Bildwasser

Against my will, I've been infected by the boogie bug. Funny how slow these old songs sound today, like they're being played at the wrong speed. Oh no, the boogie bug. Won't you please, please, help me, help me, help me oooo. Silver Convention mit Fly, Robin, Fly.

As you say, it's especially easy to hear in the chorus. Also sounds a bit like the early Rolling Stones, down to the vocal. There is a little ambiguity since the girl's age isnt mentioned, whereas in Lolita I'm pretty sure she is twelve years old when she and Humbert first cross paths. I guess that makes The Beatles look good since She was just seventeen in I Saw Her Standing There.

"Hee hee yourself. You're going to marry me now mister or else the whole town is going to know about that 14 year old girl you're shacking up with."

Misinformed, as usual. In October 1862, the London Times dismissed the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation as an empty gesture. "Where he has no power Mr. Lincoln will set the Negroes free," the newspaper commented; "where he retains power he will consider them as slaves. This is more like a Chinaman beating his two swords together to frighten his enemy than like an earnest man pressing forward his cause." In recent years, it has sometimes been charged that the Emancipation Proclamation did not free any slaves, since it applied only to areas that were in a state of rebellion, and explicitly exempted the border states, Tennessee, and portions of Louisiana and Virginia. This view is incorrect. The proclamation did officially and immediately free slaves in South Carolina's sea islands, Florida, and some other locations occupied by Union troops. Certainly, the Emancipation Proclamation was only a crucial first step toward complete emancipation, but in effect it transformed the Union forces into an army of liberation. At the time he issued the preliminary proclamation, Lincoln defended it as a war measure necessary to defeat the Confederacy and preserve the Union. But it seems clear that Lincoln regarded this argument as necessary on tactical grounds. When he issued the final proclamation on January 1, 1863, he described it not only as "a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion," but an "act of justice." In July 1863, Hannah Johnson, the daughter of a fugitive slave, heard an erroneous report that Lincoln was going to reverse the Emancipation Proclamation. She wrote the President: "Don't do it. When you are dead and in Heaven, in a thousand years that action of yours will make the Angels sing your praises...." Copyright 2012 Digital History

Van Morrison sez Call Me Up In Dreamland.

Yeah, that one deserves four stars, though I don't hear it very often. Ohhh I ... I love the nightlife, I got to boogie on the disco 'round, oh yea. They wore out the grooves on that one. Boogie on Reggae Woman. Good song, but kind of a weird title. I don't associate reggae, at least old school reggae, with boogieing, more like standing in place and slow head nodding as the big or small spliff kicks in.

Yeah, I got a kick out of the drummer. Talk about keeping the beat. Doc Watson was a native Tar Heel, and there was quite a bit of coverage around here when he passed. I do like that song, though I'm not all that much into Americana or whatever they're calling it these days. Of course he was doing it long before. I never picked peaches in Georgia, but I did pick pecans there, right off the ground of course. There's even a specialized implement to do it if you don't want to bend down low. Down here it's all about picking apples. That's the main crop.

Misinformed, as usual. It is common to encounter a claim that the Emancipation Proclamation did not immediately free a single slave. As a result of the Proclamation, many slaves were freed during the course of the war, beginning with the day it took effect. Eyewitness accounts at places such as Hilton Head, South Carolina, and Port Royal, South Carolina, record celebrations on January 1 as thousands of blacks were informed of their new legal status of freedom. Estimates of the number of slaves freed immediately by the Emancipation Proclamation are uncertain. One contemporary estimate put the 'contraband' population of Union-occupied North Carolina at 10,000, and the Sea Islands of South Carolina also had a substantial population. Those 20,000 slaves were freed immediately by the Emancipation Proclamation." This Union-occupied zone where freedom began at once included parts of eastern North Carolina, the Mississippi Valley, northern Alabama, the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, a large part of Arkansas, and the Sea Islands of Georgia and South Carolina. Although some counties of Union-occupied Virginia were exempted from the Proclamation, the lower Shenandoah Valley, and the area around Alexandria were covered. Wikipedia

In the book Humbert mentions a number of times that his deep affection for nymphets is connected to his interrupted passion for his "puppy love" amour. I believe they were just on the verge of consummating their love when fate, in some form, stepped in, and she was about the same age as Lo is in the novel, thus the origins of his attraction for the just barely per-pubescent. HH was not only an astute observer of the world around him, but also of his own troubled emotions. That light bouncy little theme music to me is a hint of Lolita's rather self-centered, frivolous personality. In other words, she's what many people think of as the typical teenager. I wouldn't call her likeable, as she is on the bratty side, but I do feel sorry for her. Ya Ya was one of the songs that John Lennon covered on his mid 1970s oldies album. In general I like Kubrick's films. Like other good directors, he's had a few clunkers, but most of them are entertaining and thought-provoking to some degree. Bildwasser was one of my voluntary name changes.

Joy Division playing Transmission. Ohhh Nooooooo Mr. Bill. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UQmY57qrfw

I like those kinds of videos. It's a lot more relaxing than actually driving on the interstate. Even a disco-challenged person like me knew that The Trammps sang Disco Inferno. Dig those red and white unis with the bell bottoms. Yikes. Looks like they're cruising around on the Circle Line. I usually laugh whenever I hear the word boogie in a song lyric, it's so overused. I was channel surfing one night and came across one of those Time-Life music collections ads for the disco period. The strange thing was they never mentioned the word disco. It was called something like dance fever. Hmmm.

