Mark Twain

 
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Permanent Tag: Politics Rating: Good Hits: 425 Comments: 0 The Animals: San Franciscan Nights, Live The Animals: San Franciscan Nights, Live "San Franciscan Nights" is a 1967 song performed by Eric Burdon and The Animals, with words and music by the group's members, Eric Burdon, Vic Briggs, John Weider, Barry Jenkins, and Danny McCulloch. A paean to San Francisco, it was the biggest hit that the new band, as opposed to the first-incarnation Animals of the mid-1960s would have, reaching a peak position of number 1 on the Canadian RPM charts, number 9 on the U.S. pop singles chart and number 7 on the UK pop singles chart. The song opens with a brief parody of the Dragnet theme. This is followed by a spoken word dedication by Burdon "to the city and people of San Francisco, who may not know it but they are beautiful and so is their city," with Burdon urging European residents to "save up all your bread and fly Trans Love Airways to San Francisco, U.S.A.," to enable them to "understand the song," and "for the sake of your own peace of mind." The melody then begins with lyrics about a warm 1967 San Franciscan night, with hallucinogenic images of a "strobe light's beam" creating dreams, walls and minds moving, angels singing, "jeans of blue," and "Harley Davidsons too," contrasted with a "cop's face is filled with hate" (on a street called "Love") and an appeal to the "old cop" and the "young cop" to just "feel all right." Pulling in as many 1960s themes as possible, the song then concludes with a plea that the American dream include "Indians too." Burdon's notion that San Francisco's nights are warm drew some derision from Americans more familiar with the city's climate best exemplified by the apocryphal Mark Twain saying "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco" and music writer Lester Bangs thought Burdon's notion "inexplicable". User: TheNextDylan Jun 7, 2009 8:15 AM



Headline Tag: Television Rating: Good Hits: 1891 Comments: 0 George Carlin Arrested for Seven Dirty Words George Carlin Arrested for Seven Dirty Words George Carlin, the influential comedian whose routines used profanity, scatology and absurdity to point out the silliness and hypocrisy of human life, has died. He was 71. Carlin performed as recently as last weekend at the Orleans Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas. Carlin performed as recently as last weekend at the Orleans Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas. Carlin, who had a history of heart trouble, died of heart failure Sunday in Los Angeles, according to publicist Jeff Abraham. Carlin went into St. John's Health Center on Sunday afternoon, complaining of chest pain, and died at 5:55 p.m. PT. Carlin performed as recently as last weekend at the Orleans Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, and maintained a busy performing schedule, which included regular TV specials for HBO. "He was a genius and I will miss him dearly," Jack Burns, who was the other half of a comedy duo with Carlin in the early 1960s, told The Associated Press. Carlin was often quoted, his best lines traded like baseball cards. "Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?" began one famous routine. Then there were the non-sequiturs: "The bigger they are, the worse they smell," he observed. He filled three best-selling books, several record albums and countless television appearances with his material. He appreciated the impact his words made on fans. "These are nice additional merit badges that you earn if you've left a mark on a person or on some people," he told CNN.com in 2004. "I'd say it's flattering, but flattery implies insincerity, so I call it a compliment." But he was probably best known for a routine that began, "I was thinking about the curse words and the swear words, the cuss words and the words that you can't say." It was a monologue, known as "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television," that got Carlin arrested and eventually led to the Supreme Court. The "Seven Dirty Words" bit, which was initially recorded for 1972's "Class Clown" album, prompted a landmark indecency case after New York's WBAI-FM radio aired it in 1973. The case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the justices ruled 5-4 that the sketch was "indecent but not obscene," giving the FCC broad leeway to determine what constituted indecency on the airwaves. "So my name is a footnote in American legal history, which I'm perversely kind of proud of," Carlin said. "In the context of that era, it was daring. "It just sounds like a very self-serving kind of word. I don't want to go around describing myself as a 'groundbreaker' or a 'difference-maker' because I'm not and I wasn't," he said. "But I contributed to people who were saying things that weren't supposed to be said." Carlin, who was also an author, was slated to receive in November the 2008 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, given by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. "In his lengthy career as a comedian, writer and actor, George Carlin has not only made us laugh, but he makes us think," Kennedy Center Chairman Stephen Schwarzman said in a statement. "His influence on the next generation of comics has been far-reaching." In a typically wry response, Carlin said, "Thank you, Mr. Twain. Have your people call my people." Carlin hosted the first broadcast of "Saturday Night Live" in October 1975. He played the character of Mr. Conductor on the PBS series "Shining Time Station" and starred in more than a dozen HBO specials. Carlin was also a regular on The Tonight Show. He produced 23 comedy albums, 14 HBO specials, three books, a couple of TV shows and appeared in several movies, from his own comedy specials to "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" in 1989, the AP reported. He also starred in three of comedic director Kevin Smith's movie -- 1999's "Dogma," 2001's "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" and 2004's "Jersey Girl." And his voice was so familiar and tuned to the craft of comedy that he was often asked to appear in cartoons, including Toon City's "Tarzan II," Disney's "Cars" and two episodes of "The Simpsons." He won four Grammy Awards, each for best spoken comedy album, and was nominated for five Emmy awards, according to AP. Jun 26, 2008 12:43 PM







Headline Tag: Television Rating: Good Hits: 7677 Comments: 6 Monty Python: Dead Parrot Sketch Monty Python: Dead Parrot Sketch The Dead Parrot sketch performed on Monty Python's Flying Circus in 1969 The Dead Parrot sketch, alternatively and originally known as the Pet Shop sketch or Parrot Sketch, is a popular sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus, one of the most famous in the history of British television comedy. It was written by John Cleese and Graham Chapman and first performed in the eighth episode of the show's first series ("Full Frontal Nudity", 7 December 1969). It portrays a conflict between disgruntled customer Mr Praline (played by Cleese) and a shopkeeper (Michael Palin), who hold contradictory positions on the vital state of a "Norwegian Blue" parrot (an apparent absurdity in itself since parrots are popularly presumed to be tropical and not indigenous to Scandinavia, or perhaps a riff on the African Grey parrot, or both). The sketch pokes fun at the many euphemisms for death used in English culture. In this it bears some resemblance to Mark Twain's earlier short story Nevada Funeral. The "Dead Parrot" sketch was inspired by a "Car Salesman" sketch that Palin and Graham Chapman had done in How to Irritate People. In it, Palin played a car salesman who refused to admit that there was anything wrong with his customer's (Chapman) car, even as it fell apart in front of him. That sketch was based on an actual incident between Palin and a car salesman. Over the years, Cleese and Palin have done many versions of the "Dead Parrot" sketch for various television shows, record albums, and live performances. User: spam_vigilante Oct 10, 2004 8:13 AM


 
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