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why not enjoy a little "gilbert and sullivan" on a sunny afternoon -
sit back ... relax .... perhaps sing along ?
hbg

Hey, hbg. Love Gilbert and Sullivan. and would you believe that The Captain of the Pinafore was supposedly being shown in the movie, Tombstone? I think that may be a historical inaccuracy, however. Where's Setanta?

Wow, Canada. With edgar's triplets and your three maids, our wee studio is getting crowded, eh?

We've discussed this before, folks, but Gilbert O Sullivan, the man from Waterford, Ireland, took his name as a pun on the other G and S.

One of his biggest hits was....

Told you once before
And I won't tell you no more
Get down, get down, get down
You're a bad dog baby
But I still want you 'round

You give me the creeps
When you jump on your feet
So get down, get down, get down
Keep your hands to yourself
I'm strictly out of bounds

Once upon a time I drank a little wine
Was as happy as could be, happy as could be
Now I'm just like a cat on a hot tin roof
Baby what do you think you're doin' to me

Told you once before
And I won't tell you no more
So get down, get down, get down
You're a bad dog baby
But I still want you 'round around
I still want you around
aye aye aye

I don't give a damn
And I'd like you if you can to
Get down, get down, get down
You're bad dog baby
But I still want you 'round

Once upon a time I drank a little wine
Was as happy as could be, happy as could be
Now I'm just like a cat on a hot tin roof
Baby what do you think you're doin' to me

Told you once before
And I won't tell you no more
So get down, get down, get down
You're a bad dog baby
But I still want you 'round around

Well, only bad dogs and Englishmen go out in the afternoon sun.

Maybe Baby
Buddy Holly & The Crickets

Maybe baby, I'll have you
Maybe baby, you'll be true
Maybe baby, I'll have you for me

It's funny honey, you don't care
You never listen, to my prayer
Maybe baby, you will love me some day

Well you are the one that, makes me glad
And you are the one that, makes me sad
When some day, you'll want me
Well, I'll be there, wait and see ee ee

Maybe baby, I'll have you
Maybe baby, you'll be true
Maybe baby, I'll have you for me

Da da ta da da da da da da
Da da ta da da da da da da
Da da ta da da da da da da

Well you are the one that, makes me glad
And you are the one that, makes me sad
When some day, you'll want me
Well, I'll be there, wait and see ee ee

Maybe baby, I'll have you
Maybe baby, you'll be true
Maybe baby, I'll have you for me

Maybe baby I'll have you for me

some tunes from Death Cab For Cutie

The New Year

so this is the new year.
and i don't feel any different.
the clanking of crystal
explosions off in the distance (in the distance).

so this is the new year
and I have no resolutions
for self assigned penance
for problems with easy solutions

so everybody put your best suit or dress on
let's make believe that we are wealthy for just this once
lighting firecrackers off on the front lawn
as thirty dialogues bleed into one

i wish the world was flat like the old days
then i could travel just by folding a map
no more airplanes, or speedtrains, or freeways
there'd be no distance that can hold us back.

there'd be no distance that could hold us back (x2)

so this is the new year (x4)


We Looked Like Giants

god bless the daylight, the sugary smell of springtime
remembering when you were mine
in a still suburban town

when every thursday i'd brave those mountain passes
and you'd skip your early classes
and we'd learn how our bodies worked

god damn the black night with all its foul temptations
i've become what i always hated
when i was with you then

we looked like giants in the back of my grey subcompact
fumbling to make contact
as the others slept inside

and together there
in a shroud of frost, the mountain air
began to pass from every pane of weathered glass
and i held you closer than anyone would ever get

do you remember the JAMC?
and reading aloud from magazines
i don't know about you but i swear on my name they could smell it on me
i've never been too good with secrets
no…

and together there
in a shroud of frost and mountain air
began to pass through every pane of weathered glass
and i held you closer…


Crooked Teeth

It was one hundred degrees,
As we sat beneath a willow tree,
Whose tears didn't care, they just hung in the air,
And refused to fall, to fall.

And I knew I'd made horrible call,
And now the state line felt like the Berlin wall,
And there was no doubt about which side I was on,
mmhmm

Cause I built you a home in my heart,
With rotten wood, and it decayed from the start.

Cause you can't find nothing at all,
If there was nothing there all along.
No you can't find nothing at all,
If there was nothing there all along.

I braved treacherous streets,
And kids strung out on homemade speed.
And we shared a bed in which I could not sleep,
At all, woo, hoo, woo, hooOoOo.

Cause at night the sun through the trees
Made the skyline look like crooked teeth,
In the mouth of a man who was devouring, us both.

You're so cute when you're slurring your speech,
But they're closing the bar and they want us to leave.

And you can't find nothing at all,
If there was nothing there all along.
No you can't find nothing at all,
If there was nothing there all along.

I'm a war, of head versus heart,
And it's always this way.
My head is weak, my heart always speaks,
Before I know what it will say.

And you can't find nothing at all,
If there was nothing there all along.
No, you can't find nothing at all,
If there was nothing there all along.
(No you can't find) And you can't find nothing at all,
If there was nothing there all along.
There were churches, theme parks and malls,
But there was nothing there all along.


and two songs from side band The Postal Service

We Will Become Silhouettes

I've got a cupboard with cans of food,
filtered water, and pictures of you
and I'm not coming out until this is all over.
And I'm looking through the glass
Where the light bends at the cracks
And I'm screaming at the top of my lungs
Pretending the echoes belong to someone
Someone I used to know

And we become silhouettes when our bodies finally go

I wanted to walk through the empty streets
And feel something constant under my feet,
But all the news reports recommended that I stay indoors
Because the air outside will make
Our cells divide at an alarming rate
Until our shells simply cannot hold
All our insides in,
And that's when we'll explode
(And it won't be a pretty sight)

And we'll become silhouettes when our bodies finally go

And we'll become silhouettes when our bodies finally go


Such Great Heights

I am thinking it's a sign
that the freckles in our eyes are mirror images
and when we kiss they're perfectly aligned
And I have to speculate
that God himself did make
us into corresponding shapes
like puzzle pieces from the clay

And true, it may seem like a stretch
but its thoughts like this that catch
my troubled head when you're away
when I am missing you to death
when you are out there on the road
for several weeks of shows
and when you scan the radio
I hope this song will guide you home

They will see us waving from such great heights,
"come down now", they'll say
but everything looks perfect from far away,
"come down now", but we'll stay...

I tried my best to leave
this all on your machine
but the persistent beat it sounded thin
upon listening
and that frankly will not fly
you will hear the shrillest highs
and lowest lows with the windows down
when this is guiding you home

They will see us waving from such great heights,
"come down now", they'll say
but everything looks perfect from far away
"come down now", but we'll stay...

KICK OUT THE JAMS
Words & music by MC5

Kick out the jams mfs !
Yeah! I, I, I, I, I'm gonna
I'm gonna kick 'em out ! Yeah !
Well i feel pretty good
And i guess that i could get crazy now baby
Cause we all got in tune
And when the dressing room got hazy now baby

I know how you want it child
Hot, quick and tight
The girls can't stand it
When you're doin'it right
Let me up on the stand
And let me kick out the jam
Yes, kick out the jams
I want to kick'em out !

