Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[Acidmouse]

Libraries & Archives are coming under increasing pressure to survive.

I think this short film from my friends at Source magazine will be of interest.

The London Zoo Library & Photography Archive is the first in a series. Featuring an extinct duck.

I work in the special collections at Leeds Uni and I agree 100% pressure to survive has never been more than now.

Our head of special collections is old school chap. Eton educated I believe with lots of connected friends (A few fellows named Melvyn Bragg and Philip Pullman are frequently here to see him, they always want to talk about Cricket!). Most of his job is securing donations either by monetary value or collections to add to the prestigious reputation of the University. He has people under him to actually manage the place. Its crucial now he continues to 'do his magic' and keep this up else we simply cannot rely on the University to fund stuff that has no measurable gains for teaching and learning, which is sadly how University's are going these days.

[Rod Paradise]

Q2. The Godfather & The Godfather Part II - to quote Empire magazine's review from 1990, "Frankly, the best six-and-a-half hours you can have with all your clothes on."

Personally preferred Once upon a time in American but they are both outstanding.

Also in my top ten! The Inception of gangster movies* ;-)

(* Will expand on this thought when I'm back on line this afternoon!)

I've have never seen either Godfather. When I tell people this they look at me with the same kind of shock I would expect had I told them I've never read a book. Is it, can it, really be that good? I'm kind of loath to watch it now as it can only disappoint me.

That's a fantastically Welsh attitude to things I realise.

I watched it for the first time last weekend - not a disappointment at all. Really enjoyed it, a great bit of fim-making.

[Jon MW]

Best Film Ever: Casablanca

but I suppose The Godfather (I & II) aren't bad either

[JamesHartigan]

Q2. The Godfather & The Godfather Part II - to quote Empire magazine's review from 1990, "Frankly, the best six-and-a-half hours you can have with all your clothes on."

Personally preferred Once upon a time in American but they are both outstanding.

Also in my top ten! The Inception of gangster movies* ;-)

(* Will expand on this thought when I'm back on line this afternoon!)

Thoughts on Once Upon a Time in America...

***SPOILER ALERT: DO  NOT READ UNLESS YOU HAVE SEEN THE FILM!***

10 years after I first watched the film (and admired it as a flawed epic), I had a lightbulb moment.

Suddenly, I realised the importance of the final shot.

This paragraph, from Wikipedia, sums it up perfectly...

"The film begins and ends in 1933, with Noodles hiding out in an opium den from Syndicate hitmen. Since the last shot of the movie is of Noodles in a smiling, opium-soaked high, the film can be interpreted to have been a drug-induced fantasy or dream, with Noodles remembering his past and envisioning the future. In an interview by Noël Simsolo published in 1987, Leone himself confirms the validity of this interpretation, saying that the scenes set in the 1960s could be seen as an opium dream of Noodles. In his commentary for a DVD of the movie, film historian and critic Richard Schickel states that opium users often report vivid dreams and that these visions have a tendency to explore the user's past and future."

The first time I watched it, I had a huge problem with the 1968 timeline. All those scenes felt "wrong" and I hated the fact that Deborah looked exactly the same as she did in the 1930s. Plus, I thought it was a really naff gesture to have the same actor play the young Max AND his son. But, if you subscribe to the 'Opium Theory', it all makes perfect sense.

In the final 1960s scene, just after a James Woods lookalike (the actor's stand-in, I believe) has thrown himself into the back of a garbage truck (a suitably bizarre fantasy for an opium junkie), Noodles is blinded by the headlights of a car. The car is a 1930s vehicle; the passengers are 1930s party-goers. In Noodles' drug-addled brain, the timelines are clearly starting to merge.

And, because this is a film about the passing of time, I LOVE the fact that things...take...time. The telephone that rings for ten minutes; Noodles noisily stirring his coffee: they're all amazing moments that should be allowed to breathe.

I still believe it's a flawed epic. But, in my opinion, its brilliance and originality outweigh those flaws considerably.

I'll leave you with another "nugget" (once again, courtesy of Wikipedia)...

"For the US release on June 1, 1984, Once Upon a Time in America was edited down to 139 minutes (2 hours and 19 minutes) by the studio and against the director's wishes. In this short version, the flashback narrative was also changed, by moving the scenes in chronological order. Leone was reportedly heartbroken by the American cut, and never made another film before his death in 1989, making this his final film."

[Acidmouse]

Excellent! I must go watch it again, most of the in depth stuff just wooshing past me.

[ManuelsMum]

Excellent! I must go watch it again, most of the in depth stuff just wooshing past me.

+1

Felt the same about Citizen Kane, pretty sure it whooshed me. Inception also, apparently there's loads and loads to it, but most people miss it.

[JaffaCake]

Amazing game for the Knicks last night. In case u missed it, lack of Lin updates was because last weekend was the All-Star break, about five days where there's no league games.

The Knicks didn't play again til last night, and their coach was pretty excited to get some time (in the shortened season with little down time) to work with Lin and his fit/available again two star players plus his other new guys, trying to make a team of them.

The game last night, home against a pretty ordinary Cleveland team, shoulda been easy, but in the third quarter the Knicks were 17 behind and it looked like a disaster. Not really with Lin's help (most of the starters were on the bench) they got right back into it, and the big guns came back to finish the job in the 4th, ending up winning by 17, 120-103.

