Tag Archives: London

Banned Books That Shaped America: The Call of the Wild

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The Library of Congress created an exhibit, “Books that Shaped America,” that explores books that “have had a profound effect on American life.” Many of the books in the exhibit have been banned/challenged.  Give yourself the gift of a beautiful story and read one and them imagine what your life would be like if you were never given that gift.

Fight censorship.

The Call of the Wild, Jack London, 1903

Generally hailed as Jack London’s best work, The Call of the Wild is commonly challenged for its dark tone and bloody violence. Because it is seen as a man-and-his-dog story, it is sometimes read by adolescents and subsequently challenged for age-inappropriateness. Not only have objections been raised here, the book was banned in Italy, Yugoslavia and burned in bonfires in Nazi Germany in the late 1920s and early 30s because it was considered “too radical.”

call of the wild

Jack London was born in San Francisco on January 12, 1876, the illegitimate son of Flora Wellman, the rebellious daughter of an aristocratic family, and William Chaney, a traveling astrologer who abandoned Flora when she became pregnant. Eight months after her son was born, Flora married John London, a grocer and Civil War veteran whose last name the infant took. London grew up in Oakland, and his family was mired in poverty throughout his youth. He remained in school only through the eighth grade but was a voracious reader and a frequent visitor to the Oakland Public Library, where he went about edu-cating himself and laying the groundwork for his impending literary career.

In his adolescent years, London led a rough life, spending time as a pirate in San Francisco Bay, traveling the Far East on sealing expeditions, and making his way across America as a tramp. Finally, temporarily tired of adventure, London returned to Oakland and graduated from high school. He was even admitted to the University of California at Berkeley, but he stayed only for a semester. The Klondike gold rush (in Canada’s Yukon Territory) had begun, and in 1897 London left college to seek his fortune in the snowy North.

The gold rush did not make London rich, but it furnished him with plenty of material for his career as a writer, which began in the late 1890s and continued until his death in 1916. He worked as a reporter, covering the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 and the Mexican Revolution in the 1910s; meanwhile, he published over fifty books and became, at the time, America’s most famous author. For a while, he was one of the most widely read authors in the world. He embodied, it was said, the spirit of the American West, and his portrayal of adventure and frontier life seemed like a breath of fresh air in comparison with nineteenth-century Victorian fiction, which was often overly concerned with what had begun to seem like trivial and irrelevant social norms.

The Call of the Wild, published in 1903, remains London’s most famous work, blending his experiences as a gold prospector in the Canadian wilderness with his ideas about nature and the struggle for existence. He drew these ideas from various influential figures, including Charles Darwin, an English naturalist credited with developing theories about biological evolution, and Friedrich Nietzsche, a prominent German philosopher. Although The Call of the Wild is first and foremost a story about a dog, it displays a philosophical depth absent in most animal adventures.

London was married twice—once in 1900, to his math tutor and friend Bess Maddern, and again in 1905, to his secretary Charmian Kittredge, whom he considered his true love. As his works soared in popularity, he became a contradictory figure, arguing for socialist principles and women’s rights even as he himself lived a materialist life of luxury, sailing the world in his boat, the Snark, and running a large ranch in northern California. Meanwhile, he preached equality and the brotherhood of man, even as novels like The Call of the Wild celebrated violence, power, and brute force.

London died young, on November 22, 1916. He had been plagued by stomach problems and failing kidneys for years, but many have suggested that his death was a suicide. Whatever the cause, it is clear that London, who played the various roles of journalist, novelist, prospector, sailor, pirate, husband, and father, lived life to the fullest.

Fight all forms of censorship.
Fight all forms of censorship.
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Seven Unrelated Things I Love.

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It has been suggested that since I do not believe in a magic sky god and the Easter Bunny, I do not believe in anything positive.  Naturally, it was suggested by a person who does not know me and creates a strong argument for a future boycott of  Daily Post writing exercises.  It took me literally three clicks into the archives to find this post.  So to calm any worries, I do believe in things that are positive, they just happen to be also real.

Seven Unrelated Things I love

1. Coffee. Coffee in bed. Coffee before headed out for the night. Coffee in cafes on rainy days. Iced coffee on hot days.