Yes i'm starting to sweat
You know my shirt's all wet
What a feeling
In the sound that abounds
And resounds and rebounds off the ceiling

You gotta have it baby
You can't do without
When you get that feeling
You gotta sock'em out
Put that mike in my hand
And let me kick out the jam
Yes ! Kick out the jams
I want to kick'em out
( guitar )

So you got to give it up
You know you can't get enough Miss Mackenzie
Cause it gets in your brain
It drives you insane
With the frenzy

The wigglin guitars girl
The crash of the drums
Make you wanna keep-a-rockin'
Till the morning comes

Let me be who i am
And let me kick out the jam
Yes, kick out the jams
I done kicked em out !!!

Thanks and warm wishes to all of you, my friends but I must say goodnight as I have guests.



A chorus of stars for you all.

From Letty with love

Buddy Holly
Ting-A-Ling

Well now I'm just a poor young boy

and these girls 'bout to drive me wild


ya, I'm just a poor young boy
and these girls 'bout to drive me wild
ya, I'm just a poor young boy


and these girls 'bout to drive me wild


the way they rock and roll and call me angel child


The way they laugh - the way they sing


makes my heart go ting-a-ling
the way they laugh - the way they sing


makes my heart go ting-a-ling

the way they laugh and sing

makes my heart go ting-a-ling

ting-a-ling, ting-a-ling, ting-a-ling, ting-a-ling, ting-a-ling


Well, I'm young and I'm free

and it's a real fine way to be

well, I'm young and I'm free

and it's a real fine way to be


ya, I'm young and I'm free

I want a fine young gal that is so nice and free

You said earlier you had no knowledge of Van Dyke Parks. He is an interesting fellow. I love his album, Song Cycle.

Early career
As a child, Parks attended the American Boychoir School. He began his career as a child actor. Between 1953 and 1958 he worked steadily in films and television, including the 1956 movie The Swan (which starred Grace Kelly). He appeared as Ezio Pinza's son Andrew Bonino on the NBC television show Bonino. Parks had a recurring role as Little Tommy Manacotti (the kid from upstairs) on Jackie Gleason's The Honeymooners.

Parks originally studied the Clarinet, but had moved to the piano before his study (where he majored in music) at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1960 to 1963.

Parks played in the folk group The Greenwood County Singers with his brother, Carson Parks.

After relocating to Los Angeles, Parks worked as a studio musician and songwriter for Warner Brothers, writing hits for many artists such as Harpers Bizarre ("High Coin"). He became known for brilliant lyrical wordplay and sharp imagery. Parks performed on several important recordings by The Byrds, whose producer Terry Melcher was a close friend of Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson. This connection led to the meeting of Parks and Wilson in 1965.


Smile
In 1966 Brian Wilson commissioned Parks to write lyrics for the Beach Boys' next LP, the ambitious but ill-fated Smile. Parks and Wilson collaborated on songs for the album. Members of the Beach Boys strongly opposed Smile, notably Mike Love who negatively called Parks' lyrics "Acid Alliteration".[citation needed] The combination of resistance from the group and their record company, and Wilson's growing mental health problems and spiralling drug use, led Parks to quit the project in early 1967. It was shelved a few months later. Several Wilson/Parks songs from the Smile sessions later appeared on the Beach Boys' replacement album Smiley Smile, including "Heroes and Villains" and "Wind Chimes." Other songs slated for Smile, including "Cabinessence" and "Surf's Up," were compiled by Carl Wilson and included on subsequent LPs.

Smile soon acquired legendary status as one of the great lost works of the rock era. In 2004, Brian Wilson, having returned to touring and recording, made a surprise announcement that he was going to re-record the work using his current touring band. He contacted Parks, and the duo finished incomplete parts of the album. Wilson and his band recorded and released "Smile" to enormous critical acclaim, earning Wilson a Grammy award for the Best Rock Instrumental Performance for the piece "Mrs O'Leary's Cow" (aka "Fire").


Solo Music Career
In 1968, Parks released his first solo album, Song Cycle, a "head trip"[citation needed] of orchestral textures and traditional Americana-meets-psychedelic pop song structure. Song Cycle established Parks' signature approach of mining and updating old American musical traditions, including ragtime and New Orleans-style jazz, with wry, literate and insightful lyrics, and is also notable for the inclusion of a cover of the Randy Newman song "Vine Street". Although universally praised by critics,[citation needed] the album sold extremely poorly.

Four years later, Parks' travels to the West Indies inspired his second solo album Discover America. Discover America was a rich tribute to the islands of Trinidad and Tobago and to Calypso music. Parks re-arranged and re-produced obscure songs and calypso classics. This direction was continued in the 1976 release Clang of the Yankee Reaper.

Parks' 1984 album Jump! featured songs adapted from the stories of Uncle Remus and Brer Rabbit. Jump! solidified Parks' reputation as a pop songwriter with an intellectual yet innocent, upbeat sensibility. The album features a Broadway-style reduced orchestra plus Americana additions like banjo, mandolin, and steel drums. Parks composed the album but did not arrange or produce it. Martin Kibbee contributes to the lyrics.

Following Jump!, in 1989 Van Dyke Parks released the ambitious Tokyo Rose. This concept album focuses on the history of Japanese / U.S. relations from the 19th century to the "trade war" of the time of its release. The songs are pop tunes with an orchestral treatment including Japanese instruments and old Parks Caribbean favorites like steel drums. The listener journeys from old Tokyo to the Wild Wild west on songs such as "Tokyo Rose", "Cowboy", "Manzanar" and "White Chrysanthemum". The album did not sell well and was not widely critically noticed.

In 1995 Parks teamed up again with Brian Wilson to create the album Orange Crate Art. Parks wrote all of the songs on the album, except "This Town Goes Down At Sunset" and George Gershwin instrumental "Lullaby", and the vocals were done by Brian Wilson. Orange Crate Art is a harmonic tribute to the Southern California of the early 1900s, and a lyrical tribute to the beauty of Northern California. The songs are rich and lavishly orchestrated by Parks.

1998 saw the release of Parks first live album, Moonlighting: Live at the Ash Grove, and showed a love of the work of nineteenth century American pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk. The live ensemble features an all-star cast including Sid Page as concertmaster.


Work for other Artists
Parks has produced, arranged, or played on albums by artists including U2, Silverchair, Randy Newman, Harry Nilsson, The Byrds, Cher, Rufus Wainwright, Sam Phillips, Ringo Starr, Frank Black, Keith Moon, Carly Simon, T-Bone Burnett, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Victoria Williams, Bonnie Raitt, Peter Case, Gordon Lightfoot, Fiona Apple, Sheryl Crow, Ry Cooder, Joanna Newsom, The Everly Brothers, The Thrills, Arthur Goldstein and Archie Blue, Kevin Hearn and Thin Buckle, Scissor Sisters, Laurie Anderson, The Mighty Sparrow, The Esso Trinidad Tripoli Steelband, and Susanna Hoffs/Matthew Sweet's covers collection.

In 2006 he collaborated with singer Joanna Newsom on the orchestral arrangements for her sophomore album, Ys released 14th November 2006. He and David Mansfield are co-credited with the music for the 2006 mini-series Broken Trail.

He also composed orchestral arrangements for the fifth Silverchair album, Young Modern, on three songs (one confirmed to be "If You Keep Losing Sleep"). Johns and Parks travelled to Prague to have the orchestral arrangements recorded by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. The album's title "Young Modern" is a reference to a nickname Parks has for Silverchair frontman Daniel Johns.


