THIS DAY IN HISTORY ― JUNE 30

June 30 is the 181st day of the year (182nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 184 days remaining until the end of the year. 

SOCIAL MEDIA DAY

763 – The Byzantine army of emperor Constantine V defeats the Bulgarian forces in the Battle of Anchialus. Constantine then entered his capital in triumph and killed all prisoners taken in the battle. The fate of Bulgarian leader Telets was similar: two years later he was murdered because of the defeat. The Byzantines failed to use the strategic advantage which they had and the prolonged wars in the 8th century ended in 792 at the Marcelae with a great Bulgarian victory and reestablishment of the treaty of 718.

1520 – Spanish conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés fight their way out of Tenochtitlan.

1794 – Native American forces under Blue Jacket attack Fort Recovery.


1882 – Charles J. Guiteau is hanged in Washington, D.C. for the assassination of U.S. President James Garfield. As he surrendered to authorities, Guiteau said: "I am a Stalwart of the Stalwarts. ... [Chester A.] Arthur is president now!" The Stalwarts were a faction of the Republican Party that existed briefly in the United States during the 1870s, in the Gilded Age after Reconstruction.


1892 – The Homestead Strike begins near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was an industrial lockout and strike which began on June 30, 1892, culminating in a battle between strikers and private security agents on July 6, 1892.[3] The battle was one of the most serious disputes in U.S. labor history, third behind the Ludlow Massacreand the Battle of Blair Mountain. The dispute occurred at the Homestead Steel Works in the Pittsburgh area town of Homestead, Pennsylvania, between the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers (the AA) and the Carnegie Steel Company. The final result was a major defeat for the union and a setback for their efforts to unionize steelworkers. 

1905 – Albert Einstein sends the article On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies, in which he introduces special relativity, for publication in Annalen der Physik.


1908 – The Tunguska event occurs in remote Siberia. It was a large explosion that occurred near the Stony Tunguska River, in Yeniseysk Governorate (now Krasnoyarsk Krai), Russian Empire, on the morning of 30 June 1908 (N.S.).[1 The explosion over the sparsely populated Eastern Siberian Taiga flattened 2,000 km2 (770 sq mi) of forest (it caused no known casualties among humans). The cause of the explosion is generally thought to have been ameteor. It is classified as an impact event, even though no impact crater has been found; the meteor is thought to have burst in mid-air at an altitude of 5 to 10 kilometres (3 to 6 miles) rather than hit the surface of the Earth.

1912 – The Regina Cyclone hits Regina, Saskatchewan, killing 28. It remains Canada's deadliest tornado event. At about 4:50 p.m., green funnel clouds formed and touched down south of the city, tearing a swath through the residential area betweenWascana Lake and Victoria Avenue, and continuing through the downtown business district, rail yards, warehouse district, and northern residential area.

  

1921 – U.S. President Warren G. Harding appoints former President William Howard Taft Chief Justice of the United States.

1934 – The Night of the Long Knives, Adolf Hitler's violent purge of his political rivals in Germany, begins (ends July 2).  The Nazi regime carried out a series of political extra-judicial executions. Concerned with presenting the massacre as legally sanctioned, Hitler had the cabinet approve a measure on July 3 that declared, "The measures taken on June 30, July 1 and 2 to suppress treasonous assaults are legal as acts of self-defence by the State.

1937 – The world's first emergency telephone number, 999, is introduced in London.

1944 – World War II: The Battle of Cherbourg ends with the fall of the strategically valuable port to American forces, following the June 6 Normandy invasion.

1971 – Ohio ratifies the 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, reducing the voting age to 18, thereby putting the amendment into effect.

1972 – The first leap second is added to the UTC time system. The UTC time standard, which is widely used for international timekeeping and as the reference for civil time in most countries, uses the international system (SI) definition of the second, based on atomic clocks. Like most time standards, UTC defines a grouping of seconds into minutes, hours, days, months, and years. However, the duration of onemean solar day is now slightly longer than 24 hours (86400 SI seconds) because the rotation of the Earth has slowed down. Therefore, if the UTC day were defined as precisely 86400 SI seconds, the UTC time-of-day would slowly drift apart from that of solar-based standards, such as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and its successor UT1. The purpose of a leap second is to compensate for this drift, by occasionally scheduling some UTC days with 86401 or (in principle) 86399 SI seconds.

Between 1972 and 2012, a leap second has been inserted about every 18 months, on average. However, the spacing is quite irregular and apparently increasing: there were no leap seconds in the seven-year interval between January 1, 1999 and December 31, 2005, but there were nine leap seconds in the eight years 1972–1979.

1985 – Thirty-nine American hostages from the hijacked TWA Flight 847 are freed in Beirut after being held for 17 days.

1990 – East Germany and West Germany merge their economies.

1997 – The United Kingdom transfers sovereignty over Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China.


2013 – Nineteen firefighters die controlling a wildfire in Yarnell, Arizona.

2015 – An Idonesian Air Force Hercules C-130 military aircraft with 113 people on board crashes in a residential area in the Indonesian city of Medan, resulting in a total of 135 deaths. At the time of the crash, the aircraft was transporting military personnel and their families, and possibly some paying civilian passengers, a known practice that is in violation of government regulations but is often tolerated.

