AdamSmith

Now I feel neglected. My LinkedIn membership has never resulted in anything like that. But I've never given LinkedIn my email password. Nor would I ever. You can join without doing that. Evidently I am fortunate that none of my past or present associates opened up their email lists with me on them to that kind of abuse either. I only get LinkedIn invitations to connect from specific individuals who have some specific reason to connect with me. Very few in number, like one or two a week on average, now that I myself am fairly active posting my articles on there. Very very few before that.

How did they shoot the leopard scenes in '2001'? Dan Richter explains Back in October, 1966, Dan Richter was a struggling mime artist in London when he received a call summoning him to discuss the incomplete opening sequence of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Deeply impressed by the talented young mime, Kubrick promptly hired him to choreograph and star in “The Dawn of Man” sequence as Moonwatcher, the leader of the man-ape tribe. Set three million years ago, this prologue to the space-based sequences tells the story of a tribe of our ancestors, who take the first step on the long road to modern humanity. Source: Moonwatcher's Memoir Since I first saw 2001 and "The Dawn Of Man" I've always been fascinated by that sequence, and amazed by the appearance of that magnificent leopard (I'm a big feline lover). I always wondered how they could have shot that scenes - until 2002, when Moonwatcher's himself, Dan Richter, published Moonwatcher's Memoir: A Diary or 2001: A Space Odyssey. With Memoir Richter wrote the best account ever about working on 2001: the stories about Kubrick, Stuart Freeborn (the make-up wizard) and all the cast and crew involved are so vivid that seem to be hot off the press, right from a 1968 newspaper - and indeed they somehow are, as Richter based the book upon his own diary wrote in the years 1966-1967. The book is a treasure trove of anectodes, and it's an essential reading for all 2001 fans. It also includes a few pages dedicated to the leopard shot, that was extended and clarified by a later series of interviews with Richter (among which I'd like to recommend the one conducted by Justin Bozung). I had the chance to ask 'Moonwatcher' a few questions about the leopard scenes and other few details, to which Dan very kindly answered. As a complete account of 'The Dawn of Man' is already available in Memoir (did I already say 'buy it right now' ?) I will therefore focus on a fascinating aspect of the sequence: the shooting of the leopard attack, with a complete account that draws from all the available sources. My heartfelt thanks to Dan Richter, to Justin Bozung for his always excellent work, and special thanks to Jamie Clubb (http://jamieclubb.blogspot.it/), that provided me with unpublished details about Terry Duggan and the animals used on the set. * * * Determined to make an anthropologically accurate film, Kubrick insisted on much more than the worn convention of men jumping around in “monkey suits.” Richter and his collaborators spent weeks watching apes in the London zoo, followed by months of rehearsal mimicking their movements, helped by the analysis of rare footage of gorillas and other apes in their natural habitat. Test footage of the 'men-apes' practicing primate behaviour. Source: 2001: the making of the myth The script, at that time still being reworked on an almost daily basis by Kubrick and Clarke, called also for sequences where our ancestors were to be shown on the verge of extinction, and facing constant threat of wild animals like lions and tigers. How to portray this menace was still to be determined, as many attempts had already been made before Richter came on board. Here's an example from Kubrick's interview to Jeremy Bernstein, 1966: At this point, a man carrying a stuffed lion's head approached and asked Kubrick whether it would be all right to use. "The tongue looks phony, and the eyes are only marginal," Kubrick said, heading for the set. "Can somebody fix the tongue"? In an early version of the script a lion's head was to be shown mounted atop a tree branch by Moonwatcher and his tribe, to instill terror upon a rival tribe. Kubrick was probably examining an early attempt to render such scene filmable; but whatever the lion's head was to be used for - clearly its phony condition was never improved enough for the director, as it doesn't appear in the movie and Richter doesn't even remember to have seen it - Kubrick turned to real wild beasts for the shooting of the most menacing scenes. From an entry in Richter's entry in the book dated January 2, 1967: (Kubrick): "When are you going down to the South Hampton Zoo?" (Our animal trainers from Jimmy Chipperfield's have put the animals we will need for "The Dawn of Man" in the South Hampton zoo. We have tapirs, a chimp, a zebra, a lion, and a leopard.) "I'm going down this weekend [...] I'm meeting the trainer Terry Duggan and he is going to show them to me. "Take lots of pictures. I want to see Duggan staging his play fights with the lion and the leopard. I haven't decided which one to use yet." Terry Duggan was a acrobat and stuntman born in Coventry in 1935 (no relation with Terry Duggan the comedian). Duggan had already worked with the Chipperfield's, a famous british circus, and later joined a member of the family, Jimmy, who had started a film animal business and at that time of the shooting of 2001 was operating Southampton Zoo. In fact, Jimmy was the main supplier of animals for films during the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s. Terry Duggan, four lionesses, one lion and two leopards (1964) (Source) Kubrick eventually opted out for the leopard. When asked if he remembered why, Richter said to me that We had both a leopard and a lion at the Southhampton Zoo for at least a year before the shoot and Terry Duggan worked with them all that time do that they would be familiar with the play fighting they did. They were both well trained. Why Stanley picked one over another I don’t know. The lion was a lioness and perhaps in the end not as menacing looking or as visually interesting. Terry Duggan practicing with the leopard at the Southampton Zoo, 1967. Richter: "Duggan is teaching the animal to pounce on him and to play-fight in a way that looks convincing." Sources of both picture and text: Moonwatcher's Memoir From now on we'll focus on a single date, Monday, August 28th, 1967. The 