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2. How Rick laughs when he watches videos of people falling down on YouTube.

3. Old books. I put rose petals inside them, then forget they are there for years.

4. Vetiver Extraordinaire cologne by Frederic Malle. It opens with a green but dry woody blast. The drydown is smoky, almost like embers from a dying campfire. No sweet notes, no cloying notes, just smoky wood.

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5. Screwball comedies of the 30′s and film noir movies of the 40′s. If everyone is wearing a hat and talks a mile a minute, I will watch it.

6. Photo booths. The black and white, strip of four photo booths. I love how a group of friends cram onto the stool and close the curtain, smile, make fish faces, and wait the two minutes. They are where the magic happens.

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7. Walking. It clears the head. You see so much more when you walk.

 

Vincent Price – Style Icon

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I think my first exposure to Vincent Price was probably the Hawaiian episodes of the Brady Bunch, followed next by the Michael Jackson “Thriller” music video.  I have since made up for the lack of well-rounded knowledge.  I actually have a copy of “The Bad” on this very computer, as well as the original “House on Haunted Hill.”  His career spanned seven decades and he is imitated regularly on Saturday Night Live, 2o years after his death.  Ladies and gentlemen, Vincent Price.  Style Icon. 

NAME: Vincent Price
OCCUPATION: Film Actor
BIRTH DATE: May 27, 1911
DEATH DATE: October 25, 1993
EDUCATION: Yale University, University of London
PLACE OF BIRTH: Saint Louis, Missouri
PLACE OF DEATH: Los Angeles, California

Best Known For:  American actor Vincent Price starred as the villain in the 1953 film House of Wax, which revitalized the horror genre, and was one of the first films shot in 3D.

Vincent Price was born on May 27, 1911 in St. Louis, Missouri. His acting career began on stage in London in 1935. He also performed with Orson Welles’s Mercury Theatre. In the 1950s, Price started making horror films,  including House of Wax and The Fly. He later worked with Roger Corman on several films based on Edgar Allan Poe stories. Price died on October 25, 1993.

Sometimes called the “Master of Menace,” actor Vincent Price was born on May 27, 1911, and grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. Price was the youngest of four children born to an upper-middle-class family. His father served as the president of a candy company, and he had a cultured upbringing. Price was educated in private schools, and toured Europe at the age of 16. At Yale University, Price studied art history and English. He then traveled to England to pursue the fine arts at University of London.

In 1935, Price landed his first major stage role, playing Prince Albert in a London production of Victoria Regina. The play moved to Broadway, with Helen Hayes as Price’s co-star, and it became a big hit. Before long, Price made his way to the silver screen.

Despite his lasting association with the world of horror, Price started out as a dramatic actor. His tall, lanky frame and distinctive voice lent themselves nicely to character parts. One of Price’s most famous early roles was in the film noir classic Laura (1944) which was directed by Otto Preminger and also starred Gene Tierney. Two years later, he reunited with Tierney for the dramatic thriller Dragonwyck. Price also appeared in some comedies, including 1950′s Champagne for Caesar—one of his favorite film roles.

Price delved into disturbing territory with the 3D hit House of Wax (1953). In the film, he plays a deranged and disfigured artist, who makes wax sculptures using real people. Price also did well with The Fly (1958), a classic science-fiction horror flim about a scientist who has a tragic mishap with a device that he created, as it turns him into a flying insect. In the 1960s, Price appeared in a number of Roger Corman’s low-budget scare-fests. Price also starred in several film adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe stories, including The Masque of the Red Death (1964).

Part of Price’s appeal as a villain was the humor he could inject into these sinister roles. His distinctive voice also contributed to his ability to create tension in films. He spoke in rich, deep tones, which sometimes had an eerie and unsettling quality. Price thought nothing of his famous speech patterns. “To me, I sound like everybody else in Missouri. I think I sound like Harry Truman,” he once said, according to the Los Angeles Times.

One of his most favorite later roles, Price plays an actor who gets his revenge on his critics in Theater of Blood (1973). He voiced the villainous Ratigan in the animated tale The Great Mouse Detective (1986). The following year, Price took a dramatic turn with The Whales of August, playing a Russian paramour to two sisters ( Bette Davis and Lillian Gish).