BORN TODAY

1895 – Heinz Warneke, German-American sculptor and educator (d. 1983)

1919 – Ed Yost, American inventor of the modern hot air balloon (d. 2007)

1920 – Eleanor Ross Taylor, American poet and educator (d. 2011)

1930 – Thomas Sowell, American economist, philosopher, and author

From Wikipedia and Google (images), ex as noted.     

MOVIE DIALOG OF THE DAY ― DO THE RIGHT THING (1989)

Connection with the previous post (INSIDE MAN): Spike Lee directed both both films.

RATINGS: IMDB ― 7.9/10, Rotten Tomatoes ― 93%, ME ― 87%



Pino: Daddy, you know, I've been thinking... maybe we should sell this place, get out while we're still ahead... and alive.

Sal: You really think you know what's best for us, Pino?

Pino: Maybe we can... can we sell this and open up a new one in our own neighborhood?

Sal: There's too many pizzerias already there.

Pino: Then maybe we could... we could try something different.

Sal: What am I gonna do? What am I - that's all I know. What am I doing? I been here twenty-five years. Where am I going?

Pino: I'm sick of niggers. It's like I come to work, it's Planet of the Apes. I don't like being around them. They're animals.

Sal: Why you got so much anger in you?

Pino: Why? I'll tell you why. My friends, they laugh at me. They laugh right in my face. They tell me, "Go to Bed-Stuy. Go feed the moulies".

Sal: Do your friends put money in your pocket, Pino? Food on your table? They pay your rent, a roof over your head? They're not your friends. If they were your friends they wouldn't laugh at you.

Pino: Pop, what can I say? I don't want to be here. They don't want us here. We should stay in our own neighborhood, stay in Bensonhurst, and the niggers should stay in theirs.

Sal: I never had no trouble with these people. I sat in this window. I watched these little kids get old. And I seen the old people get older. Yeah, sure, some of them don't like us, but most of them do. I mean, for Christ's sake, Pino, they grew up on my food. On my food. And I'm very proud of that. Oh, you may think It's funny, but I'm very proud of that. Look, what I'm trying to say, son, is, uh... Sal's Famous Pizzeria is here to stay. I'm sorry. I'm your Father, and I love you, I'm sorry but... but that's the way it is.

John Turturro as Pino and Danny Aiello as Sal


Trivia (From IMDB):

Spike Lee originally wanted Robert De Niro for the role of Sal (Salvatore Fragione). But De Niro turned down the part, saying that it was too similar to many of the parts he had played in the past. In the end, the part went to Danny Aiello.

Spike Lee wrote the script in two weeks.

This film was inspired by an actual incident in New York City, where some black youths were chased out of a pizzeria by some white youths, in a section of New York City, known as Howard Beach.

All of the scenes of the corner men (Robin Harris, Paul Benjamin, and Frankie Faison) were improvised.

According to Rosie Perez, her face is not shown in her nude scene, because she felt exploited and was crying. She later decided she didn't mind, and appeared nude again in other movies.

Graffiti on the wall behind Mookie and Jade reads "Tawana told the truth" in reference to the Tawana Brawley alleged rape and abduction case of 1987.

Martin Lawrence's feature film debut.

The title comes from a Malcolm X quotation that goes, "You've got to do the right thing."

The key scene when Danny Aiello and John Turturro talk alone, approximately midway through the film, was partly improvised. The scripted scene ended as the character Smiley approached the window. Everything after that, until the end of the scene, was completely ad-libbed.

Radio Raheem's explanation of the love and hate rings he wears, is an homage to the speech that The Preacher gives in The Night of the Hunter (1955). Robert Mitchum's preacher has tattoos on his hands that say "Love" and "Hate."

According to former President Barack Obama at a fundraiser in New York City, he and First Lady Michelle Obama saw the movie on their first date, in 1989, though they were also planning on seeing Driving Miss Daisy (1989).

Danny Aiello admitted that he almost turned down the part of Sal, when he saw that he'd be playing the owner of a pizzeria, believing it to be a lazy stereotype of Italian-Americans, despite the high number of pizzerias that are owned by Italian-Americans.

Laurence Fishburne was offered, but turned down the role of Love Daddy.

The word "fuck" is used approximately 240 times in this film, a rate of two a minute.

The building Sal's Pizzeria was in did not exist before shooting. Rather, it was constructed on an empty lot by the production company, and subsequently torn down after shooting wrapped.

In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked this as the #96 Greatest Movie of All Time. It was the first inclusion of this film on the list.

Wesley Snipes turned down a role in the film, in order to star in Major League (1989). He'd team up with Lee for Mo' Better Blues (1990), and would be the lead in Jungle Fever (1991).

The opening dance sequence with Rosie Perez, was inspired by the opening credit sequence with Ann-Margret, in Bye Bye Birdie (1963).

James Earl Jones was originally offered the role of "Da Mayor", but turned it down in order to make Best of the Best (1989).

