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

= April 27 =

Soulsilver bug pokemon
what bug pokemon are possible to get in soul silver, without trading? Jds500 (talk) 02:57, 27 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Everything on this list except for Spinarak, Ariados, Anorith and Armaldo, as far as I can tell. Vimescarrot (talk) 05:46, 27 April 2010 (UTC)

Muhammad Ali Peter Foster documentary
where can i see the Muhammad Ali Peter Foster documentary —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tom12350 (talk • contribs) 04:27, 27 April 2010 (UTC)


 * All I can find is that Peter Foster claimed to make a documentary about Ali. I cannot find anything about the documentary ever being shown to anybody - including Ali.  Because he is a professional conman, you cannot accept anything he says as truth.  He says he made a documentary.  He didn't show it to anybody.  Did he actually make it?  I assume not. --  k a i n a w &trade; 05:54, 27 April 2010 (UTC)

Death comic title
I simply cannot remember the title of this comic book. Death lives as a human one day every 1000 years (or 100 years - or something similar). The comic covers the one day death is a woman. -- k a i n a w &trade; 05:45, 27 April 2010 (UTC)
 * It's not from the Sandman series by Neil Gaiman is it? I seem to recall Death being portrayed as a woman in that comic. 99.154.241.62 (talk) 06:31, 27 April 2010 (UTC)
 * In Death (DC Comics), it says, "One day every century, Death lives (and dies) as a mortal, in order to understand the value of the life she takes." So could it be Death: The High Cost of Living? Clarityfiend (talk) 06:33, 27 April 2010 (UTC)
 * That's what it sounds like to me. Dayewalker (talk) 06:39, 27 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Similar themes of Death taking the form of a human, or living like a human, for certain reasons also befall Terry Pratchett's Death character in his Discworld series. He's the central character in several novels, and even has a daughter at one point.  The opposite idea, that of a human becoming Death, is the central theme of Piers Anthony's book On a Pale Horse.  -- Jayron  32  14:41, 27 April 2010 (UTC)


 * Thanks. I actually looked at that page, but it takes forever to parse through the junk to find any mention of the plot that I just gave up. --  k a i n a w &trade; 14:40, 27 April 2010 (UTC)


 * Not a comic, but a related theme, the 1930s film Death Takes a Holiday. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 15:13, 27 April 2010 (UTC)
 * And On Borrowed Time, where Lionel Barrymore traps Death in a tree and nobody can die. Woogee (talk) 19:43, 27 April 2010 (UTC)
 * The nits are ripe, so I must pick'em. Nobody could die unless they touched the tree or Death. Clarityfiend (talk) 03:22, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

Who is Mama Mia poster girl?
She is viewed from above, has dark hair and is wearing a white dress. Kittybrewster  &#9742;  12:02, 27 April 2010 (UTC)
 * I think it is Lisa Stokke, who played Sophie for quite a while. Tarheel95 (talk) 12:25, 27 April 2010 (UTC)


 * cf Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2009 October 14. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 21:03, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

Bird demic
Was this film ever released? I think it involves poorly rendered CGI birds.... Chevymontecarlo. 12:09, 27 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Yes, it got released. See Birdemic: Shock and Terror.  It even got a mention here in the UK a couple of weeks ago as a possible worst film ever made (see BBC: Is Birdemic worst film ever made?).  Astronaut (talk) 14:16, 27 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Given the reference, it might be a candidate for List of films considered the worst. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 15:11, 27 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Yeah, I heard about it from something on BBC Radio 1. Wow, it was released! thanks! Chevymontecarlo . 15:52, 27 April 2010 (UTC)

this song from a Georgian diploma film of the 1960's
A part of the short film by Mikhail Kobakhidze called Wedding is seen in this you tube video. There is a very melodious song at the end of the film. What's it about? Was it a popular song? What does the lyrics mean?

Found a link for the song itself. Here it is. --117.204.87.116 (talk) 18:08, 27 April 2010 (UTC)\


 * The song is in french. The instrumentation sounds like a violin and a mandolin.  It seems to be some sort of "lover's lament" or other love song (lots of "mon amie" and "mon cherie" and "mon amour" in the lyrics).  -- Jayron  32  18:48, 27 April 2010 (UTC)


