RIDLEY SCOTT, THE CREATOR OF CINEMA MASTERPIECES

Today, The Grandma is relaxing at home. She has decided to watch some films, and she has chosen the best works of one of her favourite directors, Ridley Scott, the English director who was born on a day like today in 1937.

Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is an English film director and producer.

He has directed the science fiction horror film Alien (1979), the neo-noir dystopian film Blade Runner (1982), the road adventure film Thelma & Louise (1991), the historical drama film Gladiator (2000), the war film Black Hawk Down (2001), and the science fiction film The Martian (2015).

Scott began his career as a television designer and director before moving into advertising, where he honed his filmmaking skills by making inventive mini-films for television commercials. His work is known for its atmospheric and highly concentrated visual style.

Though his films range widely in setting and period, they frequently showcase memorable imagery of urban environments, spanning 2nd-century Rome (Gladiator), 12th-century Jerusalem (Kingdom of Heaven), Medieval England (Robin Hood), contemporary Mogadishu (Black Hawk Down), or the futuristic cityscapes of Blade Runner and distant planets in Alien, Alien: Covenant, Prometheus, and The Martian. Several of his films are also known for their strong female characters.

In 2021, his films The Last Duel and House of Gucci were released.

Scott has been nominated for three Academy Awards for Directing, which he received for Thelma & Louise, Gladiator and Black Hawk Down.

Gladiator won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and he received a nomination in that category for the 2015 film The Martian.

In 1995, both Scott and his brother Tony received a BAFTA for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema.

In 2003, he was knighted for services to the British film industry.

In a 2004 BBC poll, Scott was ranked 10 on the list of most influential people in British culture.

He received an honorary doctorate from the Royal College of Art in London in 2015 and the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement in 2018.

More information: Ridley Scott

Scott was born on 30 November 1937 in South Shields, County Durham to Elizabeth (née Williams) and Colonel Francis Percy Scott. His grand-uncle Dixon Scott was a pioneer of the cinema chain and opened many cinemas around Tyneside. One of his cinemas, Tyneside Cinema, is still operating in Newcastle and is the last remaining newsreel cinema in the UK.

Born two years before World War II began, Scott was brought up in a military family. His father, an officer in the Royal Engineers, was absent for most of his early life. His elder brother, Frank, joined the Merchant Navy when he was still young and the pair had little contact.

During this time the family moved around; they lived in Cumberland as well as other areas in England, in addition to Wales and Germany. Scott's younger brother, Tony, also became a film director. After the war the Scott family moved back to County Durham and eventually settled on Teesside.

His interest in science fiction began by reading the novels of H. G. Wells as a child. He was also influenced by science-fiction films such as It! The Terror from Beyond Space, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and Them! He said these films kind of got [him] going a little but his attention was not fully caught until he saw Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, about which he said, Once I saw that, I knew what I could do.

He went to Grangefield Grammar School in Stockton on Tees and obtained a diploma in design at West Hartlepool College of Art. The industrial landscape in West Hartlepool would later inspire visuals in Blade Runner, with Scott stating, There were steelworks adjacent to West Hartlepool, so every day I'd be going through them, and thinking they're kind of magnificent, beautiful, winter or summer, and the darker and more ominous it got, the more interesting it got.

More information: Screen Rant

The Duellists (1977) marked Ridley Scott's first feature film as director. Shot in Europe, it was nominated for the main prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and won an award for Best Debut Film.

Scott had originally planned next to adapt a version of Tristan and Iseult, but after seeing Star Wars, he became convinced of the potential of large scale, effects-driven films. He accepted the job of directing Alien, the 1979 horror/science-fiction film that would win him international success. Scott made the decision to switch Ellen Ripley from the standard male action hero to a heroine.

Ripley (played by Sigourney Weaver), who appeared in the first four Alien films, would become a cinematic icon. The final scene of John Hurt's character has been named by a number of publications as one of the most memorable in cinematic history.

After a year working on the film adaptation of Dune, and following the sudden death of his brother Frank, Scott signed to direct the film version of Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Re-titled Blade Runner and starring Harrison Ford, the film was a commercial disappointment in cinemas in 1982, but is now regarded as a classic.

In 1991, Scott's notes were used by Warner Bros. to create a rushed director's cut which removed the main character's voiceover and made a number of other small changes, including to the ending. Later Scott personally supervised a digital restoration of Blade Runner and approved what was called The Final Cut. This version was released in Los Angeles, New York City and Toronto cinemas on 5 October 2007, and as an elaborate DVD release in December 2007.

Today, Blade Runner is ranked by many critics as one of the most important and influential science fiction films ever made, partly thanks to its much imitated portraits of a future cityscape.

It is often discussed along with William Gibson's novel Neuromancer as initiating the cyberpunk genre. Stephen Minger, stem cell biologist at King's College London, states, It was so far ahead of its time and the whole premise of the story  -what is it to be human and who are we, where we come from? It's the age-old questions. Scott has described Blade Runner as his most complete and personal film.

In 1984, Scott directed a big-budget ($900,000) television commercial, 1984, to launch Apple's Macintosh computer. Scott filmed the advertisement in England for about $370,000; which was given a showcase airing in the US on 22 January 1984, during Super Bowl XVIII, alongside screenings in cinemas. Some consider this advertisement a watershed event in advertising and a masterpiece. Advertising Age placed it top of its list of the 50 greatest commercials.

Set in a dystopian future modelled after George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, Scott's advertisement used its heroine (portrayed by English athlete Anya Major) to represent the coming of the Macintosh, indicated by her white tank top adorned with a picture of the Apple Macintosh computer, as a means of saving humanity from conformity (Big Brother), an allusion to IBM, at that time the dominant force in computing.

In 1985, Scott directed Legend, a fantasy film produced by Arnon Milchan. Scott decided to create a once upon a time tale set in a world of princesses, unicorns and goblins, filming almost entirely inside the studio. Scott cast Tom Cruise as the film's hero, Jack; Mia Sara as Princess Lili; and Tim Curry as the Satan-horned Lord of Darkness.

