Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2010 January 15

= January 15 =

Album cover with Marshall amp
Can anybody think of an album cover (preferrably classic hard rock/heavy metal, but anything will do) that prominently features a Marshall amp (prominently enough that the white Marshall logo can still be read at 480x480 resolution)? I've been going through tons of album covers of bands whose guitarists are notorious Marshall users and searched Google images with every variation on "Marshall amp album cover" I could think of, but came up empty...I can't believe this has never been done. Thanks in advance, Ferkelparade &pi; 02:55, 15 January 2010 (UTC)
 * There's a special limited edition boxed CDs and DVDs of Spinal Tap where the cover is a mock-up marshall amp head. Do a google search for "Spinal Tap Boxed Set" and you'll see plenty.  The amp, of course, goes to eleven.  -- Jayron  32  03:27, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

There was an album that resembled this I believe released by a band called Valume Nob. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.218.50.226 (talk) 14:19, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

Initially, I thought of Electric Warrior, except that you can't even see what kind of amp it is! There's something in the back of my mind about a Who album that uses a similar idea, but I'm likely getting confused with something.

Possibly of note are Sunn O))), who take their name from Sunn amplifiers?--Roydisco (talk) 16:09, 15 January 2010 (UTC)


 * The one on Electric Warrior is a Vampower apparently.  meltBanana  18:38, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

Sonic Youth "Kool Thing" Notation
I've been working on a reconstruction of "Kool Thing" using analog drums & VST instruments in MAGIX Music Maker, and I want to use Silver -- Magix's TB303 emulator -- for the guitar solo. Unfortunately, my inability to read guitar tabs and my confusion of which key the song is actually in, as well as my inability to reconstruct the bassline to go with it, have made this a rather daunting task. If anyone can get me the sequence for the solo, I can at the very least reverse-engineer the song from there. Thank you for the assistance! DJRaveN4x (talk) 08:49, 15 January 2010 (UTC)
 * If you know the tuning of the guitars and the tab, you should be able to work out all of the notes. Guitars are chromatically tuned on each string (each fret is a semitone apart) so as long as you know the tuning of the open strings, the tabs tell you which fret is being played there.  For example, in standard tuning, a "3" on the 6th (low E) string would be a "G".  The only issue with tabs is that they lack Rhythm notation, but if you listen to the original, you can usually pick that up.  If you don't have the tab, it could be difficult.  Actually, knowing what I know about Sonic Youth's stuff, even writing a tab could be difficult.  They used some pretty odd tunings and played some fairly out-there stuff, often times completely outside of standard keys or even notes. -- Jayron  32  16:23, 15 January 2010 (UTC)
 * [after edit conflict]If you have the guitar tab of the solo, you could try the 8notes tab converter - I haven't used it much as I generally play directly from tabs (can't really read notes), but from a couple experiments with various guitar tabs, it seems to work quite ok. You probably need to clean up the resulting MIDI file a bit because the converter rarely gets the rhythm correct, but that should be a minor problem -- Ferkelparade &pi; 16:26, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

The Outsiders film
Heather Langenkamp was only 19 years old when she made this film. Yet, she played the role of Mrs. Cade, the mother of Johnny Cade (Ralph Macchio). I believe that Ralph Macchio's character was that of a 16-year-old (or so). Does anyone know if this information is accurate? Even with extensive make-up and even though it's only a bit part, I can hardly believe that Francis Ford Coppola would cast a 19-year-old as the mother of a 16-year-old. Does anyone have any further information on this? Am I mistaken about any of these facts? Or is there an error in the article? Thanks. (Joseph Spadaro (talk) 17:11, 15 January 2010 (UTC))


 * Well, according to Langenkamp's IMDb page, those scenes with her in them were cut out of the final film. This jives with the film's page there as well.  So, it's possible that Coppola realized that she didn't look the part and also realized that her scenes weren't necessary to the film and cut her out.  Dismas |(talk) 17:19, 15 January 2010 (UTC)


