dr_scientist

Speaking of English as a second language, don't forget Billy Wilder, who made a lot of great films, mostly comedies, but certainly all comedic.

• Ball of Fire (as writer)
• Double Indemnity
• Some Like It Hot
• Sunset Boulevard
• Sabrina
• Stalag 17

Others I'm forgetting ...

Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks) ain't bad neither. And it's got a kitty!

I have to chime in here, as it's a subject close to my heart. The old Pyrex measuring cups don't do this. I went out of my way to buy some on eBay. I can't imagine why they redesigned like this, but there's a lot of things I can't imagine.

It will remain a mystery

I love this, but is anyone else having trouble with the css/text? Chrome seems to dim the images, but the white text is unreadable on all the images for firefox. Doesn't work on Safari at all.

I remember learning about this as a kid from, of all places, a 1976 detective show called City of Angels (starring Wayne Rogers). Ten-year-old me thought it was so cool they would even broach such a topic on TV. As ways to become radicalised go ...

This Video (French) says it's a thousand years old, but that seems not to be the case, more like like 4-500 years.

I think the NYT is mistaken, as here's an engraving of «jeu de paume» from the 16th C

According to the very long and exhaustive wiki

"The term real was first used by journalists in the early 20th century as a retronym to distinguish the ancient game from modern lawn tennis", and, is it happens, 'It is also known as court tennis in the United States, royal tennis in England and Australia, and courte-paume in France."

I think the kings were pissed when they started playing tennis outside. "That's not real tennis", they probably said.

This is terrific, and who cares who said it, but you should read this debunking from the Hannah Arendt center for the actual quote, from her last public interview in 1974:

"The moment we no longer have a free press, anything can happen. What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that people are not informed; how can you have an opinion if you are not informed? If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer. This is because lies, by their very nature, have to be changed, and a lying government has constantly to rewrite its own history. On the receiving end you get not only one lie—a lie which you could go on for the rest of your days—but you get a great number of lies, depending on how the political wind blows. And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please."

There might - possibly - be some irony here.

TIL that Nile Rodgers, one of my favourite artists, is now a corporate shil/POS. Re: 'Hipgnosis', a firm that purchases song rights for use in ads, etc.

Company partner and funk legend Nile Rodgers has presented it to investors as an opportunity “to establish songs as an uncorrelated asset class with attractive risk[-adjusted] returns”

https://archive.is/rEQMr

I confess, I had no idea what the film was about when I saw it in the theatre, but something about it compelled me to watch it again. And my controversial take is that the film's story is really quite clear. Even though, again, I no idea what it was about when I first saw it.

It's about the effects of art. The stories are in no way disconnected, but all connected by a story, a work, a piece of music, etc. And each one carries forward, often in ways the author(s), inpirations, etc. had no way of understanding.

I'm a writer of very little renown, but I use the film to keep going. Because even if you're not an artist, your life will have an effect in way you can't know. And I love that idea.

Also, it was a crime that this film did not get any nominations for editing. It is, purely from a technical point of view, a masterclass. The beats of six separate stories cut together according to their lows and highs, and cutting away when you really want to know what's happening. If you don't like the film, that's entirely reasonable. But how it was put together is something to behold.

I think that's a still from Green Room, a very good and very disturbing film with none other than Sir Patrick Stewart as a Nazi/replacement theory Svengali-type character. The joke being the band in the movie is booked unaware into a straight up nazi punk club, and end up singing that song. Things develop from there. I hope I got that right, but that's my memory.

I didn't know he played in a real band. Cool beans!