The Carrington Event.

I hope you are getting satisfaction from the Internet and find it useful; I do and I freely admit it. I do my banking, pay bills, buy from Amazon and, in fact, buy from anywhere using Paypal: I even bought a pair of shoes on line and had to pick them up from the store. 

Much better than buying things personally as I just hate shopping.

A friend of mine, Ron, would go on line but didn't trust it; he would amuse himself by looking at the Red Sox statistics, fixtures and historical results; would search on line for nothing in particular but he would never use it for anything like banking, buying something or anything which would involve buying anything or using his credit card.

I remember buying things for him on my computer – but his credit card – as if it were somehow safer.

His point was that he wouldn't put things on to the computer in case the whole system broke down and everything would be lost. It never did in his life time. 

But it did once upon a time.

It happened in 1859; in those days (doze daze) electricity was hardly used as it hadn't been harnessed so it wasn't noticed by a lot of people. It was noticed, however, by a man called Carrington and how do I remember this? Because there was a teacher in our school called Mr Carrington. In those days (doze daze) teachers' first names were Top Secret! We would look at the initial and try to guess it; there was another teacher called S.G. White – what could that have been?

Back to Carrington the solar storm spotter of 1859: the storm he noticed came during solar cycle 10 and if it happened today it would cut all Internet activity, electrical usage – you name it – and prove Ron right.

The most recent solar storm of similar magnitude was in 2012 – but this didn't strike the earth.

By the way the Carrington I am referring to was Richard C. Carrington (I just looked it up on Wikipidia) and the storm was also noticed by someone called Richard Hodgson independently.

Here's what it says on Wikipedia:

From August 28 to September 2, 1859, numerous sunspots were observed on the Sun. On August 29, southern aurorae were observed as far north as Queensland, Australia. Just before noon on September 1, the English amateur astronomers Richard Carrington and Richard Hodgson independently made the first observations of a solar flare. The flare was associated with a major coronal mass ejection (CME) that travelled directly toward Earth, taking 17.6 hours to make the 150 million kilometre (93 million mile) journey. It is believed that the relatively high speed of this CME (typical CMEs take several days to arrive at Earth) was made possible by a prior CME, perhaps the cause of the large aurora event on August 29, that "cleared the way" of ambient solar wind plasma for the Carrington event.

Here is a link if you want to read the lot:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859 

and be careful where you leave your stuff; don't trust that cloud!

To be or not to be . . .

. . . that is the question. And why shouldn't it be? This weekend marks the 400^th anniversary of both Shakespeare's birth and death. 

It is presumed he was born on the 24^th as he was baptised on the 26^th.
He died on the 23^rd.

There are lots of myths about him; the silliest being that he didn't write any of the plays. It is silly because the people who think this, say that he didn't go to a University so how could he know so much– well neither did Alan Ayckbourn, Ben Johnson and loads of others.

However he did go to Stratford Grammar School from 6am to 6pm for 6 days a week for years.

Oh, they say, he didn't write anything after he retired; no autobiography or anything like that – well who did in the 17^th Century? 

Some did, I know, but there were no book shops in those days and no television or talk shows so you could sell your book!

To be or not to be is arguably the greatest speech ever written and a lot of people will say that Hamlet, which it comes from, is the greatest play ever written.

The speech, itself, has been crucified, vilified and even been ignored, in some productions, I believe. 

For some reason some actors want to do the speech differently from other actors as if that's the point.

A well known critic wrote recently that he likes to learn something new about Shakespeare's plays when he sees a new production – well how can we know what he doesn't know?

Later in Hamlet, Shakespeare himself, through one of the characters, says Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of our players do, I had as lief the town crier spoke my lines. In other words be it but don't overdo it.

And that about sums it up; it's a famous speech (To be) about a man who is considering suicide – To be or not to be . . so why do it any differently? Just feel it.

In London this week there is a celebration of Shakespeare's and the picture at the top of the page speaks for itself.

The other night I watched the movie My Darling Clementine; it's one of my favourite films and it was directed by John Ford.

