History – Page 55 – Tacky Raccoons

May 4 1970 – Remember Kent State

It all started when anti-war protesters from off-campus showed up by Friday, 1 May 1970 to host a May Day protest rally. That night, a handful of idiots decided that it was a good idea to get drunk and start trashing Water Street. The police quelled the violence within an hour.

The Police Department contacted the Mayor who contacted the Governor of Ohio who contacted the National Guard.

The next day, the National Guard was on campus. That Saturday night another handful of idiots decided to set fire to the ROTC building, and sabotaged Fire Department’s efforts to stop the blaze by slashing the hoses.

The National Guard was made up of young men the same age as the students. Not much happened on Sunday, 3 May.

On Monday, 4 May, the agitators cranked it up a notch, and someone in the National Guard gave the order to shoot across the Prentiss Hall parking lot from the front of Taylor Hall, the School of Architecture Building. Four students were killed, nine wounded.

There was a lot of overreaction on 4 May 1970, but who lit the fuse? The handful of vandals that started throwing rocks and bottles on Water Street, or the handful of idiots who burned the ROTC building on campus? What about the rally organizers who were neither students nor residents of Kent, Ohio, and arrived by the busload? Unless I’m mistaken, none of them were ever brought to trial. It was entirely the National Guard’s fault. Right.

Note that the sub-genius that produced this video and posted it on the Utoobage got the date wrong (a lot of the “documentaries” have blatant factual errors), and the original version had the requisite soundtrack: “Ohio” by CSN&Y.

[There’s a pretty good 2nd hand factual account of the KSU tragedy here. Wikipedia also has an entry. Previously posted here.]

And on this day, Awesome happened.

Shortly after recording what was arguably their best album at Abbey Road Studios, the Fab Four crossed that now famous intersection and posed for this publicity shot. (L to R: Paul, George, John and Ringo.)

Some say the Beatles were too popular, but you’ve got to admit that without “the British Invasion” of the 1960s there’d likely be no Tacky Raccoons.

[Image found here, crossposted here.]

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Update: This is disturbing.

25 April – ANZAC DAY

Here’s to all the diggers.

Using letters, diaries and photographs, The Sunday Age recounts events through the eyes of the diggers who battled on amid despair and death. Jonathan King reports.

APRIL – THE LANDING

The great challenge for the Anzacs on April 25 was to land at Anzac Cove against formidable opposition from the Turks and then dig in. We are now within a mile of the shore and the din has increased… the whole side of the mountains seems to be sending forth tongues of flame and the bullets fairly rain upon us… the water is churned up from rifle fire, machine-guns, Maxims, shrapnel and common shells… seven of the boys in our boat are killed and God knows how many in the others.

Continue reading “25 April – ANZAC DAY”

One Easter Egg

A Kosovo Serb peels an Easter egg during an Orthodox Easter service in a fire-gutted Serbian church, burned in 2004 by ethnic Albanians, in Mitrovica, 40 kilometres (30 miles) north of the Kosovo capital Pristina, April 5, 2010.

[More great images, including this one, from here. The history of the Easter Egg may be found here.]

Steam Powered Flying Breasts

This makes perfect sense on some level that I’m not aware of. Here’s a bit of trivia: The name manatee is an English corruption of “manatí” from the language of the Taíno, a pre-Columbian people of the Caribbean.

“Manatí” means “breast” in Taíno, hence the titillating title.

[Found here.]

We Heard You Were Coming

Obvious inspiration for someone whose initials are Walt Disney.

[Found here.]

Saturday Matinee – Xylophone Ad, Joey Ramone, New York Dolls, The Milenberg Joys, Red Nichols

A wooden ball is set atop a long, wooden structure that might be a xylophone or a marimba, constructed in the middle of the woods. As the ball rolls downward, dropping onto each wooden “key,” it plays a note, and suddenly we are hearing Bach’s Cantata 147, “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.” .. “We did not add any artificial music at all,” Harano wrote (though they did adjust some levels to “bring out the sound of river and nature”).

Yeah, ultimately it’s a commercial, but it’s still very very cool. [via]

R.I.P. Joey Ramone (d. 15 April 2001)

The New York Dolls were stuck between classic rock and proto-punk, but they had that pseudo-tranny stuff going on that turned off a lot of potential fans, at least in my opinion.

[Deleted the video. Screw ’em since they’ve blocked embedded links. If they don’t want free advertisement, then they shouldn’t post it on the Utoobage.]

The Katzenjammers. Nice trumpetingness. [h/t to Bunkessa]

So, in place of a cool video of the folks originally posted above, here are The Milenberg Joys. I think they had more talent than that Katzjamband anyway.

Red Nichols & His Five Pennies were awesome in their time.

Speaking of time, I’m out of it. Have a great weekend, folks. Be back here tomorrow for more fun.

Saturday Matinee – Nippoless Nippleby, Dan Hicks, Leon Redbone, 80s Ragtime

Nice absurd animation from the 1980s.

Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks were mildly successful in the 70s with their 1930s hot club jazz/bluegrass style. “Crazy ‘Cause He Is” was my favorite Hicks ditty. (NSFK: flip off in the vid image, mild language warning. Fun song otherwise.)

Leon Redbone’s version of “Polly Wolly Doodle.” According to Wiki, there’s no secret meaning to the song, but here’s a verse I’d never heard:

“Behind the barn, down on my knees,
Sing Polly Wolly Doodle all the day;
I thought I heard a chicken sneeze,
Sing Polly Wolly Doodle all the day.
Oh he sneezed so hard with the whooping cough,
Sing Polly Wolly Doodle all the day;
He sneezed his head and his tail right off,
Sing Polly Wolly Doodle all the day.”

I suspect that the song predates The War Between The States even though the popular tune is played in ragtime. So let’s play some ragtime!

Yep. 1980s hits played in ragtime. There’s something wrong with piano players who can pull off stuff like this (actually, I think there’s something wrong with piano players in general). Must be a subconscious and deep-rooted jealousy thing just because I can’t do what they do.

And with that, we’re done. Have a great weekend, folks. Be back here tomorrow for more fun.

The First Jimmy Buffett Fan

[Found here.]

Saturday Matinee – Island Soccer, ZZ Embarasses A Keeper, Pencil Test, Technological Threat & Rocket Pen

Great video worth watching. Pure awesome. [via]

Remember “Zezu” Zidane’s infamous headbutt at the 2006 World Cup? He’s running a training camp now. Here’s some more of his dickery.

In 1986, this was state of the art computer animation. Here’s Pixar’s “pencil test” of the most recognizable early computer animation of all time.

In 1988, Brian Jennings’ and Bill Kroyer’s “Technological Threat” combined digital animation with Tex Avery’s classic style. It was nominated for best animation short (but was beat out by Pixar’s “Tin Toy”).