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About This Site

The BL RAG is dedicated to the idea of free expression, thus we welcome and encourage reader  commentary on current events and issues, music, sports, or other topics of interest, no matter what one's political leanings or worldview.

  

Site Management:

Front Page Section Editors: GrayRider, Machiavelli, WesMorgan1, and William Amos

Smack Talk Editor: Skinnydipinacid

Miscellanea Editor: Zoy Clem

Sports Editor: Skinnydipinacid

Games & Movie Editor: Skinnydipinacid

Poetry Editor: Lenny

Music Editors: Machiavelli

***

Site Editors: Skinnydipinacid and Zoy Clem

Maintenance Man: Master Admin Dude

 

Alumni:
Redbeard, Winston, Jimmmco

 

KRAG Music Section Schedule:

Sunday - Jgeagle5

Monday - Xanadu

Tuesday - Machiavelli

Wednesday - GrayRider

Thursday - Machiavelli

Friday - Fornax

Saturday - Skinnydipinacid

On-call - Schwabman and Zoy Clem

KRAG Free-n-Legal

Our latest Free-n-Legal MP3s

  

Friday
Sep032010

Film Babe Ballerina

DateFriday, September 3, 2010 at 14:00 AuthorZoy Clem in , , , | CommentPost a Comment

Dancer and actress, Moira Shearer, who is best-remembered for her breathtaking performance as Vicky in the 1948 musical drama, The Red Shoes, will be the woman in the spotlight as our film babe for the weekend.  The lithe and lovely redhead had already tasted success as a ballet dancer before she became internationally famous as a movie star with the release of The Red Shoes. Her film career would span a dozen years, though she appeared in only six motion pictures.

This scene comes from 1953 musical comedy, The Story of Three Loves, and gives one a sense of Shearer's dancing skills:

 

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Friday
Sep032010

Higher Up

DateFriday, September 3, 2010 at 12:00 AuthorZoy Clem in , | CommentPost a Comment

Moving away from airplanes, and for that matter, the Earth, we'll turn to events from off-planet next and examine this simulated overview of the NASA Viking space program to commemorate the landing of the Viking 2 space probe on Mars today in 1976:

 

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Friday
Sep032010

Tiny Speedsters

DateFriday, September 3, 2010 at 11:00 AuthorZoy Clem in , , | CommentPost a Comment

In other airplane news, Jimmy Doolittle, who would later lead the first air attack against Japan in 1942, set an airspeed record of 296 miles per hour on this date in 1932 in the Thompson Trophy Air Race in Cleveland, Ohio;  flying a Granville Brothers Aircraft  Gee Bee Model R1, a strange looking little airplane with a fuselage that resembled a farm silo.  The video clip below appears to provide a very brief glimpse of  the R1 model flown by Doolittle  (at the video's start), though the subject of the film is the R2, which was identical in looks to the R1, but equipped with a much less powerful engine:

The R2 depicted in the video is actually a replica.

 

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Friday
Sep032010

Rocket Killers

DateFriday, September 3, 2010 at 07:00 AuthorZoy Clem in , | CommentPost a Comment

The British Hawker Tempest,  which made its first flight yesterday in 1942 and was introduced to combat early in 1944, was especially effective against the German ME-262 jet fighters and V-1 rockets, credited with shooting down over 600 of the unmanned flying bombs. The Tempest  had a top speed of 432 miles per hour, a service ceiling of 36,500 feet, and a range of 740 miles.  The aircraft was used almost exclusively by the British Royal Air Force.

The airplane depicted in the above video is the Tempest Mark V.

 

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Thursday
Sep022010

A Dot on the Map

DateThursday, September 2, 2010 at 11:00 AuthorZoy Clem in , | CommentPost a Comment

The Principality of Sealand,  the first nation to be formed on a man-made construct (atop a Maunsell sea fort), was founded today in 1967 in the North Sea. Situated off the coast of England near Suffolk, the tiny country has yet to be recognized by any other nation.