The character of Smiley was not originally in the script. Roger Guenveur Smith approached Spike Lee requesting a role, and his scenes were added in during shooting.

Spike Lee turned down Tougher Than Leather (1988) to direct this film.

Spike Lee's first choice for the role of Pino was Matt Dillon.

Ice Cube sampled Pino's "You gold teeth, gold chain wearing, fried chicken and biscuit eating, monkey, ape, baboon, big thigh, fast running, high jumping, spear-chucking, three-hundred-and-sixty-degree basketball dunking, titsun, spade, mulignan. Go the fuck back to Africa. Go the fuck back to Africa. Go the fuck back to Africa..." rant for his 1990 song "Turn Off The Radio."

Director of Photography Ernest Dickinson determined they'd have to shoot on an East-West street in Manhattan, so that the light would be constant on both sides of the street.

Spike Lee spent his free time on the set writing the screenplay for Mo' Better Blues (1990).

Rick Aiello, who played Officer Long in the movie, is the real life son of Danny Aiello, who played Sal.

On both an interview, and the audio commentary for the Criterion DVD of the film, Spike Lee says that the project was originally at Paramount, but the studio was worried about the climax, and wanted it toned down. Lee refused, and in the same weekend Paramount turned the project down, Universal picked it up for distribution.

The scene in which Sal and Buggin Out argue about there being no African-Americans on the wall of the restaurant--only "American Eye-Talians" --is somewhat ironic, as Giancarlo Esposito is half Italian-American.

Rick Aiello and Miguel Sandoval, who played Officers Long and Ponte, would reprise their roles in Jungle Fever (1991), which was also directed by Spike Lee.

According to the newspaper, the date on the first day is August 5, 1989.

The entire shoot took place on one commandeered block in Brooklyn. Extra care was taken, to ensure the experience was palatable to the residents of that block, and the production even hired a couple of residents on that block.

Delroy Lindo was offered the chance to audition as one of the "Corner Men" but turned it down. Lindo would later star in Crooklyn (1994), another Spike Lee joint.

The opening sequence, which featured the song "Fight The Power", and Rosie Perez dancing, took eight hours to film.

Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.

Mookie is later seen on the movie Red Hook Summer, also direct by Spike Lee.

The film is included on Roger Ebert's "Great Movies" list.

After the film's release, an individual blasting loud music from a boombox or an MP3 (including modern-day smartphones) is colloquially known as a Radio Raheem. As life imitating art, a Galveston, Texas artist blocked a patron, who was blasting Donna Summer oldies from a cell phone on the evening of October 8, 2016, during the Galveston Artwalk, where the artist blocked the suspect Facebook profile as an act of retaliation. A phrase, which was used after the MP3 was switched off, was considered a code word for a derogatory racial epithet. The recipient, who was blocked, has claimed it was another case of systemic racial discrimination during the peak season of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Spoilers ― 

In the original scripted ending, Sal and Mookie reconcile. Sal, although upset, tells Mookie that he understands that Mookie had to do the right thing. Spike Lee changed the ending during filming, and has never explained why.

TOP 100 SONGS OF 1967 ― NUMBER 40

50 years ago this year these songs were released. I took the top 100 from Rolling Stone for 1967 and put them in the order in which I think they should have listed, since this was the decade of the music I grew up on. Enough of the formalities, here we go. Enjoy.

GET TOGETHER ― THE YOUNGBLOODS 

Genre ― Folk Rock / Psychedelic Rock 



Video 

"Get Together", also known as "Let's Get Together", is a song written in the mid-1960s by American singer-songwriter Chet Powers, also known as Dino Valenti.

The song is an appeal for peace and brotherhood, presenting the polarity of love versus fear, and the choice to be made between them. It is best remembered for the impassioned plea in the lines of its refrain, which is repeated several times in succession to bring the song to its conclusion.

Recording History ―

The song was originally recorded as "Let's Get Together" by the Kingston Trio and released on June 1, 1964, on their album Back in Town. While it was not released as a single, this version was the first to bring the song to the attention of the general public. The Kingston Trio often performed it live.

A version of the song first broke into the top forty in 1965, when We Five, produced by Kingston Trio manager Frank Werber, released "Let's Get Together" as the follow-up to their top ten hit "You Were on My Mind". While it did not achieve the same level of success as the other, "Let's Get Together" provided the group with a second top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 when it peaked at #31. It would be their last hit record.

"Let's Get Together" was the third song on side 2 of the Jefferson Airplane's first album, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, released in August 1966. As Tim Jurgens said in his review of the album in the January 1967 issue of Crawdaddy, "Jefferson Airplane Takes Off is the most important album of American rock issued this year (1966); it is the first LP to come out of the new San Francisco music scene..". He called "Let's Get Together" a "most sensitive, hopeful and contemporary ballad", and wondered why it isn't sung in church. However, the song wasn't released as a single, although the album did make the top 100 of 1966, as #97.

