Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.
In 1963, the Beatles, newly becoming famous and with their star obviously on the rise, signed a three-picture movie deal with United Artists. They made the first two films, as agreed upon, in quick, neat order.
The first film A Hard Day's Night, made in 1964, was loved by all, fans and critics alike. It made a huge profit and became an instant classic. Help!, the second Beatles movie, was made in 1965 and made a bundle too. But this time the reviews were much more mixed, with most critics finding many flaws and noting the lesser quality, humor, and originality of the second film.
Help!, although the higher-budgeted of the two films, was seen as a disappointment to many, the Beatles included. And most especially to the Beatles' unspoken leader, John Lennon. Lennon was to always cite Help! as being "crap" and other not-so-gracious epithets.
Several other movie projects were put forth, but a third, contract-fulfilling film, was never quite agreed-upon. And so it stood until 1967, when a solution was put forth.
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.
"People always wanted us to stay the same, but we can't stay in a rut. no one else expects to peak at 23, so why should we? Rubber Soul, for me, is like the beginning of my adult life." - Paul McCartney.
"You don't know us if you don't know Rubber Soul -John Lennon
Rubber Soul was the sixth studio album recorded by the Beatles. The title came from Paul, who said he'd overheard another musician refer to Mick Jagger's singing style as "plastic soul." You can hear Paul use the expression "plastic soul," for the first time, at the end of the first take of the Beatles record "I'm Down" (released a few months earlier). John confirms the title credit: "That was Paul's title... meaning English soul. Just a pun."
It was the second album (after A Hard Day's Night) to feature all original Beatles songs. It was the first album to feature composing credits from all four Beatles. The U.S. Rubber Soul album featured 10 new songs, with two carry-overs from their previous album Help! The British LP featured 14 all-new songs. The recording sessions for Rubber Soul began on October 12, 1965.
Neatorama is proud to bring you a guest post from Ernie Smith, the editor of Tedium, a twice-weekly newsletter that hunts for the end of the long tail. In another life, he ran ShortFormBlog.
The tale of the McBarge, the former McDonald’s location created for Expo ’86 in Vancouver. Shockingly, it wasn’t the only fast food joint designed to float.
The other night, I took a bit of a swipe at McDonald’s for its poor track record in the Icelandic market. Ray Kroc and company, I apologize and admit that your sausage biscuits give me modest joy. After I write this piece, I may be forced to apologize again.
That’s because I’m about to bring up a bad memory for the fast-food giant.
In the late ’80s, the World’s Fair was still a fairly Big Deal in North America, and Vancouver played host to one of the most notable World Expo galas, Expo ’86. (If you’re a millennial and don’t remember this, I’ll point out that Death Cab for Cutie wrote a song about it. I hope you’re not too young to remember who they are.)
Like the Olympics, World’s Fairs have a tendency to roll over a city and change its character for a short period of time, but eventually leave lingering signs of decay after the fact.
The Andy Samberg movie Hot Rod was released ten years ago this week. That seems like just yesterday, but the guys from The Lonely Island made their first feature film in 2007. Let's learn some trivia about the movie.
10. The stuntman trying to jump over the bus actually broke his leg.
Gotta give it to stuntmen and women, they take a horrendous beating sometimes for their job. The kind of things they go through on a regular basis can risk life and limb for just a brief moment on camera that a lot of times they won’t ever be known for.
9. The band called “Gown” is actually Queens of the Stone Age.
It’s kind of interesting why they wouldn’t use their real name, but in a film I suppose it doesn’t matter. They were awesome as always. Sometimes the director just wants to keep the fantasy without bringing too much of the real world into the picture.
Bob Dylan is a legend of legends in the music world. He is rock music's greatest poet. He's sold millions of records and albums and his live concerts have been unforgettable events since the sixties. In 2008, Bob was awarded a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation. Now, as if his career hadn't been incredible enough already, he won the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature. Okay, let's take a look at a few other interesting facts about Mr. Bob Dylan.
1. Robert Allen Zimmerman briefly used the alias "Elston Gunn" before he adopted the first name of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas to become "Bob Dylan."
2. Dylan was so grief-stricken over the death of Elvis Presley that he didn't speak to anyone for a week.
3. He turned 76 in May, he has 11 grandchildren, and he drives a van with the bumper sticker: "World's Greatest Grandpa."
A car is moving down the street when it is struck by lightning. It seems like forever before the vehicle stops and people get out. It looks like everyone's okay. The car is still smoking, and so is the spot where the strike hit. Then a huge mob of zombies dressed in black appears out of nowhere and approaches the car to consume the lightly-fried occupants.
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.
In 1939, producer Rudolf Ising and his MGM animation unit were in trouble. Their last animated series, Captain and the Kids, had been a huge flop, in both financial and popular terms.
Ising, on an inspiration, decided to team up two members of his unit and try to strike gold with a new animated series idea. He decided to combine the talents of Wiliam Hanna, a director, and Joseph Barbera, a story man and character designer.
