20-Word Fiction (7 of 10): The Saturday Night Bath

Greetings to our blog readers in Germany, Ireland and Hungary....

Yes, we know this image of Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy from "Adam's Rib" (1949) doesn't go with our title, which we came up with thanks to Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin's surreal art film "The Forbidden Room," which came out theatrically last year.

But, once you take the time to read this short, short story, perhaps you will understand or perhaps you will not!:

"Molly want to go to the movies with her friends tonight. Netflix is always my backup plan. I need alternatives!"....

If you are actually interested in going to the movies, then you may want to see the critically acclaimed film "Sunset Song" at the Film Forum in New York.

Meanwhile, two college town cinemas The Lyric Theatre in Blacksburg, Va., and The Varsity Theatre in Chapel Hill, NC, are both showing the animated children's film "Zootopia."

Check the links below for more information:

http://www.filmforum.org

http://www.thelyric.com

http://www.varsityonfranklin.com

The Last Ten Records We've Listened To: New Wave and Soft Rock

Greetings to our blog readers in Hong Kong, Ireland and Israel: Well, we thought finding an image of the Cesar Romero Joker from the '60s tv version of "Batman" with Adam Best would easier to use than one of the late Heath Ledger in the same role for one of the franchise blockbuster movies, but actually the reverse is true!

Here are the last ten records we have listened to........

1. Nick Lowe. The Rose of England. 1985.

2. The Tubes. Now. 1977.

3. The Steve Miller Band. The Joker. 1973

4. Badfinger. Magic Christian Music. 1971

5. Slade. Stomp Your Hands and Clap Your Feet*. 1974.

6. Culture Club. Kissing to Be Clever. 1982.

7. The Plastics**. Welcome Back. 1981.

8. Chris de Burgh. The Getaway. 1982.

9. Sad Cafe. Sad Cafe.*** 1980

10. Squeeze. Cool for Cats. 1979 (pict. top)

*- Album was released as "Old Borrowed and Blue" in U.K.

**- A short-lived Japanese New Wave band.

***-This was actually not the band's first record.

Sunday Comics Survey for Jan.4th Roanoke Times: Get Fuzzy Comes in Second Yet Again

Greetings to our blog readers in South Korea, Ireland and Russia........

Our favorite Sunday comic strip of the week was "Doonesbury." In today's strip, a patriotic man approaches a War in Iraq veteran and thanks for him for his service, but the former solider expresses misgivings about his years of combat, which provides for an awwwkward moment. Yes, this is also the reason why we have an image of Saddam Hussein at the top of our page.

Second place went to "Get Fuzzy" for the third or fourth week in a row; the strip is usually runner up to "Pearls Before Swine," which featured a pun about John Lennon (pictured bottom) songs, which finished fourth today in our survey.

Third place went to Dave Coverly's single panel jam, which was one of many strips today that had prison jokes......yeah, what's up with that?

Amazingly enough, "Family Circus" made our top ten for the third or fourth week in a row, and "For Better or For Worse," actually made our top ten for the first time since like 2003.......

Here is our top ten:

1. Doonesbury

2. Get Fuzzy

3. Speed Bump

4. Pearls Before Swine

5. Agnes

6. Dilbert

7. Non Sequitur

8. Jump Start

9. Family Circus

10. For Better or For Worse

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com (for this week's "Washington Post" comics survey)

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.roanokedoesntsuck.com

http://www.comicskingdom.com

http://www.gocomics.com

How to Say Turtle in Four Different Languages

Perhaps, it is because we love the comic strip "Sherman's Lagoon" (see last entry), which features not only the exploits of Hawthrone the Hermit Crab, but also Fillmore the Sea Turtle or because we like the folk/rock band Trampled by Turtles, from Minnesota, that will perform at Newport Music Hall in Columbus, Ohio, once they have finished touring the United Kingdom and Ireland, but we thought we'd look up the word for turtles in eight different languages.

The other four will be posted on our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Times:" http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoftime.blogspot.com


Here we go:

1) Kaplumbaga- Turkish pronounced Kap-loom-baah

2) Schildpad- Dutch

3) Zelva-Czech

4) Tartaruga- Italian

http://www.slagoon.com

http://www.trampledbyturrtles.com

Parade of Nations (three of four)_ Algeria-Ukraine

Today, we continue with the flag-bearers and their respective countries. Since there is a lot going on at one time at the 2012 London Olympics, we cannot verify if each athlete has started competing though all team-sports ranging from water polo to handball (the only sport without an American team/athlete) are under way.

