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Posts Tagged ‘culture’

1. Fruit In The Looms
2. Python’s Give Live Birth
3. The Toad Elevating Moment
4. Mystery Of The Lost Python Sketches
5. Brian’s The Life Of The Party
6. Kim Bread Aka John Cleese
7. Around The World In 80 Days
8. Get Yourself To Mars
9. Keep It Real
10. The 12 Fisher Monkey Kings
11. Parting Shots
1. Fruit In Your Looms

Someone once said something along the lines that, Monty Python is to ‘funny’ what chartered accountants are to ‘boring’. Who are we to disagree?

2. Python’s Give Live Birth

The legend of Monty Python emerged nobly from the dusty corridors of Oxford and Cambridge universities. All of the British Python members had their comedic starts in revue shows put on by these universities. They soon rose to the ranks of responsibility within these societies, “In bewilderment we saw a notice board informing us that we are now officers!” recalls John Cleese.

Their well-received show, A Clump of Plinths, transferred to London’s West End and later visited New

Zealand and New York under the new title Cambridge Circus.

Cleese stayed on in New York and during a photo shoot for a comic strip he met American illustrator Terry Gilliam. Terry was soon folded into the every growing omelet.

The BBC, on the advice of producer Barry Took, signed the group – which now included Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam for a 13-show series. Ah, but what to name the show?

3. The Toad Elevating Moment

Owl Stretching Time. A Horse, A Spoon and A Bucket. The Toad Elevating Moment were all names in the running. But as planning for the series became more chaotic, the BBC management began to refer to the team as a ‘flying circus’, inspired by the Red Baron’s World War One fighter squadron. The troupe liked the sound of it and randomly added the term Monty Python from their growing list of alternates. Funny that.

4. Mystery Of The Lost Python Sketches

No one knows what happened to them.
Oh wait, 3 new sketches of never before seen Python material were recently discovered and performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The famed sketches were written by late Python star Graham Chapman and were unearthed by a literary executor in Los Angeles. Each sketch lasts four minutes and features a cast of characters including a gay parrot and an overworked Messiah.

5. Brian’s The Life Of The Party

Monty Python’s Life of Brian snagged the funniest film of all time in a poll arranged by Total Film magazine.

The film satires the rise of organized religion and caused more controversy than a Kevin Smith baptismal when it was released back in 1979. It was banned in many parts of the UK and church leaders accused it of blasphemy. Nothing like bad publicity to push the ratings.

Their King Arthur era spoof, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, trailed by only a few spots, landing it at number five.

Top 10 Comedy Films

1. Life of Brian

2. Airplane!

3. Withnail & I

4. There’s Something About Mary

5. Monty Python and the Holy Grail

6. American Pie

7. Groundhog Day

8. Some Like it Hot

9. Blazing Saddles

10. Planes, Trains and Automobiles

6. Kim Bread Aka John Cleese

John Cleese rode a roller coaster of fame during the 1970′s playing the role of stressed hotelkeeper Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers. He continued his fame with films like Privates On Parade and Clockwise, then hit worldwide stardom with a A Fish Called Wanda in 1988. The follow-up film, Fierce Creatures faulted to gain attention with audiences. These days audiences know him best as the new Q in the James Bond films and Nearly Headless Ned in the Harry Potter films. He will next be seen playing father to Lucy Liu in Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle and as the voice Fiona’s Father in Shrek 2, Fiona is voiced by Charlie’s Angel’s co-star Cameron Diaz.

7. Around The World In 80 Days

Michael Palin has also rocketed to fame due to his turn with the troupe and in 1977 he teamed with Terry Jones to make their own comedy series, Ripping Yarns. Michael also appeared aside John Cleese in A Fish Called Wanda, then went on to do a reality show for BBC TV, called Around the World in 80 Days, where he attempted to literally follow in the footsteps of the Jules Verne literary character, Phileas Fogg, by trying to travel around the world in the allotted time, but without flying – By the way, it’s Jules Verne’s 175th birthday this week. During the Pole to Pole trip, he met up with Python fans in Greece and ate snake in China while struggling to meet his deadline.

8. Get Yourself To Mars

Eric Idle continued his stint in the limelight by teaming with Neil Innes to create Rutland Weekend Television, a parody of regional broadcasting. He later appeared in Graham Chapman’s Yellowbeard, Disney’s Honey, I Shrunk the Audience and Splitting Heirs. His recent novel titled, “The Road to Mars” is about two comedians in the 22nd century. Fans most likely know him today as the voice of Mr. Vosknocker in the animated film, South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut.

