#it's a 1959 french-brazilian film

[findusinaweek]

For my mutuals that are posting about Greek myth retellings, do you all have thoughts of Orfeu Negro (Black Orpheus)? 

[iheartbathroom]

examples of each category ↓ below ↓ IGNORE year discrepancies im basing it off of the year the artist originally recorded the song. ok

new orleans jazz: king oliver's creole jazz band - dippermouth blues (1923) (this is the original jazz style & is also referred to as "early jazz" although its still extremely popular among new orleans musicians. go to the french quarter and you WILL hear this style of music. this song features a young louis armstrong as seen in the photo)

foxtrot: eva taylor - if i could be with you (1927) (this subgenre was intended for couple dancing and was the most universally popular type of jazz during the jazz age)

swing/big band: duke ellington - take the "a" train (1939) (prevailing jazz style from the mid 1930s.. until the end of time)

bebop: thelonious monk - evidence (1948) (swing but make it crazayyyyyyy. not to brag but this song was based on a song my great grandfather composed..so..)

latin jazz: joão gilberto - desafinado (1959) (jazz w flavorings of one of the various latin music genres. this song is a bossa nova which is a brazilian style that uses samba elements. it later became popular to arrange bossa nova for big bands)

tito puente - el cayuco (1957) (this one is a mambo which is a style that originated from cuba & popularity spread among latino artists, this specific artist being puerto rican-american. posting a second example for this category because its so varied and also as propaganda bc its my favorite)

lounge/elevator/muzak: les baxter - pyramid of the sun (1960) (that chill 1960s film score type shit.. vibraphone my beloved)

jazz fusion: herbie hancock - chameleon (1973) (jazz with usual elements of funk, rock, and r&b. this song is categorized as jazz-funk specifically. WATCH OUT the preview starts loud)

smooth jazz: grover washington jr - in the name of love (1980) (chill r&b oriented jazz. makes me feel like im watching a sitcom intro)

acid jazz: the brand new heavies - never stop (1991) (acid jazz originated as essentially acid house + jazz. like jazz fusion, tends to contain elements of house, disco, funk, soul, and hiphop)

nu jazz: stereolab - fuses (1999) (another fusion genre but this one tends to have a more experimental electronic approach.. no one is surprised i shoved stereolab in here)

electroswing: tape five - tango for a spy (2006) (genre known for using jazz samples with modern dance music styles. electroswing is largely a misnomer for a lot of the music that falls under it bc a lot of it samples jazz that predates swing. but thats just my semantic thing)

[brookston]

Holidays 8.21

Holidays

Actuaries Day (India)

Appreciation Day (Elder Scrolls)

Aquino Day (Philippines)

Argonian Day

Ask Questions Day

Bitcoin Infinity Day

Black Indie Authors Day

Buhe (Ethiopia)

Bunny Day (Japan)

Cadillac Day

Crazy Day

Eagle Scout Day

821 Day (Texas)

Festival of Goliath, Parade of Giants begins (Ath, Belgium)

Fête de la Jeunesse (a.k.a. Youth Day; Morocco, Western Sahara)

Good Roads Day

Gospel Day (Micronesia)

Grandfather and Grandson’s Day (Argentina)

ICBM Day

International Day of Mosques

International Day of Remembrance of and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism (UN)

Internet Self-Care Day

Kosrae (Gospel Day; Micronesia)

National Brazilian Blowout Day

National Dreams Are Possible Day

National Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day

National Meme Day

National Report Upcoding Fraud Day

National Senior Citizens Day

Ninoy Aquino Day (Philippines)

Officer’s Day (Russia)

Order of the Lone Star Day

Our Lady of Knock

Poet's Day

San Martin Day (Argentina)

Senior Citizens' Day

Six-Row Barley Day (French Republic)

Thiruonam (Parts of India)

World Entrepreneurs’ Day

World Fashion Day

World Goat Day

Youth Day (Morocco)

Food & Drink Celebrations

Beer Institute Day

Grog Day

National Shiraz Day (Australia)

National Spumoni Day

National Sweet Tea Day

Independence & Related Days

Hawaii Statehood Day (Original Date; 1959)

Latituda (Declared; 2006) [unrecognized]

Latvia (Passing of the Constitutional Law on the Status of the Republic of Latvia as a State and Actual Restoration of the Republic of Latvia; 1991)

3rd Wednesday in August

Hump Day [Every Wednesday]

JUVEDERM Day [3rd Wednesday]

Miss Crustacean Hermit Crab Beauty Pageant and Hermit Crab Races (Ocean City, NJ) [3rd Wednesday]

National Medical Dosimetrist Day [3rd Wednesday]

Wacky Wednesday [Every Wednesday]

Wandering Wednesday [3rd Wednesday of Each Month]

Website Wednesday [Every Wednesday]

Wiener Wednesday [3rd Wednesday of Each Month]

Festivals Beginning August 21, 2024

Corn Palace Festival (Mitchell, South Dakota) [thru 8.25]

gamescom (Cologne, Germany) [thru 8.25]

The Great New York State Fair (Syracuse, New York) [thru 9.2]

Hythe Venetian Fete (Hythe, United Kingdom) [thru 8.21]

Idaho County Fair (Cottonwood, Idaho) [thru 8.24]

Pluk de Nacht Film Festival (Amsterdam, Netherlands) [thru 8.31]

Ransom County Fair (Lisbon, North Dakota) [thru 8.25]

Reading and Leeds Festivals (Leeds and Reading, United Kingdom) [thru 8.25]

Tønder Festival (Tønder, Denmark) [thru 8.24]

Victoria Fringe Theatre Festival (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada) [thru 9.1]

Feast Days

Abraham of Smolensk (Eastern Orthodox Church)

Albert Irvin (Artology)

Amontons (Positivist; Saint)

Apologise Day (Pastafarian)

Asher Brown Durand (Artology)

Aubrey Beardsley (Artology)

Bernard Ptolemy, Founder of the Olivetans (Christian; Saint)

Blessing Against Jealousy Day (Celtic Book of Days)

Bonosus and Maximilian (Christian; Martyrs)

Broderick Crawford Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Christian Schad (Artology)

Consualia (Ancient Roman festival to the god of the harvest and stored grain)

Euprepius of Verona (Christian; Saint)

Festival of Consus (God of Good Council; Ancient Rome)

Heraclia (Celebration of Hercules; Ancient Rome; Everyday Wicca)

Jane Francis de Chantal (Christian; Saint)

Jean-Baptiste Greuze (Artology)

Joseph (Muppetism)

Jules Michelet (Writerism)

Luxorius, Cisellus and Camerinus (Christian; Martyrs)

The Magic of Lemon Day (Starza Pagan Book of Days)

Maximilian of Antioch (Christian; Saint)

Menashe Kadishman (Artology)

Narcisse-Virgile Díaz de la Peña (Artology)

Nathaniel Everett Green (Artology)

Our Lady of Knock (Christian; Saint)

Pius X, Pope (Christian; Saint)

Radish Tordia (Artology)

Richard, Bishop of Andria (Christian; Saint)

Robert Stone (Writerism)

Sidonius Apollinaris (Christian; Saint)

Stephen Hillenburg (Artology)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Prime Number Day: 233 [51 of 72]

Shakku (赤口 Japan) [Bad luck all day, except at noon.]

Tycho Brahe Unlucky Day (Scandinavia) [29 of 37]

Umu Limnu (Evil Day; Babylonian Calendar; 39 of 60)

Unglückstage (Unlucky Day; Pennsylvania Dutch) [22 of 30]

Premieres

Ain’t Misbehaving’, recorded by Fats Waller (Song; 1938)

American Ultra (Film; 2015)

An American Werewolf in London (Film; 1981)

Axe Me Another (Fleischer Popeye Cartoon; 1934)

Bambi (Animated Disney Film; 1942)

Be Here Now, by Oasis (Album; 1997)

Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris, by A.J. Liebling (Memoir; 1959)

Blade (Film; 1998)

A Brief History of Time (Documentary Film; 1992)

Crazy, recorded by Patsy Cline (Song; 1961)

Diesel and Dust, by Midnight Oil (Album; 1987)

Dirty Dancing (Film; 1987)

Dynamite, by BTS (Song; 2020)

Earth Abides, by George R. Stewart (Novel; 1949)

Eve of Destruction, by Barry McGuire (Song; 1965)

Facelift, by Alice In Chains (Album; 1990)

Fireman’s Brawl (Fleischer/Famous Popeye Cartoon; 1953)

First Monday in October (Film; 1981)

House of the Dragon (TV Series; 2022)

How You Remind Me, by Nickelback (Song; 2001)

Inglorious Basterds (Film; 2009)

Kiko and the Honey Bears (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1936)

Life with Fido (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1942)

Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (Animated Film; 1992)

Motörhead, by Motörhead (Album; 1977)

Next Stoop Wonderland (Film; 1998)

Ready or Not (Film; 2019)

Ritual de lo Habitual, by Jane’s Addiction (Album; 1990)

Run, Run, Sweet Road Runner (WB MM Cartoon; 1965)

Sherman Was Right (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1932)

A Sunbonnet Blue (WB MM Cartoon; 1937)

The Wings of the Dove, by Henry James (Novel; 1902)

Wrongfully Accused (Film; 1998)

Today’s Name Days

Pius (Austria)

Agaton, Pio, Sidonija (Croatia)

Johana (Czech Republic)

Salomon (Denmark)

Sven, Sveno (Estonia)

Soini, Veini (Finland)

Christophe, Grâce, Ombeline (France)

Pia, Oius, Maximilian (Germany)

Hajna, Sémuel (Hungary)

Cristoforo, Pio (Italy)

Janīna, Linda, Sidnejs (Latvia)

Gaudvydas, Joana, Kazė, Kazimiera, Medeinė (Lithuania)

Ragni, Ragnvald (Norway)

Adolf, Adolfa, Adolfina, Alf, Bernard, Emilian, Filipina, Franciszek, Joanna, Kazimiera, Męcimir (Poland)

Jana (Slovakia)

Pío (Spain)

Jon, Jonna (Sweden)

Gianna, Jane, Janelle, Janessa, Janet, Janette, Janice, Janie, Janine, Janiya, Jayne, Shanice, Sheena (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 234 of 2024; 132 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 3 of Week 34 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Coll (Hazel) [Day 19 of 28]

Chinese: Month 7 (Ren-Shen), Day 18 (Ding-Si)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025) [Wu-Chen]

Hebrew: 17 Av 5784

Islamic: 15 Safar 1446

J Cal: 24 Purple; Threesday [24 of 30]

Julian: 8 August 2024

Moon: 94%: Waning Gibbous

Positivist: 9 Gutenberg (9th Month) [Amontons]

Runic Half Month: As (Gods) [Day 14 of 15]

Season: Summer (Day 63 of 94)

Week: 3rd Full Week of August

Zodiac: Leo (Day 31 of 31)

[kennamirzayan]

Viewing Response 2: Black Orpheus (1959) and the Eurocentric Gaze

Directed by French filmmaker, Marcel Camus, Black Orpheus retells the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice with Rio’s Carnival as its backdrop. The film acts as an eery, dreamlike fantasy, creating a story in the vain of its mythic source material.  

However, the world and the characters that Black Orpheus presents read like a fantasy in more ways than one. Watching this film, I was struck by how uncanny it felt. The characters did not feel like realized people so much as they seemed like figments of an idea. The world which the characters occupied appeared stagey and inauthentic. 

And therein lies the flaw of Black Orpheus – it is more interested in presenting Brazil as an exotic playground for European audiences than in capturing it and its people as whole and complex entities.

In her analysis of the film, Myrian Sepulveda dos Santos writes, “Although the first production [Black Orpheus] is capable of completely engaging a foreign audience, the ambience of fun and happiness among all the characters is not attractive to most citizens of Rio”. Black Orpheus is made contrived by the European lens through which it is captured. 

Camus depicts the people of Brazil from the lens of a European. It denies the existence of prominent racism and anti-Blackness by refusing to depict it at all, opting for a more European-friendly image of a utopian society wherein all Brazilians are joyously celebrating, all the time. This serves to exoticize and fetishize an entire country without considering the realities and complexities pertinent to these portrayals. 

[brookstonalmanac]

Birthdays 10.23

Beer Birthdays

William Anderton (1866)

Warren Marti (1920)

Adam Nason (1984)

Five Favorite Birthdays

Johnny Carson; television talk show host (1925)

Michael Crichton; writer (1942)

Pele; Brazilian footballer (1940)

Ryan Reynolds; actor (1976)

"Weird" Al Yankovic; singer, parody songwriter (1959)

Famous Birthdays

Alexis Adams; pornstar (1992)

Laurie Halse Anderson; author (1961)

Nicholas Appert; chef, chemist, inventor (1752)

John Russell Bartlett; linguist & historian (1805)

Vasily Belov; Russian novelist, poet & playwright (1932)

Sarah Bernhardt; French actress (1844)

Pauline Black; English singer, actress (1953)

Felix Bloch; Swiss physicist (1905)

Robert Bridges; English writer (1844)

Jim Bunning; Philadelphia Phillies P (1931)

Pieter Burman the Younger; Dutch philologist, poet (1713)

Augusten Burroughs; writer (1965)

Dolly Buster; Czech film director, actress & author (1969)

Trudi Canavan; Australian author & illustrator (1969)

Johnny Carroll; rockabilly musician (1937)

Emilia Clarke; English actress (1986)

Benjamin Constant; French writer (1767)

William David Coolidge; chemist, x-ray tube inventor (1873)

James Daly; actor (1918)

Cat Deeley; English model, actress (1976)

Diana Dors; actor (1931)

Douglas Dunn; Scottish poet (1942)

Doug Flutie; CFL and NFL QB (1962)

Ilya Frank; Russian physicist (1908)

Coleen Gray; actress (1922)

Maggi Hambling; English sculptor & painter (1945)

Mike Harding; English singer-songwriter & comedian (1944)

Lawren Harris; Canadian painter (1885)

John Heisman; football coach (1869)

Philip Kaufman; film director (1936)

JacSue Kehoe; neuroscientist (1935)

Pierre Larousse; French lexicographer, encyclopedist (1817)

Ang Lee; Chinese film director (1954)

Juan Luna; Filipino painter & sculptor (1857)

Masiela Lusha; Albanian-American actress, poet (1985)

Bob Montana; illustrator (1920)

Richard Mortensen; Danish painter (1910)

Una O'Connor; Irish-American actress & singer ​​(1880)

Simo Puupponen; Finnish writer (1915)

Sam Raimi; film director (1959)

Speckled Red; blues/boogie-woogie piano player (1892)

Dianne Reeves; jazz singer (1956)

Chi Chi Rodriguez; golfer (1936)

Adlai Stevenson; politician (1835)

Jessica Stroup; actress (1986)

Frank Sutton; actor (1922)

Brooke Theiss; actress (1969)

Ken Tipton; actor, director & screenwriter (1952)

Robert Trujillo; bass player & songwriter (1964)

Hugo Wast; Argentine writer (1883)

Naomi Watanabe; Japanese actress (1987)

Ernie Watts; saxophonist (1945)

Jimmy Wayne; singer-songwriter & guitarist (1972)

David Wills; country music singer-songwriter (1951)

Würzel; English singer and guitarist (1949)

Dwight Yoakam; country singer (1956)

[faithnfrivolity]

Like most so-called overnight successes, Vincent Anthony Guaraldi—(July 17, 1928 – February 6, 1976) who forever described himself as "a reformed boogie-woogie piano player"—worked hard for his big break.

The man eventually dubbed "Dr. Funk" by his compatriots was born in San Francisco on July 17, 1928; he graduated from Lincoln High School and then San Francisco State College. Guaraldi began performing while in college, haunting sessions at the Black Hawk and Jackson's Nook, sometimes with the Chubby Jackson / Bill Harris band, other times in combos with Sonny Criss and Bill Harris. He played weddings, high school concerts, and countless other small-potatoes gigs.

His first serious booking came at the Black Hawk, when he worked as an intermission pianist ... filling in for the legendary Art Tatum. "It was more than scary", Guaraldi later recalled. "I came close to giving up the instrument, and I wouldn't have been the first after working with Tatum". Guaraldi's first recorded work can be heard on "Vibratharpe", a 1953 release by the Cal Tjader. Guaraldi then avoided studios for the next few years, preferring to further hone his talents in the often unforgiving atmosphere of San Francisco's beatnik club scene. In 1955 he put together his own trio — longtime friend Eddie Duran on guitar, Dean Reilly on bass — and tackled North Beach's bohemian hungry i club. He also returned to studio work that year, making his recorded debut as group leader, although with different personnel: John Markham (drums), Eugene Wright (bass) and Jerry Dodgion (alto sax). What soon came to be recognized as the "Guaraldi sound", however, resulted from several recording sessions with his hungry i buddies. The original Vince Guaraldi Trio, with Duran and Reilly, can be heard on two releases: "The Vince Guaraldi Trio" (1956) and "A Flower is a Lonesome Thing" (1957)

The late 50s were a busy time. Aside from studio sessions with Conte Candoli (two albums), Frank Rosolino (one album), and Cal Tjader (at least ten albums), Guaraldi toured in 1956 with Woody Herman's third "Thundering Herd", replacing Nat Pierce on piano for one season. Not too much later, just after midnight during 1958's first annual Monterey Jazz Festival, some 6,000 rabid but by now quite tired jazz fans came to their feet when The Cal Tjader Quintet blew them away.

