Last night, Bill O’Reilly and Jon Stewart, inspired by the season of presidential and vice-presidential debates, had their own debate at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. “The Rumble in the Air-Conditioned Auditorium” was available live to an online audience for a small fee, but it is available for everyone today.
The two men discussed a number of issues while also keeping a sense of humor about everything (although some noted there was less humor than one might have expected). [Oct. 9, 2012 Update: The video of the debate is no longer available on YouTube.]
Did you enjoy this debate more than the presidential debate? Leave your two cents in the comments.
A new documentary short follows Jeff Dowd, the inspiration for the Jeff Bridges character in The Big Lebowski. The short documentary The Dude (Director’s Cut) (2012) is directed by Jeff Feuerzeig — who directed one of my favorite recent documentaries, The Devil and Daniel Johnston. On the video’s website, Feuerzeig explains that he met Dowd, who works on film projects and has been executive producer for some films, way back in 1986.
In the new film, Dowd recounts some of the stories that inspired the Coen Brothers. And the film follows Dowd to a Lebowski Fest, providing some insight into the Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski character. The film does not allow embedding, but you may watch the film on Vimeo.
In writing this story, for the first time I made the connection between Jeff Dowd’s last name and its similarity to “Dude.” I have never heard there is a connection, but now it seems obvious to me. Other fans, i.e., Achievers, may know whether the connection is intentional. Anyway, check out the short film and see what you think.
What do you think of The Dude (Director’s Cut)? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Although I have never been a big follower George Strait‘s career, like most fans of country music, I am surprised by how many songs of his I know. And I cannot dispute that he is a country music legend. Because of all that, I was sad to hear that he recently announced at a press conference that he is beginning his final tour, the “The Cowboy Rides Away Tour,” which will end in 2014. But he does not rule out making appearances after this tour ends. At the beginning of the press conference, several country music stars paid tribute to Strait.
So we wish Strait good luck as he embarks on this final tour. One of my favorite songs he recorded was a duet he did with Alan Jackson, “Murder on Music Row,” from the Latest Greatest Straitest Hits (2000) CD. The song laments the Nashville trend toward pop and away from traditional country music. Certainly, after Strait rides off into the sunset, there will be even less country music coming out of Nashville.
[2024 Update: George Strait did eventually tour again.]
Although that day saw the first commercial release, the joint work of Sony and Philips created the new music format several years earlier before the technology became commercially available.
Partly because of a high price tag on the new technology, cassette tapes remained more popular than CDs until the late 1980s. But the CD format eventually took over.
The CD changed the way we listen to music. It featured longer playing times than record albums all in a compact size.
The CD also featured what many thought was a better sound than other formats, although that issue is still debated. The CD format is still very popular, and digital sales did not surpass CD sales until 2015.
Whatever the future holds, take a moment to salute the CD format. It originally gave us great music listening experiences through the 1980s, the 1990s, and into the current century. And I do miss CD stores.
In tribute, lets go back to someone plopping down the big bucks thirty years ago and buying that first CD and turning it on to hear that first song, “Big Shot”. . .
My personal encounter with CDs was still a few years away on that October day in 1982. I recall hearing music on a friend’s CD player for one of the first times years later, around 1986. And I got my first player a few years later. At that time, I made my first CD purchase of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, and Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run.
The Harvest Moon is the full moon that falls closest to the autumnal equinox and gained its name because in the days before electricity, the moon aided farmers harvesting when the sun was not up. What mainly distinguishes the Harvest Moon from other moons is that this time of year there is less time between successive moonrises than usual.
For more information on the Harvest Moon and its special appearance, check out the EarthSky website. If you prefer a video explanation, check out this video:
The Harvest Moon is also responsible for inspiring a classic Tin Pan Alley song from the early 1900s. There is some dispute about the song’s authors, but “Shine On, Harvest Moon” was originally credited to the couple of Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth, who were married at the time they wrote the song but later divorced. Both Bayes and Norworth had other successes, including that Norworth wrote the lyrics to “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” but during their lives they were probably most famous for “Shine On, Harvest Moon.”
The song has been performed by a number of artists on TV and in film, including an appearance in the 1944 film Shine On, Harvest Moon, as well as on an episode of The Mickey Mouse Club by a young Britney Spears. Johnny Cash sang it with Emmylou Harris on TV too. My favorite performance, though, is by Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, who always lit up the screen during one of their musical performances. Check out Laurel & Hardy singing “Shine On, Harvest Moon” below from the film The Flying Deuces (1939).
Here is wishing you a good weekend as the Harvest Moon shines down on you.
Will you check out the Harvest Moon this weekend? Leave your two cents in the comments.
. On the video’s website, Feuerzeig explains that he met Dowd, who works on film projects and has been executive producer for some films, way back in 1986.