Price enjoyed success in many arenas outside of cinema; he made numerous television appearances, ranging from The Brady Bunch to the TV series Batman. In the 1980s, he hosted the PBS series Mystery. He also added an ominous air to the Michael Jackson’s 1983 “Thriller” video, by delivering an opening monologue. Price also worked with rocker Alice Cooper.

A lifelong art aficionado, Price wrote several books on his passion. He even served as an art consultant to Sears in the early 1960s, on a line of artworks for sale. A popular lecturer on art, Price also donated some of his art collection to establish the Vincent Price Gallery at East Los Angeles College. Also a devoted foodie, Price co-wrote several cookbooks.

One of Price’s final roles was in Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands (1990). In the film, he plays a gentle version of Dr. Frankenstein, who creates a teenage boy (Johnny Depp). Price’s character dies before he finishes his work, leaving the boy with metal scissors for hands.

Around this time, the veteran actor discovered that he had lung cancer. He died of the disease on October 25, 1993, at his Los Angeles home. Predeceased by his third wife, actress Coral Browne, Price was survived by his two children—Vincent Barrett Price, his son from first wife Edith Barrett, and daughter Victoria, from his second marriage to Mary Grant. Victoria Price later wrote a biography on her father. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, she described him as “a lovely, sweet man,” who was “larger than life”—a far cry from the villains that Price played on the big screen.

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Annie Lennox – Style Icon

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I purchased the Eurythmics “Touch” album when I was in 7th grade and fell in love with the sound of something so completely different than what I had ever heard before. It sounded experimental and exciting to me. There were so many great songs on that album, but I particularly loved “The First Cut” and “Cool Blue.” I first saw the “Here Comes The Rain Again” on MTV at a relative’s house and every time the video came on (it was in heavy rotation) someone would ask “Is that a man or a woman” or “Is she trying to be a man?” I also knew I liked it because it wasn’t Def Leppard‘s “Pyromania,” the album that everyone in my junior high home room was listening to. They continued to be one of my favorite bands all the way through high school, I even went to their concert in 1986. Flash forward to her solo album “Diva” that had every song on it everyone’s favorite. Then “Medusa” and “Bare” and a Sugarcubes cover on her anthology in 2009? I admire her individuality, I am in awe of her talent, and I aspire to her compassion. Ladies and gentlemen, Annie Lennox. Style Icon.

NAME: Annie Lennox
OCCUPATION: Songwriter
BIRTH DATE: December 25, 1954 (Age: 57)
EDUCATION: Royal Academy of Music in London
PLACE OF BIRTH: Aberdeen, Scotland

BEST KNOWN FOR: Singer Annie Lennox gained international fame with the duo The Eurythmics in the 1980s. She laid claim on a highly successful solo career beginning in the 1990s.

Annie Lennox, OBE (born 25 December 1954), born Ann Lennox, is a Scottish singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. After achieving minor success in the late 1970s with The Tourists, with fellow musician David A. Stewart she achieved major international success in the following decade as one half of Eurythmics.

Lennox embarked on a solo career in the 1990s with her debut album Diva (1992), which produced several hit singles including “Why” and “Walking on Broken Glass“. She has released five solo studio albums and a compilation album, The Annie Lennox Collection (2009). She is the recipient of eight Brit Awards, four Grammy Awards and an MTV Video Music Award. In 2002, Lennox received a Billboard Century Award; the highest accolade from Billboard Magazine. In 2004, she won both the Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Into the West”, written for the soundtrack to the feature film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

In addition to her career as a musician, Lennox is also a political and social activist, notable for raising money and awareness for HIV charities in Africa. She also objected to the unauthorized use of the 1999 Eurythmics song “I Saved the World Today” in an election broadcast for Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in 2009. In 2011, Lennox received an OBE from Queen Elizabeth II for her “tireless charity campaigns and championing of humanitarian causes”.

Known as a pop culture icon for her distinctive contralto vocals and visual performances, Lennox has been named “The Greatest White Soul Singer Alive” by VH1 and one of The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time by Rolling Stone. She has earned the distinction of “most successful female British artist in UK music history” because of her global commercial success since the early 1980s. Including her work within Eurythmics, Lennox is one of the world’s best-selling music artists, having sold over 80 million records worldwide.

