Here Comes Summer is an American popular song which was written and performed by Jerry Keller. The song was released on Kapp Records in the United States and London Records in the United Kingdom. In 1959 it spent 13 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching No. 14, while spending one week at No. 1 on the UK’s New Musical Express chart, and reaching No. 8 on Norway’s VG-lista, and No. 4 on Canada’s CHUM Hit Parade. It was Keller’s only hit either side of the Atlantic. A popular misconception is that this song quotes the line “the sun shines bright” from the Stephen Foster song My Old Kentucky Home, but this is untrue as the line contained in Here Comes Summer is “oh, let the sun shine bright”. However, that one line does utilize the melody of Stephen Foster’s song.
Into the Wild is a 2007 American biographical adventure drama film written, co-produced, and directed by Sean Penn. It is an adaptation of the 1996 non-fiction book of the same name written by Jon Krakauer and tells the story of Christopher McCandless (“Alexander Supertramp”), a man who hiked across North America into the Alaskan wilderness in the early 1990s. The film stars Emile Hirsch as McCandless and Marcia Gay Harden and William Hurt as his parents; it also features Jena Malone, Catherine Keener, Brian Dierker, Vince Vaughn, Kristen Stewart, and Hal Holbrook.
The film premiered during the 2007 Rome Film Fest and later opened outside Fairbanks, Alaska, on September 21, 2007. The film received critical acclaim and grossed $56 million worldwide. It was nominated for two Golden Globes and won the award for Best Original Song: Guaranteed by Eddie Vedder. It was also nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Editing and Best Supporting Actor for Holbrook.
The abandoned and decaying bus on the Stampede Trail where McCandless died became a pilgrimage destination for fans. It was located in Denali Borough, Alaska, 30 miles (50 km) from the nearest town. The bus was taken to the remote trail in the 1940s by a road crew, according to Denali Borough Mayor, Clay Walker. Visitors to the site had to cross the dangerous Teklanika River. In 2019 a newlywed Belarusian woman drowned trying to cross the swollen river on her way to the site. Another drowning took place in 2010. Five Italians were rescued in February 2020, with one suffering from severe frostbite, and a stranded Brazilian had to be rescued in April 2020. In total, 15 bus-related search and rescue operations for visitors were carried out between 2009 and 2017. On June 18, 2020 the bus was removed due to public safety concerns. It was air-lifted by a US army Chinook helicopter to an undisclosed location pending a decision about its final destination. On September 24, 2020, the Museum of The North at the University of Alaska (Fairbanks) announced it became the permanent home of McCandless’ “Magic Bus 142” where it will be restored and an outdoor exhibit will be created.
Candy Apple Grey is the fifth album by the alternative rock band Hüsker Dü, released in 1986. It was their first major label album, though Warner Bros. had initially lobbied to release Flip Your Wig until the band decided to let SST have it. Candy Apple Grey also marks the completion of the band’s transition from hardcore punk to a more well-rounded sonic style which would later come to be known as alternative rock or college rock. As usual, Bob Mould and Grant Hart individually wrote tracks on the album. While the band’s earlier, more frenetic style is still evident, Candy Apple Grey also features more introverted, toned-down material, including a relatively large amount of acoustic guitar.
The singles released from this album were Sorry Somehow and Don’t Want to Know If You Are Lonely, both written and sung by Hart. The latter was accompanied by a promotional video which earned airtime on MTV. Candy Apple Grey was the first Hüsker Dü album to chart on the Billboard Top 200, but despite receiving exposure on radio as well as MTV, it got no higher than #140.
A puddle is a small accumulation of liquid, usually water, on a surface. It can form either by pooling in a depression on the surface, or by surface tension upon a flat surface. A puddle is generally shallow enough to walk through, and too small to traverse with a boat or raft.
Small wildlife, such as birds and insects, can use puddles as a source of essential moisture or for bathing. Raised constructed puddles, bird baths, are a part of domestic and wildlife gardens as a garden ornament and “micro-habitat” restoration. Swallows use the damp loam which gathers in puddles as a form of cement to help to build their nests. Many butterfly species and some other insects, but particularly male butterflies, need puddles for nutrients they can contain, such as salts and amino acids. In a behavior known as puddling they seek out the damp mud that can be found around the edge of the puddles. For some smaller forms of life, such as tadpoles or mosquito larvae, a puddle can form an entire habitat. Puddles that do not evaporate quickly can become standing water, which can become polluted by decaying organisms and are often home to breeding mosquitos, which can act as vectors for diseases such as malaria and, of more recent concern in certain areas of the world, West Nile virus.
Puddles are a source of recreation for children, who often like jumping in puddles as an “up-side” to rain. A children’s nursery rhyme records the story of Doctor Foster and his encounter with a puddle in Gloucester. Muddy puddles, and the pleasures of splashing mud in them, are a repeated theme in the children’s animation Peppa Pig, to the extent of selling character-branded wellington boots.
The Monkey Buffet Festival is held annually in Thailand to promote tourism. While one might think this festival is a buffet of monkeys, it is actually a buffet for monkeys. The macaque monkey population in Lopburi is so large, it would be considered a pest in nearly any other part of the world. In Lopburi, however, they are revered. Thought to be the descendants of a monkey warrior, the locals believe the macaque monkeys bring good fortune, and are allowed to roam freely among the people. To honor these so-called good-luck monkeys, a festival is thrown every year with over 2,000 kilograms of fruits, vegetables and other monkey-friendly treats for the animals to enjoy.
