Filmmaker and founding member of Monty Python Terry Gilliam has been trying to make a film about Don Quixote since 1989. The story is loosely based on the novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, with a time-travel twist from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain thrown in. But the project turned out to be as elusive as the don tilting at windmills. Wikipedia tells the story.

Gilliam started working on the film in 1989, but was unable to secure funding until 1998 when it entered full pre-production with a budget of $32.1 million without American financing, with Jean Rochefort as Quixote, Johnny Depp as Toby Grisoni, a 21st-century marketing executive thrown back through time, and Vanessa Paradis as the female lead. Shooting began in 2000 in Navarre, but a significant number of difficulties such as sets and equipment destroyed by flooding, the departure of Rochefort due to illness, problems obtaining insurance for the production, and other financial difficulties led to a sudden suspension of the production and its subsequent cancellation. The original production was the subject of the documentary film Lost in La Mancha, which was intended to be a making-of but was released on its own in 2002.

Gilliam made repeated attempts to relaunch production between 2003 and 2016, which included Depp, Ewan McGregor and Jack O'Connell as Toby Grisoni and Robert Duvall, Michael Palin, and John Hurt as Quixote. However, all ended up being cancelled for various reasons, such as failing to secure funds, Depp's busy schedule and eventual loss of interest in the project, and Hurt being diagnosed with the cancer that would eventually result in his death. After yet another failed attempt, it was unexpectedly reported in March 2017 that filming had finally started, with Driver, who was confirmed as Grisoni in 2016 and helped secure funding, and Jonathan Pryce as Quixote. On 4 June 2017, Gilliam announced that the shooting of the film was complete, 17 years after it originally started.

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote premiered last May at the Cannes Film Festival. It played in theaters in Europe, and after 30 years is finally going to be shown in the US. However, it will be screened for one night only, on Wednesday, April 10. Go figure.

A delightful Hungarian version of The Rolling Stones' song "Honky Tonk Women" was recorded by the Budapest band Z'Zi Labor with the Veresegyházi Ladies Choir, and was a hit in Hungary in 1986. This clip was part of a the 1988 documentary Danube Interlude by Australian filmmaker Greg Grainger.   -via Everlasting Blort

Webcomic artist Nathan Pyle (previously at Neatorama) posts all kinds of humor at Instagram, from his comics about everyday life to pigeon videos to haiku.



Pyle also has a running series called Strange Planet concerning aliens who try to understand, or at least imitate, how humans live. From an outsider's point of view, we don't make much sense.



See all twelve comics so far at Strange Planet.

In the upcoming movie Rocketman, Elton John is played by actor Taron Egerton. Sunday night, John hosted the Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards viewing party, and according to the singer, the above performance of "Tiny Dancer" was completely impromptu. Egerton sang the song in John's voice as the piano legend accompanied. He did join in on the chorus at the end. -via the A.V. Club

This island is Lítla Dímun, the smallest of the 18 main Faroe Islands, which is an archipelago between Iceland, Norway, and the UK. Lítla Dímun may be a small island, but it carries its own cloud!

A lenticular cloud often drapes over it like a wet, vapory blanket. These stationary clouds typically form over mountain peaks or other protruding landmasses. Lítla Dímun’s lenticular hovers above its top, occasionally spilling down over the verdant land as it reaches toward the cold sea.

That's not the only strange thing about Lítla Dímun. No one lives there, but farmers from the other islands bring their sheep to graze there in the summer. The grass must be good, since transporting sheep in boats and climbing the cliff sides of the island is not a simple matter. Learn more about Lítla Dímun at Atlas Obscura.

(Image credit: Erik Christensen)

An Adult Swim short by Julian Glander encapsulates the disappointments of modern living in a very surreal manner. -via Digg

The Museum of English Rural Life is a humble institution attached to the University of Reading. A couple of months ago, something really exciting happened. A small bat was found inside their rare book store. This apparently doesn't happen as much in England as it does where I live.  

Because the universe is weird, though, one of our volunteers and former @UniRdg_Library librarian also looks after bats in her spare time.

— The Museum of English Rural Life (@TheMERL) February 24, 2019

So the bat was captured and identified as a fairly rare species called Nathusius’ pipistrelle. They named the tiny 7-gram bat MERLin after the museum, and he (definitely a he) went into the care of bat conservator Rose-Ann Movosvic.

The tubby bugger.

— The Museum of English Rural Life (@TheMERL) February 24, 2019

You can read about the adventure in comedic fashion at Twitter and get more details in the museum's blog post about the bat. -via Metafilter

Coach Jeremy wondered what went through his four-year-old's mind as he was learning to skate and play hockey. Not all kids that age are vocal, but Mason is one of those children whose thoughts come right out in words, like a running monologue. So Dad equipped him with a microphone to record the magic. His stream-of-consciousness ranges from adorable to hilarious. Subtitles are provided. -via Tastefully Offensive

Fifteen trees have made the cut as finalists for the European Tree of the Year contest. It's not for the oldest, biggest, or most valuable tree, but the tree with the most interesting story behind it. The tree shown here is called the Pet-oak. The common oak stands in the highway median in Breda, Netherlands.  

When highway A58 was constructed in 1986, numerous oaks on the Anneville Estate had to be cut down. This oak, in the centre reservation, was the only one left standing. Close to the Belgian border, it became a landmark for many drivers on their journey. The beloved oak is now threatened with felling, thanks to plans to broaden the highway which lead to widespread protests. Out of 12 nominated Dutch trees, the 'Pet-oak' won with an overwhelming majority.