Music in film and television
Parks has also scored a number of motion pictures, including Sesame Street's Follow That Bird, Jack Nicholson's The Two Jakes and Goin' South, Casual Sex, Private Parts, Popeye (with Harry Nilsson ), and The Company. Disney also hired Parks to arrange Terry Gilkyson's Academy Award nominated song "The Bare Necessities" for the 1967 feature The Jungle Book. Parks had 4 songs featured in the 1986 direct-to-video Disney film, The Brave Little Toaster. He worked closely with David Newman on the film's score as well. In 1987 he also provided several complete songs for the direct-to-video Disney film The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars. He composed the theme song for Rudy Maxa's Savvy Traveler radio program on NPR.

The HBO Family series Harold and the Purple Crayon, is narrated by Sharon Stone with music and lyrics written and sung by Van Dyke Parks.


Other career
Parks has taken small TV and film roles including appearances in Popeye, The Two Jakes, and the Twin Peaks TV series.

Parks wrote a series of children's books ('Jump' (with Malcolm Jones), 'Jump Again' and 'Jump on Over'), based around the Br'er rabbit tales, illustrated by Barry Moser, and loosely accompanied by Parks' own album Jump!. The books contain sheet music for selected songs from the album.

Parks set up the pioneering audio/visual department Warner Bros. records in 1971. This department was the earliest of its kind to record videos to promote records.[citation needed]


Discography

Singles
"Number Nine / Do What You Wanta", 1966, single 45
"Come to the Sunshine / Farther Along", 1966, single 45
"Donovan's Colours, Pt. 1 / Donovan's Colours, Pt. 2" 1968" single 45 (under the pseudonym George Washington Brown)
"The Eagle and Me / On The Rolling Sea When Jesus Speak to Me" 1970, single 45
"Occapella / Ode to Tobago" 1972, single 45

Solo Albums
Song Cycle, 1968 album
Discover America, 1972, album
Clang of the Yankee Reaper, 1976 album
Jump!, 1984 album
Tokyo Rose, 1989 album
Fisherman & His Wife, 1991 Book with cassette.
Idiosyncratic Path: Best Of Van Dyke Parks 1996
Moonlighting: Live at the Ash Grove 1998 album

Compilation Albums
Songs on Hal Wilner's Kurt Weill Album, Warner Bros Records, 1985
"On the Rolling Sea When Jesus Speaks to Me" on On the Rolling Sea: A Tribute to Joseph Spence, charity tribute album 1994
"Greenland Whale Fisheries" on Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys (2006)

Other Albums
Smile original release (bootleg)
Orange Crate Art Brian Wilson & Van Dyke Parks, 1995 album
Smile Reissue

Filmography
Goin' South (1978)


Books
Jump
Jump Again

Eddie Albert
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Birth name Edward Albert Heimberger
Born April 22, 1906
Rock Island, Illinois
Died May 26, 2005
Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California
Spouse(s) Margo (1945-1985)
Academy Awards

Nominated: Best Supporting Actor
1953 Roman Holiday
1972 The Heartbreak Kid
Golden Globe Awards

Nominated: Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture
1957 The Teahouse of the August Moon
1975 The Longest Yard
BAFTA Awards

Nominated: Best Foreign Actor
1953 Roman Holiday

Eddie Albert, born Edward Albert Heimberger, (April 22, 1906 - May 26, 2005) was a popular Oscar and Emmy Award-nominated American stage, film, character actor, gardener and humanitarian activist, perhaps best known for playing Bing Edwards in the Brother Rat films, or for his role in the 1960s television comedy Green Acres. He was nominated for Oscars in 1954 for his performance in Roman Holiday and in 1973 for The Heartbreak Kid. In an acting career that spanned nearly seven decades, two of his better known television roles were Oliver Wendell Douglas on the popular 1960s sitcom, Green Acres, and Frank MacBride on the popular 1970s crime drama, Switch. He also had a recurring role as Carlton Travis on Falcon Crest, opposite Jane Wyman.




Early life

Albert was born Edward Albert Heimberger on April 22, 1906 in Rock Island, Illinois. His year of birth was frequently shown as 1908, but this is incorrect. While many Hollywood figures have often given years of birth later than their true ones (in order to present themselves as being younger than they are), the motivation in this case was that Albert's parents were unmarried when Albert was born, but had married by 1908. His mother altered his birth certificate to 1908 at some point. Albert was the oldest of five children born to Christian German immigrants Frank Heimberger, a real estate agent, and Julia Heimberger, a stay-at-home mother.

Just one year after he was born, Albert and his family moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota. They had a difficult time adjusting to life in the city, and tempers flared between Eddie and his family. When he was 6, he was forced to get his first job as a newspaper boy. During World War I, he was taunted as "the enemy" by his classmates in the third grade. At age 14, he enrolled at Central High School where he joined the school's Drama Department. His interests were restricted to the stage, but he had a strong appetite for reading - everything from philosophy to science. After graduation from high school in 1924, he entered The University of Minnesota where he majored in business, and subsequently looked for a business job. However, all that changed when the stock market crashed in 1929. He then took several odd jobs such as an amateur singer, a trapeze performer, an insurance salesman, and a nightclub singer.

Albert dropped his last name "Heimberger", because it was almost invariably mangled into "Hamburger", changing his name to Eddie Albert. In 1933, he traveled to New York City, where he co-hosted on the popular radio show, The Honeymooners ?- Grace and Eddie Show, which ran for three years. Due to his popularity on the radio show, in 1936 he was offered a film contract by Warner Bros..


Career

In the 1930s Albert performed in Broadway stage productions, including Brother Rat, which opened in 1936. He had lead roles in Room Service (1937-1938) and The Boys from Syracuse (1938-1939). In 1936, Albert had also become one of the earliest television actors, performing live in RCA's first television broadcast, a promotion for their New York City radio stations.

In 1938, he made his feature film debut in the Hollywood version of Brother Rat, reprising his Broadway role as cadet "Bing" Edwards. His contract with Warner Bros. was abruptly terminated in 1941, purportedly because of an affair he was having with studio head Jack L. Warner's wife. (Warner had previously pulled him off a picture as it was being shot and kept him under contract for a period afterwards primarily as a way of preventing him from getting other work). One example of the pictures he was doing during this period is Treat 'Em Rough (1942) with William Frawley and Peggy Moran, in which he played a boxer called "the Panama Kid."


World War II

Albert served as a lieutenant in the United States Navy in the Pacific during World War II. A genuine war hero, he was awarded the Bronze Star for his actions during the Battle of Tarawa in 1943, when, as a landing ship pilot, he rescued 70 wounded Marines while under heavy enemy machine-gun fire. He later described some of these events during a short interview in a segment of a program about the war, which appeared on the History Channel.

Albert returned from the war a different actor with a darker screen persona, although it would take another ten years before he became better known to audiences. He appeared in The Longest Day (1962), on the Normandy Invasion. The film Attack! (1956) provided Albert with his most serious role as a cowardly, psychotic Army captain whose behavior threatens the safety of his company, including a wounded lieutenant played by Jack Palance. In a similar vein he played a psychotic United States Army Air Force colonel in Captain Newman, MD, opposite Gregory Peck. He also played murderer General Martin Hollister in the third Columbo episode, "Dead Weight".


Prolific character actor

Since 1948, Albert enjoyed being both a popular and beloved character actor, and guest-starred in over 90 TV series. He made his guest-starring debut on an episode of The Ford Theatre Hour. This part led to other roles such as The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre, Suspense, Lights Out, Somerset Maugham TV Theatre, Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, Studio One, Danger, The Philco Television Playhouse, The Phillip Morris Playhouse, Your Show of Shows, General Electric Theater, Front Row Center, and The Alcoa Hour, among others. He also had a recurring role as lawyer, Oliver Wendell Douglas, on Green Acres, a Spin-off of Petticoat Junction, in 1965.


