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Olga Korbut: The Gymnast, Her Coach, Her Rival and the President

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Like everyone who watched the 1972 Munich Olympics, I was quite taken with Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut — the 4-foot-11, 85-pound sprite who performed a back flip off the uneven bars, danced on the four-inch-wide balance beam, and seduced a worldwide audience with her floor exercise routine “like a little kid playing in the sun,” in the words of ABC commentator Jim McKay. During the intervening years she has taken a tumble from the world’s stage, but her fans still love her.

NOTE: The above documentary film first aired on the BBC in August of 2001.

Simon & Garfunkel – Richard Cory 1966 live

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Here’s a great video of Simon & Garfunkel performing their version of Edwin Arlington Robinson’s most-anthologized poem, “Richard Cory.” I find it impossible to teach this masterpiece of a poem without using this song as scaffolding. About all I know of this live performance is that it was in 1966.

Oh Boy! By Buddy Holly

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Absolutely one of the most creative and original innovators of Rock ‘n’ Roll was a kid from Texas named Buddy Holly, who tragically was killed in a plane crash on this day in 1959, along with Ritchie Valens and “The Big Bopper.” It was a day that’s come to be known as The Day the Music Died. Before Buddy, there was NOBODY who wrote his own songs, arranged them, performed them, produced them and promoted them. Buddy did ALL of that, all by himself, which showed groups like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones that THEY could do it too.

John Lennon once said of Buddy Holly and The Crickets:

EVERY GROUP TRIED TO BE THE CRICKETS. The name BEATLES was directly inspired by CRICKETS (DOUBLE ENTENDRE / INSECTS etc…) I think the greatest effect was on THE SONG WRITING (ESPECIALLY MINE AND PAUL’S)

I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died

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by Emily Dickinson

I HEARD a fly buzz — when I died–
the stillness in the room
was like the stillness in the air —
between the heaves of storm —

The eyes around — had wrung them dry —
and breaths were gathering firm
for that last onset — when the King
be witnessed — in the room —

I willed my keepsakes — signed away
what portion of me be
assignable — and then it was
there interposed a fly —

with blue — uncertain stumbling buzz —
between the light — and me —
and then the windows failed — and then
I could not see to see —

1984

Some people think this is the best commercial ever to appear on American television. It’s the Apple Macintosh commercial that aired only once — during the 1984 Super Bowl. In it IBM is depicted as Big Brother, whom Steve Jobs appears to resemble as the years roll by. See for yourself.

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