Something to listen to

I've got nothing much else to say about it. I first heard it/her on the Nerdist Podcast.



And yes, as you can well imagine, the spelling error in the title by whoever posted this distresses me every time. I don't think they're from this country, tho, and it doesn't lessen the song any...

Y'know how I've often said that--even if he comes up with a great line every once in a while--I have a bad feeling about Bill Maher?

Check it:

Bill Maher Defends Rush Limbaugh

Great passages in literature

Jon ordered bottles of scotch, vodka and champaigne. We wondered if we could take them home with us. There was a three-piece band. A stripper materialized and began to disrobe a yard in front of us.

"Dodger," Abra said, "why are all those men sitting alone at their tables?"

"I think they're lonely," I said, because they have to buy a girl her own bottle if they want her to sit with them."

"They all seem so sad," Abra said. She took another look around the room. The stripper finished and left the stage to indifferent applause. Abra whispered something to Jon. He was a distinguished Canadian and knew how to handle these things. He rapped smartly on the table with a pound coin. "Waiter!" he said. "Blow jobs for everyone!"

-from Life Itself, by Roger Ebert

One thing I've always given Lucas credit for--he never minimized this man's contributions

Ralph McQuarrie, visual designer of 'Star Wars,' passes away at 82

Simply put, the choices he made regarding the design of the world of "Star Wars" were one of the main reasons that film resonated ... with generations of viewers.

-Quoting from the above post by "Drew McWeeny."

It's my understanding that after the first film opened in 1977 and became what it did, McQuarrie was one of those to whom George Lucas retroactively offered profit points/participation. He didn't "need" to do that, and I think we know some people wouldn't have.

But Lucas had literally sold Star Wars on the basis of McQuarrie's paintings--and I do mean "literally," literally: In pitch meetings with the studios, Lucas would present the work he'd commissioned McQuarrie to do in order to evoke the style he hoped to with the film...