Thanks in no small part to the "sound of surprise" from the feisty Guaraldi, whose extended blues riffs literally had the crowd screaming for more, Tjader's quintet received an enthusiastic standing ovation.

National prominence was just around the corner. Inspired by the 1959 French/Portuguese film "Black Orpheus", Guaraldi hit the studio with a new trio — Monte Budwig on bass, Colin Bailey on drums — and recorded his own interpretations of Antonio Carlos Jobim's haunting soundtrack music. The 1962 album was called "Jazz Impression of Black Orpheus", and "Samba de Orpheus" was the first selection released as a single. Combing the album for a suitable B-side number, Guaraldi's producers finally ghettoized a modest original composition titled "Cast Your Fate to the Wind".

Fortunately, some enterprising Sacramento, California DJs turned the single over...

...and the rest is history.

"Cast Your Fate to the Wind" became a Gold Record winner and earned the 1963 Grammy as Best Instrumental Jazz Composition. It was constantly demanded during Guaraldi's club engagements, and suddenly jazz fans couldn't get enough of him. He responded with several albums during 1963 and '64, perhaps the most important of which was "Vince Guaraldi, Bola Sete, and Friends", with Fred Marshall (bass), Jerry Granelli (drums) and Brazilian guitarist Bola Sete. That marked the first of several collaborations with Sete, a musical collaboration whose whole was greater than the sum of its already quite talented parts.

Guaraldi was also a recognized fixture on television, if only in the greater San Francisco region. He and jazz critic Ralph Gleason documented the success of "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" in the three-part "Anatomy of a Hit", produced for San Francisco's KQED; later, shortly after his first album with Sete, Guaraldi did a "Jazz Casual" TV show for the same network

The most prestigious task, however, was yet to come. Even before Duke Ellington played San Francisco's Grace Cathedral, that venerable institution's Reverend Charles Gompertz selected Guaraldi to write a modern jazz setting for the choral Eucharist. The composer labored18 months with his trio and a 68-voice choir, and the result is an impressive blend of Latin influences, waltz tempos, and traditional jazz "supper music". It was performed live on May 21, 1965, and the album became another popular and critical hit. Clearly, if Vince Guaraldi could write music for God, he could pen tunes for Charlie Brown.

The jazz pianist's association with Charles Schulz's creations actually had begun the year before, when Guaraldi was hired to score the first Peanuts television special, adocumentary called "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" (not to be confused with the big-screen feature of the same title). The show brought together four remarkable talents: Schulz, writer/producer/director Lee Mendelson, artist Bill Melendez and Guaraldi.

Guaraldi's smooth trio compositions — piano, bass and drums — perfectly balanced Charlie Brown's kid-sized universe. Sprightly, puckish, and just as swiftly somber and poignant, these gentle jazz riffs established musical trademarks which, to this day, still prompt smiles of recognition.

They reflected the whimsical personality of a man affectionately known as a "pixie", an image Guaraldi did not discourage. He'd wear funny hats, wild mustaches, and display hairstyles from buzzed crewcuts to rock-star shags.

Unfortunately, with an irony that seemed appropriate for a documentary about Charlie Brown, Mendelson never was able to sell the show, which remains unseen to this day by the general public. Fortunately, the unaired program became an expensive calling-card that attracted a sponsor (Coca-Cola) intrigued by the notion of a Peanuts Christmas TV special. Thus, when "A Charlie Brown Christmas" debuted in December 1965, it did more than reunite Schulz, Mendelson, Melendez and Guaraldi, all of whom quickly turned the Peanuts franchise into a television institution. That first special also shot Guaraldi to greater fame, and he became irreplaceably welded to all subsequent Peanuts shows. Many of his earliest Peanuts tunes — "Linus and Lucy", "Red Baron" and "Great Pumpkin Waltz", among others — became signature themes that turned up in later specials.

Guaraldi became so busy that the ensuing decade saw only half a dozen album releases, three of them direct results of his Peanuts work: "A Boy Named Charlie Brown", "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and "Oh, Good Grief!" At some point between his switch from the Fantasy label to Warner Brothers, Guaraldi took the time to produce and direct an album that has become quite obscure: 1968's "Vince Guaraldi with the San Francisco Boys Chorus", released on his own D&D label. This was followed by two Warners releases: "The Eclectic Vince Guaraldi", which marks Guaraldi's recorded vocal debut; and "Alma-Ville", which showcases a Guaraldi guitar solo on one cut. On February 6, 1976, while waiting in a motel room between sets at Menlo Park's Butterfield's nightclub, Guaraldi died of a sudden heart-attack. He was only 47 years old.

A few weeks later, on March 16, "It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown" debuted on television. It was the 15th, and last, Peanuts television special to boast Guaraldi's original music. He had just finished recording his portion of the soundtrack on the very afternoon of the day he died.

Time ... passed.

Those who followed in Guaraldi's Peanuts-themed footsteps — Ed Bogas, Desiree Goyette, Judy Munsen and others — found the shoes impossible to fill. Not one produced a song or theme anywhere near as catchy as the Master, and several of the specials from the late 1970s and '80s consequently lacked a certain zip.

A whopping three decades later, no doubt responding to unceasing pleas from fans who had played Guaraldi's three Peanuts albums to death — and wondered what had become of the themes and background music in all those other television specials — Fantasy released 1998's "Charlie Brown's Holiday Hits". The CD included nine previously unissued tracks, from the theme to "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" to a vocal rendition of "Oh, Good Grief", performed by Lee Mendelson's son's sixth-grade class.Four years later, in the summer of 2003, Vince Guaraldi's son, David, teamed up with Bluebird Records to release "The Charlie Brown Suite". The centerpiece selection, long spoken of in reverential tones by fans who only knew of it but never had heard it, is the fully orchestrated "Charlie Brown Suite", recorded live on May 18, 1969, during a benefit performance with Amici Della Musica (Richard Williams, conductor) at Mr. D's, a theater/restaurant in San Francisco's North Beach region. This awesome piece of music clocks in at roughly 40 minutes and skillfully weaves half a dozen songs into an integrated whole: "Linus and Lucy", "The Great Pumpkin Waltz", "Peppermint Patty", "Oh, Good Grief", "Rain, Rain, Go Away" and "Red Baron".

Encouraged by the enthusiastic response to this new compilation of his father's previously unreleased recordings, David Guaraldi has big plans for the upcoming years ... and this Web site is the place to get up-to-the-minute information.

"I don't think I'm a great piano player", Vince Guaraldi once said, "but I would like to have people like me, to play pretty tunes and reach the audience. And I hope some of those tunes will become standards. I want to write standards, not just hits". He got his wish.

Windham Hill recording artist George Winston has been playing "Linus and Lucy" for years, during his concert appearances. A promise to record it and other Guaraldi cuts finally bore fruit in the autumn of 1996, with the release of Winston's "Linus & Lucy: TheMusic of Vince Guaraldi".

"Linus and Lucy" also has been interpreted by Wynton Marsalis, Dave Brubeck and David Benoit; the latter has become Guaraldi's ongoing torch-bearer in the most recent Peanuts animated TV specials. GRP Records had a smash hit back in 1990, with their soundtrack to the television special "Happy Anniversary Charlie Brown", which gathered numerous jazz luminaries for their interpretations of classic Guaraldi compositions, along with some new cuts clearly inspired by Dr. Funk's Peanuts themes.

"Christmas Time is Here" has become a seasonal fixture, and pretty much everybody of consequence has covered "Cast Your Fate to the Wind".

Let's fade with the words of Jon Hendricks, poet laureate of jazz, who once wrote:

"Vince is what you call a piano player. That's different from a pianist. A pianist can play anything you can put in front of him. A piano player can play anything before you can put it in front of him."

Source: Derrick Bang, All About Jazz

[lennnypooh]

Black Orpheus (1959)

In "Orfeu Negro [Black Orpheus]," director Marcel Camus presents the tragic love story of Orpheus and Eurydice set in Rio de Janeiro through the perspective of a white man. White French director Camus approaches the film with a Euro-centric mindset and gaze, evident in the portrayal of the Carnival scenes. Unlike the majority of foreign films of its time, "Orfeu Negro" uses color to enhance the interplay between race and color. The film’s vibrant set design and costuming create a simplified and exoticized view of Brazil. The striking costumes of characters like Orpheus, Eurydice, Mira, and Serafina turn Brazil into a spectacle through the white lens. While Carnival in Rio is a time of celebration and joy, the film's colors can distract viewers from the reality of the festivities.

