Exquisitely Bored in Nacogdoches

July 5, 2006

Patriotism to the freaky degree

This is at the DRUDGE REPORT today:

Here he is with his regular lenses (just after getting out of bed):

Mal Evans home movies

Mal Evans is best known as having been the roadie, assistant, and friend to the Beatles. He was part of their private, inner circle. He apparently went through a period where he filmed everything, using an 8mm camera. Some of those films were transferred onto video. This is a compilation I made of some of the more interesting parts, with appropriate soundtrack (the films are silent), added by me.

You will first see Mal and Paul boarding an NBC News Lear Jet they appear to be sharing. It is April, 1967.

Can you guess which one is Paul McCartney?

If you guessed the person with the blue socks, you were correct.
It looks like Paul signed autographs during the flight.

How would you like to own one of those?!
They were traveling to the United States, first visiting Paul's girlfriend, Jane Asher, in Denver, Colorado. From there, they went to Los Angeles, meeting with Beatles' publicist Derek Taylor at his Hollywood Hills home (the one he was renting on Blue Jay Way). It is on the flight back to England that Paul conceived of the Magical Mystery Tour film.

Shocking proof The Beatles were harmful to youth:
Beatle Paul hands Derek Taylor's daughter...

...something...

...that she proceeds to put in her mouth...

It's a cigarette. Now, where would she have learned to do that?

Derek Taylor
I'd say that girl was doomed to be a smoker, like her dad, who died of cancer.

Taylor must have taken Mal and Paul on some sightseeing, because the film footage shows them driving around Los Angeles.

The last bit of Los Angeles footage is of Derek Taylor, McCartney, and Mal Evans at some kind of outdoor mall, decorated with the latest, trendy designs:

At the high school I went to, one of the cafeterias had those things on the walls.

Paul, no doubt setting the trends

July 4, 2006

Self-evident truths

downtown La Grange, Texas

July 3, 2006

Mechanical doppleganger

There's been a lot of information recently about the Pirates of the Caribbean ride reopening at Disneyland, after being refurbished to incorporate Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow and Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. It's all really making me want to go to Disneyland (I guess that's the point).

This is a video with a lot of great footage of the ride and Johnny Depp commenting on things as he's doing the ride. But at the end, he gets out of the car and goes right up to the animatronic Jack Sparrow, and it's pretty freaky.

SFA Theater

A view of the old SFA Movie Theater and its fading neon, this morning. There are more pictures of the theater at my photo blog and at flickr.

July 2, 2006

Believe it, or not...

The Astronomy Picture of the Day is typically fascinating, awesome. beautiful, mind-blowing, or as is the case with today's, all of the above:

Click to enlarge
I sometimes have to read each picture's explanation really slowly (sometimes more than once) to understand what is happening in them.

From the site:

"Tornado and Rainbow Over Kansas"
Credit & Copyright: Eric Nguyen (Oklahoma U.),
www.mesoscale.ws
Explanation: The scene might have been considered serene if it weren't for the tornado. Last June in Kansas, storm chaser Eric Nguyen photographed this budding twister in a different light -- the light of a rainbow. Pictured above, a white tornado cloud descends from a dark storm cloud. The Sun, peeking through a clear patch of sky to the left, illuminates some buildings in the foreground. Sunlight reflects off raindrops to form a rainbow. By coincidence, the tornado appears to end right over the rainbow. Streaks in the image are hail being swept about by the high swirling winds. Over 1,000 tornadoes, the most violent type of storm known, occur on Earth every year, many in tornado alley. If you see a tornado while driving, do not try to outrun it -- park your car safely, go to a storm cellar, or crouch under steps in a basement.