Tuesday, October 12, 2010
"Private Idaho" by The B-52s
Well, I decided to mark the birthday of Ricky Wilson in March, and since I can't seem to get enough of The B-52's, I thought I might as well mark the occasion of his death - on this day in 1985 - as well. He was, of course, the first member of the band to die, in addition to being one of the first celebrity casualties of AIDS; the band's most successful album, Cosmic Thing, was recorded as a tribute to him.
Private Idaho was the first single off the band's second album, Wild Planet, in 1980; the song was to later inspire director Gus Van Sant's 1991 film My Own Private Idaho.
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Happy Bjirthday Kristen Bjorn
In the years since I first published birthday wishes for noted filmmaker Kristen Bjorn - on the occasion of his fiftieth birthday in 2007 - that post has driven my traffic like a model drives another model in any of the videographic masterpieces he's produced. Even though it wasn't done through any intention of his own, Kristen Bjorn has done more to help my business than anyone aside from me. Alas, the best way I have to show him my appreciation he don't want, so I decided to write this as a consolation prize - for both of us...
Bjorn's career in all-male erotica began in the late 70s - in front of Fred Bisonnes' camera, appearing in über-classy orgasm outlet Advocate Men Live; graduating from still photos to video, Bjorn likely realized early on that the only real money in porn is in production. In 1988 he shot Tropical Heatwave, his first feature, but his first shot at actual hardcore came during his next video, Carnival in Rio. (And I do mean came!)
Bjorn's specialty as a pornographer is and has always been ethnic men; at a time when the majority of the world's porn was being produced in LA's San Fernando Valley and featured the finest of California's gym, disco, and/or beach clones, Bjorn made the genius decision to visit Brazil, Eastern Europe, and even Australia in search of unique looking hot men willing to have sex with each other for money. Thanks to him, gay porn is now being made all over the world; as if this act of foresight wasn't enough, Bjorn not only refused to play coy over whether or not his models were 'all the way gay' but decided to accept that some gay guys prefer to watch straight guys going at it, and decided to market it.
Of course, the downside of getting all these straight guys to bang each other on film is that there is always the risk of creating a Matt Sanchez - who appeared in Bjorn's North-of-the-Border epic Montreal Men as Pierre LaBranche, despite being neither gay nor Canadian. Sanchez later proved a versatile performer; while on camera in porno he was a top, when it came to later parroting Republican bilge on cable news shows he's a very naughty puppet indeed. (If you know what I mean...) Still, for all the good Kristen Bjorn has done in the world, I suppose creating the occasional Matt Sanchez doesn't seem so bad.
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Bjorn's career in all-male erotica began in the late 70s - in front of Fred Bisonnes' camera, appearing in über-classy orgasm outlet Advocate Men Live; graduating from still photos to video, Bjorn likely realized early on that the only real money in porn is in production. In 1988 he shot Tropical Heatwave, his first feature, but his first shot at actual hardcore came during his next video, Carnival in Rio. (And I do mean came!)Bjorn's specialty as a pornographer is and has always been ethnic men; at a time when the majority of the world's porn was being produced in LA's San Fernando Valley and featured the finest of California's gym, disco, and/or beach clones, Bjorn made the genius decision to visit Brazil, Eastern Europe, and even Australia in search of unique looking hot men willing to have sex with each other for money. Thanks to him, gay porn is now being made all over the world; as if this act of foresight wasn't enough, Bjorn not only refused to play coy over whether or not his models were 'all the way gay' but decided to accept that some gay guys prefer to watch straight guys going at it, and decided to market it.
Of course, the downside of getting all these straight guys to bang each other on film is that there is always the risk of creating a Matt Sanchez - who appeared in Bjorn's North-of-the-Border epic Montreal Men as Pierre LaBranche, despite being neither gay nor Canadian. Sanchez later proved a versatile performer; while on camera in porno he was a top, when it came to later parroting Republican bilge on cable news shows he's a very naughty puppet indeed. (If you know what I mean...) Still, for all the good Kristen Bjorn has done in the world, I suppose creating the occasional Matt Sanchez doesn't seem so bad.
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The Death of Nancy Spungen
In many ways, Nancy Spungen never had a chance...
Born six weeks premature and suffering from cyanosis, she exhibited a violent streak early; diagnosed with depression and paranoid schizophrenia in an age before effective treatments for these conditions were available, at the age of 17 she left home and paid her way to London by stripping and prostitution with the express purpose of nabbing herself a rock star boyfriend (she'd reportedly set her cap for Jerry Nolan of the New York Dolls).
She met Sid Vicious of The Sex Pistols instead, and moved in with him almost instantly. There followed a famous (and famously stormy) relationship, memorialized by the film Sid and Nancy, in which Spungen was performed with great verve by Chloe Webb.