Scott made Someone to Watch Over Me, a romantic thriller starring Tom Berenger and Mimi Rogers in 1987, and Black Rain (1989), a police drama starring Michael Douglas and Andy García, shot partially in Japan. Both achieved mild success at the box office. Black Rain was the first of Scott's six collaborations with the composer Hans Zimmer.

The road film Thelma & Louise (1991) starring Geena Davis as Thelma, Susan Sarandon as Louise, in addition to the breakthrough role for Brad Pitt as J.D, proved to be one of Scott's biggest critical successes, helping revive the director's reputation and receiving his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director.

His next project, independently funded historical epic 1492: Conquest of Paradise, was a box office failure. The film recounts the expeditions to the Americas by Christopher Columbus, French star Gérard Depardieu. Scott did not release another film for four years.

Scott's historical drama Gladiator (2000) proved to be one of his biggest critical and commercial successes. It won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor for the film's star Russell Crowe, and saw Scott nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director.

More information: CBR

Scott worked with British visual effects company The Mill for the film's computer-generated imagery, and the film was dedicated to Oliver Reed who died during filming -The Mill created a digital body double for Reed's remaining scenes. Some have credited Gladiator with reviving the nearly defunct sword and sandal historical genre. The film was named the fifth best action film of all time in the ABC special Best in Film: The Greatest Movies of Our Time.

Scott directed Hannibal (2001) starring Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter. The film was commercially successful despite receiving mixed reviews. Scott's next film, Black Hawk Down (2001), featuring Tom Hardy in his film debut, was based on a group of stranded US soldiers fighting for their lives in Somalia; Scott was nominated for an Oscar for Best Director.

In 2003, Scott directed a smaller scale project, Matchstick Men, adapted from the novel by Eric Garcia and starring Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell and Alison Lohman. It received mostly positive reviews but performed moderately at the box office.

In August 2009, Scott planned to direct an adaptation of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World set in a dystopian London with Leonardo DiCaprio.

In 2009, the TV series The Good Wife premiered with Ridley and his brother Tony credited as executive producers.

In 2012, Scott produced the commercial for Lady Gaga's fragrance, Fame. It was touted as the first ever black Eau de Parfum, in the informal credits attached to the trailer for this advertisement.

On 24 June 2013, Scott's series Crimes of the Century debuted on CNN.

More information: Collider

In November 2012 it was announced that Scott would produce the documentary, Springsteen & I directed by Baillie Walsh and inspired by Life in a Day, which Scott also produced. The film featured fan footage from throughout the world on what musician Bruce Springsteen meant to them and how he impacted their lives. The film was released for one day only in 50 countries and on over 2000 film screens on 22 July 2013.

In May 2014, Scott began negotiations to direct The Martian, starring Matt Damon as Mark Watney. Like many of Scott's previous works, The Martian features a heroine in the form of Jessica Chastain's character who is the mission commander.

On 26 February 2015, the sequel was officially confirmed, with Denis Villeneuve hired to direct the film, and Scott being an executive producer. The sequel, Blade Runner 2049, was released on 6 October 2017 to universal acclaim.

In 2021, Scott directed The Last Duel, a film adaptation of Eric Jager's 2004 book The Last Duel: A True Story of Trial by Combat in Medieval France, starring Adam Driver, Matt Damon and Jodie Comer. It was released on 15 October 2021. Filming locations included the French medieval castle of Berzé-le-Châtel, with a film crew of 300 people including 100 extras, and Ireland.

He also directed House of Gucci, a film about the murder of Maurizio Gucci orchestrated by Patrizia Reggiani, who were portrayed by Adam Driver and Lady Gaga, respectively. The film was released in November 2021. Scott is also developing Kitbag, a biopic of Napoleon Bonaparte starring Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon and Jodie Comer as the Empress Josephine, with filming set to begin on 15 January 2022.

Ridley Scott and his brother Tony produced CBS series Numb3rs (2005-10), a crime drama about a genius mathematician who helps the FBI solve crimes; and The Good Wife (2009-2016), a legal drama about an attorney balancing her job with her husband, a former state attorney trying to rebuild his political career after a major scandal.

More information: Screen Rant

I always shoot my movies with score
as certainly part of the dialogue.
Music is dialogue.
People don't think about it that way,
but music is actually dialogue.
And sometimes music is the final,
finished, additional dialogue.
Music can be one of the final characters in the film.

Ridley Scott

1961, MERCURY-ATLAS 5. ENOS IS LAUNCHED INTO SPACE

Today, The Grandma has received the wonderful visit of one of her best friends, Joseph de Ca'th Lon.

Joseph loves Astronomy, and they have been talking about Project Mercury Atlas 5 and its crew, the chimpanzee Enos, that was launched into space on a day like today in 1961.

Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963.

An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Union. Taken over from the US Air Force by the newly created civilian space agency NASA, it conducted 20 uncrewed developmental flights (some using animals), and six successful flights by astronauts. The program, which took its name from Roman mythology, cost $2.27 billion (adjusted for inflation). The astronauts were collectively known as the Mercury Seven, and each spacecraft was given a name ending with a 7 by its pilot.

The Space Race began with the 1957 launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik 1. This came as a shock to the American public, and led to the creation of NASA to expedite existing US space exploration efforts, and place most of them under civilian control.

After the successful launch of the Explorer 1 satellite in 1958, crewed spaceflight became the next goal. The Soviet Union put the first human, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, into a single orbit aboard Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961.

Shortly after this, on May 5, the US launched its first astronaut, Alan Shepard, on a suborbital flight. Soviet Gherman Titov followed with a day-long orbital flight in August 1961. The US reached its orbital goal on February 20, 1962, when John Glenn made three orbits around the Earth. When Mercury ended in May 1963, both nations had sent six people into space, but the Soviets led the US in total time spent in space.

The Mercury space capsule was produced by McDonnell Aircraft, and carried supplies of water, food and oxygen for about one day in a pressurized cabin.  