Stage actor

The 1950s also saw a return to Broadway for Albert, including roles in Miss Liberty (1949-1950) and The Seven Year Itch (ran 1952-1955). In 1960, Albert replaced Robert Preston in the lead role of Professor Harold Hill, in the Broadway production of The Music Man.


1950s and 1960s movie career

The 1950s saw Albert appear in film roles, such as Lucille Ball's husband in The Fuller Brush Girl (1950) and a traveling salesman in Carrie (1952). He was nominated for his first Oscar as Best Supporting Actor with Roman Holiday (1953). In Oklahoma! (1955), he played a womanizing peddler, and in Who's Got the Action? (1962), he portrayed a lawyer helping his partner (Dean Martin) cope with a gambling addiction.


Television roles

Green Acres

In 1965, after turning down the lead roles in Mister Ed and My Three Sons, Albert was approached by producer Paul Henning to star in a new sitcom for CBS called, Green Acres. His character, Oliver Wendell Douglas, was a lawyer who wanted to leave his busy city life to enjoy a simple life as a farmer. Co-starring on the show was Eva Gabor, who had good chemistry with Eddie. Also starring on the show were a bunch of familiar actors (who are currently surviving stars after Albert's death in 2005): Frank Cady, who played the role of storekeeper Sam Drucker (also a recurring role on its parent show, Petticoat Junction); Sid Melton, who had a recurring role as the incompetent carpenter Alf Monroe; and Mary Grace Canfield, who also had a recurring role as Alf's sister, Ralph Monroe. Unfamiliar actor Tom Lester was cast in the role of Oliver's and Lisa's farmhand, Eb Dawson, who also called them his parents. Next to Gabor, the remaining cast members got along with Albert. One of Albert's co-stars, Lester said Albert wasn't very angry, but was frustrated when his fellow cast members didn't know their dialogues, and insisted that the cast say things the right way.

The show was an immediate hit, achieving fifth place in the ratings in its first season. By 1971, Green Acres was still reasonably popular, but was cancelled when CBS decided to discontinue their lineup of rural-themed programs due to changing tastes and because they were sensitive to the fact that they had been disparagingly referred to in the press as the "Country Broadcasting System".


Switch

After a four-year-absence from the small screen, and upon reaching age 69 in 1975, Albert starred in the popular 1970s adventure/crime drama, Switch for CBS, about a retired police officer who chooses to work as a private detective with a former criminal. Co-starring on the show was another veteran movie, television star and a devoted fan of Albert's, Robert Wagner, who played Albert's TV ex-con man and friendly partner, Det. Pete T. Ryan, a very young unfamiliar actress Sharon Gless (who previously co-starred on Marcus Welby, M.D.) as Frank's and Pete's classy and charismatic receptionist Maggie, and New York comedian Charlie Callas played the role of Pete's and Frank's restaurant owner, Malcolm Argos, who was a thief and con man, and the entire cast got along great with Albert. During its first season Switch was a hit. By late 1976, the show became more serious and traditional, as Switch's storylines turned into a crime drama, whose shows played second-only to: Hawaii Five-O, Kojak, McMillan and Wife, The Rockford Files, Police Woman, The Streets of San Francisco, among many other detective series. At the end of its third season in 1978, ratings were beginning to drop, and the show was cancelled after 68 episodes.

As a mere eight-year-old, Wagner had watched his future mentor and friend in the 1938 classic movie, Brother Rat. In 1962, Wagner's newfound relationship with him all started when he had a supporting role in Albert's movie The Longest Day. He also said of his fan and old mentor that on Switch, he was doing it in a legitimate way, striving to do better and better all the time, while Wagner himself was doing it in an illegitimate way, but have learned a lot from Albert. The following year, after the demise of Switch', Wagner would be reunited with Albert for one last time to star in The Concorde: Airport '79, before he went on to gain greater fame starring in the successful 1980s crime drama, Hart to Hart. Also, after the show's cancellation, Wagner kept in touch with him for the next 27 years until Albert's death.


1970s and 1980s film work

In 1972, Albert resumed his film career and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as an overprotective father, in The Heartbreak Kid (1972) and delivered a memorable performance as an evil prison warden in 1974's The Longest Yard. He was reunited with former Switch co-star (Robert Wagner) in the movie The Concorde: Airport '79, and also appeared in such '80s films as How to Beat the High Co$t of Living (1980), Yesterday (1981), Take This Job and Shove It (1981), Goliath Awaits (1981 TV movie), Yes, Giorgio (1982), and as the president in Dreamscape (1984). His final film role was as the chairman in Head Office (1985).


1980s work

In the mid-1980s, Albert was known for endorsing the popular public service message, the National Arbor Day Foundation, and was reunited with co-star of the Brother Rat and An Angel from Texas movies, Jane Wyman, in a recurring role as Carlton Travis in the popular 1980s soap opera, Falcon Crest. He also guest starred on a popular episode of the 80s television series, Highway to Heaven, and in 1990 he reunited with Eva Gabor for a Return To Green Acres.


Hobbies and Activism

Albert's hobbies included boating, jogging, swimming, winemaking, beekeeping, sculpting, organic gardening and world travel. He was an outspoken environmental and humanitarian activist, supporting issues such as creating of gardens in inner cities. He was one of the first people to call for a ban on the pesticide DDT.

In 1969, he and his son (Edward Albert), sailed to Anacapa Island off the coast of California, to examine the effects of DDT on the pelican population.

Albert helped to launch the first Earth Day in 1970, which was designated on April 22, partly in honor of his birthday. He was also a special consultant at the World Hunger Conference in Rome in 1974, and a director to the U.S. Commission on Refugees.


Private life

Albert married actress María Marguerita Guadalupe Boldao y Castilla O'Donnell (better known by her stage name Margo) on December 5, 1945, and they remained together until her death of a brain tumor on July 17, 1985.

Eddie and Margo Albert lived in Pacific Palisades, California. Their home was described as unpretentious. It was a Spanish-style house on an acre of land with a cornfield in the front yard. Eddie grew organic vegetables in a greenhouse he had in the back yard, and fondly remembered how his parents had a "liberty garden" at home during the First World War.

The Alberts had two children ?- Edward and Maria.

Edward Albert (1951-2006) was an actor, musician, singer, and linguist. He put his acting career aside for eight years to care for his father in his last years. He died at age 55, only one year after his father.
His adopted daughter, Maria Albert Zucht, who is married and has one daughter, Mia, worked as her father's business manager.
Eddie Albert suffered from Alzheimer's disease in his last years. Although unusual for Alzheimer's patients, he exercised regularly until shortly before his death.


Death

On May 26, 2005, he died of pneumonia at the age of 99 at his home in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California. He was interred at Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California, next to his wife, Margo and his Green Acres co-star Eva Gabor. Eddie's family were joined by the many mourners at a private funeral including those of: Nanette Fabray, Shirley Jones, Jane Wyman, Robert Wagner, Charlie Callas, Sharon Gless, and several of Eddie's Green Acres co-stars, Sid Melton, Mary Grace Canfield, and Frank Cady. Tom Lester did not attend the funeral due to other commitments (Eddie once stated that Tom Lester was his favorite actor and close friend).

Eddie Albert has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6441 Hollywood Boulevard.


