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Sometimes it Snows in April
Prince

Tracy died soon after a long fought civil war,
just after I'd wiped away his last tear
I guess he's better off than he was before,
A whole lot better off than the fools he left here
I used 2 cry 4 Tracy because he was my only friend
Those kind of cars don't pass u every day
I used 2 cry 4 Tracy because I wanted to see him again,
But sometimes sometimes life ain't always the way...

Sometimes it snows in April
Sometimes I feel so bad, so bad
Sometimes I wish life was never ending,
and all good things, they say, never last

Springtime was always my favorite time of year,
A time 4 lovers holding hands in the rain
Now springtime only reminds me of Tracy's tears
Always cry 4 love, never cry 4 pain
He used 2 say so strong unafraid to die
Unafraid of the death that left me hypnotized
No, staring at his picture I realized
No one could cry the way my Tracy cried

Sometimes it snows in April
Sometimes I feel so bad
Sometimes, sometimes I wish that life was never ending,
And all good things, they say, never last

I often dream of heaven and I know that Tracy's there
I know that he has found another friend
Maybe he's found the answer 2 all the April snow
Maybe one day I'll see my Tracy again

Sometimes it snows in April
Sometimes I feel so bad, so bad
Sometimes I wish that life was never ending,
But all good things, they say, never last

All good things that say, never last
And love, it isn't love until it's past

Nothing civil about a war, is there, edgar. Yes, that is a real yet depressing song, Texas.

This has been one of those days, folks. We all learned something from Bob and I just finished searching for the movie, The Majestic. Never did care for Jim Carrey, but his performance in that flick was excellent.

Check it out, listeners. It's worth the watch.

Here is a song from that movie as done by Diana Krall


Album: The Look Of Love
Lyrics by: Johnny Mercer
Music by: Victor Schertzinger

I remember you, you're the one who made my dreams come true, a few kisses ago.
I remember you, you're the one who said I love you too, I do, didn't you know?
I remember too a distant bell, and stars that fell like rain out of the blue.
When my life is through and the angels ask me to recall the thrill of them all,
Then I shall tell them, I remember you.

here are some good , ole canadian boys :

"the barenaked ladies"

Hey, hbg. That was a sad song, Canada. How about a little levity?

Here are Bi-Polarbear's naked ladies;



And a song about your grizzly:

The preacher went out a huntin', it was on one Sunday morn'
It was against his religion, but he took a shotgun along
He got himself a mess a' mighty fine quail and one old scraggly hare
And on the way home he crossed the path of a Great big grizzly bear

Well the bear got down lookin' ready to charge
The preacher never seen nothin' quite that large
They looked each other right smack in the eye
Didn't take that preacher long to say bye
The preacher he run till he spotted a tree
He said "up in that tree's where I auta be"
By the time that bear made a grab for him
The preacher was a sittin' on top a that limb
Scared to death, he tuned about
He looked to the sky and began to shout,

Chorus;
Hey lord, you delivered Daniel from the bottom of the lion's den
You delivered Joana, from the belly of the whale and then,
The Hebrew children from the fiery furnace so the good books do declare
Hey lord, if you can't help me, for goodness sake don't help that bear

Ya, look out preacher
Well, about that time the limb broke off and the preacher came tumblin' down
Had a straight razor out of his pocket by the time he lit on the ground
He landed on his feet right in front a that bear and lord what an awful fight
The preacher and the bear and the razor and the hair flyin' from left to right

Well first they was up and then they was down, the preacher and the bear runnin' round n' round
The bear he roared and the the preacher he groaned, he was havin' a tough time holdin' his own
He said Lord if I get out a here alive, to the good book I'll abide
No more huntin' on the Sabbath day, come Sunday I'm headin' to the church to pray
Up to the heavens the preacher glanced, he said Lord won't you give me just one more chance
So the preacher got away, he looked around seen a tree where he'd be safe and sound
Jumped on a limb, turned about, looked to the sky and began to shout.

Chorus.

so here is a little "levity" by stompin tom
TTC = toronto transit commission :wink:
skidaddler = streetcar driver
big red rattler = the red rocket = streetcar

Great, hbg, but you're a long way from St. Louis.




Judy, Judy, Judy

Clang, clang, clang went the trolley, ding, ding, ding went the bell,
Zing, zing, zing went my heart strings, from the moment I saw him I fell.
Chug, chug, chug went the motor, bump, bump, bump went the brake,
Thump, thump, thump went my heart strings, when he smiled I could feel the car shake.
He tipped his hat, and took a seat, he said he hoped he hadn't stepped upon my feet.
He asked my name, I held my breath.
I couldn't speak because he scared me half to death.
Chug, chug, chug went the motor, pop, pop, pop went the wheels,
Stop, stop, stop went my heart strings,
As he started to go then I started to know how it feels, when the universe reels.
The day was bright, the air was sweet,
The smell of honeysuckle charmed you off your feet.
You tried to sing, but couldn't squeak, in fact you loved him so you couldn't even speak.
Buzz, buzz, buzz went the buzzer, plop, plop, plop went the wheels,
Stop, stop, stop went my heart strings,
As he started to leave, I took hold of his sleeve with my hand,
And as if it were planned, he stayed on with me and it was grand just to stand
With his hand holding mine to the end of the line.

letty :
is there still regular streetcar service in st. louis ?
toronto is the only canadian city that still has streetcars - and they provide very good service .

now we are going way up north to the ACR = "algoma central railway" running services out of sault st marie - it's mainly freight service to the mines in northern ontario - with some tourist fall excursions



stompin tom and the algoma 69

!
Billie Holiday
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia







Background information

Birth name Eleanora Fagan
Born April 7, 1915
Origin Baltimore, Maryland
Died July 17, 1959
Genre(s) Jazz
Occupation(s) singer
Instrument(s) Vocals
Years active 1935-1959
Label(s) Columbia Records (1933-1942, 1958)
Commodore Records (1939, 1944)
Decca Records (1944-1950)
Verve Records (1952-1959)
Associated
acts Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan

Billie Holiday(April 7, 1915 - July 17, 1959), born Eleanora Fagan and later called Lady Day, was an American singer known equally for her difficult life and her emotive, poignant singing voice. Holiday has long been considered one of the greatest jazz voices of all time.




Biography

Early life

Holiday had a difficult childhood which greatly affected her life and career. Much of her childhood is clouded by conjecture and legend, some of it propagated by her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues, published in 1956. This account is known to contain many inaccuracies. Her professional pseudonym was taken from Billie Dove, an actress she admired, and Clarence Holiday, her probable father. At the outset of her career, she spelled her last name "Halliday," presumably to distance herself from her neglectful father, but eventually changed it back to "Holiday."

Holiday's grandfather was one of 17 children of a black Virginia slave and a white Irish plantation owner. Allegedly, her mother was only 13 at the time of Holiday's birth in Philadelphia and had moved there in order to hide her out-of-wedlock pregnancy; the 1900 census lists Holiday's mother's birth year as 1896. Clarence Holiday, 16 years old at the time, was a banjo player who would later play for Fletcher Henderson. (There is some controversy regarding Holiday's paternity, stemming from a copy of her birth certificate in the Baltimore archives that lists the father as a "Frank DeViese." Some historians consider this an anomaly, probably inserted by a hospital or government worker ?- see Donald Clarke, Billie Holiday: Wishing on the Moon, ISBN 0-306-81136-7.) In the rare times she did see him, she would shake him down for money by threatening to tell his then-girlfriend that he had a daughter.

She grew up in the poor section of Baltimore, Maryland, near the projects. According to her autobiography, her house was the first on their street to have electricity. Her parents married when she was three, but they soon divorced, leaving her to be raised largely by her mother and other relatives. At the age of 11, she reported that she had been raped. That claim, combined with her frequent truancy, resulted in her being sent to The House of the Good Shepherd, a Catholic reform school, in 1925. It was only through the assistance of a family friend that she was released two years later.[1] Scarred by these experiences, Holiday moved to New York with her mother in 1928. In 1929 Holiday's mother discovered a neighbor, Wilbert Rich, in the act of raping her daughter; Rich was sentenced to three months in jail.


Early singing career

According to Billie Holiday's accounts, she was recruited by a brothel, worked as a prostitute, and was eventually imprisoned for a short time. It was in Harlem in the early 1930s that she started singing for tips in various night clubs. According to legend, penniless and facing eviction, she sang "Body and Soul" in a local club and reduced the audience to tears. She later worked at various clubs for tips, ultimately landing at Pod's and Jerry's, a well known Harlem jazz club. Her early work history is hard to verify, though accounts say she was working at a club named Monette's in 1933 when she was discovered by talent scout John Hammond.[2]

Hammond managed to get Holiday recording sessions with Benny Goodman and booked her for live performances in various New York clubs. In 1935 her career got a big push when she recorded four sides that became hits, including "What A Little Moonlight Can Do" and "Miss Brown To You". This landed her a recording contract of her own, and from 1935 to 1942 she laid down masters that would ultimately become an important segment of early American jazz. Sometimes referred to as her "Columbia period" (after her record company), these recordings ?- made for subsidiary labels including Okeh, Vocalion, and Brunswick ?- represent a large portion of her total body of work.

During this period, the American music industry was still segregated, and many of the songs Holiday was given to record were intended for the black jukebox audience. She was often not considered for the 'best' songs of the day, which were reserved for white singers. However, Holiday's style and fresh sound soon caught the attention of musicians across the nation, and her popularity began to climb. Peggy Lee, who began recording with Benny Goodman in the early 1940s, is often said to have emulated Holiday's light, sensual style.

In 1936 she was working with Lester Young, who gave her the now-famous nickname "Lady Day" (Holiday would in turn begin calling Lester Young "Prez"). Holiday joined Count Basie in 1937 and Artie Shaw in 1938. She was one of the first black women to work with a white orchestra, an impressive accomplishment at the time. Billie's Blues, a biography by British jazz historian John Chilton, details this period of her life.