Other trees have notable stories, too, like the one that was grafted into the shape of the letter "N" to show love for a girl named Nell, and one that survived a fire and was left in the shape of bird. Many are hundreds of years old. Read all the stories and place your vote for two of the trees by Thursday, February 27. The results will be announced March 19. -via Nag on the Lake

At the turn of the century, the most valuable brands in America were Coca-Cola, Microsoft, and IBM. When you think about it, Coca-Cola might have been at the top in the previous turn of the century. But things change fast these days. Watching this graph change over time might be boring in the first couple of years, but then some familiar tech companies get into the game, leap-frogging up the ladder at a breathtaking pace. Google joins the group in 2008, Apple in 2011, with Samsung, Amazon, and Facebook following. The music switches from bouncy to dramatic when the competition starts to get cutthroat. -via Boing Boing

Rev. Jesse Wayman Routté led a Lutheran church in New York City. His brother lived in Mobile, Alabama. In 1943, he went to Alabama to preside over his brother's wedding and got a taste of the Jim Crow treatment in the South. He visited again in 1947, but this time, Routté went to a costume shop first and got a tall purple turban with spangles. This transformed him into what people assumed was an exotic foreign visitor. Routté affected a Swedish accent he'd learned at his Lutheran seminary to further confuse people. He also confided his plans to a newspaper editor in case something went wrong. In Mobile, Routté found many doors opened to him this time around.

He bluffed his way into Mobile’s finest restaurants, staring down any skeptical staff. “What happens if a Negro gentleman comes in here and sits down to eat?” he asked a headwaiter. He would not be served, the man replied, but the question was irrelevant, as “no Negro would dare come in here to eat.” Routté “stroked his chin gravely and ordered his dessert.”

While not downplaying the danger (the police captain’s offhanded threat of brutality had frightened him), Routté played the story for laughs. His flamboyantly scrambled otherness — where else in the known universe did turbans and Swedishness mingle? — the earnestness with which white Mobilians fielded his questions about the everyday workings of white supremacy, and the resting of social membership on a hat, cast Jim Crow in an absurdist light. “Race prejudice has been denounced for its injustice, cruelty, and stupidity,” wrote Theophilus Lewis in the Interracial Review. “Rev. Routté has proved that it is also silly.”

Routté's adventure made the papers in New York and then across the nation, to the consternation of Mobile residents. Read about Rev. Routté and his turban trip at Narratively.

The Force is the Force, of course, of course, but how many times is the Force mentioned in the Star Wars films? Star Wars Kids have plenty of time on their hands, so they counted. And edited them all together, in chronological order of the story. That's a lot of Force, which become more rhythmic and hypnotic over the course of the video. -via io9

On any internet forum with a substantial readership, you better double check before you misidentify any animal. Someone will correct you, then someone else will disagree, and soon the entire point of what you posted becomes lost. It's easy to see a bird of the genus Corvis and call it a crow, but if it's a raven, rook, or jackdaw, someone will tell you. This exact controversy blew up on reddit a few years ago, even though the posted picture was a cartoon fish. The BS Historian tries to sort the language of crows and ravens out for us.

My title is inspired by Kaeli Swift‘s Twitter quiz ‘Crow or No?’, in which her followers must guess whether the bird in the image is a Crow or not (you should check out her site and Twitter feed linked above if you, like me, love Corvids. In this context she is being quite specific – the bird must have ‘Crow’ as part of its colloquial English name. So the above Raven would be a ‘no’, even though (unlike some birds that she posts) it is part of the genus Corvus, usually equated with ‘Crow’ in everything from modern specialist literature to everyday speech. Most people that know anything about corvids know that the Raven, the largest of the Corvids and of the genus Corvus, is a type of ‘Crow’. I was so sure of this myself that I have corrected people who’ve said ‘that’s not a Crow’ with ‘yes it is – Ravens ARE Crows’. But as I read into historical usage, I came to the conclusion that this isn’t strictly true, or at least, it didn’t used to be. It should really be the other way around; the Crow (and other members of the genus Corvus) are really types of Raven. Let me explain…

There's a lot more to it, but the bottom line is that hundreds of years ago, jackdaws, crows, ravens, and rooks could all be called ravens. Nevermore. Now, jackdaws, crows, ravens, and rooks can all be called crows. I think. Read the history of corvid vernacular at The BS Historian. -via Strange Company

(Image credit: R. Altenkamp)

If the stories were on TV, they'd be bleeped out. In print, the self-censoring of profanities had to have some kind of placeholder. Those seemingly random keyboard symbols are called grawlixes. Vox explains their history, which goes back to the beginning of narrative comics. -via Laughing Squid

As a child, my brother would eat sticks of butter out of the fridge, under cover of night. We were strange.

— Sam Sanders (@samsanders) February 17, 2019

Sam Sanders asked people about their weird eating and drinking habits as a child. You may have thought you were weird, but according to the many responses, you weren't the only one.

When I was a kid I found out that the stretch armstrong toys had this sugary goo inside them and when I tasted it I ripped that shit open and ate them like a Zombie. My friend got mad cause I ate his. Also this one time I accidentally swallowed a Tamagotchi pet good times. pic.twitter.com/api1g5pjRO

— Jord/Jax⚔️ (@JaxBladeFitness) February 17, 2019

This seems oddly specific. And horrible. :)

— On the Verge (@MomOnTheVergeOf) February 17, 2019

 

— Sam Sanders (@samsanders) February 17, 2019

Ok this one took me OUT

— Sam Sanders (@samsanders) February 18, 2019

I use to give my little sister Meow Mix with milk like cereal. My mom tried to give her a bowl of cereal and she said she wanted her favorite with the cat on it. I got in so much trouble.

— Toby Nelson (@PugMafia66) February 18, 2019

Other food habits include peanut butter and baloney, lemons and salt, Pearl Drops tooth paste, and cold cereal with soda instead of milk. But that's just the beginning. Read through the Twitter thread and you'll either be disgusted or find a kindred spirit. -via Metafilter