 * Well, yeah ... perhaps. But wouldn't you (i.e., Coppola -- or anyone with half a brain, for that matter) notice this discrepancy before making the film, not after?  This seems very odd to me.  There are millions of actors out there looking for work ... and they find a 19-year-old to play the role of a 40-year-old?  The only thing that I can really think of is that the characters were from the "bad side of town" (sort of the "white trash" / poverty type) ... possibly implying that the "mom" (Langenkamp) had her baby probably when she was very young herself ... let's say, age 14 or 15 or 16 (or so).  So, in that case, a 16-year-old (like Ralph Macchio's character) could theoretically have a 30-year-old mother or so.  Still, seems a stretch ...   (Joseph Spadaro (talk) 17:26, 15 January 2010 (UTC))


 * In a similar vein, in The Graduate, Benjamin has a long affair with Mrs. Robinson, the wife of one of his father's business partners, who was presumably about as old as his own mother. Benjamin is supposed to be a recent college graduate, so early 20's-ish.  In reality, Dustin Hoffman was 30 and Anne Bancroft was 36 when the film was made; that sort of age difference generally doesn't even raise an eyebrow, even back then.  -- Jayron  32  18:33, 15 January 2010 (UTC)


 * Dismas, your word choice doesn't jibe with your intent - and that's no jive. Clarityfiend (talk) 02:42, 16 January 2010 (UTC)

Of course Heather Langenkamp did not play Ralph Macchio's mother. Apparently the "Mrs. Cade" description was added to our article by some anon a couple of months ago. Don't believe everything you read on Wikipedia. Fan sites of The Outsiders say that she played a bit part as a girl at the drive-in. I don't know if that's true but it does have the benefit of being believable, as opposed to our article. —Kevin Myers 06:28, 16 January 2010 (UTC)


 * Thanks, Kevin Myers. What you say does indeed make sense ... that Langenkamp played a teenage girl at the drive-in movie ... and that the Wikipedia article contained an error in crediting her as the mother, Mrs. Cade.  Thanks!   (Joseph Spadaro (talk) 17:47, 16 January 2010 (UTC))


 * You're welcome. As far as I can tell from a brief web search, Langenkamp's part apparently did not make the longer director's cut released in 2005, but I haven't seen it. —Kevin Myers 09:27, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

In addition the actresses Helen Worth ( born 7 January 1951 ) and Sue Nicholls ( born 23 November 1943 ) were cast as daughter and mother respectively in Coronation Street ( Grenada Television ), with an age difference of just over seven years. The back story is that Audrey Roberts gave birth to her daughter Gail  as a teenager. Helen Worth, also a veteran of Doctor Who, does look young for her age, and this has kept millions of British Commonwealth and American viewers convinced for just over thirty years, since Nicholls joined the cast. On The Family Guy, we have Seth McFarlane, born in 1973, and Alex Borstein ( 1971 ) playing Dad and mum to both Seth Green ( b. 1974) and Mila Kunis ( b. 1983 ), but I guess it is easier with just voices. I recall an interview on a documentary show back in the eighties with a lady French film director, describing Hollywood as the " Capital of Lies ", and this is true also when one considers Malcolm in the Middle, and a number of other shows and movies showing older actors playing younger brothers. This occurs in Everybody Loves Raymond, Defiance, and 2½ Men as well. Obviously some of this is more convincing than what was described with respect to the Outsiders. Certainly Daniel Craig looks a lot older than Liev Schreiber, who is in fact five months older. I guess we have to accept on so many levels that films and such are all make believe. If they can make you believe it, then that is most of the battle. The rest of it is making a profit. --The Russian Christopher Lilly 08:20, 16 January 2010 (UTC)


 * And let's not forget Bea Arthur and Estelle Getty in Golden Girls! --153.1.13.184 (talk) 12:10, 16 January 2010 (UTC)
 * And let's also not forget The Manchurian Candidate, where Angela Lansbury plays the mother of Laurence Harvey, who was only 3 years younger. Staecker (talk) 15:19, 16 January 2010 (UTC)

Winter Olympics
I see from our Winter Olympics articles that they have all been in the Northern hemisphere. Have any southern hemisphere countries ever bid for it? Would the timing move by 6 months if they got it? -- SGBailey (talk) 17:31, 15 January 2010 (UTC)
 * There are no Southern Hemisphere bids on our page at Bids for Olympic Games, as for you second question - I don't know. Nanonic (talk) 17:55, 15 January 2010 (UTC)
 * There aren't many places in the southern hemisphere that really get cold enough to hold a winter olympics. South Africa has a climate moderated by the oceans, and I don't think they get much snow.  Australia and Tasmania have some areas (in the mountains) that regularily get snow, so that could work.  You could probably also hold them in the Andes, but that's about it (assuming you don't want to set up in Antarctica).  THere's really only a few viable options in the Southern hemishpere, while there are lots of good places in Europe, North America, and Northern Asia.