The Commodore Years and "Strange Fruit"

Holiday was working for Columbia in the late 1930s when she was introduced to a song entitled "Strange Fruit," which began as a poem about the lynching of a black man written by Abel Meeropol, a Jewish schoolteacher from the Bronx. Meeropol used the pseudonym "Lewis Allen" for the work. The poem was set to music and performed at teachers' union meetings, where it was eventually heard by the manager of Cafe Society, an integrated nightclub in Greenwich Village, who introduced it to Holiday. Holiday performed the song at Cafe Society in 1939, a move that by her own admission left her fearful of retaliation. Holiday later said that the imagery in "Strange Fruit" reminded her of her father's death, and that this played a role in her persistence to perform it.

She approached Columbia about recording the song but was refused because of its subject matter. She arranged to record it with a different label, Commodore, Milt Gabler's alternative jazz label in 1939. She recorded two major sessions at Commodore, one in 1939 and one in 1944. Although there were far fewer songs recorded with Commodore, some of her biggest hits were under this label, including "Fine And Mellow", "I Cover The Waterfront" and "Embraceable You". "Strange Fruit" was highly regarded and admired by intellectuals, and is in large part responsible for her widespread popularity. "Strange Fruit's" popularity also prompted Holiday to record the type of songs that would become her signature, namely slow, moving love ballads.


Decca Records and "Lover Man"

In addition to owning Commodore Records, Milt Gabler was an A&R man for Decca Records, and he signed Holiday to the label in 1944. Her first recording for Decca, "Lover Man," was a song that had been written especially for her by Jimmy Davis, Roger "Ram" Ramirez, and Jimmy Sherman. Although the song's lyrics describe a woman who has never known love ("I long to try something I never had"), its theme ?- a woman longing for a missing lover ?- and its refrain, "Lover man, oh, where can you be?", struck a chord in war-time America and the record became one of Holiday's biggest hits.

Holiday continued to record for Decca until 1950, including one session in which she and Louis Armstrong sang several duets. Holiday's Decca recordings offer a sharp contrast to those of her Columbia period. The songs she was able to record at Decca generally were top-quality, and many of her songs were accompanied by orchestras or string sections rather than jazz combos. Some of the songs Holiday recorded for Decca became her signatures ("Don't Explain," "Good Morning Heartache").


Later life

Her personal life was as turbulent as the songs she sang. Holiday stated that she began using hard drugs in the early 1940s. She married trombonist Jimmy Monroe on August 25, 1941. While still married to Monroe, she took up with trumpeter Joe Guy, her drug dealer, as his common law wife. She finally divorced Monroe in 1947, and also split with Guy. In 1947 she was jailed on drug charges and served eight months at the Alderson Federal Correctional Institution for Women in West Virginia. Her New York City Cabaret Card was subsequently revoked, which kept her from working in clubs there for the remaining 12 years of her life, except when she played at the Ebony Club in 1948, where she opened under the permission of John Levy.

By the 1950s, Holiday's drug abuse, drinking, and relations with abusive men led to deteriorating health. Her voice coarsened and did not project the vibrance it once did. However, she seemed to stand as a prime example of the struggling artist, and projected a certain bittersweet dignity.

On March 28, 1952, Holiday married Louis McKay, a Mafia "enforcer." McKay, like most of the men in her life, was abusive, but did try to get her off drugs. They were separated at the time of her death. Holiday also had a relationship with Orson Welles.

Her late recordings on Verve are as well remembered as her Commodore and Decca work. From 1952 to 1959 Holiday released just over 100 new recordings for this label, which constituted about a third of her recorded work. Her voice reveals a rugged timbre on these tracks, reflecting a vulnerability in the once grand and bold diva. On November 10, 1956, she performed before a packed audience at Carnegie Hall, a major accomplishment for any artist, especially a black artist of the segregated period of American history. Her performance of "Fine And Mellow" on CBS's The Sound of Jazz program is memorable for her interplay with her long-time friend Lester Young; both were less than two years from death. (see the clip here)

Holiday toured Europe in 1954 and again from late 1958 to early 1959. While in London in February 1959, she made a memorable televised appearance on the BBC's Chelsea at Nine, singing, among other songs, "Strange Fruit." Holiday made her final studio recordings (with Ray Ellis and his Orchestra, who had also recorded her Lady in Satin album the previous year ?- see below) for the MGM label in March 1959 (included in her complete Verve recordings collection). These final studio recordings were released posthumously on a self-titled album, later re-titled and re-released as Last Recordings. She made her final public appearance at a benefit concert at the Phoenix Theater in Greenwich Village, New York City, on May 25, 1959. According to the masters of ceremony at that performance, Leonard Feather (a renowned jazz critic) and Steve Allen, she was only able to make it through two songs, one of which was "Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do."

On May 31, 1959, she was taken to Metropolitan Hospital in New York suffering from liver and heart disease. On July 12, she was placed under house arrest at the hospital for possession, despite evidence suggesting the drugs may have been planted on her. Holiday remained under police guard at the hospital until she died from cirrhosis of the liver on July 17 1959 at the age of 44. In the final years of her life, she had been progressively swindled out of her earnings, and she died with only $0.70 in the bank and $750 on her person.

Her impact on other artists was undeniable, however; even after her death she continues to influence singers. In 1972, Diana Ross portrayed her in a film that was loosely based on Lady Sings the Blues, the autobiography she co-authored with William Dufty. Although the Hollywood treatment strayed far from the true story, it was a commercial success and earned Ms. Ross an Best Actress nomination. In 1987, Billie Holiday was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, in 1994, the United States Postal Service introduced a Billie Holiday postage stamp, and she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. Over the years, there have been many recorded tributes to Billie Holiday, including "Angel of Harlem", a 1988 release by the group U2.

Although her unique style has never been successfully duplicated, Billie Holiday inspired many singers and continues to be regarded as one of the jazz idiom's most important vocalists.

Billie Holiday is interred in Saint Raymond's Cemetery, Bronx, New York.


Voice

Her distinct delivery made Billie Holiday's performances instantly recognizable throughout her career. Years of abuse eventually altered the texture of her voice and gave it a prepossessing fragility, but the emotion with which she imbued each song remained intact. Her last major recordings, a 1958 album entitled Lady in Satin, features the backing of a 40-piece orchestra conducted and arranged by Ray Ellis, who said of the album in 1997:

I would say that the most emotional moment was her listening to the playback of "I'm a Fool to Want You." There were tears in her eyes...After we finished the album I went into the control room and listened to all the takes. I must admit I was unhappy with her performance, but I was just listening musically instead of emotionally. It wasn't until I heard the final mix a few weeks later that I realized how great her performance really was.

R.G. Armstrong
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Robert Golden Armstrong, better known as R.G. Armstrong, is an American actor and playwright. A character actor who appeared in dozens of Westerns over the course of his career, he is most well-remembered for his work with director Sam Peckinpah.


Early Life

Armstrong was born in Birmingham, Alabama on April 7, 1917. He came from a family of religious fundamentalists, and his mother wanted him to be a pastor. Armstrong, however, became interested in acting, and while attending the University of North Carolina, he began acting on stage with the Carolina Playmakers. Upon graduation he attended the Actor's Studio and quickly launched a career on Broadway. He won considerable acclaim for his role as Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Armstrong also began writing his own plays, which were performed off-Broadway.


Film and Television Career

Armstrong's first film appearance was in the 1954 movie Garden of Eden. It was television, however, where he first earned a name for himself. He guest starred in virtually every TV Western produced in the '50s and '60s, including: Have Gun - Will Travel, The Californians, The Rifleman, Zane Grey Theater, Wanted: Dead or Alive, The Westerner, Bonanza, Maverick, Gunsmoke, Rawhide and Wagon Train. He also appeared on The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Andy Griffith Show, The Fugitive, Perry Mason, T.H.E. Cat, Hawaii Five-O, Starsky and Hutch, The Dukes of Hazzard, and Dynasty.

While working on The Westerner, Armstrong made the acquaintance of up-and-coming writer/director Sam Peckinpah. The two immediately struck up a friendship. Peckinpah recognized Armstrong's inner turmoil regarding the religious beliefs of his family, and utilized that to brilliant effect in his films. Armstrong would almost always play a slightly unhinged fundamentalist Christian in Peckinpah's films, usually wielding a Bible in one hand and a shotgun in the other. This character archetype appeared in Ride the High Country (1962), Major Dundee (1965), The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970), and, perhaps most memorably, in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973).

Even outside of Peckinpah's work, however, Armstrong became a tier-one character actor in his own right, appearing in dozens of films over his career. Some of his more memorable roles outside of Peckinpah's films include a sympathetic rancher in El Dorado (1966), Cap'n Dan in The Great White Hope (1970), outlaw Clell Miller in The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid (1972), a bumbling outlaw in My Name is Nobody (1973), a major role in Children of the Corn (1984), and as the General in Predator (1987), as well as small parts in Warren Beatty's films Heaven Can Wait (1978) and Reds (1981), as well as a major role as the villain Pruneface in Dick Tracy (1990).

Despite being typecast as gruff and violent characters throughout his career, Armstrong is well-known for having a warm and affable personality offscreen. He has been married twice, to Susan Guthrie until 1976 and remains married to his second wife, Mary.

Armstrong is semi-retired from films, but continues to be active in off-Broadway theater.

James Garner
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Birth name James Scott Baumgarner
Born April 7, 1928 (age 79)
Norman, Oklahoma, USA
Spouse(s) Lois Clarke (17 August 1956; two children)

James Garner (born James Scott Baumgarner on April 7, 1928) is an American film and television actor. He has starred in several television series spanning a career of more than five decades, including his roles as Bret Maverick in the popular 1950s western-comedy series, Maverick, Jim Rockford in the popular 1970s detective drama, The Rockford Files and the father of Katey Sagal's character on 8 Simple Rules following the death of John Ritter. He has starred in dozens of movies, including The Great Escape (1963) and Paddy Chayefsky's The Americanization of Emily (1964).