'Dawn of Men' shooting had already begun on August 2; that meant that after eight months of research and rehersals, and a month of physically demanding shots, the man-apes 'tribe' (mimes, dancers and performers chosen and trained by Richter) had yet to face another ordeal. From "Moonwatcher's Memoir": Today we are going to shoot the scene where the leopard will attack and kill one of the man-apes. Over the weekend the construction crew has changed the set to a riverbed and built a makeshift barrier between the set and the camera. When I asked him about the barrier (no picture of the shoot are known to exist) Richter noted that he doesn't remember the specific details: I was paying more attention to the leopard and my guys. It's legitimate concern, and here's why. Until Richter's book came out, all we knew about the scene came from what Kubrick himself had written in a document ('Notes on special Effects") reported in Bizony's book 2001: filming the future and written as part of his 1969 Academy Award submissions: Duggan and the leopard were entirely alone on stage during the shoot. [bizony adds]: Background performers were added later, in a hand-drawn matte. I imagine that Kubrick had to downplay the potential danger faced by his ape-men cast in order to a avoid any unconfortable questions from some actor's guild; it turned out, instead, that everything was shot on camera, and Richter and other man-apes were on the same set with the leopard and Duggan, as Richter remembers in the book: Terry Duggan is outfitted in a man-ape costume. [...] Stanley wants other man-apes in the background, and that is even more of a problem. The solution is to put me in another mask behind Terry, in the middle ground with the other guys, so that I will be between the leopard and them. The leopard attacks Duggan. Richter, the second from the right, is on a platform closer to the camera, between the forefront and the other man-apes in the background. So far, so good. Again from the book: Stanley is very unconfortable standing next to the camera with the leopard thirty feet or so in front of him. We are all scared. Stanley wants the shot. You can hear the trepidation in his voice as he says "action". Nothing happens. The leopard, confused and nervous, is distracted by the set, the strong lights, and the surrounding crew. Stanley calls "cut". We had reharsed the leopard with Terry in costume so we knew he could do it. Terry goes over to talk to him and tries to get him in a playful mood. "I think he'll do it now", he says. We all get into position again. The lights are right, the camera begins to turn. Once again Stanley says, "action"... ...and things quickly turn for the worse: ... The leopard looks at Terry and then he looks over at me and the guys behind me. He jumps down on the set between Terry and me and starts to come at me! Terry sees what is happening and immediately tackles him. We take a short break and Terry works with him some more. The second take, more or less, works: it's the one we see in the movie. Richter recalls: Contrary to Stanley’s usual style we did only a few takes as he was nervous and wanted to get it over. He was never happy with what we got, but lived with it. At this stage, Kubrick was more than ready to move on, even if it meant accepting an unexpected 'special effect', as we learn from Bozung's interview: [...] then there was the front projection system mistake with the leopard. If you watch the film you'll see that shot of the leopard turning his head toward the camera and his eyes are lit up and glowing. That was just a happy accident. No one noticed it during shooting, but when we all went to the rushes everyone saw it, and someone said “Oh look what happened? We've screwed up!” Stanley said, “No, it's great. I love it. Let's keep it.” Every cat owner knows that the eyes of the leopard glowed because of a tissue in the eye that reflects visible light back through the retina, increasing the light available to the photoreceptors, contributing to the superior night vision of the animal. As the scene was shot using the Sinar front-projection system that used 8x10 inches transparencies on a 110-feet-wide screen covered by 3M reflective material, the eye of the leopard worked just as the reflective material of the background. The leopard is ready to strike again. On the right, Richter and the other man-apes watch in non-simulated anxiety. * * * The unnamed leopard also appeared in a second scene, with a "dead zebra". One of my recent posts featured an interview to Gino Pellegrini, an italian set decorator who worked on that scene: On the set there were also a few wooden boulders which were meant to give a sense of depth. For example, in the leopard scene, the large boulder beneath the animal was a wooden prop built on purpose, in order to conceal the leash used to restrain the leopard . The leash was cancelled later optically. How is this related to the attack scene? Well, in the 1970 book The Making of Kubrick's 2001, which was edited by Jerome Agel with more than a little help from Kubrick himself, a caption for this picture says: Dead horse was painted to look like a zebra. Scene of live leopard with "zebra" was filmed with tranquilizer guns at the ready. Due to horse's stench, leopard and camera crew were unenthusiastic about doing the scene. When asked about such guns during the attack scene, here's what Richter told me: I do not remember tranquilizers gun in our scene, but I wasn't present when Stanley shot the scene with the dead zebra. As far as the 'zebra' scene was concerned, this makes perfect sense: why have guns if the leopard was already restrained by a leash? At the same time, I wonder: if there was a scene where tranquilizers would have come handy, it was the attack scene. We will probably never know. Anyway, it was nice to have Terry Duggan handy, that day. P.S. Remember the scene where the lion's head had to be carried around triumphantly by Moonwatcher's tribe? The script originally called for the actual killing of that lion to be shown in the movie. Imagine having to set up that shot! * * * (dec.11: the article has been updated with the removal of the picture of Terry Duggan the comedian, who was not the Duggan involved with the Chipperlfield's and 2001. As Mission Control would say, IMDB and Wikipedia are "in error" in saying that they were the same person. Source: Mr.Duggan' sister thanks to Jamie Clubb.) http://www.2001italia.it/2013/12/how-did-they-shoot-leopard-scenes.html

