For 2 weeks our local cable company -- Cox Communications -- has run the Emergency Broadcast Test at least once a day. It's always called a "weekly" or a "monthly" test, but it's quite obviously a daily test. I called them to complain because that's the kind of person I am. Cox said it was because of storm season, but why do they need to run a test daily or more to make sure it works? Why can't they do it 3 times a week or something?
Basically, we've ended up with something like 10 movies ruined because of the test. It ran over the last 45 seconds of "Gone With the Wind" the other day, and ran through the exciting ending of "Thunderbird 6" last night. I recorded a Jack Benny film that got really screwed up, because the Emergency Broadcast Test didn't cleanly cut off when it was over, and the picture stayed off for 10 minutes until it was fixed.
Someone used this search string that sent them to my "real" "blog":
'classic movie' about a silent movie actress with a terrible voice after talking movies
You're looking for "Singin' in the Rain". The character is Lina Lamont and is played by the amazing, wonderful, beautiful, and wildly underrated Jean Hagen. And she was robbed of the Oscar when that psychobitch Gloria Grahame won instead.
Image stolen from Film Experience Blog, which you should all be reading right now. So get your hands out of your pants and go read it. Damn, do I have to tell you everything?
Important determination: "Louie Louie" is too radical for anyone's parents. Especially mine, who are dead and thus don't rock down as much as they used to.
Next on my mix -- provided by a friend of mine who goes by the nym Goofproof -- was "Whole Lotta Shakin'", which I think was too radical for me. Sinister in its obscenity! Who's barn what barn my barn, indeed.
Image stolen from 45 RPM but not hotlinked because I am a wonderful person.
These come from Jeff Grote, who was kind enough to scan the lyrics to the Kissing the Pink song "Certain Things Are Likely". A few years ago I decided to sit down and figure out the lyrics myself, since they weren't available on the web anywhere, but discovered that I couldn't understand a dang thing. I tried to buy a copy of the KTP album but every time I ordered a copy from a seller on Amazon, they mysteriously didn't have the album to send. Frustrated, I gave up. That's why I am extremely, unendingly grateful to Jeff for scanning these in, and I offer them here in text mainly for convenience.
CERTAIN THINGS ARE LIKELY - Kissing the Pink
Girl lean over bendy chair Peer at creaky card On her feet the white sock pair Beneath the ground is hard
What's your mind on What's your mind on
Patience in the line she sees Snaps another card Curtain wave above her head Sun it shines so hard
What's your mind on What's your mind on
Health shape body weight Body made of steel Push it up, drive it hard Drive it like a wheel
Certain things are likely Certain things I blame Certain things are likely They hypnotize me, hypnotize me Like falling in love
In this race, fever face Girl stand on her toes China blue, look at you Tattoo how it grows
What's your mind on What's your mind on
Health shape body weight Body made of steel Push it up, drive it hard Drive it like a wheel
Certain things are likely Certain things I blame Certain things are likely They hypnotize me, hypnotize me Like falling in love
Drive it like a wheel Body made of steel Sun it shines so hard Hypnotize me, hypnotize me
Certain things I blame Certain things I own Some are too expensive Help me build a throne
Buckle this, buckle that Buckle all the way Certain things are likely Like falling in love
In this race, fever face Girl stand on her toes China blue, look at you Tattoo how it grows
In this race, fever face Girl stand on her toes China blue, look at you Tattoo how it grows
Note: This post originally appeared on my old blog Stacia's Stuff on 11/25/08
When I was a kid I used to watch "Bless Me, Father" reruns on PBS. The show starred Arthur Lowe as the priest of a small parish and Daniel Abineri as his young curate.
VERY young curate, apparently. I had a huge crush on Abineri as a teen and when I recently learned the show was on DVD, added it to my Netflix queue for sentimental reasons as well as to see Abineri again. You know, because he was so damned gorgeous, but also I haven't seen him anything since, or so I thought. More on that in a minute.
The first disk showed up today and I popped it in the player after dinner. Within a few minutes Abineri entered the scene... and he was just a boy! Look at him:
For some reason (insanity, I suppose) it never occurred to me that someone who looked so much older than me when I was 12 years old wouldn't exactly look as old to me now. He's still cute, though he's only 19 or so in this show. It seriously threw me for a loop when I saw him. I... I could be his mother! I'm a pervert who likes little boys!
A few years ago I realized the only time I'd seen Abineri was in the "Bless Me, Father" twenty*mumble* years ago. Since then, though, I had seen him and didn't realize it. He was behind the 2007 viral video "Mr President":
And he played Dr. Frank-N-Furter in a road performance of "Rocky Horror". I defy you to not find him unbearably hot as Frank. DEFY. YOU.
The moral of the story: It's marginally more acceptable for a thirty*mumble* me to think a 23-year-old Frank-N-Furter is sexy than a 19-year-old curate. At least that's what I tell myself.
This post was originally posted at my old blog Stacia's Stuff on 4/2/09
This is a free pattern I got on several skeins of Jiffy yarn. It's not online anywhere so I'm posting it here, so I can link to it on Ravelry. Comments are of course welcome. (Originally posted at pragmatic-hedonist.blogspot.com, moved here on 03/28/2014.)
