Sergio

"In order to ensure the quality of their vocal recordings, Bruce and Utsler drank tea before every take and didn't smoke cannabis while recording."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bang!_Pow!_Boom!

Piranha is the subject of this Sunday's "monsterdon" watch party over on Mastodon, our fediverse sibling!

• Just start watching that movie this Sunday, Jan 26, 2025 at 9pm ET / 8pm CT / 6pm PT, which is 2am Monday UTC
• and follow #monsterdon over on mastodon for live commentary. For example, you can follow that hashtag here: https://mastodon.social/tags/monsterdon
• I usually open two web browser windows on a computer side-by-side. But you could follow the mastodon commentary on a phone app while watching it on TV or something...

How to watch:

• someone usually streams it on https://miru.miyaku.media/ at that time so check there
• if you're in North America, Australia, or the UK try Tubi: https://tubitv.com/movies/452488/piranha last I checked adblock worked with it
• YOUTUBE WARNING: there's a movie on youtube that says it's Piranha but it's actually some other movie, I think it's "Piranha, Piranha" from 1972 even though it says it's from 1978. Note that Piranha was also re-made in 1995 so make sure you get the 1978 version which is 95 minutes long.
• if you want to pay or watch ads and are in the US, look here: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/piranha

Executive produced by Roger Corman, Piranha is the first installment in a series of low-budget B movies inspired by the film Jaws (1975), which had been a major success for Universal Pictures and director Steven Spielberg. Initially, Universal had considered obtaining an injunction to prevent Piranha being released, particularly as they had released Jaws 2 the same summer, but the lawsuit was dropped after Spielberg himself gave the film a positive comment in advance.

...

Charles Champlin, in his review of the film for the Los Angeles Times, called it "a swift, efficient program picture which squeezes the most out of its dollars to squeeze delicious chills from the audience."[14] Jill Forbes of The Monthly Film Bulletin called the film "a quickie from the Corman company that can't decide whether to plump for horror, science fiction or social comedy, and plays safe with something for everyone", and found it "a lot of fun".[15] Screen International's Marjorie Bilbow wrote that the film "works as spirited scream and giggle nonsense because there is always something happening and Joe Dante directs with a slyly tongue-in-cheek awareness of the existence of big brother Jaws".[16]

Piranha has since acquired a cult status. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 72% based on 29 reviews, with an average rating of 6.5 out of 10. The site's critics consensus reads, "Performed with a wink and directed with wry self-awareness, Piranha is an unabashed B-movie with satirical bite."[17]

Steven Spielberg called the film "the best of the Jaws ripoffs".[6]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piranha_(1978_film)

This community briefly discussed this film a couple years ago.

...a 1984 West German - Austrian TV film portraying the events of the Wannsee Conference, held in Berlin in January 1942. The script is derived from the minutes of the meeting.[1] Since no verbatim transcription of the meeting exists, the dialogue is necessarily fictionalised. The main theme of the film is the bureaucratic nature of the genocide. ... Die Wannseekonferenz opens with the arrival of a group of high-ranking Nazi officials at a luxurious villa on the shores of Lake Wannsee.[3] ... the conference is convened ostensibly to discuss administrative matters related to the Jewish population under Nazi control. However, it soon becomes apparent that the true purpose of the meeting is to coordinate the systematic extermination of European Jews. ... The attendees engage in chillingly pragmatic discussions about the most efficient methods of mass murder, referring to Jews in dehumanizing terms.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wannsee_Conference_(film)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9Ug_MXToEE - the link from above. German with embedded English subtitles, spoken English introduction.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp0QrsWmX7U - another copy. 2160p remastered, color and framerate adjusted. German with optional English subtitles, spoken English introduction. haven't watched this copy.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ave9RHTqkI (480p) another copy. German with embedded English subtitles, spoken English introduction. haven't watched this copy.

