Cool Movie Alert: Milano Calibro 9

Or should I say, “all the way cool movie alert.” No local stops on the way to cool for this movie, it's express all the way. This movie is so cool that you’ve got to wear shades just to watch it. Careful! You might get burned! My friend Norman used to say that he liked movies that were “nuts.” Brothers and sisters, this movie is nuts. I watched the whole thing last night, right on the YouTube. The price was right, and it was a very good time.

It was, however, a challenge to one's ability handle confusion. The dialog was in the original Italian, and the subtitles were in Portuguese. Bear in mind that where there are subtitles, we are accustomed to reading them. This is great if your hobby is Romance Languages, but otherwise it can be somewhat distracting, and not in a good way.

The clip above is somebody’s YouTube gift to the world, a mashup of “Shakin All Over,” as covered by the Twiliters, and a scene from an Italian gangster movie called “Milano Calibro 9.”  (1972, directed by Fernando Di Leo.) The dancing girl is one of the stars of the movie, her name is Barbara Bouchet. The fellow nervously smoking a cigarette at the bar is a character named Ugo Piazza, played by Gaston Moschin.  He’s the real star, he’s in practically every scene. Does he look a little bit familiar? Around the jaw and the teeth, maybe? I thought so, too, and sure enough he played Fanucci in Godfather II!

This movie is not for the feint hearted, it should be rated “W,” for Watch The Fuck Out If Can’t Tolerate Violence In Movies.

I was lucky to find this movie, and it was all because I stumbled across the website shakin-all-over.de while I was looking for info about Hamburg rock bands from the Star Club era. This whole Internet thing is a rocking good time, I’ll say. 

Drinking Electricity - Shaking all over

You find the damnedest things on the Internet. Just stumbling around, you know, they present themselves.

Cool Website Alert! shakin-all-over.de

This is a site from a German gentleman who has something of an obsession with the song, "Shakin All Over." He's put together a nice web site that's devoted to it, and he is compiling a set of twelve CDs that consist of nothing but covers of Shakin All Over.  (He's up to CD number seven, with plenty of versions left for the rest.) He puts the CDs together, he says, with an eye to blending the styles so that there's plenty of variety to the exercise and no one will get tired of listening to Shakin All Over, over and over again.

I copied off some of the band names from the CDs, and this was one of them. Even some of the obscure ones are on the 'Tube.

They can sure get carried away, those Fritzes. I love them, I do, but you've got to wonder sometimes. I speak the language, and I've traveled there twice and I have always been treated very well, but you have to be careful.  There are rules, you know. If you put your fork and spoon in the wrong place they'll yank the whole plate away before you know it. Rules.

"Drinking Electricity" is a cute name for a band. I should look them up, find out where they came from. Pretty good cut. Yes, this whole Internet thing is getting more interesting every day.

Great Airplanes Of The Twentieth Century

The 20^th Century began with absolutely no airplanes, no self-powered heavier than air aircraft at all. Then the Wright brothers came along, and before long the idea seized the imagination of a great number of talented people. By the end of the century the skies were full of airplanes. The development was so rapid, and so profound, that I believe it to be one of the defining aspects of the times.

Here are my choices for the iconic airplane of each decade.

1900s

The clear choice here is the Wright Flyer, generally accepted as the first man-made contraption to fly under its own power with lift provided only by wings.  It was a big box kite with a small motor and very primitive control surfaces, but it could take off, fly where you wanted it to go, and land, usually without damaging the aircraft or killing the pilot. Within ten years aircraft of many nations took an ever increasing role in the Great War.

1910s

This was a tough choice.  World War I saw a great number of capable designs, and many of them were innovative and successful in their roles. I’m going for the Spad, though, specifically the Spad S-XIII. There were 8,500 made, and it was competitive over a long service life. American ace Eddie Rickenbacker got a couple of dozen victories in the type and he even lived to tell about it. That was the trick in WWI, the living part. A reporter asked another American ace what he was going to do after the war. “After the war?” he said, “there’s no after the war for a fighter pilot.” He died.

