RIP Dr Simon Lindley, former organist of Leeds Parish Church. David almost became his assistant back in the early 80s (before we were an item), but after being offered the job took cold feet and decided he didn't want to leave St Magnus.
My life would have panned out very differently if he'd taken the job!
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
Bless the bed that I lie on;
Four corners to my bed,
Four angels round my head -
One to watch and one to pray
And to to bear my soul away.
@Huia Each to their own. It has quite an interesting history. Not a particularly good rendition (too slow!) but this gives a flavour of the Lindley arrangement.
Henry Kelly is now going for celestial gold. Once tipped as a future editor of The Irish Times, he left journalism for the higher rewards of light entertainment.
Meanwhile, today's news bulletins are leading with news of the death of Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa.
I rather think that he is a person who gave what was actually a correct answer in Mastermind on his special subject but was condemned by the BBC as having been wrong. Despite that, his other answers were so goo that he still won easily. It was a question on railways. So I suppose I ought really to have put this on the Platform 9¾ thread.
That saddens me, too. And John Buchanan, former pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago, moderator of the 208th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and a prominent and wise voice in the denomination for decades, has also died.
That saddens me, too. And John Buchanan, former pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago, moderator of the 208th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and a prominent and wise voice in the denomination for decades, has also died.
I worked for 4th Pres in his time. He was senior pastor, I helped in the homeless ministry. On the odd occasion when our paths crossed he would introduce himself to me, having always forgotten he had done so before. I’m obviously very forgettable!
At least he introduced himself instead of assuming you knew who he was.
I was at the General Assembly he moderated. When Issues were discussed—and Issues were front and center at that General Assembly—he showed a very pastoral approach to his role.
He was definitely in some good movies, but I think his range as an actor was fairly limited. Usually the gruff but respectable authority figure, involved in violent situations, though often several degrees removed from the violence himself.
I'm probably expected to say that The French Connection was my favorite role of his, but thinking about it, I really liked him as the irredeemably despicable POTUS in Clint Eastwood's Absolute Power.
(For those tempted to say "Despicable POTUS? Gee, who does THAT sound like?", I believe it was implied by the script that the guy was a Democrat, or at least a liberal.)
That role in Absolute Powee kinda illustrates Hackman's general relation to violence. Except for one scene involving direct murder, President Richmond basically has the appearance of a respectable middle-to-upper class guy, whose connection to crime is established by other events in which he is not involved. There doesn't really appear to be anything overly sinister about him, in the way eg. that we perceive Jack Nicholson in The Shining as sinister even before he acts violently.
As for The French Connection, my first ever impression of Hackman(albeit unknown to me) was in the Mad parody What's The Coonection?, the title of which was lobbing a mostly-unjustified charge of incoherency at the film. Admittedly, Popeye Boyle as Santa Claus was a little on the bunuelian side of things.
...Popeye Boyle as Santa Claus was a little on the bunuelian side of things.
I wonder if that scene was the first ironically negative portrayal of Santa Claus in mainstream commercial media. Black Christmas was a couple of years later, and I can't really think of anything earlier.
Yeah, that one's not really part of my perception of his canon. For some reason, I always think of Ned Beatty and those guys in the mirror when I think of the villainous crew in Superman.
IIRC, at one point, Hackman gets out of a swimming pool and Beatty puts a bathrobe on him?
Yeah, that one's not really part of my perception of his canon. For some reason, I always think of Ned Beatty and those guys in the mirror when I think of the villainous crew in Superman.
IIRC, at one point, Hackman gets out of a swimming pool and Beatty puts a bathrobe on him?
Yeah, that one's not really part of my perception of his canon. For some reason, I always think of Ned Beatty and those guys in the mirror when I think of the villainous crew in Superman.
IIRC, at one point, Hackman gets out of a swimming pool and Beatty puts a bathrobe on him?
That sounds right; Beatty was his henchman, Otis.
So, Otis was working for Luthor, and Luthor was working Zod, Ursa, and Non?