In 1967, the Youngbloods released their version of the song under the title "Get Together". It became a minor Hot 100 hit for them, peaking at #62 and reaching #37 on the US adult contemporary chart. However, renewed interest in the Youngbloods' version came when it was used in a radio public service announcement as a call for brotherhood by the National Conference of Christians and Jews. The Youngbloods' version, the most-remembered today, was re-released in 1969, peaking at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Another version was released in 1967 by the Chicago psychedelic group H. P. Lovecraft on their debut album.

In 1968, the Sunshine Company released a version of the song titled "Let's Get Together" as a single that reached #112 on the Billboard chart.

Also in 1968, the Canadian group 3's A Crowd released their version of the song as a single, titled "Let's Get Together". It peaked at #70 on Canada's national singles chart.

In 1970, Gwen & Jerry Collins released a version of the song as a single that reached #34 on the US country chart.

In March 1970, the Dave Clark Five reached #8 on the UK Singles Chart with their version retitled "Everybody Get Together".

In 1995, Big Mountain released a version of the song titled as a single that reached #28 on the US adult contemporary chart and #44 on the Billboard Hot 100.

And on Inauguraton Day 2017, the group Bahari  released their version of the song.

Controversy ―

Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, the media conglomerate company Clear Channel Communications included the Youngbloods' version of the song on a list of "lyrically questionable" songs that was sent to its 1,200 radio stations in the United States.

In popular culture ―

• The Youngbloods version of the song has been featured in several films, including Purple Haze, Forrest Gump, The Dish, Stephen King's Riding the Bullet, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and most recently Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore.
• In The Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror II", Lisa wishes for world peace and her wish comes true. All people on Earth start singing "Get Together" and dance in a large peace sign.
• 1989: Indigo Girls on the Epic Records release of their album Strange Fire. The song also appears on the soundtrack for The Wonder Years.
• The South Park episode "Smug Alert!" contains a parody of the song which repeats the line "come on people now" several times.
• In 2008, the Youngbloods version of the song was used in a commercial for Luvs diapers.
• A snippet of the Youngbloods version of the song was used in a 2014 commercial for KFC.
• A snippet of the Youngbloods version of the song was played in the beginning of Bart's dream in The Simpsons episode "Oh Brother, Where Bart Thou?"
• Krist Novoselic sings part of the chorus of this song at the beginning of Nirvana's recording of their song, "Territorial Pissings."
• The Christian hard rock group David and the Giants released a cover of the song on their CD Giant Hits.
• Christian Slater echoes the chorus in the 1990 movie Pump Up the Volume

From Wikipedia and Google

THE BIG BANG THEORY INSIDE JOKES ― "S11"

Alphabetized By Kimberly Potts

Tuesdays are thai takeout night. Photo: Michael Yarish/CBS  

They love comic books, costumes, video games, and sci-fi in all forms of media, but what are the other recurring themes, jokes, and life experiences that make up Sheldon, Leonard, Howard, Raj, Penny, Amy, Bernadette, Stuart, and their Big Bang Theory characters we’ve been following for nine seasons? Just as each of those characters can be largely defined by his or her eccentricities (we could write a book on Sheldon alone), some of those quirks also point to how much each of them has evolved throughout the seasons (even if some of them still have a significant way to go). Here’s our rundown. 

Spock

Hands down, Sheldon’s favorite Star Trek character — Spock’s commitment to all things logical resonates deeply with Sheldon, who watched the show as a child genius surrounded largely by people who thought he was a giant weirdo. One of the series’ greatest scenes — from season two’s “The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis” — revolves around Cheesecake Factory waitress Penny gifting Sheldon with a napkin used and signed by restaurant patron Leonard Nimoy. Germaphobe Sheldon isn’t at all grossed out by the soiled napkin. “I possess the DNA of Leonard Nimoy?” he shouts. “All I need is a healthy ovum and I can grow my own Leonard Nimoy!” Sheldon further ignores his aversion to germs and touching other humans when he gifts Penny with an awkward hug (and multiple bath-product gift baskets).

Nimoy’s son Adam, a TV director, author, and teacher at the New York Film Academy in Los Angeles, will guest-star in season nine’s “The Spock Resonance” episode of TBBT.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY ― JUNE 29

June 29 is the 180th day of the year (181st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 185 days remaining until the end of the year.  

NATIONAL CAMERA DAY

1194 – Sverre is crowned King of Norway. He married Margareta Eriksdotter, the daughter of the Swedish king Eric IX, by whom he had the daughter Kristina Sverresdotter. Many consider him one of the most important rulers in Norwegian history. He assumed power as the leader of the rebel party known as the Birkebeiner in 1177, during their struggle against King Magnus Erlingsson. After Magnus fell at the Battle of Fimreite in 1184, Sverre ruled as sole king of Norway. Differences with the Church, however, led to his excommunication in 1194. Another civil war began against the church-supportedBaglers, which lasted beyond Sverre's death in 1202.

1444 – Albanian warrior and nobleman, Skanderbeg, defeats an Ottoman invasion force at Torvioll. Skanderbeg's military skills presented a major obstacle to Ottoman expansion, and he was considered by many in western Europe to be a model of Christian resistance against the Ottoman Muslims.

1534 – Jacques Cartier is the first European to reach Prince Edward Island.

