Hey there! I hope you've been following my web misadventures at my Tumblr site (it's the awesomeness).
My older brother tagged me with a meme, so I thought I'd say to myself, "have at it, hoss" and so I'm giving this a whirl.
This particular meme involves historical figures. The rules are simple:
1) Link to the person who tagged you.
2) List 7 random/weird things about your favorite historical figure.
3) Tag seven more people at the end of your blog and link to theirs.
4) Let the person know they have been tagged by leaving a note on their blog.
1) My brother Mike tagged me. He assumed that I would pick someone not from the realm of science. He thought right.
I have chosen silent film actor Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle (1887-1933). Not my favorite historical figure ever, but someone fascinating, definitely.
7 facts about Fatty Arbuckle:
1. Fatty Arbuckle received the first million-dollar contract from a movie studio. In 1918!
2. Charlie Chaplin created the famous "tramp" character after borrowing some of Arbuckle's clothes, which were baggy on him.
3. Fatty Arbuckle gave Buster Keaton his start in films, as well, launching another legendary career.
4. Despite the hoopla around his trial for allegedly killing a woman via a rape, Arbuckle was never found guilty.
5. In fact, history has shown that newspaperman William Randolph Hearst intentionally set out to convict Arbuckle in the press.
6. Another comedian who received his start through Arbuckle? Bob Hope.
7. Arbuckle died of a heart attack the day he signed a contract to return to making feature films under his own name.
Okay. Tagging whoever reads this to give it a shot.
Showing posts with label memes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label memes. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
The Woody Allen Question
Towards the end of Woody Allen’s “Manhattan,” Woody’s character Isaac Davis is asked what makes life worth living. In typical Woody fashion, he hems and haws and then says the following:
“Why is life worth living? It's a very good question. Um... Well, There are certain things I guess that make it worthwhile. uh... Like what... okay... um... For me, uh... ooh... I would say... what, Groucho Marx, to name one thing... uh... um... and Wilie Mays... and um... the 2nd movement of the Jupiter Symphony... and um... Louis Armstrong, recording of Potato Head Blues... um... Swedish movies, naturally... Sentimental Education by Flaubert... uh... Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra... um... those incredible Apples and Pears by Cezanne... uh... the crabs at Sam Wo's... uh... Tracy's face...”
Every now and then, I ask myself that question – to think about what are the things that are sustaining me through my second-to-second existence.
In August 2005, on an old journal on the Improv Resource Center, my answer was the following: “A long conversation over a few drinks with a good friend. A hug from my mom. A postcard from my dad. An obscene voicemail from my brother, overseas in the military. The first few weeks of September, when summer fades and the trees up here change color and the school year begins. Pad thai. The Sunday comics. Flip-flop sandals. A long walk with my I-Pod on shuffle. The squeal and laugh from my godson when I pick him up and hang him upside-down. Love, in all its forms, shapes, and seasons.” In December 2002, my answer was a tad less precious and more focused on more-temporary things: “Sitting on the Hudson River side of a passenger train between NYC and upstate. A cup of coffee late at night when you really, really need one. The last three songs of "Automatic For The People." Doonesbury collections from the 1970s. Stepping into the water at Waimea Bay, Oahu. Driving alone and singing, loud and out-of-tune. The feeling you get when you're onstage.”
It’s been a couple of years since I’ve thought about this question. I blanche a little bit when I look at my past answers – in 2002, I was probably trying to be too pop-culture savvy, and in 2005, I was extremely sentimental to the point of overtly romanticizing things, I think.
So, hmm, without being too much of either of those things, why is life worth living? Right now?
It’s about the little things for me – the lunch, dinner, drink with a friend and the opportunity to play catch up. It’s allowing myself to be surprised by something, whether it’s a new aspect of a story from an old friend or family member or something silly like a cannon that shoots pumpkins into the horizon. It’s very much all of those other things, too, all of which mean a lot to me and always will.