Personal Quotes:

“Ask yourself: Have you been kind today? Make kindness your daily modus operandi and change your world.” – Annie Lennox

“The world is a heartbreaking place, without any question.” – Annie Lennox

“I can’t understand why the front pages of newspapers can cover bird flu and swine flu and everybody is up in arms about that and we still haven’t really woken up to the fact that so many women in sub-Saharan Africa – 60 percent of people in – infected with HIV are women.” – Annie Lennox

Annie Lennox – Style Icon.

Anna Maria Piaggi – Style Icon

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Anna Maria Piaggi (22 March 1931 – 7 August 2012) was an Italian fashion writer and style icon.

Piaggi was born in Milan in 1931. She worked as a translator for an Italian publishing company Mondadori, then wrote for fashion magazines such as the Italian edition of Vogue and, in the 1980s, the avant-garde magazine Vanity. She was known especially for double page spreads in the Italian Vogue, where her artistic flair was given free expression in a montage of images and text, with layout by Luca Stoppini.

Since 1969, she used a bright red manual Olivetti Valentine typewriter for her work. Piaggi had a large clothes collection, including 2,865 dresses and 265 pairs of shoes, according to a 2006 exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. She dressed in an exuberant, unique and eclectic way, never appearing in the same outfit more than once in public. Such was her influence and knowledge in the fashion world, Manolo Blahnik dubbed her “The world’s last great authority on frocks”.[citation needed]

Her associates in the fashion world included the fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld (from the 1970s), who has often sketched her, and Manolo Blahnik, who is the designer of many of her shoes. She was the muse of British milliner Stephen Jones. She was also an admirer of British clothes designer Vivienne Westwood and her hats, made by Prudence Millinery. She lived in New York and visited London and Italy periodically since the 1950s. Piaggi appeared in the documentary Bill Cunningham New York on the New York Times fashion and social photographer Bill Cunningham.

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Kim Stanley – Style Icon

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Kim Stanley (February 11, 1925 – August 20, 2001) was an American actress, primarily in television and theatre, but with occasional film performances.

She began her acting career in theatre, and subsequently attended the Actors Studio in New York City, New York. She received the 1952 Theatre World Award for her role in The Chase (1952), and starred in the Broadway productions of Picnic (1953) and Bus Stop (1955). Stanley was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play for her roles in A Touch of the Poet (1959) and A Far Country (1962).

During the 1950s, Stanley was a prolific performer in television, and later progressed to film, with a well-received performance in The Goddess (1959). She was the narrator of To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) and starred in Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1964), for which she won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She was less active during the remainder of her career; two of her later film successes were as the mother of Frances Farmer in Frances (1982), for which she received a second Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress, and as Pancho Barnes in The Right Stuff (1983). She received an Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress – Miniseries or a Movie for her performance as Big Mama in a television adaptation of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1985).

She did not act during her later years, preferring the role of teacher, in Los Angeles, California, and later Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she died in 2001, of uterine cancer.

Stanley was a successful Broadway actress with only a few film roles. She was singled out by The New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson for her early work. She eventually attended the Actors Studio, studying under Elia Kazan and Lee Strasberg. She received the 1952 Theatre World Award for her performance as Anna Reeves in The Chase, and starred in such Broadway hits as Picnic (1953), playing Millie Owens (which she never felt received the credit it deserved) and Bus Stop (1955), playing Cherie.

She was nominated for the 1959 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for A Touch of the Poet and the 1962 Tony for Best Actress in a Play for her portrayal of Elizabeth von Ritter in Henry Denker’s A Far Country.

Stanley also portrayed Maggie “The Cat” in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in the original London production of the play.

She was also the leading lady of live television drama, which flourished in New York City during the 1950s. Among her many starring roles was Wilma, a star-struck 15-year-old girl from the U.S. Gulf Coast of Texas in Horton Foote’s A Young Lady of Property, which aired on The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse on April 5, 1953.

Following a savaging by English critics after her London performance of “Masha” in an Actors Studio production of Anton Chekhov’s play The Three Sisters (1965) she vowed never to perform on stage again, a vow she kept for the rest of her life.

