Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2010 May 27

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May 27

Obsession, with a strange pastime

In the film Ossessione, at 32 minutes (when Giovanna asks Gino to turn back), we see in the background about twenty people in a rectangular space, as big as a basketball court; and a few of them appear to be flinging sand at each other with shovels. (If I were watching it in Blu-Ray maybe I could say more accurately what they're doing.) If you know the scene I mean, can you say what the heck is going on? —Tamfang (talk) 05:23, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Here's a video. Sowing seeds maybe? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.171.56.13 (talk) 09:56, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Winnowing? - that is, tossing harvested cereal crops into the air to separate the grain from the chaff. There is what looks to me to be a similar activity in this clip. Ghmyrtle (talk) 10:33, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Super smart singers, sirens, and such

While reading the Dexter Holland article, I was a bit surprised to see that he has his Master's and was working on his PhD when he got into music. (Yeah, I know, I'm suffering from a stereotype that popular musicians aren't necessarily book-smart. I'm okay with that.  :-) ) So, I wondered who else was rather learned. The following I know off the top of my head:

• Brian May has a PhD in astrophysics.
• Asia Carrera got a full academic scholarship to Rutgers and is/was a member of Mensa.
• Danica McKellar who has written a couple books on math and co-authored a paper.
• Natalie Portman who has also co-authored some papers.
• Jodie Foster was a high school valedictorian and finished in the top of her class at Yale.

So, are there any more actors, singers, etc that might surprise me a bit as far as book-smarts goes?

• Mick Jagger studied at the London School of Economics and planned to become a politician.--Jeanne Boleyn (talk) 18:38, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

James Franco has an MFA and has been accepted onto a Ph.D programme (ref). -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 18:40, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Natasha Stefanenko earned a degree in Metal Engineering, and Sharon Stone is said to have a very high IQ.--Jeanne Boleyn (talk) 18:42, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Actor John Larroquette, who never went beyond a high school education, has a massive collection of some 5000 first editions. Pepso2 (talk) 18:49, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

As I think you'll find many (most, probably) successful actors have a college education (or something equivalent like RADA), actor-with-college-degree probably is a large and surprise-free category. You may be more surprised to know that Heroes actor Masi Oka used to write computational fluid-dynamics software for video effects at Industrial Light and Magic.(ref) I remember well watching Dreamcatcher and thinking "gosh this is bad, but that drool is really convincing" ;) -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 18:50, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Dolph Lundgren, Masters in Chemistry, Fullbright Scholar. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 18:54, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Two more with brawn and brains: Vitali Klitschko has a Ph.D. in Sports Science and Bud Spencer (who probably spent most of his film career beating up weaker actors), has a degree in jurisprudence (and then some, see article).

Singer Gianna Nannini graduated in philosophy at the Università di Siena, with highest marks, apparently. --Sluzzelin talk 19:51, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

(ec)George "The Animal" Steele has a Masters degree and taught high school. Matt Deres (talk) 19:55, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Stephan Jenkins of Third Eye Blind fame graduated from University of California, Berkeley as the valedictorian of his class.10draftsdeep (talk) 20:38, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Famously (at least if you're in the UK), the keyboard player in 90s band D:Ream is now Professor Brian Cox, internationally known particle physicist, Royal Society research fellow, and TV presenter of science shows. Ghmyrtle (talk) 20:53, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

The 1930s-50s Hollywood actress Hedy Lamarr co-invented and patented (in 1941) a system of frequency-hopping spread-spectrum radio communication, intended to remotely control torpedoes. 87.81.230.195 (talk) 23:41, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Paul Winchell (the voice of Tigger among other things) invented an artificial heart. Adam Bishop (talk) 00:14, 28 May 2010 (UTC)

All together now: "The wonderful thing about Winchells is Winchells are wonderful things! Their hearts are made out of rubber ..." Clarityfiend (talk) 02:44, 28 May 2010 (UTC)

All together now: "N-E-S-T-L-E-S, Nestle's makes the very best . . ." Take it, Farfel! Deor (talk) 01:45, 29 May 2010 (UTC)

Robert Vaughn (The Man From U.N.C.L.E.) received his Ph D from the University of Southern California in 1970.Chief41074 (talk) 12:28, 28 May 2010 (UTC)

• Kris Kristofferson is a Rhodes Scholar. As are David P. White (the executive director of the Screen Actors Guild), Terrence Malik, Robert Joy, Charles Thomas McMillen, Olympic athlete Annette Salmeen, Myron Rolle, NBA star and US Senator Bill Bradley, and indie filmmaker Greg Pak.

Don't know if you're counting athletes, but Frank Ryan, a Cleveland Browns quarterback in the 1960s, had a PhD in math and taught at Yale during the offseason. -- Mwalcoff (talk) 00:41, 29 May 2010 (UTC)

Byron White was a US Supreme Court Justice, and all-star college and professional football player. Everard Proudfoot (talk) 02:58, 29 May 2010 (UTC)

The band Boston were formed by students at MIT, and Tom Scholz, the principle guitarist and producer, had a Masters in Mechanical Engineering. --Jayron32 03:29, 29 May 2010 (UTC)

Pink (singer) is often touted as being pretty smart, but our article makes no mention of it. Aaadddaaammm (talk) 11:34, 29 May 2010 (UTC)

Stephen Fry is considered quite the polymath. Astronaut (talk) 10:29, 31 May 2010 (UTC)

Oh yeah? Can he do calculus? —Tamfang (talk) 17:28, 31 May 2010 (UTC)

Stephen Fry is so goddammed ubiquitous, he's irksome. He's in everything, he's done everything, he knows everybody and he knows everything. (Sorry for my uncharacteristic lack of charity, but I'm only human, and I became Fryed out some while back.) -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 08:45, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

Please identify Lemony Snicket trailer music

A long, long time ago, I heard some music while I was randomly browsing websites. I was able to save a (midi?) file that was playing in the background of a website (something on Goth I believe). The file and website are both long gone now, I think. However, recently I saw the trailer of the Lemony Snicket movie and heard what I'm sure is the same music (maybe arranged a little differently). Here is a link to the trailer on Youtube. The music I'm talking about is in the first 30 seconds (especially 0:20 to 0:30 sounds familiar). Does anyone know what it is? Based on this, it may originate from the Gothic Archies (described as "Goth-Bubblegum" ! :) ). The music I'm thinking of was entirely instrumental -- no lyrics. Any help would be appreciated. TresÁrboles (talk) 21:01, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

That seems simply to be the film's soundtrack, by composer Thomas Newman (the first track, which appears to be what you're talking about, is called "The Bad Beginning"). Newman is pretty prolific, and I find a lot of his stuff sounds rather similar. He did the soundtrack for American Beauty; its opening track "Dead Already" is reminiscent of the section you describe. Much of Newman's work is available via Spotify, so (if that's available to you) you might like to check that. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 21:37, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply. However, the samples ([1] and [2]) I found on Youtube of the music you mention does not seem to me to be like what I was looking for. (And maybe my ears are bad, but I don't hear the resemblance at all.) Also, the Lemony Snicket movie was released in 2004, and I'm sure I heard the music much earlier than that (I'm guessing sometime in the 90s), so that film's soundtrack couldn't have been its first appearance. American Beauty is more plausible... but again, if the example I found on Youtube is correctly labeled, that's definitely not it. TresÁrboles (talk) 04:12, 28 May 2010 (UTC)