How NASA led me to watch a 1946 Christmas classic.

NASA. Yes, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration – the only agency in the world (or I guess, the entire universe, if you’re a strong refuter of extraterrestrial life) capable of polluting outer worldly bodies. For now at least, unless the North Koreans decide to send Kim Jong-un to Mars before the Americans do. That dude’s sure to take a piss around the crater he lands in, to mark his territory of course.

Back to my point; it was NASA which led me to watch a 1946 Oscar-nominated Christmas classic. The long, winding & fascinating story of the path that ensued is written below. Ok, that maybe a slight exaggeration, but it’s fascinating nonetheless. 

What?

The movie in question stars the classy Oscar-winning James Stewart (fondly referred to as “Jimmy Stewart”) and the sexy Oscar-winning Donna Reed (fondly referred to as “Donna Reed” – yes I know, her ‘fond’ name is the same as her real name, but if people were not fond of her real name, they’ve had changed it like than did with that Jimmy character, noh?). It’s a movie that’s featured in the all-time IMDbTop 250 list, ranking inside the top 30. It’s a movie that was directed by the 3-time Oscar winning director, Frank Capra (remember this name, it’s important you do – at least till you finish reading this post, which I know you will want to, because it’s so fascinating, this story, I mean my story, not the story in the movie, I mean, yes, the story in the movie is also truly fascinating, but this post is about MY STORY DAMMIT!). It’s a movie that was nominated for 5 Oscars. Gah, ok, just go Google it already, I know you’re itching to. Go find the name of the movie yourself. If you’re lazy, you’ll just have to deal with the curiosity (ooh, remember this word also, important!) because you won’t find the name of the movie in this post – trust me, I know, because I wrote this.

How?

It all started (and ended) on the internet (duh! Where else can you find so much information in one place ah?). Well, to be more specific, it started on Twitter. I happen to occasionally logon to Twitter to see what’s going on (only like once every 25 seconds – that’s “occasional” in my books, it’s a fast moving world see.) And I also happen to follow the official Twitter handle of the Mars Curiosity (see, I told you this word was important!). Also, can someone please explain to me why it’s called a “Twitter handle” and not a “Twitter account”, it just keeps reminding me of love handles (sigh, I sound so deprived).

This one time (at band-camp), the Mars Curiosity tweeted something about how the polluted mess on the surface of Mars is moving around and how some gizmo rotating around the red planet has managed to capture it in sequence on film (or whatever they use up in space to capture this stuff). Also, they try to make us think that the Mars Curiosity is actually tweeting stuff from the surface of Mars on its own. Hahahaha. Yeah right! I never believed it. Anyway, so this captured sequence of the earthly-garbage moving around on Mars was all compiled into a nice little GIF animation by the guys at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

This led me to Wikipedia the JPL (for like the billionth time in the last 10 years, because the JPL is just so awesomely cool I think!!!). And the wiki on JPL led me to the wiki on the California Institute of Technology (Caltech, as it’s commonly known). And the Caltech wiki went on to boast about how “17 alumni and 14 non-alumni faculty have won the Nobel Prize” (like, whoa! I know right?). I wasted no time in pulling up the Notable Alumni list of the Caltech. This happens to be a very impressive list of some awesome people who’ve done some awesome things.

So there I was, scrolling through this list of awesome people, and I come right down to the last section of the list (which is Arts – people who went to do awesome things in the field of arts). And there he was. Frank Capra. See, I told you this name was important. Listed simply as a “film director…” my inquisitive wiki-ing continued. Frank Capra, who happened to be a Caltech chemical engineering graduate, went onto make some brilliant motion pictures I learned. One of them happened to be the movie this post is about (no, I’m not going to mention the name, go find out ok!!! Why do I have to do all the work every time?). This led to more Googling, more wiki-ing, more IMDb-ing and I finally ended up watching this 2-hour classic 1946 Christmas black and white motion picture, right off YouTube, in High Definition! (And no, I’m not posting the YouTube link for the full-length movie here, go find it, it’s not so difficult!)

That’s how NASA led me to watch a 1946 Christmas classic, and I loved it. The movie I mean. And I’m currently on a classic movie spree. They don’t make them like they used to anymore.

Why?

Because I had plenty of time on my hands? Because my thirst for knowledge (and any old piece of information) cannot seem to be contained? Because anything related to outer-world things fascinate me? Most of all, because I’ve always had a soft-spot for good classic black and white movies, ever since I watched Casablanca (probably the most romantic movie of all time, or is it?). There’s just something about the way they used to speak back in the old times. The language, the expressions, the idioms and the swear words. They sure had a swell time just kicking it.

Well, what do you know about that!