Mercury flights were launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, on launch vehicles modified from the Redstone and Atlas D missiles.

The capsule was fitted with a launch escape rocket to carry it safely away from the launch vehicle in case of a failure. The flight was designed to be controlled from the ground via the Manned Space Flight Network, a system of tracking and communications stations; back-up controls were outfitted on board.

Small retrorockets were used to bring the spacecraft out of its orbit, after which an ablative heat shield protected it from the heat of atmospheric reentry. Finally, a parachute slowed the craft for a water landing. Both astronaut and capsule were recovered by helicopters deployed from a US Navy ship.

The Mercury project gained popularity, and its missions were followed by millions on radio and TV around the world. Its success laid the groundwork for Project Gemini, which carried two astronauts in each capsule and perfected space docking manoeuvres essential for crewed lunar landings in the subsequent Apollo program, announced a few weeks after the first crewed Mercury flight.

More information: NASA

Mercury-Atlas 5 was an American spaceflight of the Mercury program. It was launched on November 29, 1961, with Enos, a chimpanzee, aboard.

The craft orbited the Earth twice and splashed down about 320 km south of Bermuda, and Enos became the first primate from the United States and the third great ape to orbit the Earth.

By November 1961, the Soviet Union had launched Yuri Gagarin and Gherman Titov into orbit during the Vostok 1 and Vostok 2 manned orbital flights, while the United States had managed only suborbital ones.

At that time, NASA was still debating placing a chimpanzee in orbit as part of the Mercury-Atlas subprogram, with NASA headquarters questioning the wisdom of the Manned Spacecraft Center launching another unmanned Mercury mission.

The NASA Public Affairs Office issued a press release prior to the flight, stating, The men in charge of Project Mercury have insisted on orbiting the chimpanzee as a necessary preliminary checkout of the entire Mercury program before risking a human astronaut.

More information: The Hindu

Enos (died November 4, 1962) was the second chimpanzee launched into space by NASA. He was the first and only chimpanzee, and third hominid after cosmonauts Yuri Gagarin and Gherman Titov, to achieve Earth orbit. Enos's flight occurred on November 29, 1961.

Enos was brought from the Miami Rare Bird Farm on April 3, 1960. He completed more than 1,250 training hours at the University of Kentucky and Holloman Air Force Base. Training was more intense for him than for his predecessor Ham, who had become the first great ape in space in January 1961, because Enos was exposed to weightlessness for longer periods of time. His training included psychomotor instruction and aircraft flights.

Enos was selected for his Project Mercury flight only three days before launch. Two months prior, NASA launched Mercury-Atlas 4 on September 13, 1961, to conduct an identical mission with a crewman simulator on board. Enos flew into space aboard Mercury-Atlas 5 on November 29, 1961. He completed his first orbit in 1 hour and 28.5 minutes.

Enos was scheduled to complete three orbits, but the mission was aborted after two due to two issues: capsule overheating and a malfunctioning avoidance conditioning test subjecting the primate to 76 electrical shocks.

The capsule was brought aboard USS Stormes in the late afternoon, and Enos was immediately taken below deck by his Air Force handlers. Stormes arrived in Bermuda the next day.

Enos's flight was a full dress rehearsal for the next Mercury launch on February 20, 1962, which would make John Glenn the first American to orbit Earth, after astronauts Alan Shepard, Jr. and Gus Grissom's successful suborbital space flights.

The spacecraft and Enos were both found to have survived the mission in good condition, although the chimpanzee had removed all the medical electrodes and the urine collection device from his body.

On November 4, 1962, Enos died of shigellosis-related dysentery, which was resistant to then-known antibiotics. He was constantly observed for two months before his death. Pathologists reported no symptoms that could be attributed or related to his previous space flight. Many believe Enos's remains were dissected like Ham, who was extensively studied postmortem at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.

Some of Ham's remains, minus the skeleton (which remained with AIP), were buried at the International Space Hall of Fame in New Mexico. Later attempts by space scholars to locate Enos's remains were unsuccessful.

A post-mortem study was undertaken. His remains were then packed and sent to the Smithsonian Institution according to James E. Cook, a veterinary pathologist who was involved in Enos's autopsy and was also the Head of the Chimp Consortium at Holloman AFB at the time of Enos's death.

More information: The Atlantic

One of the things that always appealed to me about Nasa
was we were always doing cool stuff that no-one's done before.

Mark Rober

MARIA FARANTOURI, POLITICAL & CULTURAL ACTIVISM

Today, The Grandma is still relaxing at home. She has decided to listen to some music, and she has chosen Maria Farantouri songs because she loves Greek music.

 

Farantouri was born on a day like today in 1947, and The Grandma wants to remember her talking about her life and career.

Maria Farantouri or Farandouri, in Greek Μαρία Φαραντούρη, born 28 November 1947 in Athens, is a Greek singer and also a political and cultural activist. She has collaborated with Greek composers such as Mikis Theodorakis, who wrote the score for Pablo Neruda's Canto General, which Farantouri performed all over the world.

During the Greek military junta of 1967-1974, Maria Farantouri recorded protest songs in Europe with Mikis Theodorakis.

In 1971, she recorded Songs and Guitar Pieces by Theodorakis with Australian guitarist John Williams which included seven poems by Federico García Lorca. She has recorded songs in Spanish Hasta Siempre Comandante Che Guevara, Italian, and English Joe Hill and Elisabeth Hauptmann's Alabama Song from Bertolt Brecht's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, George Gershwin's works, as well as works by Greek composers Manos Hatzidakis, Eleni Karaindrou and Vangelis.

Her voice is contralto with two octaves. The international press called her a people's Callas (The Daily Telegraph), and the Joan Baez of the Mediterranean (Le Monde).

Maria Farantouri was an elected member of the Greek Parliament from 1989 to 1993 representing the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK). She is married to the poet and former politician Tilemachos Chytiris.