Quotes

Eddie: "I don't really care how I am remembered as long as I bring happiness and joy to people." (Source: IMDB.com)

Eddie, in a personal journal: "By the time I leave this Earth, I hope to have improved our relationships here and now, so that in the next generation my son, daughter and friends have my shoulders on which to stand, so it's easier to make their contribution." (Source: ABC News)

Edward Jr. about his father: "With Papa, the thing that was most important was the quality of love and, almost equal to love, growth. Since I was little, he emphasized growth. That's something he passed on to me." (Source: Grandtimes.com)

Glen Campbell
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Background information
Born April 22, 1936 (1936-04-22) (age 71)
Delight, Arkansas
Genre(s) Country, Rock,
Folk, Pop
Occupation(s) Solo artist, session musician,
composer
Instrument(s) Singer, guitar, banjo, bagpipes
Years active 1960s-present
Label(s) Capitol
Associated
acts Bobby Darin, Rick Nelson,
The Champs,
Elvis Presley, Dean Martin,
The Green River Boys,
Frank Sinatra, Phil Spector,
The Monkees, The Beach Boys,
Bobbie Gentry, Anne Murray
John Hartford, Jimmy Webb, Kenny Rogers, Leon Russell
Website www.glencampbellshow.com

Glen Campbell (b. April 22, 1936) is a Grammy Award, Dove Award winning American Country Pop singer and guitarist best known for a series of hits in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as for hosting a television variety show called The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour on CBS television. His hits include "Gentle On My Mind", "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" and "Rhinestone Cowboy". Campbell made history by winning a Grammy in both country and pop categories in 1967: "Gentle On My Mind" snatched the country honors, and "By The Time I Get To Phoenix" won in pop. He owns trophies for Male Vocalist of the Year from both the CMA and the ACM, and took the CMA's top honor as Entertainer of the Year. During his 40 years in show business, Glen has released more than 70 albums. He has sold 45 million records and racked up 12 RIAA Gold albums, 4 Platinum albums and 1 Double-Platinum album. Of his 75 trips up the charts, 27 landed in the Top 10. Campbell was hand-picked by actor John Wayne to play alongside him in the 1969 film True Grit, which gave Wayne his only Academy Award; and Campbell sang and had a hit with the title song (by the same name) which was nominated for an Academy Award. He performed it live at that years Academy Awards Show. In 2005, Campbell was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.






Biography

1950s-early 1960s: session musician and the Beach Boys

Campbell, one of twelve children born into the tiny community of Delight, Arkansas, then a communiity of less than 100 residents, started playing guitar as a youth without learning to read music. By the time he was eighteen, he was touring the South as part of the Western Wranglers. In 1958, he moved to Los Angeles to become a session musician.

Campbell was greatly in demand as a session musician in the 1960s. He is heard on some of the largest-selling records of the era by such artists as Bobby Darin, Ricky Nelson, Merle Haggard, The Monkees, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, The Association, Jan & Dean and The Mamas & the Papas.

He was a full-fledged member of The Beach Boys, filling in for an ailing Brian Wilson on tour in 1964 and 1965 and he also played on the Pet Sounds album.

Other classics featuring his outstanding guitar playing include: "Strangers in the Night" by Frank Sinatra, "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" by the Righteous Brothers and "I'm a Believer" by The Monkees.

Campbell was part of the famous studio musicians clique known as "The Wrecking Crew," many of whom went from session to session together as the same group. In addition to Campbell, Hal Blaine on drums and Carol Kaye on bass guitar were part of this elite group of session musicians that defined many pop and rock recordings of the era. They were also heard on Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" recordings in the early 1960s.


Late 1960s: Wichita Lineman

As a solo artist, he had moderate success regionally with his first single "Turn Around, Look at Me." "Too Late to Worry; Too Blue to Cry" and "Kentucky Means Paradise" (cut with a bluegrass group called the Green River Boys) were similarly popular within only a small section of the country audience.

In 1962 Campbell signed with Capitol Records and released two instrumental albums and a number of vocal albums during his first five years with the label. However, despite releasing singles written by Brian Wilson ("Guess I'm Dumb" in 1965) and Buffy Sainte-Marie the same year ("The Universal Soldier"), Campbell was not achieving major success as a solo artist. It was rumored that Capitol was considering dropping him from the label in 1966 when he was teamed with producer Al DeLory and together they collaborated on 1967's Dylanesque "Gentle On My Mind", written by John Hartford.

The overnight success of "Gentle On My Mind" proved Campbell was ready to break through to the mainstream. It was followed by the even bigger triumph of "By The Time I Get To Phoenix" later in 1967, and "I Wanna Live" and "Wichita Lineman" in 1968.

Campbell would win two Grammy Awards for his performances on "Gentle On My Mind" and "By The Time I Get To Phoenix".

His biggest hits in 1968-1969 were with evocative songs written by Jimmy Webb: "By the Time I Get to Phoenix", "Wichita Lineman," "Where's The Playground Susie?", and "Galveston". An album of mainly Webb-penned compositions Reunion: The Songs of Jimmy Webb, released in 1974 is regarded by many as Campbell's finest album, although it produced no hit single records.

"Wichita Lineman" was selected as one of the greatest songs of the 20th century by Mojo magazine in 1997 and by Blender in 2001.


1970s: Goodtime Hour

After he hosted a 1968 summer replacement for television's The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour variety show, Campbell hosted his own weekly variety show, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, from January 1969 through June 1972. At the height of his popularity, a 1970 biography by Freda Kramer, The Glen Campbell Story, was published.

With Campbell's session-work connections, he hosted major names in music on his show including: Eric Clapton and Cream, David Gates and Bread, The Monkees, Neil Diamond, Linda Ronstadt, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Roger Miller and helped launch the careers of Anne Murray, Mel Tillis and Jerry Reed who were regulars on his Goodtime Hour program.

During the early 1970s, Campbell released a long series of singles and appeared in the movies True Grit with John Wayne and Kim Darby and Norwood with Kim Darby and Joe Namath. The song "True Grit" was nominated for an Academy Award and Campbell performed it at the awards show that year.

In 1971 Campbell took his show on the road for two nights to The Muny in Forest Park, (the largest and oldest outdoor theater in America) in St. Louis, Missouri.

After the cancellation of his CBS series in 1972, Campbell was still seen regularly on network television. He co-starred in a made-for-television movie, Strange Homecoming with Robert Culp and upcoming teen idol, Leif Garrett. He hosted a number of television specials, including the 1976 Down Home, Down Under with Olivia Newton-John. He co-hosted the American Music Awards from 1976-1978 and headlined the 1979 NBC special, "Glen Campbell: Back To Basics" with stars Seals and Crofts and Brenda Lee. He was a guest on many network talk and variety shows including: "Donny & Marie", "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson", "Cher", "The Redd Foxx Comedy Hour", "Merv Griffin", "The Midnight Special with Wolfman Jack", "DINAH!", "Evening at Pops with Arthur Fiedler" and "The Mike Douglas Show". From 1982-1983 he hosted a 30 minute syndicated music show on NBC.


Late 1970s-1980s: Rhinestone Cowboy

In the mid-1970s, he had more big hits with "Rhinestone Cowboy", "Southern Nights", and "Sunflower".

"Rhinestone Cowboy" was Campbell's largest-selling single, initially with over 2 million copies sold in a matter of months. Campbell had heard the songwriter Larry Weiss' version while on tour of Australia in 1974 and felt it was the perfect song for him to record. It was included in the Jaws movie parody song "Mr. Jaws" which also reached the top 10 in 1975. "Rhinestone Cowboy" continues to be used in movie soundtracks and TV shows, including "Desperate Housewives" in 2006. Movies to feature the song include Daddy Day Care and High School High. It was the inspiration for the 1982 Dolly Parton/Sylvester Stallone movie Rhinestone.

