Saturday, July 2, 2011
FOOD AND TRAVEL … GREECE
Greece
From olives to octopus, the true taste of Greece depends on fresh, unadulterated staples. Masking or complicating original flavours is not the done thing, especially when you’re dealing with oven-fresh bread, rosy tomatoes and fish fresh from the Mediterranean. The midday meal is the main event with a procession of goodies brought to the table as they’re ready. With Wednesday and Friday traditionally reserved as fast days (ie no-meat days), vegetarians are also looked after.
WEST SIDE STORY AND THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC
The New York Philharmonic has planned an unusual event combining music and film: On September 7 and 8, the orchestra will screen the 1961 movie version of West Side Story and perform Leonard Bernstein’s complete score live, conducted by David Newman. A newly perfected sound technology will isolates the dialogue and vocal tracks, allowing the Philharmonic to accompany the film in real time.
The West Side Story film, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary, starred Natalie Wood as Maria, Richard Beymer as Tony, Rita Moreno as Anita and George Chakiris as Bernardo. Winner of 10 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director (Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins), the movie features Bernstein’s score, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a screenplay by Ernest Lehman adapted from Arthur Laurents’ book.
The Philharmonic’s screening will feature a newly restored print of the movie from MGM HD.
CHEER LEADERS EXTRAORDINAIRE
What a great routine … and by the way did you catch the male in the team?
MORE EXOTIC FRUITS TO TRY
Dragon Fruit
Most popular in Southeast Asia, dragon fruit is eaten around the world, including in Mexico and Central and South America. This pomegranate-size fruit is quite vibrant, with bright pink skin and large, green-tipped scales; inside, it contains a white or fuchsia-coloured flesh that’s dotted with tiny black seeds. Slightly sweet and crunchy, the fruit is said to taste faintly like a mix of kiwi and pear or melon. To be eaten, it is cut down the middle and the soft inside is scooped out. Though often eaten fresh, it’s also used in juices or frozen drinks, or tossed into fruit salad.
TRIVIA BITS … THE AVERAGE
- Person falls asleep in 7 minutes
- Speed of a skydiver is 200kph (124mph)
- Human brain contains around 78% water
- Person will spend 25 years asleep
- Golf ball has 336 dimples
- Bed contains over 6 billion dust mites
- Hen lays 228 eggs a year
Friday, July 1, 2011
“TITANIC” MINI-SERIES STARTS FILMING
Filming has started on Julian Fellowes' new miniseries Titanic.
The drama, which will air on ITV in the UK and ABC in the US and hopefully in Australia, features a cast including Linus Roache, Geraldine Somerville and Timothy West. Fellowes, who most recently created ITV1 drama Downton Abbey, has penned the drama which is being produced as a 2x90 minute and 4x60 minute mini series.
It is expected to focus on the lives of the passengers and crew on the famous ship and will feature stories of romance and mystery. Both fictional and historical characters will be included in the drama.
"Each point of view will culminate in a cliff hanger as the ship begins to founder, building to an explosive conclusion which draws together each of the stories," a synopsis teased. "Viewers will be taken on a heart wrenching journey through Titanic's last hours, as the drama reveals which of the characters they have come to know so well will survive… and who does not."
The show is being filmed in Budapest on a two-tier set which includes a promenade deck, boat deck, four working lifeboats, two collapsible lifeboats, the ship's bridge, corridors and several rooms.
The team behind the drama has also built the biggest indoor tank in mainland Europe for the scenes set in water.
The project's director Jon Jones said: "It's an incredible, evocative playing space. We have built a huge section of the ship that is jam-packed with a warren of rooms arranged to allow us a sense that we have the run of the ship. Once you enter the studio, it is like boarding the ship - you get a real sense of the space. We want to get to grips with how it really was to be confined in a tiny cabin in steerage - or effortlessly ensconced in a First Class stateroom."
Titanic will air in April 2012 to mark the centenary of the ship's sinking.
TRIVIA … ANIMALS
- Macadamia nuts are toxic to dogs
- Spiders are arachnids and not insects
- Koalas sleep around 18 hours a day
- All insects have 6 legs
- African Grey Parrots have vocabularies of over 200 words
- a giraffe can clean its ears with its 21 inch tongue
- Cats have over 100 vocal chords
- Camel's milk doesn't curdle
SHAKE, RATTLE AND ROLL
Bill Haley and His Comets' cover version (Decca 9-29204) of the Joe Turner rhythm-and-blues hit Shake, Rattle and Roll spent 27 weeks on the Hot 100 chart during 1955. In 1967, Arthur Conley had a hit with a version (Atco 6494) that peaked at number 31. The song by Bill Haley and his group can be heard in the 1973 movie Let The Good Times Roll.
Arthur Conley
The first performance of Shake, Rattle and Roll in a movie was sung by The Beatles in Let It Be (197O).
Joe Turner
Atlantic president Ahmet Ertegun and composer Jesse stone both sang background vocal on Joe Turner's original (1954) version of the song (Atlantic 1'026). Jesse stone composed the song under the pseudonym of Charles Calhoun.
PHOBIAS
FEAR OF:
Of glass bottoms – hyalinopygophobia
Of going to bed – clinophobia
Of heredity – patroiophobia
Of home - oikophobia
Of human beings – anthropophobia
Of ideas – ideophobia
Of imperfection – atelophobia
Of infinity – apeirophobia
Of justice – dikephobia
Of leaves – phyllophobia
LAKE BLED, SLOVENIA
Lake Bled, Slovenia
Lake Bled is located in Slovenia in the region of Upper Carniola.
It takes it’s name after the Bled castle. The lake finds it’s beauty in the reflection of the marvellously beautiful castle standing magnificently on a rock overlooking the lake. It is a well known tourist attraction because of it’s mystic and royal appearance and cultural rooting of the castle.
It is a famous spot for love buds, tourists, painters, and sportsmen. It offers sports activities like golf, boating, rowing, fishing, horse riding and trekking. Bled hosts the World’s Rowing Championships.
The island on the lake has 99 steps and a beautiful and touching tradition is that groom carries his bride up these steps on their wedding day.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
DISCOVERING … TELLY SAVALAS
Telly Savalas was teaching adult-education classes in Garden City, New Jersey, when an agent asked him if he knew an actor who could speak with a European accent. He tried out himself and landed a part in Armstrong Circle Theatre on television.
LANGUAGE … PHOBIAS
FEAR OF:
Of dreams – oneirophobia
Of drinks – potophobia
Of enclosed spaces – claustrophobia
Of everything – panphobia
Of eyes – ommatophobia
Of fall of man-made satellites – keraunothnetophobia
Of feathers – pteronophobia
Of flashes – selaphobia
Of flutes – aulophobia
Of fur – doraphobia