Myrian Sepúlveda dos Santos, author of “Black Orpheus and the Merging of Two Brazilian Nations,” highlights the lack of representation of the actual bodily practices during the festivities. A quote that encapsulates this idea is, “To many people, they represent not merely the rehabilitation of pleasures that are normally repressed from their everyday lives, but mainly the unmasking of official rules about the normal content of sexuality.”

[maxwell-grant]

Can you talk more about Japan's obsession with Arsene Lupin and the slew of Gentleman Thief characters in anime very much directly inspired by him?

Japan's history with Lupin doesn't actually start with Lupin himself, but with a different character named Zigomar. Zigomar is an 1908 French pulp character who was Fantomas's direct predecessor and inspiration, and a fairly popular character for quite a while. He got to cross over with Nick Carter for one of his serials and the name Zigomar was used worldwide for several characters over the decades (even in Brazil). During the start of Japan's film history, movies were largely film variants of scenes from kabuki & noh plays, but in the 1910s, when further experimentation began occuring and foreign exports started becoming more commonplace, one particular trend at the time was ninja films, which for over two decades were functionally the equivalent of superhero films today.

Predating this ninja craze, and possibly even influencing it, the French Zigomar serials were quite popular in Japan, and they would start creating their own Zigomar films, beginning in 1912 with NIHON JIGOMA. These were a smash hit that influenced a lot of filmmakers into incorporating European film techniques, particularly in editing. I imagine the Japanese probably turned Zigomar into less of a murderous villain, because one of the subsequent films is called Great Detective Zigomar, although regardless of how they adapted it, they caused a moral panic when daily newspapers began to attribute crimes to the "immoral" influence" of Zigomar on the young.

And so, police started banning them and they had to create a new film exhibition code was drawn up, proscribing works which "promoted" adultery, crime, cruelty, obscenity, or moral corruption. And we all know by this point that censored works are only made all the more appetizing to those that can't have them, and Zigomar proved there was definitely a market for pulp anti-heroes in Japan. Enter the 1920s.

By this point, Lupin was already one of the biggest of fictional icons, a frequent guest star in international pulp magazines next to the likes of Nick Carter, Sherlock Holmes, Fantomas and Fu Manchu. All across the world, you could already find either people inserting Arsene Lupin into their stories (such as Ogonek's Sherlock stories in Siberia or the James Robertson pulps from Germany) or creating their own spins on Arsene himself (such as China's Lu Ping or Batavia's Si Pitung). And so, in 1923, you had the first Lupin serial made in Japan we have records of: 813 - Rupimono, retitled Hachi Ichi San. The character was renamed Akira Naruse for copyright purposes but everyone knows who it was supposed to be. In the 50s, there was also Nanatsu-no Houseki (1950), Tora no-Kiba (1951) and Kao-no Nai Otoko (1955). All of these films are lost completely, but they show that, in the 50s, there was still an interest in Lupin around Japanese media. And not just in Japanese media.

This probably didn't influence anything much in the history of Japan's relation with Lupin (although considering the cultural exchange between Brazil and Japan runs deep, this very well could have ended up overseas for a Japanese audience to watch), but the first TV series based on Arsene Lupin was actually created in Brazil in 1959. It was called As Aventuras de Arsene Lupin, and much like the Japanese started producing Zigomar films based on a love for the French serials, Brazilians loved the Lupin films so much that, eventually, an original series was created.

It starred comedic legend and circus performer Walter Stuart, who had already starred in a Sherlock pastiche for the network, and whose look was already frequently compared to that of Lupin, even before he was cast in the show. And he spoke French, too. The series was short-lived, and is mainly included here because very few records of it exist, and certainly none written in English. Still, it's also interesting as a much more comedy-based approach to Arsene Lupin, a couple of years before that would hit the world in a big way.

Enter the 60s, and we get to the character most responsible for ensuring the name Lupin would never again stay out of people's minds for long: Lupin the Third. A pretty ingeniously designed character who combined Lupin with James Bond (the obvious guy to rip-off if you're a fictional character in the 60s) and whose quick rise to prominence also led to it being behind several of manga and anime's most enduring properties, several of the biggest names over the decades getting their start either in Lupin III, or starting with Lupin III and ending somewhere else.

You have, of course, Hayao Miyazaki, and the monumental popularity of Castle of Cagliostro (which is still the closest thing to a LeBlanc Lupin story this franchise's ever had). You have Shinichi Watanabe who goes around dressed like Lupin. You have Mamoru Oshii, whose canned Lupin film would eventually result in him re-using the ideas for Patlabor, Angel's Egg and Ghost In The Shell. You have Shinichiro Watanabe who said that the biggest inspiration for Cowboy Bepop came from Lupin III's cast. Takeshi Koike, creator of Redline, currently the animation director for the more recent Lupin films. Lupin III has become this springboard of creativity and talent and variety that has directly and indirectly led to many of the biggest names in pop culture today.

Lupin is the single biggest argument I could possibly make as to why I think taking the pulp heroes to anime and videogames is their best shot at long-term modern vitality, because look at how well that turned out for him. It's been 116 years since Maurice LeBlanc first penned Arsene Lupin, and still the character has a freshness and vitality to him virtually unheard of in properties this long lived.

Not just because of the original stories, which are fantastic and definitely deserve better translations, but because the character's legacy has found a footing the likes of which would be inconceivable back then. Lupin movies, Lupin tv shows, Lupin reprints, Lupin public domain guest appearences. The novels get to stand side by side with the biggest of all literary icons. Persona 5 was explosively popular even by the standards of prior franchise installments. Arsene Lupin is in Smash Bros, something that only Dracula had a snowball's chance in hell of achieving.

As with the original stories, it's not enough for Lupin to win and get away with winning, he also has to rub his victory in everyone's faces, and man do we love to watch that happen.

[brokehorrorfan]

The Eurocrypt of Christopher Lee Collection 2 will be released on May 31 via Severin Films. Available to pre-order for $95, the seven-disc Blu-ray box features six films starring horror icon Christopher Lee plus more.

It includes 1959's Uncle Was a Vampire, 1962's The Secret of the Red Orchid, 1974's Dark Places, 1976's Dracula and Son (director's cut and US version), 1989's Murder Story, a CD featuring the Dracula and Son soundtrack, and a booklet by Lee biographer Jonathan Rigby.

A breakdown of the discs and 15+ hours of special features is below.

Disc 1: Uncle Was a Vampire (1959):

2K restoration from dupe negative

Alternate cut from Italian broadcast master

Alternate cut audio commentary by Christopher Lee biographer Jonathan Rigby and Hammer historian Kevin Lyons

Interview with European film scholar Dr. Pasquale Iannone

His Carpathian domicile bought by developers, Baron Roderico (Christopher Lee) flees to the ancestral castle owned by his impoverished nephew (Renato Rascel). But when the nephew sells this castle to luxury hoteliers, Uncle Prince of Darkness must withstand obnoxious tourists, bikini beauties and his own bloodsucking bellhop relative.

Disc 2: The Secret of the Red Orchid (1962):

2K restoration from dupe negative

Audio commentary by film historians Nathaniel Thompson and Troy Howarth

Audio commentary by film historians Kim Newman and Barry Forshaw

Trailer

As rival Chicago mobsters – led by Pretty Boy Steve (Klaus Kinski) – unleash a spree of extortion, machine gun mayhem and murder across England, Scotland Yard summons a cunning FBI agent (Christopher Lee) to end the escalating gang war.

Disc 3: Dark Places (1974)

4k restoration from internegative

Audio commentary by film historians Nathaniel Thompson and Troy Howarth

Interview with Christopher Lee biographer Jonathan Rigby

US teaser trailer

Brazilian TV spot

When the former administrator of an asylum (Robert Hardy) inherits the crumbling estate of an elderly inmate, he’ll unlock a nightmare of lust, larceny, insanity and several murders grisly enough to warrant an ‘X’ certification from the BBFC.

Disc 4 & 5: Dracula and Son – Director’s Cut (1976) & US Version (1979)

4K restoration from the original negative

Audio commentary by Christopher Lee biographer Jonathan Rigby and Hammer historian Kevin Lyons

Audio commentary by film historian Kat Ellinger

Interview with actor Bernard Menez

French TV interview with Christopher Lee

Audio interview with director Édouard Molinaro

Interview with author Claude Klotz

Interview with filmmaker Patrice Leconte on author Claude Klotz

German credit sequences

Trailer

TV spot

With angry villagers driving them away from their castle in Transylvania, Count Dracula (Christopher Lee) and his son Ferdinand (Bernard Ménez) head abroad. The Prince of Darkness ends up in London, where he becomes a horror movie star exploiting his vampire status. His son, meanwhile, is ashamed of his roots and ends up a night watchman in Paris, where he falls for a girl. Tensions arise when father and son are reunited and both take a liking to the same girl.

