In 1929, Ball got work as a model. She later began her performing career on Broadway using the stage name Diane Belmont. She was in many small movie roles in the 1930s. She worked for RKO Radio Pictures at the time. Ball was named the "Queen of the Bs".
In 1951, Ball was important in the creation of the television series "I Love Lucy". The show ended in 1957 after 180 episodes. Then, some small changes were made to the series format. The time-length of the series was changed from 30 minutes to 60 minutes. The first program lasted 75 mins. Some new characters were added. The story was changed. After these changes, the program was renamed "The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour". It was shown from 1957 until 1960.
Ball went on to star in two more successful television series. The first was "The Lucy Show". It was shown on CBS from 1962 to 1968 (156 episodes). The other was "Here's Lucy". It was shown from 1968 to 1974 (144 episodes). Her last television series was in 1986. It was called "Life with Lucy". This program did not do very well. Only 8 of the 13 episodes that were made were shown on television.
Ball met and married Cuban band leader Desi Arnaz in 1940. On July 17, 1951, she gave birth to their first child, Lucie Désirée Arnaz. A year and a half later, Ball gave birth to their second child, Desiderio Alberto Arnaz IV, known as Desi Arnaz, Jr. Ball and Arnaz divorced on 4 May 1960.
On April 18, 1989, Ball said she had chest pains at her home in Beverly Hills and was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she had dissecting aortic aneurysm and had an eight-hour aortic transplant. The surgery worked, and Ball was soon able to walk around her room with very little help. She got a lot of get-well wishes.
On the morning of April 26, Ball awoke with bad back pains then lost consciousness. After, she died at 5:47 a.m. PDT at the age of 77. Doctors thought that Ball had succumbed to a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm not that related to her ascending aortic aneurysm and surgery. Ball had been a smoker most of her life, making her risk of abdominal aortic aneurysm higher.
Ball was nominated for an Emmy Award thirteen times. She won four times. In 1977 Ball was one of the first people to be given the Women in Film Crystal Award. She was given the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1979, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Kennedy Center Honors in 1986, and the Governors Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in 1989.
The Blob
The Blob is a 1958 American science fiction horror movie. It was directed by Irvin Yeaworth. It was produced by Jack H. Harris. Paramount Pictures released the movie. The movie is about a giant jellylike blob that terrorizes a small town. "The Blob" marked Steve McQueen's movie debut. The movie's theme song, "Beware of the Blob", was written by Burt Bacharach and Mack David. It was remade in 1988.
Teenagers Steve and Jane are loitering in a Lover's Lane. They see an object in the night sky crash-land nearby. They investigate. It is The Blob, a jelly-like thing from Outer Space that consumes flesh. It kills an old man, a doctor, and a nurse. It doubles in size after each feeding. Steve and Jane report their findings to the police. They are dismissed as crazy teenagers. In the meantime, The Blob has consumed many others.
Steve and Jane are cornered by The Blob in the grocery store. They seek refuge in the walk-in refrigerator. The Blob tries to ooze in under the door. It retreats. Steve and Jane escape. They set off the town's fire and air-raid alarms. The Blob enters the movie theatre. The customers run away screaming. The Blob oozes out of the theater. Jane's little brother runs into a diner. Jane and Steve follow him. They become trapped in the diner along with the owner and a waitress.
The Blob – now a huge mass – engulfs the diner. It begins to ooze in through the windows. The occupants go to the cellar. The police try to kill The Blob by dropping a power line onto it. This attempt fails. It only serves to set the diner ablaze. Inside, the diner's owner uses a CO2 fire extinguisher to try to put out the fire. This causes The Blob to recoil. The Blob cannot stand cold. The town's teenagers gather all the fire extinguishers they can find. They use them to freeze The Blob. The United States Air Force sends in a jet to carry The Blob to the North Pole. It will remain frozen forever.
Akita, Akita
Akita has been one of the most important cities in the Tōhoku region since ancient times.
The Ashina clan held this part of northern Japan (Mutsu Province) in the 15-16th centuries.
The Satake clan built Akita Castle in 1604.
The modern city of Akita was established on April 1, 1889.
Akita is the largest city on the western coast of the Tōhoku region.
Japanese clock
The Japanese clock is a device made to tell the time according to Japanese tradition.
These clocks were introduced to Japan via Jesuit missionaries in the 16th century.
In 1612, the clockmaker of Philip II of Spain created a working timepiece which became a gift for Tokugawa Ieyasu.
One of the major features of the Japanese clock is that it has a mechanism for measuring unequal temporal hours. Usual clock tells hours at same intervals, but in the Japanese traditional timekeeping practice, a day had six daytime units from sunrise to sunset and six night units from sunset to sunrise. Then the Japanese clock was designed to adapt to this practice.
Eichō
Polonaises Op. 40 (Chopin)
The Polonaise in A major, Op. 40, No. 1 (nicknamed the "Military" Polonaise) is a piece of music for solo piano. It was composed by Frédéric Chopin. It was published in 1838, with the Polonaise in C minor, Op. 40, No. 2. Anton Rubinstein wrote that the Polonaise in A major is the symbol of Polish glory, while the Polonaise in C minor is the symbol of Polish tragedy.
The polonaise is a Polish dance in 3/4 time. It has a distinctive rhythmic pattern which this polonaise follows unflinchingly. The A major Polonaise is written in an A-B-A form, with the B section being a "Trio". The polonaise opens with an A major chord. It continues in a vigorously masculine manner. The tempo indication is Allegro con brio (Fast, with bravura). The trio section begins in D major. The short passage following the first section of the trio is distinguished with trills for both hands on low C-sharps an octave apart. These trills suggest drum rolls.
Charles Rosen writes, "Polonaises had been written by many composers before, including Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven; Schubert, in fact, wrote lots of them. But nothing like the violence of Chopin’s military polonaises, ... The military polonaises were certainly understood as political statements of patriotism for his country, which was struggling to obtain its freedom ... these military polonaises have a decidedly popular character ..."
Kinderszenen
Kinderszenen (original spelling "Kinderscenen", (), Opus 15, is a set of 13 pieces for solo piano by Robert Schumann. It was published in 1838. Schumann was looking back on his childhood when composing these pieces. He had originally written 30 movements for Scenes from Childhood. He chose only 13 for the final set. The unused movements were published years later in "Bunte Blätter", Opus 99, and "Albumblätter" ().
Schumann originally titled the work "Leichte Stücke" (). The titles for the individual pieces were only added after the music was complete. Schumann described the titles as "nothing more than delicate hints for execution and interpretation". Timothy Taylor has discussed Schumann's choice of titles for this work in the context of the changing situation of music in 19th century culture and economics. In 1974, Eric Sams noted that there is no known complete manuscript of "Kinderszenen".
Giselle