CROCHET BABY AFGHAN
Materials: * Lion Brand Jiffy yarn, 6 skeins, 2 balls of each color (pattern calls for 2 balls each Light Pink, Caffe, and Dusty Pink. I'm using 2 balls each Slate, Fisherman, and Charcoal Mist) - colors known as A, B, and C in pattern * Crochet hook size K - 10.5 (6.5 mm) * Large-eyed tapestry/blunt needle
Gauge: 5 1/2 repeats of row 1 = 8 inches with 1 strand. Be sure to check your gauge.
Pattern:
NOTE: Thanks to Sandie on Ravelry, who figured out the error in the pattern for me! I believe I have it corrected below; you can see the original pattern as scanned, but the text above is corrected. The pattern incorrectly has 2 shells at the beginning of row 1, when it should not. With color A, chain 104 ROW 1: In 8th ch from hook, work (2 dc, ch 1, 2 dc), * ch 1, skip 3 ch, dc in next ch, ch 1, sk 3 ch, in next ch work (2 dc, 1 ch, 2 dc)\, repeat from * across ROW 2: Join B, do not end off A. Ch 4, turn. * In next ch work, ch 1, dc in next ch, ch 1, repeat from * across, end last repeat dc in 3rd ch of Row 1 beginning chain. ROW 3: Join C, do not end off B. Ch 4, turn. * In next ch work, ch 1, dc in next dc, ch 1, repeat from * across. End last repeat with dc in top of beginning ch.
Repeat row 3 working in stripe pattern of 1 row each A, B, and C. Carry unused colors up side of work. Work until afghan measures 36 in from beginning. End with an A row. Fasten off.
Finishing: With A, single crochet evenly along both long sides of afghan. Fasten off. Weave in ends.
ch = chain dc = double crochet work = 2 dc, ch 1, 2 dc Photos:Here are scans of the label the pattern came on:
(Note 03/28/2014: This originally appeared on my first and now-deleted blog, and has been imported over here for safekeeping.) One of my recent hobbies has been finding famous people as bit players or extras in films. Richard Simmons was one of my first fascinations. About a year ago, I watched the A&E "Biography" of Simmons -- a friend had insisted that Simmons' past was sketchy at best, completely fabricated at worst, so I was curious to see what "Biography" would reveal. To my surprise, I learned that Simmons had spent some time in Italy in his early 20s, and was a bit actor in the 1969 film "Fellini Satyricon".
"Satyricon" is a fragmented, sprawling film by famed director Federico Fellini. It leads one through a semi-fictitious early Roman world enveloped by lust, greed, bloodshed, and illicit behavior of all kinds. The camera lingers over hundreds of extras with unique faces and surprising bodies, so it's no surprise that a young, doe-eyed, very large young man would be cast as one of these human decorations.
"Biography" showed a brief clip of the extra identified as Simmons:
Yes, he's the chubby longhair playing the lyre.
Here's a bit of a close-up:
I'm sure that's the correct clip, and at least one other blogger saw the same thing I did. At the time, I caught only a glimpse of this clip, and was amazed that it did, indeed, look like Simmons. Having rented "Fellini Satyricon" recently, though, and re-watched this segment, I began to have my doubts... especially since my friend was insistent that Simmons -- for whatever reason -- was making up much of his early years.
There's very little about Simmons' appearance in "Satyricon" out there. Most references state Simmons was in the "famous food orgy" scene; a blurb by author Joanna Torrey mentions this, as do other articles. Some go so far as to claim Simmons was a "battle-axe wielding centurion" in the dinner scene.
I've just watched the so-called "food orgy" scene three times, and I saw no battle-axe wielding centurions in the scene at all, let alone one that looked like a twenty-year-old Richard Simmons. Further, the Biography clip is not from the food scene, and as Simmons obviously cooperated with A&E for "Biography", I would presume he knows which scene he's in. The young man playing the lyre is about 15 minutes into the film, before the food scene. He's one of the dozens of unique-looking extras seen in the background as Encolpio leads his slave boy into their underground room for the night.
Simmons has been telling people he was in "Satyricon" since at least 1981, according to this 1981 People Magazine article. The article, however, also notes that he has no photos of himself from when he was younger and larger, which is odd.
The New York Times lists Simmons as being in "Satyricon", but the IMDb does not. The IMDb does have him as a guest star on the 1960s series "The Bold Ones: The New Doctors", which was rerun on Hallmark in the early 2000s and is currently (as of 2008) being re-run on the Retro Channel. I'd love to get a picture of him from that episode and compare it to the "Satyricon" clip.
That said, I did sort of compare the 1969 Simmons with a more recent picture:
There are definite similarities. And it's so hard to compare pictures when there's 30 years and 150 pounds of difference between the two, not to mention the heavy eyeliner and facial hair Simmons is wearing in "Satyricon".
Ultimately, the official word from Simmons is that this is his appearance in "Fellini Satyricon", whether it looks like him or not.
A clever description should be here, but instead you get this. You can click on the About The Blog link on She Blogged By Night for more information. Very exciting!
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