 

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Thursday
Sep022010

Flame On

DateThursday, September 2, 2010 at 07:00 AuthorZoy Clem in , | CommentPost a Comment

Beginning on September 1st, 1859, an intense solar flare, believed to be a coronal mass ejection, was spotted by British astronomer, Richard Carrington.  It impacted the Earth the next day in a burst of electromagnetic radiation known as a solar storm,  disrupting telegraph service in both North  America and Europe.  Fortunately, our civilization was not yet dependent on computers and other products of  micro-circuitry  (which are especially vulnerable in these events), or our recent ancestors might have had a much more trying experience...

According to NASA, the sun is expected to generate more of these solar storms in 2012-13.

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Wednesday
Sep012010

Recent Discoveries

DateWednesday, September 1, 2010 at 11:00 AuthorZoy Clem in | CommentPost a Comment

Juno, one of the biggest asteroids in the belt between Mars and Jupiter, was discovered today in 1804  by the German astronomer, Karl L. Harding.  A few more of  these flying rocks have been discovered since, as the following video illustrates:

Actually, the film depicts asteroids discovered since 1980. The large yellow circle in the center is the sun, and the large turquoise dots circling it are the inner planets. The tinier green dots are the known asteroids.  Initial discoveries will flash white when found before turning green.  And those red dots? They are asteroids that could potentially hit Earth. (A big thanks goes out to one of our readers, Scott, for mentioning this video).

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Wednesday
Sep012010

Into the Record Books

DateWednesday, September 1, 2010 at 07:00 AuthorZoy Clem in , , | CommentPost a Comment

The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird made the flight from New York to London in 1 hour, 54 minutes and 56 seconds on this date in 1974, a record that still stands. The plane reached a peak speed of close to Mach 3.2 (average speed Mach 2.68), and was piloted by the U.S. Air Force pilot, Major James V. Sullivan. As a comparison, the Aรฉrospatiale-BAC Concorde took almost three hours to make the trip, while the Boeing 747 required a little over six hours.

Let's examine the Blackbird this morning with some nice musical accompaniment:

 

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Tuesday
Aug312010

New Club Member

DateTuesday, August 31, 2010 at 11:00 AuthorZoy Clem in , | CommentPost a Comment

Other events in August...

France  joined the thermonuclear bomb association this month in 1968  after concluding tests in the last week of August as part of their Canopus program, an exercise that would culminate with the detonation of a 2.6 megaton hydrogen bomb over the Fangataufa atoll, in the South Pacific, leaving the small island uninhabitable...

 

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Tuesday
Aug312010

The Emperor's Month

DateTuesday, August 31, 2010 at 07:00 AuthorZoy Clem in , , | CommentPost a Comment

The month of August was named in honor of the first Roman Emperor, Caesar Augustus, who came into his own in 31 BC after defeating Marcus Antonius at Actium to become the sole leader of Rome. Proclaimed Augustus in 27 BC, he led the empire until his death in AD 14.  

Although Augustus is no longer around to share his thoughts with us regarding this honorific, his house on the Palatine is still up and standing, and waiting for us to visit:

 

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Monday
Aug302010

In the Showroom

DateMonday, August 30, 2010 at 11:00 AuthorZoy Clem in , | CommentPost a Comment

Concept cars...part 2

While we are out and about today shopping for new automobiles,  let's go ahead and examine a few of these concept cars individually. The first vehicle on the block is the Pontiac Firebird...

 ...followed by the Plymouth Road Runner:

...and finally, the original American sports car, the Chevrolet Corvette:

 

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Monday
Aug302010

Reader Assistance

DateMonday, August 30, 2010 at 07:00 AuthorZoy Clem in , | CommentPost a Comment

Concept cars...part 1

Hoping to address his perennial office tardiness,  Danny took the day off and went car-shopping today. But as he browsed through the various automobiles in the showroom, he found it difficult to choose the appropriate vehicle. Perhaps you can help him:

 

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Sunday
Aug292010

The Last of Alfred's Girls

DateSunday, August 29, 2010 at 12:00 AuthorZoy Clem in , , | CommentPost a Comment

Ingrid Bergman was one of film's greatest female stars, appearing in over 50 films and winning three Academy Awards.  She starred in a trio of films with the famed director,  Alfred Hitchcock, including the 1946 film, Notorious. To conclude our stay with the great filmmaker and his lovely ladies, here is one last video featuring Bergman:

 

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Sunday
Aug292010

Preparing to Say Goodbye

DateSunday, August 29, 2010 at 10:00 AuthorZoy Clem in , , | CommentPost a Comment

The Family Plot (1976) was Alfred Hitchcock's last movie, but rather than finish our visit with a film that isn't considered one of his best, we'll content ourselves instead with these scenes from this classic 1946 RKO picture, Notorious, which starred Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, and Claude Raines.