But it’s also a really good Belgian Farmhouse Ale. Anytime a TV show or movie makes me laugh out loud. The opening notes of the Band’s “Chest Fever.” A soy chai latte with sugar-free hazelnut syrup. Weddings. Babies. Calvin and Hobbes. A glass of chilled white wine, preferably a Riesling or a Gewurtztraminer. The Staten Island Ferry. The Hudson and Mohawk Valleys when the leaves change color. Elton John’s song “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters.” The movie “The Princess Bride,” every time. Third kisses, much more than the first. Sunday mornings. Sleeping in with someone else. Subway or commuter trains, in any city, when you have the time to enjoy the ride. Tom Waits’s “Closing Time” album. Bronx pizza.
So, those of you still reading: what’s your answer to the Woody Allen Question – what are the things that make life worth living?
Please respond, either in the comments or on your own blog. I’d love to know what you think.
“Why is life worth living? It's a very good question. Um... Well, There are certain things I guess that make it worthwhile. uh... Like what... okay... um... For me, uh... ooh... I would say... what, Groucho Marx, to name one thing... uh... um... and Wilie Mays... and um... the 2nd movement of the Jupiter Symphony... and um... Louis Armstrong, recording of Potato Head Blues... um... Swedish movies, naturally... Sentimental Education by Flaubert... uh... Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra... um... those incredible Apples and Pears by Cezanne... uh... the crabs at Sam Wo's... uh... Tracy's face...”
Every now and then, I ask myself that question – to think about what are the things that are sustaining me through my second-to-second existence.
In August 2005, on an old journal on the Improv Resource Center, my answer was the following: “A long conversation over a few drinks with a good friend. A hug from my mom. A postcard from my dad. An obscene voicemail from my brother, overseas in the military. The first few weeks of September, when summer fades and the trees up here change color and the school year begins. Pad thai. The Sunday comics. Flip-flop sandals. A long walk with my I-Pod on shuffle. The squeal and laugh from my godson when I pick him up and hang him upside-down. Love, in all its forms, shapes, and seasons.” In December 2002, my answer was a tad less precious and more focused on more-temporary things: “Sitting on the Hudson River side of a passenger train between NYC and upstate. A cup of coffee late at night when you really, really need one. The last three songs of "Automatic For The People." Doonesbury collections from the 1970s. Stepping into the water at Waimea Bay, Oahu. Driving alone and singing, loud and out-of-tune. The feeling you get when you're onstage.”
It’s been a couple of years since I’ve thought about this question. I blanche a little bit when I look at my past answers – in 2002, I was probably trying to be too pop-culture savvy, and in 2005, I was extremely sentimental to the point of overtly romanticizing things, I think.
So, hmm, without being too much of either of those things, why is life worth living? Right now?
It’s about the little things for me – the lunch, dinner, drink with a friend and the opportunity to play catch up. It’s allowing myself to be surprised by something, whether it’s a new aspect of a story from an old friend or family member or something silly like a cannon that shoots pumpkins into the horizon. It’s very much all of those other things, too, all of which mean a lot to me and always will.
But it’s also a really good Belgian Farmhouse Ale. Anytime a TV show or movie makes me laugh out loud. The opening notes of the Band’s “Chest Fever.” A soy chai latte with sugar-free hazelnut syrup. Weddings. Babies. Calvin and Hobbes. A glass of chilled white wine, preferably a Riesling or a Gewurtztraminer. The Staten Island Ferry. The Hudson and Mohawk Valleys when the leaves change color. Elton John’s song “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters.” The movie “The Princess Bride,” every time. Third kisses, much more than the first. Sunday mornings. Sleeping in with someone else. Subway or commuter trains, in any city, when you have the time to enjoy the ride. Tom Waits’s “Closing Time” album. Bronx pizza.
So, those of you still reading: what’s your answer to the Woody Allen Question – what are the things that make life worth living?
Please respond, either in the comments or on your own blog. I’d love to know what you think.
Monday, October 22, 2007
The Pharyngula Mutating Meme.
My brother Mike (see link on blogroll) tagged me with the Pharyngula Mutating Meme - a series of questions that can change as they get passed from blogger to blogger according to a set of simple rules.
The original questions were:
1. The best time travel novel in SF/Fantasy is...
2. The best romantic movie in historical fiction is...
3. The best sexy song in rock is...
The Pharyngula mutating genre meme:
There are a set of questions below that are all of the form, "The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is...". Copy the questions, and before answering them, you may modify them in a limited way, carrying out no more than two of these operations:
* You can leave them exactly as is.
