Gregory Galloway

[gregorygalloway]

After a June screening at the Seattle International Film Festival, Ghost World premiered in Los Angeles on 18 July 2001.

Director Terry Zwigoff and Daniel Clowes adapted Clowes’ comic series (which had first appeared in Eightball from 1993-1997), and then deviated from their screenplay as they began filming.

Starring 19-year-old Thora Birch and 16-year-old Scarlett Johansson, Ghost World received mostly critical praise, but was distributed to only a handful of theaters (it was shown simultaneously in at most 128 theaters in the US) and failed to find an audience.

Clowes and Zwigoff were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and Birch, Johansson, and Steve Buscemi received numerous independent awards and nominations.

[gregorygalloway]

The first volume of Mein Kampf was published in Germany on 18 July 1925 (a second volume was published the following year).

Written at Landsberg Prison, while Adolf Hitler was serving a 5-year sentence for "high treason" for his participation in a failed coup in 1923 (he would only serve 1 year in prison), and mostly dictated to Rudolf Hess, the book laid out Hitler's plans for territorial expansion as well as transforming German society into a dictatorship based on race (Hitler is explicit about his desire to exterminate the Jews). Mein Kampf sold poorly until Hitler came to power in 1933, and then sold a million copies that year alone.

While the publisher had hoped to have an English translation available as early as 1925, the first English version did not appear until 1933, and in an abridged edition (title My Struggle in the UK and My Battle in the US), which was described as "so expurgated as to give a wholly false view of what Hitler is and says" (this version was sent to President Franklin Roosevelt by the publisher). A full version of the original would not appear in translation until 1938.

Some of the criticism of the English versions have centered on translators emphasis on "readability" rather than accurately depicting Hitler's "idiosyncratic" writing style (which has been describes as "incoherent soup"), giving the reader the impression of coherence that is not in the original. Some translators have argued that "making this text elegant is a crime."

[gregorygalloway]

The Ramones 14th and final studio album was released on 18 July 1995.

44-year-old Joey Ramone had been diagnosed with lymphoma earlier in the year (he kept his diagnosis from the public until March 2001, a month before he died), and relationships in the group were strained - Joey and Johnny hadn't spoken to each other in about a decade, but a rift had also developed between C.J. (who had joined the band in 1989) and Marky (who had rejoined in 1987), but producer Daniel Rey (who had known the band since the early 1980s and had produced 1987's Halfway to Sanity and 1989's Brain Drain) reportedly keep things productive and calm in the studio.

And while Dee Dee had left the band in 1989, Adios Amigos contains 6 of his songs - 5 co-written with Rey), as well as a guest vocal on "Born to Die in Berlin" (recorded over the phone).

Released to mostly positive reviews, Adios Amigos was on the Billboard Albums chart for 2 weeks, peaking at #148, about average for a Ramones album. The band went on tour, playing their final show on 6 August 1996.

[gregorygalloway]

Echo and the Bunnymen’s debut album was released in the UK on 18 July 1980 (and in December in the US).

Brian Griffin took the photographs used on the album jacket, which Creem magazine described as “four boys dazed and confused in a drugged dream, a surreal where-are-we landscape. The Bunnymen’s images are of loneliness, disconnection, a world gone awry.” Ian McCulloch said that the jacket was “better to look at than the Mona Lisa.”

“Do It Clean" and “Read It in Books” were initially left off the album, because the label thought they contained obscenities, but were quickly added to subsequent pressings (as a single included in the UK version, and on the US release).

The album peaked at #17 in the UK, and was called “the best album this year by a British band” by NME. While it received mostly positive reviews in the US, it failed to find an audience.

[gregorygalloway]

The second, and final, studio album by Joy Division was released on 18 July 1980, exactly 2 months after lead singer Ian Curtis’s suicide on 18 May.

The album jacket was designed by Martyn Atkins and Peter Saville, using a photograph by Bernard Pierre Wolff of a family tomb in an Italian cemetery. The design was completed before the death of Ian Curtis, and while Saville expressed concern (”we’ve got a tomb on the cover of the album!“) it was decided to keep the image.

The album peaked at #6 in the UK, but failed to find an audience in the US on its initial release.

[gregorygalloway]

Sketches of Spain was released on 18 July 1960, and was immediately hailed as “one of the 20th century’s most important musical works so far” (Down Beat).

