#Moe Berg

[rosiethereviewer]

Episode 49: The Catcher Was a Spy

Happy Friday! This week... Eesh. We really wanted to enjoy this one. The Catcher Was a Spy is a movie about the wildly fascinating American baseball player-turned-spy Moe Berg. It stars Paul Rudd, which Maartje, in particular, was quite excited about until she realised he plays himself. Oh well. Can't all be winners. Batter up! Listen to our episode here.

Find out more background, like our book rec, here.

[shitandpissworldtour]

little bugs do not step on them..

[thatrickmcginnis]

MOE BERG Toronto 1990

I’m going to make a broad generalization here and say that Moe Berg’s band The Pursuit of Happiness are a cultural marker for Generation X here in Canada. If you were in your twenties and – even more so – single and living in a city you’ll probably have a surge of memories when you hear the singles from Love Junk, their first album: songs like “Hard to Laugh”, “She’s so Young” and “Hard to Laugh”. I know I do. Which is why I have a kind of fond memory of my portrait sitting with Moe back in the spring of 1990 – a shoot for the cover of the free weekly where I had started to work, in my studio loft in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood.

Moe Berg was born in Edmonton in 1959 – technically a late Baby Boomer, but there’s always a lot of drift when it comes to culture. He’d played in several local bands before moving with drummer Dave Gilby to Toronto and forming The Pursuit of Happiness. They released “I’m an Adult Now” as an indie single a year later and landed a deal with Chrysalis Records based on radio airplay and a low-budget video for the song. They released the Todd Rundgren-produced record Love Junk in 1988 and One Sided Story in 1990; Berg was probably doing publicity for the record when he showed up at my studio.

My photo editor at the free weekly told me that the paper’s publisher was a friend of Moe Berg as a way of warning me that I needed to turn in some flattering shots for the cover story. I did my best; I had moved into a live/work loft space so I was buzzing with having my own studio to shoot in, and thanks to coming into a bit of money I’d bought some new gear – a Bronica SQ-A medium format camera (a kind of poor man’s Hasselblad that was popular with wedding photographers) and a kit of ProFoto strobe lights. The colour shots were for the cover, which had a rigid format to allow for type and the magazine logo. I went all in on coloured gels to make it pop on the stands, but for the inside black and white shots I went for the kind of flat, clean, high-key lighting scheme that I’d been trying to nail down for several years, and which was infinitely easier to pull off in a studio with multiple lights. I remember Berg being very soft-spoken, happy to take direction but palpably wary of the camera.

The Pursuit of Happiness have gone through several line-up changes but still occasionally perform, while Moe Berg has his own solo career in addition to working as a producer and working with the Trans-Canada Highwaymen, a supergroup with members of Sloan, the Odds and the Barenaked Ladies. TPOH never really broke big outside this country but it would be hard to make a soundtrack of Canada at the turn of the ‘90s without including their biggest hits.

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[nothing-but-music-videos]

The Pursuit of Happiness

"Cigarette Dangles"

Music video, 1993

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The Trans-Canada Highwaymen perform “Hard to Laugh” from Moe Berg’s band The Pursuit of Happiness.

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facecrime - I Know Some People

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Video of The Day: The Pursuit of Happiness - She's So Young

In the era of 90s alternative rock, The Pursuit of Happiness emerged as a jangly powerpop force, weaving tales of love, longing, and the tumultuous journey through a conflicted maze of human emotions. Among their repertoire of hits, “She’s So Young” stands as a beautiful jangly gem, capturing the essence of youthful passion and the bittersweet symphony of burgeoning adulthood versus the slow…

[komalatea]

can you draw all the cuphead characters game and show designs combined?

Doing all characters is extreme, so take these instead

[girlactionfigure]

THURSDAY HERO: Moe Berg

Ballplayer And Spy: Moe Berg

Helped Stop Germany From Getting The Bomb

Moe Berg was an American original: a major league baseball player and a wartime spy. Born in 1902 and raised in a poor Jewish family in New York City, Moe was a bright, charismatic boy and a top student in high school. He attended Princeton on an academic scholarship, one of only a few Jewish students at the prestigious college.