Nancy Spungen was found in Room 100 - which she shared with Vicious at the Hotel Chelsea - on this day in 1978, dead from a single knife wound to the abdomen; she was just 20. Some blamed Sid Vicious for the crime, others Rockets Redglare*, or one of two drug dealers known to visit them.
In any event, Vicious himself died the following February; having gotten clean while incarcerated at Rikers Island he was dealt a small amount of very pure heroin by his mother - herself an addict - which was all it took to bring the foremost love story of the punk era to a sad close.
*Who himself died in May 2001 at the age of 52.
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Born six weeks premature and suffering from cyanosis, she exhibited a violent streak early; diagnosed with depression and paranoid schizophrenia in an age before effective treatments for these conditions were available, at the age of 17 she left home and paid her way to London by stripping and prostitution with the express purpose of nabbing herself a rock star boyfriend (she'd reportedly set her cap for Jerry Nolan of the New York Dolls).She met Sid Vicious of The Sex Pistols instead, and moved in with him almost instantly. There followed a famous (and famously stormy) relationship, memorialized by the film Sid and Nancy, in which Spungen was performed with great verve by Chloe Webb.
Nancy Spungen was found in Room 100 - which she shared with Vicious at the Hotel Chelsea - on this day in 1978, dead from a single knife wound to the abdomen; she was just 20. Some blamed Sid Vicious for the crime, others Rockets Redglare*, or one of two drug dealers known to visit them.
In any event, Vicious himself died the following February; having gotten clean while incarcerated at Rikers Island he was dealt a small amount of very pure heroin by his mother - herself an addict - which was all it took to bring the foremost love story of the punk era to a sad close.
*Who himself died in May 2001 at the age of 52.
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"Take Me Home Country Roads" by John Denver
Singer-songwriter and humanitarian John Denver died on this day in 1997 when the small plane he was piloting crashed shortly after taking off from the Monterey Peninsula Airport near Pacific Grove, California.
Frequently mocked for his wholesome image, Denver's message of kinship with the Earth resonates especially today; here then from his 1971 breakout album Poems, Prayers, and Promises is Take Me Home, Country Roads.
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Pop History Moment: The Death of Matthew Shepard
On October 7th, 1998, student Matthew Shepard met Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney at the Fireside Lounge on the campus of the University of Wyoming in Laramie...
What happened next will never be fully known; Henderson and McKinney have since given contradictory testimony (as have their 'girlfriends'), and Matthew is dead. What we do know is that his attackers savagely beat him and left him for dead on a fence in a remote area, where he wasn't found for 18 hours...
Matthew died on this day in 1998.
Clearly a somewhat effete man - 5 feet 2 inches tall and weighing 105 pounds - was a major threat to his two larger and stronger attackers; they later claimed that he propositioned them sexually, and in court invoked the uber-weaselly gay panic defense in support of this claim.
Personally, I believe the only gay panic involved in this instance belongs to these monsters who were so insecure in their sexuality that they killed Matthew, rather than just - oh, I don't know - saying no. Hopefully their years in jail have sorted out Henderson and McKinney's ambivalence towards man-on-man action.
Matthew Shepard's murder had an immediate impact upon me that the years have done little to assuage. Of course, I have always lived with the idea - as do all gay men - that at any minute I could be murdered by closet cases like Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney. The reluctance I have always had in dealing with straight men became full-on paranoia that fateful day, and resonates still, twelve long years later...
[S O U R C E]
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What happened next will never be fully known; Henderson and McKinney have since given contradictory testimony (as have their 'girlfriends'), and Matthew is dead. What we do know is that his attackers savagely beat him and left him for dead on a fence in a remote area, where he wasn't found for 18 hours...Matthew died on this day in 1998.
Clearly a somewhat effete man - 5 feet 2 inches tall and weighing 105 pounds - was a major threat to his two larger and stronger attackers; they later claimed that he propositioned them sexually, and in court invoked the uber-weaselly gay panic defense in support of this claim.
Personally, I believe the only gay panic involved in this instance belongs to these monsters who were so insecure in their sexuality that they killed Matthew, rather than just - oh, I don't know - saying no. Hopefully their years in jail have sorted out Henderson and McKinney's ambivalence towards man-on-man action.
Matthew Shepard's murder had an immediate impact upon me that the years have done little to assuage. Of course, I have always lived with the idea - as do all gay men - that at any minute I could be murdered by closet cases like Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney. The reluctance I have always had in dealing with straight men became full-on paranoia that fateful day, and resonates still, twelve long years later...
[S O U R C E]
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In Memoriam: Edward VI
Despite being physically slight, the boy who became Edward VI at the age of 9 was intellectually mighty; of course, as heir to one of Europe's most learned Kings, he had access to the best of tutors, including Bishop Richard Cox, Sir John Cheke and Jean Belmain. The first King of England to be Protestant from birth, he was also renowned as a humanist in the fashion of Erasmus.