1920s

Another tough pick. The years “between the wars” were a time of great innovation, but with no war to fight and with commercial applications still to be worked out it was a tough slog to be in the aircraft making business.

I’m going for the Dornier DO-X.  It was an amazing thing to see, a very large flying boat with twelve engines mounted across the middle of the high wing, six pulling and six pushing. I can tell you that it captured the imaginations of small boys for decades. My parents grew up in Queens, and they were thrilled to watch this thing land in the East River. It was displayed for months at the Curtis Air Terminal, the earliest incarnation of LaGuardia Airport. It amazed me when I discovered it in the Encyclopedia in the early 1950s. It still amazes me. They only made three, and it never performed up to expectations, but it’s still my pick for the 1920s.

1930s

Now we’re coming into a period where the picks are easier. For me, the great plane of the 1930s is the Douglas DC-3 (aka C-47 in its military role). It’s so beautiful, and it looks so modern, that it still looks like it would be hard to improve. It was highly efficient and very durable, so much so that some examples are still in use today.

Honorable Mention:

The JU-87 “Stuka.” A plane that needs no introduction. Sure, it was obsolete by the beginning of World War II, but this thing was bad-ass, and it remained dangerous in the hands of a capable pilot. In an environment where air-dominance had been achieved, it was capable of causing a lot of damage. This is a very personal choice. "Bad-ass" always gets my attention. 

1940s

Here I’m going to encounter dedicated fans of many different aircraft, but I’m going to choose the North American P-51 Mustang, “the Cadillac of the Air.” It was a big pilot favorite with a high kill-to-loss ratio. The design of the plane, and its capabilities, struck a chord that still rings out today. 15,000 were made, and about 200 are still flying today.

1950s

The B-52! First flight in 1952, and constructed only between 1952 and 1962, there are about eighty-five still in service with the USAF and is expected to serve in that role until the 2040s. That, you must admit, is one very successful airplane.

1960s

Here we return to the Land of the Bad-Ass. The F4 Phantom looks dangerous just sitting on the runway. The nose drops; the wings come at you from different angles. On one hand, it looks like a huge flying truck, but on the other hand, it looks malevolent and threatening. In the hands of pilots like Randy Cunningham it was the air-dominance fighter plane of the day.

Honorable Mention:

The Mig-21. They looked like beautiful toys next to something like the F4, but Mig-21s were very fast and capable. They were easy to make and easy to fly, and they were very maneuverable. They were made in large numbers and they served for a long time in many air forces. F4s in Vietnam ate them for lunch, but a lot of that was due to better pilot training and superior tactics. A Great plane.

1970s

The F-15 Eagle. Undefeated in air combat! (The only plane in history that can make the claim.) Still an air-dominance fighter.

Honorable Mentions:

The Mig-29. A lightweight, single seat fighter, very fast, very beautiful and very, very maneuverable.

The A-10 Thunderbolt II. This plane is a sentimental favorite of mine, and one of the all-time winners in the bad-ass category. It was a tough choice for me, but I’m sticking with the F-15, based on its combat record and service life.

1980s

The Sukhoi SU-27. I think that this is one of the most beautiful aircraft ever to fly in earth’s skies, if not THE most beautiful. It looks as though the design of the Mig-29 was turned over to artists for beautification. It’s a heavier fighter than the Mig-29, and it is a faster plane, with a longer range of operation, more heavily armed, and even more maneuverable. The Chinese also make them under license, and their version is a great plane, too.

1990s

The B-2 Spirit. “Spirit” is a good name for this thing. I saw a fly-by at Dodger Stadium one time. They’d announced the direction that it would be coming from beforehand, but it was practically on top of the stadium before we could see it or hear it. Stealthy? The thing is damn near invisible to the naked eye in a clear sky. With a longer range and a bigger bomb load than a B-52, this thing is a marvel of aeronautical engineering.