9. Keep It Real

Terry Jones maintained a diversity beyond mere comedy, by writing about history, presenting documentaries, penning children’s books and going onto direct the 1996 version of Wind in the Willows, starring his old pals – Michael Palin, John Cleese and Eric Idle.

10. The 12 Fisher Monkey Kings

Terry Gilliam lent his talents to the troupe as a director and by creating the very distinct animations that became Monty Python’s visual trademark. We soon followed it with his feature film debut, Jabberwocky, starring Michael Palin. After helming the much loved, Time Bandits, his fame skyrocketed in Hollywood. But his style led to many conflictions in the biz including a big throw down with Universal Studios over his film Brazil and then problems with backers on the very expensive, Adventures of Baron Munchausen, which starred Eric Idle and featured Robin Williams.

His real success followed by taking on unconventional studio films including the critically acclaimed, The Fisher King starring Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges and the stylistic sci-fi thriller, 12 Monkeys starring Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt and the Hunter S Thompson extravaganza, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas starring Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro. These six actors all gave some of the best performances of their career in Gilliam’s films.
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JAMES BYRON DEAN
LIFE IMITATES ART
GENERATION NEXT
ANIMAL FARM
FOUR EYES
THESE GO TO ELEVEN
THE ACTOR WAY
FRANK, BILLIE AND JIMMY
ACTING THE PART
DEAD MAN’S CURVE
APOCALYPSE NOW
GIANT

“Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today.” – James Dean

JAMES BYRON DEAN

James Dean was born on February 8th, 1931 in Marion, Indiana. His hobbies were writing, painting, bullfighting (when did that happen?), photography, sculpting, car racing, horse racing and playing the bongos. His favorite drink was coffee and his favorite ice cream flavor was coffee and raspberry.

LIFE IMITATES ART

“To grasp the full significance of life is the actor’s duty; to interpret it his problem; and to express it his dedication. Being an actor is the loneliest thing in the world. You are all alone with your concentration and imagination, and that’s all you have. Being a good actor isn’t easy. Being a man is even harder. I want to be both before I’m done.”

GENERATION NEXT

James Dean’s first professional acting gig was a Pepsi commercial. Since then, Michael Jackson, Cindy Crawford, Michael J. Fox, Shaquille O’Neal, Jeff Gordon, Ray Charles, Billy Crystal, Britney Spears, Beyonce, Shakira, The Osbournes, Faith Hill, Sammy Sosa, Joe Montana, Ken Griffey Jr., Gloria Estafan, Tina Turner and many others have endorsed the blue canned beverage.

BRAD’S CHOICE

Before Pepsi was called Pepsi, it was called “Brad’s Drink” way back in 1898. Well, another Brad, Brad Pitt is now vying for the chance to remake James Dean’s first film, “East of Eden” with Pitt in the starring role. Dean’s performance in “East of Eden” won him an Oscar nomination, making him one of only five actors to receive a nomination from their first screen performances. He was also the only actor in history to receive more than one Oscar nomination posthumously.

ANIMAL FARM

“Studying cows, pigs and chickens can help an actor develop his character. There are a lot of things I learned from animals. One was that they couldn’t hiss or boo me. I also became close to nature, and am now able to appreciate the beauty with which this world is endowed.”

FOUR EYES

Dean was required to wear glasses while driving as he was nearsighted. The king of cool, had to wear glasses, if only he had been around long enough to do a public service announcement for that, then being a “four-eyes” would have meant a completely different thing these days.

THESE GO TO ELEVEN

No matter what kind of music James Dean listened to, he liked it LOUD! But what did he listen to? After all it was the early 50′s and Elvis had yet to become the King, the Beatles had yet to become the Fab Four…What did James Dean rock out to, before there was Rock? He liked African Tribal music, Afro-Cuban songs and dance (Dean liked to play the bongos), Classical music – especially Bartok and Stravinsky, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday.