We went to a retrospective of his work in Kirkcaldy when we were home on holiday several years ago; "The Singing Butler" is probably his best known work, and prints of it turn up all over the place.
Yeah, that one's not really part of my perception of his canon. For some reason, I always think of Ned Beatty and those guys in the mirror when I think of the villainous crew in Superman.
IIRC, at one point, Hackman gets out of a swimming pool and Beatty puts a bathrobe on him?
That sounds right; Beatty was his henchman, Otis.
So, Otis was working for Luthor, and Luthor was working Zod, Ursa, and Non?
Well, Luthor at least thought he was working with Zod and co. But I think both Luthor and the Phantom Zoners had their own agendas. The Luthor in the comics, both then and now, would never consider himself to be working for anyone other than himself, but the one in the movies seemed to be content that he’d get Australia if he helped Zod and co., as I recall. There was a bit more humor in the movies, which we don’t really see with most comics versions of Luthor.
We went to a retrospective of his work in Kirkcaldy when we were home on holiday several years ago; "The Singing Butler" is probably his best known work, and prints of it turn up all over the place.
Aberdeen Art Gallery had an exhibition of "Modern Scottish Painting" some years ago and rather cruelly hung The Singing Butler next to a Peter Howson. The Singing Butler looked flat and insipid by comparison. Then again, almost anything would look flat and insipid next to a Howson.
South African anti-apartheid playwright Athol Fugard has died at 92. His plays won international acclaim and include Boesman and Lena, Sizwe Banzi is Dead, The Island, A Lesson From Aloes and “Master Harold” … and the Boys.
Yeah, that one's not really part of my perception of his canon. For some reason, I always think of Ned Beatty and those guys in the mirror when I think of the villainous crew in Superman.
IIRC, at one point, Hackman gets out of a swimming pool and Beatty puts a bathrobe on him?
That sounds right; Beatty was his henchman, Otis.
So, Otis was working for Luthor, and Luthor was working Zod, Ursa, and Non?
Well, Luthor at least thought he was working with Zod and co. But I think both Luthor and the Phantom Zoners had their own agendas. The Luthor in the comics, both then and now, would never consider himself to be working for anyone other than himself, but the one in the movies seemed to be content that he’d get Australia if he helped Zod and co., as I recall. There was a bit more humor in the movies, which we don’t really see with most comics versions of Luthor.
Thanks.
Yeah, given my admittedly loose understanding of Lex Luthor, it would seem odd for him to be portrayed as an underling, even a high-level one, rather than an arch-villain. I'm guessing either Mario Puzo or his paymasters thought the trial and the Phantom Zone would look way cool, but also that it wouldn't be Superman without Lex Luthor.
(Screenplays that try to have their cake and eat it too are a major aesthetic pet peeve of mine.)
South African anti-apartheid playwright Athol Fugard has died at 92. His plays won international acclaim and include Boesman and Lena, Sizwe Banzi is Dead, The Island, A Lesson From Aloes and “Master Harold” … and the Boys.
I think I've seen three plays of his, Master Harold on TV with Matthew Broderick in the starring role.
When I watched The Road To Mecca, I thought that all the dialogue seemed imbued with excessive profundity. Afterwards, someone more familiar with Fugard's work opined to me that Fugard writes as if every line were the last.
Yeah, that one's not really part of my perception of his canon. For some reason, I always think of Ned Beatty and those guys in the mirror when I think of the villainous crew in Superman.
IIRC, at one point, Hackman gets out of a swimming pool and Beatty puts a bathrobe on him?
That sounds right; Beatty was his henchman, Otis.
So, Otis was working for Luthor, and Luthor was working Zod, Ursa, and Non?
Well, Luthor at least thought he was working with Zod and co. But I think both Luthor and the Phantom Zoners had their own agendas. The Luthor in the comics, both then and now, would never consider himself to be working for anyone other than himself, but the one in the movies seemed to be content that he’d get Australia if he helped Zod and co., as I recall. There was a bit more humor in the movies, which we don’t really see with most comics versions of Luthor.
