Jacopo Peri's Euridice, the world's oldest surviving opera, debuted in Florence in 1600. Thirteen German families -- the first German immigrants to North America -- arrived in Pennsylvania in 1683. The Great Fire of Newcastle and Gateshead left 53 people dead in 1854. Thomas Alva Edison showed the first motion picture in 1889. The world's first major motion picture with sound, Al Jolson's The Jazz Singer, debuted in 1927. Anwar Sadat was assassinated in 1981.
Born today: Le Corbusier (1887-1965), Thor Heyerdahl (1914-2002), Britt Ekland (1942), Elisabeth Shue (1963) and Ioan Gruffudd (1973).
It is Labour Day in Australia.
Shhh!
ReplyDeleteIt's oh so quiet.........
ReplyDeleteThe new avatar "functionality" has clearly got everyone glued to CiF for updates. Could be amusing when pics are working.
ReplyDeleteHate them. They shout, "Hey everyone, I'm NOT doing work over here!"
ReplyDeleteHmmm...where is everyone?
ReplyDeleteThauma/Jay - whats this about new functions?
MsC - are you about? good review here of Richard Hawlwy in concert in York.
something weird going on at cif - got all kinds of strange things happening when i tried to log in
ReplyDeleteHehe - pangar has just taught me a new word: fatuistics.
ReplyDeleteSheff - they've made the avatars enormous and are allowing you to upload a piccy. Not that they've actually published any of said piccies - oh no, they're all in pre-mod.
ReplyDeleteSo you must have liked Incendiary Sheff? It had quite a profoundly moving effect on me, have a toddler son myself so that might have also played a part - that and the fact that I cry at just about anything (my husband would claim School of Rock to be a particular low)....
ReplyDeleteI really did enjoy Incendiary, Vari. He's a very pacey writer although he does knock you about a bit emotionally. This new one is shaping up well. I'm only a few pages in and we've already met a heartwarming teenage refugee, had a suicide and one mutilation plus a 4 year old boy who lives in his batman suit and caused a horrified furore at his fathers funeral by jumping into the grave and demanding his Pa got out...funny, brutal, and another hearbreaker I expect.
ReplyDeleteYup, I read The Other Hand before Incendiary, one to loan on, which is more than I can say about many of the books I buy these days.
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough just got round to finishing the Fourth Hand by John Irving, I'd beought it years ago when it came out in hardback and had managed to misplace it, a garage clear out (ha!) at the weekend revealed it's hiding place and it was well worth revisiting.
"that and the fact that I cry at just about anything (my husband would claim School of Rock to be a particular low)"
ReplyDeleteOh Vari, surely not... you really have let the team down there....
Sorry Jay - I was pregnant at the time and hoped that it was hormones crying and not me.....caught the end of it the other week and cried again.....I wish I could get it under control, Dumbo is my son's absolute favourite film but there is one scene in it where I have to leave the room and stand sobbing in the hallway until I can compose myself.
ReplyDeleteIn other news, Bitterweed is in pre-mod again. Went on the rampage in the early hours a couple of Saturdays ago. Twelve straight deletions in a row.
ReplyDeleteHadn't logged on again 'til yesterday. Oops... who knows how long this one will last...
Richard Hawley is great by the way.
PS JayR - just got back from some gigs in Scotland, playing the old dobro. Reminded me why I hate the English "live music" scene so much. Flippin marvelous place Scotland, great gigs, great venues, great people.
I am actually becoming jealous of Berchmans
;-)
I always cried when Dame Hilda Bracket sang 'Land Of Hope and Glory'.
ReplyDeletePS - Shef: Richard Hawly's excellent !
ReplyDeleteNice avatar stoaty
ReplyDeleteHave you got over your vole prejudice yet ? They make great combat scouts you know.
Hawley is excellent, saw him a little while back and look forward to seeing him again in December.....Totally agree about Scotland, but am biased....
ReplyDeleteWho was the rampage against?
Bitters,
ReplyDeleteYes I have, I joined the Untrusted to make me a better person and it's working a fucking treat.
Bitterweed, look what I stumbled upon:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWRtHKg5vG4
I love him...
@Vari
ReplyDeleteEr, Zoe Williams, Bunting, Toynbee, mostly, you know the sort...
Although, I must admit it: I was vay, VAY drunk at the time...
@JR Excellent link !
Oh and glad to hear it stoaty... the UT certainly is a great source of strength for me in my quest for moral fucking improvement.
lol
;-)
Laters
Evening all, and welcome back bitterweed. I was beginning to get a tad worried about you given your wild exit strategy on CiF before you disappeared!! :o)
ReplyDeleteHa ha, yes, well, BB erm I had just *had enough* one could say. Especially, of vodka...
ReplyDeleteI AM on a very tight schedule workwise now though, and got a mate from oz coming so will be drifting in and out of UT-zone. Still owe you a MAJOR thanks for the other week by the way BB, working on what would suffice ;-) Talk soon.
Bitterweed - I nearly ended up there the other day but they just deleted loads of my comments instead - just disappeared them actually - even my calm ones. I fear wine may have been involved in my 'madness'. I enjoy your comments so hope they 'let you out' soon.
ReplyDeleteMAM has come out with his most priceless comment yet. On the welfare editorial re the Tories evolution of welfare he said that people with 'mild' conditions such as agoraphobia and depression should just be made to work for their own good.
