sMiLe sOmE

Elton John
1974: Punk rock music emerges in Britain, with themes of nihilism, anarchy.
1974: Nobel Prize in Literature: Swedish novelists Eyvind Johnson, Harry Martinson.
1974: The word “Internet” enters the lexicon.
1974: Carrie is the first of Stephen King’s blockbuster gothic novels.
1974: U.S. newspapers start to replace reporters’ typewriters with terminals.
1974: Also at the movies: The Towering Inferno, Chinatown, Blazing Saddles.
1974: West Germany, after a somewhat shaky start to the tournament, eventually ran into form to win “its” FIFA World Cup. In the final, led by the “Kaiser”, Franz Beckenbauer, the West Germans were at the top of their game to beat a brilliant Netherlands side. The 10th FIFA World Cup tournament in Germany in 1974 was marked by the arrival of colour television! And as if to highlight this cultural revolution even more, the “Weltmeisterschaft 74″ featured two other major changes. The first was a change in the tournament rules. The first round group system followed by knock-out in the second round was replaced by a group system in both rounds. The second change was the replacing of the Jules Rimet trophy - won outright by Brazil four years earlier after winning the FIFA World Cup three times (1958, 1962, 1970) - by a new solid gold statuette known as the “FIFA World Cup”.
1974: The 55-mph Speed Limit Introduced:
Our theory about the 55-mph speed limit is that someone who always took the bus to work thought this brilliant idea up. Either that, or they were frustrated that they couldn’t get any action despite having sunk a high percentage of their salary into that puke-colored AMC Gremlin. And even though folks back then should have noticed these things, we have no doubt this 55-mph speed limit proposal was undoubtedly given Considerable Official Support before it got kicked up to The Powers That Be. Therefore, on behalf of everyone here at The Rant, we’d just like to say, “Way to go, wide-lapel pleather-wearing Seventies-era policy-wonk team! Thanks for all those wasted hours spent in the back of our folks’ car as we drove from Michigan to Pennsylvania! Thanks for letting our insurance firms charge us more money when we were caught boosting the speed up to a sinful 65 or even – gasp – 70 miles per hour!” A friend of ours did note today, however, that the 55-mph speed limit did prompt Sammy Hagar to write a song about the idiotic idea. Also he — Mr Hagar, not our friend — jumped around in some kind of weird yellow jumpsuit. Therefore, we must say this was a Cultural Watershed.
1974: Kraftwerk release ‘Autobahn’: Kraftwerk signalled the coming of the machine age, creating sleek computerised pop in their state-of-the-art Düsseldorf studio. This 22-minute opus to the monotony of the German motorway system reached the US and British charts in an edited version, and subsequently became a huge influence on hip hop, house and techno.
1973: Gram Parsons dies at the Joshua Tree Inn: It is debatable whether Parsons invented country rock, but he remains its most visionary exponent. Only 26 when he died from a heroin overdose, he left his stamp on three classic albums: Sweetheart of the Rodeo (1968), The Gilded Palace of Sin (1969), and Grievous Angel (1973). Thirty years on, he remains the defining presence in America’s thriving alternative country scene.

Yellowcard
2003: The IP phone is a mini-computer that can transmit movies.
2003: Two AARP magazines far outstrip all others in circulation.
2003: Nobel Prize in Literature: John M. Coetzee, South Africa.
2003: Alabama chief justice Roy S. Moore forced from office after his refusal to remove monument of the Ten Commandments
2003: On the premiere of Ashton Kutcher’s reality show with a straight razor’s edge, Ashton and his cohorts decided to have a little fun with JT by fooling the *NSYNCer into believing that he owed a considerable sum of money to the federal government, and that they were there to repossess all of Justin’s valuable personal belongings like his house, car, dog and even an acoustic guitar. It was television magic in motion that celebrated both the twisted pleasures of Ashton Kutcher and the hopeless naivete of the former Mouseketeer.
2003: If anybody can make married life interesting, it’s Jessica Simpson, along with her new hubby Nick Lachey. In what has now become the most infamous moment of the show, Jessica isn’t quite able to wrap her young nubile mind around a can of tuna fish. The can, which proclaimed tuna as “the chicken of the sea,” confused her. Tuna: chicken or fish? After a moment of stunned disbelief, her helpful hubby eased her troubled mind by explaining that tuna fish is fish–fish being the key word there.
2003: The opening smooch of the 2003 Video Music Awards sent shockwaves through the cathode ray tubes of anyone with their television sets turned on. A cross-generational, superstar lip-lock on live TV went a seriously long way for the superstar divas. Madonna, clad in her uniquely masculine latex tuxedo, embraced Britney and Christina–2 innocent girls donned in their own white wedding dresses–and passionately kissed them. Theirs weren’t the only open mouths in the house.
2003: In a fit of CGI-induced mania, Frodo’s traveling buddy from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers lost his mind during his acceptance speech at the MTV Movie Awards on May 31. After beating out stiff competition from Kangaroo Jack, Yoda and Scooby-Doo, the slithery virtual Gollum won the award for Best Virtual Performance. In an apparent battle with his alter ego Smeagol, Gollum delivered an expletive-riddled diatribe against his co-stars, MTV and his poor, poor competitors. Virtual golden popcorn, it seems, has as much psychotic power as that damn ring.
In early March, MTV News reporter Gideon Yago traded in the comfort of taxis and hot dog vendors in Times Square for the dust and heat of Kuwait City, knowing full well that the region was teetering on the brink of a massive scale invasion. Armed with a camera crew, Gideon found himself inside a nation about to witness the first major war of the 21st century. Gideon made it his duty to find out what was going through the minds of teenagers from around the region. It was a profound, moving experience, for both Gideon and the American public.
2003: Jackass expats Steve-O and Chris Pontius embarked on a quest to explore that special kinship they share with many of the earth’s most notorious creatures. In the premiere episode of their new show Wildboyz, the two stars of low moral caliber decide to brave the cold water and hang out with Jaws himself. The only thing that could make the crazy stunt any funnier was if they were actually ripped to shreds by the sharks. But, we wouldn’t want that to happen now, would we…?
2003 : Time Magazine: Could the Boykin problem really have been a surprise? The remarks that landed Lieut. General William ” Jerry” Boykin in so much trouble last week —his attaching a Christian mission to the war on terrorism—were part of a message he has been delivering in his dress uniform for more than a year. And one signal that these views could trip him up as the man charged with pursuing Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein came only six months ago.