Michael Hopcroft

For those who were curious
 

For those who wish to be more cautious
 

Electro-pop pioneers the Pet Shop Boys, performing a song from Berthold Brecht and Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera. 
 

Can you tell me how to get to.... Westeros?
 

Can you tell me how to get to.... Westeros?
 

Can you tell me how to get to.... Westeros?
 

Team Clorox. But they almost backed out when they refused to change it to Formula 409.
 
NT: Subtle signs your weekend of binge-watching Game of Thrones is not going as planned.

Q: TAKE US TO THE ZOO, DADDY! TAKE US TO THE ZOO, DADDY! TAKE US TO THE ZOO, DADDY! TAKE US TO THE....
 
A: I will look for you when the war is over, an hour and a half from now.

Get married. Take that, Alanis!

Get married. Take that, Alanis!

Kimbra singing "Good Intent" in Simlish. (The Sims gibberish language.)
 

Before there were rock stars, there was Franz Liszt. In the mid 19th-century, Liszt was the most popular and sought-after musician of this day. A pianist with great artistry and great charisma, his European tours were greeted with a fan frenzy reminiscent of the American tours of the Beatles. Women thought he was the sexiest man alive (a feeling of which he took full advantage) and everyone was in awe of his playing. He was almost the polar opposite of his friend and rival Frederic Chopin: Chopin was a moody introvert who preferred intimate venues such as noble and bourgeois salons, while for Liszt the bigger the stage the better. And he was always seeking to expand the repertoire of his instrument, even beyond his work as a composer.
 
So at one point he decided he would add the symphonies of Ludwig van Beethoven to his repertoire by arranging all nine for the piano. It was a quixotic gesture, but then Liszt was a quixotic man. The results have since occasionally been recorded as complete sets, and I got my hands on one of them recently through Rhapsody.
 
Give Liszt credit for understanding his instrument. The piano doesn't quite convey all the subtle layers and shadings of sound Beethoven used so fluently, but the transcription is spectacular and demanding from a player. It sounds similar to the original works, and yet in other ways completely unlike them.
 
Eventually Liszt himself would turn to the orchestra and conducting, popularizing the "tone poem" (a form that would perhaps reach its ultimate expression fifty years later with Richard Strauss) and composing at a furious pace. Eventually, finally exhausted with performance and womanizing, he repented his "wicked ways", stopped touring, and took up the Catholic priesthood.

Q: Anybody seen where Orpheus went?
 
A: I'm afraid the only person on Earth who has a hope of understanding anything you just said lives in an island fortress off the coast of Long Island with his robot legions and death rays.

Q: Wow! What a party, but I'm still goin' strong! So what we gonna do tonight, Twilight Sparkle?
 
A: Your virtuosity is impressive, even more so because you're using hooves to play the cello.

Q: Anybody seen where Orpheus went?
 
A: I'm afraid the only person on Earth who has a hope of understanding anything you just said lives in an island fortress off the coast of Long Island with his robot legions and death rays.

Anvils, and the coyotes that attempt to use them as weapons. Not necessarily in that order.

The same reason terrorists destroy anything -- symbolism. The WTC was a symbol of American capitalism and economic power, which al-Qaeda believed to be the primary motivation for the policies they considered wrong (such as supporting a Saudi regime they despised, or sending American troops to a country they believed should be off-limits to all non-Muslims so the Americans could stage Desert Storm).
 
They also chose the Pentagon as a political target for similar reasons -- it symbolizes American military power.
 
We will probably never know what they intended United Airlines Flight 93 (the one forced down by its own passengers and crew) to strike -- at the time the White House or Capitol were suspected, and I'm sure Osama Bin Laden would have relished the death or serious injury of President Bush. But there were several other targets available.
 
Although the American reaction was furious, with consequences we all know, it did enable al-Qaeda to use the belief that America was the enemy of all Islam to aid them in recruiting.

Why We Love Jackie Chan (and why his Hong Kong work is so much better than his Western work)
 

Every so often UNIT has to go in and try to deal with that nasty Cybermen infestation.

Mentally scan every large room he enters looking for a chandelier -- just in case....
 
NT: Subtle signs people might not like the Super Bowl ad you just finished,

Every so often UNIT has to go in and try to deal with that nasty Cybermen infestation.

Mentally scan every large room he enters looking for a chandelier -- just in case....
 
NT: Subtle signs people might not like the Super Bowl ad you just finished,

The President rubbed his eyes tiredly.  "These aliens make no sense at all!  Even though they speak perfect English, communicating with them is like chewing tinfoil attached to a car battery!  Who can we possibly make the new Earth ambassador to their planet?  I mean, the Queegla are completely delusional, and their logic is as twisted and loopy as..."
 
"...Foxbat's Master Plan?" the Secretary of State asked.
 
"Yeah.  They're as loony as Foxbat."  The President's eyes met those of his Secretary of State, and both of them began to smile.  "Bill, I think we found our new ambassador to Queegla."

Q: We need someone to distract Doc Destroyer while we sneak into his base and destroy his latest Doomsday Weapon! Now who does he find so annoying that he'll be p[reoccupied with him for all the time we need?