life in general. We have a similar thread about your elder Hoyaman, Craig Esherick.
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ESPN SportsCentury Documentary on Stan "The Man" Musial - the legendary hitter from "way out west" in St. Louis - perennially underrated due to his distal locale, but beloved by connoisseurs of the game as one of the all-time greats. Stan Musial: superstar, role model. In case anyone notices the discrepancy between the duration of Musial's Career (22 years) and that he's a 24-time All-Star, it's because from 1959-1962, MLB played two All-Star Games a year. "Stan Musial is geographically challenged - had he played his career in New York, we would have called him Lou Gehrig." -- John Thorn
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If you know the least thing about the martyr Medgar Evers, please read this: It is the absolute basis for what you need to know. "Medgar Evers" by Dernoral Davis on zinnedproject.org
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This reminds me of the tragedy of Lyndon Johnson, who without Vietnam would be unquestionably one of our greatest presidents, in the same class with Lincoln and FDR. It just makes me weep when I think of it. Of course I hated him at the time, but that was all about Vietnam, which overshadowed everything. You younger people probably can't even imagine how Vietnam distorted and disfigured everything about our civic life as it crept into the crannies of our souls. You couldn't even fuck without Vietnam obtruding into the crevices of your pleasures. I look back on LBJ's presidency now and can only see what midgets his successors have been compared to him.- 1 reply
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Coming into tonight's game against the Houston Texans, the Kansas City Chiefs were the final remaining undefeated team in the NFL. After tonight's game, they're still undefeated - they are incredible. Their rookie running back, Kareem Hunt, is not only the leading candidate for the 2017 NFL Rookie of the Year; he's still seriously being mentioned in the NFL MVP conversation. Kareem Hunt has made the Chiefs' career-journeyman quarterback, Alex Smith, the best quarterback in the NFL so far this season - really! Look it up! Alex Smith! After five games, the man has 11 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. Quoted from NFL.com: Through five games, Smith has as many interceptions as he does losses: zero. Give him the respect he deserves. The Chiefs are so impressive that they forced several players into my medium-term memory - one of whom is the fastest player in the NFL: Tyreek Hill, who can achieve speeds of nearly 23 mph. As I write this with 1:13 left in the game, KC is beating Houston 42-26. They're the better of the two teams, and fully deserved to win this game despite the unfortunate injury of J.J. Watt. (Edit: The final score was 42-34.) Hat's off to you, KC.
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Here's all you need to know: Vexations - Erik Satie - John Cale - John Cage Here's all you want to know: Unbelievably, John Cale is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
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Happy 100th birthday to our nation's 35th President, John F. Kennedy.
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Watching "Girl in the Headlines," a 1963 British whodunit, drives home the point that the vast majority of films in this forum are in, or nearly in, the elite category. There are *so many* middling, or just plain bad, movies out there, that whenever I see one, it stands out like a sore thumb - such is the case with "Girl in the Headlines." This film is 94 minutes of tedium, followed by a payoff that leaves the viewer feeling cheated - although it is "classic" in that it represents what so many early-1960s British mystery films are, it is nothing more than an average film, and the viewer has to be in a really good mood just to rate it average. As to *why* I watched this? It's because Season 1, Episode 1 of "The Saint" - "The Talented Husband" - is *so* damned good, that I thought I'd give director Michael Truman a go on the big screen, and this is about the only film I could find by him. In fact, this film is so hard to find that I had to get "a subscription within a subscription," signing up for Fandor as a supplement to my Amazon Prime subscription. After one free week, Fandor kicks in month-to-month at $3.99, and it may well be worth it, because all of its films are free, and it specializes in obscure, foreign films that you just cannot find on typical subscription services - I seriously doubt you'll find "Girl in the Headlines" in many other places. Even with my expensive Amazon Prime subscription, I seem to end up paying $3.99 for most films I watch, so Fandor could turn out to be a bargain in the long-term. Oh, you wanted a review of the movie? Okay, here it is: A slain model, a detective, red herrings, numerous suspects, and a twist ending that's just not worth the investment. There's your film. It's not terrible, but it's not good either, and I cannot recommend it when there is just so much else out there worth watching. Given how unbelievably good "The Talented Husband" is, I don't fault Michael Truman for this film; it's more that he had almost nothing to work with - I would instead be skeptical about the producer, screenwriters, the story itself, or a combination of the three - there's nothing about the actual direction that seems so bad; in fact, it has a very nice feel to it - it's just kind of boring. The acting, especially that of the two detectives on the case, is quite good. This film is also out there under the name, "The Model Girl Murder Case."
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I don't know why I've always loved "Whaam!", a pop-art, comic-style diptych by Roy Lichtenstein, a New York pop artist born in the same year as my parents, 1923 - but I have, and I guess it's the comic-book-reading little boy of my youth that loves it. "Whaam!" is based on the story, "Star Jockey," from the DC Comics comic book "All American Men of War," issue #89 (Jan-Feb, 1962), and the panel was drawn by Irv Novick. Lichtenstein merely reproduced the panel: This is Novick's work, and Lichtenstein took no credit for originality (or, at least, none that I know of). I went to the Tate Modern in 2003, and stumbled across the original of "Whaam!", and was absolutely thrilled to see it - I don't even think I knew it was there, and all of a sudden: Whaam! - it was staring me in the face, *much* larger than I imagined it would be, at over five-feet high and over thirteen-feet wide! "Whaam!" means enough to me - even though it's most certainly *not* any sort of masterpiece - that I looked into purchasing the finest non-original copy I could find for Matt's bedroom when he was a boy. Unfortunately, there are no signed lithographs, and the only things available are posters (nice posters, but posters nonetheless, and unsigned by Lichtenstein). Even they run into the hundreds-of-dollars - maybe I should try and hunt down a copy of that 1962 comic book, but that might cost even more. Well, anyway, I present to you ... "Whaam!" For those of you who recognize the name Roy Lichtenstein, but can't quite place who he is, one of his works is in the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC (the modern one, on the north side of the mall, where the ice rink is). "House I" (1996-1998) is the work by Lichtenstein - one of his final pieces, it was modeled in 1996, and constructed posthumously in 1999 (Lichtenstein passed away in 1997).