1613 – The Globe Theatre in London burns to the ground.

1776 – First privateer battle of the American Revolutionary War fought at Turtle Gut Inlet near Cape May, New Jersey

1786 – Alexander Macdonell and over five hundred Roman Catholic highlanders leave Scotland to settle in Glengarry County, Ontario.

1864 – Ninety-nine people are killed in Canada's worst railway disaster near St-Hilaire, Quebec.

1881 – In Sudan, Muhammad Ahmad declares himself to be the Mahdi, the messianic redeemer of Islam. Among the Sudanese population of the oppressive policies of the Turco-Egyptian rulers, and capitalized on the messianic beliefs popular among the various Sudanese religious sects of the time. After Muhammad Ahmad's unexpected death on 22 June 1885, a mere six months after the conquest of Khartoum, his chief deputy, Abdallahi ibn Muhammad took over the administration of the nascent Mahdist state.

1888 – George Edward Gouraud records Handel's Israel in Egypt onto a phonograph cylinder, thought for many years to be the oldest known recording of music.

1889 – Hyde Park and several other Illinois townships vote to be annexed by Chicago, forming the largest United States city in area and second largest in population.

1914 – Jina Guseva attempts to assassinate Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin at his home town in Siberia. Accounts of his life are often based on dubious memoirs, hearsay, and legend.[note 1] While his influence and position may have been exaggerated — he had become synonymous with power, debauchery and lust — his presence played a significant role in the increasing unpopularity of the Imperial couple.

1928 – The Outerbridge Crossing and Goethals Bridge in Staten Island, New York are both opened.

1956 – The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 is signed, officially creating the United States Interstate Highway System. With an original authorization of US$25 billion for the construction of 41,000 miles (66,000 km) of the Interstate Highway System supposedly over a 10-year period, it was the largest public works project in American history through that time.

1972 – The United States Supreme Court rules in the case Furman v. Georgia that arbitrary and inconsistent imposition of the death penalty violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, and constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

1975 – Steve Wozniak tested his first prototype of Apple I computer.

1995 – Space Shuttle program: STS-71 Mission (Atlantis) docks with the Russian space station Mir for the first time. For the five days the shuttle was docked to Mir they were the largest spacecraft in orbit at the time. STS-71 marked the first docking of a space shuttle to a space station, the first time a shuttle crew switched members with the crew of a station, and the 100th manned space launch by the United States. The mission carried Spacelab and included a logistical resupply of Mir. Together the shuttle and station crews conducted various on-orbit joint US/Russian life science investigations with Spacelab along with the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment-II (SAREX-II) experiment.

2002 – Naval clashes between South Korea and North Korea lead to the death of six South Korean sailors and sinking of a North Korean vessel.

2007 – Apple Inc. releases its first mobile phone, the iPhone.

2014 – The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant self-declared its caliphate in Syria and northern Iraq.

BORN TODAY

1803 – John Newton Brown, American minister and author (d. 1868)

1858 – George Washington Goethals, American general and engineer, co-designed the Panama Canal (d. 1928)

1861 – William James Mayo, American physician and surgeon, co-founded the Mayo Clinic (d. 1939)

1912 – John Toland, American historian and author (d. 2004)

1925 – Francis S. Currey, American World War II Medal of Honor recipient

1944 – Seán Patrick O'Malley, American cardinal

From Wikipedia and Google (images), ex as noted.    

MOVIE DIALOG OF THE DAY ― INSIDE MAN (2006)

Connection with the previous post (THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL): Wilem DeFoe co-starred in both films. 

RATINGS: IMDB ― 8.1/10, Rotten Tomatoes ― 92%, ME ― 85%  



[Inside the "war room" van, Detective Keith Frazier finally accepts a call from Dalton Russell]

Dalton Russell: I got a question for ya. You get it right, I give you more time.

Keith Frazier: And?

Dalton Russell: You know what happens if you don't. Which weighs more: all the trains that pass through Grand Central Station in a year - or the trees cut down to print all U.S. currency in circulation? Here's a hint. It's a trick question.

[they both hang up]

Keith Frazier: What the hell was that? Playing games, now?

Captain John Darius: [realizing] It's the trains. U.S. money isn't printed on paper at all. It's cotton.

Mobile Command Officer Rourke: Yeah, that's, that's right.

Captain John Darius: No trees were cut down.

Mobile Command Officer Rourke: Are you sure?

Captain John Darius: Yeah. One hundred percent.

Keith Frazier: Okay.

[He dials Dalton's number again. The phone rings. Dalton picks it up]

Keith Frazier: I got it.

Det. Bill Mitchell: Wait a second, wait a second.

Keith Frazier: Call you back.[Both Frazier and Dalton hang up their phones]

Det. Bill Mitchell: It's a trap. They both weigh the same. Tell him they both weigh the same. 

They both weigh nothing.

Keith Frazier: They both weigh nothing or they both weigh the same?

Det. Bill Mitchell: Tell him they both weigh the same. Tell him they both weigh the same. Do it now.

Keith Frazier: They both weigh the same. Got it.