Even though there is much in the novel that is comic, I did feel sorry for the many characters who ended up in a very bad place, even Humbert. His creepiness was of a clinical rather than a gross kind, and he's such a learned and witty narrator that he draws readers in to sympathize with him, almost against their better judgement. As I recall it, in the novel HH was very strict about the age limits of the nymphet. I think that this harkened back to the childhood love that he was trying to recapture at a much later age. Once they reached the early teen years, a certain something was lost and they could no longer be considered nymphet worthy. So the Lolita of Kubrick's movie wouldn't even have interested Humbert. I haven't seen the movie in a number of years. It did an adequate job of bringing some of the book to the screen, but so much of Humbert's observations of American life, especially on the road trip, are in the form of personal narrative that it's hard to capture in the film medium. I can see where they had to flesh out the role of Quilty, because in the book he's sort of an invisible man. (When we had all those technical problems on the board I signed out, but I had forgotten my password since I didn't use it that often and had never written it down, so I had to go back and register under a new name.)

Yes, it may take a little while for things to get up to par, but so far it's been fairly well handled. Jack Palance, Brigitte Bardot, and Fritz Lang certainly make an odd trio. Of course BB was big in the 1950s and 1960s, but she is almost eighty years old, so you wouldn't expect to hear too much about her these days. They had those all around black bars during Contempt, which made the picture look like a perfect square. I have an older TV, so there was nothing I could do about it. I noticed that just before All That Jazz played there was one of those warnings about the picture fitting the format, but I just had a quick glance, so I don't know if it also had the warning about the movie being edited for content and to fit in the time frame. I hope not. Cinemoi will likely not have the quantity of films that TCM does, but I think it will show some interesting ones from time to time.

The consensus is pretty clear that Lolita is considered a literary classic, probably less clear that the movie is a cinema classic. Sounds about right to me. The book, leaving the sexual angle aside for a moment, is a wonderful dissection of American culture, popular and other, seen through the eyes of a European, written in a superb prose style, and in places, funny as hell. I don't think the movie emphasized that Humbert's attraction to Lolita was deeply connected to a girl who he loved when they were both children. And in the book, Lolita is no innocent. This doesn't excuse Humbert's behavior in any way of course. I believe Lolita was only twelve when she first meets Humbert and that they had to bump her age up a number of years, so that the movie wouldn't be even more offensive than it already was. I'd call the movie good, but not great.

+I+ coulda been a contenda. I coulda been a contenda. I coulda been a contenda. I coulda been a contenda.

Probably, or it might be a separate operation within one company, because the schedules are very different. I guess the DirecTV schedule is the best place to find out what's playing. Looks like they will have some interesting movies coming up.

Their schedule for Sky TV/Virgin is different from the one for DirecTV. On the former they are showing Diabolique and The Wages of Fear every day. The latter had The Collector on a few nights ago and I caught a bit of Beat the Devil They are showing Contempt tonight at 11. Looks like it will be worthwhile, just have to keep a close eye on the schedule. They had The Collector scheduled for two and a half hours, but it's only two hours long, so I thought they had commercials. No, they didn't. After The Collector was shown, they had half a hour of various promos.

Gentleman Caller: And this little piggy went wee, wee, wee all the way home. Laura: Why that's just so...so...so... Tom: Laura. Laura: Yes Tom. Tom: Keep your candles lit. You know how our land- lord, old man Tyrone, feels about us using electricity. *The Glass Meshuggeneh* A prim shy CAP with high standards can't get it into her mind that she is now residing with her mother and brother in a dumpy St. Louis apartment rather than in an antebellum mansion on the banks of Old Man River. She cannot absorb the final shock of learning that she is actually the seventh cousin seven times removed of General William T. Sherman. This drives her around the bend and she smashes her glass unicorn, swallows the unicorn part, and has severe stomach cramps resulting in many unladylike noises the next day.

Glen Campbell signing The Straight Life. Life in the slow lane.

Yeah, except for some differences on the proper color and application of nail polish, there's a pretty big overlap.

According to Wiki, the original name was the Senators, but that was changed after a few years to the Nationals. And it seems that people used both names. I'm only familiar with the 1960s version, when the team was called the Senators. Of course they were probably best known for usually ending up near the bottom of the standings. Looks like the Nationals will hold on to win the pennant. I was hoping the Pirates might have a chance at at least a wild card, but the wheels really came off during the last month or so. Now they'll be lucky if they have a winning season. And during the 1950s the Red Sox changed their name to Reds ****.

A who's who of English glamerati gathered at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert performing All the Young Dudes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhGOx1lidGc

It really did. Casey kept up the quotes and clowning and apparently the fans loved it. I doubt anybody expected an expansion team to go anywhere anyway. They did indeed set the record for the most loses for a team playing a 162 game schedule. They had two games cancelled during the season that were never made up. I believe the reason the Washington team was popularly know as the Senators was due to the fact that that was the name of the team. I doubt Dillinger robbed banks in three-piece suits. Too many things to get in your way.

Mick Ronson singin' Music Is Lethal.

There is no doubt about it--the 1960s were a gas, gas, gas. But personally I liked the 1970s best--unfortunately I can't go into details, but let's just say I had a lot of good semi-wholesome fun. Plus, I wouldn't have missed the long, tortured, and supremely enjoyable unmasking of Tricky Dicky Nixon for the world. Get lost, you old [expletive deleted]. I only saw Casey Stengel in person once, when he was the manager of the New York....Mets. I believe, under his tutelage, they set the record for the most losses by a major league baseball team. If my memory is correct, their win-loss record was 40-120, but I should double check that.