[humanoidhistory]

TODAY IN HISTORY – On July 18, 1966, two rockets launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. One was the Gemini-Titan 10 rocket carrying astronauts John Young and Michael Collins. The other was the unmanned Agena Target Docking Vehicle. The primary goal of the Gemini 10 mission was for the two space vehicles to rendezvous and dock high above Earth. The Agena went first; Young and Collins followed about 100 minutes later. On the 4th revolution of Earth, docking was accomplished, and the two spacecraft were linked together for the next 39 hours. On one maneuver, they fired up the 16,000 pound thrust engine of Agena’s main propulsion system to boost the combined vehicles into an orbit of 413 nautical miles, setting a new altitude record for human spaceflight.

(NASA: 1, 2)

[twixnmix]

W.E.B. Du Bois photographed by Carl Van Vechten on July 18, 1946.  

[gregorygalloway]

The 3rd studio album by the Byrds was released in the US on 18 July 1966.

It was the first album after the departure of main songwriter Gene Clark. While McGuinn and David Crosby tried to make up for the loss of Clark, the album notably included 4 songs not written by any of the Byrds.

[gregorygalloway]

On 17 July 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine by the Russian 53rd Anti-Aircraft Brigade. All 283 civilian passengers and 15 crew members were killed.

Despite verification from the Dutch Safety Board (the Ukraine had initiated the investigation but handed it off to the DSB. There were 193 Dutch passengers on the flight) - which included efforts from 133 Malaysian investigators, 45 members from Australia, and 6 from the UK – and confirmation from German and US intelligence reports, the Russian government continues to deny its responsibility. The investigation was hindered by Russian forces, who placed landmines near the crash site.

[gregorygalloway]

The world premiere of Yellow Submarine, was held at the London Pavilion on Piccadilly Circus on 17 July 1968.

Based on the 1966 song by Paul McCartney, the film was written by Al Brodax, Jack Mendelsohn, Lee Minoff, and Erich Segal, and directed by George Dunning. (Brodax, Dunning and Mendelsohn were also involved in The Beatles animated TV series, which ran from 1965-1969).

John Clive, Geoff Hughes, and Paul Angelis provided the voices of John, Paul, and George/Ringo. Lance Percival, who provided the voices of Paul and Ringo in The Beatles animated TV series also appeared in the film, but as Fred, and not as a Beatle.

Distributors thought the film was too long for the US market, and at McCartney’s suggestion cut the “Hey Bulldog” (written by Lennon) sequence.

[gregorygalloway]

“All You Need is Love” was released in the US on 17 July 1967, 10 days after its release in the UK.

Written by John Lennon, the song was the Beatles 14th #1 in the US, although it only spent one week at the top of the US charts.

[gregorygalloway]

Vice Principals premiered on HBO on 17 July 2016.

Created by Jody Hill and Danny McBride, the series lasted 18 episodes over 2 seasons (Hill and McBride had conceived of the series with a 2-season arc).

[gregorygalloway]

19-year-old Paolo Nutini's debut studio album was released on 17 July 2006.

These Streets debuted at #3 in the UK and would go on to sell almost 2 million copies in the UK alone. Despite positive reviews in the US, it failed to find much of an audience, selling a little more than 100,000 copies and peaking at #48.

[gregorygalloway]

Multiplicity was released on 17 July 1996.

Chris Miller and Mary Hale, along with Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel wrote the script based on Miller's 1993 short story that appeared in National Lampoon. Miller had co-written 1978's Animal House with Doug Kenney and Harold Ramis, and named the lead character (played by Michael Keaton) after Kenney (who died in 1980).

Directed by Ramis, Multiplicity was released to mixed reviews and failed to find an audience at the box office.

[gregorygalloway]

Time Bandits was released in the UK on 16 July 1981 (and in the US in November).

George Harrison’s HandMade films produced Time Bandits (HandMade had financed Monty Python’s Life of Brian, but Time Bandits was its first production), which was written by Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin.

Despite positive reviews, Time Bandits failed to find an audience in Britain, (where it was misleadingly marketed as a Python film). Promoted as a children’s picture in the US, however, Time Bandits became a huge success (despite the US distributor’s reservations about the “audaciously cruel” ending), and was the #1 film in the US for 4 weeks.

[gregorygalloway]

After Easy Rider (1969) became a huge financial hit, Peter Fonda was given creative control for his official directorial debut.

He chose to make a western, written by Scottish novelist Alan Sharp. Fonda hired cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond for his first “major film assignment,” and folk musician Bruce Langhorne to supply the soundtrack.

The Hired Hand premiered in Des Moines, IA on 16 July 1971. It received mixed reviews when it was first released, and it was a commercial failure. Universal Studios sold the film to NBC, which aired it in 1973, adding 20 minutes that they claimed made it “a standard film with a story.” The Hired Hand was virtually never seen again until Fonda regained control of the film. He cut out the added 20 minutes for the 2001 release.