THE ACTOR WAY

“When an actor plays a scene exactly the way a director orders, it isn’t acting. It’s following instructions. Anyone with the physical qualifications can do that. So the director’s task is just that ???? direct, to point the way. Then the actor takes over. And he must be allowed the space, the freedom to express himself in the role. Without that space, an actor is no more than an unthinking robot with a chest-full of push-buttons.”
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BRUCE LEE

ENTER THE DRAGON
LITTLE KNOWN FACT
WAY OF THE INTERCEPTING FIST
A WARRIOR’S JOURNEY
LAST MAN STANDING
GAME OF DEATH
NUNCHAKU
FISTS OF FURY
THE CURSE
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE
SILENT BUT DEADLY
ELVIS & BRUCE
THE DRAGON

“Absorb what is useful. Discard what is not. Add what is uniquely your own”
- Bruce Lee

ENTER THE DRAGON

Bruce Lee Jun Fan Yuen Kam was born in the year of the dragon, 1940, and at the hour of the dragon, between 6 and 8 AM.

LITTLE KNOWN FACT

Bruce’s ancestry was Chinese and German. His father was Chinese while his mother was of German-Chinese decent. Her mother was Chinese and her father was German.

WAY OF THE INTERCEPTING FIST

Jeet Kune Do, also known as Way of the Intercepting Fist, was Bruce Lee’s personal martial art style. He developed it with the idea of being more flexible and practical with martial arts techniques. In doing so, he commonly considered the greatest martial artist of the 20th century.
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A quintessential loser, an out-of-job puppeteer, is hired by a firm, whose offices are ensconced in a half floor (literally. The ceiling is about a metre high, reminiscent of Taniel’s hallucinatory Alice in Wonderland illustrations). By sheer accident, he discovers a tunnel (a “portal”, in Internet-age parlance), which sucks its visitors into the mind of the celebrated actor, John Malkovich. The movie is a tongue in cheek discourse of identity, gender and passion in an age of languid promiscuity. It poses all the right metaphysical riddles and presses the viewers’ intellectual stimulation buttons.

A two line bit of dialogue, though, forms the axis of this nightmarishly chimerical film. John Malkovich (played by himself), enraged and bewildered by the unabashed commercial exploitation of the serendipitous portal to his mind, insists that Craig, the aforementioned puppet master, cease and desist with his activities. “It is MY brain” – he screams and, with a typical American finale, “I will see you in court”. Craig responds: “But, it was I who discovered the portal. It is my livelihood”.

This apparently innocuous exchange disguises a few very unsettling ethical dilemmas.

The basic question is “whose brain is it, anyway”? Does John Malkovich OWN his brain? Is one’s brain – one’s PROPERTY? Property is usually acquired somehow. Is our brain “acquired”? It is clear that we do not acquire the hardware (neurones) and software (electrical and chemical pathways) we are born with. But it is equally clear that we do “acquire” both brain mass and the contents of our brains (its wiring or irreversible chemical changes) through learning and experience. Does this process of acquisition endow us with property rights?

It would seem that property rights pertaining to human bodies are fairly restricted. We have no right to sell our kidneys, for instance. Or to destroy our body through the use of drugs. Or to commit an abortion at will. Yet, the law does recognize and strives to enforce copyrights, patents and other forms of intellectual property rights.

This dichotomy is curious. For what is intellectual property but a mere record of the brain’s activities? A book, a painting, an invention are the documentation and representation of brain waves. They are mere shadows, symbols of the real presence – our mind. How can we reconcile this contradiction? We are deemed by the law to be capable of holding full and unmitigated rights to the PRODUCTS of our brain activity, to the recording and documentation of our brain waves. But we hold only partial rights to the brain itself, their originator.

This can be somewhat understood if we were to consider this article, for instance. It is composed on a word processor. I do not own full rights to the word processing software (merely a licence), nor is the laptop I use my property – but I posses and can exercise and enforce full rights regarding this article. Admittedly, it is a partial parallel, at best: the computer and word processing software are passive elements. It is my brain that does the authoring. And so, the mystery remains: how can I own the article – but not my brain? Why do I have the right to ruin the article at will – but not to annihilate my brain at whim?

Another angle of philosophical attack is to say that we rarely hold rights to nature or to life. We can copyright a photograph we take of a forest – but not the forest. To reduce it to the absurd: we can own a sunset captured on film – but never the phenomenon thus documented. The brain is natural and life’s pivot – could this be why we cannot fully own it?

Wrong premises inevitably lead to wrong conclusions. We often own natural objects and manifestations, including those related to human life directly. We even issue patents for sequences of human DNA. And people do own forests and rivers and the specific views of sunsets.
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