• Early in his career, pianist Denis Matthews played the music for a performance by German dancer Annie Fligg. Unfortunately, during the performance, a misunderstanding occurred. In one dance, each time she came by Mr. Matthews, she hissed the word “fast!” at him. Mr. Matthews thought that she was telling him to go fast, so he speeded up the music. Actually, she was trying to tell him that the music was too fast. (Fortunately, she survived the dance, although the tempo almost caused her to have a heart attack.)
• Sir Thomas Beecham once conducted a performance of Mili Balakireff’s Tamara, but he did not make concessions to the dancers; instead, if anything, he speeded up the tempo, making the dancers work very hard to keep up with the music. After the piece was finished, Sir Thomas said, “That made the buggers hop!”
Theater
• August Wilson has written many plays about the Black Experience, including The Piano Lesson, in which Charles S. Dutton danced with his back to the audience. Caricaturist Sam Norkin felt that this was a brilliant idea, as it kept a serious play from appearing to be a musical. However, later Mr. Norkin learned that Mr. Dutton danced in this way because he was “bashful” about his dancing, although the play’s director, Lloyd Richards, wanted him to face the audience.
• A Broadway show called Strike Me Pink had a chorus line that consisted mostly of the girlfriends of the financial backers of the show. One backer of the show, Waxey Gordon, saw a pretty chorus girl in the show and asked whose girlfriend she was. Informed that she wasn’t anyone’s girlfriend, he asked, “Then how the hell did she get into the show?”
• Sir Ralph Richardson once toured in William Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream in Quito, Ecuador, where the dancing fairies had a rough time because of the high altitude and the lack of oxygen. Quickly, the company learned to put oxygen tanks behind the trees, so the fairies could breathe in extra oxygen before dancing.
Travel
• George Balanchine wanted his dancers to learn from the places they traveled. Once, Patricia Neary was in Rome, teaching a ballet by Mr. Balanchine. She telephoned him to talk about the dancers, but Mr. Balanchine asked, “Pat, but what about Rome? What have you seen?” She honestly answered, “Nothing.” Mr. Balanchine then said, “Forget about my ballet! You’re only in Rome once. Go out and look at the beauty of Rome. The sculptures, the fountains, the Sistine Chapel — Rome. Learn!” She did.
• Anna Pavlova took her dance troupe to Japan, where H. Algeranoff purchased a cup with a design of blue reeds against a cream background for only twopence. To the Japanese, the cup was nothing special, but to foreigners, it bore the mark of perfection. Ms. Pavlova admired the cup, then she told Mr. Algeranoff, “You know, Algy, there is nothing in this country that one wants to throw away.”
• Being young and ignorant has its advantages. At the very beginning of her career, in 1928, modern dance pioneer May O’Donnell crossed the Atlantic in a ship. A very bad storm — which she called “one of the worst storms in the century” — occurred, and because she and the other young dancers did not realize in how much danger they were, they thought the rolling of the ship in the storm was fun.
• In London, while dancing Giselle, Alicia Markova performed on a stage that used lifts — remarkable for their speed — to ascend Giselle from the grave to the world of the spirits known as Wilis. One performance, as she stepped onto the lift, one of the stagehands said, “Here goes the last jet to Wili-Land!”
• When Maria Tallchief joined the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo as a 17-year-old, she was untraveled. On her first train trip with the troupe, she spent all of the first night sitting straight up in her seat — because she didn’t know how to make it recline and she didn’t want to ask anyone for help.
This statue of Libertas, a robed Roman liberty goddess, was titled La Liberté éclairant le monde by its French sculptor. By what name is this work known in English?
TV ads featuring Ludwig Stössel (voiced by Jim Backus, with yodeling by Bob Oates) used the catchphrase "The little old winemaker – me!" What brand was the little old winemaker pitching?
Italian Swiss Colony was a nineteenth- and twentieth-century American wine company and brand. Based in Asti, California, Italian Swiss Colony was at one time the leading wine producer in California.