On 23 September 2004, the President of the Hellenic Republic recognized the contribution of Maria Farantouri to Greek song, awarding her the Gold Cross of the Order of the Phoenix. She was awarded the Premio Tenco Italian Award 2014 for her contribution to international contemporary and traditional music, and the Spanish LiberPress 2017.

More information: Maria Farantouri

Κάτω απ' το χώμα μες στα σταυρωμένα χέρια τους
κρατάνε τις καμπάνας το σχοινί,
προσμένουνε την ώρα, προσμένουν να σημάνουν την ανάσταση
τούτο το χώμα είναι δικό τους και δικό μας
δεν μπορεί κανείς να μας το πάρει.

Under the ground in their crossed arms
hold the bells on the rope,
they wait for the hour, they wait for the resurrection
this soil is theirs and ours
no one can take it from us.

Maria Farantouri

'ALSO SPRACH ZARATHUSTRA' BY RICHARD STRAUSS

Today, The Grandma is relaxing at home. The weather is cold, and she has preferred to listen to some classical music. She has chosen Richard Strauss and his masterpiece Also sprach Zarathustra, that was first performed on a day like today in 1896.

Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30, Thus Spoke Zarathustra or Thus Spake Zarathustra, is a tone poem by Richard Strauss, composed in 1896 and inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophical 1883-1885 novel Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

The composer conducted its first performance on 27 November 1896 in Frankfurt. A typical performance lasts half an hour.

The initial fanfare  -titled Sunrise in the composer's programme notes- became well known after its use in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The work is orchestrated for piccolo, 3 flutes (3rd doubling piccolo), 3 oboes, English horn, clarinet in E-flat, 2 clarinets in B-flat, bass clarinet in B-flat, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 6 horns in F and E, 4 trumpets in C and E, 3 trombones, 2 tubas, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, glockenspiel, bell on low E, organ, and strings: 2 harps, violins I, II (16 each), violas (12), cellos (12), and double basses (8) (with low B string).

More information: Richard Strauss

The piece is divided into nine sections, played with only three definite pauses. Strauss named the sections after selected chapters of Friedrich Nietzsche's novel Thus Spoke Zarathustra:

1. "Einleitung, oder Sonnenaufgang" (Introduction, or Sunrise)

2. "Von den Hinterweltlern" (Of the Backworldsmen)

3. "Von der großen Sehnsucht" (Of the Great Longing)

4. "Von den Freuden und Leidenschaften" (Of Joys and Passions)

5. "Das Grablied" (The Song of the Grave)

6. "Von der Wissenschaft" (Of Science and Learning)

7. "Der Genesende" (The Convalescent)

8. "Das Tanzlied" (The Dance Song)

9. "Nachtwandlerlied" (Song of the Night Wanderer)

These selected chapters from Nietzsche's novel highlight major moments of the character Zarathustra's philosophical journey in the novel. The general storylines and ideas in these chapters were the inspiration used to build the tone poem's structure.

The piece starts with a sustained double low C on the double basses, contrabassoon and Church organ. This transforms into the brass fanfare of the Introduction and introduces the dawn motif, from Zarathustra's Prologue, the text of which is included in the printed score, that is common throughout the work: the motif includes three notes, in intervals of a fifth and octave, as C–G–C (known also as the Nature-motif).

On its first appearance, the motif is a part of the first five notes of the natural overtone series: octave, octave and fifth, two octaves, two octaves and major third, played as part of a C major chord with the third doubled. The major third is immediately changed to a minor third, which is the first note played in the work (E flat) that is not part of the overtone series.

Of the Backworldsmen begins with cellos, double-basses and organ pedal before changing into a lyrical passage for the entire section. The next two sections, Of the Great Longing and Of Joys and Passions, both introduce motifs that are more chromatic in nature.

More information: The Guardian

The strings prevail in The Song of the Grave, which acts like a transition section to the next section.

Of Science features an unusual fugue beginning at measure 201 in the double-basses and cellos, which consists of all twelve notes of the chromatic scale. Measure 223 contains one of the very few sections in the orchestral literature where the basses must play a contra B (the lowest B on a piano), which is only possible on a 5-string bass or (less frequently) on a 4-string bass with a low-B extension.

The Convalescent acts as a reprise of the original motif, and ends with the entire orchestra climaxing on a massive chord.

The Dance Song features a very prominent violin solo throughout the section.

The end of the Song of the Night Wanderer leaves the piece half resolved, with high flutes, piccolos and violins playing a B major chord, while the lower strings pluck a C.

One of the major compositional themes of the piece is the contrast between the keys of B major, representing humanity, and C major, representing the universe. Because B and C are adjacent notes, these keys are tonally dissimilar: B major uses five sharps, while C major has none.

More information: U Discover Music

Bear in mind that you are not making
music for your own pleasure,
but for the pleasure of your audience.

Richard Strauss

ANNA MAE BULLOCK AKA TINA TURNER, QUEEN OF R'N'R

Today, The Grandma has been relaxing at home. The weather is cold, and it is raining during all the week.

 

She has decided to listen to some music, and she has chosen Tina Turner's best songs. Turner, who is also known as the Queen of Rock 'n' Roll, was born on a day like today in 1939.

Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939) is an American-born Swiss singer, songwriter, and actress.

Widely referred to as the Queen of Rock 'n' Roll, she rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue before launching a successful career as a solo performer.

Turner began her career with Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm in 1957. Under the name Little Ann, she appeared on her first record, Boxtop, in 1958.

In 1960, she was introduced as Tina Turner with the hit duet single A Fool in Love.

The duo Ike & Tina Turner became one of the most formidable live acts in history. They released hits such as It's Gonna Work Out Fine, River Deep-Mountain High, Proud Mary, and Nutbush City Limits before disbanding in 1976.

More information: Tina Turner

In the 1980s, Turner launched one of the greatest comebacks in music history. Her 1984 multi-platinum album Private Dancer contained the hit song What's Love Got to Do with It, which won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and became her first and only No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

At age 44, she was the oldest female solo artist to top the Hot 100. Her chart success continued with Better Be Good to Me, Private Dancer, We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome), Typical Male, The Best, I Don't Wanna Fight, and GoldenEye.