Campbell made a techno/pop version of the song in 2002 with UK artists Rikki & Daz and went to the top 10 in the UK with the dance version and related music video.

"Southern Nights," by Allen Toussaint, his other #1 pop-rock-country crossover hit was generated with the help of Jimmy Webb who turned Campbell onto the song and Jerry Reed who inspired the famous guitar lick introduction to the song, which was the most-played jukebox number of 1977.


1980s-2000s: Behind the music

After his #1 crossover chart successes in the mid- to late 1970s, Campbell's career cooled off. He left Capitol Records in 1981 after a reported dispute over the song "Highwayman" written by Jimmy Webb that the label would not release as a single.

Campbell made a cameo appearance in the 1981 Clint Eastwood movie Any Which Way You Can, for which he recorded the title song.

Although he would never reach the top 40 pop charts after 1978, Glen Campbell continued to reach the country top 10 throughout the 1980s with songs such as "Faithless Love", "A Lady Like You", "Still Within The Sound of My Voice" and "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle" (a duet with Steve Wariner).

When Campbell began having trouble reaching the charts, and began to abuse drugs, he was a frequently featured in the tabloids during his affair with Tanya Tucker. By 1989, however, he had quit drugs and was regularly reaching the country Top 10; songs like "She's Gone, Gone, Gone" were extremely popular.

In the 1990s, Campbell had slowed from recording, though he has not quit entirely. In all, over 40 of his albums reached the charts. In 1994, his autobiography, Rhinestone Cowboy, was published.

In 1999 Campbell was featured on VH-1's "Behind the Music, A&E Network's "Biography" in 2001 and on a number of CMT programs.

He is also credited with giving Alan Jackson his first big break. Campbell met Jackson's wife (a flight attendant with Delta Air Lines) at the Atlanta Airport and gave her his publishing manager's business card. Jackson went to work for Campbell's music publishing business in the early 1990s and later had many of his hit songs published in part by Campbell's company, Seventh Son Music. Campbell also served as an inspiration to Keith Urban. Urban cites Campbell as a strong influence on his performing career.

Although for almost a decade Campbell had professed his sobriety to fans at concerts and in his autobiography, in November 2003 he was arrested for drunk driving that included a charge of battery to a police officer (later dropped)[1]. He was sentenced to 10 days in jail and community service, due to the high level of intoxication.

In 2005, Campbell was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He is reportedly working on a new CD with Jimmy Webb scheduled for release in late 2007.

Glen will be performing with Andy Williams at The Moon River Theater in Branson, Mo. May 18- Jun 16, 2007

Jack Nicholson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Birth name John Joseph Nicholson
Born April 22, 1937 (1937-04-22) (age 70)
Neptune City, New Jersey, USA
Other name(s) Mulholland Man
Spouse(s) Sandra Knight (June 17, 1962 - August 8, 1968) (divorced) 1 child
Academy Awards

Best Actor
1975 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
1997 As Good As It Gets
Best Supporting Actor
1983 Terms of Endearment
Golden Globe Awards

Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
1975 Chinatown
1976 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
2003 About Schmidt

Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1986 Prizzi's Honor
1998 As Good as It Gets


Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture
1984 Terms of Endearment
BAFTA Awards

Best Actor
1974 Chinatown ; The Last Detail
1976 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Best Supporting Actor
1982 Reds
This article refers to the actor. For the golfer of a similar name, see Jack Nicklaus.




===========================
Today is Jack Nicholson's 70th birthday =======================================


John Joseph Nicholson, better known as Jack Nicholson (born April 22, 1937 in Neptune City, New Jersey) is an iconic, three-time Academy Award and seven time Golden Globe winning American method actor known for his often dark-themed portrayals of neurotic characters.

He has been nominated for an Academy Award 12 times (winning 3 of them), more than any other male actor, and second only to Meryl Streep (who has 14 nominations and 2 wins) in total nominations. He is tied with Walter Brennan for most wins by a male actor, and second to Katharine Hepburn for most acting wins overall (Hepburn had 4). He is also one of only two actors to be nominated for an Academy Award for acting (either lead or supporting) in every decade since the 1960s. The other is Michael Caine.

He has also won seven Golden Globe Awards and he received a Kennedy Center Honors in 2001. He is best known for his films One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, As Good as it Gets , and Tim Burton's Batman.


Biography and personal life

Nicholson was born at Jersey Shore Medical Center in Neptune, New Jersey to a showgirl, June Frances Nicholson (stage name June Nilson).[1] June had married showman Donald Furcillo (stage name Donald Rose) 6 months earlier in Elkton, Maryland, on October 16, 1936.[2] Elkton was a town known for its "quickie" marriages. Furcillo however, was already married, and, although he offered to take care of the child, June's mother Ethel insisted that she bring up the baby, partly so that June could pursue her dancing career. Furcillo's parents were Italian Americans, while June Nicholson was of Irish and English descent.[3]

Nick, as he was known to his high school friends, attended high school at nearby Manasquan High School where he was voted "class clown" by the Class of 1954. A theatre and a drama award at the school are named in his honor.[4] In 2004, Nicholson attended his 50 year high school reunion, much to the surprise and delight of his fellow classmates.

Nicholson was brought up believing his grandparents John J. Nicholson (a department store window dresser in Asbury Park, New Jersey) and Ethel May Rhoads (a hairdresser and beautician and amateur artist in Neptune, New Jersey) were his parents. Nicholson only discovered that his parents were actually his grandparents and his sister was in fact his mother in 1974 after being informed by a Time Magazine journalist who was doing a feature on him.[5] By this time both his mother and grandmother had died (in 1963 and 1970, respectively). Nicholson has stated he does not know who his father is, saying "Only Ethel and June knew and they never told anybody".[6]

Although Donald Furcillo claimed to be Nicholson's father and to have committed bigamy by marrying June, biographer Patrick McGilligan, who wrote Jack's Life (published in December 1995) asserted that Eddie King, June's manager, may be the father and other[7] sources have suggested that June Nicholson was unsure of who the father was. Jack Nicholson has chosen not to have a DNA test or to pursue the matter.


In his adult personal life, Nicholson has been notorious for his inability to "settle down". He has five children by four different women despite only being married once.


He has been romantically linked to numerous actresses and models for decades. Nicholson's longest relationship was for 17 years to actress Anjelica Huston, the daughter of film director John Huston. However, the relationship ended when the news reported that Rebecca Broussard had become pregnant with his child.

Although he was brought up as a Roman Catholic, Nicholson told Vanity Fair in 1992 that he did not believe in God.[8] Although Nicholson is personally against abortion, he is pro-choice.[9] He is a supporter of the Democratic Party and has donated to many of its campaigns.[10][11][12]

He is a fan of the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Lakers. His attendance at Lakers games is almost legendary, as he has been spotted sitting courtside for the past 25 years at both The Forum and the Staples Center. In a few instances, Nicholson has engaged in arguments with game officials and opposing players, and has even walked onto the court.[13] In addition to his walking on the court, Nicholson was arguing with officials so much during a 2001 Lakers playoff game that he was assessed a technical foul. His absolute refusal to miss a Laker home game means that directors and producers need to schedule filming schedules around the Lakers home schedule.[14]


Early acting career

Nicholson started his career as an actor, writer, and producer, working for and with Roger Corman, among others. This included his screen debut in The Cry Baby Killer (1958), where he played a juvenile delinquent who panics after shooting two other teenagers, The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), in which he had a small role as a masochistic dental patient, and roles in two other Roger Corman films The Raven (1963) and The Terror (his first directing role for one day)(1963), co-starring then-wife Sandra Knight.

