Nathan Francis
Passionate about #Art and #Culture.
UK
Interested in #Arts #Comedy #Film #History #Literature #Philosophy #Tech
- 🦁📸 A shortlist of 24 images has been selected for the #wildlife #photographer of the year people’s choice award. You can vote for your favourite image online. #Nature #Photography www.theguardian.com/environment/...
- On the Future of Species by #AdrianWoolfson #Book #Review – are we on the verge of creating synthetic life? A #genomic entrepreneur’s guide to the coming revolution in #biology raises troubling questions about #ethics and safety #Science #Nature www.theguardian.com/books/2026/f...
- "Drop the 'The.' Just 'Facebook.' It's cleaner." (Sean Parker, The Social Network) 💻 #OTD in #Tech #History 4 February 2004, #MarkZuckerberg launched the #socialmedia site "TheFacebook," originally located at thefacebook.com, from his Harvard dorm room.
- "No matter how many books you read, there is something in this world that you never ever ever ever ever f**king understand." 🎞️ #OTD in #Film #History 4 February 1994, #MikeLeigh's superb dark drama NAKED, starring an unforgettable #DavidThewlis, opened wide across 🇺🇸
- "Long live the new flesh!" 📼 #OTD in #Film #History 4 February 1983, #DavidCronenberg's surreal media #horror VIDEODROME, starring #JamesWoods and #DeborahHarry, was released in 🇨🇦
- "Now here I go again, I see the crystal visions I keep my visions to myself..." 📀 #OTD in #Music #History 4 February 1977, #FleetwoodMac released their 11th studio album RUMOURS on Warner Bros. It is one of the best-selling records ever. ▶️ youtu.be/mrZRURcb1cM
- "I can assure you that you will all do your duty." 🇺🇸 #OTD in #Film #History 4 Feb 1970, #FranklinJSchaffner's Best Picture Oscar-winning PATTON, starring #GeorgeCScott, who refused his Best Actor Oscar, premiered in New York. Famous opening speech: ▶️ youtu.be/PS5yfhPGaWE
- "You are a Queen. Let mine be the joy of giving you your kingdom." 📖 #OTD in the #History of #Literature 4 Feb 1922, #KatherineMansfield's short story "The Garden Party" was first published in 3 parts, 4 to 11 February, in the Saturday Westminster Gazette.
- "History, like love, is so apt to surround her heroes with an atmosphere of imaginary brightness." 200th Anniversary 📖 #OTD in #Literature 4 February 1826, #JamesFenimoreCooper's classic historical romance "The Last of the Mohicans" was published by H.C. Carey & I. Lea in 🇺🇸
- 🇺🇸 🦅 #OTD in #History 4 February 1789, #GeorgeWashington was unanimously elected as the first President of the United States by the U.S. Electoral College.
- 🕯 #OTD in #History 4 Feb 1555, reformer and Bible translator #JohnRogers became the first Protestant martyr during the reign of #QueenMary of England, when he was burned at the stake for heresy at Smithfield, London.
- “From my viewpoint, I feel very strange in real life. I hear this all the time, that I’m just a regular guy and stuff, but I don’t think it’s true. They just don’t know me." 🎤 Lead singer of American #punk band #TheCramps, #LuxInterior passed away #OTD 4 February 2009
- 🎨 Great American animator #MyronWaldman, a legend at #FleischerStudio, passed away #OTD 4 February 2006. #Art #Animation #Cartoons
- "Any form of #art is a form of power; it has impact, it can affect change - it can not only move us, it makes us move." 🎭 #OssieDavis, African American actor, director, author, and #CivilRights activist, #DOTD 4 February 2005. #Film #Filmmaking
- "The sensual shock must be just as forceful as when one hears a clap of thunder or looks into a bottomless abyss." 🎶 Revolutionary composer, #music theorist, and architect #IannisXenakis passed away #OTD 4 Feb 2001. Hear "Metastaseis" (1954): ▶️ youtu.be/SZazYFchLRI
- “My imagination functions much better when I don't have to speak to people.” ✒ #PatriciaHighsmith passed away #OTD 4 February 1995. #Literature
- "Make it simple to last your whole life long. Don't worry that it's not enough for anyone else to hear. Just sing, sing a song." 🎤 #KarenCarpenter passed away #OTD 4 February 1983. ▶️ youtu.be/SJmmaIGiGBg?si…
- "I think of Dean Moriarty." ✒️ Member of the #BeatGeneration, 'Dean Moriarty' in #JackKerouac's "OnTheRoad", bus driver for #KenKesey's acid-tripping 'Merry Pranksters' and writer, #NealCassady passed away #OTD 4 February 1968, walking alone alongside a railroad track.
- “The neighbors are scary enough when they're not dead.” 🎬 #Horror maestro #GeorgeARomero ("Night of the Living Dead"), was #BOTD 4 February 1940. #Film #Filmmaking
- "We need myths to get by. We need story; otherwise the tremendous randomness of experience overwhelms us. Story is what penetrates." ✒ Remembering American novelist and scholar #RobertCoover, #BOTD 4 February 1932. #Literature #Writing
- "Ageing is not 'lost youth' but a new stage of opportunity and strength." ✒️ #BettyFriedan, American #feminist and writer ("The Feminine Mystique"), was #BOTD 4 February 1921. Friedan also passed away on her 85th birthday. #Feminism #Literature
- "I'm mad, they say. I am temperamental and dizzy and disagreeable. Well, let them talk. I can take it. Only one person can hurt me. Her name is Ida Lupino." 🎬 Pioneering filmmaker and actress #IdaLupino was #BOTD 4 February 1918. #Acting #Film #Filmmaking
- "I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear." 🚍 #CivilRights icon #RosaParks was #BOTD 4 February 1913.
