WillKill4Food
New member
Christopher Hitchens, 1949-2011
Not much to say, really.
Not much to say, really.
Goonie said:Not so ronery...
Vaclav Havel said:The crisis of authority is one of the causes for all the atrocities that we are seeing in the world today. The post-Communist world presented a chance for new moral leaders, because at that time of transition in these countries there were no professional or career politicians. This gave intellectuals an opportunity to enter into politics, and, by entering, to introduce a new spirit into the political process. But gradually people were suppressed-the mill ground them down-and much of that opportunity was lost. There are certain leaders that one can respect, and I do certainly respect, leaders like the Dalai Lama. I appreciate the fact that, although very often they have no hope, not even a glimpse of success on the horizon, they are still ready to sacrifice their lives, to sacrifice their freedom. They are ready to assume responsibility for the world, or at least for the part of the world they live in. I have always respected these people and appreciated what they do. Courage in the public sphere means that one is to go against majority opinion (at the same time risking losing one?s position) in the name of the truth. And I have always strongly admired historic personalities who have been capable of doing exactly this.
Becoming a dissident is not something that happens overnight. You do not simply decide to become one. It is a long chain of steps and acts. And very often during this process, you do not really reflect upon what is happening. You just know that you want to avoid any debt that would put a stain on your life. You don?t want to become involved with the dirt that is around you and one day, all of a sudden you wake up and realize that you are a dissident, that you are a human rights activist. With me the story was rather similar. It was only much later, while I was in prison, that I started reflecting on the process and why I had done what I had done. There must be some, call it ?transcendental,? source of energy that helps you overcome all these sacrifices. Now some people may disagree with this idea of a transcendental source, but I feel it. While I was in prison, I often thought about why a man decides to remain decent, a man of integrity, even in situations when he or she is on his own, when nobody knows your actions and thoughts-except you yourself. Even in these situations, a man can feel bad, can have a bad conscience, can feel remorse. Why is this? How is it possible? And my answer to this is that there must be another eye looking on-that it?s not just the people surrounding you that make the difference. I have no evidence of the existence of such an eye, but am drawing on the archetypal certainty of such an existence.
Le Saboteur said:And yet nobody feels like mentioning Vaclav Havel? Lame, good sirs, lame.
WilliamBoyd8 said:Cheetah, chimp from Tarzan films, dies
Condolences poured in to a Florida primate sanctuary Wednesday after the death of Cheetah, a chimpanzee who starred in the Tarzan movies during the 1930s.
"I grew up watching Tarzan and Cheetah from a boy," a man identifying himself as Thomas from England wrote on the Suncoast Primate Sanctuary's website. "God bless you Cheetah. Now you and Tarzan are together again."
The chimpanzee died Saturday after suffering kidney failure the week before, the sanctuary foundation said on the site. He was roughly 80 years old, Debbie Cobb, the sanctuary's outreach director, told CNN affiliate WFLA.
Cobb recalled Cheetah as an outgoing chimp who loved finger painting and watching football and who was soothed by Christian music, the station said.
Cheetah appeared in the Tarzan moves from 1932 through 1934, Cobb told WFLA. According to the website Tarzanmovieguide.com, "Tarzan the Ape Man" was released in 1932 and "Tarzan and his Mate" in 1934.
Both movies starred Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan. Weissmuller -- the first speaking Tarzan, according to the Internet Movie Database website -- died in 1984.
...
"Cheetah will remain forever remembered in history," wrote one man from Malta.
"This little man was almost human," an anonymous poster wrote. "Some of the antics he got up to used to make me laugh when I was in my teens many years ago. Thanks Cheetah for all the good times you had and made us all laugh. You will be a star that will be always remembered. I am in my 60s now and grew up with you."
http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/28/showbiz/obit-tarzan-cheetah/index.html
WilliamBoyd8 said:Will the real Cheetah please stand up!
LOS ANGELES _ As concertmaster for the orchestra that recorded the soundtrack for the movie "Psycho," classical violinist Israel Baker helped create a piece of pop culture that is regarded as one of Hollywood's most terrifying. He led the piercing attack of the violins that accompanies the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock film's chilling shower scene.
He "was a renowned violinist and concertmaster in the Hollywood studio system" and was heard on dozens of movie scores, said Jon Burlingame, a film and music historian.
Yet Baker was also "one of the great violinists of the 20th century," classical music expert Jim Svejda said during a tribute on Los Angeles radio station KUSC-FM last week.
Baker died Dec. 25 at his Los Angeles home several days after having a stroke, said his daughter Hilary. He was 92.
The musician had "one of the most brilliantly facile techniques of any violinist of his time," Svejda said before playing a "benchmark recording" from Igor Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat, conducted by the composer and featuring Baker.
He was "one of the most-sought-after violinists in the country," Keith Clark, then conductor of the Orange County Pacific Symphony, told the Los Angeles Times in 1981 when Baker was its concertmaster.
As his career largely unfolded in California, Baker earned a reputation as a chamber musician, orchestral leader and soloist. He had particular success with Arnold Schoenberg's Concerto and Phantasy and Alban Berg's Chamber Concerto, combining "stylistic acumen" with "Viennese Romantic tradition," according to the Grove online music reference.
Baker also served as second violinist to legendary violinist Jascha Heifetz in a series of chamber concerts launched in Los Angeles in 1961 by Heifetz and cellist Gregor Piatigorsky.
Born Feb. 11, 1919, in Chicago, Baker was the youngest of four children of immigrants from Russia. At 6, he debuted professionally in Chicago, his daughter said.
During World War II, he served in the Army Air Forces as a roving violinist who played requests from hospitalized veterans in the United States.
With his first wife, Caroline, who died at 54 in 1974, he had three children. Besides his daughter Hilary, Baker is survived by his second wife, Imelda; daughters Merrill and Abby; and five grandchildren.
Hilary recalled sitting in Jack Benny's home as her father gave the entertainer a violin lesson. Baker's contributions to film scores spanned several decades and included "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" (1973) and "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" (1984).
Onstage, he was known for a studied nonchalance that belied his seriousness as a musician. During a cello solo in Beethoven's Triple Concerto, the violinist once leaned over to concert pianist Julien Musafia and shared stock market tips
TONY BLANKLEY: It's not a coincidence that the United States, Canada, India, Australia, New Zealand, all of the countries that were part of the British empire --
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Have you heard of George III?
MR. BLANKLEY: -- end up as great democracies. And I don't remember all the great democracies created by the former empires of Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain or Russia.
Pale Horse said:At Last, Etta James
Goonie said:^Kids, don't do drugs.
RIP Singer Whitney Houston, who started in the 80s and had a voice that was glorious as any of the treasures #indianajones sought after.