It was Hanna who had the (hardly original) idea of combining a cat and a mouse in a cartoon. Hanna recalled: "We knew we needed two new characters. We thought we needed conflict and chase and action, and a cat and mouse seemed like a great, basic thought." Barbera added that with a cat and mouse "Half the story was written before you even put pencil to paper."
The new cartoon was called Puss Gets the Boot. The term "Tom and Jerry" dated back to 19th-century England, and referred to children behaving mischievously. Although this would almost fit a fairly apt capsule description of the soon-to-be world famous toon pair, the usage of the two names was merely a coincidence.
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.
There is little dispute that Ernest "Papa" Hemingway is one of the most famous, beloved and influential writers in history.
Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, in Oak Park, Illinois, to Clarence and Grace Hemingway. He was the second of six children. In his lifetime, he penned seven novels, six short story collections, and two non-fiction works. Additionally, three novels, four short story collections and three non-fiction works have been published posthumously.
His most beloved works include The Sun Also Rises (1926), A Farewell to Arms (1929), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) and The Old Man and the Sea (1953). Hemingway was awarded two Pulitzer prizes, for For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Man and the Sea (which also earned him a Nobel prize).
Quite the resume, but as amazing a writer as he was, Hemingway was equally amazing (if not more so) as a man. His life was so incredibly bizarre, maybe only such an incredible writer could ever have authored it. Okay, here are a few facts about Ernest Hemingway:
1. His mother, Grace, was the domineering type. She wanted a daughter, not a son. To placate herself after Ernest was born, she would dress him up in pink, flowery dresses and call him "Ernestine".
2. He started hunting early. At the age of three, he killed a porcupine, at his father's behest. He finished the job by eating it.
3. His mother kept him out of school for a year- to study playing the cello. Did it work? According to Hemingway: "That cello- I played it worse than anyone on earth."
4. He joined the Ambulance Corps in World War I and worked as an ambulance driver on the Italian front, picking up human remains. In July 1918, he was seriously wounded by a mortar shell which left shrapnel in both his legs, causing him much pain and requiring several surgeries. He was awarded the Silver Medal of Valor from the Italians.
5. Hemingway participated in the Spanish Civil War and took part in the D-Day landings during the invasion of France during World War II. In one instance, he threw three hand grenades into a bunker, killing several SS officers. He was decorated with the Bronze Star for his actions.
6. It is estimated he left behind over 8,000 personal and business letters. Plans have been announced underway to publish them in a set exceeding ten volumes.
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.
John Travolta was the studio's original choice to play the title character in the 1994 movie Forrest Gump. Travolta declined and the role was next offered to both Bill Murray and Chevy Chase, both of whom also said no. Sean Penn claims he was Paramount's second choice after Travolta; he said no, too. Paramount soon had to "settle for" Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks to take over the lead. Hanks decided to accept the role after reading the script for a hour and half, on the condition that the film be historically accurate.
The female lead role of Jenny, Forrest's love interest, was offered to Jodie Foster, Nicole Kidman and Demi Moore, each of whom gave it a thumbs down. The lesser-known Robin Wright finally was decided upon to play Forrest's "best girl."
The director's hat was offered to both Terry Gilliam, who turned it down, and Barry Sonnefeld, who was interested, but chose to go with directing Addams Family Values instead. In their wake, Robert Zemeckis took over the director's helm.
Both Ice-T and Dave Chappelle were similarly offered the role of Forrest's best pal, "Bubba" Buford. Ice-T didn't want to play a character with a disability and Chappelle, who later regretted his decision, "figured the movie would bomb." And one sort of sees Chappelle's reasoning, after all, one would logically assume that a movie starting out with so many turn-downs and rejected offers wouldn't fare all that well at the box office.
The animals you live with are just waiting for an opportunity to take your stuff, jump on the bed, climb the curtains, or eat the couch …just anything that they aren't allowed to do, and they know it, whether they care or not.
As a general rule, the dogs seem to regret their actions, or at least they regret being caught, while cats act as if you are in the wrong for confronting them. They only regret that you've stopped their fun. See over 200 images, many of them gifs, of dogs, cats, and a few other animals who were caught in the act at Bored Panda.
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.
On December 1, 1955, a small, unassuming-looking African-American woman named Rosa Parks boarded a Cleveland Avenue bus in Montgomery, Alabama. She sat down amongst several white passengers, along with three other African-Americans, in the middle of the bus.
At a later stop, after Parks had settled into her seat, a white passenger boarded the full bus. By the then-current Montgomery laws, the black passengers were legally obligated to leave their seats and give them over to standing white passengers.
It seemed a routine situation as the white passenger made his way down the aisle. The bus driver, James F. Blake, left the driver's seat and moved imposingly up to the four black passengers. His intention was to get the black passengers to move to the back of the bus- basically, it was standard operating procedure. His words, as recalled by Rosa Parks, were: "Y'all better make it light on yourselves and let me have those seats."
While the other three black passengers obeyed Blake and moved on, Rosa Parks steadfastly refused to budge. Blake eventually contacted the local police and signed a warrant for her arrest.
