Browsing: Arts & Entertainment

A Brief History On July 23, 1982, the set for the film, Twilight Zone: The Movie, became a real-life killing ground when actor Vic Morrow and two child actors were killed when a helicopter crashed into the actors.  Despite revised safety rules after the incident, movies and TV remain a dangerous enterprise. Digging Deeper A recent example in 2021 is the set of Rust, a Western being made by Alec Baldwin, who accidently shot and killed a cinematographer with a real bullet when only blanks were supposed to be on the set. The Wrap quotes the AP as saying 43…

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A Brief History On July 18, 1992, internet history was made when a photograph of the parody doo wop singing group, Les Horribles Cernettes, was posted on the World Wide Web, definitely the first WWW photo of a musical group and possibly the first photograph ever posted to the Web. Digging Deeper Calling themselves “the one and only High Energy Rock Band,” this female group was made up of employees of CERN, the European physics and nuclear research concern behind the Large Hadron Collider.  The group was active from 1990 to 2012, and then resurrected for 2017 and 2020. As…

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A Brief History On July 15, 2012, a South Korean rapper with the catchy name of Psy released what would prove to be his first hit song and a viral sensation that would sweep the entire world, “Gangnam Style.” Digging Deeper Not only would this catchy tune rocket to #1 in South Korea, its incredibly popular dancing and singing video on YouTube helped propel the song to #1 in 30 countries, including Russia, though only to #2 in the USA. The theme of the song is based on a K-Pop vision of the lifestyle in the Gangnam neighborhood of the…

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A Brief History On July 13, 1973, retired Air Force officer and member of the Nixon Administration revealed the existence of an automatic audio tape system in the Oval Office, helping to bring down President Richard Nixon.  While not immediately, Alexander Butterfield survived his snitching and went on to business success, eventually serving on the boards of several corporations. Digging Deeper In spite of various “whistle blower” programs designed to protect and even reward “snitches,” many people are hesitant to provide inside information to authorities in fear of retaliation.  Some other “snitches” that survived and prospered include: Tim Allen, television…

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A Brief History On July 10, 2007, Turkish adventurer Erden Eruç, almost 46 years old at the time, set off on what may be the greatest feat of human endurance and physical performance in history, the solo, only human powered circumnavigation of the Earth.  As if this feat was not daunting enough, he threw in making it a point to climb the tallest mountain on each continent as part of his trip!  For financial reasons, he ended up journeying on a route that did not include all of the tallest mountains on each continent. Digging Deeper Eruç accomplished this feat…

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