Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2014 April 20

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April 20

Was there ever a Vancouver television called UTV and what happened to it?

I can't ever find records of the channel on Google. Venustar84 (talk) 01:56, 20 April 2014 (UTC)

It's still there. For a time, apparently, CKVU-DT in Vancouver was known as U.TV, though it has been rebranded a few times. Now it is known as "CityTV". --Jayron32 02:02, 20 April 2014 (UTC)

I removed your duplicate post on the Computer Desk, as we don't allow posting to more than one desk, and this is the correct Desk, in any case. StuRat (talk) 02:28, 20 April 2014 (UTC)

Sorry I put on computer desk as a mistake. Venustar84 (talk) 02:33, 20 April 2014 (UTC)

No problem. Can we mark this Q resolved ? StuRat (talk) 02:38, 20 April 2014 (UTC)

Yes. Thank you for explaining. Venustar84 (talk) 05:19, 20 April 2014 (UTC)

Resolved

If Grease_(musical) is set in California or Chicago in the musical except for Sandy and Cha-Cha why does everyone have Italian-American new England accents?

I wonder........... Venustar84 (talk) 05:32, 20 April 2014 (UTC)

That type of accent, or any big-city accent, is often used to stereotype "tough-guy talk". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 07:33, 20 April 2014 (UTC)

The high schoolers in the musical could be imitating the accents and slang that they picked up listening to 1950s do-wop records, the same way that today's kids mimic hip hop slang. OttawaAC (talk) 14:20, 20 April 2014 (UTC)

• The film is definitely set in California. Venice High School (Los Angeles) was used as Rydell High, and the Los Angeles River was the site of the famous car race at the climax of the film. The play is set in the Chicago area; the accents would be those of Chicago. The characters broadly speak in the Inland Northern American English dialect which features the Northern Cities Vowel Shift. Their accent sounds nothing like Italian New Englanders do; prominent Italian communities in New England include Boston's North End and Providence's Federal Hill. None of the characters sound like they come from there. Both Providence and Boston and other areas of Eastern New England use New England English broadly speaking. --Jayron32 20:04, 20 April 2014 (UTC)

The film might have been shot in Los Angeles, but it is set in the mythical land of Generic 1950s America. I don't think they were going for geographic/accent accuracy. --Nicknack009 (talk) 21:11, 20 April 2014 (UTC)

Still, the Los Angeles River is a bit of a distinctive set. It doesn't exist in Mythical Generic anywhere. It's quite a non-generic landmark of Los Angeles. --Jayron32 21:31, 20 April 2014 (UTC)

Maybe so, but films do things like that. I remember a film called Nothing Personal, which was set in my home town of Belfast. A prominent location in the film, which appears on the DVD case as seen in the Wikipedia article, is the Ringsend Gasworks, a distinctive location in Dublin (since converted into flats). I recognised it, as would anyone with a passing knowledge of Dublin, but I wouldn't expect you to. Likewise, I wouldn't know the Los Angeles River from another river in another American city. --Nicknack009 (talk) 22:56, 20 April 2014 (UTC)

Filmmakers often try to conceal where they're filming on location unless the setting is important to the plot in some way. Locals will recognize a scene, of course, but the broader audience might not. Thanks to information sharing via the internet and the availability of home video, details of films can be studied much more closely, leading to the publication of books about topics such as production mistakes and locations. One thing about the LA River, once you know what it looks like it becomes pretty obvious when it shows up again. It's no longer a conventional river, it's basically a concrete-lined, very wide drainage ditch. Most of the time the water is a trickle at best. But when heavy rains send a torrent down from the hills, the reason for its design becomes obvious. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 04:00, 21 April 2014 (UTC)

Billy Joel's "Only the Good Die Young"

Origin of the term? And the meaning seems to have a few different interpretations, any solid data on what it originally meant? ^{Market St.⧏} _{⧐ Diamond Way} 08:54, 20 April 2014 (UTC)

UPDATE, in googling the lyrics I see a dynamic ad pop up on the first search result . . . for nuvaring. Seems that Adsense really is achieving AI status! ^{Market St.⧏} _{⧐ Diamond Way} 08:58, 20 April 2014 (UTC)

"He whom the gods love dies young" was a popular Roman expression. It was originally a line in the play Bacchides by Plautus.[1]

The meaning in that instance was that being fortunate enough to die young meant never degenerating into a crotchety old timer. Dying while young, beautiful, and full of potential makes people remember the deceased as someone in their prime. I think Billy Joel was playing with the meaning of the expression--the girl who's the subject of his song was missing out on life by shutting it out in favour of religion, so by trying to be "good" she in effect "dies young". OttawaAC (talk) 14:15, 20 April 2014 (UTC)

A common meaning (and the one BJ was referencing) is that life is unfair; the good are taken from us too soon, while the bad stick around. (Which could mean that we in the Great White North will be apologizing for this lad for a long, long time.) Clarityfiend (talk) 02:46, 21 April 2014 (UTC)

Thank you a million OttawaAC, and appreciation on that Clarityfiend. Perhaps Bieber might redeem himself yet! ^{Market St.⧏} _{⧐ Diamond Way} 12:01, 21 April 2014 (UTC)

• There's also the confirmation bias that those who die young haven't lived long enough (often) to disappoint us. I think, however, in this case Ottawa's interpretation is best. μηδείς (talk) 16:56, 21 April 2014 (UTC)

The title is a reference to the proverbial saying "the good die young," which the Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable says goes back to the late 17th century; the possibly related phrase, "he whom the gods love dies young," is much older. Historically it was simply a way of complimenting someone who died young, although it was often used ironically. In the song, the singer is saying "only the good die young" as part of his unsuccessful attempt to persuade a chaste Catholic girl to have sex with him. I understand the singer to mean that Virginia should not worry about the consequences, because it is only the good and chaste who die young, but perhaps OttawaAC better captures the singer's argument. Of course, if my interpretation is correct, then the singer's statement is not accurate, but horny teenage boys and young men are not necessarily noted for their accuracy. John M Baker (talk) 20:25, 22 April 2014 (UTC)

website showing old uniforms NBA

Is there a website that shows the old uniforms of all NBA teams from 1970 to 1999? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.31.22.245 (talk) 14:37, 20 April 2014 (UTC)

I found This website which looks like an ambitious start on the subject, but sadly it looks like they haven't gotten too far. This site as well seems to have gotten farther, but it isn't complete. Here is another partial database. Chris Creamer's well-known sports logo website is probably your best bet. If you click on each team name, and page down, it appears to have a complete set of every team's uniform. But I haven't checked every one. --Jayron32 19:55, 20 April 2014 (UTC)