During her Break Every Rule World Tour in 1988, she set a then-Guinness World Record for the largest paying audience (180,000) for a solo performer. Turner also acted in the films Tommy (1975), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), and Last Action Hero (1993).

In 1993, What's Love Got to Do with It, a biopic adapted from her autobiography I, Tina: My Life Story, was released.

More information: Twitter-Tina Turner

In 2009, Turner retired after completing her Tina!: 50th Anniversary Tour, which is one of the highest-grossing tours of all time.

In 2018, she became the subject of the jukebox musical Tina.

Having sold over 100 million records worldwide, Turner is one of the best-selling recording artists of all time. She has received 12 Grammy Awards, which include eight competitive awards, three Grammy Hall of Fame awards, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. She is the first black artist and first female to be on the cover of Rolling Stone.

Rolling Stone ranked her among the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time and the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.

She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the St. Louis Walk of Fame. She is a two-time inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with Ike Turner in 1991 and as a solo artist in 2021.

Turner is also a 2005 recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors and Women of the Year award.

Tina Turner was born Anna Mae Bullock on November 26, 1939, in Brownsville, Tennessee, the youngest daughter of Zelma Priscilla (née Currie) and Floyd Richard Bullock. The family lived in the nearby rural unincorporated community of Nutbush, Tennessee, where her father worked as an overseer of the share croppers at Poindexter Farm on Highway 180; she later recalled picking cotton with her family at an early age.

When she participated in the PBS documentary African American Lives 2 with Dr. Henry Louis Gates, he shared her Genealogical DNA test estimates, which were predominantly African, approximately 33% European, and only 1% Native American. Turner had previously believed that she had a significant amount of Native American ancestry.

Bullock and her sister began to frequent nightclubs in St. Louis and East St. Louis. She first saw Ike Turner perform with his band the Kings of Rhythm at the Manhattan Club in East St. Louis.

Bullock's was introduced to the public as Tina Turner with the single A Fool In Love in July 1960.

In 1976 and 1977, Turner earned income by appearing on TV shows such as The Hollywood Squares, Donny & Marie, The Sonny & Cher Show and The Brady Bunch Hour.

Until 1983, Turner was considered a nostalgia act, performing mostly at hotel ballrooms and clubs in the United States. During her second stint at the Ritz, she signed with Capitol Records in 1983. In November 1983, she released her cover of Al Green's Let's Stay Together which was produced by B.E.F. It reached several European charts, including No. 6 in the UK.

More information: Instagram-Tina Turner

On September 1, 1984, Turner achieved her first and only No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with What's Love Got to Do with It. The follow-up singles Better Be Good to Me and Private Dancer were both U.S. top 10 hits.

Turner culminated her comeback when she won three Grammys at the 27th Annual Grammy Awards, including the Grammy Award for Record of the Year for What's Love Got to Do with It.

In February 1985, she embarked on her second world tour to support the Private Dancer album. One show, filmed at Birmingham, England's NEC Arena, was later released on home video. During this time, she also contributed vocals to the USA for Africa benefit song We Are the World.

In 1986, Turner released her sixth solo album, Break Every Rule, which reached No. 1 in four countries and sold over five million copies worldwide within its first year of release.

More information: Facebook-Tina Turner

In 1991, Ike & Tina Turner were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In November 2004, Turner released All the Best, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 albums chart in 2005, her highest charting album in the United States.

In December 2005, Turner was recognized by the Kennedy Center Honors at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. and was elected to join an elite group of entertainers.

Turner received the 2018 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and her second memoir, My Love Story, was released in October 2018.

In October 2021, Turner sold her music rights to BMG Rights Management for $50 million. Later that month, Turner was absent from her induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist.

More information: Youtube-Tina Turner

 My legacy is that I stayed on course...
from the beginning to the end,
because I believed in something inside of me.

Tina Turner

AGATHA CHRISTIE'S 'THE MOUSETRAP,' 68 YEARS IN LDN

Today, The Grandma has bought some tickets to see The Mousetrap in London's West End, a play written by Agatha Christie that opened at the Ambassadors Theatre in London on a day like today in 1952.

The Mousetrap is a murder mystery play by Agatha Christie.

The Mousetrap opened in London's West End in 1952 and ran continuously until 16 March 2020, when the stage performances had to be discontinued due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The longest-running West End show, it has by far the longest initial run of any play in history, with its 27,500th performance taking place on 18 September 2018.

The play has a twist ending, which the audience are traditionally asked not to reveal after leaving the theatre. The play began life as a short radio play written as a birthday present for Queen Mary, the consort of King George V. It was broadcast on 30 May 1947 under the name Three Blind Mice starring Barry Morse. The story drew from the real-life case of Dennis O'Neill, who died after he and his brother Terence suffered extreme abuse while in the foster care of a Shropshire farmer and his wife in 1945.

The play is based on a short story, itself based on the radio play, but Christie asked that the story not be published as long as it ran as a play in the West End of London. The short story has still not been published within the United Kingdom, but it has appeared in the United States in the 1950 collection Three Blind Mice and Other Stories.

When she wrote the play, Christie gave the rights to her grandson Matthew Prichard as a birthday present. In the United Kingdom, only one production of the play in addition to the West End production can be performed annually, and under the contract terms of the play, no film adaptation can be produced until the West End production has been closed for at least six months.

The play had to be renamed at the insistence of Emile Littler who had produced a play called Three Blind Mice in the West End before the Second World War. The suggestion to call it The Mousetrap came from Christie's son-in-law, Anthony Hicks.

More information: The Mousetrap

In Shakespeare's play Hamlet, The Mousetrap is Hamlet's answer to Claudius's inquiry about the name of the play whose prologue and first scene the court has just observed (III, ii). The play is actually The Murder of Gonzago, but Hamlet answers metaphorically, since the play's the thing in which he intends to catch the conscience of the king. Three Blind Mice or its tune is heard a few times during the play.