 * I also imagine that, for this same reason, there is less of a tradition of winter games in the Southern hemisphere. It's probably easier to fill up a hockey stadium in Canada than in Argentina. Buddy431 (talk) 18:48, 15 January 2010 (UTC)


 * New Zealand would be a decent possibility, but I don't think there are any sizable cities in the mountain areas that could house the extra tens of thousands of people, so even if it did make a bid, it would not have much chance of winning. Googlemeister (talk) 19:01, 15 January 2010 (UTC)


 * They would most likely have to hold it in July or August, and that could hurt the TV ratings. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 19:04, 15 January 2010 (UTC)


 * The Summer Olympics are often held in July and August, so I don't think that's too big of an issue. Buddy431 (talk) 19:32, 15 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Only because there might not be that much interest in winter sports in the summer. And it would probably wreak havoc with the competitors' normal annual training schedules. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 07:30, 16 January 2010 (UTC)


 * With the amount of tourism and events already in the Queenstown region, I'd say that that area would be quite well prepared to be the centre of the mountain based events (alpine skiing, snowboarding, bob sleigh etc.). Whistler, BC isn't a very big place either. I think what prevents NZ from holding the games would be the lack of snow in other areas where cross-country events (skiing, biathlon) could be held, and the lack of indoor arenas with a surface big enough for ice hockey or ice skating./Coffeeshivers (talk) 22:32, 15 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Indoor arenas are frequently built just for the Games but even B.C. seems to be worried about having enough snow for some events: 75.41.110.200 (talk) 23:32, 15 January 2010 (UTC)
 * NZ has plenty of snow for cross country skiing etc. Wanaka, near Queenstown, offers Snow Farm, which is quite well regarded by skiers. (eg. ) There are also plenty of ski fields.  What NZ lacks are the arenas, as noted, plus the infrastructure of stadiums, villages, luges and so forth.  They could be built, theoretically, but the costs are far beyond any NZ budget.  NZ is stretching itself to host the 2011 Rugby World Cup because it loves rugby; the winter olympics are far beyond its capabilities, and not likely going to be an ambition any time soon, given NZ has only won one winter olympic medal EVER. But if some mega-rich winter olympic-loving philanthropist fancied bankrolling NZ, it could be done.Gwinva (talk) 05:15, 6 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Portillo, Chile is a well-known ski resort. I don't know if they've ever bid for the Olympics, though.  Woogee (talk) 00:37, 16 January 2010 (UTC)


 * As has already been stated, South Africa is probably too warm for an event like the Winter Olympics, though it does have Tiffindell Ski Resort.  I can think of three possible southern hemisphere locations, the Southern Alps in New Zealand, the Snowy Mountains in Australia and the Andes in South America.  Of these, the chilean resort of Valle Nevado is the only one I have visited.  Despite being popular and considered the most modern in South America, I thought the facilities quite limited when compared to European or North American resorts.  With just 8 ski lifts, limited accommodation and one access road (a long, narrow and very twisty road rising from ~600 m in Santiago to 2800 m), I doubt it would be able to host the Winter Olympics any time soon.  Anyway, for more information take a look at Category:Ski areas and resorts by country and pick out some appropriate articles.  As for when the Winter Olympics might be held if in the southern hemisphere, this graph for an australian resort suggests the best snow might occur around August or September.  Astronaut (talk) 17:01, 16 January 2010 (UTC)

TV stations in the US
the names of most local TV stations in the US begin with either W or K. How did the trend start. Do those alphabets actually mean anything? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 158.35.225.230 (talk) 21:36, 15 January 2010 (UTC)


 * See Callsigns in North America, which explains "Generally, call signs begin with K west of the Mississippi River, and W to the east." (although there are exceptions). -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 21:40, 15 January 2010 (UTC)


 * This is already the second time this subject has come up here in the new year. Here's the earlier thread, which was about radio, but the same rules apply to TV. --Anonymous, 00:16 UTC, January 16, 2010.