[Dalton picks up the phone]

Dalton Russell: Well?

Keith Frazier: They both weigh the same.

Dalton Russell: [with evil nonchalance] This time, send sandwiches.

Trivia (From IMDB):

The scene in the coffee shop was improvised. On the DVD commentary, Spike Lee states that when Denzel Washington ad-libbed the line, "I'll bet you can get a cab though," he nearly ruined the take by laughing so loud at Washington's line.

The scene, in which the boy shows the video game he is playing on his PSP to Dalton, was not in the original script. Director Spike Lee added it to "make a comment on gangster rap's infatuation with violence." The game is not real, but was created by an animation house. Lee asked them to come up with animation for "the most violent game ever".

The interrogation scenes were mostly ad-libbed.

According to Spike Lee, he and Willem Dafoe met in the men's room during the intermission of the play 'Julius Caesar', in which Denzel Washington appeared. As they were standing side by side in the men's room, Spike said: "We should work together" and Dafoe replied: "Yeah, Spike, we should" and that was it. Later on, Spike sent him the script.

Jodie Foster dubbed herself in the French version.

Marcia Jean Kurtz plays a bank-robbery hostage named Miriam in this movie. Over thirty years earlier, she had also played a bank-robbery hostage named Miriam in Dog Day Afternoon (1975).

According to an interview with Spike Lee, Ron Howard was going to direct the film. But Russell Crowe showed him Cinderella Man (2005), and Howard went off to do that instead.
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The pizza that the police give to the robbers has the name "Sal's", a reference to one of Spike Lee's earlier films, Do the Right Thing (1989).

Shot in 39 days.

Paul's (Lemon Andersen) line, calling one of the detectives that were interrogating him a "wassa-wassa", was improvised. So was Detective Frazier's (Denzel Washington's) response: "How do you say 'Rikers Island' in Spanish?"

The ground scenes for the bank were filmed inside a real bank, whereas the underground scenes of the bank were filmed in a bank movie set in Brooklyn, New York.

The barber, in the scene at the exclusive men's club where Jodie Foster confronts Christopher Plummer named Vincent (his nameplate is affixed to the mirror, and Plummer addresses him by name too), is in real-life, the barber at the Down Town Association on Pine Street.

Enver Hoxha really was the dictator of Albania from 1944 until his death in 1985.

The song used in the opening credits "chhaiyan chhaiyan", is a famous Bollywood song from the movie Dil se... (1998). It is composed by celebrated music director A.R. Rehman.

Spike Lee says that, at the time of making the movie, he was not aware that riddles had been a major part of the plot in another thriller set in New York City, Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995). He said if he had known that, he would have cut out the riddle scenes in his movie.

This marks the fourth collaboration of Spike Lee and Denzel Washington.

Marcia Jean Kurtz played a similar role as a hostage in Dog Day Afternoon (1975), and Lionel Pina, who delivered pizza to the beleaguered hostages here, also performed the same task in the earlier film.

Spike Lee decided to cast Amir Ali Said after watching him perform in a Chappelle's Show (2003) skit.

The line: "Detective First Grade Keith Frazier.....Yesss!!!" is a tribute to New York Knicks former long-time announcer Marv Albert. After a basket was made by 1970s New York Knicks star Walter Frazier, Albert would say: "Walt Frazier shoots....Yesss!!!"

Jodie Foster filmed her part in three weeks.

The soundtrack for Inside Man features the song "Chaiyya Chaiyya", composed by A.R. Rahman, which originally appeared in the Bollywood Hindi film Dil Se... (1998). The song is featured during the opening credits of the film. A remix of the song, titled "Chaiyya, Chaiyya Bollywood Joint" plays during the end credits, and features Panjabi MC's added rap lyrics about people of different backgrounds coming together in order to survive.
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Rachel Nichols, Kate Hudson, Rachael Leigh Cook, and Jennifer Jason Leigh were offered the role of Madeleine, but turned it down. Marcia Cross was originally cast as Madeleine, but turned it down, due to her commitment as Bree, in the television series Desperate Housewives (2004). Jennifer Love Hewitt was offered the role of Madeleine, but turned it down, due to her commitment with the television series Ghost Whisperer (2005). Jennifer Connelly also auditioned for the role of Madeleine, but turned it down.

The ringtone on P. Hammond's mobile at the start of the movie is Kanye West's "Gold Digger".

The Bomb forty-ounce, seen in the film, is a reference to another Spike Lee movie, Clockers (1995).
Second film in which actor Walrs Ahluwalia has played a character with the name Vikram. He previously portrayed the character Vikram Ray in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004).

The picture in Arthur Case's office is "Cards Player" by Paul Cézanne.

Cameo ― 
Shon Gables: Real-life news reporter for WCBS channel 2.

Sandra Endo: real-life news reporter for New York 1.

Spoilers ― 

The Cartier diamond ring is a real diamond ring, it was borrowed from Cartier for the movie for three days. The ring is valued at 1.5 million dollars.

At the beginning of the movie, the slogan on the thieves' stolen van offers a clue to the method of the heist: "We don't leave until the job is done!"