As the 60's progressed, and with acting jobs still not easy to find, Nicholson began writing more often. The result of this included Thunder Island (1963), Flight to Fury (1964), Ride in the Whirlwind (1965), and The Monkees' vehicle Head (1968). These films enjoyed little if any success, but the young Nicholson was finally working more steadily. In the TV sitcom world, he also made appearances in two episodes of The Andy Griffith Show as Marvin Jenkins in 1966-1967.


Rise to fame

With his acting career heading nowhere, Nicholson seemed resigned to a career behind the camera as a writer/director. His first real taste of writing success was the LSD-fueled screenplay for 1967's The Trip, which starred Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. However, after a spot opened up in Fonda and Hopper's Easy Rider, it led to his first big acting break. Nicholson played hard-drinking lawyer George Hanson, for which he received his first Oscar nomination.


A Best Actor nomination came the following year for his persona-defining role in Five Easy Pieces (1970), which includes his famous chicken salad dialogue about getting what you want. Also that year, he appeared in the movie adaptation of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever as Daisy Gamble (Barbra Streisand)'s stepbrother.

More of his earlier and notable film roles: Hal Ashby's The Last Detail (1973) and the classic Roman Polanski noir thriller, Chinatown (1974). Nicholson was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role for both films. Nicholson also starred in The Who's Tommy (1975), directed by Ken Russell, and Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger (1975).


An American icon

Nicholson earned his first Academy Award for Best Actor for portraying Randall P. McMurphy in the movie adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, directed by Miloš Forman in 1975. His Academy Award for Best Actor was matched with the Academy Award for Best Actress given to Louise Fletcher for her portrayal of Nurse Ratched. Jack Nicholson was also offered the part of Michael Corleone in The Godfather but turned it down and the role was then given to Al Pacino.


After this, he began to take more unusual roles. He took a small role in The Last Tycoon, opposite Robert De Niro. He took a less sympathetic role in Arthur Penn's western The Missouri Breaks, specifically to work with Marlon Brando. He followed this by making his directorial debut with the western comedy Goin' South.

Although he didn't garner any Oscar attention for Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining (1980), it remains one of Nicholson's most significant roles.

His next Oscar, the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, came for his role of Garrett Breedlove, retired astronaut, in Terms of Endearment (1983), directed by James L. Brooks.

Nicholson continued to work prolifically in the 80's, starring in such films as The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), Reds (1981), Prizzi's Honor (1985), The Witches of Eastwick (1987), and Ironweed (1987). Three Academy Award nominations also followed (Reds, Prizzi's Honor, and Ironweed).

The 1989 Batman movie, where Nicholson played The Joker, was an international smash hit, and a lucrative percentage deal earned Nicholson about $60 million. Nicholson was to reprise his role as The Joker in the fifth installment in the franchise Batman Triumphant in 1999, however Warner Bros. Pictures cancelled the project.[15]


For his role as hotheaded Col. Nathan R. Jessep in A Few Good Men (1992), a movie about a murder in a US Marine Corps unit, he received yet another nomination by the Academy. This film contains Nicholson's "You can't handle the truth!" scene, which has since become widely known and imitated.

Not all of Nicholson's performances have been well-received. He was nominated for Razzie Awards as worst actor for Man Trouble (1992) and Hoffa (1992). However, the latter is a bit odd, as Nicholson's performance in Hoffa also earned a Golden Globe nomination.

Nicholson would go on to win his next Best Actor Oscar for his role as Melvin Udall, a neurotic author with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), in the romance As Good as It Gets (1997), again directed by James L. Brooks. Nicholson's Oscar was matched with the Academy Award for Best Actress honor for Helen Hunt as a Manhattan waitress drawn into a love/hate friendship with Udall, a frequent diner.


Recent years

In About Schmidt (2002), Nicholson portrayed a retired Omaha, Nebraska actuary who questions his own life and the death of his wife shortly afterward. His quiet, restrained performance stood in sharp contrast to many of his previous roles, and earned him an Academy Award Nomination for Best Actor.

In the comedy Anger Management, he plays an aggressive therapist assigned to help overly pacifist Adam Sandler.

In 2003, with few other acting offers, Nicholson starred in Something's Gotta Give as an aging playboy who falls for the mother (Diane Keaton) of his young girlfriend.

In late 2006, Nicholson marked his return to the "dark side" as Frank Costello, a sadistic Boston Irish Mob boss presiding over Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio, in Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning The Departed, a remake of Andrew Lau's Infernal Affairs.


Current and future projects

In November 2006, Nicholson began filming his next project, Rob Reiner's The Bucket List. He shaved his head for this role. The film will star him and Morgan Freeman as dying men who must fulfill their list of goals. The film is tentatively scheduled to be released in late 2007. In researching the role, Nicholson visited a Los Angeles hospital to see how cancer patients coped with their illnesses.

Trivia



When he first came to Hollywood, Nicholson worked as a go-fer for animation legends, Hanna-Barbera. Seeing his talent as an artist, they offered Nicholson a starting level position as an animation artist. However, citing his desire to become an actor, he declined.[17]
Nicholson lived next door to Marlon Brando for a number of years on Mulholland Drive in Beverly Hills. Warren Beatty also lived nearby, earning the road the nickname "Bad Boy Drive". After Brando's death in 2004, Nicholson purchased his neighbor's bungalow for $6.1 million, with the purpose of having it demolished. Nicholson stated that it was done out of respect to Brando's legacy, as the house had become derelict.[18]
Actor Harry Dean Stanton served as the best man at Nicholson's wedding, and the two have appeared in six films together. He is also a close friend of film director Roman Polanski, whom he has supported through many personal crises including the death of his wife, Sharon Tate, at the hands of the Manson Family. He also supported Polanski through his conviction for statutory rape, a crime which took place on the Nicholson estate on Mulholland Drive.
Nicholson is on Maxim's "Top 10 Living Legends of Sex" with an alleged 2,000 women that he has slept with.[19]
Nicholson has a painting by Pablo Picasso in his bathroom.

You can't read this and stay in a bad mood

1. How Do You Catch a Unique Rabbit?
Unique Up On It.
2. How Do You Catch a Tame Rabbit?
Tame Way, Unique Up On It.

3. How Do Crazy People Go Through The Forest ?
They Take The Psycho Path

4. How Are a Texas Tornado And a Tennessee Divorce The Same?
Somebody's Gonna Lose A Trailer

5. What Do Fish Say When They Hit a Concrete Wall?
Dam!

6. What Do Eskimos Get From Sitting On The Ice too Long?
Polaroid's

7. What Do You Call a Boomerang That Doesn't work?
A Stick

8. What Do You Call Cheese That Isn't Yours?
Nacho Cheese.

9. What Do You Call Santa's Helpers?
Subordinate Clauses.

10. What Do You Call Four Bullfighters In Quicksand?
Quattro Sinko..

11. What Do You Get From a Pampered Cow?
Spoiled Milk.

12. What Do You Get When You Cross a Snowman With a Vampire?
Frostbite.

13. What Lies At The Bottom Of The Ocean And Twitches?
A Nervous Wreck.

14. What's The Difference Between Roast Beef And Pea Soup?
Anyone Can Roast Beef. Can you pea soup?

15. Where Do You Find a Dog With No Legs?
Right Where You Left Him.

16. Why Do Gorillas Have Big Nostrils?
Because They Have Big Fingers.

17. Why Don't Blind People Like To Sky Dive?
Because It Scares The Dog

18. What Kind Of Coffee Was Served On The Titanic?
Sanka.

19. What Is The Difference Between a Harley And a Hoover ?

The Location Of The Dirt Bag.