At Princeton, Berg studied languages – he ultimately learned seven – and became the star shortstop on the college baseball team. He wanted to attend graduate school at the Sorbonne in France, but couldn’t afford it. Instead he chose a very different career path. After being recruited in college, Moe signed a contract to play shortstop for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

He wasn’t the best hitter, and was sent to the minors in 1924, but returned to the majors in 1926 as a catcher with the Chicago White Sox. Incredibly, he attended Columbia Law School in the off season, and earned his degree while on the White Sox. Moe played 15 seasons in the major leagues, including stints on the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox. Known as “the brainiest guy in baseball,” Moe was asked why he “wasted” his intelligence playing sports, he said, “I’d rather be a ballplayer than a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.”

In 1934, Moe joined a traveling all-star team, along with Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth. In Tokyo he delivered a speech in Japanese. Unknown to his fellow players, Moe had been recruited as a spy by the U.S. government, and while in Tokyo he carefully photographed the city. Moe’s images were later used by the U.S. Army for bombing raids on the Japanese capital . As a Jew, Moe wanted to fight Nazis, and he volunteered to serve when the United States entered World War II.

Moe became a Goodwill Ambassador, traveling to South America and Asia. Moe made a radio speech in Japanese to the people of Japan urging them not to fight a war they could not win. After his stint as an ambassador, Moe became an agent in the Office of Strategic Services (the forerunner of the CIA). He taught himself nuclear physics, then traveled throughout Europe to collect information about atomic bomb development. His fame and charisma enabled him to form intimate friendships with important military, political and cultural leaders.

Moe’s extensive spy work uncovered an atomic bomb factory in Norway that was developing the bomb for Germany. Using Moe’s intel, Allied forces bombed the factory and stopped Germany from getting the bomb. Moe was at great risk in Europe because he was Jewish, but he refused to return home, instead spending much of 1944 and 1945 helping American troops in Europe capture atomic scientists who were working with the Germans. When the war ended, Moe Berg was offered the U.S. Medal of Merit, the highest award given to a civilian during the war, but he modestly declined.

In 1951, Moe asked the CIA to send him to the newly founded State of Israel. “A Jew must do this,” he said. The request was refused but Moe was hired by the CIA to go through his old contacts from wartime to get information on the Soviet atomic bomb project. He left the agency in the early 1950’s, and for the next few decades Moe lived a quiet life. He worked as a coach for a few years, but never found another steady career.

A lifelong bachelor, Moe died in 1972 at his sister’s home in New Jersey, at age 70. Moe’s last words were, “How did the Mets do today?” His former Ted Lyons remembered, “A lot of people tried to tell [Moe] what to do with his life and brain and he retreated from [baseball]… He was different because he was different. He made up for all the bores of the world. And he did it softly, stepping on no one.”

Moe Berg’s is the only baseball card on display at the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency.

For his contributions to the world of sports and to the safety of our country, we honor Moe Berg as this week’s Thursday Hero.

[the-cinnamontography-is-amazing]

How did I not know that Paul Rudd made a movie about Moe Berg, the baseball player who worked for the OSS, sent to kill Heisenberg???

[shitandpissworldtour]

very fond of the recent trans-canada highwaymen newfoundland and labrador girls trip

[tarjeismoeworknews]

Tarjei is 5th and final director of Xante Xenekunst 6: Regi Grand Prix (2024)!!!

"He will makes his official directorial debut on the theater scene with a wild musical contribution, filled with both sting and swing!"

Regi Grand Prix is a performance where different directors each make their number and at the end the public decides the winner. Each director has been given one day with the actors to stage each of their unique contributions.

Ensemble: Anna Filippa Hjarne, Jonas Blakstad, Jørgen Lervik Dahlstrøm, Tord Kinge, Teodor Ødegaard Jacobsen, Eline Radharani Breitenstein, Tora Berg.