The Italian Swiss Colony operation (then owned by National Distillers) was acquired in 1953 by Louis Petri of Petri Wine (founded in 1886). Petri shepherded the growth of Italian Swiss Colony as a mass-market brand; wine was shipped in tankers to be bottled in New York. Television ads featuring Ludwig Stössel (voiced by Jim Backus; yodeling by Bob Oates) with the catchphrase "The little old winemaker – me!" appeared regularly on American national television. (Dean Martin and others recorded a song titled on a parody of that line, "Little Old Wine Drinker Me".)
Source
Mac Mac was first, and correct, with:
Italian Swiss Colony
Mark. said:
Italian Swiss Colony.
Cal in Vermont wrote:
Italian Swiss Colony. ISC was generally regarded as plonk. It was run over from behind by Gallo with the introduction of Thunderbird. ISC countered with Bali Hai, which us idiot children called Belly Hots. But it was too little too late. The War of Bum Wines was won by Gallo which also had Night Train and the like on offer. In researching my answer to today's question, other, um, researchers wanted to know if any of these beverages would get you drunk. Boy, I guess.
Alan J answered:
Italian Swiss Colony Wine.
Dave responded:
Italian Swiss Colony. A defunct name for cheap wine, and I don’t remember the commercials. I found some on YouTube but didn’t find any with Jim Backus’ voice.
Jacqueline replied:
Italian Swiss Colony Wine
Randall wrote:
Italian Swiss Colony
mj said:
You never could miss
With Italian Swiss Colony. An early geography lesson for many.
Tony DeN replied:
I know it has the word Swiss in it but can't remember the whole name and I'm not gonna cheat and search it....lol
Billy in Cypress U.S.A. responded:
Italian Swiss Colony Wine
Deborah, the Master Gardener wrote:
He was hawking Italian Swiss Colony wine. I remember the commercials, kind of, and am pretty sure I never drank that wine. I remember that song called “That Little Old Winemaker, Me” and now it makes sense, of course.
Jim from CA, retired to ID, said:
Italian Swiss Colony
Daniel in The City answered:
Italian Swiss Colony
Barbara, of Peppy Tech fame replied:
Italian Swiss Colony wine
DJ Useo responded:
Italian Swiss Colony Wine. I had to ask a few friends until one of them remembered. Me? I don't drink...wine.
Joe S (We resisted, we voted, we won. Get over it) said:
As a teetotaler I tend to ignore ads about alcoholic drinks, so I don't know, and I don't want to find out. But I probably will.
Stephen F took the day off.
zorch took the day off.
Bob from Mechanicsburg, Pa took the day off.
Dave in Tucson took the day off.
John I from Hawai`i took the day off.
Rosemary in Columbus took the day off.
Leo in Boise took the day off.
Jon L took the day off.
David of Moon Valley took the day off.
Ed K took the day off.
Doug in Albuquerque, New Mexico, took the day off.
Roy, The Antifa Snowflake Socialist in E. Texas took the day off.
Michelle in AZ took the day off.
Kevin K. in Washington DC, Where Republicans cannot see sedition clearly, even now, took the day off.
Gary K took the day off.
-pgw took the day off.
Kenn B took the day off.
Micki took the day off.
Angelo D took the day off.
Harry M. took the day off.
George M. took the day off.
Roy the (now retired) hoghead (aka 'hoghed') ( Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid. ~Frank Zappa ) took the day off.
Saskplanner took the day off.
Gateway Mike took the day off.
Steve in Wonderful Sacramento, CA, took the day off.
MarilynofTC took the day off.
Paul of Seattle took the day off.
Brian S. took the day off.
Gene took the day off.
Tony K. took the day off.
Noel S. took the day off.
James of Alhambra took the day off.
BttbBob has returned to semi-retired status.