20. Why Did Pilgrims' Pants Always Fall Down?
Because They Wore Their Belt Buckle On Their Hat.

21. What's The Difference Between a Bad Golfer And a Bad Skydiver?
A Bad Golfer Goes, Whack, Dang!
A Bad Skydiver Goes Dang! Whack.


Now, admit it. At least one of these made you smile

Son of a Gun

When trouble rides into town
Lookin' to shoot you down
You depend on your only friend
The gun you wave around
Your daddy was a Smith
And your mamma was a Wesson
Son of a gun

There's a black cloud hangin' over
And it won't leave you alone
But the trains at the station
There to carry you home
Jesse James don't rob
Them trains no more
Son of a gun

SOLO

There's a moral to this story
It may come as a surprise
Life's a double barrel
Pointed straight into your eyes
Shoot your gun
You'll never see the sun
Son of a gun
Son of a gun...

RexRed

Good morning, WA2K listeners and contributors.

First, I would like to thank our edgar for his revealing info on VanDyke Parks. Amazing musical background, Texas. I am delighted that you introduced him to all of us.

Well, folks, we know our hawkman is through with his notables when he gives us a smile with his skewed definitions. Loved the one about the gorillas. We will, of course, await our Raggedy before commenting further.

Son of a gun. Here's RexRed back with us. Thanks, Maine, for that song.

Love this song by Glen, and I'm glad to know that he is still in business, folks.

Artist/Band: Campbell Glen
Lyrics for Song: Wichita Lineman
Lyrics for Album: All the Best

I am a lineman for the county and I drive the main road
Searchin' in the sun for another overload
I hear you singin' in the wire, I can hear you through the whine
And the Wichita Lineman is still on the line

I know I need a small vacation but it don't look like rain
And if it snows that stretch down south won't ever stand the strain
And I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time
And the Wichita Lineman is still on the line

And I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time
And the Wichita Lineman is still on the line.

The arrangement of that song is fabulous.

Good Morning, WA2K.

I did chuckle, Bob.

And I really like today's faces:

Widow's Walk
(Van Dyke Parks)

Widows walk ado walk on as in years of yore. The thought of you divided thus! It just maybe due to discuss in cold turkey moUrning in the willows. Or was it the wind. You recollect we all suspect the mortal door will open the sore mind. The widows walk and wail among the willows. Widows walk ado walk on.

Widows face the future. Factories face the poor. The fact remains the peril strains the mind a bit. To have done and quit with it widows walk and wail among the willows. Widows walk ado walk on.

I'm guessing this is called civil, regrettably strife. So lessen your appalled pall mall and middle life. Long last a hymn to Him to help you on your way.

Contented is the boat. By chance how forlorn the shore. I've meant to take the chance to turn you 'bout the floor so trim the prim the lame have rose to say widows walk and wail among the willows. Widows walk and do si do the willows. Widows walk ado walk on.

and I do as well, Raggedy. Seems to be trio week, folks. Thanks, PA, for once again doing your fabulous photo's.

We're looking at Eddie, Glen, and Jack.

What a surprise to find that Eddie Albert did something besides "Green Acres."

Here's one.


Song: Let's Take An Old-Fashioned Walk Lyrics

Some couples go for a buggy ride
When they start caring a lot
Others will bicycle side by side
Out to some romantic spot
But when you haven't a sou
There's only one thing to do

Let's take an old-fashioned walk
I'm just bursting with talk
What a tale could be told
If we went for an old-fashioned walk

Let's take a stroll through the park
Down a lane where it's dark
And a heart that's controlled
May relax on an old-fashioned walk

I know for a couple who seem to be miles apart
There's nothing like walking and having a "heart to heart"

I know a girl who declined
Couldn't make up her mind
She was wrapped up and sold
Coming home from an old-fashioned walk

[2]
I used to dream of a millionaire
Handsome and rich from the States
Taking me out for a breath of air
Saying "The carriage awaits"
But since you haven't a sou
And I have nothing to do.

Repeat chorus

Today is Earth Day and taking an old fashioned walk through the archives, I was stunned to find the most endangered places on our planet due to global warming.

edgar, Did you read our minds? Wow! Widow's Walk says a lot, Texas. Thanks once again for that guy with the VanDyke. <smile>

RESTLESS FAREWELL

Words and Music by Bob Dylan


Oh all the money that in my whole life I did spend,
Be it mine right or wrongfully,
I let it slip gladly through the hands of my friends
To tie up the time most forcefully.
But the bottles are done,
We've killed each one
And the table's full and overflowed.
And the corner sign
Says it's closing time,
So I'll bid farewell and be down the road.

Oh ev'ry girl that ever l've touched,
I did not do it harmfully.
And ev'ry girl that ever I've hurt,
I did not do it knowin'ly.
But to remain as friends
You need the time to make amends and stay behind.
And since my feet are now fast
And point away from the past,
I'll bid farewell and be down the line.

Oh ev'ry foe that ever I faced,
The cause was there before we came.
And ev'ry cause that ever I fought,
I fought it full without regret or shame.
But the dark does die
As the curtain is drawn and somebody's eyes
Must meet the dawn.
And if I see the day
I'd only have to stay,
So I'll bid farewell in the night and be gone.

Oh, ev'ry thought that's strung a knot in my mind,
I might go insane if it couldn't be sprung.
But it's not to stand naked under unknowin' eyes,
It's for myself and my friends my stories are sung.
But the time ain't tall,
If on time you depend and the word is possessed
By no special friend.
And though the line is cut,
It ain't quite the end,
I'll just bill farewell till we meet again.

Oh a false clock tries to tick out my time
To disgrace, distract, and bother me.
And the dirt of gossip blows into my face,
And the dust of rumors covers me.
But if the arrow is straight
And the point is slick,
It can pierce through the dust no matter how thick.
So I'll make my stand
And remain as I am
And bid farewell and not give a damn.

edgar, that song fit me like a designer garment. This verse, especially.

"Oh a false clock tries to tick out my time
To disgrace, distract, and bother me.
And the dirt of gossip blows into my face,
And the dust of rumors covers me.
But if the arrow is straight
And the point is slick,
It can pierce through the dust no matter how thick.
So I'll make my stand
And remain as I am
And bid farewell and not give a damn."

From Sammy Davis, Jr.

Whether I'm right or whether I'm wrong
Whether I find a place in this world or never belong
I gotta be me, I've gotta be me
What else can I be but what I am

I want to live, not merely survive
And I won't give up this dream
Of life that keeps me alive
I gotta be me, I gotta be me
The dream that I see makes me what I am

That far-away prize, a world of success
Is waiting for me if I heed the call
I won't settle down, won't settle for less
As long as there's a chance that I can have it all

I'll go it alone, that's how it must be
I can't be right for somebody else
If I'm not right for me
I gotta be free, I've gotta be free
Daring to try, to do it or die
I've gotta be me

I'll go it alone, that's how it must be
I can't be right for somebody else
If I'm not right for me
I gotta be free, I just gotta be free
Daring to try, to do it or die
I gotta be me

Unfortunately, folks, Sammy's song turned out to be a paradox.