Here are eight countries ranging from Algeria to Ukraine:

Algeria: Abdelhafid Benchabla (men's boxing)

India: (pictured top, Sushil Kumar, wrestling)

Israel: Shahar Tzuberi (men's wind-surfing)

Ireland: Katie Taylor (pictured middle, women's boxing- a new sport at the Olympics this year)

Qatar: Bahiya Al-Hamad (women's shooting)*

Romania: Horia Tecau (pictured bottom, tennis)

Switzerland: Stanislas Wawrinka (men's tennis)

Ukraine: Roman Hontiuk (men's judo)

*_ This is the first year that Qatar has had a female athlete competing at the Olympics, along with two other Muslim countries Saudi Arabia and Brunei. Bahiya Al-Hamad has also been getting a fair share of media attention because she wears a head scarf while competing,

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

Happy Saint Patrick's Day to everyone, and I also want to wish a very special happy birthday to my sister Zeynep Akili (pse)* who now resides in Capetown, South Africa,** and kudos to her alma mater Lehigh University*** for pulling a tremendous upset over Duke last night in the NCAA tournament. I am not as stunned as some people that the Mountain Hawks (now 27-7) beat the Blue Devils, as they had essentially the same record, but yes, I had presumed Duke would have hit a three-pointer in the last minutes of the game to win it, but that never happened.

Hopefully, at least one person from Ireland will visit out blog today. And, if I actually had an Irish greyhound perhaps I would get at least one date with a woman who is as gorgeous as the Swedish supermodel Vendela, who still looks quite attractive at 45.

But, we must get going or as the late Dr. Seuss would put it:

"Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to great places!
You're off and away!"

*Zeynep, a common Turkish name for girls is not my sister's real name; akili is the Turkish word for smart.

**-'Zeynep' does not actually reside on the African continent.

***-She did not go to Lehigh, but her SAT scores would have allowed her to go there (Lehigh is considered a smart school) or pretty much any college she may have been inclined to study at!

Casualties of Modern Technology (7 of 12)_ Transistor Radio

When young folks today listen to the classic Van Morrison song "Brown Eyed Girl" (1967) and they hear the reference to a transistor radio, they may have no idea what the great Irish singer is talking about.

The transistor radio is defined by Wikipedia as a small portable signal receiver using transistor-based circuitry. Pocket-size forms of the transistor radio, which were developed in 1954, had a major impact around the world as they changed the radio-listening experience as these devices were portable as opposed to earlier radios.

In the 1970s, the transistor radios began to lose popularity and by the 1980s, people of our generation (the Gen Xers) were all into the boom-boxes, leaving everyone to screech when the mid-80s Wham (the band with George Michael) hit ballad "Careless Whisper" blasted away. Yes, we still get goosebumps thinking back on those days.

Though Bell Labs first developed the transistor radio in 1947, both Germany (well then West Germany) and Japan were major players in the development of the technology for the device.

SIDEBAR: Yes, as of this writing, there are new Big South scores and one game between the visiting Charleston Southern Buccaneers and the home team Radford University Highlanders of Radford, Va. (the author's alma mater) is at half-time, while another game between visiting Campbell and the home team Liberty gets underway tonight, but we are just going to focus on the conference games from Thursday night.

The VMI Keydets pulled off another huge home win over Charleston Southern in a high-scoring 90-81 affair. Keith Gabriel scored 31 points for the Lexington-Va. school as his teammate Stan Okoye scored 17 points.

For the visitors from Charleston, SC, Kelvin Martin, the reigning Big South Player of the Week had a career-high 31 points despite the loss.

Here are the scores from Thursday night's Big South action:

*- home team

*Liberty 61 Coastal Carolina 57
*VMI 90 Charleston Southern 81
*UNC-Asehville 71 Gardner-Webb 61
Presbyterian 77 *Radford 64

Quote of the Day/Week- Roman Polanski

For the second week in a row, we are quoting famous film directors with controversial personal lives. Last week, we quoted Woody Allen. But, the reason for this is not because we live controversy (ok,so we did say we would run to Costa Rica if Mitt Romney was elected president a few entries back), but because Roman Polanski, the subject of this week's quote, like Allen, is an Oscar-winning filmmaker. We are quoting Academy Award-winning film directors this month even though our personal favorite movie director Stanley Kubrick never won one! (Yes, not even for "2001:A Space Odyssey").