Thanks.
Yeah, given my admittedly loose understanding of Lex Luthor, it would seem odd for him to be portrayed as an underling, even a high-level one, rather than an arch-villain. I'm guessing either Mario Puzo or his paymasters thought the trial and the Phantom Zone would look way cool, but also that it wouldn't be Superman without Lex Luthor.
(Screenplays that try to have their cake and eat it too are a major aesthetic pet peeve of mine.)
To be fair it would be weird if Luthor didn’t try to have an angle in such a situation.
He had a lot more comedy in the movie than any Luthor from the comics… sometimes tragic, sometimes just horrifically evil…
Yeah, that one's not really part of my perception of his canon. For some reason, I always think of Ned Beatty and those guys in the mirror when I think of the villainous crew in Superman.
IIRC, at one point, Hackman gets out of a swimming pool and Beatty puts a bathrobe on him?
That sounds right; Beatty was his henchman, Otis.
So, Otis was working for Luthor, and Luthor was working Zod, Ursa, and Non?
Well, Luthor at least thought he was working with Zod and co. But I think both Luthor and the Phantom Zoners had their own agendas. The Luthor in the comics, both then and now, would never consider himself to be working for anyone other than himself, but the one in the movies seemed to be content that he’d get Australia if he helped Zod and co., as I recall. There was a bit more humor in the movies, which we don’t really see with most comics versions of Luthor.
Thanks.
Yeah, given my admittedly loose understanding of Lex Luthor, it would seem odd for him to be portrayed as an underling, even a high-level one, rather than an arch-villain. I'm guessing either Mario Puzo or his paymasters thought the trial and the Phantom Zone would look way cool, but also that it wouldn't be Superman without Lex Luthor.
(Screenplays that try to have their cake and eat it too are a major aesthetic pet peeve of mine.)
To be fair it would be weird if Luthor didn’t try to have an angle in such a situation.
Oh, sure. I think I just find it odd that he'd be there in the first place, without the writers making him the top villain.
Granted, I'm not a comics geek, and it's certainly not unheard-of to have top-ranked villains team up against the good guy.
He had a lot more comedy in the movie than any Luthor from the comics… sometimes tragic, sometimes just horrifically evil…
As I recall, there was quite a bit of humour in that movie, eg. Clark almost following Lois into the women's washroom.
Just saw that he passed away last December. I always found "The Hemlock Society" an odd name for his organization, since while it's true that Socrates willingly accepted his punishment on legalistic grounds(see Crito), he obviously disagreed with the punishment in the first place.
(Also, Humphreys himself was the kinda freethinking renegade that Plato would want banished beyond the city limits, but that is an incoherency shared by any invocation of Socrates as some model of radical inquiry.)
I really only know him from an infomercial for his grill in the mid-90s, and the movie Muhammed Ali: When We Were Kings, about the famous boxing match in Zaire, around the same time.
I actually remember the ad better than the film, mostly because of some typically weird infomercial moments. I'm aware of the cultural and political import of the African match.
Wonder if he'll get his German Shepherd past the Pearly Gates.
Admittedly, a niche joke. Foreman brought his German Shepherd with him to Zaire, provoking some negative reaction because that breed was associated with colonial policing under the Belgians.
I really only know him from an infomercial for his grill in the mid-90s, and the movie Muhammed Ali: When We Were Kings, about the famous boxing match in Zaire, around the same time.
I actually remember the ad better than the film, mostly because of some typically weird infomercial moments. I'm aware of the cultural and political import of the African match.
I told Mrs. Gramps George Foreman had died.
Her response: "He was so ancient."
He was born in 1949.
We were also born in 1949.
What does that say about us?
I really only know him from an infomercial for his grill in the mid-90s, and the movie Muhammed Ali: When We Were Kings, about the famous boxing match in Zaire, around the same time.
I actually remember the ad better than the film, mostly because of some typically weird infomercial moments. I'm aware of the cultural and political import of the African match.
I told Mrs. Gramps George Foreman had died.
Her response: "He was so ancient."