Disc 6: Murder Story (1989)

4K restoration from original negative

Audio commentary by writers/directors Eddie Arno and Markus Innocenti

Interview with producer Tom Reeve

Mask of Murder - 1988 film co-starring Christopher Lee (sourced from best existing master)

Trailer

Christopher Lee delivers a sly performance as a famous mystery novelist whose mentoring of an aspiring young writer (Alexis Denisof) will lead them both into an Amsterdam-based web of pornography, arson and a global conspiracy of cold-blooded murder.

Also included:

Dracula and Son soundtrack CD composed by Vladimir Cosma (Le Dîner de Cons)

100-page booklet written by Lee biographer Jonathan Rigby

To celebrate the centennial of Sir Christopher Lee, Eurocrypt Collection 2 presents five of the most unexpected, underrated and underseen films of the iconic actor’s European career. Immediately following HORROR OF DRACULA, Lee reprised the role in the quirky 1959 Italian comedy UNCLE WAS A VAMPIRE. Lee speaks fluent German opposite Klaus Kinski for the crazed 1962 krimi SECRET OF THE RED ORCHID. In the 1974 UK psycho-thriller DARK PLACES, Lee toplines a cast that includes Joan Collins, Herbert Lom and Jane Birkin. Lee’s final performance as The Count in the 1976 French comedy DRACULA AND SON can at last be seen in its superior Director’s Cut, while the ultra-rare 1988 Dutch drama MURDER STORY brings Lee into the sex shoppes of Amsterdam. Each film has been remastered from original negative materials with over 15 total hours of trailers, commentaries, alternate cuts, vintage interviews and new featurettes, plus the DRACULA AND SON soundtrack and an all-new 100-page book by Lee biographer Jonathan Rigby.

[paperandsong]

The end of Hadestown suggests that the story is a cycle that happens over and over. The 1959 film Orfeu Negro also implies that the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice is a story that repeats itself across time and place. In the French-Brazilian film, there is subtle allusion to reincarnation, that Orfeu and Euridice have known each other before, and therefore there is hope that they will meet again.

There have been many adaptations of this story - operas, films, songs, poetry - and the bones of the story are always the same, but the details change. When Hadestown Orpheus insists “Oh no, I’m not like that” I have to laugh because Orfeu is definitely ‘like that’. 

At the top you can see that Alexandro Constantino, the Brazilian actor that played Hermes in the film, bore a striking resemblance to André DeShields, who plays Hermes in Hadestown. The fates, which are such a powerhouse in Hadestown, are represented in Orfeu Negro not by people, but as sinister Carnaval confetti constantly winding itself around the two lovers - strings of fate that cannot be escaped. There is no Persephone in the film - or let’s just say she’s not around. Hades is represented by a nameless man in a skeleton costume that stalks Euridice to the end. He is listed in the credits simply as ‘a Morte’. Death.

[isoldalondon]

Estonteante Marpessa Dawn durante a filmagem de Orfeu Negro, filme ítalo-franco-brasileiro que venceu Cannes em 1959, e o Oscar em 1960, dirigido por Marcel Camus e com roteiro adaptado por Camus e Jacques Viot a partir da peça teatral Orfeu da Conceição, de Vinícius de Moraes. A trilha sonora é de Tom Jobim e Luís Bonfá. O enredo é inspirado na mitologia grega, na história de Orfeu e Eurídice. A adaptação ambientou a obra no Brasil, em uma favela do Rio de Janeiro, na época do Carnaval. Stunning Marpessa Dawn during the filming of Orfeu Negro, an Italian-French-Brazilian film that won Cannes in 1959, and the Oscar in 1960, directed by Marcel Camus and with a screenplay adapted by Camus and Jacques Viot from the play Orfeu da Conceição, by Vinicius de Moraes. The soundtrack is by Tom Jobim and Luís Bonfá. The plot is inspired by Greek mythology, the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. The adaptation set the work in Brazil, in a favela in Rio de Janeiro, at the time of Carnival. #isolda #moodboard #inspiration #art #cinema #Orfeu https://www.instagram.com/p/Ci04M_KsSRJ/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[tcm]

International Acclaim and Local Criticism of BLACK ORPHEUS By Jessica Pickens

It’s a film that inspired director Bong Joon Ho in his formative years. The Academy Award-winning director of PARASITE (2019) said that seeing BLACK ORPHEUS (’59) when he was in junior high school made a big impression on him. And at the time of its release, BLACK ORPHEUS was met with international enthusiasm. But in Brazil, the response was one of disappointment.

The film is a modern retelling of the Greek mythology story of “Orpheus and Eurydice.” French director Marcel Camus adapted Vinícius de Moraes’s 1956 stage play, Orfeu da Conceição. It was Camus’s breakout film, and also his only hit — making him a one-hit-wonder in the world of filmmaking.

Set during Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Eurydice travels from the country to the city to visit her cousin Serafina. She is running away from a man that stalked her at her farm, and she believes he wants to kill her. In Rio is Orfeo, a streetcar driver, whose girlfriend Mira is eager to get married. Orfeo is reluctant. When Orfeo meets Eurydice, the two fall in love and it’s like they have known each other since the beginning of time. During Carnival, the two dance together but their happiness is short-lived. The man stalking Eurydice has arrived in the city dressed as Death. As they try to escape Death, the couple also has to avoid an outraged Mira.

While in production, the film wasn’t completed. Filming on location in Brazil, Camus had a limited budget and slept on the beach to save money. “[He] lived from meal to meal and worked from reel to reel,” Time Magazine reported in Janury 1960. When he was finally down to $17, the President of Brazil, Juscelino Kubitschek, helped Camus obtain equipment, according to The Foreign Film Renaissance on American Screens, 1946–1973 by Tino Balio.

The unknown director also cast unknown actors, many of them in their first film role:

Breno Mello was cast in the title role of Orfeo after Camus saw him on a beach and offered him the starring role. This was Mello’s first film role and one of six films he starred in between 1959 and 1988. Before turning to acting, Mello was a Brazilian soccer player for Fluminense and Gremio, major professional soccer teams in Brazil.

Marpessa Dawn was cast as Eurydice. Dawn was the only non-Brazilian in the cast. A native of Philadelphia, PA, this was her first leading film role. Though Dawn continued to act until 1995, none of the roles matched the caliber of her starring role in BLACK ORPHEUS.

Lourdes de Oliveira plays the jealous girlfriend of Orfeo, Mira. This was Oliveira’s first film role and only one of two for the Rio de Janeiro native.

Adhemar da Silva acted as Death in his only film appearance. However, sports and Olympic fans may have already known his name. Da Silva competed on the Brazilian team in the 1948, 1952, 1956 and 1960 Olympics. He was a two-time Olympic gold medalist for the triple jump at the 1952 Helsinki and 1956 Melbourne Olympic games.

Léa Garcia played Eurydice’s cousin Serafina in her first film. After BLACK ORPHEUS, Garcia had a more successful acting career than her co-stars and is still acting into 2020.

With a fresh group of local talent and Brazil as the backdrop, BLACK ORPHEUS is visually stunning and told with the aid of swirling, vibrant colors. The costumes and background primarily used bright golds, blues and purples. Much of the film’s color also came from the music composed by Luiz Bonfá and Antonio Carlos Jobim. The score utilized the ossa nova Brazilian style of music. Jobim is considered one of the founders of the style of music, along with guitarist João Gilberto. Literally translated into “new trend” or “new wave,” bossa nova music is a mix of jazz and samba. The music is so important to the feel of the film that it is practically a co-star, and BLACK ORPHEUS helped create an international bossa nova craze.

After its release, BLACK ORPHEUS was honored with the accolades of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film and the Palme d’Or, which is the highest recognition at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival. However, many native Brazilians felt that this was just a French film set in Brazil. They felt that it didn’t show the true Brazil, but what a tourist may see. “The film works outside Brazil, for foreigners that do not know Brazil or who only know it superficially,” said literary critic and poet Manuel Bandeira in 1959.

Playwright Vinicius de Moraes criticized the film for straying from his original play. Composers Jobim and Bonfá, who made the bossa nova a trend because of the film, made very little for their work and the royalties went to French producers instead as noted in a Brown University article, “Black Orpheus: An International View of an “Authentic” Brazil.” Brazilians also felt the film stereotyped their culture, making it appear that poor blacks of Brazil only happily sang and danced. Author Ruy Castro criticized this saying, “It’s amazing that people who live in cardboard houses can be so happy.”

Despite criticism from the location in which it was set, the film is still celebrated today. While the film had such a large international audience, it’s a shame that it couldn’t reflect the lifestyle that Brazilians would have liked to see on film.