Stanley’s first film was The Goddess (1958), playing a tragic movie star modeled on Marilyn Monroe (though she and director, John Cromwell, would forever deny Marilyn’s influence, using Rita Hayworth as being more accurate). She starred in Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1964), winning both the National Board of Review Award for Best Actress and the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

A filmed version of Strasberg-directed Three Sisters (1966) opened with Stanley reprising the role of Masha, and is the only time one can see her perform in a film alongside Geraldine Page, Sandy Dennis, Shelley Winters and other well-known names of the Actors Studio.

She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture for her performance as Frances Farmer’s possessive mother in Frances (1982). She also played Pancho Barnes in The Right Stuff (1983).

Stanley was the uncredited narrator in the drama film To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). As the narrator, she represents the character Jean Louise Finch (“Scout”) as an adult. Mary Badham portrays Scout as a child in the film.

She received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for her appearance in the episode, “A Cardinal Act of Mercy” (1963), of the television series, Ben Casey (1961–1966), and an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or a Special for her appearance in Tennessee Williams’s Southern melodrama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1985), this time as Big Mama.

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11th (Self Help) Day of Xmas – Keep Breathing

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I wish I had a letter like that and I wish I believed every last sentence in it.  I often daydream about visiting the 13 or 16 or 19 or 21 year old me and telling him what he needs to know.  To get through school, get out of that town, and never look back.  That all the problems you feel are killing you won’t matter in six months time.  And that the trick is to keep breathing.

In June of 2010, the lead singer of Eels, Mark ‘E’ Everett, wrote a lovely letter of advice to his 16-year-old self. The missive features in the wonderful book, Dear Me, and can be read below.

Transcript follows.

(Source: Dear Me: More Letters to My 16-Year-Old Self; Image of “E” via Gonzai.)

Transcript

Chateau E

June 12, 2010

Dear sweet, naive, 16 year old me,

You poor sap. I know you won’t believe any of this, but you should. How can I get it through your thick, acne-pocked skull? All the stupid things you are so worried about really aren’t very important at all. In fact, they are the opposite of important. What if I told you that all the “winners” around you right now were actually the losers? Well, I just did tell you that, but you still don’t believe me because I’m an adult and 16 year olds can never trust adults.

What if I tried to explain it this way: That feeling you’ve never been able to put a name on — it feels something like, let’s say, a bone-crushing insecurity and cluelessness about your place in the world — just forget about it! That’s right. You can forget about it and go about your days — confident with the knowledge that it’s all going to work out just fine. Because as you get older, you will figure stuff out. A lot of stuff. And that bone-crushing feeling will slowly dissipate. I’m sorry. I can’t remember if you knew what the word “dissipate” meant when you were 16. You will feel it less and less as time goes on. That’s what I meant to say.

And all those “winners” who appear at the top of their games and lives are indeed, just that: at their peaks! It’s all downhill for those idiots from here. Ha! Come on, let’s have a laugh. At their expense! It’s okay. You’ve earned it!

While YOU get to do the opposite: Things will just get better and better for you. And here’s the best part: It turns out that girls like geeky smart guys much more than dumb sports guys. For many reasons. You’ll see. So relax, man. Just relax. And I can even pass along this shocking piece of information: You will enjoy your life in your 40s! You heard me. It’s gonna be great!

Now, I’m not saying it’s not going to come with some serious bumps in the road along the way, but don’t worry. Those bumps are the very thing that will make you a better person along the way and make you appreciate yourself and the world around you more and more. So you can stop worrying about the mean kids around you and stop putting any energy into being mean yourself. Ignore all that crap and enjoy the nice things in your life. Now how ’bout a smile? No? Well, you ARE 16. I get it. But I can tell you’re smiling just a little on the inside.

Sincerely,

(Signed, ‘E’)

A Fully Grown Man Called E

eels

via Letters of Note: Things will just get better and better.