- “Man needs colour to live; it's just as necessary an element as fire and water.” 🎨 #FernandLéger, French painter, was #BOTD 4 February 1881. #Art #Painting
- "One may live without bread, not without roses." ✒️ French poet, novelist, and dramatist #JeanRichepin was #BOTD 4 February 1849. #Poetry #Literature #Theatre
- "It is useless to send armies against ideas." ✒ Danish literary critic and scholar #GeorgBrandes was #BOTD 4 February 1842. #Literature
- #MarwanBarghouti, ‘Palestine’s Mandela’, to publish #book from prison Unbroken: In Pursuit of Freedom for #Palestine is a collection of writings by the Palestinian political leader, who has been held in Israeli prisons since 2002 #Politics #Literature www.theguardian.com/books/2026/f...
- #AshesAndDiamonds #Review – #Poland faces bleak postwar realities in #AndrzejWajda’s 1958 masterpiece In Wajda’s 1958 #film the war’s end, far from being a cause for celebration, marks a crisis of identity for Poland www.theguardian.com/film/2026/fe...
- 🚔 #OTD in #History 3 Feb 1971, #NewYork cop #FrankSerpico was shot in the face during a drug bust. He survived to testify against police corruption in the city and was immortalised by #AlPacino in the 1973 film #Serpico.
- "You're a big man, but you're out of shape. With me, it's a full-time job. So behave yourself." 55th Anniversary 📽 #OTD in #Film #History 3 Feb 1971, #MikeHodge's hard-edged revenge thriller GET CARTER, starring Sir #MichaelCaine, premiered in LA. ▶️ youtu.be/0HwdJ7jxGj8
- "I like lots of things. But there are three things I like most. Love, love and love.” 🎞 #OTD in #Film #History 3 February 1960, #FedericoFellini's classic LA DOLCE VITA, starring #MarcelloMastroianni and #AnitaEkberg, premiered in #Rome, Italy.
- #TheDayTheMusicDied 🎶 #OTD in #Music #History 3 February 1959, a tragic plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, killed rock and roll stars #BuddyHolly, #RichieValens, "The Big Bopper" #JPRichardson, and the pilot, Roger Peterson.
- "You only had my interest before. Now you have my admiration." 🎞 #OTD in #Film #History 3 February 1932, #JosefvonSternberg's superb noir "Shanghai Express", starring #MarleneDietrich, #CliveBrook and #AnnaMayWong, premiered in Los Angeles.
- "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." ✒️ #OTD in the #History of #Literature 3 February 1863, #SamuelClemens first used his now famous nom de plume #MarkTwain while writing for the Territorial Enterprise in Virginia City, Nevada.
- "Language can only deal meaningfully with a special, restricted segment of reality. The rest, and it is presumably the much larger part, is silence." ✒ #GeorgeSteiner, French and American literary critic and educator, #DOTD 3 February 2020. #Arts #Humanities #Literature
- "The films are a roadmap through emotional and intellectual terrain that provides a solution on how to save pain." 🎬 Great American actor, filmmaker, and screenwriter #JohnCassavettes passed away #OTD 3 February 1989. #Film #Filmmaking #Screenwriting
- "I'm Anna May Wong. I come from old #HongKong. But now I'm a #Hollywood star." 🎭 Chinese-American #film star #AnnaMayWong passed away #OTD 3 February 1961. #Filmmaking
- 🎨 #JohnButlerYeats, Irish painter and illustrator, #DOTD 3 February 1922. The second image is a portrait of his son, #WBYeats. #Art #Painting.
- "Human nature is a mystic duality, half animal, half angel; a worm, a God; and the contrast and strife between the two natures is never so marked as in the gifted." ✒️ Irish nationalist and poet (wrote as "Speranza"), mother to #OscarWilde, Lady #JaneWilde #DOTD 3 Feb 1896.
- "A great lie is like a great fish on dry land; it may fret and fling and make a frightful bother, but it cannot hurt you. You have only to keep still, and it will die of itself." www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/george... ✒ #GeorgeCrabbe, English poet, #DOTD 3 February 1832. #Poetry #Literature
- "A spring of truth shall flow from it: like a new star it shall scatter the darkness of ignorance, and cause a light heretofore unknown to shine amongst men." 📖 #JohannesGutenberg, German publisher and printing press trailblazer, #DOTD 3 February 1468. #Publishing #Literature
- "Police work wouldn't be possible without coffee," Wallander said. "No work would be possible without coffee." They pondered the importance of coffee in silence." ✒ Remembering Swedish writer #HenningMankell, author of the #Wallander novels, #BOTD 3 February 1948. #Literature
- "You can't put your feet on the ground until you've touched the sky." Poems: www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/paul-a... ✒ Remembering #PaulAuster, American author, poet, and director, #BOTD 3 February 1947. #Poetry #Literature #Film
- "I have a very simple definition of a good movie: a good movie makes you forget you're watching a movie." 🎬 Remembering American filmmaker #MichaelCimino, director of "The Deer Hunter," #BOTD 3 February 1939. #Film #Filmmaking
- "My reputation was such that managers didn’t f*ck with me. I had the trust of the artist. I would work with them and they knew I wouldn’t f*ck around or do anything they didn’t like.” 📸 Great American photographer #JimMarshall was #BOTD 3 February 1936. #Photography
- "I can remember women saying that they wanted to give up their lives for their boyfriend, who was a great artist. I was always very ratty if there was any of that sort of thing." 🎨 English abstract artist #GillianAyres was #BOTD 3 February 1930. #Art #Painting