The son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour (whom Henry VII always described as his 'true wife', and whose death when Edward was 12 days old threw the King into a grief from which he never fully recovered), Edward VI had the great misfortune to come to the throne at a time of ambitious men, most of whom used their place on the 16-member Council of Regency stipulated by Henry VIII's will to advance their own interests above either the king's or their country's.
Among these was the Duke of Suffolk, whose machinations (possibly with Edward's approval) would have had his daughter Lady Jane Grey succeed Edward in lieu of the rightful heir, his half-sister the Catholic Princess Mary.
Edward VI died in July 1553, propelling Lady Jane Grey toward her grisly fate, raising Mary to the throne - where she would become known as Bloody Mary - and leaving the kingdom in much turmoil for five years, until Edward's other half-sister, the Protestant Elizabeth I ascended the throne and finally afforded England some stability.
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The son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour (whom Henry VII always described as his 'true wife', and whose death when Edward was 12 days old threw the King into a grief from which he never fully recovered), Edward VI had the great misfortune to come to the throne at a time of ambitious men, most of whom used their place on the 16-member Council of Regency stipulated by Henry VIII's will to advance their own interests above either the king's or their country's.Among these was the Duke of Suffolk, whose machinations (possibly with Edward's approval) would have had his daughter Lady Jane Grey succeed Edward in lieu of the rightful heir, his half-sister the Catholic Princess Mary.
Edward VI died in July 1553, propelling Lady Jane Grey toward her grisly fate, raising Mary to the throne - where she would become known as Bloody Mary - and leaving the kingdom in much turmoil for five years, until Edward's other half-sister, the Protestant Elizabeth I ascended the throne and finally afforded England some stability.
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Gratuitous Brunette: Hugh Jackman
Hugh Jackman is among the elite group of celebrities upon whom I have actually laid eyes...
And if it were up to me I'd have laid more than my eyes on him. Badump-tish!
Thank you. I'll be here all week... Try the veal!
No, but seriously, I was walking in Vancouver's Yaletown one bitterly cold morning near the end of 2006 when ahead of me I spotted a very tall man hulking towards me. The first thing I noticed (okay, it about the fifth thing, but it all happened in a flash) was that he was wearing these huge Wolverine-style sideburns.
For just a nanosecond I thought: 'What a wannabe...' That's when it hit me. The parking meter I walked into, that is. I had just seen Hugh Jackman in the immense, muscular flesh!
He loped across the street, oblivious to my goofiness, and I got a good four or five second glimpse at his ass before he ducked behind a BMW and then out of sight.
Those were the best four or five seconds of my life to date, and I have Hugh Jackman to thank for that, so thank you Hugh Jackman, and Heppy Burthdye Myte*!
*The written approximation of Happy Birthday Mate in my notoriously shitty Australian accent.
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And if it were up to me I'd have laid more than my eyes on him. Badump-tish!Thank you. I'll be here all week... Try the veal!
No, but seriously, I was walking in Vancouver's Yaletown one bitterly cold morning near the end of 2006 when ahead of me I spotted a very tall man hulking towards me. The first thing I noticed (okay, it about the fifth thing, but it all happened in a flash) was that he was wearing these huge Wolverine-style sideburns.
For just a nanosecond I thought: 'What a wannabe...' That's when it hit me. The parking meter I walked into, that is. I had just seen Hugh Jackman in the immense, muscular flesh!
He loped across the street, oblivious to my goofiness, and I got a good four or five second glimpse at his ass before he ducked behind a BMW and then out of sight.
Those were the best four or five seconds of my life to date, and I have Hugh Jackman to thank for that, so thank you Hugh Jackman, and Heppy Burthdye Myte*!
*The written approximation of Happy Birthday Mate in my notoriously shitty Australian accent.
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"One More Colour" by Jane Siberry
I've always loved this song for it's loopy ethereality; One More Colour is taken from 1985's The Speckless Sky, birthday gal Jane Siberry's follow-up to her 1984 break-through album No Borders Here.
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POPnews - October 12th
[As badly damaged as it was, Brighton's Grand Hotel
was nowhere near as bombed as it is possible to
get in this seemingly genteel seaside town.]
1216 - England's King John lost his royal treasure - including the Anglo-Saxon Crown Jewels, a fortune in coins, and many faithful retainers but thankfully not the Great Seal of England - in The Wash, possibly near Fosdyke or else while crossing Sutton Bridge; so distraught was he by the terrible turn of events, he died within a week during a visit to Newark Castle.
1654 - The Delft Explosion devastated that Dutch city, killing more than 100.
1792 - The first Columbus Day was celebrated in New York City.