Currently, in some small-market art houses, Polanski's latest film "Carnage" with three Oscar winners (Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster and Christoph Waltz) and John C. Reilly is now screening. The film has already been screened in large markets.

The film director was born in Poland, and now resides in France.

Polanski won an Oscar for his film "The Pianist" (2002).

Here is Polanski's quote (the above image is of him acting in his own film "Chinatown" (1974)):

"Cinema should make you forget you are sitting in a theater."

SIDEBAR: The Film Forum in New York will be screening a very interesting film (well, we haven't seen it for ourselves) from Iranian director Jafar Panahi entitled "This Is Not a Film" starting on Feb. 29.

The film, co-directed with Mojtaba Miratahmasb, was entirely shot on a cell phone and a DV camera. Sine Panafi is under house arrest for his politics and not allowed to make films in Iran, he had the film hidden in a cake and sent to France for festival screenings. It became a huge sensation at the Cannes Film Festival.

Panafi is one of the most acclaimed filmmakers in Iran; his credits include "The White Balloon" (1995), "The Circle" (2000) and "Offside" (2006). His current film is an autobiographical documentary about isolation.

My friend Bilge Ebiri, a New York-based film critic proclaimed "Offside" to be the best film that was released in the United States in 2007. That film was about two girls in their late teens/early twenties try to sneak inside to see a soccer game. In Iran, women are forbidden to go to soccer games. Though we believe Irish women were allowed to see their national team play a game in Iran several years ago.

From the Record Collection (5 of 8)_ U2 "The Unforgettable Fire"

Since we are discussing U2's album "The Unforgettable Fire" (1984) today, we send out special greetings to everyone in Dublin, Ireland, where the band originally formed in 1976 when lead singer Bono was just 16 years old. The band's first album "Boy" (1980) was released four years later.

This record is my personal favorite from U2, though fans of the band said on Twitter that the recently re-released "Achtung Baby" (1991) was the best album from the band. For many years, that distinction also belonged to U2's major commercial break-through record "The Joshua Tree" (1987).

But, for me, the fourth studio album from U2 will also be the most special one. It was released in October of 1984, which is a bit ironic because U2's second record (released in 1981) was called "October."

With a running time of 42:38, "The Unforgettable Fire" refers to an art exhibit about the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, on Aug. 6, 1945.

There are two songs dedicated to African-American Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., including the landmark song "Pride (in the Name of Love" and "MLK."

The record was produced by Brian Eno, who is also known for producing many exceptional Talking Heads records, and Daniel Lanois, who worked with Peter Gabriel. In more recent years, Lanois has also worked with Willie Nelson, Neil Young and Bob Dylan.

"The Unforgettable Fire," which also includes my personal favorite U2 song "A Sort of Homecoming" a song about the contradiction between rock and roll and spiritual life, was partially recorded at Shane Castle in Ireland, and footage of the album's recording is included in the video for "Pride (in the Name of Love)."

The title track, which was the record's second single, features a stirring use of a guitar solo from The Edge.

In a recent documentary about U2's recording of "Achtung Baby," it was revealed that for that album's popular song "One" that The Edge came up with music for the song first and then Bono figured out some lyrics that would match it.

The band is widely considered to be the most prolific active band behind The Rolling Stones, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary as a band this year. But, unlike The Rolling Stones, U2 has maintained its lineup which also includes Adam Clayton (bass) and Larry Mullen Jr. (drums) since the band was founded.

Things We Learned on Google Today- Polish Goalie Ruled in Russian Soccer

We first asked Google what was the most popular soccer team in Moscow, and we realized there were two popular teams in the Russian capital: Dynamo Moscow and Spartak Moscow. And, we have been confused ever since.

But, we decided to focus on Spartak Moscow, a team that plays a road game against PFK Kryliya Sovetov in Samara, Russia, tomorrow.

We then asked Google who was the best player in the team's history, and we are not entirely sure this is the right answer, but we got "Wojciech Kowaleski." I was thinking: "Hey, this guy is Polish. Russians and Poles hate each other's guts, don't they?"

Kowaleski, 34, know plays for the Greek Cypriot soccer team Anorthosis Famagusta, which actually plays in Larnaca since Famagusta is in Turkish Cyprus (I went there in 1991). If you want to know why the island is split, you will need to ask Google about what exactly happened in 1974, but we aren't getting into that here (especially since I'm half-Turkish).

The Polish goalie played for Spartak Moscow from 2003-07, and he has been the goalie of the Polish national team.

