Ask and you shall receive

I mentioned the other day that I was concerned which films North Korea would let my family see this holiday season and I found this post from Tom the Dancing Bug:

I never realized how helpful Totalitarianism could be.


Here's an interesting list of the 25 best films of 2014 from Little White Lies Magazine:



I can actually say I will go out a watch some of these films.


Tonight's the third night of Kwanzaa.

Tonight celebrates Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility) - To build and maintain the community together and make the members of the community's problems, everyone's problems and to solve them together.


Today's score: you currently have 22 gifts - four calling birds, six French hens, eight turtledoves and four partridges in their respective pear trees (when do these trees become a grove?)

Begin hoarding old loaves of bread - you'll need it in a major way.


December 28, 1945 -
One of the first Hollywood films to deal with psychoanalysis, Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound premiered in the US on this date



Alfred Hitchcock was a big admirer of Salvador Dalí's work and realized that no one understood dream imagery better. David O. Selznick was opposed to using Dalí from an expense point of view, until he realized the marketing mileage that could be gained from such a hiring.


December 28, 1958 -
Toho Company Ltd. released The Hidden Fortress, directed by Akira Kurosawa and starring Toshiro Mifune and Misa Uehara to theaters in Japan on this date.



Akira Kurosawa was upset with the lack of success of his last two films which he deemed heavy and tragic, so he took a new tone with this film, stating "I want to make a 100% entertainment film, full of thrills and fun."  The film went on to become one of the greatest inspirations for George Lucas' first Star Wars film.


December 28, 1968 -
Marvin Gaye's song I Heard it Through the Grapevine hit number #1 on this date.



This was the longest running Motown #1 hit and Gaye's first #1 hit. It topped the US chart for 7 weeks.


Today in History:
December 28, 1832 - .
US Vice President John Calhoun resigned on this date, having only served 16 days in office because of political differences with President Andrew Jackson.  He was the first vice president to do so.



He still continued to be a major force in American politics and was a big influence on the policies of the Confederacy.


December 28, 1869 -
Patent for chewing gum was granted to William Semple (patent number 98,304), on this date.

William Semple's version, complete with rubber, charcoal, and myrhh, was the first one to be patented. I bet this gum doesn't lose it flavor on the bed post overnight?


December 28, 1895 -
Auguste and Louis Lumiere opened the first movie theater at the Grand Cafe in Paris, on this date . Other inventors, including Thomas Edison, were working on various moving picture devices at the time. But most of those other devices could only be viewed by one person at a time. The Lumieres were the first to project moving pictures on a screen, so that they could be viewed by a large audience.

The first film they showed to a paying audience was called Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory. It was a short, single shot with an immobile camera and it showed a concierge opening the factory gates from which dozens of workers walked and bicycled into the street. It ended with the concierge closing the gates again.



It wasn't a movie in the modern sense. It had no characters, no storyline. It was just an animated photograph. Much like most French New Wave films. The Lumiere brothers went on to make more than 2,000 films like this, each one less than a minute long depicting various scenes of human activity with titles like The Arrival of a Train, Boat Leaving the Harbor and Baby's First Steps. They didn't call these "movies" or "films," they called them "views."



It took other filmmakers to turn movies into a medium for storytelling. The Lumieres were primarily documentary filmmakers. But in their film Demolition of a Wall, they added a reverse loop to the film so that after the wall falls to the ground it miraculously picks itself back up. It was the first special effect ever uses in the history of motion pictures.



The Lumieres' movie house was a big success. Within a few months of its opening, more than 2,000 people lined up every night to buy tickets. But the Lumieres themselves thought that movies would be a passing fad. They told their cinematographers not to expect work for more than six months. Auguste went on to become a medical scientist and Louis went back to working on still photographs.


December 28, 1945 -
Please rise while reading this:

The US Congress officially recognized the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. The Pledge of Allegiance was written by Reverend Francis Bellamy for use at the dedication of the World's Fair Grounds in Chicago on October 21, 1892.


December 28, 1973 -
In between bouts of self-loathing and heavy drinking, Richard Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act into law on this date.  (Sometimes people can surprise you.)



It was the first legislation in American history to focus on protecting animals and their habitats from economic encroachment.


December 28, 1983 -
Dennis Wilson, original drummer of the Beach Boys, drowned while diving from a boat near Marquesas Pier on this date. He was rather drunk at the time.



You would think that someone in the Beach Boys could swim.


December 28, 1991 -
Jack Ruby's pistol, used to kill Lee Harvey Oswald, sold at auction at Christie's for $220,000 on this date.

http://www.theliberalgunclub.com/phpBB3/download/file.php?id=1934
The perfect gift for the man who has everything.


December  28, 1991 -
Nine people died in a crush to get into a basketball game at City College in New York. The game was promoted by  Sean Combs.



Combs later testified that security at the Nat Holman facility was supposed to be provided by NYCC. (Sean Combs, Sean Combs, I know that name from somewhere.)



And so it goes