https://youtu.be/BtSuizsXZFo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocarina

https://www.takimag.com/article/lockdown-under/

“Many Americans will have seen the shocking images from last weekend in Melbourne. Tear gas, pepper spray, heavily armored police chanting like soccer hooligans and firing rubber bullets. “The world’s most livable city” suddenly looks more like Belfast in the 1990s.

This sort of brutal state power has never been seen in Melbourne before. Not even when hundreds of African migrants fought pitched battles in the Melbourne CBD during the annual Moomba festival, the city’s premier family event, in 2016. When tens of thousands of BLM protesters swarmed in defiance of lockdowns last year, none were arrested or even fined. Instead, police joined in the ritualistic abasement of “taking the knee.”

But the brutality of premier “Dictator Dan” Andrews, the Australian equivalent of a governor in Melbourne’s state of Victoria, is only the tip of the medically induced dictatorship that has seized Australia in the wake of the Wuhan pandemic.

Like Soviet citizens, Australians are prevented from even leaving their country. After 230 years, Australia has reverted to being an island prison.

The key to understanding what’s going on in Australia lies in our history. When Australia became a nation in 1901, the seven former colonies were determined, as states, to still cling to as many of their powers and privileges as they could. So, states retained the right to run hospitals and schools, for example. Emergency management also remained a state’s right.

That means that, under a pandemic, the states suddenly have tremendous power, wielded through public health bureaucracy and under “state of emergency” declarations. The federal government in Canberra has been rendered mostly helpless. In fact, thanks to state border closures, Prime Minister Scott Morrison is a virtual prisoner in Canberra, forbidden to travel anywhere else in the country he is supposed to be running.”

States’ Rights FTW ;P

If you’ve never seen this version:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Misérables_(1995_film)

then highly recommended. It’s Different. And very, very good.

https://twitter.com/VPrasadMDMPH/status/1434684848677941253

Height 5′ 7½” (1.71 m)

Mini Bio (1)
Cyd Charisse was born Tula Ellice Finklea on March 8, 1922, in Amarillo, Texas. Born to be a dancer, she spent her early childhood taking ballet lessons and joined the Ballet Russe at age 13. In 1939, she married Nico Charisse, her former dance teacher. In 1943, she appeared in her first film, Something to Shout About (1943), billed as Lily Norwood. The same year, she played a Russian dancer in Mission to Moscow (1943), directed by Michael Curtiz. In 1945, she was hired to dance with Fred Astaire in Ziegfeld Follies (1945), and that uncredited appearance got her a seven-year contract with MGM. She appeared in a number of musicals over the next few years, but it was Singin’ in the Rain (1952) with Gene Kelly that made her a star.

Unlike many top female dancers in the era of movie musicals, she was trained as a ballerina in the Russian tradition.

First started taking lessons at the encouragement of her father, Ernest. She was frail and sickly at the time and had a bout with polio. Dance lessons were encouraged to build up her strength and she took to it quickly.

Lost out on two of MGM’s biggest movie musical roles. She fell and injured her knee during a dance leap on a film, which forced her out of the role of Nadina Hale in Easter Parade (1948). Ann Miller replaced her. She also had to relinquish the lead female role in An American in Paris (1951) due to pregnancy. Leslie Caron took over the role and became a star.

Said her husband could tell who she had been dancing with that day on an MGM set. If she came home covered with bruises, it was the very demanding Gene Kelly, if not, it was the smooth and agile Fred Astaire.

Personal Quotes (8)
[on Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly] I can watch Astaire anytime. I don’t think he ever made a wrong move. He was a perfectionist. He would work on a few bars for hours until it was just the way he wanted it. Gene was the same way. They both wanted perfection, even though they were completely different personalities.

[on Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly] Fred could never do the lifts Gene did and never wanted to. I’d say they were the two greatest dancing personalities who were ever on the screen. Each has a distinctive style. Each is a joy to work with. But it’s like comparing apples and oranges. They’re both delicious.

The censors were always there when I was on the set. When I was held up, in a lift [in Deep in My Heart (1954)], they were up on ladders to see if I was properly covered.

Fred [Astaire] moved like glass. Physically, it was easy to dance with him. It was not as demanding on me. I didn’t need the same vitality and strength.

There is a scene in Assassination in Rome where Cyd is playing an American tourist in Rome and she is snapping many photos around the Forum. The camera she is using is interesting for two reasons. It is an SLR (35mm I think) without a pentaprism, so she looks down into the view screen like a twin lens reflex. In 1965, standard pentaprism SLRs were common.

The second odd thing is that I recognized the camera from a film she did 16 years earlier called “Tension” (1949). What are the odds? I figure it must be her personal camera.

This is a shot of her using that camera in Tension.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041954/mediaviewer/rm1685075712/

I tried to search for her personal photo albums online without luck. Privacy is held at a premium I suppose.

The podcast is entitled “Has the Ruling Class Sold America Out?”

Here’s a link: https://tinyurl.com/3keuw2z6

Yuval Levin has written extensively about the importance of not only reforming the federal government, but also of rebuilding institutions that stand between the government and the individual. Martin Gurri has become famous for a book he wrote called “The Revolt of the Public,” which anticipated Trump’s election and the vote for Brexit.

In this wide-ranging podcast that critiques the American elite, Levin and Gurri largely agree, so there isn’t much of a debate, but it’s an interesting discussion for anybody interested in the failure of American elites. A big part of the podcast’s middle is taken up with issues of ethics and trust, and with a call for a popular moral reformation that could motivate a more responsible elite. In recent years, of course, the neo-Marxists have politicized all ethical issues. Those who disagree aren’t just wrong, they’re evil. Neither Levin nor Gurri are advocating a right-wing version of that, but they don’t shy away from pointing out that the failure of the elites has been accompanied by a failure of the public. (My words, not theirs.)

Anyway, please listen to the podcast. It’s almost an hour long, but I think it’s worth the time.

Istanbul was Constantinople
Now it’s Istanbul, not Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Now it’s Turkish delight on a moonlit night

–“Istanbul (not Constantinople) – They Might Be Giants”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xo0X77OBJUg
___________________________________

The Four Lads version gets to the punch quicker:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wcze7EGorOk