Feel It Still is a song by American rock band Portugal. The Man. The song, which has interpolations from The Marvelettes’ 1961 hit Please Mr. Postman, was written by the band along with John Hill and Asa Taccone, with the latter two serving as producers. It serves as the second single and first radio single off their eighth studio album, Woodstock. The song reached number one on the U.S. Alternative Songs, Mexican and Russian Tophit airplay chart. It was also their first entry on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, becoming a sleeper hit, as it took eight months to peak at number four in November 2017. The track reached the top 10 in 18 countries including Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. In January 2018, the song won the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards.
The music video was released on March 6, 2017. An interactive version was also released, powered by technology from WIREWAX. The interactive video contained “Easter eggs” that a viewer could click on to build their #resist toolkit to learn and support 30 different social and political causes.
Harold Ramis (November 21, 1944 – February 24, 2014)
Harold Allen Ramis was an American actor, comedian, director and writer. His best-known film acting roles were as Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters (1984) and Ghostbusters II (1989), and as Russell Ziskey in Stripes (1981); he also co-wrote those films. As a director, his films include the comedies Caddyshack (1980), National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983), Groundhog Day (1993), and Analyze This (1999). Ramis was the original head writer of the television series SCTV, on which he also performed, as well as a co-writer of Groundhog Day and National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978). The final film that he wrote, produced, directed, and acted in was Year One (2009). Along with Danny Rubin, he won a BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay for Groundhog Day.Second
Born in Chicago, Ramis began writing parodic plays in college. For a short time, he worked as a substitute teacher serving the inner city Robert Taylor Homes. He became associated with the guerilla television collective TVTV while writing freelance for the Chicago Daily News. He then began performing with Chicago’s Second City improvisational comedy troupe. He also served as joke editor at Playboy magazine. Through Second City he met John Belushi, then Bill Murray as well as Joe Flaherty, Christopher Guest and Gilda Radner. He received an offer to write on Saturday Night Live but declined, choosing to remain with SCTV. Eventually he did leave the show to pursue a film career. And the rest is history. He directed 11 movies, wrote 16 and produced 8 comedy films, many of them beloved classics.
Ramis married twice. In July 1967, he married artist Anne Plotkin with whom he had a daughter, Violet. (Actor Bill Murray is her godfather.) They separated in 1984 and later divorced. In 1985, he had a second daughter Mollie with director Amy Heckerling. In 1989, he married Erica Mann. They had two sons, Julian and Daniel. In May 2010, Ramis contracted an infection that resulted in complications from autoimmune inflammatory vasulitis and lost the ability to walk. He did relearn to walk but suffered a relapse of the disease in late 2011. On February 24, 2014, he died from complications of the disease at his Chicago home at age 69. During the filming of Groundhog Day, Murray and Ramis had a falling out which Ramis said occurred due to problems that Murray was having in his life at that time. They did not speak for more than 20 years. Shortly before his death, encouraged by Murray’s brother Brian Doyle Murray, Bill came to visit him and make amends with a box of donuts. By this time, Ramis had lost the ability to speak, so Bill did most of the talking. Bill then gave a tribute to Ramis at the 86th Academy Awards. In 2004, Ramis was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame. In 2005, he received the Austin Film Festival’s Distinguished Screenwriter Award. In 2010, he received a lifetime achievement award from the Chicago Improv Festival. In 2015, the Writers Guild of America posthumously honored him with their lifetime achievement award, the Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement. In 2016, two years after his death, The Second City founded the Harold Ramis Film School, the first film school to focus solely on film comedy, in his honor. The 2016 film Ghostbusters, a reboot of the series Ramis co-created and starred in, was posthumously dedicated to him. A bust of his head appears in the film.
The Island of Doctor Moreau is an 1896 science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells (1866–1946). The text of the novel is the narration of Edward Prendick who is a shipwrecked man rescued by a passing boat. He is left on the island home of Doctor Moreau, a mad scientist who creates human-like hybrid beings from animals via vivisection. The novel deals with a number of philosophical themes, including pain and cruelty, moral responsibility, human identity, and human interference with nature. Wells described it as “an exercise in youthful blasphemy.” The Island of Doctor Moreau is a classic work of early science fiction and remains one of Wells’ best-known books. The novel is the earliest depiction of the science fiction motif “uplift” in which a more advanced race intervenes in the evolution of an animal species to bring the latter to a higher level of intelligence. It has been adapted to film and other media on many occasions.
Ćevapćići are the national dish of Bosnia, but they are actually eaten throughout the Balkans. Ćevapćići are small oblong sausages made of grilled minced meat (usually beef, but can be also pork, lamb or mixed). They are served typically in “somun” or “lepinja” flatbread with chopped onions, kajmak cheese, and ajvar spread.
Singled Out is an American dating game show created by Burt Wheeler & Sharon Sussman which originally ran on MTV from 1995 to 1998. Each episode featured a group of 50 singles competing for a date with one main contestant. The original hosts were Chris Hardwick and Jenny McCarthy. When McCarthy left the show in early 1997 to star in her own sitcom, Jenny, MTV hired Carmen Electra to replace her for the last season and a half. The show became a cult classic, putting a more comedic spin on traditional and formal dating shows. Contestants would most likely be unconventional and cast purely for entertainment, without any assumed compatibility put into effect.
MTV revamped the series in late 2018 for its YouTube channel. The overhauled format gave a more urban contemporary hip hop theme to the show. Incorporating a main social media aspect as well, the show features rapper Justina Valentine acting as host, with rapper Conceited as a cohost.