Musicians: Ole Calmeyer (drummer), Eira Elise Øverås (trumpet), Uma Morelia Bustos Reksten (double bass), Elias Kåset Noodt (electric guitar), Nora Baudouin Lie Kvaran (saxophone).

Overall director:  Jørgen Lervik Dahlstrøm Producer:  Alexandra Wittemann Production assistant / supervisor: Marlin Aurora Øien Artistic responsible: Tord Kinge, Jørgen Lervik Dahlstrøm

Directors: Vilde Johannessen;  Sindre Hansen, Brede Fristad and William Greni Arnø ; Zoe Rodgers; The actors in Nissen Review; Tarjei Sandvik Moe

Xante Xenekunst 6: Directing Grand Prix is played on Friday 4 October 2024 at Centralteatret,Oslo Nye

Tickets

source: xenekunst (Instagram)

[singeratlarge]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Desi Arnaz, Benedict of Nursia, Moe Berg, Ed Bournemann, Dale Bozzio, Larry Carlton, Karen Carpenter, John Cowsill, Daniel Craig, John Cullum, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Maxwell Street, Jimmy Davis, Becky G, Rory Gallagher, John Gardner, Mikhail Gorbachev, Laird Hamilton, Sam Houston, Bryce Dallas Howard, John Irving, Jennifer Jones, Léon Jongen, Jon Bon Jovi, Orrin Keepnews, the 1933 film KING KONG, Papa Lightfoot, BarBara Luna, Madonna’s 1989 single “Like a Prayer,” Chris Martin, Gates McFadden, drummer-producer Tony Meehan (The Shadows), Method Man, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Lauraine Newman, Jay Osmond, Ethan Peck, Elvis Presley’s 1956 single “Lawdy Miss Clawdy,” Luke Pritchard (The Kooks), Dottie Rambo, Red Saunders, Dennis Seaton (Musical Youth), Shostakovich’s 14th Symphony (1969), Bedřich Smetana, the 1995 musical SMOKY JOE’S CAFÉ, Ludovico Spontoni, the 1965 film SOUND OF MUSIC, composer-trumpeter Derek Watkins (James Bond films), Kurt Weill, Tom Wolfe, "Théo" Ysaÿe, and the creative provocateur, poet, and singer-songwriter Lou Reed. He was the principal songwriter for The Velvet Underground and his solo career spanned 5 decades. 

Velvet Underground were not commercially successful but are now regarded as one of the most influential bands in the history of rock. Brian Eno said that everyone who heard the first VU album wanted to start a band. Reed had a deadpan voice that, for me, required forgiveness as singers go (though he did step up on occasion, particularly when he sung with The Blind Boys on THE RAVEN album). Eventually I connected with his noir fiction, transgressive “eyewitness reporting” lyrics and songcraft. He neither approved or disapproved of the subjects he sang about and, in the end, he just wanted to write catchy rock’n’roll. Over the years I’ve performed at least 6 Reed/VU songs—recording 2: “What Goes On” and “Sunday Morning,” on which I was joined by members of The Badlees (who did a splendid job in one afternoon). Reed himself commended our cover and promoted it on his website in the mid-90s. HB and RIP Lou.

#loureed #velvetunderground #sundaymorning #singersongwriter #bretalexander #thebadlees #blindboysofalabama #raven #edgarallenpoe #noirfiction #poet #guitarist #eyewitnessreport #johnnyjblair #singeratlarge #birthday

[officiallordvetinari]

Wikipedia Featured Article Poll, Biographies Edition. Summaries and links below the cut

Margaret Ives Abbott (June 15, 1878 – June 10, 1955) was an American amateur golfer. She was the first American woman to win an Olympic event: the women's golf tournament at the 1900 Summer Olympics.

Lilias Eveline Armstrong (29 September 1882 – 9 December 1937) was an English phonetician. She worked at University College London, where she attained the rank of reader. Armstrong is most known for her work on English intonation as well as the phonetics and tone of Somali and Kikuyu. Her book on English intonation, written with Ida C. Ward, was in print for 50 years. Armstrong also provided some of the first detailed descriptions of tone in Somali and Kikuyu.