 * Not a lover's lament. The song is Les Deux Guitares, and I think it's Charles Aznavour singing.  The singer describes how the music of two gypsy guitarists (deux tziganes) stirs up memories of his wild younger days, and he drowns his sorrows with drink.
 * "Apportez-moi du vin fort
 * Car le vin délivre
 * Oh versez, versez-m'en encore
 * Pour que je m'enivre"
 * ("Bring me strong wine /because wine sets you free / Pour, and pour again / So that I can get drunk")
 * He reflects on the meaning of life - how and why do we live, when death may come tomorrow?  And he tells the guitarists that they can stop playing and singing only when he's drunk himself into insensibility.
 * It's on this Aznavour CD. Ka renjc 19:20, 27 April 2010 (UTC)
 * (ec) I was going to say it sounded suspiciously like Aznavour. Here's the IMDB link to the movie, but it doesn't give any details of the song.  --   Jack of Oz    ... speak! ...   19:27, 27 April 2010 (UTC)

Thank you Wikipedia! Thank you answering editors! It is the end of a long search actually. -117.204.87.116 (talk) 19:55, 27 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Just as an added bit of interest, the chorus is sung not in French but in (I believe) Russian. It's rendered "Ekh raz yechtcho raz yechtcho mnogo mnogo raz" but I've just Googled it and found a Cyrillic version "Эх, раз, ещë раз, Eщё много, много раз" (don't know how accurate this is, as I'm not a speaker).  It apparently means roughly "Play again, again; play many times", exhorting the musicians to keep on going.  This may explain its choice to accompany a Georgian film.  Ka renjc 20:07, 27 April 2010 (UTC)
 * How's that for multicultural! A French song with a Russian chorus sung in a French accent by a Frenchman of Armenian origin but whose parents were from Georgia and Turkey, in a Georgian movie, made in the Soviet Union.  --   Jack of Oz    ... speak! ...   20:30, 27 April 2010 (UTC)
 * How does the song sound after half a century? I liked it very much. I had very much liked the film too. There are many things in that film which is hard to understand because of cultural and temporal distance. For example, what is that melee in which the protagonist gets injured? I thought it was a bit surrealistic, too.--117.204.81.187 (talk) 23:16, 27 April 2010 (UTC)

Ventriloquism
How does a ventriloquist "throw" his voice? What exactly is the "illusion" ... and how is this illusion created? In other words ... what is it that makes us (as the audience) perceive that the doll/dummy is talking, and that the human is not? And how does the artist achieve this "sleight of hand"? The Wikipedia article on ventriloquism really did not mention this component ... and that was the very reason for which I had referred to the article. Thanks. (64.252.65.146 (talk) 21:57, 27 April 2010 (UTC))


 * Our brains normally match the moving lips with the voice we hear. By keeping your own lips still and moving the mouth on the dummy, this creates the illusion.  Keeping your lips still isn't that easy, though.  Leave the mouth slightly opened and avoid saying letters with obvious mouth movements, like "p". StuRat (talk) 22:05, 27 April 2010 (UTC)


 * Thanks ... but that's part of my question. How does the ventriloquist actually do this?  The dummy appears that it is talking "normally" (as opposed to speaking in garbles or whispers or speaking covertly).  So, how does one speak relatively normally, yet keep their mouth closed?  Thanks.   (64.252.65.146 (talk) 22:20, 27 April 2010 (UTC))


 * They don't keep their mouths closed or it won't work. Ventriloquists that come to mind, such as Shari Lewis, kept their mouths open and their teeth together, simulating the labials ("b", "m", "p", "v") in other ways than pursing their lips and trying not to sound like a "d" or an "n". Another thing Shari did was face the puppet, furthering the illusion. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 22:39, 27 April 2010 (UTC)


 * OK. I guess I meant to say "keep their mouth closed or still" in my above post.  Thanks.   (64.252.65.146 (talk) 23:02, 27 April 2010 (UTC))
 * You could see Peter Brough's lips moving on the radio. DuncanHill (talk) 23:24, 27 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Edgar Bergen was fairly well known for moving his lips some, but since he was on the radio it wasn't too much of a problem. One thing that might be instructive rather than us amateurs trying to describe it, is to Google some youtubes of ventriloquists and watch them in action. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 23:28, 27 April 2010 (UTC)


 * The article Ventriloquism does not discuss this directly, but it does include some external links at the bottom of the page, including one to something called HowToThrowYourVoice.com which has videos, perhaps instructional in nature, that may show how its done. -- Jayron  32  23:19, 27 April 2010 (UTC)


 * This Straight Dope article gives a good overview : The Straight Dope : How do ventriloquists do it?
 * APL (talk) 22:32, 29 April 2010 (UTC)

Thanks to all for all of the input ... it was very helpful ... and much appreciated. Thank you! (64.252.65.146 (talk) 21:19, 2 May 2010 (UTC))