2001 man-ape costume! http://peakoil.com/generalideas/the-central-contradiction-in-the-modern-outlook-planet-of-the-apes-vs-2001-a-space-odyssey

Fascinating. Mutation, Selection, And Vertical Transmission Of Theistic Memes In Religious Canons John D. Gottsch The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Johns Hopkins Hospital, 600 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205 jgottsch@jhmi.edu Abstract 1 - Introduction 2 - First Evidence of Memes 3 - First Theistic Memes in Religious Canons 3.1 - Epic of Gilgamesh 3.2 - Enuma elish 3.3 - Law Codes 4 - Theistic Memetic Creation of the Hebrew Canon 5 - Theistic Memetic Mutation in Creation of the Christian Canon 6 - Theistic Memetic Mutation in Creation of the Islamic Canon 7 - Discussion References Abstract A study of ancient and modern Near Eastern religious canons reveals the mutation, selection, and vertical transmission of fitness-enhancing textual units, defined as theistic memes. The earliest recorded theistic memes dealt with human fear of death and defined man's earliest relationship to god. Theistic memes that could theoretically affect fitness through selection and incorporation into religious canons included those dictating beliefs about ( a ) self-awareness in an unknown world, ( b ) strategies and behaviors toward others and within the nuclear family, and ( c ) appropriate sexual behaviors within marriage. Prohibition of aberrant sexual practices such as incest, adultery, homosexuality, bestiality, castration, and religious prostitution would have further maximized fitness. A remarkable mutation of the ancient Near Eastern theistic meme of child sacrifice is documented in the Old Testament in the story of Abraham and Isaac. Vertically transmitted theistic memes in the Hebrew canon were largely incorporated into Christian and Muslim religious canons (New Testament and Qur'an). Mutations of theistic memes during vertical transmission into these other canons allowed the same fitness-enhancing stability for the gentile and Arabic populations and are notable for the different strategies used to produce homogenized, orthodox canons. http://cfpm.org/jom-emit/2001/vol5/gottsch_jd.html

Re: LinkedIn, I have a business-oriented profile there and about 1500 "connections," i.e., other LinkedIn members that either I have invited to "connect" with, or who invited me. That just means that whenever I or they post any content or comments on LinkedIn, your connections get a notice of it. The contact information that I entered on my LinkedIn profile was my name, company name (business that I own), my business email address, and my company web site URL. NOT my phone number. If anyone needs my business phone, they can follow the link to my business web site and find it there. But that seems sufficient distance to prevent my phone # from being hoovered up by bots crawling LinkedIn for their own purposes. (My business number is also my personal cell phone -- the only phone # I have. Which I also use to contact escorts, but somehow over a dozen years of hiring ~150 people I have never run into any trouble from this. Lucky me I suppose. Or, in any event -- what, me worry? ) I first put up a profile on LInkedIn about a decade ago. My experience has been that LinkedIn is much more passive in gathering information about you than Facebook, or any of the aggressive third-party add-ons that have metastasized around Facebook.