The shoot-out sequence between the police and the robbers was not in the original script. Spike Lee said he added it because he felt that "it was a good time to interject some action" in the movie. This scene was the last one, it was filmed on the last day so they could "shoot up" the bank movie set.

During the first scene, in which Frazier talks to Russell on the phone ("Is this the president of Albania?"), you can see the earpiece in his right ear, through which he is listening to the cops.

At the end of the movie, Frazier's girlfriend is reading "Gotham Diaries", a novel co-written by Spike Lee's wife, Tonya Lewis Lee.

During the interrogation scenes, and when the hostages are being placed on police buses to be taken to headquarters for questioning, the audience learns the real names of Dalton's robber accomplices. 'Steve' is Kenneth Damerjian, 'Stevie' is Valerie Keepsake, and 'Steve-O' is Darius Peltz.

In the shot of the bus leaving with the hostages, we can see Steve, Stevie, Chaim, and Steve-O sitting in a sequence, mixed with the rest of the hostages.

There are several instances of product placement in the film, such as an iPod seen playing propaganda messages, the Dell computer boxes covering the entrance to Dalton's 'cell', Madeline White's Apple Cinema Display and Hermès Birkin Bag, the Sony PSP owned by the little boy, the Chevrolet van used to transport the crew to the bank, and the Volkswagen SUV, which is used to pick up Russell. A North Face backpack was used to carry the diamonds out of the bank. Also, Poland Springs water, Pepsi, and Wrigley's Juicy Fruit are shown.

Denzel Washington's lapel pin of his jacket is on the wrong side at 2:02:02. Previous scene shows the lapel pin is on the left side, which is where the lapel pin is suppose to be.

TOP 100 SONGS OF 1967 ― NUMBER 41

50 years ago this year these songs were released. I took the top 100 from Rolling Stone for 1967 and put them in the order in which I think they should have listed, since this was the decade of the music I grew up on. Enough of the formalities, here we go. Enjoy. 

HOW CAN I BE SURE ― THE RASCALS  

Genre ― Blue-eyed Soul / Pop 

Video 
"How Can I Be Sure" is a popular song written by Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigati, and originally recorded by The Young Rascals on their 1967 album Groovin'. It became their fourth Top 10 hit in the United States, peaking at No. 4. This was the group's highest charted record with Eddie Brigati singing lead vocals. The song featured the sounds of a trumpet, bass, piano, drums, and strings, giving the feeling of cabaret music as well as a concertina, chosen to add the feel of a French café. The song's musical styles include blue-eyed soul and pop.

The lyrics of the chorus go:"How can I be sure? In a world that's constantly changing,How can I be sure?. . . I'll be sure with you."

The song came out of the experience with transcendental meditation that the Rascals were involved in.

That same year, French singer Nicoletta sold two million copies of the song,[citation needed] as "Je ne pense que t'aimer", the version which subsequently inspired Dusty Springfield's version.

That same year Quebec singer Michel Pagliaro (lead singer of the band Les Chanceliers) released a cover of this song in French ("A Paris la Nuit").

The Rascals single's B-side, "I'm So Happy Now" (also included on the Groovin' album), was written and sung by Rascals guitarist Gene Cornish. Featuring a unique guitar phase-out ending, it was the first Cornish-penned song to appear on a Rascals single.

Dusty Springfield version ―

"How Can I Be Sure" was covered by British singer Dusty Springfield and released as a non-LP single in September 1970. It was rumoured that this recording and single release may have been prompted by her well received performance of the song on the Des O'Connor Show in May 1970. Dusty was hopeful that this single would fare better than her then-recent American recordings which were met with relative indifference in the UK (aside from the US and UK Top 10 hit "Son of a Preacher Man").

Despite several promotional television and radio appearances and glowing reviews from the press, the single only spent one week in the UK Top 40 and only four weeks total on the chart. The song was issued specifically for the British market and would not be issued in America until the release of The Dusty Springfield Anthology in 1997.

From Wikipedia and Google

THE BIG BANG THEORY INSIDE JOKES ― "S10"

Alphabetized By Kimberly Potts

Tuesdays are thai takeout night. Photo: Michael Yarish/CBS 

They love comic books, costumes, video games, and sci-fi in all forms of media, but what are the other recurring themes, jokes, and life experiences that make up Sheldon, Leonard, Howard, Raj, Penny, Amy, Bernadette, Stuart, and their Big Bang Theory characters we’ve been following for nine seasons? Just as each of those characters can be largely defined by his or her eccentricities (we could write a book on Sheldon alone), some of those quirks also point to how much each of them has evolved throughout the seasons (even if some of them still have a significant way to go). Here’s our rundown. 

“Soft Kitty” 

The sweet lullaby Sheldon’s mom used to sing to him when he was sick. He makes Penny sing it to him for the first time in season one’s “The Pancake Batter Anomoly” — after he teaches it to her — and he goes on to sing it himself for a sick Penny (including a version in a round) and an ailing Professor Proton. Everyone, now: “Soft kitty, warm kitty / Little ball of fur / Happy kitty, sleepy kitty / Purr, purr, purr.”