1793 - The cornerstone of Old East - the oldest state university building in the United States - was laid on the campus of the University of North Carolina.
1810 - The citizens of München joined in the celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen at what was to become the first Oktoberfest.
1822 - Pedro I was declared Emperor of Brazil.
1892 - By an Executive Order of US President Benjamin Harrison the Pledge of Allegiance - written by Francis Bellamy - was first recited in unison by schoolchildren in honour of the 400th anniversary of the 'discovery' of America by Christopher Columbus.
1915 - Edith Cavell was executed for allegedly helping hundreds of soldiers to escape from German-occupied Belgium.
1918 - A massive forest fire killed 453 people in northern Minnesota; hardest hit was the town of Cloquet.
1933 - The US Army Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz Island was acquired by the US Department of Justice for possible use as a prison.
1953 - Herman Wouk's play The Caine Mutiny Court Martial - itself based on his 1951 novel The Caine Mutiny - opened in Santa Barbara; following a national tour it made its Broadway debut at New York City's Plymouth Theatre in January 1954 where it ran for 415 performances, while it was being made into a film.
1960 - Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev pounded his shoe on a desk at a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly while protesting an assertion by the Filipino delegate Lorenzo Sumulong that the Soviets were then attempting colonialism in Eastern Europe.
1968 - Equatorial Guinea gained its independence from Spain.
1978 - Sex Pistols lead singer Sid Vicious was arrested on murder charges arising from the sudden, unexplained death of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen in Room 100 of Manhattan's notorious Hotel Chelsea earlier that morning.
1984 - IRA bombs damaged the Grand Hotel in Brighton, where Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Party were attending a conference; although the bombs narrowly missed killing the Prime Minister, 5 people died, several were permanently disabled, and 34 others hospitalized.
1986 - When Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh visited the People's Republic of China it was the first-ever visit there by a British Head of State.
1988 - Constable Steven Tynan, 22, and Probationary Constable Damian Eyre, 20 - two officers of the Victoria Police - were gunned down execution-style in Australia's Walsh Street police shootings.
1999 - The Earth's population was said to have topped 6 billion.
2000 - The USS Cole was badly damaged by suicide bombers.
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Monday, October 11, 2010
Pop History Moment: The Debut of "Saturday Night Live"
[Of the original members of the Not Ready For Prime Time Players, only
George Coe and Michael O'Donoghue left the cast before the fame and
adulation - and photographer Edie Baskin - overtook them,
although O'Donoghue stayed four seasons as a writer.]
On this day in 1975 Lorne Michaels debuted a new kind of show, a combination of sketches and musical performance and whatever else seemed like a good idea at the time... The idea was that if everything got thrown at the wall, some of it was bound to stick; it's a policy which has yielded some so-so material and considerable moments of transcendence during the last 35 years.
Originally called NBC's Saturday Night (due to a conflict over the original title Michaels wanted - namely Saturday Night Live - which was then being used by sportscaster Howard Cosell on ABC) the show had been conceived by NBC to replace Saturday night repeats of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Then, as now, the show was shot in and broadcast from from Studio 8H in New York's Rockefeller Center.
The first episode was hosted by George Carlin and featured musical guests Billy Preston and Janis Ian; even though it features many of the elements with which we are familiar today - a cold opening followed by the famous phrase 'Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!', announcer Don Pardo (who flubbed, calling the cast the Not For Ready Prime Time Players), a monologue by the host, sketches, musical numbers, commercial parodies, awkward attitudes toward male homosexuality, and Weekend Update - hosted by Chevy Chase and featuring a 'live remote' by Laraine Newman - at the time only Laugh-In came close to the mix Michaels had envisioned.
Among the oddities featured on the first episode were a sketch by Jim Henson's Muppets (which paved the way for Henson's legendary Muppet Show the following year), standup by Valri Bromfield, and a typically surreal appearance by Andy Kaufman. The first episode, and indeed the First Season, is naturally available on DVD.
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Dawn French as Catherine Zeta-Jones
Sut mae*?
It's birthday girl Dawn French, the pride of Anglesey, spoofing CZJ, the pride of Swansea... It doesn't get any better. In fact, it's Welsh-licious!
*It's Welsh for 'How are you?', ya feck!
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Elmore Leonard: The Dickens of Detroit
I never met a character in an Elmore Leonard novel I'd want to meet in real life, which is partly what gives his novels their zip. There is in his books an element of voyeurism that more writers ought to strive for; along with the conversational tone of the narrative and strong, honest dialogue, it all makes for a pretty potent combination.
Although he started out writing westerns, his more recent works detail the lives of thugs and goodfellas, most often in and around the Detroit area, where he's from. He's also written a number of screenplays - such as Get Shorty, which he adapted from his novel of the same name - which are notable for both the verve and the saltiness of their dialogue.
