(Part 2) Top products from r/wikipedia

Christopher Guest was pretty meticulous in researching the scenarios that would be improvised by the cast. He talked to a number of bands that told him ridiculous stories of life on the road, many of which made it to the film. Among the bands and scenes?

Uriah Heep - They were actually once booked at an Air Force Base.

Slade - Noddy Holder and Jimmy Lea told Christopher a number of stories from the road that all were embellished for the film.

They were the band that got lost backstage. Although, in the case of Slade, they were admittedly drunk at the time and couldn't find the door. A nice security guard eventually helped them to the stage.

At a low point in their popularity, they were billed at an amusement park, second to a magician (changed to a puppet show in the movie; and nothing to do with a girlfriend managing the band in real life).

In fact, most of Slade's "low period" of the late 1970s is what inspired Christopher Guest to create Spinal Tap in the first place. For those who don't know, Slade was a heavy rock band that was absolutely huge in Europe in the early 1970s that then found their popularity severely decline after the punk revolution.

This particular scene from Slade's film "Slade In Flame" is what inspired Spinal Tap overall. In the movie, Slade vocalist Noddy Holder is stuck in a casket and can't get out. This was based on a real-life thing that happened to Holder when he sang for another band. The "pod scene" in Spinal Tap came from this.

When Chris discovered that this scene was based on a real-life event, that started the ("are you serious? that REALLY happened?!") conversation and then got the ball rolling for Spinal Tap.

Slade eventually rebounded quite nicely during the Heavy Metal years of the early 80s...but Chris and Mike McKean have said that Slade and their hilariously awkward fall from rock superstars to suddenly "who?" was a big inspiration for Spinal Tap.

See these books for more great and very funny details about Slade in general.

Van Halen - Nigel's rant about the bad deli tray was inspired by Van Halen's demand that only brown M&M's be allowed in their dressing room. This was seen a prima-donna move by VH until David Lee Roth later explained that they specifically requested brown M&Ms only because they wanted to be certain that promoters had read through their entire contract regarding safety requirements. If they arrived and saw anything other than brown M&Ms, they knew that the promoter hadn't read the agreement and then got pissed as the audience might be in danger. Thus, the stories of "VH got pissy and trashed their dressing room because the promoter didn't take the time to provide a big bowl of brown M&Ms" - no, they were mad because their very specific requirements for staging were likely also ignored...and the stage could collapse, endangering thousands of fans. But I digress...

Saxon - Contrary to what others have said in the thread, actually it wasn't Sabbath that inspired "Stonehenge" (their album and the debacle that came with it was released a year after This Is Spinal Tap). It was the British heavy metal band Saxon that inspired the scene.

In this case, it wasn't a Stonehenge set. Vocalist Biff Byford told Chris Guest of a similarly ridiculous story of the band ordering a stage piece (a giant anvil) that was supposed to be dramatically lowered to the stage at a key point in their rocking-out-ness...and they looked behind them only to find a small, foam-like anvil being sheepishly lowered to the stage.

Guest brought the story to the table and during improv, Stonehenge was born. This was Mike McKean's baby as he built the backstory.

But one of my favorite artist reactions to the film was Tom Waits': "I can't fucking watch that movie. It hurts. It's too real."

Source? I'm a huge fan of the movie, Christopher Guest in general and here's an additional one if you're picky.

Turn it up to 11!!

If you like that, check out the book An Exaltation of Larks by James Lipton (yes, the "Inside the Actor's Studio" guy.) that is mentioned on the Wikipedia page. It has a great introduction about these "terms of venery" and some of their origins, a really comprehensive list with illustrations, and Lipton himself even gets into creating new ones. Very cool book.

If you have Amazon Prime, Lore has an excellent episode devoted to the history lobotomies. It's incredibly chilling.

The Professor and the Madman tells the story of one contributor very well. I loved it at least

If this is something you're interested in, I strongly recommend the book The Five Gospels: What Did Jesus Really Say? The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus by Robert Funk.

This is what it was by painted as by Jefferson and this is the history we are stuck with, but the truth is much more complex. I'd recommend reading https://www.amazon.com/dp/0195140559/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_jKJtzbT9DMHZ4

Watching the English is a fantastic read.
Its written like an anthropologist would study cannibals from the jungles of Borneo except it focuses on headhunters from Epsom.

My friend wrote this historical fiction novel about her https://www.amazon.com/Rodins-Lover-Novel-Heather-Webb/dp/0142181757/ref=nodl_

I'm pretty sure this is the actual copy of the mag it was printed in.

I've already presented where to get the evidence you seek. We have the memoirs and diaries of Truman, Marshall and Stimson and other decision makers at the highest levels. We have the minutes of the numerous meetings related to the use of the bomb including those of the White House and other meetings amongst military personnel. We have the numerous meetings related to the invasion of Japan and the consensus that invasion was going to be extremely costly in lives and materials.

The problem here is that because the data doesn't fit your preconceived notion, you don't want to do the research. Get Operation Downfall if for nothing else the bibliography and go find and read the original research material for yourself.

You keep contradicting that the US dropped the bomb on Japan to end the war but haven't presented one shred of evidence to support an alternate theory that would support your hypothesis and explain all of the existing historical evidence that point towards ending the war.

Link to the book https://www.amazon.com/Krakatoa-World-Exploded-August-1883/dp/0060838590

I very much prefer Antony Beevor's Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege: 1942-1943

His book draws on some sources that weren't available to Westerners when Evans wrote Siege, and he's very, very readable.

I looked this guy up on wikipedia and found 4 pages of information written by 14 year olds.

Encyclopedia Brown Tracks Them Down

More specifically, The Case of Smelly Nellie on page 16.

This island is featured in the book "Atlas of Remote Islands" by Judith Schalansky

I had made a companion "book" to it via the Wikipedia service:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Xefer/Books/RemoteIsland

relevant:

http://www.amazon.com/Monkey-Stick-Murder-Madness-Krishnas/dp/0151620865

Winchester also wrote The Meaning of Everything, which discusses more broadly the story of the OED.

http://www.amazon.com/Isle-Passion-Novel-Laura-Restrepo/dp/0060088982

Relevant book : The Triumph of the Fungi: a Rotten History

I'd recommend this read to anyone interested in getting a feel for one of the most horrific episodes of the past century.