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John Rawlings – Style Icon

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Born in Ohio in 1912, John Rawlings attended the local Wesleyan University, and upon graduation in the early 1930s he relocated to New York, where he became a freelance store window dresser. After buying a Leica to photograph his work and show it to potential clients, Rawlings discovered that he enjoyed taking pictures and eventually started to photograph some of the aristocratic clients themselves, alone or with their dogs. A few of those shots found their way to the desk of Nast, who decided to offer Rawlings a job at the Vogue studios as prop builder, studio hand, and apprentice to the legendary masters Beaton and Horst. The young Midwestener was so dedicated and worked with such unbridled enthusiasm that four months later he not only was promoted to first assistant to the masters but also got his first photo published in the September 15 issue of Vogue. Impressed by his precocious talent and visual style, Nast and Chase rewarded him in 1937 with a job at the British Vogue studio in London, where he would train and work until the early 1940s.

Although his early work for British Vogue showed the strong influence of Hoyningen-Huene and Horst, Rawlings would slowly depart from their style. “Rawlings was certaily th first major Conde Nast photographer to demonstrate a truly American eye… John Rawlings’ photography has a practical, no nonsense feeling…he focused his lens on the vibrant world surrounding him,” writes Charles Dare Scheips Jr., former director of the Conde Nasr Archives, in his introduction to Kohle Yohannan’s book John Rawlings: 30 Years in Vogue. “Rawlings brought a realistic visual style, presenting fashion as a force rather than a decoration.”

During his trainin in England, Rawlings had the opportunity to explore new photographic and lighting techniques without censorship from his masters. He went back to daylight, taking more descriptive and informative shots, incorporating the environment in the shoot, starting to experiment with mirrors, and combining natural and artificial lighting. “Enjoying an amount of autonomy he would never have been granted had he remained an assistant in New York, Rawlings produced such impressive work during his first months in London that, in a break from standing tradition, many of his British editorial pages found their way (with increasing regularity) in the international circulation of both French and American Vogue“, writes Yohannan. Rawling’s London trainin proved to be excellent preparation when he was called back to New York, which in the early 1940s was becoming the center of world culture. His return to Manhattan coincided with a cultural shift in which commercial photography was quickly catching up with art. Rawlings seized the moment to break with the artificial status-based formula of fashion photography inspired by Horst and to achieve a fresher, more American and lifestyle-driven look. ” Once back on native soil as the American rising star,” says Yohannan, “Rawlings began almost instinctively to realign himself with the markedly less-labored glamour of the American ideal of beauty, what Christian Dior had offhandedly termed ‘Le Look sportif’.”

The personal and independent path that Rawlings had created for himself led him to clash with the photographers of the time, who he said underestimated sunlight, did not crop enough, and always got themselves in the picture. Above all he criticized the ones who took themselves too seriously; without naming names, Cecil Beaton was surely on the list because, among his other eccentricities, he worked in the studio in his beret and cape, to proclaim his artistic and aristocratic standing. Like many of his colleagues, Rawlings had a list of favorite models. In the late 1930s and the early 1940s these included Dana Jenney, Helen Bennett, and Betty McLauchlen. Meg Mundy, whom he discovered by chance in a waiting room at the CBS studios, proved to be an all-time favorite, and he helped her greatly when she jumped from singer-model to Broadway actress.

A few months later Rawlings would start a new creative stage at Vogue when he became the first photographer to systematically associate fashion with Hollywood celebrities.

The Art of Coffee: A Mad Men Era Short Film

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“Success lies in a single word: Care.”

Beyond being the world’s favorite hot beverage, coffee, as any aficionado will tell you, is a matter of a great art and, often, great snobbery. But what, exactly, makes the ancient beverage that manifests in your cup every morning a modern masterpiece? This delightful Mad-Men-era short film, produced by Vision Associates in 1961 as promotional material for the Coffee Brewing Institute, traces the art and culture of coffee from its harvesting and production to its many traditions of preparation (Viennese! Parisian! Venetian! Turkish!), to the three elements that converge into its “fine flavor.”

How, then, do we make the perfect cup of coffee to our taste? Success lies in a single word: Care. Three simple ingredients go into the brewing process: water, coffee, time. Care will produce a perfect result every time.

ᔥ The Art of Coffee: A Mad Men Era Short Film | Brain Pickings.