Although frequently compared unfavourably to pulp by critics - mainly snobs - Elmore Leonard's writing is both brisk and crisp, mainly due to a couple of rules he sets for himself. He has often said that, when writing, he leaves out the parts that readers skip; mainly, though, he says: 'If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.'
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Cocteau & Piaf: Friends 'Til The End
Real friendship - the kind that can withstand attacks from towering egos and the tempestuous emotions that are the handmaidens of substance abuse - is rare enough; yet Edith Piaf and Jean Cocteau found it in each other despite a bevy of neuroses to which yours truly can only aspire...
Piaf's star was still rising when, in 1940, Cocteau wrote his one-act play Le Bel Indifférent especially for her; Cocteau, by then, was a fixture in the artistic salons of Paris. Her casting brought the former singing urchin into a rarefied atmosphere, propelling her into a kind of stardom no writer (not even a French one) can hope to obtain.
Throughout the next 15 years they often fought but always reconciled, seemingly united by their outcast beginnings as much as by their mutual fame. So close were the Poet (which is what Cocteau always called himself, no matter what media he was expressing himself in) and the Sparrow (which in French is 'Piaf') that when they died on this day in 1955 within hours of each other, few could resist commenting on the poignancy of it.
Piaf died first, following a battle with liver cancer, in the south of France; when Cocteau heard he retired to his bed, and died of a heart attack a few hours later. Ah, but what is a heart attack if not a broken heart, and whose two hearts had been broken so often, so savagely as those two sensitive souls, Piaf and Cocteau?
United in life, reunited in death...
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Piaf's star was still rising when, in 1940, Cocteau wrote his one-act play Le Bel Indifférent especially for her; Cocteau, by then, was a fixture in the artistic salons of Paris. Her casting brought the former singing urchin into a rarefied atmosphere, propelling her into a kind of stardom no writer (not even a French one) can hope to obtain.
Throughout the next 15 years they often fought but always reconciled, seemingly united by their outcast beginnings as much as by their mutual fame. So close were the Poet (which is what Cocteau always called himself, no matter what media he was expressing himself in) and the Sparrow (which in French is 'Piaf') that when they died on this day in 1955 within hours of each other, few could resist commenting on the poignancy of it.Piaf died first, following a battle with liver cancer, in the south of France; when Cocteau heard he retired to his bed, and died of a heart attack a few hours later. Ah, but what is a heart attack if not a broken heart, and whose two hearts had been broken so often, so savagely as those two sensitive souls, Piaf and Cocteau?
United in life, reunited in death...
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The Death of Redd Foxx
He died doing what he loved, which, since we all have to do it, is probably the best way to go...
Following a successful performing and recording career as a stand-up comic, Redd Foxx became a household name for his role on Sanford and Son.
After that show went off the air in 1977, Foxx continued to live the high life (and I do mean high); it all came crashing down in 1989, when he was virtually liquidated by the IRS.
In 1991, he was on the comeback trail, appearing in a new sitcom called The Royal Family opposite Della Reese. During a rehearsal on this day in 1991, years of crying wolf with chest pains on Sanford and Son - 'I'm coming Elizabeth!' - caught up with him.
By the time anyone could get him help he was already gone...
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Following a successful performing and recording career as a stand-up comic, Redd Foxx became a household name for his role on Sanford and Son.After that show went off the air in 1977, Foxx continued to live the high life (and I do mean high); it all came crashing down in 1989, when he was virtually liquidated by the IRS.
In 1991, he was on the comeback trail, appearing in a new sitcom called The Royal Family opposite Della Reese. During a rehearsal on this day in 1991, years of crying wolf with chest pains on Sanford and Son - 'I'm coming Elizabeth!' - caught up with him.
By the time anyone could get him help he was already gone...
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In Memoriam: Eleanor Roosevelt
There have always been First Ladies famed as hostesses; until she came along, though, no one could have imagined a First Lady as activist. By imbuing her role (which has no official status) with a level of importance unimagined by the previous holders of the post, Eleanor Roosevelt earned the title 'First Lady of the World' from President Harry S. Truman and her actions have caused reverberations which are still being felt - for instance, as recently as the current Presidential campaign.
Born on this day in 1884, into New York society, Eleanor was orphaned by the age of ten, following which she was raised by relatives. At nineteen she was engaged to her distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whom she married on St. Patrick's Day 1905. In lieu of her dead father, she was escorted down the aisle by her uncle, President Theodore Roosevelt.
Her early marriage was stressful: a domineering mother-in-law, coupled with her husband's demanding relatives and his open philandering, must have left the shy, insecure Eleanor feeling terribly marginalized.
Following FDR's illness in 1921 (which left him all-but paralyzed from the waist down - unable to walk, but still able to philander) Eleanor emerged into public life, often making appearances in her husband's stead. Allowed to flourish on her own terms, Eleanor Roosevelt quickly became the smart, compassionate force of nature for which she is still so rightly renowned.