~~~~~
Jane Rose: Vocals, Rhythm Guitar, Backup Vocals/Harmonies
Wayne Harper: Drums, Backup Vocals
Steve Schaffner: Lead Guitar
Jeff Moon: Upright & Electric Bass
Chris Casello: Guitar, Backup Vocals
Al Hill: Organ
Robert Gay: Trumpet
Brad Warren: Sax
Holly Stone: Backup Vocals
“Makes Me Wanna Sin” Written by Jane Rose & Chris Casello
Produced by Chris Casello
Price: $1 (USD) for track; $13 (USD) for 12-track album
CBS begins the night with a FRESH"MacGyver', followed by a FRESH'Magnum PU', then a FRESH'Blue Bloods'.
On a RERUNStephen Colbert (from 1/27/21) are Billy Crystal and Rep. Jackie Speier.
On a RERUNJames Corden, OBE, (from 11/10/20) are Thomas Middleditch and Black Pumas.
NBC starts the night with a FRESH'The Blacklist', followed by 'Dateline'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Fallon are Dolly Parton, Noah Centineo, and Slowthai featuring Skepta.
On a RERUNSeth Meyers (from 1/26/21) are Ted Danson, Brooks Wheelan, and Ann Patchett.
On a RERUNLilly Singh (from 1/19/21) is Craig Robinson.
ABC opens the night with a FRESH'Shark Tank', followed by '20/20'.
On a RERUNJimmy Kimmel (from 1/26/21) are Anthony Anderson, Sal Iacono, and Death Cab for Cutie.
The CW offers a RERUN'Whose Line Is It Anyway?', followed by a RERUN'Whose Line Is It Anyway?', then a FRESH'Penn & Teller: FU'.
Faux fills the night with FRESH'WWE Friday Night SmackDown'.
MY here fills the night with LIVE'NHL Hockey'.
A&E has 3 hours of old 'The First 48', followed by a FRESH'Rescue Cam', then another FRESH'Rescue Cam'.
AMC offers the movie 'The Bourne Supremacy', followed by the movie 'The Bourne Ultimatum'.
BBC -
[6:00AM - 11:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE
[12:00PM] THE KARATE KID
[3:00PM] THE KARATE KID PART III
[5:30PM] THE KARATE KID PART II
[8:00PM] THE KARATE KID
[11:00PM] THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW
[12:00AM] THE KARATE KID
[3:00AM] THE KARATE KID PART II
[5:30AM] HIDDEN HABITATS (ALL TIMES ET)
Bravo has 'Below Deck', followed by a FRESH'Below Deck', then the movie 'Burlesque'.
Comedy Central has an hour of old 'The Office', 'Kevin Hart's Guide To Black History', followed by the movie 'Get Hard'.
FX has the movie 'Pitch Perfect 2', followed by the movie 'Pitch Perfect 3', then 2 hours of 'The Simpsons'.
History has all old 'The Proof Is Out There' all night.
IFC -
[6:00am] Community
[6:30am] Community
[7:00am] Grindhouse Presents: Planet Terror
[9:15am] Grindhouse Presents: Death Proof
[11:45am] Cheech & Chong Still Smokin'
[1:45pm] Escape From New York
[4:00pm] The 5th Wave
[6:30pm] Battle: Los Angeles
[9:00pm] Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life
[11:30pm] Battle: Los Angeles
[2:00am] The 5th Wave
[4:30am] Escape From New York (ALL TIMES ET)
Facing expulsion from SAG-AFTRA, Donald Trump (R-Lock Him Up) resigned his membership from the union Thursday, to which SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris and national executive director David White responded with two words: “Thank you.”
SAG-AFTRA’s national board, meeting in special session last month, found “probable cause” that Trump, who has been a member for over 30 years, had “violated the union’s Constitution,” and ordered the matter to be heard by SAG-AFTRA’s Disciplinary Committee. If found guilty by the committee, he could have been kicked out of the union. The charges cite the now-former U.S. President’s role in inciting the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, and his “sustaining a reckless campaign of misinformation aimed at discrediting and ultimately threatening the safety of journalists, many of whom are SAG-AFTRA members.”
In his letter of resignation today (read it in full here) addressed to Carteris, Trump said: “I write to you today regarding the so-called Disciplinary Committee hearing aimed at revoking my union membership. Who cares!”