Morris Berg (March 2, 1902 – May 29, 1972) was an American catcher and coach in Major League Baseball, who later served as a spy for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. Although he played 15 seasons in the major leagues, almost entirely for four American League teams, Berg was never more than an average player and was better known for being "the brainiest guy in baseball." Casey Stengel once described Berg as "the strangest man ever to play baseball".

Edward Dando (c. 1803 – 28 August 1832) was a thief who came to public notice in Britain because of his unusual habit of overeating at food stalls and inns, and then revealing that he had no money to pay. Although the fare he consumed was varied, he was particularly fond of oysters, having once eaten 25 dozen of them with a loaf and a half of bread with butter.

Harold Francis Davidson (14 July 1875 – 30 July 1937), generally known as the Rector of Stiffkey, was a Church of England priest who in 1932, after a public scandal, was convicted of immorality by a church court and defrocked. Davidson strongly protested his innocence and to raise funds for his reinstatement campaign he exhibited himself in a barrel on the Blackpool seafront. He performed in other sideshows of a similar nature, and died after being attacked by a lion in whose cage he was appearing in a seaside spectacular.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas (April 7, 1890 – May 14, 1998) was an American journalist, author, women's suffrage advocate, and conservationist known for her staunch defense of the Everglades against efforts to drain it and reclaim land for development. Moving to Miami as a young woman to work for The Miami Herald, she became a freelance writer, producing over one hundred short stories that were published in popular magazines. Her most influential work was the book The Everglades: River of Grass (1947), which redefined the popular conception of the Everglades as a treasured river instead of a worthless swamp. Its impact has been compared to that of Rachel Carson's influential book Silent Spring (1962). Her books, stories, and journalism career brought her influence in Miami, enabling her to advance her causes.

George Went Hensley (May 2, 1881 – July 25, 1955) was an American Pentecostal minister best known for popularizing the practice of snake handling. A native of rural Appalachia, Hensley experienced a religious conversion around 1910: on the basis of his interpretation of scripture, he came to believe that the New Testament commanded all Christians to handle venomous snakes.

Margaret Alice Murray FSA Scot FRAI (13 July 1863 – 13 November 1963) was a British-Indian Egyptologist, archaeologist, anthropologist, historian, and folklorist who was born in India. The first woman to be appointed as a lecturer in archaeology in the United Kingdom, she worked at University College London (UCL) from 1898 to 1935. She served as president of the Folklore Society from 1953 to 1955, and published widely over the course of her career.

Dom Pedro Afonso (19 July 1848 – 10 January 1850) was the Prince Imperial and heir apparent to the throne of the Empire of Brazil. Born at the Palace of São Cristóvão in Rio de Janeiro, he was the second son and youngest child of Emperor Dom Pedro II and Dona Teresa Cristina of the Two Sicilies, and thus a member of the Brazilian branch of the House of Braganza. Pedro Afonso was seen as vital to the future viability of the monarchy, which had been put in jeopardy by the death of his older brother Dom Afonso almost three years earlier.

Elias Abraham Rosenberg (Hebrew: אליאס אברהם רוזנברג; Hawaiian: Eliaka Apelahama Loselabeka; c. 1810 – July 10, 1887) was a Jewish immigrant to the United States who, despite a questionable past, became a trusted friend and adviser of King Kalākaua of Hawaii. Regarded as eccentric, he lived in San Francisco in the 1880s and worked as a peddler selling illegal lottery tickets. In 1886, he traveled to Hawaii and performed as a fortune-teller. He came to Kalākaua's attention, and endeared himself to the king with favorable predictions about the future of Hawaii. Rosenberg received royal appointments to several positions: kahuna-kilokilo (royal soothsayer), customs appraiser, and guard. He was given lavish gifts by the king, but was mistrusted by other royal advisers and satirized in the Hawaiian press.