GO, LEAFS! TO THE GOLF COURSE!

Recognize that venue in the photo? Doesn't look like the ACC, now does it? The ice looks kinda green.

Well, research has shown that historically (the last 46 years; "ouch") you guys are a better match with a golf course than an ice hockey rink.

Tonight is your last game of 2012-2013  -- admittedly, and as many sports writers predicted, you made the playoffs this year with more than a little help from the truncated season -- so sage advice would be to prep your caddies, give them the heads-up, in case they do not know, and prepare for tomorrow.


(In case I'm wrong in my bold prediction that the Toronto Maple Leafs will be eliminated by the Bruins in Boston tonight, I will accept defeat, and promise to maintain this posting even if it dares to reveal that even I can be wrong sometimes. I will get bolder: Bruins 3 - Leafs 2.)

ALERT! - ALL DECKS!

I'm working here at home on the computer when a klaxon sounds, indicating that an email arrived with contents of the utmost importance and urgency...

"It's Gary Mitchell."


So, the Khan issue was something of grand deceit. At any rate, I still do not have any desire to see Star Trek Into Darkness, even though "Gary Mitchell" (played to confident perfection by Gary Lockwood) was a great character from Star Trek's second pilot episode, "Where No Man Has Gone Before".

THE TORONTO SUN IS A PIECE OF WORK

This morning I saw a news headline about StatsCan releasing 2011 Census data regarding details on the 'makeup' of Canada today. The first thing that popped into my little mind was to, no surprise, go to the Toronto Sun's website: There it was, featured prominently. I was not surprised at all by the wording in the Toronto Sun's article on the subject.

I went to the other three Toronto dailies' respective websites to compare how they all articulated this news. (I'm not even suggesting that the Sun is in the same league as the others.)

See if you can spot which 'opening' -- the first paragraph -- is from the Toronto Sun...

1. "Sustained levels of immigration over the past two decades have literally changed the face of Canada."

2. "The Greater Toronto region is growing more diverse as immigration brings changes to religious practices, languages and the faces of its residents."

3. "For the first time since Confederation, you can pick any five people at random in Canada and at least one of them won't be white."

4. "The debut of Canada’s controversial census replacement survey shows there are more foreign-born people in the country than ever before, at a proportion not seen in almost a century."


Now that I've finished pasting-in the above quotes, I feel this is just too easy. The correct answer will be posted in the first 'comment' to this posting.

Is it possible the Toronto Sun and its faithful readers are racist and prejudiced? (Supply and demand.)

RAY HARRYHAUSEN (1920 - 2013)

Late last night I decided to do a quick run around on the news-pages. One thing that caught my eye were the blurbs on legendary stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen. Here we go...

When I get more time I will write an overview of Harryhausen and his art's effect on this fan. Okay; The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, It Came From Beneath the Sea, Mysterious Island, First Men in the Moon, Jason and the Argonauts ("Bravo!")....

***

As it turns out, I have written postings, in whole or in part, on Ray Harryhausen a few times in this blog...

JOHN LANDIS ON RAY HARRYHAUSEN
June 24, 2010
energize

CLASH OF THE TITANS - ROSENTHAL
April 1, 2010
energize

CHARLES H. SCHNEER (1920 - 2009)
January 27, 2009
energize

NO MOMI NO MORE
August 30, 2007
energize

***

Wikipedia entry on Ray Harryhausen...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Harryhausen

STAR REK: KHAN THUNK!

Today the news passed between my friends and I that the mystery villain in the upcoming movie Star Trek Into Darkness is... Khan. The general reaction has been: "Oh no."

One friend said, "Laaaazy!!!". Another, "Crap. I won't rush to see it..."

Me: "I don't really care, since I had no plans to see it anyway. Besides, I downloaded Attack of the Crab Monsters..."

R-7 ROCKET LAUNCHES

My blog postings on the Soviet/Russian space program get consistently high hit counts. I've blogged about my single favourite rocket booster, the R-7, in the past (here) and I figure I should make the pickin's even better for my welcome visitors: Here is a nice assemblage of R-7 "blast-off" footage, put together by Youtube user "Mr. Dan Beaumont", a very welcome uploader of extra-excellent 'space' material to the cosmic screening machine...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu54YlzWzIc

RAF MUSEUM IN LONDON TO SALVAGE WW2 DORNIER DO 17 BOMBER

Here something exciting to someone like me: The RAF Museum in London is planning to salvage a German Dornier bomber from about 60 feet of water off the coast of Kent. The Do 17, or "Flying Pencil" (a moniker originating from early marks of the bomber when it sported a very narrow profile), is in remarkable condition; all the more exciting since, before this find, there was no known example of the "17".

This particular specimen was shot down during the "Battle of Britain" in 1940 and will be presented by the museum "as is", without any restoration being undertaken -- probably a smart move. Hopefully the aircraft will survive the ascent to the water's surface and reintroduction to gravity. There have been more than a few cases where an air-frame collapsed after being pulled from the sea.


National Post story...
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/05/03/rare-german-wwii-bomber-to-be-salvaged-from-english-channel/

"TAKE HER, SHE'S MINE" - OPENING TITLES

Here's a film that I watched on television way back in the day; 1963's Take Her, She's Mine, an all-but-forgotten 20th Century Fox production starring James Stewart, Sandra Dee, Audrey Meadows, (my man) Robert Morley, (my main man) Bob Denver, and Philippe Forquet.

Posting yesterday about the late great film composer Jerry Goldsmith got me thinking about the man's early motion picture career, and something made me remember his happy feel-good score for Take Her, She's Mine. Here are the opening titles; those who know their scores and composers might think, while listening to the theme music, that Frank De Vol (billed simply as "De Vol" when listed on credits as a composer) was the music man for this film since Goldsmith wrote in the style of "Happy"... I mean, De Vol.

Trivia Time: The screenplay was written by triple-threat-guy Nunnally Johnson, who adapted the play which was written by husband and wife team Henry and Phoebe Ephron, parents of filmmaker Nora Ephron. Also, Goldsmith, who enjoyed a richly creative few years while under contract at Fox, made his 'premiere' there with the Take Her score...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Asqrtp9CvOY

THE SALAMANDER - JERRY GOLDSMITH SCORE

While I having a coffee with a friend yesterday he asked me if I knew about the rerecording of Jerry Goldsmith's score for the 1981 motion picture The Salamander. I've known about the film (starring Franco Nero, Anthony Quinn, Martin Balsam, Christopher Lee, Sybil Danning, Eli Wallach, and Claudia Cardinale) since it came out and even saw a few minutes when CHCH played it years ago, but I did not realize that the score was rerecorded last summer, or that the original recording tapes were lost forever.

Anyway, my film-score buddy told me about a terrific video on Youtube which was put up by the record company showing Nic Raine conducting the City of Prague Philharmonic...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN2_1Ar6C0M

THE NHL IN JUNE - JUNE?!

Well,  I suspected this would be the case: The next game in the NHL (National Hockey League) playoff series between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Boston Bruins is to be held on Saturday (May 4th)... three days after last night's 'game 1' match-up. As I posted a few years ago -- 'NHL SEASON 27 MONTHS LONG'', here -- this is ridiculous; the reason why the playoffs end well into June, in many cases. (In June, I don't want to watch ice hockey. At that time of the year I want to sitting in my backyard, wearing my thong and sunglasses, entertaining friends... who'd rather, perhaps, be at home watching a hockey game.)

The NHL season is way too long; as I've been saying for years, it should start the weekend after Labour Day (or Labor Day) -- that way the Stanley Cup final should wrap up in May, at the latest.