He was born in 1949.
We were also born in 1949.
What does that say about us?
I really only know him from an infomercial for his grill in the mid-90s, and the movie Muhammed Ali: When We Were Kings, about the famous boxing match in Zaire, around the same time.
I actually remember the ad better than the film, mostly because of some typically weird infomercial moments. I'm aware of the cultural and political import of the African match.
I told Mrs. Gramps George Foreman had died.
Her response: "He was so ancient."
He was born in 1949.
We were also born in 1949.
What does that say about us?
Rock stars, actors, and athletes often seem more "ancient" than they are, because they start their careers when they're very young, and if they stay in the public eye for a long time, we assume they must be about the same age as someone(like a typical politician) who came into public prominence in middle-age and had been around for the same period of time.
(At least, that's a psychological phenomenon I've noticed in myself.)
I happened to get a Guardian on Thursday, and learned that Steve Hodson had died. He was most famous for being the good looking one in Follyfoot, the 1970s TV series about a horse rescue place, though apparently he had an extensive radio career later.
So now I have a dilemma. When someone famous dies, I often sing a song related to them at our weekly acoustic evening locally, and the Follyfoot theme song The Lightning Tree is a fun song to sing. However, we also have a semi-regular whose main claim to fame is that she was in the Settlers, who actually sang the Lightning Tree for TV, so maybe I'll wait for them to turn up and do it then....
Comments
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c99n0p2x94vo
The First Time Ever reminds me if the year Mr RoS & I were courting.
Still makes me a bit sentimental all these years later.
My life would have panned out very differently if he'd taken the job!
We used to sing a song in our Catholic elementary religion class, mid-1970s...
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
Heard good news and they passed it on!
Learn, listen, look and see
The gospel books for you and me!
Good news!
Good news!
The gospel means good news!
Shout it
Good news!
etc
But I assume that's not what you're refering to?
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
Bless the bed that I lie on;
Four corners to my bed,
Four angels round my head -
One to watch and one to pray
And to to bear my soul away.
It just so happens that I was watching Buffy when I got the email with the news.
AFF
Meanwhile, today's news bulletins are leading with news of the death of Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2009jgj58o
https://martycenter.org/articles/a-letter-on-the-passing-of-martin-e-marty-from-emily-crews-executive-director
I do; although Eggheads wasn't shown in Canada, we used to watch it when we were home on holiday - David's mum liked it.
RIP Mr Hughes.
You mean, poorly written, or...?
I worked for 4th Pres in his time. He was senior pastor, I helped in the homeless ministry. On the odd occasion when our paths crossed he would introduce himself to me, having always forgotten he had done so before. I’m obviously very forgettable!
At least he introduced himself instead of assuming you knew who he was.
I was at the General Assembly he moderated. When Issues were discussed—and Issues were front and center at that General Assembly—he showed a very pastoral approach to his role.
Chris was easily my favourite egghead.
He was excellent at subjects he was keen on but didn't bother to learn lists for the sake of the programme
There's a lot more to come on this but in the meantime, goodnight and sleep well Popeye Doyle.
He was definitely in some good movies, but I think his range as an actor was fairly limited. Usually the gruff but respectable authority figure, involved in violent situations, though often several degrees removed from the violence himself.
I'm probably expected to say that The French Connection was my favorite role of his, but thinking about it, I really liked him as the irredeemably despicable POTUS in Clint Eastwood's Absolute Power.
(For those tempted to say "Despicable POTUS? Gee, who does THAT sound like?", I believe it was implied by the script that the guy was a Democrat, or at least a liberal.)
As for The French Connection, my first ever impression of Hackman(albeit unknown to me) was in the Mad parody What's The Coonection?, the title of which was lobbing a mostly-unjustified charge of incoherency at the film. Admittedly, Popeye Boyle as Santa Claus was a little on the bunuelian side of things.
I wonder if that scene was the first ironically negative portrayal of Santa Claus in mainstream commercial media. Black Christmas was a couple of years later, and I can't really think of anything earlier.
