Author: DOuG pRATt

Colbert Dishes

Stephen Colbert had an intriguing show last night, dedicated to feminism.  And to mark the occasion he had two surprise guests — Jane Fonda and Gloria Steinem, who were there to promote GreenstoneMedia.net.  But before they could do that, Colbert promptly pushed them over to a kitchen set to do some baking, as seen in the video clip.

I quickly threw together a few pictures, and I apologize for the poor quality.  Fonda is shown in a scene from Barbarella, and Steinem is in the Playboy bunny costume she wore while researching an article she wrote before joining the staff of the previously mentioned HELP! magazine, which is where the other inserted picture came from.

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Political Science 101

I was, for some years, a big fan of Randy Newman.  My interest started with hearing his then-new album Sail Away in high school.  My favorite song from the record was Political Science.  I loved it so much I used the closing lyric as my high school yearbook quote.  If you click here you can listen to the song, as taken from the original piece of plastic that I listened to a thousand times, so many years ago.  Spring of my senior year in high school I was ecstatic when it was announced that Newman would be appearing at Symphony Hall in Boston.  I took a train into the city and bought tickets at the box office for myself and my girlfriend, and it was a very memorable show.

This week, Newman will be appearing at Carnegie Hall.  Last night, Newman appeared on The Colbert Report to promote the concert.  Washington politics being what they presently are, I think Political Science is more timely than it was 34 years ago.  Here’s the video of Newman performing the song.


Player problem?  Click here.

Riddles in the Dark

Illustration by J.R.R. Tolkien

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A couple of days ago The Boston Globe had an article about a new book that Christopher Tolkien has assembled, called Children of Húrin.  It’s based on fragmentary writings by his father, J.R.R. Tolkien.  If the link above doesn’t work, you can read the article by clicking here.

I have an LP that is unquestionably purely J.R.R. Tolkien.  His narration of “Riddles in the Dark,” from The Hobbit.  The recording provided here is from August, 1952 and it’s half an hour long.  It begins with the introduction of Gollum, and it ends with Gollum’s cursing of Bilbo (“Thief!”).

Color in Black

I mentioned the late British director Michael Powell again in a recent post.  Now I see another blogger has posted several items about Black Narcissus.

This inspired me to transfer two scenes from the movie and splice them together.  For myself, what makes Black Narcissus great is the always excellent Deborah Kerr and the absolutely breathtaking performance by Kathleen Byron.  A case can be made for this cat fight being melodramatic and over-the-top, but for me it’s mesmerizing.

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