* You can delete any one question.
* You can mutate either the genre, medium, or subgenre of any one question. For instance, you could change "The best time travel novel in SF/Fantasy is..." to "The best time travel novel in Westerns is...", or "The best time travel movie in SF/Fantasy is...", or "The best romance novel in SF/Fantasy is...".
* You can add a completely new question of your choice to the end of the list, as long as it is still in the form "The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is...".
* You must have at least one question in your set, or you've gone extinct, and you must be able to answer it yourself, or you're not viable.
Then answer your possibly mutant set of questions. Please do include a link back to the blog you got them from, to simplify tracing the ancestry, and include these instructions.
Finally, pass it along to any number of your fellow bloggers. Remember, though, your success as a Darwinian replicator is going to be measured by the propagation of your variants, which is going to be a function of both the interest your well-honed questions generate and the number of successful attempts at reproducing them.
For the purpose of this intellectual exercise, my parent blog is The Questionable Authority. (He's traced the ancestry of the meme completely - click on his link if you so choose.)
These are the questions I got from my parent blog (really, they're categories and not questions, but it hardly seems fair to expect science geeks to, you know, use words properly).
The best time travel book in SF/fantasy is:
The best English novel in scientific dystopias is:
The best page-turner book in historical fiction is:
The best landscape painting in American art is:
That being said:
The best time travel movie in SF/Fantasy is: "Back To The Future"
The best English novel in scientific dystopias is: Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World"
The best page-turner book in historical fiction is: "The Road To Wellville," TC Boyle
The best landscape painting in American art is: Thomas Cole's "The Oxbow"
The best power ballad in American rock is: "Faithfully," by Journey.
I am propagating this meme on thusly: because I don't have a sense of who reads this blog - if you feel so inclined, take this meme on in your blogging (and credit me as the "parent" blog). If not, meh. One thing I like about evolution is its unpredictability - let's see where this goes from here.
The original questions were:
1. The best time travel novel in SF/Fantasy is...
2. The best romantic movie in historical fiction is...
3. The best sexy song in rock is...
The Pharyngula mutating genre meme:
There are a set of questions below that are all of the form, "The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is...". Copy the questions, and before answering them, you may modify them in a limited way, carrying out no more than two of these operations:
* You can leave them exactly as is.
* You can delete any one question.
* You can mutate either the genre, medium, or subgenre of any one question. For instance, you could change "The best time travel novel in SF/Fantasy is..." to "The best time travel novel in Westerns is...", or "The best time travel movie in SF/Fantasy is...", or "The best romance novel in SF/Fantasy is...".
* You can add a completely new question of your choice to the end of the list, as long as it is still in the form "The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is...".
* You must have at least one question in your set, or you've gone extinct, and you must be able to answer it yourself, or you're not viable.
Then answer your possibly mutant set of questions. Please do include a link back to the blog you got them from, to simplify tracing the ancestry, and include these instructions.
Finally, pass it along to any number of your fellow bloggers. Remember, though, your success as a Darwinian replicator is going to be measured by the propagation of your variants, which is going to be a function of both the interest your well-honed questions generate and the number of successful attempts at reproducing them.
For the purpose of this intellectual exercise, my parent blog is The Questionable Authority. (He's traced the ancestry of the meme completely - click on his link if you so choose.)
These are the questions I got from my parent blog (really, they're categories and not questions, but it hardly seems fair to expect science geeks to, you know, use words properly).
The best time travel book in SF/fantasy is:
The best English novel in scientific dystopias is:
The best page-turner book in historical fiction is:
The best landscape painting in American art is:
That being said:
The best time travel movie in SF/Fantasy is: "Back To The Future"
The best English novel in scientific dystopias is: Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World"
The best page-turner book in historical fiction is: "The Road To Wellville," TC Boyle
The best landscape painting in American art is: Thomas Cole's "The Oxbow"
The best power ballad in American rock is: "Faithfully," by Journey.
I am propagating this meme on thusly: because I don't have a sense of who reads this blog - if you feel so inclined, take this meme on in your blogging (and credit me as the "parent" blog). If not, meh. One thing I like about evolution is its unpredictability - let's see where this goes from here.
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