Monday Open Thread

I had a picture of Julius Caesar getting murdered… Big Government and many others have the same pic. Since I can’t stand to be part of the crowd I’m changing my pic.

Friday Open Thread

Nolte’s Right

This is genius.

Quiz Time!

Has there ever been a funnier TV show than this?

Classic Pick O' the Day: March 9

Throne of Blood (1957)
Spurred by his wife and a witch’s prediction, a samurai murders his lord to steal the throne.
Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, Takashi Shimura, Minoru Chiaki Dir: Akira Kurosawa BW-109 mins, TV-14. 10:30 PM EST. TCM

This is my favorite Kurosawa film. I’m not enough of a film student to say if it’s [...]

Sunday Gospel

You know you woke up this morning and went said to yourself… “Self. I wonder if Floyd will post some Baroque music from Bolivia this morning for Sunday Gospel?” Well wonder no more.

Saturday Open Thread

Sideshow by George Seurat

Dancing About Healthcare

The quote, “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture” has been attributed to everyone from Thelonius Monk to Frank Zappa to Elvis Costello to Steve Martin.  Its origin is hard to pin down, but I’ve always liked the sentiment; the two things (writing/music or dancing/architecture) are so unrelatable that it is nonsensical to attempt [...]

Sunday Open Thread

Boys in a Pasture by Winslow Homer

Sunday Gospel

Tuesday Open Thread

Burning of the frigate USS Philadelphia in Tripoli Harbor, Feb. 16, 1804 by Edward Moran

Monday Open Thread

Titan’s Goblet by Thomas Cole

Sports Illustrated Just Earned Themselves A Fatwa

She’s a Jew and she’s almost nekid…

Al Queda must be s#$tin’ bricks.

Frozen Wasteland

In honor of The Who and the wonderful weather the majority of the USA is having, these Minnesota lads (and lass) fired up the instruments and gave us this masterwork…

H/T Uncle Jimbo

Red Like Me

[I received the below e-mail and the above picture from an avid threedonia reader in China.  I know we've also got some readers in Russia.  If we could just get a few in Cuba we'd have the Communist world covered.  (Brian, I deleted your last name.  If you want folks to know more about [...]

A Sighting of UrTax$(Canadian)@Work

It’s a geostationary banana.Thank heavens we got that straightened out.

The 3D Fruit Watch

Your (Canadian) tax dollars at work:

An Argentine artist called Caesar Saëz applied to the Canada Arts Council and le Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec and was given, between the two bodies, a grant of $130,000 to create a 300-metre long flying banana that would float over Texas protesting the policies of George W. [...]

Classic Pick O’ the Day: February 3

Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
Spirited musical biography of the song-and-dance man who kept America humming through two world wars.
Cast: James Cagney, Joan Leslie, Walter Huston, Richard Whorf Dir: Michael Curtiz BW-126 mins, TV-G. 12:15 PM EST. TCM

Another banner day on TCM. Earlier tomorrow check out The Champ with the Mighty Mighty Wallace Beery, Jackie Cooper [...]

Classic Pick O’ the Day: February 2

The Thin Man (1934)
A husband-and-wife detective team takes on the search for a missing inventor and almost get killed for their efforts.
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O’Sullivan, Nat Pendleton Dir: W. S. Van Dyke BW-91 mins, TV-G. 8:00 PM EST. TCM

I’m not even sure where to begin… as films go this is [...]

Monday Open Thread

The Desperate Man — Gustave Courbet

Classic Picks O’ the Day: February 1

Tomorrow TCM begins its annual “31 Days of Oscar” celebration so the picking will be difficult and feel free to respectfully disagree in the comments. The first night is nearly impossible from the get-go…. because I don’t like Babs (though I do like Funny Girl) I’m going with these two: I’m biased — [...]

Sunday Open Thread

St. Jerome by Caravaggio

Saturday Open Thread

Tuesday Open Thread

Self Portrait by Vigee LeBrun (1782)

Monday Open Thread

Empire of Lights by Rene Magritte

Jean Simmons – If I Were a Bell

I’m way behind on the posts and comments, so if someone’s already posted this, forgive me.  I see Floyd did a post on Mrs. Simmons’ death.  If anyone is having trouble understanding why she was such a big deal this clip from Guys and Dolls ought to add clarity.

Jean Simmons — R.I.P.

Jean Simmons has died of lung cancer at age 80.

Plucked out of a dancing-school class at 14, Ms. Simmons appeared in three classic movies before her 19th birthday, typically eliciting adjectives like “lovely,” “radiant” and “luminous” in the reviews.

She was Estella, the mocking girl who was raised to break men’s hearts, in David Lean’s “Great [...]

It’s Worse than That!

Map It Out

Detail (showing the Americas) of a large 1602 world map made by Matteo Ricci presented to the Chinese.

Here’s a fascinating New York Times review of an exhibition at The Library of Congress (through April) of the “Ricci Map”. From the review:

When a map of overwhelming dimensions and detail is presented to the ruler of [...]

Saturday Open Thread

The Good Samaritan by Northern Netherlands Master (16th c.)

Classic Pick O’ the Day: January 16

Rio Grande (1950)
A cavalry unit located on the Mexican border must control Indian uprisings. Cast: John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara, Ben Johnson. Dir: John Ford. BW-105 mins, TV-PG, CC. 4:00 PM EST, TCM

One of my all-time favorites. “This music is not of my choosing.” “I’m sorry Kirby. I wish [...]

Game Over Man!

As a child of the Atari 2600 generation I find this Space Invaders tribute video amusing — though I am glad it’s only about 1:20 long.

And here’s Pole Position:

h/t: JJ

Thursday Open Thread

Wednesday Open Thread

Chop Suey by Edward Hopper (1929)

Classic Pick O’ the Day: January 12

Great Ziegfeld, The (1936)
Lavish biography of Flo Ziegfeld, the producer who became Broadway’s biggest starmaker. Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Luise Rainer. Dir: Robert Z. Leonard. C-185 mins, TV-G, CC. 4:50 PM EST, TCM

Yet another Powell/Loy classic, but Luise Rainier won an Oscar for portraying the first Mrs. Ziegfeld in addition to the [...]

Fair, Unfair or Finger-Lickin’ Good?

Kudos to The College Widow

This So Craptastic I Could Dial S for … Ahhhh Nevermind

Christopher Lee, Charlemagne, heavy metal, symphonic music, singing… What about this could go wrong?

From the A.V. Club:

Videogum and The Guardian have the news that the 87-year-old actor plans to release a “symphonic metal” album about the life and career of Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor and a direct ancestor of Lee himself. “To my [...]

Wednesday Open Thread

Epiphany by Hieronymus Bosch

Lost Supper?

Big Hollywood links to the above photo with the headline Lost Final Season Art Mocks “The Last Supper” at #7 on its marquee as of this posting. In a very literal sense it’s a “mock” up of Leonardo’s fresco “The Last Supper” of course, but the headline reads in a very condemnatory way to [...]

Merry Christmas! Open Thread

Gerard (Gerrit) van Honthorst, Adoration of the Shepherds

1In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3And everyone went to his own town to register.

4So Joseph also went up from [...]

Christmas Eve Open Thread

Adoration of the Shepherds by Jean-Honore Fragonard

A Festive Solstice, Stosh!

Tuesday Open Thread

The Annunciation by Caravaggio

Monday Open Thread

Adoration of the Magi, Peter Paul Reubens

Monday Night Mashup

“Epic Misney” from T Campbell and John Waltrip

Disney buys Marvel…