At the time of its release, the picture was also known for showing the longest kiss in film history. Since we will soon be saying our farewells, we'll go ahead and add it here:

 

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Sunday
Aug292010

Short Celebration

DateSunday, August 29, 2010 at 06:00 AuthorZoy Clem in , , | CommentPost a Comment

To allow us to wrap up our three weekends with Hitchcock today, our museum visit this morning will be a brief one,  so that we might honor the 19th century French neoclassical portrait painter, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, who celebrates his 230th birthday:

 

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Saturday
Aug282010

Film Veteran

DateSaturday, August 28, 2010 at 13:00 AuthorZoy Clem in , | CommentPost a Comment

Janet Leigh got her start with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, first appearing in the 1947 picture, The Romance of Rosy Ridge.  She made 17  more with the film company before going independent in 1953, and stayed active in film (1 to 3 movies per year) through the late 1960s.  Her most famous role was probably that of Marion Crane in the 1960 film Psycho, but rather than us being witness to murder and mayhem this afternoon,  we will veer away from that particular movie and instead admire the actress in this sentimental look at some of her other roles in this fine collection of film stills melded together by Muirmaiden:

Leigh passed away in 2004. Actresses Jamie Lee and Kelly Curtis are her daughters.

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Saturday
Aug282010

Frightening Fare

DateSaturday, August 28, 2010 at 12:01 AuthorZoy Clem in , , | CommentPost a Comment

The classic 1960 horror-thriller, Psycho, is one of Alfred Hitchcock's best-known films, and its terrifying shower scene, featuring the lovely  Janet Leigh,  kept horrified movie audiences glued to their seats. Here is the trailer from the film, with Hitchcock providing one of his classic introductions:

Psycho was Hitchcock's best-grossing film, earning him over 11 million dollars.

 

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Saturday
Aug282010

Short Conversations

DateSaturday, August 28, 2010 at 09:00 AuthorZoy Clem in , | CommentPost a Comment

To continue our visit with Alfred Hitchcock this morning, let's take a trip back into time with this collage of interviews,  and eavesdrop on the director as he shares his insights on filmmaking with a touch of macabre humor.

 

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Saturday
Aug282010

Saturday Cartoons

DateSaturday, August 28, 2010 at 06:00 AuthorZoy Clem in , , | CommentPost a Comment

As usual, our friend Felix the Cat is hungry again. Taking a cue from a wealthy organ grinder's monkey, Felix decides to enter the music business to earn some money. But critical reception is poor, so he retires from show business and joins the Navy, where he tangles with the battleship's mascot, an old goat. In the heat of battle, Felix is knocked cold, but at last finds a way to acquire a meal. This Pat Sullivan animation was released in 1930 and is titled Oceantics:

As is typical of films of the period (and for that matter, today) there is some sterotyping in this cartoon.

 

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Friday
Aug272010

Odd Couples in Film

DateFriday, August 27, 2010 at 14:00 AuthorZoy Clem in , , , | CommentPost a Comment

As I mentioned in the preceding post, neither Julia Andrews nor Paul Newman were selections of Alfred Hitchcock for the movie, Torn Curtain. The director had hoped to cast Eva Marie Saint and Cary Grant, but was instead provided with a veteran of Disney musicals and one free-spirited method actor. Hitchcock was not pleased with the results of the film, and it is not considered one of his better pictures.

Nevertheless, Julia Andrews, who is a past film babe here at the BL RAG, will join us again today, accompanied by the film dude, Paul Newman, who starred opposite her in Torn Curtain:

 

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