Of course it's a western and in it a a strolling player – an actor – arrives in Dodge City to perform recitations and poetry. 
The Clanton gang capture him and put him on to a table in their saloon where he recites; the gang shoot glasses away from his feet and nearly make him dance.

Alan Mowbray plays Granville Thorndyke a true thespian (on the right above) and when he starts to be or not to be he forgets some of it and he looks in to the crowd where Victor Mature, playing Doc Holliday, stands as he has just entered the saloon to quieten things down.

Thorndyke looks at him and plaintively says 'Sir! please help me' and Mature finishes off the speech with such sensitivity it brings a lump to your throat. He was an actor who tried to join a golf club in Los Angeles, once, and was told that they didn't take actors as members; he replied, 'I'm not an actor – and I've got 64 films to prove it!'

Takes a great actor to say that – he was superb in all his films and his performance in After the Fox with Peter Sellers is a beaut; he sends himself up wonderfully, as a Hollywood star who is after a role in a movie that the character Peter Sellers plays is about to direct.

There are a few excerpts from bits of Shakespeare performances in movies and I think my favourite is also someone quoting from Hamlet.

In Withnail and I Richard E Grant, just after this shot (above), goes through What a piece of work is a man? from Hamlet and it is the best rendition of the speech I have ever heard – he has lost his friend and it is so moving as he recites it in the rain. The Purple Rain – let's sit and wonder if Prince's work lasts even half the amount of time that Shakespeare's did; RIP, in any case.

sOUNDz

Hi folks: I'm a little busy this week working on my play so don't have time to fill your day with any of my witticisms or wise cracks.
So have a look at my movie - it lasts 20 minutes and even though it's for sale on Amazon.com it isn't available on Amazon.co.uk. I am told it is something to so with licensing.
Let me know if you like it and turn up the volume.

YES I HAVE JUST AMENDED MY SPELLING MISTAKE - NAUGHTY ME!

And as you can see you have to click on to the 'play on vimeo' bit.

This edit is placed here on June 8^th 2024, a few years after I wrote the original piace.

No idea why it's blocked but as you've come so far, go to YouTube where you can view the little movie here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dKxBVhpTpw&t=42s&ab_channel=JustMaximumPublicity

sOUNDz from CHRIS SULLIVAN on Vimeo.
 

138,000, still counting and the MV Agusta.

A small post today - I've been writing this since 2009, or so, and today I noticed that there are 138,000 hits; that's nothing when you look at sites like YouTube who have that many per minute uploads of material or popular bloggers getting in to the millions; usually teenagers telling their readers about their life, you know, 'got up this morning and I look awful.'
I'm not surprised maybe you should get out more.
Anyway we are still at it, or at least, I am, and the photo above was taken when I was a teenager: I'm the one at the very back in the middle, when my hair was black; I still remember those fine gentlemen.
Dave on the left, then Bill; Freddie in the front of me and then Johnny on the right.
Freddie and Johnny both died: Freddie about seven years ago and Johnny about twenty years ago.
I hope they are resting peacefully and visiting their loved ones in their loved one's dreams because that is where heaven is.
Dave, I still see when I get to Birmingham and I don't know where Bill is.
This is a picture of something we all worshiped in those days;

The MV Agusta: I took that photograph outside a place called Paradise Cove which is on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu California. A restaurant on the beach where they used to shoot some of the episodes of my favourite TV series The Rockford Files.

OJ and me, cocaine and Postie

Orenthal James "O. J." Simpson

On the flight to Los Angeles in 1994, I sat next to a girl; we had a ten hour chat and her name was Lori; she told me lots of information about what to expect in LA and the words I should never say as I wouldn't be understood: they included queue, brolly, fortnight, spanner and many more.

In fact one person I asked what a fortnight was said it was something from Shakespeare!!

Lori also told me about OJ Simpson; this was around a month after the killing of Nicole Simpson and at the time OJ was on remand having been involved in the slowest car chase in television history.

Living there for seventeen years I got to seeing loads and loads of them; car chases I mean, and not necessarily on TV. 

First of all you see in the sky helicopters hovering, like flies around the inevitable, then when you got close you see a file or two of cop cars and people on the streets waving at the car being chased when they slowed to come off the freeways.