THIS DAY IN HISTORY ― JUNE 28

June 28 is the 179th day of the year (180th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 186 days remaining until the end of the year.

NATIONAL PAUL BUNYAN DAY 

1519 ― Charles I of Spain, who by birth already held sway over much of Europe and Spanish America, is elected the successor of his late grandfather, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. 


1709 ― Peter the Great of Russia defeats Charles XII of Sweden at the Battle of Poltava, one of the battles of the Great Northern War.


1778 ― The Liberty Bell was returned home to Philaelphia after the British departure.

1857 ― James Donnelly (Irish-Canadian) becomes engaged in a drunken brawl with Patrick Farrell, who suffers a fatal blow to the head. Farrell dies two days later, which makes James Donnelly a wanted man and draws the Donnelly family into the notorious feud. His clam became known as the Black Donnellys.

  

1864 ― The Union Army's Atlanta Campaign: the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, GA, is fought during the American Civil War. General William T. Sherman lead the Union and Joseph E. Johnston, the Confederates.

1890 ― In South Africa, Cecil Rhodes' colonies attack Motlousi in Matabeleland. Rhodes and C.D. Rudd founder the DeBeers Consolidated Minds company (diamond mining).

1893 ― The NY Stock Exchange Panic of 1893 takes place.


1905 ― Russian sailors mutiny aboard battleship "Potemkin" and sail for Odessa.


1914 ― On this day in 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie are shot to death by a Bosnian Serb nationalist during an official visit to the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. The killings sparked a chain of events that led to the outbreak of World War I by early August. On June 28, 1919, five years to the day after Franz Ferdinand’s death, Germany and the Allied Powers signed the Treaty of Versailles, officially marking the end of World War I.


1919 ― At the Palace of Versailles outside Paris, Germany signs the Treaty of Versailles with the Allies, officially ending World War I. The English economist, John Maynard Keynes, who had attended the peace conference but then left in protest of the treaty, was one of the most outspoken critics of the punitive agreement.

1929 ― President Paul Von Hindenburg refuses to pay German debt of WW I.

1934 ― The Federal Savings and Loan Association is created.

1940 ― General Charles de Gaulle, having set up headquarters in England upon the establishment of a puppet government in his native France, is recognized as the leader of the Free French Forces, dedicated to the defeat of Germany and the liberation of all France.

1950 ― North Koreans troop reach Seoul, UN asks members to aid South Korea,Harry Truman orders Air Force & Navy into Korean conflict.

1953 ― Workers at a Chevrolet plant in Flint, Michigan, assemble the first Corvette, a two-seater sports car that would become an American icon. The first completed production car rolled off the assembly line two days later, one of just 300 Corvettes made that year.

1954 ― The world's first atomic power station opens (Obninsk, near Moscow, Russia).


1962 ― NASA civilian pilot Joseph Walker takes the North American X-15 to 4,104 mph and 123,688 feet.


1963 ― USAF Major Robert A. Rushworth in X-15 reaches 285,000 feet.

1967 ― A race ace riot in Buffalo, NY results in 200 arrests.


1969 ― Police raid Stonewall Gay Bar in Greenwich Village, NY, about 400 to 1,000 patrons riot against police, it lasts 3 days.


1970 ― Following the arrest of Bernadette Devlin, intense riots erupt in Derry and Belfast leading to a prolonged gun battle between Irish republicans and loyalists.


1972 ― President Richard Nixon announces that no more draftees will be sent to Vietnam unless they volunteer for such duty. 


1973 ― White House Counsel, John W.Dean, tells the Congressional Watergate Committee about Nixon's "enemies list".



1976 ― In South Africa, the National President of the Black People's Convention, Kenneth Hlaku Rachidi, declares that riots in Soweto have lead to a new era of political consciousness.

1980 ― The first female state police graduates (New Jersey).


1992 ― Two of the strongest earthquakes ever to hit California strike the desert area east of Los Angeles (Landers, CA) on this day in 1992. 


1993 ― Eagles founder, Don Henley, is booed in Milwaukee when he dedicates the song "It's Not Easy Being Green" to President Bill Clinton.


2001 ― Pope John Paul II beatifies 28 Ukrainian Greek Catholics, including 27 martyrs most of whom were killed by the Soviet secret police. Beatification takes place at the service in Lviv, western Ukraine during his first visit to this country. How far the papacy has fallen. First Benedict now that Leftist.

2003 ― The United States National Do Not Call Registry, formed to combat unwanted telemarketing calls and administered by the Federal Trade Commission, enrolls almost three-quarters of a million phone numbers on its first day.


BORN TODAY

1491 – Henry VIII of England (d. 1547)

1577 – Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish painter and diplomat (d. 1640)

1703 – John Wesley, English cleric and theologian (d. 1791)

1712 – Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Swiss philosopher and polymath (d. 1778)

1873 – Alexis Carrel, French surgeon and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1944)

1906 – Maria Goeppert-Mayer, Polish-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1972)

1947 – Mark Helprin, American novelist and journalist

From Wikipedia and Google (images), ex as noted.