Category: History

Dead Stuffed Cat Hot Links

Crappy Taxidermy Cat Fail

Spotted this machine here, and all I can say is WOW.

The following is the Feb. 29, 2016 Medal of Honor award ceremony for Chief Special Warfare Operator (SEAL) Edward C. Byers Jr. who won the award during actions he took in a hostage rescue in 2012. [Jump to 00:16:00 to hear his story.]

Scientists have discovered a way to extend the lives of lab mice by 40 percent. Somehow that’s darkly humorous to me.

This is a must read for all voters: Dr. Thomas Sowell.

Foxes are idiots.

The Star Wars paintings of 1920 Soviet Russia.

The Museum of Communism, Prague.

Happy Birthday, Ella Logan.

Purple.

[Top image from here.]

 

Socialist Merry Go Round

Playground USSR

[Found here. The original image comes from a Russian website according to Tineye.]

Saturday Matinee – Big Boy Crudup, Pee Wee King, The Duprees & The Tedeschi Trucks Band

Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup (1905-1974) recorded “That’s All Right” in 1946, and was dubbed “The Father of Rock and Roll.” Crudup spent his life as a farmer and a moonshiner, and although a talented bluesman from Mississippi, he received few if any royalties for his songs that were covered by many, including Elvis Presley, Elton John and Rod Stewart. Crudup got chumped by the recording industry, and eventually went Galt – he decided that if he couldn’t get a piece of the action, why record at all.

1946 was the same year Pee Wee King recorded the classic “Tennessee Waltz.” (I wasn’t anywhere near being born then. The first version I remember was by Spike Jones and His City Slickers, and I wasn’t born then either, but I got a 45rpm copy, and here’s the flip side.)

Here’s The Duprees‘ version of “You Belong To Me,” and the song is not about slavery.

Nice blues rock jam from husband & wife team known as The Tedeschi Trucks Band.

That’s a wrap for this edition of the Saturday Matinee. Have a great weekend folks.

NASA 1965

Gemini SpacecraftAstronauts James McDivitt and Ed White inside the Gemini spacecraft for a simulated launch at Cape Canaveral, Florida, 1965

[Image and caption found here.] More about Ed White here.

Alfred Hitchcock’s Storyboards

Storyboards are planning tools, cartoon sketches that depict critical or pertinent scenes in animation, movies (and even amusement park rides). It’s an easy editing process for something that has yet to be filmed, but you already knew that, ya? Have you seen any? Check out these thumbnails.

Jamaica Inn 1936
Jamaica Inn 1936.

Saboteur 1942

Saboteur 1942 2
Saboteur 1942.

Vertigo 1958
Vertigo 1958.

The Birds 1963
The Birds 1963.

Marnie 1964
Marnie 1964.

Family Plot 1976
Family Plot 1976.

Alfred Hitchcock used storyboards for all his movies, and there’s a nice collection here [via].

Saturday Matinee – Russian Love Bugs, Romanian Finger Flute, Buddy Guy & Stevie Ray Vaughan

Love Bugs in 1912 Moscow. [via]

„Digi Fonful” ieste un instrument muzical inventat de Ştefan Popescu, fost concurent la „Românii au talent .În ciuda numelui, instrumentul nu are nicio componentă digitală. Digi Fonful, care seamănă cu un fluier, este făcut să cânte cu ajutorul unui deget introdus într-un capăt al intrumentului şi al aerului suflat printr-un orificiu.În clipul de mai sus îl puteţi vedea pe cel mai mare „virtuoz” al Digi Fonfului, Ştefan Popescu, în acţiune.

Well, duh. [via]

Buddy Guy from February 2015, pushing 80 years at the time of that interview. He always looked like he had fun playing, as he did in this 1989 vid with Stevie Ray Vaughan:

That wraps it up for this edition of the Saturday Matinee. Have a great weekend, and we’ll have more fun tomorrow.

The .Gif Friday Post No. 422 – Awesome Dog, Windshield Destruction & 1900s Beirut

Awesome Dog Is Awesome
Enough to piss you off
Beirut 1900s

[Found here, here and here.]

Arcul de Triumf Bucharest

Bucharest-monument

In response to this post, fellow blogger wheels sent me the photo above with this caption:

Reminds me of what I saw on a trip to eastern Europe (Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria). When they put up scaffolding around a monument or building for repair work, they put up screening fabric printed with an image of what it looks like.

That’s the Arcul de Triumf, a monument dedicated to the veterans of Romania’s War of Independence against the oppression of the Ottoman Empire (and later for Romania’s role in WWI). This is its 3rd incarnation: the 1st was wooden, erected in 1878. It was replaced with another in 1922, then that one was demolished and rebuilt in 1936. So what’s behind the curtain? This:

Arcul de Triumf Bucharest December 2015

Apparently, that poor guy in the red car has been trapped in the roundabout since December 2015.

Here’s what it’s supposed to look like:

Arcul de Triumf Bucharest

1907 Berlin Street Sweeper

Street Sweeper Berlin 1907

Just spreading it around. [Found here.]

1930 College Yearbook Stereotypes

1930 Cactus

1930s college majors: MRS, Meteorology, English Literature, Chemistry, Law & Architecture. Draw your own conclusions.

[Found here.]