The election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt to the presidency of the United States at a pivotal time in US history finally brought Eleanor entirely into her own. Her advocacy on behalf of women's and children's issues, poverty, literacy, civil defense, and human rights, though, was so much more than noblesse oblige - it was a duty which she took very seriously. In a very real way she completed him, and the President never failed to honour her for the good works she did.
Following FDR's death in 1945, Eleanor's activism became more strident; she famously battled with New York's Francis Cardinal Spellman, and was pivotal in the founding of the United Nations. She was struck by a car in New York City in 1960, and died from complications related to that accident two years later. She is buried next to her husband at their Presidential Library in Hyde Park, New York.
In death - as will happen - she's become even greater than she was in life. Her spirit presides over both the office of the First Lady and the United Nations still. She's even been given pride of place at the FDR Memorial in Washington, the first First Lady to be so honoured. From the introverted orphan whose aunts called her 'ugly' to a paragon of tolerance and understanding in one short lifetime, Eleanor Roosevelt's life lit a light that will never go out.
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Born on this day in 1884, into New York society, Eleanor was orphaned by the age of ten, following which she was raised by relatives. At nineteen she was engaged to her distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whom she married on St. Patrick's Day 1905. In lieu of her dead father, she was escorted down the aisle by her uncle, President Theodore Roosevelt.Her early marriage was stressful: a domineering mother-in-law, coupled with her husband's demanding relatives and his open philandering, must have left the shy, insecure Eleanor feeling terribly marginalized.
Following FDR's illness in 1921 (which left him all-but paralyzed from the waist down - unable to walk, but still able to philander) Eleanor emerged into public life, often making appearances in her husband's stead. Allowed to flourish on her own terms, Eleanor Roosevelt quickly became the smart, compassionate force of nature for which she is still so rightly renowned.
The election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt to the presidency of the United States at a pivotal time in US history finally brought Eleanor entirely into her own. Her advocacy on behalf of women's and children's issues, poverty, literacy, civil defense, and human rights, though, was so much more than noblesse oblige - it was a duty which she took very seriously. In a very real way she completed him, and the President never failed to honour her for the good works she did.
Following FDR's death in 1945, Eleanor's activism became more strident; she famously battled with New York's Francis Cardinal Spellman, and was pivotal in the founding of the United Nations. She was struck by a car in New York City in 1960, and died from complications related to that accident two years later. She is buried next to her husband at their Presidential Library in Hyde Park, New York.
In death - as will happen - she's become even greater than she was in life. Her spirit presides over both the office of the First Lady and the United Nations still. She's even been given pride of place at the FDR Memorial in Washington, the first First Lady to be so honoured. From the introverted orphan whose aunts called her 'ugly' to a paragon of tolerance and understanding in one short lifetime, Eleanor Roosevelt's life lit a light that will never go out.
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POPnews - October 11th
[Although by the time he made his historic flight he was a former President (having handed the reins of power to William Howard Taft in March 1909) Theodore Roosevelt made the most of his post-Presidency - including undertaking a famous safari on behalf of the Smithsonian Institution and American Museum of Natural History.]
1531 - Huldrych Zwingli was killed in battle with the Roman Catholic cantons of Switzerland.
1727 - George II and Caroline of Ansbach were crowned King and Queen of Great Britain at Westminster Abbey.
1809 - Along the Natchez Trace in Tennessee, explorer Meriwether Lewis died under mysterious circumstances at an inn called Grinder's Stand.
1852 - The University of Sydney - Australia's first - was inaugurated.
1865 - Paul Bogle led the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica; because he was eventually captured and executed by the British, his image appears today on the Jamaican ten-cent piece.
1890 - The Daughters of the American Revolution was founded; famous living members include North Carolina's senior Senator Elizabeth Dole and First Lady Laura Bush.
1899 - The Second Boer War - between the United Kingdom and the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State - erupted in South Africa.
1910 - After a respectful bit of arm-twisting Theodore Roosevelt became the first American president to fly in an airplane when he took a four minute flight above St. Louis, Missouri, with Arch Hoxsey.
1941 - The National Liberation War of Macedonia began; it would last until 1944, at which point Yugoslavia was reformed.
1958 - NASA launched the lunar probe Pioneer 1 as part of the Pioneer program; the probe later fell back to Earth and burnt up.
1962 - Pope John XXIII convened the first ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church in 92 years; known as the Second Vatican Council, it sought to bring the Vatican into line with modern times - and might have succeeded too, if only John Paul II and Benedict XVI (both of whom were present) hadn't done their utmost during their subsequent reigns to undo whatever progress was made.
1975 - Saturday Night Live made its television debut; the first host was George Carlin, with musical guests Janis Ian and Billy Preston.