As for the team, Spartak Moscow won 12 Soviet Championships, second only to the Ukrainian team Dyanmo Kiev, which now plays in the Ukrainian Premiere League. Spartak Moscow last won the Russian Cup in 2003. And, the team reached to the 1990 UEFA semi-finals before losing to Marseille (France) 2-1.

We were surprised to see that Aiden McGeady, an Irish soccer star, plays for Spartak Moscow. Conversely, Luke Wilshire, from New Zealand, plays for Dynamo Moscow.

Special Quote of the Day- Gabriel Byrne

We are wrapping our March quotes for famous people, alive or dead, from Ireland with a quip from actor Gabriel Byrne who is not only alive and well at age 60, but he is still getting critical raves for his role as the psychologist Dr. Paul Weston on the HBO series "In Treatment."

Byrne has also been in acclaimed featured films, such as "The Usual Suspects" and "Miller's Crossing."

Here is his quote, hopefully those of you enjoying your lunch hour in Eugene, Oregon, where it is noon now, have time to read this:

"I think there's a bit of the devil in everybody. There's a bit more of a priest in everybody too, but I enjoyed playing the devil more. He was more fun."

SIDEBAR: Yesterday, Turkey beat Austria 2-0 in Euro Cup 2012 qualifier play (hopefully, this will increase our blog hits from Istanbul, my late father's hometown where yesterday's game was played) with goals from Arda Turan (28th minute) and Gokhan Gonul (78th min.).

Turkey still trails Group-A leader Germany and second-place Belgium who defeated Azerbaijan 4-1 yesterday.

The Turkish side will play on the road against Belgium in Tintinland (our nickname for the Flemish country) for a crucial game on June 3.

Turkey suffered a shocking 1-0 upset loss to Azerbaijan in group play back in October in Baku in which Rashad Sadygov scored the only goal of the match.

We certainly wish Turkey the best, and hope they come away from Belgium with a 'buyuk zafer'/big victory.

For all things related to Turkish soccer, you can check out Ahmet Bob Turgut's blog at turkishsoccer.net or his Twittre page which is (twitter.com/turkishsoccer).

Special Quote of the Week- Jonathan Swift

Today, we are continuing to quip famous people from Ireland with a quote from the great writer and essayist Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) who penned the famous novel "Gulliver's Travel" (1735) that was recently made into a Jack Black film that we haven't seen (I wonder if esteemed New York film critic Nathan Lee has seen it, but he probably doesn't want to be pestered about it).


According to Wikipedia and my tenth grade English teacher Mrs. Schultz* at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Md.**, "Gulliver's Travel" is meant to be a satirical view of European government, illustrate the petty differences among faiths, question man's inherent nature and show that specific individuals may be good even if their tribe is bad.

Now that we have that important stuff out of the way, here is the quote:

"A tavern is a place where madness is sold by the bottle."

SIDEBAR: For those of you residing in the Blacksburg, Va., area, one of our favorite college radio stations (well, the one in which I actually 'worked' at) WUVT/90.7-FM is on the verge of hosting their fund-raiser for the spring.

WUVT is one of the few radio stations where one can hear the '80s cult indie rock band The Replacements and the Turkish folk group Kardes Turkuler (means Songs of Fraternity in English) within a two-hour time span!

WUVT did indeed air songs from both of these musical entities on Saturday. Their amazing lineup for that day includes "Hickory Dickory Dock," "The Greek Show," "The Turkish Show" and "Nathan and Jared."

"The Turkish Show" played several selections on Saturday from Kardes Turkuleri, a group conceived some 20 years ago which plays Anatolian folk songs in the languags of Turkish, Kurdish, Arabic and Armenian. Songs from Kardes Turkuleri were featured on the soundtrack to the 2001 comedy film "Vizontele," which was a huge domestic box office hit in Turkey.

Later in the afternoon, "Nathan and Jared" played the song "Bastards of the Young" from The Replacements of the band's acclaimed 1985 release "Tim," which makes for great listening if you are writing that long-winded book report on "Gulliver's Travels."


*-pseudonymn, well I have no idea who my tenth grade English teacher was actually

**- Yes, there is actually a Walt Whitman HS in Bethesda, Md. No, I did not actually go to school there.

Special Quote of the Week- Bono

We continue our series of quips from famous people from Ireland, in honor of Saint Patrick's Day on Thursday, with a quote from Bono who everyone knows as the lead singer of U2. Bono is also known for his civic activities, including helping third world countries like Ethiopia with their debt crisis problems.

