After a very sting showing at last week's debate, new polls show that Romney has made the race a lot tighter, with both candidates tied with 47% support. Romney was strong and confident in his answers while Obama was staring at the floor while Mitt spoke. Obama poked fun at his poor debate performance at a concert Sunday night with Jennifer Hudson, Bon Jovi, Katy Perry and Stevie Wonder saying "They're such great friends and they just perform flawlessly night after night. I can't always say the same." Barack and Michelle's anniversary also fell on debate night; "There was some speculation as to whether this had an impact on my performance. But I did make it up to her on Saturday." The second debate is scheduled for October 16 at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, taking on a town meeting style format where citizens will ask questions to the candidates on foreign and domestic issues. The folks who are asking the questions are undecided voters, looking to have their minds made up, and those nation wide who are on the fence would love any reason at all to not vote for Romney better hope that Obama comes better prepared.
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A skydiver by the name of Felix Baumgartner is attempting a jump from 120,000 ft up in the air, on the edge of space with nothing but a helmet, a space suit and a parachute (and a set of balls the size of Cincinnati). The jump took place this morning (Tuesday) at dawn. "I'm not nuts. You know, our records are meant to be broken, and I'm a very competitive person. I like the challenge," said Baumgartner. He and primary sponsor Red Bull Energy Drink have been working years on taking care of any precautions and insurance (I hope) risks. His ascent will be in a capsule hanging from a helium balloon rising for two to three hours before he climbs out of the capsule and does a swan dive off a step, tucking into a couching "delta" position that will maximize his speed. He then will fall 115,000 feet in five minutes before deploying his parachute for the final 5,000 feet. The apparent risk without the space suit include jumping through temperatures of 70 degrees below Fahrenehit and going through an atmosphere so this that his blood would vaporize. UPDATE: Still on live, but they are saying that the jump isn't happening today because of too brisk winds, and then there was problem with one of the capsules two radios going down. Here's some video from a test jump:
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Star Wars for the upper crust. George Lucas' icon franchise now has an exhibit in the Louvre. There's no actual art involved. It is actual the private toy collection of toy vendor Arnaud Grunberg who has been collecting memorabilia from the series since he saw the original film when he was 11 years old in 1977. The exhibit shows off more that 450 items from the franchises' 35 year history. The goodies include action figures, Yoda masks, Chewbacca coffee mugs, film posters, C-3P0 tape dispensers and Darth Vader Who's Your Daddy (unused) condoms. They also featured recreations of scenes including the attack on the Death Star and the Jedi arena lightsabre battle) made out of action figure and their accompanying vehicles.
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The Beatles first single "Love Me Do" hit record stores all over the UK on October 5, 1962, or 50 years ago (not to mention John's 72nd birthday would be today). The song was written, or at least started by Paul McCartney in 1958 when Paul was 16 years old playing hooky from school. He sat down with Lennon and fleshed out the rest of the song. "It was completely co-written. It might have been my original idea, but some of them really were 50-50s, and I think that one was. It was just Lennon and McCartney sitting down without either of us having a particularly original idea." Lennon's take on the song in a 1980 interview differ from Paul's account. "'Love Me Do' is Paul's song. Let me think. I Might have helped with the middle either, but I couldn't swear to it. I do know he had the song around, in Hamburg, even, way, way, before we were songwriters." George Harrison said "First hearing 'Love Me Do' on the radio sent me shivery all over. It was the best buzz of all time… After having got to 17, I don't recall what happened to it. It probably went away and died, but what it meant was the next time we went to EMI they were more friendly: 'Oh, hello, lads. Come in."
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Cornelius Crane Chase is 69 years old yesterday, October 8th. This funny man was born to an upper crust Manhattan family in 1943 and the name Chevy was bestowed by his grandmother after "The Ballad of Chevy Chase." Chevy always saw himself as a doctor, but had a change of heart, perhaps after attending a school careers worth of stuffy shirts at private schools and wound up playing drums in a band called the Leather Canary with Walter Becker and Donald Fagen who would later found Steely Dan. Chevy then played drums and keys in a rock band called Chamaeleon Church who put out one major label album before disbanding in 1969. Chevy did many odd jobs, before finally being cast along with future SNLers John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray and Brian-Doyle Murray on the National Lampoon's Radio Hour and appeared with Belushi in National Lampoon's revue called "Lemmings." Chevy was originally hired as a writer on NBC's new sketch comedy show "Saturday Night" in 1975, but shortly before the first episode he was made a feature player and quickly became a the most popular performer on the show. His early schtick included the opening "Fall of the Week" where Chevy falls in some ridiculous manner, then look up at the camera before he utters "LIVE FROM NEW YORK, IT'S SATURDAY NIGHT." He was also the original anchor on SNL's Weekend Update. He left the show after a season and change to peruse a woman and a movie career, neither of which worked out that well. Classics like the four films in the National Lampoon's "Vacation" series, "Fletch" (and "Fletch Lives") and "Caddyshack" have been negated too many times by crap like "Foul Play," "Funny Farm," or "Cops & Robbersons." After years of releasing movies over seas, not to mention numerous failed talk shows and pilots, Chevy has had a career resurgence playing Pierce Hawthorne on NBC's "Community" since 2009. Happy birthday Cornelius!
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Not that I usually care too much about the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame, but that very institution has announced its 2013 nominees and I could help but take a look at the list. Pretty eclectic. Some worthy, some I'd like to bury underneath the HOF. Anyways, the nominees include Deep Purple, Heart, Donna Summer, Joan Jett, NWA, Public Enemy, Randy Newman and Rush. Randy Newman? Really? I still don't know how anyone can listen to his voice. He sounds likes [EXPLETIVES DELETED]. I don't see how Rush and Deep Purple don't make it. Mainly since they are the only bands I really listen to but I like the idea Flava Flav there rocking out with Geddy Lee and Ian Gillan whilst Randy plays a bouncy little number on the piano in the corner. The induction ceremony takes place on April 15 in Los Angeles since even Flav wouldn't be caught dead in Cleveland.
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Later this month, October 21 to be exact, also marks the 20th anniversary of the release of "Reservoir Dogs.'" The directorial debut is now stuff of legends, because of both the rapid fire dialogue and brutal violence within the film, but also how the film miraculously got made. Tarantino had been working at Video Archives video store in Manhattan Beach, California a planned to shoot on a 16mm camera on a budget of $60,000. A script happen to fall off the back of a truck and into the hands of Harvey Keitel, who loved the script and was able to secure an additional $1.5 million in financing. The movie follows the aftermath of a diamond heist by six gangsters and their boss Joe, and his son "Nice Guy" Eddie. One of the six men is a cop who tipped off officers about the heist and the film show the events leading up to the heist in flashbacks, and despite the fact we know who the cop is long before any of the gang members doesn't take away anything from this dark, grisly, and surprisingly funny film, Empire Magazine's "Greatest Independent Film Of All Time."
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