1976 - George Washington's posthumous appointment to the grade of General of the Armies of the United States by congressional joint resolution Public Law 94-479 was approved by President Gerald R. Ford.
1982 -The Tudor-era gunship Mary Rose - which sank in July 1545 during the Battle of the Solent - was raised from the seabed off Portsmouth.
1986 - US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev met in Reykjavík in an effort to continue discussions about scaling back their intermediate missile arsenals in Europe.
1987 - The 2nd Gay & Lesbian March on Washington attracted 500,000 participants, included the first public showing of the entire NAMES Project/AIDS Quilt along The Mall, and was the impetus for National Coming Out Day.
2000 - The 100th Space Shuttle mission (STS-92) was flown, in order to deliver crucial components to the International Space Station.
2002 - A bomb attack at the Myyrmanni shopping mall in the Helsinki suburb of Vantaa killed seven (including the bomber, Petri Erkki Tapio Gerdt) and injured 66.
2007 - The record high of the Dow Jones Industrial Average occurred at 14,198.10 points.
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Sunday, October 10, 2010
In Memoriam: Harold Pinter
When, in 2005, Harold Pinter was awarded the Nobel Prize, it came after a career in the theatre spanning five decades; a career, it hardly needs to be said, which then showed no signs of slowing down.
Yet, if it was up to him, he would have spent his career between the wickets - as a cricketer - instead of writing the important works of political and social realism he did. In fact, Pinter's works are so important, he became an adjective: Pinter-esque. In a Pinter play, as much can be said with a pause as with words.
In the same way, Pinter's work as a screenwriter, poet, essayist and director says as much as his work as a playwright does. The French government agreed when, in 2007, it awarded Pinter the Légion d'honneur for 'seeking to capture all the facets of the human spirit'.
Born on this day in 1930, Harold Pinter died in December 2008, and is survived by his second wife, the historian Antonia Fraser and Daniel Pinter, a son by his first wife, Vivien Merchant.
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Yet, if it was up to him, he would have spent his career between the wickets - as a cricketer - instead of writing the important works of political and social realism he did. In fact, Pinter's works are so important, he became an adjective: Pinter-esque. In a Pinter play, as much can be said with a pause as with words.In the same way, Pinter's work as a screenwriter, poet, essayist and director says as much as his work as a playwright does. The French government agreed when, in 2007, it awarded Pinter the Légion d'honneur for 'seeking to capture all the facets of the human spirit'.
Born on this day in 1930, Harold Pinter died in December 2008, and is survived by his second wife, the historian Antonia Fraser and Daniel Pinter, a son by his first wife, Vivien Merchant.
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"Letting Go Of God" with Julia Sweeney
It's a bit long, but 17 minutes of Julia Sweeney is 17 minutes of charm, which makes it all worthwhile watching, especially on this, her 51st birthday.
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The Death of Eddie Cantor
Prior to his death, Eddie Cantor was one of the biggest stars in the world. Time, though, has not been kind to his memory, and in the years since then his contemporaries - George Burns, Bob Hope, Jack Benny - saw their careers flourish while Cantor's legacy has languished.
Cantor's career began as a singing waiter at Coney Island, where his accompanist was his fellow future legend Jimmy Durante. Cantor made the transition to vaudeville as early as 1907, working his way up to headlining for Florenz Ziegfeld by 1916 alongside such stars as Will Rogers and W.C. Fields, at which point he'd already begun appearing in films. Cantor's first radio appearance was in 1931, and he made the transition to television almost the minute it went on the air in the late 1940s.
Although he was financially wiped out by the Stock Market Crash of 1929, the Great Depression also gave Cantor's career (not to mention his bank account) just the boost it needed. His recordings of songs like Cheer Up, Smile, Nertz! were just what the public needed, and his book Caught Short! A Saga of Wailing Wall Street was credited by none other than H. L. Mencken himself for single-handedly taking the depression out of the Depression.
Part of the reason Cantor's popularity has not been sustained, I think, is that he often worked in blackface; even though he frequently worked alongside the black minstrel Bert Williams - unlike, say, Al Jolson - blackface of the malicious variety practiced on Amos 'n' Andy has rightly been out of favour since the 1930s.
Despite his use of blackface, though, Cantor's politics were always in the right place.
When he was hosting The Colgate Comedy Hour in the 1950s he had on a young performer named Sammy Davis, Jr. Cantor was so familiar with Davis during the broadcast - hugging him, wiping Davis' brow with his own handkerchief, and so forth - that NBC protested by threatening to pull their backing from the show. Cantor's response was to book Davis for the rest of the season. He had responded in a similar manner when during the late 1930s he was outspoken in his opposition to Adolf Hitler's Nazis, and many affiliates refused to carry his show.