The play's longevity has ensured its popularity with tourists from around the world. In 1997, at the initiative of producer Stephen Waley-Cohen, the theatrical education charity Mousetrap Theatre Projects was launched, helping young people experience London's theatre.

The play's storyline is set at the present, which presumably means England as it was around the time when the play came out in 1952, including postwar continuation of World War II rationing.

Tom Stoppard's 1968 play The Real Inspector Hound parodies many elements of The Mousetrap, including the surprise ending.

As a stage play, The Mousetrap had its world premiere at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham on 6 October 1952.

It was originally directed by Peter Cotes, elder brother of John and Roy Boulting, the film directors. Its pre-West End tour then took it to the New Theatre Oxford, the Manchester Opera House, the Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool, the Theatre Royal, Newcastle, the Grand Theatre Leeds and the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham before it began its run in London on 25 November 1952 at the Ambassadors Theatre.

It ran at this theatre until Saturday, 23 March 1974 when it immediately transferred to the larger St Martin's Theatre, next door, where it reopened on Monday, 25 March thus keeping its initial run status. The London run has now exceeded 26,000 performances. The director of the play for many years has been David Turner.

Christie herself did not expect The Mousetrap to run for such a long time. In her autobiography, she reports a conversation that she had with Peter Saunders: Fourteen months I am going to give it, says Saunders. To which Christie replies, It won't run that long. Eight months, perhaps. Yes, I think eight months. When it broke the record for the longest run of a play in the West End in September 1957, Christie received a mildly grudging telegram from fellow playwright Noël Coward: Much as it pains me, I really must congratulate you...

In 2011, by which time The Mousetrap had been running for almost 59 years, this long-lost document was found by a Cotswold furniture maker who was renovating a bureau purchased by a client from the Christie estate. By the time of Christie's death in 1976 the play made more than £3 million.

More information: The Guardian

The original West End cast included Richard Attenborough as Detective Sergeant Trotter and his wife Sheila Sim as Mollie Ralston.

Since the retirement of Mysie Monte and David Raven, who each made history by remaining in the cast for more than 11 years, in their roles as Mrs Boyle and Major Metcalf, the cast has been changed annually. The change usually occurs around late November around the anniversary of the play's opening, and was the initiative of Sir Peter Saunders, the original producer. There is a tradition of the retiring leading lady and the new leading lady cutting a Mousetrap cake together.

The play has also made theatrical history by having an original cast member survive all the cast changes since its opening night. The late Deryck Guyler can still be heard, via a recording, reading the radio news bulletin in the play to this present day. The set was changed in 1965 and 1999, but one prop survives from the original opening -the clock, which sits on the mantelpiece of the fireplace in the main hall.

In May 2001, during the London production's 49th year, and to mark the 25th anniversary of Christie's death, the cast gave a semi-staged Sunday performance at the Palace Theatre, Westcliff-on-Sea as a guest contribution to the Agatha Christie Theatre Festival 2001, a twelve-week history-making cycle of all of Agatha Christie's plays presented by Roy Marsden's New Palace Theatre Company.

Performances at the St. Martin's Theatre were halted on 16 March 2020 with all other West End shows due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. 

The Mousetrap re-opened on 17 May 2021 after 14 months without performances.

More information: Official London Theatre

Crime is terribly revealing.
Try and vary your methods as you will,
your tastes, your habits, your attitude of mind,
and your soul is revealed by your actions.

Agatha Christie

1932, THE FBI LABORATORY OPENS IN WASHINGTON, D.C.

Today, The Grandma has been reading about the FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory, a division within the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation that officially opened in Washington, D.C. on a day like today in 1932.

The FBI Laboratory is a division within the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation that provides forensic analysis support services to the FBI, as well as to state and local law enforcement agencies, free of charge.

The lab is located at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Quantico, Virginia.

Opened November 24, 1932, the lab was first known as the Technical Laboratory. It became a separate division when the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) was renamed as the FBI.

The Lab staffs approximately 500 scientific experts and special agents. The lab generally enjoys the reputation as the premier crime lab in the United States. However, during the 1990s, its reputation and integrity came under withering criticism, primarily due to the revelations of Special Agent Dr. Frederic Whitehurst, the most prominent whistleblower in the history of the Bureau. 

Whitehurst was a harsh critic of conduct at the Lab. He believed that a lack of funding had affected operations and that Lab technicians had a pro-prosecution bias. He suggested they were FBI agents first and forensic scientists second, due to the institutional culture of the Bureau, which resulted in the tainting of evidence.

From September 1934 to September 1975, the Lab was located on the 6th floor and the attic of the Justice Department Building in Washington, D.C. Public tours of the lab work area were available until the FBI moved across the street to the newly constructed J. Edgar Hoover Building in 1974.

Tours of the J. Edgar Hoover Building were available, but the tour route shifted away from the lab work space, thus sealing the lab from public view.

More information: FBI

The Lab expanded to such an extent that the Forensic Science Research and Training Center (FSRTC) was established at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia.

Methods at the FSRTC have helped establish standardized forensic practices for law enforcement agencies. The FBI Lab has been in Quantico since the relocation from Washington since April 2003.

The more widespread use of DNA testing in the late 20th century brought renewed scrutiny to the scientific reliability of many of the FBI Laboratory's forensic analyses. Scientific experts consider DNA -which first became widely used in courts in the 1990s- to be the only near-certain indicator of a forensic match.

The scientific reliability of FBI hair analysis has been questioned, as DNA testing has exonerated persons convicted where the only physical evidence was hair analysis. In addition, in a high percentage of cases, the FBI has learned that its expert witnesses overstated the reliability of hair analysis in testimony in court cases.

In 2013 the Department of Justice began a review of thousands of cases from 1982 through 1999 referred to the FBI for hair analysis.

By 2015 it found that these included 32 death penalty convictions, of which 14 people had died in prison or been executed, and narrowed its review to cases that went to court. It has focused on cases in which hair analysis played a part in convictions, in order to follow up with defendants.

