Day #21,299

Today's Walk #1: in the rain to Stanley Park
Today's Walk #2: 49th/Blenheim/42nd/Dunbar

a puddle
aprox km 1715 49th Avenue approaching Blenheim



Today's Tune: Diga Diga Doo
Looking through this morning's blog updates, I see that someone has posted a Bob Thompson LP. I remember Bob from those Space Age Pop CDs of the 90s. I always thought that his stuff was some of the best there but I'd never seen any more Bob Thompson available anywhere. If you would like your very own Bob Thompson LP, proceed directly to Baikinange's blog.
To celebrate, I've made one of Bob's "Space Age Pop" tunes the tune of the day. Diga Diga Doo was written by Dorothy Fields & Jimmy McHugh for the musical "Blackbirds of 1928". This was the first time together for the songwriting team of Fields & McHugh. It opened at the Liberty Theatre on October 1, 1928 (see poster). Then it was a big hit for The Mills Brothers in 1932. And now it's made the big time: it's featured on my blog.


Today's Movie: Nongnu(1963, Jun Li)

I rented two movies from the library to get me through the long weekend. However, I watched them both on Saturday so today I had to look through my stash of Chinese movies. I selected "The Serf" which is a part of the "Red Movies" series. That is to say, the Communist Party propoganda series. In this one, the Chinese army invades Tibet in order to free the Tibetan people from the evil landowners (and the Dalai Lama). Historical accuracy could be a problem here. However, the film itself is beautifully made - in fact the skill level shown here is much better than what Hollywood was turning out at this time. The first half is as good as any film can be - the second half with the arrival of the red army is less spectacular. This is the fourth movie in this "Red Movies" series that is well worth watching: The Lettuce, Struggles In The Old-Line City and Train 12 are the others.
Note: despite the fact that this is obviously a big budget movie (and that according to the Dalai Lama's website, everyone in Tibet was required to see it) it is not listed on the IMDB database. It is however listed by the BFI (British Film Institute).