Hamburger Ass The feeling of fecal matter trapped between the buttocks; refers to the sensation rather than the result (see dingleberry). Lack of wiping or wiping improperly will result in hamburger ass. by Professor English July 22, 2010 http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Hamburger%20Ass

Fox: New Evidence Hillary Killed Lincoln By Andy Borowitz WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In what may be the most serious allegation ever made against the former Secretary of State, Fox News Channel reported today that Hillary Clinton was involved in the conspiracy to murder President Abraham Lincoln. The latest charge against Mrs. Clinton was reported by Fox host Sean Hannity, who said that the evidence of her role in the Lincoln assassination came mainly in the form of e-mails. According to Mr. Hannity, “If it’s true that Hillary Clinton killed Lincoln, this could have a major impact on her chances in 2016.” The accusation against Mrs. Clinton drew a strong response from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R.—S. Carolina): “There’s been a concerted effort by Hillary Clinton to cover up her role in President Lincoln’s murder. She has said nothing about it. This is bigger than Watergate, the Cuban missile crisis, and the Second World War put together.” Responding to the allegation, Mrs. Clinton issued a terse statement indicating that she could not have participated in Lincoln’s assassination because she was born in 1947. “That’s what she wants us to believe,” Sen. Graham said. http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/fox-new-evidence-hillary-killed-lincoln

Let's see if their content will post right... Samurai Burger's Awful Menu Samurai Burgers taste like Shih-tzu! Samurai Burger is devoted to poisoning customers service, low quality food and quick delivery death to all customers. They We hope you will die! enjoy ordering from us. Because if you die are not happy then we will have to discuss with you why you are not they will be happy. And then you will probably not be happy either. If you catch our drift. Samurai Burger is evil! Here is proof! ITEM DESCRIPTION 1. Cat Burger 2. Regular Weiner Dog 3. Jumbo Weiner Dog 4. Ferret (With Dipping Sauce) 5. Cup-o-Gerbil 6. Pint-o-Kitty 7. Puppy Burger 8. Moo Shu Bunny 9. Kitten Stew 10. Deep-Fried Puppies amurai Burger uses only fresh pets from Pets or Food.com

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RIP. Albert Maysles, Grey Gardens Documentarian, Dies At 88 Emmy Award-winning documentarian Albert Maysles died last night at the age of 88 at his home in Manhattan. Maysles is probably best known for Grey Gardens and Gimme Shelter, both of which he worked on with his brother David, who died in 1987. The brothers won two Emmys, but neither for the aforementioned documentaries—in the 1980s they won for Vladimir Horowitz: The Last Romantic and in 1991 for Soldiers of Music. You may also be familiar with one of their six films on installation artist Christo (count 'em), including 2005's The Gates and Christo's Valley Curtain, which was nominated for an Oscar in 1974. In their obituary for Albert Maysles today, the NY Times recalls their 1994 interview with him, where he told the paper, “Making a film isn’t finding the answer to a question; it’s trying to capture life as it is." Here he is talking shop a few years ago: In February, it was announced that Grey Gardens would be coming back to the big screen following a makeover, and today is the first day of its six-day run at the Film Forum. http://gothamist.com/2015/03/06/albert_maysles_rip.php

Dept. of May Not Be a Joke...

Better that than what hurts the morning after you eat too much vindaloo.