[hello-robin-goodfellow]

FAVORITE MOVIE LOVE STORIES

THANKS FOR THE TAG: @superkingofpriderock​

Belle and Beast (Jean Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast, 1946)

Since i was a kid, Beauty and the Beast has always been my favorite western european fairy tale. I relate at the same to the Beast’s desire to be accepted by the society that fears and looks down his appearance and to Belle’s mixture of fear, curiosity and fascination by the hybrid anthropomorfic creature. And with their great chemistry, the actors Josette Day and Jean Marais really captured those feelings in this classic adaptation directed by Jean Cocteaus

Damiel and Marion (Wings of Desire, 1987)

A 1987 film by Wim Wenders originally called Der Himmel über Berlin (lit: ‘The Heavens Above Berlin’).The film depicts two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, wandering in Cold War era Berlin and listening to the thoughts of humans. Among those humans are an old man looking for the now-destroyed Potsdamer Platz and recalling the good times he used to have there; Peter Falk As Himself; and Marion, a lonely French trapezist desperately looking for a purpose in life.  The angels don’t directly intervene in human existence but sometimes give comfort to humans who need it, like a woman in labor, or a suicidal man on a tram, or a motorcyclist who is dying in the street after he was struck by a car. However, Damiel yearns to be human himself and to experience life as a mortal does. Eventually he falls in love with Marion, the trapeze artist, and has to make a difficult choice: to become human himself in order to be with her, leaving Heaven.

Queen Fantaghirò and King Romualdo (Fantaghirò/The Cave of the Golden Rose franchise, 1991-96)

Fantaghirò (known in the english speaking world as The Cave of the Golden Rose) is a series of five television films produced in Italy by Lamberto Bava (Mario Bava’s son), telling the adventures of Fantaghirò, the youngest of three princess sisters, who traines to become a brave warrior as a way to get free of the sexist restrictions imposed at her life by her father. Her kingdom has been at war with a neighbor kingdom for years, and one day the rencently crowned young adversary king, Romualdo, decides to end the war by personally challenging the best champion of Fantaghirò’s kingdom. Fantaghirò, disguised as man, presents herself as this champion, and their love story begins when Romualdo falls in love with the beauty of her eyes. What’s interesting about this couple is how their personalitys complement each other: Fantaghirò with a more combative strong temper, and Romualdo with a more sweet and calm temper.

Marianne Danielle and Doctor Van Helsing (The Brides of Dracula, 1960)

While watching Hammer Horror’s Brides of Dracula, i finded adorable how Doctor Van Helsing cares for Marianne Danielle (whom he befriends while arriving at Transilvania), how he wants to protect her and respects her feelings, to the point of trying contain his sorrow when she announces her engagement with Baron Meinster. I always imagine that when he defeated the Baron (who is revealed to be a vampire), and flee the wind mill with Marianne, he declared his feelings, she reciprocated, he teached her how to fight vampires, they married and became a battle couple searching to purge the world of the vampires. This is a pairing who deservers more love, fanart and fanfiction.

Fininha and Clécio (Tatuagem, 2013)

Tatuagem (Tattoo) is a movie set in the late 1970s, during the period of the Brazilian Civil-Military Dictatorship, that tells the love story between Fininha, an young soldier, and Clécio, an actor and playwrighter who produces satirical plays for a underground theater called Chão de Estrelas (Floor of Stars). Their romance is one of the most sweetest ever captured on film, but we also feel a certain unease that the fact of Fininha being at the service of the military who persecutes the theater artists will break the couple apart at any moment…

Karaba and Kirikou (Kirikou and the Sorceress, 1998)

Kirikou and the Sorceress is a 1998 French animated film, directed by Michel Ocelot, loosely based on a West African fairy tale.  It tells the story of a tiny baby boy, named Kirikou, who is born in a spectacular way (all by himself, without effort of his mother nor outside help) and can speak and walk immediately after being born. After a couple of questions, he learns that a wicked sorceress, Karaba, has cursed the village and devoured all the men and boys, except his uncle, who is on his way to fight the sorceress. He tricks the sorceress, saves his uncle as well as the children of the village (twice!!), brings the water back to the dried-up spring and, among other things, discovers the sorceress’ true motivations: Karaba is evil because of all the suffering she went through at the hands of men, including a very subtly implied rape. All the bad things that she allegedly had done are ultimately proved to be false. She does hate everyone, but she gets better. Despite being a baby, Kirikou asks Karaba in marriage when she pulls a Heel–Face Turn, saying that he doesn’t like little girls. She doesn’t accept, of course, but then her kiss turns him into a handsome young man.

Nina Shah and Lisa MacKinlay (Nina’s Heavenly Delights, 2006)

Nina’s Heavenly Delights is a Rom Com about a cooking contest,  directed by Pratibha Parmar. The death of her father Mohan brings prodigal daughter, Scot with Indian ancestry Nina (Shelley Conn) home again to Glasgow, her mother, siblings - and the family restaurant, “The Taj”. Being able to keep the latter now hinges on the cooking skills Nina learned at her father‘s knees. In the “Best of The West Curry Competition” she will have to face the former fiancé she left at the altar, Sanjay. In this competition, she will count with the partnership of Lisa, who owns half of the restaurant since Mohan’s death and already seems to be very much part of Nina’s family. And in the proccess, Lisa also becomes a part of Nina’s heart… 

Lady and Tramp (Lady and the Tramp, 1955)

I grew up watching VHSs of the old Disney 2-D Animated movies over, and over, and over. And a thing that i find funny is that most people tend to quote movies from the 1990s Disney Renaissance as when Disney Couples started to met each other first instead of fall in love at first sight, bu when we make a retrospective, in actuality it was Lady and Tramp who started the trend. First they met at Lady’s house and have a verbal fight due to diverging points of view about humans, them they encounter each other again at the streets when she flees from Aunt Sarah, and they walk trough the zoo to unleash Ladys muzzle, Tramp takes her to dinner at Tonys (wich us gives Bella Notte, one of the most romantic scenes in movie history)… every step that a real couple takes to meet each other is taken by Lady and Tramp.

Orfeo x Eurydice (Black Orpheus, 1959)

Black Orpheus is a 1959 film, a French production shot in Brazil and in the Portuguese language. It is a retelling of the ancient myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, set in Rio during Carnaval. Orfeo is a trolley conductor who moonlights as a dancer in a samba school. He is engaged to be married to the gorgeous and passionate Mira, but doesn’t seem too enthused about it. On his trolley car, he meets Eurydice, who has arrived in Rio from the countryside because she is being chased by a mysterious man who she thinks is trying to kill her. Orfeo and Eurydice fall in love, but the strange man—Death himself—is still stalking her.

I TAG: @jgvfhl​ @johnnyclash87​ @lioness--hart​ @mademoiselle-princesse​

[brookston]

Holidays 8.21

Holidays

Actuaries Day (India)

Appreciation Day (Elder Scrolls)

Aquino Day (Philippines)

Ask Questions Day

Black Indie Authors Day

Buhe (Ethiopia)

Bunny Day (Japan)

Cadillac Day

Crazy Day

Eagle Scout Day

Festival of Goliath, Parade of Giants begins (Ath, Belgium)

Fête de la Jeunesse (a.k.a. Youth Day; Morocco, Western Sahara)

Good Roads Day

Gospel Day (Micronesia)

Grandfather and Grandson’s Day (Argentina)

ICBM Day

International Day of Mosques

International Day of Remembrance of and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism (UN)

Internet Self-Care Day

Kosrae (Gospel Day; Micronesia)

National Brazilian Blowout Day

National Dreams Are Possible Day

National Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day

National Report Upcoding Fraud Day

National Senior Citizens Day

Ninoy Aquino Day (Philippines)

Our Lady of Knock

Poet's Day

San Martin Day (Argentina)

Senior Citizens' Day

Six-Row Barley Day (French Republic)

Thiruonam (Parts of India)

World Entrepreneurs’ Day

World Fashion Day

World Goat Day

Youth Day (Morocco)

Food & Drink Celebrations

Beer Institute Day

Grog Day

National Pecan Torte Day

National Spumoni Day

National Sweet Tea Day

3rd Monday in August

Cupcake Day (Australia) [3rd Monday]

Discovery Day (Yukon Territories, Canada) [3rd Monday]

Hartjesdagen (Little Hearts Day; Amsterdam/Haarlem, Netherlands) [Original holiday 3rd Monday]

RSPCA Cupcake Day (UK) [3rd Monday]

Stay Home With Your Kids Day [3rd Monday]

Weird Contest Week begins (Ocean City, NJ) [3rd Monday thru Friday]

Independence Days

Latituda (Declared; 2006) [unrecognized]

Latvia (Passing of the Constitutional Law on the Status of the Republic of Latvia as a State and Actual Restoration of the Republic of Latvia; 1991)

Feast Days

Abraham of Smolensk (Eastern Orthodox Church)

Amontons (Positivist; Saint)

Apologise Day (Pastafarian)

Asher Brown Durand (Artology)

Aubrey Beardsley (Artology)

Bernard Ptolemy, Founder of the Olivetans (Christian; Saint)

Bonosus and Maximilian (Christian; Martyrs)

Broderick Crawford Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Christian Schad (Artology)

Consualia (Ancient Roman festival to the god of the harvest and stored grain)

Euprepius of Verona (Christian; Saint)

Festival of Consus (God of Good Council; Ancient Rome)

Jane Francis de Chantal (Christian; Saint)

Jean-Baptiste Greuze (Artology)

Joseph (Muppetism)

Maximilian of Antioch (Christian; Saint)

Narcisse-Virgile Díaz de la Peña (Artology)

Our Lady of Knock (Christian; Saint)

Pius X, Pope (Christian; Saint)

Richard, Bishop of Andria (Christian; Saint)

Sidonius Apollinaris (Christian; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Prime Number Day: 233 [51 of 72]

Shakku (赤口 Japan) [Bad luck all day, except at noon.]

