5 On A Friday : Vive la révolution

May 2, 2008 by · Leave a Comment
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It’s ony a few more days until Cinco De Mayo, the holiday that marks the anniversary of the revolution by the underpaid agave pickers who were constantly being forced to work long hours in the desert for little pay to help support the worldwide demand for tequila.
Just kidding, it’s not really a revolution but Cinco De Mayo does actually commemorate a victory, that of the Mexican forces over the French in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.

1: The Beatles – Revolution 1
Buy The White Album
2: The Clash – Revolution Rock
Buy London Calling
3: Judas Priest – Revolution
Buy The Essential
4: Neil Young – Revolution Blues
Buy On The Beach
5: Tracy Chapman – Talkin’ Bout A Revolution
Buy Tracy Chapman

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5 On A Friday : Talking In Your Sleep

February 8, 2008 by · Leave a Comment
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Have you ever been sound asleep and the phone rings and wakes you up at some absurd time from a totally peaceful slumber?

Do you have friends who should know better but call at the wrong time and wake you up anyway?

Today’s five goes out to you.

1: The Beatles – I’m So Tired
Buy The White Album
2: The Pretenders – I Go To Sleep
Buy Pretenders II
3: Sleep – Nada Surf
Buy High/Low
4: Semisonic – Singing In My Sleep
Buy Feeling Strangely Fine
5: The Squaaks – Asleep In The Sun
Buy Rock Control

20 Facts About Sleep via List Universe

1. The record for the longest period without sleep is 18 days, 21 hours, 40 minutes during a rocking chair marathon. The record holder reported hallucinations, paranoia, blurred vision, slurred speech and memory and concentration lapses.

2. It’s impossible to tell if someone is really awake without close medical supervision. People can take cat naps with their eyes open without even being aware of it.

3. Anything less than five minutes to fall asleep at night means you’re sleep deprived. The ideal is between 10 and 15 minutes, meaning you’re still tired enough to sleep deeply, but not so exhausted you feel sleepy by day.

4. Dreams, once thought to occur only during REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, also occur (but to a lesser extent) in non-REM sleep phases. It’s possible there may not be a single moment of our sleep when we are actually dreamless.

5. REM dreams are characterised by bizarre plots, but non-REM dreams are repetitive and thought-like, with little imagery – obsessively returning to a suspicion you left your mobile phone somewhere, for example.

6. Certain types of eye movements during REM sleep correspond to specific movements in dreams, suggesting at least part of the dreaming process is analagous to watching a film

7. Elephants sleep standing up during non-REM sleep, but lie down for REM sleep.

8. Some scientists believe we dream to fix experiences in long-term memory, that is, we dream about things worth remembering. Others think we dream about things worth forgetting – to eliminate overlapping memories that would otherwise clog up our brains.

9. Dreams may not serve any purpose at all but be merely a meaningless byproduct of two evolutionary adaptations – sleep and consciousness.

10. Scientists have not been able to explain a 1998 study showing a bright light shone on the backs of human knees can reset the brain’s sleep-wake clock.

11. British Ministry of Defence researchers have been able to reset soldiers’ body clocks so they can go without sleep for up to 36 hrs. Tiny optical fibres embedded in special spectacles project a ring of bright white light (with a spectrum identical to a sunrise) around the edge of soldiers’ retinas, fooling them into thinking they have just woken up. The system was first used on US pilots during the bombing of Kosovo.

12. The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska, the Challenger space shuttle disaster and the Chernobyl nuclear accident have all been attributed to human errors in which sleep-deprivation played a role.

13. The “natural alarm clock” which enables some people to wake up more or less when they want to is caused by a burst of the stress hormone adrenocorticotropin. Researchers say this reflects an unconscious anticipation of the stress of waking up.

14. Tiny luminous rays from a digital alarm clock can be enough to disrupt the sleep cycle even if you do not fully wake. The light turns off a “neural switch” in the brain, causing levels of a key sleep chemical to decline within minutes.

15. Humans sleep on average around three hours less than other primates like chimps, rhesus monkeys, squirrel monkeys and baboons, all of whom sleep for 10 hours.

16. Ducks at risk of attack by predators are able to balance the need for sleep and survival, keeping one half of the brain awake while the other slips into sleep mode.

17. Diaries from the pre-electric-light-globe Victorian era show adults slept nine to 10 hours a night with periods of rest changing with the seasons in line with sunrise and sunsets.

18. Most of what we know about sleep we’ve learned in the past 25 years.

19. The extra-hour of sleep received when clocks are put back at the start of daylight in Canada has been found to coincide with a fall in the number of road accidents.

20. Experts say one of the most alluring sleep distractions is the 24-hour accessibility of the internet.

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Hang on, HELP! is on the way

September 6, 2007 by · Leave a Comment
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APPLE CORPS LTD PROUDLY ANNOUNCE THE DVD RELEASE OF THE BEATLES FILM ‘HELP!’, OCTOBER 30TH

Apple Corps Ltd have announced the eagerly anticipated DVD release of The Beatles’ second feature film ‘Help!’ on October 30th (October 29th ROW) which will be marketed and distributed by EMI Music.

Directed by Richard Lester, who also directed the band’s debut feature film ‘A Hard Days Night’, ‘Help!’ made its theatrical debut in 1965. The story follows The Beatles as they become passive recipients of an outside plot that revolves around Ringo’s possession of a sacrificial ring, which he cannot remove from his finger. As a result, he and his bandmates John, Paul and George are chased from London to the Austrian Alps and the Bahamas by religious cult members, a mad scientist and the London police.In addition to starring the Beatles, ‘Help!’ has a witty script, a great cast of British character actors and features 7 classic Beatles tracks, including:

• ‘Help!’
• ‘You’re Going To Lose That Girl’
• ‘You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away’
• ‘Ticket To Ride’
• ‘I Need You’
• ‘The Night Before’
• ‘Another Girl’

The DVD will be a 2-disc set. Disc 1 will feature the original film digitally restored with a newly created 5.1 soundtrack, while Disc 2 contains an hour of extra features, including:

•The Beatles in Help! – 30 minute documentary about the making of the film with Richard Lester, the cast and crew. Includes exclusive behind the scenes footage of The Beatles on set.
•A Missing Scene – Featuring Wendy Richard
•The Restoration of Help! – An in depth look at the restoration process.
•Memories of Help! – The cast and crew reminisce
•Theatrical Trailers – 2 US trailers and 1 Spanish trailer.
•1965 US Radio Spots – Hidden in disc menus.
There will be 2 editions of the DVD – a standard digipack and a deluxe boxed set that will contain a reproduction of Richard Lester’s original annotated script, 8 lobby cards and a poster, plus a 60-page book with rarely seen photographs and production notes from the movie. Both the deluxe book and the standard booklet feature an introduction by Richard Lester and an appreciation by Martin Scorsese.

Watch the ‘Help!’ DVD trailer here: HELP ! video trailer

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