Biography

The youngest of three children, Garner was born James Scott Bumgarner in Norman, Oklahoma to Weldon Warren Bumgarner and Mildred Meek, and is one quarter Cherokee Indian through his maternal grandfather, Charles Bailey Meek. His father was a carpet layer, and his mother died when James was four years old. After their mother's death, James and his brothers were sent to live with relatives. James was reunited with his family in 1934, when Weldon remarried. Garner grew to hate his stepmother, Wilma, who beat all three boys, but especially young James. When he was 14, James finally had enough of his 'wicked stepmother' and after a particularly heated battle, she left for good. As James' brother Jack commented, " She was a damn no-good woman".[1]

Shortly after the breakup of the marriage, Weldon Bumgarner moved to Los Angeles while Garner and his brothers remained in Norman. After working at several jobs he disliked, Garner joined the United States Merchant Marine at sixteen. He was a good worker, got along with all his buddies aboard ship, but didn't take to the sea. He suffered from chronic seasickness and couldn't shake it no matter how hard he tried. At seventeen, he joined his father in Los Angeles and enrolled at Hollywood High School, where he was voted the most popular student.

He also modeled Jantzen bathing suits at this time. It paid well, but, in his first interview for the Archives of American Television, he said he hated modeling, and soon quit and returned to Norman. There he played football and basketball for Norman High School. Later he joined the National Guard, before serving in the Army in the Korean War, where he received (2) Purple Hearts.

In 1954, a friend, Paul Gregory - whom Garner had met while attending Hollywood High School - convinced Garner to take a non-speaking role in the Broadway production of The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, where he was able to study the actor Henry Fonda at close quarters, night after night. Garner subsequently moved on to television commercials and eventually to television roles. His first movie appearances were in The Girl He Left Behind and Toward the Unknown in 1956.

He changed his last name from Baumgarner to Garner after the studio had credited him as James Garner (without permission). When his first child was born, he decided she had too many names and legally changed his surname to Garner.[2]

One of his two brothers, Jack, has also had an acting career, and similarly changed his surname to Garner. His other brother, Charlie, a non-actor, retained the Baumgarner surname.


Maverick

After forty supporting feature film roles, including the smash hit Sayonara with Marlon Brando, Garner got his big break playing the role of professional gambler Bret Maverick in the comedy Western series Maverick from 1957 to 1960. No one but Garner and series creator Roy Huggins thought the series could compete with The Ed Sullivan Show and The Steve Allen Show, but Maverick eventually made Garner a household name. Various actors had recurring roles as Maverick foils, including Efrem Zimbalist, Jr as "Dandy Jim Buckley," Richard Long as "Gentleman Jack Darby," and Diane Brewster as "Samantha Crawford," while the series veered effortlessly from comedy to adventure and back again. The relationship with Huggins, the creator and original producer of Maverick, would later pay dividends for Garner.

Garner was originally sole star of Maverick (for the first seven episodes) but production demands forced the studio, Warner Brothers, to create a Maverick brother, Bart, played by Jack Kelly. This allowed two production units to film different story lines and episodes simultaneously. The series also featured phenomenally popular cross-over episodes featuring both Maverick brothers. Critics marveled at Garner and Kelly's extraordinary chemistry in their episodes together, but Garner quit the series in the third season because of a dispute with Warner Brothers. The studio attempted to replace Garner's character with a Maverick cousin who had lived in Britain long enough to pick up an English accent, played by an eventual movie James Bond, Roger Moore, but Moore quit the series due to a decline in script quality after only 15 episodes, saying that if he'd gotten stories like Garner's early ones, he would have stayed. Warner Brothers also dressed Robert Colbert, a Garner look-alike, in Bret Maverick's outfit and called the character Brent, but Brent Maverick did not catch on with viewers and Colbert made only two episodes toward the end of the season, leaving the rest of the series' run to Kelly (alternating with reruns of episodes with Garner).


1960s movie career

In the 1960s he starred in such films as The Thrill of It All and Move Over, Darling, both with Doris Day, Boys' Night Out with Kim Novak and Tony Randall, The Great Escape, The Americanization of Emily with Julie Andrews and James Coburn, The Art of Love with Dick Van Dyke and Elke Sommer, and Support Your Local Sheriff! with Joan Hackett, Walter Brennan, Harry Morgan, and Jack Elam.

The ground-breaking racing film Grand Prix gave Garner a fascination with car racing. Directed by John Frankenheimer, the movie is regarded as the best racing film of all time by many motor sports enthusiasts. Unlike Paul Newman and Steve McQueen, Garner was not as successful in his real-life racing exploits.

The Americanization of Emily, a literate anti-war D-Day comedy, featured a script by Paddy Chayefsky and has remained Garner's favorite of all his work. In The Great Escape, Garner played the second lead, supporting fellow ex-TV series cowboy Steve McQueen.

In 1969, Garner joined a long list of actors to play Raymond Chandler's Phillip Marlowe, in Marlowe. Chandler had written the character while visualizing Cary Grant in the role (not unusual for a writer of the era), but Grant never took the part himself. Dick Powell, Humphrey Bogart, Robert Mitchum, and even Elliot Gould all took turns at it, but only Garner's version features Bruce Lee dropping by his office to smash everything into pieces in one of the first displays of Kung Ku techniques in popular media.


Nichols

In 1971, Garner returned to television in an extremely offbeat western called Nichols. The motorcycle-riding character was killed in what became the final episode of the single-season series. Garner was re-cast as the character's more normal twin brother, in the hopes of creating a more popular series with few cast changes. It was Garner's favorite TV series outing, but was nearly as unpopular as Maverick had been sensationally successful. The network changed the show's title to James Garner as Nichols during its second month in a vain attempt to rally the sagging ratings. According to Garner's videotaped Archive of American Television interview, Garner had Nichols killed in the last episode so that a sequel could never be filmed.


The Rockford Files

In the 1970s, Roy Huggins had an idea to redo Maverick, but this time as a modern-day private detective. Huggins teamed with co-creator and eventual TV icon Stephen J. Cannell, and the pair tapped Garner to attempt to rekindle the phenomenal success of Maverick, eventually recycling many of the plots from the original series. Starting with the 1974 season, Garner was back on television as private investigator Jim Rockford in The Rockford Files. For six seasons, the iconoclastic scripts stood Garner in good stead and many consider Rockford his best role, for which he received an Emmy Award for Best Actor in 1977. Actor Noah Beery, Jr., nephew of screen legend Wallace Beery, played Rockford's father, while Gretchen Corbett portrayed Rockford's lawyer and sometime lover until she left the series over a salary dispute with the studio. Garner also invited yet another familiar actor Joe Santos, who played Rockford's friend in the Los Angeles Police Department, Detective Dennis Becker. As with Beery, Garner had had a close bond with Santos over the years. Rounding out the cast was an unfamiliar actor, and another friend of Garner's who had previously co-starred with him on Nichols, Stuart Margolin, playing Jim's ex-cellmate and less-than-trustworthy friend 'Angel' Martin.

Critics noted that The Rockford Files took iconoclasm to new heights, by cynically portraying almost everyone in authority as mean-spirited, wrong-headed, or plain stupid.

Garner himself ultimately pulled the plug on the show, despite consistently high ratings, because of the high physical toll on his body. Appearing in practically every frame of film, doing many of his own stunts-- including one that injured his back-- was wearing him out. A knee injury from his National Guard days worsened in the wake of the continuous jumping and rolling, and he was hospitalized with a bleeding ulcer in 1979, some years before successful treatments for ulcers were discovered.

In July 1981, Garner filed suit against Universal Studios for $22.5 million in connection with his on-going dispute from "The Rockford Files". The suit charged Universal with, "breach of contract, failure to deal in good faith and fairly, and fraud and deceit.[3] It was eventually settled out of court a decade later.


Bret Maverick at 53

After a rest, Garner returned to his most popular TV role in 1981 in the revival series Bret Maverick, but NBC unexpectedly cancelled the show after only one season despite reasonably good ratings. Critics noted that most of the scripts didn't measure up to the first series, though Garner's performance as a 53-year-old Bret Maverick was almost universally applauded. Jack Kelly (Bart Maverick) was slated to become a series regular had the series been picked up for another season, and he appeared in the last scene of the final episode in a surprise guest role.


TV movies

During the 1980s, Garner played dramatic roles in a number of TV movies, from Heartsounds (with Mary Tyler Moore) to Promise (starring Piper Laurie) and My Name is Bill W.. He was nominated for his first Oscar award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in the movie Murphy's Romance, opposite Sally Field. Field had to fight the studio to have Garner cast, since he was regarded as a TV actor by then despite having co-starred in the box office hit Victor/Victoria opposite Julie Andrews three years earlier. Apparently the fight was worth it, as in A&E's biography of Garner, Field reported that her on-screen kiss with Garner was the best cinematic kiss she had ever experienced.

In 1988 Garner underwent quintuple heart bypass surgery. Though he rapidly recovered, the doctors insisted that he stop smoking. In 1993, he played the lead in another well-received TV-movie, Barbarians at the Gate, and went on to reprise his role as Jim Rockford in eight The Rockford Files made-for-TV movies, beginning the following year. The frenetic opening theme song from the original series was rerecorded and slowed to a funereal pace, and practically everyone in the original cast of recurring characters returned for the new episodes, except Beery who had died.


Man of the People

In 1991 Garner starred in Man of the People, a television series about a con man chosen to fill an empty seat on a city council, with Kate Mulgrew and Corinne Bohrer. Despite reasonably fair ratings, the show was canceled after only 10 episodes.


Wyatt Earp

Garner played Wyatt Earp in two very different movies shot 21 years apart, Hour of the Gun in 1967 and Sunset in 1988. The first film was a realistic depiction of the OK Corral shootout and its aftermath, while the second centered around a fictional relationship between Earp and silent movie cowboy star Tom Mix. The film featured Bruce Willis as Mix in only his second movie role. Although Willis was billed over Garner, the film actually gave more screen time and more emphasis to Earp. Malcolm McDowell played a villainous silent comedian.

In 1994 Garner played an extremely Earp-like role as Marshal Zane Cooper in a movie version of Maverick, with Mel Gibson as Bret Maverick (in the end it is revealed that Garner's character is the father of Gibson's Maverick) and Jodie Foster as a gambling lass with a fake southern accent.

In 1995 he played lead character Woodrow Call, an ex-lawman, in the TV miseries sequel to Lonesome Dove, Streets of Laredo, based on Larry McMurtry's book. The original Lonesome Dove story had been written as a movie script for a 1960s film to be directed by Peter Bogdanovich and starring John Wayne, James Stewart, and Henry Fonda, but Wayne turned the part down on John Ford's advice and Stewart backed out as a result, so the movie was abandoned and McMurtry later turned the script into a full-scale novel, Lonesome Dove, which eventually became a revered television miniseries with Tommy Lee Jones in the Wayne role, Robert Duvall in the Stewart part, and Robert Urich filling in for Fonda as the cowboy regretfully hanged by his own friends. Garner had been offered Robert Duvall's role in the original miniseries but had to turn it down for health reasons, and eventually wound up playing the part first portrayed by Tommy Lee Jones and originally created for John Wayne instead.


Later work in TV and movies

In 1996 Garner and Jack Lemmon teamed up in the largely underrated My Fellow Americans, playing two former presidents, both framed for scandalous activity in their days in the White House.

In addition to a major recurring role during the last part of the run of TV series Chicago Hope, Garner also starred in a couple of short-lived series, the animated God, the Devil and Bob and First Monday, in which he played a Supreme Court justice.

In 2000, after an operation to replace both knees, Garner appeared with Clint Eastwood (who'd played a villain in the original Maverick series) in the movie Space Cowboys, also featuring Tommy Lee Jones and Donald Sutherland. During a mass appearance by the cast on television's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Leno ran a brief clip from Garner and Eastwood's lengthy saloon fistfight during Eastwood's Maverick appearance over forty years earlier.

Upon the death of John Ritter in 2003, Garner joined the cast of 8 Simple Rules as Grandpa Egan (Cate's father). Originally intended to be a one-shot guest role, he stayed with the series until its end.

In 2004 Garner starred in the movie version of Nicholas Spark's The Notebook alongside Gena Rowlands as his wife (played in flashbacks by Rachel McAdams), directed by Nick Cassavetes, Rowlands' son.

In 2006, a ten-foot tall statue of James Garner as Bret Maverick was unveiled in Garner's hometown of Norman, Oklahoma, with Garner present at the ceremony.


The tall dark stranger

For his contribution to the film and television industry, Garner received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (at 6927 Hollywood Boulevard). In 1990, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. In February 2005 he received the Screen Actor's Guild's Lifetime Achievement Award. When actor Morgan Freeman won an award that Garner had also been nominated for, Freeman affectionately led the delighted audience in a lively sing-along of the original Maverick theme song, written by David Buttolph and Paul Francis Webster:

Who is the tall dark stranger there?
Maverick is his name.
Riding the trail to who-knows-where
Luck is his companion
Gamblin' is his game.

Smooth as the handle on a gun.
Maverick is his name.
Wild as the wind in Oregon
Blowin' up a canyon/ Easier to tame.

Riverboat ring your bell.
Fare-thee-well Annabelle.
Luck is the lady that he loves the best.
Natchez to New Orleans.
Livin' on jacks and queens.
Maverick is the legend of the west.


Quotes

" Smart intrigues me. I'm very wry and off-beat. I'm not going to make you fall down and laugh. I don't do comedy. I do humor!"[4]

" 'Rockford', I believe, has been the most successful series I ever had. It was the most fun and to come out with a total loss really dimmed my eagerness. It broke my heart. They're bad people. I don't like to work with bad people. It hurt me physically, financially, and mentally."[5]


Politics

Garner is a staunch Democrat. For his role in the 1985 CBS miniseries Space, the character's party affiliation was changed from a Republican (as in the book) to reflect Garner's personal views. Prior to the entry of ex-San Francisco Mayor (later U.S. Senator) Dianne Feinstein, there was an effort by party leaders to persuade James Garner to seek the 1990 Democratic nomination for Governor of California.


Motorsports

Garner was an owner of the "American International Racers" (AIR) auto racing team from 1967 through 1969. The team fielded cars at Le Mans, Daytona, and Sebring endurance races, but is best known for Garner's celebrity status raising publicity in the early off-road motorsport events [1]. Garner signed a three-year sponsorship contract with American Motors Corporation (AMC) [2]. His shops prepared ten 1969 SC/Ramblers for the Baja 500 race [3]. Garner did not drive in this event because of a film commitment in Spain that year. Nevertheless, seven of his cars finished the grueling race, taking three of the top five places in the sedan class [4]. Garner also drove the pace car at the Indianapolis 500 race in 1975, 1977, and 1985 (see: list of Indianapolis 500 pace cars).


Interviews

In his book, The Art of the Interview: Lessons from a Master of the Craft, Lawrence Grobel quoted a portion of an interview he had done with Garner:

In 1994 I interviewed James Garner, who told me that when he was four his mother died and a year later his father remarried "a nasty Bitch" who "used to beat the hell out of me" I asked him if she was the one who made him wear a dress and called him Louise if he did anything wrong.

Garner: Yeah, where did you find that out? It was out in the country and we'd be in some little store and I'd just go hide because it would embarrass me terribly. Then my brothers would tease me and call me Louise and a fight would break out.

Q: How often did that happen?

Garner: Oh gosh, a lot. If I did anything wrong I'd have to go put on the dress.

Q: At what point did you fight back?

Garner: At around thirteen. I decked her. I had her on the bed, choking her. My dad and my brother pulled me off of her. I can understand how kids can rebel to the point of murder. I don't agree with it, but I don't know what I'd have done - because she was tough. Tough. I'm sure I wouldn't have let go of her until she quit breathing because she'd have killed me if she got up. Then they held me down so she could ship me. But that's the night that broke up the marriage with my dad and her.[6]

John Oates
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Oates (born John William Oates on April 7, 1949 in New York City) is an American musician and producer best known as half of successful duo Hall & Oates.




Background

Oates attended North Penn High School in suburban Philadelphia. He is married to Aimee Oates, and his son Tanner John Oates was born on June 19, 1996. John Oates is of Italian descent on his mother's side and Spanish-Moorish on his father's side.

In 1985, Oates co-wrote and produced the single "Love Is Fire" by Canadian pop group Parachute Club, which was performed as a duet between Oates and Parachute Club lead singer Lorraine Segato. The song became a top 40 hit in Canada, and Oates also produced several other tracks on the band's album Small Victories.

He also co-wrote "Electric Blue", a hit single by Icehouse, with Iva Davies.

Despite 30 years as a chart-topping performer and sought after producer, he did not release a solo album until 2002's Phunk Shui.

Oates took part, along with Jamie Cullum, in the song "Greatest Mistake" by Handsome Boy Modeling School. The song appears on the 2004 album White People.

Jackie Chan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Jackie Chan
成龍


Birth name 陳港生 Chan Kong-Sang
Born April 7, 1954 (age 53)
Hong Kong
Other name(s) 房仕龍 Yuen Lo (School given name)
Spouse(s) Lin Feng-Jiao
Official site jackiechan.com
Notable roles Ka Kui in Police Story
Chief Inspector Lee in Rush Hour
Chon Wang in Shanghai Noon

Chan Kong-Sang (Simplified Chinese: 陈港生; Traditional Chinese: 陳港生; pinyin: Chén Gǎngshēng), also known as Jackie Chan Sing Lung (Simplified Chinese: 陈成龙; Traditional Chinese: 陳成龍; pinyin: Chén Chénglóng) or Jackie Chan SBS, (born on April 7, 1954) is a Chinese martial artist, action star, actor, director, screenwriter, film producer, singer and stunt performer.

Chan is one of the best known names in kung fu and action movies worldwide for his acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, use of props including furniture and other set pieces as improvised weapons and performing many of his own stunts. Chan has appeared in over a hundred films and is one of the most recognisable Asian movie stars in the world. He has a star on the Avenue of Stars, Hong Kong as well as on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Chan is also a major pop star in Asia and has released over 100 song titles in 20 albums since 1984. He sings in many different languages including English, Cantonese, Mandarin and Japanese. He also sings many of the theme songs to his films.




Biography

Jackie Chan was born on Victoria Peak, Hong Kong (now part of People's Republic of China). Chan is the son of Lee-Lee and Charles Chan, who emigrated to Canberra, Australia in 1960 as refugees from the Chinese Civil War. Prior to leaving China, Lee-Lee and Charles had worked as a maid and butler respectively, for the French ambassador to Hong Kong, with Chan spending his formative years within the confines of the embassy. Chan's Chinese name at birth was Chan Kong-Sang, meaning "born in Hong Kong".

Before he adopted the Westernized name, "Jacky", and later, "Jackie", he was known by a variety of other nicknames. As he was a heavy baby - 5.5kg (12 lb) at birth, he claims to have spent 12 months in the womb - his mother nicknamed him "Pao Pao" (meaning "Cannonball"). Later, while studying at the Peking Opera School he was known as Yuen Lo, as a mark of respect to his master, Yu Jim-Yuen.

In his early stuntman and acting career (prior to New Fist of Fury in 1976) he was known as Chen Yueng Lung (or Chen Yuen Lung). In his autobiography Chan states that he used this name, which is close to his opera brother Sammo Hung's opera name, so that he didn't have to put his name on films he wasn't happy with. He was thereafter known as "Jacky", named by his Australian co-workers when living in Australia in 1976-1977.[1] Working on a building site alongside a labourer named Jack, Chan's co-workers nicknamed him "Little Jack", and later shortened this to Jacky. However, he changed Jacky to Jackie during the filming of "The Big Brawl" and has been known by it ever since. Because his father's family name was originally Fong and was changed only when arriving in Hong Kong, Chan's Chinese name was changed in family records years later to "Fong Si Lung".[2] He has also been listed as "Sing Lung" (meaning "already a dragon" in an attempt to jump out of Bruce Lee's shadow), particularly in relation to his music and it may be no coincidence that his character in the film Fearless Hyena was called "Shing Lung".

Jackie's star status in Asia has been unquestionable ever since his first films in the late 1970s. Translating that success into global stardom has proved much more difficult. In particular, the American market was very unreceptive, due to a combination of bad marketing and bad casting. His first US feature film, Battle Creek Brawl saw him portraying a vengeful loner, a routine which had already been done before by countless actors and was not suited to Jackie's comedic talent. His next American film, Cannonball Run, was a hit, but it was an ensemble piece and did not give a good idea of audience reaction to Chan himself.

A further complication was the restriction to Chan's style of work, enforced mainly by the studios fearful of legal action if their investment were ever to injure himself on set. The lack of actual contact during action scenes removed the intensity which was his hallmark, which added to the frustration.

It was not until 1994 that Jackie finally decided to try the States again, when Rumble in the Bronx was released. When it made almost $10 million on its opening weekend and became the first Hong Kong film to make it to number one at the US box office, he had finally cracked it. Every film Jackie has made since has seen a successful American release, making him a true global phenomenon.


Early years

Chan was educated at Nan Hua Elementary Academy, but he struggled and his parents felt he didn't fit in at the school, so they sent him to the Chinese Opera Research Institute (1961-1971) and later, due to financial difficulties, they enrolled him at the Peking Opera School. The enrollment was to last for 10 years, and while there, he was taught skills in acrobatics and kung fu under an extremely strict regime. It was here that Chan joined a number of other students who would become members of the Seven Little Fortunes (the Opera school's best students), and ultimately his Hong Kong film industry compatriots. They included Yuen Wah, Corey Yuen (Yuen Kwai) and Yuen Qiu. He also became close friends with Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, and the three of them would later come to be known as the Three Brothers / Three Dragons.

Upon finishing at the Opera school, Chan found it difficult to find work, especially due to the declining popularity of Chinese Opera. Like his fellow former students, he found work as a film stuntman on several films including Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon. However, when Lee died in 1973, Hong Kong action cinema went into decline and the studios were forced to release many of their staff, including Chan.

In 1975, he was in an adult comedic film called "All in the Family". "I had to do anything I could to make a living 31 years ago, but I don't think it's a big deal, even Marlon Brando used to be exposed in his movies," Chan said. The adult scenes at that time were more conservative than the current films however. This remains the only film he has done so far where no fighting or stunts were involved.

After a brief spell living with his parents in Australia, working on building sites, Chan received a job offer via his friend, film producer Willie Chan. After some hesitation due to the low pay, Chan accepted and began working for Lo Wei's studio at Golden Harvest, one of the most famous directors in Hong Kong, agreeing a ten year contract. They were looking for a young actor to mould into a star. Lo was desperate to find the new Bruce Lee, but his attempts at making Chan into this character resulted in poor box office returns. Chan did however make his first starring roles in films such as Shaolin Chamber of Death (1976) and Snake & Crane Arts of Shaolin (1978).

Willie Chan arranged to loan Jackie out to rival studio, Seasonal Films. Given greater creative freedom, Chan starred in the first box office hit of his career, Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and his first international success, Drunken Master (both 1978). Both films were directed by Yuen Woo-ping, and both featured Yuen's father (Yuen Siu Tien also known as Simon Yuen) in fundamentally the same role, as a drunken beggar / kung fu master. In the latter film, Chan depicted Wong Fei Hung as a young and mischievous rascal, rather than the venerable Kung fu master that the Hong Kong audiences knew so well. Drunken Master was a radical film for its time and led the way for other international hits. A sequel to Drunken Master, Drunken Master II, was later released 16 years later in 1994.

As his loan period ended, Chan had to return to Lo Wei's studio. Although he was handed his own directorial debut with Fearless Hyena (1979), Chan was still constrained by Lo over both wages and creativity. Willie Chan assisted Jackie by securing a deal for him to work directly for Golden Harvest, breaking his contract with Lo Wei. In response, Lo Wei asked the Triads to force Chan to remain in his employment. Chan escaped briefly to the US, whilst negotiations took place to resolve the issues, and even after his return to Hong Kong, there were interruptions during the filming of Chan's next feature, The Young Master (1980). Eventually the problems were sorted out, with the help of Jimmy Wang Yu, Golden Harvest bought out Lo Wei's contract and Lo subsequently retired from the film industry.[3]


1980s

Chan married Taiwanese actress Lin Feng-Jiao in 1983 according to his autobiography, but many Asian sources state he was married on December 1, 1982. His official website states that he "has been married to Lin Feng-Jiao since 1982". Chan admitted on an interview with Indian Talk Show hostess, Simi Garewal that he married his wife because she got pregnant before marriage.[4] Chan and Lin Feng-Jiao have a son, Jaycee Chan (aka Jo-Ming), who was born on December 3, 1982, although Chan's autobiography lists his son's birth year as 1984.

Stated in Jackie Chan's autobiography, 'I am Jackie Chan', two Japanese fans attempted suicide when a Japanese article printed the marriage of Chan and Feng Jiao. One girl drank poison in front of Jackie's manager, Willie Chan, and other JC staff in the JC Studios based in Hong Kong. She was rushed to a hospital and saved. The other, however, threw her body in front of a subway and killed herself. Since then, Jackie has kept his family in the dark and in a recent interview with UK presenters of the Priory Show, Zoe Ball and Jamie Theakston in August 2001, when asked if there was a 'Mrs Chan' in his life, he replied 'secret' and nothing more. Taiwanese fans have shown aggression towards Jackie and accuse him of being responsible for Feng Jiao's early retirement.

Chan's attempts to break into the American movie industry began in the 1980s, appearing in movies like Battle Creek Brawl, The Cannonball Run, Cannonball Run II and The Protector.

Between 1983 and 1985, Chan enjoyed his most prolific period of acting alongside his opera school brothers. Just after Hung and Biao had made Prodigal Son, all three appeared together in Chan's Project A and the first of Hung's original Lucky Stars trilogy, Winners and Sinners. All three films came in 1983. These were followed by Wheels on Meals in 1984, and the trio were reunited twice more for the Lucky Stars semi-sequels My Lucky Stars and Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Stars, both in 1985. Chan appeared once more with Hung in 1985, in Heart of Dragon. This was something of a golden period for Hong Kong cinema-goers, as three of the nation's most loved stars performed together on screen. In 1988, the last film to star all three together was released, Dragons Forever. Although they have expressed an interest in working together again, as a trio, it has yet to occur.

Chan is perhaps best known for performing the majority of his own stunts, which he choreographs along with his stunt team. Around the time of Project A in 1983, Chan officially formed the Jackie Chan Stunt Team, allowing him to train and work with a group of trusted martial artists and stuntmen for each of his ensuing movies. Chan stated that this makes it easier to choreograph fight scenes as he already has knowledge of his team's abilities. He and his team also undertake many of the more dangerous stunts for the other characters in his films. These are usually shot from behind or otherwise obscuring the faces so it is not obvious to the viewer. The dangerous nature of the stunts make it difficult for Chan to get insurance, particularly in the US, where his stunt work is contractually limited.

Chan holds the Guinness World Record for "Most Stunts By A Living Actor". The record notes that "no insurance company will underwrite Chan's productions, in which he performs all his own stunts".[5] Chan has been injured a number of times during his stunts, and these are sometimes played amongst the bloopers shown over the closing credits of his later movies. He came closest to death while filming Armour of God (1985), when he fell from a tree in a relatively routine stunt and fractured his skull.

He may also hold the record for the most number of takes for a single shot in a film, over 2900, for a complex scene involving a shuttlecock game in the movie Dragon Lord, although this is not recognized by the Guinness World Records.[6][7]

In his autobiography, Chan says he originally created his screen persona as a reaction to that of the martial artist Bruce Lee, and the numerous imitators who appeared before and after Lee's death (see "Bruceploitation"). Where Bruce Lee's characters were typically stern, morally upright heroes, Chan plays well-meaning, slightly foolish regular guys, often at the mercy of friends, girlfriends or families. However, his characters always triumph in the end.

The 80s also saw Chan move away from the traditional period kung fu films to films set in a more modern era, with more spectacular stunts.


1990s

In the 1990s, as well as continuing with his successful Asian film career, Chan still wanted Hollywood success and was offered two roles that would portray him as a villain, but he declined both of them as he didn't want to risk being typecast for further Hollywood roles. His friend, Sylvester Stallone, offered him the role of the criminal, Simon Phoenix, in the futuristic film Demolition Man. When he declined the role, it was taken by Wesley Snipes. He also chose not to play a villain in the film Lethal Weapon 4 with the role taken by Jet Li.

In 1994, MTV honoured Chan with a lifetime achievement award for his action-oriented movies, and a year later, he made his "official" debut in North America with a worldwide release of Rumble in the Bronx which was his break into the mainstream Hollywood industry. He has attained the box-office guarantee and Cult popularity that has so far eluded other Hong Kong movie stars like Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh in Hollywood. His next big success was the buddy cop action comedy Rush Hour in 1998 opposite Chris Tucker. He also voiced a fictionalized version of himself in a successful animated series, Jackie Chan Adventures.

In February 1998, Leonard Ho, Chan's godfather and co-founder of Golden Harvest, died. Although a sad time for Chan, it did afford him the opportunity to take greater control of the films he chose to work on. Chan had a long-held desire to make dramatic films, but was constantly dissuaded by Ho. Ho had always argued that to ensure a successful return on his films, Chan should play to his fanbase by only doing kung fu / action movies and should avoid the love scenes that may alienate certain markets (most notably Japan). Soon after Ho's death, after 18 years with the studio, Chan released his final film for Golden Harvest, Who Am I? (1998). His first Hong Kong film after that move, Gorgeous (1999), was a romantic comedy, and whilst it still contained a few scenes demonstrating Chan's fighting abilities, they weren't the main focus of the film. In the 1980s, most of Chan's films were directed either by himself or by Sammo Hung. In the 1990s, Chan chose instead to work with a variety of successful and upcoming Hong Kong directors, as he sought to learn new techniques. They included Ringo Lam, Tsui Hark, Stanley Tong, Kirk Wong, Lau Kar-Leung and Vincent Kok. Around this time, Chan also expressed an interest in making Armour of God 3, although the film has yet to be made.[8]


2000s

Chan continued his Hollywood success with Shanghai Noon, its sequel Shanghai Knights, and Rush Hour 2. He also helped to create a PlayStation game based on him called Jackie Chan Stuntmaster, Jackie did the voice over and motion capture for the game. In 2004 Chan returned to Hong Kong box office success with the films New Police Story, in which Chan plays a troubled police officer, The Myth where we see Chan as a modern archaeologist who has dreamt he has been reincarnated from an ancient Chinese Warrior and Rob-B-Hood, which stars Chan as a criminal who kidnaps a baby. These are examples of Chan's growing wish to play a new style of character and to include more dramatic scenes into his films. Currently Chan is filming the next in the Rush Hour series, Rush Hour 3, which sees Chan and Tucker traveling to Paris.


Chan's star on the Avenue of Stars, Hong KongAs well as many on-going projects Chan is also a keen philanthropist and has worked tirelessly to champion many charity works and causes. As a well-respected figure of the Hong Kong entertainment industry, he is often one of the leaders in such works, speaking up for conservation and against animal abuse, as well as promoting disaster relief efforts for flooding in mainland China and the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. Chan helped raise thousands of US dollars, however this money was later stolen by a third party.[citation needed] In June, 2006, he announced that he would donate half of his assets to charity when he dies. He stated that he admired the efforts by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates to help those in need.


Future projects

Apart from filming Rush Hour 3, he has also planned to star alongside Jet Li for the first time in a movie rumored to be based about the Monkey King, and fittingly, it was confirmed that he will be the voice of Master Monkey, in Dreamworks newest animation called Kung Fu Panda slated to be released early in 2008.


Filmography as actor


Discography

In Hong Kong and across Asia Jackie Chan is a very popular and successful singer. He started professionally producing records in the 1980s. He sings in many languages including Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, Vietnamese and English. He also sings many of his films theme songs, but when the films are released in Britain and the U.S. the original soundtrack is replaced

Interesting facts

Skills

While not afraid to do his own stunts, he confesses that, like many, he is afraid of needles and hates receiving injections. Unlike injuries that may come from a failed stunt, with a shot he "knows that it's coming."
Though Chan's willingness to do his own stunts was originally the trademark feature of his movies, he has sustained various injuries over the years which render him incapable of performing certain stunts. He tries to avoid stunts where he may suffer severe head trauma due to a near fatal incident that occurred while shooting Armour of God. He has also broken his left ankle so many times, he can no longer rely on it while pushing for a jump and must use his right foot instead. Over the years, he has been forced to use body doubles on various occasions. He has also dislocated his pelvis and broken his fingers, toes, nose, both cheekbones, hips and sternum, and broken his neck and ribs on numerous occasions while filming.
His final fight with Benny Urquidez in Wheels on Meals is considered to be one of the finest fights of the movie genre.
He knows Kung Fu, and has trained under GrandMaster Leung Ting in Wing Tsun, as well as numerous other masters in Tong Long (Mantis), Bak Mei (White Eyebrow), as well as the traditional northern Shaolin Kung Fu he learned in opera school. Jackie has also learned numerous other styles of martial arts to help his screen fighting, including Hapkido, Boxing, Judo, Taekwondo and Hei Long (Under Master G.J. Torres). Jackie's personal style is said to be a mixture of Boxing, Wing Chun, Hapkido and Judo. He stated that some of his martial arts training has been attributed to Jin Pal Kim, a Korean hapkido stylist.

In the media

Jackie with Disney favouritesChan has won several awards including The American Choreography Award and The World Stunt Award, and has a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, along with several awards from Hollywood, Hong Kong, Montreal World and Fant-Asia Film Festivals; but he has never won an Oscar. Currently there is a campaign underway to award him an Honorary Lifetime Achievement Academy Award.
Was voted 41st in a poll of the jsp 100 Greatest Movie Stars on Channel 4 in the UK.[9]
Chan appeared with, and was quickly "killed" by martial arts legend Bruce Lee in 1973's Enter the Dragon in a very short scene where Chan plays one of Kahn's guards.
In 1990, an NES video game, Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu was released. Future video game releases, such as Jackie Chan Stuntmaster, for the PlayStation were developed along with a series of Jackie Chan games released on MSX by Sony, which were all based on his movies (Project A, Project A 2, Police Story, The Protector and Sparatan X "Wheels On Meals").
In 1995, Jackie Chan The Kung-Fu Master (aka Jackie Chan in Fists of Fire), an arcade fighting game from Kaneko, was released. The game features digitized fighters and the bosses are three different versions of Jackie Chan.
A television show, Jackie Chan Adventures, was based on Jackie Chan, his niece, and his uncle, as well as a shopkeeper. Video games have also been made based on the show.
The character Lei Wulong from the Tekken video game series is heavily based on Jackie Chan, featuring the actor's looks and similar fighting style.
He is the central subject of UK band Ash's song Kung Fu, which is used for the end credits of the UK and US versions of Rumble in the Bronx.
The Pokémon Hitmonchan is named after him (similar in style to how the Pokémon Hitmonlee is named after Bruce Lee).
He helped to open Hong Kong Disneyland Resort in 2005.
Chan had planned to star as Vin Diesel's role in the movie The Pacifier, but due to busy arrangements, did not take the role.
He was asked to play Wah Sing Ku in the Mel Gibson film Lethal Weapon 4, but turned down the part as he would have to play a criminal; Chan often says he doesn't like to play real criminals as it is bad for his image-- although he doesn't mind playing either comical criminals or anti-heroes, as in his newest film Rob-B-Hood. The part of Wah Sing Ku was later played by Jet Li.
Although he did not voice the part, a likeness of him appeared in the Family Guy episode, Breaking Out Is Hard to Do, when Peter Griffin said, "Oh my god, it's Jackie Chan!" three different times to three different Asian people in Asiantown before seeing Jackie Chan, who says "Oh my god, it's Malcom in the Middle!" while pointing at Meg.
He has appeared alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in a government advert to combat piracy[10]
In the Dragon Ball series, a martial arts master Master Roshi disguises himself and uses the alias "Jackie Chun" to take part in a few martial arts tournaments to secretly test out the powers and abilities of Goku, the main character of the series.
Appeared in 2 Diet Pepsi commercials in 2006.
Recorded a duet of the Nat King Cole song Unforgettable with Ani DiFranco, which appears as the first track for the album When Pigs Fly: Songs You Thought You'd Never Hear.
He has declared that it is almost certain that he will, for the first time, partner another kung fu cinema legend Jet Li in an upcoming film that will start filming in spring 2007. The film has been dubbed The J&J Project.
His nickname to the people of Hong Kong is Big Brother
In an interview unlocked in the video game Jackie Chan Stuntmaster (A game where he was motion captured for game animations), Chan stated that he likes to play video games.
He sang I'll Make a Man Out of You, the song originally sung by Donny Osmond, in Cantonese and Mandarin, in a special feature on the Disney Mulan DVD
In a song by the artist Lemon Demon called The Ultimate Showdown, a likeness of him fought Shaquille O' Neal, but was defeated by a Care Bear. The song was brought to popularity because of the flash movie of the same name on the website Albino Black Sheep, which also portrays the scene with Jackie Chan.
Chan featured in an ad campaign for clothing company, Hanes, to promote their Hanes "Go Tagless" T-shirt. Chan featured along side other celebrities, which included Michael Jordan and Brian Regan

Trademark

After filming Cannonball Run, he continued stuntman/director Hal Needham's style of ending each of his movies with a sequence of "out-takes" being shown. This would sometimes include accidents during filming, as in The Young Master, Armour of God, Miracles etc. This practice became so popular that when a later Chan film was released without any out-takes, the Japanese audience complained in such great numbers that the film was re-released with out-takes added back in.
Though action orientated, Jackie's films rarely contains any scenes of violence or death. His good natured style of acting had made him a popular figure with the children. He has always maintained that he wanted to be a good role model to the kids, which is why he has never taken the role of a villain.

Language

A successful acting career despite the lack of any proper education, had never disillusioned Chan to the importance of it. In fact he was ashamed of that aspect of himself so much so that he named his lack of education his greatest regret in life. He had since assisted in the building up and funding of many educational facilities around the world, like the research institute in Australia, and particularly the funding of many schools in the rural area of China, so that poorer and less fortunate kids could be educated.
He sings many of his own movie theme songs. Chan has had a fairly successful career as a recording artist (though not as successful as his movie career). The American versions of his movies do not typically feature the original theme songs, something which his fans find rather irritating. Chan was also featured on the Mandarin and Cantonese soundtracks for the Disney movie Mulan, which includes a video on the DVD version.
Since the early 1990s, Chan has always dubbed his own movies. However, in the 1970s and 80s it was not common practice in Hong Kong for stars to do their own dubbing. For much of the early part of Chan's acting career his voice dubbing was done by a single Cantonese voice-over artist, so although the voice wasn't Chan's it was at least consistent from film to film. Chan is quite fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese and often dubs himself in other languages (such as English).

Other

In an interview with the popular Shonen Jump Magazine, Akira Toriyama stated that his top selling manga series Dragon Ball was in part influenced by Jackie Chan's Drunken Master film[11][12]
The physical toll he took over the years meant than Chan can not sleep on a normal mattress for long hours for fear of aggravating further injuries. Chan has his bed modified so that it is hard and inflexible, and will just sleep on the floor as a make shift bed during some of his trips.
He owns a pewter-coloured Lamborghini Murcielago (photograph at exoticspotter.com).
He once owned a car tuning business called JC Sports in Hong Kong.
Owns a set of Japanese daisho (matching set of katana & wakizashi) hand crafted by renowned swordsmith Yoshihara Yoshikazu[13]
He often drives Mitsubishi cars in his films, as he has held an endorsement deal with the company since 1983, and has hosted the charity celebrity support race at the Macau Grand Prix on numerous occasions. The only time he does not drive a Mitsubishi is City Hunter, which he drives a Mazda RX-7 modified by his tuning company and The Tuxedo which he drives a BMW Z8. His tuning company at the time (JC Sports) even catered mainly for Mitsubishi.
For his 2004 film, New Police Story, Chan had a Japanese tuning company commission a modified Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII specially for the film.
Shortly after filming New Police Story, Jackie reported that he would produce and play Yue Fei in a biopic about the general's life. Jaycee Chan, Jackie's son, will share the role as young Yue Fei. Jackie said, "There's already a rough draft right now, we've even found a co-star. In fact, filming of ?'Genghis Khan' is also under consideration, but it must be a good script, because a lot of people have filmed this story, and the story itself is complicated and randomized, so up to now, there isn't a concrete plan yet. And [the script for] ?'Ngok Fei' is nearly completed." He continues, "I think Yue Fei is a man with great sense of loyalty, so am I. I've been loyal to Golden Harvest, to friends and to my country!" Filming will not begin until Jackie finishes filming several other projects (including Rush Hour 3), but he is willing to work for reduced pay so he can work with his son. This is because he believes the box office results will be good. However, Director Tang Jili (唐季礼) says the role of Yue Fei could possibly go to Andy Lau.[14][15]
In 1998, Chan appeared in a commercial for a credit card company that was shown in Hong Kong.
During the summer of 2006 Chan filmed a VISA commercial for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It began airing in China on January 24 this year. The commercial shows Chan playing various sports.[16]
In March 2007, Chan and Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca joined forces in encouraging people, especially Asians, to join the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Chan was seen wearing an authentic LA County Sheriff's Department uniform. He will be featured in a public service announcement. [1] [2]

Russell Crowe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Birth name Russell Ira Crowe
Born April 7, 1964 (age 42)
Wellington, New Zealand
Notable roles Hando in Romper Stomper (1992)
Jeffrey Wigand in The Insider (1999)
Maximus Decimus Meridius in Gladiator (2000)
John Forbes Nash in A Beautiful Mind (2001)
Jack Aubrey in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
Academy Awards

Won: Best Actor
2000 Gladiator
Nominated: Best Actor
1999 The Insider
2001 A Beautiful Mind
Golden Globe Awards

Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
2002 A Beautiful Mind
BAFTA Awards

Best Actor in a Leading Role
2001 A Beautiful Mind
AFI Awards

Best Actor in a Leading Role
1992 Romper Stomper
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
1991 Proof

Russell Ira Crowe (born April 7, 1964) is an Academy Award-winning New Zealand-Australian[1] film actor.







Biography

Early life

Crowe was born in Wellington, New Zealand to Jocelyn Yvonne Wemyss and John Alexander Crowe [2] both of whom were caterers; he has a brother, Terry. His maternal grandfather, Stan Wemyss, was a cinematographer who, according to Crowe, produced the first film by New Zealander Geoff Murphy,[3] and was also named an MBE for filming footage of World War II. Crowe's maternal great-great-great grandmother was a Māori,[2][4] and as a result Crowe is registered on the Māori electoral roll in New Zealand; Crowe also has Norwegian, Scottish, Irish and Welsh ancestry.[2][5][6]

When Crowe was four years old, his family moved to Australia, where his parents pursued a career in filmset catering. The producer of the Australian TV series Spyforce was his mother's godfather, and Crowe at age five or six was hired for a line of dialogue in one episode, opposite series star Jack Thompson, who years later played Crowe's father in The Sum of Us and who coincidentally had been educated at the same school which Crowe was to attend for two years: Sydney Boys High School.

As a eleven-year-old, Crowe had an early taste of fame by having his photograph (in a ballroom-dancing costume) in the February 1988 edition of National Geographic magazine, the commemorative edition for Australia's Bicentennial.

When he was 14, however, Crowe's family moved back to New Zealand, where he attended Auckland Grammar School with his cousins Martin Crowe and Jeff Crowe. He did not complete secondary school, leaving early to help his family financially. In the mid-1980s Russell, under guidance from his good friend Tom Sharplin, performed as a rock 'n' roll revivalist, under the stage name Russ Le Roq, and had a New Zealand single with "I Wanna Be Marlon Brando."

Crowe returned to Australia at age 21, intending to apply to the National Institute of Dramatic Art. "I was working in a theater show, and talked to a guy who was then the head of technical support at NIDA," Crowe recalled. "I asked him what he thought about me spending three years at NIDA. He told me it'd be a waste of time. He said, 'You already do the things you go there to learn, and you've been doing it for most of your life, so there's nothing to teach you but bad habits.'"[7] In 1987 Crowe spent a six-month stint as a busker when he couldn't find other work.[8]

After appearing in the TV series Neighbours and Living with the Law, Crowe was cast in his first film, The Crossing (1990), a small-town love triangle directed by George Ogilvie. Before production started, a film-student protege of Ogilvie's, Steve Wallace, hired Crowe for the film Blood Oath (1990) (a.k.a. Prisoners of the Sun) which was released a month earlier, although actually filmed later.

In 1992, Crowe starred in the first episode of the second Series of Police Rescue.


Hollywood
After initial success in Australia, Crowe began acting in American films. He went on to become a three-time Oscar nominee, winning the Academy Award as Best Actor in 2001 for Gladiator. Crowe wore his grandfather Stan Wemyss's Member of the Order of the British Empire medal to the ceremony.

Crowe received three consecutive best actor Oscar nominations for The Insider, Gladiator and A Beautiful Mind. All three films were also nominated for best picture, and both Gladiator and A Beautiful Mind won the award. Within the six year stretch from 1997-2003, he also starred in two other best picture nominees, LA Confidential and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, though he was nominated for neither. In 2005 he re-teamed with A Beautiful Mind director Ron Howard for Cinderella Man. In 2006 he re-teamed with Gladiator director Ridley Scott for A Good Year, the first of two consecutive collaborations (the second being American Gangster, due for release in late 2007). While the light romantic comedy of A Good Year was not greatly received, Crowe seemed pleased with the film, telling stv in an interview that he thought it would be enjoyed by fans of his other films.

On March 9, 2005, Crowe revealed to GQ magazine that Federal Bureau of Investigation agents had approached him prior to the 73rd Academy Awards on March 25, 2001 and told him that the Islamist terrorist group al-Qaeda wanted to kidnap him. Crowe told the magazine that it was the first time he had ever heard of al-Qaeda (the September 11 attacks took place later that year) and was quoted as saying:

"You get this late-night call from the FBI when you arrive in Los Angeles, and they're, like, absolutely full-on. 'We've got to talk to you now before you do anything. We have to have a discussion with you, Mr. Crowe.'" Crowe recalled that "it was something to do with some recording picked up by a French policewoman, I think, in either Libya or Algiers...it was about taking iconographic Americans out of the picture as a sort of cultural-destabilization plan." [9]
Crowe was guarded by Secret Service agents for the next few months, both while shooting films and at award ceremonies (Scotland Yard also guarded Crowe while he was promoting Proof of Life in London in February 2001). Crowe said that he "...never fully understood what the **** was going on".[9] The FBI confirmed Crowe's statement (which is uncharacteristic of the agency in that it usually does not comment to the media).


Temperament

Crowe has been involved in a number of altercations in recent years which have given him a reputation for having a bad temper. When part of Crowe's appearance at the 2002 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards was cut out to fit into the BBC's tape-delayed broadcast, Crowe accosted producer Malcolm Gerrie. (The part cut was a poem in tribute to actor Richard Harris who was then terminally ill.) During the filming of A Beautiful Mind on the campus of Princeton University, Crowe made an obscene gesture to Princeton student Meredith Moroney whom he spotted photographing him, which raised a media stir.[10] (The student was filming from a dormitory window. The students had been told not to interrupt the filming by college authorities.) In 1999, Crowe was involved in a scuffle at the Saloon Bar in Coffs Harbour, Australia , which was caught by a security video. In November 2002 inside a trendy Japanese restaurant in London, had a bathroom brawl with New Zealand business man and personality Eric Watson, according to onlookers it "was a beauty".

In June 2005, Crowe was arrested and charged with second degree assault by New York City police, in connection with an incident at the Mercer Hotel, SoHo, New York. Crowe threw a telephone at a hotel employee who refused to help him place a call when the system did not work from his room, and was charged with fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon (the telephone). Crowe, who was sentenced to conditional release, paid about US$100,000 to settle the civil lawsuit to the concierge, who was treated for a facial laceration. Crowe's temperament was parodied in an episode of the cartoon South Park titled "The New Terrance and Phillip Movie Trailer". In this episode, Crowe is the star of his own, fictional TV series: Russell Crowe: Fightin' Around The World, in which he travels the globe in his tug boat to instigate altercations with strangers of different nationalities. Crowe's temperament was also parodied on the Australian Seven Network skit show Big Bite in 2003. The Network Ten show The Secret Life of Us was parodied on the show as The Secret Life of Russ. The "phone incident" was parodied in Scary Movie 4 when Brenda is dreaming, one of her lines is "Look out, Russell Crowe's got a phone!"