Lin's stats were really good, 19 points (on six of 12 shooting), 13 assists and only one turnover. Pretty amazing to think he's now just accepted as a starter, superstar, leader of a storied franchise, and he's just expected to run the team and put up those lines, when he was just some punk at the end of the bench that never got a game a couple of weeks ago.

Trying to think of a football comparison. Maybe when Shef Wed were in the Prem, and they had an injury crisis up front, they threw a pretty ordinary centre half up front, Paul Warhurst, and he kept scoring in every game, to the point that the fit again players couldn't get back in and he even got called up by England I think.

[tikay]

Amazing game for the Knicks last night. In case u missed it, lack of Lin updates was because last weekend was the All-Star break, about five days where there's no league games.

The Knicks didn't play again til last night, and their coach was pretty excited to get some time (in the shortened season with little down time) to work with Lin and his fit/available again two star players plus his other new guys, trying to make a team of them.

The game last night, home against a pretty ordinary Cleveland team, shoulda been easy, but in the third quarter the Knicks were 17 behind and it looked like a disaster. Not really with Lin's help (most of the starters were on the bench) they got right back into it, and the big guns came back to finish the job in the 4th, ending up winning by 17, 120-103.

Lin's stats were really good, 19 points (on six of 12 shooting), 13 assists and only one turnover. Pretty amazing to think he's now just accepted as a starter, superstar, leader of a storied franchise, and he's just expected to run the team and put up those lines, when he was just some punk at the end of the bench that never got a game a couple of weeks ago.

Trying to think of a football comparison. Maybe when Shef Wed were in the Prem, and they had an injury crisis up front, they threw a pretty ordinary centre half up front, Paul Warhurst, and he kept scoring in every game, to the point that the fit again players couldn't get back in and he even got called up by England I think.

At last, was beginning to wonder what had happened to our hero!

What is a "storied franchise"? Franchise I understand, storied I do not.

How much longer has the season got to go?

Do College players normally move up to the Pro game if good enough? If so, what sort of money could someone like Lin command? Is there a draft process, as in NFL etc?

Soz for all the q's, but we are into this now, so we need the details

[tikay]

Well done (I think) to my Yoof Corry, LilDave.

He's been having a bit of a mare in the cash games over yonder, but earlier today, I heard he was on the rebound, & had wiped out a lot of the pain.

Hope so.

[tikay]

Damn that James Hartigan.

I have watched OUaTiA 5 or 6 times - if I like a film, I can watch it almost endlessly, until I know the lines by heart - but he has made me want to watch it again now, with all those new angles he has suggested.

I used to have a tape of it - VHS or whatever - but now I suppose I weill have to try & catch it on Sky Movies when next on. Presumably it resurfaces every few months? If not, could it be purchased in W H Smith or the like? I'm not into downloading torrent stuff, or illegal sites.

Click to see full-size image.

[tikay]

Libraries & Archives are coming under increasing pressure to survive.

I think this short film from my friends at Source magazine will be of interest.

The London Zoo Library & Photography Archive is the first in a series. Featuring an extinct duck.

Excellent, thank you Mr Tonji.

It is beyond the imagination what we would do without these archives, but I can well understand the money pressure these days.

[tikay]

Excellent! I must go watch it again, most of the in depth stuff just wooshing past me.

+1

Felt the same about Citizen Kane, pretty sure it whooshed me. Inception also, apparently there's loads and loads to it, but most people miss it.

I doubt anything whooshes you.

[tikay]

Mistletoe is a parasite, it takes root in a host tree as in your pic.  The reason it shows up in the winter is because it doesn't lose it's leaves.

Well I never knew that, I always assumed mistletoe was a regular plant, or bush. I have been looking around, & very many trees round here have 2 or 3 of these mistletoe "balls".

Even better, according to Wiki......

Mistletoe was often considered a pest that kills trees and devalues natural habitats, but was recently recognized as an ecological keystone species, an organism that has a disproportionately pervasive influence over its community

See the section "Ecological importance" here.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistletoe

So, a parasite, but a sort of positive one.

"dung on a twig" indeed.

[smashedagain]

Think she just won a seat to play devilfish this weekend tony. Rotty11 on dtd

[tikay]

Bit of a character testing day today. We have a brand new Studio, alongside the Sky Sports Golf, Football & News Studios, but there was a major rig failure tonight, & we lost all lighting. Typically, we were simulcasting to Sky Sports at the time, but as we lease the Studio from them, they can't get too uppity with us. I hope.

Mr Trumper was a very relaxed Guest, & he will be on again soon I hope. Jakally was on Tuesday, too, & he was also quite superb. It's a lovely feeling to do TV stuff with special friends.

Cast your minds back 6 or 7 years to to when Rob Yong was recruiting his Team for DTD, & Simon was announced as the TD etc. There were sort of polite silences, "what, Simon Trumper, are you sure?".

It turned out to be an incredibly inspirational selection, truly, nobody could have done that job better. If you think back, not all the selections were right, but most of them, & the key ones, were. Never try to second-guess Rob Yong.