Stanley Kubrick was uncertain what music he would use in *2001: A Space Odyssey *until very late in post-production. One composer was hired by the studio to write a score, but Kubrick didn’t like what he heard and didn’t use a note of it. He briefly considered asking the Beatles to write a soundtrack, but eventually decided to go with classical music he already knew and liked.
Arthur C. Clarke’s novel 2001: A Space Odyssey was written in tandem with the film and published after the film’s release.
There are several differences between the film and novel versions of 2001: A Space Odyssey. One difference is in the mission’s destination planet: the novel has the Discovery bound for Saturn, while the film has the mission going to Jupiter.
The reason for the change for the film was that director Stanley Kubrick and special effects supervisor Douglas Trumbull could not decide on a convincing way to depict Saturn’s rings through special effects.
During Roman Empire times, The Temple of Saturn, located in the Roman Forum, housed the state treasury. In December, he was celebrated at what is perhaps the most famous of the Roman festivals, the Saturnalia, a time of feasting, role reversals, free speech, gift-giving and revelry.
The Saturn V rocket was launched 13 times from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida from 1967 (Apollo 4) to 1973 (Skylab). 12 launches were successes, and 1 launch, for Apollo 6 in Apr 1968, was a partial success. In the launch of Apollo 6, the final unmanned Apollo test mission, the Saturn V experienced pogo oscillations that damaged some of the second and third stages by rupturing internal fuel lines, causing two second-stage engines to shut down early. Despite the engine failures, the flight provided NASA with enough confidence to use the Saturn V for manned launches, and Apollo 7 was successfully launched in Oct 1968 with its crew of Walter Schirra, Donn Eisele, and Walter Cunningham aboard.
In his time-travel thriller 11/22/63, author Stephen King describes an alternate reality in which John F. Kennedy survives Lee Harvey Oswald’s assassination attempt in Dallas unscathed, but is succeeded in the election of 1968 by conservative segregationist Alabama Gov. George Wallace. President Wallace dramatically escalates the Vietnam War, including repeatedly using nuclear weapons against North Vietnam.
Scary.
The largest city on the Gulf Coast between New Orleans LA and St. Petersburg FL is Mobile AL. In 1973, on I-10 in Mobile, the 3,000’ long Governor George Corley Wallace Tunnel opened for traffic. Wallace was Governor from 1963 to 1967.
And from 1971 to 1979.
And from 1983 to 1987.
And he also was the First Gentleman of Alabama from 1967 to 1968 when his wife, Lurleen Wallace, was Governor.
Wallace served 16 years and four days as Governor of Alabama, the third longest gubernatorial tenure in post-Constitutional U.S. history. Describing his impact on national politics despite his lack of success in presidential races, two biographers termed Wallace “the most influential loser” of 20th century American politics.
Despite the anti-Wallace line in Lynyrd Skynyrd’s song “Sweet Home Alabama”
In Birmingham they love the governor (Boo! Boo! Boo!)
Now we all did what we could do
Wallace reportedly loved the song and made band members honorary lieutenant colonels in the state militia.
George Wallace ran for President in 1968 as a third-party candidate, for the American Independent Party. He received 13.5% of the popular vote and won the 45 electoral votes of 5 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi. He also received an electoral vote from a ‘faithless elector’ in North Carolina, giving him a total of 46 electoral votes.
Richard Nixon won the election with 301 votes; Hubert Humphrey had 191.
Ruadh is a Gaelic name meaning “red”, often a nickname for one with red hair. This was the nickname of the Scottish outlaw Raibeart Ruadh MacGregor (1671-1734), known as Rob Roy in English. A modern song that uses this name is “Carolina Rua” (or Ruadh) by Thom Moore, often performed by Mary Black and covered by the group Celtic Woman; the lyrics refer to Carolina as a redhead.
A Rob Roy is a cocktail made with Scotch whisky, vermouth, and Angostura bitters. It’s similar to a Manhattan; the difference being that a Manhattan is made with other types of whiskey (originally rye, now also potentially made with Canadian whisky, Tennessee whiskey, bourbon, or a blended whiskey).
The Rob Roy cocktail was named in honor of the 1894 operetta of the same name.
Paul McCartney produced the song “I’m the Urban Spaceman” for the Bonzo Dog Band, using the name “Apollo C. Vermouth.”
John Travolta (born 1954) and Debra Winger (1955) starred in Urban Cowboy (1980), which was Travolta’s third major motion picture after Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Grease (1978). Urban Cowboy was set in Pasadena TX, which has so many oil refineries that locals call the place “Stinky-dena”. Much of the movie was filmed there.
The movie Urban Cowboy was later adapted into a Broadway stage production of the same name in 2003, where it played for sixty performances at the Broadhurst Theatre, opening on February 28, and closing on May 18 to generally poor reviews.
Urban Cowboy came out in 1980. Electric Horseman, with Robert Redford, came out in 1979. According to boxofficemojo.com, Urban Cowboy grossed over $46M domestically, and Electric Horseman grossed over $61M domestically.
Pope Urban II was one of the most influential Catholic Popes ever. He is especially famous for instigating the First Crusade which restored Anatolia to the Byzantine Empire and put a Catholic King on the throne in Jerusalem.
The most frequently used papal names have been John (21 times), Gregory (16 times), Benedict (15 times), and Clement (14 times).
The name Urban is tied for 9th place, having been used by eight popes – the last was Pope Urban VIII, who died in 1644.
When a papal name is taken for the first time, the papal name is simply the name, with no numerical addition. For example, the current pope is the first to take the papal name Francis, so he is simply “Pope Francis,” not “Pope Francis I.” If a future pope were to also take the name Francis (and thus become Pope Francis II), the current pope would thenceforth be posthumously referred to as Pope Francis I.
The first safety (a 2-point score) in Super Bowl history happened in Super Bowl IX. It was the first score in the game, and at halftime the score was 2-0, Pittsburgh Steelers over the Minnesota Vikings. The Steelers won the game, 16-6, for Pittsburgh’s first championship.
Pope Gregory VII is especially famous for the “Humiliation of Canossa” in January 1077 when Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor and the most powerful man in Europe, was forced to humiliate himself on his knees waiting for three days and three nights before the entrance gate of the castle where Pope Gregory VII waited, while a blizzard raged.
When Henry reached Matilda’s castle, the Pope ordered that he be refused entry. Waiting at the gates, Henry took on the behavior of penance. He wore a hair-shirt, the traditional clothing of monks at the time, and allegedly walked barefoot. Many of his entourage including the queen Bertha of Savoy [whom Henry had married at age 16] and the prince Conrad also supposedly removed their shoes. According to Lambert of Hersfeld and first-hand accounts of the scene (letters written by both Gregory and Henry in the following years), the king waited by the gate for three full days. Throughout this time, he allegedly wore only his penitent hair-shirt and fasted.
Finally, on 28 January, the castle gates were opened for Henry and he was allowed to enter. Contemporary accounts report that he knelt before Pope Gregory and begged his forgiveness. Gregory absolved Henry and invited him back into the Church. That evening, Gregory, Henry, and Matilda of Tuscany shared communion in the chapel of Sant’Apollonio inside the castle, signaling the official end of Henry’s excommunication.
“The Steelers won the game, [SIZE=“4”]16-6”[/SIZE]
Henry IV was excommunicated (and subsequently reinstated) by Pope Gregory VII 3 times: in 1076, 1080, and 1084. Not to be outdone, Pope Urban II excommunicated Henry in 1088. Henry IV was excommunicated for the fifth time shortly before his death in 1106, this time by Pope Paschal II. The final excommunication was posthumously lifted in 1111.