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« A Short History of Modern American Conservatism | Main | Many Loves »

March 12, 2007

 Elsewhere

Michael Blowhard writes:

Dear Blowhards --

* Andy Warhol died 20 years ago last month. Taki takes what strikes me as a sensible look back at the Warhol days. (Link thanks to Tory Anarchist.) I wrote about Andy Warhol here.

* The Man Who Is Thursday comes up with a movie-list I was happy to spend quality time with: a list of films starring gorgeous actresses at the height of their beauty.

* Here's a well-done profile of an extraordinary autistic savant.

* Buddhism: philosophy or religion? Razib offers up some Razibian thoughts.

* Randall Parker comments on a new study reporting that Americans are less satisfied with their jobs than they once were.

*Steve Sailer has been taking a look at Barack Obama and his book. Excellent line: "Perhaps 'Dreams from My Father' should be read as an autobiographical novel rather than as an autobiography?"

* Childhood, North Korea-style.

* Which work fields would those with normal-range intelligences do well to explore? Diana and the GNXP crowd toss around a lot of ideas. My favorite suggestion: chandelier-restorer.

* It ain't easy living up to a next-door neighbor like Endicott:



Love those Cocoanuts! Is Kid Creole the present-day Cab Calloway?

Best,

Michael

posted by Michael at March 12, 2007




Comments

How could any list of Hollywood sirens leave out Ava Gardner? She left a trail of shivering leading men behind her. Even married a few of them.

Posted by: Charlton Griffin on March 12, 2007 2:54 PM

Yeah, I focused on the "films starring gorgeous actresses at the height of their beauty" (whether or not they were very good films) in the above "Elsewhere" list as well. Go figure.

Another shocking omission! Heddy Lamarr!

My GOD was she beautiful!

She was also possibly the smartest actress ever to appear in any major way on screen. She made signicant contributions to the US torpedo guidance program in WWII and her math contributions were apparently a significant factor in the development of spread spectrum (frequency slicing and dicing) CDMA (today's US and fast becoming world leading) cell phone technology. She was a genuine genius.

And god how beautiful, and sexy and seductive. Beyond dangerous.

She never got to appear in a truly great motion picture. Her biggest box office part was a Delilah in Cecile B Demille's spectacle, Samson and Delilah.

I first saw her a few years ago on cable in "The Strange Woman", where she played a golden hearted femme fatale in Strange Woman (it's Netflixable). She's in quite a lot of late 30's and 40s movies, but not the best ones. They're more and more coming out on DVD.

She'd without question be in my hottest top ten movie actresses of all time, and might be right near the top, along with Sophia Loren and Monica Belluci and ... no wait. Monica is every bit as gorgeous (with probably bigger breasts and longer legs to boot) and adorable, but she's not nearly as HOT, HOT, HOT, gut wrenchingly HOT, as Heddy Lamarr!! (Is it the brains? I dunno, it's SOMETHING!!)

Posted by: dougjnn on March 12, 2007 4:58 PM

Thanks for the Taki link on Warhol. I'd sorta lost track of Taki after he left the NY Press web site and did the American Conservative thingy.

Better yet was your link to your own take on Warhol. I was in Europe at the time and missed it. I basically agree with your take, including the commercial art bit. Even though there was a little something there there, he always struck me as more of a PR self-creation such as Duchanp and Picasso.

Posted by: Donald Pittenger on March 12, 2007 5:15 PM


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