My favorite U2 song is "A Sort of Homecoming" from the 1984 album "An Unforgettable Fire," which followed their classic album "War" (1983, pictured here). I did not know until researching this piece that another one of the songs on 'Fire' which is titled "Bad" (has the memorable lyrics: I'm wiiiiiiiddde awake") is about heroin addiction.

Apparently, Bono is also into reading as we gather from this quote:

"Books! I dunno if I ever told you this, but books are the greatest gifts one person can give another."

Speaking of books, I just finished Elif Batuman's excellent memoir "The Possessed" about her love of Russian literature (assuredly, she loves Leo Tolstoy) and the summer she spent in Uzbekistan as a Stanford student in 2002(she was either getting her graduate or doctoral degree at the time; Batuman was born in 1977)

Batuman, a fellow Turkish-American whom I've never met, also has a story in the March 7 issue of "New Yorker" about young fans for the Istanbul soccer power Besiktash. She will be in Ireland for an international book festival on April 14.

Special Quote of the Day- Oscar Wilde

I suppose since today is International Woman's Day, it may have been more appropriate to quip rock singer Sinead O'Connor, but instead we are sticking with our original plan which was to quote the late, great author/playwright Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) for our feature quote series on famous people from Ireland.

We found this Wilde quote from a program for the Triad Stage (Greensboro, NC, stage company) production of Cormac McCarthy's play "The Sunset Limited" which concluded on Sunday. But, their upstairs cabaret production of "Billy Bishop Goes to War" about a Canadian World War II flying ace continues until March 19.

Here it is:

"Nowadays, people know the price of everything, and the value of nothing."

SIDEBAR: Are you curious about where your food comes from? Well, Current-TV, the station co-founded by Al Gore, is airing the eighth episode of a series we just found about called "Kill It, Cook It, Eat." Tonight's new episode, which airs at 10 p.m. (reruns of the series come before and after the new episode) focuses on rabbits. I am sure your inner Elmer Fudd will be fascinated by how ferrets are used to hunt and kill these wascally wabbits or perhaps maybe not.

SIDEBAR TWO: Your morbid side may also be intrigued to see which celebrity you have recently outlived, and you can find out at (deadoraliveinfo.com), in my case, I have literally just passed Falco by 17 days. The Austrian pop star known for "Rock Me Amadeus" died in a car accident just a few days before he would have turned 41, which is my age now. You can also find out that the likes of Phyllis Diller (age 93) and Jim Nabors (age 80) are still alive, but country singer Porter Wagoner died at age 8o in 2007.

Quote of the Week- James Joyce

During the month of March, we will be quoting both philosophers and famous people from Ireland. Today, we start with famous people from Ireland, and when one mentions Ireland and they are an English teacher, they are most likely perhaps to think of the great novelist James Joyce (1882-1941). (Ok, or maybe Oscar Wilde too).

Joyce's 1922 novel "Ulysses" is considered to be one of the very best in the English language, which reminds that I should look for the Cliff Notes the next time I'm in a used bookstore (well, it is reportedly a hard novel to read).

There is also The James Joyce Pub in Baltimore, Md., which is already taking reservations for their St. Patrick's Day celebration at 410-727-5107. Alas, since we live pretty far from Balto and that time of year is busy for us teachers, I can not make the celebration myself!

This weekend, the band James Gallagher and Off the Boat, a group that specializes in Irish music plays at the Baltimore pub on both Friday and Saturday nights.

Here is our quote from Joyce who was also known for his wit:

"A man of genius makes no mistakes; his errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery," James Joyce.

We gather that according to "The Washington Post," today's trending topics are 'government shutdown' and 'Donald Rumsfeld memoir." We have nothing to say about either topic, but hopefully the mere mention of those terms will have folks flocking to the blog! Insallah, Joyce himself would have approved!

Quote of the Week- Daniel Day-Lewis

Today, we continue our quotes from past Oscar winners with a quip from 1989 Best Actor Oscar-winner Daniel Day-Lewis, who later won a second Oscar for his lead role as the horrifying Daniel Plainview in "There Will Be Blood" (2007).

But, the Irish actor born in 1957 first won an Oscar in his mid-thirties for "My Left Foot" in 1989, a film which I still haven't seen after all these years.

Here is the quote from Day-Lewis whose next role is going to be as Abraham Lincoln:

"Making a film, setting it up and getting it cast and getting it together, is not an easy thing."