BONUS FILM: The 2022 version of this film, titled Die Wannseekonferenz aka The Conference

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTxliHbPHhU (2022 1080p) - German with optional English subtitles. The wording of the subtitles looks a little off at times but it's not too bad
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Wannseekonferenz_(2022_film)

There was also a 2001 film in English based on this, but it's not free on youtube: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_(2001_film)

These are two Ukrainian sumotori battling at the top of the second-highest Japanese professional sumo league.

cross-posted from: [email protected]

• https://www.sumo.or.jp/EnSumoDataRikishi/profile/3990/
• https://www.sumo.or.jp/EnSumoDataRikishi/profile/4230/

The Sack of Rome, then part of the Papal States, followed the capture of Rome on 6 May 1527 by the mutinous troops of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, during the War of the League of Cognac. Charles V only intended to threaten military action to make Pope Clement VII come to his terms. However, most of the Imperial army (14,000 Germans, including Lutherans, 6,000 Spaniards and some Italians) were largely unpaid. Despite being ordered not to storm the city, they broke into the scarcely defended city and began looting, killing, and holding citizens for ransom without any restraint.[3] Clement VII took refuge in Castel Sant'Angelo after the Swiss Guard were annihilated in a delaying rear guard action; he remained there until a ransom was paid to the pillagers.

Benvenuto Cellini, eyewitness to the events, described the sack in his works. It was not until February 1528 that the spread of a plague and the approach of the League forces under Odet de Foix forced the army to withdraw towards Naples from the city. Rome's population had dropped from 55,000 to 10,000 due to the atrocities, famine, an outbreak of plague, and flight from the city.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sack_of_Rome_(1527)

Context: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shooting_Star

15 September 1940 in Marseille. A man cries as French troops are forced to retreat to North Africa.

...

"A Frenchman sheds tears of patriotic grief as flags of his country's lost regiments are exiled to Africa", according to the caption in the 3 March 1941 issue of Life magazine. Incorrectly captioned by NARA as "A Frenchman weeps as German soldiers march into the French capital, Paris, on June 14, 1940, after the Allied armies had been driven back across France."

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Weeping_Parisian_from_NARA_Ww2-81.jpg

Context: https://lemmy.world/post/23850634

Based on a true story

Trump (c. 1730 – c. 1745) was a pug owned by English painter William Hogarth. He included the dog in several works, including his 1745 self-portrait Painter and his Pug, held by the Tate Gallery.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_(dog)

Invasion of the Bee Girls is the subject of this Sunday's "monsterdon" watch party over on Mastodon, our fediverse sibling!

• Just start watching that movie this Sunday, Jan 19, 2025 at 9pm ET / 8pm CT / 6pm PT, which is 2am Monday UTC
• and follow #monsterdon over on mastodon for live commentary. For example, you can follow that hashtag here: https://mastodon.social/tags/monsterdon
• I usually open two web browser windows on a laptop side-by-side. But you could follow the mastodon commentary on a phone app while watching it on TV or something...

How to watch:

• someone usually streams it on https://miru.miyaku.media/ at that time so check there
• archive: https://archive.org/details/invasion-of-the-bee-girls-1973_202406
• tubi: https://tubitv.com/movies/100013352/invasion-of-the-bee-girls I'm still figuring out tubi. it's corporate and not available in EU or Asia, but uBlock currently stops ads (there's just a flicker when they try to load). Their copy seems to be missing 2+ minutes, so it may have been modified
• youtube WARNING: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1FaWxV4sjk WARNING: heavily censored, missing 20 minutes, only watch if nothing else works
• if you want to pay or watch ads and are in the US, look here: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/invasion-of-the-bee-girls

The premise of the movie is that a mad scientist (Ford) is using radiation-mutated bee serum to create an army of female beauties who seduce men to death. One by one, the male victims are killed before the local police catch on to the plans of the infected females.

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

Also see this community's previous discussion of this movie! (e: that has a much higher-quality version of the movie poster...)