Blake was later to recall: "I wasn't trying to do anything to that Parks woman except my job. She was in violation of the city codes, so what was I supposed to do? That damn bus was full and she wouldn't move back. I had my orders."
This incident is rightfully considered one of the linchpin moments in the history of the Civil Rights movement in the United States. The Rosa Parks incident sparked a year-long bus boycott in the city of Montgomery, led by Martin Luther King, Jr. The boycott ended one year later, after the federal court system finally declared the segregation of public buses to be unconstitutional.
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.
"It was a bright cold day in April, as the clocks were striking thirteen." Thus begins one of the most chilling, haunting, amazing, and many say prophetic, novels ever written. George Orwell's 1984 (henceforth written here in this more brief form for the sake of brevity) is also one of the most popular and beloved novels of all-time, selling over 30 million copies to date. By 1989, the book had been translated into 65 different languages, the most ever for a novel in English up to that point in time. Besides its many other influences, 1984 has also added several new words and terms into the english lexicon, including Big Brother, thought police, doublespeak, thought crime, newspeak, and 2 + 2 = 5.
As a young man, George Orwell (born Eric Blair) spent four and a half years working for the imperial police in Burma. In his position, Orwell had over people, their lives, their circumstances, and their very person.
A Burma imperial policeman was required to witness hangings. Orwell witnessed first hand what it was like to execute a man in cold blood and what it was like to have total power over a fellow human being. He viewed the scarred buttocks of people who had been caned, as well as caged prisoners. He grew to hate the regime. Orwell was to recall: "I have been part of an oppressive system and it has left me with a bad conscience... I was conscious of an immense weight that I had got to expiate."
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.
"Women are like elephants to me; I like to look at them, but I wouldn't want to own one."
-W.C. Fields (William Claude Dukenfield) 1880-1946
W.C. Fields is a comic icon in movie history. Critics rank him with Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and the Marx Brothers in the upper echelons of motion picture comedy. His classic movies include Million Dollar Legs (1932), Tillie and Gus (1933), The Bank Dick (1940), My Little Chickadee (with Mae West) (1940) and Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941).
W.C. Fields spent much of his boyhood in poverty and as an adult was constantly in fear of being broke. As a result, his girlfriends found him a tight man with a dollar.
On April 8, 1900, at the age of 20, Fields married for the first and only time. Her name was Harriet "Hattie" Hughes. Hattie worked alongside Fields in his vaudeville juggling act as his assistant. In the act, Fields would humorously blame her when he made a mistake.
Hattie was well-educated and tutored Fields in reading and writing (his own education had been very limited). The couple had a son together in 1904 named William Claude Fields, Jr. Although Fields was devoutly anti-religion, because of Hattie's influence, he agreed to have his son baptized.
Jerry Lynn of Ross Township, Pennsylvania, had a great idea that turned bizarre. He tied a battery-powered alarm clock to a string and lowered it through a vent into a wall, in order to determine where he should install a cable outlet for his TV. The alarm was set to go off in a few minutes, and he would drill the hole near the sound, ensuring that a cable would have an unobstructed path. Surely there are better ways of doing that, but the plan seemed sound. Until the string broke. The clock fell too far down to be retrieved.
“As I was laying it down, all of a sudden I heard it go ‘thunk!’ as it came loose,” he said. “I thought, well, that’s not a real problem. You know it’s still going to go off. And it did.”
He couldn’t pull it back up, but figured, “Maybe, three-four months it’ll run out of battery. That was in September of 2004. It is still going off every day. And during daylight savings time it goes off at ten minutes ’til eight. And during standard time it goes off at ten minutes to seven at night.”
Clocks do not draw much power from a battery, but the longest I've had one last is six years. This one has been ringing daily for 13 years. I would have torn the wall apart by now. -via Boing Boing
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.
Deborah Sampson was born on December 17, 1760, in Plympton, Massachusetts. She was the daughter of Jonathan and Deborah Sampson. Deborah's mother was the great grand-daughter of William Bradford, the governor of Plymouth Colony. And some of her ancestors were aboard the Mayflower.
Deborah grew up to be much taller than the average woman of her time (5' 0"), and, in fact, she was taller than the average man (5' 7") too. Her full adult height reached 5' 9".
She was not thin or shapely, and according to her biographer, Hermann Mann, "Her weight might displease a coquette." It was reported that her breasts were very small. Her biographer added, "The features of her face were not what a physiognomist would term the most beautiful." A neighbor who knew Deborah in her later years termed her as "a person of plain features."
Okay, you get the idea. Deborah Sampson wasn't the average looking woman of the time, and she was not the kind of girl the local menfolk were going to typically chase or go "hubba hubba" over when catching a glimpse of her.
Tall, broad, strong and not one of delicate feminine features, in 1782, Deborah made her first attempt at trying to pretend to be a man. In early 1782, she donned men's clothes and tried to enlist in an army unit in Middleborough, Massachusetts. Signing up as "Timothy Thayer," and binding her breasts in with a tied linen cloth, she collected a bonus and enlisted.