In a subsequent investigation in 2012, the DOJ found that evidence related to hair analysis had been falsified, altered, or suppressed, or that FBI agents had overstated the scientific basis of their testimony, to the detriment of defendants. In 2013, the Department of Justice began a review of cases referred to them for hair analysis from 1982 through 1999, as many as 10,000 cases, to determine whether their agents' testimony resulted in wrongful convictions.

DNA testing has revealed some convicted inmates to be innocent of violent crime charges against them.

In 2015 the FBI reported that their expert witnesses overstated the reliability of hair analysis in matching suspects 96 percent of the time, likely influencing conviction of some defendants.

More information: Washingtonian

Cases are still being overturned as a result of incorrect hair analysis testimony.

In 2012 DNA testing revealed the innocence of three inmates from the District of Columbia who had been convicted to life and served years in prison based on hair analysis evidence and testimony by FBI experts. They have received large settlements from the city because of wrongful convictions and damages of the lost years.

Bullet and gun analysis is another forensic discipline that has been identified in recent studies as being less scientifically reliable than thought. The Bureau established an interdisciplinary commission in 2013 to establish the highest scientific standards in forensic testing and to understand the limits of these tests, and how they may be properly used in court.

With a heightened attention to scientific rigour in its forensic testing, the FBI lab in 2005 abandoned its four-decade-long practice of tracing bullets to a specific manufacturer's batch through chemical analysis, after its methods were scientifically debunked.

A blue-ribbon panel of the National Academy of Sciences raised concerns about the FBI's reliance on forensic testing in a 2009 report that found nearly every familiar staple of forensic science to be scientifically unsound and highly subjective.

In 2016 a man was exonerated and freed in Virginia, based on DNA evidence, after serving 33 years in prison. He had been convicted of rape and murder and sentenced to life in part based on several FBI experts testifying to identification of him by bite-mark patterns, to a medical certainty.

Scientists say that such certainty is impossible to gain by this test. The DNA testing showed that he was not the perpetrator of the crime. As the Washington Post reported, No court in the United States has barred bite-mark evidence, despite 21 known wrongful convictions, a proposed moratorium in Texas and research showing that experts cannot consistently agree even on whether injuries are caused by human teeth.

This forensic test has been highly suspect for some years, but prosecutors and police continue to rely on it, and FBI agents make claims about it.

More information: PBS Learning Media

I taught at the FBI for four decades
-how to think outside of the box and deal
with social engineering.

Frank Abagnale

THE IBM SIMON, THE FIRST SMARTPHONE IS INTRODUCED

Today, The Grandma has decided to change her smartphone. She has had an IBM Simon, the first smartphone that was introduced at COMDEX in Las Vegas, Nevada, on a day like today in 1992.

The IBM Simon Personal Communicator, simply known as IBM Simon, is a handheld, touchscreen PDA designed by International Business Machines (IBM), and manufactured by Mitsubishi Electric.

Although the term smartphone was not coined until 1995, because of Simon's features and capabilities, it has been retrospectively referred to as the first true smartphone.

BellSouth Cellular Corp. distributed the IBM Simon in the United States between August 1994 and February 1995, selling 50,000 units.

The Simon Personal Communicator was the first personal digital assistant or PDA to include telephony features, to make phone calls. The battery lasted only an hour, and flip phones became increasingly slim, which led to its demise.

With advances in MOSFET (metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor, or MOS transistor) technology enabling smaller integrated circuit chips and the proliferation of wireless mobile networks, IBM engineer Frank Canova realized that chip-and-wireless technology was becoming small enough to use in handheld devices.

IBM debuted a prototype device, code named Sweetspot, in November 1992, at the COMDEX computer and technology trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States.

The Sweetspot prototype combined a mobile phone and PDA into one device, allowing a user to make and receive telephone calls, facsimiles, emails and cellular pages. Not only did the prototype have many PDA features including a calendar, address book and notepad, but also demonstrated other applications such as maps, stocks and news.

COMDEX show attendees and the press showed interest in the device. The day after Sweetspot's debut, USA Today featured a photo on the front page of the Money section showing Frank Canova, IBM's lead architect and inventor of the smartphone, holding the Sweetspot prototype.

After a very successful prototype demonstration at COMDEX, IBM began work on the commercial product, code named Angler.

More information: BBC

The IBM device was manufactured by Mitsubishi Electric, which integrated features from its own wireless personal digital assistant (PDA) and cellular radio technologies while building the IBM device.

IBM initially approached Motorola to manufacture the product, but Motorola rejected the offer, concerned that IBM could become a potential rival mobile manufacturer. IBM then approached Mitsubishi to build the device.

BellSouth's executives gave the finished product its final name, Simon Personal Communicator, before its public debut at the Wireless World Conference in November 1993.

BellSouth Cellular had planned to begin selling Simon in May 1994, but due to problems with the device's software, the Simon did not become available to consumers until August 16, 1994. BellSouth Cellular initially offered the Simon throughout its 15-state service area for US$899 with a two-year service contract, or US$1099 without a contract. Later in the product's life, BellSouth Cellular reduced the price to US$599 with a two-year contract.

BellSouth Cellular sold approximately 50,000 units during the product's six months on the market.

More information: Time

In addition to its ability to make and receive cellular phone calls, Simon was also able to send and receive faxes, e-mails and cellular pages. Simon featured many applications, including an address book, calendar, appointment scheduler, calculator, world time clock, electronic notepad, handwritten annotations, and standard and predictive stylus input screen keyboards.

It features a liquid-crystal display (LCD) and has PC Card support. Its internal hardware includes the Vadem VG230 (CMOS) system-on-a-chip (SoC) from NEC, MOS random-access memory (RAM) chips from Sony and Hitachi, flash memory (floating-gate MOS) chips from Intel and Hitachi, and Cirrus Logic modem chips.