Late in life, Eddie Cantor suffered from heart troubles, and it was a heart attack that claimed him on this day in 1964; the following year he was awarded an honorary Oscar for his body of work in the movies, charitable work on behalf of the March of Dimes (which he co-founded), and in general his contributions in all areas of show business over most of the previous 60 years.
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Cantor's career began as a singing waiter at Coney Island, where his accompanist was his fellow future legend Jimmy Durante. Cantor made the transition to vaudeville as early as 1907, working his way up to headlining for Florenz Ziegfeld by 1916 alongside such stars as Will Rogers and W.C. Fields, at which point he'd already begun appearing in films. Cantor's first radio appearance was in 1931, and he made the transition to television almost the minute it went on the air in the late 1940s.Although he was financially wiped out by the Stock Market Crash of 1929, the Great Depression also gave Cantor's career (not to mention his bank account) just the boost it needed. His recordings of songs like Cheer Up, Smile, Nertz! were just what the public needed, and his book Caught Short! A Saga of Wailing Wall Street was credited by none other than H. L. Mencken himself for single-handedly taking the depression out of the Depression.
Part of the reason Cantor's popularity has not been sustained, I think, is that he often worked in blackface; even though he frequently worked alongside the black minstrel Bert Williams - unlike, say, Al Jolson - blackface of the malicious variety practiced on Amos 'n' Andy has rightly been out of favour since the 1930s.
Despite his use of blackface, though, Cantor's politics were always in the right place.
When he was hosting The Colgate Comedy Hour in the 1950s he had on a young performer named Sammy Davis, Jr. Cantor was so familiar with Davis during the broadcast - hugging him, wiping Davis' brow with his own handkerchief, and so forth - that NBC protested by threatening to pull their backing from the show. Cantor's response was to book Davis for the rest of the season. He had responded in a similar manner when during the late 1930s he was outspoken in his opposition to Adolf Hitler's Nazis, and many affiliates refused to carry his show.
Late in life, Eddie Cantor suffered from heart troubles, and it was a heart attack that claimed him on this day in 1964; the following year he was awarded an honorary Oscar for his body of work in the movies, charitable work on behalf of the March of Dimes (which he co-founded), and in general his contributions in all areas of show business over most of the previous 60 years.
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Remembering... Jay Sebring
As hairdresser to the stars, Jay Sebring seemed to have everything: acclaim, money, and access to the Hollywood elite. Yet, to those closest to him, behind it all was a lonely man. Nevertheless, he was charming, as well as savvy in business; in its day his company, Sebring International, was wildly successful.
Born Thomas Kummer on this day in 1933, he changed his name when he ended up in Los Angeles following a four-year hitch in the Navy. Soon enough his clients included Steve McQueen and Warren Beatty (it's a given in Hollywood that Warren Beatty's career-defining role in the 1975 film Shampoo was partly inspired by his friend Jay Sebring); by 1960 he was well-known enough to be chosen by Kirk Douglas to create hairstyles for the movie Spartacus.
In 1964 Jay Sebring made a fateful connection, one that would eventually lead to his death. While partying at the Whisky a Go Go nightclub he met Sharon Tate, and fell in love at first sight; they were soon engaged, and for a couple of years seemed happy together. In 1966, though, Tate broke off their engagement and married Roman Polanski. Despite this, Sebring remained close to the couple. It was Polanski who, at this time, noted that they were more like Sebring's family than his actual family.
In August 1969, Sebring, Tate, and their jet-set pals Wojciech Frykowski and Abigail Folger were hanging out at Tate's house on Cielo Drive when members of the Manson Family entered the home. They shot Sebring first, then assaulted him as he lay dying, before killing the others.
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Born Thomas Kummer on this day in 1933, he changed his name when he ended up in Los Angeles following a four-year hitch in the Navy. Soon enough his clients included Steve McQueen and Warren Beatty (it's a given in Hollywood that Warren Beatty's career-defining role in the 1975 film Shampoo was partly inspired by his friend Jay Sebring); by 1960 he was well-known enough to be chosen by Kirk Douglas to create hairstyles for the movie Spartacus.In 1964 Jay Sebring made a fateful connection, one that would eventually lead to his death. While partying at the Whisky a Go Go nightclub he met Sharon Tate, and fell in love at first sight; they were soon engaged, and for a couple of years seemed happy together. In 1966, though, Tate broke off their engagement and married Roman Polanski. Despite this, Sebring remained close to the couple. It was Polanski who, at this time, noted that they were more like Sebring's family than his actual family.
In August 1969, Sebring, Tate, and their jet-set pals Wojciech Frykowski and Abigail Folger were hanging out at Tate's house on Cielo Drive when members of the Manson Family entered the home. They shot Sebring first, then assaulted him as he lay dying, before killing the others.
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