Tycho Brahe Unlucky Day (Scandinavia) [29 of 37]

Umu Limnu (Evil Day; Babylonian Calendar; 39 of 60)

Unglückstage (Unlucky Day; Pennsylvania Dutch) [22 of 30]

Premieres

Ain’t Misbehaving’, recorded by Fats Waller (Song; 1938)

American Ultra (Film; 2015)

An American Werewolf in London (Film; 1981)

Bambi (Animated Disney Film; 1942)

Be Here Now, by Oasis (Album; 1997)

Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris, by A.J. Liebling (Memoir; 1959)

Blade (Film; 1998)

A Brief History of Time (Documentary Film; 1992)

Crazy, recorded by Patsy Cline (Song; 1961)

Diesel and Dust, by Midnight Oil (Album; 1987)

Dirty Dancing (Film; 1987)

Dynamite, by BTS (Song; 2020)

Earth Abides, by George R. Stewart (Novel; 1949)

Eve of Destruction, by Barry McGuire (Song; 1965)

Facelift, by Alice In Chains (Album; 1990)

First Monday in October (Film; 1981)

House of the Dragon (TV Series; 2022)

How You Remind Me, by Nickelback (Song; 2001)

Inglorious Basterds (Film; 2009)

Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (Animated Film; 1992)

Motörhead, by Motörhead (Album; 1977)

Next Stoop Wonderland (Film; 1998)

Ready or Not (Film; 2019)

Ritual de lo Habitual, by Jane’s Addiction (Album; 1990)

Run, Run, Sweet Road Runner (WB MM Cartoon; 1965)

A Sunbonnet Blue (WB MM Cartoon; 1937)

The Wings of the Dove, by Henry James (Novel; 1902)

Wrongfully Accused (Film; 1998)

Today’s Name Days

Pius (Austria)

Agaton, Pio, Sidonija (Croatia)

Johana (Czech Republic)

Salomon (Denmark)

Sven, Sveno (Estonia)

Soini, Veini (Finland)

Christophe, Grâce, Ombeline (France)

Pia, Oius, Maximilian (Germany)

Hajna, Sémuel (Hungary)

Cristoforo, Pio (Italy)

Janīna, Linda, Sidnejs (Latvia)

Gaudvydas, Joana, Kazė, Kazimiera, Medeinė (Lithuania)

Ragni, Ragnvald (Norway)

Adolf, Adolfa, Adolfina, Alf, Bernard, Emilian, Filipina, Franciszek, Joanna, Kazimiera, Męcimir (Poland)

Jana (Slovakia)

Pío (Spain)

Jon, Jonna (Sweden)

Gianna, Jane, Janelle, Janessa, Janet, Janette, Janice, Janie, Janine, Janiya, Jayne, Shanice, Sheena (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 233 of 2024; 132 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 1 of week 34 of 2023

Celtic Tree Calendar: Coll (Hazel) [Day 14 of 28]

Chinese: Month 7 (Geng-Shen), Day 6 (Xin-Hai)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 4 Elul 5783

Islamic: 4 Safar 1445

J Cal: 23 Hasa; Twosday [23 of 30]

Julian: 8 August 2023

Moon: 24%: Waxing Crescent

Positivist: 9 Gutenberg (9th Month) [Amontons]

Runic Half Month: As (Gods) [Day 9 of 15]

Season: Summer (Day 61 of 94)

Zodiac: Leo (Day 30 of 31)

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 8.21

Holidays

Actuaries Day (India)

Appreciation Day (Elder Scrolls)

Aquino Day (Philippines)

Argonian Day

Ask Questions Day

Bitcoin Infinity Day

Black Indie Authors Day

Buhe (Ethiopia)

Bunny Day (Japan)

Cadillac Day

Crazy Day

Eagle Scout Day

821 Day (Texas)

Festival of Goliath, Parade of Giants begins (Ath, Belgium)

Fête de la Jeunesse (a.k.a. Youth Day; Morocco, Western Sahara)

Good Roads Day

Gospel Day (Micronesia)

Grandfather and Grandson’s Day (Argentina)

ICBM Day

International Day of Mosques

International Day of Remembrance of and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism (UN)

Internet Self-Care Day

Kosrae (Gospel Day; Micronesia)

National Brazilian Blowout Day

National Dreams Are Possible Day

National Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day

National Meme Day

National Report Upcoding Fraud Day

National Senior Citizens Day

Ninoy Aquino Day (Philippines)

Officer’s Day (Russia)

Order of the Lone Star Day

Our Lady of Knock

Poet's Day

San Martin Day (Argentina)

Senior Citizens' Day

Six-Row Barley Day (French Republic)

Thiruonam (Parts of India)

World Entrepreneurs’ Day

World Fashion Day

World Goat Day

Youth Day (Morocco)

Food & Drink Celebrations

Beer Institute Day

Grog Day

National Shiraz Day (Australia)

National Spumoni Day

National Sweet Tea Day

Independence & Related Days

Hawaii Statehood Day (Original Date; 1959)

Latituda (Declared; 2006) [unrecognized]

Latvia (Passing of the Constitutional Law on the Status of the Republic of Latvia as a State and Actual Restoration of the Republic of Latvia; 1991)

3rd Wednesday in August

Hump Day [Every Wednesday]

JUVEDERM Day [3rd Wednesday]

Miss Crustacean Hermit Crab Beauty Pageant and Hermit Crab Races (Ocean City, NJ) [3rd Wednesday]

National Medical Dosimetrist Day [3rd Wednesday]

Wacky Wednesday [Every Wednesday]

Wandering Wednesday [3rd Wednesday of Each Month]

Website Wednesday [Every Wednesday]

Wiener Wednesday [3rd Wednesday of Each Month]

Festivals Beginning August 21, 2024

Corn Palace Festival (Mitchell, South Dakota) [thru 8.25]

gamescom (Cologne, Germany) [thru 8.25]

The Great New York State Fair (Syracuse, New York) [thru 9.2]

Hythe Venetian Fete (Hythe, United Kingdom) [thru 8.21]

Idaho County Fair (Cottonwood, Idaho) [thru 8.24]

Pluk de Nacht Film Festival (Amsterdam, Netherlands) [thru 8.31]

Ransom County Fair (Lisbon, North Dakota) [thru 8.25]

Reading and Leeds Festivals (Leeds and Reading, United Kingdom) [thru 8.25]

Tønder Festival (Tønder, Denmark) [thru 8.24]

Victoria Fringe Theatre Festival (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada) [thru 9.1]

Feast Days

Abraham of Smolensk (Eastern Orthodox Church)

Albert Irvin (Artology)

Amontons (Positivist; Saint)

Apologise Day (Pastafarian)

Asher Brown Durand (Artology)

Aubrey Beardsley (Artology)

Bernard Ptolemy, Founder of the Olivetans (Christian; Saint)

Blessing Against Jealousy Day (Celtic Book of Days)

Bonosus and Maximilian (Christian; Martyrs)

Broderick Crawford Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Christian Schad (Artology)

Consualia (Ancient Roman festival to the god of the harvest and stored grain)

Euprepius of Verona (Christian; Saint)

Festival of Consus (God of Good Council; Ancient Rome)

Heraclia (Celebration of Hercules; Ancient Rome; Everyday Wicca)

Jane Francis de Chantal (Christian; Saint)

Jean-Baptiste Greuze (Artology)

Joseph (Muppetism)

Jules Michelet (Writerism)

Luxorius, Cisellus and Camerinus (Christian; Martyrs)

The Magic of Lemon Day (Starza Pagan Book of Days)

Maximilian of Antioch (Christian; Saint)

Menashe Kadishman (Artology)

Narcisse-Virgile Díaz de la Peña (Artology)

Nathaniel Everett Green (Artology)

Our Lady of Knock (Christian; Saint)

Pius X, Pope (Christian; Saint)

Radish Tordia (Artology)

Richard, Bishop of Andria (Christian; Saint)

Robert Stone (Writerism)

Sidonius Apollinaris (Christian; Saint)

Stephen Hillenburg (Artology)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Prime Number Day: 233 [51 of 72]

Shakku (赤口 Japan) [Bad luck all day, except at noon.]

