Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for November 17, 2021

  1. Img 0910
    BE THIS GUY  almost 3 years ago

    Calvin, they point the cannon at you…

     •  Reply
  2. Missing large
    codycab  almost 3 years ago

    Calvin might enjoy “Fantasia”.

     •  Reply
  3. B986e866 14d0 4607 bdb4 5d76d7b56ddb
    Templo S.U.D.  almost 3 years ago

    When originally played in Pyotr’s day, did they ignite cannons without the cannon balls?

     •  Reply
  4. Cane immagine animata 0071
    Renatus Profuturus Frigeridus Premium Member almost 3 years ago

    Calvin, your ignorance is Pathètique.

     •  Reply
  5. Badger 4 360
    sirbadger  almost 3 years ago

    The important question is “Why aren’t there more songs with cannons?”

     •  Reply
  6. 290px wow signal
    ImDaRealAni  almost 3 years ago

    Now, wasn’t this technically the Romantic era? :)

     •  Reply
  7. Brain guy dancing hg clr
    Concretionist  almost 3 years ago

    I’ve been part of a high school “symphonic band” that performed it (transcription for winds) inside. No cannons. I’ve seen it performed WITH cannons, but it was outside. Honestly: The cannons were better than the Tympani.

     •  Reply
  8. Ava2
    C  almost 3 years ago

    Cannon sometimes, cannon balls, not so much

     •  Reply
  9. Th 9
    Count Olaf Premium Member almost 3 years ago

    How about opera, Calvin? Verdi’s “Il Trovatore” with The Anvil Chorus? Cool beans, me lad.

     •  Reply
  10. Eveningledger connie
    Johnny Q Premium Member almost 3 years ago

    Some people think the 1812 Overture is overrated, but I like it.

     •  Reply
  11. Beaker
    Bullet Bronson Premium Member almost 3 years ago

    And don’t forget Pachelbel’s Cannon. Oh, wait, that’s Pachelbel’s Canon. Never mind.

     •  Reply
  12. Cutiger
    rentier  almost 3 years ago

    You must hear Anton Bruckner! This never is boring!!

     •  Reply
  13. Snake on a hat 2003
    BigDaveGlass  almost 3 years ago

    Love the carpet….

     •  Reply
  14. Toad
    fred.grenouille  almost 3 years ago

    And just how does a stuffed tiger know so much about 19th century Russian classical music?

     •  Reply
  15. Rabbi sammy final
    pauljmsn  almost 3 years ago

    I love the 1812 Overture.

    Every year, during the Wichita River Festival, there is a Pops Concert, playing orchestral versions of popular music. The quality of the selections varies; I almost walked out the year they presented a medley of music from Beverly Hills Cop II – but I stuck it out, because they traditionally end each concert with an impressive rendition of the 1812 Overture, complete with cannons and nearby church bells. I used to attend the festival every year, just to attend the concert because I loved listening to the 1812 Overture, from beginning to end, sound effects and all.

    Until they messed with it.

    I’d skipped going to the festival for a time, due to money worries and life drama, and I finally attended the concert after an absence of several years, to discover that they had shortened the Pops Concert by an hour or so, and they played an ABRIDGED version of the 1812 Overture! Instead of beginning at the slow, easy beginning, they just skipped to the buildup to the boffo finish, likely to save time.

    BLASPHEMY!!

    I quit attending the River Festival after that.

     •  Reply
  16. Large oliy hare
    PaulAbbott2  almost 3 years ago

    I got a lot of my classical music love from cartoons. The Rabbit of Seville (gee, where have seen that), Bugs playing Franz Liszt in Rhapsody Rabbit, etc

     •  Reply
  17. Missing large
    AlanM  almost 3 years ago

    I, my wife, and daughter experienced a performance of the 1812 Overture by the Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Music Center (an outdoor venue in Ohio) that used French period cannons much like the composer, Tchaikovsky, wrote it.

    Seriously impressive.

     •  Reply
  18. Avatar 2475
    Troglodyte  almost 3 years ago

    Imagine an entire theatre as a boom box! :D

     •  Reply
  19. Missing large
    dflak  almost 3 years ago

    A friend of mine who was a U.S. Military Academy graduate told me that he played lead cannon in the 1812 overture. Yes, he really did! Some production company wanted an authentic sound and West Point had the closest thing to artillery of the era.

    They also fire them off whenever Army makes a score in football.

     •  Reply
  20. Missing large
    dflak  almost 3 years ago

    When I was a kid in the 1950’s, TV stations played cartoons, some from the 1920’s and 1930’s (silent movies). They played classical music as the background. I actually got to like some pieces.