 

25 Things You Didn’t Know About The Olympics

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With the 2012 Summer Olympics winding down,  the whole world watched as new records were broken and new champions were made. Take a moment to reflect on the long history of Olympic competition. From its brutal beginnings all the way to its modern day fanfare, these are 25 things you didn’t know about the Olympics.

25 A bloody past

The Ancient Olympics were much bloodier and deadlier than today with some boxers even wearing gloves spiked with sharp nails.

24 The first modern Olympics

The first modern Olympics was held in 1896 in Athens, Greece and cost roughly $448,000.

23 The price tag today

The 2012 Olympic stadium cost £537 million or $832 million…enough to send one person to the moon 11 times.

22 Goose feathers galore

It takes 16 goose feathers to make each badminton shuttlecock, with the best feathers apparently coming from the goose’s left wing.

21 Diving domination

Since the birth of modern Olympics roughly 100 years ago Americans have won over half the total amount of Olympic diving medals.

20 Gold medal vs pie

Although an Olympic gold medal seems valuable its really only worth about 450 English pounds (700 dollars), which is supposedly only half the price of the most expensive pie ever made. In case you’re wondering you can find this record breaking pie at Fence Gate Inn in Lancashire, England.

19 Football flopping

Although it comes with its share of sprained ankles and broken shins, for every Olympic football match there are an average of 11 fake injuries.

18 London breaks a record

London is the first city ever chosen to host the modern Olympics three times.

17 Girls in the ring

The 2012 Olympics will include females fighters in the boxing ring for the first time ever

16 Olympically deprived

Africa, South America, and Antarctica are the only continents where the Olympics have never been held although that will change in 2016 when Rio de Janeiro hosts the summer Olympics

15 Silver was number one

At the first Olympics in 1896 the winners were crowned with silver. It was only later that the gold medals was introduced.

14 Going the extra mile

Originally 25.85 miles long, the marathon was extended to 26 miles and 385 yards at the 1908 Olympics in London where the race began at Windsor Castle and ended in front of the Royal Box in the stadium. Legend has it that the race was extended so that the Royal Family could watch both the start and the finish.

13 Sprinting past the speed limit

Olympic sprinters can reach speeds of up to 30 mph…that’s breaking the speed limit in some neighborhoods!

12 The oldest Olympian

The oldest Olympian ever was Swedish shooter Oscar Swahn who won gold when he was 60 years old in the 1908 Olympics. In the 1920 Olympic games in Antwerp he participated again and was crowned oldest Olympian at age 72.

11 Logo madness

The logo for the 2012 London Olympics cost 400,000 English pounds, which is apparently the same price it would cost to adopt a panda in China for 365 years.

10 Kicking things off with a bang

The 1896, 1900, and 1904 Olympic Games all failed to catch fire, but in 1906 when the interim games were held the world all of a sudden paid attention. This was the first modern Olympics to include all of the theatrical aspects.

9 Barriers to entry

In order for a sport to be included in the Olympics it must be practiced by men in 75 countries on at least 4 continents and by women in 40 countries on at least 3 continents.

8 Heavy medal

The gold medals in the 2012 Olympics will be the biggest and heaviest medals ever although they are mostly made of silver (only about 1.5% of gold)

7 Crackdown on streaking

Anyone caught streaking at the 2012 Olympics will be fined 20,000 pounds.

6 Lots of competition

The 2012 Olympics will have 10,500 athletes competing.

5 Hitler’s torch

The modern Olympic torch has its beginnings in the the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Hitler and his regime reintroduced the ancient concept supposedly for the publicity and propaganda.

4 Fire and water

The Olympic torch is designed for rugged terrain and was even taken underwater passed the Great Barrier Reef during the 2000 Olympics in Australia.

3 A long journey

The 2012 Olympic torch traveled 8000 miles around the UK which is more than twice the width of the United States.

2 Olympic lasers

The most extreme measures ever taken to transport the torch occurred during the 1976 Olympics. It was literally beamed across the ocean by radio signal from Athens after which the signal triggered a laser that lit the torch.

1 As the whole world watches

For the 2012 Olympics over 4 billion people watched the opening ceremony. That’s well over half of the world’s population.

via 25 Things You Didn’t Know About The Olympics.