Yeah, that one's not really part of my perception of his canon. For some reason, I always think of Ned Beatty and those guys in the mirror when I think of the villainous crew in Superman.
IIRC, at one point, Hackman gets out of a swimming pool and Beatty puts a bathrobe on him?
That sounds right; Beatty was his henchman, Otis.
So, Otis was working for Luthor, and Luthor was working Zod, Ursa, and Non?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y02wxgrzlo
We went to a retrospective of his work in Kirkcaldy when we were home on holiday several years ago; "The Singing Butler" is probably his best known work, and prints of it turn up all over the place.
Well, Luthor at least thought he was working with Zod and co. But I think both Luthor and the Phantom Zoners had their own agendas. The Luthor in the comics, both then and now, would never consider himself to be working for anyone other than himself, but the one in the movies seemed to be content that he’d get Australia if he helped Zod and co., as I recall. There was a bit more humor in the movies, which we don’t really see with most comics versions of Luthor.
Aberdeen Art Gallery had an exhibition of "Modern Scottish Painting" some years ago and rather cruelly hung The Singing Butler next to a Peter Howson. The Singing Butler looked flat and insipid by comparison. Then again, almost anything would look flat and insipid next to a Howson.
Thanks.
Yeah, given my admittedly loose understanding of Lex Luthor, it would seem odd for him to be portrayed as an underling, even a high-level one, rather than an arch-villain. I'm guessing either Mario Puzo or his paymasters thought the trial and the Phantom Zone would look way cool, but also that it wouldn't be Superman without Lex Luthor.
(Screenplays that try to have their cake and eat it too are a major aesthetic pet peeve of mine.)
I think I've seen three plays of his, Master Harold on TV with Matthew Broderick in the starring role.
When I watched The Road To Mecca, I thought that all the dialogue seemed imbued with excessive profundity. Afterwards, someone more familiar with Fugard's work opined to me that Fugard writes as if every line were the last.
To be fair it would be weird if Luthor didn’t try to have an angle in such a situation.
He had a lot more comedy in the movie than any Luthor from the comics… sometimes tragic, sometimes just horrifically evil…
Oh, sure. I think I just find it odd that he'd be there in the first place, without the writers making him the top villain.
Granted, I'm not a comics geek, and it's certainly not unheard-of to have top-ranked villains team up against the good guy.
As I recall, there was quite a bit of humour in that movie, eg. Clark almost following Lois into the women's washroom.
Just saw that he passed away last December. I always found "The Hemlock Society" an odd name for his organization, since while it's true that Socrates willingly accepted his punishment on legalistic grounds(see Crito), he obviously disagreed with the punishment in the first place.
(Also, Humphreys himself was the kinda freethinking renegade that Plato would want banished beyond the city limits, but that is an incoherency shared by any invocation of Socrates as some model of radical inquiry.)
I really only know him from an infomercial for his grill in the mid-90s, and the movie Muhammed Ali: When We Were Kings, about the famous boxing match in Zaire, around the same time.
I actually remember the ad better than the film, mostly because of some typically weird infomercial moments. I'm aware of the cultural and political import of the African match.
Wonder if he'll get his German Shepherd past the Pearly Gates.
I told Mrs. Gramps George Foreman had died.
Her response: "He was so ancient."
He was born in 1949.
We were also born in 1949.
What does that say about us?
Ummm, I think the question answers itself
Rock stars, actors, and athletes often seem more "ancient" than they are, because they start their careers when they're very young, and if they stay in the public eye for a long time, we assume they must be about the same age as someone(like a typical politician) who came into public prominence in middle-age and had been around for the same period of time.
(At least, that's a psychological phenomenon I've noticed in myself.)
So now I have a dilemma. When someone famous dies, I often sing a song related to them at our weekly acoustic evening locally, and the Follyfoot theme song The Lightning Tree is a fun song to sing. However, we also have a semi-regular whose main claim to fame is that she was in the Settlers, who actually sang the Lightning Tree for TV, so maybe I'll wait for them to turn up and do it then....