One chase passed our apartment and, as we were watching it on TV, we nipped out onto the balcony, watched the chase pass by and nipped back inside.

They could easily have trapped them there and then as they came up from Franklin Avenue and turned left onto our street, Hillside Avenue.

Another time I was on Sunset Blvd when a chase came passed and I could see the driver closely that time and he was behaving as if he was out on a Sunday afternoon spin in his car.

So when Lori told me how famous OJ was and what a chase was I had no idea.

My wife came over with me in January 1995 and left me there in the hotel with no job, no real money and nowhere to live.

On the first night I went into a bar next to the hotel and had a few drinks. Friendly people in LA especially when they hear the accent. I got to talking to some kind of postmaster and an actor, who he'd introduced me to, told me my first stop was to go to Samuel French Film and Theatre Bookshop on Sunset Blvd which I did the next day.

When the actor left us, the post office guy said he was expecting someone and whilst he got the drinks in a went to the loo.

I was washing my hands when he bustled in with a young fella with a very red face; red faces are usually tourists but this was no tourist; he handed postie a packet and postie gave him some money; they shook hands and the red faced fella left.

'Do you want some cocaine?' said postie. 

'No' I said!

'Well do you have something I can shove some up my nose with?'

I searched my pockets; nothing.

'I got my Harrow Library card' I said.

'Your what . . . hey give it me, real quick.'

I did.

He took my card, put some cocaine on to it and shoved it up his nose; then he put a bit more on and shoved that up the other nostril.

Wow! Here I am in LA, I thought, and I'm offered a trip on the great white way on the first night.

We went back to the bar and I could see that the red faced fella was talking to someone else and as we passed the bar tender, who was collecting glasses, he noticed the white powder on Postie's nose!

He just flicked it off as he went passed and he gave me a look too or, should I say, he looked at my nose.

We got back to the bar and after a few minutes I went back to the loo, took my Harrow Library card and tore it to bits, flushing it down the loo before going back to the bar.

Three weeks or so later I found somewhere to live in a place called Silverlake in Maltman Avenue just off Sunset Blvd; a soap opera queen called Marilyn owned the house and there was an older actor there who kind of took a shine to me. He had retired from something and came to Hollywood to get in to a TV series; his girl friends had told him he was good looking and he should come; so he came; eejit.

He would drop me into various places – as long as I wasn't going after a job, I found out later – and I remember him saying one day that he had to get back as F. Lee Bailey was due to speak in court.

The opening statements in the trial started on my brother's birthday, January 24^th, and the trial ended on my mother's birthday on October 5^th.

By the time the trial finished we really got to know everybody concerned and within hours of the verdict people were selling The Juice is Loose tee shirts outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre. 

In fact Graumans changed to Mann's and back to Grauman's again during this period but you can look it up on Wikipedia – with enormous respect, of course.

At the moment there is a drama series on television in America and in Britain about the OJ case. 

It brings it all back to me; the glove that didn't fit; the blood on the Bronco; Marcia Clark; Bob Shapiro – all household names by the time the trial was over.
'If the glove don't fit, you have to acquit!' 

The white people thought he was guilty and the black people thought he wasn't.

Lori on the plane had told me how famous OJ was but I didn't figure; we arrived in LA about five in the evening and she told me she would like to take me up to Carmel later in the week and gave me her number. 

An air hostess had also given me her number: she said her neighbour was James Woods' manager and if I gave her a call and she would get me his number – I did call her but could never get hold of the manager and as to Lori? 
No I didn't go – I was tempted to go down the greasy path to debauchery and sin twice but decided to leave all that alone with no regrets. 

As I got off the plane that day - even whilst we were still in flight - I knew I was landing in the land of opportunity - I had a girl friend if I wanted one, a manager if I could find him and later a drug buddy if I wished to live that kind of life.
I saw Johnny Cochran a few times as he went to the same movies as me a few times.

Here are some photos of the people who were so familiar to me that long hot summer (from January to October, would you believe was sunny) all those years ago, and the people who portray them in the series -  The People v O.J. Simpson: