There is freedom within, there is freedom without
Try to catch the deluge in a paper cup
There's a battle ahead, many battles are lost
But you'll never see the end of the road
While you're travelling with me
Hey now, hey now
Don't dream it's over
Hey now, hey now
When the world comes in
They come, they come
To build a wall between us
We know they won't win
Now I'm towing my car, there's a hole in the roof
My possessions are causing me suspicion but there's no proof
In the paper today tales of war and of waste
But you turn right over to the tv page
Hey now, hey now
Don't dream it's over
Hey now, hey now
When the world comes in
They come, they come
To build a wall between us
We know they won't win
Now I'm walking again to the beat of a drum
And I'm counting the steps to the door of your heart
Only the shadows ahead barely clearing the roof
Get to know the feeling of liberation and relief
Hey now, hey now
Don't dream it's over
Hey now, hey now
When the world comes in
They come, they come
To build a wall between us
We know they won't win
Don't ever let them win...
0 Replies
edgarblythe
1
Reply
Thu 29 Jun, 2006 05:12 am
Go No More A-Roving
Dedicated to Irving Layton.
Words by Lord Byron (1788-1824), music by Leonard Cohen.
So we'll go no more a-roving
So late into the night,
Though the heart be still as loving,
And the moon be still as bright.
For the sword outwears its sheath,
And the soul outwears the breast,
And the heart must pause to breathe,
And love itself have rest.
Though the night was made for loving,
And the day returns too soon,
Yet we'll go no more a-roving
By the light of the moon.
0 Replies
Letty
1
Reply
Thu 29 Jun, 2006 06:30 am
and good morning, WA2K listeners and contributors.
Not to worry, hbg, there will always be a song here on our little radio.
dj, WOW. Thank you so much, Canada, for the plethora of music. You are really an endless well spring of delight. <smile>
Well, there's our Australian butterfly; our Texas writer, and our lovely Eva.
First, coffee, then back for a closer listen.
0 Replies
Ellinas
1
Reply
Thu 29 Jun, 2006 06:35 am
A mythology inspired song. Letty, you will recognise the story I believe .
In the past old times, when humanity did not have fire,
the people of the deep caves did not knew the craft of the plough.
But a Sunday morning, a solemn day, the bellows got full of blessed air!
The giant came with a torch in his hand;
He dropped light in the caves and joy to the humans!
Come on! .
The coppices caught in fire and the metals finally bowed down.
The land ploughed nicely and the plants gave fruit.
The giant was arrested early in the morning, and they were now taking him,
At Caucasus it dawned, three birds passed that moment.
My passer-by birds, what do you see down in the mountain paths?
What the giant is carrying in his shoulders?
Opa! .
The blacksmith is going first, with the hammer in his hand.
The locksmith follows, like a spouse of his loneliness.
The bitterest, shortest and toughest of the three is going last.
He is the one carrying the kit. He is laughing but he is not talking!
They pinned the giant at the rock of Caucasus!
Three birds passed by and told to him: "Just think".
Shame!....
0 Replies
Francis
1
Reply
Thu 29 Jun, 2006 06:48 am
Tender is the night - Jackson Browne
(Brown are the stones)
Between the darkness on the street
And the houses filling up with light
Between the stillness in my heart
And the roar of the approaching night
Somebodys calling after somebody
Somebody turns the corner out of sight
Looking for somebody
Somewhere in the night
Tender is the night
When you hold your baby tight
Tender are the motions, tender is the night
Between a life that we expected
And the way its always been
I cant walk back in again
After the way we fight
When just outside there are people laughing
Living lives we used to lead
Chasing down the love they need
Somewhere in the night
Tender is the night
And the benediction of the neon light
Tender are the hunters, tender is the night
Youre gonna want me tonight
When youre ready to surrender
Forget about whos right
When youre ready to remember
Its another world at night
When youre ready to be tender
Tender, tender tender...
And in the hard light of an angry sun
No one remembers what was said or done
Tender are the words they choose
You win, I win, we lose
Tender
Tender is the night
Tender
The benediction of the neon light
Tender
Tender are the hunters
Tender is the night
When they hold each other tight
Tender
Tender are the undercover
Tender
The stranger and the secret lover
Tender
Tender are the motions
Tender is the night
When you hold your baby tight
Tender, tender tender...
0 Replies
Letty
1
Reply
Thu 29 Jun, 2006 07:28 am
There's our Grecian friend. Ellinas, what a delight to see you back with us. That's a wonderful song for the day, honey, and a fantastic translation.
It must be about prometheus and hephasteus, but let us know, ok?
Thank you for playing it here.
Well, my goodness, there's our Francis back. How long it has been. Your song was lovely, Paris, and reminded me of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Yes, he was a beloved infidel, no? Poor Zelda. It has been a while since I read that book.
When I was a wee thing, I thought that the piece, Mourning Becomes Electra was "morning". So, let's hear a song about the lady, shall we?
MARIANNE FAITHFULL Song Lyrics
Electra
(From the album "VAGABOND WAYS")
I know that woman in the mirror, not quite yours and not quite mine,
Who she is can't say for sure, could be from another tide.
She's the Queen of Sheba, my father's mother,
Her face is low flying Africa.
She says to me she is not me,
So tell me, tell me who is she ?
Tell me, tell me who is she ?
You'd think she owns the streets of Dublin,
They say she's king of Torquay island,
She trades in piracy and sinning
She knows where you go at night.
And when you think you've finally reached her,
She laughs and says, ";Babe, it's all right";.
I know that woman in the mirror, that creature has my thoughts as eyes.
He saw her once and then forgot her, she remembers all his lies,
He spoke in secrets and in German kissed in tongues and slept in sighs.
She says to me she's not my father,
So tell me, tell me who is she ?
Tell me, tell me who is she ?
You'd think she owns the streets of Dublin,
They say she's king of Torquay island,
She trades in piracy and sinning,
She knows where you go at night.
And when you think you've finally reached her,
She laughs and says, ";Babe, it's all right";.
I know that woman in the mirror, not quite yours and not quite mine
Who she is can't say for sure, could be from another tide.
She's the Queen of Sheba, my father's mother,
Her face is low flying Africa.
She says to me she is not me,
So tell me, tell me who is she ?
Tell me, tell me who is she ?
Tell me, tell me who is she ?
Tell me, tell me who is she ?
0 Replies
Ellinas
1
Reply
Thu 29 Jun, 2006 07:42 am
Letty wrote:
There's our Grecian friend. Ellinas, what a delight to see you back with us. That's a wonderful song for the day, honey, and a fantastic translation.
It must be about prometheus and hephasteus, but let us know, ok?
Thank you for playing it here.
You got it. It is reffering to the story of Prometheas, and his penalty after he gave fire to the mortals.
0 Replies
Letty
1
Reply
Thu 29 Jun, 2006 08:25 am
Ah, yes, Ellinas, myths, legends, and tall tales, and each transmits an element of truth.
Our Raggedy has had a wee bit of trouble accessing our studio, but after an appearance by our hawkman, she will be back in living color.<smile>
0 Replies
bobsmythhawk
1
Reply
Thu 29 Jun, 2006 10:50 am
Nelson Eddy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nelson Ackerman Eddy (born June 29, 1901; died March 6, 1967) was an American singer and film actor.
Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Eddy's parents were both singers, and he would later say that singing was the only career he ever contemplated. He studied in Dresden and Paris before performing his first concert recital in Philadelphia in 1928. He continued performing in opera, oratorios, concerts and radio over the next few years, and in 1933 impressed Ida Koverman, secretary to MGM executive Louis B. Mayer, who was in the audience.
Eddy's first success was in the film Naughty Marietta (1935) opposite Jeanette MacDonald. The two became so closely identified by the public that MGM continued pairing them in such films as Rose-Marie (1936), Maytime (1937), The Girl of the Golden West (1938), Sweethearts (1938), New Moon (1940 film), Bitter Sweet (1940 film), and I Married an Angel (1942). His solo films included Rosalie (1937) Let Freedom Ring (1939), Balalaika (1939) The Chocolate Soldier (1941) and Phantom of the Opera (1943).
Though admired for his singing voice, critics were usually scathing in their comments regarding his acting abilities, and he found it difficult to break away from the typecasting of the light operetta roles to which he was assigned. Still, he became the highest paid singer in the world and his concerts were mob scenes of screaming female fans--not unlike a rock star of today. During World War II he left films to do government work. After the war, the operetta film roles were out of vogue and his career was greatly diminished. He continued appearing on radio (occasionally with MacDonald), wrote movie treatments for himself and MacDonald (including "All Stars Don't Spangle" and "Timothy Waits for Love", which are reprinted in Mac/Eddy Today magazines) and attracted a large following with his own nightclub show during the 1950s. He and MacDonald shared a gold record album when, in 1958, they released "Favorites in HiFi (and Stereo)."
In later years, he established himself as a popular concert performer with audiences who remembered nostalgically his popular movie roles.
He collapsed on stage while performing in Miami Beach, Florida and died shortly after as a result of a stroke at the age of 65. He is interred in Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Hollywood, California.
Eddy married Ann Franklin in 1939 and they remained married until his death, when rumors began to emerge that he had an off-screen relationship with Jeanette MacDonald.
Sweethearts by Sharon Rich (revised edition, 2001), ISBN 0971199817, discusses Eddy's lengthy affair with MacDonald, drawing on excerpts from letters, diaries, interviews and the unpublished memoirs of Eddy's mother. Nelson Eddy:The Opera Years by Sharon Rich (2001), ISBN 0971199809, covers Eddy's complete opera and concert career from 1922-35.
In answer to unsourced gossip that MacDonald and Eddy could not have had an affair due to Eddy's being gay, Sweethearts quotes testimony of several women who had lengthy heterosexual affairs with him from the 1920s through the 1960s, including Maryon Murphy, wife of film director Ralph Murphy, and author K.T. Ernshaw ("To Love Again") (2001, ISBN 0595166075) who also provided a detailed and candid interview about herself and Eddy, and the Eddy and MacDonald affair, in Mac/Eddy Today magazines Issue #62 and #63 (2003, ISSN 0891-527X).
Another false rumor is that studio head Louis B. Mayer forced Eddy to marry. Eddy's elopement to Las Vegas with Ann Franklin followed MacDonald's well-documented (ie, newspaper blurbs, a photo with Hedda Hopper at her bedside) hospital stays following a miscarriage, her going to Reno to establish residency there so she could obtain a divorce from Gene Raymond, then backing out due to pressure from Mayer. On the rebound, Eddy eloped with Franklin. Sweethearts cites several sources that Eddy was drunk when he married Franklin; one of the sources was Eddy's accompanist, Theodore Paxson.
It should be noted that Gene Raymond (who was also blond and somewhat resembled Eddy) was arrested at least three times for gay-related incidents; a photo of his 1938 arrest and booking number is reproduced in Sweethearts, page 498 of the 2001 edition, an army nurse is named and quoted for the second arrest, while retired Scotland Yard detective Joe Sampson discussed the third arrest, which occurred in England during WWII. Raymond was Jeanette MacDonald's second (and last) husband, from 1937 until her death in 1965.
Nelson Eddy was given three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to Recordings, Radio and Motion Pictures (at 6311 Hollywood Boulevard).
0 Replies
bobsmythhawk
1
Reply
Thu 29 Jun, 2006 11:11 am
Leroy Anderson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Leroy Anderson (June 29, 1908 - May 18, 1975) was best known as an American composer of short, light concert music pieces, many of which were introduced by the Boston Pops Orchestra under the direction of Arthur Fiedler. John Williams described him as "one of the great American masters of light orchestral music."
Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Leroy Anderson was given his first piano lessons by his mother, who was an organist. He continued piano lessons with Henry Gideon at the New England Conservatory of Music, and adding double bass lessons from Gaston Dufresne in Boston. In 1926 Anderson entered Harvard, where he studied theory with Walter Spalding, counterpoint with Edward Ballantine, harmony with George Enescu and composition with Walter Piston, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1929 and Master of Arts in 1930.
He continued studying at Harvard, focusing on Scandinavian languages, while also working as organist for the university, leading the choir and the Harvard University Band, and conducting and arranging for dance bands around Boston. This work came to the attention of Arthur Fiedler, who in 1936 hired Anderson to arrange traditional and popular music for the Boston Pops, as well as write original compositions, commissioning Anderson to write Jazz Pizzicato in 1938 and Jazz Legato in 1939 .
In 1942, Anderson joined the U.S. Army, as a translator and intelligence officer, working at the Pentagon on Scandinavian intelligence matters during World War II. But his duties did not prevent him from composing, and in 1946 Anderson wrote his first hit, The Syncopated Clock, earning a Golden Disc and the No. 11 spot on the Billboard charts.
His pieces, and his recordings during the fifties directing a studio orchestra, were immense commercial successes. Blue Tango was the first instrumental recording ever to sell a million copies. His most famous pieces are probably Sleigh Ride and The Syncopated Clock, both of which are instantly recognizable to millions of people. In 1950 WCBS selected Syncopated Clock as the theme song for The Late Show. Mitchell Parish added words to Clock, and later did for many other Anderson tunes, including Sleigh Ride. According to a 1953 study, Anderson was the American composer most performed by American orchestras.
The music by Merv Griffin used to introduce the "Final Jeopardy" round in the 1970s game show Jeopardy! bears a resemblance to, and has sometimes been misidentified as The Syncopated Clock.
Anderson's musical style, heavily influenced by George Gershwin and folk music of various lands, employs creative instrumental effects and occasionally items not traditionally used as musical instruments, such as typewriters and sandpaper. (Krzysztof Penderecki has also a typewriter in his orchestral music, in Fluorescences, but with a decidedly less humorous effect).
Anderson wrote his Piano Concerto in C in 1953, but withdrew it feeling that it had weak spots. In 1988 Erich Kunzel and the Rochester Pops Orchestra[citation needed] released the first recording of this work; some structural weaknesses are evident, but the fact that other recordings have since been released shows that it is more than a curiosity.
In 1957, Anderson orchestrated Meredith Willson's 76 Trombones, which became the theme song to the classic musical The Music Man. It also inspired him to write his own musical the following year, Goldilocks, which earned a Tony but not much commercial success. Anderson never wrote another musical, preferring instead to continue writing orchestral miniatures. Some of his pieces, particularly The Typewriter, Bugler's Holiday, and A Trumpeter's Lullaby are also performed by many high school bands.
For his contribution to the recording industry, Leroy Anderson has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1620 Vine Street. He was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters' Hall of Fame in 1988 and his music continues to be a staple of "pops" orchestra repertoire.
In 2006, one of his piano works, "Forgotten Dreams" became the background for a British TV advertisment for mobile phone company '3'.
0 Replies
bobsmythhawk
1
Reply
Thu 29 Jun, 2006 11:20 am
Slim Pickens
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Louis Bert Lindley, Jr. (June 29, 1919 - December 8, 1983), better known by the stage name Slim Pickens, was a cowboy and actor.
Pickens, who epitomized the profane, tough, sardonic cowboy, was born in Kingsburg, California. He was an excellent rider from age four and quit school to join the rodeo at age twelve. He was told that working in the rodeo would be "slim pickings", giving him his name, but he did very well, eventually rising to become a well known rodeo clown - one of the most dangerous jobs in show business.
After twenty years on the rodeo circuit, his distinctive voice and drawl, his wide eyes and moon face, and his strong physical presence and grace gained him a role in the western Rocky Mountain (1950), starring Errol Flynn. He subsequently appeared in many westerns, playing both villains and comic sidekicks to the likes of Rex Allen. In the opening scene of An Eye for an Eye (1966), he shoots a baby in its crib.
His most famous role was as B-52 pilot Major T. J. "King" Kong in Dr. Strangelove, which ended with Pickens riding an H-bomb down to global destruction.
In one scene, Pickens briefs the crew on their survival packs:
"In them you'll find one .45-caliber automatic, two boxes ammunition, four days' concentrated emergency rations, one drug issue containing antibiotics, morphine, vitamin pills, pep pills, sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills, one miniature combination Roosh-an (Russian) phrase book and Bible, one hundred dollars in rubles, one hundred dollars in gold, nine packs of chewing gum, one issue prophylactics, three lipsticks, three pair of nylon stockings ... Shoot, a fella could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas[*] with all that stuff."
[*]"Dallas" in the script; later redubbed after Kennedy was shot there.
Another of his memorable roles was as Taggart, head of the gang of cowboy thugs in Mel Brooks' classic 1974 comedy Blazing Saddles:
"What in the Wide Wide World of Sports is a-goin' on here?! I hired you people to try to git a little track laid, not to jump around like a bunch of Kansas City faggots!"
The next year, Pickens was in another western, playing the evil limping bank robber in Walt Disney's The Apple Dumpling Gang.
Pickens lent his voice to the 1938 children's radio show The Cinnamon bear, where he plays a singing cowboy.
Pickens appeared in dozens of films, including, Old Oklahoma Plains (1952), Down Laredo Way (1953), Major Dundee (1959) with Charlton Heston, One-Eyed Jacks (1961) with Marlon Brando, The Cowboys (1972) with John Wayne, Ginger in the Morning (1974) with Fred Ward and The Getaway (1972) with Steve McQueen.
Pickens was offered the part of Dick Hallorann in Stanley Kubrick's 1980 adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining. He refused, saying that filming with Kubrick on Dr. Strangelove was too strenuous. He later relented, saying that he would appear in the film as long as Kubrick was contractually required to shoot Pickens's scenes in fewer than 100 takes a shot. Kubrick, notorious for shooting scenes hundreds and hundreds of times, refused, and cast Scatman Crothers as Hallorann instead. [citation needed]
He also appeared many times on television, both in guest shots, and in regular roles in The Legend of Custer, Bonanza, B.J. and the Bear, and Filthy Rich (1982). He played the owner of station WJM, Wild Jack Monroe, on the Mary Tyler Moore Show.
In 1982, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. A year later, he died from a brain tumor at the age of 64. Pickens was living at the Evergreen nursing home in Modesto, California after his brain surgery and that was where he died.
His brother acted under the name Easy Pickens. His most notable appearance was as "Easy" in Sam Peckinpah's The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970).
0 Replies
bobsmythhawk
1
Reply
Thu 29 Jun, 2006 11:28 am
Ray Harryhausen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ray Harryhausen (born June 29, 1920 in Los Angeles, California) is an American producer and, most notably, a special effects creator.
Stop motion animation
Before the advent of computers for camera motion control and CGI, movies used a variety of approaches to achieve animated special effects in movies. One approach was one of the many kinds of stop-motion animation which used realistric miniature models (more accurately called MODEL animation), used famously in King Kong (1933).
The work of pioneer model animator Willis O'Brien (and his animation assistant, Pete Peterson) in Kong inspired Harryhausen to work in this unique field, almost single-handedly keeping the technique alive for three decades as O'Brien's career sadly floundered for most of his life, until his death in 1963.
Harryhausen prefers not to compare his work with special effects animation in live action films to the animated films of Tim Burton, Nick Park, Ivo Caprino, Ladislav Starevich and many others, which he sees as pure "puppet films", and are more accurately (and traditionally) called "puppet animation".
Model animated characters interact with, and are a part of, the live-action world, with the idea that will cease to call attention to themselves as "animation", which is different from the more obviously "cartoony" and stylized designs and puppet-animation stop-motion processes in movies like Chicken Run and The Nightmare Before Christmas, etc.
Springing from O'Brien's groundbreaking work, Harryhausen, continued moving stop-motion into the realm of live action movies, keeping alive and refining the techniques created by O'Brien that O'Brien had first developed as early as 1917.
Professional history
After first seeing Kong in 1933, while seeing many repeated viewings, he spent those early years experimenting while producing short animated bits, inspired by many science fiction sources of his time. From his first formal demo reel, of fighting dinosaurs from an abortive project called Evolution (an homage to a similar project of Willis O'Brien's called Creation, which became O'Brien's demo for King Kong), Harryhausen found work with Paramount, working on George Pál's Puppetoon shorts.
During World War II, Harryhausen worked for the Army Motion Picture Unit making animated sequences educating soldiers about the use and deployment of military equipment when the equipment wasn't avilable for filming in live action.
From this work, he acquired several left over rolls of unused film on which he made a series of fairy tale-based shorts. After WWII, Ray Harryhausen shot a scene of an alien emerging from a martian war machine based on H. G. Wells novel The War of the Worlds, part an unrealised project to adapt the story using Welles original "octopus" concept for the martians. Harryhausen also produced a variety of other short animation demos during the post-WWII 40s.
Harryhausen put together a demo reel of his various projects and showed them to Willis O'Brien, who eventually hired him as an assistant animator on what turned out to be Harryhausen's first major film, Mighty Joe Young (1949). Harryhausen proved to be so skilled at animation that he would up animating the majority of the film, which won a special effects Oscar for that year.
As the science fiction craze took hold in movies at the beginning of the 1950s, a long-time friend of Harryhausen, writer Ray Bradbury sold a short story called The Foghorn about a radioactive dinosaur loose in New York city to a film producer who planned to make a feature film that expanded on the story. Bradbury suggested Harryhausen as someone who could convincingly pull off the special effects and The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) became Harryhausen's first solo feature film effort, and an international box-office sensation for Warner Brothers Pictures. (Tomoyuki Tanaka and Ishiro Honda have admitted they copied elements of this movie to help prepare the launch of the Godzilla series in Japan a year later.)
It was on this film that Harryhausen first used a technique that split the background and foreground of pre-shot live action footage into two separate pieces of film. The background would be used as a miniature rear-screen with his models animated in front of it, rephotographed with an animation-capable camera to combine those two elements together, a black space left where the foreground element would eventually be. Then that new piece of film was optically printed with the original live action foreground in an optical printer, creating the effect that the animated model was "sandwiched" in between the two live action elements, right into the final live action scene. A few years later, when he adapted this technique for color film to made The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, he called the process DynaMation (modifying it to "SuperDynaMation" and then "DynaRama" for some subsequent films).
While the film's producers organized the film's live action production and hired various directors to develop the film's live action characters, Harryhausen concentrated only on the shots that involved model animation, visiting the sets only to supervise the filming of the live action background elements (called "plates" in the film effects industry) into which he would later add animated creatures.
Throughout most of his career, Harryhausen's work was a sort of family affair. His father did the machining of the metal armateurs that were the skeletons for the models while his mother assisted with some skin textures. An occasional assistant, George Lofgren, a taxidermist, assisted Harryhausen with the creation of furred creatures. Other than that, Harryhausen worked entirely alone to produce the animated shots for all his films, until he hired an assistant, protoge model animator and two-time Oscar-nominated Jim Danforth, to assist with animation for Harryhausen's last film Clash of the Titans (1981).
The same year that "Beast" was released, fledgling film producer Irwin Allen released a live action documentary about life in the oceans titled The Sea Around Us, which won a documentary feature film Oscar for that year. Allen's and Harryhausen's paths would cross three years later, on Allen's sequel to this film.
Harryhausen soon met and began a fruitful partnership with producer Charles H. Schneer, who then signed a four-picture deal with Columbia Pictures. Their first tandum release was It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955) about a giant octopus attacking San Francisco, a box-office success, quickly followed by Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956), set in Washington D.C. and one of the best of the alien invasion films of the 50s, also a box office hit.
In 1954, Irwin Allen started work on a second feature-length documentary film, this one about animal life on land called The Animal World (completed in 1956). Needing an opening sequence about dinosaurs, Allen hired premier model animator Willis O'Brien to animate the dinosaurs, then gave him an impossibly short production schedule. O'Brien again hired Harryhausen to help with animation to complete the 10 minute sequence, Harryhausen's and O'Brien's first professional color work. Most viewers agree that the dinosaur sequence of Animal World was the best part of the entire movie (available on the 1957 Black Scorpion DVD).
Harryhausen then returned to Columbia and Charles Schneer to do 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957) about an Earth spaceship returning from Venus with an alien passinger, who grows in Earth's atmosphere to trememdous height and escapes to terrorize Rome Italy. Harryhausen refined and improved his already-considerable ability at establishing emotional characterizations in the face of his Venusian Ymir model, creating yet another international box-office hit film.
Schneer was eagar to graduate to color films. Reluctant at first, Harryhausen managed to develop the systems necessary to maintain proper color balances for his DynaMation process, resulting in his greatest masterpiece (and biggest hit) of the 50s, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (1958), a major inspiration for Dennis Murren, long-time multi-Oscar-winning head of George Lucas's ILM special effects company. The top grossing film of that summer, and one of the top grossing films of that year, Schmeer and Harryhausen signed another deal with Columbia for a series of four color films.
After The Three Worlds of Gulliver (1960) and Mysterious Island (1961), both great artistic and technical successes, his next film is considered by film historians and fans as Harryhausen's masterwork, Jason and the Argonauts (1963), Among the film's several celebrated animation sequences is an extended fight between five actors and seven skeletal adversaries, a considerable advance on the single-skeleton fight scene in Sinbad. The sequence took over four months to complete, and helped to inspire an entire generation of subsequent filmmakers like Spephen Spielberg, George Lucas, Tim Burton, and James Cameron, among many others. (When presenting Harryhausen with a special Academy Award, actor Tom Hanks told Harryhausen "Lots of people say Citizen Kane is the greatest film of all time... no way, it's Jason and the Argonauts!)"
Harryhausen next made First Men in the Moon (1964), his only widescreen (CinemaScope) film, based on the novel by H. G. Wells.
Oddly and inexplicably, this series of four films were box office disappointments at the time of their original theatrical release, and Columbia Pictures didn't renew their contract with Schmeer and Harryhausen for more films.
Harryhausen was then hired by Hammer Film Productions to demonstrate his skill by animating the dinosaurs in One Million Years B.C., released by 20th Century Fox in 1967, a box office smash, helped, in part, by the starring role of shapely Raquel Welsh, her second film.
Springing from that success, Harryhausen next went on to make another dinosaur film, The Valley of Gwangi for Warner Brothers (1969); although this was not a financial success (it didn't fit in with the counter-culture audiences of that era), it was a personal project that Harryhausen had been wanting to do for many years, as it was originally developed by his original mentor, Willis' O'Brien for a 1939 project that never saw completion. The film is a masterpiece that should be seen by anyone interested in well done fantasy film adventure. Set in 1912 Mexico, in a parallel Kong story, cowboys capture a living Allosaurus and bring him to the nearest city for exibition. Sabotage by a rival releases the creature on opening day and the creature wreaks havoc on the town until it's cornered and burned inside a cathedral. The film features a roping scene remiscent of 1949's Mighty Joe Young and is the technical highlight of the film.
After a few lean years, Harryhausen re-teamed with Schneer, who talked Columbia Pictures into reviving the Sinbad character, resulting in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974), and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977), both box office successes.
Schneer and Harryhausen finally were allowed by MGM to produce a big budget film with name actors and an expanded effects budget. It became the last feature film to showcase his effects work, Clash of the Titans (1981), for which he was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Special Effects.
Oddly, and mainly due to his "hermit" style of production, and the fact that he produced half of his films outside of Hollywood (living in London since 1960), NONE of Harryhausen's films were ever nominated for a special effects Oscar, allowing the Oscar EFX committee to give many far inferior films the award, while theater goers (and future filmmakers) quietly marveled at his work in theaters all over the world.
In spite of the box office success of "Clash", more sophisticated technology developed by ILM and others eclipsed Harryhausen's techniques, and MGM and other studios passed on making his follow-up story, Force of the Trojans, forcing Harryhausen and Schneer to retire from active filmmaking.
Harryhausen then concentrated his efforts on authoring a book, Film Fantasy Scrapbook (produced in three editions as his last three films were released) and supervising the restoration and release of (eventually all) his films to video, laserdisk, and later, DVD. A second book followed, My Animated Life, detailing his techniques and history.
Harryhasen continues his life-long friendship with Ray Bradbury and another close friend, book and magazine writer and super Sci-Fi fan Forrest J. Ackerman, who loaned Harryhausen his photos of King Kong in 1933, right after Harryhausen had seen the film for the first time. Harryhausen also maintains his friendhsip with his long-time producer, Charles H. Schneer, who lives next door to him in suburb of London, and model animation protoge, Jim Danforth, still living in the Los Angeles area.
Harryhausen also is an inspiration to other animators. In the 2002 Disney/Pixar film Monsters, Inc., a fashionable restaurant is named Harryhausen's. He also performs the voice of a little polar bear cub in the Will Ferrell film Elf (film).
Awards
During the 80s and early 90s, Harryhausen's growing legion of fans who had graduated into the professional film industry started lobbying the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to acknowledge Harryhausen's immense contribution to the film industry and he was finally awarded a Gordon E. Sawyer lifetime achievement award in 1992, making Harryhausen an international celebrity. A long series of appearances at film festivals, colleges, and film seminars around the world soon followed as Harryhausen met the millions of people who had grown up enjoying his amazing work.
Near the turn of the 21st century, Harryhausen was also honored with a well-deserved star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Tributes to him from various filmmakers continue:
The 2001 Pixar/Disney film Monsters, Inc. pays homage to Ray by placing its characters in a sushi restaurant named "Harryhausen's".
In Tim Burton's 2005 film Corpse Bride, the piano in the Everglot's front parlor bears the brand name of "Harryhausen." Curiously, a "Harryhausen" piano also appears in Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, released at about the same time.
In the director's commentary on the DVD of The Fellowship of the Ring, director Peter Jackson stated that he paid homage to Harryhausen in the scene where a giant cave troll attacks the Fellowship. He based the troll on Harryhausen's monsters and many of their movements mimic the movements seen in Harryhausen's effects shots.
Other references to Harryhausen (and sometimes his films) can be seen some episodes of the mid-90s ABC children's puppet animation series Bump in the Night, as the name of the final animated creature as "Nesuahyrrah" in Flesh Gordon (1974), and in the soundtrack a mid-80s short film titled "the Reproductiuve Cycle of Martian Peen Worms" produced by Church of the SubGenius co-founder John Stang.
Harryhausen today
In 2005, Harryhausen released a DVD set of a complete collection of all his non-feature film work, including all his tests, demos, military work, a re-edit of all the biographical material that had been released in the mid-90s to VHS video under the title Aliens, Dragons, Monsters, and Me", and his entire set of fairy tales, including one fairy tale finally completed by a team of assistant animators after some 40 years in partial form.
Currently he is preparing a third book for release, and he and a producing partner, Arnold R. Kunert are working on a series of animated shorts based on the stories of Edgar Allan Poe, the first of these, said to be "The Pit and the Pendulum". He is also working with Legend Films to reissue some of his early feature films on DVD in a series of colorized versions using an improved colorization process. According to Legend Films president Barry Sandrew, the filmmaker told him that his original vision was to do them in color but said that both limited budgets and limited color film stocks back then made it hard for him to do backgrounds and keep them color-balanced the way that was needed to maintain the films' realism. [1].
Harryhausen was also involved in the process of colorizing She, produced by Merian C. Cooper, who had originally intended to shoot the film in color but at the last minute the budget was cut by RKO forcing Cooper to shoot in black and white. As a tribute to Cooper, Harryhausen color designed the film in a manner in which he feels Cooper would have wanted it exhibited. The colorized DVD will include a video commentary by Ray and Mark Vaz (a Merian C. Cooper expert) as well as running commentary of Ray and Mark discussing the film and color choices. Also planned for inclusion is unscripted video of the creative process between Legend Films' creative director, Rosemary Horvath, and Harryhausen colorizing various scenes to create desired effects such as depth and highlights.
0 Replies
bobsmythhawk
1
Reply
Thu 29 Jun, 2006 11:43 am
Gary Busey
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
William Gary Busey (born June 29, 1944 in Goose Creek, Texas) is an Academy Award-nominated American film and stage actor. He has appeared in a number of films, including The Buddy Holly Story, Lethal Weapon, and Under Siege.
Biography
Busey attended Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas, where he became interested in acting. He is listed as one of the university's "outstanding alumni." He then transferred to Oklahoma State University, where he quit school one class short of graduation.
In 1971, wife Judy Helkenberg gave birth to his son, actor Jake Busey. The couple divorced sixteen years later.
On December 4, 1988, Busey was severely injured in a motorcycle accident in which he was not wearing a helmet. His skull was fractured and doctors feared he suffered permanent brain damage. Busey recovered and encouraged all cyclists to wear helmets.
Busey had been a heavy drug user and in 1995 almost died from a cocaine overdose. Only prompt medical attention saved his life; he narrowly escaped going to jail. Busey reported that he suffered a terrifying near-death experience in which he saw hell and the devil. He announced he had become a born-again Christian, joined Promise Keepers and preached against drug abuse.
He has coined several "Buseyisms." For example, the word "sober" becomes "Son Of a Bitch! Everything's Real," while "doubt" becomes "Debating On Understanding Bewildering Thoughts." "Romance" becomes "Relying On Magnificent And Necessary Compatible Energy." On July 19, 2005, he appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and gave an extended explanation of his phrase "hidden reality revealed."
Career
He began his show-business career as a drummer in "The Rubber Band". He appears on several Leon Russell recordings, credited as playing drums under the name 'Teddy Jack Eddy', a character he created when he starred in a local television comedy show called Mazeppa in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and appeared in television guest roles. He was the last person killed on the last episode of Gunsmoke.
Busey continued to play several small roles in both film and television during the 1970s. In 1978, he starred as Buddy Holly in The Buddy Holly Story, for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.
During the 1980s, Busey's roles included D.C. Cab, Silver Bullet (adapted from Cycle of the Werewolf by Stephen King), and Lethal Weapon. In the 1990s, he appeared in Predator 2, Point Break, Under Siege, and The Firm.
In 2003, Busey was the star of a bizarre but shortlived Comedy Central show about his day-to-day activities. The show was titled "I'm with Busey."
In 2005, Busey played a fictional version of himself as a guest voice on The Simpsons. Appearing in a police information video, Busey explains restraining orders to the viewer, peppering his lecture with bouts of loud laughter. In the video, he claims that the reason he knows so much about restraining orders is because he has been the subject of twelve of them for the crime of "being too real".
In 2006, Busey played a lead role in the controversial Turkish action film Valley of the Wolves Iraq as a Jewish doctor conspiring with renegade American soldiers in occupied Iraq to steal the organs from slain or captured Iraqis and sell them on the black market. Busey's role in the film has been criticized in American media outlets and by the government of Germany for being anti-Semitic. Busey's attorney defended him on constitutional grounds, noting "There is something in this country called the First Amendment that protects freedom of expression," "I hope we are not returning to the McCarthy era," and added "If Gary played a rapist in a movie, would anyone believe him to be an actual rapist? He is an actor, not a politician." [1] Busey also guest starred on an episode of Tom Goes To The Mayor.
0 Replies
bobsmythhawk
1
Reply
Thu 29 Jun, 2006 11:49 am
IDIOTS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD:
I live in a semi-rural area. We recently had a new neighbor call the
local
township administrative office to request the removal of the Deer
Crossing sign
on our road.
The reason:
"Too many deer are being hit by cars out here!
I don't think this is a good place for them to be crossing anymore."
From Kingman , KS
______________________________________________________
IDIOTS IN FOOD SERVICE:
My daughter went to a local Taco Bell and ordered a taco. She asked the
person behind the counter for "minimal lettuce." He said he was sorry,
but they
only had iceberg.
He was a Chef?
Yep...From Kansas City !
______________________________________________
IDIOT SIGHTING:
I was at the airport, checking in at the gate when an airport employee
asked,
"Has anyone put anything in your baggage without your knowledge?
To which I replied, "If it was without my knowledge, how would I know?"
He smiled knowingly and nodded, "That's why we ask."
Happened in Birmingham , Ala.
_______________________________________________________
IDIOT SIGHTING:
The stoplight on the corner buzzes when its safe to cross the street.
I was crossing with an intellectually challenged coworker of mine.
She asked if I knew what the buzzer was for.
I explained that it signals blind people when the light is red.
Appalled, she responded, "What on earth are blind people doing
driving?!"
She was a probation officer in Wichita, KS
___________________________________________________
IDIOT SIGHTING:
At a good-bye luncheon for an old and dear coworker.
She was leaving the company due to "downsizing."
Our manager commented cheerfully, "This is fun. We should do this more
often."
Not another word was spoken.
We all just looked at each other with that deer-in-the-headlights stare.
This was a bunch at Texas Instruments.
________________________________________
IDIOT SIGHTING:
I work with an individual who plugged her power strip back into itself
and for
the sake of her own life, couldn't understand why her system would not
turn on.
A deputy with the Dallas County Sheriffs office no less.
____________________________________________________
IDIOT SIGHTING:
When my husband and I arrived at an automobile dealership to pick up
our car,
We were t old the keys had been locked in it. We went to the service
department
and found a mechanic working feverishly to unlock the drivers side door.
As I
watched from the passenger side, I instinctively tried the door handle
and
discovered that it was unlocked. "Hey," I announced to the technician,
"its
open!"
His reply, "I know - I already got that side."
This was at the Ford dealership in Canton , Mississippi !
0 Replies
Letty
1
Reply
Thu 29 Jun, 2006 12:14 pm
Well, listeners, our hawkman is through with his notables when he leaves us wondering about how an "idiot" got to where he did in life. Love it, buddy. I think "The Peter Principle" says it the same way, only not as quickly.
Well, I became fascinated with Ray Harryhausen because I saw that movie, Jason and the Argonauts, and thought to myself that his FX was superior to computer generated special effects. One person observed that he was "a magician".
And he was, folks.