Tycho Brahe Unlucky Day (Scandinavia) [29 of 37]

Umu Limnu (Evil Day; Babylonian Calendar; 39 of 60)

Unglückstage (Unlucky Day; Pennsylvania Dutch) [22 of 30]

Premieres

Ain’t Misbehaving’, recorded by Fats Waller (Song; 1938)

American Ultra (Film; 2015)

An American Werewolf in London (Film; 1981)

Axe Me Another (Fleischer Popeye Cartoon; 1934)

Bambi (Animated Disney Film; 1942)

Be Here Now, by Oasis (Album; 1997)

Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris, by A.J. Liebling (Memoir; 1959)

Blade (Film; 1998)

A Brief History of Time (Documentary Film; 1992)

Crazy, recorded by Patsy Cline (Song; 1961)

Diesel and Dust, by Midnight Oil (Album; 1987)

Dirty Dancing (Film; 1987)

Dynamite, by BTS (Song; 2020)

Earth Abides, by George R. Stewart (Novel; 1949)

Eve of Destruction, by Barry McGuire (Song; 1965)

Facelift, by Alice In Chains (Album; 1990)

Fireman’s Brawl (Fleischer/Famous Popeye Cartoon; 1953)

First Monday in October (Film; 1981)

House of the Dragon (TV Series; 2022)

How You Remind Me, by Nickelback (Song; 2001)

Inglorious Basterds (Film; 2009)

Kiko and the Honey Bears (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1936)

Life with Fido (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1942)

Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (Animated Film; 1992)

Motörhead, by Motörhead (Album; 1977)

Next Stoop Wonderland (Film; 1998)

Ready or Not (Film; 2019)

Ritual de lo Habitual, by Jane’s Addiction (Album; 1990)

Run, Run, Sweet Road Runner (WB MM Cartoon; 1965)

Sherman Was Right (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1932)

A Sunbonnet Blue (WB MM Cartoon; 1937)

The Wings of the Dove, by Henry James (Novel; 1902)

Wrongfully Accused (Film; 1998)

Today’s Name Days

Pius (Austria)

Agaton, Pio, Sidonija (Croatia)

Johana (Czech Republic)

Salomon (Denmark)

Sven, Sveno (Estonia)

Soini, Veini (Finland)

Christophe, Grâce, Ombeline (France)

Pia, Oius, Maximilian (Germany)

Hajna, Sémuel (Hungary)

Cristoforo, Pio (Italy)

Janīna, Linda, Sidnejs (Latvia)

Gaudvydas, Joana, Kazė, Kazimiera, Medeinė (Lithuania)

Ragni, Ragnvald (Norway)

Adolf, Adolfa, Adolfina, Alf, Bernard, Emilian, Filipina, Franciszek, Joanna, Kazimiera, Męcimir (Poland)

Jana (Slovakia)

Pío (Spain)

Jon, Jonna (Sweden)

Gianna, Jane, Janelle, Janessa, Janet, Janette, Janice, Janie, Janine, Janiya, Jayne, Shanice, Sheena (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 234 of 2024; 132 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 3 of Week 34 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Coll (Hazel) [Day 19 of 28]

Chinese: Month 7 (Ren-Shen), Day 18 (Ding-Si)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025) [Wu-Chen]

Hebrew: 17 Av 5784

Islamic: 15 Safar 1446

J Cal: 24 Purple; Threesday [24 of 30]

Julian: 8 August 2024

Moon: 94%: Waning Gibbous

Positivist: 9 Gutenberg (9th Month) [Amontons]

Runic Half Month: As (Gods) [Day 14 of 15]

Season: Summer (Day 63 of 94)

Week: 3rd Full Week of August

Zodiac: Leo (Day 31 of 31)

[justforbooks]

The Turn of the Screw is an 1898 American novella by Henry James that first appeared in serial format in Collier's Weekly magazine (January 27 – April 16, 1898). In October 1898 it appeared in The Two Magics, a book published by Macmillan in New York City and Heinemann in London. Classified as both gothic fiction and a ghost story, the novella focuses on a governess caring for two children at a remote estate who becomes convinced that the grounds are haunted.

In the century following its publication, The Turn of the Screw became a cornerstone text of academics who subscribe to New Criticism. The novella has had differing interpretations, often mutually exclusive. Many critics have tried to determine the exact nature of the evil hinted at by the story. However, others have argued that the brilliance of the novella results from its ability to create an intimate sense of confusion and suspense within the reader.

The Turn of the Screw has been the subject of numerous adaptations and reworkings in a variety of media, and these reworkings and adaptations have, themselves, been analysed in the academic literature on Henry James and neo-Victorian culture. It was adapted to an opera by Benjamin Britten, which premiered in 1954, and the opera has been filmed on numerous occasions. The novella was adapted as a ballet score (1980) by Luigi Zaninelli, and separately as a ballet (1999) by Will Tucket for the Royal Ballet. Harold Pinter directed The Innocents (1950), a Broadway play which was an adaptation of The Turn of the Screw, and a subsequent eponymous stage play, adapted by Rebecca Lenkiewicz was presented in a co-production with Hammer at the Almeida Theatre, London, in January 2013.

There have been numerous film adaptations of the novel. The critically acclaimed The Innocents (1961), directed by Jack Clayton, and Michael Winner's prequel The Nightcomers (1972) are two particularly notable examples. Other feature film adaptations include Rusty Lemorande's 1992 eponymous adaptation (set in the 1960s); Eloy de la Iglesia's Spanish-language Otra vuelta de tuerca (The Turn of the Screw, 1985); Presence of Mind (1999), directed by Atoni Aloy; In a Dark Place (2006), directed by Donato Rotunno and Walter Lima Jr.'s Brazilian-Portuguese-language Através da Sombra (Through the Shadow, 2016). The Others (2001) is not an adaptation but has some themes in common with James's novella. In February of 2018, Steven Spielberg began filming an adaptation of the novella called The Turning on the Kilruddery Estate in Ireland.

Television films have included a 1959 American adaptation as part of Ford Startime directed by John Frankenheimer and starring Ingrid Bergman; the West German Die sündigen Engel (The Sinful Angel, 1962), a 1974 adaptation directed by Dan Curtis, adapted by William F. Nolan; a French adaptation entitled Le Tour d'écrou (The Turn of the Screw, 1974); a Mexican miniseries entitled Otra vuelta de tuerca (The Turn of the Screw, 1981); a 1982 adaptation directed by Petr Weigl primarily starring Czech actors lip-synching; a 1990 adaptation directed by Graeme Clifford; The Haunting of Helen Walker (1995), directed by Tom McLoughlin; a 1999 adaptation directed by Ben Bolt; a low-budget 2003 version written and directed by Nick Millard; the Italian-language Il mistero del lago (The Mystery of the Lake, 2009); and a 2009 BBC film adapted by Sandy Welch, starring Michelle Dockery and Sue Johnston.

Literary reworkings of The Turn of the Screw identified by James scholar Adeline R. Tintner include The Secret Garden (1911), by Frances Hodgson Burnett; "Poor Girl" (1951), by Elizabeth Taylor; The Peacock Spring (1975), by Rumer Godden; Ghost Story (1975) by Peter Straub; "The Accursed Inhabitants of House Bly" (1994) by Joyce Carol Oates; and Miles and Flora (1997)—a sequel—by Hilary Bailey. Further literary adaptations identified by other authors include Affinity (1999), by Sarah Waters; A Jealous Ghost (2005), by A. N. Wilson; and Florence & Giles (2010), by John Harding. Young adult novels inspired by The Turn of the Screw include The Turning (2012) by Francine Prose and Tighter (2011) by Adele Griffin.

The Turn of the Screw has also influenced television. In December 1968, the ABC daytime drama Dark Shadows featured a storyline based on The Turn of the Screw. In the story, the ghosts of Quentin Collins and Beth Chavez haunted the west wing of Collinwood, possessing the two children living in the mansion. The story led to a year-long story in the year 1897, as Barnabas Collins travelled back in time to prevent Quentin's death and stop the possession. In early episodes of Star Trek: Voyager ("Cathexis", "Learning Curve" and "Persistence of Vision"), Captain Kathryn Janeway is seen on the holodeck acting out scenes from a holonovel which appears to be based on The Turn of the Screw.

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