On other occasions, however, he has been known to show compassion. Following the death of his friend, naturalist and television personality Steve Irwin, Russell remarked that Irwin was "the Australian we all aspire to be." He also recently slammed a report claiming he was hoping to portray Irwin in a biopic about his life, stating, "It's appalling to me and offends me very deeply. It's so awful that I have to deal with millions of people thinking I would dance on my friend's grave. Yes, I do think there should be a movie made about Steve but I'm not the sort of person who will be doing commerce on my friend's grave." [11]


Family and general interests

On April 7, 2003, his 39th birthday, Crowe married Australian singer and actress Danielle Spencer. Crowe met Spencer while filming The Crossing (1990). Crowe also dated American actress Meg Ryan after they had an admitted affair while filming Proof of Life (2000) and in the past, he has been linked to Erica Baxter, Peta Wilson and Courtney Love. Crowe and Spencer have two sons: Charles "Charlie" Spencer Crowe (born December 21, 2003) and Tennyson Spencer Crowe (born July 7, 2006).

He supports the Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League [1].

Two of Russell Crowe's cousins, Martin and Jeff Crowe are former New Zealand national cricket captains.

Most of the year, Crowe resides in Australia at both his Sydney home in Woolloomooloo and his 320 hectare rural property in Nana Glen near Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, but he rented a house for Summer 2006 in Nyack, New York while he worked on a movie being shot in New York City.


South Sydney Rabbitohs

On 19 March, 2006, the voting members of the South Sydney Rabbitohs National Rugby League club voted (in a 75.8% majority) to allow Crowe and businessman Peter Holmes à Court to purchase 75% of the club, leaving 25% ownership with the members. It will cost them (AUD) $3 million, and they will receive four of eight seats on the board of directors.

Crowe has been a major supporter of the Rabbitohs rugby league team for many years, appearing at many home games, and supporting the club during its time when they were forced from the National Rugby League competition for two years. Crowe paid $40,000 for a brass bell used to open the first rugby league competition match in Australia in 1908, which he then returned to the club. In 2005, he made them the first club team in Australia to be sponsored by a film, when he negotiated a deal to advertise his movie Cinderella Man on their jerseys.

He is friends with many current and former players of the club, and currently employs former South Sydney forward Mark Carroll as a bodyguard and personal trainer. He has encouraged other actors to support the club, such as Tom Cruise and Burt Reynolds. Business and television personality Eddie McGuire has been offered a seat on the Rabbitohs board.


Musical Activities

Crowe's early stage name as a musician was "Rus Le Roq" and he was billed as such while performing with the New Zealand production of The Rocky Horror Show. Crowe also toured with Grease in the Australian company. Crowe performed lead vocals and guitar for an Australian pub rock band, 30 Odd Foot Of Grunts formed in 1992. The band had found neither critical nor popular success but had several releases including 1998's Gaslight, 2001's Bastard Life or Clarity and 2003's Other Ways of Speaking, plus various CD releases now out of print. The band's web site indicates that group has "dissolved/evolved" and states that Crowe's music would take a new direction.

Apart from the Russell Crowe's celebrity status, the bands only claim to fame is the Frenzal Rhomb song "Russell Crowe's Band" which refers to the band as 'A ******* pile of ****'.

He continued with a collaboration with Alan Doyle of the Canadian band Great Big Sea in early 2005, which also involved members of his previous band. A new single, Raewyn, was released in April 2005 and an album entitled My Hand, My Heart has been released for download on iTunes. The album includes a tribute song to the late actor, Richard Harris, who became Crowe's friend during the making of Gladiator. In 2002, he directed the music video clip (which starred former child actor Duy Nguyen) for his wife Danielle Spencer's single 'Tickle Me' from her 'White Monkey' album. On March 10, 2006, Russell Crowe performed with his new band The Ordinary Fear of God on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Here's some great advice from kids.... (maybe one of yours?)


Never trust a dog to watch your food.

When you want something expensive, ask your grandparents.

Never smart off to a teacher whose eyes and ears are twitching.

Wear a hat when feeding seagulls.

Sleep in your clothes so you'll be dressed in the morning.

Never ask for anything that costs more than five dollars when your
parents are doing taxes.

Never bug a pregnant mom.

Don't ever be too full for dessert.

When your dad is mad and asks you, "Do I look stupid?" don't answer him.

Never tell your mom her diet's not working.

Don't pick on your sister when she's holding a baseball bat.

When you get a bad grade in school, show it to your mom when she's on
the phone.

Never try to baptize a cat.

Beware of cafeteria food when it looks like it's moving.

Never dare your little brother to paint the family car.

Never tell your little brother that you're not going to do what your mom
told you to do.

Forget the cake. Go for the icing!

Good morning, WA2K listeners and contributors.

First, allow me to respond to hbg about the trolley. Hey, Canada. That was just a continuation of the theme and had nothing to do with active or inactive systems in St. Louis. Great song, however. We all love train songs here on our wee cyber station.

Remember this?

Down at the station
Early in the morning
See the little puffer bellies
Standing in a row

See the little fireman
Turn his little handle
Chug, chug, toot toot
Off we go.

Well, folks, it's good to see the hawkman complete his bio's with a list of to do's and not to do's. Thank Bob. Great info this morning, and we all discover something new from your presentations.

Ah, dear Lady Day. Let's do one by her that must have reflected her sad and unhappy life.


Irene Higginbotham / Ervin Drake / Dan Fisher

Good morning heartache
You old gloomy sight
Good morning heartache
Thought we said goodbye last night
I turned and tossed until it seems you have gone
But here you are with the dawn
Wish I forget you, but you're here to stay
It seems I met you
When my love went away
Now everyday I stop I'm saying to you
Good morning heartache what's new

Stop haunting me now
Can't shake you nohow
Just leave me alone
I've got those Monday blues
Straight to Sunday blues
Good morning heartache
Here we go again
Good morning heartache
You're the one
Who knows me well
Might as well get use to you hanging around
Good morning heartache
Sit down

Good Morning. Bob's got me smiling this brrrrrrr April a.m.

Faces to match Bob's bios.





And a Good Day to all.

Whispering Grass
The Ink Spots

[Words by Fred Fisher]
[Music by Doris Fisher]

Why do you whisper, green grass
Why tell the trees what ain't so
Whispering grass
The trees don't have to know, no, no

Why tell them all your secrets
Who kissed there long ago
Whispering grass, the trees don't need to know

Don't you tell it to the trees
She will tell the birds and bees
And everyone will know
Because you told the blabbering trees
Yes, you told them once before
It's no secret anymore

Why tell them all the old things
They're buried under the snow
Whispering grass, don't tell the trees
'Cause the trees don't need to know

Monologue:
Now, don't you tell it to the trees
'Cause they'll just run 'n' tell the birds and bees
Then everybody'd know 'cause you told them doggone trees
Yes you did, you know you did, ya told 'em once before
Now look atcha, honey child, it ain't no secret no mo'

Why tell them all the old things
They're buried under the snow
Whispering grass, don't tell the trees
'Cause the trees don't need to know

Good morning to you, Raggedy. Great photo's, PA, and now I recall that Armstrong man, thanks to you.

Well, folks, we're looking at Lady Day, that Armstrong man, James Garner, John Oates, that funny Chan man, and Russell Crowe.

Hey, edgar. Great song, Texas. Unfortunately, my grass doesn't whisper, it just whimpers

How about one from John and Daryl and someone named Billy

Life's Too Short (written by Daryl Hall, John Oates, Billy Mann)

I let you escape, slip through my fingers

We made our mistakes, but memories linger

Each time I turn a corner I swear I see your face

But I'm standing here alone in the wonder

What I really needed, what made me run away?

Was it just a crazy spell I was under?



(chorus)

We all love on borrowed time, tomorrow's flying blind

And Life's Too Short to be living without you



You laughed at my jokes, broke down my defenses

It's like my heart just awoke, and brought back my senses

I've got my motor runnning, it's all that I can do

Cause every road I'm taking is leading back to you



-Repeat chorus -



I give in I can't go it alone, yeah I'm done now I know that you're gone

I need someone to save me and Life's Too Short to be living without you

Fingerprints
Leonard Cohen

I touched you once too often
Now I don't know who I am
My fingerprints were missing
When I wiped away the jam

Yes I called my fingerprints all night
But they don't seem to care
The last time that I saw them
They were leafing through your hair

Fingerprints, fingerprints
Where are you now my fingerprints?

Yeah I thought I'd leave this morning
So I emptied out your drawer
A hundred thousand fingerprints
They floated to the floor

You know you hardly stopped to pick them up
You don't care what you lose
Ah you don't even seem to know
Whose fingerprints are whose

Fingerprints, fingerprints
Where are you now my fingerprints?

And now you want to marry me
You want to take me down the aisle
You want to throw confetti fingerprints
You know that's not my style

O sure I'd like to marry you
But I can't face the dawn
With any girl who knew me
When my fingerprints were on

Fingerprints, fingerprints
Where are you now my fingerprints?

Fingerprints, oh fingerprints
Where are you now my fingerprints?

edgar, Leonard Cohen never ceases to amaze me. Love the phrase "....confetti fingerprints....".

Thinking of The Lettermen, folks, and this song which was a favorite of my father's. The memory came from a magnolia tree. Don't ask, 'cause it's just another bit of cognitive insight. Also included are three quotes for the day.

THE LETTERMEN

The Way You Look Tonight


Some day, when I'm awfully low,
When the world is cold,
I will feel a glow just thinking of you...
And the way you look tonight.

Yes you're lovely, with your smile so warm
And your cheeks so soft,
There is nothing for me but to love you,
And the way you look tonight.

With each word your tenderness grows,
Tearing my fear apart...
And that laugh that wrinkles your nose,
It touches my foolish heart.

Lovely ... Never, ever change.
Keep that breathless charm.
Won't you please arrange it ?
'Cause I love you ... Just the way you look tonight.

Mm, Mm, Mm, Mm,
Just the way you look to-night.

Truth forever on the scaffold,
Wrong forever on the throne.
- James Russell Lowell

A political battle is merely a skirmish fought with muskets;
a philosophical battle is a nuclear war.
- Ayn Rand

Facts must yield to ideas.
Peaceably and patiently if possible.
Violently if not.
- Lord Acton