Many fabulous planes get left off any list of this type, but my point has been to illustrate the supernatural development curve of aeronautics in the Twentieth Century. Did I say, “curve?” It’s been more like a straight line upwards. From the Wright Flyer to the B-2 Spirit, we’ve been treated to quite a display of human ingenuity, determination and courage. And, let’s face it, some human stupidity, too. All of this has cost a fortune, many fortunes actually, and most of that money has been spent in pursuit of military advantage over rivals, real or imagined. That money could have been spent on a better life for ordinary folks, but it wasn’t. It almost makes me feel guilty for enjoying the show so much. 

Steppin Out Joe Jackson

I love this cut, too.  (A couple of my dear readers mentioned it in comments on "Look Sharp.")

Nice visuals on this one. I love what people do with their free time on YouTube.

Also be sure to check out the cover by Fantastic Plastic Machine.  Put it in the word search, upper left, I've posted it twice over the last five years. Either way, original or cover, it's a great listen.

Redbone - Come and Get Your Love [Music Video] (HD Audio)

The track here is the hit recording. Nice to see the guys "in action."

1974, a particularly rich period for popular music in America. These fellows, as you can see, are all American Indians, and proud of it, too.  As they should be. They can be very proud of this track as well. In fact, that whole LP is very good.

Maybe I should ask Professor Google for more detail about their careers as musicians. That's the toughest gig in the world. Let's see how they made out.

Butterflies

Most of my observation of butterflies has been done at ground level. This has been true for my entire life.  In the backyard; at the park; around the neighborhood. They have always seemed to fly pretty well, but it was all bush to bush, or thereabouts. I now occupy the first residence of my life that comes with a view. Twelfth floor, with a nice balcony. The surroundings are very low, my building is the only tall structure in the development. All around are private homes, and the area is chock full of mature trees and bushes. It’s a great spot for bird watching, which I enjoy. Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of butterflies as well. It’s made me consider the lives and abilities of butterflies for the first time.

I suppose that I knew that butterflies were very capable fliers, but I’d never really thought about it before. Monarch butterflies, certainly, travel over long distances to go to their breeding areas in Mexico. But now I can observe butterflies in flight at altitudes of over one hundred feet, eye to eye, as it were. They are impressive creatures.

Some larger, some smaller, but they do very, very well in the air. They often fly straight up, holding a line, which can’t be easy. They often are seen flying into a considerable wind, successfully. They are holding the altitude, too, and the direction, which seems to indicate that they are going somewhere. Is it reading too much into it to assume that they are going somewhere? Somewhere that they know? Flying to an intended destination? That’s pretty amazing for a creature that does not seem well designed for flight in the first place, a creature with a brain that must be about the size of the point of a pin.

So, these manifestly unaerodynamic creatures are flying long distances, at impressive altitudes, and they are navigating. It’s been a revelation to me.

The world is full of these little surprises, and being struck by them is a nice change from the so-called news or the mundane worries of life on earth. Thank you, world, for this distraction. Most of us can use a little distracting these days. 

PROJEKT B aka PROJECT A Part II 2 - Deutscher Trailer

Stephen Chow's alleged hero is Jackie Chan.  So I wondered:  how many movies has Jackie Chan done for the hat trick, writing, directing and staring?  Turns out that Jackie managed that a few times himself.

Project A, Part II is the worst movie title of all time, but it is massively entertaining.  Not just in the stunts either, not just in the death defying aerial antics.  It's Jackie Chan in 1987, at the height of his powers.  Some of the set pieces are worthy of the Marx Brothers at the height of their own powers, like the routine where Jackie is handcuffed to the girl while she is being interviewed by a police superintendent.

The girl!  That would be Maggie Chueng!  Madre de Dios, has there ever been a more beautiful actress, not to mention very talented, and funny as hell, and just plain bad-ass cooler than James Dean.

This is a cool movie.  The complete movie is up on the 'Tube.  Written by, directed by, and staring Jackie Chan.