Harryhausen: Technical Titan

Editor's note -- This blog is not turning into an obituary page but Flippantly Florida can't let the death of Ray Harryhausen pass without note from the New York Times. 

Ray Harryhausen, Whose Creatures Battled Jason and Sinbad, Dies at 92

Ray Harryhausen, the animator and special-effects wizard who found ways to breathe cinematic life into the gargantuan, the mythical and the extinct, died on Tuesday in London. 

His innovations were honored in 1992 with a career Academy Award for technical achievement. 

At the Oscar ceremony, Tom Hanks told the audience that he thought the greatest movie of all time was not “Citizen Kane” or “Casablanca” but “Jason and the Argonauts."

The Editor posted a similar sentiment to her Facebook page: "Argonauts is my favorite Harryhausen movie. Maybe one of my top 10 favorite movies of all time. Who's with me?"

I think Tom Hanks very well might be... 

"My favorite monsters," Harryhausen said, "are the more complicated ones. Like the hydra had seven heads, which you had to animate, and the seven skeletons took a lot of time and, of course, Medusa in Clash of the Titans. She was a fascinating image to animate."

Roger Ebert: Universe

Editor's note -- Roger Ebert died on Thurs., April 4th from cancer. His blog inspired a few flippant posts here; my favorite is Dust, based on his blog post from April 2011. Now is the perfect time to link it again; it's about the nature of life and death in an incomprehensibly vast universe.

RT @ebertchicago Why the meaninglessness of the Universe consoles me. My new blog entry, just posted. 

A quintessence of dust

A message from light years away would probably miss me in my box of space and time, but I find that Art can shout to me across a few years or centuries, and it carries the same message: "Yes, I exist, and you are not alone."

What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, 

how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and

admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god! 

the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals--

and yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? 

Man delights not me--nor woman neither, 

though by your smiling you seem to say so.

That's what we are, a quintessence of dust. That Shakespeare could so conclude, and then end with a little joke is, to me, a great comfort.

  

About Time

Editor's note -- After a brief hiatus 

FLIPPANTLY FLORIDA 

notes the word "shagged" is a bit overused but in this case means "exhausted."

 Behind-the-scene photo from 'A Clockwork Orange,' 1971

via Dangerous Minds

"We were all feeling a bit shagged and fagged and fashed, it being a night of no small 

expenditure, O my brothers."

-- Alex

ATLANTIC EDITION

Editor's note -- When TIME magazine was cool.

Nov. 2, 1953 

AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER

Every man is his own artist

Illustration by Boris Artzybasheff

  

Hat Tip: David Luckin

Obersalzberg Yoga

Editor's note --  Eva Braun demonstrates Urdhva Dhanurasana at Berghof, a vacation home in the Bavarian Alps.

Transcendental photo via Dangerous Minds

Upward bow or wheel pose. Strengthens the arms, legs, abdomen and spine. 

Orange Juice

Editor's note -- The first and last scenes of Pulp Fiction were filmed on location at Hawthorne Grill, 13763 S. Hawthorne Blvd., Hawthorne, CA.

Pumpkin and Honey Bunny rob the diner in the first scene while Jules and Vincent are eating breakfast. 

Honey Bunny jumps on the counter-top and screams:

Any of you pigs mooooove and I'll execute every last mother fucking one of ya!

... noted Johnny Smith, a commenter on Legendary Directors' Facebook post.

Bad Omen

Editor's note -- Flippantly Florida notes that Dave Barry's Year in Review 2012 didn't even notice the Mayan Calendar ended on Dec. 21st.

Dave Barry's Year in Review 2012

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/12/29/3160638_p4/dave-barrys-year-in-review.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/12/29/3160638_p4/dave-barrys-year-in-review.html#storylink=cpy