Each Simon was shipped with a charging base station, a nickel-cadmium battery, and a protective leather cover. Optional was a PCMCIA pager card designed by Motorola, an RS232 adapter cable for use with PC-Link to access files from a personal computer, and an RJ11 adapter cable to allow voice and data calls to be made over POTS land-lines. The RJ11 adapter helped users reduce expensive cellular phone bills or make calls where cellular coverage didn't exist in 1994.

The Simon used the file system from Datalight ROM-DOS along with file compression from Stacker.

IBM created a unique touch-screen user interface for Simon; no DOS prompt existed. This user interface software layer for Simon was known as the Navigator.

The Simon could be upgraded to run third-party applications either by inserting a PCMCIA card or by downloading an application to the phone's internal memory.

PDA Dimensions developed DispatchIt, the only aftermarket, third-party application developed for Simon. It was an early predecessor to Remote Desktop software. The DispatchIt application costs were US$2,999 for the host PC software and US$299 for each Simon software client.

More information: We Forum

The most important impact on society
and the world is the cell phone.
Cell phones have actually been
one of the primary drivers in productivity improvements.

Fabrice Grinda

'TOY STORY', FIRST COMPUTER-GENERATED IMAGE FILM

Today, The Grandma is relaxing at home. She has been watching the Toy Story Saga, whose first film was released as the first feature-length film created completely using computer-generated imagery on a day like today in 1995.

 

Toy Story is a 1995 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The first instalment in the Toy Story franchise, it was the first entirely computer-animated feature film, as well as the first feature film from Pixar.

The film was directed by John Lasseter (in his feature directorial debut), and written by Joss Whedon, Andrew Stanton, Joel Cohen, and Alec Sokolow from a story by Lasseter, Stanton, Pete Docter, and Joe Ranft. 

 

The film features music by Randy Newman, was produced by Bonnie Arnold and Ralph Guggenheim, and was executive-produced by Steve Jobs and Edwin Catmull.

The film features the voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Jim Varney, Annie Potts, R. Lee Ermey, John Morris, Laurie Metcalf, and Erik von Detten. Taking place in a world where toys come to life when humans are not present, the plot focuses on the relationship between an old-fashioned pull-string cowboy doll named Woody and a modern astronaut action figure, Buzz Lightyear, as they evolve from rivals competing for the affections of their owner, Andy Davis, to friends who work together to be reunited with Andy after being separated from him.

Following the success of their 1988 short film Tin Toy, Pixar was approached by Disney to produce a computer-animated feature film told from a small toy's perspective. Lasseter, Stanton, and Docter wrote early story treatments, which were rejected by Disney, who wanted the film's tone to be edgier.

After several disastrous story reels, production was halted and the script was rewritten to better reflect the tone and theme Pixar desired: toys deeply want children to play with them, and... this desire drives their hopes, fears, and actions. The studio, then consisting of a relatively small number of employees, produced the film under only minor financial constraints.

More information: Medium

Toy Story premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles, California, on November 19, 1995, and was released in theatres in North America on November 22, 1995.

It was the highest-grossing film during its opening weekend, eventually grossing over $373 million worldwide, making it the second highest-grossing film of 1995.

The film received critical acclaim, and holds a rare 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It was praised for the technical innovation of the 3D animation, wit and thematic sophistication of the screenplay, musical score, and vocal performances (particularly Hanks and Allen); it is considered by many to be one of the best animated films ever made.

The film received three Academy Award nominations: Best Original Screenplay (the first animated film to be nominated for this award), Best Original Song for "You've Got a Friend in Me", and Best Original Score, as well as winning a Special Achievement Academy Award.

In 2005, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry for being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. The success of Toy Story launched a multimedia franchise and a series of three sequels, starting with Toy Story 2 (1999).

John Lasseter's first experience with computer animation was during his work as an animator at Walt Disney Feature Animation, when two of his friends showed him the light-cycle scene from Tron.

It was an eye-opening experience that awakened Lasseter to the possibilities offered by the new medium of computer-generated animation. Lasseter tried to pitch The Brave Little Toaster as a fully computer-animated film to Disney, but the idea was rejected and Lasseter was fired. He then went on to work at Lucasfilm and in 1986, he became a founding member of Pixar.

In 1986, Pixar was purchased by entrepreneur and Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs. At Pixar, Lasseter created short, computer-animated films to show off the Pixar Image Computer's capabilities.

In 1988, Lasseter produced the short film Tin Toy told from the perspective of a toy, referencing Lasseter's love of classic toys. It won the 1989 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, the first computer-generated film to do so.

The original treatment for Toy Story, drafted by Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, and Pete Docter, had little in common with the eventually finished film. It paired Tinny, the one-man band from Tin Toy, with Woody, a ventriloquist's dummy, and sent them on a sprawling odyssey.

Under Katzenberg, Woody was the main villain, abusing the other toys until they rallied against him; after Disney executives saw the storyboards, they relinquished creative control to Pixar.

 

More information: The Conversation

The core idea of Toy Story was present from the first treatment onward: that toys deeply want children to play with them, and that this desire drives their hopes, fears, and actions. Katzenberg felt the original treatment was problematic and told Lasseter to reshape Toy Story as more of an odd-couple buddy picture, and suggested they watch some classic buddy films, such as The Defiant Ones and 48 Hrs., in which two characters with different attitudes are thrown together and have to bond.

Lasseter, Stanton, and Docter emerged in early September 1991 with the second treatment, and although the lead characters were still Tinny and the dummy, the outline of the final film was beginning to take shape.

Toy Story had a large impact on the film industry with its innovative computer animation. After the film's debut, various industries were interested in the technology used for the film.

Graphics chipmakers desired to compute imagery similar to the film's animation for personal computers; game developers wanted to learn how to replicate the animation for video games; and robotics researchers were interested in building artificial intelligence into their machines that compared to the film's lifelike characters.

Toy Story left an impact with its catchphrase To Infinity and Beyond, sequels, and software, among others.

More information: Screen Rant

 So Long, Partner.

Woody Pride