Harper Lee tells inquisitive journalist to 'go away!' To Kill a Mockingbird author sends written rebuff to reporter inquiring about forthcoming sequel Go Set a Watchman The Guardian An investigative reporter in Alabama has become the first journalist to receive a direct response from Harper Lee following her unexpected announcement that she would be releasing a sequel to her much-beloved, Pulitzer-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird this summer. Unfortunately for Al.com’s Connor Sheets, the reclusive author’s response to his heartfelt plea for comment turned out to be an unequivocal: “Go Away!” After Lee said last month, via her lawyer Tonja Carter and agent Andrew Nurnberg, that she would be publishing her second novel, Go Set a Watchman, on 14 July, Sheets made what he described as “repeated attempts” to reach her. He visited the nursing home where the 88-year-old author currently resides, in Monroeville, Alabama, contacted her lawyer and her publisher, and interviewed residents of her hometown. He then wrote her a two-page letter, which he posted to her last week, laying out how he had spoken with Lee’s acquaintances in Monroeville, how “most of them are concerned about you and what is happening with Go Set a Watchman and your legacy”, and how “many worry that maybe you are being exploited”. “No one wants to believe these things, but all we have heard from you since the announcement that you would be releasing a second novel is statements through Carter and your publisher. The people who love your work would love to hear what you have to say in your own words, to hear it straight from you and not through the filter of an intermediary,” wrote Sheets. “I realise you may never receive this letter, and that if you do you will likely crumple it up, throw it in the garbage, and never think of it again … I hope that you’ll respond, even if it’s just to say, ‘Heck no – go back to New York.’ And if not, I do wish you good luck. We are all looking forward to reading the second Harper Lee novel, but only if you really want us to.” Yesterday, Sheets writes for Al.com, he received an envelope containing his letter, “wrinkled and refolded”, with the words “Go Away! Harper Lee” scrawled at the bottom. Information about Go Set a Watchman has been tightly controlled since its existence was announced to the world, with Nurnberg insisting that interested foreign publishers travel to London read the manuscript in person in his office, according to the US trade paper Publishers Weekly. Lee has previously issued two statements about the novel, which was completed before To Kill a Mockingbird and features an adult Scout returning to her hometown Maycomb. The first announcement, which came via her publisher’s press release, saw Lee say that she “hadn’t realised” the manuscript of Go Set a Watchman “had survived, so was surprised and delighted when my dear friend and lawyer Tonja Carter discovered it”. Describing the novel as “a pretty decent effort”, Lee added that “after much thought and hesitation I shared it with a handful of people I trust and was pleased to hear that they considered it worthy of publication. I am humbled and amazed that this will now be published after all these years.” The initial delight at the news from her millions of fans around the world was followed by concern that the situation indicated, as Lee’s biographer Charles Shields put it, “an elderly woman who’s getting poor advice”. A second statement was then issued via Lee’s lawyer Carter. “I’m alive and kicking and happy as hell with the reactions to Watchman,” Lee said. Despite journalists from around the world flocking to Monroeville in an attempt to speak to Lee, or Carter, directly, Sheets is the first to land direct comment – albeit by post, and amounting to what he described as “four words and one punctuation mark scrawled in cursive Sharpie” – from the novelist. “It appears that Nelle, as her friends call her, is very much with it, that she is still lucid and that her acerbic, press-averse side is fully intact,” he wrote for Al.com. “Not only does the handwriting have the same careless curlicues and vague vowels of verified Lee signatures I’ve seen in the past, but it also expresses a sentiment similar to those she has directed in the direction of poky journalists for several decades.” Lee is said to handwrite her responses to interview requests, telling the New York Times in 2006 that her form response would be “hell, no”. “She may have softened her language as she has advanced well into her golden years, but the thrust is the same: leave her alone,” wrote Sheets, adding that he would be buying a frame “for this snippet of derision from a true national treasure”. http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/mar/05/harper-lee-journalist-go-away-to-kill-a-mockingbird-sequel-go-set-a-watchman

And away we go. Supreme Court Sets Date For Same-Sex Marriage Arguments Audio of the proceedings will be made available the same day AP (WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court will hear arguments over same-sex marriage on April 28 and make audio of the proceedings available later that day. The gay marriage cases mark the only time this term that the court has agreed to the quick release of audio recordings. But the court is continuing its ban on providing video of its sessions or even live-streamed audio. The arguments on gay marriage have been allotted two-and-a-half hours on the final Tuesday in April. Audio and the transcript of the proceedings should be available on the court’s website by 2 p.m. EDT, the court said Thursday in a statement. The justices denied a request from The Associated Press and other media outlets for the quick release of audio of the argument Wednesday over the tax subsidies that are part of the health care overhaul. That audio will be made available on Friday. The gay marriage cases come from the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, so far the only federal appellate court that has upheld state bans on same-sex marriages since the justices’ 2013 ruling striking down part of the federal anti-gay marriage law. Lawyers on both sides will get 90 minutes to argue whether gay and lesbian couples have a constitutional right to marry everywhere in the U.S. Another hour will be devoted to the question of whether states must recognize same-sex unions performed elsewhere. A decision is expected before July. http://time.com/3733943/supreme-court-sex-marriage/

Maybe a date with Michael Musto?

So you hijack it yourself. Well done!