     •  Reply
  21. Little b
    Dani Rice  almost 3 years ago

    I wanted the 1812 Overture for my funeral processional (it is quite appropriate!) but there was some quibble about the live cannons in church.

     •  Reply
  22. Missing large
    mckeonfuneralhomebx  almost 3 years ago

    Wait for the William Tell Overture, He will want a Horse!

     •  Reply
  23. Neuman
    rmercer Premium Member almost 3 years ago

    This is the cereal that shot from guns!

     •  Reply
  24. Fb img 1516982044221
    jagedlo  almost 3 years ago

    Just seeing the look of fascination in Calvin’s eyes!

     •  Reply
  25. Boston
    MS72  almost 3 years ago

    The Boston Pops always played this on July 4th, outdoors at the Hatch Shell. Real cannons, too.

    Wikipedia, “Their performance of “The Stars and Stripes Forever” is famous for the unfurling of the American flag that occurs as the song enters its final moments”

     •  Reply
  26. Santa refueling
    Sportymonk  almost 3 years ago

    Hi HO Silver and AWAYYYYY!!! Who was that masked man. Why everybody knows that was the Looone Ranger.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XSwVNBeNFw

     •  Reply
  27. Pc200099
    assrdood  almost 3 years ago

    Nobody has mentioned “Caddyshack” yet?

     •  Reply
  28. Citizens for a canadian republic
    A Hip loving Canadian...  almost 3 years ago

    The hiss and the little pops of the turntable also adds to the listening experience. Interestingly, vinyl is having a mini-comeback moment.

     •  Reply
  29. Panda 2024
    Redd Panda  almost 3 years ago

    ?? That’s the Quaker Oats’ music. Everybody knows that.

     •  Reply
  30. Morning cuppa
    Wizard of Ahz-no relation  almost 3 years ago

    Expose him to Wagner and tell him about the helicopters.

     •  Reply
  31. Profile msn
    vaughnrl2003 Premium Member almost 3 years ago

    I prefer the Myth Busters Symphony in C4 Major. It’s all about the bass.

     •  Reply
  32. Myavatar
    AmissaSada  almost 3 years ago

    This is my favorite Calvin & Hobbes strip, ever.

     •  Reply
  33. Pic2 2
    Amra Leo  almost 3 years ago

    On July 4th, the Colorado Springs Orchestra (usually, not last year) plays the 1812 Overture with cannon accompaniment from Ft. Carson for the fireworks display…

     •  Reply
  34. Missing large
    gantech  almost 3 years ago

    During a production of Henry VIII, a canon was fired backstage, which touched off the burning of the Globe theatre in 1613. I bet Calvin would have loved that.

     •  Reply
  35. Nate10
    BiggerNate91  almost 3 years ago

    Seeing a record player in 2021 really feels different now.

     •  Reply
  36. Missing large
    old_geek  almost 3 years ago

    DRD 1812 was quite useful.

     •  Reply
  37. Booby
    Snolep  almost 3 years ago

    Armorer assures cold cannons.

     •  Reply
  38. April 2017 phone pictures 182  2
    jannichols2000  almost 3 years ago

    1812 Overture was great to play on the kettle drums! Boom boom booooom!

     •  Reply
  39. Missing large
    Calvinist1966  almost 3 years ago

    On Monday I expressed the view that Calvin and Hobbes are a lot like Bill and Tom Watterson as kids. Someone reminded me that Bill Watterson claimed in his tenth anniversary collection that he was much quieter than Calvin and “in some ways the direct opposite of Calvin”. That is true but Watterson also claims that some of the strips reflect on his own childhood. The GROSS club is based on a club between Watterson and the boy next door. Other strips such as those with Calvin and Hobbes sharing a bedroom seem to have been inspired by memories of himself and his brother. He certainly claims that the camping trips were based on those of his childhood so Hobbes is certainly representing Tom Watterson there.

     •  Reply
  40. Tink
    snowedin, now known as Missy's mom  almost 3 years ago

    This is the cereal that’s shot from guns! Anyone remember that?

     •  Reply
  41. Plsa button
    Richard S Russell Premium Member almost 3 years ago

    Live cannons in a concert hall would be a stretch, but at an outdoor football stadium — with fireworks to boot — it’s magical.

    I’m kind of surprised that nobody has mentioned Beethoven’s Battle Symphony, Opus 91, “Wellington’s Victory”. It was prominently featured as the B side on an album I appreciated as a young man, called “Booming Smash”.

     •  Reply
  42. 2800445 269420 c248507ab7 m
    smsrt  almost 3 years ago

    Ever think about how baby boomers learned the wonders of the worlds most beautiful symphonic music? Disney’s Fantasia and Warner Bros. Bugs Bunny were huge contributors for making music fun!

