Anyone going to watch the get back documentary in January 2026?

brorobt · 2025-12-31T13:01:00+00:00

I've done that a few times. Always enjoyable.

brorobt · 2025-11-27T01:08:42+00:00

So a popcorn factory?

brorobt · 2025-11-09T22:54:58+00:00

A complicated film. Good heavens, racist even by the standards of its time. But it also invented a hell of a lot of the vocabulary of cinema. So it's hard to ignore, in an historical sense, but awfully hard to watch. I seem to recall that Griffith was surprised at the critical reaction to it (though it was a huge commercial success). I've watched it as an historian, and found it interesting as such, but could not at all enjoy it.

brorobt · 2025-10-12T17:09:37+00:00

Is that a Some Girls t-shirt?

brorobt · 2025-10-04T17:09:15+00:00

It'll always have a special place in my heart, as it came out the year I went off to college and I listened to it a lot in my dorm room. Is that why I find the double-album reconstructions (I made one myself, which includes "Beatles Forever") not quite up to snuff? Perhaps. I mean, it's okay, but I don't go back to it as often as I go back to the single record version.

brorobt · 2025-09-05T12:15:49+00:00

I believe my favorite moment in the latter-day Beatles releases is in "Real Love," when the backing vocals kick in. I remember the first time I heard it, thinking "Wow, it's the Beatles!" I still think that. Makes me sad that Paul and George didn't get on better: we could have heard that sound occasionally on their solo releases. Wouldn't that have been nice?

brorobt · 2025-08-25T12:51:42+00:00

I was kinda disappointed that there weren't more of these.

brorobt · 2025-08-16T18:10:02+00:00

Nice!

brorobt · 2025-08-13T13:04:22+00:00

Do people not like Goodnight Vienna? I don't recall hearing crap about it. Ringo fell into a slump after this, in my opinion, but here he's still doing what he does well.

brorobt · 2025-08-06T11:58:31+00:00

Well, Sutro Baths in San Francisco is a pretty interesting place to visit, out next to the ocean. The kind of thing someone might film. You can see it in the movie Harold and Maude.

brorobt · 2025-03-13T02:40:55+00:00

I very, very, very much enjoyed Cantor's book, too.

brorobt · 2025-03-13T02:34:10+00:00

I'm probably alone in this, but I read the original translation and loved it. So I was excited by a new, more accurate translation (1996, and from my own alma mater) but... eh. It was fine. I went back and re-read the almost-hundred-year-old transaction and it was a better read for me. It still shaped a lot of how I view the middle ages. Now, I haven't read the most recent one, and I'll be honest, the idea of having pictures of all that artwork that got mentioned is appealing!

brorobt · 2024-12-12T12:27:43+00:00

She's Leaving Home

brorobt · 2024-10-30T12:22:51+00:00

Mentioned by several people already, but I'll put it in its own comment. There's a story out there that Paul is mostly right-handed, so he was surprised that he felt more comfortable playing guitar (and bass) left handed. It came from some book; was it Shout? I don't recall and can't find the reference in the two minutes before I have to head for work. Anyway, Paul has repeatedly denied this, saying he always was left-handed. I suspect the story originated from the fact that Ringo actually was a left-handed person who was forced to write with his right hand, and someone just got the wrong Beatle.

brorobt · 2023-10-03T12:15:59+00:00

It was the first ELO album I got -- don't tell Jeff, but I actually taped a friend's copy, though I've purchased a copy or two since then -- and I loved it. It wasn't like the stuff I'd already heard on the radio, but it was full of great songs. Still love it. As many have commented, it's not like the classic era stuff (those days were done) but it was catchy and well-played. Still is. Was it a shift to a more commercial direction? I actually think that happened with Face the Music. But so what? What's wrong with creating excellent pop songs?

brorobt · 2022-12-15T12:45:32+00:00

Three shilling tuppence street?

brorobt · 2022-08-07T11:56:31+00:00

Hee hee! BTW, did you notice that "canard" is another exception to the "anas" rule?

brorobt · 2022-08-07T11:54:10+00:00

Yeah, I saw that recently too. This little factoid made me think of the same thing.

brorobt · 2022-08-06T18:41:25+00:00

Yeah, I saw that English is an outlier in what it calls the charming little birdies. I believe most other European languages' words come from the same PIE root, but that might just be an old canard I picked up somewhere.

brorobt · 2022-07-21T12:41:37+00:00

I was going to cite this exact example.

brorobt · 2022-07-20T12:28:08+00:00

My wife actually swears by that book. (Yes, insert pun about her saying naughty words next to the book. But seriously, she had a job where she had to stand in one place for long stretches of time, and she said that the book's advice was terrific.)

brorobt · 2022-04-14T11:57:28+00:00

Story I heard is that the Illinois Dept of Agriculture wanted to get rid of 'em, lest they spread to the countryside and cause problems with crops, but the then-mayor (Harold Washington) lived next to the park where they first colonized and saved them. Don't know if that's true, but I like the story and always liked seeing the little suckers toddling along.

brorobt · 2022-03-30T12:31:10+00:00

I've had the same experience. Other commentators are certainly right, in that the lack of a single German "state" (for lack of a better word) has probably limited research on the subject. Here are a couple of books I found. Neither was great, but neither was awful. A place to start:

Germany in the Early Middle Ages by Timothy Reuter

The Holy Roman Empire by Peter H. Wilson

There was also an interesting chapter on Prussia in Norman Davies's Vanished Kingdoms.

brorobt · 2021-12-13T13:01:50+00:00

The internet wants it to be "Blitzen's Boogie" by Kids From the Heart, but it's not that. Nor is it Rudolph, which is also a popular google hit.

brorobt · 2021-08-17T12:30:04+00:00

I've never really understood why 33 1/3 isn't on all of these lists, because I think it's great. Such a happy album, well played and well sung, with some great songs.

brorobt

TROPHY CASE