“I’ve also greatly helped the cable news television business (said to be a dying platform with not much time left until I got involved in politics), and created thousands of jobs at networks such as MSDNC and Fake News CNN, among many others.
“I no longer wish to be associated with your union. As such, this letter is to inform you of my immediate resignation from SAG-AFTRA. You have done nothing for me.”
Another Norman Lear classic is eying a return to TV. Sony Pictures Television is developing a remake of Lear’s acclaimed 1970s series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.
It hails from Schitt’s Creek co-star Emily Hampshire, who will co-write, executive produce and star as the title character Mary Hartman; Letterkenny creator Jacob Tierney, who will co-write with Hampshire; and Lear and Brent Miller’s Act III Productions. Tierney will serve as showrunner of the series, which will be shopped to buyers in the coming weeks, I hear.
The updated Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman is about a small-town woman (Hampshire) who feels like a nobody in every aspect of her life until she suddenly becomes a “Verified” social media somebody. The remake will bring the original show’s satirical look at consumer culture into today’s social [me]dia world, where “America’s Typical Consumer Housewife” has now become the product consumed when her nervous breakdown goes viral.
Hampshire and Tierney will executive produce with Lear and Miller. Sony Pictures TV, where Lear and Miller’s Act III is under a deal, is the studio.
This year’s winners of the Carnegie medals for fiction and nonfiction, presented by the American Library Association, have each checked out a few books in their time.
“I work from libraries a lot, and my wallet is full of library cards,” says Rebecca Giggs, an Australian author whose “Fathoms: The World in the Whale” received the nonfiction prize Thursday.
James McBride, the fiction winner for “Deacon King Kong,” has library cards in four different cities and wrote parts of his novel in branches in New York City and Philadelphia.
With a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the library association established the award in 2012, with winners in each category receiving $5,000. Previous honorees include Donna Tartt, Doris Kearns Goodwin and Colson Whitehead.
McBride and Giggs each have strong childhood memories of libraries. McBride, a longtime New Yorker, would visit them often because they were a “safe space” and because his family couldn’t afford to buy many books. Giggs remembers her mother getting into aerobics “in a big way” and, a few nights a week, dropping off her and her sister at a library next door to the workout space.
Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki revealed in October 2017 that Hayao Miyazaki was ending his retirement from directing after four years in order to leave behind a feature film project for his grandson. Suzuki explained in a television interview, “Miyazaki is making the new film for his grandson. It’s his way of saying, ‘Grandpa is moving on to the next world, but he’s leaving behind this film.’” But it turns out there was another reason Miyazaki ended his retirement, and it’s the simple fact that he was too restless for a life of retirement.
Speaking to /Film ahead of the HBO Max streaming release of “Earwig and the Witch,” Hayao Miyazaki’s son and fellow filmmaker Goro Miyazkai said his father’s retirement got so aimless that Hayao “needed to create something in order to live, basically.” Studio Ghibli reopened its animation facility for production on “Earwig” and Hayao’s upcoming feature film “How Do You Live?,” the experience of which Goro touched upon.
“I did ‘Ronja, the Robber’s Daughter,’ a TV series, with an outside studio. After doing that, when I came back to Studio Ghibli, nobody was here and it was like storage, very empty,” Goro said. “And I thought, ‘Okay, so I won’t be making films anymore.’ And when I saw Toshio Suzuki, our producer, he actually looked happy, and said, ‘I can retire now!’ But then Hayao Miyazaki, he wasn’t able to stay away that long. He needed to create something in order to live, basically. So he started with making a short film for the [Ghibli] museum, and then he went on to making his new feature-length film.”
Goro continued, “Hayao Miyazaki’s wife, who is my mother, she used to say [to him], ‘I wish you would retire and take it easy and enjoy the rest of your life.’ But recently, she’s come to accept the fact that he cannot stop creating, so she knows that, so she’ll be like, ‘Okay, if you’d rather create until the end of your life, then go to the studio, go to the office everyday.'”