     •  Reply
  43. Zakwolfoutdoors
    wiley207  almost 3 years ago

    Heck, even Springfield Elementary School’s band incorporated real cannons into their performance of the “1812 Overture”!

     •  Reply
  44. Missing large
    rroush Premium Member almost 3 years ago

    I saw the Pittsburgh Symphony play the 1812 many years ago in the old Three Rivers Stadium complete with an array of cannons in the outfield and a marching band. When they started firing those cannons, the entire stadium shook. I’m sure they wouldn’t have been using full powder charges, so you have to wonder what real warfare must be like. Deafening, no doubt.

     •  Reply
  45. Missing large
    kathleenhicks62  almost 3 years ago

    1812 is great.

     •  Reply
  46. Iroh
    jim_pem  almost 3 years ago

    It’s not really classical music; it’s romantic music. And no, Calvin, it’s not boring. In the Marines, we would do this every 4th of July and use Howitzers. Our instrument tech had been in artillery and knew how to time his fire commands so that the audience heard the blasts from the canons at the right time in the music.

     •  Reply
  47. Missing large
    oldlady07 Premium Member almost 3 years ago

    During the Vietnam era I attended an outdoor performance of the 1812 Overture, with the local military howitzers. The conductor reminded us that it was written to celebrate the end of a war. When the cannons started the crowd of several thousand stood up and cheered and screamed and nearly drowned out the cannons. The conductor asked if anyone would like a repeat of the end, we all loudly agreed and we drowned out the cannons again.

     •  Reply
  48. Missing large
    schaefer jim  almost 3 years ago

    Some classical music is great and some will put you to sleep. Now if my old and feeble mind is correct, the 1812 overture was a theme song for The Lone Ranger.

     •  Reply
  49. Missing large
    tauyen  almost 3 years ago

    the Marche Slav is right up there

     •  Reply
  50. Missing large
    Ukko wilko  almost 3 years ago

    I “played” that percussion in the 1812 Overture… firing .30-06 blanks into a garbage can. (They fully understood the extent of my musical abilities.)

     •  Reply
  51. Giant tuba
    musicnut1986  almost 3 years ago

    I played the tuba in high school. When we played the 1812 Overture I always came close to passing out from hyperventilating when playing the last part of the song which consisted of running eighth notes played at fortissimo (which means playing as loud as you can).

     •  Reply
  52. Plsa button
    Richard S Russell Premium Member almost 3 years ago

    One of the many many sins that history will lay at the grave of the Soviet Union is that it denied the Russian people access to their greatest composer, Piotr Ilyich Tschaikovsky, simply because he had built the czarist national anthem into so much of his music.

     •  Reply
  53. Greg backlit
    mindjob  almost 3 years ago

    Somewhere, some symphony is using synthesizers to make the cannon sounds.

     •  Reply
  54. Death from above reduced size
    donwestonmysteries  almost 3 years ago

    Lock up the cannons.

     •  Reply
  55.                             ykdjq2nfdq
    GG_loves_comics Premium Member almost 3 years ago

    Not boring at all. You haven’t lived until you hear it outside with real howitzers.

     •  Reply
  56. Beaker
    Bullet Bronson Premium Member almost 3 years ago

    I remember a TV broadcast from, I believe, the ‘60s (it was in black and white) of a concert that ended with the 1812 Overture. Instead of cannons they used shotguns backstage. When it was time to fire the “cannons” they switched to a camera backstage showing a couple of guys firing the guns into a mattress. What they didn’t realize was that shotgun shells don’t use smokeless powder. When they switched back to the onstage camera I could see smoke wafting into the orchestra from backstage.

     •  Reply
  57. Ray helvy
    Ray Helvy Premium Member almost 3 years ago

    Calvin, all the best Warner Brothers cartoons had classical music. You like classical music better than you know!

     •  Reply
  58. Missing large
    globalenterprize1990  almost 3 years ago

    Richard Wagner’s Ride off the Valkyrie.

     •  Reply
  59. Missing large
    globalenterprize1990  almost 3 years ago

    The William Tell Overture and The Lone Ranger.

     •  Reply
  60. Missing large
    globalenterprize1990  almost 3 years ago

    toccata and fugue in d minor, J.S. Bach

     •  Reply
  61. Missing large
    Otis Rufus Driftwood  almost 3 years ago

    I think they only do that at outdoor concerts anymore.

     •  Reply
  62. Pog
    POGGERS {person}  almost 3 years ago

    BAM BAM BAM!

     •  Reply
Sign in to comment

More From Calvin and Hobbes