0 Replies
djjd62
1
Reply
Thu 29 Jun, 2006 04:36 pm
Jason and the Argonauts
XTC
There may be no golden fleece,
But human riches I'll release
Oh, my head is spinning like the world and it's filled with beasts I've seen,
Let me put my bag down and I'll tell you it all right from the start,
Like the scarlet woman who would pick on the boys she thought were green,
And the two faced man who made a hobby of breaking his wife's heart.
Seems the more I travel,
From the foam to gravel,
As the nets unravel,
All exotic fish I find like Jason and the Argonauts
There may be no golden fleece,
But human riches I'll release
I was in a land where men force women to hide their facial features,
And here in the west it's just the same but they're using make-up veils.
I've seen acts of every shade of terrible crime from man-like creatures,
And I've had the breath of liars blowing me off course in my sails.
Seems the more I travel,
From the foam to gravel,
As the nets unravel,
All exotic fish I find like Jason and the Argonauts
There may be no golden fleece,
But human riches I'll release.
I have watched the manimals go by
Buying shoes, buying sweets, buying knives.
I have watched the manimals and cried
Buying time, buying ends to other peoples lives.
Jason and the Argonauts
There may be no golden fleece,
But human riches I'll release.
Jason and the Argonauts
There may be no golden fleece,
But human riches I'll release.
0 Replies
Letty
1
Reply
Thu 29 Jun, 2006 04:51 pm
dj, what a perfect connection, Canada. We love it. Ah, yes. That Janus again. Speaking of the fleece, does gold really glitter? <smile>
Here's an interesting play back by Phil Collins:
True Colors
You with the sad eyes
Don't be discouraged
Oh I realize
It's hard to take courage
In a world full of people
You can lose sight of it all
And the darkness inside you
Can make you feel so small
But I see your true colors
Shining through
I see your true colors
And that's why I love you
So don't be afraid to let them show
Your true colors
True colors are beautiful,
Like a rainbow
Show me a smile then,
Don't be unhappy, can't remember
When I last saw you laughing
If this world makes you crazy
And you've taken all you can bear
You call me up
Because you know I'll be there
And I'll see your true colors
Shining through
I see your true colors
And that's why I love you
So don't be afraid to let them show
Your true colors
True colors are beautiful,
Like a rainbow
0 Replies
Tryagain
1
Reply
Thu 29 Jun, 2006 05:00 pm
Good afternoon all.
Artist: Louis Armstrong
Song: What a Wonderful World Lyrics
I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world
I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world
The colours of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shakin' hands, sayin' "How do you do?"
They're really saying "I love you"
I hear babies cryin', I watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll ever know
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world
Yes, I think to myself, what a wonderful world
Oh yeah!
0 Replies
edgarblythe
1
Reply
Thu 29 Jun, 2006 05:00 pm
With your mercury mouth in the missionary times,
And your eyes like smoke and your prayers like rhymes,
And your silver cross, and your voice like chimes,
Oh, who among them do they think could bury you?
With your pockets well protected at last,
And your streetcar visions which you place on the grass,
And your flesh like silk, and your face like glass,
Who among them do they think could carry you?
Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands,
Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes,
My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums,
Should I leave them by your gate,
Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?
With your sheets like metal and your belt like lace,
And your deck of cards missing the jack and the ace,
And your basement clothes and your hollow face,
Who among them can think he could outguess you?
With your silhouette when the sunlight dims
Into your eyes where the moonlight swims,
And your match-book songs and your gypsy hymns,
Who among them would try to impress you?
Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands,
Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes,
My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums,
Should I leave them by your gate,
Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?
The kings of Tyrus with their convict list
Are waiting in line for their geranium kiss,
And you wouldn't know it would happen like this,
But who among them really wants just to kiss you?
With your childhood flames on your midnight rug,
And your Spanish manners and your mother's drugs,
And your cowboy mouth and your curfew plugs,
Who among them do you think could resist you?
Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands,
Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes,
My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums,
Should I leave them by your gate,
Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?
Oh, the farmers and the businessmen, they all did decide
To show you the dead angels that they used to hide.
But why did they pick you to sympathize with their side?
Oh, how could they ever mistake you?
They wished you'd accepted the blame for the farm,
But with the sea at your feet and the phony false alarm,
And with the child of a hoodlum wrapped up in your arms,
How could they ever, ever persuade you?
Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands,
Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes,
My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums,
Should I leave them by your gate,
Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?
With your sheet-metal memory of Cannery Row,
And your magazine-husband who one day just had to go,
And your gentleness now, which you just can't help but show,
Who among them do you think would employ you?
Now you stand with your thief, you're on his parole
With your holy medallion which your fingertips fold,
And your saintlike face and your ghostlike soul,
Oh, who among them do you think could destroy you
Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands,
Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes,
My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums,
Should I leave them by your gate,
Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?
B Dylan Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands
0 Replies
Letty
1
Reply
Thu 29 Jun, 2006 05:31 pm
and, folks, there's our Try in the company of Sachmo and singing about our wonderful world. Thanks, Mr. Up and at 'em. <smile>
edgar, a perfect song for the dwindling evening, Texas. "Sad eyed lady of the lowlands." Still think that Dylan and Ezra Pound bear a strong resemblance, buddy.
I always think of Ezra when I read this poem:
Summer Is A-Comin In
Summer is a-comin' in,
Loudly sing cuckoo;
Groweth seed and bloweth mead
And springeth wood anew
Sing cuckoo.
Ewe now bleateth after lamb,
Low'th after calf the cow.
Bullock starteth, buck now verteth,
Merry sing cuckoo,
Cuckoo, cuckoo,
Well now sing thou cuckoo,
Nor cease thou never nu.