He also said that he thought that people always lazed about if they were allowed to. So in the second world war the Americans had loads of soldiers go on leave but the Germans and the Russians would give anxiety ridden soldiers electric shock treatment and hence they did not have many wanting to leave! He actually thought this was a great tactic and the right thing to do! Brilliant so he obviously thinks we need Nazi tactics to deal with the sick and disabled.
BW - no need for anything. Thanks is plenty.
ReplyDeletePrincessCC - MAM is the archetypal troll. He will read an article, imagine the most extreme position one could take in response to it, and trot it out. I figure he is probably house bound or bed-ridden or similar himself because he seems to post all hours.
MAM wrote the book on trolling, I have it on good authority that he lives under a bridge, eats billy goats gruff and turns to stone in the sunlight.
ReplyDeleteOh the direful MAM...I just scroll past him these days...need to hang on to what little is left of my sanity.
ReplyDeleteLMFAO!
ReplyDelete"Eats Billy Goat Gruff" :o)
I have lost my temper with him on more than one occasion, then really regretted being so st00p1d, because he must laugh his bloody socks off when people get drawn in.
Still - good to have someone to vent your wrath on from time to time...
With BB, laughing here.
ReplyDeleteLast encounter I had with MAM, he accused me of being "rude". And there was I, thinking I'm a nice, quiet, gentle creature!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8287740.stm
ReplyDelete"quiverful"?...haven't quite got 10,but mine aren't exactly a quiver of arrows..more like a bag of spanners.
Box of frogs MF ?
ReplyDeleteAh bugger that, MF.
ReplyDeleteGiven what the article was saying in CiF today about atheists generally being more intelligent and educated, this is truly the dumbing-down of America.
Whereas in France it is all the posh people who are Catholics and therefore drive around with minibuses full of French-equivalent Jemimas and Tarquins with Mummy and Daddy more likely to be doctors, lawyers, and other bourgeoisie with a "De" before their surname and 5 or 6 years' worth of tertiary education under their belts.
The French will outbreed the world with smart people, I tells ya! We are doomed! DOOMED!
MoveAnyMountain is a woman, to the best of my knowledge.
ReplyDeleteMoveAnyMountain is a woman, to the best of my knowledge.
ReplyDeleteThe radfems kept that one a bit quiet.
Quiverfull Ugh! keeping those pews filled and upholding the patriarchy. Creepy. They clearly aren't worried about overpopulation. Wonder what their views are on climate change and what their children will have to face in the next few decades.
ReplyDeleteSheff -
ReplyDeleteUgh. Reminds me of those submissive Christian wives - can't remember the name of the movement off the top of my head - who cede all power to their husbands because the bible says so...
*shivers*
I had no idea MAM was a woman! Blimey!
ReplyDeletestaybryte
ReplyDeleteThanks. Come to think of it, MAM's gender has been mentioned before, but MAM doesn't come across as even human sometimes, so that's my excuse!
MF
Haven't looked at your quiverful link, because I'm already aware of this weirdness. And don't get me started on the patriarchal religious stuff - FLDS, submissive wives etc. If it wasn't so bloody scary I'd be laughing.
Evening all. I have long known that MAM is a she; she sails majestically on even when the main mast is hit and leaves you spluttering in her wake shrieking 'But I was demonstrably right'!
ReplyDeleteNight all!
Belated Hi! to staybryte.
ReplyDeleteNice to 'see' you round here again.
And boy, BW, it's been very quiet on the late night youtubing front without you.
Edwin
ReplyDeleteThat's a very apt description of a close encounter with the Mountain!
I don't seem to be able to get a comment to stick on McShane's pieces lately. I'm only trying to cheer the miserable bastard up.
ReplyDeleteOh dear, stoaty!
ReplyDeleteI am quite shocked that Mam is a woman. But as was said earlier I too tend to think of him as a he only in the sense of some alien type being that I call a 'he' in my head. Not an actual human of either gender.
ReplyDeleteRe the Quiverfull folks. Yeuch! Honestly some people. There are those submissive christian wives and then there are those Surrendered Wives. They don't even have the excuse of being brainwashed by religion. They just buy into all that crap.
I watched a programme about them on channel five years ago and this one guy was such a jerk. He just wanted to torment his wife basically. So he made her wear outfits he knew she hated and when they went out for dinner he made her order steak even though he knew she didnt like it. Thing is she was quite gorgeous and he was a bit average. She had this rictus grin on her face throughout the whole affair and kept saying she was finding it hard but he was gonna leave if she didn't do it.
But what makes me most angry is these women selling this shit. they are not exactly sat at home massaging hubbies tootsies are they? No they are out trailing around the country signing books and going on television, making a fortune and generally being savvy business women. They hypocricy is breathtaking.
I could sort of get it if you got something in return - like a life of luxury. But a lot of these women work in really demanding jobs and then they have to give the money to the husband at the end of the month! They get no say! It boggles my mind. I mean if they were being treated like some sort of Regency lady - huge manor house, fine food and wines on tap, stable full of thoroughbreds and a Darcy, breaches wearing type to entertain em at night I might just...just... get it. (Or perhaps not).
Thank you for the kind word MsChin. I'm still around on CIF as well, having escaped a ban after going a bit postal a couple of weeks back.
ReplyDeleteTime for beddy byes, me beauties!
ReplyDeleteNight x
Nite BB.
ReplyDelete