The ex-president’s second oldest son has once again rallied to defend his father with the ambitious claim that “there’s never been a more beloved political figure” in the United States than Donald Trump (R-Lock Him Up).
Speaking to Sean Hannity (R-Goebbels Ghost) on Fox News on Tuesday, Eric Trump (R-Look At Me, Daddy) voiced resentment at the upcoming Senate trial facing his father after the House impeached him while president.
“They tried to manufacture everything under the sun against my father, against all of us,” he said, speaking of the Democrats' decision to impeach Mr Trump in the wake of the deadly Capitol riot on 6 January.
He then incorrectly added: “They do it every single day. They continue to do it. Even when he’s a private citizen, they’re still trying to impeach him.”
Eric Trump then went on to make the doubtful claim that: “They know he did a great job for this nation. They know that there’s never been a more beloved political figure in our country’s history.”
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem claimed in a Fox News interview on Tuesday that, thanks to her state’s “unique” approach to the coronavirus pandemic, they “got through it better than virtually every other state.”
Noem, a Republican who has opposed mask mandates and many pandemic-related restrictions, delivered the boast after Fox host Laura Ingraham favorably compared South Dakota’s health and economic performance to that of more strict and Democratic-run New York. Ingraham then asked Noem why the media has targeted her for criticism.
Noem said, “You know, Laura, I really think it’s about control. They have used, for the last year, fear to control people.” Noem continued that since the “science” made clear it was impossible to completely stop the virus, only to slow it down and protect “vulnerable” people, she decided to “allow people to be flexible — to take care of their families and still put food on the table.”
“That was a unique approach that, for our people, really worked well. We did have tragedies, and we did have losses, but we also got through it better than virtually every other state. And I think the media hates that,” Noem said. “Because it really is a testimony to what Republicans believe in, what conservatives believe in.”
Facts First: Noem’s claim that South Dakota “got through it better than virtually every other state” is false with regard to public health: South Dakota has had the second-most coronavirus cases per capita and is in a tie with Connecticut for the sixth-most coronavirus deaths per capita, according to Johns Hopkins University data as of Thursday.
Proposal to Prevent the Feminisation of Male Adolescents
China
A notice from China's education ministry has caused a stir after it suggested young Chinese men had become too "feminine". The message has been criticised as sexist by many online users - but some say China's male celebrities are partly to blame.
For a while China's government has signalled concern that the country's most popular male role models are no longer strong, athletic figures like "army heroes". Even President Xi Jinping, a well-known football enthusiast, has long been seeking to cultivate better sports stars.
So last week, the education ministry issued a notice with a title that left no doubt about its ultimate goal.
The Proposal to Prevent the Feminisation of Male Adolescents called on schools to fully reform their offerings on physical education and strengthen their recruitment of teachers.
The text advised recruiting retired athletes and people from sporting backgrounds - and "vigorously developing" particular sports like football with a view to "cultivating students' masculinity".
For some cancer patients, a "poop transplant" could boost the positive effects of immunotherapy, a treatment designed to rally the immune system against cancer cells.
Not all cancer patients respond to immunotherapy drugs. For example, only about 40% of patients with advanced melanoma, a type of skin cancer, reap long-term benefit from the drugs, according to recent estimates. In trying to pinpoint the differences between patients who respond well to immunotherapy and those who don't, scientists have zeroed in on a likely suspect: the microorganisms living in their guts.
Now, a new study, published Feb. 4 in the journal Science, adds to the growing evidence that having the right gut bugs can improve a patient's response to immunotherapy, helping to stop disease progression or even shrink tumors.
In the study, scientists collected stool from melanoma patients who responded well to immunotherapy and then transplanted their feces (and microbes) into the guts of 15 patients who had never previously responded to the drugs. After the transplant, six of the 15 patients responded to immunotherapy for the first time, showing either tumor reduction or disease stabilization that lasted more than a year.
Other research showed that when human patients took antibiotics, which alter the gut microbiome, they were less likely to respond to immunotherapy, providing more evidence that gut bugs make a big difference in people, too.
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has returned to semi-retired status.
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