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I decided to watch "Charade" tonight for a number of reasons. I recently watched "Suspicion," a 1941 thriller starring Cary Grant directed by Alfred Hitchcock. While "Charade" was not directed by Hitchcock, it has a Hitchcockian feel. I adore Carey Grant, and felt like spending another evening being charmed by this embodiment of the Hollywood leading man. I am obsessed with Audrey Hepburn, and I was born in 1963. It seemed like a no-brainer that I should give this film another viewing. Although I saw this film several years ago, I remembered very little of it. While Hitchcockian in style and plot twists, it lacks the cinematic magic of an actual Hitchcock film. The plot is a bit like "Suspicion," with the leading lady unsure whether she should or should not trust Grant. The witty banter between Hepburn and Grant made me think of Nick and Nora in "The Thin Man." Their repartee is amusing, but not nearly as fast and funny as Nick and Nora's. I enjoyed watching Grant and Hepburn together, and I was drawn in by the plot's twists and turns. At times, "Charade" seems self conscious, and the film feels like it is trying too hard. While Grant and Hepburn make a charming couple, their chemistry pales in comparison to the sparks that flew between Hepburn and Gregory Peck in "Roman Holiday." Hepburn tells Grant time and again in this film that she loves him. She never once uttered those words to Peck in "Roman Holiday," but their love seemed more believable. Perhaps this is because at its core, "Charade" is a silly and stylish movie. It has an early '60s feel throughout, from the opening cartoon-like credits to Audrey's oh-so-chic Givenchy wardrobe. It isn't a great film, but it is an enjoyable one. -
There is Wilt Chamberlain. There is Bill Russell. There is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. And there is Michael Jordan. And that's about it.
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Olajuwon had just absolutely great moves as a center. Great moves and they were so much quicker than anyone defending him. Here is video of when he crushed...just demolished David Robinson in a playoff match. Probably the best "moves" of any notable center, ever: ....and you have to listen to Robinson speaking of the match up..... -
I'm in that minority too. -
As I mentioned in the Lee Wiley thread, Dinah Washington's recording of "Manhattan" (1960) includes an update to the Larry Hart original lyric from "Abie's Irish Rose" to "My Fair Lady" ("and for some high fare/we'll go to 'My Fair/ Lady', say"). In spite of the rather sappy orchestration and the extreme vibrato employed by the singer, I must admit that I adore this version of the song.
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No doubt that Star Wars was a seminal film and the very embodiment of space opera, but it was also the start of a long downward spiral wherein "science fiction" [in film, not literature] became synonymous with "action adventure". As someone who loved classic "hard sf", the literature of "what if...?" - of possiblities that sometimes came to pass, like radar or communications satellites in geosynchronous orbits - I really came to resent this conflation of two genres. I mean really, do we need to see Captain Kirk dangling one-handed from a precipice three times in a single film? Oy. If you haven't seen it already, you will *love* "The Galaxy Being" - the first episode of The Outer Limits (September 16, 1963). You can see the entire episode (it's an hour long) on Hulu. This episode just celebrated its 50th birthday. --- In advance: You're welcome. *** SPOILERS *** follow from this point on, so make sure you watch the episodes *before* (or as) you're reading my commentaries. Season One (Sep 16, 1963 - May 4, 1964) 1.1 - "The Galaxy Being" - Directed by Leslie Stevens (Creator of "The Outer Limits," Director of "Incubus"), Written by Leslie Stevens Featuring Lee Phillips (Michael Rossi in the film "Peyton Place"), Jacqueline Scott (Polly Baron in "Macabre"), Cliff Robertson (Academy Award Winner for Best Actor as Charly Gordon in "Charly") Okay, I'm making an effort here to only use value-added comments; you can get the plot summaries from Wikipedia (just click on "The Galaxy Being" and go to "Plot" - you can (and should) assume that everything I write contains spoilers since my target audience is people who have already watched the show. I'm going to watch "The Galaxy Being" a third time before moving on to episode 2 (it's actually good enough to warrant multiple viewings - do watch it if you haven't). I don't care about science fiction accuracy (i.e., "sucking the Galaxy Being in from 2.5 light years away") unless it's something really silly, like defying gravity, or visible strings seen in the special effects. I'm going to sit back and enjoy watching these, and if anyone has any question, please feel free to ask - I'd love to discuss the episodes with anyone who's interested. Radio Station KXKVI is in "sunny southern Cal," and here's the reference in case anyone still wonders why some radio stations begin with "W," and others begin with "K" - it's worth knowing if you don't already (this should be part of everyone's general knowledge). The family who owns the radio station (Electrical Engineer Alan, wife Carol, brother Gene) are all named Maxwell in honor of James Maxwell (another part of your general knowledge base). Alan's talk with Carol about "the universe not caring if you're a nobody" was an incredibly inspired speech that's about the only thing that could move an engineer to tears. Let me tell you something: This is a classic episode of television that *everyone* needs to watch - it's a *great Outer Limits that will stand the test of time as being one of the very greatest in the entire series.
